Now you're a story teller ...

Rational: I chose the band 'Zoey Van Goey' for this project, not only because i enjoy their music but because i particularly enjoyed their artwork. They are a small three person indie pop band from Glasgow who are signed to 'Chemikal Underground Records (UK)' and have released two albums 'The cage was unlocked all along' (2009) and 'Propeller versus wings' (2011). Their songs are mainly about romantic adventures and love. Their style is quite twee and their music is calm and gentle with an easy listening vibe. Their album artwork is vivid and busy with a lot of illustrations and colour, it looks like they are trying to tell the story of the album through the artwork, It has an element of fantasy in a imaginary world, there is so much going on that nothing makes sense when you first look at it. Their art work is very colourful and cheerful, i think its pretty and dainty. 
I decided to use twitter as my source of data for the info graphic, i chose twitter because most bands/musicians use twitter in order to promote themselves and their music, also because its one of the most popular social networking sites. They use it to connect with fans and share information about upcoming gigs, releases or just general information about them. I went through all their 652 twitter followers and categorised them into categories that were relevant to the band like how many twitter followers had bowl hair cuts, how many were students, how many were musicians, how many were writers, how many had plenty to talk about and say about themselves, how many had nothing to say for themselves and others. I decided to use figures and symbols to represent these categories and how many people fell into each category because in their art work, they feature many small characters, i also wanted it to look busy and colourful to match the style of the band. The bands main logo 'Zoey Van Goey' looks hand written as it is uneven and rough, i tried to copy this by using a chalkboard font. For some of their album titles and track listings they also use a type that looks handwritten, so to stay in theme i used brush script as the type they use is rough and disordered. I used the colours red, orange and yellow for the 'Van' in 'Zoey Van Goey' because its the colours that are in every logo.

Info Graphics

1. It is easy to understand but only after reading it. The symbols and images do not make sense without words. It’s also easy to understand because it is long and as there is a lot of information, your eye knows exactly where to go, it is easy to follow. The main focus is about the stumbleupon website and about how popular is against other social networking sites; however, it’s slightly difficult to tell it is the main focus due to so many other statistics and information. The main focus become less clear.

2. Yes, did not realise how popular this stumbleupon website was. I thought Facebook was by far the world’s most popular social networking site, i also thought twitter and you tube were not far behind, seems twitter and you tube are almost insignificant compared to stumbleupon. We thought the bar graph facilitated the most learning as it was the most obvious as to what it was showing, especially without words, even if it did not have the percentages you would still be able to guess what was the most popular and what wasn't.

3. Target audience is internet users/ social network users, also could be companies as well. They could use the statistics to see how well they are doing against competitor sites; they could see who competition is and who isn’t. They are also promoting stumbleupon as the most used site; they also show how long a link would last on stumbleupon compared to other sites, trying to show off how much better it is compared to Facebook or twitter.

4. The format of the design is top to bottom in a long strip, your eye follows it down to the bottom of the page so it is simple to follow and easy to read. It uses space and layout efficiently as everything is neatly spaced in a list form. There insist much information hierarchy as it is mainly graphs and statistics.

 

5. The typography is used to explain the statistics and graphs; it is just clear statements kept to a minimum so focus is not taken away from the stats and graphs. The border around the subheadings acts as a hierarchy, also the colour change acts like a hierarchy also.
 

6. The imagery used is symbolic, for example a baby bottle represents a baby, its showing there are more stumbelupon pages created a minute than there are American’s born. The images are used to make the poster more visual as the facts would make sense without the images, they are just used to back the facts up and add visuals. Don’t think the images have much meaning; the meaning is in the actual facts. The designer’s use of images doesn’t really affect my interpretation of the info graphic.

 

7. The role of colour is quite important on this poster. The designer has used red to make the stumbleupon statistics stand out compared to the others which have more subdued colours, a colour similar to the background emphasizing the red even more. It adds meaning and clarity as the red is the most obvious that it is the most important and powerful, whereas the subdued green looks less threatening.

 

8. The link between the research and the visuals is clear. The designer has made the research visual with the use of graphs, bar charts and symbols. The symbols from the websites have been used also, this works to make it more visual and understanding as these symbols are well known. The type and imagery work together in the sense that, the type could be understandable without the imagery but the imagery might not be as legible without the type. 

9. The style of the graphics has been kept quite simple and straight forward in order not to distract from the information of the poster, also to avoid adding too much to the poster which would make it too busy and too difficult to follow and read. It is kind of similar to the style of Jason Munn the small stakes as he uses simple graphics and space effectively.

10. The design process would be to research the facts of these websites, then work out which ones are relevant and which ones aren’t. They would begin the process with conducting research, they would have to choose a colour scheme which compliments the websites, also which makes specific facts more important. They would also need to consider the layout of the  poster and the order he/she is going to present their information.

How did i get here?

Helvetica

I actually quite enjoyed the Helvetica film. It was much more interesting than i first anticipated. It surprised me in a few ways also, i was shocked at how much Helvetica is used all over the world and how i have never realised it before. I learned quite a lot that i did not know before like how Helvetica’s original name 'neue hass grotesk', also how Helvetica is Latin for 'the Swiss typeface', also that Helvetica is owned by 'Lingotype' in Germany.

I discovered some new designers from the film like Massimo Vignelli who was all about creating order. He invented the grid and other tools for creating order. He states 'Creating order is typography'. Matthew Carter is a designer who learned to make type by hand by following in his father's footsteps who was a type designer. Erik Spiekerman has a different take on Helvetica, he believes it has been over used as it is everywhere you look and it is a default for so many things, he is very passionate about type but not about Helvetica. Another graphic designer featured in the film is Nevel Brody who speaks about the different messages a typeface can portray. David Carson also speaks about the message typefaces portray, he talks about legibility, he says that even if something is legible it may still not communicate the correct message, the message could be lost due to the typeface, he states how there is a fine line between simple, clean and boring.

I would say i am pro Helvetica, i like the typeface it is clear, legible and versatile. I think the fact the film showed the extent Helvetica is used all over the world emphasizes this point. My relationship with Helvetica is to be honest something i am only recently aware of however i can see myself using it more now that i have learned more about it.

That font sure is saucy

Getting around

I chose to analyse my bus ticket as its something i see every day. I think the typeface used is 'arial'. I would say it does its job relatively well as it is legible and some of the important features are in bold. I think this typeface was chosen because it is a friendly typeface. it is easy and clear to read. It communicates meaningfully due to its bold and clear appearance.

The hierarchy is quite centred with the first logo and website behind the text making it confusing and harder to read. Id say the most important aspects of the ticket are well identified with the ticket type and price emphasised by being in bold; however the destinations and dates are slightly less obvious, i think they should be more prominent on the ticket as they are the main things the driver/ ticket inspector are looking for.

The users for this item would be the general public. Everyone from students to children to working class to the elderly. Their needs would be a clear and simple bus ticket which states the important points like the price, date and destination. I think it fulfils this to an extent as the type is clear and legible but the important factors are not as obvious which could give users with poor eye site difficulty. 

Modular Grid