Week 4: Origination

The Laws of Simplicity

Chapter 3: Time

1. What is the major benefit of saving time?
Savings in time feels like simplicity. Reducing the time spent waiting translates into time we can spend on something else. Therefore we are thankful and loyal when a process allows us to save time.

2. How do designers integrate time into their products? 

Designers can integrate things like progress bars to show people how long they have to wait. Seeing the progression of time doesn’t make the wait seem so long when you can see the progression.

Maeda also suggests that time can be embodied in the face of a clock, digital or abstract, or as a blinking LED light. Other ways to integrate time is through "styling" to create the illusion of motion and speed.

Products such as the ipod Shuffle and amazon.com are designed to save you time by choosing what you might like.

Time is also considered when casinos are designed. It is the opposite in this case, time is purposely hidden, ie there are generally no clocks and no windows visible so people are more likely to loose track of the time, stay longer and therefore spend more money.

 

3. Explain the relationship between making waiting shorter with making waiting more tolerable. 

If the process cannot be sped up in any way, the wait will seem less if it is made more tolerable. Things like progress bars, and elevator music help this process, as does the recorded voice when waiting to speak to someone on the phone, to let you know where you have moved up in the queue.

4. How can you use your timeline to increase your own efficiency as a designer?

For me, I can increase my efficiency by creating smaller deadlines in order of priority. Breaking up the whole project makes it more tolerable.

5. Briefly outline an event or activity in which you are adept at time saving? 

When trying to complete my homework, if I’m having a mental block in creativity (when working on my visual diaries, etc), I’ll go on with my reading. Both need to be done but require different ways of thinking.

In programs such as Photoshop, Action and Batch processing help to save time. Using such tools shorten the time taken for tedious things which allows more time for creativity.

6. What part of your design process do you need to improve at, in terms of saving time? 

I need to improve on my use of the shortcut key strokes to save time and increase my efficiency as a designer.

Also when embarking on a large project, it is a good idea to list and plan all the components as this will save time in the long run.

THINKING GAME: Analyse Patterns/Branding

This is last years exhibition logo. The following are some words that come to mind when looking at it. Further down is my interpretation of the meaning and effectiveness of it as a logo.

>Simple

>Minimalistic

>Representative

>Clear

>Concise

>Contrast

>Neat

>Corporate

>Subtle

1. The Name suggests that it is directing to something, or that it is the point or purpose (of the exhibition). ‘See the point’ means to understand the meaning and to ‘make a point of’ means something is thought of as vital or essential. A point is actually a unit of measurement for type and it can be a unit of credit (for students or in a sports match), it is quite flexible in lending many meanings and definitions to the one idea.

Having read into the meaning behind the name, I actually think all its inferences are quite clever, however, before having done this, I didn’t really think that the poster was all that ‘catchy’ to look at – I certainly didn’t realize it was representing an exhibition. So as most people wouldn’t be reading too far into it, I don’t think the name is as effective as it could be.

2. The graphic pattern represents the word ‘point’ visually. The collaboration of dots suggests it is literally a point tapering to its sharp end. It looks a bit like the point of a fountain pen. I also thought that each little dot also represents a point, like a full stop or a decimal point, or perhaps the point of a pen touching the paper.

I think the graphic pattern illustrates the name well. It compliments it in a subtle, visually appealing way. However, if the word was not there also, I don’t think it would be as effective as it currently is. I feel the overall look it a bit serious and ‘corporate’ looking for a creative exhibition.

The following are words/phrases for a NEW logo for this years exhibition:

Thinking about the many areas contributing to this exhibition, I came up with the following ideas/concepts;

·      Collaboration

·      Connect

·      Celebrate

Considering the skills and techniques we have learnt throughout the year, this exhibition is a culmination of that, so the following words came to mind;

·      Flourish

·      Evolve

·      Generate

·      Create

As for thinking outside of the tetrahedron, we are the ‘fruit’ of this year, so how about;

·      The Next Generation

·      Pick of the Crop

These are things to consider when designing a logo from a graphic design point of view. The designers address the important principals of good design which memorably represent a brand. Some key points for an effective logo are: simplicity; use of shape and colour; and that it reproduces well in both colour and black and white.

The evolution of famous logos is also quite interesting: