Design - notes & assignments

Intro

28.4.2021 - Preparation for 1st class

1. Who are you designing for?
I’m designing for people who skateboard at night.

2. What is their relationship to the collection?
They can perceive the collection and enjoy it as art, but they can also enjoy it as an experience by using it as a playground for skateboarding (e.g. finding monuments that they could skate).

3. Which content are you ‘interfacing’?
I’m interfacing the content that skateboarders could find more useful or inspiring; e.g. light installations and large or interesting monuments and design objects.

4. What type of interaction is fitting for this?
Typically skateboarding creates a lot of noise and movement. Therefore an interaction triggered by for example one of these elements could be fitting. Another option could be something that could be visible in (skateboarding) videos or photographs.

5. What type of medium is fitting for this?
For the last idea something with AR could work. For triggering a reaction with noise or movement there would have to be some kind of a computer programming to for example turn on a light at a specific position etc.

6. In general: what are you trying to accomplish through the interface you want to design?
I would like to create an interface that would connect the possibility of skateboarding with the possibility of enjoying art, as often instinctively these two aren’t necessarily connected. It could also create something cool for the skateboarder, for example an interesting experience, strange setting for a video or an interesting lighting for a spot.

7. Which visual design elements have you already collected/designed that can be useful for this? 
LINES - an Interactive Sound Art Exhibition (1st video)
Something with interactive technology inside a space could work for skateboarding
Red Bull - Creating Skateable public art in Seattle (2nd video)
Shows the possibility of combining public art and design with skateboarding

30.4.2021 Quick & dirty exercise

1. Interface I chose: Adafruit Circuit Playground Express (see picture to the right)
medium: digital, interacting with physical world
type of interaction: programming it to perform desired action at desired time (e.g. a sound when the light reading on the light sensor changes)
interest for collection & user group: making the art collection interactive by using the device

2. Sketch of the interface connected to art work & user group (image below): 
Programming the device to perform a certain action when it detects movement/sound/light change
Attaching the devices to pieces of the art collection in a place that's skateable
Skateboarder skates past the device and triggers the action by the device

















3. Analysing effect of the sketch:
- making art interactive makes it more entertaining for skaters where as normally they might not pay as much attention to it or care about it as other than a spot
- creates interesting setting for photos/videos which skaters are often making
- it's easier for the user to connect with the art because instead of just being there, the user can interact with it. this makes the art easier to notice
- element of surprise if it's not known beforehand
- enhances creativity because user can create something with the art (e.g. if the device creates sounds, the user can "compose" with their movement)

I

9.5.2021 Sketches after 1st class

1. "Skate Tinder" = Skater
Shows "profiles" of the art works to the user and the user can swipe left or right to choose whether or not they want to check out the spot

2. Interactive skate art
Collection of art works that have sensors attached to them that are programmed to react to movement/sound/something else created by the skateboarder. The sensors then create light or sound so the user can interact with it.

3. Skate spot mapping
An app that shows all the BKOR art works on a map from a skateboarder's perspective. The users can share pictures, reviews etc. and be friends with other users to see their favourite spots and to chat with them. The main idea is to see and share which ones of the art works could be skateable and in what way.

4. BKOR skate collection
Skateboard graphics based on/inspired by a chosen collection of (skateable) art works in the BKOR collection. All of the designs are collected on a webpage/Instagram/something else. QR codes are an important part of communication: they're placed on each deck design to direct the user to the BKOR page of the art work that the design is based on; different QR codes are placed near the art works so the user can read it and be directed to the skate design collection to show the graphic based on the specific art work.

II

11.5.2021 Typography & hierarchy sketches

Inspiration from Pinterest

First typography sketches based on inspiration images

Original sketch planning out typography elements: headline,
body text & names of the art works in the skateboard graphics

2nd sketch: I chose one typography element (headline)
and created an opposite version of it

3rd sketch: changing the hierarchy of the original
sketch by making the title a text that the eye catches
only after the body text paragraph

Font family
- thin, light, regular, medium…
- italic, semicondensed, condensed, expanded…

Free & paid
-fonts.google.com
-dafonts.com
-fontshop.com
-tightype.com
-Colophon-foundy.org

Typography can consist of
- type choices
- type handling
==> find balance between practicality and identity

Hierarchy and contrast: WHY
- know where to start reading
- differentiation between diff. Information types
- leading reader through work
- direction of the eye
- what is primary, secondary etc.
- scanning and triggering; invites user (e.g. quotes, headlines etc.)
- rhythm

Hierarchy and contrast: HOW
- type of font
- positioning
- size, thickness
- orientation
- white space
- kerning, tracking, line height

Paragraph & sentence level
- 12 words / 40-50 characters per line
- justify / flush left/right/centre

Kerning: spacing between letters (always do it in e.g. caps)
Tracking: spacing of all letters (VA thing on illustrator)
Leading/line height: space between baselines (how close rows of text are to each other)
- 1.2 books
- 1.5 web

Ligatures (glyphs): letters that are designed together (f i -> fi)
Old style figures: ascending or descending from the baseline (unlike proportional lining where they’re all on same height above baseline)
Small caps