Mapping Interesting Sites – What did I find?

Here are a few sites that will be helpful for this ongoing brief of ‘mapping’:

Thinking Machine: Unlike any other site that allows you to play the game of chess with the AI; the AI in ‘Thinking Machine’ calculates and sketches the thousands of possible future moves.

David Reimondo: By using keys from the keyboard, David Reimondo creates interesting graphic on the surface of the keys.

‘Once Upon a Time in Barcelona’: Collaboration graffiti work done by Munna and Happycentro, basically telling the story of two tennis players; the fight between the king of grass, and the king of clay is being documented on the wall. A very nicely done piece of work.

‘Urban Fiber Flotsam’: In this project, the artist(s) basically travels around a designated/scheduled and location, gathering unwanted, floating materials around the cityscape. And at the end of the final project, the artists would create fiber pieces out of the collcected and spunned-to gathered material. The word ‘psychogeographic mapping’ used in the context is quite interesting.

State of the Union: This interface allows users to explores the State of Union and how the frequency of certain words was being used throughout the addresses. The interface provides a really neat contrast on how the selection of phrases through different President of the United States changes as time goes.

‘The Ride Journal’: A journal about bicycle lovers.

That should start a few conversations, for now.

Interface Design (Cont.)

Brief#4 -

Deadline: 13th & 14th November 2008

Create a map of a location, or an aspect of a location of your choice. The work should be manifested as a website comprising Flash and HTML/CSS, combining all of these elements. Now that you have the basics of Flash and HTML at your disposal, you have tool to integrate almost any kind of media you want into a web page. You are not limited to text and static images, you can use audio, animation, video etc.

Using your design skills, create an experience which is interesting and captivating. Create consistent considered navigation and information architecture (link styles etc). Show an understanding of accessibility issues, document your process and research in your blogs.

The map you create is your website content. Your website is a map of that content. Understanding the relationship between the chunks of content you create and presenting them in a way that makes them accessible and easily understandable and in a visually engaging way is central to this brief.

‘Location’ can be interpreted as broadly as, and in any way you like. Mapping a location or an action or journey or even – for example – your emotional response to any of these are all valid and interesting avenues for investigation. Be imaginative. Use a variety of media and processes to create your maps. You can work in extreme close up or zoom out as far as you like.

Working with Flash.

Getting acquainted with a new program is usually a difficult task when you are not familiar with the ins-and-outs of it. Most of the time without proper guidance, you will be spending time circling around a series of problems and hopefully finding a solution to that.

But just to get myself started, I have looked at various sites for few directions I could gear towards to. The few sites that I found to be particularly helpful and interesting was Tangozebra and Glue London. Both of them specializes in digital advertising; ad agencies in other words. Viral banners they have done is quite attractive and good, should definitely scroll through if you have the time.

Another really important site that I constantly referred to while working on the banners was a site called ‘Vectors for Flash‘. It is a really helpful and informative site that explains the physics aspect of Flash by introducing the use of vectors on a 2D/3D environment. In terms for designing for example games that requires movement, understanding how vector functions in Flash is really important. The text itself could get quite heavy at times but once you get the hang of it, it shouldn’t be that much of a problem.

Now, seeing how the task was to promote/using the font that was created in Brief#2 with the use of the Flash banners, producing the pieces itself might seem rather straightforward. It would be an easier task if the banners themselves were to be connected together with some kind of theme/style. And for this purpose I have narrowed down my focus point onto the phone cap (again) and instead of just having the banners animate, interaction with the banners would be a good idea…now, if only I could find a way to show the .swf banners here…

…nope, you can’t. I’ll try to figure out some other way for that.

Interface Design (Cont.)

Brief #3 -

Deadline: 22nd October 2008

Create a set of 4 flash banners ads using/promoting the Font that you created in Brief #2. Use the research you generated during the last 2 briefs as supporting materials if needed.

Create a blank HTML layout in which to place your finished banner adverts. The adverts should be placed in the correct context on the page.

Dimensions: (all dimensions in pixels)

Full banners – 468 by 60
Square Button – 125 by 125
Standard Skyscraper – 160 by 600
Micro-bar – 88 by 31

(For more information regarding the visual aspect of various web-banners, visit here.)

Better late than never…!

I am quite aware at the fact that the due for the second part of this module was due sometime back on 10th of October, it is a pity I never got around to upload the finished sets of typography but here it is:

702 - H&C

‘702 – (Handle and Cap)’ – The font is made out of the cap for which you speak into, screwed onto the receiver of the phone; along with the metallic handle in which could be found on the top of the phone itself.

AND…

702 - R&C

‘702 – (Receiver and Cord)’ – Self-explanatory, font made by arranging the telephone receiver and the cord into the alphabet itself.

Hardly a practical fonts but there you go, pieced out from the set guidelines from the brief.

‘Create Your Letter Art’

Here is the site.

Stumbled upon this really neat website that is ’sort-of’ similar to ‘Typography Kicks Ass’, except, instead of sending messages in to the site for it to randomly generate its alphabets, this site allows a direct interaction with the fonts, allowing you to pick and drag the words into a panel for instant preview. Really neat site.

This site will definitely serve as an important reference source for upcoming works.

‘Lego Font Creator’

I happened to stumble across this really neat application that allows the interaction with Lego blocks done by Lineto over at Objetgraphik. The application itself is actually quite sophisticated:

http://www.objetgraphik.com/Lego-Font-Creator.html?lang=en

…and the link below is worth the check as well:

http://www.lineto.com/

‘Typography Kicks Ass’

I’m sure many out there are familiar with this site with a huge collection of vernacular type messages submitted by viewers but just thought I’ll add the link here for future references:

http://www.typographykicksass.com/

‘Font Bots’ & ‘The Typosperma Project’

Here are a couple really neat designs done with typography:

Font Bots: http://www.invdr.com/invdr_portfolio_fontbots.html

The Typosperma Project: http://www.odedezer.com/typosperma.html

When Star Wars meet Saul Bass.

This is great.