Project Updates

Link to Final Paper

Link to Paper

Website Slides

Thank you!!

Gather.town website

Final Presentation Slides

Hope you have fun exploring our chinatown maps!

Best, Daniel, Annie, and Bernice

WEBSITE https://emeldracher.wixsite.com/my-site-1

slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Bl8GkvcUSmFYyOAaq7uZVu7mGWwvS8chyD_Y_2ykUwM/edit?usp=sharing

Final Presentation

Documap Site username/password: test

Have fun exploring the annotations!

Best, Jumana and Tiffany

updates

Documap - Mapping the Reading Experience

Documap Design Journey

Have you eaten yet? : Experience US Chinatowns

Design Sketch

Iteration

Here is my final version of design project 3, now that I’m feeling better. One thing I’ve learned from art/design this semester is that you can spend forever perfecting it or fixing mistakes, but at one point you have to cut your losses and stop working on it. At least, I hope the overall idea is clear!

Updates

Project Aim: Provide a personalized and cultural journey into the Chinatown experience across cities in the U.S via tangible and immersive mediums. Link to Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1PDRhJKTF5Ju7CqnEcXSJNn4yGunlc19DnYtG820TrNE/edit?usp=sharing

MIT Inferno

• What kind of experience or imagination are you trying to map?

I will be attempting to create a map which captures the atmosphere of the civil rights movement in the 1960s, more specifically focusing on an internationalist perspective of the liberation movements at the time.

• What are the dimensions of your experience/imagination that you are trying to visualize?

The mid 20th century was birth to an era of human liberation movements which had vast implications in reshaping the conception of what it means to be a part of a society. I would like to create a map that captures not only the American civil rights movement and its significance but also the events which transpired across the world which captured the imagination of

• What is the data source for your mapping idea? I have been reading Revolution and Evolution in the 20th Century which discusses how the revolutions throughout this period of time related to each other. Therefore, I would like to have a set of events to draw from during this time period as the set of data I’m presenting.

• What are possible inspirations for your mapping idea?

I think I would like either convey how these events relate to each other through a timeline or a geographical map pinpointing their location to convey the ideological influence these events had on each other. I have included some inspirations below.

Deceptively simple, this representation of pollution within California over the dimensions of time and physical space effectively abstracts a dense collection of data into a display which utilizes what Tufte refers to as a “small multiple,” wherein an interpretation of “one slice of data” may applied to the rest of the data. This is achieved through reusing the same design structure with different sets of data. As can be seen in this example, the same structure of representing levels of pollutants as physical points in space over the locations in which these measures are taken allows the viewer to extrapolate understanding of one slice of data into the other 11 maps. This manifestation of a data measurement into a physical space therefore concretizes what is seemingly an abstract concept.

I also found this flattening of physical movement into a two-dimensional image to be fascinating as I had never considered how motion was represented prior to video or step by step diagrams. A rather complicated dance is abstracted into a picture highly dense in information. Pictoral symbols representing different dance moves span across a trajectory outlined on the floor beneath the two dancers. Not only does this diagram convey the general character of the dance but also the more intricate details necessary in recreating it.

I’m very interested in mapping food attractions around the city, perhaps local to MIT’s campus or the Boston/Cambridge area. Within the map, it would show information such as type of cuisine, pricing, ratings, aesthetic, etc.

Another idea I have for the mapping experiences project is to map unique sights and experiences around MIT. This idea is heavily inspired by the book On Looking by Alexandra Horowitz, which describes the same walk around a neighborhood of Manhattan from 11 different perspectives. Each person notices different things, which I think would be really interesting and unique things to map out.

I was thinking about trying to make an experience that could visually serve as a timeline while representing something else. I was considering representing my journey from my house to our class everyday, mapping out Central and MIT, but using it to inform on a history of Visual Design. This is partially inspired by a map of science fiction I remembered from a while back that traced the lineage of science fiction in an abstract way, and various timelines I’ve seen with pictures that show different eras of visual design. I thought it would be cool to combine them into a more abstract experience that the user could interact with.

For this next project, I am thinking of trying to map out an experience based around food in China or major cities in Asia. In general, I am interested in incorporating culture/history into my map, but I am open to thinking of other ideas (could be more straightforward or more abstract). For the dimensions of my experience, I am planning on visualizing the diversity of the experience and its personal touches. My data sourcees for my mapping idea are linked here: Four Major Cuisines in China, Rice Theory - North/South differences, and Regional Cuisines. There are many more online sources that I can find once the project idea is more set. Some possible inspirations are more illustrative, cartoon designs like the one below.

Here is a link to more city maps from this series.

I was interested in techniques of mapping the unseen, like the pollution map in Tutfe’s text. I was drawn to Paula Scher’s maximalist technique of making the unseen seen, tangibly part of the geography of her represented worlds. Here she adds people to a world map and area and time codes to the map of the US. She describes her maps of exercises of power, as there are no prepackaged facts but only representations of incomplete information.

I would be interested in taking some institutional aspect of space–or some other visually intangible element, like scent or sound–and baking them over the physical-space presentation of a map.

One experience I’m interested in mapping is the Pacific Coast Highway (colloquially known as Highway 1), which runs from northern California down to San Diego. I’m originally from the West Coast and remember road trips I would take with my family as a kid. It runs through the beautiful California coastline as well as the Redwood forests - a dynamic reflection of the West Coast. As for dimensions, I would aim to capture not only the major touristy destinations/cities that it runs through, but also the emotional sentiment captured by driving down these roads. I found the Edward Tufte readings particularly influential, and aiming to incorporate many of these attributes to help frame the viewer/allow them to escape from the “flatland” of a two-dimensional map. There are many online resources that can serves as data sources for my mapping idea, such as the National Geographic and Visit the USA. When researching into this topic, I found a map poster wall that captures the essence that I was going for, however it is still fairly simple in its design. If I were to pursue this project further, I would like to incorporate more nuances that would allow the viewer to gain both a micro and macro view of the work (and facilitate thinking/discussion).

When Dante’s “Inferno” was mentioned, a parody came to mind. What if there are faux pas at MIT that result in a ring of the Inferno? Could spilling coffee down the Infinite during rush hour put you in the first ring? Maps of the poem elicit attention because they depict a physical place that is theoretical for many. Dante puts great detail to the concrete look of each ring and clearly describes Hell going into the earth (as seen in the maps attached). It’s this combination of physical and author-imagined that allows for great creativity within the confounds of something familiar.

I find the idea of mapping out time to be very interesting. More specifically, mapping out a timeline of major events/news that has happened in 2021. I’ve always found documenting an entire year to be really fascinating (like those popular song mashups for every top song of the year, or when spotify gives you a summary of what music you listened to the most) . Also, I think it could be interesting to have a viewer essentially walk through their entire year, as a sort of reflective and memory experience. One inspiration of mine was Nam June Paik’s Electronic Superhighway, which uses video and tvs to make art and also demonstrates how all the interconnectivity through electronics and the internet can lead to information overload. It could be very interactive and engaging to a user to be able to walk through and click on + watch videos of major news instead of just a static headline or image (perhaps the video could also link to a related article if the viewer is interested in reading more.) Some data sources can be just newspapers, news databases, television databases, etc.

For this upcoming design project, I had the idea to work on a map that is more “cartoonish”, colorful, and interactive. Here is an example of the Rio 2016 Olympics where they created an interactive map of the Olympic site.

In terms of what I would map, an idea I had was to make a map of the MIT campus but through the perspective of the student experience, highlighting things like the Banana Lounge or Stud 5. Another idea would be to make a map of Boston with a similar approach. I’m open to working on things related to culture and vibrancy as well or maybe on the more mythical side, perhaps for a children audience. It would be cool to create a creative learning experience map, maybe something that would appear in an interactive installation at a children’s museum.

Here is another example of a map I liked of San Francisco.

I love the idea of the assignment so much! I feel a day is not enough for me to think thoroughly about an idea. As I know, whatever I decide now could change for many reasons, including feasibility. First idea: I found an exciting dataset about the history of video games, and I think mapping out that experience would be engaging across time and locations. I recently visited the exhibit “Bending Lines: Maps and Data from Distortion to Deception”. It was fascinating to see the different stories maps can create. The pattern I enjoyed the most was “tree” maps (shown in the image below). I would love to explore that pattern even further and try ways to increase the expressiveness of this pattern.

Second idea: social annotation creates interesting traces on online materials that could be interesting to visualize. At first, I thought the annotations on the document served as the map! However, I think it might be interesting to explore different ways to represent that information differently. Maybe aggregate view on the document instead of individual annotations? Or express the annotations over time instead of location on the document? I’m worried about the feasibility of this idea, as I don’t have any inspirations that I can look at or learn from. I have access to annotation datasets; I’m not sure how to map out the data meaningfully.

https://youtu.be/YqHHLkWjcJA

A New Post

Link to Concrete Poetry Animation

To animate the design, this was created entirely in Adobe After Effects. Multiple layers were utilized to create the background, firework animation, and text. Overall, this poem aims to capture the wonder and celebratory sentiment surrounding seeing fireworks for the first time or around the holidays - as from a simple spark comes a mighty flame.

Link to video

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1moFLE3bP9KoEN0nTVP5KWEf02CfLsM6c/view?usp=sharing

Link to Video

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Be9Mh5VxoFr0Bj0swxk62ZPnKNT4zKVT/view?usp=sharing

This is my final animation. I wanted to capture the handwritten feel of poetry, and whatvan Leeuwen and Djonov term the informalization and emotivization of kinetic typography.

Video version of final draft

Mother

Link to Video

In this updated version, I animated the scene to tell the story of the text. I started by prototyping the flow of the animation on Powerpoint, which was a great prototyping tool! I noticed that moving all fish looked cluttered and confusing, so I decided to keep the main fish in place with “breathing like” animation. At first, I used Adobe Animate. It was not a success. My composition contained more text than “characters,” and I needed a tool to give me more control over transitions and text animation.

I then switched to Adobe After Effects. I created multiple layers for each movement in the scene. For the first line of the poem, I chose to animate it as a wave or an eel swimming to provide a preview before the main characters arrive! The top fish group each had its own path of motion that aligned with each other. I then showed the two main fish with the text, followed by another group of fish joining the scene. The idea is to emphasize that there is plenty of fish in the sea! The second group of the fish cross path to emphasize togetherness and love.

The colors are black and white. I intend to reflect the design of a script on paper, which tells a story by showing the reader through shaping and animating words.

Squid Game Intro Title Animation (Korean)

Squid Game Intro Title Animation (English)

I immediately thought of this lyric video for this assignment (sorry is not title sequence)

https://youtu.be/3K0RzZGpyds

Alien Title

*use of blocks where you’re not sure what they are until they’ve almost spelled out “Alien”

This title sequence uses very simple movement in the backdrop to convey space, but the focus is on the building of the word “Alien.” It occurs slowly and not clearly, already conveying a sense of the unknown.

Matrix Movie Title Sequences

Pirates of the Caribbean

Pixar Intro One of my favorite and most iconic moving titles! I like how the walk cycle of the lamp and the bouncy movement of characters all are subtle but effective ways to showcase an animaiton studio!

Another great example is this one from the Art of the Title - The Queens Gambit The Queens Gambit

Climax Title Credits

In terms of title sequences, I am a huge fan of how the title cards for The Green Knight (2021) create a sense of space and of transformation from instant to instant. Unfortunately, they are also unique in that they are scattered throughout the film, and I could only find a brief moment of them in this clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hF3c0rIJujA&t=10s

You can get a sense of their stylization via the onscreen text in this video however:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yI189R6JyYI

I already animated mine a bit, recording should be available at this link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1X-hfg_9R2fppoXMfHVHH1xsgELUBgmOi/view?usp=sharing

Design Process PDF

I adapted a poem I wrote about my bad habits during undergrad: so trigger warning for disordered eating and body image. I tried to use shape and color to mimic the shape of cigarette and rising smoke. Once I had the layout I thought it looked a bit like a playing card so I added the title and spades to mimic that layout. I don’t know that it actually adds to the meaning of the design—but then I was thinking that it could speak to the kind of cyclic routine that I was trying to write about. I left it in for the draft to get feedback. Generally I tried to use color, spacing, and font to differentiate between different materials of the smoke, cigarette, and ash.

Amazon Prime offers members free two-day, one-day, or even same-day shipping, without a minimum purchase amount. While this on-demand service is extremely convenient for consumers, it has led to an immense amount of packaging waste that is bad for the environment. Online shoppers typically try to buy items in bulk to save money on shipping, however with Amazon Prime, there are no financial repercussions to ordering multiple items separately because shipping is free no matter what. This causes shoppers to buy more frequently than they should, making orders whenever they think of buying something instead of combining all the items they need into one order and choosing a more sustainable delivery option.

I took inspiration from Amazon Prime advertisements, which typically feature a very minimal design, with a catchy slogan emphasizing the free shipping features. Some advertisements also include clean images of the easily recognizable brown Amazon box, but typically only one or two in the ad (as seen below).

I decided to use the image of the brown box and blue/white packaging to make a statement, by editing many packages together, as if they were piled together. I used the same typeface that Amazon uses to be consistent with their visual design, and borrowed the slogan from one of the ads, with a few tweaks to subversively show the negative side effect of Amazon Prime’s free shipping.

Based on the feedback from class discussion, I decided to add more images of Amazon boxes and packages that were opened, so that the pile of packages looked much more like a pile of trash, to emphasize the wastefulness caused by Amazon Prime’s services. I chose to keep the “delivered in millions of ways” messaging that people liked and felt subversively conveyed the idea of immense packaging waste without diverging too much from Amazon’s typical messaging.

For my revision, I decided to change the layout entirely so that it would resemble a more recent Robinhood ad, as shown below. I also made the color and font (Avenir) more consistent. I would’ve liked to use white text still, but I could only find the logo in green or black, so I opted for black for readability. I also added the certain limitations apply text as well as the collusion url because I felt that it fit the idea well. I included a somewhat transparent Gamestop logo on the money being handed over to reference the Gamestop fiasco of early 2021 as well.

For my final design I decreased the size of the smaller text in order to increase its subversive qualities. I also played around with the text of the main message so that it became something that was less obvious and more subtle. I did also experiment with changing the background image and the brightness but I decided that it ultimately looked better in its initial state.

For my revision, I honed in on the objectification of female reporters. Instead of an ad for a station, this advertisement promotes a specific show. Barbara Milicent Roberts is Barbie’s full name, and I used “Prime Time” to not only mirror current show names on-air, but allude to how women in news must look their prime. Instead of the stock background of a city, this background is a layer of real-reported images taken this year during conflicts. A rose-colored film is applied to insinuate how we can put our rose-colored glasses on and focus more on the beauty of a reporter rather than the news. The barbie style transfer using convolutional layers is still utilized. The reporter’s saturation is heightened and I used the font “Grandview” for it’s style and ironic name.

For the revision of my ad, I mainly played around with the placement of the mink. I wanted to incorporate the mink more seamlessly into the logo and make it feel like a part of it. There were a few different variations that I tried, but I ultimately liked the version with the mink above the logo. The other versions are below. I did also make the mink fully black instead of just a black and white image. This helped make it more integrated with the logo.

For my revision, I decided to pick my second subversive ad to iterate on because after hearing the in class feedback, I realized the second idea could incorporate many more meanings. First, I found a higher resolution version of the image and used photoshop to make the child’s eyes subtly more red and to make her look slightly more tired. Additionally, I tried to photoshop the bracelet on her arm into a chain-like bracelet, suggesting an additional meaning of being “caught” which is being trapped by screen addiction. Lastly, to make the ad look more like an Apple ad, I changed the thickness of the typeface to more closely match Apple’s “Shot on iPhone” campaign, which had the subtitle thinner than the heading.

Previous iteration:

For my revised ad, I decided to make minimal changes focusing on fixing the quality of photoshop editing. The main change was having the top of the middle row of cans lay on top of the bottom of the top row of cans so that it more closely resembled a true stack. I also cleaned up the edges of the right-most and lefmost-cans.

For the revised version, I aimed to be subtle and more subversive. I got rid of the internal body organs to provide and more subtle and clear image. Instead, I relied on using footnotes as was advised by my peers during the feedback session. I also changed the font to something more appropriate; it was super handy that it coincided with week 6 readings!

For my revised version, I primarily made changes based on the feedback I got in class. I changed the image to a picture of an actual driver, to both draw attention to the workers and to better represent the product as a whole. I also added borders to the images to help them stand out and moved them to the top of the ad so they draw the eye and allow the text to flow together. I also reduced the amount of text and made it more subtle, so the ad is less obvious and more appealing at first glance, though it is still subtly subversive.

For my revised draft of the subversive advertising project, I incorporated much of the feedback from the class discussion. The goal of my subversive ad remained the same, to communicate the fact of how social media platforms often make us complacent to taking action on social issues - where a like or tweet often substitutes for change making. As suggested by Professor Fendt, I changed the black and white emoticons to color, as well as removed the silhouette of the individual on their phone. These changes further helped to focus the narrative on my desired message. I also went ahead and changed the text and font as suggested by my fellow classmates. Originally, both the font and the text itself were very blatant in their conveyed message - in a sense detracting from the subversiveness. As a result, I instead opted for a more subtle approach for both, altering the font to be that of Facebook’s and decreasing the size that it occupies on the ad. As discussed in the Spiekermann readings, fonts play an important role in shaping our impressions of the ad itself. Hence, these revised ads were designed with that thought in mind. Finally, I changed the “sponsor of the ad” to the National Coalition for the Homeless instead of the upside-down logo of Facebook, which help give clarity to an organization that would likely run an ad of this nature.

I reverted back to one of my earlier designs that I felt was more ad-like than my previous draft, which imitated the Netflix interface and felt too convoluted and text-heavy. Instead, I imitated an actual Netflix ad’s layout and used one of their early taglines: “Anywhere. Anytime. Instantly.” I opposed the text and the subject of the image—Ted Bundy—to create a balanced composition. The ad’s subversiveness does rely mostly on the audience’s recognition of the famous serial killer—which would make the ad additionally impactful for consumers more likely to recognize a famous serial killer from, say, a slew of documentaries. Netflix churns out crime documentaries—on-demand depictions of trauma, abuse, and murder that nevertheless find eager audiences that keep that content in demand. Just in case Bundy isn’t recognizable, the viewer can also be clued into the ad’s subversive nature by the small URL at the bottom of the ad: Netflix.com/bodycount. My hope is that the ad balances a familiar layout and typeface with subtlety and accusation. The cycle of supply and demand enabled by the platform for exploitative true crime, albeit with a slick and modern presentation, is the target for this ad.

Many companies have been known in the public sphere to have unethical business practices and products, but Robinhood has, for the most part, escaped such scrutiny. The idea behind Robinhood seems rather noble; their mission statement is “to democratize finance for all,” essentially making the stock market more accessibile to the common folk. (Robinhood Mission Statement) But is Robinhood really doing that?

Take the Gamestop fiasco earlier in 2021. It saw that users were making too much money from trading Gamestop stocks (and mocking Wall Street and hedge funds in the process) that it decided to freeze these trades, but claimed that the reasoning behind this was due to “issues with volatile stock and regulatory requirements”! (CNET: Robinhood backlash: What you should know about the GameStop stock controversy)

Not only did Robinhood care more about its own profits rather than its users’, it seemed quick to jump the defense of Wall Street and hedge funds, despite being outwardly antithetical to them. Robinhood’s PR has been rather successful so far, as most people are unaware of its secret relationship with Citadel, a popular hedge fund that has been accused of manipulating the market. (Washington Post: Robinhood and Citadel’s relationship comes into focus as Washington vows to examine stock-market moves)

I wanted to illustrate this deceit with my subversive ad. In essence, Robinhood claims to be helping the general public by democratizing finance, and yet, unlike its namesake, it appears to be helping the rich by stealing from the poor instead. The ad focuses the eye on the text, drawing a vertical line downward and emphasizing that Robinhood was made for “you,” the people, and the friendly handshake in the photo supports that idea. The text, “We built Robinhood for you,” is taken from an advertisement Robinhood put out shortly after its Gamestop scandal. (Daily Mail UK: Robinhood takes out full-page New York Times ad claiming it is ‘humbled’ and has always put customers first as Congress prepares hearings) Because the text and the hand stands out the most, they draw attention away from the most sinister part of the ad: the person (representing Robinhood) has another hand outstretched behind their back to provide money to someone else, presumably an untrustworthy third-party. This hints at Robinhood’s collusion with Citadel and other hedge funds to indicate that Robinhood is inherently dishonest about the work it does. Other visual elements, particularly the color of the text and the logo, are taken from other Robinhood advertisements, as shown below.

My entire design process can be found here: Design Process PDF

For my design, I decided to focus on Uber’s exploitative labor practices and the bad dynamic it creates between drivers and users where the drivers have nearly no power. Because they are at risk of losing their job if their rating drops too low, they are almost fully beholden to the user and the algorithm serving them rides.

Some of the advertisements which appeal the most to me are relatively flat and simplistic tech ads, so I tried to emulate some of them through this design. I also wanted to draw inspiration from Uber itself, as despite disagreeing with their business model, I think their design language is professional and using its credibility to benefit this subversive ad seems smart. This was primarily done through the use of its font, but also the relatively black and white color scheme was chosen to intentionally mimic.

Despite lifting from Uber’s design language, because the assignment wanted us to use images, I intentionally included the only color in the poster in the image representing Uber’s appeal. The glimmering newspaper and empty seats are in sharp contrast to the densely packed bus, which intentionally had both its saturation and contrast turned down to make it as unappealing as possible. In addition to the image manipulation, the background was also chosen to make the left side seem more cluttered than the right, providing a sense of movement to the right that is meant to steer the viewer even further into choosing to ride with Uber. Initially, I misread the assignment and both created a version of this ad that didn’t use any images, and a separate ad that was based on a previously existing amazon ad, both of which are attached below.

I chose to focus on the often unrecognized harm companies which provide suppressed prices for goods and services by connecting the provider and consumer directly, more specifically Airbnb, have on local economies and low-income populations. I first read through some articles on the effect of “gig-type” services (e.g. Instacart, Ubereats, Airbnb, etc.) have in exacerbating the poor economic condition of rooted citizens in a community. The exploitative practices of rideshare companies on their workers have already been well-documented. However, we often overlook the seemingly innocuous consequences of partaking in a service such as Airbnb on the local housing market as these issues are much easier to sweep under the rug.

I first looked through a series of Airbnb ads. Their marketing is done in collections, with a central design as a guiding template for a series of ads. Their designs are often minimalistic but oscillate between highly graphical to using “stock photo-esque” images. I chose to create an ad mimicking the latter as I believe it would be more impactful for the subverting purpose of this assignment.

I chose a somewhat colorful photo of a set of buildings in Brooklyn, an area that is known to be a hub of housing displacement. As I wanted to use this image as a background for white text, I lowered its brightness. I further increased the vibrancy and saturation of the image in order to convey a sense of almost saccharine and disingenuous happiness to play off the joyful but cost effective getaways Airbnb tries to market. I further manipulated Airbnb’s logo “Belong Anywhere” to be “Belong Nowhere” in reference to the company’s complicity in exacerbating housing insecurity and homelessness.

For this design project, I focused on the issue of inaction toward many social issues. The evolution of social media has all be revolutionized our daily lives. While this has brought much positivity into our lives and social connectedness, it also comes with some unintentional consequences. As such, the advertisement I created brings to question whether a “sad reaction” toward a Facebook post, or “emphasizing tweet” on Twitter serves enough justice for our empathy as human beings. In doing so, it hopes to spur action in the form of volunteering or donating through charitable means.

I was particularly inspired by the Salvation Army “Giving Hope Today” ad campaign (shown below), which uses the phrase “poverty shouldn’t be a life sentence” as a metaphor analogizing poverty as a form of constant imprisonment. The dark tones within the image also help to establish the seriousness of the situation and something I wanted to incorporate in my own ad. From a design perspective, I chose this black and white image taken by Nicolas Fanny with the poverty-stricken child staring blankly at the screen. On the bottom right hand corner is a silhouette of a woman scrolling through social media and “reacting” to different posts. The silhouette design is intentional, as its meant to detract any individual traits and serve as a generalization for individuals (McCloud). The child is also surrounded by a flood of emotes, but remains unfazed. The artificiality of the Facebook reactions are also in stark contrast to the realism of the surrounding nature. This goes to show the good-nature of “likes” but brings to question their actual impact. As inspired by other minimalistic ads, the text is minimal and goes for an “amplification through simplification” approach.” Finally, there is an upside logo of Facebook, which draws further commentary at the complacency that that these reactions allow us to have at broader social issues, and those of which allow us to feel at ease with our support for issues such as poverty.

Here, CNN stands for “Convolutional Neural Network.” Many media sources have addressed highlighting truths versus “fake news.” Although many of our conversations revolve around the contents of our news feeds, we often lose track of the reporters themselves. A hugely silent pressure arises in the form of on-screen presence (and ratings as a networks) versus factual reporting for the sake of delivering information. In this ad, Neural Style Transfer using Tensorflow was utilized to transfer a barbie reporter image “style” onto an image of Charlize Theron from “Bombshell.” A face merge was also used. Despite the wide successes of female reporters, an added “layer” to their positioning on a large station can be their appearance. I hope to challenge viewers in their beliefs on this topic. Do we still take extremely intelligent people and distill them to their looks or an unreal expectation? A combination of true breaking news reports and false headlines give depth to the background and further our question of where truth lies.

CNN was used due to its relationship with Convolutional Neural Nets, as well as its slogan. The design is meant to address the media as a whole, not one station.

Code:

https://www.tensorflow.org/tutorials/generative/style_transfer

Slogan:

For my project 2 design, I concentrated on the issue of fur in fashion products. I wanted to approach my design in a way that still followed the fashion advertisement style while also providing a slight implication toward the true ethics behind certain fashion items.

The first consideration I had when designing this advertisement was the style of image. Images are important in fashion advertisements, so I wanted to select an editorial style image that centralizes on featuring the item of clothing. Oftentimes, the background is plain in fashion editorial photoshoots, so I selected a simple background with a model wearing a fur coat. The next strategy that influenced my design was color. Instead of using various colors, I kept my design in grayscale. Black and white is often used in fashion labeling and magazines, so I felt it was effective to use it as a way to call attention to the shape instead of the vibrancy. The brand Yves Saint Laurent also uses black and white in many of its advertisements, so this was a way to remain consistent with the overall brand style. For the overall layout, I was mainly inspired by other fashion advertisements and how they enlist the use of white space to direct attention to the model and clothing. The minimal text and simple font style conveys the simplicity of everything else compared to the clothing. I chose to place small text at the bottom left corner since fashion magazines often have captions to photos at the corners of the page.

For the imagery, I selected images of a model wearing a fur coat and a mink. I placed these photos in the same frame in order to present a juxtaposition of the live animal with the animal product. This reminds consumers that products do not just start out the way they look. Products are sourced from other materials or “things” that mean more than just an object to wear. Having the presence of both brings out both the similarities and differences so that the viewer realizes the impact of fur clothing on animals.

Reference Images

I first thought of the concept of screen addiction when I was laying on my bed in the dark and realized how long I had just spent on my phone. I wanted to create an advertisement in the style of an Apple ad because often times social media gets the reputation of being addicting yet smartphone companies like Apple ignore the fact that they enable these addictive apps to become part of people’s everyday life. Additionally, I wanted to invoke the Apple’s style because the smartphone brand is instantly recognizable with its distinctive minimalism and typography.

When I started brainstorming for this assignment, I only knew I wanted the photo to depict someone laying in bed in the dark intently using technology, and for it to look like an actual ad for one of Apple’s products. The first consideration was who I wanted to portray being addicted to technology. Thinking back to how my little brother who is only 10 and goes to extreme measures to make sure he has access to his ipad (including sneaking downstairs to play on it after bedtime), I decided to focus on portraying the effects that Apple’s products, particularly ipads, have on children. Thus, I photoshopped a bit of redness into the eyes of the photo of the child, which contrasts with the blueness of the image and is still quite subtle since the eyes are small. Additionally, the captivating blue light reflecting on the child’s face and the sides of the parents emphasize the addictive and dangerous quality of too much screentime.

To convey my message not only in the image of the child but also in the text, I took inspiration from many iPad ads for the new iPad Pro, which concentrate on how powerful the device is. As I remember back to my little brother, I realize that the iPad really a lot more powerful than I thought, but not in the way that the original ads want me to see but in the way that technology really has the ability to control children + their mood/actions. So I decided to use the same word “powerful”, but subvert its meaning in my assignment.

Additionally, I noticed that in some apple billboard ads, they will have a link to their product (ex: apple.com/privacy). I thought putting the idea of screen addiction into part of a URL would be a subtle way of communicating my message. Also, I put the apple logo on the ipad because it would follow the direction of the child’s eyes which point to the ipad and the logo.

I made many different versions of this assignment, including one version that is inspired by Apple’s “Shot on iPhone” campaign where I wanted to display the perspective from the front facing camera of an iPad and show a child’s screen addiction close-up; however, I could not find a photo from that perspective that I could use.

Reference Images

Alternative reference + idea:

When I first brainstormed for this assignment, the first thing that came to mind was the controversy surrounding Goya when its CEO praised Trump, thereby causing major backlash from the Hispanic community for ignoring all of the derogatory statements Trump has made about immigrants and Latinos.

To represent this theme, I wanted to stack the Goya cans in a way that would resemble a wall, like Trump’s wall bordering Mexico. To add contrast, I colorblocked the opposing sides of the wall with colors similar to the blue and red for democratic and republican party respectively.

Since Goya is one of the biggest Hispanic brands, they usually have their slogans in both Spanish and English to reach their target audience. I tried to do the same, even taking a slogan that was used for Goya’s Hispanic Heritage Month promotion: “A tribute to the taste of home.” I wanted to play on those words since they inspire very different feelings than “Go back to where you came from” which is a phrase commonly used by Trump and his supporters against immigrants.

Finally, I decided to keep it quite minimal and with vibrant colors since that is what is most common for Goya’s advertisements.

ad

In this proposed ad design, I used conceptual metaphors and blending to signal the dangers associated with drinking alcohol. I chose an image of a popular figure on a stage drinking beer while his daughter was holding to his legs. I chose this moment as it portrays an organic interaction and a memory that people would like to remember; it showed a happy snapshot in someone’s life. That moment is what we see as viewers, a person on a stage holding a beer. A stage is not a place to be drinking beer; it must have been an advertisement in which the public figure endorsed that type of beer.

ad campaign that inspired my idea

I wanted to blend an ad campaign about alcohol awareness with this raw moment. I chose to show that while we see a person on a stage holding beer, the alcohol damages the things we don’t see. I did that by blending the organs to the male figure in the image, emphasizing the hidden areas that are being affected. I leveraged that the figure was holding a beer and used that brand as the logo in my ad. I blurred and reduced the colors of the moment on stage to point viewers’ attention to the organs and the message of the campaign.

The ad I’m proposing could be a concept that’s part of an anti-alcohol awareness campaign. The idea is to show a happy moment of people drinking alcohol then emphasizing the damage done to the hidden parts of our body. While alcohol is damaging, the idea of growing sick and tired and not be able to help your kids is a metaphor of helplessness and failure that might be triggering. I chose a moment in which a person is with his daughter to trigger more emotions in my ad.

I missed this in class activity so I’m just posting the fonts I chose here.

1. I think I’m pretty thoughtful but I often have decision paralysis with even with the most minor decisions, so I like to sketch things out such that I can always erase, change, and modify things if I need, just like this font. Additionally, the font still a work in progress and will be continually refined in the future, which is also true of myself.

1. I think my lifestyle is pretty simple and I find joy in the ordinary day to day things like taking walks and cooking. Even the clothes I wear are simple in my opinion (though sometimes, I appreciate when one detail is just a little bit elevated, similar to the fancy g in this font.)

1. I really value authenticity and honesty. I think this font, with its handwritten quality, really captures that idea and is similar to how I would genuinely write my name. Also, the script is quite fluid and I think that represents that I’m generally understanding/flexible and open hearing other people’s thoughts.

Infinity Dots (Midsummer)

This painting called “Infinite Dots” by Yayoi Kusama uses lots of black dots of various sizes with different spacing on a yellow background. As the dots get smaller and closer together, the string of dots appear to resemble lines curved in various directions. The eye doesn’t really have a center of gravity and there is a sense of movement as your eye keeps looking around. The many lines of dots effectively communicate Kusama’s personal obsession and hallucinations with infinity and dots.

Source: https://www.mutualart.com/Artwork/Infinity-Dots–Midsummer-/83A8CF00AA1614FE

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Subway maps are a prime example of lines and dots coming together to form a cohesive and useful message. Through the intricacies of the lengths and curves of the lines, the viewer is able to get a sense of each path and how they all connect. Moreover, the varying sizes of dots communicate the importance of each stop, with spots with overlapping lines being larger than the average stop dot.

Use of lines and dots to convey complex information about chemical molecules by abstracting its structure into the interactions between atoms.

This poster is an abstraction of the main ideas in Tron. The lines give energy and motion to the poster. The spacing between the elements provides the viewer with a hint to connect the dots and create a complex perception of the objects on the poster.

Source: https://www.etsy.com/listing/466589593/tron-a3-movie-poster-film-poster

This poster abstracts New York City’s public transit system into pure lines and dots. It’s compelling because despite not saying it directly, it immediately evokes one of NYC’s most iconic features, and has a minimialist appeal to it. People can be reminded of memory and the more detailed map through the simple beauty of this poster.

Source: https://adomedia.co.uk/line-poster-design/

Apple Ad - Intention: communicates a powerful and inspirational message through the utilization of only lines and dots (alongside auditory means)

Link to full 1.5 min video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcGPI2tV2yY

This painting by Damien Hirst uses colorful dots and white linear negative space. It is compelling as it uses the grid arrangement of the round dots to form a line of its own against the white background. It also uses the simplicity of dots and lines to allow the viewer to enjoy the colors of the art piece. All of the colors can join together harmoniously within this piece, which makes this art piece particularly effective.

Source: https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/pointillism-dotted-art