Project 2: Process Post 4

Greetings!

I've started making the book for the exhibition! I made 3 different versions.

Version 1:

 

Version 2:

 

Version 3:

 

 

I also revised my exhibition space. I staggered the extra walls and put symbols on them. I'm hoping that users will see the symbols, open their books, see the same symbols, turn to the right page (that the symbol directs them to), and then begin to understand the entire exhibition. (If you don't understand what the symbols are/what they mean see my previous blog post).

Here are some pictures:

Project 2: Process Post 3

Hello again!

I've done more work on the project. I've experimented more with the wall design as well as the architecture/usage of space.

Once again, (incase you didn't read my last blog post) here is my statement for what my design means:

I'm using different typefaces to symbolize different parts of Charlie Parker's life...
Rockwell: for his early years,
Rockwell is a slab serif typeface, meaning that it has a consistent thickness between the serifs and the actual letter. There is not much variety to the slab serif typeface (not that that's a bad thing at all). I felt this was appropriate for Parker's early years when things were slow in his music and there was not much variety within much of his life.

Bauer Bodoni: for his musical 'birdie' years
Bauer Bodoni is a modern typeface. It has thick lines combined with thin lines, giving the typeface variety and a beautiful contrast. During this time, Parker had begun to be more and more famous and his music was making history. There was a lot of variety, and exciting things happening in his life.

Helvetica Neue (ultra light): for his addiction at the end of his life that led him to his death.
The typeface is quite thin and has no serifs. It seems that Parker was beginning to diminish and his addictions were swallowing more and more of him as the days went by. It was like he was barely there, which is what the thin typeface symbolizes.


I have also added four more walls within the exhibit for users to interact with. These walls have a page number on them for users to turn their booklet to so they can follow along with what the walls mean. Each wall has an icon that goes with each wall/section of Charlie's life. The icons on these extra walls that I added are also on the original walls as well:
Yellow (Rockwell) wall has a sunrise icon to represent his early years
Blue (Bauer Bodoni) wall has a bird icon to represent his 'birdy' musical days when he was doing quite well in the music industry
Black (Helvetica Neue) wall has poppy plants to represent his addiction to heroine and drugs

The walls have a lot going on within them. I think this represents the energy and life within Charlie Parker's music. I wanted to capture the feeling of his music with the design on each wall as well.

Project 2: Process Post 2

Hi there.

After beginning to think about symbols, icons, and indexes, I began to think about this project in actual space. Here are a few sketches of what I've been thinking:

I decided to go forward with the last idea. The idea behind this concept was the most interesting to me. I'm using different typefaces to symbolize different parts of Charlie Parker's life. I decided to use the Rockwell for his early years, Bauer Bodoni for his musical 'birdie' years, and Helvetica Neue (ultra light) for his addiction at the end of his life that led him to his death. I have reasoning for selecting these specific typefaces for each time period. I chose Rockwell for his early years because Rockwell is a slab serif typeface, meaning that it has a consistent thickness between the serifs and the actual letter. There is not much variety to the slab serif typeface (not that that's a bad thing at all). I felt this was appropriate for Parker's early years when things were slow in his music and there was not much variety within much of his life. I chose Bauer Bodoni for his 'Birdie' musical boom days. Bauer Bodoni is a modern typeface. It has thick lines combined with thin lines, giving the typeface variety and a beautiful contrast. During this time, Parker had begun to be more and more famous and his music was making history. There was a lot of variety, and exciting things happening in his life. I chose Helvetica Neue (ultra light) for his addiction and death because the typeface is quite thin and has no serifs. It seems that Parker was beginning to diminish and his addictions were swallowing more and more of him as the days went by. It was like he was barely there, which is what the thin typeface symbolizes.

Each wall is dedicated to each of these typefaces, telling a different portion of his life. There is a giant pole right at the front of the room. This pole has a combination of all the typefaces I used throughout the room, and it holds the synopsis (to give viewers an initial introduction).

The walls have a lot going on within them. I think this represents the energy and life within Charlie Parker's music. I wanted to capture the feeling of his music with the design on each wall as well.



Here are some pictures of the model:

Project 2: process post #1

Hola!

So over the weekend, I researched and began project two. After listening to bebop music for awhile (as well as Charlie Parker's music), I started out by creating a word list. I wrote down fifty words that came to my mind while I was listening to this music:

From there, I started to make/think about some symbols, indexes, and icons. I used my word list as inspiration for these things. Below are some of the things I came up with (warning: these ideas are pretty rough, I just wanted to start thinking about them in some way):

Top Left (saxophone with wings): You don't have to tell me twice that this idea is pretty cliche and corny, but it was one of the first things I thought of. So you always just need to cough out those ideas and get them out of your system first, right? Anyways, I chose the saxophone to represent the sound of bebop music. The wings on the saxophone are a reference to Charlie Parker. His nickname was birdy. What better way to show that than with a cliche pair of wings? Right?

Top Middle (saxophone): As said above, the saxophone is supposed to represent the sound and feeling of bebop music. 

Top Right (KC): KC is where Charlie Parker grew up. As Charlie Parker passed, Kansas City has seemed to claim him as "theirs." 

Middle Left: I made a sun symbol to represent the sunniness that I hear in Charlie Parker's bebop music. It feels so happy and sunny, which is crazy to think about because I know he suffered through some terrible things throughout his lifetime. 

Middle Middle (fire): I also think there is a fire-y, sparky feel to bebop music. It feels very zesty and exciting. That's what the fire symbol represents.

Middle Right (shades of blue): This symbol represents, of course, the blues-y feel to Charlie Parker's bebop music. However behind that general interpretation the shades of blue are there to represent the sadness that Charlie Parker experienced throughout his life. The color blue is directly linked to sadness. So I thought using the blue to represent Charlie Parker's sad story and also blues-y sounding music was a good combination. 

Bottom Left (name): There's no doubt that there's a little bit of a bouncy, tappy feeling to Parker's music. I played around with type and made his name look as though it was bouncing to correlate to the bouncy feeling within his music.

Bottom Right (birds): As I said before, Charlie Parker's nickname was birdy. So the birds directly represent him. 

I also researched and found some inspiration for the project:

P1 Final: Amy Brown

Here are all three of my final cereal boxes: 

From left to right: Order, Energy, Comfort


Below is the chosen one:

When it comes to this particular design, I thought comfort was best represented. The colors definitely give the box a comforting feel, and the hand generated text accompanying the colors really nails in the idea of comfort. I know that whenever I see something that appears to be handmade, there is always a feeling of nostalgia that occurs within me. That's what I was aiming for with this box: a comfortable, cozy design.

Process Post 6: Photography Exploration

Hello!

Wowza this project is due on Thursday. That's a little weird. Anywho over the weekend, I explored with photographing my final cereal boxes. I took a ton of different types of pictures, but the few that I'm gonna show are some of the better ones.

Plain white background:

Lifestyle, in-use: