Mini Zine Project

This is the flatplan for the Mini Zine, which was a mini 1 day project as a part of our networking project. It is designed collaboratively by all the networking students. The title _ _ _ _ _ leaves the reader to call it what they wish, and leaves open to interpretation. All work was created on the day the project was set.

The link to view the full size zine is http://issuu.com/ok-jo/docs/lcc-fda-minizine__________________

So Finally the photos of our final parcel.
We decided to put the group philosophy instead of the image by Anna Maria, as we couldn't come up with any other way of putting the philosophy, which is the most vital thing to be in the box.

So finally I printed the message 'DO NOT LEAVE ME ON' onto a transparent sticker paper which can be stuck onto any switch board and I think it looks much better and neater than the over that I made with the gum tape.
The bulb which was a final thing to go into the parcel from the very beginning.
The TV, among all the bits in the parcel I like this one the best, i think it works very well.

Final Parcel Development

So finally, I found this paper mache book at Hobby craft, and i thought that this can work well as our final parcel, as it will be reusable and is kind of eco-friendly too. So above is a bit of experimentation with its inner look. Below are the photos of the stuff we are going to put in the book.

So we are definitely going to but the bulb in it, the TV we need to change it's look a bit, to make it look friendly, the idea with the TV is for it to be used as a table decoration or paper weight, it will be carrying a message, but it needs a lot of modification and customization. Above are the experiments I did with the switch plate covers, the 1st image is the cover that I made with gum tape and then covered it with white paper as you can see above, but I am not really satisfied with it, i think it can be improved a lot.

Networking Project (Parcel Development)

As we are going to send out parcels to our clients these are a few ideas for them
Our fisrt idea was to stuff the glove with whatever stuff we are going to send and wrap it with brown paper, that way it will look like a hand wrapped up, but then we thought that may be it's not a very good idea as our aim is to raise awareness about climate change and becoming greener and plastic is not a very good thing for a green planet. So we thought we should send something that can be reused and is eco-friendly.



This is the second idea that we came up with, we were then thinking of sending the basket with all the above stuff in it, but then we thought that if we are thinking of sending something that can be reused, the energy saver bulb is fine, with a bit of text on it saying 'USE ME', it can most certainly be reused, but no one is going to change their whole switch board with the one we are sending them, so we have to come up with pobably a switch plate cover. The idea behind sending the cycle and mini car was to give them an initiative to reduce thei carbon footprints, but then again they can't be reused in anyway, so we are dropping the idea of sending them as well.

Will be updating the further development of the parcel very soon :)

Networking Project Continued.........

As it is a collaborative project, these are a few examples of the collaborative work we did. the following drawings are by Matt which I then rendered on Illustrator.

Energy Facts

This a a bit of research I did on energy facts before starting to put the parcel together, I personally found them quite interesting.....

• Thermostat usage - A 1 degree C reduction in the setting of the thermostat could reduce household energy consumption by as much as 10%.
• Household energy consumption for lighting - If every household in Ontario replaced just three 100-watt bulbs with 25-watt compact fluorescent bulbs, enough power would be saved to supply 130,000 homes.
• Household lighting - About 12 to 15 percent of the electricity used in a home is for lighting.
• Household lighting - It is best to use CFL lights in places where they will stay switched on for long periods. Switching CFL bulbs off after only a few minutes of use can reduce their lifespan.
• UK householders - Over 70% of UK householders admit that they have never examined their homes for ways to save energy.
• Standby Energy - UK gadgets left on standby squander electricity worth £740,000,000 per annum.
• Light bulbs - When you turn on an incandescent light bulb, only 2% of the electricity used is turned into light. The rest is wasted as heat.
• Electricity needed to power a light bulb - One kilowatt-hour (kWh) equals the amount of electricity needed to power a 100 watt light bulb for 10 hours.
• Light bulbs that save energy - Energy saving light bulbs last up to 12 times longer than ordinary light bulbs, and can save up to ￡100 on electricity over the bulb's lifetime.
• Household lighting - About 12 to 15 percent of the electricity used in a home is for lighting.
• Household lighting - It is best to use CFL lights in places where they will stay switched on for long periods. Switching CFL bulbs off after only a few minutes of use can reduce their lifespan.
• Hybrid Power - A Toyota Prius can travel 20km per litre of petrol when driving in city conditions, while a Lamborghini Murcielago will only travel 3.4 km.
• Gasoline Consumption - In 2008, U.S. drivers are expected to use 9.26 million barrels of gasoline a day, down 0.3% from 2007.
• Long haul flight - A Boeing 747 return flight from London to New York consumes about 100 tonnes of kerosene.
• USA transportation - On an average day the 140 million cars in America are estimated to travel almost 4 billion miles, and according to the US Department of Transportation, they use over 200 million gallons of gasoline doing it.

Logos for Design for Climate Change

Above are the logos of our group that I designed, all o them are in the order, the top ones were the first ones to be made, and so on. I used Myraid Pro for the logos as i quite like the simplicity of this Sans Sariff font. My favourite one from all the above is the round one, which is the third one above, I like the idea of 4 being in the logo, as it king of represents that there are four of us in the group.

Thses are the logos designed by Konrad, i quite like the sense of motion in all the above I think they work quite well.

Networking Project continued.......

So eventually for the networking project, we decided to do something related to climate change, as it touches every aspect of our lives and is an ongoing issue. Our group will be aimed at raising awareness about climate change through design and suggesting solutions for current environmental issues. So we named our group Design for Climate Change. We will be sending quirky parcels out to random design agencies containing something related to climate change and becoming greener.
Our group objectives that we all came up with are

• Exploring future through design thinking
• Supporting fresh thinking and sharing provocative ideas about the future
• Exploring creative solutions for climate change in an optimistic way
• Inviting others to participate in imagining what life will be like in 20-30 years
• Exploring future through design thinking

We have also made a facebook group named Design for Climate Change and a blog to try and raise awareness through all possible and available ways.

The link for our blog is http://designforclimatechange.wordpress.com/

These are the moodboards we made for our project.

Units, Grids and Modules Workshop Task

So after looking at the presentation the whole class was split into 2 groups, one of the groups was given Golden Rectangle and Lego and the other (our group) was given clip art and Fibonacci Sequence. So what we did was made grids with masking tape on the class window using accurate measurements and then cut the clip art enlarged a few and stuck them onto the window, following the Fibonacci Sequence. These are a few photos from the workshop.

Above is the initial thought process we did for the task given to us.

Cut outs of clip art given to us.

The grids on the window

Work in progress.........

And the finished task.

Units, Modules and Grids Workshop

On Monday the 11th of January, we had a Units, Modules and Grids workshop, the workshop was very interesting and I think I have learned a lot from it and after this workshop, my PDFs would hopefully be much better than the one I made for the Graphic Design Fundamentals project which was our first formal project this year.

In the workshop we were taught about the Fibonacci numbers and Golden Rectangle or Ratio.

The Golden Rectangle

The Fibonacci Sequence

The Fibonacci sequence works by adding two previous numbers together to prior the next, like

1+2=3

2+3=5

3+5=8

5+8=13

8+13=21.........

The Fibonacci numbers also fit with the Golden Ratio. By using 2 sequential numbers like 13 and 21 for the measurements of the rectangle, we can create a golden rectangle.

The nature is full of Fibonacci numbers and measurements including our body. We like all the natural things on planet are built from the Golden Ratio.

Things that we use are designed to fit into our hands, the best ones usually follow the Golden Ratio or Fibonacci Sequence. They feel right when they are built accordin to the Golden Ratio. Following are the exampleas of a few things built using Golden Ratio and Fibonacci Sequence.

When used to create images or any other form of art and design, the Golden Ratio or Fibonacci Sequence helps to create work that just seems better. Following is the example of a photo taken using the Fibonacci Sequence.

Majority of flowers and natural forms follow the Golden Ratio. All these flowers have petals according to the Fibonacci Series, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55.

All these organic forms grow following Golden Ratio and Fibonacci Sequence.

Drawing Workshop

On Monday the 25th, we had a drawing workshop, which I found very interesting and I was glad that I got a chance to attend it. So the main thing that we learned in the workshop was to draw an image by not looking at the paper but continuously observing the object that we are drawing and drawing it while watching it. So basically the idea was to draw directly from what we saw not from our memory. So at first we had to choose an object to draw, I chose a plug. First we had to draw how we normally draw by looking at both the image and paper. I missed that stage as I had to hand in my project after coming back from the scavenger hunt and came to the workshop a bit late. Then we had to define the word drawing, which I defined as "making an interpretation of an object with pen or pencil on a surface"

After that we were asked to draw without looking at the paper, which sounded a bit weird, but we did it, these are the drawings that I made

Then we had to draw using the hand that we not normally write or draw with, without looking at the paper, so these are some really bad drawings I did with my right hand

After the above we were asked to draw using both hands simultaneously, which was quite fun, although they don't look that good, but still...
So the next task was to draw using scissors, this time we were allowed to look at the paper, but by this stage I was so used to not looking at the paper and just at the object that I forgot that we were allowed to look at it and cut it, so these are the drawings I made with scissors, partly looking at the paper

In this task we did a mixture of both, drawing with hand and scissors. First we had to cut out the object, like a silhouette stick it onto a white sheet of paper and draw over it without looking with a thick black marker.

In this last one, we had to draw using the back marker without looking, of course... I quite like this one.