Research for Group Task

Wayfindings and Signages in Universities. 

Before creating the form of diversion for this task, the first step was to look at the surroundings of Leeds, and the existing wayfindings and signs throughout our journey. This task helped develop an understanding of signage, finding signs that I've never fully acknowledged, and comparing wayfinding designs. 

As a group we decided to look at the difference between Leeds Universities signs and wayfindings to Leeds Beckett University, this process proved rather interesting as there was a clear difference and approach to each universities styles. Leeds Universities way findings and signage (shown above) shared both professional and friendly design. The professionally was clearly shown in the wayfindings and maps signs - both being simplistic, neutral and easy to read. Although the map designs being white with a simplistic dark green typeface, the mundane look still echoes professionally, mirroring the representation of the courses and university itself. This is further shown through the detailed 3D map of the campus and colour coding - organised and advanced. One thing that could be improved with the map design is the size of the typeface used to name each part of the campus, with the amount of negative space below, could it be enlarged still keeping a smart and professional look?

Colour association is clearly shown effectively with these warning signs (shown above), yellow highlighting the dangers and red ordering and commanding audience what not to do - NOT being connoted through the negative and restrictive harsh colour of red.

Here is a simplistic sign representing and labelling a room for students on Leeds University, with Although the design just involves two squares with a combination of letters and numbers, the identification of this being a room number was vague at first, however with my knowledge and new view point using Fruitigers approach, the parallel and simplistic structure of the squares,  possibly connote the reliable and well know shape as an approachable, friendly space. 

 One thing that was really interesting was how Leeds University used colour association for toilet signs, female being renownedly represented as pink and male blue. I found this rather interesting as although the toilet signs are obviously labelled with the female and male figures, they still decided to use the generic colour association. However, the reasoning behind this could be due to the height of the signs (which as you can see from the photos are above the door), this colour association could be used for those who may have difficulty seeing the female and male vectors. This reasoning could help develop my future work in the module, as I can explore the ways in which I can create signage that can identifiable for all.

Further exploration inside of the Leeds University Union, Signage and way finding became more inviting with its playful serif typeface, and vintage styled arrows, creating a rather friendly characteristic throughout the Union.  With its vintage style of using bow arrows and pointing hands, the form of wayfindings is more playful and inviting for the students. The signage is simplistic and universally know, however with additional labelling makes the overall layout easier to understand, this could arguably be labelled to help those new to the union or for international students. 

As a group we decided that looking at another university like Leeds Beckett would be a great way to compare wayfindings and signage to Leeds University and also increase our knowledge into how to create impactful designs. Leeds Beckett has a rather exhausting amount of wayfindings, and at some points it became rather confusing to work our way around the Union. Beckett used directional wayfindings on the floor in the forms of labels which directed you to certain places. The font was rather small to read, however the use of different colour was impactful and easy to follow. 

However, when further exploring the ground of Leeds Beckett, the excess amount of wayfindings proved rather confusing and also visually cluttered. In one of the images above (top left) it evidently shows that there use of wayfindings in the form of footsteps is far too much. With both directions side by side, the layout is cluttered and hard to follow, although the layout is close, this wayfindings did however have me playfully step on each footstep rather like a game of hopscotch, possibly created in this format to have the public interact with it. To improve this layout, the steps could be further apart and also colour coded, making the differentiation of the direction more identifiable. On the second image about (top right) the combination of the two wayfindings styles is far too much, especially when the footstep is being overlapped and surrounded by several colourful arrows. Maybe there should be a set form of wayfindings, the colour coded arrows are more impactful and helpful compared to the footstep, one could argue that it possibly is too childish to use footsteps. 

A simplistic and labelled wayfinding, however having the arrow in a hand drawn format adds a form of informality, making it rather friendly and approachable to public. Having the signage as a speech bubble further adds to the form of approachability and possibly hints at the friendly nature of the coffee bar.

Overall, this exercise of looking at two different university wayfindings and signages proved rather interesting and insightful, and has helped inspire as a group for this project. It's allowed us to think about the impact of location, quantity, size, and design. 

Basic Signs - Fruitiger

The Square -

Due to it's well known shape and outline, the square offers a form of structure, protection and stability. The Quadrilateral is somewhat comforting and easily established as a simple shape by all audience members.

However once the square is rotated to stand on it's point "The view of this sign is disquieting, and its position on its point indicates a certain intention, which is why this form is used as the ideal background for traffic signs, especially in the United States.” (Fruitiger, 1989, p. 43)

The Triangle - 

 

Placing the triangle vertically onto its apex create a form of direction. Giving it a form of character and movement when placed either vertically or horizontally, the triangle is successfully used for signs that indicates directions left and right. 

However a triangle with a horizontal side becomes successful to use for signals due to its symmetry. This is further explained as the composition of the triangle echoes a form of stability and permeance, "It is also the symbol for the expression “wait,” rather like a mountain, whose only active function is to suffer erosion.” (Fruitiger, 1989, p. 44)

The Circle - 

Due to the lack of straight line, the curved line shape has less of a spontaneous relationship with modern humans. Feelings are evoked strongly with the use of a circle compared to any other signs. The viewer, depending on their character tend to place themselves either inside or outside of the circle. Being inside the circle creates a rather authoritative or hostile, possibly being a reason why the circle is used to command or give orders to the audience.

Conventional Sign Systems

Pictograms: 

A pictorial symbol for a word or phrase. Pictographs were used as the earliest known form of writing, examples having been discovered in Egypt and Mesopotamia from before 3000 BC. A picogram is used to warn, guide, or protect, and should be immediately easy to decipher. They should be able to be understood by displaying a vital form of information in a way that it can't be misunderstood, making it internationally known and independent of culture. 

Semiotics : 

Is the study of signs and symbols and their use or interpretation.The meaning is dependant on the context, knowledge, society and culture of the audience. For example, from the image above, this hand gesture in America is a symbol of being "OK" however if you were to use this hand gesture in Brazil, this gesture is roughly equivalent to the middle finger in the US.

Syntactics : Formal, succinct, ambiguous form, brightness, colour, movement, material, scale and position. 


Pragmatics -

Indicative

The burning cigarette informs the receiver that they may smoke here, but that they do not have to smoke. It is therefore up to the receiver what they do with this information.

Imperative

When the burning cigarette has a dash through it, the intention is to influence the receiver’s behaviour. In this context, smoking is prohibited, even if the receiver wants to have a cigarette.

Suggestive

The combination of a cigarette and lungs sets off feelings within the receiver. It represents an appeal to stop smoking for reasons of health, regardless of time or place.

Studio Brief 1 and Research Task

Brief : 
Focus on subjective nature. Design a personal sign system – of your own interpretation of the spaces around you. Examples being: poetic signs, imaginary sign systems, conflicting sign systems, etc. Explore a range of concepts in your research and development. Consider the usage, functionality and display (the interplay between the objective and subjective) when resolving your chosen strategy.

Research Activity:
To gain a better understanding for the brief, a group activity was set, for this activity we've been told to look into how public move and through Leeds, taking into account ways in which the travel, their direction and their surroundings. Then  we are to implement a form of design that will form a reaction from the public changing their nature of movement.

The aimed outcomes for this task:

• Create a Diversion
• Make a member of public pause or stop
• Create a new connection

Module 1 - Evaluation

Studio Brief 01, a brief that involved working with typography and create five variant logotype outcomes. This development and design process was very new to me, as normally one final outcome was all that was required in past projects I have designed. This refreshing approach was a great learning point to remind me that when showcasing design work to future companies and clients, one final outcome, no matter how well designed it is, just isn’t enough. Working in groups and partners for activities such as the Ligature Brief, and Kern down helped showcase my new found knowledge of the anatomy of typography, and the effectiveness of composition and kerning of logotypes. The Crits held for this brief were extremely helpful, and by having time to present my work with full attention from others, I found as a group we were all able to give each other great feedback. The Crits also helped shape the development process and journey for this brief, allowing me to approach and eliminate any confident or weak design concepts. After being a Design student for 15 years (from GCSE Graphic Design to Level 3 Foundation in Visual Communication) my confidence in software such as Photoshop, and Illustrator was already really strong. From the keyboard shortcuts to the variety of tools, working on Illustrator has been really straight forward for me, and this was of great help for me time management wise. 

Being someone who loves experimenting with destroying the rules of design and being inspired by David Carson, having to read The Vignelli Canon in Brief 1 was rather interesting, especially when Vignelli so kindly expresses how my preferred approach to design is “visual vulgarity”. However, I must admit, reading The Vignelli Canon gave great input into the power of logotype composition and kerning, explaining how simplicity is key and an effective form of design. Overall, his book heavily inspired my approach to kerning for my final five logotype designs.

 When creating my typeface for Brief 2, I wanted to approach a more unique style of typeface and approach to the word Static. I chose Berthold from the suggestions of Muëller-Brockman as my starting point, due to its simplistic and san serif form, eliminating the idea of using a serif typeface. as destruction and fragmentation of a serif typeface would become clustered.  Also I chose Berthold due to the fact of how it inspired the makings of both Helvetica and Univers and that really interested me.  Through experimentation and development Brief two took many different directions, from approach to texture, structure, context (use of Morse code) and then change of the overall rationale, I was able to explore many different ways to approach this brief which was because I learnt from my mistake of brief one. My dependence on Illustrator was rather strong in Brief One, going straight to digital design instead of hand draw sketch’s, which personally I found limit my idea approaches and potential. I was really proud of my final outcome for this Brief, the improvement in research, analysis and design process was evident when comparing to Brief One. The final outcome was deemed a confident representation of my rationale and the design specimen was described as “ unique and well thought out"

and  “really cleverly designed. Another thing I found extremely helpful and effective in the Module was the group activity, which had peers creating brief approaches of how to communicate my rationale – this opened up the many ways to which I approached the projects.

Over the course of this module my knowledge and understanding of typography and graphic design was improved, from learning the anatomy of typography, to learning about theories behind graphic design and many aspects within it. If I were to approach Brief Two again, I would like to produce a full typeface of Static and put it into context like political or social artwork (e.g. David Carson ‘What is it good for – absolutely nothing’ work).

Brief 2 - Final Crit and Evaluation

After creating both the final rationale and specimen, a group crit took place to gain feedback from peers and to identify whether the connection to the rationale and meaning of design was successfully executed through the final typeface. There were a majority of positive feedback and great feedback of ways to push the design forward.

Here is feedback given:

Is this Design successful? How? if not, Why?

"I think the design is successful, it relays your message/research well and the chosen purpose you have eg politics etc would be perfect for the typeface. I particularly like the term stubborn as your typeface presents this well."

"Yes, despite the removal of Sections most letters are still legible."

" Could you have cut the letters so they were more angular"*

*This response to the structure of the typeface was expected, originally the typeface was going to attain the sharp angularity of Berthold, however through development, the design proved more intriguing and more rebellious by not conforming to the shape of Berthold; becoming its own unique typeface in the process. 


Is the concept of the Reasoning/ Rationale confident/Clear? If not, why?

"Captured the 'static' personality so well"

"Confident and clear, the rationale clearly states the typeface concept and personality and function, with a well research background and a clear influence of this research."

" The rationale is interesting and effectively portrayed"

"Your type specimen is unique and well thought out"

"Type specimen is really cleverly designed. 

Additional Feedback

"I think the design is successful because your typeface communicated the idea of stubbornness through it's slightly illegibility. It makes me, as the reader word hard to read it, which in turn slightly frustrates me, meaning you typeface creates an emotional response."

"Very successful as the removal of the letters makes it look inconsistent and edgy. Very confident and clear, captures the meaning of the word very well. Looks really cool on the print out"

"The illegibility creates a sense of rebelliousness very clearly, however I don't think the typeface is useful poster design/awareness campaigns, as they need to be legible/straight to the point." *

*This feedback is very true, however like Carson I wanted to break the rules of design, would making the poster different and intriguing add more interest to the design. Yes the design needs to be straight to the point, however personally simple designs like that are things that are easily forgotten and not thought about. The Static typeface could create more attention, the concentration used to work out what has been written will leave a longer impression on the reader, and if the poster were to be rhetoric to cause frustration (protest) for the reader, the irritated emotional response of having to read what's been written first will amplify that emotion the actual message says.

"I feel the design represents Static well, but I'm not understanding how angry is conveyed. I feel to convey the anger you need to consider sharper edges and possibly serifs. Also confused as to why the specimen is ripped" *

* Again another understable form of feedback given. When further developing the logotype and changing the structure of the typeface I decided that I didn't want the the typeface to encapsulate the form of anger, but create the emotional response of anger/irritation when reading the typeface. This has proved successful, as the first quote under Additional feedback relays how the peer felt when reading the typeface."

" The design is successful because there has been a lot of research into it, which is reflected in the final design and The 'Static' personality works well.

Brief 2 - Final Rationale

Concept 

Carsten Nicolai’s book called Static Fades offered a great input into the creative ways to approach the subject static. Looking at the power of sound, light and electricity Nicolai’s book helped inspire initial ideas when looking into incorporating texture and context in the design of the typeface. Deriving from the informal Northern American terminology of static, my typeface modifications involved fragmenting and removing aspects (such as the aperture, shoulder and stem) to follow the characteristics of the typeface being aggressive and stubborn. Vignelli points and opinion of how powerful expression can be formed through using type of different sizes and opacities inspired to create the final specimen the way it is, the range of size and font successfully offers a very strong impacts and offer visually dynamic impressions. Juxtaposing from Vignelli was David Carson, who inspired the overall concept of fragmenting the Berthold typeface,  forming confidence in this brief,

Personality

Berthold was chosen due to its simplistic and uncharacterised form, this allowed deforming the typeface whilst keeping legibility. Berthold Grotesk Medium is bold and powerful, connoting a form of aggression linking to my chosen word.

This typeface ties in well with the meaning of the Northern American reference, it's sudden cut off of lettering represents the harsh aggressive tone of speech, as if a conversation was cut off abruptly. The purpose for this style of typeface is to make the reader do the work when reading, making the typeface stubborn and reluctant to tend to the reader’s needs. Reasoning for this is again is further developed by the overall feel of the design, something that doesn't conform to the social norm and Berthold conventions becomes alienating, unfamiliar and somewhat threatening to the audience. The typeface becomes rebellious by not conforming to its conventional rules derived from Berthold, making it a successful and confident representation of my chosen word static. 

Function

The function of this typeface is to make the readers do the hard work when reading, and also offers the opportunity to experiment with their own form of composition – again making using this typeface more time consuming (further reiterating the stubborn characteristics). This typeface would be used as a display typeface, bold and striking, the unusual typeface creates intrigue gaining more attention from readers whilst they comprehend what’s written. By gaining full attention, this typeface could be used to bring awareness to serious concerns, such as politics, corruption, poverty and war – one way in which the typeface could be creatively and effectively used is through rhetoric questions, targeting the reader in an impactful memorable way. This typeface could be confidently used for political and social art/designs, inspired by Carson.