artg210-karenf

[artg210-karenf]

Manifesto #6:

{Handlettering and sans serif}

This design is based on the colour blindness test, where someone with a full range of colours can see the number clearly, whereas someone with colour blindness cannot. Making alterations to this concept, I made it so someone with colourblindness could read the statement "design for everyone" by using a higher contrast outline. In this design, it is actually harder to read the statement if you have a full-colour range and easier to read if you can only see grayscale. This highlights how each person sees colour differently. Designing for everyone makes it so that everyone can appreciate and understand the design rather than a select few.

[artg210-karenf]

Summary #6:

In the article “I wrote the book on user-friendly design. What I see today horrifies me” by Don Norman he talks about how there is a disconnection between designs and people's ability to use these designs. As most of the Western world’s population is aging, you would think that accessibility, especially vision accessibility, would become more commonplace and promoted. However, Norman’s opinion states that the opposite is happening. Everyday items are more difficult to use, think about cans where it is sealed so tightly that you cannot open them, or packaging that requires a knife to open. These designs are not accessible to people with any form of disability or mobility impairment. When items are designed for elders or disabled people, they often are bland, and unstylish and highlight that they are unable to do something. Norman mentions how canes used to be stylish and even fashionable to the point where able-bodied people would use them as an accessory. Thinking back, when was the last time you saw someone use a stylish cane? Most canes or mobility aids look like they came straight out of a hospitable, in an ugly white or grey plastic. This makes people not want to use mobility aids even if they need them and only increases the stigma of using a medical device. As mentioned previously, labels for medicine are also too small, but it isn't just medical labels that are like this. Think about nutrition labels and ingredient lists for processed foods. Often the font size is too small or there is a low contrast between the font colour and the background colour. Even captions in movies or TV shows have this issue. Captions often block parts of the show or even have overlapping words, making it impossible to read what is going on. While these may seem like minor inconveniences to the designer as JP Williams stated in “Design Issue: The State of the Ballot”, the user is never wrong and is never stupid. If something is designed to make a user feel stupid or complete a task incorrectly, it is poorly designed. Ignoring good, accessible designs can have serious effects on the user, whether it makes them vote incorrectly, causes environmental damage, or leaves them confused. To do this the RGD Access-Ability handbook states that we should design for the outliers and identify the wide range of human ability. We should consider the range of eyesight ability, hearing ability and cognitive ability when designing. By using grouping or hierarchies in our design, it makes them easier to understand and comprehend. Keeping text short, literal and clear makes it easier to scan. Avoid typefaces where ‘I1l’ (that's uppercase i, the number one, and the lowercase L) look the same or typefaces that use mirrored letters. Instead increase contrast, line spacing and tracking of text elements to make them more legible. Make your design perceivable, operable, understandable and robust. Test everything to make sure it is accessible for people with vision impairments, difficulty hearing and cognitive impairments. For my designs, I make sure to test for colour blindness by changing my work to grayscale so that I know my work is legible. 

Key Take-Aways:

Disconnection in design makes it harder for people to use the product

Accessibility should be considered at the beginning of a design

Design for the outliers

Design to reduce stigma

Test every design for every condition

Real-World Examples of Inaccessible Designs:

The photo above shows an instruction sheet for my own prescription medicine. In this 3 page document, only three sentences (the highlighted ones) were important for my understanding of the medicine I was taking. While warnings, side effects and the use of my medicine are important, most of this information is jargon. This text was not easy to scan, hence why I had to highlight the information on how to take a dose of my medicine. The order in which the information is presented is also confusing, considering this is a prescription drug, I already know the use for it. Instead the ‘side effects’ and ‘how to use’ should come before the ‘uses’ section.

[artg210-karenf]

Tweaked Manifesto:

After getting some feedback from my classmates I made some adjustments to clean up my design. I started with the typeface, as the previous one felt bubbly and happy considering the message. I also changed the way the paper flowed off the bottle and added text around the magnifying glass, this helped the piece feel more realistic. Some minor details were added throughout the design to add more realism and clarity.

[artg210-karenf]

Manifesto #5:

{Rebus and Type}

This idea came to me while I was reading Visual Accessibility in Graphic Design Communication Failure by Katie Cornish et al., as they stated that over 10,000 deaths and injuries are caused by poor medication design. As someone who has to take medication and has poor eyesight, I too frequently find myself struggling to read medication labels and manuals. I have often wondered what it would be like if I couldn't afford my glasses or if my vision was worse. Truthfully, I do not think I, or anyone, would be able to read the label. This highlights a huge flaw in label design, if the person taking the medication can't read their own prescription, it greatly increases the risk of overdosing or not taking their required dose. This design highlights this dangerous lack of visual accessibility, as you need a magnifying glass just to see the contents of the label.

[artg210-karenf]

Summary #5

In the Registered Graphic Design (RGD) of Canada’s Access-Ability Handbook, they highlight the importance of accessible design. As designers, we must consider the wide range of abilities within people and design to include the outliers. Since each person is unique in their ability we must consider how different people think, sense and move within our design. A flat poster design is not accessible for someone who is blind and an unintuitive design is not accessible for elderly and disabled people. To fix this, in our design process, we must include accessibility and design for all: the disabled, parents, strangers, clients and ourselves. Accessibility should be at the core of our work and if our client disagrees we must inform them of why accessibility is so important whether that is highlighting why accessibility is good for business, since you widen your client base, or simply informing them of the spectrum of disability.  After all everyone at some point in their life will eventually become disabled, whether they are born with it or it is acquired later in life as a part of the natural human growth cycle. In the Visual Accessibility in Graphic Design Communication Failure by Katie Cornish et all, they dive deeper into why there is inaccessibility within graphic design, specifically with visual disability. They mention how clients often do not request or mention accessibility in briefs as they believe that the graphic designer will just naturally make it accessible. This lack of communication between the client and the designer makes it so that accessibility gets pushed to the side or even forgotten about. Visual accessibility is especially neglected, even though graphic design is the art of visual communication, the study conducted showed that visual accessibility is only considered half of the time. This lack of consideration leads to over 10,000 injuries or deaths because of poor medication design. In my opinion, this is outrageous, important information regarding medicine should be completely accessible and easy to understand for everyone. Dosage amounts, when to take the medicine and the name of the user should be obvious and clear, regardless of a person's visual ability. The fact that 24% of designers do not use any method to check for accessibility is also disgraceful, one's own intuition cannot compare to someone who lives with a disability or a program that can mimic a disability. There should be more awareness about tools that help improve accessibility in graphic design and certain tools, like colour blindness checks, should be required. Even though most accessible design issues fall in the hands of the designer, clients should give them enough time to create and prioritize accessibility in their designs.

Key Takeaways:

Accessible designs save lives

Design with everyone in mind

Good designs are easy to understand and accessible

Bring accessibility into the workroom

Inform those who don't understand the importance of accessibility and speak up when something isn't accessible

[artg210-karenf]

Tweaked Manifesto:

{Sans-serif, handwritten, image}

Taking the advice of my classmates, I zoomed in and highlighted the image more. I added a light yellow effect to the piece to make it warm and less corporate. For the font, I changed the typefaces and removed the word 'the', this makes it feel more like a statement. To tie in the text better I used colours that were present in the image and made the word 'difference' gold to tie into the jewellery that the subjects are wearing. Overall the piece feels more connected and the text is more integrated with the photo.

[artg210-karenf]

Manifesto #4:

{Randomizer: Image and Sans Serif}

I had a lot of different ideas when exploring the key takeaways this week. However, I decided to go for the key takeaway of "embrace social, cultural, economic and environmental values." Even with my ideas narrowed down to this statement, I decided to narrow it down further, focusing more on societal and cultural values and how they play a role in our designs. Historically, most designs have been made by and for Caucasian needs. However, we, as designers, now have to do better, we have to embrace that different cultures and societies have different needs and wants. We have to design to be inclusive of everyone and not just design for one group but a whole spectrum. To design for all, we need to embrace the difference.

[artg210-karenf]

Summary #4:

Ecodesign’s Design Technology provides the definitions for different sustainable philosophies. Eco-design is designs that are focused on reducing the number of toxic materials, energy, and consumption, and focus on increasing recyclability, durability and renewable resources. This is done to reduce the carbon footprint in designing and ensure that we are wasting less in the manufacturing process. Cradle-to-grave and cradle-to-cradle are two philosophies that Design Technology also highlights to help us understand eco-design. Cradle-to-grave studies the impact that a product has from the moment its resources are harvested to when the product is disposed of. Cradle-to-cradle is a philosophy that aims to eliminate waste from production and create a circular economy. By rethinking how we make things, cradle-to-cradle makes sure we use resources efficiently by maximizing its function, and quality. To understand how much waste a product makes the Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) was created to assess the environmental impacts a product has. The LCA uses Design for the Environment (DfE), which is software that follows the product cycle. This helps highlight areas where a company can lower the product's environmental impact. Descon, Design Professionals of Canada, highlights different ways to increase the sustainability of a product. By embracing social, cultural, economic and environmental values we form meaningful engagement, collaboration and innovation. This in turn will help provide long-term value to designs. In Do Good Design by David Berman, he states that what you create, or design, reflects how you think. This means that as a designer you have to take responsibility for your designs and should follow a standard of work. We, as designers, should design based on strategy, not decoration. This means that we are showing why design matters and enabling people to do more with our designs, rather than limiting them.

Key Take-a-Aways:

Design to be reused

Embrace social, cultural, economic and environmental values

What you create reflects what you believe

Good design enables us to do more

The function is more important than its form

[artg210-karenf]

Tweaked Manifesto:

After receiving feedback from my classmates I decided to remove the computer and make the words "design" bigger. This makes the words more prominent and clear. I also changed the connecting lines to a circular path to make the piece more connected and the message clearer. Some slight edits to the colour were also made to make it smoother.

[artg210-karenf]

Manifesto #3:

{Reverse Type and Colour}

When creating this design, I was inspired by how we often view the internet, blues on a black background with lines connecting people together. This highlights how design is interconnected with the world around us. So many different parts come together to create a good design. Every good design needs a process, a business or client, a community it is helping, accessible, and artistic.

[artg210-karenf]

In Berman’s Pledge, they highlight the need to design something that fulfills us, the designer, on both the surface level and deeper down. We need to create things that are true to our principles and our profession. To do this we must either create a better ‘yes’ or become okay with saying ‘no’ to certain jobs. We should spend at least 10% of our time as professionals creating something that is better for the world, either by repairing the world or helping it where needed. In Berman’s Manifesto, they mention that design needs to have a personal message to create value. We have to rethink what we know and what we need by avoiding trends and searching for longevity where we can. In Eric Spiekermann’s Do Good Design he discusses the need to design things that protect and help the consumer, the client and the earth. To do this we must be more than just designers who apply their skills to sell goods. Rather become designers who create impact and change. The RGD Code of Ethics also highlights this in their code, that we must give back to our communities to create long-lasting change. We should remain professional, not over-sell ourselves, and commit to working on projects that don't discriminate against others or violate human rights. In Design to Re-nourish by Eric Benson and Yvette Perullo, they showcase how design is connected to everything we experience. This makes it our responsibility as designers to understand the interconnected, independent and complex features of our societies and lives. We must think about the long-term impacts of our designs, and how something could be taken and used negatively or perceived negatively. To avoid this we must list our design problems and who our audience is and figure out how they connect to ensure that our design gives back to the community and maintains its positive longevity. In What is Good Design by Dieter Rams he lists what creates not only a good design, but a good designer. Good designs provide use, are long-lasting, environmentally friendly, aesthetically pleasing and uses as little design as possible. As designers we should mimic this approach to our lives, to use items that are long-lasting, environmentally friendly, and fulfilling. 

In “Objectified” produced by Gary Hustwit he demonstrates designs connection to how we view something. That each object has a story of its design, that there is the understanding of what is important to a design and what isn't. The designs should be clear, understandable and accessible so that everyone can enjoy it and use it properly. When designing objects we should understand the form they take, the symbolism behind them and their relationship with other objects, after all, design doesn't live in a vacuum. We need to understand what people need when designing something that we must create melodies out of design, not discord. When designing something we should ask ourselves if we would buy or use this design, or if there is a better way to design it. This is especially important as companies want us to design more and for consumers to buy more, leading to our work ending up in landfills instead of people's homes. If we design for items to get better with use, and for it to add value as it ages then our designs will become part of people's families. This means that we should design to create meaning, stimulate people's souls, and be loved.

Key Take-Aways:

Design to create meaning

Accessible design benefits everyone

Design is interconnected

Design with purpose

Reject trends for longevity

Image by Engin Akyurt from Unsplashed and is within the Creative Commons license.

[artg210-karenf]

Tweaked Manifesto:

After reviewing feedback from my peers, I decided it would be best to lighten the colours and change the text to white. This made the image easier to see and read. I have also changed my constraint to type and image. I added the word "for" as I felt like it better represented my message and balanced out the piece better. Overall, the piece feels clearer and more connected to my original message.

[artg210-karenf]

Manifesto #2:

{Rebus and Type}

When designing this piece I wanted to keep it simple and easy to understand. We as designer, design the world around us. Everything you use, look at, consume, is designed by a designer. This makes it our responsibility to design ethically and morally. We should design green, not because it is a trend but because it is right. Even though most Rebus's are black and white, I decided to add colour as I felt like this added more impact to the design.

[artg210-karenf]

Summary #2:

Design to Renourish by Eric Benson and Yvette Perullo highlights the importance that we as designers have in society. Whether this impact is negative or positive designers play a key role in the flow of information and the growth of industry. That good design brings in consumers and lowers their anxiety but can also negatively impact consumers mentally. Advertisements designed to target a specific demographic can result in a negative message being sent to them. In body magazines, it tells the consumer that if they don't have the perfect body they are not good enough. Or that if you buy this product your life will improve, more people will like you and you will be happier. In Do Good Design by David Berman he notes the exploitation of people's bodies, specifically women's bodies, in order to get people to buy their products. For example, alcohol companies use women’s bodies to entice younger men into buying their beer. Companies, like McDonalds, also exploit children's inability to understand advertising. By targeting children they are able to trick and lie to them in order to get them to beg their parents to buy them a Happy Meal. It makes brands and companies play a key part in our minds and memories. Instead of a fun family outing, the child will remember that they didn't get their McDonalds. Somehow companies have managed to get people to buy more than they will ever need. This raises the question of whether designers should take responsibility for the exploitation of vulnerable groups. James Cartwright argues that designers should in his article Should Designers Take Responsibility for the Ethics of Their Clients? He notes that designers often won’t work for places where good money isn't a guarantee. While it is understandable that designers wish to be paid fair wages, working in the design industry often means monopolizing the solutions that we make. Something that stood out to me is the saying that “design doesn’t exist in a vacuum”. Often times we only look at the design and not the impacts around it and how the values of that design impact our world.

Key-Take-Aways:

Design doesn’t live in a vacuum

Designers impact how we view the world

Designers have the responsibility to raise awareness for social causes

Designer shall not create predatory work

Greed makes people use more than they ever will need

[artg210-karenf]

Tweaked Manifesto:

After reviewing my first manifesto design, I took a step back to fix some errors and improve my work. Firstly, I noticed the spelling error and immediately fixed that. Then, I decided that having the extra images in the background took away from the statement. I kept the people to emphasize the importance of community and repeated that pattern across the artboard. Overall, the piece feels much cleaner and has more weight than before.

[artg210-karenf]

Manifesto #1:

{Type Only}

When creating this design I was inspired by simple imagery used by icons. Icons make it easy for anyone to understand regardless of what language they know. This felt fitting to graphic design as we design to be ethical and inclusive in our work. I decided to keep the piece black and white to better connect the message and the icons. Adding colour made the piece feel more disorganized and separate, which was not the message I wanted.

[artg210-karenf]

Summary #1

Do Good Design highlights the importance design plays in influencing and marketing. They use the example of Coca-Cola and how by advertising and selling their product in remote areas, Coca-Cola can create “Coke Country” that puts smaller towns on the map. Coca-Cola’s consistency in design allows the company to build positive branding, which consumers associate with a positive ideal, lifestyle and philosophy. When a company can achieve this they can move outside of their market to items like branded wear. Branded wear aligns with the company's reputation and image, allowing the brand to sell the item for more than it is worth. However, mass advertising has resulted in cultural homogeneity and consumers paying the price for the company to advertise. It also raises concern when less developed countries can afford Coca-Cola but not life-saving medical treatment. As stated in Do Good Design “Rather than sharing our cycles of style, consumption, and chemical addictions, designers can use their professional power, persuasive skills, and wisdom to help distribute ideas that the world really needs”. Designers can work to create memories and even language, transporting our ideas sustainably and morally. In How Symbols and Brands Shape our Humanity the speaker emphasizes that logos and brands should be designed by the people and for the people. That our logos can unite people with similar ideas and beliefs. Ensuring that branding is not just used for the hands of capitalism but should rather reflect the culture and beliefs of the people.

Take-Away Statements:

Branding should reflect the culture of the people

Logos should unite people with shared beliefs and values

Graphic Design designs memories

Consistency builds better marketing than a good logo

A good logo is recognizable and highlights the values of the brand

Designers have the responsibility to design morally and sustainably