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Manifesto #6

LEFT RIGHT

The one on the left is what I had started with but then later on felt a nice lemon green would make a great contrast with the pink!

For this I had used the constraint recipe type+color.

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Manifesto Design for Mar 24 –– Mar 31, 2021

For this I had used the constraint recipe type+image, however I had drawn that out and then taken it into photoshop to edit it a little bit.

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Blog Post 11 Summary

A lack of accessibility in design is really a huge troublemaker. It may look like a simple problem that may not need much attention but the consequence waiting at the end of the long run is immense.

Don Norman’s piece on designing for all really expressed today’s world of inequality in every way possible. While i was reading this article i remembered how my granny’s medical products and medicines looked like, they not only portrayed how evident it was that less time and energy was spent in designing it but also how they didn't even try to make it look attractive so that they’ll feel nice and satisfied with it. While reading this article i really got so annoyed with how design has become sort of ageist in a way if that makes any sense. I’m trying to emphasize how senior and/or elderly people are faced with this vibe coming from design that “You’re an elderly person all you probably care about is that your medications and medical devices provide the help you need, doesn't matter if it's designed pathetically. You’re old, how should it matter?” This type of attitude should just be thrown out the window and never welcomed ever again. One of the many things that really stuck in my head was how he stated that “thoughtful design is not just for the elderly or sick or disabled. But for all, as it helps everyone.” I loved this as it's so true like walking with a cane doesn't necessarily have to be designed only for older citizens as there's probably a person in their later 20s or 30s who might have a medical issue that needs him/her to walk with a cane for a while.

Moreover, the handbook or guide on Access-Ability RGD was one of the most intense contents i’ve ever read. It really highlighted every possible element that can either add to visual accessibility or disrupt and take it away in a minute. It was mentioned how to consider elements like sensory conditions, color,tonal contrast, hue, legibility, readability, and good typography with detailed information on how to limitedly and carefully use fonts, x-height, tracking,leading, and line length, when designing something that is meant to be accessible to everyone with any medical issue or disability or difference in mobility.

REAL WORLD EXAMPLE

I'm not gonna lie, it was a little challenging to find something I felt missed the mark but here it is! This basically is an antiseptic disinfectant. I got this from back home hence, the reason for arabic on one side of the bottle on the back. The reason I felt this was a good example was because the front is alright and pretty straight to the point but the back had the worst font choice, type size and weight. It looks okay in the photo as its pretty zoomed in but in person I myself was struggling, no joke, to read the content on the instructions on how to use for what purposes. Also if you look on the Arabic side, i know how to read Arabic, it even more stressful and challenging to read the blue type of green background. What I would do to improve it is, first remove the green buble used to indicate the caption and just choose a little bigger type size with the blue or med-dark green font color and a typeface with a neat, clean cut edge. I would make the instruction section a few font sizes bigger than the font of the ingredients section. In this was i would find it a little more structured.

Take Away Statements:

Make Accessibility the new Aesthetic

We are all the same, design equally for equal accessibility

We all have our struggles, there’s no need to add to them

Visually accessibility is nothing without visual communication

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Blog Post 9 (Summary)

Before reading the assigned content it genuinely never struck me how important visual accessibility really is.When designing stuff for class projects I used to think about the basic and obvious stuff like creating a design based on the intended audience and making sure elements like colour scheme, typeface, font size and hierarchy etc. however, these articles opened my eyes as to how design must, be visually accessible to everyone.

The article "WHAT DO DINOSAURS AND GOOD HEALTHCARE HAVE IN COMMON" opened my eyes as to how, yes, bad design makes it hard to understand and is not aesthetically pleasing but also the fact that bad design that visually inaccessible can sometimes, become a life or death situation. The pill bottle called ClearX designed by Deborah Adler, was amazing! Her simple yet effective and brilliant design made peoples lives easier and less stressful.

After reading the article on "VISUAL ACCESSIBILITY GRAPHIC DESIGN: A CLIENT-DESIGNER COMMUNICATION FAILURE" They mostly highlighted how in some cases the main reason behind a design lacking in visual accessibility is because of a lack of communication between the designers and clients.

Referring back to the first article one of the reasons why those examples of horribly designed pill bottle were designed the way they were was again probably due to the lack communication. This is because clients, in a way, act as an intermediary between designers and users since clients are the ones who create a brief that designers follow and get paid to create a design that is effective for user consumption

TAKE AWAY STATEMENTS:

Keep equality in mind when designing

We all being considered an equal is. necessity just like visual accessibility

being considerate goes a long way

good design is accessible, not only aesthetic

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Post #7 Tweaked Manifesto

BEFORE..................................................................AFTER

For this week's manifesto I decided to make my own constrain recipe, colour + reverse type + Image.

I really love how it turned out after I tweaked it because, in the after image, it is clear how less is indeed more! It is cleaner, easier to read and more organized. The meaning behind my statement and design is how a packaging's design can be deceiving as even though it may be designed in an attractive way, the way it proves helpful to our environment, in future, will show its true colours!

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Summary (post #7) + speaker questions

Designing aesthetically is hard but designing effectively for the betterment of our environment is trickier but easier, as designing with the idea of decreasing negative impacts on our environment we can contribute to a cleaner and more sustainable world

Today’s reading spoke about a product's life cycle, the philosophies of “cradle to cradle” and “cradle to grave”, the number of ways designers can design for the environment and how its “not about being LESS BAD but becoming 100% GOOD.” These videos and articles really made me aware, as a growing artist and designer, how everything around is design and if it’s not done properly it can lead to major negative environmental destruction. I learnt how everything around us that's designed, either small or big, should be designed with the mind set that it should be reusable in order to decrease and stop waste from piling in our landfills. Like when David Berman pointed out something as simple as a pen, it can be reused instead of being thrown away and causing harm to our environment, in the long run.

In the 2nd reading “how to apply sustainability practices in our work” it indicated how a designer's work reflects what his/her character is and how they think. This article related to the previous readings as it also portrayed how, us doing our part in “recycling” doesn't solve the problem, gets rid of landfills and stops them from piling up. But it just slows down the process of landfills increasing by the minute. Its crucial that designers create with the idea of using fewer and less harmful materials, less energy and design a product in such a way that people buy less often contributing to a smaller effect on our environment.

Take-away-statements:

Your design reflects your beliefs / values

Bad design kills the environment... along with us

Less is more! As, better the material used to design, the lesser we buy, and the lesser damage done to our environment

Design is not only about beauty and quality but also about the strategy

Nothing lasts forever but plastic does.

Beautified design may be satisfying to buy and feel good but it’s not the same once the damage is done.

Design for recycle but more importantly for reuse

Questions For Lisa!

Has there ever been a time where you had the materials to create a design that positively affects our communities but didn't quite make the design look attractive or appealing ?

What's your favorite part about running a business that’s based on sustainability?

What is the one most important lesson you know now, that you wished you knew as a junior designer?

Have you ever had anything like a designers block?

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REVISED MANIFESTO-03

The one on the left is my original and the one on the right is the edited one!

My recipe for this is reverse type + Colour + texture.

To make it more effective I changed the font size of "the" and "is" to match the font size of "in". Moreover, I ended up changing the font choice and size of change so that it looks more cleaner and pops out more to give it more contrast.

Lastly, I did a little bit of kerning within the letters of the word "change" and also resized my illustration so that everything was aligned in a straight line and nothing was out of place

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Blog Post 5 - Summary

DIETER RAMS opened eyes as to what good design is all about! He pointed out how good design isn't just about aesthetics and color schemes but whether or not it's innovative,useful,understandable, honest etc.. One of the last things he said was how “Good design is environmentally friendly”. I never thought about that aspect when I think about designers constantly designing. I love how he explained how good design makes sure it conserves resources, minimizes physical and visual pollution as if one's honest, most of a designer’s design lands up in a landfill somewhere and basically contributes and adds to our global warming situation that we’ve created.

The “DESIGN TO RE-NOURISH SUSTAINABILITY” article really made me think about how “Graphic design is in itself an ecosystem”. It's a cycle in itself! It described how clients come to designers to help them with their business needs, designers start creating and sometimes end up using more than the earth is willing to provide, in the long run, lots of a designers works ends up in a landfill piling up and adding to the pollution that’s killing our planet by the minute. Hence, it's more practical and easier when designers have knowledge of where their resources are coming from, how they’re manufactured and by what means they get to their assigned destination etc. This will prove helpful for designers in order to make an informed, responsible decision towards a safe, progressive, environmentally friendly result. Moreover, the inverted pyramid supports this as it indicates how most of the job should be done in the research and brainstorming so that designers will be aware of what to expect in the future when they’re product’s design is done and ready to be sent out. When designing something there are so many things to think about like how to design with minimal material, minimal waste, less distance traveled for distribution, and much more in order to eliminate as many negative impacts as possible. This proves how a responsible choice with something as simple as “paper selection” could prevent unnecessary carbon emissions therefore leading to cleaner air and cleaner environments which benefits the whole world.

The “OBJECTIFIED '' documentary really spoke to me how designers not only think outside the box” and are creative 24/7, but fully understand what people need, maybe even better they do, themselves. Hella Jongerius said that designers usually think about questions like “would you buy this? Would you wanna spend money on this?” When we as designers ask ourselves these questions we tend to put ourselves in the viewers/audience’s shoes and try to see and understand the design from their point of view. And once we do that, we create a goal where we strive to create an appropriate environment for the people, so that they feel good and are convinced.

Jonathan Ive really stressed on how, a lot goes into designing a product. For example, what materials would be used, the form that’s connected to those materials, and how a design is nothing without a sense of hierarchy and structure. Designers look at the world in a different manner, compared to the rest of the world. For designers it’s like the more we look at it, the more we question it as to why it is like this and not like that. Hence in that sense designers are constantly designing.One of the main things I learnt was how sustainability is about redesigning every aspect from sourcing materials, to designing, to the production, to shipping, and then responsibly disposing away an wasted or unused design.

TAKE AWAY STATEMENTS :-

Good designs create a good environment

Design Innovatively but responsibly

Less is more indeed! As, simpler the design,the cleaner our environment.

Being curious contributes to waste and pollution reduction

The change is in you

Being simple makes it easier

Why should our planet suffer for our ignorance

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Tweaked manifesto - 02

BEFORE

AFTER

For my redesigned manifesto poster, I changed the font of the comma and the apostrophe for the word “that’s” , I tweaked the line length and made the same so that there’s a sense of alignment throughout the design. All in all I really enjoyed creating this especially when creating texture for the word “dangerous” it really created a vibe like “be ware” or something 

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BLOG POST 03

From all that I read I can firmly say that design helps communicate something that’s complicated, in a simple way, by saying the most with the least. Design is something that makes a product or service seem logical, practical, attractive and fun and can either have a negative or positive impact on people.

Designers act as a medium of communication between a business and a consumer in order for the business to reach their goals/missions. Companies like perfume, skincare, makeup or clothing lines can influence and brainwash people into buying and spending so much money on things that are not really a dire necessity. Like, purchasing a cream for acne that costs like $300 is really not worth it when you can find other natural remedies on the internet to help your skin and help you look like one of those flawless models. The RE-NOURISH article, emphasized this by saying how “from the early age we are bombarded with images and messages that depict the idea of being happy is being ultra-thin and flawless.”

It was stated that “effective visual communication can either convince someone to purchase a new product or change their political or social belief structures.”  This was a strong, effective statement that's so true. When customers are drawn to a product it's probably due to the fact that we are either familiar with the product or, if it is new to us, we are attracted to it due to its chosen colour scheme, typeface, and placement of visual imagery. Depending how well it is designed it can either prove effective in persuading customers to purchase it or pass judgement on it.

When reading “DO GOOD DESIGN” I remember reading how “advertisers take advantage of weaknesses in our psyche to convince us of false needs that can be satisfied by buying things.” Design can either help us in purchasing something or can totally brainwash us into thinking we need it when in reality we just want it. Buying something you ‘need’ includes essentials like food items, a blanket, socks etc. Buying stuff you ‘want’ includes all the non-essential, unnecessary items advertised in the store, on the internet, and on T.V, which are all just little temporary items of happiness we purchase to satisfy our wants after being convinced by these companies that these items are one our “needs” when in reality our ‘wants’ became our ‘needs’. 

 Lastly, one of the many statements that grabbed my attention was that “ Good design must be about what’s good about the product, and not what’s “bad” in the buyer or vulnerable in the buyer.” This statement really spoke to me as i have personally experienced this. Be it a product that brightens your skin or a type of food and or drink that makes you lose weight, I’ve noticed how a lot of brands focus on designing a product in such a way that it focuses on what the buyer lacks rather than what the product is created for. Like there are many products, where on the back of it, it is shown that having dark skin with acne is a bad and gross whereas having flawless, fair, glass looking skin is what is acceptable. This is what brands feed people’s minds and brainwashes them, not only against each other, but also against themselves.

Take-away-statements:

Buy what you need but never from greed  

Don’t let good design change your values

You make your own choices, don't let design make it for you.

Good design can either make you see what’s reality or entice you and abandon your whole belief system

It's always a trap when a package is that pretty.

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Tweaked Manifesto

Firstly for my constrain recipe I kind of made up my own, I guess, as my manifesto statement design has an illustration in it. Hence I would say its Reverse Type + Color + illustration (instead of Image). Secondly, the changes made for my manifesto statement design are:

1. Changing “united” to Italics

2. My figures had facial expressions which is now simplified with flat figures.

3. I edited the female figure’s ponytail as well since it was too far from her head. I also brought the figures down to the edge of the page so that they weren’t floating, in a way.

4. I also ended up brighting up the background to a lighter navy blue as it was too dark that it resembled black. 

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Blog Post #1 : Summary

In the video “how symbols and brands shape our humanity” Debbie Millman greatly expresses how design in general has not only changed over the years and have been modernized but also have had a great impact on our humanity. She explains how our ancestors united people with designs like telegraphic symbols for religion, for example. This explains how, the way a brand is designed and created, it brings together a community or group of individuals who think and live the same hence pushing up the brand’s name, increasing its popularity, and trust and security with each individual in that community. Its like if I’ve always bought and consumed one kind of soap, say Aveeno or Dove, I’m already familiar with it as I know it won’t react with skin since I’ve used it since my childhood days and like me there’s probably millions who think and feel the same way. 

Secondly, she had stated how “Branding is the profound manifestation of the human spirit.” This implies how branding can affect the way we think, live and feel on a daily basis. Like, if we are more confident and trusting when we buy and consume products, there’s a sense of security and trust that’s embedded and shared among us. The very feeling of being secure in groups makes us feel good, makes us feel wanted and not excluded. This can mean that branding can either connepect us or separate us from one another. If you take any famous brand like Levis or H&M. Why is their logo and their brand itself so popular? Is it their logo or their marketing? Most influential brands become well known as they’re being driven and pushed up by a community of like minded people for the people. In this way it was rightly said that “created for the people by the people is the highest benefit of branding”

After reading the chapters on advertising and ethics I realized how powerful branding can be and how it can have a positive and negative impact on the human race. I say this because there are some popular influential brands who use their professional power to help create ideas that make the world a better place, while others don't or don't care. As mentioned in the article Coca Cola helped Tanzania put up road signage in which the milestones were branded with the Coca Cola's mark. However, there are other brands that utilize certain religious symbols or offensive, inhuman ways of advertising to promote the brand which is definitely not acceptable. These are one of things that negatively impacts humanity and disrespects them. 

Chapter 3 of the article mentioned how "The pollution of our physical environment is rooted in the pollution of our mental environment." This was a powerful statement to me as it emphasizes how our environment and actions are the reflections of our minds and the way we think and function. For example, on page 40 of the article there was an image that depicted how Mc Donalds had advertised a happy cattle cow or bull having fun on a skateboard and the title was " Vigorous beef makes you more vigorous." First of all this is not the way to advertise and make people buy more of your burgers. It is inhuman advertising. This is the wrong mentality and wrong idea that is embedded into people's minds as it makes zero sense that cows are happily slaughtered to satisfy our cravings for a nice juicy beef burger. This right here is an example of branding that negatively impacts the human race.

In addition, as designers, it is our responsibility what we create and put out for the world to see and acknowledge as it can make a huge difference in our lives and will also be reflected in the kind of world we want to live in.

Take away statements:

What we put out, determines the world we want to live in 

A negative, cluttered mind reflects the environment we share with one another 

Use your professional power for the good of the world 

Don’t lie to others for your own benefit or your paycheque 

People are united in communications of shared ideas