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I’m starting to experiment with different forms of content to work within the telephone process. There are a few directions I’m headed:1. Remix/Using existing art and design to create a poster that explores voice and possibly the struggle to find voice.
2. Wash Your Hands is a direct communication poster that looks at the basics of graphic design. Is the message clear? Does it compel me to wash my hands? Are the levels of hierarchy functional?
I’ve explored many other avenues but these seem to have the most potential to elicit a conversation with the designer as well as grow through the process.
And here are some early experiments!
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In both remix and voice you are exploring contrasting design approach. Poster collection precedents have often focused on political/personal subjects: see The Graphic Imperative at: http://www.thegraphicimperative.org/ There is a challenging purity in using a banal subject such as washing your hands as the subject. In asking prominent designers for input you will illicit their holistic response. Focusing on a simple process or tool or some such encourages humor and creativity, and directs the focus away from pragmatics and toward experimentation and approach.
The remix direction is still fuzzy but compelling to me. Are you remixing/interweaving the work of chosen designers and asking for their critique of the mix? Or designing your own posters, redesigning them based on the critiques, then remixing them? There is an interesting analogy and contrast between the pervasion of cultural sharing/remixing occuring through social media and the simplicity and human contact resident in Design Telephone. Might be interesting to explore the connection.
Thanks for your feedback. For remix, one concept was to include a piece from each participating designer and another idea was to use work that is already repurposed, like Shepard Fairey or Duchamp’s Fountain. I had not considered redesigning them based on the critiques, then remixing them. I think it would need to start as a remix. I like the connection you brought up with cultural sharing/remixing and the simplicity of talking with someone in person. We are influenced by so many people but rarely get the chance to talk to them in person about any kind of work. Work is generated so quickly and posted on the internet and the sharing begins.
I think the hand-washing posters are a better direction for this project. I am curious if you are going to pick one to show to your interview subjects, or show several? Showing several may be a better way to elicit conversation, as it gives people more to work with via compare/contrast and “choosing.” However, the results of your design process would become less linear, unless at each stage, you come up with three variations for the next discussion. Hmm, I think I like that.
These look great! While I love the visual play of your Remix directions, I think the Wash Your Hands posters will provide more of an opportunity for content discussion. I also enjoy the humor potential. Your Remix solutions are beautiful, but abstract, and it seems discussion may not be as fruitful toward your goal of comparing feedback and opinion. Voice can be very subjective.
I too like the idea of several solutions to compare. Maybe it’s a comparison between heavy type, large photo, or minimal/abstract. Maybe one is dropped along the way, and you create another to take its place? Or, possibly add new solutions when another direction is brought up in conversation, then see how others react to it (maybe it is in turn dropped in the very next dialog)? Could be interesting if it becomes organic.
This is great feedback, thanks so much!
I agree with a lot of what Chris is saying. I think the remix directions have a whimsical, interesting interplay of images and textures. It makes me want to see them up close. Formally, I find the Remix ones more engaging than the “wash your hands”. Visually, the wash your hands seem too clunky in comparison to the remix. There only seems to be a foreground/background in your photo based ones, while your Remix experiments have so much depth of field and connection within the pieces. The type exploration of the wash your hands starts to do that for me, as there are multiple places I’d like to start reading more in-depth in the layout.
I think you should mash-up Ellen and Chris’ feedback and create a few options at every stage that express a few kinds of varied styles, i.e. scale, type only, or minimal/abstract. It would still let you explore a lot of visual variety, but by narrowing it down to one before each new discussion you could still see the linear process. I think one of the best parts of your project is the potential to see the linear evolution of your process as you go from discussion to discussion.
Can’t wait to see it through all of it’s stages!
Thanks Ann! Your feedback offers a good middle ground that I will definitely need to explore…
Coincidentally, I just washed my hands. In fact, I wash my hands maybe too much. I think it’s because I eat so many goldfish throughout the day. Playing with / visualizing statistics might be a good way to help substantiate the intentions of the message. Germs, frequency, effectiveness, cultural norms, time of day, techniques, materials. Yes this could be fun. Have you thought about whether this will be informative or persuasive? Should it be? What if it was totally deceptive (or convinced people to abstain from hand cleaning)? Maybe you explore all of these initially in different directions.
It might also be cool to offer constraints to your victims/participants as well, eg, here’s three concepts, your revision must reference 4″ of each and draw inspiration from this randomly selected film: [ ].
Also just thought of the tradition of scrawling “wash me” onto dusty car windows. May be something funny there.