As I thought about my concept map for the GRDS 701 literary Review project, it made me think of Graphic Facilitation at meetings. What is Graphic Facilitation? Well maybe this images can help…
I have been making a lot of “concept maps” lately and it just so happened that one of the books as I was searching for a book to use as a source for my Literature Review I found a The Visual Miscellaneum: A Colorful Guide to the World’s Most Consequential Trivia‘s site that had a great concept map in it. It was a collaboration between David McCandless and information artist Stefanie Posavec.They are both very reputable sources in information graphics.
I thought the concept map I post above to be particularly beautiful, organized and full of information. I love how the use of color drives the idea of two separate parties home. I have been struggling in 702 to figure out Images and after seeing this example I feel confident in my thoughts and hope that my concept map will be as informative and engaing as this one. (Stop by in a week to see my progress!)
If this interests you, David McCandless gives a great TED Talk! In this talk he breaks down information graphics and how they are visualized!
David McCandless: The beauty of data visualization
For the GRDS 702 class we were asked to complete 3 playgrounds. Playground, that’s fun, design playground sounds very fun. I knew that the assignment had to do with words and there were no requirements in the class for Photoshop or InDesign so I assumed it wouldn’t involve too much designing. So what was my first challenge? Time. I only had 20 minutes to complete each playground and I put all of these constraints on myself of what needed to get done in order for me to get in the “zone”. So a fun playground turned into an anxious recess session where I was to walk across the monkey bars without falling!
![The Psychology of Color [Infographic]](http://nowsourcing.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/psychology-of-color.png)
I love color! I love color theory, it was color theory that hooked me into design. I was always interested in the psychology of color and what color can do to an audience. I studied Josef Alber’s Color theory and through his explorations of color values and relationships, I learned of the multiple innovative ways for the viewer to comprehend color and the paintings Albers developed.
This week I have been watching TED Talks and I saw one that was titled I Listen to Color. I had to watch it. The speaker was Neil Harbisson, he was interesting looking. He was wearing a hot pick coat, blue shirt and yellow shirt but more interesting then his clothes was his opening statement about how he can hear color and how he collaborated with computer scientists to create a electronic eye that is a color sensor that then sends a sound frequency to a chip in the back of his head.
Click to go to the TED Talk
There was big news in my office this week, people in my department we sharing emails and videos all about USA Today and their redesign. This was particularly interesting since our magazine went through a redesign last year and we can understand the pain and long hours the design team over at USA Today had to put in, in order to get the redesign finished all at once.
As I was reading and thinking about the course and what the current discourse (Poggenpohl, 218) of Graphic Design Seminar: Methodologies would be, I kept thinking how different this is from any learning experience I have had. I took classes online but never fully online where there wasn’t at least one in person meeting. Continue reading
I can remember the exact moment I fell in love with graphic design. It reminds me of the moment in a John Hughes movie that you can’t help but swoon over, both achingly melodramatic and larger than life in the simplest of terms. I was in my foundations class in undergrad; we were discussing color theory and the rules for effectively evoking the appropriate reader’s reaction. I remember thinking there was so much to learn about effectively communicating and that there were many different tools you could use to provoke feeling or a response and I wanted to know everything about it.
What does Graphic Design mean to me? I have had many influences of what graphic design means to me. School, family, work and culture have all impacted my thoughts around the subject.
I was taught by my professors that the definition of graphic design is a message, idea, or thought that is conveyed to an audience through a creative process and produced in a visual form.
I was told by my parents that Graphic Design was the lesser of the evil when considering “art degrees”. The part of art that would leave you to be a “starving artist”.
During my early years of work I was made aware by work that graphic design was using templates. Almost like a fill-in the blanks with information I was given. I started to miss what I had fell in love with. I was bored and not learning.
I went back to school and learned a new aspect of design, interactive and social media design! Design once again energized me, it was knew, exciting and different. How to get the viewers attention? The attention that is everything but lasting. This was a challenge however a challenge that everyone took part in, design was now something you could Google and pay $9.95 for a template or … (gasp)… do it yourself. Almost like McSweeney’s article about how Instagram has made everyone a professional photographer.
Finally with a different job, I am faced with new (or different) design challenges. I again change what graphic design means to me. I will say this, through out this journey one thing has never changed, my wanting to know everything about it, as it changes and grows I hope I can change and grow with it.
Hi!
Welcome to my blog, I look forward to posting and reflecting on my journey as I take graduate classes at SCAD.