Mockups & Design Discussion with Creative Team
Posted: October 26, 2015 Filed under: Real World Project, Subject Y3, Year 3 | Tags: art, boiler, client, concept, consumption, creative, cycle, cymru, cynnal, design, discussion, electricity, energy, gas, graphics, heating, house, illustrations, legacy, life, lights, mock, mockup, presentation, project, real, reducing, saving, share, students, sustain, sustainability, tutorial, up, wales, water, World Leave a commentToday, our team presented our current progress on Sustainabox and its brand identity. We discussed the final presentation which is on Thursday and what to expect. There will be 20+ guest visitors, mentors, clients and even the student union for our project. After the meeting we showed each other our illustrated sections and were pleasantly surprised with each others outcomes and how their brand identity flowed as hoped, each consisting of a flat UX. Wendy guided me on my user journey illustrations and suggested I added a future aspect to see the knock on effect of the students savings. She also suggested the following:
- showing that the students are initially not interested in reducing consumption – their introduction to the product – and then the future legacy of the sustainabox and its effect on Wales > World.
- idea of the older generation handing down the legacy of Sustainabox to their children.
- possible spoof of rubbish outside of a house next-door to sustainable students showing the contrast.
- questioned the idea of how the legacy will remain.
- add humour into the concept.
- make it something that you will want to keep after moving out.
We later discussed the concept of using light-sensitive ink / glow-in-the-dark ink on the easy peel light-switch stickers. It also took us to research into easy peel children stickers which may be useful to use for our project as stickers that leave a residue upon removal are not ideal and hardly sustainable.
After everything had been completed and checked by each member of the team we set about printing off draft mockups of our ideas and concepts.
Next, we setup our creative space for after the presentation to further explain our concepts to our clients. It will also give a change to the other visitors to see our Sustainabox in context and ask us further questions.
The life cycle of Sustainabox
We thought of a creative way to bring humour into the life cycle of Sustainabox by touching on 4 points. The points we chose were Student, Full Time Work, Family & Death. This suggested that the box would be kept until the very end of the user’s life.
As a student the box could be used as a pencil case, or a box to hold qwerky items.
As a full time worker, the box would be able to transform into a more professional object such as a watch holder, tie box, jewellery box & makeup box. It could also be used to contain professional tools of the trade.
For the family touchpoint the box could be used to hold polaroid photos of the family & portraits of the children which would be encapsulated within the box’s inside sections.
Finally, for the light-hearted death touch point, the box could be used as an urn or to hold the will & memoirs of the deceased for which the family can treasure.
This imagery of Sustainabox being with the user until death is a strong connotation of sustainability and usability through its usability.
Company Questions
Posted: April 4, 2015 Filed under: Subject Y2, Year 2 | Tags: budget, cardiff, charity, client, cold, communication, company, email, help, homeless, homelessness, ignored, information, invisible, issues, life, oxfam, problems, research, shelters, sourced, story, streets, volenteering Leave a comment1. What do you want to achieve?
If there are several aims, try to place them in order of importance.
Oxfam want to highlight the issue of poverty and homelessness within Cardiff. This minority are ignored on a daily basis within the streets of Cardiff which may lead to mental health problems and later alcohol and drug abuse. Oxfam would like to grasp the public’s attention on this issue within their day-to-day activities. A very few percentage of the public pay any attention, and even less give the minority group any change. Instead, people would rather pay for a tea or coffee in a cafe which is 100x more expensive than one at home. Oxfam would like to investigate this behaviour and how it can be adapted for a better cause. Oxfam have also come across many small-time companies which do a ‘pay-it-forward’ scheme whereby the customer can put money forward for a meal for the homeless.
2. What single thought would we like to leave the audience with after they receive this work?
Does the client want people to feel angry, or saddened, or amused. How does the client want people to act – e.g. by spreading the message amongst friends, acquaintances and family, making a donation or contacting the organisation for further information, or lobbying politicians?
Oxfam would like the audience to become more aware of this issue which is very local which in turn may increase the chances of volunteers, local charity work and fundraising. private donations would also be a great response from this non-profitable awareness scheme.
3. What do we know about the audience, recipient, consumers, their feelings and thoughts?
Try to find out as much information as possible.
Is it possible to develop a persona?
The audience ranges from all ages. Many people are oblivious to the issues around them as many are submerged within social media and consumerism, which fall below an individuals threshold for conscious perception.
4. What is the message? Help them sum it up in one sentence.
If there is more than one message, discuss their priority.
Poverty is all around us, even if its not as easily recognisable with 1 in 8 people unable to pay their bills on time. Whats more important, a quick coffee which will satisfy you for an hr, or a charitable donation which may improve someones lifestyle indefinitely.
Persuasion: Homelessness In Cardiff
Posted: April 4, 2015 Filed under: Subject Y2, Year 2 | Tags: cardiff, cold, detail, graphics, hidden, homeless, homelessness, ignored, invisable, life, personal, persuasion, poor, story, streets 1 CommentWe have started our new project ‘Persuasion’ today. We were asked to think of an issue or topic that we have strong passion or interest. At first I chose the Mars One Mission as I have a large interest in exploration and technology. However, after selecting this topic I was told that I would need to contact a company which overlooks this topic. I felt that I would have no hope in getting a response from NASA and so I changed my topic to Poverty, to which I would focus on the Homelessness in Cardiff. Homelessness is a lot closer than you’d think, with many on the streets every day. Many people ignore the minority are there which I can only try to empathise how it makes them feel. people have controversial views on the homeless, many feel that they should pull themselves together and find a job, which may be true, but it is mere impossible to get any sort of job without a permanent place of residence. Some may have mental or physical problems which restrict their ability to find a suitable job too.
Then why can’t they use the benefit system? well some fall through the system due to their circumstances not complying with the minimum requirements for benefits. This is especially hard for some. An example of this may be a divorce who had to sell their belonging to pay for any legal advice and procedures that may have been needed, which results in bankruptcy and debt.
I would like to raise awareness to this issue and highlight how local it is. I would also like to point out each individual has their own story to tell, which is significant as many would usually ignore their presence. This may increase donations, community service and awareness in general towards poverty- homelessness.
Visual Temperature – Cao Hui
Posted: November 21, 2014 Filed under: Constellation Y2, Research, Year 2 | Tags: abominations, art, artwork, attacked, cao, connection, Contemporary, death, desturbing, disturbing, disturbingly, emotion, engineering, expiration, furnishing, furniture, grotesque, guts, horror, hui, humans, hyperrealism, innocuous, interaction, life, materialistic, morbid, objects, people, performance, philosophy, photorealism, realism, science, shock, surrealism, temperature, valadate, visual, weird Leave a commentAlthough this is not relevant to my work as of yet, and i doubt it will. I thought this was an interesting approach to materialistic objects. I am not a huge fan of grotesque artwork especially within contemporary art.. but Visual Temperature by Cao Hui produces some interesting and disturbing images of objects which seem to have humanistic interiors which are violently on show as if the furnishings have been attacked. After researching his work I found that Hui takes a visceral look at the inner organs of common household furniture which are normally innocuous symbols of comfort however Cao Hui transforms them into disturbingly morbid abominations. Personally I feel that Hui has created a deep connection between the human construction and man-made objects through death and expiration. This connection signifies the uniqueness of life and our interaction with other people. It also makes us understand the importance of the surface as well as the interior and their relationship.
After having a few sessions on my constellation option ‘Contemporary Arts’ I have realised that artists are no longer satisfied with describing surface appearance. Instead they try to incorporate other fields within their performance such as philosophy, science and in this case engineering. I feel that artists want to go against beliefs or at least demonstrate their own personal religious belief within their work and will try to construct a truth which they delude themselves with, to a critical point at which it begins to validate the self. This work then becomes very deceptive and striking to draw out the emotion or shock of the onlooker.
https://www.facebook.com/MadeinShoreditch/posts/871275706250627
http://www.linlingallery.com/eng/artist_work.php?id=33&bb=7&pid=483¤tpage=
*note : I had to rewrite this from memory as my previous post got overwritten somehow, gutted.
Experimentation with Illustration
Posted: May 6, 2014 Filed under: Field | Tags: arcade, bagc, cardiff, castle, city, derelict, experimentation, field, growth, hidden, illustration, isolated, life, natural, nature, over, taken, uncovered, untouched, uwic, wild Leave a comment
The upper layer has turned into a wildlife zone which could only be achieved if the public did not disturb its accumulation over time. It may also suggest that the public may not even know there is a forest above them as many do not explore beyond the first floor. The metaphorical forest represents unexplored land, untouched by humans.
A very brief story
Posted: February 4, 2014 Filed under: Image, Subject, Term 1 | Tags: board, brief, humour, inked, inverted, life, out, story Leave a comment
Here is a revisited version of my life story, after the class presentation I wanted to add in my education but overall in a new style. I chose to outline everything with a thick black border for emphasis on each event. To improve this I could add favourites and places I have travelled too. I could also add a significant event for each month over the year.
Ben Walton 
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