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The presentation seemed to go really well (I will include this as a link later) and I received some pretty constructive feedback. The font seemed to go down a treat, my only suggestion was that when I display it, I should separate my upper and lower case and display them separately. I have already tried this as I was curious to see how this looked however I didn’t find it more effective. This is because some of my lower case letters are directly influenced and inspired by the upper case and separating them makes it hard to distinguish this. It is a shame but I am glad I investigated this first. Most of my criticism was towards the Infographic which I am quite glad of as I overlooked a few issues with it. Some of my colours were too dark on the black background; particularly the greens and purples. Fortunately this is an easy fix as all I needed to do was select a brighter colour. I have selected a brighter green and have replaced my purple with orange. The orange I feel is much better as orange is quite a popular chalk colour for chalk boards.

Another important criticism is that my character doesn’t really show movement in the infographic. To combat this, I aim to spend the final week before hand in making this character a few more positions to variate between. Some of them are fine as is however the one which has him moving with the shooting star could easily adopt some form of Super Man-esque position. We shall see how this goes before hand in.

Checklist:

Change green and purple text colour

Create more Einstein’s in different poses

Try putting lower and upper case separate

Amend letter A, it didn’t save last time

Remove circle from bag mock up

Check for anything missing

Double check vectors on different formats

 

This week to give myself chance to produce a decent presentation, I had a big push to get all the infographic work finished. To do this, I first scrapped my initial portrait approach for a landscape, comic strip style layout. I kept the black background to maintain the blackboard feel and presented the content as if it was chalk (with the exception of the Einstein stickman). This I feel is quite playful and would engage my younger audience. Here is what the A2 layout would look like:

At this point I feel this explains the theory at a basic level quite successfully however I’m eager to get input later this week. The phone layout will have the same content however the layout will be one long, scrollable image. When looking at content on phones, people are used to scrolling downwards so I feel this would be the best approach. Here’s how it would look:

Finally, I made the web edition more like an online slideshow to be accessed by teachers who want to use the information in a lesson. To do this I essentially took the A2 format model and chopped the 6 sections of information into 6 slides. The slides would look like this:

I actually think this is the clearest way of viewing the infographic and would probably benefit the most from this format. We will see from the feedback how successful these are.

Checklist:

PRESENTATION!!!!!

Await feedback and recommendations

When I approach new projects which I’m unsure about I often look at examples to point me in the right direction and try and pick out the conventions that stick out to me. In the case of infographics, a lot of the ones I see use of cartoon people quite often. Although this isn’t the case for all infographics, the ones that stick out for me certainly do. This one for example about work related stress I think does a great job at illustrating the information about work related stress:

Bearing this in mind, I have come up with my own character to help get my point across. For an infographic about Einstein, it seems pretty obvious to include some sort of image of Einstein. Considering this is going to be placed in a classroom, I want it to fit in nicely with what is already on display in a science classroom. If my memory serves me correctly, science classrooms in my high school were covered in warning symbols. These are great for illustrating points and will also be a familiar sight for my infographic’s audience. To make it look like Einstein however, I decided to chop up a picture of his face and only leave his moustache, hair and iconic glasses. This was then applied to a stick figure commonly seen in warning signs. To dress the stickman, I also gave him a lab coat which I based off the warning sign indicating that lab coats must be worn. The end result I feel is quite a fun and playful image.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Checklist:

Tweak outer edges, they appear blurry on Illustrator

Progress with infographic

Make more formats for Infographic, Iphone and web

Research into more warning signs in case any more can be used for visuals

Infographics are a new endeavor for me, I have seen a couple on walls in classrooms now and again but producing one is completely new territory. Much in the same way that Einstein’s theories are a new territory. After many hours of toiling on YouTube at videos with titles something along the lines of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity in 60 seconds I have gained somewhat of a level of understanding in what I need to explain to others. I am going to look in short detail E=Mc squared which my science friends tell me is called special relativity. To do this I am going to design an infographic fit for a classroom of high school students and then transfer this initial infographic into a format for I-phone and one as a web power point. The web slide show idea came to me during researching Einstein’s theory. A slide show I found was the most successful in explaining the theory to me and I also thought this could have potential classroom implications.

Initially I’m using a portrait format however I am currently debating whether or not I should opt for a landscape style. Based on the fact I am aiming to replicate an old fashion chalk board, much like the ones Einstein is pictured standing next to, this might be the best format to portray this. The font I am using is called Chalkduster which I feel provides the feel of a teacher writing on a chalkboard. Other fonts which use a chalkboard style seem far too neat which I don’t think is correct. Einstein may have had impeccable handwriting however my mad scientist approach dictates I must scruff up a bit. Here is the infographic as it stands:

Checklist:

Decide on portrait or Landscape before Progression

Add more visual content. Illustrations etc

Try colour?

This week I have finally managed to complete my font. After many headaches induced by staring at a computer screen for too long I finally think my font is to standard. Here is a picture of the entire alphabet (I will include the actual file, this is just a screenshot):

I’m quite impressed with how the letters look; particularly towards the end as I began to experiment further with shaping of letters. I’m particularly satisfied with the H with it’s internal lines which create some sort of bridge. One point in the process which left me slightly stuck is when I got to the letter Q. At this point I hadn’t used any diagonal lines as I felt it would break away from the grid system. I was able to find a solution for the letters M and N by using a few small lines. I was quite pleased with how this looked on these letters however I couldn’t apply it to the Q. I tried a number of different alternatives but nothing seemed to substitute. I reluctantly put in a diagonal line however I was quite glad to see that it didn’t throw off my design. After this, I was quite pleased to use diagonals again. To some extent I wish I had broken this rule earlier as it might have led to some interesting letters however, had I used diagonal lines, my M and N I feel would have looked quite standard. I decided to produce 2 demo models. One is a poster for my band using a circular design I’ve been experimenting with for a while. The other is a bag for my fictitious furniture shop I aptly named Bauhaus:

 

I really like seeing my designs actually used on products and gives me confidence that I’ve achieved what I set out to. Hopefully I’ll be able to return to this font later on to use in actual design projects in future. For now though it’s important that I leave this for now and begin my Einstein infographic.

 Checklist:

Continue Einstein and Infographic research

Amend the letter A, looking a bit thicker and messier on some of the lines