Interviews

In order to get feedback on how our group should go about redesigning the ice cube tray, we were sent out to do interviews on a few people. I questioned three girls from my dorm and have posted their responses below along with a few pictures.

BRENNA
1. Do you have an ice cube tray?
    Yes
2. How much space does it take up?
    Not much
3. What do you look for in one?
    Has rubber on the bottom to pop out and 
    also color.
4. What struggles do you have?
    Sometimes sticks to freezer when it fills up
5. How likely is it that you will throw it away?
    I will keep it. I like it a lot.
6. What ice shape do you prefer?
    Cube
7. What could be improved?
    I like it the way it is - actually the tray could 
    be deeper.
8. What emotions do you associate it with? +/-
    Positive know there's ice, but negative 
    when someone forgets to fills with water or when it sticks to freezer.
9. Do you prefer nostalgic or modern?
    Nostalgic - had butterfly-shaped ice cube trays as a child

Brenna's ice cube tray

Bottom of tray

MARY
1. Do you have an ice cube tray?
    No
2. Why not?
    I've actually been wanting one - 
    I need one (has a water pitcher 
    and needs ice).
3. What ice shape do you prefer?
    Cylinder
4. What could be improved?
    Easier to pop out cubes
5. What emotions do you associate it with? +/-
    Positive - I like ice cube trays 
    and want one.
6. Do you prefer nostalgic or modern?
    Modern

MEGAN
1. Do you have an ice cube tray?
    Yes
2. How much space does it take up?
    Tiny chunk in freezer
3. What do you look for in one?
    Depth of cube holders
4. What struggles do you have?
    Filling it up - they always spill. Also deformed 
    ice cubes from uneven filling.
5. How likely is it you will throw it away?
    Pretty likely
6. What shape do you prefer?
    Cube
7. What could be improved?
    More space in between to prevent "sloshing."
8. What emotions do you associate with it? +/-
    Frustrated when don't fill up properly, but 
    overall positive.
9. Do you prefer nostalgic or modern?
    Modern because it's more efficient.
 

New Project

A few days ago we were introduced to our new project of choosing a product with poor design and remaking it. We were given our groups where narrowed down our options. Our final decision landed with the ice cube tray. Here are just a few pictures of our mind map and construction on it.

Project Summary

Now that the project is finally over, I thought I would share my reflection out of my process book we turned in today:


I actually learned an incredible amount through this project. Not only did I learn how to use the Adobe programs, but also that negative space is good. I was trying to cram way too much into a little space in the beginning since that was something I was not at all comfortable with. That’s definitely important for interior design - you don’t want the room too crowded. That would just be miserable. I also learned lots of color strategies that I tried my best to persue in my poster.

I definitely think my poster has good design and color. After I took the moving photograph with the black background, it inspired the entire poster to have that dark background. I tried to use the pink as an accent on the otherwise grayed areas. I also loved my track going across the page. It really helps to tie it all together in my opinion and assists demonstrating the rolling feature.

If I was to do this, I don’t think I would do anything differently. I am very happy with how it turned out and the valuable lessons I learned along the way. I wouldn’t trade in that knowlege for anything.

The most difficult part of this project for me, without a doubt, would be getting the hang of the computer programs. Laying out the poster on paper went great for me and, at the time, I would’ve rather just kept it that way. However, I’ve definitely become much more comfortable with them now. Also, shooting the moving photo was no easy task either. I don’t have much experience in that field, but it was good to try my hand at it.

My ideas about design definitely have changed over these past four weeks. I pay a lot more attention to it than I used to and have become much more critical. While I still cared for it before, I now actually think of how it could be bettered or sometimes ponder how they even came up with that idea. I like this change of mind.

Overall, I am extremely happen with my final project. I admit that I knew something just didn’t look right in the first few drafts, but I was just too stubborn to figure out how to change it. Now that I have I can’t imagine it any other way. I like how the ‘Clocky’ stands out much more than it did previously. I had a lot of fun with this project

Finished Product

The day has final come that I have finished the final draft of my poster. I am very happy with how it has turned out and there is nothing that I would want to change. I really like how I changed the font to be outside of the clock, since it makes it pop so much more and gives a center point to focus on and explain the rest of the picture. It also helps to incorporate the photograph by going along the same line. The parting with my original idea allowed me to come up with many other possibilities and this happened to be the winning one. I hope the grading process goes well!

Second Critique

Once again we have had the stressful process of putting together a poster draft to be hung for our peers to observe and critique. This time around was much rougher, which was good as to help me figure out how to tweek my poster to make it more appealing to the eye. I kept much of a similar design as my first, but this time was told I needed more negative space. There's too much going on, which I can agree with although it may be tough to part with some of my drawings. Here is a picture of my second draft:

Color Police

A few days ago we were instructed to bring in a few examples of both good and bad color usage into class to share. Here were a few of my favorites:

GOOD COLOR USAGE:

This Coach ad has such great color usage due to the way the yellow purse pops. By using dulled out shades of yellow and green for the background, the strong chroma looks really appealing.

Not to mention the awesome design to make this look like a vegetable cooler, these colors together give the overall ‘fresh’ appearance and looks extremely nice to the eye.

BAD COLOR USAGE:

This ad has entirely too much going on. Between all the different people and the costumes and hats, its crazy to focus on one thing. It’s absolute chaos.

     

This ad has too much strong chroma fighting for your attention. All the people have near equal emphasis and therefore does not flow.

Preliminary Poster

Last week were instructed to bring in a preliminary poster of our project to be hung on the wall and given helpful criticism. Mine actually got pretty good feedback and I'm very happy with how it turned out; the only thing I need to work on is getting the photograph to blend in more. My next step will be getting the images scanned and into In-Design. Here is a picture of my preliminary design:

Color Lecture Reflection

A little over a week ago our class got a lecture all about color. Having this lecture really helped me become confident that this is the right field for me to be studying. I was actively extremely interested unlike I had ever been before. It was a great feeling.

We started out by learning all about the color spectrum, the color wheel, how white light is a mixture every color and how black is the absence of light. This is called additive color mixing. It then moved on to subractive color mixing, which occurs when light interacts with a surface. All light surfaces reflect light, whereas dark surfaces absorb them.

The lecture got progressively more interesting as it got to showing examples of color schemes. We learned of the three basics to colors - hue, value and chroma - along with some assorted vocabulary. These concepts are absolutely essential to know for any design field; they come into play for nearly everything.

Lastly, but certainly not least, we learned of some color unity strategies. We were shown advertisements to enforce these different color qualities which helped an immense amount. I absolutely love looking at advertisements and can’t help but to wonder how they came up with the design that they did. I added some pictures to demonstrate a little of what we learned but I truly do think this lecture not only made me realize this is what I love, but informed me a lot about my field of study.