OUGD601: Dissertation Research- Primary Research

My unedited interview with Despina from the Australian Environmental Graphic Design Studio Dotdash.

Although it was intended to be an interview it ended up more like a very informative conversation discussing the difference between EGD and Wayfinding, how to develop signs, sign placement and what makes a successful sign system. All this plus a wonderful look of disappointment when I attempt to discuss branding and it's relation to EGD development. I still believe that despite her lack of enthusiasm when it comes to applying the idea of branding to wayfinding design that there are certain elements that both professions share and with EGD being such a new medium it's version does not yet have a name yet. Especially when she was talking about the sign system produced for an elderly care home; how the shape recognised most was similar to a picture frame and the most comforting thing being a front door and the crossing of a threshold. I think these decisions were made to make the signs perhaps not connect to the audience but to make the audience most at ease with them and I think the use of branding to apply identity to a meaningless object and create a tangible and emotionally connecting experience means that the two areas overlap.

Either way it was very insightful and enjoyable, with some awful misremembered examples by me, a handful of random interruptions and a sudden ending after being told the university was about to close. I intend to take her recommendation to join the sign designer's society and get involved with some of the talks that are going on. Although this isn't a profession I think I would go into, it's still a very specialist form of design that I have a great amount of respect and interest for. I hope I can apply the lessons she taught me into my own practical piece. 

OUGD601: Dissertation Research- Primary Research

For the practical element of my dissertation I wanted to produce a way-finding system of my own, or at least a section purely for time constraints. The site I chose to focus on was the Leeds College of Art Blenheim building. It's a building I know well and have access to, it's also a site with poor, poor way-finding systems that appear very bland and not in keeping with the LCA brand or personality. In order to produce a new system that works with the existing brand and image for LCA I emailed the studio Peter and Paul (who created the brand) in order to get a copy of their brand guideline.

Peter and Paul are also responsible for a lot of the environmental elements within the building and produce artworks and design to go into the studios and surrounding areas. I had also heard they amy be developing a way-finding system for the new LCA building and asked if I could talk to them about that, unfortunately this was not the case, however they happily supplied the guidelines and gave me a good over view of what they were trying to achieve and communicate with the environmental designs and the branding.

lca brand guidance_2015_aw02 from Rosalyn Halford by Peter and Paul

OUGD601: Dissertation Chapter Summary- Chapter 3

For chapter 3 I will be focusing on branding, branding principles, how brands are developed and what they do. I had initially wanted to use this as my second chapter, however, after revising the order of my dissertation I felt having semiotics followed by semiotics in practical sign developed made the whole piece flow better. Within this chapter I will be focusing on branding principles, brand creation and creating an identity, brand experiences and the emotional connection brands can establish with customers and users.

Original Chapter Plan

Revised Chapter 3 Plan

Sources I will be using:

The Fundamentals of Branding (Davis)

Brand Watching: Lifting the Lid on Branding (Lury)

Branding: Brand Strategy, Design and Implementation. 

OUGD601: Dissertation Chapter Summary- Chapter 2

Following on from chapter one, chapter two will take the principles of semiotics and apply them to practical sign design. Alongside this I will be analysing the stages of sign design and way-finding development going through what needs to be done when creating a sign system. Sections will include sign placement and content and types of signage.

Sources I've used for this Chapter:

Visual Communication: From Theory to Practice (Baldwin and Roberts)
Visible Signs: An Introduction to Semiotics in the Visual Arts (Crowe)
Signage and Wayfinding Design: A Complete Guide to Creating Environmental Graphic Design Systems (Calori)
The Wayfinding Handbook: Information Design for Public Places (Gibson)
Signage Systems and Information Graphics: A Professional Source Book (Uebele)

OUGD601: Dissertation Chapter Summary- Chapter 1

For the first chapter if my dissertation I chose to look into semiotics and visual communication as it is the basis of communication and practical sign development. Throughout the chapter I will focus on what semiotics is, what makes up a sign, how semiotics relates to way finding signage and how sign systems work individually and within a sequence. 

Chapter One Plan

For my chapter plans I often make quick notes to visualise the layout and understand how one element will flow into the next one. Sometimes they will be more detailed and sometimes very simple and empty, it all depends on how well the structure is organised already in my head. When I get confused with the flow of a chapter I will make more notes to refer back to but when I am confident I will only use quick short bullet points. 

Sources I've used for this chapter:
Visual Communication: From Theory to Practice (Baldwin and Roberts)
Visible Signs: An Introduction to Semiotics in the Visual Arts (Crowe)
Course in General Linguistics (Ferdinand de Saussure)
Graphic Design as Communication (Barnard)
Communicating Design: Essays in Visual Communication (Triggs)

OUGD601: Dissertation Topic

The topic I am going to discuss in my dissertation involves sign design within way-finding. I want to look at a form of graphic design that actually helps people and solves a problem. I appreciate a lot of graphic design and have become more interested in socially responsible design as of late and wanted to look into design that can make a difference.

Prior to summer my initial question was going to be 'Can Graphic Design Change the World?'. I was inspired by a quote from Michael Beirut in his critical analysis of the First Things First revised manifesto called 10 Footnotes to a Manifesto ‘Designers actually can change the world for the better by making the complicated simple and finding beauty in truth.’ In it he spoke about campaigns on big glossy posters winning awards but actually making very little difference and then highlighted the daily amount guideline used on food packing saying how it will never win an award yet in terms of helping people control their weight and understand what they eat it has helped countless people.

I wanted to explore more examples of design like this, design that may not be pretty or award winning but will actually make a difference and solve a problem. However, there were issues with this question were the sheer vagueness of the question, how to structure the essay, finding any academic material on the subject and coming up with more examples. Although I read a lot of books and articles on socially responsible design and design activism all the mentioned projects had good intentions but fit into the 'award winning glossy poster' category and it never mentioned whether any of these projects actually helped/made a difference.

The only other example I could think of in terms of graphic design that helped people was signage and road signs- the development of which aids users through a maze of roadways in varying levels of immediacy. I started work into this watching talks given by Margaret Calvert, various documentaries and reading books, wanting to now explore the development of sign systems in terms of road signs and how they can communicate to a vast audience. In the case of iconic or pictorial signs especially, these signs have an ability to stretch across language barriers creating a universal understanding.

Although this initially seemed interesting to me it began to grate and I lost a lot of enthusiasm for the topic, I was also unsure how to balance the essay and what chapters to cover. I knew I wanted to look into semiotics and visual communication but felt all the points I could make were too scattered for an academic discussion. The idea of a potential practical element of making a sign didn't interest me either and it dawned on me that this subject was one I had never shown interest in or worked with over my three years at university and so felt it was an unsuitable topic. 

At this point I knew I had to find something within signage and way-finding seeing as I had spent a lot of time going through research materials and was unable to start from scratch so I went to the library to find books on way-finding design to help solidify my topic and what I was going to discuss. I came across the book Signage and Way finding Design by Chris Calori which introduced me to the concept of environmental graphic design and how way finding systems are not just a practical thing but also a way of branding an environment. 

I really liked the idea of environmental design and how it linked clear communication and branding to create graphic design that actually helped people. This new direction would make it easy to discuss semiotics and branding and how they relate to environmental design. So I had finally found a topic I enjoyed, plus branding is something I have done a lot over my time at university so when it came to the practical section of my dissertation I would actually look forward to the making of something. All of this transformed my original question from 'Can Graphic Design Change the World?' to 'Environmental Graphic Design, Sign Systems and Way finding and how they are Developed.'