405 Site Map

Below is a map I designed to show where the places are in my wayfinding system in relation to each other as well as in Leeds. The places are represented by their pictograms and the design of the map is in line with the aesthetic of the arrows used to point direction. Main roads are labelled to give a bit more indication of the whereabouts as I felt the design was quite basic - this however was purposeful. The design is quite contemporary and simplistic, avoiding a lot of detailing or strong shapes that add rigidness - it is an an indication of the interesting and fun events taking place, so they shouldn't be represented with geometric restrictions. The map is basic black and white as I think the colour scheme is underused and therefore stands out more, as well as having the ability to be timeless and not suggestive of anything leaving it open to subjective opinions. I used the typeface Gill Sans Regular as I believe it is very legible even at a small point size and suits the line drawing aesthetic of my overall wayfinding system.

405 Object initial ideas

Idea 1

To create abstract 'paintings' using a candle, either drawing with the wax as if it were a pen or melting the wax and using the heated liquid to create shapes and colours. I went with the latter and produced some interesting results. The printed document could be an exhibition guide for an artist known for only working with red candle wax showing a small preview of his work. The guide would be designed just smaller than a4 so that it could be printed on a3 and bound together rather than having to print on a2.

A variation on this could include warped photographs of the candles he uses in his work

Idea 2

The second idea is collecting songs that contain the word 'fire' in their title and illustrating the band or artist in a weird continuous line style. Once I have a few illustrations I would take them into illustrator and covert them into vectors for better image quality when bringing everything together in InDesign. I would use a saddle stitch for this booklet and have it a5 portrait.

hot like fire, the xx

fire starter, the prodigy

relight my fire, take that

Idea 3

A poster for a ad campaign introducing new Yankee Candle scents, inspired by the research I conducted in which I found that you can get some really weird flavoured candles such as 'KFC'. With this in mind I had the idea of drawing out different designs for the weird scents in excel as a constraint; the scents would be inspired by weird flavoured walker crisps. The printing of this document would be a simple a3 poster on gloss paper to be used inside the shops on the walls or in the windows.

Monoprinting workshop

I found the mono printing workshop informative as I learnt a different technique to that I already know. The standard inking up a plate then drawing on top of paper leaving the design behind to either use from the paper or print the negative using a roller. This way involves inking a plastic sheet, placing a stencil over the top followed by plain paper and then putting through your choice of roller. The ink used is designed to not dry up if left open so you must add a drying agent into the mix to ensure that your designs actually dry some time soon. The first print would be done on standard cartridge paper with any after being done on a glossy paper that includes a drying agent and therefore designs look better and dry quicker. Below are 3 of the stencils I used to create many prints.

405 Wayfinding Final Pictograms

Below are the finished 6 pictograms produced for the European Capital of Culture way finding system. I decided that these 6 designs are the most coherent with each other and suitable for the aesthetic I wanted to create. Some of them you will know straight away what they are such as Trinity Shopping Centre and o2 Academy however some make you think, which is what I wanted. The designs should make sense and be accessible but at the end of the day they are pictograms and must be basic, leaving the tourists to see the true detail of the buildings in real life.

405 Wayfinding final crit

Below are the pictograms I decided on to show in the final critique, they either take something from the architecture of the building or a key aspect of the use of the building. 

The 8 places that I chose were purely for the fact that there were all quite close together on a map so that I could show their whereabouts.

Trinity Shopping Centre

West Yorkshire Playhouse

Leeds Art Gallery

Belgrave Music Hall and Canteen

Kirkgate Market

Leeds College of Music

Leeds Museum

o2 Academy Leeds

I also created a set of arrows using drawings shown previously, I thought these could be used next to the pictograms to show the direction of the attraction. The different colours could represent the different sections.

I got some valuable feedback from the final crit, some of the advice I will act on to improve my final designs and to develop my mock ups, some I will consider in my evaluation for future projects. Some suggestions listed below:

• Adding the pictogram into the middle of the circular arrow
• Using colours for the pictograms rather than the arrows
• Dropping the pictograms for the College of Music and West Yorkshire Playhouse as they don't look coherent with the rest of the designs
• Create an actual arrow shape using my patterns

I really agree with the comment about College of Music and WYP, I believe the reason they don't match is because they don't take from the architecture and don't have that line drawing aesthetic. I am also going to further develop the arrow idea and see what I can produce using Illustrator to merge drawings.

404 Grid Types

Manuscript Grid

The manuscript is the simplest grid structure, also referred to as a block grid or a single column grid. It is defined by large text blocks and margins primarily, with the location and proportions of folios, footnotes, running headers and other secondary information coming second. They are widely used for extensive and continuous blocks of text such as in books and long essays; however they aren't limited to text, images can also be used. There are a few ways to help increase interest in the layout; widening the margins leads to narrower text blocks which focuses the eye on text, whilst narrowing the margins forces the text block to the edge of the format, increasing tension between the two near each other if it is a double page spread. As the grid is so simplistic a designers choice of typeface, font size, leading, measure, hierarchy etc is a key factor in the layout being a success.

Column Grid

Column grids are as you'd presume made up by placing multiple columns within the format and are good when discontinuous information needs to be presented, for example one column could be reserved for text, another for images and the final for image captions. With this in mind columns can be dependent on each other, independent and crossed over by design elements, this layout therefore is very flexible when organising information - you can separate blocks of info by placing them in different columns yet still show a connection between them. A column should be able to accommodate a comfortable measure for reading and avoid excessive hyphenation.

Modular Grids

Modular grids are like column grids with the addition of horizontal rows creating a division, the rows, columns and gutters between each section creates a matrix of cells. The format is good for complex projects that require more control compared to that of what a column grid can offer, some examples are image galleries and shopping carts. Modular grids lend themselves to the design of tabular info such as charts, forms, navigation, schedules and of course tables of data. Each cell in the grid can hold a small chunk of information or adjacent cells can be combined to form fields designated to hold a type of information. Cells can either be horizontal or vertical, proportion can be determined in a variety of ways:

• Average width and height of a paragraph
• Average image size
• Type proportions like leading and measure 

Large publishing systems presenting information across a variety of formats often use modular grids to keep consistent. As well as being practical, modular grids have developed an aesthetic image. 

Hierarchal Grids

These grids are commonly found on the web and are based on a more intuitive placement of elements. Proportions are usually customised instead of regularly repeated intervals - column widths tend to vary as do the location of flow lines. They can be thought of as loose organic grids and development often begins by spontaneously placing design elements with a rational structure to coordinate those elements thought about later. This layout type is also good for a project that requires an odd grid that doesn't fit easily.

405 Final Development

I decided to use one of the wavy designs I created as I believed it slightly resembled an arrow, rotating it at different angles gives the impression of different directions and the different colours could represent the different attractions: Shopping, Music venues & Bars, Museums & Galleries and Universities.

Below are the eight final pictogram designs for the attractions I choose to use: Belgrave Music Hall and Canteen, Trinity Shopping Centre, O2 Academy, Leeds Art Gallery, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds College of Music, Kirkgate Market and Leeds Museum. My plan is to use vinyl printing to create the arrowed directions and pictograms. The size of the circles would be as large as possible whilst fitting on an A2 piece.

405 Wayfinding Development 02

I started off developing the pictograms by taking the architecture from the buildings I was going to use and doing quick continuous line drawings. I took the most recognisable feature from the buildings so that the pictograms would be accurate representation.

I then decided to use a constraint in my designs - the use of a circle is the first step for consistency. I tried to do at least 2 variations for each attraction and later refined the ideas down to one per place.

 After having an experiment with the architecture using a quick method I went into illustrator to try and make the designs more professional and understandable.

This was the design I produced for the Kirkgate Market, based on how the roof looks from the inside as you look up, for locals this will be recognisable as it is a very old building with prominent features.

I then decided to experiment with this finished pictogram to see whether the plain design is the best option. I used scannography, cutting and collaging as well as water colours and pastels to add some vibrancy to the design. 

I believe the pattern created with the cutting and collaging is really interesting and could become a super graphic for this sign system however for the pictograms think it be best if I leave the designs plain black lines. Once I have the full set of designs I will consider the use of colour to differentiate the sections of attractions.

Above is a set of designs I created using the constraint of a circle and a fine liner pen, I considered fluidity when drawing and was inspired by Vincent Deboer in the way that he carefully considers every mark he makes and is very neat with lines being next to one another, not letting them touch. I am going to incorporate these designs into the design of the arrows for the way finding system.

405 Primary Research

Before I went any further with the design process I thought it would be best that I got out into the city centre and saw the places that I am going to produce pictograms for. Seeing the buildings in real life is a lot more helpful than simply on google images or maps. It allows you to see the scale, and how it is seen by the public, what features stand out and where the detail is. It also allowed me to think about where I could place the pictograms and directions to each place.

The thing that stood out the most to me on this building was the signage that becomes an architectural feature in my opinion - none of the actual features are unique to the building as it is quite underwhelming for an art gallery.

The museum building is a lot more interesting than the art gallery, featuring detailed carving into the stone.

Above is something that a lot of gig venues share, the 'now showing' tab above the doors let's people walking by know what is taking place in the venue in the near future. Always changing however never in design I believe this has potential as people will link the design to entertainment.

The window in this building is really interesting and would be good to experiment with, however I believe it may be too complicated for the pictograms I'm going to produce.

The most obvious choice for Trinity shopping centre and I'm going to go with it, the amazing roof structure that displays a lovely pattern above the main section of the centre.

The market building is fascinating, both outside and inside it shows detailed design and there are two options for the pictograms, the tower from the outside as a silhouette, or from below inside you can see the shape and light coming through.