COMD3601 Information Design

Hitchings | D054 | Fall 2022

Page 3 of 12

Assignment 7 Content Development

Phase 2 Diagram and FlowChart/ Timeline: Concept Development Now that you have spent some time understanding and learning about your topic, gathering, organizing and assessing content, it’s time to start to think about your visual solution.

As you begin to sketch and visualize your ideas keep go back to your thesis statement, all components or your design solution should support your thesis statement, keep revising.

DUE

Week 12 Monday 11/28/22

  1. Browse tips posted here: >>Lesson/ConceptDevelopment
  2. Please make a folder in the class Dropbox with your name and save your concept sketches and design comps as PDFs into the >>Assignment7-ConceptDevelopment

A. Organize Content

  1. Your project should have one main focused thesis:
    • What’s the core message?
    • What’s the main question being answered?
  2. Organize your content into a clear outline
  3. Use bullet points to organize details for each section
  4. If appropriate gather the right data to support your thesis.
  5. Identify the type of graph that will help you visualize this data: >>The Data Visualisation Catalogue

B. References

You can find references and explore some excellent design work here: >>Lessons/Inspiration

  • Gather images from a variety of sources that help to inspire and guide you
  • Identify at least three designers who have successfully completed work that is inspiring and perhaps related to aspects of your project

C. Sketches

Create at least 10 sketches of your layout and related ideas:

  • Each sketch MUST have a border around it, in proportion to the actual final work in order to clearly specify the dimensions of the space. Sketches can be scaled much smaller.
  • Sketches should give you a sense the of the space you are working with and show how you might organize the content to fit. Reference your outline from your content document. Work within a grid.

D. Defining A Grid

Set up the document in InDesign. Create several pages with different grid systems. Chunk your outline into sections and lay them out within the gird.

  • Tabloid Poster – 11×17 inches (Vertical layout or Horizontal)
  • Margin: 0.5”
  • Bleed: 0.25”
  • Set up a grid
  • Gutter: .025”

E. Asset Building

  • Begin to create and collect needed images. If you are illustrating your piece make sure you set aside the time to create the illustrations. If you are using photography, make sure they are high-resolution and visually consistent
  • Set up a file in Illustrator and continue to build and experiment with the graph tool

F. Typeface

Carefully select (no more than 2) typefaces you would like to work with for your project. Do your research and show your research.

  • Study the typefaces available to you in the FONT folder on the computers in class
  • Choose two different typefaces that compliment each other, perhaps a serif and a sans serif
  • Try to choose typefaces that come with a large variety of of fonts: Light, Condensed, Heavy, Extended, etc.

DUE

Week 12 Monday11/28/22

Be prepared to present all of the above items with the class. Please make a folder with your name and save all the above work as PDFs into the >>Assignment7-ConceptDevelopment Dropbox folder

Class Info

  • Date: Monday 11/13
  • Meeting Info: Room P114

Topic

  • Intro to Project 2 & 3 >>Activities/Projects/Project2&3
  • Phase 1: Project 2&3 Proposal >>Assignment 6 Research
  • Overview of Diagrams and Sequentially Based Graphics
    Built on the foundation of research, good information design:
    1. Provides a means to see what lies within
    2. Finds relationships
    3. Calls attention to things that might not have been visible in other forms
    4. And perhaps even determines the answer to a question.
  • Cynthia Damar-Schnobb – a short presentation about ‘Placemaking,’ You can see some of the work she presented on her company website: https://entro.com/work/

Inspiration

Here is a look at a number of examples to get you thinking and inspired:

    1. Infographics
      https://www.informationisbeautifulawards.com/showcase/3986-bat-benefits-infographic
      https://www.informationisbeautifulawards.com/showcase/3933-trees-of-new-york-city
      https://www.informationisbeautifulawards.com/showcase/4357-the-time-is-now
      https://www.lucasinfografia.com/Mortality-causes
    2. Visual Storytelling, Visual Journalism
    3. Diagrams
    4. Flow Charts and Timelines (sequential storytelling)
    5. Maps

Activities and Lab Time

  • Review ‘revised draft’ of info-graphic poster >>Assignment5-InfoGraphic-Final Dropbox folder
  • Tag-team – everyone review 1 student’s info-graphic – provide the following feedback:
    1. Is the overall message of the info-graphic clear – why or why not?
    2. Did the designer effectively use facts and data to support their thesis (and title of the piece) – why or why not?
    3. Does the design of the info-graphic effectively showcase the content:
      • clear focal point?
      • clear hierarchy of information?
      • effective use of typography, headers, colors, page structure, etc.?
      • overall attention to detail (spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc)

Homework

  1. Project 1 FINAL Due Week 12
    Please make a folder with your name and save your design comps as PDFs into the >>Assignment5-InfoGraphic-Final Dropbox folder
  2. Phase 1: Project 2&3 Proposal >>Assignment 6 Research
    Save your doc or PDF with your name into the class Dropbox folder titled: >>Assignment6-Research
  3. Next week we will work on: Phase 2 Developing concept sketches:
    • For your Diagram: Sketch and design your focal image. This should be clear, beautiful and stylized. You can use photography, or an illustration (digital or hand-drawn). Ideally work should be original
    • For your FlowChart/Timeline (sequential story) Flush out your content, create a mind-mapping chart to help focus subject. Organize all content that will appear in your sequential story (this should be outlined in your Project Proposal). Begin to experiment with how you might present the content visually.
    • Research examples to reference as inspiration. Save them as URL links in your project proposal.

Assignment 6 Research

Diagram and FlowChart/ Timeline – Phase 1: Research. Understanding your topic and gathering, organizing and assessing content. Please create a document that includes each of the listed headers below:

Name of Topic

Resources

List (at least 5) online (re)sources from:

  • Academic One File has always been an excellent general database for undergraduate research. The depth of full-text offerings has recently been improved.
  • Ebook Central is an expansive collection of ebooks that can be searched either through the catalog or as a standalone database. Here you can get Meirelles, Isabel, the recommended reading listed above.
  • The Wall Street Journal is free to the entire City Tech Community. Activate your free subscription today!
  • The New York Times Sign up for your free academic pass or renew your subscription
  • You can also use other sources but they should be reliable

Thesis

Compose a paragraph statement of your thesis. The thesis statement should describe your objective – ‘take-away’ – for your audience.

Supporting Sections

Outline at least three components that describe your thesis and give context to it. Think beginning, middle and end. This can include background information, facts about the subject matter, current state of the problem.

Facts

Find at least 10 facts that support your thesis (include citation from where you find your fact). These can included numbers, comparisons, words, dates, quotations, definitions, etc.

Words Associations

Begin to develop a long list of words associated with your topic. At least 20 words. Think pictogram and ideogram.

DUE

Week 11 Monday 11/21/22

  1. Browse research tips posted here: >>Lesson/Research
  2. Please make a folder with your name and save your research word doc or PDF for Project 2 Phase 1 into the >>Assignment 6: Research Dropbox folder
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