It just occurred to me that I forgot to post the middle step between my first and last versions of my Smithsonian book.

The critique went pretty well. We decided that the yellowish/goldish/almost greenish color wasn’t right for the work, and that it should change to something bolder and easier to see from far away. Thus the “BSoD blue” that I used in the final version.

We also agreed that the whole system looked a bit softspoken, with all the whitespace and light colors. And the type was a little awkward in some places. So I fixed my type and made it all feel stronger in my last round.

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This is the final version of my Less>More book. There was a last-minute color change, inspired by the Blue Screen of Death. While average users are usually afraid of the BSoD, hackers take it as a challenge.

The blue is a bolder, more pronounced color that reminds me of a hacker’s determination.

…That, and the gold-green color just wasn’t working out.

As you may notice, I added a flash drive to my set of promotional items. I felt that it would be an appropriate item to offer in a gift shop for an exhibit about hackers.

I also updated my page order to take the viewer through the museum experience. First they get introduced to the idea of it, then they see it online. Then they visit the museum, where they see the banners from the parking lot. When they walk inside, they see the wall design. Then before they leave, they go to the gift shop, purchase a shirt and a flash drive, then take it home in their gift bag.

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I’ve made some improvements to my series of “Less>More” designs. And I made a book out of ’em!

Despite all of my different media having the same colors and imagery, my designs from last class didn’t feel very unified. I think I’ve made some good progress on that aspect since then.

My wall and web promo are okay, but they need more of the visual interest that my banners have. So I’m gonna work on that.

But until then, here’s what I’ve got so far:

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My process for this project has gone a little something like this:

Pretty-ish with no substance -> ugly substance -> better-looking substance

My goal is to achieve full substance/sexiness potential. Hopefully, I can get there in the next round.

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These are at least a bit more successful than my last round.

I still feel like my brain is really having a hard time wrapping around this type of project. The whole anchorage/relay thing is hard!

But that’s what I’m here for, though. To learn how to think.

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As far as aesthetics go, I like the top one. Although, it looks a little bit like an album cover from the ’90s. Conceptually, I like the top and bottom ones. The middle one is just using the floppy disk icon as a stand-in for the real thing. And that’s not very exciting, is it?

This whole anchorage & relay thing is still really hard for me to fully grasp. But I think I’m starting to get it. There’s a glimmer of hope for me after all.

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Peer2Peer

• focuses on how data transfer revolutionized how the world sees community and public property

Hacks to Riches

• hackers who became famous & successful (like Steve Jobs, Woz, etc.)

Less is More

• evolution of computer hardware; devices are getting smaller, but more powerful over time

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So, even though this is technically the last version with an all-class critique, I’m still going to have to make some changes/improvements before carrying it over to my Typography project.

For example, my ethernet cable is losing its meaning now. It used to be an anchor for the dates on the timeline, but then my timeline felt heavy. Now it’s just kind of floating at the top without any connection to the timeline at all. That’s gonna change. I’ll continue playing with the placement of that ethernet cord in relation to my dates, and find a solution to that problem.

Also, I’m  continuing my battle with color. The whole thing feels a bit too light. So I need to figure out a way to make it darker/heavier. That will help things stand out from the page a bit more. Honestly, I was worried about these infographics being adjacent to blocks of black text because the black text will be too heavy in comparison. If I can beef up my infographics, I can avoid that problem before it starts.

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I’ve changed my electric chartreuse to a darker, gold color. It definitely helps with legibility and gives the whole system a more mature feel.

My processor infograph needed some more space, so I made it twice as wide. This allowed me to give my “processors” some breathing room.

One of my timelines was just begging to be vertical, so I changed it around to give the text some more room. The information all fits in there a lot nicer now, especially since I’m using a consistent width for my blocks of text.

My first round of posters aren’t much to look at, because I was still figuring some things out (like what size my infographs should be). Now that I’ve got a better grasp on what needs to be done, I’m sure next time will be a lot better.

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Here is the previous round of infograph(ic)s I did. I fixed a lot of issues since I did these guys.

Here are my newest ones. I decided to stop using black and that weird green color, and just keep it to the original blue and yellowish. I think I’m using my colors a lot better now. Although I could darken my yellow a bit. It ends up printing really light.

Some people had difficulty linking processor power to the scale of my icons (they thought that maybe the size of the icons were the size of the processors themselves, which is not the case), so I ended up using repetition instead of scale to illustrate the difference in power. It comes across much easier now. More icons = more power. No one’s confused anymore.

My use of lines to link information to image reflect the way circuits look in a circuit board. They also easily direct the viewer’s eye along a path through groups of information.

The timelines look a lot cleaner now. I still need to make some changes, but they’re well on their way to being awesome.

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