Before the Break

What I Discovered
This week has been more about feedback than anything, so I thought I'd talk a bit about a few of the things people pointed to as being successful, and where I plan to go from here.


In terms of a 'general advertisement,' this was most well received. In the other iterations, I tried to be more descriptive, but the sheer amount of information was confusing or hard to read. People pointed out a few things though.

First, there's a way in which the center names should be present, but just not as much as I was making them. Maybe they could float around the tagline, with lowered opacity. Also, people pointed out it may be better if there were multiple tails coming to a single point (like other iterations). It's also necessary to say it's a student group—but to try and do so in a unique way. Maybe "A New Kind of Student Group," something less bland than what's there now. Finally, the tagline works better as thin than thick.

The second image is one of my ideas for focusing in on an individual center.

I think I wanted to have it where it was zooming in on one bubble, making the others smaller. Again I think I erred too far on the side of information (same with the labels over it). People suggested having the center names somewhere else, and simply calling one of them out quietly so it doesn't compete with the overall.

Hannah pointed out, it feels like the tails of these thought bubbles need to come inward slightly somehow, to bring more focus to the overlapping areas. The text within the word bubbles is a bit too crammed as well.

What's Next
I was thinking last night… There will be one day soon when I write "what's next" and I'll realize the class is over, that I'm soon-to-be gone. Such a strange feeling.

For now, I think I've done a good job of exploring a lot of different options within this theme (two weeks, 30 iterations), and by doing all this work—some stuff that I knew might not work even as I was making it—I've been able to start making more concrete decisions.

Between now and Thursday, I'm going to be trying to focus on the two images above. It seems like I've got the symbols and information in the right ball park, now it's important to get all those symbols working properly with one another.

How I Spent My Time
I've spent more and more time hovering over my computer, working in Illustrator, and then exporting things to be printed than I care to really tell. I also started thinking about that postcard next week and what I'd like to have when I meet with Frank.

Small update

What I Discovered
So this past week has been all about getting different iterations ready for Tuesday. I'll just talk briefly about what I've done, then on to the images. I've begun to settle on a grouping of material that I feel is necessary for the advertisements:

1. The group's name
2. The tagline
3. The center names
4. The word bubbles
5. The mention of it being at the University of Michigan
6. Website link

Now the website doesn't actually exist yet, but as I said in my last post I'm fairly certain I'll be expanding this to the web and the domain isn't registered yet.

Other than that. I remember a strong preference for the word bubbles coming from a single point as opposed to all over. Hannah felt there was a really nice contrast between the dot next to the tagline and the text "The Roosevelt Institute." However, I kind of want that dot to somehow be a piece of The Roosevelt Institute.

Other than that, I've been trying to play with what is seen first. (e.g., is the tagline where the information starts, or is it what you end on). The compositions are still shaky, I'm just trying to figure out how all the symbols work together. There's also a grayscale version, because I need to see how it operates with that.









What's Next
I still have about three or four more ideas I'd like to have done for Tuesday, so I need to get those done and print of about 12–13 things. I hope to get good comments about them on Tuesday and then plug away at them more. Time is essential, but I feel I've been making good progress in recent weeks. Luckily, I finished my second rough draft last week, so I won't have that hanging over my head—I can just focus on this stuff.

How I Spent My Time
Unfortunately, I didn't make it to class today because I felt kind of sick. I wanted to get some comments about what I was doing before Tuesday. Otherwise, last week I spent a good time expanding my paper in some areas, making it more concise in others. I actually spent a little bit of time back on a roll of trace before I launched headlong into these new iterations. Then, I spent time in Adobe Illustrator coming up with these.

Rougher Drafts

What I Discovered
So my critique on Tuesday actually went really well, I got some very positive responses about the direction I was working in. I'll start by positing a few images of stuff I finished after I last posted. The page layout on these was all a bit sloppy, I was looking more for the way my elements were working.

What grabbed the most attention was this:

There is a way in which all these forms emanate from The Roosevelt Institute that is important, that they also overlap and work with one another. People pointed out though the way in which those thoughts attached was a bit disjointed. Luckily, one of my other iterations was revealing about what might work.


The thoughts come from an identifiable point. I'd argue too the page's structure and composition is just naturally a lot stronger, so that may have skewed the read for people liking it more. What's more, people said the tagline as an entry was very successful. Hannah said that there is this rhythm between the black dot at the end and the tagline and the boldness of The Roosevelt Institute. She suggested seeing if there was a way to make that connection even clearer.

I've also been thinking long and hard about this idea of 'kit of parts.' Old identities were really static. The IBM logo hasn't changed in forty years, it has clear rules about what colors you can put it in, what size it has to appear, where it can appear on a page. FedEx is also a pretty good example of this, so are many companies from the 1960s rooted in a sense of clean modernism.

New brand identities tend to be more flexible pieces, they are components of a puzzle that operate separately, as well as together and appear in different sizes, colors, on different materials. A recent Johnson-Banks identity for The Hue Center in Philadelphia really gets at this (and also I'm finding an eerie similarity of color choice).

Which brings me to the next part, there's ways in which I can focus on specific word bubbles for a specific event or policy center, say Health Care:


You can zoom in, push the other bubbles to the side or corner, make them smaller, so while all those components are there, the focus is very specific.

Also, I've either settled or have come very close to settling on a tagline.

It's descriptive, pointed, clear. As I said above, I've not really decided about how it will interact with the other elements, but people in my small group critique heavily gravitated to something succinct and punctuated.

There's a lot I need to think about next though:

1. What does this look like in grayscale (elephant in the room)

2. What other ways can these word bubbles appear as groups

3. How can you make the tagline the start or endpoint

4. How do I ensure people know this is at the University of Michigan

5. What about a web presence

That last number, I've been thinking a lot about. Sometimes a web presence for student groups is really pointless, but in this case it actually might be very helpful. Each policy center meets at different times each week. It would be nice to have a concrete place to list those times instead of having to e-mail.

Although I think flash is overused, this actually would be a good project to use it. I'm envisioning a website where it would have a white background and just the tagline. You click on it, and all these word bubbles of different centers come out from it, they're sort of floating around freely on the page, overlapping with one another at different times. You can click on one, and it expands and zooms in, pushing the others to the side. It lists the time, place, director and gives an e-mail contact.

Just a thought, it may be a bit too quick to think about a website when I don't have things threshed out entirely, but showing how this identity could transcend just a web experience could be

What's Next
So I'm really excited about my project. I can't say how happy that makes me. I'm finding that a lot of the grueling work and sometimes unenjoyable iterations I explored is leading me to a place that is meaningful and has room for exploration.

That all said, I'm actually going to take this weekend to not work on these things explicitly.

Say what?

I'm all about the balance. I have a lot of passion for what I discovered, but I haven't quite found the direction I want to take it in. Looking at the timeline, I see that our next small group critiques are the class before our next rough draft is due. I don't think it's wise to do both concurrently. So I'm going to bury myself at Espresso Royale and get my second rough draft out of the way before I start to work again—that way it won't be hanging over my head.

How I Spent My Time
This week I looked through my thesis again and marked it up myself. It was like a Vietnam flashback, very evident I wrote it in the four days before break ended. I also spent a boat load of time creating those final iterations and printing work out. I've been going around, seeking out advice on them as well.

Okay, that's enough.

LESS TALK
MORE WORK