Khadija Safri, VCU

My place is VCU, hence for the second project i have noticed some problems in the space. These problems are actually related to how the students interact with the space and also what equipments and materials they use according to their works.
Thoughts:
Wastage of material, paper cardboards, all thrown on the floor.
Unnecessary equipments and cartons dumped in the corridors.
Usage of toxic glue sprays, in enclosed classrooms.
You may like to have a look at some of my phase 2 photographs
http://www.flickr.com/photos/34699106@N07/sets/72157613147200635/

cleaned up!

I have gone through a little clean up. No worries have been nice nothing has been deleted :) Next time I will do it for sure though. I have unified all your previous posts to now be labeled according to the final list by Pornprapha. BUT I have assumed that all your first processes where "P1.1 Process a"...If its not the case (and could be b,c,d or comprehensive sketches" please modify accordingly-PLEASE ONLY SELECT INSTEAD IF NEEDED ONE OF THE LABELS THAT WE HAVE LISTED AND NOTHING ELSE.
I have also unified double names and labeled all unlabeled posts... but again please DOUBLE CHECK all of these and make sure your projects are labeled correctly as part of your whole process.OK?

Sara Al-Qatami, CentrePoint

My first approach to the project was that I had to collect random photos of the chosen place. I chose CenterPoint because the specification that the teacher wanted was that it is a place where it has people all the time and fairly large in size.

I went first time to just take photos, because no specific subject was given. Then, I collected things that represent the place like CenterPoint's logo, bags , and pictures of the shops' name. I put them on a board and presented them.

Afterwards, I proceeded to the next step that is having certain elements that I have to focus at. I had to take pictures of the main elements, which differ CenterPoint from any other place/Mall.

I think the factors which unifies this mall than the other malls the fact that it has: -

• Few shops.
• To all member of Family shops.
• Circulation Motion.
• An open wide space, the walking area is wide.
• Clean
• Regional
• Organized
• Safe
• All three floors are visible from each floor.
• Colorful.
• The only mall that has outside seating area for a coffee shop, exposed to fresh air.

When I went to the mall, trying to capture the points I have written and observed before, I saw many details that I didn’t pay attention to before as a regular customer. I went with a designer’s eye. I wanted to capture the right angles, and I also tried to focus in capturimg more than one factor in one photo rather than keeping capturing each point individually which will strengthen my photos.



I tried to imagine and organize the elements I wanted to focus on in my poster. I started visualizing the poster and creating a sketch for it.

I then made an attempt to finish my first trial just to get the sense of what more photos I need to have. I found that I needed to have hierarchy of the most to the least occurring/ important elements that my poster will be focusing on.

Then, I found that I didn’t have many photos focusing on micro elements. I went again and started observing everything closely.

I found it challenging translating what I had as points to visual images like the wide space, circular motion, and that all three floors are visible from any floor. Those where my main elements that I wanted to focus on because it is the most appealing to my audience.

I classified my audience that they are from all age groups kids, as there is kids playing area, and people from both genders, all age groups. But, no workers come to the place, only families.

I took this challenge and proceeded to have my final poster that I tried to keep all my elements very appealing and emphasizeon my elements.

Sara Al-Qatami, CentrePoint

How to label your post

how to post your process for project 1 phase 1
P1.1 Research
P1.1 Process a, b, c, d (if you have more than one process)
P1.1 Comprehensive Sketches
P1.1 final poster

P1.2 Research
P1.2 Process a, b
P1.2 Comprehensive Sketches
P1.2 Final

Design vocabulary list

These list is to help you help your partner as you critically analyze their work. Use this list to help you formalize your critique as you give them your opinions and suggestions on how to improve their work.

sign

icon

index

symbol

pragmatic {use}

poetic

persuasive

syntactic

semantic

pragmtic {intent}

connote/connotation

denote/denotation

concept

composition

content

audience

scale

unity

pattern

scale/size

convey

represent

abstract

form

color

line

mood

texture

communicate/communication

appropriate

reflect

relate/relationship

experience

coherence

balance

proportion

clarify

define

characteristic

simple/simplify

complex

contrast

persuade

suitable

rhythm

weight

movement

impression

THIs is an educational Blog!!!!!

All Material on this blog is used for an educational purpose.
It is prohibited to use inappropriate language.

Thank you.

Wafa al saffar, Process work

• In the beginning we’ve been asked t choose a public space and we need to observe it and document what we see and analyze people behaviors. I’ve choose the corniche since it is a nice public space where we found so much characteristic and in the recent years this characteristic been developed. For example the skyscrapers that are dominating the view. Audience are verified between kids, adults, and society level is also differs for example you found workers there. In addition there is multiple people from different countries.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/34751230@N06/sets/72157612955437247/

• Then we’ve been asked to define the experience that we got and how we can capture the essence of the place, most what I felt was the breeze of the sea and there is that sense of calmness: people watching the see, laying in the grass. in the same time there were that energy, were you found people walking, running, biking, playing with the ball.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/34751230@N06/sets/72157612955844193/
• Then I’ve we tried to create a mod board were we illustrate the place and trying to create a communication elements. We used the deconstruction techniques: were we eliminate the unneeded elements and we create 10 wards to illustrate the place..
http://www.flickr.com/photos/34751230@N06/3227370711/
1. Fresh
2. Calm
3. Energetic
4. Fun
5. Quality time
6. Playful
7. Construction
8. Dynamic
9. Exercise
10. Health
Then we have to create the poster by size 41*58

Fatima Bukshaisha, Corniche, process

Ideas:
First stage is taking pictures of the place and actually feeling the mood it is translated while I am in the Corniche. I wanted to include recognizable features of the Corniche.

Visualize:
I looked at every thing then I used the pictures that affects the audience more, the ones who reminded me of that place. People most of the time go there to walk or look at the see. I noticed the lines of perspective all the way when looking at the place. The pallet is dull (grayish\bluish) due to the weather in Qatar, which is most of the time not clear.

System:
The composition consists of three layers. I wanted it to have depth because the Corniche I a very opened space, so I thought of it as layers that combines the see, the sky, the boats, and the ground.

Note:
The pictures I posted are some of the major changes I did wile working on the poster.

Qatar Academy Senior building

This is almost my final poster. I stuck images that I think a important (Qatar Academy). This time I added lockers and shelves to give an obvious answer about where this place is. e.g., junior building or senior. I added students to show identity and atmosphere. I thought it's very important and so I used hierarchy. Also I wanted their work to show, I added at the top of the poster so I can show who they are and how they are different than others for an example junior students or students who study at university. Books and textbooks are very important for students to have an it's always around school buildings.
So I narrowed my poster to knowledge and growth because when I see the poster and all the other images I took, I think of how students grow by knowledge or education.

Qatar Academy Senior building

This is one of my basic mind maps about what you can usually expect in a school building. I first decided to mind map about high school in general and then focused on Qatar Academy because it's what I chose to do for my project.


This is an idea of how I wanted my poster to be. I had all the senses that has to do with high school and specifically Qatar Academy. I played with he composition and thought of hierarchy. I believe all of my images in this poster are important because all of these images allows you to understand where these senses are coming from. You can see the logo of the school, colorful paintings, books and most importantly the floor which I see everywhere around the buildings. I though it would be important to add it because it reminds me of (Qatar academy) and that's why i placed the logo on top of the floor with a smaller scale.
The floor can, in a way, represent the school or the logo.

After understanding and knowing what ideas to add to my poster, i got to my first final poster, which is not bad for the first option. The reason for this is that the poster looks too colorful and it should have limits by using colors. Other than that, hierarchy is not well organized but the reason why i think this poster could work is because of all the senses included and the composition. The students at the bottom of the page also give the strongest sense of school (Qatar Academy)

Amira Al Dakroury, The passages in souq waqif

Mood Boards 

3

2
1
Then in my process of approaching the project. i narrowed down my choices of words and concepts in to ( lines, rough textures and stacking ) as they are the most dominant features of the place.

My first draft: i used for the background an image from the ones i have captured of the place that has the texture of the weathered wood and then i applied other textures by layering them on top of each other ( to achieve the concept of stacking ) and then i added some linear shapes that i have found in my images to give that feeling of lines. For the color scheme i decided to use the main color of the passages (at night) which is the color brown ! and then i decided to go along with the tents and shades of the brown and apply it in all the composition. 

Problems: its too brown and its poor in colors and varieties the passages are mostly known for. it was too personal in a way ( more like an art piece ) it wasn't communicating well specially with the idea of linear, and true the composition elements are images that was taken there, but still it didnt bring out the identity of the place ( the color, pattern and type)

Second Draft: 

i was trying to work with layering the textures but in this time i decided to keep the textures with their own color ( since the passages are unpolished and they are old i decided to keep them natural ) but this time i decided to add a passage as an icon to the place am trying to show. as for the third word (linear) i decided to add a strip of an image of a wall with the paint draped. 

Problems: It still didnt communicate the idea of stacking and cramping

Third Draft:

So i decided to continue with my second draft. I was interested on the strips idea and i decided to make that as my stacking concept ( in placing them beside each other ) and to kind of give the feeling of that place ( chaos, stacked and everything is close to each other ) and by that i could use my textures and also the type ( shops signs ) to be my stripes elements. i placed them instead of the passages walls and i lowered the passage's opacity so that some of the stripes endings could work as a shadow to emphasize depth. The color are natural. i decided to show it this way because my place is rich of colors that work well together and thats my space's identity! 

Ghada, Al Wakrah Petrol Station, Process

Mahmoud Abbas,Abu Hamour,Process 2

I finally got Blogger to work ,so here we go.
My idea was to base the arrangement of the signs so they look chaotic to the viewer who hasn't been to Abu Hamour but recognizable to people who have,since its based on its map from Google Earth.I also decided to show the blaring speeds in Abu Hamour with bright lights since all you would see if you snapped a picture was line of light.
I started with a Grey background since that's my connotation of Abu Hammour,I later replaced it with asphalt to help give rough dirty texture of Abu Hamour.I kept rearranging the signs until they seemed chaotic yet harmonious.

I first came up with the things that most describe the animal market

-Animals in cages

-Color+texture of their fur.

-Smells

-Graffiti on walls

I then tried to incorporate al these into my poster

This is what I got when I first grouped the different animals

I then added all the other aspects to it.

However, I was advised to remove the textural layer I had on top, as it didn't portray the actual textures of the place.

I also decided to focus more on the graffiti on the walls, as I found out it was one way of communication for the people that work there.

Mahmoud Abbas,Abu Hamour,Process

I first started by picking a location I wanted to work with ,I chose Abu Hamour Petrol Station which was near where I live.When I went their i noticed how chaotic it really is,people don't obey signs,or arrows and they would'nt stop or even slow down if you walked infront of their cars.
You would be visually bombarded with signs of the stores and restaurants.you can find anything.
After the second time I went to the store I noticed that the place was dirty ,and very car based, the ads were high up so drivers could see them.
After endless trials The rest of my process is here:http://www.flickr.com/photos/19723019@N05/sets/ until i can get Blogger to work.

Update:I've got it to work now.

Hamzah Abdel'al

Souq Waqef


Our project was to choose a public space and to study this space and to try to apply theories like semiotics on some graphic peaces for this space ... my space was Souq waqef which i discovered that is a very boring space to talk about ... but though in the future i wont choose my subject so i just took the challenge and started .... our first project was to do a poster for this place ... informative poster .. we started to take photos for our places ... i took photos for every where inside the souq ... pornphapa said that my pictures is good because i included micro and macro photos ... the next phase was to take the most important photos which reflects the souq it self .. which mean arrange the photos by highracke .... after i did that i started to think about the poster it self ... i needed more photos to make the poster gives the feeling of souq specially cultural places inside it .... our first presentation was so bad because i didnt even think .... i went to souq 4 times taking photos and observe how people react .... i took a very good photos at the end .... the composition in my new poster was so bad so i will critique it while i am going to talk about it ...



i used one of the patterns to put my pictures .. this pattern is a very old arabic pattern .... and the type on the right which says souq waqif in arabic .... the thing is this is not even a poster because the pattern which contains the pictures is lost inside the space and it feels like its just one element .... the pictures arrangement inside the pattern is not gd because i dont see a high contrast in the highracky ... the type is normal ... and the position is not really gd ... it doesn't communicate well to my audience and i cant really feel the souq even that i can understand that it an old thing ... i think it can much much better if i changed the compostion and make the
atmosphere of souq appear ....

Assil, Villagio Food Court

These are only 3 examples of the 5 finalized posters I was working on. From the feedback I got they were all not working formally. I was advised to focus more on similarities of form and color. For my final poster, I tried to focus on achieving that and also show the path to the food court from Villagio Gate 4 (which is also known as the food court entrance). The food court is to the right went you enter from that gate, so everything on my poster is placed on the right side to demonstrate that idea.

Khadija: Process

This is my process. I am showing here how i came up with up my final poster. These are images cropped in order to show the details of what one sees around vcu.
>I initially divided vcu in to several categories:
student: qatari and non qatari
texture: shadows, tiled floor, majlis, painted glass
type: vcu logo, boards for direction, signage, arabic type
place: indoors, corridors, architecture, patterns, door handles
color: yellow, white, orange, purple
departments: interior, fashion, graphics
materials: ruler, cutting knife, paint, measuring tape, books, sewing , manequin, laptop
student environment: mugs, messy scattered, moise, high heels

Thoughts:
After looking at all my pictures i realized that there are some similarities in the equipments used in all the three departments. The work done in vcuq all depends on the process, craftsmanship and being precise. Hence from here i took a new way to design my poster: being precise. However i could not ignore the fact that students around vcu make this place vibrant, colorful and very chaotic.

Visualize:
i started to take a lot more closer details of things which establish the mood and atmosphere of vcu: colorful. Also i took pictures of things such as grids, rulers, measuring tapes which are very important in presenting the art work here at vcu. http://www.flickr.com/photos/34699106@N07/

System:
Initially i thought of having a linear composition to emphasis on the measurement and preciseness, but then as it did not describe the colorful and chaotic atmosphere of vcu, i tried by putting images next to each other and creating a collage. the colors most importantly in the background would emphasis on the corridors of vcu, so one can really imagine how vcu looks like when he/she enters the space.

Katie Coston

When I first went to Aspire, I took several images and then I took notes on the surroundings.

-People- While the school uses the practice pitches, the track and surrounding park areas are open to the public. When I first arrived students from the American School of Doha were running around the track. After a few hours or so the Aspire students came out to use the fields. On the far end of the location their is a more public pitch as well as a playground where I found several families. At night the space is very cowded. All the pitches~6, are full of players and the track is crowded with walkers and joggers.

-Layout- The area is set up in a circle. the pitches are lower and the track is raised in a way that the walkers can view the players from above. there are two sections of the track one for walking and one or jogging. Throughout the patht there are stations where the joggers can stop adn do different exercises. There are also 2 tennis courts, a volleyball sand box and a climbing wall.

-Setup- I noticed that the paths and sections are all set up in a very organic way. Most paths are curving creating organic lines as well as the buildings are very curvilinear in shape. And the entire area is very green with plans accenting in pinks/purple/blue. These organic elements are set off by the consistant use of very metalic and concrete materials.

-Facilities- The pitches were all very well maintained trimmed to perfection and very green. Half of the the pitches were actually astro-terf. there are workers all over the grounds to maintain them. they ride around on golf carts, lawn mowers, and bikes.

-Senses- The ari was full of the esent of freshly cut grass and the ground to keep the area green was almost floating away in water. when you stepped on the grass it would soak though your shows/ and with the winter it got cold. the atmosphere is nice I felt very comfortable there and I enjoyed walking around because there is so much to see that while you're exercising it keeps you distracted.



More images can be viewed at...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kcoston89/sets/72157613190603797/

The next step I took was to my space into the different senses; sounds, sights, and smells. I took this step so that I could start developing my concept.

From there I narrowed my list down to the essential elements found in my photographs.
-materials -sound - surrounding views
-shapes -feel/textures - noise
-colors -activities


After gaining an understanding of these areas I ordered my images and created a hierarchy between them and rounded my concept based off of space. This was because the area was nicely balanced between nature and the facilities that surround them. The landscape is done with organic spacing rounded edges/hills. The very contemporary desin of the building corrisponds with the natual feel by having rounded edges. The shift from the building to the green is done through the use of natural materials.

I then had finished my research and then created my compositions based off of space.

Assil, Villagio Food Court

Souq Wagif

Sara Al-Qatami, CentrePoint

Fatima Al-Kharaz Dahl Al-hamam

Wafa al saffar, Cornich Doha

Mahmoud Abbas,Abu Hamour

Ghada, Al Wakrah Petrol Station, Final Poster

Hamzah Abdel'al

Aisha, Villagio

Abdulla, Souq Waqif

Jo Bermejo, VCUQ Library, Final Poster