Villagio Food Court, Sketches

This image I took from the Macdonalds cashir is where i got myidea and inspiration from.

 

I've tried to do many icons, even without using my list of 6 problems. Even arrows and such to experiment on whether or not I can be flexible 

with this grid that I am using. 

Villagio Food Court, Sketches

I decided to make icons about :

1. Throwing food in the garbage after one is done eating.

2. standing in line

3. Talking in a low voice (because the food court is a family area, people have to mind each other and the language they use).

4. Bathroom sign 

5. Disbaled Sign

6. prayer room

here are some sketches of how I would start. My main idea is to make my icons in a grid to reflect the cashir LCD screen found in every restaurant in the food court.

Al-Teila, Group project

Al-Teila, Group project

We started by reading the handout telling us about Al-Teila game, then we did some research about it on the internet to get a better understanding of the game.
Our next step was writing down the points that make the game what it is, keeping in mind the cultural elements of the game. Below is an image showing our mind mapping:
After understanding the rules of the game we stated thinking of ways to present the game to children today but still keeping with the traditions of the original game. Below is an idea we had, using hands to abstract the icons; for we felt that hands were an important part of the game:
Here are the hands further developed and shown in a clearer way to understand the game:
However after creticing with the class and hearing what others had to say we realized that using the hands, we had abstracted the game too much too fast. Using the hands had taking away from the main focus of the game which is the marbles. So we went back to brain storming and to representing the game in simple ways. We decided to each come up with an idea then we would look at all of them and see which parts of which ones we can use. Below is the idea I had, I decided to stick with just using the marbles and some arrows, keeping it really simple:After developing our icons we started thinking about how we would present the game. We had a few ideas including a dice like cube, a leaflet and a mat. We decided to go with the mat idea for it would be interactive, the children can see the instructions and then actually play on the mat; furthermore it would help them know how far they need to be away from the marbles to play. It would help them in setting up the game. Below are a few of the ideas we had for the mat:
We also thought of have a cover for the mat so that the children can fold it up and take it where ever they please.

Fruit and Vegetable Market - final

Abu Hammour Final

sign application

using the idea of plexi-glass as a medium to keeping up with the theme of the space being clean

Color selection and Application

I selected this color palette based off of the blue that is used throughout Aspire on the buildings and other architectural features. Then I decided to use orange, it's an accent color used in aspire in the mulch and paths that surround the area. Then I wanted to use a grey blue to offset the bright blue.


These are my final icons. I put the orange around the edge so that the signs would pop out. Aspire is a very large open space and the icons if i just left them blue for the back it would blend away and not be noticeable in its surroundings. I made most of the objects in the darker blue and just used the grey for the background color. I was very happy with my color icons I felt like i did a good job matching the color properly to the building especially when the icons were printed. the orange is just light enough to stand out and doesn't cause vibrations between the blue. One icon I would have worked more on if time allowed would have been the no smoking icon because the line of the cigarette is to thin and it disappears.

Type and Icons

For my type selection I chose to use Grotesque and Naskh. Both typefaces I felt had a good balance between the curved and straight strokes that both relate well to the concept of Aspire. What I noticed most while selecting Grotesque for the latin typeface is that the curse especially on the lowercase r, reflect the curve of the track. I also feel that Naskh and Grotesque balance each other well through stroke width and their x can easily be balanced. And they are both very clear and legible.

Creating My Icons

It took me several different refinements to be able to finally get my system right. I kept jumping around from one idea to the next.


This was my first set of icons. Originally because of the time that I had spent on developing the trash icon, and because of how refined it was, I decided to us the embedded concepts for my system. The idea was that it is clean balanced between curved and balanced between curved and straight lines. But the rest of my icons dont fit in at all and each seemed to have their very on system. But I could look at these icons and take certain elements from each that I could then put into my system to make them work.

Now with this set of Icons i created I was getting closer. I had zoomed in close on each object, made them more equally balanced by color and I added the element of the socks to the legs so I could break up the space more. But during the critique I noticed that I hadn't followed the diagonal on all the images and that they all needed to include and object combined with an action; like the bottle being thrown into the trash, the foot stepping on the flower. I needed to come up with some way that there would be interaction between the bench and the cigarette, and most of all I needed to still develope a good icon for the restroom that followed the system. Also I needed to come up with a way that my walk and run icon could be unified but at the same time could have distinguishable characteristics so that they could be read as separate signs.

For my final set of icons I fixed the above problems by giving them all the same angle, I created a hand that was holding the cigarette to create some sort of interaction, as well as the ball resting on the bench, and then finally I made the walk and run icons exactly the same but added texture to the running to separate the two. Then for the bathroom signs, I illustrated a womens and a mans shoe, this idea I still should have pushed further if the time allowed for me to do so.

Overall while creating my icons I was very frustrated, it took me until the end to understand the idea of a system and especially what exactly my system was. The icons would have been much easier for me to complete I feel if I had spent more time on research and developement through sketches just like I did with the trash icon. But what I liked about my icons is that by including interaction between objects as a part of my system made the icons more interesting and exciting to work with. It forced me to be more creative and to generate ideas that you wouldn't see on a normal basis. I feel that signages systems is definitely and area that Ill still need to improve on but feel like I do have a good basis for it, and also even though I struggled with my system, the fact that I kept working with the idea helped me to learn about the concept within design more, and that was definitely a good outcome for the project.

Icon Development

After having done the book where we had to find certain problems within our space, I used these ideas to begin my icons. I took different photographs from my space and as well as looked back at some of the photos I took from the beginning of the problem and started sketching ideas. With each sketch I would try to look at different element within the photo so that I could abstract the image. Here are some examples:

Most of what I did was to highlight the different shadows. what I noticed while doing these sketches was that it took several different trys to find a way that was affective so that both the bottle and the hand would remain clear. If I highlighted one area the bottle would disappear and if I highlighted another it would blend in with the hand and create a blob.



Another step I took when I first started to create my icons was to look at the different features within Aspire so that I could try to develop A system. I definitely wanted to keep the idea of a some was organic feel but very clean and sharp. But some of the designs I was coming up with still didn't really fit with the surrounding fill especially with the audience. So I kept trying to develop my concept for a system