Abu Hamour

After my 1-1 critique ,I had a lot of good advice how to better improve my signage's system and quality.I also found a better typeface that ave better texture.

Fruit and Vegetable Market, phase 3

This is what I showed on sunday:
After talking to Maya about my work and seeing what other people in the class created I noted the changes I need to make to my icons.
These changes are:
-create smoother lines
-the uneven floors icon needs to be clearer to show uneven floors rather than a box on the ground
-make some of the white lines thicker or get rid of them
-trash icon: less detail in the trash to continue the unity between it and the other icons
-hands: need to all give the same feel, stroke etc.
-fruits icon: change to fit the feel/mood, not so much detail like in the pineapple
-vegetables: smoother lines
-tap: less detail
-icons may need a box/border around them
-space between arabic words may need to be smaller
-english type needs to change, no serif, needs to be more organic

Villagio Food Court, icons

I tried to make two icons for each problem so that I have an option in the end, when refining the last chosen ones.

These are two examples of icons I made for "Talking softly" icon. Because usually food courts are very noisy and it is hard to hear one another.

Stand In Line

Throw Trash

Arrows

No Left Over Food

Villagio Food Court, Sketches

To begin with my icons I started to sketch them using a a grid from graph paper to make the squares that define the icon.

These sketches include:

- no left over food.

- stand in line

- bathroom signage

Villagio Food Court

At first I started to look at and analyze the feel of the Food Court in Villagio. I was looking at thins such as color, sound, and even the way people behave. At first I started to analyze colors in the Food Court. They are all bright colors such as Red, Orange, Yellow, and Blue.

Then I had a better idea when I came closer to each restaurant. I noticed the LCD of the cash machine that has the money amount in a geometric, digital, shape. So I thought I would use it for my whole signage system since every restaurant has one. So it's the common thing in all restaurants.

Fruit and Vegetable Market, phase 3

After finishing my first 4 icons I started developing the next 4. Keeping with the same feel to keep a unity between all the icons.
Here are the problems I addressed:

-The icon below is to show people visiting the market where whatever they are buying will be wighted to calculate how much they will need to be paying.

-The icon below is to warn people of the uneven floors of the market.


-The Last two icons are to help people find their way around the market. The first icon points to where the fruits area is and the second points to the vegetable section.
When the two icons are placed next to each other I feel that they are better read.
These two icons are the only two without any human figure, however I think they still work well and carrier a sense of unity with the other icons.

Post Critique

After the critique I was left with some very good advice on how better improve my signage system.I got advice on how i could simultaneously streamline my design and communicate my message more effectively.Simply put it was to add lines to indicate amount rather than have an entire separate sign to do so.

For the typefaces I first looked through the Arabic typefaces since they are limited in number and its easier to find a Latin typeface that can syntactically harmonize with Arabic than the other way around.After looking through all the dirty or (gasp!) stencil Arabic typefaces available in Linotype (yes every single one) it was down to 2 . Myopia and Taghiir.
I chose Myopia because Taghiir was too clean.
Then I went on to look at an english typface that can balance Myopia I looked through :
http://www.dafont.com/theme.php?cat=113&page=1
http://www.dafont.com/theme.php?cat=108
http://www.dafont.com/theme.php?cat=109
(gasp!)=> http://www.dafont.com/theme.php?cat=114

(Yes every single one)

Fruit and Vegetable Market, phase 3

The class critique was very useful to me. I was able to hear what others thought about my work.
Below are the changes I made to the icons I showed in class.
Along with the small changes I did some cropping to most of the icons. Before the cropping the icons showed too much, they were more like pictures rather than icons. These improved icons, below, I feel will be clearer to the audience, for they focus on the main point they are addressing.

The critique

After working on the first icon, i tried developing a system for all my icons. I chose each icon to have a object and an index, since the first one i started with included the cutting knife(object) and the marks(index). I also decided not to include a lot of other information and tried cropping it with greater emphasis on the object. i also included a hand in all my icons.

The Critique:
The critique in the last class was beneficial for me. Since VCUQ is a design school, the critical response i received was on the fact that my icon designing was not suitable to represent the space and people. Thereby, now i have the challenge to develop something, which is simplified, communicates well, balanced, has a system and yet represents the mood of the place.

Abu Hammour Phase 3

As part of how to best represent my problem of people being hit by cars if they want to read signs.
I took a pictures from 300^o and began to look for which angles best represents the problem and began tracing them to abstract them more and more to see which elements are most important.

Again I apologize for not having pictures,Blogger is not being very helpful (as usual).

icon: problem 1, cutting marks on table

For the problem of having cutting marks on table, i initially started by looking at some of the photographs which i used in the previous phase. And i discovered that the Exacto knife is very commonly used on the tables without using the cutting mat. Hence i started by first examining the exacto knife..but since exacto knife on its own just being a tool doesnt convey much, for example it cud just refer to as not to cut with this . Hence i then took the marks on the table n traced them. Then i felt that since it is still not clear, so i traced the actual photograph in which the blade is being used on the table.
Since my mood board was based on preciseness and square rectangular form, i have tried to simplify my icons and make it simple geometrical kind.
Since my icons says :not to use the cutting knife on the table as it creates marks, i will have a stroke from left top to bottom right which means NO.
I also tried abstracting it with not being very literal by just showing the exacto knife the cutting marks and the circular part which is part of the furniture, the tables