Type Design II
DSD-3612-C
January 10, 2017–April 25, 2017
Tuesday 03:00PM–05:50PM
209 E 23 St, Room 506

Assignment 04
Identity Project Choose an object that resonates with you. It can be anything you like, but should be something that stimulates you visually and critically. You’ll be using this as the pillar of your identity project for the next four weeks, so choose wisely. Consider this objects materiality, history, lineage, function, and so forth. It can be old, attached with personal meaning, or brand new.

Week 7 you will be presenting your object to the class in the form of a scripted presentation or video which is a deep analysis of your object. Weeks 9 through 12 will be focusing on designing an identity system and collateral items which relate to your object and research.

Deliverables
Identity System
— Logo, wordmark or avatar
— Typographic System
— Color Palette
— Brand Book (.pdf or html page)
  —General identity system usage guidelines
  —General art direction, tone & voice strategy
  —General application exploration
5 Collateral items

Timeline
Week 7 — 2.21.17
Research Presentation
Show your research in the form of a scripted presentation with slides or make a video. Keep your presentation around 2 minutes. Your main goal is to explain how the ideas in your object are expressed through form and/or function. These should be a combination of subjective opinions and objective thoughts. Be as specific as possible, research and present even the most obvious themes and physical attributes (they might not be so obvious to us). Work on forming an opinion of the object, and explain it’s significance culturally and personally. Your presentation can take quantitative form as a traditional powerpoint with comparisons, statistics, interviews and visual collections or it can be crafted as a visual exploration of the object. In both cases, keep in mind pacing, design, sequence, juxtaposition and tone. Your presentation should answer the following questions with thought and critical analysis of your object—
— It's history
— Analysis of form
— It's users and context (past, present and future)
— Associative meanings
— Academic, theoretical and cultural context


Week 8 — 2.28.17
Experiment
Find 3 main themes or ideas from your object and conduct an experiment for each. Shift your focus from what it is to what it suggests. The form and medium of each is up to you. They should be a further exploration of what you uncovered during your research. The exercise you preform should be documented and designed. Your 3 experiments should be presented to the class in a PDF presentation, with a thorough explanation of how you came to your conclusions. Consider pacing, design and sequence.
— 5-10 slides explaining your process, documenting how you arrived at your idea
— Experiment 1
— 5-10 slides explaining your process, documenting how you arrived at your idea
— Experiment 2
— 5-10 slides explaining your process, documenting how you arrived at your idea
— Experiment 3


Week 9 — 3.14.17
Make (snowed in 🌨)
Focus your effort on one theme or idea you’ve uncovered in your research and experimentation. Think through what you've learned and find most interesting about your subject. Most importantly think through what you want to say about it. Take your experiments and begin to bring them back to a world more commonly associated with graphic design. Think printed pieces, ephemera, physical objects, digital work like websites or animation... Make things. Make one big element, or make smaller elements which explore your topic. Begin expanding and contextualizing your designed element with your research. Through your concepting and design of this larger project will come your identity system. Put the following items together in a presentation. Form factor varies from student to student, present your work in the best possible way. We will correspnod via email about your next steps.
— Presentation of your work so far (various formats)


Week 10 — 3.21.17
Establish & Define
Begin to build a visual language around your idea or theme and show these specific items in class. Consider how you might structure and weave a narrative around your idea. Put the following items together in a PDF presentation. Again, consider pacing, design and sequence. If your initial project is a physical object, bring in physical tests and examples of what you're working through.
— 5-10 slides explaining your process, documenting how you arrived at your idea
— Initial project
— Mood board
— Naming
— A logo, wordmark, icon or avatar
— Typographic system
— Imagery
— Color palette


Week 11 — 3.28.17
Formalize (one-on-one's)
Start refining your initial work based on last weeks feedback. Begin exploring what additional collateral items could look like, and what form they should take. Sign up for a time here. Show your latest work in a PDF presentation with options and additional paths you're exploring.
— 5-10 skecthces for collateral items
— Refined project
— Refined name
— Refined logo, wordmark, icon or avatar
— Refined typographic system
— Refined art direction imagery
— Refined color palette


Week 12 — 4.4.17
Identity Guidelines & Final Guest Crit
Prepare a PDF or webpage to show the class and guest. Your identity system should be thoroughly considered and contextualized beyond your initial presentation into a document which distills the main ideas and mission of the identity. Consider how the tone and quality of how it’s mission and supplemental materials are written. These aspects all feed back into the identity itself. Support your identity with art direction and samples of how the your main mission is used throughout collateral items and other graphic systems.
— Final Identity Guidelines Document
— Additional collateral or supplemental materials