Project 3 Preliminary Proposal

For project 3, I am planning on creating an Ipad app that teaches music theory to children ages 4-7. It will instruct the children through a colorful interface. I am thinking that there could be different games within the app, each teaching about a different aspect of music (rhythm, tone, reading music). The games could also build off each other and increase in difficulty. Possibly first teaching about rhythm, then about the scales and tone, and then at the incorporate both and challenge the child to follow both the rhythm and tone.

Thesis Response 4

Thesis Author: Han Kwon

Thesis Title: Finding Kerouac

Thesis Link

Han's thesis was based on the comparison of the fundamentals of graphic design and the Beat generation. I found the paper to be quite interesting. What really made me think was how Han compared the Beat's philosophy of randomness and excessiveness with the process in graphic design. That graphic design utilizes the same process of excessively playing out every spontaneous idea and being open to the end result or solution. In this way, the design has been reached the limits of where it could go and from within that the designer is able to pull out the simplest and best solution.  

Thesis Response 3

Thesis Author: Megan De Castro
Thesis Title: The Sense of Sensing Senses
Thesis Link

I was really interested in reading Megan's thesis because her topic of designing to for children with Sensory Processing Disorder relates to one of my thesis ideas of using design to help teach children. Overall, the paper was very informative and well researched. It was interesting how children with SPD can be helped to overcome this through learning exercises.  It was very helpful how she used diagrams to illustrate the exercises used to help these children with SPD. In the final section of the paper, she really started to discuss how designers can help to educate these children through calming yet challenging designs of exercises. Reading this thesis has made me want to further look into the topic of using design to teach.

Thesis Options:

1. Research on how we can use design to teach children

2. The effects on communication after moving from using images to written word to communicate

3. The effects of written word on storytelling

4. The responsibility of designers to help move toward positive social change

5. Studying how great an influence design has on the world

  

Design Contest

Canvas Wines Artist Series Contest For this contest, I will create an illustration that embodies the characteristics and flavors of the one of three Canvas wines. The deadline is November 9th and the prize is a $5,000 scholarship.
canvaswines.com/artistseries

 HOW International Design Awards The guidelines for this contest are fairly open, so I was thinking of submitting a series of 3 posters that I made for a needle exchange awareness campaign. howdesign.com/design-competitions/international-design-awards/

Communication Arts Illustration Competition For this contest, I can submit any kind of illustration I have done. I think I might enter one of my personal illustrations. Entry deadline is January, 2013. commarts.com/competitions/illustration#what

Childrens book photos

Project 2 proposal

Open publication - Free publishing - More childrens book

Project 2 Rough Proposal

For this project I will be creating a hand illustrated children's book focused on creating awareness of people with disabilities. It will be told through the perspective of a sibling of a child with a disability. This will be targeted towards parents who would use this book as a tool to answer a child's question after experiencing this type of situation, or to just get them aware of these disabilities. So, it will be educational as well as fun and enjoyable and be able to become part of the child's rotation of readings.

Reading Assignment 2

Saccades: when we read, our eyes jump forwards and backwards to groups of letters in words. During these saccades, we are not focusing but our eyes are catching what's ahead and rereading what we just read. 

Fixations: Between the saccades, our eyes take quick rests and focus.

This chapter was very interesting because it brought up a few points that conflicted with my previous knowledge of what hindered and helped readability. The first point was that using all caps does not decrease readability. I have always heard that because all the letters are the same height in all caps, the readability was decreased. But the book made the point that we just aren't used to reading words in all caps, and if we practiced it, it would be just as easy to read. It was also very interesting how we can understand words even when they are scrambled as long as the first and last letters are correct. The point about using headings was also interesting. Just by using a heading, we are able to understand the following paragraphs easier because our brains can predict what is ahead.

I found the readability index calculator very interesting. I would be interested in comparing the readability of some of my design textbooks to some of my liberal arts class textbooks such as business law.

Reading Assignment 1

Geon: The basic shapes that you recognize while looking at an object, which are used to identify the object.

FFA: The FFA, or fusiform face area, allows faces to bypass the brain's usual interpretive channels and helps us identify them more quickly than objects.

Canonical Perspective: a view from a perspective that is slightly above or looking down at the object and also slightly to one side. This is how most people would draw an object when asked.

Affordance: The cues you get from an object which tell your brain how to handle or operate the object. If you wanted an object to have affordance, you should make it easy for the user to perceive and figure out what the object is and how to use it.

Project 1 Proposal

Open publication - Free publishing - More project 1

Projects

Project 1: Identity and collateral for a Hip Hop Band
- Identity
- Website
- Album Cover
- Poster
- Shirts

Project 2: Children's book about disabilities
- main story
- hand drawn illustrations
- bound format and ebook

Project 3: Music app for kids

Thesis Response 2

Thesis author: Doug Sheets
Thesis title: "Making Darwin Manifest"

This thesis was very interesting. Its main message seemed to be that modern Americans are very uneducated in the sciences. Because of this lack of education, more people are of the belief that evolution is a failed theory. One of the main points I found very interesting was the reason for this lack of knowledge. The thesis proposes that americans are turned off by the overly simplified and boring scientific illustrations used to demonstrate theories such as evolution. This is contrasted by the evidence that the organizations with opposing views to science use more untraditional and modern approaches to illustrating the information, such as with animations and motion graphics. This approach is much more attractive and invites the audience to be interested in intaking the information. Overall, I really enjoyed this thesis and the ideas it contained.

Thesis Response 1

Thesis author: Kim Morgan
Thesis title: "The Marketing of Balance and Harmony and its bearing on Environmental Design"

I found this thesis thorough and enjoyable. The thesis looks at how we as humans, are constantly seeking a feeling of balance in our world and within ourselves. This has been going on throughout the ages in art, design, architecture, and in nature. This need of balance has since been taken advantage of by creating a feeling of unbalance within the consumer, while simultaneously giving them a solution to their unease. Overall, the thesis was very easy to read, concise, and all the points were very well supported by credible sources and examples.

My new blog for Senior Design Studio