we got given a research theme. our theme was communication skills.
we got given a week to research through that topic as dictated by our group decisions. we were each asked to put together 3 research boards; 1 primary research, 1 secondary research, and one of the most interesting info between the two.
primary research.
secondary research.
most interesting.
from this initial research we got given the how to brief. we showed all our research to the rest of the group in a group crit and were then given the brief to think about.
we ended up deciding to work as two separate groups and so the group i was in was with leo and sarah. we began by re presenting all of our research and looking over at the information we had. we decided that we wanted to focus on communication skills, communication issues, what makes up communication, and how to communicate with more confidence.
who needs to know?
- anyone with communication difficulties or shyness
- mainly students to help them in meeting new people
what/why do they need to know?
- what communication is
- the different forms of communication that exist and how they occur
- how to confidently and effectively use these tools of communication
how will you tell them?
- using a series of interactive exercises that outline, and educate about, the various methods of communication
- supporting material in the form of handouts containing written advice and information
- advertising/promoting material in the form of a poster that will hold the handouts for distribution
we are trying to educate people about the types of communication and how they can improve their communication skills.
we will educate in a professional and understanding tone of voice displaying patience and commitment to the aim of our project.
having got a basic plan for our intended outcomes we split the work between us. i was initially tasked with designing some sort of logo. see design context for research material. i wanted to maintain simplicity in my design and wanted to avoid cheesy looking self fulfilment logos or stock photos regarding communication.
i started my doing some hand rendered sketches of how the logo might look.
i started my doing some hand rendered sketches of how the logo might look.
i started using the literal phonetic pronunciation with the 'k' but felt it was overly tied up in linguistic type, which is confusing and doesn't really look that much like the word 'communicate'. so, from this, i looked at the splitting of the word itself to represent the pronunciation. i thought this was a working idea with which i could work.
from these initial designs i moved to working with illustrator. we decided to maintain the cmyk colour scheme as it is appropriate to G.D and also looks good.
i like this design but think its somewhat overly simplistic. i dont really like the hollowed type as the readability is somewhat decreased. i quite like the idea of the 3 circles but its still overly simplistic.
having considered the flaws of the design i decided to fill the letters, make the overlaps of the circles create the mixed colour in between and centre the text better. this, i thought, did improve the design but i still dont like it that much. the new colours created by the overlaps distort the legibility of certain letter which i dont want.
i decided then to scrap the background circles and include the cmyk colour scheme directly in the text. i experimented with different drop shadows and how they might increase/decrease the readability. i thought about having a background shade but it made the logo too blocky. i then started to mess about with the fonts useable. i began by trying a variety of different typefaces but felt there was then too much difference between each bit and it just became confusing. so i decided to stick to using helvetica and just played around with the font style, looking at different weights and directions (italics etc.). by splitting the pronunciation into sections literally, in colour, and in terms of font i was able to maximise to the communication of how to pronounce the word communicate.
i am quite happy with the final logo as i think it does well in achieving its purpose of communicating the word and making people understand the concept. its readable, aesthetically interesting and neatly composed. i also think this form of drop shadow works well to bring the letters out but doesn't confuse anything. i think the logo is just simple enough and doesnt overly draw attention from the rest of the project.
while i was doing this leo was working on the poster design and the considerations for the interactive role playing game and sarah was making the presentation to go with it.
i think the poster works really well in line with the theme of our project and achieves its purpose of promoting the project and the tear off information available for assistance in communicating.
while leo and sarah were working on these aspects i then began designing the tear off.
front of tear off
i wanted to make sure the information on the tear off was constructive and helpful. i felt it should be light hearted to reflect our aims and ideals. i wanted to include some imagery to create a split from an, otherwise, text based tear off. i thought it would be good to include information about communication and then go on to assist people in improving their communication skills.
back of tear off
the design for the back of the tear off definitely contained to much text but i thought it was necessary to get the information/advice across as this was our main aim and not to be purely aesthetic. i feel as though the advice available is a testament to all of our quality research which enabled me to really consider the advice with regards to a real world project of this sort.
when it came to the composition of the final poster design we realised that the dimensions of the original back of the tear off were too big to fit the space given. after some rewording and removing some less necessary text we made it so the tear off would fit the dimensions of the poster.
upon finishing the design work we got together to practice the presentation and work out the details for our interactive communication game. the theory was based around the idea that around 7% of all communication is verbal and the rest consists of body language, eyes, tone of voice etc. we wanted to make people realise the importance of speech in communication while also demonstrating the effects non verbal communication can have on interaction. we had decided to some sort of charades type game but involving more appropriate themes to our project.
the basic idea of the game is that each volunteer receives a que card with a common phrase, question, or statement. they arent allowed to show it to anyone else and cant speak at all during their turn. the aim is to, though the use of the various methods of non verbal communication, act out the phrase/question and see weather the rest of the class could understand it. in this way both parties will be learning about the different sort of communication, how to recognise and interpret them, how to enact and utilise them, and hopefully gain a boost in communicative confidence.
statements were:
merry xmas
how are you?
your late
do you want to go out tonight?
i love you
i feel great
we got a really good reaction from the presentation and the game. people thought it amusing and engaging which was important because we wanted to have fun with this and i think that making people laugh breaks down any feelings of unease or lack of interest. overall i think we did succeed in helping people to communicate better and outline the forms and methods of communication effectively.
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