So I had a couple good critiques concerning my first design attempt for the visualization, so I went back in and revised. The major points that I needed to work on were as follows:
1. Is missing a certain “elegance” from the design-style that the site already has.
2. Needs an explanation of how it works in the beginning.
3. Green color looks ugly in the middle of all the other colors.
4. Make orange section green.
The opening text explaining how it works.
New center graph.
Learn More section w/ new layout
New bottom tabs!
Posted in Interactive Design.
Tagged with comp, design.
It’s coming to the end of the quarter and we needed to come up with an easy solution for the visualization. It needs to be simple, easy to understand, and able to hold a lot of information. The simplicity is key because our developer does not have a lot of time to finish and if there is an easy solution that could be used for all of the questions – that would be our best bet. Here is my stab at it before I pass it off to Lindsay:
The overall follow vs. break design rules is the first thing you see.
Continued…
Posted in Interactive Design.
Tagged with comp, design.
Every time I make a major change in my life, I always want to remember the people that touched me while I was there. For example, when I left high school I got all of my friends to sign a stuffed animal cat and when I left VH1 I got everyone to sign a I <3 NY shirt. However, when I leave college I want more than just a signature… which led me to a project I’m very excited about that I’m calling “Voice on Tape”. Inspired by the Jenny Owen Youngs song, the lyrics go “I’ve got your voice on tape, I’ve got your words in me, I don’t want anything else“.
I know there are going to be times when I feel alone when I move. So before I leave I’m to give all of my friends cassette tapes and tell them to record whatever they want – them talking, songs they like, anything goes. After they’re done recording, paint the outside of the cassette tape, and send it back to me. I plan on arranging them on my wall (with everyone’s names & addresses under their tapes) as a map to where everyone is. Maybe I’ll add string or something to connect them… but I’m not sure about that part of it yet. I can’t wait to go buy tapes. 
Posted in Reflections.
Tagged with Inspiration.
20 weeks in the making, Weather the Weather made it’s stunning debut at Imagine RIT yesterday and the visitors LOVED IT! This year Imagine RIT hosted over 25,000 people and we placed 7th in an online poll (406) for most popular exhibits!!! I have the say, the most rewarding moment was when kids started acting out the characters and teaching others their happy and sad dances that we created. We even had kids asking their parents to buy the game! New and old, big and small, everyone came right in grabbed the wands and starting playing. I really couldn’t have asked for anything more or have expected this much. So really, from the bottom of my heart, thank you to all those who came and participated.
For those of you who don’t know, Weather the Weather is an interactive projected game made by Team MYO (Make Your Own). We are 5 New Media Designers and 3 New Media Developers. I am the project manager, art director, and designer. In the game you use IR wands that we 3D modeled and printed that are represented as paddles on screen to bounce around a ball that breaks blocks. Hitting the different level blocks helps you gain power (to break harder blocks) and brings you closer to fighting the boss. If you make it to and defeat the boss within the time limit, then you move to the next season and repeat. Some of the levels are more difficult than others due to the amount of blocks and how hard it is to break them. At Imagine RIT we went through about 9 years and the hardest levels to beat were Spring and Summer.
Opening Interface!
Winter Interface w/ old character
Spring Interface
Summer Interface
Fall Interface
Final Characters made and animated by Andy Mindler.
Two of the characters (Winter & Spring) are finalized versions of my sketches sketches, 1 is a finalized version from my 3D (Winter), and I got to animate Spring! One of my favorite comments from Imagine RIT was “that guy’s a taun-taun!” showing that Star Wars is still the best thing since sliced bread.
Versions of blocks from all the seasons!
All blocks by Andrea and I.
Final Paddle Sheet
All paddles done by Ira.
If you’d like to see more of our process work please visit our blog.
Posted in Interactive Design, Reflections.
Laura Frastaci submitted our “I Yarn for Paper” piece to Motionographer and we got in the student quickies section!!! Check it out here! Look on the right side under ‘Student Quickies’. Yay!!!!
Posted in Motion Graphics.
Tagged with awards.
Final Landscapes!
The landscapes are finalized and cut-up by the design team and already put in the game by our lovely developer, Mike. Rock on Team MYO.
Posted in Interactive Design.
Tagged with design, myo.
For our Wines of the World class Laura and I threw a Wine Tasting Party! We created the invitations, numbers for the wine bottles, evaluation forms, and take-home sheets. The party went really well and we had an awesome turn out.
Wine Invitation
Guests!
covered wine bottles
Good times.
Posted in Graphic Design.
Tagged with design, promotional.
Intro Page
As if one blog about my designs isn’t enough… Design by the Masses now has a blog! Lindsay, Matt, and I set it up as a way to show the work we’ve done during Industry Day (April 16th). So if you’re interested in tracking our progress: click here.
I’ve been working on perfecting the design & logo and icon animations. Lindsay made these really cute icons in Cinema, so I went in and animated them for their rollover states. Then I needed to make the logo animate because it looks so static when compared with the icons. If you’d like to take a glance at the development progress & my animations: click here.
Posted in Interactive Design, Reflections.
Tagged with comp, design, progress, promotional, website.
Weather the Weather Landscapes v2
After the first round of landscapes we noticed that we had some problems with conflicting styles. Althought they were all beautiful on their own, they didn’t stand well together – especially as a panorama (which is how they will be seen in the game). Yesterday we sat down together for 10 hours and knocked these awesome pictures out. Shown above, they go from complete to needs the most work. I absolutely love Winter & Spring. Spring is done except it needs to be prepared for paralaxing. Summer is still having some issues – it’s largest one being that it looks super illustrated while the others just hint at it. Fall is getting there… I like the ground & the sky, but the tree placement needs work and it needs the fun element found in the others.
When we did these we found a really interesting way of making sure that the style is cohesive. We set up each season on a computer and ever half-hour/hour we switch between computers. Therefore if you’re stuck on how something should work, you leave it for the next person who may know. Spring is a beautiful combination of the 4 of us really working together. My group is awesome!
Posted in Interactive Design, Reflections.
Tagged with design, myo.
My design for the CNN Air Application.
Fantasy Interactive is a self-proclaimed ‘pixel perfect’ interactive firm based in New York City and Stockholm Sweden. They have a few students from RIT currently working there and every year they return with the chance that another student might get in. This year they gave us a challenge:
The purpose of this project is to design or develop an AIR widget for CNN.com. Users will download and install this widget so that they can have access to all of the breaking news, headlines, and statistics that they access frequently from CNN.com, but have it in the convenience of a desktop widget. This should be a widget that people can (and want to!) use. It shouldn’t be super experimental; it needs to be practical for day-to‐day use. The catch? It must be designed in 2 days.
The general requirements of the application were that it needs to allow instant access to all of the news: videos, articles, weather, and stocks, should feel live, with up‐to‐the‐minute data, should allow some customization and configuration based on the news tastes of the user, can employ a liquid layout, so someone can use it as a small, and have it be a widget or allow it to take up the whole screen (1024 by 768).
The design above was my solution to the problem. I have an obsession with creating grids on my computer screen – especially with IM windows. I don’t like to use Adium because I actually prefer lining up every window I have open in a checkboard pattern… I’m weird, I know. So when going about creating the app, I wanted something that would fit perfectly into a slot created by an AIM window or could go right next to my AIM Buddy List. I wanted it to feel light and small, so you could have it up at all times. You can rearrange the bars of information to your liking and you can open up more news by clicking on the big “+” sign. Now there are some problems with this design that I’m currently working on and will be fixed in version 2. The main ones being that I have too many “+”s and they mean too many things, so I need to change them to “edit”, “launch”, and “read” buttons – one of which could be a “+”. The other problems include having some rounded edges and some angular and a transparent glass doesn’t lend itself well to light backgrounds. Hopefully I will have it done soon and up for your comments & critque.
Posted in Interactive Design.
Tagged with comp, design.