Data Translation

For our data translation project I wanted to do something that related to online shopping as this is something that interests me. I personally am not a lover of online shopping and along the way I wanted to understand why it was so popular to other people.

I did a mind map of different online shopping as I wanted to make my data specific to a certain area.

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Here I explored the different ways that I could present my data. I wanted something that was easy to read and understandable.

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RESEARCH

Here I researched statistics that already existed online about online shopping. I gathered both UK and USA information so that I could compare and contrast the two. I also did my own primary research by doing a questionnaire in my class asking who shopped online, what shops they used the most and how much on average they would spend. This was interesting as a lot of people shopped on shops that didn't exist on the highstreet, however the older generation shopped in shops that already existed on the hughstreet. 

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Here I wanted to create symbols that represented the different areas of online shopping such as clothes, food, travel and music.

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I sketched out my data pie charts and filled in the percentage with my symbol for that area. This was it was clear and didn't need to use words.

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This is my final design for the data translation. I have added a key as some of the icons aren't clear. I have made it colourful so that it is more eye catching.

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Overall I enjoyed this project as I learnt information along the way and I was happy with the outcome of my design. I think it was clear to read and was easily understood. To improve I could have goon deeper into the online shopping and done a UK and USA version so that they could be compared.

Maps and Wayfindings

This project was based on maps and way findings. I struggled to come up with a concept with this ideas and it took me a few hours to get going. I wanted to do something that related with my family who live in Scotland, without it just being a map and I wanted to use material in my designs. I decided to do a map of Scotland but using the different tartans for each area of Scotland.

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Here I drew out a design of scotland filled in with different tartans from that area. I had to do a lot of research to find out different clans that lived in different parts of scotland and research the typical tartan that would have been worn. I found this difficult as there are so many tartans available that finding the correct one was hard. However this was a fun process as I found out information about my family along that way and what tartan is used in our family.

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Here I took swatches of each tartan and wrote down the city of the tartan so that I could arrange it on my map. If I had longer on the project I would have sourced actual tartan to create my map however I had to print the design on paper and stick it down on card.

(Author's own photo)

(Author's own photo)

This was my map at the end of the process. I wanted the different areas mysterious to the viewer as then they would have to research about the country to find out each section. To improve my work I could have stitched into the paper and stitched the names of the cities to make it easier for the viewer. I also think this would have been good in large scale.

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Elastoplast Xmas project

For our christmas project I decided to create an advertising poster for elastoplast plasters. I firstly brainstormed ideas and researched what already existed in the industry. I found this brief hard as plasters are not something that I would normally want to promote, however this was a good challenge as there was not already a lot of existing advertising material to work from.

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Here I sketched out a few initial ideas that came to mind. I wanted to create something that involved the plaster in the advertisement. I had a hand made out of plasters that I really liked as an idea. There was also a teddy that has a plaster on it to show that the audience could also be aimed at children. Also I had a woman's handbag tipped over with elastoplast plasters hanging out to show that they can be taken anywhere. 

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I then wanted to show that the product was for both men and women. This I found difficult to portray so I decided to draw a man and woman on the poster. I used the design of the toilet characters as all people could recognise with this design. I had the characters side by side and debated whether to have the characters black and white or coloured in.

In the end I decided to create the characters out of 'x' shapes to represent the plasters, the male in blue and the girl in pink for the stereotype of the gender. Then in the middle a red 'x' to show the injury involved that is covered by the plaster. These plasters are placed in the heart area to show the broken heart stereotype to add humour to the advert.

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I used a black background so that the colour stood out from the page and so that the poster seemed modern. I wanted a younger audience to understand the poster. 'Size doesn't matter, elastoplast fits all' is my slogan and I wanted anyone to be able to use it and show that elastoplast is suitable for any injury, even a broken heart.

(Author's own photo)

Overall I really enjoyed this project as it was very challenging. However this allowed me to think outside of the box and try something different. To improve I could have experimented more with the hand and the 'x' to create the hand, although I like the outcome of my poster.