STUDIO BRIEF 1 - INITIAL MAP DESIGN AND INITIAL MOCKUPS

This is my initial map design I did, keeping the background very simplistic with little else going on apart from the coloured zones and the other areas with black outline and black road names. I think keeping the map design simple was a good design decision because it gives more room for the physical system to be the exciting bit that sounds and is fun to do rather than having a flashy fun and exiting map that draws some of the attention away from the system. 

Then from the photographs I took around Leeds I used some of them and some of my pictograms to create some mock up designs. I don't think they look as good as they could do at the moment so I will definately need to improve on them. 

These images are for section one of my system where you are finding all the different zones.





This image is for section two where you are in the blue zone and seeing how far away the shows are.

STUDIO BRIEF 1 - PICTOGRAMS

When thinking about my wayfinding system, it is playful and simple. For my pictograms I wanted to keep them as simple and legible as possible. I wanted them to simply get across the message of how far away the zone is. I worked out from my map that the timings (in mins) range from 1 to 20.

I looked back on one of my old blog posts about the arrow and the meaning it gave off, which then lead me to look into the different types of arrow heads there are and which I thought would look best.

I found this image with multiple different arrow heads on but as I look at the image I believe them all to be too complicated and I want my system to be simple and to achieve this I believe the most simple form for my arrowhead to take is a simple triangle. The examples of my pictograms are shown below.  I could obviously change the dynamics of the triangle if that is what it should look like in the mock up designs, for my pictograms now its fine.

DIFFERENT GRID SYSTEMS

GRIDS

         

The modular grid is more complex than the column grid as it has a consistent horizontal divisions from top to bottom in addition to the vertical divisions from left to right. These modules govern the placement and cropping of pictures as well as text. This particular grid system was used heavily in the 1950's and the 1960's by a few a Swiss graphic designers. Modular grids are created by positioning horizontal guidelines in relation to a baseline grid that governs the whole document. Baseline grids serve to anchor all or nearly all layout elements to a common rhythm. To

Above is a multicolumn grid which provides flexible formats for publications that have a complex hierarchy pr that integrate text and illustrations. The more columns you create, the more flexible your grids becomes. You can use the grid to articulate the hierarchy of the publication by creating zones for different kinds of content. A text or image can occupy a single column or it can span multiple. Not all the space has to be filled.  

                           

Above is the hierarchal grid, which is a more instinctive approach to a grid system as they conform to the information that will exist within the system making them very flexible as the alignments are customised to the various proportions of the different elements within the grid which then makes the column width vary. The most common example of a hierarchal grid is web pages because of the dynamic nature of the information that is displayed on the page. Thus meaning they need flexibility in the width and the depth. This is not included in a traditional modular grid.

STUDIO BRIEF 1 - DEVELOPMENT

Going into the designing phase I finalised my idea with my rationale. There are 10 different zones which have 10 different colours. It goes as follows -
1. Briggate Zone - light blue
2. Millennium Square Zone - red
3. Town Hall Zone - purple
4. Station Zone - dark purple
5. Victoria Gardens Zone - dark green
6. The Headrow Zone - yellow
7. South Bank Zone - green
8. Arena Zone - silver
9. Quarry Hill Zone - turquoise
10. University Zone - pink

I started off using the base of the original Leeds Light Night map to get the correct outline and street layout. I kept all the zones the same and keep the majority of the colours also the same so that people that visited the Light Night on previous years would recognise and remember the night. 

STUDIO BRIEF 1 - WAYFINDING RATIONALE

Wayfinding Rationale 

Leeds Light Night didn’t have signage in 2016, it had a map which wasn’t very useful for the public who weren’t from Leeds as they aren’t familiar of the area and having looked at the existing map it isn’t that accurate. I also attended some of the shows and it wasn’t clear which zone you were in when you in it.  I will make mine clearer by having two different sections of my wayfinding system. 

My idea is to make Leeds Light Night more interactive and playful. I want to create a system with the first section of arrows which tell you roughly how far to walk to a specific zone on my map. The second section of arrows will be when you are in the zone, it tells you how far to walk to each different area in that zone. However, to make it more interactive the arrows will be reflective tape meaning you need a torch to find your way around. The system will be very clear and simple to make sure that it is easy to navigate around and the arrows will be at a large enough scale that you can see them on the floor from 30 meters away.

The arrows are colour coded for the 10 different zones The colour swatch is the 10 different zone colours. When you are in one zone the arrows stay the colour of the zone so it is clear which zone you are in. The wayfinding system could be used widely by a range of people from families with children, students and adults who all want to have a bit of fun while viewing the Leeds Light Night.  There is a map to alongside the system with the key for what shows are in the zones on the back of the map.

Whilst creating this sign system I will strive to create a system which is including an aspect of fun and most of all to be subjective, opposite of Wim Crouwel's approach to design which is very neutral and he only designs for a client’s purpose. However, when designing the system there will be both subjective and objective qualities to it. A quote from Experimental Jeyset states that ‘most sign systems have the appearance of an objective, functional, almost scientific construction. However, under the surface one can find many subjective motives.’.