P1 Found Material/a, Fatma R

I know that we've all moved on Project 01, but I found these links and had to share it.

See you tomorrow.

Najla, P1.1 sketches

Playin around with circles and trying to create a system by deviding the months
and the days. I had no specfic audiance or subject, because i tried deciding the audiance at the begining and i found it difficult to concentrate on the system itself and not my audiance.
So i was just playing around to figure out a system. I like the circles because i can experiment so many ways to devide the months, days and weeks.

P1.1 Comprehensive sketches/a

My calendar is about the ATP world tennis tour. So the first step I did was look for the schedule of the 2009 season for tennis, and try to analyze it in order for me to get the right information.
Basically what I did is I looked at what the information I can take from it and de-construct it to see what is the variables I need for this calendar.
I looked at the colors because the variation in the colors symbolizes the importance of the tournaments. Then I looked at the countries as well as the week because the tennis season is divided into weeks rather than days or months. So I thought that this would be one important variable that I can use in the calendar.


So basically the variables that I am going to use are :
• Weeks
• Months
• Colors
• Rectangles

dero-P1.1 Research

Information design, I wanted to learn more and more about it, till now m still confused of how i can translate the information to shapes and numbers, it needs time to get it, so I started researching for different examples for displaying information.

They used Lines and abstracted shapes to show the information,

useful?

I asked myself:

What does it mean for a product to be 'useful'?

A regular calendar is useful to much of the population, but what makes it truly useful is that it addresses the specific needs of the target audience. I began to analyze existing calendars that have specific purposes.


This is a truly amazing calendar that 'grows' as time goes by. the reason it is so fascinating is that the viewer can observe the progression of time and how the ink reveals the date and plant growing.




I'm not sure exactly how this calendar should be used, but using badges that can be worn as a reminder or that can be interacted with. i thought that maybe if my calendar consisted of badges, the mother-to-be could wear a badge stating her week of pregnancy.




This example shows a combination of time keeping and the functionality of a flower pot. I think it will be useful i try to incorporate the same idea into my own calendar. I just have to think of what pregnant women need.





This calendar encourages the viewer to interact with it. It is especially appealing to those who are addicted to popping bubble wrap! What actions do pregnant women like to take?

P1.1 Research/a

In the kitchen calender,

Who is the audience?

Executive Chef

Production Chef

Baker

Prep cook

Line cook

Dish/Cleaner

Manager

P1.1 Research

Research - Part 2

Ive been looking at all the possibilities
involving line and shape. ( width, opacity,
overlapping, dotted, etc).

Also if these shapes have a connotation
attached to them.. (for example like the
halftone dots used in newspaper printing).
And if I want that kind of meaning attached
to my calendar system.

Maria, P1.1 Research

Hey,

Alright, been doing LOADS of thinking on this, and I KNOWWWW there are soo many things to consider and research about. So here is a short list of just a FEW things i'm currently looking into:

* GRIDS!

- The idea that a blind or partially blind person doesn't seen any, so in a way the grids would have to be invisible. So... has to be organized, but when printed... should not be there.

* HOW DO THEY READ?

- Now we all know of course they read through Braille.. but what I'm talking about it the technicalities of it actually. Whether they are more horizontally or vertically dependent/dominated.

According to my research, I've found that "One reads braille sequentially and horizontally from left to right... there is no vertical component..." Even though this was commented on musical notation, from what it seems I have searched, blind or partially blind people are horizontally dependent when reading.

* DO TEXTURES THROW THEM OFF?

- One of my plans in my calendar was to use textures, however... I still have to make sure the Braille is readable. So I have to make sure there is not a lot of action going on, on the page to make it difficult for the client to read the braille.

* IS BRAILLE ADAPTABLE TO DIFFERENT LANGUAGES?

- The answer to that is yes, "when Braille is adapted to languages which do not use the Latin alphabet, the blocks (braille blocks, bar of six dots) are generally assigned to the new alphabet according to how it is transliterated into the Latin alphabet, and the alphabetic order of the national script (and therefore the natural order of Latin Braille) is disregarded. Such is the case with Russian, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, and Chinese. In Greek, for example, gamma is written as Latin g, despite the fact that it has the alphabetic position of c; Hebrew bet, the second letter of the alphabet and cognate with the Latin letter b, is sometimes pronounced 'b' and sometimes 'v', and is written b or v accordingly; Russian ts is written as c, which is the usual letter for "ts" in those Slavic languages that use the Latin alphabet; and Arabic f is written as f, despite being historically p, and occurring in that part of the Arabic alphabet (between historic o and q). Esperanto letters with circumflexes, c, g, h, j and s are written as those letters without circumflexes with a filled sixth dot."

* Colour?

- One thing I recently found was about how blind or partially blind people recognize colour.

"Some people with visual impairment are able to see some colours although others do not see any. It is important to learn about colours even if you cannot see them. It is important for them to learn what colours look nice together, what colours do not match, and about stripes, plaids and other patterns... It may be helpful for them to also understand that the sky is mostly blue and the grass is mostly green, and the colours of the ocean and the colour of the leaves in fall. Their imagination will help them paint pictures in their mind".

This is why I want to give my client the ability to experience some of the sensations we get to. Let them see and feel the seasons.

Hence... continues my research...

We'll see if I can pull it off

Research

When we first received the project, my first step was to research the importance of a calender. How many different calendars there is. When I was researching I came to this definition of a calendar:

The common theme of calendar making is the desire to organize units of time to satisfy the needs and preoccupations of society. In addition to serving practical purposes, the process of organization proves a sense, however illusory, of understanding and controlling time itself. Thus calendars serve as a link between mankind and the cosmos. It is little wonder that calendars have held a sacred status and have served as a source of social order and cultural identity. Calendars have provided the basis for planning agricultural, hunting, and migration cycles, for divination and prognostication, and for maintaining cycles or religious and civil events. Whatever their scientific sophistication, calendars must ultimately be judged as social contacts, not as scientific treatises. 

Throughout my research, I came to find different types of calendars. Such as Chinese, Islamic, Roman and more. Each culture or religion have a calendar of its own. 

In my research, I also looked up various of creatively designed calendars that inspired me and led me to my process. This is a link who a classmate shared with me. I wish you all to take a look at it if you haven't already :) 

Fatma J, P1.1 Research

A Calendar (Phase one)~

Phase one: only black and white

Points to consider:

* system

* what you did? and how you did it?

* your intension!

Not allowed:

* images

* type

To use:

* Line weight, size, texture, abstracted shapes...

Research:

Calendar photos, systems, designs, and so on!

some Calendar concepts: 

   E.g. School Calendars, Anniversary Calendar, and so on!

P.S: most of the calendars where using images as part of the design: that gave me a hard time designing a Calendar without using any images-- but when i took some time to design by myself, i started to gain the image of how it's going to be at the end "almost"  

I researched about Calendars and how are they designed for certain occasions and people!

and i somehow gained ideas of Calendar systems according to the Audience. 

after brainstorming ideas about what kind of people i am going to do a calendar for, i decided to do it,Islamic Calendar, for Qatari-Muslim Prisoners. 

Why prisoners?

because Prisoners will easily lose track of time and they need something to remind them about some important events that are taking place during the years!

because also i started thinking about the people who needs to keep track of time so badly. I thought if you are a student for example, you will be able to organize your stuff and due date and you don't need a special calendar to remind you of things.

this is some of the islamic patterns i used to distinguish some months. this example is Ramdan and it's the ninth month of the islamic Calendar. and i used small lines the represents  the number of the month. 

Texture and line study

What do i need/have in am islamic Calendar:

1-Ramdan

2- Eid x2

3- Fridays

4- fasting 3 days a month 

(its perforable to fast 3 days in the middle of each month: 13,14,15): they are called the white-days--where the moon the completely white!

5- days and weeks

6- 12 Months

<<

-days aren't included (blocked box)

-fridays (pattern)

-and the 3 fasting-days (another pattern)

and now i have to put everything (every month together)

as a whole system and see how i could develop the system further more.

PS. applying color for Eid would be meaningful because Eid is a happy event and we have 2 Eids~ Color study (phase 2) 

To be Continue~~ 

P1.1 Research

Filling the Gap.
To live time.

My calendar is a to do list to
follow, for all the things you
need/would want to experience.

For reasons that vary from
feeling alive, leaving a mark
being remembered or just
because it would be fun.

Inspired from the movie
The Bucket List and the book
101 things to do before you
are Old and Boring.

P1.1 Research

For the first project of the print class we are supposed to design a calendar. So I started doing research about calendars, and the first thing that I researched is the calendar definition: A calendar is a system of organizing days for a social, religious, commercial or administrative purpose. This organization is done by giving names to periods of time – typically days, weeks, months and years.

Also I researched about different types of calendar and they are
Lunisolar, Solar, Lunar. After doing this research about calendars in general I started to brainstorm to come up with concept. So I came up with three concepts for my calendar Islamic calendar, Chinese zodiac calendar and Braille system for blind people.
And after doing more research I decided to do a calendar about Chinese zodiac.

Maria, P1.1 Research

So...

My Visual Calendar is based on the concept of Braille, which is a "method that is widely used b blind people to read and write".

Of course with doing something like this, there is a LOT of research to do! For example, here are a few questions I asked myself to really give me an understanding on the needs of my client:

* How can they know colour?

* How can they tell the time?

* Do they have an existing calendar?

* If so, what needs to be improved?

* Do they need a calendar to place their reminders of events or appointments on certain days?

* Keeping in mind, that there needs to be a record of International Holidays. (Basing on Qatar both Islamic and Christian holidays).

So.. first where I looked was about if a blind person CAN actually differentiate colour?

Firstly, there are many degrees of blindness; those who are born blind and those who have developed blindness later in life through an accident or disease.

- Born Blind people, thought never seen colour, can tell if it is Morning or Night, basically through light sensitivity. Though since

 they have never seen colour before, they wouldn't be

 able to tell someone what colour they can actually see.

- Those who developed blindness or vision impurities, have seen colour in their earlier life. Thus can differentiate what sort of colour they see, as they could possibly still see some colour.

** So to conclude, what i need to do, is rather on focusing on colour selection, I would need to focus on gradient and colour intensity. To show a clear difference in colours: Such as a solid brown colour (having a strong Black quality) would be clearly darker than a pastel yellow (which contains stronger white qualities).**

Thinking more into this issue, for those who are blind, of course they wouldn't really notice the colour, however those who are partially blind would still use this calendar, hence colour would be a good aspect. One of my ideas is to us the colour to represent the season, so in a way, it allows the blind person to also learn, what colours are associated with that specific season, and in their own way, may they (partially blind person) be able to see that certain colour or a fully blind person would be able to sense a gradient.

Moving to the next question:

"How do blind or partially blind people tell time?"

- There are Braille watches that have a tactile surface. By touching the face of the watch, time can be identified. Another popular alternative is the "talking" watch or clock, which announces the time when passed.

One more aspect of the calendar I will include is textures, as a blind person is largely dependent on the sense of touch, a texture can give them an experience they wouldn't be able to see. Either using the texture to show the different seasons (i.e. rough texture for summer where its hot, whilst a smooth texture for the coolness of winter) or different events they want to mark on their calendar.

Last note... whilst making this calender, there are various ways in which I could show the Braille dots, of course the first thing comes to mind would be embossing. Though due to the short time period, I'll either emboss the dots myself (with a pen... yes... it will be tiring) or i will just cut out the dots.

Posting your research

how to post your Research from project 1 phase 1