Intro to Graphic Design

Exploring Chosen Everyday Objects through Graphic Design

NOTE: With Project 3, this documentation process shifts from my perspective as an educator to that of the role of the learner.

Assign it.

Design it.

To the right, there is an excerpt from the Process Documentation, an active record kept throughout this six week design course. It acts a space to illustrate and document my reflections, observations, and investigations.

First time the class met, the instructor assigned each of us one random everyday object that we would create a work around over the 6 weeks.

I was assigned, “a plate.”

“There’s this

dish _”

The object chosen for me at the beginning of this project was [a plate]. It was after six weeks of research, experiments, denotations, and critical making that this prototype, depicted here, was designed: a series of posters, collected [stacked] in a book. This is compilation is titled, “There’s this dish –” [Poster #1, pictured to the right].

There are 9 posters in total that center around the circular shape of the plate. This design, the focal plate, was produced through the series of scanner experiments made with a dinner plate [see Process Images below in “How did I get here?”, Project 3].

These creative examinations and design investigations allowed consideration of the initial directive: determine the essence of the object [a plate] then illustrate it/ communicate it. In conclusion, using design as a form of communication. My work is about Plate as story, a plate as storyteller. The stories are memories.

An attempt to communicate through both the shape of the object [a plate] and the place/the form of its shape. An attempt to illustrate moments held in the object [a plate]. An attempt to create a voice, a memory, for the object [a plate].

As stated earlier, the 9 posters were collected [stacked] into a book format for the final design presentation. The prototype’s front/back cover [pictured below], Poster #1, has a line of text on the bottom of the image. The line is the definition of my object [a plate] that I explored.

Plate, n. : a shallow, usually circular vessel from which food is eaten or served.

Each poster is designed using old photographs, illustrations, collage, and photocopies. Procreate was used to edit the images and finalize the design prototypes pictured to the right. You will find some illustrations and images familiar as many were derived from earlier experiment visuals that are described in the Process Documentation. The intention was to add layers to the idea of storytelling and memory noted in the essence of the object: [a plate].

To capture this sentiment [essence of the object], I considered phrases from everyday conversation heard said in reference to the object [“plates”]. This formulated the design decision to incorporate these everyday object phrases into the poster series starting with, “There’s this dish_ ”. This phrase is also the title of the 9 posters created and collected [stacked] in the book pictured here.

The title phrase, start of this story, coincides with particular chosen verbs that determined the content/context/visuals for each poster design:

Poster #4, “There’s this dish – i like”

Poster #5, “There’s this dish – i want”

Poster #6, “There’s this dish – i made”

Poster #7, “There’s this dish – i know”

Poster #8, “There’s this dish – ?”

Poster #9, “There’s this dish – i remember”

How’d I get here?

Process Documentation

Throughout this 6 week course, part of our work was to complete a series of reflections and observations in a Process Document. It starts from the first ideation to the last experimentations for this design projects objective: Design as a Form of Communication.

Excerpts from Process Documentation below.