Birds for Google

I've been drawing birds today for my Google poster. Really enjoyed getting the pens out again. Going to try really hard from now on to do more stuff by hand.

Elective A – Concept 03

Google knows everything!
Google knows everything about you. Consumers are being consumed.

Revolution episode three - The Cost of Free (BBC 2)
“The Cost of Free examines the trades made online by users of the web as they share their thoughts, their preferences, their curiosities and their desires with the many search engines, services and media which appear to be delivering information online for free. Every day Google gathers millions of search terms that help them refine their search system and give them a direct marketing bonanza that they keep for months."
Jo Wade, Assistant Producer

AOL Searcher No. 4417749
Reporters for The New York Times tracked down a Georgia woman based solely on a review of the AOL logs.
“No. 4417749 conducted hundreds of searches over a three-month period on topics ranging from ‘numb fingers’ to ‘60 single men’ to ‘dog that urinates on everything.’ And search by search, click by click, the identity of AOL user No. 4417749 became easier to discern. There are queries for ‘landscapers in Lilburn, Ga,’ several people with the last name Arnold and ‘homes sold in shadow lake subdivision gwinnett county georgia’. It did not take much investigating to follow that data trail to Thelma Arnold, a 62-year-old widow who lives in Lilburn, Georgia.”
www.nytimes.com

http://www.bbc.co.uk/virtualrevolution/

Elective A

For elective A I chose to do Poster design with Jonathan Barnbrook. It was great to work with him for a week, to get inside his head and see how he works/thinks etc. Very inspiring how driven and dedicated to ethical design he is!

The brief
Design a black & white A3 poster
to inform the world the truth
(good or bad) about one of these companies:

nike/halliburton/gap/starbucks/google/altria/nestle

Articulate your ideas in a visual form, clearly & simply.
Say what you believe not what you think you should say.
....I'm going to go with Google!

Final Output Map

Complete map

Having a bit of time to reflect I realise if I'd given myself more time I should have been more playful with the quote type. Perhaps looking at different ways of communicating the spoken word. These quotes were all from different people, perhaps I should have used different typefaces or added a phonetic element to capture each individuals speech patterns. Maybe a future project can be trying to communicate the spoken word as the written word!!

Detail

Visual Explorations

I really like the idea of creating the points of interest in a collage style. I feel it looks quite urban and also suggests that stuff has been collected. It really gives the sense of someone walking around, documenting what they are experiencing.

Visual Explorations

I started to collate all my primary data, creating these maps.

Primary Research

One of the UT projects asked participants to:
“Imagine creating your own personal map of the area, eg. quiet places to sit, favorite parks, family histories, unhappy memories and bad smells”

I love this idea. I decided I wanted to create a collective map of all the experiences (good and bad) of the people who live in my local neighborhood!

I really feel that this is what creates spirit of place, it’s not just about the geographical landmarks but about how areas hold memories and experiences and how people interact with their environment emotionally. So my research question is:

Is it possible to create a map that communicates spirit
of place?



Whilst doing my primary research I discovered this blog set up for the area. I got in touch with the guy who runs it and he put my questionnaire up online, which was great. I got a few replies and some emails from other creatives in the area working on similar projects.

http://www.stereostokey.com/

It also made it onto some twitters!

This made me realise how passionately people feel about their community and living here.