When I Think About Design Thinking, I Mainly Just Think About A Circle. A Circle Represents Fullness,

Case Study Draft

Project Title Balanced.

Class Name Design Research Project

Date of Completion 11/29/2019

My Role Art Director

Summary Balanced. is an organization focused on promoting a healthy work/life balance that I designed in the final year of my degree. It is an integrated ecosystem focused on providing a healthier schedule for those that tend to overwork themselves.

Project Challenge

Possible header photo: Waving/animated Ish with the balanced. logo Overwork is dangerous for not only your mental health but your physical health as well. working more than 55 hours a week raises the risk of heart attack and stroke. At this point in time, overworking yourself can officially be a cause of death. Something needs to be done. The challenge lies in ‘What’ and ‘How’? How do we change the way a whole society perceives work/life balance in an appealing way, especially when the target audience is most likely too busy to go through and set up a whole system?

Strategy/Methodology Show pic of Ish

Using myself and my own experiences as a key target audience, I realized that the most important aspect of Balanced. had to be a simple entry point. A simple voice command system in the form of a smart speaker program would be necessary and from there, the rest flowed. The system would be wrapped around the central character of a little AI robot named Ish. 

Ish can be likened to a little assistant that lives inside the user’s phone. It helps plan the user’s day, sends messages to ask how the user is feeling, sends the user on forced breaks and is the face of the Balanced system.

Show Ish screens

Design Process Identification Conceptualization Ideation Show ideation/drafts of Ish Show logo ideation (sketches and final)

brand ideation Production Revision & Feedback Deliverables

Solution/Contribution Show images of the completed booklet, al stages of the ecosystem Balanced has been developed to become a foil that fits snugly around the user’s life. At the beginning of integration, Balanced studies the user’s day to day activities using the deliverables that will be described in the coming pages.

This sounds like a lot, but Balanced knows that not everyone has the time to set a whole system up, so it has been designed with the intention of ease of access. Balanced will bring awareness to the issue of overwork and what it does to an individual’s mental and physical health. It will impact the way that people value their time and themselves as a person and deconstruct the idea that overworking oneself is admirable.

Balanced is an app, a smart speaker, a website, a watch integration, a friend, a secretary and a resource.  Takeaways - This project taught me a lot about the design process from start to finish and also showed me that everything starts from a poor looking sketch but end well depending on the amount of effort and skill you put in.

Day Three - Blog Post #4

Today was fun! We took our digital work and printed them out to see how the type and colour looked and to make sure that we had our sizing right.

I had a heck of a time with it and needed to print my package out three times! The first time I did it, I accidentally cut a flap that was meant to be a fold. The second time I printed, I ripped my paper when trying to use the bone tool on it. For my third attempt, I realized that patience was key so when I glued the design onto the bristol, I pressed firmly and then waited for a few minutes before trying to use the bone tool on it. I also made sure that I had a fresh blade in before I tried to cut out my package.

I was happy to see that my colours worked perfectly! I used the pantone book last week to choose them but I was worried that they wouldn’t be quite right. Working with the gradient has been a bit of a chore but also fun! Getting it just right will be tricky so I really need to spend some time on that.

Now I just need to make sure that I have my type set perfectly before I send my package off to print!

Activity One - Blog Post #2

Activity One turned out to be a more fun challenge than I initially thought. I picked up a package that had a hole cut into it and when I unfolded it, I actually found that there were two holes! I was dreading trying to cut it. However, I decided not to worry about it too much and just enjoy the process.

I started out by tracing the package twice on tracing paper. I found I had to be careful with the tracing paper because it crinkled up easily when I used my eraser. I had trouble with tracing the entire package without it moving because it was too long for my hands. Eventually, I realized that if I folded it halfway, it was doable. 

After taking the measurements and making note of all the writing on the little package, I finally decided to draw it out with my ruler using the measurements that I had taken.

Before cutting it, I carefully used my bone tool to create folds in the package. It was actually really good to struggle with getting the same effect in class with a pen lid, only to do it so easy with the actual tool at home. Even so, my tool got a bit ruined by my ruler because it was only hard plastic so I’d like to find a better material to use in the future. 

I decided to opt out for drawing the fold marks, going off the measurements and bone fold lines instead. The hardest part was definitely trying to cut holes into the package and unfortunately, I didn’t do the best job at it. I need to figure out better tricks for cutting holes in the future. 

This time, I tried cutting a pie into the holes, hoping that I could cut them out section by section. This just resulted in a choppy cut.  

Still, it was a joyful experience to fold my little package up and understand just why each flap had to be different, and understand how it fit together. 

While I wasn’t entirely happy with the recreation, I was satisfied with the way it folded together and when I pushed the flaps together correctly, I knew some glue would keep the holes lined up. I decided to leave it unglued for further work in class as it held together perfectly otherwise. 

Reflection: Working with something tactile for the first time in a while was a joyful and happy experience. It reminded me what I love about graphic design, the simple happiness of making something that works. I need practice cutting holes too and I guess I’m going to need a steady supply of fresh blades in order to get through this semester and my fresh pad of bristol paper. 

Day Seven - Blog Post #8

Today we had our prototypes ready for other students to look at and discover. I got some really cool information and feedback about my package just by watching my students pick my package up and open it. The reaction I received from the students who looked at my package was exactly what I’d hoped for. It helped though that the class that came in was made up of international students, many of those being from Japan.  I had two Japanese students and a student from China who had been to Japan many times look at my package.

They were delighted with it and told me that the package was really similar to what you would actually see on the shelf in Japan to hold a good knife. They told me that the packaging style felt expensive and luxurious. I also got many good tips on how to make it even more authentic, such as possibly carving a pattern, making sure to give it a smooth finish and adding the Sun from the Japanese flag to directly behind the brand name on the paper slip.

Watching students interact and open my package made me really excited to work on my package further. It was great to see people’s reaction as they opened the box. No one had trouble opening it and they also told me that they liked how simple it was. They also told me that they would definitely keep the box and use it to hold other items or even just display it in their home.

I have a lot of work ahead of me, but I am excited to keep going.

Rough Rationales Blog Post #5A

Project Title: The Nav

The Challenge:

A new visual identity for an 8 issue annual student magazine that should have a new energy but must be recognizable as The Nav.

Should appeal to and embody the whole student body.

Need to be able to leave the magazine layout to the design team with the confidence that they can do it.

Redesigning my own design from the previous year.

The Approach:

Pull it back and give it a cleaner look from the previous year while still maintaining the personality within.

New set of standards and styles

What I did:

Art director

delegated layout, gave standards and rules

Initial design and layout of mag

coordinated a new printer and rules for mag layout

Notes:

Figure out which Nav to focus on, most likely most recent.

Highlight the leadership role.

Project Title: Balanced

The Challenge:

Overwork is a social stigma that promotes an unhealthy lifestyle.

I wanted to change the way that people thought of overworking and give them tools to change their relationship with work/life balance.

Create something usable that could be integrated easily into a busy lifestyle.

The Approach:

Not trying to be a fix-all but guide the user to make healthier choices by offering an integrated scheduling system. 

An ecosystem that learns about the user through use.

What I did:

I created a web app, mobile app, smart speaker (ish), smart watch ecosystem that could be applied to all aspects of life. 

Ish - an ai that learns about the user through conversation and gives helpful tips on a healthier work/life balance.

Brand identity.

Research.

Art Direction

Notes:

Clarity!

Explain this project to someone who has never seen it outside of class.

Project Title: Fox & Koi

The Challenge:

Last year, I realized that I needed a way to reconnect with my passion for graphic design and push myself to create outside of class work. I’ve always loved enamel pins and so along with a business partner, I began an enamel pin shop.

The Approach:

A pin business is a lot more than just drawing pins, there’s a lot that goes into it including the business side of it, like speaking to manufacturers and suppliers, understanding costs, creating a website and a presence in the online world and community.

What I Did:

I run the business side of fox & koi. I speak to the manufacturers, find new manufacturers, coordinate locations and markets for selling the pins, create the websites, package the pins, do the marketing and I also design pins, stickers and prints.

Notes: 

Put focus on leadership roles.

Explain more about the pin process?

Portfolio Website

The Links I’ll Use

about me, small joys, resumé

Which 3 (or more) projects will you showcase on your site?

Balanced Balanced is a project that I did last semester where we had to choose an issue and then try and solve it as best we could through graphic design. Balanced ended up being an integrative system to promote a healthy work/life balance for the issue. It showcases an app design, web page, smart watch, smart speaker and welcome pamphlet as well as a colour brand.

The Nav The Nav Student Press is a magazine that I have been art directing the past two years and worked on for the last three. It showcases my editorial skills and features two different base designs for me to show on my website.

Place Place is a branding project that I am currently working on for design for business. At the end of this project I will have a fully branded guide for a new business. This will include a logo, a pattern, style guide and branding elements. I will add it at the end of the term.

Fox & Koi Fox & Koi is the enamel pin business that I run with Teigan Mudle. Through fox & koi, we have designed over 30 pins and I have personally been responsible for 15 of them and collaborated on 5. I have also done some illustrative print work, designed backing cards and created stickers.

Where do you need to fill holes in your showcase?

photography

mockups

sketches/roughs for all projects

more active dribble, design instagram

What will you do specifically to fill holes?

write rationals

do photography of products and/or mockups

post more on my design instagram

post more on dribbble

organize past sketches and roughs into something legible.

What platform will you use?

Wordpress, powered by semplice

What is your domain name?

saraholmes.design

Final Portfolio Response

First of all, here’s my portfolio website!

I’m pretty proud of my portfolio overall. I remember starting this class and not being able to fathom at all how I could self-brand myself. It has been a period of self-reflection these last few months and while i’m glad to be through it, I know it’s never ever. Despite having the base of my website, there are a few things that I’d like to fix.

So learning Semplice has been a trial and a half. If you want my honest review, if you already don’t know how to use wordpress and you on’t have time to learn a whole new system, do not choose semplice for your first go. Just be a friend to yourself and choose a squarespace or wix template and then try semplice later. I’m saving you a lot of pain by saying this. Still, I’m glad I’ve put in the work and I vaguely get it now.

That being said, there’s some weird spacing that I cannot, for the life of me, figure out how to deal with. Semplice prides itself on how easy it is to edit but unless you already know how to use it, it’s really not. So I guess I’m going to figure out how to deal with the big gap between the footer and my information in my about page somehow. 

Otherwise all I really want to do is update some of my images in my project pages. For example, my balanced. project page could use a mockup of the booklet or a shoot of the booklet. I’ll try to get that when the print shop opens again. 

I’d also like to eventually add light boxes to my photography and illustrations page. 

Other than those items, I’m pleased with it.

Frame Your Design Challenge

What is the problem you’re trying to solve? The problem that we are trying to solve is that making coffee at home can be a messy process due to the current packaging for coffee or the tools used to brew it.

Frame it as a design question What can we do to streamline the brewing process for a better at-home coffee experience? State the ultimate impact you’re trying to have. To make at home brewing the chosen method of coffee drinking.  

What are some possible solutions?

Redesign coffee packaging

Redesign the brewer (hassle-free load option)

Design a scoop with a lid that you can flick closed. 

Write down context and constraints that you’re facing

Time constraint of >1 month.

Small budget

Perhaps context is bagged coffee + using a scoop.

The reason that coffee is bagged as it is:

Coffee bags have that little valve on them for a reason “A Degassing Valve: Sealed bags without a valve usually inflate and can even explode. A degassing valve allows the carbon dioxide that roasted coffee releases to escape the sealed bags. It's a one-way valve: carbon dioxide goes out, but oxygen doesn't come in.”

There has also been a few different neat redesigns of coffee bag to solve the sustainability and mess issues! 

“Tchibo created a new kind of coffee package for its Caffe Crema Vollmundig coffee beans. The bag looks standard at first glance - side gussets and a one-way valve - but upon further inspection, a capped plastic spout is discovered inside the top of one of the side gussets. When the consumer desires to open the bag, they push down and unscrew the cap, cutting a hole in the film. They can then pour out their beans with greater control and reseal the screw the cap, eliminating the need for other reclosure systems.“

Refined Rationales Blog Post #5B

Project Title: The Nav

The Nav is a unique project because it undergoes a visual identity change yearly. The challenge lies in creating new energy for the student-led press while keeping it recognizable as The Nav but it is also an opportunity to push myself as a design student and push the boundaries. This year I had the task of redesigning my own design from the previous year. The goal was to reign it in and give it a cleaner look from last year while maintaining the distinct personality within. I also needed to make sure that the layout was simple enough that a team of three could ay the 40 page magazine out in one day. 

Project Title: Balanced

Overwork is a worldwide social stigma that promotes an unhealthy lifestyle. Through this project, I wanted to work on a solution for people who lead an unbalanced life by giving them tools to change their relationship with work. The challenge lay in creating something usable that could be integrated easily into a busy lifestyle. I decided to create a scheduling app that would guide users to make healthier choices through education on mental health and forced rests. To this end, I designed a smart ecosystem that learns and adapts to the user through use. 

Project Title: Fox & Koi

Last year, I realized that I needed a way to reconnect with my passion for graphic design and push myself to create outside of classwork. I’ve always loved enamel pins and so along with a business partner, I began an enamel pin shop. There’s a lot that goes into a pin from conception to iteration and the final physical object. Through Fox & Koi I’ve not only worked on my illustration skills but my business skills as well. I run the business side of fox & koi. I speak to the manufacturers, find new manufacturers, coordinate locations and markets for selling the pins, create the websites, package the pins, do the marketing and I also design pins, stickers and prints.

We’ve Got Shapes

So step one was to make some rough shapes on my ipad and then bring them into illustrator to make them into vectors. I tried to keep the style similar to the circle so that they would all match well and ended up with this:

Alright, not bad. You’ve got a square to promote balance, structure and in a more abstract sense, community and integrity. The circle represents wholeness, infinity, oneness. The triangle is known to be the strongest shape to build with as any weight placed on them is evenly distributed amongst the sides. Triangles also represent harmony.

Placing them in a line like this makes them look a little like building blocks, or children’s toys. The idea is that you can build Place into a space you need it to be.

Rough: verb.work or shape (something) in a rough, preliminary fashion."flat surfaces of wood are roughed down"

That’s a cool meaning and it applies well to Place because it’s supposed to be a space that you can make your own during use. 

Just to be sure, I also tried out smoothing out the shapes so that I could see whether a rough shape or a smooth shape would be better.

At this point, I’m still undecided. I feel like rough and smooth have very different meenings to me. I like the way the rough one looks because it feels more organic and handmade, which is the type of community I’m trying to promote and reach with place. I want Place to be like a community hub and don’t want it to come across too polished.

On the other hand, I want Place to still appeal to higher-end events as well, despite the playful atmosphere of the logo shapes. In that sense, I think the smoother shapes could do better. I also know that the smoother shape would shrink down easier, and probably be easier to work within the long run. That being said, I don’t think it’s necessary to choose one or the other. There may be opportunities to use both styles depending on the event.