I took on this project thinking about how I could simplify the topics Heliski provided as starting points. The starting points were brown bears, volcanoes, skiing and helicopter rides; giving me an opportunity to explore the idea of simple symbols that could easily be put on to a T-shirt.
I took inspiration from Joe Warburton's 'design a day' project. You can see these symbols work really well. I want my symbols to be slightly more detailed then these. These examples could work really well as website icons.
I managed to find some interesting more creative examples of business cards for people in construction. As I mentioned on my design practice, it is a fine balance between a creative business card and a pointlessly over designed one in this context. Hadlee didn't want anything to 'flashy', which is fair enough. He will be handing the cards of to mainly contractors.
This is simple but effective. It's one colour which will also make printing the business card cheaper.
This stands out amongst the tide of shit construction template business cards, but at the same time I count alone three processes. I think this will be too expensive for Hadlee seeing as he is still an apprentice.
This works well in terms of standing out but still looking industrial Black on yellow stock which also means its cost effective. Again Hadlee will be handing a lot of them out so its more quantity rather extreme print quality in this instance. Really useful to see what you can do within the construction context though.
Now I understand what my content is going to be I can start to think about how I will influence the design according to the small house theory.
Some points I think could make relevant starting points for a graphic investigation.
Architecture
Relevance of Architecture is fairly self explanatory within the topic of small houses. I will look for typefaces and publication styles which would fit under the heading of architecture. Interior Design
The interior design is key to a successful small house project. I was watching one short video about how glass and use of minimal materials can create the sense of infinity within a space. Sustainability and the environment
The ideals of this philosophy will effect the final product in terms of questioning the relevance of design choices. For example will it be necessary to full colour print every image in full CMYK or digital print; would it be better to screen print certain parts of the publication? Social impact
By reducing the size of your house it will inevitably have an effect on you socially. So will consider the social impact and responds to it graphically. An example would be the idea of reusing materials or buying materials to last.
I will need to understand the visual language of these themes with idea of a finish product that creates unity between them. I will dissect each theme to fully understand it.
Finish product
I think the main theme that will be apparent in the design of the publication will be the use of space and resolution. How can I maximise what I have to work with, for example some kind of accordion. below are examples of my design sheets.
My original proposal was to highlight the impact of new technology and how it would impact us socially. I have refined my interest down to the social impact of living in a small house and adopting the small house principles and way of life, which would fall under sustainability and the social impact.
The reason for the change is the fact that I stumbled across the 'we the tiny house people' documentary and it felt a lot more fresh and another starting point in which I can start to picture a practice of design that will underpin this theory.
The main points I got from the Dirksten's film was the basic question of why do we think owning a big house is a sign of success? Big houses are no efficient to run or buy, with overheads such as heating and maintenance being a lot more expensive then in comparison to a smaller house. Land prices are rising and with the economy being extremely unpredictable currently why risk buying into a big mortgage? The small house concept isn't just a gimmick its more then that, it evaluates our true mandatory needs.
So here I will tie the idea of small housing into social impact and sustainability. I think you can make a comparison between small house design and graphic design also. obviously with the whole Swiss modernism movement against the post-modern.
I am going to start doing more research and then draw up a new proposal that has been and amended. I will post the new proposal when I have done it.
Research
Below is more research into the tiny house philosophy.
faircompanies.com is a online community dedicated to sustainability. It is run by the director of the original 'We the Tiny People' documentary. On this website there are multiple examples of small houses.
Treehugger.com founder Graham Hill renovated his apartment and turned it into a transformer. I am more interested in the small houses that pay special attention to interior design. This house has three beds, 2 singles and 1 double which allows Graham to have people stay over comfortably.
The dividing wall transforms into various functions 1 including a projector screen and another an office.
Demonstration of the pull out wall which eventually reveals the guest bedroom.
Here you can see the 2 single beds being pulled out.
Even down to the cutlery. By using a this plate/bowl it allows Graham to save space on cutlery. Its a sate of mind of sustainability.
Metal finish allows magnetic varses and cups to stick to the side allowing more space saving techniques.
A table that increases in size allowing lots of people to sit around the table and for Graham to host.
Another video featured by faircompanies.com of Monica Potvin. Another really small house that looks extremely nice but also uses second hand materials and utilisation of space. I will probably say the word utilisation too much from now, when talking about small houses.
Christian Schallert
Located in Barcelona's Born district, the tiny apartment is a remodeled pigeon loft. Christian says its design was inspired by the space-saving furniture aboard boats, as well as the clean lines of a small Japanese home.
The un-built room is basically a cube until you transform it.
You can see here that once the cabinets are open the cube transforms into a functional home. Kitchen and fridge.
Pop down table for eating or entertaining.
Shower has the cabinet built into it.
Finally you can see where the bed lowers down.
French photographer Jérémie Buchholtz wanted an affordable apartment in Bordeaux, but he wasn't finding anything he liked. Then he stumbled upon a listing for a garage.
I stumbled across a documentary about people that live in really small houses. Some people made the decision to live in a small house for moral reasons and others for financial and economic.
The main thing I was truly intrigued by was how the residents utilised space and made the way they live super efficient. I've have found myself trawling through pictures and short videos of people showin their small house off in a MTV 'cribs' style.
Here is the original documentary 'We The Tiny House People' by Kirsten Dirksen is co-founder of faircompanies.com and a Huffington Post blogger. She has worked for MTV, Oxygen, The Travel Channel and Sundance Channel.
More interesting ways to live the city life affordably utilising design and space. Designer Monica Potvin and her husband Markel Otaola share this house with their small child.
'Space Saver: Engineer Spends 7 Years Building Dream Loft'
One window, about one hundred and eighty square feet.
I bought this book with my dyslexia allowance, probably the best inspiration for logos I got. Not showing any specific examples because I just flick through this to get inspiration for logo design. So many different examples to broaden your logo design.
I think Rachel's website would work with a contemporary layout and limited colour scheme. I like this website because the style of design doesn't inter fear with the content. I suggested this style and gave rachel examples of how it would look and she was happy with this.
I think these responsive websites are good but I feel they are more about the design of the website then the content. Is the focus of Rachel's website needs to be Rachel.
Me and Teresa sat down and decided that the style she wanted for her birthday invitations was the kinder current vintage style. Lots of lost type fonts and experimentation with typography. I found some inspiration on Pinterest:
The yellow is used well here with the tie as negative space. Worth thinking about. Also I am looking at the fonts used as a starting point for me to design.
Again I probably noticed this because of the colour to begin with. Orange and monochrome image looks appropriate. The orange makes the invitation visually bright and eye catching which is good. We don't want people ignoring the birthday invitation d because they think it's junk mail!
More experiment with typography. Something me and Teresa want agreed on.
