Final design and outcome

  I selected these pictograms as my final design because I thought they work the most success which are easy to understand the meaning.Those colours that I used for the guide and time information were mainly in bright colours because in one of the group crit, someone suggested me to use bright colours because it is easy to get people attraction rather than dark colours. In the guide, I also used Helvetica, it was the same reason that I choose to use for my pictograms, people can read easily.

 As my classmates said my first version of map look confuse. Hence, I just use one colour for the line in my design, it looks easier to read and I asked someone from the class do they think the second version of map better than the first one(with more colours), they agreed that this version look better and they can understand the map easier. Moreover, I added a short black line in every "Turning point" so that the reader can know that which road has different direction.

Second group crit

 

  In this crit, I showed both version of my maps to my group, some of them said the map look quite complex which mean it is difficult to read because there are too many colours on the same road, it make people confuse. They suggested me try to use fewer lines and just use one colour for the road so that it looks more tidy and easier to read. They said it would be better if I use brighter colour for the line as it is easier to see and more attractive.

Idea development

  I found the map in Leeds and then narrowed down to Hyde Park.

  I sketched the outline for the area that I should work on with and listed some places inside the Hyde Park.

  As someone suggested me should use different colours for different places so I used five colours which are Red, Yellow, Blue, Pink and Green. The one at the right top is a guide for people to read the map. The figure of that guide actually is the shape of Hyde Park, I used different number to represent different places as well as I want people easier to understand the map. As someone said I should use different lines to represent cyclists and human so I used the filled line to represent the cyclists. While, the human one, I used dot line to represent it. However, the colours of both version are the same because it is the same place.

Idea development

  After I had the group crit, it gave me a lot of ideas which can help me to make my design better. I picked some designs and wanted to work more with. However, I was not sure which one is the best. Hence, I created a survey to ask my friends opinion about some pictograms that I selected to develop.

  So, I selected the tennis court, swing, pub, skate court, bin, trees, human and bike fix station.

  I asked my friends which one would they choose and which one they think is the easiest to understand. 

  

  The result is like this, most people think these pictograms are the easiest to read and understand, they think these are the most effective for a wayfinding system compare with others. So I will use these pictogram to develop with my maps.

First group crit response

  To make my design better, I will focus on one theme (make a map to show direction o cyclists and visitors that are walking). So I will create two version of the map. one is for cyclists and one is for visitors. This seems like when people take information from the bus stop, there have different number of bus informations, they just take the one they are going to use. So my idea is quite similar with that, people can take different version of map according to themselves. As my classmates said pictograms look quite complex so I am going to make them look simpler.

First group crit

  In the first group crit, people said my work is too much focus on the park, they suggested me try to focus on one theme for example cycling or the main users of Hyde Park. And then they said if I want to design for cyclist, I can make a wayfinding system for cyclists and help them to get to the place for example library or pub. To do this, they said I can use lines with symbols and numbers for times it takes to travel or use different thing to make different map for cyclists, visitors or skaters, etc. For example use different colours to represent different places. They said I should make my pictograms look simpler so that people can read or understand easier.

First mock-up with my ideas

  I used some of my designs and applied to Hyde Park in Leeds and see how it looks. I put most of my signs on the ground as I want visitors can also see that if they haven't take the map. 

a series [minimum of three] Marber Grids for three Penguin Classics of your choice

  In this task, we were asked to design three Penguin book covers with Marber Grids of our choice. I choose "Barking of bagels", "King of swords" and "The Nowhere man". At the beginning, I looked at the original covers and see how it works.

"Barking of bagels":
  The book "Barking of bagels" is about a dog and bagels so I got an idea that my cover should focus on this point. Hence, I used different size of circle and created the bagels and then I drew a dog inside the circle of the bagels so that it looks related. The colour that I used for the cover was light blue as I didn't want to use too much colour which may make readers feel difficult to red and it is a teenage book so I wanted to use a joyful colour and attract to teenagers. For the font, I used Bodoni 72 Bold because I really like the style of the font, it is a serif font and really modern so people can read it easily.

"King of swords":
  The book "King of swords" is about a prequel that takes place over a two year period from late 1980 through late 1982 so I wanted to use some old and serif font as I wanted to use fewer typeface with my three covers. Therefore, I used Bodoni 72 Oldstyle with Book Italic, the reason that I decided to use the typeface with Italic was because it looks better than san serif font. Due to the fact that it is an adult book so I didn't want to make the cover look too childish, I wanted to make the cover be look more mature so I drew two swords which represent both kings and I drew a skull between both swords because it represents both kingdom fight together. As I wanted to make to book look mature, I used the pentool and drew some fire so that the cover looks awesome and attractive.

  

"The Nowhere man":
  To be honest, I didn't read this book when I was doing the task so I just looked at some previous covers and got some inspiration from that. I knew that the book is about criminal and most covers hided the character's face. Therefore, I drew a man with a hidden face. Due to the fact that the story described that the man as Nowhere so I wanted to make the cover look mystery. I designed three version of it, the first one I used a forest as the background, the second I used an old paper as the background, while I just used black and white in the third one. When I asked my friends which one was the best, they said the one worked with black and white worked the best because it looks the most mystery and simple. Actually, I used the same typeface with my "King of swords" cover design which was Bodoni 72 Oldstyle with Book Italic because it works really well with this typeface in here, it looks mystery in italic rather than just bold. Therefore, I choose the one worked with black and white as my final design.

  I really like the outcomes that I have produced, it looks quite well, especially "The Nowhere Man", I really like that even it just contained two colours but it looks attractive. Hence, I should use Marber Grids in the future when I designing the book cover, it helps to make the work more organise and work better.

Mockup of my book covers:

                                   

                                       

                                       

Idea development

  In my holiday, I made these signs which I wanted to pick some of them and apply to my map. Most of my signs I made were cut from different letterforms and shapes.

  

  I used the letter "O" in upper case as the starting point  and then I tried to combine or cut and replace with other letterforms or shapes. And then I used the grid to help me made the design. I found that the letter "I" is really useful as I could make many things by using the letter "I" such as the bin sign. These are only some examples of my process when I made my designs, the full process is in the sketchbook.

Extend my idea

  In my Christmas holiday, I got a better idea which can extend more with my previous idea (bike signs). I want to make a park wayfinding system for Hyde Park in Leeds. Because I found it was quite difficult to design a full bike wayfinding and display in the road as it may make the car drivers confuse, so I want to design a wayfinding system specially for Hyde Park.

  When I went to the Hyde Park it was really easy to lost the way and there is not enough wayfinding system in Hyde Park so I couldn't find the direction. Hence, I want to make a map including some bike signs in the map as I found that Hyde Park is one of the place in Leeds where happened some bike accidents before. In my map, it can help visitors easier to find the way.

Marber Grids

  In this task, we have to design three Penguin book covers that using Marber Grids with the designs. 

  At the beginning, I didn't know what is Marber Grids so I could just looked different examples and see how they worked with Marber Grids. Basically, it is a frame for designers to work more organise with thier designs on the covers.

  In 1961, a Polish graphic designer who named Romek Marber, designed a grid layout for Penguin book covers that became one of the most successful and recognised layouts of all time.

Penguin classics book covers research

  Before I start to design my covers, I did some research of some examples of Penguin book covers, I found that those covers mainly put the illustrations at the lowest part in the cover, also it didn't use that much colour in their covers, mainly just used two or three colours so that it helps to keep their cover look simple. Most of the covers used Helvetica, however, in the recent days, some covers started to use some serif typefaces with a strong curves in the types.