Ivanhoe Update

On Saturday Ian and I volunteered at Ivanhoe as well other people from class. It was great to ask questions to people from the neighborhood. I met Ertha, a local that has lived in Ivanhoe for the past 30 years. She remembers the neighborhood full of families and feels really strongly that kids should receive parenting and mothers are struggling with end meets and she feels that providing tips on how to educate kids will be essential. I talked to her about the various size wether a newsletter or newspaper will something that she will be confortable in reading. She told that a newsletter size is the best considering that it fits nicely on the mailbox and she is able to find it once she picks up her mail. Rapid prototyping and developing various sizes that are within the confortable size of the newsletter will be developed this week.

We had schedule to meet Diana White, after volunteering but she had to cancel at the last minute. I been calling for the past week , yesterday she shared the fact that she has been having phone troubles. We have schedule to met her son and daughter and interview them either on Wednesday or Thursday of next week.

Since we haven;t been able to interview our lead of contacts. We have decided to start to work on the logo and developing various ideas that within this week we can distribute in the neighborhood and get feedback from the residents.

Final Individual & Community Posters: ESL High School Students

Reading Response: He Might Be Giant, Guerrilla Street Postering: Civil Disobedience in Los Angeles, Adbuster: Veronique Vienne Interviews Kalle Lasn

He Might Be Giant: Shepard Fairey by Michael Dooley

Shepard Fairey guerrilla art, meaning the iconography that he developed:the bold and abstracted face of Andre the Giant, with the word Obey which the sticker was way developed in 1989. He places his guerrilla art in hip but speedy neighborhood that separates Hollywood from downtown Los Angeles. The development of Andre the Giant, which he took from a newspaper ad, and he was trying to use it as a way to make fun of cliques between skateboarders. With this icon Shepard Fairey was able to expose consumer culture's susceptibility to propaganda. Interesting guerrilla art provide the audience to be part of a clique and have access to privileged information. It is interesting how and something to keep in mind with Ivanhoe is how he was able to use "unadorned" and empty spaces or lower property and using that space to say something and allow his Obey campaign to be everywhere. With his risk he was able to use graphics to affect change , and that people respond to what he's doing. He has also been able to tweak and use mass-media characters for a satirical effect. Repetition is also important and a necessity rather than recognition. For him what is important is making an image with impact. Is interesting for him to say "...advertising tries to manipulate to make people insecure," considering that he creates the same feeling of insecureness with his campaigns.

Guerrilla Street Postering: Civil Disobedience in Los Angeles by Robbie Conal

Guerrilla street posting is the most direct and a public expression. As described by the author as a form of minor civil disobedience but again is just to make "people tickle on their way to work". Audience receptivity is important and getting others involve is essential in spreading the message.

Adbuster: Veronique Vienne Interviews Kalle Lasn by Veronique Vienne

Kalle Lasn talks about the importance of "true cost" designers they consider the ecological and psychological consequences. Designers need to consider its personal and professional.

Low-Content Wireframes

Next-to-last ESL High School Students Poster

Ray and I are very close to being done with our poster, we tried to design a clean and give it a sense of a textbook.

Solutions and Needs

1. Need: How to drive a car in a new country?

Solution: Online simulation, similar to a video game that will guide the ESL student through step by step from starting a car to transit regulations of that country and it will be offered in various languages.

2. Need: Not enough friends

Solution: ESL peers in your class, would have accessibility to other peer friends and networks. By connecting people from different heritages, languages and struggles.

3. Need: I get called slow learner

Solution:an online connector between various ESL high school students that seek peer counseling and an area where they share their stories, possibly leading them to have group meetings in their local locations

4. Need: I want to learn AP Calculus even though I'm in ESL

Solution: An application similar to Rosetta Stone, in which the user would be allowed to learn a whole subject in their native language but the possibility of clicking and getting the terminology and pronunciation of the wanted language. With a chance of highlighting the wanted material and to place a note to material that you want to be read back in the language you will like to practice.

Online Network in school to teach math

5. Need: I need help with my homework

Solution: An application that allows to select subject. Place their homework assignment, it can be read to the individual in english and there will be a help button where it will sync or contact ESL students in other schools that have a better understanding of that subject and share their knowledge with the ESL student seeking help.

6.Need:I want to apply college, but I don't know where to start and forms are confusing?

Solution: an interactive system that is tailorable for the user to select profession, location, money, and SAT score and match that person with the best college. There will be a database from ESL students that are in college and are able to share their personal stories and tips on what to expect and contacts to go to for further information.

7. Need: I want to play for my soccer for my high school's team

Solution: An online community that would allow students to register for local sports activities within there community or with other ESL students. This would give ESL students the opportunity to interact with other students with similar interest.

8. Need: Preparing for the SAT

Solution: An online application process that would be presented to students in only english. By hovering over words or sentences, a translation would take place giving students the opportunity to read in their native language.

9. Need: I want to learn English fast.

Solution: Iphone app that would allow to record you vocabulary or concepts that were learned in class and be ready to use on the go. The user will have access to it to practice wether is at the bus stop , etc. The terms would not only be accesible in an audio way but also in a written format, ready to translated at any point in any language necessary.

10. Need: I don't know where my classes are at?

Solution: an Iphone app that interacts with the space. Utilizing the camera function built into the phone, by holding the camera up to a sign the build in app would take the words viewed and translate them into the desired language of the user.

11. Need: Understanding the customs of new country

Solution: Iphone app and online community with data base were tips about American customs can be found. The user or ESL student is able to search jargon, food, places, wardrobe and basic life style habits. Given them a chance to have a better understanding and understand the normal dynamics of high school experience in America.

12. Need: Retain their heritage

Solution: A video blog were they are able to share their stories and where an online community can be established between immigrants were they can keep a journal and mentioned something (location, food, people, etc) that they miss about their own country.

13. Need:I have the same ESL teacher, and she doesn't teach me a lot about science

Solution: Online school, in which will connect all willing ESL teachers to teach ESL students across the states. These teachers would be certified, and they are also experts in that subject that they teach.

14: Need: Fitting in high school

Solution: an online community, where is based on location. It shows the schools within that area, if certain schools are connected in this community. ESL students are able to share their profile with mainstream students (general student body) and sharing who they are as individuals.

15. Need: I want a study buddy

Solution: online community and iphone app that they will be found within a certain close radius. Share and practice vocabulary and dialogue and the site will have a system where it arranges the spectrum between the user from novice to expert.

Response to Readings: Towards Critical Autonomy, The Designeras Catalyst, Beyond Literal Materiality, Now That We Can Do Anything, What Will We Do?

Towards Critical Autonomy or Can Graphic Design Save Itself? by Andrew Blauvelt

Computer-aided design is a debate as the article mentions as well as the limits of readability and legibility which was sparked in the nineties. The bedrock principle of designing stylishly. Styles match to the logic of the marketplace, today style has been reduce down to convenience. I think in response to Andrew Blauvelt and the comment he makes that graphic lack coherency and is disperse due to the expansion of the various outlets that "visual" can be shown such as print, television, video, film or the internet. I think that now designers are more aware in creating an identifiable system that can be translated and keep qualities of their identity through the various platforms. The author also makes the comment that "graphic design is identified more through various products than any sense of social practice. I think this important to keep in mind for Ivanhoe to not just limited our ideas to artifact but rather what is the social responsibility that should inspire individuals from this community to do.

In the late eighties and early nineties, individual expression became important or personal style, yet the author makes note that today we should make it inventive contextually. Graphic design should have an emphasis on actions, demonstrate self-awareness and that the system can be manipulated in order to reflect those actions.

The Designer as Catalyst: Cultural Catalysts, Cultural Agency

Designer has 2 operative roles: to sedate consumers or to activate citizens.

Sedate consumers the designer is essential as an instrument of commercialism. The design is sedative, in a way that the consumer is suppress in picking that item, even though "he has a choice" or other brands. Typically found in advertising.

Activate citizens, is a civil discourse. Which provides citizens with means of information and communication given the chance to make responsible decisions, argue choices. Cultural agency

it activates by offering an understanding of, comment on or an alternative to them. This approach the message of product will have wealth of cultural and social connotations.

Design by the author is viewed by design=agency and designer=catalyst and co-authors of the visual text. Catalyst or designers activate or accelerate the viewer in what they observe, understand and assess. I think that something to keep in mind with our design for Ivanhoe as mentioned in the article is the allowing the recipient to "talk back to the message" to ask critical questions or disagree with it, a way for them to respond or have feedback from the users.

Massive Change: Now That We Can Do Anything, What Will We Do? by Bruce Mau

Under the subheading We Will explore design economies, due to new products, processes and services are accesible to the general public, the role of design has evolved. The design discourse has changed from being limited and enclosed to classical design principles to the exploration of exchange or design "economies". We look at the movement and the economies of movement and liking across disciplines. Design success=global success, there are many projects being develop and they are people that use the word "design" to describe their work. The client/ designer relationship that we spoke it before needs to be removed, because advanced design today is composed of three ideas: distributed, plural and collaborative. Design is not meeting the means of one person or client but instead is taken problems everywhere in the world. Future design needs to be more modest and ambitious, modest by taking our place and dealing with the demands of the given project. Ambitious by taking our place in society and willing to participate.

"We" meaning citizens as a collective need to, discuss and with the broadest audience to the people that are affected directly by the work of designers. Massive Change calls for greater public discourse and personal responsibility for designers, fulfilling a practical objective.

Quantum Leap: Beyond Literal Materiality

It talks about type style and and only those who are trained to see changes in the type style or formatting. Most style choices are made to please the eye, make a text legible and presentable or produce an "aesthetic" design. There are graphic instances that have graphical codes that affect our reading and we make connections of a time or era. Interestingly, the article talks about how in early twentieth century journals were style to appeal different audience. Unbroken columns of text were aimed for a masculine sensibility while the broken up of chunks and graphics aimed at a female reader. The desktop user has the possibilities in treating various type settings and therefore many graphical components assume their own "entity", is what the author calls "literal materiality" that a graphical entity is simply "there" and thus available to a rich, descriptive discussion of its self-evident characteristics. Characters depending on it's use (position, juxtaposition and context) it has a different effect. For example hand-lead text the shifting it up and down, weight can all be factors of placement, juxtaposition, leading and surrounding space.

Even though various graphical elements (type style, font size, column with, etc) are "entities" they are not just "things" they support the "ground" or paper.These entities are dynamic entities that work together in a system.

White spaces can be divided into three basic categories depending on their behavior and character: graphic (structural organization) , pictorial (identifiable image or visual meaning in shape or pattern) or textual (organizational convention, keeps characters lines and blocks discrete). Typographic elelements depend upon the use of white space to sustain the careful articulation that gives them their stylistic specificity. White space plays an important role , in supporting the medium in guaranteeing the typography its stylistic identity.

Offline needs & online solutions

After meeting with Ray this morning we figure some of the offline needs and some solutions that our culture might encounter.

Needs

1. Relationships with peers ( make friends outside of their ESL class)

2. Better understanding of the new country

3. Help applying for colleges and/ or scholarships

4. Eliminate Stereotypes (want to be understood)

5. Learn subjects & English at an equal level like mainstream students

6. Connect with other ESL peers that are going through the same struggle

7. Share various methods to learn English quicker/ practice English

Solutions

1. Connecting students with others that have similar needs through an online connection ( ESL to ESL student, or "mainstream" (ESL students that have endure the process and are proficient in English) to ESL student.

2. Connecting students with those who have experience or understanding of the new country. These users are able to share tips and knowledge unknown to new members.

3. Tutorials for filling scholarship paper work as well as advising which colleges to attend by income.

4. Students will be able to create a profile in their own language, which can be translated to English and other language, which allow for an easy cross culture awareness.

5. Advance learning material in English on any other desire language, at a high school level. Knowledge gain in order to pass test and apply for college.

6. Peer counseling ( ESL to ESL / ESL to "mainstream"- experienced ESL student) to aid and cope with name calling and bullying.

7. Way for an ESL student to practice English terms outside of class and new terms that are not taught in school. As well as online chat with other ESL peers that can connect for practicing phonics and pronunciation.

Wines by Jennifer Phase 1

Wines by Jennifer Rebrand

Wines by Jennifer is a global wine boutique that allows people from the Kansas City community to gather in this unique establishment. Is a 1903 three-story circa house that is located in Parkville , Missouri. The have a great collection of wines all separated through the various rooms of the house, which represent a different country in the world. Currently, it attracts woman groups, woman shoppers and older individuals. Their establishment offers a global experience due to their products. Familiar atmosphere due to their location and clients get knowledge about wines and parings from the knowledgeable staff.

After talking to one of the employees, she expressed her frustration, that a younger audience seems not interested in this informal and casual establishment. My goal with my redesign is to create a more approachable aesthetic and emphasize their casual, friendly environment ideally for a younger audience. Creating various brand elements that can help connect the wine tasting community and create an outlet for them to share their love for wine.

[Karen]Phase1

Response to Readings: The Birth of the user, Graphic Authorship, The Designer as a Producer

The Birth of the User by Ellen Lupton

In this article Ellen Lupton brings the attention to the rise of interface and usability design. Human-computer interaction (HCI) reflect that the dominant subject is the user. User are to studied and how text used since it reflects more the user has been and gathers data about the audience.

There are a couple of myths or theories about visual communication and how they relate to user interactivity.

Myth 1: Readers on the web are less patience than readers of print?

Truth: Studies proved that the crisp black text on white background van be read just as efficiently from screen as from a printed page.

Myth 2: Users of websites have different expectations than print users

Truth: Website users want to feel contemplative, they expect search mode not processing or contemplating.

Myth 3: Icons are a more universal mode of communication than text.

Truth: Icons are necessary yet text can often provide a more specific and understandable cue than a picture. Icons function more to enforce brand identity, besides text allows to be reformatted and translated and used in different media.

Myth4: "White space" open space on a page can have as much physical presence as printed areas.

Truth:Mixed opinions modern designers believe that open space have presence but advocates like Edward Tufte, believe in visual density argues for maximizing the amount of data on a single page or screen. I think the importance is not the amount but the organization if is well organized I wouldn't personally mind going through several text.

Design has become a "transmedia" enterprise, as authors and producers create worlds, characters, places, situations and interactions appear across a variety of media and products.

Graphic Authorship by Rick Poynor

"Designer as author" even though is a postmodern ideas. The role of the designer has not just been to invoke the reader or viewer , but also get the involvement of the audience. In the reading, the author mentions that "the acto of designing can never be an entirely neutral proces, since the designer always brings something extra to the project. A designers role is to inform, reflect personal taste, cultural understanding, social and political beliefs and aesthetic preferences. Designers are motivated by the need for creative satisfaction and peer approval.

Canadian designer Bruce Mau, has a preferred model to when a designer should take a role for instance in a book project. In Mau's version he sees the involvement of the designers during the project's inception, sometimes alongside the writer. Example of this model is when Mau collaborated with Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, on the cover of the book Mau and Koolhaas had the same degree of recognition, which has been achieved by few designers. Ellen Lupton and Abbott Miller are two significant designers that emerge in 1980's embracing designer and author. In their design practice the made this commitment explicit in the three-word manifesto (1985) which they titled it design|writing|research. Lupton and Miller demonstrated how writing and design might be brought together in a new critical relationship, in which a graphic designer could be conceived as a language-worker equipped to actively initiate projets by either authorizing text or by elaborating, directing or disrupting their meaning. Postmodern graphic authorship as described in the article is a designer that has full control over the text, as commissioner, editor or writer.

Fuel makes the distinction between client and personal work as, client work usually involves compromises over content that need not to be made in self-initiated projects. This may come to the nature of the content itself.

-SVA (School of Visual Arts, in NYC is the first school to provide a degree based on the "idea of the designer as author" is rooted in the independent creation of ideas.

Authorship is a term that has a lot of problems in regards of ownership and credit, but it does open the road for possibilities and thinking how design transcends and is not limited. Ellen Lupton also makes the point that designers are producers, designer finds opportunities to seize control of the technological means of production and share this control with the reading public.

The Designer as Producer by Victor Margolin

Available is a new networking approach to the production of goods and services and therefore making the accessibility to resources quicker. Due to this emerging marketing structure, designer today have the opportunity to produce and distribute new things at low costs. Like typefaces with the market, it can allow a young typographer to become an entrepreneur. Designers/ entrepreneurs can do more than challenge the system of industrial production, by using technology for modeling, prototyping, manufacturing and distributing new products. Designers can address the need of new products to address pressing social needs (health, children, communication, the aged, those with disabilities) that are not being met by large manufacturers. Designers/ entrepreneurs have the opportunity to create and have an impact in the product culture than we have ever had in the past.

Recognizable Issues at Ivanhoe

- Lack of communication within the community/ relying on block captains to pass news and information

-Youth not involved with the community , youth with a criminal record without being able to apply jobs relying on the older members of the community

-Food desert, no groceries in sight

-Single-mothers are working most of the day, and their disconnect with their kids.

-Getting people involved with the urban farming, and hopefully using the empty lots for growing food.

-Extracurricular activities for the youth to get involved within the community

-Not to many computers and older community going to get help or young individuals whom have dues with the library and want to get on the computer

Areas of Interest to help Ivanhoe:

1. After the neighborhood community meeting, and not seeing the involvement of the youth. I asked Diana White, part of the Ivanhoe neighborhood since 1981. When I asked her what she felt was needed the most at the Ivanhoe community she said that they are many young adults who due to obtaining a criminal record they are unable to apply to jobs. Employment is a necessity, looking at Maslow's Hierarchy Needs is the second on the hierarchy of needs. I was proposing to get the interest of a group or organization that will be able to supply or help them become part of society, by giving them training.

One Stop Career Centers

One Stop Career Centers in Missouri are managed by the Division of Workforce Development of the Department of Economic Development. In conjunction with employment and training organizations, the centers strive to meet the specific needs in each local community. They are equipped with computers, fax machines and telephones. Individual services include skills assessment, career exploration, job placement, job training, family support services and mental health services. Those eligible include basic skills deficient individuals, dislocated workers, people with criminal records, low-income individuals, eligible youth and those seeking non-traditional employment. MissouriCareerSource is the ....development! is the online service that focuses on providing services related to employment, training, job and workforce development.

Contact:
Division of Workforce Development
Missouri Department of Economic Development
421 E. Dunklin St.
P.O. Box 1087
Jefferson City, MO 65102
573-751-3999
573-751-4088 fax

Web Site: www.missouricareersource.org

2. Lack of communication that is within the community is evident, not everyone is engaged and the passing of information is limited to certain systems like the block captains and the visuals that can be more engaging and even can get the younger audience to attend meetings, etc. In the visuals also indicating resources like computers which many people are not aware considering that they are not that many in the community.

Contact: Dina Newman

3. Getting more computers accesible at the Ivanhoe community and with either items that can help older individuals. Get an organization involve where computers either can given to people at Ivanhoe, to have accessibility to computers at their own home.

The Kansas City Beehive:

hopes 500 low-income families and individuals will get home computers. through the loan fund.

4. The communication between single mothers and their kids. Mothers in this community due to their work they are unable to spend time with their kids. In Maslow Hierarchy pyramid of needs love and a sense of belonging is third. I think that something that can be helped is the relationship between kids and parents within the community.

Contact:

Families for Home Education (Missouri) 877.696.6343 www.fhe-mo.org
Family & Parenting Support Group 816.932.2258

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs