Online Reflective Journal

Reflection

I have thoroughly enjoyed this course. As I have said from the start, publications and creating books isn’t a strength of mine so I have had this mindset from day 1 that I just want to learn as much as I can from this course to help me in the future. I believe I have learnt so much about things I didn’t even think I would learn; this was because of being in the “Situational Library” group, I didn’t really know how everything worked to create a situational library and I’m so grateful to have learned about some of the coding behind creating this library as well as all the preparation that goes in to creating it. I tried screen printing for the first time which I’ve been meaning to do for so long, there is a bit of preparation that has to be done before being able to screen print, but everything needs to be done well or the print won’t end up right. 

Another thing that I learnt from completing this course was about binding: I had a bit of trouble binding acetate - Officeworks told me they were able to and when they tried to ring bind my publication, the machine ripped the side of the acetate. Unfortunately this could not be fixed and they had to cut off the ripped areas and salvage what was left. In the end the thermal bound my book and therefore it wasn’t a complete disaster. Because of this, the title is slightly off center and I don’t think the effect of the acetate can be used to its full potential. However, I can look at this as a learning moment and learn to make copies. This would have been hard with wet media acetate as it is quite expensive. In the future, I will not think of the cheaper option and I will source out a printing company that is able to bind acetate without any issues. Despite all of this, I am proud of my final book, even though it isn’t perfect. The title is Broken and therefore it fits if the book is a little bit broken too.

My final publication design: Broken

My work is a book containing and displaying a compilation of images of broken computer and phone screens. The idea is to reflect the idea of how books don’t break in the same way that electronics such as phones or computer screens do and how this causes restrictions to the viewer/reader. My publication also illuminates the idea that even something that is damaged beyond repair can be depicted as artistic; this is because of the incredible patterns and colours created from broken screens and how they create unique designs through being damaged.

I decided to create a publication reflecting these certain ideas as I find it extremely interesting how books can now be easily sourced digitally and how almost every publication is posted online to allow easy access to everyone. However with this ease of access there are restrictions behind viewing books on a laptop or mobile device. If a screen is cracked or damaged, the text on the screen cannot be viewed properly as the cracks, colour leaks or water damage block parts of the screen and only some areas are visible; whereas with a book, it does not damage in the same way. Some would say reading or viewing books on a phone is more convenient and accessible, however it is difficult if the screen is damaged as fixing or replacing a phone is much more expensive than replacing a book. A book is one of a kind (even if there are many copies) and I wanted to also reflect this idea within my work. Things that are viewed online are rarely one of a kind as everyone is viewing the same thing however if a viewer/reader’s screen is damaged, the viewing experience becomes unique. This leads in to the post digital experience that my publication embodies: The post-digital experience that is explored in my work is how the reader is viewing cracked screens on paper, something that is unusual as books do not crack and break in that way. I printed the contents of my book on acetate in order to mimic the feeling of a screen on each page in order to enhance this post digital experience. I wanted my idea to be artistic but also create a sense that it is out of place as screens do not belong within a book.

WIFI LIBRARY

I was a part of the group that put together the “Situational Library”, or as we renamed it “Wifi Library” with Astro W. Storer and Sarah Wong. A Situational Library is a non-physical, digital library that involves users connecting to a public Wi-Fi network that allows anyone (within its proximity) to access a range of books and other material. We wanted to create this digital space where everyone in the proximity could access preview pages of books and articles that interested them while also allowing this project to be picked up by others and continued in the future.

Our group chose to do this project as we all were interested in the digitalisation of books and how books are accessed online regularly. We believe that this Situational Library challenges the traditional idea of a library as a physical space as everything is online and can be accessed through connecting to a specific Wifi network. Libraries and books are transforming and a reason we chose this project was because of how progressive this idea is. We were intrigued by how a library itself is a physical situated space which is what the Situational Library is however they differ as instead of physical books, the books are all digital. We were trying to create a communal environment that is both physical and non-physical where we could store knowledge and share with everyone who accesses the library.

WIAB?: WEEK 13

Sarah and I came in for an extra week to start and finish screen printing on to the scans. I have never screen printed before so it was an exciting experience as I got to learn and try out a process I’ve always wanted to try.

We first printed out lots of copies of different scans on to some paper that Andy bought, the paper was much nicer in quality, feel and look than the regular paper in the printer. This would allow our posters to be more eye-catching to people walking around building 9.

We then prepped the vinyl so it was ready for use. We did this by sticking contact paper to it (this made it easier for every small part of each letter to stay attached and in the right position. We then stuck the vinyl to the screen and peeled off the contact paper on the back making sure everything was smooth. 

The next step is to attach the screen in place and ensure the scans we are printing on to are in the right position as well.

And to finally start screen printing, we placed the paint on to the screen and pulled and push it down, the paint goes through the screen and on to the page under it.

The screen prints turned out amazing, even better than what I imagined and with very little problems. I can’t wait to put them up throughout the building.

WIAB?: WEEK 12

For our last week, we were pretty eager to start screen printing, so we put together. I put together a PDF of a few scans that were visually appealing from the book that David Cutter suggested; “The Art of Looking Sideways” by Alan Fletcher and another that Toni Roberts suggested; “Visual Grammar (Design Briefs)” by Christian Leborg.

We then printed them off, although we accidentally printed double sided and black and white. However we used these print outs to decide what scans we liked and what scans we didn’t. We narrowed it down to 9 scans that we thought would work successfully with the screen printing process.

Our plans for screen printing are to print out my design from a couple weeks ago on to these scans in yellow paint.

However, we decided to add the logo and change the font to Roboto. Sarah also had a few other logos she put together:

We all decided that we really liked this one:

It is a very clever logo and depicts our Wifi Library perfectly. It is more successful than the other logo and more original as well.

Here is the font Roboto that we changed the vinyl design to:

We decided to go with Roboto Regular as the font was simple and easy to read which was perfect for a poster.

Andy helped us create a new design that will be printed on the scans.

We also decided that the only other text we wanted to be screen printed (besides “Wifi Library” and the logo) was a website that gave directions to the viewer on how to use the Wifi Library. Our plan is to create illustrations that gice 3 simple steps when someone goes on the website:

1. Be in building 9, level 3 of RMIT 2.  Connect to the Wifi Library wifi network 3. Refresh, read and relax.

We went on godaddy.com to find a url that worked well with our idea. We looked through wifilibrary.com or wifilibrary.info but we decided on www.wifibook.club as it has a sense of community and worked very well with our idea. The url also sounds intriguing and will hoepfully persuade people to look it up.

Unfortunately this change pushed our screen printing back a bit, and therefore Sarah and I weren’t able to print the design on to vinyl. Thankfully, Astro and Andy were able to do this for us! And it turned out extremely well as seen below.

WIAB?: WEEK 11

This week we worked on our group projects. Lucky for us we were able to finally see what the Wifi Library is starting to look like! Karen bought in the storage device that holds the coding and the wifi network to the Wifi Library. 

So the device connected to the computer allows anyone within its proximity to connect to a specific wifi network (we want to name it “Wifi Library”) and connect to the Library through entering any URL. We found out that entering google.com whilst on the Wifi Library network, it won’t let you access the Library.

The photos above show what the Library is looking like! It is extremely exciting to see everything up and running as for weeks it has almost seemed hypothetical, and it’s truly amazing to see what everything looks like.

We then went through with Karen Astro’s Wireframes that he put together, altering elements and removing pages that we didn’t need. Below is an image of all the alterations to the pages.

We decided to have only 5 pages to simplify the project and make it much easier for the users of the Wifi Library: The home page (welcoming users), The contents page (with all the accessible books available), a page that has a blurb about the book and who suggested it, an info page (to explain what the library is about), and a contributors page (with questions and answers).

We also put together a list of things that we need to achieve for next week. We need to: Create a back button Create an Up button Create an image box Create a background Create yellow logo Create an enter button

We also wish to screen print next week, so we need to print off copies of scans and print out the vinyl and then screen print.

WIAB?: MOCK UP

For the second half of week 10, we worked on creating a mock up of our final publications. I have finished collecting all my images and compiling them in to an InDesign Document ready for printing. 

So first I printed out my pages however they didn’t print in the correct order as the printer did not recognise my front cover as a page and shifted all the pages backwards 1, which did not allow my book to work or be turned in to a booklet.

These are the first pages I printed out that were in the incorrect order. However after the second try we were able to fix this issue (thanks to Andy) and everything printed correctly.

I then used a stanley knife to cut out the white edges of the book however this did not succeed on each page. In the future I would have to use a guillotine paper cutter on each page to perfectly cut these pages out and ensure that there is no white visible.

I also realised after printing that the black background I had created did not match this screenshot of an error message I had sourced and therefore I have to alter the colour of all the black background in the document to make sure they are all consistent.

All in all, I am very pleased with the outcome of this mock up as it allowed me to view a tangeable copy of what my publication will look like as I have only viewed it all digitally. This process allowed me to make adjustments to the issues that I hadn’t noticed on my computer.

WIAB?: WEEK 10

Our class this week was both us working on our group projects and then working on our personal publications. 

Astro has been developing the HTML coding for the actual website when a user connects to the Wifi of the situational library as Sarah and I don’t know much about HTML coding.

Here is what the website looks like currently:

It is coming along really well and soon we will be able to upload the different book or article segments on to the website and then of course publish it! It is really incredible to see a physical website for the situational library and I can’t wait for us to complete it.

Whilst Astro continued with developing the website, Sarah and I decided to start on the process of Screen Printing. I’ve never screen printed before and I underestimated how much preperation goes in to it before we could actually start screen printing on our printed scans.  We first needed to create a document of what we wanted to screen print, and only outline the objects with colour that we wanted to cut out. So we designed a few layouts for our Situational Library posters and then outline the black-filled objects (all in photos above) with 100% magenta.

Here are the swatches that the vinyl cutter detects as different functions:

When the printer detects 100% magenta it cuts where the magenta line is. And as we are only cutting out our signage, we only need to use the magenta.

We watched the group who is creating the exhibition at the Library at the Dock vinyl print and cut a ‘w’ so we could understand how to use the printer.

We unfortunately did not get around to vinyl printing this week but we will definitely print next week and begin screen printing! The whole process of vinyl cutting has been extremely insightful as I hae never done it before or used a printer like it. I definitely will consider using it for future projects as there are so many things that can be created.

For the rest of the class we worked on our mock ups of our final projects and after creating a mock up, we shared our work with our classmates.

Everyone’s publications are coming along really well, the ideas are all so unique and different from one another which I absolutely love. I am extremely excited to see everyone’s final projects.

WIAB?: WEEK 9

This week we went back to The Library at the Dock to allows the pop up library group to present their concepts. This allowed my group to get together and discuss what we needed to do. 

What needs to be done: - HTML site (Astro to be in charge as he is more experienced in HTML coding and will teach us along the way) - Vinyl cutting of design wanted to screen print - Screen Printing - Putting up posters - Launching Situational Library

As a lot of the resources we needed were back at RMIT, we decided to spend the rest of our time working on our individual projects.

As I had already sourced different photos of broken, cracked and damaged screens; I decided to put together a front cover of my publication. I settled with naming my book ‘Broken’ instead of cracked as some of the images of the damaged screens weren’t cracked and I believe this name is more fitting. I experimented with a few different title designs:

I used the font Adam (found: dafont.com) for all the designs because it is san serif and easy to work with. I enjoy the simplicity of the first title design as the text is only slightly broken - from a distance there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with the type but up close the text is broken. Due to the fact that the contents of the book is very busy and noisy, the cover needs to be simple and that is why I decided to place the first design in the centre and at a very small size; this way the cover is differentiated from the contents and represents the beginning of a screen becoming broken, and therefore the contents are the worst a damaged screen can become.

As seen above, the book begins with a loading sign to symbolise a computer or phone starting up or rebooting, this is satirical in the way that advice to fix a phone or computer that isn’t working properly is it turn it off and on again. However, in this case, most of these screens are beyond repair and need for than rebooting to be fixed.

For the layout, It is a double page spread with a broken screen filling each page. Although, as I may print the images of screens on acetate, I would not use double page spreads and instead print each page seperately (excluding front and back covers which I intend to be on a high gsm paper)

WIAB?: WEEK 8

We presented our 15 minute presentation to the class about where we are at with our group project (The Situational Library). We also told the class what processes we have completed as well as what we plan to do in the future.

We only used 3 slides as we believed it was easier to show a more visual presentation whilst we explained everything instead of people reading it off the screen. Our slides show our logo and typography as well as a floorplan of building 9 level 3 where we wish to place the situational library.

Here is our speech: (We elaborated on each question and used the dot points as prompts as we wanted the presentation to seem natural)

What is the project? - Short Answer: A digital library through a wifi network for all to access - Long answer: A Situational Library is a non-physical, digital library that involves users connecting to a public Wi-Fi network that allows anyone (within its proximity) to access a range of books and other material.

Why did you choose this project? - Challenges the traditional idea of a library as a physical space - Libraries and books are transforming

What are you intending to do? Expected Outcomes: - A library accessible through a wifi network - Student/teacher interaction with the library Stretch Goals: - We would like the library to be something continuous and growing even after the project has finished.

What are your processes (how and when)? - Work has been loosely split up based on interest so that we can move between tasks, collaborate and learn new skills - If we come up with something outside of class, we can bring it to the group the next week for feedback

What have you discovered (so far)? - Teachers respond in their different times - Relying on teachers to respond pushes back deadlines - Unsure of parameters, bit speculative – exciting but also daunting - Branding: Are we legally allowed to include RMIT’s logo/branding in our work?

It was suggested that we could possibly place the Situational Library on level 2 instead of level 3 as there is more seating and it is more of a communal area. Another idea was to upload textbooks on to the Situational Library to allow students to access a textbook for class through that way.

WIAB?: WEEK 7

To start off the class, we scanned in some pages of design books to use to screen print over information about the Situational library. We thought it would be appropriate to use scans of books as posters to promote the Situational Library. We scanned pages that were both visually eye-catching as well as ones that act more as a background for screen printing.

We experimented with moving the books as we scanned them and this created a warped effect - it was very unusual as you don’t usually see scans like these. This was extremely interesting as the result was a warped book with some magnified sections and was extremely unconventional.

Our next step is to screen print on to these scans.

WIAB?: WEEK 6

I started to source my images for my publication ‘Broken’ this week. I looked through the internet to find images that displayed broken and damaged screen but were also visually stimulating due to the colours and lines. 

I find it quite interesting that something that has been broken can be perceived by a designer as aesthetically pleasing.

To continue on with our projects, we found the books that were suggested by the members of faculty and put together a document so it would be easier to find in the library and digitise for the Situational Library.

All the suggestions by the teachers were so different which gave us a broad range of different books to look in to adding to the Situational Library.

WIAB?: WEEK 5

Our main focus for this week was to work on our group projects so we first wrote out a mindmap of what we had already completed in our project, what we are currently working on and what we plan to do in the future. After this we presented it to the rest of the class to explain where we were at with our projects.

After this we created a logo just by using the simple idea that a Situational Library is about books and wifi (as pictured above). We then decided to develop some designs for posters in order to gain publication ideas to upload on to the Situational Library. We came down to 2 designs (pictured above).

We also wrote out the responses from the emails we had sent out and compiled this onto a google doc.

WIAB?: WEEK 4

In this class we discussed our prototypes that we had created the week before and swapped projects in order to explore a different way of presenting the same idea. This task was extremely insightful as it allowed everyone to consider ideas to add to their projects or even just look at their own projects (and other people’s) from a different perspective. It was also extremely enjoyable to see what other classmate’s projects are about and how they’re choosing to present them.

Once we moved in to our group projects we decided to straight away draft up an email to send out to members of the faculty that were on a list that Andy gave us. Here is the email below:

“ Dear _______

We are from the course Communication Design in Andy's Studio 2 class "Wot is a book?". We are developing a group project that requires us to create a situational library. A Situational Library is a non-physical, digital library that involves users connecting to a public Wi-Fi network that allows anyone (within its proximity) to access a range of books and other material. We were hoping you could possibly answer a few questions that we have attached below that could help us with this project in sharing your knowledge with the school of Media and Communication. You may answer as many questions as you may like.

What book/magazine/articles would you recommend to the staff and students of the school of Media and Communication (can be any type of book and does not have to relate to Media and Communication)?

Why did you choose these books?/How have they influenced you?

What are your thoughts on the digitisation of books?

Do you have any opinions on this situational library?

Would you ever incorporate this situational library in your classes? 

Thank you so much for your time,

Kind Regards,

Chloe Marshall-Roth, Sarah Wong, Astro W Storer ”

We also drafter a response to send straight after we were emailed back with responses:

“ Thank you so much ____ for taking the time to email us back. We really appreciate your response and will keep you posted about the Situational Library.

Kind Regards,

WIAB?: PROTOTYPE

My idea is a disconnected book that has a series of cracked screens so the content within the book cannot be read or viewed properly. This concept shows how even though there is more that a computer or phone can do, there are restrictions as they are not fully durable. My idea is to use black paper and acetate to represent a phone or computer screen and create a simple lightbox (using the light from a phone) to shine through and simulate this. Instead of this, I could create a book full of photos of cracked or broken screens.

In the future, I would create a better prototype that is more professional as I am not fully satisfied with this result. Also after putting together this prototype I have come to the conclusion that I will put together a publication called ‘Broken’ that is a compilation of cracked and broken screens. I wish to print the screens on acetate to imitate a screen but I will not use a lightbox as it is too complicated and high budget.

WIAB?: WEEK 3

I was away for the first half of this studio class so I unfortunately missed out on the 3D printing at the Kathleen Syme Library.

Although in the second half of the class, we thought more deeply about our individual publication projects and I wrote down some dot points about 3 ideas I’ve decided I like:

After further thought, I decided I liked the ‘Broken’ idea best as I want to represent how books cannot crack like screens do and therefore are much more durable. If a person drops a book on to concrete floor, the impact and damage would be much less than that of a phone or a computer as a screen would be so damaged, the viewer/reader/user may not be able to read/view/use the screen.

We also got in to our groups for our group projects and discussed what needed to be done. We put together a plan of what we wanted to achieve week by week so we can loosely follow a schedule.

Our next plan is to put together an email to send out to lecturers to ask what books they would like to see in the Situational Library.

Our plan for the next 4 weeks is to:

WIAB?: WEEK 2 Library at the Dock

This week we travelled to the Library at the dock in the docklands. I’ve never been to this library before and it was interesting to learn more about it. 

There are so many resources available to all those who wish to use the library. The library acts as a public refuge for all people from around the area to enjoy and use the resources they would like. The library also has an amazing view of the river and cityscape which allows the experience to be even more enjoyable and relaxing.

Whilst we were at the library, we discussed which groups we would like to be in for the group projects. The main project that revolves around the Library at the Dock is the exhibition of past-year’s work. This is because the exhibition space is at the entrance of the library which we studied and thought up ideas of what we could do.

After some thought, I decided to choose to be in the ‘Situational Library’ group as I had not heard of anything like a situational library before and I was intrigued about what I could do to develop this idea.