#ixd303

Initial Idea

I have been fixed on the idea of condensing the news down into animated illustrations supported by a mini article of text or headline and for these to be shared, liked and reacted to amongst friends. The content produced would be good news to brighten the users day in contrast to the predominantly negative news reported in todays world.

Robin Davey

The images above are the work of Robin Davey who is a British illustrator based in Berlin. He has worked with companies such as Apple, Google, The Times and GQ amongst many others. The images above are animated stickers in which Google commissioned Davey to create for their Messenger app. 

“Robin’s work combines geometric precision with bold colour and playfully exaggerated forms” which would look great for the aesthetics for my idea.

This could work quite nicely as an email notification or on a smart watch. 

Moving Forward

Chris had highlighted the word “zeitgeist” in our lecture which means ‘Spirit of the time’ essentially conveying that as designers we must be on trend and aware of the characteristics of the period we are designing in. However when discussing my idea with Chris he told me I was too focused on the ‘zeitgeist’ (aesthetics of my designs and their final outcome and look) and should take more time to think about the concept behind my idea and its goals and what it aims to achieve. Is there a need for it?

I am going to park the aesthetics for now and take a few steps back and explore more about the idea behind my work.

Sources:

https://agentpekka.com/artist/robin-davey/

The Milky Way 

This is my complete planet icon set for our solar system.

Obviously looking at the planets they are not all this size but for the sake of my weather app, they need to be.

At the start when I was creating these they were all flat design, but the more I tried to add a bit of texture the more they stood out, I think adding the small bits of detail around each section on the planets or around the craters on Mars for example really made the icons look a lot better. Adding the detail was a lot simpler than I thought it would have been when I first tried it.

Experimenting on Illustrator - Mountain Weather App

I have spent the last few days improving my Illustrator skills and as I want to create a mountain weather app, where better to start than with a mountain scape. At least I feel I have really started the project because up until now, I seem to have been writing about and looking through umpteen apps!

This illustration was drawn with the pencil tool which is something I have used sparingly in the past. I created multiple layers of mountains and hills and scaled them to create depth of scenery, at the same time using lighter shades of colour in the horizon progressing to darker shades closer to the viewer. Next I wanted to add vegetation and I know conifers are more common in mountainous areas so I thought of adding these to the illustration. The idea I wanted was silhouettes, but I really didn’t have a clue how accomplish this. Enter google search and I very quickly taught myself how to do this. I then strategically placed them on the mountains and hills and again I scaled them accordingly. These may not be perfect but at least I can play about with them over the next few weeks.

This is my final submission for IXD303.

You can find all my supporting material in this download:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/8jblcc5xtqjwzlq/IXD303%20-%20William%20Park.zip?dl=0

Final Work:

Weather Site: www.paper-umbrella.co.uk

Oblique Strategies Part 1: https://williamipark.github.io/oblique-strategies/

Oblique Strategies Part 2:

For this part of the masterclass, I took the oblique strategies idea and turned it into a Chrome Extension. The extension will show an oblique strategy every time the user opens a new tab. It is available here:

‘The Space Between’

Weather App - Inspiration

I wanted to differentiate my weather app from others on the market that exist. I incorporated funny sayings, jokes, and puns that are generated every time someone selects the weather. However, I have also found songs that correspond with the current weather conditions. Every time someone searches for the weather, a song will begin playing that relates to the current weather. 

Here are some of the songs that I have selected, and their partnered weather pattern. 

Cloudy

Cloudy - Simon & Garfunkel

Cloudy - Ian Bloom

Cloudy - Krayzie Bone

Cloudy - Cool Calm Pete

Cloud - Milky Chance

Windy

Windy - Scarlet Pleasure

Windy - The Association

Windy City - Alison Krauss

The Wind - Yusuf/Cat Stevens

Day Fog/Night Fog

Fog - Jabberwocky, Ana Zimmer

Fog - Radiohead

The Fog - Machel Montano

Fog - From Indian Lakes

Freezing Rain

Freezing Rain - The Great Weather Song Person

Ice Ice Baby - vanilla Ice

Ice - Kelly Rowland

Ice Ice - Hyuna, Yuk Jidam

Cold as Ice - Foreigner

Thin Ice - liza Anne

Hail

Hail Rain or Sunshine - The Script

Hail Hail - Pearl Jam

Hail and Kill - Manowar

Hailslide - Junuis Meyvant

Hail Hail - Shovels & Rope

Fire & Hail - The .357 String Band

Lightening

Lightning - The Glorious Sons

Lightning (feat John Rzeznik) - Cash Cash

Lightning - Eric Church

Lightning bolt - Jake Bugg

Lightning - Little Mix

Lightning In The Sky - Devour the Day

Rain

Under my Umbrella - Rhianna

Singing In The Rain - Simple Plan

Rusted From The Rain - Billy Talent

Rain - City and Colour

Rain Is a Good Thing - Luke Bryan

Rain Clouds - The Arcadian Wild

Rain Over Me - Pitbull, Marc Anthony

Sandstorm

Dust in the wind - Kansas

Sandstorm Radio Edit - Darude

Sandstorm - David Garrett

Sand Storm - Johnny & The Hurricanes

Sandlot - Dropkick Murphys

Snow

Snow (Hey Oh)

Snow - Lisa Hannigan

Snow In California - Ariana Grande

Snow Song - Ron Pope

Snowfall - Einsley

Sun

Here Comes The Sun - The Beatles

Walking On Sunshine - Aly & AJ

Sunset Lover - Petit Biscuit

Sun Models - ODESZA, Madelyn Grant

Sun and Cloud

Sundown - Zara Larsson

Sunshine & Whiskey - Frankie Ballard

Cloud 9 - Jamiroquai

Clouds - One Direction

Thunder

Thunderstruck - ACDC

Thunder in the Rain - Kane Brown

Thunder - Adam Sanders

Thunder - Boys Like Girls