Kelsey Anderson's Design Blog

Career Goals

2012-01-23T13:42:00.001-06:00

With so many different lines of work available, it's really hard to just state what my dream job would be. It almost seems like a bad idea to try and imagine a job were everything is perfect. I'm still also a bit unsure, waffling about it. I have lot of interests, and and open to lots of possibilities.
Ideally I would love a job where the design process relied heavily on the design research done for it. I love the researching topics and cultures and being able to collect all the data into a visually pleasing tool that can be used as an aid for further designing. It's something really rewarding to me! And then the artifacts that are created are tailored for the audience.
I also would really like a place where the tactile nature of design is still preserved. Although I'm cool with both print and digital medium, something about print work still draws my attention more strongly.
I also want to work somewhere that is professional, but still remains light-hearted. I love design that can make a person crack a smile. Not goofy, just fun or clever (because there is a difference!).
And finally, to be completely blunt, I want a job that doesn't consume my life. The nights of 3-hours-of-sleep need to stop once I'm out of school. I will be a dedicated worker where ever I go, but when I go home I want to BE HOME, not work from home. Is that horrible?

THE STRATEGY
Gotta straighten up, that's for sure. One thing that I realize as a weakness of mine is being persistent and a go-getter. I need to work much harder, and get in connection with more people. And then not lose contact, hah. Not gonna get a job anywhere if I'm just sitting in my apartment. Take every opportunity and see everything as a stepping stone to get in touch with the right people and the right career!

Class Crossover Final

2011-11-21T07:48:00.001-06:00

A Collection of Resources

2011-11-02T10:09:00.000-05:00

In preparation for next semester, I've spent some time looking into the materials that already exist in relation to what I want to do for my senior thesis. Pinterest has been a valuable resource in this search.

Here is my collection so far.

This folder includes individual activities, links to both parents and teacher resources, possible books that I could read, and websites with more compilations of resources. It's pretty much a goldmine for information.

So far I have been in contact with the kindergarten faculty at Prairie Trail Elementary. This is the school my mother works at, in Texas. They're excited to answer my questions as I come up with them, as well as send me any resources that might be useful.

Moving forward, I will begin looking into other forms of education besides public schools.

Waldorf (Steiner) Education

Montessori Education

The Therapeutic Process of Play

A Thesis Proposal

2011-11-02T09:48:00.001-05:00

School demands a lot from kids these days. And I don’t mean us. I mean, from the get-go, in early education, kids are expected to enter the system already having an understanding of their shapes, colors, letters, etc. Children who attend daycares tend to be more prepared in this area. But as for at-home involvement, there’s often a lack of exposure to the academics that they are now expected to already know.

Children and early childhood development are things that I am particularly passionate about. That being said, I would like to take my senior thesis project as an opportunity to address the issue at hand.

The age I would like to work with is 3-5 year olds (and of course their parents). At this age, they are beginning to develop essential skills like fine and gross motor skills, letters, sounds, colors, shapes, and social acclamation. Through interviews with teachers and perhaps day-care workers, I could like to collect, refine, and catalog the best activities to help children be prepared when they get to school. I have also started collecting from the vast, but incredibly cluttered and confusing, list of early childhood development resources that are on the web.

I imagine this can be applied to many things graphically, which is another reason to be excited. Web and electronic devices are something that children become familiar with at a VERY early age. Also, more tangible items such as branding, books perhaps some packaging (for activities or toys) could be artifacts that I tackle graphically. Very exciting!

Screen Space Reading

2011-10-14T21:40:00.000-05:00

Designing for the screen comes with it's own set of limiting rules, mostly limited by the capabilities of the code or the physical attributes of the screen itself. This has let much of the design for the screen to end up being "streamlined shapes, a rejection of ornaments, an appeal to minimalism, to functionalism." It is an easy task to design on the screen, within the screen, imagining everything as flat. But the internet is anything but flat. A screen is nothing but a frame. It's a border, but one that we can, and must, cross.
In an interactive environment, time is something that is lost. This, also, is something of a disconnect, as the idea of temporal experiences dictate the rest of our lives.

Group 1 Touchpoints, Moving Slowly but Surely.

2011-10-14T20:20:00.003-05:00

Doing several iterations, trying to give myself some options.

Class Crossover - iPhone design and some wireframes

2011-10-14T13:19:00.000-05:00

So here's our first go at the iPhone portion of our MX system. We decided to get it out of the way early, since this is the only scenario that uses it. Once this is finished with, each of us and really focus each on one of the bigger platforms.
Gps iPhone Scenario

Moving forward, we will be turning the rest of our scenarios into designs! Here are the wireframe versions of the two of mine that have yet to be done. Unfortunately, the PDF of the iPhone wireframe somehow became corrupted, but that's ok, since I've still got the original files. Brandon will be focusing his attention on the iPad, I will be doing the hub for our parent and teacher scenarios! Teacher Lesson Plans Note Sharing

IN SPAAAACE

2011-10-10T07:57:00.000-05:00

New Early Birds Mascot?

2011-10-09T16:05:00.000-05:00

Probably not.

3D Navigation Model

2011-10-08T22:01:00.001-05:00

Instead of trying to explain our pile of dots through photographs alone, I thought it might be helpful to just make a quick video instead. Thank you Loren for being my cameraman!

Phase 2 Final

2011-10-04T12:37:00.003-05:00

In order to begin the rebranding process, I first refined the objective statement for Half-Price books.

"Through rebranding Half Price Books, I would like to downplay their emphasis of affordability while raising awareness of their strong roots in the green movement, all while using playful and nostalgic aesthetics to appeal to a book-loving audience."
Keeping the key attributes (playful, nostalgic, and eco-friendliness) in mind, I began the iterative process of creating the 3 different directions. That is, after changing the name to “Early Birds.” The intention of this change was to meet the part of my objective that states to “downplay their emphasis of affordability.”

One direction personifies the letter “e,” turning it in a light and playful bird. The second direction that I pursued is a more solid, formal brandmark that took the shape of both a book and the initials of the new company name. The third direction, which I now intend to move forward with, simply consists of a monogram. The supporting elements of each brand fill out the attributes that the brandmarks did not cover. Check out the scribd for all the details!

Kelsey Anderson Phase 2

Matrix of Refinements

2011-10-01T12:36:00.000-05:00

Refined Wireframes

2011-10-01T11:44:00.000-05:00

Student is around town and completes location-based educational opportunities:

Student takes notes within textbook and then requests to share notes with peers:

Teacher uses keywords in the students' discussions to find new materials store in a teacher-submitted database for future lesson plans. This one was initially for the ipad, but was then moved to be a desk-top scenario:

Initial Wireframes

2011-09-27T11:47:00.000-05:00

Final research posters.

2011-09-26T11:36:00.000-05:00

The final posters have all the tweaks and refinements made to them, resolving issues with hierarchy as well as some tinier issues like copywriting!

Research Poster: Round 3

2011-09-24T00:56:00.000-05:00

To refine the posters further, we worked on fixing all the levels of hierarchy we had last time because of the colors (the bright yellow really popping out) as well as some scaling issues that I had. On to the final!

Branding tweaks

2011-09-22T12:28:00.000-05:00

Research Poster, refining!

2011-09-21T00:53:00.000-05:00

Here is the next iteration of the research posters. We took some time to comb through the type and edit a lot of it down, trying to avoid large, dense masses of text. For this new version, we also added a lot more of the hand-rendered type, although it could still use some refinements. Still, the idea is there! While working on this, we are trying to keep an eye on both our research and our mood board, so to make sure that it accurately reflects our audience!

Poster Draft 1

2011-09-18T00:42:00.000-05:00

This is the first draft of the research poster. Lots of dots and lots of text. But the hand-rendered text is nice, thanks to Brandon! I am working on the individual side while he manages the community half. Meet Charlie and Eyelyn, middle-schoolers in a classroom crossover!

3 directions, first round of iterating

2011-09-16T12:24:00.000-05:00

Initial Branding Tries

2011-09-13T12:19:00.000-05:00

So here are some of the initial thoughts that I had, after floundering around with the name for too long. Lots are really literal and pretty much just illustrate the early bird. Moving forward, I will make sure that not all three directions will feature a bird. Maybe just one, and I think the very top image is where I'm headed for that one.

Visual Advocacy: Week 4 Readings

2011-09-13T00:12:00.002-05:00

Towards Critical Autonomy

Several decades ago, graphic design seemed to be much more simple, or at least more simply defined. There were perimeters that it stuck to and only a limited amount of media that it could be applied to. With the onset of computers however, that all has gone out the window. In many cases, it seems like graphic design is now a commodity, a vehicle, that often loses cohesion the more mediums one concept is spread across. Also, much of graphic design seems to now rely on someone's personal style. Many times the style is the end-all, when what we really need is a cohesive timeless solution to a problem—not just a pretty picture.

Now that we can do Anything

There has been a lot of innovation in the past few decades, more than there has been since the age of invention. When I read this, it was almost hard to believe, and it kind of blew my mind. But part of that might just be because it's something I grew up with, and therefor kind of gloss over. With the speedy change of the economies, and the sorts of services out there, it is important that graphic design is as up-to-date as the rest of what's out there. We are not just designers, but researchers and inventors, problem-solvers and presenters of information on all levels.
And designers are also not just those who design graphically. Nowadays, a designer is anyone that uses critical thinking to solve a problem. And we cannot discount these new designers, because design is now, more than ever, and extremely collaborative environment. Also, more and more of the systems that these other designers use can be manipulated to be used by us (again, collaboration!). Everyone is spilling into each others' respective fields, and it all sounds very exciting! The more that we can utilize these overlaps, the more ambitious we can be.

Cultural Catalysts, Cultural Agency

As a designer, it is our job to be a catalyst. We not only deliver the message, but also to create an environment or system in which we are not only informing the viewer (ie, to the existence of a product) but also providing the beginning of a dialogue between the client and the consumer. From there, the consumer has the opportunity to give their opinions and criticisms of the product, client can continue the dialogue, and trouble shooting can begin.

Quantum Leap: Beyond Literal Materiality

This reading was a little difficult for me to understand, I admit. What I think I got from it is: with the digital age, we need to modify our thinking to think past the previous physical limitations of what graphic design was. A toolbar in a program is not the same as a box of tools in real life. Do not think of what you are working on as a page, again, that it physical. Instead think of it i s a space, and a system. I was not really sure what this guy was getting at, eve after rereading this article.

Half Price Books Presentation

2011-09-11T11:37:00.001-05:00

Half Price Books
I chose to rebrand Half Price Books, a store the resells books as well as CDs, records, movies, magazines, etc. Currently HPB is seen by their audience as being an affordable, vast collection of used books. But they are much much more than that, and with their current branding, it is unfortunately not clear how big of a role they play. Because of the scattered, cozy nature of their stores, and their name containing the words “half-price,” they are currently giving off a vibe that seems to be a little more “cheap” than it needs to be. HPB is a wonderful company in the fact that they are community-based and extremely invested in literacy, education, and green movement programs. Unfortunately, these wonderful qualities are not well reflected in their current branding, which is somewhat scattered and off-track of their mission statement. My goal with this rebranding is to update and enliven Half Price Books so that the emphasis of is about their strong values rather than their affordable prices.

Half Price Books

Ivanhoe Research: Community Center?

2011-09-10T17:30:00.001-05:00

Since Taylor and Bethany and I are all working together, we decided to start off by looking in different directions.

To begin with, I continued my research regarding microfinancing from the previous class. Initially, I was stuck on the idea of implementing KIVA to raise money for what ever sort of center we end up trying to add. Personally, I love the idea of an affordable eating place for kids to gather and family to enjoy.
While looking at KIVA, I began to realize that it seemed to mostly offer loans to very VERY poor third world country people. So, against that, I don't know that KIVA was the best choice for Ivanhoe. I found another reputable microfinancing group, Grameen America. This is how they work:

IF we used this, we would have to use a group of people who would be willing to pull out a loan. And of course, whatever they ended up making into a business would have to be a for-profit establishment. If it were non-profit, then they would not be able to pay back the loan. But this is all still very rough.

Another element that I researched was the logistics of turning a home, in a residential area (the Ivanhoe Neighborhood Council owns a few) into a business. There are a couple things that would have to happen. First, we would need to contact the city and see if the house was zoned to be a business. If it were not zoned, we could apply for a conditional use permit. This is just an opinion, but I think that considering the location and the purpose of this community center, I think we might be able to argue the conditional use permit if it's not zoned for it!

Possible uses for the center:

cafe
smoothie/juice bar
computer lab
occasional market
pop-up
daycare center?
tutoring
rec center
restaurant

More research to come!

http://www.standardsoflife.org/Community+Center

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1950949,00.html

Visual Audit and Mood Board

2011-09-08T23:39:00.002-05:00

For our visual audit and mood board, Brandon and I decided to turn them into one piece, because many of the bright colorful images for the audit side served as inspiration to us. Don't worry though, they are still separated, with the audit on the left and the mood board on the right.

Middle school/junior high school students are very in tune with popular culture, no matter what clique they fall into. They might be a Beiber fan, enjoy the peppy beats of Katy Perry, or perhaps spend their time keeping up to date with the latest television shows (adventure time is immensely popular among the artsy/fringe crowd).

Most of our target audience is consumed, one way or another, in their self image. This of course helps them relate with their friends and distinguish themselves as individuals.

Both social networking and mobile communications are detrimental to these kids. they never put down their phones, much to the frustration of their parents and teachers. Just like with their clothing and accessories, they use their facebook as a way to express themselves. They spend a lot of time editing their interests so that it reflects all they have in common with their friends.

They are of course young and fun! Middle schoolers, while very self conscious, also really put themselves out there for the sake of making friends and expressing themselves as being independent.

And of course there is the awkwardness.

As for the mood board, we tried to find things that both represented their young, bright personalities, while including a large variety to represent such a large crowd. I thought this was an interesting and cute little definition that at first appears scholarly, but then is actually something funny that middle schoolers can relate to.

We found many geometrical, brightly colored icons and images that reference some of the digital media that they use.

As for text, we found a variety of both digitally and hand-rendered examples that, again, speak to the youthful nature of the group. This rendering also reminded us of the doodlings that many students do on their notes and homework (of course this will not be rendered in quit as a juvenile manner).