SX: Midterm Self Assesment

Spatial has revived something in my creative spirit this semester. I enjoy making physical objects and thinking about spatial relationships. This course has allowed me to think about those two in conjunction with design. It sounds obvious that design can be more than 2d and 4d but until now, I feel like I may have kept them in separate schools of thought. The past few years have heavily focused on creating experiences and building narratives and I've enjoyed thinking about that in an environment. As for the course curriculum its self, my performance has been a bit rocky when it comes to logistical road humps such as those thrown in the road by ADA. In project one I gave it my best shot to express our ideas while adhering to those requirements. Perhaps we could have experimented more with materials, layering, and form but we do have two projects left in the semester, one specifically leaning towards a poetic experience in contrast to the practical experience.

SX: week three-ish

We have continued to develop our wayfinding system. We wanted to further explore and refine the consistency of the bend as it is applied to our system. As we have progressed in our application, we have given more attention to the readability and clarification of the type. We are focusing on a cleaner aesthetic to stress the function and purpose of the system. We have also started to align our type with ADA regulated requirements. We want the bend and conceptual elements to be a dynamic moment within our system while still working strongly to not distract or compete with the architecture and student work around campus.

SX: week 2. Similar Ideas, New Additions

Week 2. Matthew and I better articulated what we meant by our gallery concept. We wanted a signage system that conveyed the sophistication of a higher level education campus with clarity and allow the campus itself (work, culture, and population) speak for itself. In saying that we ideated on how to reference the existing core graphic without blatenly cutting it out of every sign or printing it in each design. In addition to the core graphic we took a closer look at the concept of our schools brand and decided to play off of the "A" in our two line signature. The off kilter "A" is said to knod to our odd art school culture. To pay homage to that idea, we decided to add slight bends to our system. To expand the idea of the bend within the system, we have placed certain directional elements and overhead way-finding on corners of building interiors. We hope to accomplish our gallery-esc direction with the typographic treatment and cleanliness of the materials while adding some flare with the three-dimensional aspect of the bend.

G A L L E R Y

aluminum and steel
practical typography
simple iconography
reductive qualities 
limited color pallet

E S S E N C E

The Bend
mixture of materials
placement  (corner or edge)
   

SX: Concepts + Mood Board [ ]

Through research and personal experience, we feel that there is a lack of cohesion with the directional elements for navigation. Mostly, there is a lack of clarity, especially to a visitor. Due to integrated buildings among areas of the city beyond main campus, outsiders may overlook the these building. Outside of a 2D directional map, there are no cohesive elements within space to guide or call out off-campus buildings. While KCAI is in a concentrated area, having multiple buildings beyond main campus may lead to a lot of visual noise through wayfinding. We want to clearly identity and guide visitors without an overbearing experience. We feel that it is more important that we communicate and instruct rather than over-compensate with elaborate KCAI identifiers.

Below is our proposal for directional and site identifying elements as well as various mood boards of look and feel, inspiration, materials, color, and typography.