The first topic that I decided to look at was People, within this topic I was a little unsure about how I could present this topic through my research, however I came up with the idea of looking into how many people visit New York City between 2000 to 2013. Whilst researching into this I looked at both sides of the visitors from the people that live in New York already and the people that come to visit New York each year. After I found out information using the NYC Statistics page on the internet, I decided to take this information even further my using this information that I found about the visitors in New York by creating a graph using the programme Microsoft Excel. I found this quite challenging because I hadn't used this programme for a while, so I found it quite hard to create a grid. Although I finally produced a graph, were I noticed that there was always more people that lived in NYC than people who visit each year however I did noticed that the people that lived in NYC from 2000 to 2013 had a rapid increase in domestic people. Furthermore I then noticed that the increase in International visitors was a steady rise, which was quite difference to the people that live in New York.
After looking at the topic of People, I then moved onto looking at the topic of Movement. I found that this topic was the most challenging of the three topics that I was focusing on this week because I found it very hard to look at ideas that I could research based around the topic of Movement. Once i found idea that could research about in this topic, I decided to research into the different types of transport that is based in New York, whilst researching into the transport I also decided to look at the different look at the routes that they had for each of types of the transportation, for example I decided to look at buses, whilst researching into this I found that there were 41 bus routes in Manhattan, 31 bus routes in Staten Island, 108 bus routes and 28 express routes in Queens, 85 bus routes and 9 express routes in Brooklyn, 47 bus routes and 12 express routes in the Bronx. I found this research very interesting and very factual because it allowed me to look at the transport that is used in New York in more depth.
After I had done this I then decided to look at Animation designer called Hayley Akins, I decided to look into this designer because I found that she creates lots of animation using motion graphics and movement, which I thought was quite relevant to the topic that I wanted to research into. I also found that the style that she uses for her designs are very creative and illustrative, which I find very inspirational because the style that she has used within her work is the style that I am wanting to design part of my work like. I found that her animations where very well put together, as the animation were very smooth when played, I also thought that the colours that she had used for her animations were very relevant to the animations that she had created. I think that I am going to take inspiration from these design for my own work.
I then moved onto looking into Navigation, which was my favourite part of this weeks research because I found that the Navigation topic was quite easy to think about when looking into New York. I started off my Navigation research by looking into the map of New York, where I was able to look at the New York in more detail. Whilst looking at the New York Map, I noticed that the layout of the map was used using a grid systems which I thought was very professional, as the layout of the map would be quite easy to follow. I thought that this was a good point. When looking at the map design I also decided to look at the different types of signs that are located around New York from green, brown to blue. I thought that the signs were very handy because it would be easy to locate different attractions that were placed in the city.
I thought about looking into the street signage, as I thought that it may come in handy when designing my own artwork because I could use a street sign to locate the entrance to the LowLine. I then created a mood board about Maps, as I did have an idea of what I wanted to take inspiration from when creating my own design work. This is because I wanted to a Map for one of my final outcomes. To find inspiration for my mood board, I used several different sites to find examples of existing maps, these sites were Google Images and Pinterest. When looking at existing maps, I found that the maps were brightly coloured, which I found very attractive and eye-catching, I thought that this was very important because using bright and vibrant will be very attractive to the target audience.
I then moved onto my primary research side of the Sketch book, within this part I again focused on the same three topics that I had looked at for the secondary research. These topics were People, Movement and Navigation, I firstly started to focus on People. We recently had visited the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, whilst I was there I decided to look at all the topics that I was going to be looking at each week. When looking at people at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park I decided to look at people's attitude whilst at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. On this pages I looked at several Photographs that I could base the people topic around. My favourite Photograph that I chose to place into my Sketchbook was a photograph of my friend 'Elenor' because I found that this photograph showed a lot of her personality and interest within the image, as she is very lovely, polite and funny. By showing her interest of her TV Show Pretty Little Liars she has displayed the shhh sign that is shown in the opening title of Pretty Little Liars.
After I had focused on the topic of People, I then decided to move onto the Movement topic. Where I again decided to use Photographs that I had taken whilst at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, I also decided to use another piece of work that I had worked on whist in the studio in my very first illustration process and production lessons. The piece that I decided to use was build up of drawing using tracing paper to show people's movement every five minutes outside the market quarter in Huddersfield. I thought that this piece of work was good and represented the topic of Movement, as it allowed me to analyse people movement around Huddersfield. I thought that this task really helped me to focus on the movement topic because it allowed me to see the different position that the people over five minutes were seen, as the moved over a period of time.
I then moved on focus on the photographs that I had chosen to analyse whilst I was at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Within this page I looked at the photographs that I had taken of a moving horse, I thought that the photograph that I had taken represented movement because when I was at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, this horse was a animation that feature the horse galloping, I found that the animation was very professional and very different to the other sculptures that I saw at the Sculpture Park because it was a moving design. The speed of the animation was very smooth and you were able to understand what was being featured in the animation.
I then moved onto my final topic, which was Navigation, again I decide to use the photographs that I had taken whilst I was at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. However i also decided to compare the different signage that were located in New York and Huddersfield, as they are both very different from each other. I started off by looking at the different navigation signs that were located around the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, whilst I was there, I noticed that the signs were very different from each other as some of the signs were very simple and other were providing the tourist with lots of information about where to find a specific sculpture. My favourite sign at the Sculpture Park was the Poppies sign, as this was vey simple and basic, however it was very brightly coloured and easy to see, I also thought the sign was brilliant idea because it was relevant to the Sculpture that I wanted to go and see, which were the Poppies. I found that my least favourite sign was the sign in the top left because I found that the design was too simple and basic, I felt that this design wasn't very inspirational to the target audience, as I thought that the colour of the design was very dark and gloomy, to improve the design I thought that they could have add a little Illustration onto the sin like the one in the bottom right of the page.
Once I had done this I then decide to look at the different signs that were located in New York and Huddersfield, whilst looking at them both I did notice that they did some difference. The differences of the signs were the different font styles that had been used, I found that the font style that had been used for the New York Sign was better because it was easier to see, as it was very bold and stood out well. Another difference that I found was that the shape of the signs were very different. Overall I felt that the New York sign was the best because it was bold, but simple and the easiest to see and understand of the two that I had looked at.
