Something More - Initial Idea and Development

 Doomsday clock 

= created for a newsletter

= simple logo design that is changeable in accordance to the level at which the world is near doomsday

= not necessarily recognisable to everyone, does need slight context

= but as a general logo it is simple and effective 

=how can our logo be translated in the same way?  

BRIEF AIMS

- Raise awareness of issue 

- Logo must change with the urgency of the issue it highlights 

INITIAL BRAINSTORM 

Climate change? Extinction of specific animal?

Forest fires? What specifics of this area can we focus on? 

RESEARCH 

CLIMATE CHANGE RESEARCH

= various ideas didn't make sense

eg. idea of having an installation that uses interaction or weather  

How would using the rain in Leeds to fill up an iceberg shape communicate the issue to the passing public?

How would encouraging the public to dispose of their litter in a similar iceberg form also communicate the issue? This feels more counterintuitive in what it suggests, as the form of the iceberg would start to take shape with the litter, suggesting litter is positive? 

Merging too many ideas together makes the brainstorming too convoluted and confusing 

Moving from installations and physical logos into the 2D more animated realm, the imagery feels basic and overdone eg. dripping earth, polar bears, things on fire 

Thinking more about the audience meant a change in the presentation of the logo

= Combining the smoking with climate change would grab students' attention but could lend to the wrong message 

Change in concept 

TRUMP ISSUES RESEARCH

= Issue that lends to a more humorous and interesting approach would be Trump 

= Upcoming election is something that is measurable and therefore will work with the changing element of the logo 

= Makes sense if the logo entails the Joe Biden side as well? 

= What if the shade of orange in Trump's face (an appearance trait that is heavily depicted in a humorous way) turns darker in accordance to the level of urgency 

= Urgency being the level to which Trump will win the 2020 election 

My initial logo designs 

= Is this communicated effectively for that to be easily understood? 

= The line work is more bold and stronger, but would need refining as the different line weights don'[t work

= Fully colour throughout or just the face? 

= Colours need to be more distinctive to show recognisable levels of urgency 

Millie initial idea 

=  Trump's head on fire 

= Fire increases as it gets closer to the election 

The use of bright orange for his face and bright yellow for his hair works well with the flame idea. This idea would work as a countdown, with the red flame expanding and visually communicating more danger each Day as the election gets closer. This would work well as an animation. The symbol could belong on a news website’s homepage.

The first two are just about how it kind of how it feels like it’s one step forward two steps back with covid. The government have put in new restrictions and are shifting the blame on to students after encouraging young people to go to the pub, work in the pub and eat half price in the pub. 

3rd is basically just a countdown to the election and all the bad things that could happen to the country / world if he gets re elected e.g. climate change progresses, black lives matter movement continues to be ignored 

4th just generally looking at the collapse of the nightlife industry since covid and looking at will it survive and how could we help it to as designers e.g. #wemakeevents

Charlotte initial idea 

= How fat Trump gets fatter and more greedy close to the election 

Leon Initial Logo Designs (for colour changing idea) 

= What if instead of colour Trump was a large inflatable that popped and as it shrunk the balloon's colour would intensify > therefore deeper orange 

= Idea has already been done as baby Donald in London (although not utilising the colour idea) 

= More threshold aesthetic makes him very recognisable and has Shepard Fairey aesthetic which people recognise as something which has had political commentary before in his famous Barrack Obama graffiti work 

= What if this logo was more of a batman beacon idea, so that it alerts people when the threat is high? 

EVAL + DEVELOPMENT

= How do we communicate that the changing of Trump's skin colour reflects the urgency unless you can see the colour changing alongside the context of the issues?

= Could fill up the face with gradual gradient up his face instead of one block colour?

= Or what if an animation shows the changes of this colour with the context of a video with issues?

Using Mel’s illustrations of Trump, I developed one of our first ideas which was to have different images in the background of the symbol while Trump gets more orange in front of them. I used secondary imagery of protests/climate emergencies, as well as some of the quotes Tom found and used in his initial idea. For the text imagery, I used the colours of the American flag as well as a serif font similar to the one found on the Make America Great Again caps, as Leon suggested. The animation definitely needs further refinement, as it moves too fast and the colour of his skin should change more gradually. Other than this though it was received positively with just a few criticisms: 

perhaps the actual logo could slowly fill up with colour? we need to have some form of measurement in the logo - Leon 

I reckon if the video presented the increasing of the orange colour as the background text and images reflect more urgency thus would communicate the changing element of his face - mel

= Video using Trump's templates to reveal the 'fake news' aspect within his image (this idea was found on Its Nice that having been done already so was not continued) 

= Maybe the focus on this fake news idea could be developed using the initial idea of the filling up colour face of trump? 

= What scale could be used to represent the level of fake news to viewers and readers? 

= What if there were symbols on the page that reflect this 

eg. tick for verified true, cross for fake news, question mark for unverified, O for opinion

= What if we created a physical meter of the level of fake news in a source?

= 3D rotating animation of digital Trump meter reader present on websites and news that grabs viewers' attention with motion 

= Shows increasing colour to red with increasing urgency of lies and 'fake news'

= Trump's head at the top, level of yellow to orange to red shows level of fake news 

= This idea would work with lots of different political leaders eg. Boris' hair could become more messy and windswept, something he gets mocked for by the opposition 

= Instead of a literal scale perhaps just Trump's face in this fashion would work? Like original idea

= Strong different colours of yellow, orange and red would be recognisable as the three different urgency levels  

= What if there is a scale on a website that people can drag and drop different political characters onto to test what level of 'shit' each individual has in relation to their politics now 

Snapchat story = 'Democrats are making the US Communist'

AUDIENCE

= Anti-trump supporters

= People who want to fact check 

= Those following the election 

TO DO 

- Digitally produce developed ideas to test them out 

- Ongoing Research