Ines Gradots' 'memory game'

 Ines Gradots' 'memory game'

To inform the practical aspects of my final outcome, I wanted to look at examples of contemporary board games that could inspire the political compass game; I want to ensure that my response is refined and has a contemporary feel. I looked at Ines Gardots' memory game as an example, as it plays with themes of the internet; the game is basically a memory game for blurred loading instagram pictures, conveying the frustrations found online by being an inherently impossible game. This relates to the absurd undertones discussed by Albert Camus' notion of absurdism; I want my game to be intentionally ridiculous to provide a witty and playful sense of voice.

I also really like the vibrant colours within this contemporary game, as it adopts a very playful and intriguing atmosphere; this will be essential for my practical outcome, as it needs to be visually engaging and allusive to create a fun user experience - also a sense of allusiveness makes sense as it relates to the ridicule of the theories behind the concept.

Visual references for Glyphworld

 Visual references 

Even though Spencer and I have decided on the initial rules of the MoodGlyph branding and visual language, I wanted to look at some visual inspiration for ideas of what we could do with the project once we have the whole typeface. As well as this, Spencer has spoken briefly to Village Books and inquired into whether we could possibly sell the final outcome in their store; once we have a solid concept, we need to pitch it to them and (hopefully) we can sell it there! As well as this, since the project is all about being in touch with emotions, we thought it would be fitting to donate money made from potential sales to Mind.  Mind is a charity I have worked with before, as it is a massive help to those struggling with mental health. I think we need to vocalise this on our instagram account at some point in order to raise more awareness and hopefully gain more submissions. 

CanCan Press

Although this is looking further ahead into the project, I wanted to look at some inspiration for the packaging of MoodGlyph, as it is a vital part of creating a contemporary brand image; this is even more essential as hopefully we will be able to publish and sell the final outcome. I looked at the branding of CanCan press for this, as I love their sticker designs; they include stickers as part of their brand image, which creates a playful undertone, similar to the kind of vibe we want to create for MoodGlyph. Stickers are definitely something we could introduce to the final outcome, as it would provide a nice tangible product alongside a type specimen. As well as this, if we create some characters from the typeface, this would be perfect for a sticker format as it would make the final outcome more fun. Also I love stickers so would be something I'd be up for designing on my part. 

Lifeisunfair (Jack Mitchell)

I've worked with Jack before on one of his lil zines, and really admire how he creates things you can wear (like badges, stickers, iron on patches, etc). I think stuff like this definitely helps create some kind of brand, as producing something people can wear can create a nice sense of personalisation and tangibility. It would be cool if we created some sort of sticker or badge pack to go alongside the final outcome, as it would be nice for people to wear the emotions they created; this also opens up an opportunity for people to personalise the merch we could potentially create; people could get their initials on a t shirt or badge.

Leon Sadler

Again, looking at apparel design for future reference, Leon Sadlers' stuff is super cool and has the contemporary feel that we want to create. I love how his stuff is really abstract as it has a very human quality to it; I kind of want to apply this ethos to MoodGlyph as it will allow us to not take ourselves too seriously. For example, we could create some super quick illustrations and sell these on items of apparel; people nowadays want something tangible that they can wear, so hopefully we can create a brand image people will want to purchase. 

Cihan Tamti 

Relating to typographic projects, I decided to look at this publication design by Cihan Tamti; the cover design is what interested me the most, as it uses a mixture of typefaces which creates a nice collective visual language. The design also sticks to a black and white colour scheme, placing more emphasis on the type itself. This example is definitely the kind of atmosphere Spencer and I want to create with MoodGlyph, as it is focused entirely on type. 

Mark Price: Content Desert 

Again, this is another visual reference for MoodGlyph, in the sense that it uses black and white colours alongside a mixture of typefaces. I also like how the cover features negative space to place emphasis on the type itself; a composition like this could be quite interesting for our final outcome. 

Marcello Jacopo Biffi: A is A is A 

This typographic project by Marcello Jacopo Biffi is massively relevant to MoodGlyph, as it involves drawing multiple letters in different typefaces; the result is a gradual transformation of the alphabet which explores what happens if you change the variables within a font. I love how playful the outcome is, and the branding works really well in focusing entirely on the typefaces. This approach would be very fitting for MoodGlyph as it is also a project entirely focused on type; despite this, we need to create humanistic elements in order to relate to the theme of emotion. In terms of the layout of our final outcome, we could possibly try something similar to this project; such as printing large scale on a massive fold out zine; a posterzine for instance could be very appropriate. 

Leah Malonado: Glyphworld work sheets

I love Leah Malonados' type design as I relate massively to her approach to typography; she mainly focuses on not following any typographic rules, and uses very human approaches to her type design, often basing it off abstract concepts. Glyphworld is a project that she created that features worksheets for people to draw letters in response to certain prompts. Obviously, this is massively relevant to how MoodGlyph is a responsive submission based project; due to this, we could definitely take inspiration from how Leah creates these prompts in order to make it clear to our audience. 

Anna Mills

I've already researched into Anna Mills at the beginning of this module, as she was one of the key designers that inspired the concept behind MoodGlyph; she uses raw and handrawn approaches to type, and doesn't limit herself with type rules. This ethos is embodied within MoodGlyph, as it is all about emotional responses communicated through type. I wanted to revisit Anna Mills as visually her work informs MoodGlyph, and is a great reference for the final outcome; we could use a similar black and white approach within our design of the type specimen publication, and apply some hand drawn elements also. 

Aga Giecko's card game design

 Aga Giecko's card game design 

In order to inform both the content and visuals of the political compass board game, I decided to look at some contemporary games that share the same witty and playful sense of voice that I want to achieve. A great example of this is Aga Gieckos' TikTok challenge game design, as it links to the element of social media within my won game concept. 

What I like about the visuals in this design is how they all stick to the same red and blue colour scheme; this provides a well-rounded and consistent visual language. I definitely want to apply this approach to the visuals used for my political board game; the colours used throughout the design could possibly link to the colours found in the compass? 

I also really like how the illustrative elements offer a sense of playfulness to the design; in the context of the purpose of the game (the TikTok challenge) it fits very well in developing a somewhat fun and lighthearted sense of voice. 

Looking at this as an example was super helpful as it reminded me of features that are required in a board game design; this image above shows the back of the box, which explains the aim of the game and the contents within the box. I want my final outcome to focus on all the details found in board games as it needs to look somewhat professional and contemporary. Due to this, I need to consider the design of the box itself, alongside creating some form of instructions. 

Final elements of the political compass game

 Final elements 

Board (back)

Board (front)

Box

Front

Back

Instructions

Cards (back)

Cards (front)

Dimensions

Board

20″ x 20″ double panel – quad fold. 2mm thickness.

Box

10.125" x 10.12" x 2-3.5". 1.5mm high density paperboard. 

Meme cards and red acetate

2.5″ x 3.5″

Instruction card

4.5" x 6.5"

Logo concepts

 Initial logo concepts

Sketch

Because Spencer and I liked the initial character I created for MoodGlyph, I thought I'd experiment a bit more with creating some kind of mascot. I thought of how I could tie it in with the theme of typography, so came up with the MoodGlyph mouse. Basically, I wanted to limit myself to using only shapes from the letter 'M' and 'G' in order to relate to the brand. This initial sketch shows me trying to figure out how I could do so, but I felt like creating a whole body overcomplicated the illustration; we still want to keep a minimal design, so I decided to just focus on the mouses' head. 

Here is the 'm' character I initially created. I do like how abstract it turned out, as it relates to an ambiguous undertone within our visual language. Despite this, I still want to continue to experiment (but I am still biased to this lil guy at the moment). 

I tried introducing some humanistic elements to the logo in order to experiment with tying the logo with the themes of emotion. I think it looks cool, but might be overcomplicating the design a bit; it could be nice to use this version of the logo once in a while to break up our instagram feed possibly?

Here he is! The MoodGlyph mouse. I traced around my initial sketch and created more of a link to the shapes of 'm' and 'g'; I do like how I managed to keep him minimal, but the general feedback from both Spencer and I is that on first glance, you can't really tell that its made up of letters, and also a mouse has no relation at all to the project. Due to this, we decided to stick to the abstract M shape as it works better with the brand image; also we'll be able to do a lot more with it as it can just be plonked on any instagram post. 

The above designs are just some simple variations of instagram post concepts; focusing on using a lot of negative space, the visual hierarchy emphasises the brand image and the mascot, which develops a nice playful but still minimal tone. I think at this point we just need to keep making and posting call out and instagram posts like these to create a brand image and hopefully get as many submissions as possible. The designs so far are just general explanations as to what MoodGlyph is. At some point we need to post some that are more informative and clear on submissions and stuff. 

Developing the barcode design

 'Graphic design is my prison' barcode

Another suggestion in my peer crit was to apply some kind of meme to the barcode; my instant thought (that is incredibly relevant) was to create a 'graphic design is my prison' barcode. I discussed this in my crit, and my peers thought it was a great concept, as it would allow almost every element of my design to link back to the concept of memes. 

In regards to the barcode itself, I needed it to work so couldn't add anything to the top of the barcode; due to this, I added the meme into the bottom section and tweaked it slightly so the frog actually looked like it was trapped in the barcode. I think this is a great little detail to add into the outcome, as it makes the visual language so much more refined. 

What it looks like in context:

The barcode works really well with the design, as the manipulation is quite simple so doesn't overpower the design.