Symbol development

 'No phones' symbol

For the no phones rule, I wanted to create a symbol that was somewhat clear but also maintained a playful sense of voice. I briefly researched some phone symbols and came across this one above; I felt like it was a good symbol to hijack and turn into a face (a frowning face to represent the dislike of phones within the Berlin club scene). 

Here is the final initial symbol concept for the no phones rule; I feel like its appropriate but my only worry is that it doesn't fit the same tone of voice as the other symbols as it isn't very abstract. I want to get some peer feedback on it, and put it into the context of the CD publication to see if it works. 

'Be respectful' symbol

When researching symbols associated with respect, a lot of the results consisted of people holding hands; this was pretty relevant to the rule of respect, as it centres around the idea of community and respectfulness within the Berlin techno scene. In light of this, a visual reference that came to mind was The Dance by Matisse; it shares the same tone of voice and could be quite playful to have as a visual reference within my symbol series. 

Here is my initial symbol design for the respect rule; likewise to the no phones rule, I'm not sure if it matches with the other symbol designs I created. I might spend some time to reconsider what I could create for these symbols, as I feel like they could definitely be improved. 

I decided to experiment further through playing with creating more abstract shapes for the no phones symbol; I don't really like how this turned out as the abstract shapes/ outline doesn't match the phone element of the symbol. I think I want to play around more with creating some further abstracted symbols, as this would fit the tone of voice of censorship and mystery.  

These are some tests with colour palettes for the symbols; I feel like it would be fitting to use the grey colour palette consistently throughout the project, as it would provide a cohesive feel to each separate CD disc and each symbol poster. I think to differentiate between each symbol however, it could be interesting if I used a different colour for each rule. 

I think now I'm at a stage where I want to experiment more with symbol designs, as they need to be well rounded and finalised so I can begin to create the publication and the poster designs. 

Adapt talk

 Adapt talk 

• Adapt is run in order to share knowledge, encourage action and build a community 
• Three categories of working: education and learning, creative and culture, tactile change making 
• Methods of communication; they use humour to make the audience feel relaxed and open to learning 
• Social media is seen as ‘other’ to our real lives; instead of viewing social media as destructive, adapt see it as change 
• Designed stickers to cover newspaper headlines; physical elements 
• Created protest gear with 6 different artists that would communicate issues and causes; made the protest gear have more longevity rather than a placard

Ideas for symbols/ map locations

 Ideas for symbols/ map locations

'Loose yourself'

I thought it would be fitting to have the location of this poster at the old Berlin wall, as this rule embodies the idea of celebrating freedom. Also the reunification was a massive influence on the Berlin techno scene. (52.5078° N, 13.3896° E)

 'Love' 

The most obvious location for the Love symbol/ poster would be where the old love parade was located. (52.5025 N 13.3263 E)

'No phones'

One of the most famous clubs for their anti phone policy is Berghain, so I thought it would be fitting to have the poster location of this outside Berghain, as it would serve as a reminder to the techno tourists. (52.5111° N, 13.4430° E)

'Respect' 

I think to both educate the history and community of the Berlin techno scene, it would be fitting to include the former location of the Ostgut club, as this was one of the most famous sex clubs that welcomed all shapes and sizes of people. (52°30′40″N 13°26′35″E) (52.5063° N, 13.4436° E)

'Listen' 

In my research, one of the clubs that came up a lot in terms of its influences on the sounds of Berlin techno was Tresor club; it would make sense that the listen poster would encourage the audience to visit the club in order to get a real sound of Berlin techno. (52.5060 N 13.3763 E)

Improving the CD concept

 Improving the CD concept

After creating the initial CD concept for my publication, I wanted to improve and develop it further as I feel like its definitely a potential direction I want to go in. The main issue with the initial concept was that it included all 5 rules, symbols and images, etc which created quite a busy and overwhelming user experience. To improve on this, I thought it might be better for the publication to consist of 5 separate discs that can contain the images, type and symbols corresponding to each rule. This would make the 5 rules more obvious to the audience, rather than trying to cram them all into one disc. 

The content I included on the first development was the 'lose yourself' rule, translated into German, the coordinates of Berghain, the symbol, a manipulated image and a block of text educating the audience on the cultural history of Berlin techno. I really like the placement of the symbol, as it has a dominant presence in the designs visual hierarchy, which is crucial as it needs to reference the poster series. I definitely prefer how this outcome feels less busy and more focused on one separate rule; I think not having too much text is important as the concept of the project is all about encouraging the audience to visit these locations and contextualise the info more. I think the use of type could be improved, as the typesetting for the initial design isn't properly curved to the shape of the disc; I could make see what the type looks like straight? As well as this, I'm unsure whether using Futura works, as maybe I could try creating my own custom typeface; the concept behind Futura is down to its influence on German design, especially its use in Kraftwerks Autobahn. I might ask to get some peer feedback on this, as using a custom typeface might overcomplicate the design further.

I also created an outcome for the 'love' rule, using the symbol I created earlier today. I quite like the idea of using 5 different colours for each of the 5 discs, as it would distinguish them better and make the user experience sort of clearer. Again, I applied the same rules as the previous design, and it ended up turning out fairly well; the main limitation again being the type setting. In light of this, I'm going to get some peer feedback and continue to develop this idea further as I feel like its the most refined and conceptually strong in terms of format and practical considerations. Akin to this, I also need to think about things like paper stock, and how the discs will be packaged; I'm leaning towards towards the idea of packaging them in a CD case, which could give me an opportunity to create an interesting visual language with a case. As well as this, I feel like I need to include some sort of map, as the audience needs to be able to locate the corresponding posters for each rule/ symbol; maybe this could be part of the CD case?

Creating a new symbol

 Creating a new symbol

Inspired by the 'love' rule as part of my techno tourist guide, I wanted to create a symbol that reflected the ethos of love within the Berlin techno scene, especially at the heart of the infamous love parade. To give the symbol a sort of hard industrial edge that the foundations of techno is built on, I created a heart shaped symbol that uses spikes and curved edged that are inspired by the shapes of barbed wire. I feel like this symbolises the sense of community in the techno scene well, as there is a clear juxtaposition between hard and industrial sounds, with an ethos of loving each other. 

I now want to put this symbol into the context of my publication; possibly experiment with how it would work in the CD format?

Testing out the folding zine method

 Testing out the folding zine method

I wanted to physically test out the folded zine concept, as obviously it was a very practical process that I needed to visualise in person. I printed out the initial design in the studio to test out whether it would work/ be appropriate for my project.

One of the issues I came across was that the printed added an annoying border around the images, so some images had a white block when folded. This is an issue that obviously can be easily resolved through trimming the edges, but would require further practical considerations when created.

Because it was my first attempt, some images also just didn't match up perfectly, which again is something that could be resolved fairly easily. 

Some of the folds (like this one above) ended up matching fine, so I suppose the design process would just involve more tweaking of the image positioning. 

The process of folding to match images together definitely has a playful sense of voice, but my only worry with using images is that it contradicts the no photos policy in Berlin's techno scene; obviously, this format still conceptually links to the idea of censorship, but I feel like there are more appropriate ways that would relate better to my issue. Despite this, I still want my outcome to share the same engagement that this method has, but I could definitely make it more clear to the audience what they have to do. 

Experimenting with blur

 Experimenting with blur

In my crit, it was suggested that I could continue to experiment with how I could censor elements of my publication. One of the concepts we discussed was blurring images, which would link to the no phone policy in Berlin's club culture. 

The type I used for this quick poster concepts uses a combination of serifs and blackletter, which I think is visually appropriate for the German heritage of Berlin's techno scene; it kind of has a modern yet industrial feel, as well as linking to the religious undertones of the community. I think the type compliments the image very well, and it definitely has the ambiguous sense of voice that I wanted to achieve; the only issue is that it doesn't feel very conceptually informed, as maybe the relevance to the techno scene could be stronger through more emphasis on the symbols. 

These versions feel a bit flat and stray away from the visually engaging format I wanted to convey; the posters need to have a balance of ambiguity and engagement, as obviously they won't make a difference if they don't look interesting. 

I think having the images in this striking red colour works well, as the visual hierarchy feels more intense and has a better dynamic. Still, there could be more of a reference to the symbols as I want the symbols used for each rule to serve as a motif. 

I like the composition of these versions a lot better, as the image feels more striking. It kind of lures the audience in as it is blurred but to a point where you can only just work out what it is. I also had the idea to reference the no photos policy by adding the cross hare symbol in the bottom corner; this gave me the idea to possibly use this as a symbol for the no phone rule.

CD publication format

 Fukt magazine

After my crit, the main feedback was to experiment more with how I could navigate a sense of censorship within the format of my publication, and to continue to expand on my ideas so far. The crit also highlighted how the physical idea of getting the audience to match images together was a successful approach, as it allowed the response to engage the audience and kind of make the techno tourists work to learn and educate themselves. 

An example of a publication that uses physical interaction is the cover for Fukt magazine; the cover uses a circular format where the user twists it to form the title. I was thinking I could use this method for my publication; through disrupting text and image through printing them on separate layers. This could create more of a playful and interactive user experience, as the audience would have to twist the circles to form the images and to be able to read the text.

Initial mockups

This initial mockup of the CD format concept uses 5 separate layers for each 5 rules and symbols. I wanted each layer to have a section of type, an image and its corresponding symbol and coordinates. I really like the concept of this for the publication, as the CD format both links to the context of techno/ music as well as physically censoring elements of the design. I want to explore this format further, through testing out typesetting and including more symbols. The main limitation of this idea however, is that it could be quite visually chaotic and unclear to the audience; the user experience might be slightly overwhelming as there would be a lot of info and elements for one disk. Maybe I could solve this issue by having 5 separate disks for each of the 5 rules? 

Crit feedback

 Crit feedback

• Continue to explore how I could censor things; liked the idea of cutting up the images and making the audience work to put the images and text together
• Test out the folding method physically; find any limitations and how it could function 
• Maybe blur some images to censor them; is it appropriate to include photography considering there is a no phone policy? The no phone rule page could have no photos 
• Could I try and make some kind of digital element to the posters without using social media? Interactive posters, QR codes, maybe the interactive element could be the audience censoring parts? Or the posters could be censored and the audience scans it to unscensor it 
• Maybe keep the publication really simple and use symbols only 
• The audience could censor the posters with stickers? 
• The visual language is woking well; continue to find a balance between maximalist and minimal design

Visual inspiration

 Visual inspiration

Playing with textures

I really like this publication design created by Tyrone Williams; I like the use of super cropping images and gathering textures to generate abstract imagery. I was thinking I could use this method to censor images with super cropping and distorting the textures, which would help develop more of a playful sense of voice. The only limitation of this is that possibly using images takes away from the idea of Berlin's anti phone policy; maybe I could use more of a minimal approach and create the rule of no photos. 

I like the idea of not using any photos to link to the idea of Berlin's anti phone policy, so thought I could focus more on type. This example of typesetting plays around with adding serifs to distort elements of the type, which could be an interesting way to communicate censorship exclusively with type; I could definitely explore the concept of censored type, or combining serifs to distort certain components. 

Visually, I really like the idea of keeping the design approaches used within my project limited to a duo tone colour palette; I've used this visual language so far, and I think it helps push the project to not be too overwhelming in terms of the visual layout. I like the typeface used in this, at it feels very symbolic and features a lot of abstract shapes; this ties into the inclusion of symbols within my own project, as I want these to be strong motifs throughout. 

I also want to explore more physical elements of censorship, such as cutting out sections of the paper of my publication in order to hide elements of images. I could try packaging the actual publication in a CD, which could possibly provide an allusive tone; an approach I could possibly use would be to package it in a box that uses either a really maximalist visual language or minimal; I need to experiment with both techniques more in order to figure out which would work better.