Assignment 2 for my typography class: Create a Google Doodle.

In order to explore and experiment with type, I’ve created a few Google Doodles for class that I thought I’d share here, just for fun. There’s a whole archive of Google Doodles here for inspiration, but my goal was to come up with my own Doodle that would commemorate or recognize someone or something of meaning to me.

Lots of ideas came to mind (many of which cannot be pursued because of time constraints):

I thought back to my childhood: Jem, Care Bears (old school), Polka Dot Door, the City of Calgary, Where’s Waldo?, Mr. Roger’s Neighbourhood, Picture Pages …Can you tell I’m an 80′s kid!?

I thought about things close to me in the present: Lady Gaga, Degrassi, Learning American Sign Language (ASL), Design Thinking

My Toronto life: TTC (the subway), Rob Ford

And some artful inspiration: Banksy, Group of Seven, Salvador Dali, David Hockney

The winners were Banksy, Where’s Waldo? and ASL as you can see here, above and below. I had fun with the types here, particularly maintaining the spray paint aesthetic for Banksy’s doodle and drawing the hands for the ASL doodle – simple but works. And giving credit where credit is due: Here is Banksy’s piece (original here). I traced an image of Waldo for the Waldo Doodle.

Crit is tomorrow…wish me luck!

And, Enjoy!

“Learn the rules first, then break them”

Those are some wise words from my typography prof at OCAD U.

I’m three weeks into my intro to typography course and so far I’ve really enjoyed it. I’m learning a lot and I am developing a much deeper appreciation for the communicative power of type. My understanding of type is a design system that has been created and developed over the span of years, decades and millenia for the purposes of conveying meaning and messages in some sort of organized manner. Type is also something I’ve always taken for granted having grown up with word processing programs and having the luxury of selecting from a vast list of typefaces at the single click of a mouse, from the Swiss-born “Helvetica” to the corporate standard, “Times New Roman”, to the seemingly nonsensical “Wingdings”.

On day one of class, we began learning about the contrasts of type. In no particular order (and extremely simplified here) are seven contrasts we learned about:

1. Size – Scale of type

2. Weight – Thickness of the letter forms

3. Form – Caps/lower case/italics

4. Structure – Typefaces (e.g., Helvetica, Arial, Futura)

5. Colour – Color of the type

6. Direction – Orientation of the type

7. Texture – Leading and spacing

For my first class assignment, my job was to demonstrate one of each of these rules, while keeping everything else constant. This was a much harder task for my classmates and I to complete because of our natural inclinations to creatively play with several elements at once. However, as I quoted my prof above, we were reminded to learn the rules first in order to break them. As a result, this assignment turned out to be a real test in using type alone to convey emotion and meaning.

And so, I practiced and came up with my final seven examples (above) using one of the more versatile typefaces, Helvetica. After a couple of class critiques, I hope the contrast behind each example is quite clear. The order goes: Color, texture, direction, size, weight, form & structure. The quote is from Col. Stefan J. Banach, a man who has brought design thinking to military strategy.

From this assignment though, one thing I have been reflecting on is the notion of “rules” in typography.

Having rules doesn’t necessarily seem to imply there is a “right or wrong” way of doing things, but more that there are principles behind the practice of design that have “worked” over centuries and are instructive to theory and practice. And importantly, these are rules that can be broken, and always are.

In health promotion, we don’t have “rules” per se…there are some guiding and unifying principles, but to me, it’s not as standard or clear. I would describe the rules of type I’ve learned about as “modifiers”, if you will — they are ways to shape the very essence of the design you’re working with through its literal and figurative meaning in order to better communicate with an audience. I found these rules rather instructive and thought about how these elements could be applied to the work I do as a community health promoter. My thinking: Perhaps there are elements which help create a unique aesthetic for each and every health promotion initiative we plan, create, and carry out. Here’s one way of looking at it (and for the purposes of this example, I use “program” to describe a general “design program” we may create for health promotion — an intervention, strategy, process, policy, engagement, etc.):

1. Size – The scale and reach of the program

2. Weight – The impact of the programming on participants and the greater community

3. Form – The activities that comprise the contents of the program

4. Structure – The type of program it is, be it an outreach program, educational workshops, etc.

5. Colour – The visibility of and levels of diversity represented in the program

6. Direction – The anticipated process and outcomes of the program, and the values and beliefs guiding it

7. Texture – The feel and visceral experience of the program as experienced by all involved and affected by the program

When framed this way, I actually find these design principles to be quite a helpful way of communicating a health promotion aesthetic that may not always be immediately visible or understandable in the work we do. In designing future health promotion initiatives, I will have to track my process and see if these principles fit or if there are any others to add to the mix…A good design challenge for myself moving forward.

And before I end off this post, I just wanted to include this gem that my prof showed us at the end of our first class to remind us not to take our typefaces too seriously: A video from College Humor called Type Conference

What does the creative process look like?

I recently came across this infographic by Virus Comix posted on FastCompany that illustrates the “Magic and Madness of the Creative Process”. I can certainly relate to those winding roads: the doubt, the re-work, the split decisions…and the stress, for better or for worse. This, in combination with some reading from Nigel Cross’s “Design Thinking” the other day, got me thinking about the creative process in a slightly new way…at least visually.

In the book there’s a great quote from Cross’s profile of designer Kenneth Grange, co-founder of Pentagram, wherein Grange describes the role of the designer:

The designer’s job, he says, is ‘to produce the unexpected’. (p.70)

I have heard variants of this job description from other designers and agree with this statement in many ways, granted that the unexpected is addressing a need, helping a situation or circumstance, and delighting its user(s). This unexpectedness, I find, is also present within the design process.

Many designers (Cross included) describe the creative process as ambiguous, unclear, unpredictable and difficult to map out. So much time is spent searching for the “right” problems to address and then creating ways to meaningfully address them. And while one can expect the design process to be extremely foggy — even translucent and almost opaque at times — you grab your tools, methods, knowledge and experience and you begin to feel your way through the process.  You may be unsure of what you’re searching for in the first place, but you do end up reaching your final destination. In essence, you’ve created something through the shadows: It may be unexpected, but it’s probably quite remarkable.

Taking what I’ve said here, the illustration above is my attempt to visualize the design process. Through this interpretation, I think that I have inadvertently simplified a process I consider to be truly complex. The visual is more articulate than any words I can offer, so I hope you find some meaning in it.

I’m curious about visual analogies (I’m thinking infographics/illustrations less frameworks/flow charts) for the design process and invite you to share any you might have.

During the flight if the cabin pressure changes, an oxygen mask will drop automatically from the panel above you. Remain seated. Pull the mask toward you. Use the support strap to hold the mask over your mouth and nose. Adjust your mask. Breathe normally.

Air Canada Safety Video

My mom always gives good advice. She is a very thoughtful and intelligent woman. She has also worked incredibly hard her entire life and, having moved to Canada from Hong Kong during her teenage years, she learned at a young age how best to take care of herself and her loved ones, even as she faced adversity as a woman, a woman of color, and a newcomer. Not surprisingly, she trained as a social worker and has spent her life supporting and counseling others in need of help. I love talking to her because she has the ability to be amazingly compassionate while being completely honest and up front with me. She can always cut through what I call the “fluffy bull****” (getting too entangled and debilitated by emotions) and just get straight to the point.

I have always turned to my mom for advice on love, life and relationships. And more recently, I reached a point at which several seemingly unrelated and rather problematic issues in my life became entangled with one another into a gigantic, messy knot. I was burnt out, overwhelmed, and felt powerless to create any change in my life. In other words, I wasn’t at my healthiest, physically, mentally, or emotionally. It wasn’t good. Despite this, I had deadlines to meet, work to finish, and projects I wanted to press forward with. I tried to find distractions and things I could work on, but I couldn’t find my focus…or motivation. But then I remembered some valuable words that my mom once shared with me a while ago when I was in a similar situation.

She gave me the analogy of flying on an airplane. As in the quote above, when the cabin pressure drops in mid-air, oxygen masks will drop from the upper panel and you’d better put one on. Most importantly though,

Always secure your own mask before assisting another person.

That last point was key: If you aren’t minding your own health and safety first, you are not going to be in a position where you can help others.

I was at a training with Anima Leadership last week on conflict resolution and brought up this point. It became a useful and logical reminder to myself and other participants to make sure that we are in position to be ready and as healthy as possible to approach conflict. Otherwise, it may turn into this sort of situation. It’s also a point that came to mind when I was at a Conference last week listening to Robin Sharma speak. He was talking to an entrepreneurial-minded crowd, and reminded us that we had to take care of ourselves first: Our state of health and wellbeing would translate into our work, our relationships, our start-ups and/or our companies. If we are a reflection of our business and vice versa, how could we expect people to engage with either if we are unwell? I think this is true for design too. If we neglect our health and identity within the design process and we forget to breathe (something so very basic and essential to our survival), we cannot produce “good” design.

This advice has helped me get through murky waters time and time again. I’ve learned that sometimes I need to be a little selfish and take care of me first, but that in the end, this is to the benefit of the work that I do and the people around me.

The next time I’m sitting through the pre-flight safety demonstration, rather than roll my eyes and think “I’ve seen this a million times before!”, perhaps getting a reminder won’t be so bad. After all, turns out it’s pretty useful advice.

Thanks mom.

I have problems falling asleep.

Usually my mind is racing at bedtime. I think about the day that passed…what’s to come…ideas that are percolating in my head.

And what doesn’t help is that I don’t do a very good job of maintaining a strict sleep schedule. As you might be able to tell through the timing of my blog posts, I tend to stay awake at funny hours.

While out and about and traveling from conference to conference over the past while (AIGA, DMI and Design Thinkers…yes, I will be posting about my experiences at these events very soon!), a good friend of mine has tried to help remedy my inability to fall asleep at a reasonable hour. From this, the unintentional bedtime story was born.

The unintentional bedtime story can be anything from a “terms of agreement” policy to a dry journal article to a train schedule. These aren’t your typical bedtime stories: They tend not to convey highly engaging content because they tend to serve a very particular (often practical) purpose, for a particular audience, at a particular time. When pulled out of context, they can make for stellar sleep material.

Take for instance the example I use of an Apple Terms of Agreement document: I’m sure people actually read these documents through at some point in their lives (I have once but now just opt for the “Agree” button) but really, I’m not sure how much the average Apple user gets really excited about reading this legalese. Same goes for the example of the excerpt from a journal article: The example I include is completely fictional (and content-wise doesn’t offer much) but it does make me think about the language and audience that most research publications are targeted to and how this may not always be overly exciting to read, particularly by non-academics/researchers.

Anyways, I thought I might throw together some short bedtime stories that may also help you fall asleep. These are shortened versions, but I think it’d be fun to imagine what an illustrated policy/article may look like if turned into a full, beautiful storybook.

And if you’re the kind person who is reading these stories to someone else, hopefully the visuals help you avoid falling asleep at the same time.

Goodnight.

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Note: The “Source” links in the JPEG files were lost upon export. The content for the Apple story is here and the M1 Service Schedule is here.

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InDesign note: I am starting to use a Wacom graphics tablet for some of the illustrations on the blog. Still trying to learn how to optimize this for InDesign, but in the meantime, expect more hand drawn content to come.

I remember back to my days in high school when I was taking art classes: I loved (and still love) sketching, photography, painting, sculpting, and having the creative freedom to blend these different approaches together. I was lucky to have a pretty amazing art teacher back then (Thanks, Mr. Harsha) who encouraged us to take risks and experiment with our work.

I was quite proud of the pieces I created for art class and began building up my own collection of personal works. I kept my pieces safely stowed away in a decorated cardboard folder labeled “ANDREA  YIP” that was covered with random doodles and sketches. I could always go back to my portfolio to pull out my past and present projects to provide my teachers and peers with a sense of what I had been visually creating in class.  To me, the only way to fully describe my work to others was to show people my portfolio. The contents of my portfolio and the even the simple act of carrying it around made for a great conversation starter. What I loved most though, is that every time I went back to my portfolio, I would pull out my work and begin studying its visual contents and be reminded of the process of creating it, the fine details of the work, and the time and creative energy that went into its creation. I think this helped me learn more from and develop a deeper appreciation for my work over time.

As an academic, I suppose my equivalent of the “portfolio” would be the curriculum vitae. Typically, CVs aren’t heavy in visual content (nor do I think a highly visual CV would be fully appreciated within academia). Rather, the CV is filled with lists of text that describe my roles, responsibilities and achievements, in just a few words:

“Social media coordinator, 2010. Youth Voices Research Group” …or…

“Research Assistant, 2009. Planned Parenthood Toronto“. Period.

Not all CVs are created equally, but generally, the CV is good for conveying a particular set of professional achievements for a particular audience. I don’t suspect that many academics carry around copies of their powerpoint slide decks or journal articles to share with a potential employer, colleagues, or clients, but it would seem reasonable that if someone asked for samples from your body of work, that you could deliver this on demand. And hopefully, whatever you deliver would ideally be something that captures one’s attention, is engaging and refreshing, is readable by the general population (in plain language), and maybe even something that someone else might find inspiring.

As I move into a more designful career, my interest is in integrating communication and graphic design more fully into my work. To this end, I think that academics could really benefit from the idea of the portfolio. As a social designer, I think the concept of a portfolio fits in nicely with the way I want to convey myself to others and gives my partners, clients, and colleagues with a richer sense of how I approach and even conceptualize my own work, formally and informally. To me, the portfolio offers such a rich opportunity to “sell” your work, share your personality, and build a brand identity. This is not something that academics are necessarily taught to do well, if at all.

That said, I decided to try a little experiment: Start creating my own design portfolio.

My first addition to the portfolio is a short document about a research initiative I coordinated in 2010 called The Access Project. My goal was to create something short (about 2-3 pages), succinct, in plain language, visual, and beautiful, and something that I could pull out of my portfolio and hand to a client, community member, boss, friend, family member, magazine editor, funder, or peer. I’m not sure if I succeeded in all these areas, but I’ll let you be the judge of that.

Overall, I think the document gives someone a general overview of the project, particularly with regard to purpose, need, process and outcomes. I was worried about losing too much context as I pared down the information, but I also wanted to ensure I was providing enough detail (more than an abstract). So as it stands, it may be a bit wordy, but I think it’s a good start. This was a fun challenge for me as I was forced to think of ways to visualize the Access Project (process, outcomes, etc.) using images that were simple enough to understand, but at the same time, able to capture some of the complexity inherent within the project.

The image you see above is the third page of the document (this includes the main visual). I have included the full document — all four pages — in the gallery below.

My hope is to build up a design portfolio over time….so I’d love to hear your thoughts about this.

And as an FYI, this particular document took me about 5-6 hours to create. It’s still pretty rough, but it goes to show that it may not take a really long time to develop valuable knowledge translations products for your own design portfolio.

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InDesign Notes: The photographs used on page 1 of the Access Project document are visual captures from the media created by the youth participants from the project.

Women and design have a complex history – Or perhaps more appropriately, “a complex herstory”.

In learning more about design herstory, I have found myself reading literature that I was first introduced to in my undergraduate women’s studies classes about feminist critiques of design.  Much of this critical discussion (see Design and Feminism) focuses on the relationship between women and the built environment: How built spaces have and continue to be the embodiment of a patriarchal agenda, spatially (mentally, emotionally, and physically) segregating women and men into their respective private and public domains. Within this context, “pink ghettos”, the “feminization of poverty”, and urban design as monuments to male domination, money and power are common points of analysis. Moreover, a feminist perspective on design highlights the need for women to be fully integrated into the mainstream design agenda and better represented within the profession itself.  As a predominantly male-dominated field, there have been calls for better documentation and heightened visibility of female designers and their rich contributions to the field.

This of course is just a sliver of insight into design herstory, but hopefully gives you a sense of what I’ve been reading and the type of content that I have found to be predominant in the literature. Generally speaking though, it has been a challenge to find discussion around the overall female experience in design, and how gender and identity play into design process and design thinking.

What does it mean to be a gendered designer, and in particular, what does it mean to be a gendered design thinker?

…It’s a question that has been on mind a lot lately. While I do not have much literature to cite when it comes to the question above, it has nonetheless fueled a lot of further questions and thinking. For the most part, I have become curious about the way in which the socialization of women and gender roles contribute — for better or worse — to the way in which women experience and navigate the design process.

Below I pose three questions that I think are helpful in unpacking design thinking and advancing the dialogue around women in design. I don’t necessarily have answers rather, I offer explanations that I hope provide a snapshot into some of the connections I am drawing between women, gender and design.

ONE

Question: Are women socialized to be design thinkers?

Explanation: Let us think about the qualities of a design thinker. For argument’s sake, we will assume that design thinking is a creative process for creating something with intent. Design thinking can embody and privilege many different concepts, for instance, empathy, relationship building, collaboration, sensing, health, and aesthetics. So as a design thinker, it would be critical to have or develop an understanding of the concepts and be able to apply them to design practice. But, could it be that the qualities and concepts associated with design thinking are more aligned with the feminine and gendered qualities assigned to women? Central concepts like empathy, relationships, and sensing can arguably be regarded as feminine in nature and akin to the qualities that women are taught to embody as caregivers, mothers, and companions. Perhaps then, women are socialized in such a way that they have a high potential to be formidable design thinkers.

TWO

Question: Do women and men design (think) their way through a problem differently?

Explanation: Let’s take the example of failing in design thinking. I have read multiple articles about failing – that it is okay and encouraged to fail often and fail early in design. I agree, failing can be very healthy and a helpful and normal part of the learning process. However for the female design thinker, could failure be problematic? Given the disadvantage of women in design and the subsequent challenges gaining visibility and traction in the industry, perhaps failure is a more threatening concept for women than men? And perhaps, even if distally, this may suggest and reinforce historical perceptions of women as weak, irrational, and fragile. Finally, might this notion of failure be complicated and heightened by her diversity (e.g., she is a single mother, woman of colour, or a woman with a disability)? One might be risk averse if she generally has less social power or privilege to spare.

THREE

Question: What might a female-led approach to design thinking look like?

Explanation: If we think about the thought leaders, movers, and shakers in design thinking (Tim Brown, David Kelley, Bruce Mau, Roger Martin and John Thackara, to name a few), it is quite clear that it is a male-dominated school of thought. However, imagine taking a female-centered approach to the design process: Would this look different than mainstream design thinking as it exists today? Well, when it comes to women’s way of thinking, knowing, and doing, I think that a feminist approach to design thinking offers a helpful and refreshing way of challenging, critiquing, and leading a design process; this an approach that problematizes power dynamics, identity, hierarchy and equity and pushes for greater engagement in social activism, research and practice on the part of the designer. Not surprisingly, this is also how I envision a health promotion approach to design. In Design and Feminism, Leslie Kanes Weisman outlines ways in which feminist pedagogy can be useful for constructing a new model of architectural education — I would extend this further to say that this is a worthwhile approach for design in general — where students are taught to be “effective practitioners, problem solvers and leaders”. I will mention briefly here four feminist educational principles she discusses (p. 160):

1. Employ collaborative learning methods in which interdependent, team problem solving and cocreativity are practiced and rewarded over competitive, solitary problem solving and individual creativity.

2. Share authority and knowledge so that students are empowered to direct their own learning and so that people in other disciplines and with different life experiences can join in the discourse. In the future, the boundaries of the problem to be solved — not the boundaries of a single academic discipline — will determine what knowledge is needed and where it can best be found.

3. Emphasize ethical values, a respect for human diversity, and interconnectedness among all of humanity, the natural world, and the products of human design.

4. Eliminate false dichotomies by creating learning situations that connect academic theory with “hands-on” practice and by establishing collaborative relationships among designers, clients and user groups.

Adopting these principles could be a first step to a more inclusive, humanizing and woman-centered approach to design thinking and doing. However, we may have to starting taking a closer look at the community level before we are able to see who is practicing this approach and how within the greater design thinking landscape.

While I may not be able to offer answers, I think opening up a space to have a critical dialogue about gender, identity politics, and feminism is an important and worthwhile pursuit that can help continue to document and advance design and the women in this field. I realize I have also made a number of generalizations about women and design in this post but did so in order to play with the notion of the gendered design thinker.

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InDesign Note: I’ve resisted using the pen tool for the “Dana the Designer” image, and tried to use the handy pencil tool in an attempt to create a less polished look.

Fonts have their own stories and personalities, and have the potential to amplify, diminish, or subvert the message(s) that they are intended to communicate. There is also an incredible power fonts have in their layout, colour, sizing, and overall organization in evoking a particular set of senses or feelings from its viewer.

As a growing and ever evolving health promoter, my experience as a practitioner and researcher has grown over the years: I have learned a lot, have been humbled to work with some amazing folks, and have been thrown into various contexts where I have co-designed health in communities in Canada and abroad. Channeling these experiences and thoughts into some thinking about fonts, I have decided that health promotion as a field is well represented by Papyrus.

According to Linotype,

Papyrus® is the work of American designer Chris Costello, an unusual roman typeface which effectively merges the elegance of a traditional roman letterform with the hand-crafted look of highly skilled calligraphy. It includes an extra set of initialing capitals to enhance its unique style.

If you’re curious, here is an intro to Papyrus, courtesy of Costello. I personally do not tend to use Papyrus (and there are many criticisms of it…yes, there was the whole Avatar debate too), but its textured, rough edges, irregular and wide curves have a very elegant, natural and ‘Earthy’ look that I think suggest something that originated from the ground-up, if you will. The spacing, curves and inflections suggest a calm and collective demeanor. Would you agree?