Information Design.

Information design is the skill and practice of preparing information so people can use it with efficiency and effectiveness. Where the data is complex or unstructured, a visual representation can express its meaning more clearly to the viewer.

For a more in-depth description of the design concept;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_design

I took a look at various artists who use information design, and a few really caught my eye;

http://www.jonburgerman.com/Work/comments/brain_drain/- this work is incredibly bright and colourful, and details modern life in such a way that the work doesn't even need text to get its message across!

It also has some very cool sculpture, as well as;

This piece, which really helps get my earlier point across.

I also really like this one due to the similarities between the illustration and my work.

One thing I've noticed so far is that a lot of very good information design gets it's message across without using font, this is also an excellent way to get around the language barrier!

An old form of information design would be the london underground map;

http://www.visit-londoncity.com/london_tips/pictures/underground_map.jpg

Looking at this piece again and actually seeing it really shows just how brilliant the piece is, a minimum of form and a maximum of function; Some more information on it;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tube_map

and it's fairly brilliant creator;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Beck

Unfortunately after some research I realized that there isn't very much else by him, but this is one thing I actually quite like about information design, it's more about the work than the artist, a truly brilliant piece of information design really immortalizes the artist who created it, even if no-one remembers his name.

Relating this back to my own work, my pieces really do need to have font on them, as the pieces themselves are a narrative, I really could push forward with the environmental side of my pieces, and I'd love to see them mocked up on a wall of an exhibition (or actually attached to the walls of an exhibition).

If I was going to change anything about the pieces, I'd change the font so it was all made of individual bits of paper, and create a few more posters based on the eco-friendly paper argument (more points on carbon usage and recycling etc).

Final Major Project.

For our final major project we were tasked with writing our own brief in effect, as long as our final piece had a message, we could design and create anything based around

"The Power of Paper"

A project based around paper is basically a project based around anything, so I immediately had to narrow down my options or spend too much time thinking about all the things I could do;

Environmental;

• The effects of paper production on the environment.
• The effects of paper waste.
• The recycling process.
• Use of recycled paper products.

Artistic;

• Origami
• Collage
• Sculpture
• Posters

Practical;

• A list of the paper products I use;

1. Cups
2. Packaging
3. Bags
4. Teabags
5. Leaflets
6. Reciepts
7. Toilet paper
8. Books
9. Photos
10. Identification
11. Money
12. Sketchpads
13. Magazines
14. Wrapping Paper

Now several of these things could be elaborated on; but I don't think being too specific with any one paper item I use is the way to go, I could go into a huge amount of detail with money or books, but I'm not sure I could make them interesting, and to get a message across (the point of the brief) I've got to hold the person looking at my piece(s) attention.

So going with the term "The Power of Paper", I'll see how many different messages/ideas I can come up with;

1. To create a flower that will never wilt (origami).
2. Played a huge part of my life in many different ways.
3. Taken for granted but incredibly versatile.
4. What else would you wipe your bum with?
5. To bring out the worst in people (money)
6. To help people in dire need (also money)
7. To make the world a much smaller place (plane tickets, money, passports)
8. To hold imaginary worlds and people (books)
9. To teach (books)

In the end I went with the idea of creating several collage posters detailing how I've used paper since I was born, using my own art style and habit of inserting (or trying to insert) humour into my work.

Research

Other people's work;

http://www.cut-the-knot.org/pythagoras/PaperFolding/index.shtml- a link to a site on origami, arguably the oldest of all paper art forms, and whilst it isn't really related to what I'm doing with my posters, it's certainly very important overall to this project.

http://dinostudios.com/2010/03/interactive-paper-art/- very cool interactive paper art pieces, unfortunately only two pieces are displayed (I love the one with the cute little robot and dinosaur) I'd like to do something like this but the brief is the power of paper, not the power of, well, power.

http://current.com/groups/art-and-style/91632064_interactive-paper-art-show.html - an absolutely brilliant video of an exhibition of various different types of paper art, with some of the artists from "Paper", raises an interesting point; We all take paper for granted, never really noticing it at all, especially not as an artistic medium.

http://inventorspot.com/interactive_paper_makes_music_1- The future of paper based art works?

I've kept this a little vague as I didn't want to be too strongly influenced by others works (this may sound like a copout but I had a stong idea of what I wanted from the start, and I really didnt want to feel like I've ripped someone elses ideas off).

Materials;

Really, anything made out of paper, especially things that relate to me (teabags, and books for example, although I'd be loath to damage any books).

http://rps.gn.apc.org/ a site with all kinds of recycled paper, whilst my posters arent really all about recycling, but this is definitely a very important part of the role paper plays in society, as it is so easily recycled.

http://www.conservatree.com/learn/EnviroIssues/TreeStats.shtml- some useful statistics on the amount of trees used to make types of paper, where I will get the information I need for my posters. Also, did you know that one tonne of non recycled office paper uses 24 trees?

http://www.quotemeprint.com/- a green newspaper printer based in the uk, I could contact them if I needed bulk amounts of paper for this project (luckily I don't, its just nice to see a green newspaper printer).

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jun/22/sainsburys-cereal-box- using cereal boxes would be an easy way to add colour, although I think I may want more of block colours rather than random ones that cereal packaging would give me. This article shows how packaging may be in the future, less paper, more plastics (hopefully biodegradable ones).