Senior Thesis Project
Exhibition opening of Close Encounters: http://stamps.umich.edu/exhibitions/individual/msvisible
My work includes my #MSvisible icon set, guide books and cards to explain visually and with quotes from people living with MS what MS is like to live with.
To see more, visit: www.msvisible.com
Getting ready to exhibit my work, I must plan out how this campaign can best be experienced within the walls of a gallery space.
To best explain the icons, I have created a guide book where the symbols are juxtaposed to personal explanations about what living with MS is really like. To compliment the book, I have also created business sized cards that include the entire icon set and a quote that mimics the design of the guide book. These cards are a take-away so that my users can remember the campaign, and if interested pursue more information through my website.
When designing how my audience will interact with my work in the gallery setting, I want to have a giveaway. I am hoping that if their interest continues, I can direct them to my campaign site. As my designs are continuing to develop, I plan on having an icon paired with a quote that describes what the symptom feels like to live with. Juxtaposed with the full set of icons on the reverse side to provide context for the front side.
Including a guide book with my icons for the final show will allow my users to get a deeper insight at what life with MS is like. Presenting an inside look at quotes of people with MS describing their symptoms will allow my audience to reach a new level of empathy with the MS community. Working with quotes that I have collected paired with my icons, I am playing around with possible directions and layouts for my guide book.
Continuing to refine and make final alterations to my emoji set, I have been working on the cognitive dysfunction logo. I have had trouble having the icon read as I intend while still being able to exist in a variety of scales (specifically the miniature phone emoji size).
Working off of my conversations with people who have MS as inspiration, I used their descriptions of symptoms and turned them into visual symbols.
Thinking about how I want my users to interact with my exhibit in the senior show and the #MSvisible campaign, I was drawn to giving away something that my users could hold on to and keep to engage with interest in my project.
Thinking about how I could make something informative, fun, and relatively inexpensive to engage with a wide audience range, I was drawn to stickers and business cards.
Below are some designs that I began drafting. Considering what needs to be included on the card/sticker, how to I draw initial interest, and how to push my user to further engage my contributing to the campaign and visiting the #msvisible site.
Preparing for my Senior Show, I am preparing guide books, giving a deeper explanation into the signs and symbols I created, why, and what the symptom is. Playing with filler text and layout options I am considering how I want my user to navigate through the booklet.
Playing around with what “off-balance” could look like in a single icon was difficult. I experimented with associations of balance with a scale, but, it wasn’t reading as intended. I continued to be inspired by people with MS describing the sensation of “off-balance” as “sea-legs”. However, when the icon was shrunk down, the sea-legs were difficult to interpret. Currently, I am exploring how already established icons of male/female figures could be shifted and twisted to embody the chaotic feeling of the off-balance symptom that comes with MS.
Experimenting how the digitally produced icon reads in comparison to the hand drawn feel. In creating a set, I want the pieces to be cohesive in their appearance and style, playing close attention to line weight, line curves, pattern and texture.
The hand drawn works convey a greater sense of emotion and sense of the artists hand.
While the digitally produced pieces feel a bit colder to the audience, with crisper lines and hard edges. However, putting the icons in context with previously created emojis, they might need to repeat the same digitally produced feel that those have obtained.
Playing with several variations of how to advertise my work for the senior thesis show.
And the final iteration:
a look into Eva's studio 