experimental typography intentions

i began trying to figure out what i might want to work with in experimental type before the class even began, reminding myself of the things i love and want to try to integrate further into my design practices. i want to try putting more of myself as a creative writer into my studio work. i brainstormed and streamed consciousness and came up with some fairly clear intentions with slightly more blurry directions. 

first: things that are important to me. people and feelings and memories and words. that's kind of my mental state, the thematic world i inhabit when i write and when i talk and, where possible, when i design. these things lend themselves to emotional experiences, to poetry, to storytelling, to wordplay, to diaries, to handwriting, to portraits and biographies. they lend themselves to quiet notions and half-smiles. they contain the big scary possibilities of delight and heartbreak. 

this is where i want to go with my work. 

here are a few of the paths i can see leading in that direction:

typography that reveals itself only under certain circumstances, typography that must be found like easter eggs, with storytelling or poetry that unfolds in an organic way depending on the order in which its components are discovered. relatedly, writing portraits of people in their habitats, situational environmental typography, hiding in plain sight. 

an object or experience wherein the finding of the text is less an issue than the ordering of it, a test of hierarchy-less-ness to see the way people arrange a set of poetic ideas, maybe with their hands, maybe with their eyes, maybe with their voices.

collecting people's handwriting as well as their stories, finding the similarities and the differences, trying to construct something universal out of their letterforms and their narratives, individual and communal all at once.

my intention, where possible, is to combine these ideas as best i can into one big sentimental conglomeration of all of the above, but that, expectedly, may prove difficult. what is most important to me in all this is the sense of vulnerability and connection through the creation and subsequent experience of typography.

dallas morning news wireframes

first, we analyzed sections of a newspaper. then, we analyzed that newspaper's web presence. compared, and contrasted. then came the fun part: trying to make it better.

these are my three initial webpage concepts in wireframes. i completely understand if you don't want to read all of my chickenscratch handwriting, but i highly recommend you follow the riveting user scenarios at the bottom of each sketch. (they're the ones in caps.)

first, and the crowd-favorite, the iconhappy widgetnews! highlights include: 4 priority spaces that the reader can fill with the news sections that interest her most, so she can see quick previews of these stories at first glance; and icons that turn into little widgets or a big widget depending on where you drag them. they also, of course, function as links. this is what i'm moving forward with, with moments incorporated from other concepts.

the subsection of entertainment works the same way as the main page, with priority boxes and icon/widgets.

next up, the newsstripes! this one's a little tricky... the point is, the content runs in horizontal stripes rather than down vertical columns on the page. hovering on the edges of the stripes will cause them to scroll side to side, revealing more content in chronological or popular order.

again, the subsection of entertainment works the same way the main page does.

lastly, the other one. it doesn't have a catchy name. it deals a lot with favorites, though, so there's that. there's a way to collect your favorite articles, and your favorite writers, so you can keep up with what they do. these functions are going to be appropriated by the concept i actually move forward with (iconhappy widgetnews).

the favorite writer function utilizes writer profile pages, with a headshot, bio, and links to the their most recent and most popular articles, as well as suggestions to other dallas morning news or other newswriters, based on what your favorites write about and how they write.

 man, that opera must really be something. onward to digitals!

reading: what they learned about the web in 2011

a big, wide, crowdsourced article, "what i learned about the web in 2011" has a sort of rhythm of harmonious agreement to it. the things that kept coming back are that everyone learned about how important it is to multi-platform gracefully, to allow users to access content from however and wherever and whenever they wish, without having to conform to any set-in-stone standards. it's critical to learn the heart of the content, and let it take whatever form it has to in any of those contexts, rather than imposing upon it some act-of-god organization method that tries to pin in the organic nature of information. organic is a good word for what online content is becoming, and must become... it must ebb and flow through different currents and platforms and resolutions, all without losing its purpose. web design is less, now, about imposing order and providing strict, top-down information, than it is about connecting people, whether that is with one another, their feelings, their ideas, or the information that they need. it's looking more and more like real life. and that's pretty awesome.

personas! meet sheila and sean.