Initial Ideas

In response to feedback from the google hangout focusing mainly on how to approach my idea from home, I created different ideas that I could then get peer feedback from. I tried to focus more on digital outcomes but naturally kept leaning towards creating a book.

I began by exploring whether there's an emotional disconnect in digital versus analog design, and was focused on the idea of exploring “An alternate world where all design can’t be produced using the computer."

Through primary research, I found that most designers were appreciative of analog processes and found that there was an emotional disconnect in digital design but it wasn't a majority. I also found that although designers felt more connected to craft, digital design has access to many more platforms that analog cannot reach. My stance is that analog does allow for a more personal relationship and interesting outcomes as nothing can be created exactly the same, but that digital design can be emotionally engaging as well in different ways.

My audience is young designers (our age group) either in the current day, even if the project is set in an alt world or the future it would still be shown to designers now. This is because they shape the development of design and I want to communicate this message to them.

IDEA 1. Exploring the opinion that there is an emotional disconnect, I could produce a website that uses bad UX/UI and would be passive to the audience. Examples of this would be a drop down menu that goes away when clicked, pop ups, a body of text with gaps/glitches, and music that plays automatically that only restarts when user tries to pause it, etc.

IDEA 2. Creating an interactive/bespoke book and an interactive e-book. This explores purposes of analog and digital that each other can't fully recreate.

e.g The book could include hand-drawn type, foiled text, lino/relief prints, risograph, texture, and an interesting book bind. The e-book could explore animation, gifs, mobile formats, and AR/VR.

This could be pushed further with the subject matter - if the subject matter were about flowers then the book can include actual, pressed flowers, relief prints of flowers, or images using other analog processes to create the flowers such as clay. The e-book would include digitally created or processed images of flowers, or even text-art.

IDEA 3. A book or website/app that tries to reintroduce analog or digital design to a world where one doesn't exist anymore.

This could be approached more realistically, such as a website where each process can be recreated digitally e.g for letterpress, you manually drag and drop letters, and go through the whole printing process.

This could also be approached more humorously, such as a book that is a 'guide to digital design' where the audience in mind has no concept of a computer whatsoever. e.g a page explaining where instead of having to physically draw and measure type or letterpress, you could plug your brain into a screen and have it automatically create it for you. Or for the website, screenprint is literally using a screen to print images using ink/paint.

*other idea missing