Information Design - Project 1 & 2

Week 4 - Week 7 / 24.01.2022 - 18.02.2022

Tow Wan Tian / 0343765

Project 1 - Instructable Poster

Project Brief

Figure 1. Assignment brief

After the completion of Exercise 2 followed the beginning of Project 1. The project required students to create an instructable poster using a recipe chosen from the YouTube channel, Pasta Grannies. 

This week, Ms Anis told us to view some videos from Pasta Grannies and choose one to study its information and process. I choose this recipe for making culurgionis (or culurgiones) by two lovely grannies, Savina and Rosetta. 

Culurgionis is an iconic dish from Sardinia. A dish of pasta pockets stuffed with fillings typically made with mash potatoes, pecorino cheese, mint, garlic and olive oil, dressed with tomato sauce.

Figure 1.1 Culurgionis from Sardinia. Source

Figure 1.2 Savina and Rosetta makes culurgionis from Sardinia.

YouTube link: https://youtu.be/guR3uqvOtSg

Figure 1.3 A screenshot of Granny Savina (right) and Granny Rosetta (left) from the video.

Video Study

After watching the video for multiple times, I listed down the ingredients, process and some extra information into a Google Doc. 

Visual Reference

Figure 1.4 Pasta by Sung Hwan Jang. Source

Figure 1.5 Infographic recipe poster by Alicia Lee. Source

Figure 1.4 is jam packed with information but the information is arranged neatly and comfortable to read. I like the fact that there is an large image of dish placed in the centre of the poster, it immediate grabs the viewers's attention and we as viewers can quickly get what the poster is about. On the other hand, Figure 1.5 is very minimal but it contains all the necessary information to make it comprehensive. It uses text to explain and vectors to support the explanation. 

Colour Palette

I uploaded the screenshot (Figure 1.3) onto a colour palette generator to create a colour palette. 

Figure 1.6 Colour palette 1

Typeface

Title and Subtitle

Figure 1.7 Font - Brixton Tc

Main Text

Figure 1.8 Font - Garet Book

Idea Exploration

Sketches

Figure 1.9 Sketch 1 (Left), Sketch 2 (Middle and Right).

Learning from Figure 1.4, I placed the dish in the centre of the composition and arrange the steps surrounding it in Sketch 1. In Sketch 2, the steps are arranged in an S-shape and reach the dish as the final step. Sketch 1 appealed to me more, so I chose it as the final composition. 

Assets

I sketched out the assets needed for the poster on paper,  it would be used as a template for the digital illustration. The assets included ingredients such as flour, water, olive oil, garlic, egg, mint, potatoes, the three types of cheese, as well as the visualisation of making the pasta pockets. I used vectors and images as references while sketching. Then, I turned on Adobe Illustrator and illustrated the assets using the sketch as a template.

Figure 2. Sketches of the assets. 

Figure 2.1 The assets

As for the culurgionis, I referred to Figure 2. and drew an illustration in a separate file. 

Figure 2.2 Culurgionis, image contributed by Alessio Orru. Source

Figure 2.3 Illustration of culurgionis. 

I made a few attempts at arranging the text and assets in Adobe Illustrator. However, some of the text could not fit in the Artboard no matter how I tried. I did not want to reduce the text as they contain the main information. In the end, I resorted to changing the whole arrangement. 

Final Outcome

Figure 2.4 Final outcome of Project 1 - Instructable Poster (PNG). 

Figure 2.5 Final outcome of Project 1 - Instructable Poster (PDF). 

Project 2 - Animated Infographic

For Project 2, we were required to create an animation or a motion graphic based on the instructable poster. 

Final Outcome

Figure 2.6 Final outcome for Project 2 - Animated Infographic.

YouTube link: https://youtu.be/0JElioYDKcc