Figure 1. Tutorial notes.
Today I had my third tutorial with Alan (notes above). We talked about my paper and discussed how I could better improve it to better refine the introduction so it is tighter and cleaner in stating the issue at hand. We agreed though that at this point I should move on to other tasks and permitting I have the time, I can revisit the paper and redraft.
We went through what time I have left by breaking up the weeks left and assigning tasks to each week. We agreed that next I should begin the Typo Text cards. Initially I planned I would do this last as I could then fully sumarise the content of both written pieces and then base my designs off of that. However this will greatly reduce the time I leave myself to get the cards printed and so I could run into a lot of problems which would be very difficult to rectify given the time. Despite what I mentioned above about having both pieces done prior to starting the cards, I think that I already have my body of discussion and the article will only rework that to its appropriate audience. Therefore the content will stay similar and so it will not effect my design choices.
This is also a good decision as I know that the Typo Text cards are something that I have less experience in creating, where as the article is something I could produce very quickly if needed. Although I do not plan on this being the case, it does give me security in terms of finishing the work in time.
I said that I think Typo Text needs to be changed as they do not explain themselves. It would be very hard to distribute these cards based on this name as nobody would understand what they based on that. Although they will have a name/title and be part of a collective piece of the ‘Open Mind’ project, they still need something to help people understand what they are. We agreed on Graphic visualisation/s (cards).
I also talked through the process of how I would plan my article as it is based off of my paper which is not something I have done before. I will read through, summarise key parts, pick out important figures and essential aspects and base my plan around those. Alan suggested that I focus the article mostly on the context/background of the article which consists of the discussion of our transition form paper to screen technologies and how our immersion into online activity is changing the way we think and behave. I think this is certainly something I will do as it will give me the opportunity to focus solely on the initial inspiration I had for this project.
The most important part of the tutorial was talking about designing and producing the cards. I planned on getting them professionally printed. However cost and time was an issue as they are custom and I am not getting the cards printed in mass. I found one website which could produce in good time and at a good price (above). However after experimenting with their upload options for my images I found it to be temperamental and as it is a US company it is risky if the designs do not print correct/well. Given this factor I decided that I will have to get them printed at universities with the available facilities, at home using my own printer and good card, or hand them in as a digital file. I really do not want to print them myself as I think the quality would be low and in that case it will be better off to hand in digitally. Therefore at some point soon I will enquire with the university about the printing services they have to see if that is an option.
The next few tasks I need to do then are to begin initial ideas and designs for the cards before I can begin finalising them to be ready to start creating in Illustrator and to find out about how I will produce the finished product.
Screenin' Culture 