The finale product

For the final product, we gathered all of our class's information and compiled it onto a single presentation. I collected this information and designed the final pdf click-through. The slides were to be simple, not to distract from our product/exhibit design. 

Below are a few slides explaining our work. We showed a mockup of the 7 sections in the auditorium space, then flat art, followed by a closeup (shown below).

I think that the overall presentation went really well. It was great having Ella, Devon and Liz talk about the class's work - they did a wonderful job!

Overall, I am so proud of the class for bringing everything together. It taught me a lot regarding group work. It is a lot of work, but not only can you work to create a beautiful piece together, you learn to come together over a common goal: to help others and build a respect for all.

These are images from the actual presentation:

A suggestion from the class, I laser cut the Hard Choices title to then show Erika what the titles would look like. It was a great idea, and Hope then brought in cut paper to the size of the boxes in order to show the physical scale. I think it really helped to have this visual representation, for the computer mockups can only go so far to express the size of the displays.

The Final Countdown

I felt that as the project continued we started to find an identity for this exhibit that we could, almost, all agree on. Which, when you have a class of 20 people, that is pretty awesome. I am so proud of our class for coming together in the end and pushing through to create a final product I think most people felt excited for.

Below are a few of our final designs. Going back to our original groups, we were able to narrow down on information and divide and concur. Being an XD, I wrote information for my particular group (Hard choices made in poverty), the copy seen below. It was wonderful working with Ella and Haylee for they are both very hard workers and easy to talk too. They are always willing to go above and beyond what is expected of them, and never once did they question what we had to do, they simply did it.

In our XD groups, not only did we write content, but user-tested the information. It went surprisingly well as our assumptions were, happily, not entirely true. We figured that people would not be that knowledgable in the field of poverty, but all three that we interview, were. They were just unfamiliar with poverty in Douglas County.

We set up full scale posters, and had them fill our a questionnaire before and after they read the information to see what they had gained from it. Here was an example:

We learned from our test that we needed to be clearer in our information, and a little more precise about how the viewer was to interact with our exhibit.

There also needed to be an emotional take-away. A reflection or call to action. Even though we addressed this, after talking with Erika, the class found that we may have needed to spend more time on the call to actions. This was good to hear. There is always room to improve, and if our group's direction is chosen, it will be exciting figuring out just what to say.

Group #3

For the second stage of this project, we broke up into three secondary groups to narrow down on a graphics direction using the information pooled by the original teams. We approached this by looking into the audiences needs and our perception on what would be the best way to show the information  We ended up relying on materials and services we could get at the design school, such as wood, the laser cutter and letterpress.

Here is a bit of the presentation we put together for our class (below). I worked with Michelle M. to create the section dealing with health and poverty. She was wonderful to work with as her extra research allowed for us to experiment with our yarn idea, having the viewer follow the life of a person in or out of poverty. (explaining how health effects us all and can lead to financial strain.) I used her information to then create the visual look, basing it off of our groups mood-board.

I created each of the photoshop mockups shown below, imposing the documents and posters onto the photos.

Social Change

I love projects that focus on social change, impacting the community though graphic design. This is why I thoroughly enjoyed our project working with the United Way to help people understand Poverty in Douglas County. To me, graphic design is not just a means to a pretty poster, it is a tool we can use to better society.

For our United Way project, I started off working as an Experience Designer. I found that I learned a great deal regarding the users experience and how to approach a project, not based off of personal goals and desires, but rather, to address the intended audiences's wishes and expectations.

I then worked within a smaller group that focused on "hard choices made by those in poverty." And I was amazed at what we found. Perhaps my favorite part about this project was the research. I learned more about this subject than I ever would have on my own. And for that I am grateful.

This is the initial information that I researched for our group: