Personal research, critical reflection and documentation of studio project work:

For the last couple of weeks I have been focusing on creating multiple prototypes of my Poster design. after deciding on a final layout for my poster, I decided to create mutltiple copies of the dartboards to allow me to change data layout, composition, colour and overall how my poster would look.

Sketches of possible layout:

When trying to create various drafts of possible layouts for my infographic poster I wanted to create a style that followed a guided structure .After deciding out what sort of layout I wanted to proceed with I had began with my title and basic headings that I knew that help me create a basic foundation for my poster.

Designer inspiration: Josef Müller Brockmann and the grid system

Josef Müller-Brockmann work is best known for its simple designs and clean use of typography. The shapes and colours he incorporated in his work still inspire the graphic designers of current generation. Brockmann describes the the grid system as being a rigid framework that is supposed to help graphic designers in the meaningful, logical and consistent organisation of information on a page. It is an established tool that is used by print and web designers to create well-structured, balanced designs. The grid system helps align page elements based on sequenced columns and rows. We use this column-based structure to place text, images, and functions in a consistent way throughout the design. … The grid system was first used to arrange handwriting on paper and then in publishing to organize the layout of printed pages.

First digital layout design draft:

After deciding the data sets and illustrations I wanted to include in my poster I started to play around with colour. I had various colour palettes that I tried with the poster.

Colour experimentation:

After much experimentation I decided to go with a very limited colour palette. the palette I went with is below.

After my final colour palette was decided I just kept changing small layout changes to my poster allowing me to show my progress over time and have multiple options with the one in which I think is the best to display the data in a visual way to affectively communicate my message.

Experimentation:

At the moment I have narrowed it down to one poster that I like the most, as I find the layout, colour and text all compliment each other very well allowing the viewers to easily read the poster.

chosen poster design:

After I had chosen my final poster design I made any final fixes that I could see on the screen. after this step i moved onto printing which would allow me to see the poster in a more physical way allowing me to find any further changes that needed to be made.

When making changes in my final poster design, I changed the layout slightly by fixing the hierarchy by placing the most information at the top followed with the less important towards the bottom. The final infographic poster design also depicts the more important data from the original poster, but in a way that creates more of a story. Furthermore, I then concentrated on making sure that my choice of fonts were consistent, everything was scaled proportionally, and the colour scheme complimented each other well.

Printing:

When it came to printing i did have some trouble printing the poster out. Even though I had the right colour setting on, the borders kept printing out all proportionally wrong even though the digital file was correct. I attempted to fix the problem by adjusting the digital copy which seemed to fix the problem. Overall I am very happy with the way my final poster came out.

References:

Soegaard, M. (2019). The Grid System: Building a Solid Design Layout. [online] The Interaction Design Foundation. Available at: https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/the-grid-system-building-a-solid-design-layout [Accessed 30 Oct. 2019].

Cancer Institute NSW. (n.d.). All cancers data NSW. [online] Available at: https://www.cancer.nsw.gov.au/cancer-data-pages [Accessed 30 Oct. 2019].

Australia, C. (n.d.). [online] Cancer.org.au. Available at: https://www.cancer.org.au [Accessed 30 Oct. 2019].

Aph.gov.au. (n.d.). Chapter 2 – Parliament of Australia. [online] Available at: https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Funding_for_Research_into_Cancers/FundingResearchCancers/Report/c02[Accessed 30 Oct. 2019].

Canceraustralia.gov.au. (n.d.). Cancer in Australia statistics | Cancer Australia. [online] Available at: https://canceraustralia.gov.au/affected-cancer/what-cancer/cancer-australia-statistics [Accessed 30 Oct. 2019].