Personal Geography - Cognitive Map

For this map we were to show what we think about from the time we wake up in the morning until the time we get to our first class of the day. The icons showcase what I am specifically thinking about. The size of the icon bubble shows the prominence of the thought. The width of the band shows the length of time the thought takes place. The color corresponds to what category of thought I am thinking. I struggled with this map a bit because I had a hard time making it conceptually pleasing while keeping in mind the layout. I was more interested in the graphics and at times got away from the purpose of the map itself. This is completely different from my original idea for the map, however, I turned this one in for the final critique and was happy with it.

Personal Geography - Perceptual Map

For the Perceptual map portion of the personal geography project, we were to show what we encounter with our five senses on our way to class. I showed what I see, smell, touch, hear and taste from the time I wake up at 8:00 until the time I get to class at 9:00. I used the icons to represent each sense and what it corresponds to, and the lines and spacing of icons to show duration. This was my favorite of the three maps because it was the one that most clearly represents my journey from waking up to going to my first class. I also really enjoyed it because I was able to become very familiar with Adobe Illustrator from vectorizing all of the icons.

Personal Geography - Artifact Map

(Revised)

(Original)

For this series of projects we were to design maps that illustrate our journey to school, specifically to our first class. For the artifact map we were to show our route and what we would see along the way. In my case I included the buildings I walk by on my way to class. I highlighted my path, included only the necessary buildings I pass by and showed other side walks and roads that are on the way. The icons indicate what each building is. I revised this map because after looking at it later on I was unhappy with the original and because I lost the file for the original. In the revised version I made the icons more visible, enhanced the colors and made my path more evident.

Interactive Project

For this assignment we were to create an interactive project which would show the process of our symbol methodology project using motion. We had to use Adobe Flash in order to animate this process learning how to use movement, buttons and animation to add effects. Through this process I learned the basics of Adobe Flash and how to create a simple project which incorporated various techniques of the program.

Symbol Methodology

Final Board:

Process Images Vectorized:

Click: Symbol Methodology Process Sketches

For this project we were to create our own symbol under a specific category of our choice. For mine I chose Navigation and narrowed it down to celestial, travel and science as being three broad categories of navigation. The final symbol was generated through a process of drawings which were transferred to vectors in Adobe Illustrator. We created many different hybrids and iterations of our drawings and vectors to come to the final symbols. 

Duck Exercise

For this exercise we were to use Adobe Illustrator to learn how to use the pen tool. I traced an image of the duck using the pen tool in a variety of ways and added color and texture lines accordingly.