initial idea

Myself and Andy Ashwin have decided that for the next meeting, we are going to produce mock ups of leaflet or hand out ideas to show them to get the ball rolling for format of design. We havent actually had the final list of elements from Bath university yet so we havent created any final symbols, but to convey my message I have been designing my own set of symbols. They are by no means refined yet, but I feel that they communicate the message effectively.

I have been thinking about the initial presentation that we had and have come up with a list of the most rememberable facts of the day. I need to clarify the facts with the Bath Uni client. I have tried to write them in as few words as possible in the aim to make short, punchy, powerful facts that people remember and want to find out more after reading. They are:

• Helium should cost two hundred pounds per balloon
• Smartphones contain, on average, fourty extremely rare elements
• Without chemicals there would be nothing. Literally. 
• In 20 years there will be no oil 
• Enough light falls on the Earth in one hour to provide energy for an entire year
• Cars produce ten kilograms of carbon dioxide per gallon of fuel
• The energy used to make one thousand plastic cups is required to make one ceramic mug

There are seven facts here. For the final handout idea, I think it would be good to have ten facts. But for now, I am going to experiment with format for these facts and also come up with some initial symbol designs to illustrate them. 

The above symbol shows stacks of cups. However, I have realised that this symbol will not work when it comes to being a stencil. The middle triangle shapes showing individual coffee cups will fall of of the stencil when it is cut. 

This symbol needs to be refined if it is to be used as one of the final symbols, but to illustrate my concept for a small handout in our meeting it is ok. 

Balloons are particularly difficult to create in illustrator, it is really hard to get a smooth curve. I have created this by making it in two halves. Once the left half was made, I duplicated it and reflected it vertically. Then, a symetrical balloon shape is created. 

I really dont like this world symbol that I have created. It is definitely a symbol that needs refining. I need to come up with another way of illustrating the message that everything is made up of chemicals. For now though, it is fine for illustrating my concept. 

I am really pleased with the outcome of this car. I think it looks great. However, it may need simplification when we come to design final symbol ideas as it does use quite a few elements. 

I really like the design of this book, and so did Bath uni. They loved the idea of having actual stencils in the handout. I used very simple layout to convey the messages. Where possible, I tried to have only one word per line. Also, I numbered all of the points with hashes. After every symbol page is a blank white page so that the symbol is white when the book is opened and viewed. beneath the symbol on this lower page I will place a small amount of further information about the fact. 

Though, I do have a problem with this booklet. I imagine that the cost to print it is going to be extremely high. It depends how large their print budget is. I will get it costed. I also shown them an idea where the symbols were not cut out. It is not as dynamic but still gets the message across in a bold, powerful way.