spatial: the final hot dog monument [collaboration with m. van jumper].

here it is, friends. the humble wiener. one might think that such a quintessentially american culinary treat would find its roots in the united states, but nay! history dictates that the wiener was first created in vienna, austria, and was therefore named for its place of birth.

eternally versatile and ever so convenient, hot dogs have found a special place in the hearts and arteries of man. over the course of 900 years, many different variations on the hot dog have come to fruition, from plain and simple to extravagantly gourmet. 

[van + carr] poetic final. by abby carr

spatial: process continues on the hot dog monument.

we've been getting down on some PRODUCTION. 

jumper in all of his small-and-steady-handed glory fashioned these tiny international variations on the hot dog out of clay last night—15 in all. there's a penny in the images for scale; check out how small they are!

we've decided that the overall form of our monument will be a giant sundial, with 15 different hot dogs representing 15 different cultural variations spread out across 15 different hour markers around the circumference (phew). after some quick mocking up at 1/2 inch scale, we figured out our measurements  and how much space we'll have to work with as far as graphics to accompany our hot dogs. one moment we're particularly excited about is the challenge of designing both sides of the triangular concrete sundial—one side will feature a timeline of hot dog history ("the rise of the hot dog," if you will) and the other will go into detail about the culture and convenience of the hot dog.

more to come soon!

degree project: the final push.

here we go, folks. the last week.

a really cool thing happened on saturday as i was working on wrapping this project up. i was listening to music on shuffle from iTunes, and this song came on that was PERFECT for the tone of my pitch video for this project. all of a sudden, my pitch video started to build itself out in my brain. so i roughly storyboarded out the beginning my video before i forgot everything:

{here's a link to the song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqJlJoih7d8}

[storyboard of beginning of pitch video]

that moment really propelled me through working on this project over the weekend, even though i couldn't get to my grandparents' apartment because neither of them were feeling well and weren't up for visitors. i'll be finishing up the animation of the screen-based content this week and then splicing in the real-time content over the weekend after i visit my grandparents and record them "interacting" with the screen and the kinect.

lastly, here's a motion test for how the content moves on the screen.



excitement! ready to make a big push this week and have a solid project for monday.

degree project: week 11.

pluggin' along.

made some not-too-major-but-still-significant design changes this week, and i'm feeling a lot better about it than my last direction. i know the time gap is closing rather quickly, and diverting the rest of the work i need to do to complete this project (i.e., pitch video & process document) probably wasn't the greatest use of time, but i certainly don't feel like it was a waste. the new interface design feels so much more like the tiny details are considered, which is something i want people to see in my work.

so, here are two completed scenarios:

scenario 1: checking availability & video chatting.

scenario 2: viewing messages & replying.

testing in my grandparents' apartment should happen this weekend, if everything goes as planned. 

wish me luck.

degree project: week 10.

illustrator crashes are the. worst. thing. ever.

after losing 6 hours of work (during which i'm sure i MUST have hit save at least a few times), i'm finding myself unable to meet my goal of having all my visuals designe by the end of class today. the only bright side (if you can call it that) is that i remember pretty well what everything looked like before i lost it all, so re-creating everything won't take nearly as long the second time.

here's what i've been able to pull together today:

 scenario 1: checking availability & video chatting.

rollovers:

 

...but then i started designing everything again, and it's starting to look more like this:

...and i like this direction a lot better. it feels more fluid and approachable, and using the postcard frames brings a little bit of personality and nostalgia to the content. i also think the dimensionality helps divide the content and creates a focal point so nothing gets too overwhelming.

so, looks like i've still got a lot of work to do, but i can handle it. i just want to do whatever i can to have a great project/product at the end. 

spatial: mo' progress.

all things playful: progress. by abby carr & jessi wilson

degree project: week 9.

big leaps in visual execution this week & over spring break!

after really hitting the wall a few weeks ago, i started to explore some branding and naming ideas, which gave me a renewed sense of energy that's gotten me back on track. in my last post, i showed some images of the paper airplane i'll be using as my brandmark. here's my final iteration with my chosen colors:

(it's not a whole lot different—i just rounded the corners and shortened the
whole shape so that it wasn't so pointy and violent-looking.)

as far as naming goes, i'm still playing around with some options. i originally started with "full circle," alluding to the idea of the family circle being made whole again by more frequent communication. however, i've been exploring a few more ideas:

familoop

airmail

airlink

airpost

airloop

postloop

these naming explorations came primarily from the visual direction i'm starting to develop, which focuses heavily on the idea of postcards and stamps. here's a little taste of what's cooking:

(a glimpse into the naming process.)

(some pattern exploration.)

(possible "availability" visualization.)

(visualizations of posts from facebook)

(beginnings of home screen visualizations.)

i feel pretty good about how this is going, but i'll still need to make a big push to meet my goal of getting all the visuals worked out by april 3 (a week from today). so, here goes.