Working on my grid again

Changed the headline and subheadline font. I had to use a very big point size for Chinat (which just so happened to be the Terminator font...), and I was told to try it in one line since it's so skinny. Looks pretty bad. So I switched to Gallega. I like this better. And I made my subheadline Din. Not sure if I'm satisfied with it, though. I'm gonna see what else I can use for my subheadline as well as find other options for my headline incase there are better options, even though I like it. I'm sticking to Aksidenz and Din for bodycopy and caption.

More logos/NYT Headlines

So I was told that I should visualize "internet connection" as wireless since that's how our internet connections are. How do we connect wirelessly? It seems that we connect through radio technology. So I used a radio tower for the letter A, one making the picture of a radio tower very literal and replacing the A, and the other with using the letter A with just the antenna and the radio waves. I also decided to be less literal by using a pattern when I was researching images on wireless connection, which is sort of a wireless network type imagery. Before this, I used Access Denied, which is taking a side. This isn't about taking sides, it's about stating the facts. I added the subtitle so the viewer will know it's about internet censorship and not just some "internet access" logo that can be placed anywhere.

Still thinking of more ways as well as a color pallet that would work. Not sure about my current one. But the ideas of wireless internet is making me think more visually in terms of the aesthetic of this project. For example, instead of using the countries in my info graphic, I can use something like the third example, placing the countries and the stats in those circles.

Headlines from the New York Times I'm working with sofar:

1. Summoning the Songs of Voices Stilled

2. Deception's Theme and Variation

3. Good Neighbors Without a Fence

4. In Hard Times, Put On A Smiley Face?

5. In A Globalized World, Winners and Losers

6. A Brooklyn Librarian is Fined For Promoting His Daughter's Book

7. Dynamic Young Engines Driving China's Epic Boom

8. Yahoo to Cut About 10% of Their Workers

I know some seem inaccurate, but I'm going to see if I can work with them. Plus I need look for two more. Sofar I'm thinking posters, bookcovers, and some packaging. Maybe I'll think of more when I think up of other ideas for my ten NYT pieces.

Updated color pallet

So I changed my color pallet again. I liked the orange for this project, since it can give it a corporate feel and that my thesis is a pretty serious topic. I picked green because I felt that it was the most complimenting. I decided to use two shades so maybe I can do more with my info graphics, like what I did with the map. Grey is a maybe. It was black, but I'm not sure. And I like some of my stuff on white.

Now that I think of it, I should've made the bars on my bar graph orange. Maybe it'll be too much, though. We'll see.

Still exploring on my pallet, it's not etched in stone.

Info Graphic

On the left you see selected countries with literacy rates displayed. On the right, I compared the literacy rates with their censorship status (none, suspected, selective, substantial, and pervasive). The question I ask here is "does internet censorship affect literacy? Do we need unlimited media from the internet to learn more, or does the internet ruin our education and we need these restrictions to avoid wasting our time on bad media and use them for something healthier like reading and learning something?

I made this into a spread because I thought it's a good way to put these two factors into comparison.

Info taken from OpenNet.net

Typography

Since I'm planning on making my process book 18x24 (sofar, unless it doesn't work out but I HOPE it does since process is the big chunk of design), I used alot of columns. I might work some call-outs in there to break the text. Not sure yet. The bottom of the page has the fonts I used and what pointsize they are. I might utilize that area for footnotes as well since I like how it looks on the bottom with the line above it.

Aksidenz Grotesk (body copy) - 9pt

Chinat (Headline) - 147pt

Armada Light (Sub-headline) - 50pt

Din (Captions) - 5pt

Might edit a bit more if I feel that something's missing.

These might help

Took a break from editing and found these images. Maybe these can be helpful to the design style of this thesis project.

Grid and Info Graphics (inspirations)

Planning on working on my grid and info graphics. Been looking at some inspirations during the week while working on my graphics. Also been trying to work on logos since the last set of logos I worked on worked for only one side of the story.

The hardest part of my thesis is making visuals. Was suggested to make my own language, though.

But first, working with my grid and info graphics.

More process again

So new plans are my process book is going to be big. I made my type layout sample poster-size instead of just a plain 8.5x11 due to being absent and being used to making things in poster size. At this point, I honestly think it's a great idea. Any poster I do, I can just use the same size and not have to shrink down and lose any detail. And the typography will look good too. My only concern is cost and if I can do what I wish at the school's printing room, which include double-sided printing, color, etc.

It'll also be good conceptually because process is the biggest chunk of any project, so size is great.

I'll also be doing some info graphics since I found a good site on statistics. I thought I would base them on surveys and people's results on use of the internet, but unfortunately that didn't work. Anyone who did the surveys, their answers were pretty much the same. So that attempt is probably trashed. But after finding that site with the statistics with help from an SVA librarian, I felt that was a good substitute.

I still can use more sources, though. Some things are still missing. I'll get there, though. Still got a bit more than half a semester.

Logo needs to be worked on. Needs more of a universal feeling. My current samples (which I didn't get to post this week, I'll post them for process purposes) have the feel of the fact that I'm for censorship, and that's not what I want. I'll get there when I get more info.

Other things to also work on: color pallet, grid, solid book layout, icons...

Fun stuff.

Just a tidbit of info

In most cases, most of the countries with censored internet seem to have higher literacy rates, life expectancy, human development, etc.

Info taken from opennet.net.

More notes and working on a shield

So I used the Ask A Librarian feature on SVA's library services. The librarian who emailed me back gave me the links I previously posted, plus a few more, but they're mainly about the controversy with China, which is not what I wanna only focus on (unfortunately that's what most sources on internet censorship is on nowadays, that's what's giving me a hard time). He also emailed me a few articles from the online databases (unfortunately not much have been written to what I'm looking for). A few are useful. Here's one that struck me.

Study tallies sites blocked by Google; Nazi pages banned in France,Germany.(study of 'silent blocking' written by Ben Edelman and Jonathan

Zittrain).John Schwartz. The New York Times 152.(Oct 25, 2002): pC8(N)

pC8(L). (383 words) 

Full Text:COPYRIGHT 2002 The New York Times Company

More than 100 sites in the French and German versions of Google have been banned, mainly because these sites are white supremacists and nazi websites, one of them which are named Jew Watch. They say they aren't pretty websites. The consequences: Some of these sites now have their content changed and yet are still blocked. So basically, a site that was devoted to naziism and now the content can be the exact opposite, Germans can't access it just because it is still known to be a nazi site, which is out-of-date.

So I am currently working on my shield for the project. I'm trying to parodize this:

I'm glad I found this shield because I have something to look on while doing this shield, which I currently am. I kinda find this a bit too plain, though. How to make it a more effective shield yet be able to parodize this.

More to come.

Statistics

Haven't updated with things I found, but...

http://opennet.net/research/profiles

My statistics source. A great help sofar. Been having problems with trying to find such sources, but this has alot of details on things like social, political, security, internet tools, etc., as well as things like literacy rate, life expectancy, internet usage, etc. This will probably be a great help for me since my thesis is so complex and deals with statistics mainly.

http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/display.article?id=9302

This site surveyed 41 countries and 25 of them resulted as filtered. Mainly these countries are in Asia, the middle east, and North Africa. Mainly often about politics, sexuality, culture, or religion that the government deem too sensitive. Some countries not only block certain websites, but certain applications, like Google Earth.

My approach right now is to find more statistics as well as find out why certain countries censor websites like youtube, google, etc., and applications like google earth. Been trying to find sources on the consequences of censorship, which is quite difficult to find a good source since alot of the sources I've been finding were a bit too vague. So still on the search for that.

More to come.

Rough search and surveys

Been trying to find info on reasons and consequences of world internet censorship. Usually I find either vague sources or sources that say what's going on but not explaining why it's being done. Still looking.

In the meantime, I made a survey:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=DHpORHbk8aSfCzZWhT5BwA_3d_3d

And a facebook group:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=26468644968&ref=mf

Feel free to join and take the survey as well as inviting others. In need of results!

Future plans: Ask any of my foreign classmates for their input and keep looking until I find good sources and statistics. Any suggestions of sources if you know of any are more than welcomed.

Now to do some icons.