Seedling: Moar frames

http://www.winsomewords.org/

Degree Project: Is this my type?

My degree project will consist in a series of experiments and studies, with the hope to define my voice as a designer. I will mainly focus on the application of typography and illustration. This will be done through a wide exploration of materials and relationships between illustrative and typographic elements. As a part of the process I also want to explore existing trends and give them my own interpretation by utilizing the in setting where they are not expected to be used on. Part of my typographic illustration will be handlettering but not in its conventional level, but rather in exercises that combine type and illustration in order to create visual hybrids. This experiments will not be arbitrary, they will still have a structure that satisfies design as a mean to communicate the message. Thus, the exercises will have themes, challenges and objectives. Another aspect will be important spontaneity, accidentality and intuitively based process. Then the process is the fundamental base of experimentation.  As a last objective I want to make things the I can feel proud of and that give me joy, through its process and up to the end result. Success will be measured by the things that I learned by the end of the project and the quality of the work as potential portfolio pieces.

Note to self_1: comment on satisfying curiosity and personal satisfaction as a designer. Personal goals that break from the implied expectations from society and the industry (and their concept of what is satisfying and what isn't)

Seedling: App interface progress.

At this point were trying to flesh out the functions while tightening the design for the UI. Through this process we are also able to create a system for the layout and organization of the pages and the design elements within them.

Vegetable Detail Frames + Learn More

Trying to utilize relevant information for the farmer/grower  learning experience. Also trying to apply imagery to make it visually more engaging. Tell me your thoughts (ashton)

Seedling Prototyping

Right now we are trying to flesh out the functions and the tool that the app provides. Then we started approaching the aesthetics and structures and this is what we have so far.

Cultivate: Growin' Data

A vegetable plant has the same basic needs as we do: light, food, water, and warmth. The amount of each of these given to a plant will determine the success of your harvest.

How much sunlight is needed for growing vegetables?

Light is one of the most important elements in growing veggies and is probably the one that we have least control over. When growing vegetables consider the amount of light your area will be getting. Most vegetables need an average of 6 hours of sunlight. Do not be too concerned if your garden plot is in a shady area as leaf and root vegetables ( lettuce, peas, carrots,kale, swiss chard ) will tolerate some shade. Vegetables that produce fruit ( tomatoes, peppers,eggplant, squash ) are the ones that need full sun - but these can easily be grown in containers on a sunny patio. Container gardening is a wonderful way to grow your vegetables.

How does the plant get food?

The soil provides a place for plant roots to grow and to draw up nutrients. Plants need the following to grow - nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and micro nutrients. These nutrients are usually present naturally in soil however amending your soil regularly with compost and other organic matter will give you better results. Learn more about your soil here. Vegetables can be grown in poor soil but you may be discouraged by how they grow. When growing vegetables give them nutritious food and they will produce abundantly for you.

How much water does a plant need?

Vegetable plants need 1 - 2 inches of water each week especially from mid June to mid August. Too little water will not let plant roots grow deep and strong enough to gather nutrients for good growth. Too much water will saturate the soil, not allowing the plant air and space needed to grow. For best results it is important to know how much water your plants are getting. Observe your vegetables, get to know your soil conditions, keep an eye on the weather and learn which plants need more water than others. Is this sounding too complicated? Here is an easy way to measure how much water your garden is getting.

Watering Measuring Tip Place a small can in 4 different areas of your garden, turn on the overhead sprinkler for 1 hour and then measure the amount of water in your cans.



How often do you water?

Irrigate your vegetable garden twice a week, giving 1/2 the water requirement with each watering. It will depend on your climate but all of us will need to water our gardens at some point in the season. Container gardening has different rules for watering.

What is the best way to water?

Some plants ( lettuce, spinach, salad greens, swiss chard ) like to be sprayed to stay cool. Other plants are adversely affected by overhead watering ( tomatoes, squash, carrots ) because the water can cause fungus and disease on the leaves. Still other plants have such large leaves that overhead watering does not allow enough water to get to the roots broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower).

Overhead sprinkling is probably still the most popular way of watering however drip, trickle or seeping hoses are becoming more common place now as well. I recommend using both as each are best for certain plants. If you have a small garden and hand water, it is easy to do both; spray the leafy vegetables and water around the base of the root vegetables.

When is the best time to water?

Before 11am or after 4pm. Let plants dry off before dark so they are less likely to get fungus or disease.

When growing vegetables why do they need warmth? The air and soil temperature is most important for seed germination. Some seeds do best in cool soil ( lettuce, peas, radishes ) others need warm soil (tomatoes, squash, corn) to grow. All plants need some warmth to grow, some more than others. We do have some control over this basic need as we can supply plants with extra heat using heating pads, cold frames, plastic or cloth covers.

Here is a list for vegetables to grow with their characteristics, needs and practices.

List of Vegetables

More Resources:

THIS! http://www.urbangardensweb.com/

http://www.urbanfarm.org/
http://metrofarm.com/urban-farming/

http://www.urbanfarming.org/videos.html?ma_id=4

VA: Cultivating progress

Moodboards and rapid wireframing

These are closely connected since they can all be applied as parts of the project. We are going to begin with the packaging aspect and see how far we can go.

Initial Logo ideations

We picked some names and started to play with some logo ideations

Landing on a more solid choice:

These are the ones that we are going to ask our audience for feedback. 

Cultivate KC?~Rapid Prototyping

The first prototype idea: is to create a marketable brand system. The system will consist of material for handling the food that the local farmers and growers can utilize to identify their products and to create presence for what they do in a broader community range. Some of this branded items could be small vegetable containers that can be reutilized to grow plants this way perpetuating the idea of urban growing and sustainable practices. 

The second prototype idea: Is to create an app that would allow the farmers and members of community gardens to keep a better track of their crops in useful ways. This will make their process more practical, efficient and easy to do. By making things easier they are also encouraged and enabled to integrate their product and culture into their community. This way making the idea of local farmers and urban growers more appealing for other people to adopt and include themselves into this practice. The App offers multiple options such as data sharing and input to keep track of the crops. As well as options to share the food in various ways such as gifts, selling and cooking them for activities in their communities. (aside from the general social media sharing.)

The third idea: A website which provides similar tools from the app. The website design takes it a step further in functionality and interactivity. By implementing the usage of a map the users can have an immediate idea of the locations where other people that they can interact with are located. In regard of interactivity, in the events page the circles will have varying sizes, these sizes have a relationship with the time of the event and a the visual metaphor of "growing" vegetables. The bigger the circles, the sooner time/date of the event. These interactive elements are meant to offer relevant information in a more immediate fashion, this way the user can have a clearer understanding of each element in each page.

Cultivate KC: Progress + Reading responses

THE BIG PICTURE:

The big pictures so far, is to create a system of tools that would enable the growers and farms to keep better track of the crops and cultivations within their communities. This way increasing the success rate of such projects, which will be more efficient and attractive for other neighborhoods to take in account these kinds of projects. 

So far one of this ideas is something in print which the farmers/growers can scan with their phones and give them easy access to information regarding the cultivation process. 

Our next step for research is to figure out the technical aspect and logistic of our ideas and plans.

The audience feedback will come after we define our idea with more clarity. Said feedback will come, first - from the growers and farmers to gather knowledge about what kind of data or process they would need more efficacy in. Second - The neighborhood members, ask the what motivates them to go outside and socialise with their community, what kinds of activities, places, etc.

Research on QR codes:
http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/29449/How-to-Create-a-QR-Code-in-4-Quick-Steps.aspx

https://econsultancy.com/blog/64891-six-mobile-marketing-alternatives-to-qr-codes/

RESPONSES:

Re: He might be giant...

"I'm a dork. I'm aloser. I'm not cool at all. Everybody just projects their idea of what's cool on me. I'm boring. I never go out. I don't know what'ship in music right now or anything."

I feel like I identify with him in many ways and that I have come with his way of thinking in several instances in life. In fact, one of the reasons why I hate packaging design is because it is a factor in the idea of mass consumption, in which quantity that only makes the people's bodies and minds unhealthy, is more important that quality. Than trying to improve people's life in some way. Also the case in which I feel so uncomfortable in relationship with trends, they can be beautiful and all but when used in an arbitrary fashion just to appeal to the public's sense of POP and aesthetic desire then it becomes easily worthless, empty and selfish for the sake of the designer's craving for attention.

finally this: "saying he doesn't care whether people love him or hate him, as long as they respond to what he's doing." I need to learn some of this, so I can me more of myself, and who I want to be.

Re: Kale Lasn

The issues that are typically solved with a common an easy solution can be more expensive than its benefits. Taking in consideration the human factor and not just the economical one. Then if we consider this we can come up with solutions that improve the first one, or maybe that are completely different. 

'I think we designers have to pay more attention to that second kind of product—the one that, for years, maybe decades, maybe centuries will delight, ease, charm." Again quantity vs quality becomes an issue, people care too much about money, keeping up with the appearances, titles and materialism, and too little about the people they are selling things to. IE beat headphones have a material cost of $45 USD and are sold for hundreds of dollars, and this is because they only care about money, and the consumer about appearances, which is an incredible stupid and careless behavior that isn't healthy for the consumers.

"As the planet degrades, I think a slower, greener, less-cluttered, and less-commercial aesthetic

will emerge." At the time being, I have noticed several companies and designers have started being more caring about their peers and try to improve their lives, but I think it is unnecessary to reach a extreme situation in which people's desperation, pain and suffering are the reason for this change to come.

"Bio-mimicry is mimicking nature. I think it's one of the key aspects of future product design.

It's already popular in architecture and some other professions. In design, bio-mimicry would involve

looking at how nature does the same job as the product you are designing." Human-like qualities guiding design not only informs the designer about the intentions of the design but allows them/us to get more involved in what we do and to empathize with an audience and then they can also connect with us, as individuals as human beings. A commonality that can lead to a brighter future on a global scale.

"We can carve out a soul for it beyond its current commercial masturbation." Again contemporary overused trends are sucking our souls, products of commerciality and the material. Indiferent of the human beings, some designers use it as easy solutions for their design problems and care little about devising new ways to approach people instead of businesses. 

Visual Advocacy: Cultivate KC

Research:

After meeting with Claire we found that they have many needs and their organization is at an expansion point. This makes it harder to address what of their needs in particular we want to address.
Yet there is a lot of possibility to contribute something to what they do, but then again "only promise what you can give."

Statement/question:

What is the most important/practical/effective thing that we can do to help them. Which ones of their needs and objectives do we want to solve.

Audience:

The audience is very varied, since it isn't necessarily an specific demographic or community to target. Rather there is a wide variety of individuals with different traits and interests yet the common multiplier is CUltivate KC. There is more research to be done how how to bridge and bond these individuals.

Behavior to change:

We want to encourage individuals to join the cause and to commit to a purpose of growing and consuming local food.

The measure:

Leaving a visible change/difference, maybe???

More questions-----------
We are trying to help cultivate KC, local farmers, food growers and food providers.
We try to reach members in the communities near vacant lots to commit and contribute to the cause.
The stakeholders are the members of the organization, members of the communities who are involved, food service providers that utilize these kinds of foods, government entities associated with the cause (land bank, etc)
The benefited ones will be the communities that have access to a more healthier food source as well as the development of their communities infrastructure.
The ones being affected negatively may be some business whose profit may be lowered due to the lack of demand of their products.
Their needs are wide and varied. Since they are expanding at the moment and they have so many issues or areas to tackler its hard to address which connection to the vacant lands we want to address during the time being.

More In progress..... soon

Visual Advocacy: Repurpose

Project: Repurposing vacant land

Members: Ashton Schechter and Derick Lopez

OBJECTIVES:

Repurpose Vacant Land

Support local farmers

Create Potential places of recreation

Community Revitalization

Stimulates the Economy

Teaches people the value of the land

This system can be profitable to the city and corporations

Resources for Research:

Land banking

Revitalization Act

Design Problems:

Visual presence, either online or printed is very weak.

They aren't expanding their audience.

Make information more accessible.

Community involvement its weak.

Difficult to volunteer.

Budget as a possible issue.

The community is those who live nearby the vacant land and lots.

Ideas:

Local Agriculture leads to community unification.

Persuading people to start growing their own foods.

Support local businesses

Urban Revitalization

KC Growers and what others are doing

Ashton and I are doing Cultivate KC. An organization dedicated to help and promote local food growers and to develop this culture.

For preliminary research I wanted us to look at what others are doing in regard of this subject.

Their websites all possess some general accessibility and informational features. Yet they all lack a way to connect the users and to get them engaged with the growers and with each other. I think that if somehow we can create a system that encourages them to be involved then it would be much easier for their culture to grow and develop.

They also lack some greater engagement with the general context of the city. If only there was a way we could help the organization have a greater interaction with other businesses...

http://kcfoodcircle.org/
http://www.growinggrowers.org/
http://freshconnect.com/farmers/
http://brooksidefarmersmarket.com/

Re: we are supermang & ideas

RE: WE ARE SUPERMAN

I feel like the subject issue is recurrent and difficult to solve. Yes I get it, that people can be greater than they are when they care about others and try to help them. And there other issues that contribute into this one and make it even worst. I have the idea that a greater system needs to be created to cure the issue in the area. A system which organizations and groups help each other a greater allegiance work together, instead of a bunch of people scattered frighting for different things, they should sit down and talk about priorities, get them sorted out and start solving some issues. I believe that this process could consequently lead to solving some specific issues i.e. if children have a good education they will be more likely to care about animals and protect them. 

I also think there are a lot of people being selfish and investing their time on things that matter little, and I wish I could think of a better solution. Or maybe I cannot think of a better solution because I care little about this, and maybe this fact is another issue that needs to be addressed by communities and organizations. 

_________

IDEA 1: 

KC Catalytic Urban Redevelopment Initiative 

http://www.lisc.org/kansas_city/our_programs/kc_catalytic_urban_redevelopment_initiative/index.php

SITUATION — an attempt to reinvest in the development of Kansas City's east side.

MY CONTRIBUTION – I want to create a an appealing and enjoyable branding that would invite individuals to connect and to get involved with this cause.

WHY – I've always thought it is a shame to abandon infrastructure. To abandon a place that bears history and a great potential for the development of the city as a whole.

IDEA 2:

WEST SIDE HOUSING ORGANIZATION

http://www.westsidehousing.org/

SITUATION – they are trying to rebuild and improve the housing condition in the west side neighborhoods.

MY CONTRIBUTION – create a system that educates and informs its inhabitants to encourage them to stand for the cause in contribute in anyway they can. 

WHY – because they are not only thinking about the people that live in the zone but also its businesses. The fact that that they are trying to assimilate commercial factors alongside human needs seem to me a plan worth fighting for.

WHAT CAN HELP? – I think bringing the community together would be the right start, getting them to know each other so they feel comfortable with taking risks and investing efforts in this cause.

IDEA 3: 

SERENDIPITY COMMUNITY SERVICES

http://www.yellowpages.com/kansas-city-mo/mip/serendipity-community-services-451004970?lid=451004970

SITUATION – they try to financially assist individuals to become self-sufficient and strive for a bright future for them and their families.

MY CONTRIBUTION – at the moment they lack any marketing presences. They have no website, or any online presence whatsoever. I want to create material and tools that would allow them to have more visibility in their community and in the city in general.

WHY – I believe that they are approaching the issue in a smart, humble and yet efficient way. It seems like a caring cause with great potential to branch out and spill over other communities.

IDEA 4:

CULTIVATE KC

http://www.cultivatekc.org/about/history.html

SITUATION – they promote homegrown food, to improve the health and nutrition of the citizens. They also assist and educate urban farmers. This with the purpose to create a healthier food system. 

MY CONTRIBUTION – I want to see if i can somehow help the organization connect with food providers in the city to create a greater awareness about nutrition and food preparation awareness.  I think this would contribute to the general health practices of the citizens.

WHY – I believe that this can contribute somehow to improve the citizen eating habits. And citizens with healthy eating habits can make a difference in the way the medical system is structured alongside economic agendas.

Reading Responses

RE: DESIGN THINKING IS A USEFUL MYTH by Donald Norman

"Design Thinking" is a therm that conveys the many reasons why graphic designers matter, why we are relevant as thinkers and not just as artists.
As outsiders (most of the time) problem solvers are able to see things differently from the people that are constantly in touch with the problem at hand. Therefore they are able to break the rules and find new paths that allow for sensible and effective creative solutions.
Graphic designers are problem solvers and we not just artmakers–we are creators, inventors, we care and we strive to do things differently. And all this qualities bring business the ability to stand out, that is why they need us.

–––––––

RE: WHAT DOES DESIGN FOR GOOD MEAN by Daniel Francavilla

The main thing I noticed here is the how people understand the meaning of "Good." And I agree to a certain degree the way the word is being used as a code. My only issue with this is that it is also being used as a trend, and we know trends go away, people get bored of it. Things having a greater purpose shouldn't be something that we see on the tv or on t-shirts. It should be a set of practices, taught by example and not by words. Good being used indiscriminately is a concern to me, I fear it may backfire. I wish I could elaborate on this without having to involve a major theorycraft about philosophy and sociology. But I also wish that we as designers could find a different way to contribute aside from the mere action of creating artifacts that assist social change campaigns.

_______