NDT Graphic + Visual Design

Timeframe

November - December, 2020

Team

Tahmid and myself

Project Type

+ Graphic design
+ Visual Design
+ Interaction Design

This NDT Graphic and Visual Design project uses a lateral design process to explore different branding opportunities for the Nederlands Dans Theater. By driving the project with design pricniples rather than designing with style, a successful brand approach is explored across three mediums (poster, bag and microsite).

My role

My main role for this project was project manager. I was also involved in a large portion of the design and copywriting, and I created most of our final mockups and gif prototypes.

Project goals

To explore and challenge our current understanding of graphic and visual design, and to improve software and design skills.

What does success look like?

  1. To explore art direction and drive a project with key design principles.
  2. To improve and continue to develop a lateral design process.
  3. To create an overall brand for the Nederlands Dans Theater that has unified graphic and visual assets.
  4. To practice creating weekly presentations and critiquing ideas to the class.

Exploration

Initial approach

For the initial approach, we were influenced by graphic designer P. Scott Makela. After analyzing his works, we decided on three main design principles that we might be able to drive our project with. These three principles were: fuzzy texture, layering and bold typography. To develop our skills in our ideation and lateral process, each team member diverged to develop their skills in these areas using Photoshop.

After diverging to explore ideas as part of the lateral design process, we brought together our ideas as a team to be used for the branding of the rest of the project.

Two design studies I created in Photoshop as part of my individual lateral design process
Mood board that I created

Graphic assets

Based off of our graphic experimentation and our moodboard, we developed three graphic assets. Of these assets, I was responsible for the design and mockups of the poster and the ticket.

Experimental graphic assets

Pivoting

Re-evaluation

After closely evaluating our graphic assets, we felt that our graphic assets were not strongly unified. We did not feel like we had enough traction to carry our design direction over to the visual assets portion of the project, and as such, decided to change our approach moving forward. To begin the second approach, we returned to the other various works created throughout our lateral process. Below you can see some of other works from our experimental diverge phase.

Some other works from the experimental diverge phase

Revised design principles

From our lateral process, we selected one poster as our inspiration for our revised principles. I created a mood board featuring works from various designers that fit within three revised design principles, which were:

Poster of inspiration (left), and moodboard (right)

Final graphic assets

These final graphic assets are more unified than the previous, more experimental approach. The revised design principles allowed the team to accomplish our main goal of creating an overall brand for NDT with unified graphic assets.

Final poster and bag design

Visual design

Microsite

After, we moved on from graphic assets to the design of a microsite. This microsite is a scrolling site that includes four main sections (program, artists, moments, tickets) with a sticky navbar for navigation. It also includes a sliding modal contact us page.

Main interactions

Number hover effect
The clickable titles and numbers move on hover and are indicated with the color pink as a symbol of interactivity.

Progress bar
The progress bar denotes system status and visibility for the user. It lets the user know how far along they are in the website.

Sliding Modal
The placement of the arrow from the ‘Contact us’ button and the “Back’ button is kept in the same placement to maintain consistency.

Hover interaction and progress bar (left), sliding modal (right)

Wireframes

After, we moved on from graphic assets to the design of a microsite. This microsite is a scrolling site that includes four main sections (program, artists, moments, tickets) with a sticky navbar for navigation. It also includes a sliding modal contact us page.

Initial wireframes

Final layout

After, we moved on from graphic assets to the design of a microsite. This microsite is a scrolling site that includes four main sections (program, artists, moments, tickets) with a sticky navbar for navigation. It also includes a sliding modal contact us page.

Final microsite design

Conclusion

This project expanded my design tool-belt by increasing my understanding of the lateral design process and interaction design skills. Through multiple iterations I learned to explore branding concepts via design principles, as well as pivot to ensure project ends with a successful brand direction.

Thanks for reading!

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Copyright 2022 Michelle Illing.  Made with music_note in Vancouver, British Columbia.