Sequence
DM3430A fall 2014 · GW Corcoran School of the Arts and Design
Instructor: David Ramos (davidramos@gwu.edu)
Type, for a mobile publication, exists on a screen of fixed size. Device screens are backlit and covered in glass. People read these pages in sequence, following the designer’s order or choosing their own paths. What should type be, for this kind of environment? What kind of experience should a user have?
Take an article from the Opinion section of the New York Times. (You should probably find a short article.) Read it and ponder it, then set it in type twice: make one version that presents the text for maximum usability, legibility, and readability; and another version that presents the text for maximum emotional effect.
Space your type out over a sequence of pages. Remember that you have control not only the two dimensions of the page, but also over time. Pages in an interactive magazine comes for free. You can space one sentence out over twelve pages, if you wish. You could leave a single word in the same place over the entire article, bringing in a changing series of paragraphs below it. Should text fade in slowly, page to page?
This project examines sequence, type, and how design elements fit into a mobile device’s screen.
You may add images of your own creation or from outside sources, turning this into a question of art direction. Images must strengthen the story or add complexity to the narrative. If you add images, consider their scale: they can be as small as a word, or they can take over the page. How do the images relate to the text? How do the images progress as you move through the article.
The publications do not need to incorporate conventional navigation elements like menus and home buttons; swiping left/right or up/down will suffice.
Deliver these two documents as a pair of DPS publications or PDFs for reading on a tablet. You may choose a horizontal or vertical layout, but be prepared to explain why. In order to simplify the design problem and to add some formal resistance, the documents must be black and white.
Deliverables
Two PDFs or DPS folios, sized at 1024×768px (landscape) or 768×1024px (portrait). Black and white, including grayscale.
Share DPS projects with dmd-2014@imaginaryterrain.com.
Evaluation criteria
30% Readability and execution of legible version
30% Concept and execution of expressive version
40% Use of sequence