19/02/2025- 05/03/2025 (Week 3-Week 5)
Lizzie Tanaka (0362065)
Information Design | BDCM | Taylor's University
Project 1: Animated Infographic
LECTURE
Week 4
Week 5
INSTRUCTIONS
For project 1, we are tasked to redesign a poorly designed infographic that
has been approved by Mr. Shamsul. The redesigned infographic should also be
minimally animated after.
On week 3, I determined the poster I wanted to redesign in which Mr. Shamsul
approved. I noticed some issues in this infographic that I felt was a poor
design decision and wanted to improve on:
- The body text font is not readable because of its thicker nature, seems like it is more suitable for display purposes. The original designer also added shadows and outline which increased its illegibility.
- There is too many various fonts (5) so the redesigned poster should be more consistent in its font choices.
- The illustration style for the icons are inconsistent. The redesigned infographic will have a more consistent style.
- The color choice is a bit too overwhelming. Maybe the redesigned infographic can have a more simple color choice to avoid it being too overwhelming for the viewers.
- The infographic poster isn't neat and doesn't seem like the details were carefully considered. This is seen in the bullet points being inconsistent of the paragraph indentation, the padding sizes, the margins, and more.
- Layout is a bit confusing
Thus, I concluded that the redesigned poster should be more simplified in
terms of color choices, illustration style, font choice and layout.
Fig 0.0 Infographic to redesign
Fig 0.0 Inspiration and moodboard
I was mostly inspired by the paper cutouts of the people and wanted that to be
the main element of my infographic. So I concluded that the theme would adapt
to this and be more paper styled. I decided to attempt the design where I
cutout some parts of the girl picture and change them to black and white.
However, it didn't work out as I had imagined. The layout of the information
is also plain and boring. I decided to re-do the girl element.
Fig 0.0 First attempt
On my second attempt, I used the polygonal lasso tool to separate the picture
into a few papercuts. Then, on each papercut, I clipped mask a torn paper
texture. This created a ripped paper effect on each section. I rotated and
moved each section in a more random way so that it looks like the picture is
being ripped up and re-assembled in a messy way. I ended up liking the way
this looks and proceeded with the layout.
For the icons, I designed them in Adobe Illustrator first before importing them into Photoshop. I wanted to highlight the title and the 'Her Story Matters' section. I then utilized the two colors (red and white) to create some sense of hierarchy in terms of which one the audience will focus on at a glance. I was met with the two bottom layouts in Figure 0.0.
Fig 0.0 Second attempt on picture
At this point, I had kind of liked the layout. So I moved on to adding
supporting elements such as the paper cutout background for the word
'violence' as I wanted it highlighted. I used pen tool to randomly make the
shape surrounding the word. The design had felt empty and bland, so to align
with the whole paper theme going on, I added some textures such as the
folded paper texture on top of it.
However, I wasn't too confident on the layout and felt like I could find
something better. I tweaked stuffs and recorded the changes in Figure 0.0
below. I decided on a half-half column layout and put the definition and the
'Her Story Matters' on the white column since I think it attracts attention
more than the red. The impact and prevention section were the hard parts as
I had determined each spacing to be equal and the size was already suitable
and so I had to make it fit in the red somehow.
Fig 0.0 Changes made
I also ended up adding the paper cut background on the word 'women' as I
wanted to highlight as well. More paper cut background was added on the
subheadings to create a sense of hierarchy. I completed the poster with more
shadows on these shapes. Then, tiny changes were made such as increasing the
spacing in the impact and prevention section as they were too close due to
the paper cut being added.
Animation
For the animation, a stop-motion sort of approach has been in my mind since
the beginning of the paper theme style. At first, I tried using the video
timeline in Photoshop however, I figured that this produces a result that's
more like a smooth animation and video.
Fig 0.0 Animating process
Project 1 - Animated Infographic Final Result
Fig 0.0 Final Poster
Fig 0.0 Final Animated Poster
FEEDBACKS
Week 4:
- Remember that the title doesn't necessarily have to be on the top. As
long as its readable and catches the attention.
- Next time I should pick the font and color as well before starting
out.
Week 5:
- Good treatment of the paper style
- Animation is good to go as well
- The layout is interesting
REFLECTIONS:
Experience:
In project 1, I gained more knowledge and experience about what makes an infographic good and bad. I learned how to compose a layout that's easily readable and understandable yet maintain a good and attractive visual attributes. I felt like finding a balance of both is a bit difficult. However, I'm grateful for this experience as I believe arranging a layout with a purpose is a fundamental in graphic design.
Observations:
I observed that what makes a design poor is usually not necessarily the overall aesthetic but it's the small details that one overlooks. When these tiny mistakes are compiled, they create a design that feels very rushed and it seems like the designer does not care about the final product.
Findings:
I find that, once again, balancing both a visually appealing and informative, readable infographic is a difficult process that takes time. The process takes a few retries and a one-time success is not guaranteed. It requires exploration of the layout to find which one works and which one doesn't.
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