Habits

"The unsexy and unappealing truth is, behavior change is hard, because we are creatures of habit."

–Christine Whelan 

In a Washington Post article, Sociologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison gave some suggestions on how to build good habits, which can be tricky since human behavior is difficult to change. 

Something I found interesting in this article right away, was that Whelan stated that the first step in building a good habit is to consider what you wont be able to do once the habit is in place. For Example, In Whelan's case, she said she wanted to reach out to more friends this year, which means she will have to do less paid work in order to make time, as well as get less sleep. I think this is an aspect of habit making that people tend to forget about, because new behaviors will take up more time from the day, and you may have to cut back in certain areas of your life in order to make time for the new behavior. 

Another thing that Whelan pointed out is that people make laundry-lists of things in their life that they want to change (i.e. going to the gym more, meditating, making a budget, eating more kale, taking vitamins, creating more boundaries around work time, etc.) but changing all these behaviors at once will set you up for failure. Whelan suggests taking these behavior changes one at a time, focusing on the one habit you want to change first, and then once that habit is in place, working your way down the list. 

In this article, Whelan also presents the acronym "SMART" for creating goals for habit/behavior changes:

Specific

Measurable

Reward (for sticking to it)

Trackable progress

These are all ways to make sure that your habit changes are successful, and Whelan says that another way to ensure this is by making sure you have a community, because you are more likely to succeed in behavior changes if you do not have to go at it alone. Contrary to popular belief regarding how long it takes to make a habit (21 days), Christine Whelan says that in reality its more like 90 days, because breaking the habit change down into smaller steps and stretching it out will make it easier to automate the behavior. 

Process for Project Two

Facilitate Play

For this project, we were required to collaborate in a group to design a game that could be easily understood through the instructions provided without any help from us, the game creators. 

My team created a game called "Song Smith," in which players would have to change the lyrics of a well known song to fit a topic that they dealt. This took a lot of brainstorming on our part, and we all worked together in order to come up with songs to use in the game, as well as topics and descriptions that would be fun or funny to sing about. 

Coming up with the name of our game ended up being my responsibility, and "song smith" ended up being a play on "wordsmith," which the rest of the team thought was pretty clever. 

Grace designed the perfect logo, which used word bubbles that housed our title and looked like a cute little conversation or, in our case, people singing to one another.

Laser cutting the box with our logo ended up being a bit of a challenge, as most of our group was out of town during the break. Sam ended up taking the box to the laser cutter, which was set too deep and burned through the original lid of the box. Since most of us were out of town, Sam had to think quickly on her feet of a way to fix the box. She ended up using a separate piece of birch, laser cutting the logo into that, and then fastening that piece onto the top of our wooden box with wood glue and sanding the edges so it was flush with the box. 

Our visual representation of how to play the game ended up being a collaboration between Jennifer and I. We decided early on that we wanted icons of ourselves to be included in the instructions of how to play the game, so I created these icons (seen above). Jennifer then applied these icons to an instruction sheet that fit into the bottom of the box.

Jenny came up with the design for the cards. We wanted them to be simplistic, so she referenced the designs for other card games like Apples to Apples. It was important that she used the logo on these cards as well, which she applied to the back of the cards in different colors. 

All of these elements were tied together by our color scheme of Pantone's 2016 colors of the year: Serenity and Rose Quartz.

Digging Deeper: review

I chose to review Jenna Hammond's infographic on Deforestation in the Amazon rainforest. 

I was first drawn to this infographic because of the color palette, I like that she didn't go with the typical forest greens that one would expect on an infographic on this topic. 

Jenna's infographic had lots of information on the topic, but the fact that resonated most with me was that scientists estimate that within 100 years, there will be no rainforests, which is startling because of how much we depend on the rainforests for little things that people don't usually think about. 

This is supported by the other facts that Jenna includes, like the fact that 1/4 of the western medicine used today comes from the Amazon, which is something we take for granted. Without the rainforests, where would we source these ingredients from? 

This infographic is inspiring in that it makes me want to learn what steps I can take to reduce the problem, since so many people and animals alike all depend so deeply on the rainforests. 

Digging Deeper: Thesis Statement

In the year 2015, 42 percent of Americans reported experiencing mental health related symptoms of stress. Those who struggle with stress management need simple, everyday remedies in order to keep stress levels down. Drinking tea is a natural way to relieve stress and anxiety, along with it's many other health benefits.


SOURCES:

http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/stress/2015/snapshot.aspx

https://adrenalfatiguesolution.com/green-tea-can-relieve-stress/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/6015821/A-cup-of-tea-really-can-help-reduce-stress-at-times-of-crisis-claim-scientists.html

http://www.teausa.com/14655/tea-fact-sheethttp://www.teausa.com/14655/tea-fact-sheet

https://www.tea.co.uk/health

Ettore Sottsass

Ettore Sottsass was born in Innsbruck, Austria in 1917, but he grew up in Milan, Italy. He was friends with many great artists such as Picasso and Hemingway, and his designs are intensely unique. His works are, for the most part, geometric, and although they are seemingly shallow, Sottsass was known for creating strong emotional reactions in the viewers of his designs through his use of color, shape, and material. Sottsass once stated, "When I began designing machines I also began to think that these objects, which sit next to each other and around people, can influence not only the physical conditions but also emotions. They can touch the nerves, the blood, the muscles, the eyes, and the moods of people." 

In 1980, Sottsass ran an extremely popular design consulting firm called Sottsass Associati, which hired architects, interior designers, industrial designers, and furniture designers. Sottsass Associati is still active today and is based out of London and Milan. 

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/may/18/ettore-sottsass-review-godfather-italian-cool-memphis-collective
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ettore-sottsass-designer-dossier-176806

Pentagram's Abbott Miller: "Branding Has Become Oppressive"

Abbot Miller, a partner at Pentagram Design, believes that design is about telling a story and creating narratives. He has made books for photographers like Ansel Adams and and artists like Matthew Barney, which he described as "movies you hold in your hand." He has designed exhibition spaces which he thinks of as "a room with a plot." When asked how the graphic design industry has changed since Miller began his career, he stated that the importance of design has grown, and graphic designers no longer have to argue the importance of appearance and branding to their clients. 

"As 'Brand' colonizes more and more experiences and places, you get a zombie-like effect, a placelessness and overdetermined experiences."

Miller stated that he believes that branding has become "oppressive," and that he prefers the term "identity" to "brand." This is because he believes identities are more about a sense of personality and sensibility and can be more muted, whereas brands can sometimes become smothering.

When asked about his creative process, Abbott Miller stated that he always starts by immersing himself in the material, that way he can respond in a way that is informed by the content. He then likes to be extremely collaborative with his team and believes in the social aspect of design.

http://www.fastcodesign.com/3035300/pentagrams-abbott-miller-branding-has-become-oppressive/3

The Letter, Text, and the Grid

What are the advantages of having a multiple column grid? 

Multicolumn grids are more flexible than a single-column grid, and become more and more flexible with each column. This flexibility can help the designer to articulate the hierarchy of each element in a publication by creating different zones for different things. Text and images can span a single column or they can spread out through multiple, and not every inch of space has to be occupied. 

How many characters is optimal for line length? Words per line?

45-75 characters is optimal for line length, or about 12 words per line.
Why is the baseline grid used in design?

Baseline grids serve to anchor the layout elements and create a common rhythm. 

What are reasons to set type justified? ragged (unjustified)?

Justified text creates a clean shape on the page and uses the space efficiently, but sometimes ugly gaps can occur within the lines, so designers have to be careful to use a line length that is long enough in relation to the size of the type. Ragged text (unjustified text), respects the organic flow of language and avoids the uneven spaces that can sometimes happen when using justified text.
What is a typographic river?

In typography, rivers of white, are gaps in typesetting, which appear to run through a paragraph of text, due to a coincidental alignment of spaces.

What does clothesline, hang-line, or flow line mean?

A "hang-line" is a line that divides the page horizontally and becomes a place for body text to "hang" from. Elements within the publication will gravitate towards this line and provide internal structure for the page.  

What does type color/texture mean?

Type color/texture refers to the space between letters, words, and lines of text as well as the weight of the font. Typographic color can be used to control the hierarchy of the text.
How does x-height effect type color?

Typefaces with larger x-heights (such as verdana) help reduce type color and make by making large bodies of text less dense and therefore easier to read. 
What are some ways to indicate a new paragraph? Are there any rules?

Using an indent accompanied by a line length has become the standard for indicating a new paragraph, but designers have come up with some other alternatives, which include:

• paragraph spacing
• outdent and line break
• extra space inside line, without line break
• symbol, without indent or line break

One rule that designers follow when indicating a new paragraph is to make sure not to combine too many signals. Using paragraph spacing and indents together, for example, gives the text block an indefinite and unpleasant shape.