Information Design: Project 1 - Instructable Poster

GCD60504 Information Design 25.1.22 - 27.2.22 (Week 4 - Week 8)

Wendy Seto / 0348805
GCD60504 Information Design / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media / Taylor's University
Project 1: Instructable Poster

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INSTRUCTIONS

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Project 1: Instructable Poster

We were assigned to design an infographic poster of a recipe from Pasta Grannies. I have never heard of this channel before but after I watched one of the video I think the channel is very wholesome! We got to see a lot of grannies happily sharing their recipes, kinda remind me of our childhood shows like Teletubbies and such.

fig 1.1 Pasta Grannies youtube channel 

It took me awhile to pick one recipe that I want to work on, I changed the granny names in google sheet for like ten times in total. Finally, I decided to give my heart to this recipe from 4 years ago. It was a sweet treat recipe, illustrating it would be a lot more exciting comparing to pastas right? Pastas are okay, but desserts are adorable.

fig 1.2 meringues treat recipe by Amelia on Pasta Grannies

fig 1.3 steps breakdown 10/2/22

After playing the video multiple times, I think it is still lack of some important information. Luckily, they have listed out the ingredients in the description box.

fig 1.4 additional information in the description box

Since there is still some missing information about the oven and preparation, I searched for a similar recipe online to complete it. This recipe I found has the exact same ingredients and the steps are pretty much identical.

fig 1.5 a similar recipe by Angela Nilsen on BBC goodfood

Visual Research

I did a lot of visual research for this project because I think it is not an easy one. In fact, a plan is really important to be able to execute the overall design thinking. 

Frankly, I cannot find many infographic posters that I like, so it makes it even harder for me to be inspired.

fig 2.1 infographic poster visual references

I have always loved vintage comic or magazine illustrations and these are what I can think of when I hear the word food and illustration together.

fig 2.2 vintage food magazine illustrations that I like

Food doodles like these are also my cup of tea, I feel like I can stare at them for hours and will still admire it as much as I did in the first time.

fig 2.3 japanese style food doodles

Other than my own research, Miss Anis also showed us some of the work from our seniors.

fig 2.4 seniors instructable posters

Idea Visualization

I sketched the meringue treat in many different art style and it took me so long to figure out which one works best.

fig 3.1 different art style sketches I done in procreate 10/2/22

Initially, I want to create something more realistic, until I realize that it is going to take me a lot of time to illustrate all the details due to the number of assets I will need to make. Since I do not have a lot of time left, I decided to go with the 4th art style and re-illustrate it and all the other assets in Adobe Illustrator. I created all the assets based on the video with some improvisation because it is going to be an infographic poster that covers a specific recipe from certain source and I think I should not let the original identity slipped.

fig 3.2 the transparent blue bowl and white hand mixer

fig 3.3 the purple spatula

fig 3.4 the black tray

fig 3.5 the big oven

fig 3.6 finalized assets 22/2/22

I would say the hardest part is arranging the composition and choosing the right colours for the overall design. I had so many tries and none of them feel right to me.

fig 3.7 experimenting on different compositions 26/2/22

I watched the original video again to find some inspiration for the colour palette. After I learnt that meringues are from Italy, I got this idea of using the country's flag colour. As much as I like how light and pastels go with the illustrations, I think this time I have to create something else. In fact, a good designer do not always go with the same colour palette that they like, they explore and find the one that works best. Also, colour plays a big role in showcasing the subject identity, it is important to keep the infographic with the same vibe as the original video.

fig 3.8 flag of Italy

I decided to continue working with my last composition shown in fig 3.7.

fig 3.9 progress 26/2/22

Hence, I still feel like it is a little too plain. To spice things up, I want to stick with a vintage and retro concept so I did more visual research on it.

fig 3.10 concept references

fig 3.11 final instructable poster.jpg 26/2/22

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REFLECTION

I am very much satisfied with how I executed this project. I tend to fail on delivering my ideas most of the time, but this time it was beyond my own expectations. After a lot of indecisive thoughts, here and there, it finally brought me somewhere. The FLIP exercises do play a big role in the design process which I am grateful that we got the chance to learn about them hand in hand. Based on my final outcome, I can see a lot of improvements on my work that now I started to dislike all my submission from the previous semesters hahahah. 

I know I started working on the project later than we are supposed to, but it was because I was too caught up with my other module’s assignment. I am the leader of my Intercultural Design group and my teammates are very passive and unreliable where I ended up doing 80% of the work. I have to prioritize it over my individual assignments because I am carrying the responsibility of 6 people’s grades. Due to the lack of sleep and being in front of the computer screen 24/7 I fell sick 2 days before the submission date for 4 projects. I still want to push myself to be able to finish everything in time but that day I felt like I cannot stand it anymore. I really want to thank Miss Anis for allowing me to submit everything by the end of the week, she never knew how much it means to me. I hope my final submission worth the extra 2 days she gave me! Once again, thank you so much Miss Anis, I hope you like my work as much as I do hehehe <3