Crit Feedback

Todays crit was really useful, it definitely helped a lot of questions that I had floating around my own head. The questions I asked were based around the 2 briefs that I actually have design work for, i.e. film infographics and LCA newsletter and they were:

Does the timeline actually work/can you follow it?

I was going to do 5 visualisations but because of how long they take should I reduce the amount? Whats a good amount to do?

Is the context too vague?

Do you think that the size of the type should be smaller/larger in relation to the size of the image (baring in mind the image will exist at several scales)

Which stock to you prefer for the newsletter?

The feedback suggested that the timeline worked and could be followed but wouldn't be accessible to everyone. That only a certain audience would be interested. Since it will exist in an environment that will be visited by people who are interested in films this should hopefully not be a problem.

It was agreed that I didn't need to do 5 of these visualisations and that it would take up time that could be used for expanding the range instead. In terms of the range we discussed possibilities and this could be promotion for the exhibition/signs/bags/posters/tickets. 2 or 3 appears to be a good number to do. Also another point was that they'll all look pretty similar and it won't add much to my portfolio to have lots of the same thing.

The type was an issue for most people at the crit, overall it seems to be too intimidating and so people won't read it. It was suggested that it could be made smaller in relation to the size of the image or kept separate within a publication. People wanted to see the image much bigger and give that more of the attention, whereas at the moment it has to share it with the type. It was also suggested that it might benefit from more leading. So basically the problem is that there is so much type and it looks too compact. One idea that came up was to try and pull out the more significant events, and I thought about how to link the key events to the list perhaps using the same assigned colours.

Stock choice for the newsletter was a mix of opinions. I personally am not completely satisfied with either, but since the client wants recycled stock that will dictate the outcome for me.

The actual feedback sheets also discuss other points...

Ordering the abbreviations into length, this looks neater but it means that less important characters are higher on the heirarchy than more important characters.



Following the same alignment as the type



Following the same alignment as the numbers








Positioning of the key



Alternative to the dotted lines, to show the age brackets.



Solid lines without dotted lines



Solid lines and dotted lines

I think these arrows work the best. I used the same white border/orange fill as the event, although I reduced the stroke.





To clarify things further I used the colours from the associated events for the arrows.



To stop the confusion with all the jumps in time backwards I added arrows to show the direction of the jump.

This is the latest stage of design for the timeline. There is still a lot of work to do with it, for example deciding on how to indicate the different ages/7 year gaps as well as the key and the proper positioning of the diagram and type. I also need to decide on the size. At the moment I've been working on this which is 1m wide and 50cm high which might be nice as a poster but I want to scale it up so it's big enough to cover a wall/panel.



The current positioning of columns/diagram. The white box indicates the positioning of the key.




Example columns of text



To keep text aligned I indented lines of text so that the full stops following the numbers lined up.



List of events to appear below the timeline. I decided to abbreviate each of the characters to letters to reduce the amount of words needed.



A comparison of the position of numbers



Having the numbers on the left hand side seems to make more sense since people will read from left to right. They should therefore read '3' then see event three.



Looking at this section the line looks as though its coming to/from event 25 instead of 26.



This makes the information clearer in less time



Here I considered sticking to my original colour scheme and using different tones of blue. But I don't think it makes things very clear.



I prefer this option which shows the lines leading to a coloured circle but going behind it, which looks much tidier.



This example show the events being coloured but with the lines etc layered over the top of the circles, this for me is too messy.




Using dotted lines to show a jump in time is a bit confusing when there are a lot of them and they cross over. So to help clarify where each line is going I'm trying to use colour to link events together. This example shows the numbers in colour, which is ok but the numbers are only really there to label the events and so I think it should be the events that are coloured.





Here I've tried to use colour for each age group. With a light grey at the beginning and then a dark grey at the end with a gradient for the teen years to join them together. The problem here though is that it gives the appearance the later years are more intense but I'm not sure whether I would agree with that interpretation.





Using less stripes is perhaps better but I'm still not sure if it's the right approach



Here I've tried to make the passing of 7 years more obvious by putting stripes across the section. I'm not sure about this, but something about it makes me feel a bit uncomfortable.





Because the film starts with the ending of the film it adds more complexity to my timeline. I need to show that it happens first in terms of the films timeline but its actually a glimpse of what does happen. To try and simplify it I've included it at the beginning of the film and tried to cordon it off with a dotted line which is labelled with 'title sequence'. I rotated this so it's obvious this label is to do with the films timeline rather than Evans, since horizontally the labels refer to Evans current age.



Developing a timeline which doesn't include a written description of events but rather uses a simple circle to point when an event occured. It's quite interesting here to see which moments in time the film shows. It makes me wonder about all the gaps/how are they effected by each choice and how they in turn alter the future.

Here I've been trying to work out a structure for the timeline. The timeline shows the possible paths for Evans life but the order in which they are read are dictated by the timeline of the actual film. An important part of the film is that the events are based on three different ages of Evan; 7, 13 and 20. So I'm trying to work out a way in which it's clear the events are happening at different points in his life. So far I have considered a bar running across the top and actually splitting the timeline by using colour. I think at the moment the best colour scheme is the grey/blue. Making use of the colours on the DVD packaging. It suits the tone of the film, but I need to ensure that it actually prints well.

time line

Working out the structure for the timeline

Starting to build it up length ways

Thinking more about colour/tone of film

Using colour to distinguish age

Open publication - Free publishing - More statement

Mapping the timeline of the events in The Butterfly Effect as well as showing them in order of Evans life and the different paths he takes.