Information Design / Exercise 1 & 2

February 10, 2025 - 

10.01.2025 / Week1 – Week2

Ryoma Kato / 0365874

Information Design / Bachelor of design (Honours) in Creative Media

MIB

WORK

Exercise 1 - Quantifiable Information

For this Exercise, we need to gather the set of product and separate it into category such us, Color, Size, Shape, etc...

( The picture of coins that I used )

I chose the Japanese coins for this work.

( The picture of coins 2 )

First, I prepared 18 Japanese coins and arranged them by type.

( First Design Idea )

( Second Design Idea )

I think 2 design, one arrangement forms the letter "G," inspired by the word "Gold," emphasizing a design-focused approach. The other arrangement prioritizes counting the types and numbers of coins by forming shapes, making it easier to visualize and count the total.

( Decide Design )

Finally, I chose Second Design for this exercise submission. The reason is the first design focuses too much on aesthetics, making it difficult to see how many coins there are for each type and the total number of coins. Therefore, I chose the second design. In the second design, arranging the coins into shapes makes it easier to categorize them by type and count them accurately, while also being a creative design idea.

Exercise 2 - LATCH Infographic Poster

For this assignment, we need to make a poster that using minimum 4 LATCH principles. We can decide the poster title so I chose Japanese Ramen for this assignment title.

First, I draw 3 sketches for making poster.

( Sketches )

All three sketches incorporate four LATCH principles: Location, Alphabet, Category, and Hierarchy. The leftmost sketch focuses more on design rather than information, while the rightmost sketch prioritizes information layout over design. The middle sketch is designed to balance both aspects, serving as a middle ground between the other two.

Among the three sketches, I eliminated the leftmost one because I was unsure if it could fully incorporate all four LATCH principles. I debated between the middle and rightmost sketches for the final design but ultimately chose the middle one, as it had a better overall design. Therefore, I decided to create the poster based on the middle sketch.

( Editing Screen 1 )

In the Poster designing step, I put the title first.

( Editing Screen 2 )

Second, I put the map of Japan and placed ramen icons on the map to show the flavors of ramen enjoyed in each region.

( Editing Screen 3 )

Next, I added details to each ramen icon to indicate its flavor.

( Editing Screen 4 )

At the third step, I added detailed descriptions of each ramen flavor.

( Editing Screen 4 )

As the final piece of information for the poster, I arranged the ramen icons in order of flavor intensity, making it easier for viewers to find a ramen that matches their preference and its location.

( Editing Screen 5 )

At the end, I felt that the poster background looked dull, so I searched for backgrounds on the internet. To ensure the text did not get lost in the background image while maintaining the poster's aesthetic appeal, I adjusted the background image's opacity to 35% and added it to the poster.

( Completed poster )

This is the completed work for Exercise 2.

After giving back feed back from lecture, I decide to redesign this poster from zero.

First, I decided which elements of the LATCH principle to incorporate into my poster and chose to include Location, Time, Category, and Hierarchy. The theme remains ramen.

 For the poster, I put the ramen illustration and poster title there.

Second, I put the ramen history at the poster. This ramen history explains when ramen was introduced to Japan and how it developed over time. This represents the Time element of the LATCH principle.

Next, I included the representative types of ramen flavors in the poster. This represents the Category element of the LATCH principle.

Next, I added the Hierarchy element to the poster by including a map of Japan that represents the representative ramen flavors of each prefecture. Based on this, I also included a ranking of the top four most famous ramen flavors in Japan. This section incorporates the elements of Location and Hierarchy from the LATCH principle.

I edited back ground for final step.

The background color was too dark, making the text difficult to read, so I adjusted the opacity of the poster.

This is the completed Poster.

FEEDBACK

Week 3:

Lecture said to me this poster doesnt look information poster and difficult to find LATCH.

REFLECTION

Through this assignment, I learned the importance of the LATCH principle for effectively organizing and communicating information. While the first assignment allowed us to experiment freely with the placement of information and helped us understand the basics, the second assignment required us to digitize and create illustrations, and was particularly challenging in terms of incorporating more than the four elements of LATCH.  

However, through this experience I learned how to organize information and the importance of visual appeal, and gained valuable skills that I can apply to future designs.