What Mind Bubble

Weekly Recap 9/18-9/25

What I did:


I spent a total of 6 hours researching online and in books.
I spent a total of 2 hours maping out the process as I understand it now.
I spent a total of 2 hours sketching symbols.
I spent a total of 45 minutes conversing with immigration specialists.

What I accomplished/discovered/encountered:

I have found specific statistics about Michigan immigration from the Migration Policy Institute.  These statistics include percentages social and demographic characteristics such as language and education, workforce, income and poverty.  They also break down these statistics into smaller categories by age, race, sex, population, place of origin, citizenship status, household, and children.

The top three countries of birth of the foreign born people in Michigan are Mexico, India, and Canada.
Between 2006-2007 29,021 immigrants moved to Michigan from abroad.
Of the total population of Michigan (10,071,822) 6.1% (609,457) are foreign born as of 2007.
There are hundreds of more specific statistics as well.

I was also able to talk to Susan B. Reed from the Michigan Poverty Law Program.  She is an Immigration Law Support Attorney.  After playing phone tag for about four days we were able to converse for about forty-five minutes.  She broke the immigration process down in to three big categories.  First, the Humanitarian category which includes refugees, people with political asylum, and abused or neglected children of immigrants or unlawful residents.  Second, the employment based immigration.  A person is only eligible for employment based immigration if 1) they are highly educated and have a very special skill that cannot be done by any American/Domestic people, 2) you have a job offer from an American corporation and 3) the employer is willing to go through the mass amount of paper work, pay enormous legal fees and, wait a minimum of six months.  Of course there are exceptions for star athletes and geniuses.  The third category is sparking my interest the most.  The family based immigration.  These are the people who have a family member that has a green card (is a permanent resident) or is an American citizen.  These are also the people who won't have the help that refugees or workers might in lawyers or employers.  These people are often deceived by "lawyers" in their own country who convince them they can help but end up embezzling their money.  These people don't necessarily have the educational background or networking skills that the employment based immigrants might have.  These are also the people who will be tackling language barriers single handedly to try and move to the United States.

This is an image of the very, simple map I made breaking down the 3 categories into subcategories and into the process.  The wait time from applying for a green card to becoming a citizen is any where from 6 to 28 years depending on your eligibility and the wait list.

Susan suggested that I narrow my scope, which I absolutely agree now after hearing all that she had to say.  I am absolutely taking on too much.  Right now I have narrowed my project down to the family based immigrants.  The lists on the top of this image are of who an American citizen can petition from other countries and how they do it.

This is an image from Reason magazine that Susan sent me.  It is a parody of the immigration process for employment based and family based immigration.   Here is the link to the file:  http://reason.org/files/a87d1550853898a9b306ef458f116079.pdf

She also explained to me how the INS (immigration department) was dismantled in 2003 and how there are now 15+ agencies responsible for all of the different aspects of the process ranging from border patrol to security to the judicial system to citizenship and naturalization.  I think coming up with a way to map out what all of these agencies are and what they do and why people go to them would be important both for immigrants and for attorneys who help them.

I am currently overwhelmed with information to say the least.

To take a break from the research aspect of the information, I started keeping track of words that came up frequently in the process as I read through material such as spouse, child, green card, citizen, sibling, unmarried, married, waiting, and money.  I made some very preliminary sketches of ideas for what these might look like as symbols.  I realized very quickly that making symbols that have cross cultural references is going to be very challenging.  I think I may have to make some sort of key to go along with whatever it is that I design.

What I think I should do next:


I absolutely need to continue with research.  Susan gave me a few recommendations of where to go next.    There are a few people/places to contact in Washtenaw county which will be so convenient.  Eventually I will want to make direct contact with people who have gone through the immigration process and people going through it now.  I also need to do more research about cross cultural symbology.  Keeping all of my information organized in my brain and on paper is a challenge in and of itself and will be ongoing through this whole process.

Weekly Recap

What I did:  
2 hours making something for Tuesday.  This included thought and idea synthesizing as well as visual language sample comparisons.


Tuesday I spent 30 minutes finishing our group studio tours and presentations and 4 hours doing library research. 


Thursday I spent 3 hours doing online and book research.  This included making contacts and networking.


What I accomplished / discovered / encountered:  
I have made contact with an immigration attorney at the Michigan Poverty Law Program.  I have a phone conversation scheduled for this Friday morning.  She informed me that the Immigration Department is launching a newly organized website on September 22nd.  I was able to look at  PDF of the mock-up.  It still looks overwhelming in my opinion.  I have also done preliminary online searches for Immigration Advocacy groups as well as Freedom House and Quaker House.  I have sent an email to Freedom House and am waiting for a response.  


In my library research I looked at the Federal Design Response book produced by AIGA quite a few years ago.  I found some very inspiring posters with the same intentions I have for my project.  It seems that their implementation was short lived but well intended.  I have more research to do on this.  I particularly liked the poster called "A Nation of Nations".  I think it is particularly relevant to my project because immigration is such a hot political issue.  In reality, if it weren't for immigration and our founding fathers none of us would be here in this country with our freedoms (unless you are a Native American, even then it would not be the same country).

This image was taken from here:  http://designarchives.aiga.org/index.html?s1=2|s2=1|eid=8343

It was designed by  Stephan Geissbuhler in 1976

This week I also accomplished moving into my studio.  I am still waiting for my drafting table to arrive tomorrow but other than that I am all settled!  I absolutely love having a space separate from the rest of my life to focus solely on my project.  It is so refreshing.  Here are some pictures.

What I think I should do next:
Like I said above I am going to be talking to an Immigration Attorney.  I want to know what she thinks the strengths and weaknesses are of the immigration system, communicative qualities only.  I am not interested in commenting on the current laws or legislation, only in taking what is there and making it accessible, understandable, and legible.  I want to know if there are any tools that would help advocates or other attorneys and make their lives easier.  I also want to know what tools would be helpful to potential immigrants.  Her response to my email was that my proposed project is a much needed but daunting task.  I must say that I agree.  I am very excited but also intimidated.  I have not done a project of this magnitude before.


I had a conversation with my Mom today about my project and she has a number of immigrants that I will be able to talk to in the future but I think my first step should be advocates and lawyers.  

Another interesting find.

I just found another really interesting "visual aid".  Design Sponge, one blog that I follow religiously, had a really great cook book excerpt and the illustrations were fantastic.  They tell you how to bake a black berry pie with almost not text at all.  Take a look.

The cook book is "250 Treasured Country Desserts" by Andrea Chesman and Fran Raboff

The Article can be found here:  http://www.designspongeonline.com/2009/09/in-the-kitchen-with-julia-rothman-2.html

Visual Aid research.

Today in IP we had partner discussions about curiosities.  My ideas both involve tackling some kind of language barrier whether it be spoken and written language or visual and auditory disabilities.  Brail and tactile language versus visual language.  Or, auditory and other forms of sensory communication versus visual communication.  In my previous posts I have given some examples of pictograms and isotype that are all fairly simple images.  For Tuesday I want to make a series of instructional or directional graphic images for a trial run of their effectiveness on the class.  Here is some of the research I have done.  Some of these still involve text but are more complex images than simple human forms.

This image is from trucknow.com and a more in depth article can be found here: http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/keep-on-truckin-with-caution

The following images I found in one of my books "The Information Design Handbook" by Ken and Jenn Visocky O'Grady.  They have some really interesting complex instructional graphics.

This last one I find visually confusing.  I understand why they use a large red "X" but the images  don't seem contained and the "X" is transparent adding more confusion than clarity.  Also, for people who are color blind this would be useless.

This one is from the same book.  It is a Home Heart Difibrolator kit.  I think these graphics are really fantastic.  They are simple, instructive, and text free.

I thought this research was really interesting.  I found this in my book "Wayfinding: Designing and Implementing Graphic Navigational Systems" by Craig Berger.  They took 6 different symbols for "information center" and asked people if they knew what it meant.  The second one to receive 100% of the man pointing at the woman is the one I absolutely would not have gotten.  The "i" I would have understood and the "?" that also received 100% I would have understood.  I think it's a very interesting study.

Next I want to decide on a few instructions for the class to illustrate using graphics only for tuesday.  I want to test my ability to instruct without words, only images.

Design Pricing Formula

SwissMiss is another design blog I follow.  They had a cool design pricing formula.

http://www.swiss-miss.com/2009/08/design-pricing-formula.html

2x4

My dream job would be to work for 2x4, Inc.  They are one of the leading design firms in the country and in the world.  They have been recognized by the white house, worked with prada, the brooklyn museum and in numerous design books.  They are amazing.   http://2x4.org

Here are some samples

This is the style guide for the Brooklyn Museum.  This heavily influenced my Mantova Brand Manual on my website.

This is for the Illinois Institute of Technology.  They used pictograms as "Pictogrammar"  in beautiful window patterns.

This is for the Vitra furniture company.  They made the hard plastic furniture into organic shapes for their catalogues and displays.

These were done for the Prada Guilt campaign in their stores.  Its an amazing example of how type can be used in a 3D space.

Nursery Rhymes

I love this style.  Black and white illustrations with bold color shapes in the background.  Simple and beautiful.

http://store.sub-studio.com/prints/nursery.html

Fresh Fonts

You The Designer is a graphic design and marketing blog that I loosely follow.  This post has some really great new font ideas.  Here are some examples of the ones I like.

http://www.youthedesigner.com/2009/06/10/18-fresh-font-designs/

Brand Alphabet

Can you name all the logos?


http://www.atissuejournal.com/2009/08/quiz-know-your-brand-alphabet/

David Small: Small Design Firm

A few years ago David Small from Small Design Firm, based on the east coast, came to the A&D as a Penny Stamps speaker.  He incorporates graphic design in very interactive ways in museum exhibits, interactive books, and sound projects.  These videos and photos are of some of his projects.


Churchill Lifeline Table - London, United Kingdom, 2005 from Small Design Firm on Vimeo.




L'Oréal Poetry Harp - Cambridge, MA, 2004 from Small Design Firm on Vimeo.




The following project is call the CRX Display.  It displays the newest information in biomedical and genetic news.  It shows the importance of the placement of the display because it is seen from inside the lobby but also outside the building.

This project is called the Talmud Project.  David Small works in conjunction with the MIT Media Lab to make interactive books including the Torah and Bible.  They are amazing.  The pages layer and turn in beautiful ways.

The Bahamas

To me, one of the most brilliant brands is for the Bahamian islands.  They took the shape of the islands and made it into a beautifully color coded tropical logo.  Each island has it's own color and they are able to use the shapes to make beautiful patterns for apparel and stationary.  I also think the activity icons at the bottom are nicely done.  They are slightly more human like than some others I've seen.