Working on the product: Researching into existing maps

Liberty Park's map of the local area, clean, minimal and to the point, we wanted ours to have even less detail, and just be a straight route from Liberty Park to LCA. 

Leeds City Council have created  a "Welcome to Leeds" map, I personally found this very complex and not at all minimalist such as the design we wanted for our own map.

Project Research: Massimo Vignelli

Massimo Vignelli's designed this map of the New York subway system in 1972, I personally think it is a stunning and vibrant piece of design which not only informs, it also is eye catching and appealing to look at. 

Admittedly the design does look highly complex, but in respect, it's a map of the New york subway which spans over 656 miles, not a simple job to create a map for this goliath transport system. 

Our influence:

We took influence from Vignelli's design in the form of the line and dot method that he makes use of, the dots representing the stops in the subway. 

I particularly love the choice of colours in this map, and think it is the source of the appeal. 

Project Research: London Underground Map

The map of London's tube system is famously accredited and well respected by the users of London's public transport due to the ease of use and the simplistic, minimalist design.

The design appeals baffling from a distance, but if you are in the knowledge of which direction you are in and where you are heading, it is very simple to understand.
Harry Beck:

Harry Beck is the renowned designer of the early London underground maps

Introduction Group Brief: initial idea generation with the group

Having been assigned the problem "How can I find my way around Leeds?" we began to brainstorm all the ideas that came to mind and answer the questions involved with the brief.

As our sentence was to help Freshers find their way around Leeds, we narrowed the objective down to finding their way from Liberty park student accommodation to Leeds college of art, as it was something we all had in common as a group, and realised it was a journey that a high percentage of the class did everyday, making it one of the most helpful maps we could create.
The group collectively agreed a business card sized final product would be a very efficient and helpful piece of design as it would easily fit inside a wallet, and then unfold into a larger map that (hopefully) would be fit for purpose.

We managed to collect plenty of information, and also assign various tasks to each member of the group, which set us on a good start to the project.

The group decided that we should research existing maps created by graphic designers which we were recognised as being highly successful and useful to the world, such as Massimo Vignelli and also Harry Beck.

QR CODE:
As a group, we have had the idea of incorporating a QR code into our business card sized design, as a way of letting the consumer locate further necessary information, and potentially give feedback via a twitter social networking page.

Introduction Group Brief: Problems LCA Freshers may encounter

In groups, we all brainstormed the immediate problems Freshers at LCA may typically encounter, as expected, many ideas were presented, so as a class, we narrowed the problems down to the most specific few. Which include:

Moving on from that, we were randomly assigned a problem in groups from which we were to use in correlation with the induction brief.

Introduction Group Brief: "How to..." Brief analysis

From reading the brief I understand that we must create an informative piece of design that will benefit the new Leeds Freshers.