Fall 2020 • Communication Design Fundamentals

4 min readNov 6, 2020

This post contains information about Experiments 5 & 6 for the course Communication Design Fundamentals at Carnegie Mellon University.

Experiment 5 • Designing Campaign Systems

Introduction

You will create a series of three artifacts [digital or physical] that visually introduce six different posts (or spreads) for a topic you will choose. The six artifacts will be distinctive, yet use some common design elements to unite the collection to communicate that the posts relate to each other.

In this assignment, we’ll be dealing with issues of hierarchy (typographic, color, and spatial), systems, as well as expression. How much emotion or abstraction can you bring to your type and still be an effective communicator? How can you use your typography in ways to create memorable forms? You will have to strike a balance between form and function. Gestalt principles and typographic excellence will both come into play. Designing the negative space will be just as important as everything else.

Learning Objectives

Successful students will be able to interpret and visually represent content that has an expressive nature for informational communication using typography, form, and color. After a design direction is identified, they will also be able to create a design system that can be used to implement multiple design solutions. Through this project, successful students will also become more proficient at using software to create illustrations and execute a design solution.

Instructions

Getting Started

Imagine you are asked to curate a feed — or campaign — around a topic (listed below). How do you inform the public? What platform do you want to choose? Who is your audience? Your stakeholders? What visual language do you want to use? How do you tell a compelling story? How do you get the ‘word’ out? Is it just online? With tags? Or do you go out and post flyers?Research different types of posts and campaigns. Start thinking about how this topic could be manifested stylistically digitally or physically. Also, what kind of information would motivate a passer-by to view the poster and engage with your topic? Or what would motivate someone scrolling through instagram to stop and think about your topic? What is your brand? Do you have an ‘aesthetic’? Do you create posts that let the audience engage? Are posts interactive? What would the digital posts look like if you wanted to print them out?

2. Develop the following required content for each poster:

→ Your Campaign name/Organization Name/Initiative Name
→ Information regarding your topic → Curated into a story
→ 1 post should have events that someone could attend
→ 1 post that has information about other organizations
→ 1 post should have information breaking down jargon from your topic
→ 1 post should include information on ‘how to get involved’
→ Other posts are up to you — decided what would make the grid look interesting at first glance — maybe it doesnt have text…maybe some graphics? Imagery?

3. Find design references and sketch concepts for your system. Keep in mind, do not rely on photographic imagery — use your vector skills and other relevant techniques. Typographic illustration and graphic shapes are! Please do not use or copy any existing branding to communicate who the artists are. You should come up with all visual materials on your own. Take the opportunity to be creative!

4. Document your process! You all have been doing an amazing job with documenting what you’ve been doing. Your documentation (text and image) are going to be incredible important for the second half of this project.

The same color palette of 2–3 hues plus black and/or white must be employed across the campaign. Use no more than two type families for the entire series.

Note: You are not going to be creating a logo for this project — you should be able to create a memorable ‘brand’ via the use of typography, color, and shapes!

[Potential] Topics

Racial Discrimination/Profiling
Poverty
Poor Air Quality
Poor Water Quality
Obesity
Isolation of Elderly People
Waste Management
Homelessness
Rising Adolescent Depression/Suicide Rate
Declining Populations of Pollinators
Rising Negative Effects of Social Networking
Opioid Addiction
Crime
Lack of affordable housing
High cost of higher education
Lack of access to healthy food

Re: Design Systems

Re: Digital Campaign Case Studies

Schedule

Thursday, November 5
Introduction to Color Theory
Color Theory Lecture

→ Due Next Class; Nothing, get some rest!!!

Tuesday, November 10
Project Introduction + Building a Design System + How to curate content
Design System Lecture //Template//Curating Content

→ Due Next Class; Start medium post, pick a topic and record here, start to build out your design system, curate content

Thursday, November 12
Vector Demo +Discovery Introduction + Work Day

Due Next Class
→ Progress on Design System + Content, Find and prepare discovery case studio
→ Submit campaign case study here

Case Study Discovery (Mini-Assignment)[assigned nov 12]
For this assignment I want you to explore the world of campaigns and brands! Find a campaign that falls under one of the SDGs and create 3–5 slides on the following questions:

What’s the name of the campaign? What are the goals?
Describe their communication system. Is it effective? Use your design vocab!
What are all of the moving pieces? Is it all online? Are they only on one platform?
What is your emotional response? Do you want to engage with the campaign? Why or why not is the storytelling working?
Any other interesting things you want to point out!