Investigation into Language: Evaluation

Evaluation

For this task the design engaged in an investigation into language, with the intention of producing an outcome that was informed fully by the findings of its research. As such, there was no preconceptions for how the final outcomes would look.  

The area chosen for investigation was extremely broad, which was a lot to handle at first. This was a result of the design wanting to cover all languages and not just English, to further the overarching investigation into aesthetics and mentalities of East versus West, and in producing all-inclusive design that reflects a universalism. 

The design moved from idea to idea, without being able to condense all the findings into one. However, when the solution presented itself, it managed to incorporate all the findings into one coherent design resolution. The research covered a range of theoretical and practical contexts, from written language, to psychology and culture of language, presentations of language, foreign and alien language, populisms, symbolisms, histories and origins, to modern day technological advances represented through the information language of data and code. 

The subsequent problem discovered for the design to solve was essentially how can design be used as a tool to present other ways of thinking and seeing the world, as language constitutes a large part of this for an individual. The context for this was based off the evolutionary quality of language, as being reflective of human evolution and thus controlled by future generations and circumstance. For example, the growth in the importance of typography started with the invention of the printing press and evolved now through the incorporation of screen-based design into our daily lives, making the scope for various typefaces more relevant today than ever before. 

The research for this project started a while before the design did, meaning ideas had time to sit and develop. This meant the process of design was efficient. Additionally, as this was the final project of the year, my skills had developed considerably in all the softwares used, so methods of production were at a higher quality and faster paste. This in turn meant a lot was achievable in a short timescale.

The advantage of this process of design was letting the outcomes be carried by pure context and theory, providing a weight that allowed it to be considered and engaging. As such, the project has much space for growth beyond the submission. With the vast array of imagery generated, there is scope for each poster logogram to represent a series of characters, whereby the variations represent different tones. Ideas for this include the different amount of lines and densities connoting urgency, for example. With more time this could be explored and presented, as well as further development of the video stage. 

Finally, as the design evolved off primary research responses, there was little control over the definitions which meant certain unique aspects of human emotion and language were left out. It was realised at the end key emotions such as love and peace were largely absent, and thus this is something that could be furthered in the future.