Case Studies
Blossoming Toronto
This project was actualized as two projects placed as a diptych series under the instruction of Gary Leroux for a second year YSDN Information Design course. With the takeaway subject of research being a comparative analysis of various geography based statistics between various neighbourhoods/districts in downtown Toronto, this series brings to light some of the concerns or issues that are posed on topics such as education level, poverty, income, and population within these researched areas. The districts chosen stem from the student's own personal experience living in those areas. Throughout her 4 years as a YSDN student, inhabiting and located within the crossover area of Kensington Market, Little Italy, and the Annex, and often visiting Little India (with a sibling habituated there) and Bloor West Village (representing Toronto's Ukrainian village, which is the birth place of the student) these areas posed as a great point of interest for analysis.
Stringing Cultures Together
This project, “Stringing Cultures Together: Through Music” was created in a third-year university course under the guidance of Professor Zab Hobart, instructing concepts in information design from a narrative perspective. It is comprised of two parts, one static/print and one interactive/digital: an illustrative information design brochure and a UX/UI design-based smartphone application. Both parts of the project incorporate intense colour contrasts and complimentary hues to achieve an exciting, visually pleasing, and informative set of illustrations through which the user is guided by a thoroughly researched series of educational stories about the many histories and cultural uses of guitar. The above video, which is a visual representation and prototype of the interactive element of this project, works through a simple navigation system which allows the user to navigate through the data portrayed in this project across various categories of content. In additon to shared illustrative work and typgraphy within both print-based and interactive components of the project, the interactive application also effectively uses count in order to relate to the user through a modern perspective.
Progressing to the 16 panel brochure element of this two part project, the image above displays the opening and closing covers which the user interacts with first. The 16 panels fold into a handheld printed document, with the left compnent representing the front cover, and the right component representing the back cover. The covers are visually compelling, portraying a title, author/designer's name, and a sponsor, using various elements, such as contrast of hues, use of the gradient styles, and silhouetted graphics which are intended to guide the user through the rest of the work, both horizontally and vertically, when opened.
The Pessimist Magazine
"The Pessimist" is an magazine project completed in the third year of this student's YSDN degree in a course on editorial design at Sheridan College, under the instruction of Adam Rallo. The magaine contains three features as well as various advertisment content, a letter to the editor, and two alternate covers. This image displays the first feature, which is an article, pessimistic in tone, that lists the 6 downfalls of being one of those special snowflakes that hates everything popular, which is primarily the audience for the magazine. Using dark graphics and imagery, straight-edge typographical choices, and with the tone resembling tech, this project starts off in a negative tone, matching the intended mood and audience.
