Week 10 Speculative Media Platform
Start of our last project Speculative Media Platform!
Lila and Rich’s presentation on New Platform, AI and MR, was a great introduction to this project. Today designers often focus on making technology easy to use and consumable but speculative design propose a kind of design that is used as a tool to create not only things but ideas, and consider design as a means to speculating about how things could be - to imagine possible futures. This is not the usual sort of predicting or forecasting, spotting trends and extrapolating. Instead, we are to pose “what if” questions that are intended to open debate and discussion about the kind of future that new platform or media is opening up to..
We revisited the definition of “platform” and how it shapes message and why it is important in design. Designers don’t design for just one device or a single platform anymore. Sticking to just one platform in our design process means limiting ourselves and the impact the design can make. But the elements in between us designers, and the choice of platform to the viewer should be considered carefully as well..
We also reviewed basics about typography. “Typography is what language looks like.” Then what is language? It’s obvious but language is used by humans to send messages to other humans. The ability of the message to be understood by those receiving it depends on the skill of the sender in expressing the intent of the message, in other word, the message depends on both the sender’s ability to use language to express themselves accurately as well as the ability of the audience to interpret and understand the langue fo the sender. This is where typography itself begins to matter! Typography isn’t just a aesthetically designed typeface, it directly influences the ability of a message to be understood by the audience. There are lot more about it, for most of you it may be a review of what we’ve learned last semester, but if you wish to study further, strongly encourage to revisit!
Here are some reading lists from last semester’s Type 4 class that really helped us understand the relationship between typography and how it shapes message :
Why Fonts Matter by Sarah HyndmanThinking with Type, A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students by Ellen Lupton Next week, we will continue working on the group discussion for Speculative Media Platform!
Class Presentation
New Platform / Lila Meyer
