Experimental Illustration, Vol.2

I have been working some illustrations in my free time, and I am really enjoying the time I have spend on those images. I am hoping that I had some progress since my first illustrations, however it is not very easy to decide the color palette, the shapes and their positions. I am developing those images mostly on Photoshop with the help of my drawing tablet and it is amazing to discover what you can do when you position right shadows and highlights at the right places.

Little Treasures, Vintage Shop, Poster, 500x700mm

It's much more easy to create woman's silhouette rather than man's. And I really like to exaggerate the neck line and legs a little, this gives the images a different, kind of a cartoon touch I believe. Therefore, I'm having a hard time to create a signature style, because I'm keep discovering new aspects of illustration, as much as I study the body moves, especially the hands. I am hoping that I will have a certain approach in time.

Prim and Polished, That's how I like it!, Poster, 500x700mm

Prim and Polished, Retro Shop, Poster, 500x700mm

The image above is my favorite so far. It was so much fun to work on this one, and I also love designing the clothes as well. Moreover, I believe that faded colors fit really well if you want to create a vintage effect on your illustrations. I love those two greens, hope I can capture the soul of vintage and 50s in all images.

For more illustrations please check: www.dilsahdesign.com

Vote for the 50s!, Poster, 500x700mm

Major Project: Concept Development - Swapping!

I have started to work on concept developments for Swapping branding, and I find it more easy to design logotypes on business cards or letterheads because that way the design looks more realistic and I can get an opinion on how the logo works with text and color. For this, identity below, I was inspired by the Facebook and Twitter's branding. Moreover, the main idea behind Swapping identity is to create a trust platform between the audience and the brand which is essential considering brand’s service field. In this manner, the form of the Swapping logo will stand out among similar organizations with it’s energetic, young but respectable form.

Furthermore, collaborative consumption takes its roots from former generation's consuming habits, which were consisted from bartering and sharing between acquaintance public. In order to serve this notion, Swaping identity carries the retro-vintage spirit with its typeface and merges it with a contemporary typeface, which allows design to speak a complex variety of audiences. Also, the design may show flexibility for different sectors the organization involves with, such as retail and individual.

Major Project: Research - Social Networks - Research

After making a brief research about collaborative consumption, l believe that the subject has a potential and l can build a project based on that. So I have written a detailed brief outlining the concept and context.

Introduction - The Collaborative Consumption Campaign
In 21st century modern world, social networks are an indispensable part of our lives, we are sharing our personal pictures, hours of videos or politic opinions at online platforms. Originally what I am trying to achieve with my major project is to create a platform which will connect all the networks we are using into one common platforms and channel people swap or share their experiences, time, objects, events and many other things. But l believe that I need to deal with this project as a campaign rather than one single platform. That way I can speak to a larger audience and make a radical difference. 

The Design Objectives
The proposition for the project is designing a fresh solution which will reduce consuming. Therefore, my plan is to design an identity for swapping or sharing, to make those abstract terms more tangible, place them into our daily lives and give them real brand value. In this manner what I am trying to communicate is the trend on 21st century, collaborative consumption, peer-to-peer revolution based on trust because I strongly believe that this is ideology is not temporary and it will help us to live a more sustainable lifestyle. Thus, I am definitely against creating and selling new products, this campaign is going to be a solution for a global problem and help people get awareness about hyper consumption.

Target Audience/Market
I decided to separate the campaign into two main sectors which are "individual" and "retail". Individual chapter of the campaign is at the center because the main purpose is to offer a practical, culturally appropriate, scalable, and sustainable solution that will create a chain among people. And retail sector is going to be a part of private companies CSR policy and a platform that will support the campaign and make it more accessible for individuals. Moreover, each sector will have its own design elements and business plans in order to address them properly. To expand my research and see what I am dealing with, I put together a small map social network users, which give me clear focus of my target audience.

Major Project Maps, Collaborative Consumption, Vol.5

According to online activities, age groups, ethnics and language, I divided the individual section of the campaign into three different age groups. Moreover all the age groups have different interests and they all require different treatment. Consequently my target audience ranking is the following:
 
1. Individuals
    a. Generation Z  12 to 17
    b. Generation Y  18 to 40
    c. Generation X  40 to +62
2. Retail - Local Shops - Charity Shops
3. Corporations

Competitors
There aren't any similar campaign focusing collaborative consumption so far, and since the research related to the subject has been done by authors, sociologist, ecologists or economist, despite it's great potential, it hasn't got any brand value yet.

The Design Elements
The deliverables will shape during the research, however the must haves are the following:
1. Branding, a catchy identity for the abstract ideology.
2. A campaign will help me to launch the brand with printed promotional materials - posters, flayers, etc.
3. An event for introduction of the campaign.
4. Interface design - for the software and smart phone application to connect social networks each other.
5. A booklet that will briefly explain the ideology and lead people to the brand.
6. A package which will put all launching materials together for both individuals and shop owners.

Project Plan
All concept & design developments, production and printing should be finished in 78 days. After I am done with research and branding during June and July, I will work full time at August to finalize the project. And I am hoping that I will be done with prototypes at the mid-July for concept testing.

New Blood Preparation

I have been working on small illustrations and layouts for my business cards for the upcoming New Blood exhibition. I thought that illustrating an image for the card would take more time but l was mistaken, because deciding the layout of the typography on the front is harder. So here is the options that l have been thinking on:

Business Card designs for the New Blood

Major Project: Research - Gotta Share!

I am trying to build an outline for my major project, that is why I am expanding my research about collaborative consumption in order to came up with actual solutions. The whole notion of collaborative consumption is amazing, there are tons of research, articles and videos spinning around on the internet about this new movement. However, most of the research is done by authors or social innovators, and they are not very marketable or user friendly for most people to adopt. Moreover, since sharing is a very abstract concept, I feel that it is going to be a challenge for me to design an identity, a campaign and an interface for the solution. Therefore, my last two projects showed me that, the real solution for the environmental contamination and global warming is not recycling tons and tons of garbage we compose everyday or a crazy scientific invention which will change the world, the real solution is all about changing the way behave about the problem. So I am going more deep this time and my aim is to carry this online sharing craziness into offline part of our lives too. 

Major Project Maps, Collaborative Consumption, Vol.4

I was watching Tony Deifell's speech called "Seeing Beyond Sight" at TED about my research. Tony Deifell is managing director of Q Media Labs, which explores how to change the world through media, technology and business. Besides his bright career, he is also teaching photography art to blind children. And at his speech he told an amazing folktale about sharing, which was:

"The creator of the world has a lamp which lights the whole world and she gave them the lamp to her twin sons to share, but they fought over the lamp and it dropped and broken into million pieces, and scatted across the world and today each one of us posess a small piece of that lamp and our work in the world -no matter what- bringing the pieces of the lamp together to make the lamp whole, to bring the light back to the world. But the trick is even though we have one piece of the lamp, we think we have the whole lamp."

This small story inspired me deeply. To find the happiness, to make the world a better place we need to act together and share. I will make sure that the campaign I will design make people people feel the same way I am feeling about this. 

Refrences 
Best of The Web, TED speech, Available at: http://www.ted.com/talks/gel_gotta_share.html
Tony Deifell TED speech, Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYZuu939pb8

Major Project: Research - More Collaborative Consumption

I definitely don't want to stuck on one idea for my major project, however the Collaborative Consumption inspired and influenced me very much. Nowadays sharing is happening in incredible rates. Every second 25 hours of Youtube video will be loaded, people in Tanzania don't have water in their villages, but they have Facebook. So why not using the benefits of modern age for connecting people even more. While I was searching about the issue I find a very interesting article of the economist Thomas Friedman from the New York Times, he was saying "With the economic crises, the mother nature and the market both said no more". And I couldn't agree more with him, because I certainly believe in the power of sharing resources, time, skills and money. I observe that for our generation, relationship to satisfying what we want is far less casual than any other previous generations. What I am trying to say is when I buy a DVD, I don't want the shiny circle, I want the movie or music in it. That means I only want the experience, not the product so when I satisfy my need with the product, I can easily swap it with something else. This system is more sustainable and economic comparing to buying something new. Consequently "access is much better than ownership".

Major Project, Maps, Collaborative Consumption, Vol.3

However, the field is very competitive and I need to find a way to differ this solution from similar service companies, connect it to people and create a service out of this amazing movement.

References

WhipCar, Available from: www.whipcar.com

Barclays Cycle Hire, Available from: http://www.tfl .gov.uk/roadusers/
cycling/14808.aspx

Ecomodo, Available from: www.ecomodo.com

Zopa, Available from: uk.zopa.com

Landshare, Available from: www.landshare.net

Crashpadder, Available from: www.crashpadder.com

Somewhereto, Available from: www.somewhereto.com

Netcycler, Available from: www.netcycler.co.uk

Swishing, Available from: http://swishing.com/

Lourish, Available from: http://lourish.com/

What’s Mine Is Yours, Available from: www.collaborativeconsumption.com

Major Project: Research - Collaborative Consumption

This is my very first post about my major project and I am very excited about starting to work again! I started my research with some small mappings, because my mind was so blank about this project. Therefore, the only thing that I am so sure is my project is going to be a solution for a social problem. So I was basically flickering through some websites like TED or Ideo to get some ideas. And I find a really interesting video about "Collaborative Consumption". This is the first time that I have heard this term in my life, so I dig it a little and find about how amazing it is. Therefore, Collaborative Consumption is the opposite of Hyper-Consumption, the global disease, which we were suffering during 20th century. The whole notion is consuming necessary thing together to eliminate the waste as much as possible. Its motto is: Traditional Sharing, Bartering, Lending, Trading, Renting, Gifting, And Swapping. Moreover, I was so inspired after I watched the videos about this subject I came up with and idea, which is still very raw unfortunately.

Major Project, Mapping, Vol.1

So, I am certain that I want to make something which will solve a public problem and create awareness. It can be designing a CSR campaign for a company or finding a solution for major wasters. But I also want to include new media tools to my project at some point. I am very interested in the reform of the books, from pages to screen. Therefore, I also might work on a project investigates this incredible progress.

Major Project, Mapping, Vol.2

The "Closet Share" idea came from the collaborative consumption perspective. Just like every other person I love shopping and clothes, but as much as I grow and learn about the world, I started to feel a little bad whenever I buy something new, and unnecessary. Because my research showed me that an average person only wears 20 percent of their clothes 80 percent of the time. Therefore, most of the things we buy age in our closets. So, I came up with the Closet Share project, however it still very simple and I really need to improve the whole concept, if I decided to go with this idea. All in all, I am happy with the progress so far, hope I can get somewhere with this idea.