Wen's+public+space+project

= Phase1:Annotated Panorama =

Dufferin Grove Park :
(Sep 13, 2009 - 4:30 p.m.)

__**Research Statement**__
This research is mostly based on [|Dufferin Park]. It also refers to the different atmosphere contrasts to Dufferin mall which is just across the street. It shows a typical lifestyle of the urban culture, especially from middle class neignbourhood. Dufferin Park is also a place where high school students do their outdoor biology or environmental projects. There are a lot of artifacts left in the park and students take care of them from time to time. The community takes over the park to do all kinds of activities. They have their own festivals organized in the park. Therefore it is very interesting to see how people use nature, enjoy nature and work with nature. In this annotated panorama, I'm going to focus on the dynamic atmosphere and activites in this park, also along with the connection between personal space in public.

1. Plants, grass, sunshine 2. Random big branches fell, they stay where they are like an artwork. 3. Student projects. (Plant site, naturalization project...) 4. Children facilities and discover site. 5. Soccer playground 6. Path and stairs 7. Traffic signs along the edges of the park 8. Flyers about yoga, creativity training classes, parties and backyard food selling. 9. Animals everywhere. (pets, racoons, squirls, birds....) 10. Rotted iron seats. 11. Wood fences and stairs 12. Campfire site. (We did a short movie in this site before, it looks very much like a medieval battlefield in the camera) 13. Photographers!! and student gardeners!! 14. Basketball field 15. Self-made play facilities (ropes on the tree, ball hanging on the branches) 16. Some tree branches are very close to the grass 17. Found Roman style architecture stones...looks like a ruin...maybe also a student project.
 * __Background:__**

1. Relax (reading, napping, meditating...) 2. Get tan... 3. Play with pet. 4. Children go there to use the facilities 5. Sports (basketball, soccer..) 6. Do school project 7. Take care of plants 8. Art activities (photographing, painting...) 9. Picnic, camping 10. Hook up with friends
 * __Human activities:__**

__**Issues | Details:**__ 1. People go there to relax and walk really slow. 2. They go there with/without a purpose. 3. Dog waste management 4. Speaking of time, people beware more about sunlight, temperature instead of clock. 5. There are animals everywhere 6. Quiet 7. People think more things about themselves, self-reflections or else. 8. New things happen such as friendship, love.... 9. People feel very comfortable to join events, festivals or any activities.

__**Opportunities:**__
For this project, I want to show all the activities together in order to show a overall lifestyle and the feeling of freedom in Dufferin Grove park. For future, I think if people feel comfortable to pass by and join activities together in this park, I could come up with something that is social and cultural. Like the native American festival. I live in a building right beside Dufferin Grove park; and I noticed that most of the residents are immigrates. However, neighborhoods rarely talk to each other. Therefore, I think it will be good to come up with something that organize the residents from the building to have a cultural exchange together. It will be like an ice breaker and really help people to communicate.

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 * __Data collection and analysis:

__**Links:**__
Friends of Dufferin Grove Park website -> [|here] A video of native American festival I took on Sep 27, 2009 -> here

=__Visual Sketches:__=


 * __ Idea 1: Exploration and Discovering. __

observe lifestyle & activities as an issue. what about it that makes people love it. overdid illustrations that are not related to the panorama. Dufferin Grove park is in the center of a communities which surrounds by houses, buildings, malls and subways stations. There are a lot of chances for people to know each others. The facilities in this park provides common topic. For example, reading, kids facilities, camp fire spot, farmer's market, etc. By using these facilities, people will have common topic to talk about and make themselves comfortable. For the visual, in order to present social communication, I'm going to add graphic elements from these kinds of activities and try to make the whole thing connected. For my next step, I'm going to re-organize some of my photos by masking them into organic shapes. Dropping illustrations in the background and see how far it can go.
 * Sketch:**
 * Class Critique**:
 * Self Feedback**:


 * __ Idea 2: Imagination, fun, freedom and activities - place for all __

In this approach, I'm going to focus on the feeling of this place and using whatever elements that comes to mind. The whole composition is falling apart, totally divided by white spaces. Unecessary illustrations makes the whole composition childish. Not enough content to look at. For my original intention, I want to show some breathing space in my compostion instead of straight to corner. However, the white spaces divided my space into parts. It doesn't look good AT ALL. The result went an opposite direction to my intention. I reviewed on my research and all the information I found. Then I decided to focus more on details and specific things instead of the whole atmosphere.
 * Class Critique:**
 * Self Feedback:**


 * __Idea 3: Freedom, Spaces and Enjoy Your Life__

It feels like I finally get myself to do some right thing...(hopefully)....I'm focusing on the activities, people's thinking and the way they use their spaces. I want to make this day a richful but common day in Dufferin Grove Park. Still, I'm keeping the active and dynamic atmosphere in mind, but took off a lot of illustrations. The inspiration of this compostion comes from two random piece of paper overlaied each other. Since last critique, I had a hard time looking for a composition that has contrasts, complexity and connection. I have a hard time put things together too. I think it is interesting to break up the space by using a kind of white edge in between, and I think that helps with the directions too. So I tried it, and I think something starts to happen. Problems with the shapes of white spaces. Problems that my type was overwhelming the images. I used too many typefaces and outlines, drop shadows which makes the whole composition busy. The proportions on the path. I took out the unecessary colours and circles. Changed most of the typefaces into Sanserif and made them as small and legible as possible. I took out the drop shadow, tried to made the type blend into the space more. I resized some graphic so that the unecessary information can be secondary to the eye.
 * Email Critique:**
 * Self Feedback:**


 * __Public Critique__

I showed my work to some of my design colleagues and I showed it to my parents who has no design experience. I think it really helps from both ways. My colleague told me to remove some of the type and resize them so that they don't mislead the eye from the main flow. Since I have a lot of information to show, it really helps to show the hierarchy of information. I did some of them according to my own perspectives.

My parents pointed out the elements they see and they asked me questions like "what is the cellphone doing there? or why is there an construction sign as tall as a kid?". I think it is really interesting because some of the visual I chose to put on my panorama (which I think it will be very interesting to show) doesn't have to get that much attention. Although I really want them to be there, it doesn't have to be the first eye to please the audiences. I think this issue is critical, as a designer, I want to show every highlight in the compostion. However, if all the highlights shine together, there won't be any highlight. Therefore, I resized some of the elements again. My mother said she feels relaxing and happiness in my panorama which makes me really pround. That's the basic atmosphere I try to achieve.


 * __Final__

__Here are some of my own comments:__ 1. I was thinking whether to take the white shape on the right out, and I found myself love it quite much. If I take it out, the compostion will fall on one side....so I decided to keep it. The hard edges repeat themselves at the right form a rhythm and contrast. 2. I did the air bubbles around the figures on purpose. I think it is interesting to see hwo people can have their sort of "personal space" inside a public space. For example, the girl is reading, she need more space (to keep herself focused) than the man sleeping at the back. When people are thinking, they create a division from the outside too. 3. The illustrations at the top in the sky seems repetitive, however, I want to refer a little bit to the issue of garbage management. Also with the dog waste sign. 4. I really like flow from left to right and the splash looking. I think it has a refresh effect, just like the feeling Dufferin Grove Park gives me. 5. I took out all the outlines, shadows so that the focus can go back to my panorama. Also I applied transparency to my bubbles so that it wouldn't be scary bright. Although the title is not so standing out any more, it doesn't have to be. I like the gentle feeling that feels like nature.

__If I still have more time, I will:__ 1. work on the images more. Though I love this composition so far, I think there's still space for improvement. 2. work on the types more. I know this is a panorama, and the type are not supposed to be fancy. There's still more I can do about it.

__Appologize__: Thanks for Carol's critique till this point, I should have posted these earlier but I had a extremely busy week with all the assignments and work shift. Sorry I saw your comment at the last minute.


 * __Other Ideas:__**

** Union Subway Station: **
(photograph time: Saturday 8:00-? p.m)


 * __Observation:__**
 * 1) a very good place for advertising
 * 2) the interior of the station is fully used, from the floor to the ceiling.
 * 3) very informative and functional
 * 4) rational designed (esp. in way-finding system)
 * 5) type is big and obvious
 * 6) lots of arrows (women washroom arrow is 3d)
 * 7) signs
 * 8) connects with hotels and banks
 * 9) architecture style: the 1st floor is functional and modern, while the 2nd floor is more traditional.
 * 10) doors: door frames are narrow, big glasses are used for the purpose of see through more directions


 * __Acitivities:__**
 * 1) ticket selling machines
 * 2) ticket selling windows
 * 3) banking machines
 * 4) internet
 * 5) telephones
 * 6) city tours
 * 7) departure and arrives
 * 8) purchase food
 * 9) relaxing area
 * 10) subway trains
 * 11) shopping (mostly travel things and gifts)
 * 12) mailing system
 * 13) art creation (which based on commercial use)
 * 14) currency exchange, lottery, etc.

__**People reactions:**__ most people are busy with departuring or arriving.
 * 1) people know exactly where they are looking for and where they are going
 * 2) with luggages in their hands, people become more thoughtful and polite to each other
 * 3) **people rarely get individual attention. However, less individual attention softened the serious and anxious atmosphere. A lot of people talk to strangers while they are waiting for their trains.**
 * 4) Lots of people choose to meet each other in the station.

__**Something related:**__ 1. Everything has to be in order 2. People walk in with a purpose 3. People get lost from time to time. 4. Industrial ? or more informative 5. Noisy 6. People walk around and looking for information 7. They are always seeking for something (help..people...food) 8. Beware of exact time, looking for clock. 9. They look after belongings, families. 10. Don't think a lot, everyone minds their own business. 11. They want to get things done as soon as possible. (nothing new happens) 12. Nervous, exciting. 13. People walk really fast...

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 * __Photos:__** Here are some of my photos I took in Union Subway Station.

**On My Way Home** :
the photographs are taken on the way from my high school to my apartment. (photograph time: 5:00 p.m.- 6:00 p.m.)

In this approach, I hope I could bring out the feeling of relax, fresh and peaceful. However, lots of the gardens are private place. I'm not sure if it counts for public space. There are lots of interesting things along the road. I will give a second thought if this topic fits our project.

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 * __Pictures:__**


 * Notes: (Union station) **
 * __Problems: (only for human activities)__**
 * 1) People finding: the biggest problem in subway stations is cellphone signals. Some people have a hard time looking for their friends and relatives who should be there to pick them up.
 * 2) Although telephones are available, most people have huge luggages, it is very inconvinient for them to pick up coins or exchange coins.
 * 3) Direction system is still confusing: even by following the arrows, people get lost all the time. The structure of the archetecture is a lot more complicated than the direction system it uses.
 * 4) People line up for tickets and have nothing to do.
 * 5) I noticed that lots of people don't use the automatic ticket machine because they are not sure which train they should take. Therefore there is a line up at the windows but the ticket machines are not used.


 * __Possible solutions:__**
 * 1) A annoucement facility can be used. By typing in the person's name/ nickname and select the position they are waiting, the name and position will be displayed on the digital screen all around the station. Then it will be easier for people to meet each other as soon as possible.
 * 2) Add "you are here" maps. It could be digital. People can know where they are by typing/selecting a few facilities/decorations.... around them into the station map library.
 * 3) A few facilities that entertain people while they are waiting in line. (OR a more efficient selling system)
 * 4) Something that could tell people which train they should take.