Initial idea generation arriving at main concept ideas based on potential augmentation and interactivity.

Initial idea generation arriving at main concept ideas based on potential augmentation and interactivity.

Based on the main purpose of this brief deriving from the rationale; 

Extension of the Tsukuba Motorsport website through interactive print material that takes consideration of digital and physical hands on interaction. The concept of the website was a high focus of high quality large images with concise, minimal textual content. The aesthetics and layout of the site supported this focus and had underlying influence from Japanese engineering/attention to detail, traditional Japanese colours/asthetics, structure and minimalist aesthetic. Supporting GIFs. icons and logos were inspired by elements of Japanese Motorsport. 

The extension will maintain this focus on high quality imagery with concise/minimal text through interactive print products. I also want to extend and expand on the aesthetic influence I had in the website, I want to extend this through the consideration of material, process and aesthetic appearance all to be influenced by traditional Japanese craft.

The ideas used in supporting GIFs, icons and logos will be extended within the print campaign to develop further ideas that are influenced by aspects of Japanese engineering, drifting, time attack. Japanese Motorsport and nay other relevant automative elements relevant to the target audience. 

The idea of presenting attention to detail and engineering in the structure and layout of the website will be extended taking into consideration the assembly of print products and construction of things to explore this area. 

I have began generating ideas to arrive at a selection of refined concepts to work from and narrow down to a finalised concept. All influenced by study tasks and current research. 

Before beginning to think how the physical advertising campaign would be made in terms of the printed collateral it was important to consider how interaction would be achieved both digitally and physically.

Mind maps were created, helping me figure out ideas on how I can achieve interactivity through digital and physical interactions and augmentations. 

The key ideas I narrowed down too that could be used to develop into main concepts were:
The idea of the end user constructing something to emulate Japanese engineering. 

Using AR to interact with images to provide explanatory text, this extends on the concise/precise and minimal use of text seen in the website. 

How interactions based on a conceal and reveal concept can be used to present informative elements as well as visual elements, allowing the end user flexibility of the type of content they view. 

Mindmaps were created to figure out ways in wich these main concepts could be carried out in interactive ways, the best ideas on these mindmaps are the following and will be used to go on to develop and influence rough thumbnails of physical material for the advertising campaign:

All the individual print materials would work solo but they could also be constructed into a final product by the end user, giving a hands on emulation of engineering to keep with that Japanese engineering influence. This could be done by turning 2D collateral/items into something 3D.

An alternative method of producing this "jigsaw" puzzle idea could again use all the individual products within the advertising print campaign but instead of making up a 3D object out of 2D things, all the objects could be placed together in a variety of ways creating a variety of shapes and patterns, a sort of game. Not very relevant to the automotive target audience but still a nice interactive hands on idea. 

To keep the extension of the focus on image (from website) and minimal concise textual explanations I think the images presented in the formats I arrive at will include no text, this keeps focus on image with no distraction. Explanatory text would come from augmented reality interaction, a phone hovered over the images would reveal interactive reference points where explanation points could be selected by the end user.

Top trumps style statistics with supporting iconography is an option.

Or just solo text. 

Augmented reality interaction of the GIF animation logotype (or if I chose to create similar material) would benefit from this type of interaction from smartphone or tablet apps. Giving the static logo on the print material motion and a sense of familiarity and connection with the website, this link is important to not only bring new people to the website but to meet the needs of the current fans of the site. 

This motion could be achieved in static print too, through a sort of stop motion flick book.

These augmented reality allow a live link option to take the user to the website form these interactions with logo animations, iconography and imagers. 

Customization is something that is obvious in Japanese motorsport, the heavy modification of road cars for the use in Drifting and time attack. Giving the end user opportunity to customize something through interactive print material will meet this sector of the industry and connect well with a wider range of audiences. This links back to  point's I made in study task 6.

 

Ideas could come from a conceal and reveal concept or the adding and subtracting of elements within the interactive print campaign. 

UV ink could be used to disguise information that may be seen as distractive away from image content, something I wanted to avoid in the website concept. If the end user wants to reveal this information a UV black light would reveal this information, a nice flexible option and the meeting of a large market thats interested in information and one that just wants to see image. 

Text could be concealed by intricate folding, this folding would link nicely to the consideration of traditional Japanese craft I want within the print material. (Origami)

Folding could also act as a way in which the Japanese logotype could be translated character by character, a nice hands on interaction of this translation. The visible glyphs are the english translation, lift the flap up and the Japanese glyph is underneath, or vice versa. 

Perforation could be used to add a hands on interaction with printed material like posters, a business card could be embedded within the poster. 

After arriving at a nice array of ideas on how to interact with the end user in my later visual experimentations and thumbnails I though it was important to plan a little into the use of material and process's as I wanted to emulate Traditional Japanese craft and Japanese engineering through the tactile properties and the physical production of the printed material. 

As I know I want to produce some kind of photobook as this seemed fitting for the large amout of image content and the target audience/persona's need for lots of high quality imagery. I began looking into a few ways in which I could construct it keeping focus on Engineering & Craft.

I could explore binding with nuts and bolts and other mechanical materials to simulate this influence of Japanese engineering. 

Or to keep to keep things traditional to Japanese Craft  I could do an aesthetically pleasing Japanese stab bind. To keep things even more in check with existing concepts used in the GIF animation and logotype (A grid used for the glyph production and the motion path of the animation, this grid was created from a Japanese flag, Tsukuba motorsport, Clock-face, European flag etc) I could position these holes based on guidelines from a grid influenced by Japanese engineering or aspects of Japanese motorsport.

There will obviously be digital printing involved as this is the best method for high quality photographic reproductions but I could experiment with more analogue approach's for the logotype, iconography or simple mark marking. 

I could create a traditional woodblock, for example carve the logotype into a piece of cherry wood (if available) and then hand pressed on some traditional japans paper (mulberry/hanshi paper). Or to emulate the Japanese attention to detail even more maybe laser cut the printing block for ultimate precision.

For a more hand made feel I could user watercolor mark making, watercolor is a traditional Japanese painting technique and has beautiful aesthetics. 

Or even traditional calligraphy with a sable/fude brush or a more rustic approach with a stick. 

A few instructional guides to use as reference. 

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2095.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watercolor_painting

Next stages from here

To progress from here I want to begin creating a large amount of thumbnail's exploring all these key ideas outlines in this post. Fully exhausting all areas and bringing together key points to create a highly considered idea for the interactive advertising print campaign that expands on my website concept and acts as promotion for new target markets and supports existing fans needs and wants. 

I need to figure out the type of products and the format of the products I will be creating, they will be strongly influenced by all the existing research and idea generation I have arrived at so far.