What is Augmented design & Interactive print, what influence can my advertising campaign for the website take from these examples?

What is Augmented design & Interactive print, what influence can my advertising campaign for the website take from these examples?

The purpose of this post & research is to expand on some aspects of study task 12 and help me figure out the benefits of different types of Augmentation in relevance to working towards my current rationale (study task 11).

Augmented Design & Interactive brief purpose
The term augmented is something I was confused at to start with, I thought it was a way in which interactive print was described but the objective of the"Augmented Design" in my opinion is to extend on my existing website brief through an advertising campaign that strengthens what I already have and extends on the current concept. 

 

To engage the end user the advertising campaign would benefit from interactivity, this is what needs to be explored. How the end user can interact with the physical print media extending on the current website and its concept and hopefully in turn bringing people in to the website. Its not the only purpose though, it needs to support the website concept aswell so consistency between the website and advertising campaign needs to be maintained. (Asthetics, Layouts, colors, concepts etc)

Augmented reality (AR)

This term best explains how Augmentation begins been a more interactive idea. AR is a live or indirect representation of the physical real world, these elements of the real world are augmented through computer generated input like sound, video, graphics. The main idea behind is it that digital/computer media replaces the real world representation with overlaid artificial elements like text, image and sound. These elements are often interactive with the end user, allowing them to manipulate what is seen through this real world visualisations.

A common and simple example is sports scores been displayed on TV during a match. 

http://www.freebase.com/m/0lqtr

Oher technology's that is making the most of AR at the moment are:

Smart phones & Tablets

Ikea add virtual items to a real world representation to give end users a preview of what there products will look like, giving them a nice way of planning and simulating what interior design may look like.

Eye glasses

Google Glass allows real time interaction with the world, allowing voice commands and eye recognition to control what the technology does, the weather forecast & news can be viewed in real time, photographs & videos can be taken from the direct view point of the user, live view directions, text messages can be wrote out through voice recognition. The possibilities with these technologies are endless. 

Head mounted displays

The obvious one here these things look ridiculous and are priced way out of the general end users affordability so a limited target audience is an instant result of this, things like this are definitely gimmicky and appeal to limited target audiences. Like the Google glass it offers a live feed of the real world with interactivity through virtual reality overlays. 

HUD/Heads up display

Something been adapted by lots of automotive companies is HUD speedometers and trip computers. Deriving from air craft technology I see this as a technology that would be beneficial for the automotive market as it means focus can be kept on the road at all times with all important information viewed directly in front of them in live view with the road ahead. 

How its used in advertising & creative/art/design purpose.

Live AR in a shopping cent provided an excellent way of targeting a lot of target audiences and fully emerging them into a virtual reality environment bringing animals and other exciting scenes into the surrounding environment giving the audiences and potential future customers a hands on experience of the type of programs they can view. A very well carried out and thoughtful campaign. 

Pepsi depend on end user reaction in these augmented reality examples, altering the real world around them with a variety of scenes all intending to provoke reaction and different emotions (humour, shock, intriguing, scared) playing around with the end users emotions is always a good advertising technique and something that can be explored in my campaign although I don't see opportunity to play with there emotions but its always a consideration. 

This is a nice example of AR interaction with print and relevant to my current automotive target audience and my thoughts on presenting technical visuals and influencing ideas based on a hands on feel within the engineering aspects of a car. The physical brochure was also very image heavy which was a focus in my website and a current thought of creating a photo album may benefit from influences from this Audi campaign. 

 
VW, another german automitve company are highlighting to me the increasing popularity in automotive companies making use of AR within the advertising campaign, this has pushed me a little more to include some kind of digital AR and print interaction into my advertising campaign. The only problem here been is the need for a smart phone or tablet which may be a problem for my target audience. 


Tesco use blippar, a service like Layar & Aurasma (mentioned in previous study task 12) to create an interactive way of extending on the static posters they have advertising products, it brings in quite an eye catching aesthetic through this AR and also serves as a vehicle for taking the end user to the website, something that I should consider as one of the purposes is to promote the website so a method of transitioning the user from the physical product to the website through these Augmented realties is something I need to explore. 

The target markets of for these technologies are endless and due to this I feel AR can be modified and adapted through a variety of technologies to focus on any target audience.

Physical Interactivity in Print

After exploring more digital interactions through augmented reality within print media and more complex technological items (google glass, billboards, smartphone apps) I moved onto more physical interactions within print. Its important to consider how physical print can be interactive with the end user, because as mentioned all these new technologies may not have been accessed by target audiences. I strongly believe this is the case with my target audience. 

The word interactive & interaction suggests I can be quite open, its a description of a two way relationship between two or more things, so I feel along as the end user can physically do something with the end product I feel this would meet this interactive need. 

 

Looking back on past research brought me back (Link here) to Hey studios material they made for Art Fad, this hands on interaction allows lots of colour, shape and texture variations through vinyl & sticker shapes on the posters and postcard material. A good example of augmented design from this was then the physical 3D colour shapes they created, an idea I could take into my augmentation, create a physical 3D item from something within the current website content or relevant to the concept?

I love the simplicity of the simple shapes and with minimal textual distraction, just main focus on the abstract uppercase A created with intersecting lines. This focus on one main element reminds me of how my website focus's strongly on image. 

 

 

A nice technique that seems to be making a comeback is lenticular printing, a process which uses lenticular lenses are used to give an illusion of depth and perspective from different view points. This particular style is an animated and transforming print, changing through a number of "frames" within these lenses that are viewed when the product is moved in specific ways. 

Quite complex but a nice way of creating an animated feel with print mediums through the users interaction rather than simply pressing play or watching the animation on screen they can physically control it. 

This could work nice with my GIF i made for the home screen. A perfect example of extending from existing content from digital presence into interactive print outcome. 

As mentioned in the print finish study task assembly, folding and construction could be quite an interactive consideration. This would also fit well with ideas I have on incorporating elements of Japanese engineering & mechanics. Maybe if all the individual material & collateral within the advertising campaign all combined together to create a final outcome? Sort of like a puzzle. Something that NEEDS exploring. 

The book binding essentials created by ING & Jaini Lu on behance explores a nice variety of materials within there book binding "kit". I previously mentioned a focus on materials and process to extend on the current simplistic, minimal aesthetic seen in the website that focus's on high quality images. Taking influence from this project would allow me to fully explore this idea.

 

 

Looking back over some old research I remembered the GF Smith "tear notebook" created by the design studio Made Thought, this shows a nice tactile example of interactivity, allowing the end user a hand on feel of the quality of the GF smith papers. A perforation print finish allows an endless combination of shapes and colour combinations (like Hey studios Art Fad material) to be made from the pages, I mentioned a focus on Engineering, this usually means the construction of something but this is a nice way to look at it by flipping everything on its head and influencing ideas of deconstruction. 

 

 

Expanding on the robot kit Hungry Sandwich club made (Mentioned in print finish study task) will also help influence interactive ideas on constructing print based media. 

Final conclusions 

Based on this further research coming from study task 12 have gathered more ideas I could use to influence augmented design, interactive print and augmented reality. 

What main influences am I taking overall to influence idea & concepts and extend on current opinions & ideas?
Using augmented reality gives a good way of bringing viewers into the website through digital interactivity only problem been here is the requirement for a smart phone or tablet which may be a problem for my target audience. I will incorporate this digital type of AR but to full-fill target markets who don't have smartphones or tablets I will incorporate physical interactions within the print media exploring: 
Construction & Deconstruction interactions to emulate ideas of Japanese engineering and mechanics relevant to this automotive subject. 
Use of interactive shapes and colours can create endless combinations.
Lenticular printing would be a nice way to bring animation and moving image into more static print outcomes, giving the end user control of the motion. Only problem been here is its expensive and turn around times. 
Bringing the motion from my GIF animation( or similar motion inspired by same concept) into the interactive print would be a nice extension and transition of content from the site been brought into the print interactivity. 
Explore the use of different materials to give off a nice tactile feel, not quite interactive but this enhances the idea of engineering and the idea of different parts and materials adding up to build a car. 
Print finishes & use of materials can really enhance augmentation relevant to existing concepts of Japanese engineering and Japanese craft.