“Convex. Sobre drogues”, en of year project by Paula Terra

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Convex is an editorial publication centered around the world of drugs. This publication is characterized by the approach and perspective from which it communicates content; always treating tabu subjects with absolute transparency. Each publication addresses a different drug and presents information openly and without judgement. Convex’s aim is to develop a bold graphic treatment that will trigger an emotional response from its readers and invite them to reflect on the consumption of drugs and its negative effects.

In addition to the series of publications, a series of graphic material for «En la nada» workshops has been conceptualized and executed. These workshops also treat the subject with an informative yet reflective tone like the publications.

“Unplugged”, Treball Final de Màster de Rosa María De los Heros

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Unplugged is a series of weekend retreats where analog and creativity-inducing activities take place. The Unplugged community strongly believes that in a digitally powered world, analog breaks are absolutely necessary and essential to our well-being as humans.

Taking this in consideration, the main objective for this project was to write a ten point manifesto for Unplugged and, subsequently, design a series of publications that thoroughly illustrate and communicate these statements.

Since manifestos are known to be a strong call to action, it was fundamental to incorporate interaction in the conception of the design in order to provide a platform for a potential response or intervention. Furthermore, it was key to directly come in contact with these analog approaches and transmit them daringly and inventively through a potent graphic design treatment.

Duedate, end of year project by Paula Lavergne

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“Duedate” is the end of year project by Paula Lavergne tutored by Diego Fernández and consist of an application which connects users and supermarkets in order to avoid massive food waste. It arises from the urgency to revise our role as consumers, the way we have to buy and consume food and to be aware of our responsibility as individuals in the face of this huge problem which is hunger in the world.

Presentacions Treballs finals de màster 2018-19

Master in Graphic Design TFMs presentations and exhibition for the 2018/2019 academic year

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On September 9, 10 and 12, a total of 19 Final Projects of the Master in Graphic Design were presented in front of the evaluating commission constituted by Xavier Alamany, Raimon Botey, Anna Fuster, Lluc Massaguer, Carles Murillo and Núria Vila.

In the current edition, presentations were held in the Cultural Space EINA Barra de Ferro, where also took place an exhibition with all the works.

Núria Saban de Llos& a Eina

Núria Saban webdeveloper from Llos&

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Núria Saban visited us the 28th of May. Ex-student of Eina, “Web developer, Frontendpadawan, html, css, js”, as she defines herself at his web. she explained us his steps until attaining what she had dreamed: being member at Llos&. At the end her studies, she entered an architecture studio during five years, working on modelling. After, she spend two years freelance for several customers, like the Mies van der Rohe Foundation in Barcelona. Tired of little multitasking, she decided to launch to the programming and the world wide web. That was what she liked more and this is how she entered at Llos&.

Her talk begins with the troubles that arise with graphic designers. She tells us a list of the basic aspects a designer would have to detail from his work to programmers could start correctly without generating a lot of changes after. For the development of a website, the format thr ptoject arrives to the programmer is very important.

She shows us the advantages of the Sketch app for her work. Also she comments that designers never think about the different measures of screen for each device (the media queries, the height and width of screens, very different in each device). “If you know what you can have with media queries and start to play with, you’ll have a very cool website”, says Núria. She explains also that she designs according to the criterion “mobile first”, that is to say, the design is based on the version for mobile. From this point, media queries has to append meanwhile the width of the screen grows.

She explains us that accessibility is very important, no only for those who need it, but for everybody: navigating the web would be much more comfortable for all. She also talks us about typography and she advises that we cannot use typography less of 16 px on a website. If we, it has to be for very secondary things. Also she comments another thing that designers never take into account: there is a lot of units of measure on the web to define the size of the typography: ems, rems, pixels, and point view-port (% of the screen). This one enables typography grow concurrently with the screen width in a much more fluid way. So the design will be much finer.

She reviews mistakes that we have to eschew when designing a web. She talks about contrast, when the links cannot be distinguished, gives us tools to check if our web would pass a test of contrast, like: https://colorable.jxnblk.com. She insists that the outline focus, although we would’t like it, is very important to not be deleted: the navigation with tab or screen readers must be available always. If not, it will be a navigation problem for persons that need these systems. This page explains its importance: http://www.outlinenone.com

Before ending, she talks of colour on the web. she recommends a page: https://www.colorhexa.com. She comments also the interactions and his sense: when a button is active, deactivated, what about the hover function, and she complaints that many of these are never defined by the designer.

We have now a few lessons to learn and take into account to carry out a website design and which are the needs for a programmer

SEO (Searching Engine Optimization)

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Today, we finished the module called SEO  (Search Engine Optimization) with Rubén Alcaraz. Throughout the module, we learned how to improve the positioning of a web page on the search engine results pages. In addition, we learned the importance of elaborating a good SEO, where these techniques can be applied, how search engines work. Moreover, we learned the structure and architecture of SEO in order to understand better and improve our web positioning. Finally, we also tackled the different strategies that we can use and also understand how users search us in order to choose the right keywords in order to be competitive.

Furthermore, in order to implement all the theoretical knowledge received, we realized a practical exercise. The latter consisted in trying to position an image on Google from the website we created before for the module  Content Management System.

In order to do this exercise, we have used a WordPress plugin called Yoast, which has to guide us in order to position our image on Google. During the exercise, we have learned the importance of the SEO-on page, and how to make a good optimization of our page. We learned the SEO-off page as well with the aim to increase the authority of our site through internal and external links.

 

As a final exercise, we learned how to audit a web page, analyzing its content, the density of keywords, how are the information of its architecture, its technical aspects, and efficiency. As a result,  we have been able to analyze and detect the weaknesses and points of improvement of the abovementioned website.

Analysis and Management of Digital Publications

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We have already finished the course of Analysis and Management of Digital Publications taught by Professor Diego Fernández. In it we have made an infographics that has allowed us to learn about the architecture of the information in charge of the study, analysis, organization, disposition and structuring of the information. We have also been able to work on information design, in which we have had to graphically represent the information and structure it efficiently and effectively so that it could be very visual and quickly understood.

The results have been very diverse. They have worked on reports related to the rise of cybercrime or piracy, a comparative of online media sales in black friday, about fake news, the use of apps to find a partner, even wondered if print is dying.

User Centered Design

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In this course taught by Professor Enric Mor, we have learned to have a global vision of all aspects involved in user-centred design (UCD). This can be conceived as “the discipline of person-computer interaction (IPO), usability and user experience”. Through different activities, both theoretical and practical, we have been discovering which processes are key in the UCD. We have placed emphasis on the value of knowing the users to whom our product will be destined, the stages and techniques that configure it, knowing how to apply the DCU in the definition of our projects, how to make a correct analysis of what we want to design, and finally how to implement and evaluate interactive digital products. In our case, the redisseny of a website.

The Ideal Wallet

This activity was the letter of introduction of the subject. Through a practical exercise of design thinking by couples, we designed a wallet from a small briefing that we did to our partner. In this way we stressed the importance of knowing the user for whom our product is intended. Therefore to be able to design to measure and look for real solutions in the problems posed by the user.

Lost & Found

During this activity carried out by groups, we learned to use flowcharts for the design of an app. The objective of this practice was to work collectively on the most logical path to report, search, or find a lost pet.

Spaghetti Marshmallow Challange

This activity was the last  we did. Its purpose was to work the design thinking to practice the prototing in collective being able to test what we build through trial and error in a collective way. The goal of this activity was to create a structure that could withstand with 20 raw spaghetti, 1 meter of tape, 1 meter of string and a Marshmellow at the top. Quite a challenge!

 

Give identity to de festival in Montbau

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In the course of Graphic Identity Projects taught by Xavier Alamany, the students of the Master in Graphic Design have developed a series of tools and resources to generate an identity that connects with the district of Montbau and the festival of reference for it.

Starting with the basics, the definition and analysis of the neighbourhood, its attributes, its strong points and its shortcomings. Discovering what you need and what we can contribute as designers. Subsequently, through dynamic classes, group corrections and small connected commissions, it has been defined what type of festival is appropriate in the neighbourhood, what graphic image is applied and what identity it has, maintaining the very essence of the Montbau neighbourhood.

Some of the final works of the subject are presented below. An identity on a specific festival applied in Montbau.

Gaizka Azketa 

Fontbau. Montbau Typographic Festival

A typographic festival where through various activities appropriate to different audiences will work the field of typography, the festival has been conceptualized through a special element, with importance to Montbau, its water source, where neighbors come for its purity.

 

Sonia Santos 

Set 7th Art

A film festival in the Montbau neighborhood that seeks to capture the attention of the neighborhood and its participation through contests and short films. It takes advantage of the tranquility of the neighborhood’s nightlife and combines the concept of the seventh art of cinema itself to give identity to the festival. The cube is used as the main image. A three-dimensional cube formed by squares, that synthesizes and unifies in a graphic way the concepts of geometry, unevenness, architecture, cinema, projection and focus, concepts typical of the festival and of Montbau.

 

Mònica Sacot 

-isme. Montbau cubism festival

An annual festival aimed at celebrating art in all its manifestations through the union between artistic expression itself and the geometric and rectilinear forms that make up the landscape of the Montbau neighbourhood. This edition is presented with the cubist movement. The festival seeks to encourage civic participation among citizens through recreational activities adapted to all ages.

Paula Terra

Retrospectiva. Festival of architecture and digital arts in Montbau

Retrospectiva is Montbau’s festival of architecture and digital arts. The aim of the festival is to promote and foster the exchange and relationship established between architecture and digital arts as forms of creation and conceptualization. The aim of the festival is to unite these two concepts (architecture + digital arts) to represent the essence of the neighbourhood and the original constructions through architectural representations recreated with digital art, such as mapping or virtual reality.

 

Maiela Zurutuza 

Efímera. Art on ground

A festival of floor muralism, where neighbors and visitors can come and see live several artists painting the floors of the neighborhood as well as participate in activities and contributions to the mural. The element put it by its geometry is used, an element of surface, transportable and combinable that refers to the tiles of Montbau.

 

Andrea Choque 

Recordart. People of Montbau Photographic Exhibition

Conceptualizes the graphic identity for a photographic exhibition where the authors are the neighborhood’s own neighbors. Empowering the historical values, the memories and the life of the neighborhood of Montbau. It seeks to create memory of Montbau, a series of memories through photographs exposed to the streets of the neighborhood, all in a direct, sensitive design that shows the photograph of the people.

 

Maria Vilajuana 

es[ ] es[ ] Festival of Scenic Arts of Montbau

This is to organize a Festival of Performing Arts in the neighborhood of Montbau. The choice of the type of festival, the naming and its design is not a septum; it refers to the identity of the neighbourhood, to the lack of knowledge of many neighbours and people of Barcelona, to its green spaces and pedestrians, to its architecture and to the name of its streets. The name of the festival therefore refers to its identity and to all that can be Montbau: esmusica esmontbau | esteatre esmontbau | esdansa esmontbau | escirc esmontbau