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

 

Graphic application projects with Martí Ferré

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In the subject of graphic application projects with Martí Ferré we have projected a country in a bottle and its secondary packaging, a poster, an editorial publication and a volumetric element or material. All of this is conducted through different dynamics such as workshops, presentations and group corrections, mindstorming on graphic elements, brainstorming, etc. And with the previous breakdown and analysis of the parts of a graphic project to treat them individually, understand them and generate better graphic results in their unification.

 

Some of the Projects of the course:

Rosa maria de los Heros – Argentina

The project focuses on interpreting and communicating the country of Argentina through color, typography, image and material. In order to disintegrate the country into these elements it was first necessary to do some research and understand what aspect of the country was to be revealed.

In this case, there are two sources of inspiration. The first, the story about the origin of the name of Argentina. The second engine of this project was the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo as a symbol of struggle against the ravages of the dictatorship. From these two pillars, it was possible to communicate values such as the mirage of expectations and the voice, the opinion, the implication of its people as a “thread” that unites and mobilizes the country. 

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Soraya Alba Marquez- Iceland

The project reflects the concept of solitude in the most isolated areas of Iceland where there are only deserts of lavas, waterfalls, volcanoes and uninhabited areas. The most austere, solitary and at the same time resistant and strong way of life in the small isolated farms lost in nothingness. The intention is to capture the isolation, the long and dark winters, the isolation, and the strength of its inhabitants in front of this other harder and more hostile face of Iceland.

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Paula Terra – Greenland

In the representation of the bottle and its packaging has been represented with the colors the 3 elements that define the climatic conditions of the country and transmit the calm of the population through the composition and proportions. The poster refers to the hunting of the Inuit, with the letter O as the main element it is possible to recreate the ice hole to be able to hunt. The publication consists of 40 images that show the set of 40 words that the Inuit use to express the different stages of snow and ice. Snow is part of the Inuit lifestyle and this proximity is transmitted with a texture that refers to tradition, with a more familiar and close character. The representative volume of Greenland represents the hunting of the Inuit through the use of materials. The sculptural format is due to the construction of large ice sculptures that were used to orient themselves in the landscape and indicate the areas suitable for hunting. In addition, their sharp form represents the hunting tools and the environment in which they were carried out.

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Leo Kulisevsky – Palestine

This project tries to escape from the hegemonic representation of Palestine where it is always represented by fear and war. Starting from the Palestinian tradition of reading the coffee grounds and the forms it leaves, I take the idea to develop the chosen concept: land. These forms help me to represent the forced territorial fragmentation that exists in the country and to speak of the territory as a living place that resists.

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A new guest: Oscar Guayabero

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On January 15 and 24, we received Oscar Guayabero in our classroom, all within the subject of Identity Projects taught by Xavier Alamany.

Oscar Guayabero defines himself as a para-designer. Actually what he does is tell stories, he does it through objects, writing, installations, books, curating exhibitions and also teaching, publishing articles, activating platforms …

The session began with a conference where design was treated as a tool for social change, possible through the sum of the basic elements design + empathy + mediation- All shown with different design examples, their impact on society and your benefit

Then Oscar, along with Xavier, observed and listened to the different project proposals of the students in order to lead them towards a better projection, understanding and visualizing the strengths of each project as well as the weakest aspects to strengthen. It generated a session of debate and collective correction of the most interesting!

We are very grateful.

Graphic Production

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In the subject of Graphic Production taught by Lluc Massaguer of the Master’s degree, the supports, processes and printing techniques in graphic arts are studied, as well as the preparation of final and original arts to be able to be reproduced. It shows each of the parts that make up the graphic process from conceptualization and ideation to final delivery. These are some of the resulting final projects:

Four-Color — Leo Kulisevsky

The aim of the work is to experiment with different serigraphic techniques, the main one being four-colour. In this work, the original black and white image was converted to colour and the result obtained from the division of invented channels (CMYK) was seen. Will the superimposition of these four inks turn the photograph originally in black and white to color?

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Pantone Organic — Rosa  Maria de los Heros 

Pantone Organic is a research project in which it is proposed to use domestic fruit and vegetable waste generated at home to check whether it is feasible to produce inks for screen printing. He uses the “pantonera” system as a record of the different colours he manages to produce. In this way, it remains as an archive of the possibilities that exist and perhaps as a tool to convince or share the results with others.

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Graphic design with fluid paint — Monica Sacot

The project is based on the deepening of the work with acrylic paint used with the acrylic pouring technique. It consists of preparing a mixture of acrylic paint and medium acrylic to achieve a texture that flows easily through the canvas. The main objective of the project is to create visually attractive images and then use the image generated to apply it in the production of graphic design in the form of background, texture, pattern, and so on.

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Starting a new project in Montbau, Barcelona

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We’ve just started a new project with Xavier Alamany, professor of Graphic Identity Projects. The project is focused on identity design in one of the neighborhoods of Barcelona, ​​in Montbau.

We started it with the masterclass by Albert Crispi, architect with a long professional career, founder of architecture and rehabilitation AC architecture and rehabilitation, and professor of EINA since 2004. During the session he showed us the functioning of the neighborhood since its beginnings til nowadays. How it was raised urbanistically and how people interact with the elements that form it. At the same time within the architectural field, Albert carried out the rehabilitation of one of his buildings in the Montbau plan. Projected in 1960 by the architects Xavier Subias, Guillermo Giráldez and Lopez Íñigo for the Habitatge Municipal Patronat, it is one of the best examples of rationalist concrete architecture in Barcelona. Through the experience of this rehabilitation we were able to understand both the architectural intention and the will of the neighborhood association towards the neighborhood and its connection with it.

To complement the information about Montbau, we wen on tour with Xavier Alamany. We were able to see the distribution of the neighborhood, the functioning of the main squares and the most hidden ones, the existing stores, the architecture and its relationship with the character of Montbau. We went through the most characteristic buildings, we understood their unity despite having been designed by different architects, the green areas that complements the neighborhood and we got an idea about the daily life of the people who live in it.

Understanding the essence of the neighborhood was essential to focus realistically on the identity project.

Students visiting Vanguard Gràfic

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As a final session of Graphic Production subject, students of the Master have visited the Vanguard Gràfic printing company. A printing company located in Sant Adrià del Besòs (Barcelona) with more than 100 years of work and experience, with the objectives of helping its clients, surprising, impacting, seducing, motivating and, above all, communicating. Vanguard Gràfic offers a wide variety of services, such as: editorial production, brochures, exhibitors or displys, packaging, digital publications, among others.

Josep Amat, digital director of the printing press, has shown us all the departments that comprise it, the machines with which they work and their active functioning, their working methodology and the procedures that are carried out to achieve the maximum printing qualities and the best finishes.

We have started the visit through the pre-printing test area, where the communication between the pre-printing staff and the designer is fundamental.

In the printing department, we were able to see the spectacular Offset H-uvi machine and the amazing HP Indigo in operation, capable of making high quality prints.

Next, in the post-production department, we have seen the handling of the dies to make all kinds of cuts and marks, for projects such as business cards, folders, packaging, etc. Later we have been able to visit the machinery where the sheets, stapling and other postproduction services are made.

In addition, Vanguard Gràfic has the ideal space to develop projects in a manner advised by its I+D team. The catalogs of papers, the finishes and all the samples they have made are shown.

To finish the visit Josep Amat has given us a masterclass on colorimetry, conceptualization and identification of the types of papers and impressions that best suit each type of project. As well as practical advice to request a quote from a printing company.

We are very grateful for the opportunity and for all the new knowledge.

Folch Studio comes to visit us

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On November 28 we received the visit of Albert Folch and Rafa Martínez from the Folch studio, all within the subject of Project Management of the Master.

Albert Folch, founder of the studio and creative director together with Rafa Martínez, strategic director of Marca and COO, presented us the study from its beginnings to the present, showing us elements and strategies that they use, as well as the essential aspects that should be taken into account before a design project.

Folch studio was founded in 2004 as a study in editorial design and art direction, nowadays the studio is defined by its active participation in all phases of the project, it is involved in aspects that go beyond the direction of art and publishing. They generate content through strategic narrative which, unlike traditional imperative advertising systems, is able to attract the target’s attention. They analyze and understand the central vision to develop a strategy around them, this is what creates real relevance. Concepts, products, experiences and services are translated into emotion and images. They understand the brand as a broadcaster, each with its own audience and stories to tell.

Given the change of paradigm towards media narration together with the increase of demand in the creation of content, Folch has founded White Horse, a producer far from the traditional ones where they work freely in all the necessary aspects of the projects. White Horse realizes the production of audiovisual and photographic pieces for the brands and institutions. It is a creative company focused on production and activation.

We are very grateful for the visit to our classroom.

Masterclass with Angel Rocamora

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On November 14 we received the visit of Angel Rocamora, fiscal manager of Futbol Club Barcelona and professor of financial and tax law at the University of Barcelona (UB). All this within the subject of Analysis and management of graphic design projects of the Master.

During the masterclass he explained step by step all the tax and fiscal law concepts that we might need as graphic designers at some point in our professional career. Beginning with the function of the Tax Agency and Social Security, identifying direct and indirect taxes and their corresponding tax declarations, knowing the social obligations, the functioning of freelancers and the current regulations of these, as well as the options we have in case of want to start a company, such as the foundation of limited companies, corporations, etc. All showing us the advantages and disadvantages of each of them.

Angel patiently responded to all the doubts generated during the session. It turned out to be a very interesting and necessary session for us, both for the knowledge learned about our obligations as future entrepreneurs and for the rights in front of a company.

We are very grateful.