Month: April 2024

If I were able to donate money to a non profit I think I would start by trying to find a local organization that might be able to impact people and communities near me. I think that it would be meaningful to see changes being made in communities close to home, and it might be more impactful to a smaller organization that may not have the same large pool of resources as a larger organization. I decided that I wanted to choose a non profit that focuses on conservation and environmental stewardship. After researching Seattle based non profits, I landed on Forterra as the non profit that I would like to support. The mission of the organization to promote land conservation and stewardship appealed to me. It was also clear that they have been able to follow through with their projects, having conserved 275,000 acres of land in Washington. I also found Forterra’s current projects of conserving and restoring important wildlife habitat very important. It was also interesting to reflect on how nearby these projects are, for example in Federal Way, or Hood Canal. I think that it can be easy for myself living in a city to think of conservation projects as happening elsewhere, in some untouched wilderness, when really these kinds of projects should be happening everywhere. By conserving and being good stewards of the land around us, we make it possible for future generations to not only be able to enjoy green spaces, but also have cleaner waterways, more stable and healthy soil, and more diverse and healthy ecosystems around them. I don’t think there will ever be a way to reverse the exploitation that has happened to the environment, but preserving what spaces we can, and restoring habitats when we are able, will help mitigate some of the local impacts of environmental damage.

For this assignment to make a mood board for a new Stanley dog bowl, I decided to look at the imagery of the brand, especially some of the older imagery that shows the history of the brand. I chose this route because I feel that the customer for this product is probably someone who camps or hikes a lot and likes to do things outdoors with their dog. This customer is probably a Millennial or Gen X, and probably shops at REI. I focused on photography and colors that reference the history and PNW roots of the brand, and that tie in to the outdoorsy aesthetic that the target demographic would like.

For this blog assignment I looked at the design systems of The Guardian, Mailchimp and Apple. This was a really interesting exerecise to see how all of these companies need to be thinking very intentionally about the same basic elements—like color, grid layouts, and icons—but that across all of the companies specific elements, and reasons they are chosen, are very different. For example, I thought that it was very interesting the way that the same colors could have drastically different significances for each system. Within the design system of Mailchimp, they include red as a core color in their UI, but advise against using it too frequently, because the company does a lot of data visualization and red is often associated with negative feedback within this framework. However the design system of The Guardian also includes red, and it is used much more frequently on the site to indicate news articles (as opposed to opinion pieces, or sports). I think that the use of red is intentional, and a wise application here because it indicates that the articles associated with red are more urgent.

Overall it was interesting to break down the design systems of these companies, and I was to see how important the design systems were to help people navigate and find the information that they need. It’s so easy to overlook how important and essential these systems are, these websites—and in particular the data visualization of Mailchimp—would be completely different without them. It was surprisingly interesting to look at The Guardian’s design system. Until learning more about the conventions of web design and Jakob’s Law, I hadn’t considered why news websites look so different from other types of websites, but it’s clearly a very intentional choice to reference the traditional print layout of a news paper. Many elements of The Guardian’s design system were different from the conventions I’ve been taught so far, and that’s intentional to reference the print component of the newspaper. For example, the design system uses a serif typeface for the body copy, even though the standard for web design is usually a sans serif. I was already aware of how important design systems are for web experiences, and this exercise gives me even more reason to appreciate the hard work that goes into making a website that looks effortless and serves the user and the content.