Handheld Media: Climate Change - Ramon Montes
I chose the topic of climate change with a guide to help fight it. I chose this topic because I took an environmental geography class a couple of semesters ago, and there was some interesting information I learned I thought I might be able to incorporate into this assignment. I also knew I wanted to create something informative similar to the two artifacts I chose to discuss in this week’s discussion being the “So You Think You're an Ally - Zine” and the “How to be a trans ally: A beginner’s guide”. I wanted to use similar aspects from both of these artifacts and thought this topic would make a decent fit in a similar approach.
The audience I am mainly targeting are those who believe they can do more for their environment in their routine. The audience does not necessarily have to be on either extreme of the spectrum. As climate change is a global issue that will extend over a long period of time, I want my audience to be a wide range of people. This is part of the reason why I made my handheld media with a more community-oriented and interactive approach amongst people.
I selected my format based off of inspiration from the artifacts I mentioned earlier. I thought an article style would be more engaging in terms of discourse, and the images I utilized were to help maintain the sense of engagement. In addition, I also wanted to include a similar aspect of the “call to action” and the tips section we saw in the two artifacts, where I included several tips on how to reduce and reuse in some of one’s daily routines.
I did not want to reject the principles of design entirely in the creation of my media. I wanted to incorporate some forms of hierarchy, contrast, balance, and white space. Any headings had larger, bolded text with a brown frame and texts filled with information were kept at the same size to maintain the feeling of an article. Most of the change in color is to separate pieces of information, but also to reference different environmental elements being impacted by climate change. I used hierarchy on some quotes to grab the attention of the audience to understand the delivered intentions. As for white space, the background is filled with a smoke/gassy reminder of the greenhouse gases negative impacting the average temperature of the planet.
Part of the process that surprised me was when looking up for tips to reduce and reuse, and how to become more helpful to the environment, I was not expecting to find so many different tips and tricks. There were some I have heard of and practice, but some I did not even know were possible. For the most part, I tried incorporating tips I thought anyone could be capable of applying in their routine.
Resources and References
The audience I am mainly targeting are those who believe they can do more for their environment in their routine. The audience does not necessarily have to be on either extreme of the spectrum. As climate change is a global issue that will extend over a long period of time, I want my audience to be a wide range of people. This is part of the reason why I made my handheld media with a more community-oriented and interactive approach amongst people.
I selected my format based off of inspiration from the artifacts I mentioned earlier. I thought an article style would be more engaging in terms of discourse, and the images I utilized were to help maintain the sense of engagement. In addition, I also wanted to include a similar aspect of the “call to action” and the tips section we saw in the two artifacts, where I included several tips on how to reduce and reuse in some of one’s daily routines.
I did not want to reject the principles of design entirely in the creation of my media. I wanted to incorporate some forms of hierarchy, contrast, balance, and white space. Any headings had larger, bolded text with a brown frame and texts filled with information were kept at the same size to maintain the feeling of an article. Most of the change in color is to separate pieces of information, but also to reference different environmental elements being impacted by climate change. I used hierarchy on some quotes to grab the attention of the audience to understand the delivered intentions. As for white space, the background is filled with a smoke/gassy reminder of the greenhouse gases negative impacting the average temperature of the planet.
Part of the process that surprised me was when looking up for tips to reduce and reuse, and how to become more helpful to the environment, I was not expecting to find so many different tips and tricks. There were some I have heard of and practice, but some I did not even know were possible. For the most part, I tried incorporating tips I thought anyone could be capable of applying in their routine.
Cover page of "Climate Change: And Introduction page: Climate Change
a guide to help fight it" and Global Warming
"The Three R's: Reduce, Reuse, Recycling Guide and Graph of Global
and Recycle" Population and Waste Percentages
Tips for Reducing and Reusing Tips cont. and Concluding Statement
Hi Ramon,
ReplyDeleteI wanted to be sure to reply to your post because I think you picked a great topic! I also selected climate change as my topic to address through handheld media, and enjoyed getting to understand you perspective on the concepts represented through your media. You pointed out something important, and that is there is something that people can do in their daily routine to help fight climate change and decrease their individual contribution to a global problem. Further, the audience doesn't have to take an extreme view but rather make small adjustments daily. I held this view of the intended audience as I made my media as well, but rather than targeting people who believe they can change, I wanted to reach people that did not. My hope included attracting the attention of individuals that did not have climate change on their radar, and I believe that your media can also be used for this purpose.
In your design approach, I like that you created a background that gave a sense of discomfort about the greenhouse gases released in the atmosphere as a constant reminder of the urgency of the situation as a reader digests the content. It's also an interesting design choice to change the color of text throughout to segment individual topics or details. I'd be interested to know more about your thoughts behind this decision, and how your selected your color palette.
Hi Ramon,
ReplyDeleteI liked how you put a highlight behind the important titles on your pages, because that's what captured my attention and let me know where to start reading. You have a lot of good information on your pages, and I wasn't left confused and knew exactly where to start.
I also agree with your point about being surprised about all the tips and tricks about being helpful to the environment, because I experienced the same thing while researching voting and voting registration. It was interesting to find out all the different ways people can vote and how it differs by state for sure.