Concept Report: Graphic Design Thinking - University of Canberra

This report outlines the design and development of a front cover concept for the 2019 Orientation Guide for new students at Canberra University. It details the design process, including problem definition, design thinking, and evaluation, while addressing constraints like limited time and resources. U...Read More

Graphic Design and Thinking
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Introduction
The designing activity is a process that usually involves problem definition, design
thinking, design description, evaluation and the actual design phases, (Cross, 2011). The main
objective of this project is to design and develop an appealing, aesthetic, simple and
communicative front cover of the 2019 Orientation guide book for the first years who will be
joining Canberra University. The main constraints of this project was limitation of time
allocated for completion of the project and insufficiency of resources for the student. To enhance
success of the project, the features of the client and the targeted were taken into consideration.
Generally, the success of the project will be determined on how well the design will impress the
target audience. The design includes a key art which communicates a welcoming theme to
welcome new comer students to the university. The theme is designed in such a manner as to
embrace care, security and academic support the university is expected to provide them with.
Thorough analysis of the responses from the target audience resulted to the final prototype which
was used to develop the theme for the 2019 orientation program.
Methods and Methodology
For conducting the research and commencing the implementation of the first stages of
concept development, brainstorming and ideation methods were employed.
User research
Questionnaires were distributed to 20 students who were between the ages of 19 to 21,
who made part of the audience. The questionnaire, as a qualitative method of research, has been
included in Appendix 2. The questionnaire includes questions on their experience of the last
orientation, and what they would expect from the oncoming orientation (Maman, 2014). The use
of questionnaires provided opportunity to elicit information from the target group efficiently. By
using a sample to represent the whole target demographic, the data that was collected will help
greatly in the design process.
Concept Development
The success of this project depended much on the application of the ideation and content
generation techniques that were employed in formulation of the methodology (Kimbell, 2011).

With the design brief and the designing of the problem clearly defined, framing and scoping
were employed to formulate a solution for the problem (Ambrose & Harris, 2010). Sketching,
brainstorming and mind mapping were used to communicate the design concepts visually. Each
one of these steps made use of the resultant data from the research methods, which was used to
form the initial design in this project.
Research development
An iterative process was adopted in order to fully explore and analyse every concept that
would successfully bring out the design brief and communicate a message to the targeted
audience. The iterative process involves the following stages: identifying the problem, defining
it, implementation of ideation and prototyping techniques, reformulating the problem, evaluation
and deployment (Zimmerman, Stolterman & Forlizzi 2010).
Each one of these stages relies heavily on research (Johansson Sköldberg, Woodilla &‐
Çetinkaya, 2013). A thorough understanding of the project brief and the requirement of the
targeted group enabled the initial stages of the development of the content to run seamlessly.
Goals and constraints of success have been clearly laid out in the brief design for future reference
(Dodge, Kitchin & Perkins 2011).
Then target audience for the 2019 orientation will be high school finishers of age 18-20
and post graduate students. The orientation guide will be of benefit to them especially, as they
start their journey in campus. It is vital to not only make a design that would be impressive to
them, but that which will also surpass the expectations of the audience. The cover on the front
page should be especially captivating and aesthetically impressive while at the same time make a
vivid communication of the development opportunities in the institution, and incorporate the
multicultural diversity of the students. The theme should be of a nature that students can easily
relate to and endear as a symbol of excellence while they are in the institution. It is observed
from the halo effect theory that users tend to associate a particular brand to a particular product
(Christensen, Johnson, Turner & Christensen 2011). It is expected that the guide to be used
during the 2019 orientation programme will guide the students in a positive way and leave an
ineffaceable first impression in their minds.

Concept development
A number of techniques were used to form initial concepts of the design, which include
mind maps and sketching (Mishra, Yadav & Deep-Play Research Group 2013). Information from
the questionnaires was also used to form the general popular idea of the target audience on what
they think of Canberra University. This was used in the implementation of the initial concepts.
The mind map included familiar words and phrases like the world, knowledge, unity in diversity,
support and development. Divergent thinking really aided in formulation of sketches, and
increased creativity, and at the same time allowed for experimenting themes on a wider scope
(Lawson & Dorst 2013).
Concept one
For the first year students from high school, university is a new environment, at least in
the academic world. A number of respondents associated University of Canberra with a ‘new
world’, as regards to education. Research into this concept resulted to rough sketches which,
after a careful analysis, resulted to a mental picture of the university offering a world of
opportunity to the students, in which they would develop their intellect. The globe represent s the
‘world of education, in which there is almost an infinite possibility of intellectual development.
Figure one and two below represent the thoughts and thinking of the students. The globe and the
multiple small pictures representing knowledge identified were used to form the themes below:

Figure 2.
Figure 1.
Concept two
Unity is considered a powerful impetus to development and progress in the world (Ware
2010). The university is considered a unifying ground for that which tends to separate people or
define them. From the questionnaires, a number of respondents indicated that unity in the
diversity of the university will be the hallmark of not only success, but a great promoter of
tolerability and mutual understanding in the university. Without doubt, most people relate peace
to development. I chose to represent this theme as hands clasped together, since joined hands are
generally used to represent peace and unity. The symbols of success as seen above the hands
represent the fruits of unity which of course is intellectual excellency (Razzouk & Shute 2012).

Figure three Figure four
Concept there
The third and last concept explored was concentrated on the role of the university as the
intellectual benefactor of the student (Hanington & Martin 2012). The university provides the
academic excellency opportunity for the student, and this was represented as the university
clasping the hand of the student, as it were a father holding their child’s hand. The bigger hand
represents the support and nurturing of the university (represented by the lager hand), to the
student who is represented by the smaller hand.

Figure Five
Final design strategy/concept
The concept that was finally settled on expresses Canberra University as an intellectual
development hub, whereby the university facilitates the growth of the students by making
available to them all they need. The final prototype is shown below as with the right lower side
of the frame representing the package of knowledge pact the university offers to the student.
Discarded sketches are included in Appendix 1.

Figure six
Figure seven
Conclusion
The 2019 orientation guide will depict a sense of security, booth physical and
educational, while giving the student opportunity to grow intellectually. It feels secure to know
that the institution is behind you, giving you all the support you need to excel in your education

(Johnson, Gross ,Hong, & Do 2009). The final design will grant the first years a sense of well-
being and emotional security, and will leave an impression of Canberra University as the best
academically supportive environment. The design was made possible by visually impressing by
the robust research methods and a properly formulated research concept research. The next phase
of this project will be drawing the final prototype of the design, followed by implementation and
handing over the complete design to the client.
References
Ambrose, G., & Harris, P. (2010). Basics Design 08: Design Thinking. London, England: AVA
Publishing.
Christensen, L. B., Johnson, B., Turner, L. A., & Christensen, L. B. (2011). Research methods,
design, and analysis.
Cross, N. (2011). Design thinking: Understanding how designers think and work. Berg.
Dodge, M., Kitchin, R., & Perkins, C. (Eds.). (2011). Rethinking maps: new frontiers in
cartographic theory. Routledge.
Hanington, B., & Martin, B. (2012). Universal methods of design: 100 ways to research complex
problems, develop innovative ideas, and design effective solutions. Rockport Publishers.
Johansson Sköldberg, U., Woodilla, J., & Çetinkaya, M. (2013). Design thinking: past, present‐
and possible futures. Creativity and innovation management, 22(2), 121-146.
Johnson, G., Gross, M. D., Hong, J., & Do, E. Y. L. (2009). Computational support for sketching
in design: a review. Foundations and Trends® in Human–Computer Interaction, 2(1), 1-
93.
Kimbell, L. (2011). Rethinking design thinking: Part I. Design and Culture, 3(3), 285-306.
Lawson, B., & Dorst, K. (2013). Design expertise. Routledge.
Maman Larraufie, AF. (2014). Qualitative Consumer & Marketing Research, Journal of Product
& Brand Management, 23(4/5), pp.375 – 37.

Mishra, P., Yadav, A., & Deep-Play Research Group. (2013). Rethinking technology &
creativity in the 21st century. TechTrends, 57(3), 10-14.
Razzouk, R., & Shute, V. (2012). What is design thinking and why is it important?. Review of
Educational Research, 82(3), 330-348.
Ware, C. (2010). Visual thinking: For design. Elsevier.
Zimmerman, J., Stolterman, E., & Forlizzi, J. (2010, August). An analysis and critique of
Research through Design: towards a formalization of a research approach. In
Proceedings of the 8th ACM Conference on Designing Interactive Systems (pp. 310-319).
ACM.
Appendix
APPENDIX 1: Discarded Sketches

Appendix 2
Questionnaire Design
Question Response
What is your age
Gender: Male/ female
What course are you pursuing at UC
What year of study are you in?
Did you attend the 2018 Orientation Guide?
What interested you about the guide? What
would you want to be changed in the future??
What do you like most about the university?
What images would you associate UC with?
What words would you associate UC with?
What are your favorite brands?
Do you have an interest in following trends
on brands?