Now we landed on the Planet Mars - a planet that conspirary theorists thinks of a former earthlike planet and we human destroyed that palnet and switched to earth. It is also fitting to what Mars represents in astrology - Mars symbolism is relevant to cycles, and the natural rhythms of life and death. On the one hand we have the driving force of new beginnings followed by a period of thoughtful retreat and a symbolic death to the things which no longer serve.  This  theory is kind of fitting at that stage of my life - the first half of my studies was a success of failures and now is the time to start again and hopefully not doing the mistakes again...as i said hopefully. In this chapter of my life you can youself judge whether i was successful ;) 

Magazine Design, Hypermedia, Interface/Screendesign, Interaction Design, Visual Design, Analog Design

- Crosshairs and circles = good approach - teasing of articles on the cover - revise font color/size and typo - content richness : more different variants due to unknown number of categories - Create grid: Each column should be the distance of two small m 

There was the following feedback: - Superheroes -> Discard concept

- do not focus too strongly on mascots

- Idea: Gift - Find App

- task:  find a suitable Copy magazine -> customize to MyToys-Theme

- Keep comic style minimal/reduce on mascot search game - Editorial before table of contents - Decision to search images under the key point Authenticity - Develop content -> Develop magazine design based on content

On 5.06. the groups continued to work on their designs either with the MDK-Professor or our lecturer in information-and communication design. The Professor gave me the task of presenting all the contents in a page outline and then filling it with more and more content. The group leader should search for authentic images. Then the page break was discussed. It came to the conclusion that the comic style should be the main design besides the product page. The Professor provided an intern to be responsible for the illustrations and the mascot.

The project at the beginning seems very fun and there is a lot to play and innovate the cooperate design of mytoys at that time. Moreover, because they did not have the magalog concept at the time there is little or no parameters (Page structure,typo etc.) to keep in mind while developing concaps for it.

The problems that arose at the time was that having an imbalance of differrent areas /study courses ( 5 Mediamangement:1 Media- and Communicationdesign) created a dynamic that was very difficult for me. What it made more diffficult is that i was in a group where the rest of the group members were male so it was basically a war between communication,thinking and designing patterns.

I have to say that the only real difficulty i had was the group leader, because the rest group members had certain tasks to do that i was not really involved in which involves marketing strategies, research etc. which was important for their project assignment.The rest were very open or at least ambivalent  to my designs but the group leader completely ignored my contributions to the designs because he had a certain vision and did not want to compromise on that. He did not really wanted to work with me because i think he did not think i am a good enough of a designer to make his visions come true. 

My supervisors at this project did not really know what to do because the group leader was stubborn and uncomprimising. I understand if you have a vision you want to see it come to life but i think to have a good foundation you have to respect your team mebers opinions and positions and not dismiss them of not being good enough without talking to them.

I don not want to come across as dismissive but i think it is important what your worth his and to learn from those extreme cases if i am in a position of leadership which i had later in life. 

If i would be in that situation again i would make sure that i make myself heard in a professional but stern manner and i would talk to HR or other responsible departments to find a solution.

Visual Design, Communciationdesign

task: deleping a poster with Berlin as a main theme

Before we should came with ideas we should research on a cooperate identity system of a city "WOW - Project" we like and do research on it

These were my ideas:

- since I want to present  Berlin on a personal level, I thought i would develop the poster under the theme of street art, because my favorite places in Berlin often contain a lot of street art and i am personally interested in it. In addition, street art stands for freedom and courage to express everything and everyone's opinion or art, which I would like to represent in the poster.

- place/product etc. extremely zoomed to look at the poster for longer (Because Berlin is the largest city in Germany, I would like to present Berlin not in its diversity, but in a rather unusual perspective)

- under the motto "I am on the road in Berlin" I want to present a place in Berlin in a top view on my feet 

-under the theme "Berlin time travel" I would like to present the development of Berlin

- to transform/abstract the sights of Berlin into graphic forms - to represent my residential street

- photograph people in Berlin - photograph certain period of the day (light ratio)

- Theme Young+Old :  Representing people from different cultures through characters (Human-Anger-You-Not)

First Poster Design : Translation "I like Berlin because you can be a Barbie-Cafe Fan"

With this design I wanted to create the message that people in Berlin have the freedom to like what they like and be open about it. Of course there will be people who judge but because of the anonymitty that is given living in a city the percentage in comparison to a village is higher. Moreover, given the high population of a city you will always find people who likes things as yourself so a "Barbie - cafe" can open and can be profitable. People who live in big citys see eccentric people and actions everyday so they are used to all kinds of people and do not react harshley to certain things that deviates from the norm.

Second Poster Design : Translation "I like Berlin because you can have a  Wesrtstr aka Simon-Dach-Str for the poor"

The photo was taken by my home street in Berlin. The Weserstraße is very long street in Berlin and at the area  of the specific sign is a very famous place for hipster bars and restaurants in Berlin with lots of indepented shops for cloth and kiosks. The interesting thing is that i witnessed the gentrification of that area. Bevor the gentrification a lot of people from turkey and arabic countries lived there besides the Germans, than at the start of gentrification a lot of students from abroad starting living there and now families are starting to live at that area.

"Simon -Dach-Str. for the poor" is a cynic statement to the changes in that area. The people who live there do not have a lot of money but they think there are cool like the people who visits the area of Simon -Dach-Str. which is a fomous party, bar and restaurant scene in Berlin. The prices at the bars and restaurants at Weserstraße are very low because the people who live there are mostly students. The Interesting part is that those places where young creative people meet it after time becomes a hotspot for people to visit rich,middle class or poor. This developemt was mocked by the person who wrote "Simon-Dach-Str for the poor". 

i like both aspects - first that an area which was mocked as a danger zone (because of the turks and arabs) became a hotspot for all kinds of people - but also the cynicism of the people who lived there a long time and mocking the hipster people on their lifestyle and their attitude and forcing the people to move because the rent prices became to much to pay. 

Having this different perepectives is what i like about Berlin.

Third  Poster Design : Translation "I like Berlin because every building has a history"

With this design i wanted to convey the message that not only famous sightseeing sights have an intersting history but also abondend buildings and those histories are also worth visiting

The first Design: I think the design illustrates the message but i think there could be a more extreme and creative way to show it. I think the placing of the Typo around the Barbie-Cafe sign is good and does not confuse the viewer whether something is missing in the sentence. The overall pink color in the poster can be to intense for some viewers so that they will not really look at it for a long time.

The second design: This design is closest to my heart because it illustrates my home area and where i grew up since i was three.years old but if you not very familar about the hotspots in Berlin you would not get the message right away but does not be a bad thing after all. I think the viewer could be influenced to research more tu understand the message and visiting that area. Moreover, if you are familiar with that area you can go deeper in the cynism of that picture and how it reflects the deeper topic of gentrification and social status.

The third design: I think the third poster is the most direct and easily understandable. It refelcts the history of Berlin and their underground feeling which Berlin is famous for.