Exercise: Birthday List

Exercise: Birthday List (Graphic Design One, pg113)

Make a birthday list poster to keep on your wall. It is likely to be there for a while so it needs to look good. Start by collecting all the birthdays of your friends and family. You’ll need their name and birth date, to decide whether or not you buy them presents or just send a card, text message or email.

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I’m not sure I entirely got the point of this exercise. I think this is partly because I tend not to use these sorts of things, so I had trouble getting past the ‘I’d just use an app’ thought! I started with a few sketches and looking online at other examples. The online research suggests this is seen as predominantly a female or young children market so the designs very much reflect this. Lots of bright colours, cupcakes, dinosaurs and stickers.

After making a few sketches, primarily to think about layout, I decided I would work on a perpetual version that could be downloaded as a PDF. It would have a hole in one corner to put a loop through for hanging, and each one can then be recycled after use. I wouldn’t put the month on but leave a space for the user to fill it in themselves.

I also decided I would use a pastel type palette, with an informal feel for everyday use. In terms of the information to include I decided on:

• Date
• Name
• Card
• Phone call
• Present
• Text
• Make a cake

I created a landscape grid and added balloons and bunting.

In terms of the need to contain certain information I think the design works well and it could easily go on a pinboard, fridge door or hang from a kitchen hook. The design is probably not the most inspiring in the world because of my feelings about the task and the nature of the output. I was definitely more engaged with the infographic, which is useful learning in terms of how I might deal with a design task that doesn’t excite me in future.

Rework

My tutor was right when he suggested this had gone clip art in design, and that was because I didn’t care about it and couldn’t find a way in to the exercise. Having talked it through I revisited it with more of an app approach in mind. I could envisage a series of screens, taking you from the months to the individual birthdays. It would be flexible enough to allow you to add your own categories, but I have included the most obvious. I am much happier with this approach and could imagine it being useful. Moreso than a poster or wall chart!

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