Process Report- what we've done so far

Industries of the Blind Project Report:

Clients’ Expectations for the Space:

-Wanted a timeline to show their history since the 1930s until now and how it has progressed

-Wanted the mission of the company to be represented in the design

-Wanted to draw the community in so that Greensboro can see what the IOB is producing

Interviewing the Employees:

-All of the employees reinforced the family environment at the IOB

-Talked about how there is more open communication within the company than in the past

-Expressed a need for tailoring the design to each different type of visual impairment

-As a company, they contribute to the community and want that to be seen (want the community to feel the passion for IOB like they do)

Braille as a Texture:

-We used Braille as a way to relate the nature of the company and its employees into our design; we believed texture was necessary as a means of way finding and creating a tactile experience for the visually impaired.

-How Braille could be used on different levels of scale

-We abstracted the concept of Braille as a texture and began exploring other shapes

Experimentation:

-We began making sketch models as a way of exploring texture

-Made rubbings to explore the inverse of the textures we studied

-Worked with light and photo studies to show how light was affected by our textures

-Increased and decreased scale of our models and applied them to floor, wall, and ceiling

Graphic Elements:

-Started out with a chaotic, irregular triangular form

-Moved to a hexagonal tessellation pattern

-Decided on a warm color scheme and applied color studies to our graphic elements

Concept:

-Arrived at a family tree idea for a concept because of the family environment at the IOB and the long history of the company

-Decided on “White Oak” as our concept because it symbolizes the IOB’s strength, endurance, and ability to adapt to changing circumstances over time

-Broke our concept down to roots, trunk, and leaves:

-Roots: founders, people of the past contributing to the history of the IOB

-Trunk: management, workers

-Leaves: products, the output IOB is giving to the community

Current Endeavors:

-Revisiting texture, applying the concept to our tessellation pattern

-Developing ideas for a lighting design