Over the last couple of weeks, I was given a brief to create an interactive map, I choose to make the map on Bond Street and the different designer store that could be found there. For my Primary research I decided to go Bond Street and take photos of brand that sounded familiar like Gucci, Cartier, and Saint Laurent, I also took some photos of stores which were quite new to me such as Etro and Chatila. My target audience for this map was high class people that live local to the area and are in the mood to spend some money. However, this map can also be used by rich tourists and even rich students and other people who have the money to spend. This map had to be completed by the 4th February 2022. The point of me creating this map was so that my target audience can find the designer shops on Bond Street and even look at the other spots there that are available to shop at.
One of the first things I had to investigate was what is interactive media after doing some research I saw that interactive media means a software/product consumers can interact with across different platforms. For a product to be classified as interactive media, the programs output depends on the user’s input. After doing the basic research required, I investigated some places I could map. The place that came up in my head was Hayes (my home town), Punjab, India, or Paris (somewhere I really want to go). I decided to go for Bond Street as I wished to relate my work on fashion and thought this would be a suitable place to pick as it is the home to many different designer brands. After picking the location I had to gather some photos so I could have a sketch of what my final products look like. For the planning I sketched thumbnails of the store fronts and a rough area of the map that I was going to cover.
The theme of my mapping project was luxury designer brands this was inspired by all the other luxury retail work I have done and I thought I would fit in nicely as it is what my niche work is done in. Whilst working on this mapping I came across a map of Marseille made by Bodil Jane I personally like this map because of the use of the colour and all the different icons representing different areas now looking back at this map by Bodil I really wished I made something more like it as I believe it would have been more of an enjoyable task with all the different art work. Other information I gathered was gathering colours for my map and visualising what colours would look where, I also had to get some street names so that the consumers of the map knew where they were always, I also looked up opening and closing times if I ended up needing them for anything. A lot of this research was done online and on maps. Some primary research I did which I have touched upon before was going to Bond Street myself and going to take some photos I could use as reference to draw my icons from.
To get my result of the map I had to use multiple technologies and software, for example I used an app name Procreate on my I pad to get an outline of the map. After I got the outline, I started to fill the map in with the colours I chose from adobe colour. When I completed the map outline and had filled it in, I started to focus on drawing the store outline and making them illustrative so that they would stand out from the map base. After I had done this for all my brands, I had decided to export my work as a PSD file to InDesign so that I could add all my bits on the map and then make it interactive. One of the things I had to work on before making it interactive was the placement of the icons and make them geographically accurate. When I was satisfied with the results, I used the frame tool to make frames around the shape and the pressed control right click to make my icons interactive from the right click options.
What I think went well during the last couple of weeks whilst doing this project is that I got to an outcome of having a full interactive map which people can use whilst going out to Bond Street. I also go to learn how to make an interactive map and even an interactive art work. Even though it was not what I was aiming for I personally think that the art work turned out well as an outcome. One thing that could have gone better was that I really wished I could think of something to link the icons to as I feel like so many people who were doing this task had done the something. Now thinking about it I believe I could have added a link to a street view or something like that.
As a result, I am happy with my final piece of work even though I think I should have included more colour. I really like most of the icons I had created they turned out well especially the Chatila, Ralph Lauren, and the Cartier ones, I personally like these ones more as they stand out the most to me however, this could just be because the way they have been positioned. One thing I wished I looked to more was if it was possible to have a little pop up when the consumer hovered over the icon. One thing I would change is the style I have done my map in; this is because I wanted my map to be so geographically accurate that I could let my full creativity break free and I dint get the chance to create my map in the style I wanted to.
Project JASNAM 