Exercise 1 reflections

This is the San Francisco Transbay Terminal Environmental systems diagram by Except Consult for the TJPA competition in 2007.  This diagram shows how stormwater is collected and re-used and how the system and the presence of the trees deals with the heat produced by the vehicles. I found this diagram to be clear yet informative about a very complex system, and the way it is organized and rendered is very compelling.  I find the combination of the semi-realistic exploded axon and basic labels and sub-diagrams to be quite successful.  Since this drawing was not labeled as such, I think it was made with Photoshop and Illustrator, since it is so crisp and precise it may have been drawn on top of an AutoCAD drawing.  From this I learned that I can combine diagrams without making them too busy, and express a system not just as a flat flow diagram but also in a 3-dimensional manner to show how the system will operate in real space.

Shanghai Carpet Master Plan

Tom Leader Studio and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP. 2006

This is the plan for a plaza at the Shanghai Yang Pu University City Hub. The colored stripes are made up of a large palette of materials and textures that help reflect the history of the site.

It is hard to render realistic master plans in a way that does not feel too dark, flat, heavy, or busy.  There is so much information that goes into one and is seen from a perspective that most people usually don't see.  I think this one works.  The area that is the proposed design is more defined than the existing surroundings yet does not contrast too much and seems part of it.  everything is simplified but recognizable enough to know what it is without labels cluttering it up, you can also get a feel for how the space interacts with the buildings.  

I would guess this piece was drawn in AutoCAD and exported into Illustrator with swatches and trees drawn in Photoshop then brought over into the image.

Section showing relationship between Pier 4, Brooklyn Queens Expressway, Landform, and stone beach;

Brooklyn Bridge Park;  Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, 2005

I find this section to be more interesting than the standard flat cut-through ones since not only can you see the vertical spatial relationships that you find in a section, but also how the horizontal works with it.  I can actually see myself in this space so I think it is successful.  The trees are also transparent enough not to block or detract from the image. The text also does not distract from the image as much as it should which is good since this shows an expanse of space that needs labels to help define what is there.  

This seems to have been done in Photoshop and Illustrator as well, perhaps on top of an AutoCAD section for accuracy.

Parc De La Cour Maroc Perspective of Terraces; Paris, France

Michel and Claire Corajoud & ADR and Georges Descombes, 2006

How realistic should you make a perspective? If it is too realistic people seem to automatically have a reaction of like or dislike, but if it is abstracted slightly or things that are ephemeral are shown as such then people tend to look at it longer and really think about it rather than following a first impression.  The landscape looks realistic yet obviously put together so you know this is a image proposal not a photo after completion.  The people within the site show how it can be used yet they are not permanent installations so they are B$W and faded out slightly. This makes the identity of the people not as important as their presence and interaction, they work better for the image than a solid silhouette would too. 

My current approach to creating perspectives is to make them as photo-realistic as possible, but this seems to be more successful in some ways.  This was definitely created in Photoshop, possibly on top of an existing image.