Alice So Far

19 Blog Posts I Didnt Make

Remember this mess? An escape room / advice on

stress, its circular nature and the power of the
individual to control it? I remember it, but not the
appeal it held at the time.
During crit, there was some feedback that it was too
complicated for the allotted time and the concept
was coming through more as hopelessness than
anything. At the time, I was a bit disappointed,
having been really caught up in the characters I
would get to portray. A few weeks later, I am so glad
it was pared down (and that I took that advice). Ive
gone from 6 rooms to 2, and had the energy to
make each of them pretty in depth.

During crit it was suggested that I focus on the lightswitch room because of its interactivity and
originality (the other rooms were all pretty heavily
based on the struggle to wake up and get to work in
the morning).
The light-switch room has walls tiled in switches of
all sorts and a good deal of pull strings hanging
from the ceiling. Guests are let into this room in
small 2-5 person groups (like escape rooms). They
are not allowed to leave through the same door they
entered through, but no other door is immediately
noticeable. In dim lighting they would all try different
switches looking for the one that reviles the exit.
Each switch or pull would have various results:

no effect
strobe lights
some string pulls being
retracted or dropped into reach
different colored spot lights
sounds or voices

The most important effect is the spotlights. A certain

combination of switches causes a combination of
spotlights that revile the shadow of the exit door.
This allows the guests to the next room / tunnel
thing with a feeling of exhilarated accomplishment.

2
In the draft above, I looked at a pyramid shaped
room and a cylindrical room with a rounded ceiling,
wondering which would mess with perspective and
depth the most when reaching for light pulls.
I had guests entering over a story tall ramp (for no
apparent reason) and through a curtain that would
take up the whole width of the Tate. This was
supposed to make the exit a mystery, but as you see
below, was deemed (by me) to be far over the top.

Here you can see the space saving, more modest

version of the same rounded room. This is when I
realized the ramp and the spiral path for the exit had
no meaning.

Looking for that reason, as well as some resolution

to the puzzle (it seemed rather pointlessly frustrating
if you solved it and got nothing), I looked back to
the source material. Alices first goal is to get to the
garden. My original maze of weirdness ended in a
place to relax and take a breath. These two goals
go together well.
The spiral exit from the light-switch room is now
inclosed, preserving the surprise for those who
havent been through the light switch room and
preserving the quiet privacy for those who have. The
walls are filled with gravity defying sculptures of
beautiful garden plants and the smell of fresh cut
grass (Im sure Febreze has it). Hopefully they leave
this tunnel of greenery feeling calm, and sated.

This inclosed tunnel would make a cross-section of

the rooms look like a double walled thermos. Frank,
if you dont recognize this, you drew it. Im keeping it
close to remind myself not only to do the crosssection, but also the 3/4 view and a flat view.
We also discussed what the outside would look like.
It could be something decorative or some stark.
Either one could completely hide the experience on
the inside. I considered a shipping container, but I
think Im going with a concrete block, much larger
than the room inside for some disorientation. The
outside would be strong and forbidding, the inside a
mental challenge and the exit organic and smooth.

At this point, I started getting too complicated

again. Frank advised me to try doing the light-switch
room with the most depth, maybe even doing an
animated gif showing it working. Im still pretty
attached to the garden at the end. Well see how I
can work with both of those and the time limit (much
more limited than it should be due to my being
behind in every other class as well).

These are the approximate dimensions of the room.

The person shown is an adult as you can tell by
multiple anatomical markers and my extreme skill
with life drawing. The room would be a bit tight for 5
people and a bit empty with 2.
I drew this intending to pull it into illustrator and pen
tool over it, starting my final architectural drawings
of the exhibit. At this point I was a week and a half
behind the schedule Id given myself. I also forgot
about branding.

Frank gave me the go ahead to either finish the

architectural drawings or start on branding. I knew if
I finished the drawings, I would find something in
the branding that caused me to change the exhibit
itself, so I went to logo sketches. Neither they, nor
the names came easily. I did decide at this point
though, that I wasnt so afraid of including a bit of
victorian aesthetics in either the branding or the
exhibit itself. A little bit of a steam punk feeling
started to creep in with all the light switches and
frills I kept ending up with.

These are the favorite sketches I ended up with. I

couldnt really decide between them, so I decided
to make a brand board for each and see which was
the most successful.

This is where going out of chronological order is

actually more ordered. This is the most recent and
fastest failing logo consept. Its the top right logo
sketch shown above. I tried refining it in illustraitor at
first, the same way Id treeted the other logo
refinements, but it wasnt working. In this case, I
went analogue (probably the influence of all the
hand type we had been doing in Type 4) for the
smoother frills I could get with a pen versus a pen
tool in illustrator. My plan was to take it back to
digital, image trace and start making glowing
somehow in the computer. I didnt get that far
though, because I talked with Frank first. Id gotten
one of the earlier logos to work, and time was
definitely passing.

This was not that logo. It was one I spent an undo

amount of time on though. The tag says try me,
which would be the actual title of the exhibit, but
dont touch stood out much more. It was suposed
to have a contradictory, mischievous tone to it.

The brand board above was ridiculously fun to

make. I really enjoyed working with the keywords
mischievous, impulsive, ornate and high energy.
Imagining this one, I was very much in a steam
punk and fairies world.

I even started remaking a pattern to use. I dont

know why. This is pretty obviously a waist of time in
hindsight. I think I was intending to use this
branding with out doing further explorations. I was
taking a lot of time and wanted to start rushing,
either that, or I just got in a pixel pushing trance.

This was the second mood / brand board I made.

While I was adamant at the beginning of branding
that I wouldnt use a light bulb as the logo (the first
thing I thought of), this was different enough and
whimsical enough that I felt comfortable breaking
my own rule. I talked to Frank, and we agreed that
this direction was working the best, so I started
developing it.

I have very little to say about these. They were

extremely slow going and uninspired. There was
trouble making both the mushroom and the light
bulb readable. I tried adding spots to the mushroom
and shine to the light bulb, which made it
overcomplicated. I added threads to the lightbulb,
which I was unsure of, but kept.

9
Try Me

TRY
try

Me Me

TRY

Try Me

In the next step, I reduced the number of threads

and tried different treatments of them. I was much
happier with these.

T RMe
Y

This is the responsive logo set for this direction. I

wasnt sure weather the type or the mushroom was
the smallest version. It was fun to make, but also not
reading right. The small mushroom was neither a
mushroom or a lightbulb to viewers.
In desk crits, we discussed the type and how it may
be a little much to have two such expressive
typefaces in the logo itself. I think I usually go over
the top in the beginning phases of projects, and
when asked to reign it in, I dont really know where
to go. Thats why I tried even though it wasnt a
requirement. reigning the extra in is a skill I could
develop more, so its what Ive got to practice.

10
t ry

t ry me

T R YM e

me

Winner of this round!

This is me trying to make the text less wiled, and the

mushroom more legible. Not quite there, but I found
one I want to continue with. This was the point where I
started seeing the ghost of the architectural drawings
in my dreams, wondering how far Id gotten on that
and why I wasnt working on it at that moment.

11
t ry

me t r y

t ry

me

me

T RY

t ry me

ME

t ry

t ry

me

me

t ry

t ry

me

me t ry

t ry

me

me

try

t ry

me

me

This is a type exploration ick. Theres going to

have to be a lot of changes over spring brake.

Next Steps:
1. Choose a logo. Spend 30 minutes refining it.
2. Refine the brand board to go with that logo. 30
minutes.
3. Sketch poster, invitation, catologue and website. 1
hour total.
4. Vectorize architectural images. 2 hours (I will
probably need more time, but am trying to work
faster, so Ill give myself harsh timeframes).
5. Spend 30 min refining each piece of the collateral.
6. Put images into presentation and on blog. 20
minutes.
7. Wright bullet pointed script for presentation. 1
hour.
8. Practice presentation. 1 hour.

30+30+60+120+(30x4)+20+60+60= 620 minutes or 10.33 hours

See late blog post count continued in my blog about the senior
show concept development.