head-on

This is the dreaded post that no one likes to read, but, I must continue.

In these past few days I feel as though I’ve been merely pantomiming the steps one takes to complete a long-term project such as this. As I attempt to clarify and refine some of these so-called “final touches,” I am constantly feeling as though I am polishing an ugly pathetic little turd. This metaphor is not the best as it might imply that I detest everything about my project. The truth is that I don’t hate it and that I am ardently passionate about the subject matter and the majority of the content I have produced so far. Going back to the metaphor, I believe that hidden inside this turd is a beautiful jewel. Instead of polishing the dark matter covering the jewel, I must remove this veil of feces to return my project to the shining pearl that it is partially and conceptually.

The tough part is that I am only now discovering how far out of hand my project has drifted, and I have roughly five days to bring back on track. I don’t want it to appear as though I haven’t  been reiterating and redesigning this project all along. Looking back on the progress I’ve made so far, I see each major accomplishment as another addition to something that has grown to a heaping pile. Whenever I did expand or alter something, I didn’t do enough editing to remove the residual mess of what I was trying to replace or modify, thus, the project has grown to something much larger and ambiguous than I ever expected.

I believe the skeleton of my project is venerable and hardy, but as it stands now, with so much packed into it, all the best parts are being disguised by a hazy peripheral of blandness. My discovery of this came after trying to explain each part of my project to someone after they used a test copy. This was also a great test of what I am to expect when I have the critique after the exhibition. When I was justifying each part of the map, the user could start to see the concept I am attempting to convey, but was confused by everything else which surrounds it. Once again, I am encountering the problem of over-complexity.

There are also other parts that I can’t seem to justify, such as the background of the map. I am at a loss as to what I want it to be and how it currently stands. On top of this, it isn’t very aesthetically pleasing either. I can go on about all the faults I see, but there is not enough time. Rather, I am going to focus on what I (and others) find to be the best parts of my project and elevate/expand them to a higher level. I’ve found that the design of my map is much more than a little off, and is deceiving the visceral quality to the piece. A redesign is needed.

Tonight and into tomorrow, I’m going to start anew with my map. This sounds a bit crazy but I am more just going to try and work with a entirely different design. The content will still be the same, and I am sticking with the same type of folded shape, the layout will undergo a change.

I hope to have something to show tomorrow and hopefully it will look better.