Design For Participation

What AIGA approached me about doing a poster for a lecture about sites that are designed to advertise by word of mouth and participation, my rationale was simple one. Design something based on what you see in every blog, Facebook post, and anonymous posting you’ve ever seen on the internet.  We have all been there and experienced something like this. Every Facebook group is targeted advertising essentially, people just don’t know it.

What I came up with were basic talk bubbles that denote emotions. There are usually four things you see on a regular basis. People being positive, negative, exclamatory, or inquisitive. The final icon is based around what designers, marketers, and others do to shift the focus and people in their favor. It’s the x-factor, or the asterisk by which we are able to set the tone and be the catalyst for selling an idea, product, and so on.