In March 2019, the Department of Technology Enhanced Learning held a Mixed Reality (XR) event during the CIT Innovation Week. The event brought together a range of exhibitors both from and outside the institute who shared a range of VR (virtual reality) and AR (augmented reality) interactions from the Games, Construction, Education, Entertainment and Wellness industries.
Once the application to hold the event was granted, I was given the responsibility of organising the event as well as designing the promotional elements.
Poster & Flyers
The style I chose for the poster was isometric design to create the feeling of 3D and the alternative digital realities that can be experienced both through VR and AR. Using Adobe Illustrator, an isometric grid was created and the number of graphics and elements were created using a combination of isometric design techniques and traditional 2D designs that were rotated and skewed.
Additional Design Elements
Additional design elements like graphics for an event kick-off speech, general rules and way-finding were also created in the same style as the event poster. To ensure the event rules were correctly interpreted and followed. The icons remained in 2D and were a mix of bespoke designed elements and icons obtained from www.flaticon.com.
Retrofitted AR Posters
Long prior to the event, TEL Dept. Graphic Designer, Christina Pinkaow designed some posters of old patent drawings which were put on display in the meeting and conference rooms in the department. So learning up the event I decided to test the retrofit of AR.
I created an animation that played on a loop in Adobe After Effects, while also looping the music by counting the bars in the song. Once completed, I uploaded the animation to an online AR service called Artivive and used the original poster as the AR trigger. Then, once Artivive was downloaded to the tablet or mobile, the app will recognise the graphic trigger and activate the animation
You can still experience this animation by downloading Artivive and scanning the Atari 2600 graphic above with a mobile or tablet.
With the help of Christina and our Creative Digital Media Intern, Paulina Iwantky, three other posters of an iPod, an Oculus Rift and a film projector were also retrofitted with AR.
Future Events
Due to developments with Covid 19, there was not XR event held on campus or online during MTU’s inaugural Innovation Week. Moving forward we still cannot yet tell how open people will be to handling and sharing devices post-pandemic, but we hope to make a return for 2022 with some user and hygiene-friendly XR interactions.