ninapilar

FORM + FUNCTION

NOTES ON INFORMATION DESIGN | SCROLL ↓ TO VIEW

HELLO!

My work tends to focus on design implementation within a company’s messaging. I also enjoy graphic design purely as an exercise, a challenge for its own sake: via vector illustration, font creation, and experiments in the upcoming web3 realm.

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In spite of the growing excitement around decentralized platforms + the whole decentralized realm…people naturally drift toward centralized sources of truth. Ironically even in deFi for example, there are “oracles” that provide verified information. (More entities realize that all of this must take a visual form at some point…) Not to take you too far into the weeds but that’s where I work, and I love it. 


I’ve helped progress in projects wherever I had the chance – not only by connecting based on the famous/infamous whiteboarding sessions that have become standard…but also by improving any proprietary/ built-in tools that support functionalities that are less and less in the hands of designers like me: authoring design assets, editing text, modifying colors, creating graphics, sourcing/generating audio + motion content, and managing the underlying file system. With the majority of non-designers (as employees) requesting better built-in tools, it became critical that it not only be the purview of designers.


DECK

ANNUAL CONFERENCE PRESENTATION

THE CHALLENGE

The initial brief included a conversation and both handwritten + typed bullet points with a request for visuals. How can the plan gain the support of the stakeholders? The design supported the CMO’s message + approach with bold details and images for the annual conference.

PROCESS

MY ROLES FOR HANDS-ON, PROJECT COORDINATION


_Craft project objectives

_Communicate with developers to provide a clear project goal

_Craft + document milestones to project completion

_Strategy + Art Direction



MY ROLES WITHIN COMPANY MESSAGING STRATEGIES


_Critique Phase Visuals that acknowledge the landscape and rally around the issues

_Fantasy Phase Present vision via dashboards that can be adopted by stakeholders

_Implementation Phase Draft visuals for action plans

ABOUT PROCESS

Each interaction point, whether it be a presentation, marketing materials, source code and documentation, or direct communication, represents an opportunity to interact with developers from the beginning of their development to the final goal. It’s become exponentially more important not to isolate/be isolated from different roles within a project. Especially devs. Even if it seems they are speaking another language, it’s more and more crucial to learn it, at least enough to have fruitful conversations.


This can be done via a company’s proprietary comms solution, or via chat+Github.  I have a few ongoing project case studies that demonstrate this. These works-in-progress will need to be audited, overhauled, and “templatized”, so it’s critical for developers to have the best project briefs and ongoing comms as possible.

FAUCET FONT

A custom OpenType display font in early stages. A nod to the retro visage of a slow dripping tap, and the futuristic nature of the crypto coin / testnet faucet. Click to view the project on GitHub.

— PROJECT NAME

YearZero.xyz


— ROLE

Vector Illustration

Motion Design

Content Strategy


— DATE

2020-Present

This is an ongoing hobby project that seeks to connect hi-tech to lo-tech via growing spaces in a "modern" age. The basis of the WW2-era Victory Garden is brought forward to our world of constant connectivity.


What is YearZero? These are moments when humanity realizes their social + economic “norms” have been completely destroyed. Conditions have changed so drastically that expectations evolve. After the power struggles, after the delusions of a possible return to normality fade, a new world emerges from the ruins.


The world seems disheveled. But if we look back, and look ahead…we can see that there is so much to look forward to. Our role in a decentralized local food system is to provide gardeners, homesteaders, farmers, and foodies year-round access to nutrient-dense annual starts and native, regenerative, perennial seedlings.


Experiment: Revisiting the Landing Page


A flexible design that puts focus on one subject – in this case, a font. The video background makes it simple to capture and communicate a theme precisely.


Visit the project on GitHub

Live Preview

— PROJECT NAME

OnceGuilded Font


— ROLE

Vector Lettering

OpenType Font Creation


— DATE

2021

Spanning from the Golden Age of Piracy in the 1700s to the 1800s formal years of stock certificates and hand lettered currency notes, onceGuilded 1918 is a victorian Font, a steampunk visage, a letterform that ebbs and flows through time. 


A stalwart of the Gilded Age and the Guilds that signified authoritative centers of creation + information sources, a key style for official documents, a look that was hand drawn or inked via letterpress.

INFOGRAPHIC

IMPORTANCE OF WEBAPP SECURITY

INFOGRAPHIC

IMAGE QUALITY + OPTIMIZATION

How should a cybersecurity firm visualize the invisible “defensive shield” needed for companies to operate on the internet? Decision makers often don’t budget adequately for guarding against cyberattacks unless they see an attack for themselves. Or…unless they are made aware of the consequences of ignorance in a way that feels real to them: concise depictions of revenue loss, loss of reputation, and regulatory repercussions.

Experiment: Going Beyond Traditional CE templates


The goal: make a fully responsive, interactive, simple "continuing education" theme that can be installed online, or within any internal / proprietary setup. Platform agnostic in the simplest form. Instead of complex backend requirements, the content can easily be replaced using the open-source codebase.


Visit the project on GitHub

Live Preview

— PROJECT NAME

Wandering Through Web3


— ROLE

Voxel Design

Digital Parcel Build


— DATE

2020-Present

To say web3 (the apparent “next phase” of the internet) + the “Metaverse” are in the early stages would be an understatement. Still, it’s interesting to think what it could be like to spend even a small part of professional life in an immersive digital space. 


This project is located on Cryptovoxels; a similar platform to the better-known Axie Infinity, Decentraland and Sandbox spaces. Content creation is very new + experimental; it is constantly defined and redefined. “Voxels” are the 3D version of “pixels” – the visual of choice as low-poly is to other platforms.


Thank you for viewing my portfolio!