2009/10 Matcha design competition submission

This set of submissions for the 2009/10 Matcha design competition uses a combination of hand-created elements and code-based randomization to capture the Matcha spirit. First, we hand-drew elements inspired by upcoming Matcha events, and Asian culture.

Then, we converted them to line art on the computer, and fed them through a custom Flash-based app, which generated layouts of our illustrations in creative ways. The app allowed us to 'play' with the composition through simplified editing. It's modular, and really easy to change what's being laid out; by stating colors, backgrounds, and swapping out artwork.

It's a lot of fun to see how arbitrary layouts take shape. Compositions come out of the program that a designer might never dream of doing. And because it's all based in Flash, we can deliver the experience via a standard browser. Output from the app remains in vector format, lending itself to print executions, banners or even t-shirts.

The poster generator got us thinking... wouldn't it be cool if the elements were animated? And what if you could interact with the elements via motion detection? See the DJ Interactive Animation and the rest of our Matcha ideas here: www.jefffang.com/matcha

We are a handful of designers and programmers who like to make things that are... well, cool. Drop a line, we like feedback!

Best,
Jeff Fang / Jonathan Ratcliff
jeff@jefffang.com / contact@jonathanratcliff.com

www.jefffang.com/matcha

PS. If you would like to embed our videos, here are the embed codes:

<br /><a href="">Matcha: Poster Generator</a> from Jonathan Ratcliff on Vimeo.