Experiencing the Botanic Gardens

Wellington Botanic Garden was the last place of my 3 potential destinations that I needed to visit. I was looking forward to going there, as there is quite a contrast in the type of scenery at the gardens, in comparison to that found on the Red Rocks walkway, and the Mount Vic Bush Trails. The main garden is located just off of Bowen Street, and about a 10 minute walk just up from Parliament building. From there, you can embark on a variety of walks, some of which lead you up to the top of the hill, where you can then visit Carters Observatory, the Cable Car, or even just have a lookout over Wellington City.

I ended up exploring the Botanic Gardens nice and early this morning. The walks are all relatively easy, with the main difficulty being the odd uphill section. However, it's optional to take the Cable Car up to the top of the hill, and then spiral down one of the walkways until you reach the main garden at the bottom, which in turn makes the walk slightly easier again. In some of the walks, you are surrounded by trees, which has a similar atmosphere to that of Mount Victoria. However, there are other section around colourful flowers and plants, which creates a slightly more vibrant and cheerful atmosphere. The atmosphere down at the main garden is something different altogether, as the stunning range of colours is truly mesmerizing.

I took a large amount of photos during my adventures around the Botanic Garden, which will be printed out on a contact sheet, and placed into my physical workbook for this studio paper. I made sure to take photos of the surroundings, and various textures throughout, so that I have the option of somehow incorporating these into my brochure.

I'm very happy with the three set destinations that I have chosen, and I'm really looking forward to the challenge of promoting all three of these inside of a brochure. Over the next few days, I will look to get some secondary research done, so I can find out more about the background, and potential historical context behind each of these unique Wellington destinations.

Climbing Mount Victoria

This morning it was time to climb up Mt. Victoria, and see first hand why it's rated as one of the must-do's in Wellington. One of the good things about Mt. Vic, is that there are multiple entrances that you can start the walk from, all of which have reasonably similar levels of difficulty in terms of reaching the top of the mountain. The walk could be considered of medium difficulty, and may be a bit harder for those who aren't used to the difficulty of uphill walking. However, there is back road that leads all the way to the lookout in which you can drive or bus up, and then enjoy the walk downhill to the city.

Once I reached the top, I was in awe of the view. Mount Vic offers a full 360 degree view of the city and the bays, and is a perfect spot to capture some stunning photos. This is where I got a lot of my primary research, up at the lookout. The photos will also be placed onto a contact sheet, and stuck into my physical workbook. However, along the walk, I did take a whole heap of photos so that I could look back and easily remember just what the walk was like, and how it felt to climb the mountain. I want to try and incorporate the atmosphere of each walk into my design, whether it is through the use of colour and shape, or even a more subtle insertion in terms of composition.

Throughout the walk, there was quite a neat contrast. In a sense, some areas seemed quite isolated and remote, which created a quiet, lonely sort of feel. However, the vibrant greens on the trees in most areas created a real strong connection between the natural environment and myself. Along the way, there are also multiple spots which are good for stunning views as well, and although they aren't quite the full 360 degree view, are still worth a look.

This walk would be a good fit into my promotional brochure for the Greater Wellington, as it has enough of a similarity to the Red Rocks reserve in terms of the set activity, scenic walks/views, and also allows enough of a contrast in terms of atmosphere, difficulty, and type of view. Tomorrow morning I'll head on down to the Wellington Botanic Gardens and explore around that area, to see if that can complete my trio of scenic walks.

Exploring Red Rocks Reserve

In order to get my research started, I ventured out to Red Rocks Reserve today, in order to gather some primary research. I was looking to get a whole heap of photos of the place, as well as just take in the feel and atmosphere created out on the walk. To get out there, I took the number 29 bus, one of a few that head out to Happy Valley Road (one street off of Owhiro Bay Parade).

Once I arrived at the final bus stop, there was a short walk to the bay, although it was clearly marked with a sign printed "OWHIRO BAY". From there, I turned right, and followed the road along the coastline, all the way until I arrived at a building with all sorts of helpful information about the history of Owhiro Bay inside. Another good feature was that there were public toilets at the start of the walk.

Throughout the journey, I captured over 300 photos, and gained an appreciation for the walk. I instantly felt like this was a walk I wanted to advertise and promote in my brochure, particularly because people may not hear about it as often due to it's remote location, although it's definitely worth the trip out there.

The breeze off of the ocean, the breaking waves, the variety of textures on the walkways, and the consistently amazing scenery along the walk were some of the exciting features on the walk. Along with these, the red rocks themselves were really extraordinary, and there are also spots close to the red rocks where seals can be spotted, and you can feel more in touch with the marine life. The walk takes roughly 30-40 minutes to get out to the rocks, and the same on the way back. It is a reasonably flat surface, and quite an easy difficulty. I will print out several contact sheets containing all of my photos from the walk and put them into my physical workbook.

Tomorrow morning I will head up Mt. Victoria to gather some primary research from another of my potential promotional destinations. It will be good to see the contrast between these two walks, especially to see the difference between an uphill mountain walk, with a stunning view at the top, and the enjoyable coastline walk which offered amazing views throughout the whole walk. I will then aim to head to the Wellington Botanic Gardens on Saturday morning.

Deciding on a Set Theme

Overnight, I went home and continued to brainstorm ideas for my set of three destinations or activities in the Greater Wellington. Being extremely into my sports and football, it seemed obvious that I wanted to do one revolving around sports in Wellington. However, I wanted to broaden my theme a bit so it wasn't just aimed at footballers, I wanted it open to a larger audience. I ended up deciding that I wanted to design my brochure around scenic walks or nature walks within the Greater Wellington. After doing a bit of online research, and checking out reviews on multiple different walks, I decided upon the following three, making sure that there is enough of a similarity in the theme, although enough of a difference to make noticeable changes between each page on the brochure.

Botanic Gardens- I felt like this would be a nice, natural one. The fact that the main garden is full of so many colourful flowers, there would be very calm, soothing feel about the Botanic Garden. This made me think that this would be a good walk to contrast the others against. Wellington's Botanic Garden has multiple smaller walks that you can embark on, most of which take you through some intriguing bush walks, while also giving the option to head to the top of the hill via a pathway and have a look at the Cable Car, as well as the Carters Observatory.

Mount Victoria- The idea of including a slightly harder walk in the brochure was very tempting, so I decided to include a nice uphill track which winds up towards the top of the Mount through clearly moulded pathways and tracks. Even though the track is slightly harder due to the inclination, the view at the top is rated one of the best views in Wellington, with a full 360 degree view of the city and the bays. This will also be a perfect walk to include in my brochure as Mount Victoria is one of Wellington's best free attractions.

Red Rocks Reserve- This walk again contrasts the other two I have marked as potential walks to include in my brochure, while still fitting into the scenic theme. From my research so far, I found that Red Rocks is in a more remote location, rather than directly in town, which in fact gives me more of a contrast between the walks, and more of a reason to pick this one as my third option. Also, rather than being a walk through bushes, and the 'green' side of nature, this walk would allows the audience to experience the beautiful coastline of Wellington, and has been said to offer some remarkable, stunning views along the way.

Before next Monday's session, I'm going to make sure that I get in a huge amount of Primary and Secondary research. This will include going to experience each of these walks first hand, taking photographs, and taking in the atmosphere and feelings generated at each, along with identifying objects, textures, colours, shapes, and the various other features unique to the specific area. In terms of secondary research, I will use the Internet, and will also try to find some brochures or other forms of advertising which will give me even more of an insight into these areas. Considering I have never been to either of these three before, this research part of the project seems extremely interesting, and I can't wait to get out into the nature to explore these three walks. Who knew that research could be so fun and adventurous?! By experiencing them first hand within the first week of class, it will allow me to see if I think they are really worthy of going into my brochure, otherwise I might need to try a different walk that I may be better off advertising. I'm really looking forward to getting out there and exploring the Greater Wellington myself, and seeing what it really has to offer! My research findings will be posted on this blog within the next few days...

Analysing the Brief

Today was the first day back at university, and the start of 2015 Semester One, so most of the lesson was spent going over the brief, and brainstorming on some ideas that each of us could follow up on for our brochure. 

Our brief involves using the aspect of Puna, also known as the wellspring of ideas and knowledge. The set objective, is to "design a brochure that promotes a set of three thematically linked recreational destinations or activities in the Greater Wellington region". This online blog, has been created in order to run hand in hand with my physical workbook, as a further way of documenting my design process, by summarising each day's activity via this blog.

I instantly thought that this paper seemed interesting, and found the aspect of 'having a client' very exciting, being given a specific task to design (Brochure for Wellington destinations/activities) although still having the freedom to independently choose your own set of destinations or activities to feature within the brochure, which allowed us the chance to choose a set that will keep us interested and focused throughout the course of the studio paper. So today, in small groups, we brainstormed a whole heap of potential ideas that we could take into this project, and we have been asked to decide on our own individual set overnight, so that we could share our ideas with the lecturers in Tuesday's lesson for feedback.