parc
creative coding • app development • data visualizationcollaborators: RNDR [visual system, concept]
challenge
develop an application for the Partnership for the Assessment of Risk from Chemicals (P-A-R-C) that generates a unique cover design for a set of peer-reviewed publications of indefinite length based on identity guidelines. PARC aims to develop next-generation chemical risk assessment to protect human health and the environment through new data, methods, and tools.
concept
PARC publishes a monthly newsletter called PARC Science Digest in order to “keep the scientific community and other stakeholders interested in (their) results up to date”. The newsletter shares a collection of scientific, peer-reviewed work that PARC has been involved with over the previous month.
As an extension of their work on PARC’s identity redesign, RNDR designed a visual system for treating the covers of these works.
deliverable
using the OPENRNDR framework, i programmed a Kotlin application that applies this visual system to an ever-growing set of publications. the app accepts a CSV file via file drop that contains meta-data for each publication in the set, and for each cover maps the number of authors to a specified range of stroke weights, number of shapes, and the diameter of each shape. the number of background columns and their colors are determined by the number and grouping of work packages that have contributed to the publication. other parameters such as shape position are computed randomly at runtime.
Cover Generator App
the app serves as an in-house development assistant for RNDR.there are two modes. the user selects either vertical (static cover) mode or square (animated video) mode, and the app begins to export frames to the downloads folder.since the intent was to maximize the range of possible covers, every iteration is unique, including vertical covers when compared to their square cover partners.
square mode is used to create social media posts, and vertical mode for cover images