new visual
language form follows function
07/05/2014
Issue #1
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contents TFD1063 5
The Cabinet of Curiosity
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Artists & Inspiration
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Idea Generation
8 Final
9 Evaluation
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Streetgraphics
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Artists & Inspiration
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Idea Generation
14 Final
15 Evaluation
17 Earth Artefact
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Artists & Inspiration
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Idea Generation
20 Final
21 Evaluation
Production Studio 22 New Typefaces
Design Thinking 23 Manifesto
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TFD1063
THE CABINET OF
CURIOSITY “Derive ideas from the world around you, from your own background, from your childhood, from relationships with others, from the social and political environment. Don’t be confined to a pond in which the water is always in danger of becoming stagnant” -KenGarland
The Cabinet of Curiosity project was about capturing personal experiences of or moments in our lives where we encounter curiosity. Curiosity, like emotions, is an extension of ourselves; a combination of what we understand and what we desire to. This project aimed to showcase what
makes us curious, our preoccupations and concerns about the world around us and the people who inhabit it. Without being too literal or shallow our ‘cabinets’ had to convey our personal curiosity clearly as though it were a tableau in our head, a theatre of the mind.
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artists & inspiration
{ Louise Nevelson } Louise Nevelson was an artist best known for her monochrome abstract sculptures, categorised as abstract expressionist. Nevelson used discarded wooden objects resourced from urban areas to create these sculptures, the objects were then carefully arranged to create a narrative context.
(Far Left) Royal Tide IV, 1960 (Left) Dawn’s Wedding Chapel IV, 1959-60 (Above) Sky Cathedral, 1957-60
{ Joseph Cornell } Joseph Cornell began initially by creating collage art in 1931 after he was inspired by the surrealist artwork of Ernst and Dali. Eventually Cornell adapted his compositions to fit within the dimensions of a box, these highlighted his ‘view’ of the world and were filled with found objects.
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(Far Left) Untitled (The Hotel Eden) 1945 (Left) Untitled (Window Facade) 1951 (Above) Untitled (Soap Bubble Set) 1936
idea generation Researching into Greek road-side shrines and box artists had me contemplating the significance we assign to our possessions. I felt emotional about the road-side shrines that families had created to immortalise their loved ones after accidents and even those created simply to warn travellers of danger ahead; inside these boxes were personal effects, candles and religious imagery, it was heartfelt, considered and personal. However, I didn’t want my cabinet to be personal to me, I wanted it to make a statement and evoke curiosity in the people that saw it. The thought process behind my cabinet of curiosity was very conceptually led, each idea is something that I have observed or experienced but isn’t personal in the same emotional sense that a typical shrine is. They are extensions of my conscious mind, an attempt at physically representing what I find curious.
[ Memories ] With the trend of social networking and the ability to share your experiences with the click of a button their is a pressure to document everything digitally. You develop this unexplainable fear of forgetting something unless you’ve shared it or stored it somewhere. Everyone is suddenly a photographer and most of the time it’s mundane things. I don’t often forget what I, my dog or last night’s tea looked like, I don’t feel the need to showcase exactly how the weather is effecting my home, not since the girl who lives three miles away is showing me it’s raining outside her window. Yet these boring, everyday occurrences suddenly seem to have achieved great importance. The ‘memories’ idea would mock this culture by hanging these everyday variables in ornate frames inside a larger, plain frame.
[ Communication ] The way we communicate and operate on a day to day basis seems totally dependant on the internet, we appear to live our lives online. What happens when there’s no wifi? No power? During a power-cut recently the first thing someone suggested was watching a film. How? Facebook was quiet and selfie’s were lost without Instagram, #nopower. It made me think about old handwritten letters to your friends, reminders on the fridge and the phone box actually being used for the purpose of phoning someone. Machines do everything for us. This idea involved using an old Dell monitor hollowed out and filled with handwritten letters, notes, envelopes, yearly calendars, library cards, newspaper clipping etc. Physical representations of life before the internet.
[ Possession ] I hoard receipts, I don’t exactly understand why but I think it’s because my parents had this pot in the kitchen full of them. I keep them in a safe as if it secures my purchase, I own it because I have the receipt. The possession idea would either highlight my own strange collection (a drawer full of receipts, bills and ownership documents, magazine adverts for new products, interesting shopping bags etc.) or turn it on it’s head and become a negative that highlights a greedy nature - wanting more. It could instead be a drawer with cancellation notices, void payments, repossession warnings, red bank statements, gambling chips and cut-up credit cards. A reminder that money is powerful and has an immense control over us, you can’t live without it and yet it seems you can’t live with it.
[ Consumerism ] This idea originated from receipts, I was thinking about consumerism during the brief delivery after reading Ken Garland’s quote about social and political environment. It developed into where I keep my receipts (in my purse) in my bag, which got me thinking about what women keep in their bag and how they act as a personal shrine to a woman. My mum often jokes that her whole life is in her bag and to a degree that’s true, you could probably tell a lot about a woman by what she keeps in her bag - what is considered important enough to be there. You could go as far as to stereotype a woman by the kind of bag she carries and it’s contents. A designer bag belongs to a business woman, a clutch bag is ‘the going out bag’, a backpack screams student etc.
[ Society ] Regardless of the endless equality campaigns we live in a judgemental, divided society, without thinking and often without meaning to you judge people; that’s the way the world is and has always been. One of the biggest struggles in society is what is considered beautiful and what is seen as ugly. If you’re not one, you’re the other. Black and white. Using symmetry the society idea would take the same objects but destroy one half (scratching, burning, melting etc.) to highlight the battle of beauty vs. ugly. The box itself would be something that is associated with beauty, specifically a wardrobe style jewellery box that has mirrored doors. The mirrors and drawers on one side would be pristine and clean whereas the other side would be cracked and destroyed.
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final & evaluation A student bag has to be sturdy, after all, look at what you have to carry. The strangest things I had in my bag were dental floss, matte white spray paint, glasses and a handmade bead necklace from my sister. The glasses are the strangest because I don’t even wear glasses. I don’t know where they have come from.
Exploring my Nan’s old her room I found this small handbag with a surprising collection, amongst the conceivable objects were a few interesting items, diet pills, counselling business card and a picture of her and her brother as a child. Unfortunately I can’t ask my Nan why she had these items and they remain a mystery.
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My cabinet of curiosity is not necessarily extensive, it’s pretty simple in execution but it conveys my curiosity clearly and serves to prove my theory that a bag, although easily stereotypical, can offer up a curve-ball or two every once in a while. What is considered normal to carry in a bag? A purse, umbrella or make-up bag? What about dental floss, spray paint, party poppers or a photograph that’s over eighty years old? A handbag is more complex than it seems, it can be a means of carrying the everyday ‘essentials’ or having happy memories close by. A woman’s bag is a shrine to herself, whether it be daily or life-long. My ‘cabinets’ are only a brief exploration of the endless possibilities and combinations of items that hold significance to people at any given moment. I’ve tried to showcase this with my work; the student bag is mine, the black handbag was my Nan’s and the night-out bag was a situation I created. The night out bag is a fusing of items I would take, people I’ve asked would take and stereotypical items. For instance, I would never take underwear with me, but a ‘promiscuous’ woman might. I don’t smoke, but it was a frequent answer.
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TFD1063
STREET
GRAPHICS “The life of our city is rich in poetic and marvellous subjects. We are enveloped and steeped as though in an atmosphere of the marvellous; but we do not notice it.” - CharlesBaudelaire
The street around us is in a constant state of change and adaption, it evolves as we do in order to keep up with the developing of world; technologically, industrially, aesthetically and socially. Streetgraphics was about interpreting
and navigating the streets, being aware of how the space around us is seen and experienced. It is more than the layout of a town and it’s directional signage, it is it’s cultural and social significance, it’s language.
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artists & inspiration
{ Jose Guizar }
{ Candy Chang }
{ Guerrilla Marketing }
Jose Guizar is a Mexican graphic designer currently residing in New York, America. It is in this new city that the personal project ‘Windows of New York’ began. Described by Guizar as “a weekly illustrated fix for an obsession that has increasingly grown. A product of countless steps, this is a collection of windows that somehow caught my eye”
Candy Chang started the ‘Before I die’ project after she lost someone she loved. It started in New Orleans, with the help of some friends, on the side of an abandoned building. Since then there have been 475 ‘Before I die’ walls created in over 30 languages and 65 countries such as Japan and Kazakhstan.
Before big brands and large companies took over, Guerrilla Marketing started out as a low cost marketing strategy using unconventional means such as graffiti, sticker bombing, flyer posting etc. to draw attention to an idea, product or service. It targets people in unexpected places in order to create a buzz.
You can track each window by the note of address beneath the illustrations. They appear minimal but actually feature quite striking details, textures and layers.
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Chang’s work reflects the relationship between the streets and the people, it looks at urban planning, street art, and design. It tries to engage with people.
Guerrilla marketing was designed to create a unique, engaging and thought provoking experience. Usually witty or humorous designs.
idea generation I always try to get inside other peoples heads with my work, I want to make people stop and be affected by what I have to say, to have myself be heard by faceless people. Walking around Huddersfield for this brief I wanted to find a way of putting my own commentary on the town. Huddersfield is a big student community, there is a strong club culture here and that is reflected in the endless promos, flyers and stickers that seem to hold the buildings together; but beyond the 2 for 1 Jagerbombs are markers of it’s heritage, you can see it between the contrast of architecture and layout of the street. With not being from Huddersfield I found myself comparing it to Chester, there are several unifying qualities that I wanted to bring out in my approach, it was my way of making it a home, with a personal stamp.
[ Empty is Ugly ] Since the hit of recession the high-street has been overwhelmed with empty shops. These unused retail spaces bring the appearance of the street down, they’re ugly and something needs to be done to utilise the space. Sticker-bombing to emphasise this.
[ Soundscapes ] Recordings of sounds within the city such as traffic, snippets of conversation and noises associated with certain types of shops (laundrette, pet shop etc.) played on speakers in intervals at green areas of the city to emphasise the need for nature and quiet.
[ Don’t Look Up ] ‘Don’t Look Up’ was inspired by Candy Chang’s ‘I Wish This Was’ in that it involves sticker-bombing Huddersfield with a reverse-psychology message that subliminally asks the viewer to look to the sky, to nature, as opposed to endless buildings. See the world.
[ Shop Displays ] Creating a shop display from pictures of Huddersfield as if it were a shop itself, tourist-based it would explore the landscape and history of the town and encourage visitors to explore the area. Looking at creating a layered time line display, maybe a 3D collage.
[ Personal View ] Taken from the ‘Shop Display’ suggestion and ‘Window of New York’ the ‘Personal View ‘ is a collection of window frames taken from the architecture of the town. These frames can be held up in front of a camera to ‘display’ the users personal view of Huddersfield.
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final & evaluation I created the Empty is Ugly logo using Adobe Illustrator CS6, it is a pretty straight-forward, minimal design that visually represents what I wanted to say. I felt that an empty cardboard box best illustrated the idea of emptiness and the juxtaposed typography reinforces the message. Due to limited funding I was unable to print these off as stickers at the time, but had I would have opted for them to be shape cut, clear window vinyl so as not to damage the glass.
These were some of the initial design solutions; the far left logo was an introduction to different typefaces, their relationship and placement whereas the closer logo suggests an almost stamp-like circular design where the box becomes the active logo and the typography is secondary to it. I do like the circular logo and think it could work well as a ‘reminder’ - introduce the concept with the above logo and the box becomes recognisable as a lone representative.
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After I had completed the Empty is Ugly stickers I decided to go back and digitally design the Don’t Look Up stickers. During it’s early stages I tried to see if it would work by simply telling people I saw not to look up, needless to say they did, although sometimes I was met with a ‘Why?’. The visual to the left is the very first Don’t Look Up design solution, it uses directional arrows to counteract the statement and act as a subtle guide. I added small print to briefly explain the idea.
I moved on to adding more small print, I’m a very sarcastic person so thought it appropriate to write it in a sarcastic tone. There is still the arrow visual and the image of the sky - gives you a clue as to what you’d be seeing/why you should look up. However, I didn’t think the arrow was adding anything for the design and removed it.
This is the tried and tested final design for Don’t Look Up, it’s a very simple typographic design but is legible and works people have been looking up. I took away the small print because I didn’t believe the design benefited from it. I want people to look at it, look up and walk away - it’s supposed to be a quick action that calls on peoples curiosity. Why am I looking up? Who is telling me to?
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TFD1063
EARTH ARTEFACT For millions of years mankind lived just like animals. Then something happened which unleashed the power of our imagination. We learned to talk, we learned to listen. Speech has allowed the communication of ideas enabling people to work together... To build the impossible. - Stephen Hawking
The Earth Artefact brief was inspired by the Voyager Golden Records, phonograph records that were included aboard both Voyager spacecraft launched by NASA in 1977. They contained select sounds and images that portrayed the diversity of life and culture on Earth and were intended for intelligent extraterrestrial
life or future humans. If encountered the records could be played and would provide an insight into life on Earth at that time, acting as a time capsule or a symbolic symbol as opposed to a serious communication effort. ‘Earth Artefact’ was not intended to be a recreation of the original records but a contemporary interpretation.
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artists & inspiration
{ Risa Rodil }
{ Craig Ward }
{ Shepard Fairey }
Risa Rodil is a designer, illustrator and letterer whose work reflects her love of bright colours, typography and retro illustrations. I initially looked at creating a series of hand-rendered typographic posters with minimal visuals to illustrate the opinions of the world I had collected, Rodil’s style reflected this perfectly. Her work incorporates these elements and flows.
Craig Ward is an English graphic designer and art director currently living in New York. Ward is best known in the industry for his experimental typographic pieces. The above piece helped develop my ‘Greeting’ idea from a one hand/ on letter approach to combining the images and looking at creating legible letter forms.
Shepard Fairey attended RISD, Rhode Island School of Design, graduating in Illustration before turning his hand to wheat pasting and sticker bombing - for which his work has become famous. Fairey’s stencilled, propaganda style of working inspired the ‘Vote for Earth’ campaign idea, minimal imagery and solid colours.
There is something very personal in hand-rendered type that I wanted to showcase, the point of this brief is to have something that will one day be used to understand our life - handmade, unique.
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This piece of work took the ‘Handwriting’ concept from a flat poster to a piece with added depth. It layered the same phrase several times and ripped away in different areas to reveal different styles.
The Hope poster by Fairey is minimal in design yet manages to capture an essence of authority and trust. That’s what I wanted from the ‘Vote for Earth’ campaign, over all other plants why Earth is best.
idea generation Earth is an incredibly complex planet, it’s very hard to condense whilst still doing it justice. It has an impressive resume of sustaining life and keeping balance, it’s both ordered and chaotic. Out of it’s many variables I chose to explore the Human species whilst dipping in and out of science, geography and culture for my addition to the Earth Artefact. I wanted to look at the elements personal to us, our gestures, emotions, shape and brief psychology - competitive nature, trying to turn what could be seen as an otherwise negative element into something positive for Earth. My idea generation spans from my exploration into Humans - I looked into our appearance, (natural and cosmetic) emotions, gestures, relationships and how we communicate and interact with one another.
[ Greeting Sign ] Using hands and gestures to create messages, as if it were a new typeface but with physical letter forms. I wanted it to be a bit humorous and play on the jokes/ typical phrases we associate with ‘aliens’ such as ‘take me to your leader’ and ‘we come in peace’.
[ Handwriting ] Posters that would describe Earth using a variety of handwriting samples or hand-rendered typography. The posters would be people’s opinion/favourite thing about Earth; an obvious example of this would be Louis Armstrong’s ‘What a Wonderful World’.
[ Vote for Earth Campaign ] The ‘Vote for Earth Campaign’ was inspired by political campaigns and is presented in a pack complete with posters, badges, a voting card and fact cards about Earth that would represent arguments for why you should ‘vote Earth’ as opposed to other planets.
[ De-constructed Body ] ‘Build-a-Human’, started out as photographed parts of the human body from a diverse group of people (race, age, gender etc.) that could be combined to create a unique human body; then it changed to a physical ‘kit’ using dolls to represent the body.
[ Occasion Cards ] Occasion cards are for Birthdays, Anniversary’s, Valentines etc. this idea uses that format to present information about Earth, age, relationship with the solar system and Valentines and Sympathy targeted at visitors (sorry you lost your planet and be mine?)
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final & evaluation
Build-a-Human started out as a normal, shop-bought Ken & Barbie doll - they are seen as the ‘ideal’ body shape and have been a popular toy for years so I thought they were the perfect mannequins. I spray painted these dolls in matte white spray paint to create a ‘base-body’, the point of this was so that the maker could determine the variables such as skin colour, eye colour and hair colour. I initially wanted to create a physical plastic snap model kit but the dolls proved difficult to dissemble and snapped after I attempted to pull the pieces apart.
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Build-a-Human was very simple in it’s execution, I wish I had taken it further to make it more visually interesting - such as design real packaging, paint pots and instructions about where to paint and possibly information and a brief explanation of how the each body is different etc. I would of liked to make it a physical product and really done my idea justice. Although this represents my idea clearly enough it would have been nice to have something more palpable and present. I didn’t manage to fully achieve what I set out to do with Builda-Human but it is something I would look at trying again.
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Production Studio
typography
In our production studio sessions we were given the task of developing a new typeface inspired by artists’ work. I was given two pieces by El Lissitzky to work from and these are my outcomes.
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Design Thinking
manifesto I am for the ideas that provide answers, endlessly question and cause more problems than they solve. I am for arrogant ideas, humble ideas, diligent and idle ideas. I am for controversial ideas. I am for peaceful ideas. I am for the considered ideas. I am for experimental ideas. I am for the minimal ideas. I am for the unsuccessful ideas. I am for the ideas that disturb your dreams, for one-minute wonders and week-long headaches, for the obvious ideas that plague the page and obscure scribbles in notebooks. I am for the ideas that haunt you, that awaken demons and curse angels. I am for the ideas that have the power to change lives, for better or worse. I am for the ideas that spill violently from the mind without barriers. I am for the silence amidst the storm, the maze versus the labyrinth and the key over the code.
I am for the past, present and future ideas. I am for ideas that dare to dream of becoming iconic. I am for every underrated idea. I am for the ideas that pursue possibilities over solutions. I am for the ideas that exist without purpose. I am for the ideas born out of pressure to evade confinement in a box. I am for the ideas purer than the polished product they birthed. I am for the shared, collaborated and argued ideas. I am for the hidden idea. I am for raw and refined ideas. I am for all the last-ditch and second chance ideas. I am for the best intention ideas. I am for the thoughtful ideas, the head scratchers and enigmas. I am for the suggested ideas from a different perspective. I am never for stolen ideas.
I am for the rare, irrational idea deemed impossible and the possibility of endless, sensible ideas. I am for the rule breakers and tear-aways, for risk takers and prisoners of destruction. I am for the ideas that revel in the light and those that seek refuge in the dark. I am for the responsible ideas and those with childlike curiosity. I am for the ideas that transform a page into a novel and a novel into a caption.
This is my manifesto about ideas inspired by “l Am for an Art” manifesto by Claes Oldenburg. I am still working on the creating a visual representation of this that is inspired by the ‘Done Manifesto’ poster art by James Provost (‘Cult of Done Manifesto’ written by Bre Pettis and Kio Stark in 20 minutes)
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New York City Photographs by Alexandra Pollitt 19/04/2014 - 24/04/2014
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