Role of Architectural Super Graphics in generating identites in Urban Environments

*Ă lvaro Viegas *National Institute of design *April 2011

The role of supergraphics in generating identities in urban environments(Focusing on the narrative patterns in supergraphics)

Abstract: We live in the time that destroy, merge and change the boundaries of domains that used to be occupied by the field specialists only. One of the hybrid spheres noticeably emerging from the contemporary society, Supergraphics is part of environmental graphics that combines diverse technical domains such as architecture, environmental studies, art and design. While environmentally and spatially manifesting identity, Supergraphics surrounds us from everywhere.It is a two dimensional graphic medium effectively representing identity in three and four dimensional contexts. This paper investigates the depictional method of Supergraphics through the idea of narrative pattern-structure to strengthen the persuasiveness of a visual story. This research started and and is based on some of my personal expereniences i have encountered on various ocassions while travelling across many countries and since being a student of graphic design at the National institute of design.

Identity Design is a crucial area of Graphic Design that combines the appearance and essence of the design object in every direction. The modern society prefers different ways at contemplating identity design, which should be dynamic, flexible and multidimensional as well. As a result, branches of graphic design expand boundaries and merge together with other domains of art and design.

1.0 Introduction Rulers throught the ages have known the significance of major physical statements, ostentatious palaces,triuph arches and monumental statues leave a mark on the world for a time after power has long been gone,but they are a strong statement of power at that time.From election campaigns in our country to large scale movie posters in the south of India, all these have had enormous effects on the way people perceived and reacted to them. Any human activity conducted on a large scale is inherently awe inspiring, but environmental graphic design is just not about impressing people through scale. It is a response made in specific circumstances to the usual demands from graphic design, that it should organise and convey information, should present a product or service in an attractive wayand should give a unique identity to one thing and distinguish it from its competitors.

Supergraphics is a branch of graphic design that represents the surface of a space or environment.Supergraphics are larger-than-life visuals in the form of two-dimensional images and/or typography placed onto three-dimensional structures, with an option to use the fourth dimension of time. By their sheer size they engage the urban space and hijack our senses.From the static world of print, to the dynamic world of broadcast, to the interactive world of software and networks, technological advances in digital printing, projection technology, computer processor speed and information networks are making the production of oversized images faster, easier, cheaper and bigger. Wide format printing alone had a global output of 270 million square feet in 2002 and is projected to be 435 million square feet in 2006. The result is that large commercial displays are overtaking and redefining our cities in much the same way that billboards and neon lighting have done in the past, a development that boomed in the 50’s and 60’s mostly without the guidance or approval of (modernist) architects, designers and artists.

Supergraphics or large scale graphics as we might normally term it is a result of these conditions and requirements of graphic design.These widely used environmental Supergrahpics is a phenomenon resulted from the conditions of the socio-cultural and technological changes of our time.Supergraphics is a branch ofgraphic design that represents the surface of a space or environment.

The term ‘Supergraphics’ is used in this paper as a term denoting graphics that exist on a scalewhere we might define our position in relation to it, for example a shop front or the graphic environment of an exhibition stand where we have to view its entirety for example a vehicle or construction barriers arround a building site.This paper attempts to investigate the aspects of Supergraphics as a branch of identity design and it crucially investigates Supergraphic expressions as narrative graphic patterns in terms of function and medium.Visual identity expressed in Supergraphics functions as the visual mnemonic-inducer to the public for rememberingthe intended subject of identity impressively for a lengthy amount of time.

The term ‘Pattern’ is used in this paper as a term denoting a form of repetitive characters with repetitive modules and order. Patterns present clear structures and styles that their elements can be freely restructured, their organic and flexible expression is possible without losing its identity.

Patterns carry narratives within themselves through their visual structures working as their grammar and symbolic and metaphoric communication.Graphic design on a large scale requires designers to think completely different aboutthe way in which audiences read environmental graphics, unlike design for print, environmental graphic design involves considerations of movement either of the object or of the audience, of distance and of complete or partial views.

With the adequate structures patterns in Supergraphics possess the capability of providing complexvisual experiences while actively expressing the intended narrative. Supergraphics with narrative patterns can work as an important motif for unifying a brand as rich and diverse expressions in identity design.

2.0 The term”IDENTITY DESIGN”and its importance Identity Design is the main area of Graphic Design that combines the appearance and essence of the design object in every direction.

Erik H. Erikson (1902-1994) first used the term ‘identity’, originating from Latin identas, in psychoanalysis as the basic concept of Ego Psychology in the 1950’s. Identity is like a sign created by the recognitions from the others. As a result we also grant and perceive identity in inanimate objects, enterprises and brands through the act of differentiation. Identity is the continuation of the self, unicity and individualism and a conscious sense of the constancy, that when we constantly perceive the essence of the distinct nuclei of the subject then we begin to recognize it as the self as the etymology of identity suggests. Intentionally exhibiting the differences of the self from the others is where identity design system begins.1 Identity design expresses the core of its subject be it a matter, a person, or an idea.

For example if it is a business, then its values, purpose of existence and intended purpose;if it is a product then its values and practicality of use may be intentionally reflectedin design.

What’s interesting here is when the subject of identity is non-human we willfully need to deliver and exert to maintenance of its identity. A successful identity design is when 1 its core essence and outward appearance coincide. That is when intrinsic essence is depicted exactly in the designed identity.

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Park p 54

Other than the concurrence of intrinsic identity, the two other major elements to consider in identity design are memorability and meaningfulness.Visual identity must function as a visual mnemonic-inducer that lets the brand stay in the public mind a long time as the intended image. Therefore, identity is the essence and core of a particular subject and it creates its own language to communicate its difference from the others.

2.1 Identity design in urban environments THE ARTICULATION OF IDENTIY AND BRANDING : (Synthesizing and making connections) Other than the concurrence of intrinsic identity, the two other major elements to consider in identity design are memorability and meaningfulness.Visual identity must function as a visual mnemonic-inducer that lets the brand stay in the public mind a long time as the intended image. Therefore, identity is the essence and core of a particular subject and it creates its own language to communicate its difference from the others.

The modern age requires articulation of identity to be more distinct, powerful and adaptable which can evolve to the quickly changing social situations. Such changes 2 require identity design to be more reactive to changes, multi-dimensional, flexible and to coexist as a creatively unifying expression . Therefore graphic design must expand boundaries, collaborate and join hands with other areas of design and art, and continuously investigate possibilities in new media environments. Previously buildings belonged to the closed domain ofarchitecture. Now brand management strategy, graphic arts and architectural planning cooperate to form organic networks out of protected membranes in unification of visual identity. With more integration,the brand experience will provide more distinction, memorability, trust and connection. This also expands identity design into a larger design context.

While design is often thought of as an individual activity, in fact it is usually a group effort.By the nature most general design projects from buildings to cars require a mix of skills and experience rarely found in a single person.In case of large scale graphics the materials are more problematic.The familiar materials of paper and ink may be replaced by substrates and technology of which the graphic dsigner might not have expertise to deal with.mterials like the stone cutter,a lighting technician, a software programmer or a carpenter may be the actual fabricator of the object.These specialists are also used to working with designers from other disciplines such as architects.

Further the nature of large scale graphics means they come with a number of unfamiliar considerations for the graphic designer.Largescale graphics are often designed for environments that are due to be populated.Understading peoples behaviour in a particular physical and social environment is also extremely imporatant.

3.0 Architectural environment and identity Identity: In recent years comapnies have expressed increasing interest in having their buildings manifest some element or some aspect of their identity and the way this is acheived is often graphic rather than strictly architectural.It is of course easier to incorporate elements of an essential graphic identity into architecture when the graphic designer and the architect are able to communicate and collaborate at the start of the design process.The petrol station is the finest example where the comapnys logo,corporate palette and so on are so clearly manifested.

The most straight foward way of applying an identity to a building of course, is just to blow up the logo of the company until it seems propotional to the size of the building,or to apply it to an illuminated sign.A logo designed primarily for a print medium does not neccassarily work well as a piece of environmental graphic design due to the particular complication in working with architecture ad whitin a larger environment.

Salt lake city:Utah Large scale graphics are so powerful in genearting identities which can be permanent or temporal in nature.Salt lake city,utah winter olympic games for this the city put up large scale graphivs on a temporary basis that generated a new temoprary identity for the city.

Hollywood sign: What sarts out a a temporary superimposition on a place sometimes end up defining that place permanenetly.standing 50 feet tall and stretching across 450 feet across the site in los angeles, the hollywood sign has not only come to represent the place it is located in but also the world of entertainment.

The first genuine corporate identity design is thought to be the AEG project in 1908.

The German architect Peter Behrens was invited by the German electrical company Allgerneine Elektricitaets Gesellschaft (AEG) to take control of all of the company’s visual properties, from its logo and printed promotional materials to the architecture of its factories and product designs. Behrens’s work for AEG emphasized consistency of design application across media and it became the prototype for the corporate identity work.

This was an innovational total-identity design process. However getting hands on diverse media such as architecture and facilities was not an easy task for graphic designers. Doing ‘total identity design’ to the realm of architecture and space was a troublesome domain. The reasons for thiswere first of all, most companies do not design their headquarters but rather, rent a built space.2 Second of all, company’s graphic identity design is more frequentyl updated than the buildings, which are physically difficult to alter. But more increasingly companies are interested in manifesting their identity through buildings and space, and this is actually more easily achieved through graphic means rather than strictly architectural.

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Foges p 74

3.1 The urban environment and enhancement of graphical spectacles.

The appearance of identity is demanded to change frequently, and the immediate reason is the reaction to the competitive buisness. We can easily steal a glimpse of extensive identity design in populated urban environment.

With the furious competition our visibility retains hyperactive immunity to the new whims and fancies and it responds to the awe stricking sights and identities. The fixed nature of urban environments must immaterially and organically transform and redefine itself. While modernism was predominantly interested in the architectural forms, now our focus on the façades. This in some ways seems contradictory to the demand of spectacles. However with façade behaving like skin, achitecutre equipped with mediaboards presents identity with constancy and momentary chameleon-like transformations. In contemporary sense the city is a single visual structure and the urban landscape is extended into the domain of graphic design..

3.2 The Graphic landscape

4.0 The term”SUPERGRAPHICS” 3

Wayne Hunt defined in an interview that Environmental Graphics is ‘a logical result of marrying architecture and graphic design.’Supergraphics belong to the domain of environmental graphics.Environmental graphics is a sub-domain of graphic design that deals with the surrounding living space or exterior space and they are divided into signage, exhibit design, place-making and wayfinding design.

When we do environmetal grahpics we need to carefully consider how the design may alter the environment and vice versa and this is what differentiates environmental graphics to the print media. How people may act in specific places and how the presented designs may affect the behaviours of people become the factors for designing environmental graphics, and this also applies to supergraphics.

Supergraphics is a coined word of prefix Latin Super meaning ‘more, speacially, extremely’ and Greek Graphikos ‘write and schematize’ joined together to mean ‘an oversized graphics’. And the prefix super means Big and Gigantic. But the oversize not only denotes to the size of the picture but also transcendence of spatial limitations. Supergraphics has a wide use with many different appellations.

Supergraphics are often called as the street art and urban murals used in urban environments.

In the beginning it used to be called Giant Graphics, and Outdoor Wallpaintings, Urban Fantasy, Mural Painting and Big Art. In France it was called le Mur Peint, and Die Bernalt Stadt in Germany. The history of supergraphics dates way back to the prehistoric cave paintings, however it was only in the 20th century after the Industrial Revolution that Supergraphics settled itself in the urban settings.

The first use of the term ‘supergraphic’ is thougt to be by Prof. Charles W. Moor who covered the walls of the shower-room in Sea Ranch with powerful colors and patterns.

Learning from Las Vegas(Robert Venturi,Densise Scott Brown) they weighed change and permanance on the Las Vegas strip.”the rate of obselence of a sign seems to be nearer to that of an automobile than that of a building.

The reason is not physical degeneration but what competitors are doing arround you.In their analysis of the Las Vegas strip they determined that the signs and the casino faces are the most changeable, referring to the entire sign as expendable compared with the buildings that supported signs.But they directly did not address the even more readily changeable marques that were significant elements of many of the casino signs they studied.Learning from las vegas(LFLV)lists three major parties involved in sign control:Aesthetician”urban environment as a medium of communication.....signs should enhance and clarify this communication.”

In a more recent book ,Architecture as signs and systems:For a mannerist time,Denise scott brown concludes, the idea of the building as a shed with communication on it has influenced all our work butparticularly our civic buildings.The changable nature of light emitting diodes(LEDs) permits quick shifts in communication, almost as event happens electronic banners have the same immediacy as flags or flowers.

Wayfinding is the system by which we navigate and find our way arround unfamiliar or even familiar spaces in a building or an environment.We navigate by means of visual cues, sounds,tactile information signage etc.

“The visual character of a community-the appearance of its streets, neighbourhoods and buisness areas-is essential to its long term economic viability and helps determine how residents and visitors alike perceive it.Sign control is an integral part of improving visual character and quality of life.Nothing destroys the distinctive visual character of our communities faster than uncontrolled billboards and signs.”

(Scenic america)

Experience: Retailers and entertainment venues alike are keen to be thought of not so much as product vendors or service providers but as destinations in themselves that people remember and want to spend time in.This has led to a greater function of retailing with traditional leisure activities oer recent years and contributed to the emergence of experience design.

“If the entire society is not forcibly subjected to the lowest common denominator of public taste, expert assistance is needed.Unlike radio and television,Street and environmental graphic design cannot be turned off by those who find them offensive, a billboard cannot be flipped over like the advertising pages of a magazine The presence of street graphics in the environment is relentless and Therefore the people who are conciously offended by inappropriate street graphics deserve consideration even if they are ina minority.(Ewald, 1971, 36)”

6.0 Experience design

5.0 Wayfinding:

Design is central to the creation of environments where people meet,interact,share and in general terms absorb experiences.But in design terms the term experience can simly imply something different. usually multidisciplinary approach to architecture,film making,graphics and digital media with live performances or audience presentation in a single product ,exhibition or retail space.The idea is based on the idea that we experience much more than what we conciously think about and that our experiences, more than rational are based on emotions of how we feel and so we react to the provider of the experience.

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Wayne Hunt Dumont (born August 12, 1941) is an American designer

6.1 Characteristics of supergraphics

6.1 Supergraphics in the urban context Supergraphics are like large sized poster in the street and is perceivable and communicatable from a far distance. It is communicatable even inside a driving car that its ability to deliver information is efficient. When we are on the highway, we easily see large size billboards and many factories and facilities by highways use supergraphics with symbolic colors and signs. Supergraphics makes walls communicate they tell us stories,they distract us and even persude us to do things.

Supergraphics is a way of creating Unique Space Identity. Especially store identity requires space graphics to manifest its characteristics, and supergraphics are appropriate for enforcing spatial promotions.

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Supergraphics manifest identity like apparel and changes the landscape of the urban environment like putting on fashionable clothes. The expression of identity is used for the branding of products, corporate symbols, logos, andpromotions as colors and signs to symbolize the subject and they use large billboards and LED mediaboards. As we realize we can incorporate urban spatial environment into the realm of branding, it is becoming visually more spectacular, because the more visually interesting and photogenic, the more chance of its image may steal a moment from the person who might have a glimpse of it unintentionally,And in terms of the kinds of supergraphics, sometimes they are related to the host architecture, sometimes only partially related and sometimes not related at all.

For companies that use large sums of money to expose its logo, using a billboard in an area of large transient population would be very effective means of advertisement.

Supergraphics is an important influential means for creating general urban landscape.

As it exists as part of a building, it gives an independent image and story to the walls into a fresh visual environment.Supergraphics provide interesting zest to the streets.

This depends on the subject the graphic is identifying or promoting. Depending on the subject’s relation to the building, the relation of the graphic to the building is determined. For example a partial relation is when the graphic is identifying a store that is occupying a partial space of the building.

Architectural facades function as fixed skin.Supergraphics, large graphics slipped on building facades, works as its clothing. As buildings are media of expression and immutable body then supergraphics are like garments that dispatch messages of the subject’s characteristics, styles and tastes worn by buildings. Trends change but supergraphics is a means of transforming visual characteristics according to the required changes of the current of modes. They hide the original attributes of the structure and change the surface and inject liveliness. Supergraphics not only stays as passive imagery but as an aggressive player of urban landscape.

What’s interesting about supergraphics is layering. Just like putting on stickers, the graphic may sit on unrelated context, or influence the existing context.

The production methods of supergraphics are diverse: Roll-cutting, screen printing, Plotterprinting, and Painting. Diverse materials such as bricks and glass can also be used. Graphics can be laid as vehicle leveries such as buses, airsips, yachts, vehicles, vans and trains as well as buildings. The number of ways of production is beyond numbers.

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Chris Foges p75

7.0 Narrative patterns

8.0 Patterns

What is a narrative?

The visual narrative and its importance in the context: Narrative is a text, composed in any medium, which describes a sequence of real or 4 unreal events. It derives from the Latin verb narrare, which means “to recount”and is related to the adjective gnarus, meaning “knowing” or “skilled”. The word “story” may be used as a synonym of “narrative”, but can also be used to refer to the sequence of events described in a narrative. Narratives represent a series of events in agiven time frame. Narratives are applicable without restrictions on media and means of expressions.

We have a tendency to fill up an empty space. Using patterns is one way of making supergraphics. Pattern hold repetitive characteristic, and repetition by using the form of repetitive/emphasizing style, can send off messages and express identity powerfully.

The term ‘Pattern’ is used sometimes as a ‘model’ but here the term denotes repetitive characters with specific modules and order, meaning a repetitive ‘style’. Patterns present clear structures and styles that their elements can be freely changed and flexible expression is possible without losing its identity Patterns speak more quietly than loud advertisements, while representing a ‘style’ more strongly which is why it is adequate for representing identity. As a whole they are more abstract than representational, because they are pictorial elements following certain rules or grammar to form a global context.

7.1 Visual narrative Visual Narratives include all visual languages and means to expess narratives and descriptions visually. One of the early visual narratives can be found fromearly cave paintings. These paintings, like ancient comic strips, deliver visual narrative. The result of narrative is not given but rather, presented to understand. Therefore narratives engage the reader to participate in creating and completing the story. This is how the narrative stays a long time as a memory and experience in the reader’s mind. A narrative is a whole composed of different parts.

7.2 Narrative structure The storytellers in narrative design include designer, the the artwork and the reader.

Out of all three, the role of the reader is important because he is the one who navigates through the presented visual material and completes the story. Compared to the verbal narrative, visual narratives posess unlimited power of expansion. That is because the visual reader transforms images into internal visual expressions and a singular style. A non-linear narrative is different to linguistic narratives that it is immediately understandable. Information is sent off not separately in different means such as text, sound and motion graphics but rather as a whole, that visual information plays a huge role in communication and especially in multimedia environment. Unlike verbal narrative where the textual narrative is linear, in pictorial narrative the whole picture is viewed at once and comparisons and contextualization all take place simultaneously and the signification of the narrative is quickly and thoroughly understood.

8.1 Narrative patterns Patterns are easy way of regenerating imagery, because it follows modules allowing endless repetition of imagery.The more compex a pattern structure the more attractive it is to look. What makes a pattern structure complex is narrative which layers and deepens the visual structure.Narrative means description and story. Patterns themselves possess narrative through structure and symbolism.Patterns are usually abstract than representational, symbolic with unique structures that provide complex visual experiences, and they can be used appropriately for expressing the narrative of a brand.A pattern is composed of parts.

The parts themselves can carry narratives and this is usually noticed from up close of a supergraphics.And the parts compose a whole, a structure. The global stiches the parts up into a whole story, a style, and this is a larger context of narrative, and thereby a patterned narrative possessive a double layered (sometimes even more multi-layered narrative) narrative, a very complex and compellling visual story.

9.0 Narrative pattern as a component in prologed memorability Visual identity decodes brand values as an easily transmittable language, and through differentiation it clarifies its identity and the self will be remembered long enough.

The modern corporate identity program has been mainly consisting of visually compressing and processing process that making the core values and stories of identity into a singular symbol that such would be easy to reproduce in printable media.

Such corporate design activities have taken inductive pyramid like method that symbolizes the identity of the design object strategically and visually. In corporate brand identity design programs have focused mainly on visualizing the brand values into a compressed symbolism rather that its application. But spatial identity using patterns are the opposite that uses the unwreathing and deconstructing it.The symbolism through patterns goes through a deductive process that integrates the imago of identity by symbolizing the form/structure of identity rather than a singular symbolism through the pyriamid-like process using logos.

4 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narrative

It is because patterns clearly present its structure and styles and within the established structure other elements can be freely changed, and so patterns can present identity organically and flexibly. Usually in identity design logo is created prior to the considerations on applications that users experience firsthand. Thinking of patterns in identity design, the process is changed in some ways, because patterns need to consider the site of use first and that means imagining the actual application.

According to the gestalt theories of human visual-pattern-recognition, we unify all partial elements into a single theme in recognition. And human visual perception recollects and remembers information more easily when a repeted code is provided. Narratives a. have a communicative structure ( Plot) which is replaced by visual narrative ‘style’, b. narratives have rules (visually providing pattern and identity), and c.narrative goes through understanding .Patterns with already structured codes (structural style) continuously repeat themseselves and leave strong visual impression with easily rememberable structure.

Visual narratives can be very effective and immediate means for communication.That’s why it is a good mehod for expressing identity in the spectacle of urban environment populated by a lot of people. Moreover patterns with its repetitive characteristic, clarify their styles when the structure is clearly presented, and it is an easy module to use where repetitive use of visual identity is needed. And the structure of patterns is effective for the narrative styles.

Symbolic Logo Understanding the parts through unification Symbolic Pattern Unifying parts into a whole through perception

10.0 Significance of supergraphics

9.1 Supergraphics with narrative patterns effective in identity design

But what we need to take into consideration is that the repetitive characteristics of patterns used repetitively can bore people. So how varying narratives within a continual structure is another dimension the research needs to stem out in the future, because the moduled pattern needs to be continually updated. Making the structure of patterns into a fixed module as a core visual element in visualizing brand and changing such elements continuously may be a good way for visual branding.

Other than the attractive solutions that patterned supergraphics can provide into the area of branding, we face problems as well. For example, too many visuals in the aldreaded congested environment interludes as pollution, and in the already noisy environment, a new noise may not add up to any voice at all. We must not forget that supergraphics enter the public domain wherever it is installed in the fact that it occupies the public space shown for the public and viewed by the public for probably quite a long period of time. This means much studies need to be done on the building or the environment contextually, and the graphic as well as manifesting an individual identity, it must harmoniously live together with its environment. Designers need to develope thinking in terms of environment and science (Such potential outcomes require the graphic designer to apply the type of thinking to environmental design problems more often associated with other design disciplines).

And we also need to consider how Supergraphics function. The viewing distance of Supergraphic imageries and their effectiveness at varying standpoints are all questions to be answered. Therefore before creating and installing the images we must predict the right usage and create the supergraphcs accordingly to the viewing contexts. We cannot ignore the fact that intalling Supergraphics may be costly that it can appear in many forms. There are supergraphics that are temporary as well as those that are more permanently embedded into the architectural facades that are more difficult to alter after installation. Considering this, we need to carefully choose the material.

The more permanent ones need be more durable and lasting while some are ok to be makeshift and cheap in construction cost.

For the purpose of this study the distiction is made betwween the two types of graphic design. First:those pieces of graphic design that are designed to be held in the hand such as books, magazines or the packaging of playing cards or viwed from close up such as a AO poster or a map for navigating a city.

Second:Those graphics that exist on a scale where we might define our position in relation to it, for example a shop front or the graphic environment of an exhibition stand or we have to view its entirety for example a vehicle or construction barriers arround a building site. Whatever be the final size,material and use of these supergraphics there a lot of considerations that have to be considered while getting into this realm.Some of these factors have been studied and discussed below.

11.0 Factors affecting the design of supergraphics Scale: Advertisements are the cave art of the 20th century,advertisementss arguably demonstrate the wants and desires of a society.Environmental graphics mark out claims to territory or map or intepret geography.Learning from las vegas by robert venturi and denise scott brown talk about how the signs and not the architecture of the city are responsible in creating a sense of place. the architecture of style and sign is antispatial. communication dominates space as an element in the architecture and in the landscape. The use of technology to fuse graphics,moving images and interactive capabilities with the built environment attempt to find agenuinely architectural expression of graphic identity.

Graphic design is what architecture never wants to be packaging,ornament,frame and sign. environmental signage is simultaneously there and not there as well,not really a part of the architecture but indispensable to its function.By creating a graphic landscape, that lies on top of the physical landcape we make the world more readable,accesible and more importantly simpler and liveable.

Appropriate response to the requirement has been to design graphics on a large scale, wheather this is to guide people arround a building or to attract visitors to a shop.The responses have been to make environments from the graphics, or to mediate the existing environment through them in such a ways so as to adjust it to a new function.

Function: Construction barriers are a familiar sight arround any city, they have a primary function to keep the passerbys safe from the construction activity and the site safe from intruders, but in all of these functions they present a remarkable promotional oppurtunity. if a space the size of a bill board can be used for advertising purposes it can be used for editorial purposes as well.The way we read information on walls and large surfaces is very different from the way we read information from the pages of a book,reading from a book is done by a single person at a single time while from large surfaces by many people simultaneously.Smaller media like books,brochures and posters are portable media, while environmental graphics are not.The location and its contex tis of prime importance in large scale graphic design. one of the principle tasks undertaken by the designers of graphics on an environmental scale is what might be described as the shaping of the sense of place.

This goes beyond purely informational functions such as wayfinding and even identity design in the context of applying corporate graphic consistency to achitecture or environments.it has more to do with character and atmosphere and association.

Context & Meaning: When designing environmental graphics, context is the key,when designing an installation for a specific site in the wider environment there is a need to be acutley sensitive to how the installation may affect The environment, it is equally important to analyse and see how the site might affect the reading of the graphic or the installation.Considering context includes how people behave in the site and how that will be affected by proposed alterations.

Sites have an itellectual or associative context, the location of a piece of graphic dsign has the potential to alter its meaning,or to underline it, likewise the design itself might change the way the surrounding environment is read.The final and mst obvious consideration about context is that the site is inhabited by people. sensitivity to context indicates haow people feel when they pass through the space where the graphic has been designed and installed.Do they feel happy and relaxed or are agitated and disturbed.

Site: As mentioned as a principal difference between environmenatal graphic design and graphic design onvprinted materials such as books,magazines or brochures is the existence of a fixed site and The opputunities and constariants presented by the conditions of the site.A site in physical space has physical proporties and hence has a profound impact on the nature of the graphics that can be placed there.

It depends on what are the existing substarates,are the base of the graphics to be installed two dimensional or three dimensional.Sites also have scale and environmental graphics placed whitin it must be responsive to that scale.

Environmental conditions: while designing any graphivs or installations on a lare scale one has also to take into account external factors like weather conditions impact on material and visibility of environmenatl graphics.Wind loads can also exert huge forces on such structures such as sign mounts or billboard frames.Sites also have individual patterns of use these are significant not only assesing who will see the graphic and when, but also how easily and often can the graphic be updated, besides saftey parameters and aesthetic considrations at the level of the surroundings.

Interaction: interaction is graphic design is not restricted to those pieces large enough to walkthrough,or those incorporating mechanical and digital technologies.Turning pages folding a map these are all interactive paaper being The medium of interaction.Public space is characterised by inhabitation, people move through it,conduct their buisness and interact with each other on a social and personal level.It makes sense therefore that environmental graphic design should be able to incorporate aspects of interactivity to blend in with the activities performed alongside it, besides allowing the users to interact with each other effortlessly.

Context Responsibility: Many large scale graphics occur in the public realm,which might be loosley defined as both a physical and and mental space.Physically, it is that part of the environment that we all enjoy equal access to, the roadways foothpaths etc.Billboard advertising is the most obvious manifestation of corporate communication in Publicspace.

We all live in a landscape of commercial messages a so called brandscape.The public at large is increasingly joining activists in critising advertisers when they step over the invisible line between the acceptable efforts to promote products and communicate with customers, and intruding on the private mental space of people using public areas. designers and advertisers themselves are not aware of the controversial natur of broadcasting in the publc realm.

Advertising should be carried out sensitively so as to preserve the character of an area or to be aware not to create unwanted distraction so as to hamper security of those passing by.

Advertising and environmental graphics in the public realm: But advertising in the public realm is not alway resented by the public who inhabit it, a familiar sight along the major highways in spain is the huge balck bull, it is such a frequent sign that visitors sometime mistake it to be indeed a part of a logo based landscape for the country, such is sometimes the effect of large scale graphics that they end up in generating some sort of identity for the place they are situated in.The bulls advertising the osborne sherry and Brandy company of El Puerta de Santa Maria, ﾃ］dalucia.In the 1990ﾂｴs when the government threatened to enforce the law more strictly and demanded the removal of the bulls there was a major out cry.the bulls the people assumed had become a part of their national heritage.today spanish people have come to regard them as a form of public property.They have even inspired a book Un toro negro y enorme(the black and big bull).This is a strong example of how advertising in the public realm can not only be tolerated but be loved.Also the term visual ollution tends to be used with reference to the communication efforts of only huge corporations.The right of private individuals to air views through public art flags at matches or public demonstrations is very rarely questioned.

Views: Visibility, for most large scale graphic design wheather thay ae for promotion or for wayfinding is of paramount imporatnce.The nature of the sites in which they are displayed means with large scale grphic design means that it is rarely as simple as placing an image infront of a captive audience.

The angle of view: A flat graphic will be entirely visible in its entirety without distortion only if the angle of view is directly perpendicular to the line of the poster,but the use of 3 dimensional graphics is a way arround this hindarance.

Exploiting forms: a narrative in a book or magazine is propelled by the turning of a page,i environmental graphic design the narrative is often propelled by the turn arround a corner of building or a exhibition stand, or from one room to another inside a museum.Such moments provide moments for excitement and revelation or discontinuity and distortion.

Distance: Visibility over large distances is often the reason why environmenatl graphics have to be large,but scale itself is not enough to ensure readibility, factors like lighting etc play an equally imporatnt role.Exhibition stands like museum or retail environments are primarily about dispaly.Large scale graphics in these environments work on two levels Macrolevel:Design framing the colllection, explaining routes and themes and creating a distinct atmosphere. Microlevel: It should present and describe the exhibition elaborately and not overwhelm or shadow the actual exhibits on display.

Light: We live in what might be called a graphic landscape, any photograph of the worlds major cities taken at night will generate an image largly characterized by large amounts of light.In recent years the lighting of our cities has increased manifold, billboards not illuminated during night misses nearly 50% of its potential audience, corporate companies are giving increased importance to aspects of corporate identity beyond the logo, which has led to them thinking about their offices and spaces in the same way as their printed materials.they want the same brand visibility across all their facilities hence there is a dramatic rise in the so called night time identity, hence the increase in demand of lighting schemes for office buildings unoccupied after the end of the working day.

In this paper I have focused mainly on 2 dimensional graphics on architectural facades, but the tendency to installing mediaboards is a rapidly increasing phenomenon worldwide. The mediaboards play simple moving images so far but they are sometimes interactive with the pedestrians and the surrounding environment. The color of their identities is more sensitive to the environmental changes. This provides a zest to the urban environment, but too much use will turn the urban environment into a single Times Square. However the moving and changing images and patterns are possible and this is probably to the one of the major direction of the future identity manifestation.

13.0 Conclusion Every morning we are faced with information overdoze everyday and everyhour. Books, newspapers, magazines, all the printed media provide us with so much information but more often than nought we are bored and burdend by them. Such large amount of information can become a narrative and by visualizing them we can understand them much quicker and easier. Out of our senses, the delivery of visual medium is the strongest. The reason the visual became more important iin this age is because the delivery of images is faster, and stimulating, and this is the reason why images are favored over many other mediums of depiction The urban landscape is being filled with graphic images and supergraphics on architectural surfaces is increasing.Supergraphics also centers on the visual experiences and it provides multi-sensorial experiences in terms of identity compared to the existing print media. It also creates a more dramatic space presentation that provides a memorable freshness to make graphic expressions more common.

Patterns apply the repetitive human pshychology enabling the expression of identity through symbolism.

This paper has touched upon some parts that i hoped to learn, since the conclusion is here and visible. I feel that more research and study is a must on ways of combining different fields of studies together.

Designers, architects, artists, think differently. Sometimes it is as if we are all talking to strangers. We have to dive into waters that have not been tested so far only then will we realize the enormous potential that is there to offer in these fields, we all have diferent ways and backgrounds, coming to NID was one big sstep where i was studying with so many people from different backgrounds(academic and cultural), its only when evryone works in tandom that success is evident, so collaboration and multidisciplinnary design is the way fowrd as i see it.

Fear not about the future as time is a good teacher!

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www.urbanscreens.org www.scenicamerica.com www.liberatingbillboards.com

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