Ramminger- Process Book 2022

A Semester In B&W BLACK AND WHITE

Ramminger Introduction to Design Art 130, Fall 2022 St. Norbert College

Caroline

As I approached this class I didn’t realize the time and concentration that design requires. I’ve never directly worked with design because I’m more of a studio artist. This was a class that broadened my vision of art and helped me expand my understanding of the arts in general. This book is an accumulation of all the work I’ve created in my Intro to Design class 130. I’ve included in process work, finished work, and after final critique work.

Vocational Questions

What, if anything, distinguishes art and design?

I think art at design differ through their end goals. When someone is making art they are making sure it looks good and is appealing to the eye; and when someone is designing something, like a poster, they’re making sure their point gets across. Design is a tool to solve problems, and art is a tool to make individuals think out of the box. Personally I am more drawn to art than design because I like to make more visually appealing pieces and things that I’m proud of at the end.

What is the difference between a good life and a significant life?

The difference between a good and a significant life is ultimately how the individual looks at it. Someone could be content doing the bare minimum of things while someone else might not be satisfied with that. The approach someone takes on life and how the decide to look at who they’ve become. A good life is one that meets the individual’s expectations and a significant life is one that exceeds the individual’s expectations.

Crash Course

8/29/22

The very first day of class we participated in our first project. This project allowed us to get to know another classmate and help them out with a problem they may have. I was able to help out my

partner with a series of simple drawings. Through these drawings I helped my classmate with time management, social interaction, and stress. With these concepts I was also to make a 3D model of what my classmate needs help with.

I felt good after completing this project because I really liked helping my classmate. Especially because they were a freshman, I thought it was a great opportunity to give some advice.

5 radical ways to meet my classmate’s needs

Dot/Line

9/2/22 - 9/9/22

This project got us to work dynamically with both words and images. Our project was to use value, scale, line, and visual hierarchy to make 3 abstract compositions. These compositions were made out of only cut out dots and lines following certain combination equations. We also had to come up with a word to create using only the shape equations.

The Process

We started by cutting all of our circles and lines in all different sizes and colors. Then we played around with out shapes that we cut to see how

Comfort Joy Rejection

Reflection

Gestalt theory has principals that apply to it. The 5 are figure and ground, similarity and anomaly, continuation, proximity, and parallelism. All these principals fit into the gestalt theory making this sort of art piece “abstract”. Abstract meaning it doesn’t show a specific thing clearly.

I think my idea of abstraction gained a personality effect. I used to just think of abstraction as random shapes and colors. Now I can think of an abstract piece meaning something or telling a story. Just like how our shapes took form of a word.

I think it was hard because each work can mean something different to each person. It’s hard to create an abstract piece that every individual would be able to relate to or understand.

In your own words, what is gestalt and how does it relate to this project?

How did this project change or affect your idea of abstraction?

Was it difficult to represent ideas without illustrating them? Why or why not?

Letterforms

How letters look (their form) is a big part of design. This project helped me better understand letterforms and what they are made up of.

The Process

Mind map from sketchbook

Creating this mind map helped me come up with compositions that showed what the word “fire” means. After this, I could see what direction I wanted to take this project.

First, I used a carving tool to cut out letters onto blank sheets of linoleum. I used ink, brayers, and ink slabs to print the 4 letter word “fire”. I played around with dragging the letters when I was printing them. Then, I went over to the photocopier and tried out some different techniques.

Final Iteration

For this iteration I cut out the letters into this formation, then photocopied it with the lid open. This created the blackout text effect. To push it a little further, I added a match in place on the “i”. I like how it turned out; however, I wish the match was more visible.

This composition was the most fun to make. I used my drag/smudge print and lit the paper on fire. This composition was more appealing in color and would’ve been by favorite. However, the black and white takes away the vibrant orange color of the flame.

Final Iteration

I am most proud of the composition to the right. This was a fun piece to make because I didn’t know what it was going to look like until the very end. I was pleasantly surprised when this came out of the printer. The way the squiggles represent smoke really represents the word “fire”. The word itself if very legible to read as well and there isn’t any disorientation. .

Reflection

What did you learn about letterforms by working this way?

I learned a lot during this project. I have never printed letters before, and it was an experience. I found it challenging at first, but I got the hang of it. I also learned that there are so many ways to interpret words. Just with a four-letter word there could be so many ways to display and demonstrate it. I also learned a lot about the photocopier. This is one thing that I’ve always wanted to learn how to do and now I know how to do some cool things.

Next, I would try to modify the deeper thinking of the work fire. I was stuck on the idea of fire as in a flame, but I was always wondering if there was a way

I could show it as a verb in the sense of “having fire in your soul”. This was something that I couldn’t wrap my head around and would have love to explore more.

What would you do next if you were to continue working with these letters?

Who Designs

For this smaller project I was assigned to learn about a new designer and inform my classmates about their work and style. Evaluating other designer’s work helps us improve our own and by doing this we can learn new methods, styles, and directions. I created a post on slack about Ruth Ansel and I find her charming because she has a long career timeline that consists of endless success.

Portrait of Ruth Ansel

Ruth Ansel is from The Bronx, New York and this is where she has stayed most of her life. She has an art portfolio of almost 50 years and is an accomplished editorial magazine, ad campaign, and book designer. She was the first woman to be the art director of Harper’s Bazaar, New York Times Magazine, and Vanity Fair. She eventually opened

The New York Times Magazine, December 1976

her own design studio in the early 1990s where she did design work for companies like Versace, Club Monaco, and Karl Lagerfeld. She has received two awards in her time; the “Gold Medal for Design”, and “The Society of Publication

Design Award.”

In the magazine world before Ruth Ansel was in the field, women were portrayed as perfectly beautiful and posed individuals. After Ansel started

to play around with magazine designs, the vision changed. Her vision for women was “dark, intelligent, introverted, and beautiful”, instead of “unrealistically

perfect women with no emotion and perfect outfits”. Ruth Ansel said that being a magazine designer is like conducting an orchestra. She says this because she has put together a

finished product while using multiple other sources to finish it well. She has to pick a good photographer, a good model, a good fashion designer, a good editor, etc. Her favorite piece of work she ever did was the cover of Harper’s Bazaar magazine in April 1965. At this time everything was exploding and there was a lot to talk about. A magazine reflects the time period you’re living in and Ansel did that with the April cover.

Ruth Ansel’s 1965 cover, featuring Jean Shrimpton

Overall, I loved learning about Ruth Ansel. I find her work very exciting and influential in todays society. It was also really cool to look at who my classmates chose to research. I learned about all different designers and how they contributed to the design world. There are so many different styles and techniques that can be used. The possibilities are endless.

Vanity Fair, December 1986

iterations printed on 12”x18” sheet of black and white card stock.

The Process

Collage iteration in sketchbook

Text collage in color and black and white

It was difficult seeing my collage in color and then having to change it to black and white. This was a big struggle for me throughout this semester.

The most tedious part of this project was the collage iterations. These creations took a lot of time and I had to search for things such as opacity, shape, type, and size. Since this project was in black and white, it was

tedious looking for darker and lighter shades of paper to use. Sometimes I would see a red piece that would work great and then I would remember the red doesn’t even matter.

The geometric iterations were fun to make. I enjoyed making clean lines and then fixing them up in Photoshop. It was satisfying to see the clean result.

Eric Carle master artist

My Eric Carle iteration was the most fun to make and I’m also pleased with the end result. I watered down some

black acrylic paint and then I created different textures using materials such as a sponge, my fingers, paint brushes, and splatter. After these

patterns dried I cut each pattern out into small shapes and made my own collage with the cut outs. As I was researching different master artists Eric Carle caught my eye because as a kid

I always read his books; and researching his style really brought me joy.

Keith Haring is the other master artist that I researched and replicated. His work was unique to me and I wanted the challenge of creating an insect from a style that is usually

just people. This is an iteration that I struggled with for a while. I wasn’t happy with it for a while so I decided to change it. I took one of his famous pieces and I tweaked it to incorporate a

ladybug. I find his work really fun and modern which is a big reason why I chose his as a master artist.

Keith Haring master artist before Photoshop edits

Keith Haring inspiration piece

Final Iterative Illustrations composition

Reflection

I learned how to work and manure around adobe Photoshop to create and fix my hands-on compositions. I found this helpful for my result because it helped me perfect my “first drafts”. I also learned about two new artists and how their styles can be created.

I learned how to work with curves, and I think this is a useful tool that I can also use for editing photos. At first, I was confused by it but after experimenting with it I got more comfortable.

I would like to make a composition with more than one ladybug in the square. I think it would be cool to show a big pile of 100 ladybugs. I don’t know exactly how I could do that which is why I didn’t attempt it. If I had more time I would be able to figure it out.

What did you learn about your object through this process?

What did you learn about Photoshop that you think you’ll use going forward?

If you had to continue with this object for a year, what else might you do to Represent it in new ways?

PSA Posters

10/24/22 - 11/9/22

For this assignment I was assigned to create a poster for a fellow classmate. We did this project to see what it would be like to work for someone and have to follow someone else’s guidelines. I learned how to communicate and accommodate things with my client. I also learned how to write my own brief that I gave to a fellow classmate. This project helped prepare me for the real world and showed me what actual design jobs would feel like. My client wanted me to create a poster promoting self love and how to practice it. After reading his brief I put together my poster in In Design.

The Process

When I started thinking about layouts I had a lot of ideas. After bringing these three iterations to our in process critique, I decided to combine them together. My classmates loved the quotation idea but also liked the look of the triangles splitting up the different information.

Love Your Neighbor As Yourself also means you should love yourself

What is Self Love?

• Prioritizing yourself

• Being nice to yourself

• Trusting yourself

Putting others before oneself isn’t inherently unhealthy, but when those needs surpass or replace the needs of others when it becomes a problem.

For more information about self love visit here... https://www.bbrfoundation.org/blog/self-love-and-what-it-means https://www.betterhelp.com/

What Is Self Love?

• Prioritizing yourself

• Being nice to yourself

• Trusting yourself

Putting others before oneself isn’t inherently unhealthy, but when those needs surpass or replace the needs of others when it becomes a problem.

For more information about self love visit here... https://www.bbrfoundation.org/blog/self-love-and-what-it-means https://www.betterhelp.com/

Putting others before oneself isn’t inherently unhealthy, but when those needs surpass or replace the needs of others when it becomes a problem.

For more information about self love visit here... https://www.bbrfoundation.org/blog/self-love-and-what-it-means https://www.betterhelp.com/

yourself

This is my original poster that I brought into critique. After getting feedback from my classmates I decided to make a few changes for the better.

Putting

This is my final draft of my poster. I gathered my feedback and I changed the title font to look more scripted, I also toned down the contrast of colors to make it easier on the eyes. Overall I feel like my final product is the best version.

Reflection

Was it challenging to be limited to type only?

At first, I thought it would be challenging because it’s easier to get a point across if there is an image to catch the eye. However, as I was working through my project I thought it was easier not having to include illustrations. The simplicity of the requirements made it easier to make design decisions.

What did you learn about your object through this process?

I learned a lot of new skills in In Design and I was able to understand the difficulty of making a poster. It feels like I look at 50 posters each day, however; I’ve never really appreciated the thought and design that goes into each poster. I can use these skills that I’ve learned to create different flyers, more PSA posters, brochures, and even Instagram/social media posts. I never knew the power of In Design before this project.

I used scale to display the information that I wanted the reader to see first. For example, I created the title in a larger and different font to show the importance of the message. I used opacity in the different shapes to separate information. I put one section in a lighter gray, then

another section with different information in a darker gray, and then another section in a lighter gray. This splits up information to make it easier for the reader to jump from idea to idea. The orientation of my poster was set up to read from top to bottom to give the display a sense of hierarchy and shows the information in a sense of importance. The arrangement of shapes

that I used also adds a sort of substance and split of the poster. There isn’t a lot of negative space so there I always something for the reader to look at. The shaped also split up the information into sections. These sections make it easier for the reader to look at.

How did you use scale, opacity, rhythm, orientation, and negative space (among others) to create visual hierarchy?

This book was made as part of Introduction to Design at St. Norbert College in the fall of 2022. Fonts used Mukta Mahee, Cochin.