UNIT TWO -
VISUAL THINKING CHARLOTTE CAUSER
CONTENTS 1 Distinctive characters
2 Vernacular letterforms
3 Workshops
4 Lectures
5 Typography
6 Extracurricular
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DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERS: TYPOGRAPHY AS A SEMIOTIC RESOURCE Typography can be used as a powerful vehicle to transmit ideas and notions of culture, gender, history, materiality and value. The function of typography is to communicate a message so that it effectively conveys and reinforces meaning. This is a collaborative project with Danni Cain.
INITAL IDEAS
T
time translucent thermal topical twirl toxic triangular tactile toast twist trash tube tough technology textile treacle tacky take-away tall tart tear tasty temporary tender tobacco time translucent thermal topical twirl toxic triangular tactile toast twist trash tube tough technology textile treacle tacky take-away tall tart tear tasty temporary tender tobacco time translucent thermal topical twirl toxic triangular
EXPERIMENTATION Our initial mindmapping generated multiple ideas so we thought the most appropriate next step would be to experiment and see what worked best. This experimention was my favourite part of the project as it allowed us to explore many different avenues. I have learnt from my previous unit, then I need to do focus on creating examples, and mock ups rather than research too much and settle on a final idea too fast. ‘Twirl’ was one of the most interesting words from the inital ideas we thought we could explore. We purchased some quilling paper and began to create many twirly shapes.
EXPERIMENTATION Another key word which interested us during our initial mind mapping was ‘textiles’. Fortunately, I have recently discovered a love for sewing so was thrilled to be able to incorporate one of my hobbies into my design work. I wexperimented with different stitches to communicate the idea of textiles. I particularly like the original rather than the photograph due to the textures that the embroidery makes.
This year we are encouraged to experiment with different processes that we have not used before so we thought this would be a great opportunity to use the laser cutter. It was a great experience to immerse ourselves into this new technology and whilsst it proved more complicated that we had first envisaged, we werepleased with the professional looking outcome. We had under estimated the length of time it would take to engrave fully through four sheets of MDF and therefore did not manage to create the design we had planned. Never the less it is still aesthethically pleasing and has taught us the value of researching the machinery in greater depth beforehand.
This was another attempt at using quilling paper to represent the word twirl. It was created using the paper in the more traditional way which proved to be a lot more time consuming, but worth it. The design is much more detail and has a variety of shapes rather than the repetitive twirl. One downfall of this design is that the meaning of the design, ‘twirl’ requires more clarity.
FEEDBACK After we had created our experiments we gathered some helpful peer feedback. The repsonse was a close split between the paper quilling and the textiles piece. The ultimate favourite was the paper quilling as it was seen to have the most potential and showed good craft skills. We were initially quite surprised at this result as we thought the laser cut letterform was the cleanest design, yet from the feedback we received was the least creative. We trusted our peers advice and went ahead with the paper quilling letterform.
DEVELOPMENT
We then needed to develop our design further. Whilst we liked the colours used in the previous design we decided that we needed to develop the pattern inside the letterform so more twirls would be visible. We created this brown and purple one above but decided it still did not have enough twirls visible, so we drew a sketch to follow.
COLOUR ANALYSIS My partner for this project and I had an equal dislike of the colours we used for the most developed design. We only chose to use them because we did not want to run out of the brighter colours of the quilling paper and risk not having enough paper left to create our final design. We were not sure what type of colours we should use for the final design as we like a variety of different colour combinations. I had personally never researched into colour theory to a good extent in previous projects but decided it would be beneficial to delve further into the subject. I found a particularly helpful book called ‘Guide to communicating with color’ which displayed hundreds of different colour combinations. At first we felt quite restricted with the possible colour combinations as we could only purchase a specific set of coloured quilling paper. However, I came across a page which showed similar colours to what we had in mind. The colour combination was called ‘Playful’ and was described as “As uninhibited as the kids who love them, these extroverted brights are for the kids within all of us. A max of vibrant warms and cools from every colour family, their intense vitality expresses movement, activity, exuberence and above all, unrestrained joy.” I felt this was very fitting to our theme of ‘twirl’ as it is an action which we actively do and the colour family was too described as ‘expressing movement and activity’.
This is our final 3D letterform photographed. I am pleased with the end result of this project as it represents the word ‘twirl’ in two different ways. The first being the shape of which the paper was made into and the second being the process of how we actually created the letterform, by ‘twirling’ the paper around the quilling tool.
POSTCARD The next part of the task requried us to create an A6 postcard with the image of the 3D letterform and either a short description or a relevant quote.
2
LETTERS IN THE LANDSCAPE A LEXICON OF URBAN TYPOGRAPHY A collaborative project with Danni Cain and Andy Browne
CONTACT SHEETS This project began with a trip to Poole to photograph potential letter forms. The brief stated that we could either take a literal approach to the photographs, or alternatively an abstract approach. Whilst we took photographs using both techniques, we all felt that the abstract letterforms would be far more interesting to include in our book. We also wanted to push ourselves with this project and knew that the abstract approach would require a lot more attention to detail and skill to produce an effective photographed alphabet. The next few pages show some of the photographs which I personally took on the trip to Poole.
SELECTION The next stage of the project was to reflect upon the photgraphs we had all taken in Poole and select the most succesful images. This proved to be a longer process than we had imagined as we were careful to delete all the photographs which were not up to a certain standard, i.e out of focus. Having to delete photographs which may have been a good letterform but a bad photograph was frustrating as I was disappointed that we had not taken the photographs well initially. Looking back, we should have realised this on the day and ensured they were all of a high standard. Due to this, and the fact that we had a couple more letterforms to photograph, we decided we needed to have a nother shooting day. Whilst I enjoyed these days out as it was interesting to view the landscape in a new curious way, I felt disappointed that as a team we had not managed to get the desired shots initially. This was also the first part of the project where difference of opinions in the group became apparent. We resolved this by voicing our opinions fairly, and made decisions about the photographs chosen together. In the end we were happy with our final selection of photographs however if we were to have made the selection individually I believe we would have all made different decisions about what to include.
LAYOUT PLAN
After researching particular magazine and photobook layouts we decided that this layout would be the most appropriate for the photographs we had taken. The layout allowed us to have the photographs largely disiplayed, which at the time we thought would be good as it was easy for the reader to view the content. The layout research we did also confirmed the fact that we also particularly like photographs which bled off the page as it creates a striking image. Therefore we combined the two ideas, along with a left alligned grid and created this design.
Once we printed our book it immediately become apparent that as a group we were not pleased with the layout we had chosen. It looked dull rather than the intended minamilist and when looking carefully at the pages we reaised we had made many mistakes in the designing process. For example, not all the images were lined up on the facing pages, creating no consistency to the pages. We realised that we had not used a grid correctly and our attention to detail had fallen below the standard we would expect from ourselves.
FIRST RESULT After we received our prints back we trimmed the pages and bound the book. As a group we are all disappointed in the outcome of it due to a number of reasons. The layout looked inconsistent and it printed differently to how we had imagined it to look. This taught us a valuable lesson that research and careful planning cannot be rushed. We also learnt that a mock up print is always necessary as if we had done this before sending off to print we would have recognised the faults and altered them before it was too late.
EXTENDED RESEARCH We knew that our previous layout for the photo book was unsuccesful so we decided that we needed some new inspiration to help generate ideas. One book that we found which had an interesting take on grid layouts was ‘Cutting Edges’ sold by Gestalten. com. The book documents unique contemporary collage and we thought the layour reflects the content well. Whilst our photo book was not about collage, it led us to think about how the visual elements can work well together when positioned smaller and in multiples, compared to our previous design where we had only one photo per page. We then went on to create some rough sketches of a possible design and later created it on Indesign.
I also felt it was necessary to research the basics of grid design which I did using the helpful book ‘Making and breaking the grid’ by Timothy Samara.
NEW LAYOUT As disappointing as it was the first time creating a book that we were not pleased with, it taught us valuable lessons which we could then transfer to a new design. For example, we made sure all the margins on every page were the same to create consistency within the book; something that our previous book lacked. We also decided to experiment with a busier design so your eye was drawn to different parts of the page rather than the left hand side everytime. Balancing the images on the facing pages was another important aspect of the design which we now needed to take into account as we were dealing with more multiple pictures on one page. One aspect of the design which remained the same was some of the pictures bleeding off the page as that was the only aspect we liked of the previous design. When looking back on this design, an improvement which could have been made was to include more photographs of each letter so we would not have to mix the letters on each page. However, this would have meant another day of re-shooting which we did not have time for.
MOCK UP PRINT To ensure that we did not make the same mistake as previous, we decided to print a mock up print. This proved beneficial as it allowed us to see where small improvements could be made such as a slightly larger margin on some of the pages due to the binding. It was also helpful to see what how the pages would flow as it can be hard to tell from only looking at the flat designs on Adobe Indesign. Once we had adjusted everything that needed to be on our digital file, we were then happy to send it off to print and begin the next step of the process.
BINDING The next stage in producing the book was to perfect bind it using a Lumbeck press. To do this we had to slip all the pages, along with 2 blank pages either side of the the rest of the book inbetween the two pieces of wood. After this, you need to ensure all the pages were lined up correctly, and once they were the clamp needed to be tightened to hold the pages in place. You then need to apply the first layer of archival glue along the edges of the book, wait ten minutes for it to dry.
Once it is dry, the next step is to loosen the wooden block on the side of the press to allow the book to be bent ot one angle. You then have to apply another layer of glue which due to the angled pages allows the glue to reach inbetween each individual oage. You then repeat this on the other side to ensure all the pages will stick together strongly. Next you need to cut a strip of mull cloth the length of the book and glue that on top, allowing it to fully dry for a day. Once this is done, the extra paper gets cut off and the desired cover is glued on. This was a great experience as I have never used a Lumbeck press before and it is a technique which I will definitely use again in the future.
FINAL These image show the improved book which we made. As a team we were much more pleased with the outcome of this book and there is definitely a visible difference between the two designs. This design is a lot more consistent considering margin widths than the previous one and also makes better use of the space on the page. This project has proved to be more challenging than we had all anticipated, due to having to spend an extra day photographing the letterforms, then having to redesign, print and bind a second book all over again. Despite this proving to be the most challenging project, I personally feel that I have learnt a lot from it. It has taught me the cost of not planning the layout well without underpinning it with contextual research. It has also taught me the importance of printing out a mock up before sending it off to print. It may take a while to do it but it will be worth it in the end to save yourself from having to redo it. Despite all our problems with this project, we have faced it well as a team. All our individual strengths and weakness’s became apparent which allowed us to develop better as a group, utilising each other skills to the best advantage.
Of course many improvements could still be made to this book if we had more time. For example, I would have liked to cut out a window in the front cover of the book so the title was visible from the front. We also have some weaker pages within the book which I would have liked to have changed but we did not have the time to reshoot again or redo the page design. Overall, I am pleased with this project and the progress that we made from our first book. We worked well as a team and had the motivation to redo the book when we were unhappy with, rather than leaving it.
3
WORKSHOPS
To support our studies we had to attend workshops run by both Graphic Design and other courses. The three which I attended were: Risograph printing Japanese Bookbinding Screenprinting
RISOGRAPH PRINTING The risograph printing workshop was ran by a previous AUB student in the Visual Communication department. Risograph is similar to screen printing however it is created using a different technique. The risograph machine looks similar to a photocopier and prints one colour at a time. The ink is changed every time a new layer of colour is needed. The brief for this workshop was to create a poster promoting a musician or a band so I chose to use ‘Bears Den’ as my client. I felt my image was particularly fitting to the band and really enjoyed the process of learning a new printing technique. I would like some more practice in this area, as I was running out of time to get the poster printed and as a result the design isn’t exactly how I would like it but never the less it was my favourite workshop this term.
JAPANESE BINDING
The Japanese bookbinding workshop was a great one to attend as the process was enjoyable and also satisfying to see the outcome once it was completed. To create the book you first need to select the amount of paper which you wish to be included in the book. Due to this technique of stitching, the thickness of the paper can vary greatly which is conveneient as would be suitable for a variety of projects. Once you have decided which oirentation you would like th ebook to be you then need to put a template on top, and hold it with clamps which show where the holes will be drilled. Then you need to choose an appropriate cover of your choice and create a clean fold. Next you carefully drill small holes where the template indicates. Next, the thread of your choice is chosen and measured 7 times the length of the book to ensure that it will be long enough. You then coat the threat with wax to strengthen it and start stitching the book together carefully remembering to go in the
SCREEN PRINTING Silk screen printing is possibly my favourite technique of print making as I find it the most enjoyable. Despite it being described as ‘outdated’ I enjoy the hands on approach and the handmade feel that I get from the entire process. I plan to experiment with a lot more in the print room in the near future to expand my experience, such as lithography.
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LECTURES Power of persuasion Digital materiality Notions of taste
POWER OF PERSUASION “This session investigates propaganda - what it is, why it exists and how it operates - through consideration of historical and in particular contemporary examples from across a range of dynamic, dramatic and diverse contexts and channels of communication. The session examines key issues - notions of mass manipulation; spin; persuasion and control - in relation to propaganda examples including visual, aural and ariel examples and digital and guerrilla methods. This provocative session will question how we encounter propaganda today including Animal Rights, political campaigns, war reportage and news stories. The power of persuasion is to be explored and the session will question the role of social media in contemporary propaganda experiences.”
LECTURE NOTES What is propaganda? - manipulation with intent of changing attitudes - information to assist or damage the cause of a government or movement - rumour - religion as a form of propaganda Key words Propogate - to grow and sprad, to reproduce Delusion - false idea, alternative views not aired or broadcasted Organisations - Colors magazine created by Toscani highlights provocative issues - Liberty - Act up - Barnardo’s campaign, goes straight to the heart There are three types of sources whenc onsidering reliabilty: Black - comes from a source which cannot be indentified, therefore not a valid source White - source can be verified Grey - may have some facts but the source is questionable
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1 - big lie, adapted by Hitler and Stalin 2 - it does not have to be the truth so long as it is plausible 3 - tell the truth but withold the oppositions point of view 4 - most productive, tell the truth; the good, bad, losses and gains False Flag False flag terrorism occurs when elements within a government stage a series of operations whereby government forces pretend to be a targeted enemy whilst attacking their own forces or people. The attack is then falsely blamed on the enemy in order to justify going to war against that enemy. Key texts Power and persuasion - David Welch Power of persuasion - Jowrett & O’Donnell Body Horror - John Taylor Professor Jerry Krath - Youtube
This has been the most appropriate lecture that I have been to this term as it is related to our essay. Whilst, a lot of the information was not the first time I had heard it due to doing a lot of work on propaganda in previous history classes, the lecture was still interesting and gave a different spin on the theme of propaganda. It was easy to understand and follow and the lecturers obvious passion for the subject came through which always makes lectures a lot more interesting.
DIGITAL MATERIALITY “We explore the history, development and pervasiveness of the digital today. The focus is on the materiality of the digital as we attempt to dispel the myth of virtuality and disembodiment. How might such notions be unhelpful in discussions of digital practice? Key elements explored will be: modes of production and obsolescence; gaming and play as forms of labour; the ethics of global digital interactivity; social media; image as information; electronic civil disobedience [hacking; wikileaks]; analogue and digital; computational contexts.�
LECTURE NOTES Deleuze - postscript on the control society Since the 18th century the WEst has seen 3 different types of society: -Sovereign society - characterised by siple machines - Discipline society - characterised by machines that convert energy - Control society - characterised by computation -The Abacus was an early form of computation - Digitality is a material that needs bodies - Binary codes, history of the Jacquard Loom, began with material - Internet emerges out of the Cold War period, paranoia of nuclear attack - Packet switching was the earliest technique - In this informational age everything is equal - Sense your own cognitive limits, digital is different -Paintings could be seen as digitial abstractism, it hides digital discreet packages of data that no longer resemble the original picture
This lecture I attended was taught by the Fine Art department and I had not previously thought about how much of a fine art view on things would the lecture be focused around. The lecture was relatively hard to follow at times and not very helpful to my project. Despite this, it was interestin g to attend a lecture done by somebody different, who was also clearly passionate about her subject, and it raised some questions which I had not previously thought about.
NOTIONS OF TASTE “This session explores our relationship with objects and how we respond to and give value to ‘things’ and how our aesthetic judgements and purchase decisions relate to consumer culture. The session considers the phenomenon of consumption and notions of style, luxury, memory etc. in relation to bespoke and the mass produced items. It considers the thoughts of Baudrillard, Veblen, the Frankfurt School and Klein. In particular this session interrogates hierarchies of taste and popular culture and questions what factors determine what we consider to be good and bad taste and how the value of things can create social and cultural identities. The session will utilise design examples from AUB’s Museum of Design in Plastic (MoDiP) and wider ‘things’ (notably those often identified as kitsch).”
LECTURE NOTES
-Taste, derives from old french term to touch or to feel - metaphor for judgement, style, elegance - good and bad taste are relatively modern terms -cultural consumption - different tastes in different countries - 19th century, development of taste as an idea, importance of aesthetics - this resulted in rise of consumerism -waste - designed obsolescense - “redundancy is designed into industry” - prestige status, luxury, class How do we judge design? - objectively - subjectively - influence - education - lifestyle preference - form follows function - l’ess is more’ Mies Van Der Rohe - ‘less is not more, less is bore’ Robert Venturi - culture jamming - Adbusters - ‘have nothing in your home that you do not believe to be useful or beautiful’ William Morris Kitsch - visual pleasure - humorous - cheap, mass produced, poor quality - decoration, souveneir - deliberate bad taste has become a trend
I found this lecture interesting as I have never really considered what makes things aesthetically pleasing to some but not others. I enjoyed seeing some examples of kitsch design, and learning about something different, however I do not think that I will be using any of this knowledge in this project. The lecture also reminded me that I need to make the most of the facilities available on campus and go and visit MoDiP in the library!
TYPE ANATOMY ascender line
x-height
baseline
counter
Typog
descender line
terminal
serif
shoulder
ascender
graphy descender
Here I have created my own diagram of the anatomy of type after researching typography in Ellen Lupton’s Thinking with type: A critical guide for designers, writers, editors and students. I found this a very useful book which I should refer back to in every project to ensure that I am using type correctly.
EXHIBITION
Our course held a one day exibition that aimed to explore our love of graphics through a spectacular display of graphic artefacts, text and collections collated and curated by all first year students from the BA ( hons ) Graphic Design course at the Arts University Bounemouth. This exibition aimed to investigate how we consider, position, love and cherish examples of Graphic Design. Everyone was encouraged to present an item of graphics which they loved so I decided to show my illustration print by Martha Ford, a young designer from my hometown Bristol. We also were required to write a description explaining the design, mine was as follows; “This is a commercial piece of work by the talented young illustrator Martha Ford, based in my hometown Bristol. Her work is particularly interesting as she combines the use of both hand drawn and digital techniques to produce beautiful illustrations, most of which are juxtaposing the surreal and the mundane.�
On the left hand side of the page is the promotional poster designed by Charles Rodriguez, a fellow graphic design student. Looking back on this exhibition, even thought I contributed to it by supplying my print I feel I should have been more involved. I did not do a poster design as I felt my skills in Illustrator and Indesign would have let me down as I knew how talented some of the other students already are at the programmes. I have learnt from this that I need to push myself further and really get to grips with the software by using appropriate tutorials such as Lynda.com so I do not miss out on similar opportunites in the future.
LONDON VISIT
I decided it would be beneficial to my studies to visit London throughout this unit. After carefully considering which exhibitions would be of best interest to me I decided that the Hannah Hoch exhibition at the Whitechappel Gallery would be one that I could not miss. Before I researched the exhibitions I had previously never heard of Hannah Hoch but after some initial research it was clear to me that her work was just the type of work that catches my attention. I have always had an interest in collage work due to its playful nature yet I was unaware that Hannah Hoch was one of the main driving forces of the development of collage in the 192o’s!
Hannah Hoch was a pioneer of Berlin’s Dada movement, therefore her work creates a moving commentary on the tremondous social changes that was happening in society. She used cut up images from fashion magazines, newspapers and photographs to create humorous concotions that were revoloutionary in that time. The gallery exhibits her whole career and it was interesting to view how her styles altered throughout her life. I really enjoyed this exhibition and whilst it may not have helped me directly with this unit it has led me to discover another artist which I love.
3D: PRINTING THE FUTU
URE
I also went to visit the 3D printing exhibition in the Science Museum. The exhibiton explored how designers used computer data to create 3D physical objects that could change lives. Despite the exhibition being a lot smaller than I had expected, it was very interesting and made me consider the future of 3d printing. I learnt about how 3D printing is used in healthcare and it was fascinating to realise the potential that this technology holds. It was also interesting to consider the ethical considerations of the process, which linked to my essay theme.