Semester III Documentation

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF DESIGN

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Daisy Dutta, Sem 3 UG Graphic Design, 2012 Semester Documentation

SEMESTER

Acknowledgements This whole semester was a very speedy semester I think. It went so fast and there was also so much to do and learn. I have learnt a lot from other people’s work and also from the various courses we had this semester. I would like to acknowledge all my faculties Tarun for typography and Illustration & drawing, Anil Sinha for colour and form, Debashish chakrbarty and Jean D’souza for SLA and Hitendra Vala for taking our photography course. They have all guided and helped us in their respective courses. Also my batchmates with whom I worked with during all these courses have been amazing partners. They have motivated in what I was doing. Also I would like to thank Tripathi for visiting us time to time for giving demos at class and also for giving good feedbacks on my work.

Contents

Drawing & illustration........................................................

Communication Studies .................................................

Introduction to semiotics .................................................

Typography ......................................................................

Colour & Form ..................................................................

Photography ....................................................................

Bibliography .....................................................................

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Drawing & illustration Course duration : 5 weeks

Faculty : Tarun Deep Girdher

Our third semester started with this course. The objectives of this course were to understand the volume, the contours of an object, space, light, texture, familiarising with different mediums and techniques. Our course started with a warm up exercise.

Draw the portait of a batchmate using only pencil (no erasers allowed).

It was simultaneous, while I was drawing my partner Udit he was drawing me too. We had to understand the volume and the various structures of human face and how they are connected to one another. We also had to obeserve how the light falls on these structures and then draw it. I had several attempts with it. I learnt how to observe and get the proportions and volume correct while draw- ing a portrait of a person. Each feature should be observed but with relation to the others too. After every sketch i got more comfortable with my strokes and my ability to judge where to put emphasize got clearer. I also realised the inter-relationship between form and volume of a struc- ture which can be achieved by simple line drawing.

Study, observe and draw the given object (a steam iron)as large as possible.

In this assignment we had to observe a steam iron and draw it. We basically had to observe the contours of the steam iron properly and how the courves and the joints are connnected to one another and also how the contours create an illusion of volume. I think this assignment has helped in understanding the form of any structure as whole and also in more detail analytically.

It helped me undrstand the contours of the iron. I also learnt how position and placement of the object matters.

Assign.1 Udit’s portrait

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Assign.2 object study (steam iron)

Assign.3 negative space (chair)

Study, observe the negative space of an object (wooden chair) and then draw it using ink-and-brush.

We had to first observe the negative spaces of the structure i.e the chair and then draw it with ink and brush. This was quite chanllenging for me. I had several attempts to get it right but wasn’t successful so I did it on the next day. And it was better than the previous attempts. The method of this assignment was unusual and a first-time experience for most for me. It helped my detach myself from the typical ways of observing an object while drawing. I got more comfortable with the use of ink and brush because with ink corrections can’t be made so we had to be very cautious while drawing it.

Assign.4 Still Life

A composition comprising various objects was set up on a table in the studio. Select a particular point of view and draw (black and white or colour) the composition.

We had to mostly pay attention to scale of the objects and the space between them and around them. We also had to keep in mind that the proporations are correct by comparing amongst them. I also learnt how the light and shadow changes the appearance of the surface of the objects. We were allowed to different mediums for it so it also helped us in familiarising with different mediums.

Study the style, technique, medium and colour palete of the master painter’s work. Based on this understanding, create a self portrait in quarter imperial size (11” x 15”).

My master painter was Egon Schiele. So at first I went through his work. I got to know his colour palete and his style and technique of drawing which was he used very minimal colours; but in some of his paintings he would put red or orange on some parts of his face. It was an Egon Schiele mark on his paintings. He used very plain smooth lines which looked quite simple to me at first but making my self portrait in his style was a challenging job to do. I was told by Tarun to be concerned about the posture, gesture and elements which are characteristic to me and not to the artist.

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Make a line drawing of the still life composition which were created in the studio from an appropriate point of view, on quarter imperial size.

We were given a composition same as the still life assignment but here there were different objects. We had complete freedom to use anything we want to explore on. We had draw the given composition in conventional and some non conventional ways. For nonconventional ways I used paper cutting technique, sticking fabric on transparent sheet. I also tried with coffee and saw dust which was an epic failure. I learnt that we should explore different tools to get the desired result and see what happens even if its a failure on the way you learn a lot about those techniques and mediums.

Some of the explorations from the media exploration assignment.

We were fortunate to get a visit from Mr.Rakesh Kumar who gave us demonstrations on water colour painting. And also Siddharth Tripathi who gave demonstrations on ink and brush, photo colours, dry pastels, oil pastels and also arcylic and poster colours. The picture on the right is an exploration with ink and brush in Tripathi’s demo class.

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Each student is given a short poem. Understand teh content, conceptualise, visualise and create a single page illustration to complement the text. Compose and integrate the text along with the illustration on a size where the smallest side (width or height) is atleast 15”, to create a poster. The choice of medium is dependent on the visualisation. Final artwork can be digitised depending on use of typography and the technique / size of the artwork.

I selected the poem ‘She walks in beauty’ by Lord Byron. When I visualised it at the first time all dreamy flowy thoughts came to my mind. I studied the poem at first and then did 2-3 explorations out of which 1 got approved by Tarun and then I did further explorations on it. First I painted it by hand also sticked paper cut outs. My first feedback was not to show a human figure because that would make it very clear to people. It should be a lit- tle imaginative.

So last I thought of showing only the sillhoette of a beautiful woman with her hair flowing in the open starry night which I felt quite apt for the poem. First I painted the whole back- ground with blue photo ink and then painted her hair black and made paper cut-outs for the hair and the face. So the hair is half acrylic paint and paper cut-outs. Then later on I digitised it with the texts and stars.

Illustrated poem : SHE WALKS IN BEAUTY

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A small news clipping (editorial) was selected and given to the students. In this crash assignment, visu- alise the statements/point of view expressed in the editorial and create a black and white illustration to be published in the newspaper, as per the given size. Give emphasis to concept, line quality, treatment and style of illustration. key words: editorial, newspaper, deadline, black-and-white, style & technique.

Actually i learnt a lot from this quick assignment. The news was about how CNBC blocks the adult rated movies on indian television for children and what are the problems of people who don’t have kids and want to watch movies on tv. News also says about the parents who are concerned abou their children watching A rated movies; who supports the CNBC. I learnt from batchmates how it can depicted in different ways.

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Different short stories, in English or Hindi were given. Read the story carefully and visualise the page wise distribution od the story.

The story I got was ‘Brothers from Chichibaba’. The concept of my story is based on anti war.

It is dedicated to the children of Kargil war. It shows how two brothers who loved each other turns against one another because of one being left handed and other right handed. When they were kids they would fight and stop fighting after sometime and become happy again but as they grew up it became more serious as they started ruling the place called Chichibaba. One day a guy called Tomtom comes and tells them to get separated. Chichibaba was divided into Chinchin and Chinchun. They kept buying weap ons to kill one another. Because of fighting against one another the wall got broken in to a big whole. The children of both the places started going to one another’s places and played together when elders are not looking. One day both the brothers saw it and realised their mistakes and hugged each other and promised to destroy all the weapons.

Two final spreads from my storybook – Brothers from chichibaba

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Communication studies Course duration : 1 week

Faculty : Jean D’souza

We had a very interesting week of communication studies in SLA which was taken by Jean. She works as a teacher in a college in Ahmedabad. Our class mostly cosisted o f ppts, discussion, movies and assignments. We started our 1st class with a game called two truth and a lie.

Everyone said two truth and one lie and we had to choose the ones we liked. We all knew each other to some extend so we knew what was truth and what was lie.

So our first class started with Roland Barthes and mythical structuring of signifying systems.

Myth is a type of speech, a system of communication, a mode of signification, a form. We discussed about various examples on Myth and how it is influenced in an object if it means something. We learnt about the signifier, the signified and the sign. We also learnt about the two systems of myth : linguistic system and the myth itself is a system because it is the second language in which one speaks about the first. We also discussed about Form, Concept and Signification.

The second day’s topic was Deconstruction and concepts of deconstruction by Jacques Derrida.

Deconstruction questions fundamental conceptual distinctions, or “oppositions,” through a close examination of the language and logic of philosophical and literary texts.

In popular usage the term has come to mean a critical dismantling of tradition and traditional modes of thought. The point of the deconstructive analysis is to restructure, or “displace,” the opposition, not simply to reverse it. Derrida began with Saussure’s notions of the signified and the signifier: an idea (signified) is represented by a signifier, but the signifier can never be the same as the idea. The signified contains a trace of the signifier, but also of its opposite.

The third day’s topic was Gender Studies. This has always been a interesting topic in the previous SLA classes. We learnt how gender discrimination is influenced through socio-cultural influences. We were given one assignment at the end of the course. We had to choose one phrase or sentence from the slides shown and or from the topics discussed in class or even from the movies shown in the class and then write about it. I used the quote by Simone De Beauvoir“One is not born a woman, but becomes one”. Socially constructed roles are not always connected with the biological differences. They differ between cultures and communities, and over time. For many, gender is always thought about in binary terms: man or woman, masculine or feminine. We talked about how the word gender became synonymous with the

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word women. we learnt about the Freud’s theory of penis envy and Luce Irigaray’s reaction to it.

We also to learnt about the feminists groups that emerged in the awakening of gender awareness like liberal feminism, cultural feminism, separatism, which seeks to establish female-only spaces and “Queer theory,” which explores marginalized sexual identities .(eg. homosexuality) The next topic of discussion was Jacques Lacan’s theories of unconscious and the difference between Freud and Lacan’s theories. It was interesting to learn about terms which we were discussing that day. I learnt about Id, ego and superego. The id is the impulsive (and unconscious) part of our psyche which responds directly and immediately to the instincts.

The personality of the newborn child is all id and only later does it develop ego and super-ego.

The id is not affected by reality, logic or the everyday world. On the contrary, it operates on the pleasure principle (Freud, 1920g) which is the idea that every wishful impulse should be satisfied immediately, regardless of the consequences. . Ideally the ego works by reason whereas the id is chaotic and totally unreasonable. The ego operates according to the reality principle, working our realistic ways of satisfying the id’s demands, often compromising or postponing satisfaction. The ego has no concept of right or wrong; something is good simply if it achieves its end of satisfying without causing harm to itself or to the id. The superego’s function is to control the id’s impulses, especially those which society forbids, such as sex and aggression.

It also has the function of persuading the ego to turn to moralistic goals rather than simply realistic ones and to strive for perfection. We learnt about the real and the reality. And there were various other things that we talked about all that I can’t put down here.

So lastly 5th day was Saussure and the system of signification. Saussure offered a ‘dyadic’ or two-part model of the sign. He defined a sign as being composed of a ‘signifier‘ - the form which the sign takes; and the ‘signified’ - the concept it represents. So the further discussions were about these subjects with examples. At the end of the class each day we used to watch a movie.

We watched some really good movies during that week.

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Introduction to semiotics Course duration : 1 week Faculty : Debashish Chakrabarty

The objectives of the course were basice awareness of the intellectual background of semiotics, understanding some basic theories and theorists, understanding basic semiotic techniques and also developing one’s own capacity to apply semiotic thinking . It basically aimed at arming us with tools of understanding and interpreting meaning in any design situation- from indentification of the problem to application of analysis or designing the solution. Reading and comprehension of English as a learning medium are important prerequisites. Our course journeyed through a breif history of semiotics from Plato and Aristotle through Abelard, Augustine and Bacon to finally settle down with Saussure, Pierce, Freud and Marx. The classes mostly followed the following modes : Introduction to the topic, issues of the day, research, discussion, assignment, submission/presentation and film.

Interpret Plato’s concept of of the cave image using an example through 5 frames and find/craft/ present an original example from around the NID campus to each of Bacon’s criteria For these assignments mansi, sananda, samir, vishnu, shaheen, sarbajeet and me were in a group. So at first divided the assignments. Mansi, sananda and me mostly did the second assignment where we had to find examples to each of Bacon’s critieria. For that we were given a sheet where all the Bacon’s morphologies of signs were listed. For the first assignment these guys came up with 5 frames of sketches where plato’s allegory of cave was used. In five frames it is shown how a farmer stays in hopes of growing sugar by planting sugar crystals which means he is in shadows. After learning the process from another farmer he achieves enlightenment which means escaping from the cave.Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is a symbol for the contrasts between ideas and what we perceive as reality. Plato argues that we are the cave slaves. We live in a world of shadows, where we don’t see the reality of ideas. It is possible to climb out of the cave, to be released from our shackles, but the process is painful. When the cave slaves (ourselves) climb from the cave (perceive and understand ideas), we see the world for how it should be. We see that ideas are eternal and perfect, even though the physical world crumbles.

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Watch two movies V for Vendetta and The Artist. Identify two scenes from each of the movies and anaylse how voicing/sound is handled through montage or analyse how meaning is constructed through set design/elements in the frame.

This was another group assignment. My partners were aarushi, shaheen and mayuri. We chose two scenes from each of the movies and analyse how meaning is constructed or shown on the screen through objects and lighting on the screen.

Individual assignements : • Discuss adverse portrayal of gender, race and religion in advertisement through 3 different 10 frame semiotic anaylses.

• Develop a graphic critical representation of anyone of the poems provided to you in not more than 5 frames.

So the last two assignments were individual assignments. The ad that i had chosen for gender discrmination was the ad of fair and lovely where the girl is shown as dull and dark who couldn’t take up the resposibilities of the house and her father wishes for a son who could have done that. Only after using fair and lovely she becomes fair and she becomes succesful in her life. That is such a misconception in Indian society and that is what I wanted to show how Indians are obsessed with fairness. The second ad for race I had chosen the Ashton Kutcher ‘s ad of popchips where he is dressed up as an Indian bollywood director, this ad offended the Indian american community. Dark skin and Indian accent which have been used to create humor became offensive for the Indian people. Thirdly the one on religion was that of the pepsi monk ad which seems quite offensive how buddhism is shown. In the last assignment we got we had to choose a poem from the list of poems we were given and then develop a graphic critical representation of anyone of the poem in not more than 5 frames. We had to ensure that we have done enough research on the text and the author. The poem i chose was ‘Epitaph on a tyrant’.

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Typography Course duration : 3 weeks Faculty : Tarun Deep Girdher

The objectives this course were to provide an overview of the field of typography, to recognize and articulate the fundamental prnciples of typography; to sharpen formal and technical skills through lectures, assignments and critique; to gain an understanding of arranging type (and images) in pre-determined formats, with focus on the printed word(s). Typography is an omnipresent medium through which the spoken word is given visual form. Along with colour and form, it is one of the three pillars of communication design. Typography as a skill and as a technology has evolved and expanded beyond imagination in the last five centuries – from hot metal to linotype, to digital type available at the stroke of a keyboard. In today’s world, with an overdose of visual and written communication, it has become imperative for any graphic design student to understand the elements of typography, and more importantly be able to practice it effectively.

Ask your batchmates to list down one adjective that they associate with your personality. Select one of the adjectives, which you think represents your character the best. Select one of the adjectives, on an A4 sheet, ‘draw’ your name, using hand lettered type (an appropriate typeface can be referred to) so as to visually portray the selected characteristic.

The word that I used to show my personality through my name was ‘cute’. I learnt how typography could be used to show different meanings or different personalities of a person.

How a slightly different shade of a color can change the whole meaning of the word and its appearance; also how a letter can depict different meanings if it’s either in the lowercase or in the uppercase.

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Type classification and terminology. Based on the presentations and discussions, research further (publications, internet resources, peer group, seniors) and present your understanding in the form of a poster.

In this group assignment mansi, naomi, pratyush and me were in a group. While researching on our group assignment I came know about various terminologies of typography in detail. We were told not to print any of the texts on the chart so we had to write everything by our self, which made me realize about the form or the shape of a particular type in detail and how it is different from each other. It made me visually and mentally aware of the changes of a type.

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Meaning making and Digital refinement.

The next three assignments were connected to one another. We were given inspiring quotes set in Myriad Pro light and bold. We had to create different layouts for it. The layout assignments made my composition skills better. I learnt how a slight shift in alignment or weight can change the meaning of the whole sentence or paragraph. We were given a limited space within which we had to make our composition at first I was confused how to even start with or from where should I start and what should I emphasise more on. With explorations and feedbacks it became easier to me. We had to apply your understanding of typographic principles and elements (based on the presentation made to the class) to create appropriate hierarchy of information.

Some of the explorations from the layout assigment; third one was my final layout.

Typeface study and Publication.

We had to select one of the the given typefaces. Then we had to analyse the typefaces from the perspective of classificaton and identifying features - comparing it with similar looking typefaces. We then researched and studied the socio-economic, cultural, political scenario when the typeface was designed. Basenine was my typeface. At first I was very disappointed because I couldn’t get much information about it and I was confused about all those terms like printer fonts, screen fonts, seriously they were all confusing and new to me. But after completing my booklet am very happy about it and there is lot of text in it, which is sensible and really important if anyone wants to know about basenine in detail. I know there have been a lot of mistakes that I have made in it and I could have made a better layout. But it was my first ever booklet and we were given a lot of freedom to explore and I have learnt a lot after making it. Now I know what were the things I should have taken care of while making it on the software also when printing and cutting it. Anyway I had a very good experience with it.

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Brief look of my booklet on Basenine.

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Colour & Form Course duration : 2 weeks

Faculty : Anil Sinha

The intent of this course was to understand the relation between colour and form. It was also intended to understand the different properties and constituents of colour. Colour can be perceived with form but form can’t be perceived without colour. How shape and form is different from each other.

Shape is the representation of form, its the first organic construction of anything. We were told about achromatic, monochromatic colors, Chroma and hue. We learnt about the two theories of light− Light and the pigment theory So on the first day we were told to doodle different forms that would look like icecreams or which I would like an icecream to look like.

From all the doodles we had made 10 were chosen and then we were told to go and ask people which 3 out of the 10 shapes they perceive or want icecreams to look like in order of their preference. So the first assignment was a research assignment we were given 3 venues for the survey. Those were IIM-A, CEPT and in the NID campus itself. So we divided ourseleves into 3 groups. I worked with ishita, pratyush, saumya and stuthi and we all went to IIM-A. We had to work on another assignment simultaneously which was another research assignment on various icecream brands. Our group had to reasearch on Vadilal which is one of the popular icecream brands in Ahmedabad. We researched on its history and what are the types of icecream they sell at what price.

After choosing the final form a theme was given to everyone, which was kind of compelling. I kept exploring and I came out with some of ideas. My theme was lamp as my form had similarities to a lamp. So had been told by my faculty to work on different color moods. Lamps used for different purposes in different locations. I tried working on different personalities also.

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Given below are 10 forms. Select 3 forms that you associate with ICE-CREAM in order of preference.

10 selected shapes for survey C

F

G

D

H

E

I

J

What colour would you associate with ICE-CREAM?

A

B

A 1

B 2

C

D

C 3

D4

E

F

G

H

E 5

F 6

G 7

H8

Hues and tints selected for the further research of the assignment on the relation between colour and form of icecreams.

Pictures of the three selected forms made of thermocol.

My final 3 selected forms for exploration.

Given below are the three forms selected from the initial forms we had explored.

Final three selected forms made digitally.

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Explorations on the selected form according different living moods :

Color explorations according to the theme lamps in different living moods.

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The last assignment we were given was to reseach on colour and then based on the research we had to make a power point presentation of it. The colour that I chose was gold. I learnt how gold is used in different contexts. How it shows different meanings in different culture, religion and also time. How it is used in the market. Gold has always been related to the royals. Gold itself means rich and royal. Some of the pictures of the slides I made are given below.

Some slides from colour research assignment

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Photography Course duration : 3 week Faculty : Hitendra vala

Our photography course started with discussion on various photography terms like shutter speed, aperture, iso and etc. We all have used slr’s and dslr’s but nobody knew anything clearly about the technical things which we were looking forward to learning in the course.

The first was to choose a word and then click 18 frames of it. We were given slr cameras from the institute which i had to share with Mansi from my batch. We were sharing a Nikon FM2 which had a 52 mm lens. So after everyone’s vote and everything we found our word to explore which was ‘Dreams’. The word seemed very interesting to some of us but as we started clicking pictures, it became heard to find. But still we managed to finish the assignment. We had a presentation for the first frames we clicked and then again we had to click one more roll of dreams! Unfortunately manasi and my 1st roll didn’t come well. To be precise it didn’t come at all, it came all blank so we had to redo the assignment. In the 2nd week of the course we were taken to Champaner by our faculty. It was an amazing exprience: the place was so beautiful. We were taken to 4-5 mosques to click pictures. They all were located in middle of jungle except the Jami masjid. Usually I have seen all these kind of old architectural places in the middle of the city or may be in the oldest part of the city. Its presence was so serence and pleasant. It felt really good clicking pictures over there. I also took my own camera because in the slr we could click only limited number of pictures. From those photos we had to choose one or some of them to make a tourism picture on Champaner. After that next week was basically studio shoots. We had to think of concept and then click pictures of it in the studio. This time we were given dslrs.

My concept was Presence of the Absence. I was trying to show the presence of a person who was gone or dead by capturing his belongings. Actually i was trying to show Mahatma Gandhi but it became very difficulty for me to look for his exact looking belongings. Anyway, after my final two frames were printed out i think i have fulfilled what i was looking for. The next assignment was to click a portrait picture of our own partners which should show a personal trait of that person. Mine was Manasi, I’m not very close to her so at first i had to know about her more. I got to know she likes writing; a person who writes also needs to think a lot to write that much. So I thought of portraying her in the picture as thoughtful and really came out well.

In the middle of all these we got another assignement in which we had to study about a master photographer and then document it.

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These are some of the frames from our first photography assignment on the subject ‘Dreams’.

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Outdoor Shoot : Dreams

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Portrait : Thoughtful

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Concept Shoot : Presence of the Absence

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Poster : Champaner !24

Bibliography Drawing & Illustration http://www.google.co.in/ http://drawingatduke.blogspot. http://www.wikipaintings.org/ http://identicaleye.blogspot.in/ http://poetry.wordpress. com/2005/10/08/lord-byron-she-walksin-beauty/ http://www.songbird.me/#artists/michael http://illustrationfriday.com/ http://kidscandraw.info/manga_gallery http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/children-book-cover-illustration/ Colour & Form http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_ (color) http://desktoppub.about.com/cs/colorselection/p/gold.htm http://anamikas.hubpages.com/hub/ Significance-of-Gold-in-Indian-Culture-indians-reasons http://heryyansen.hubpages.com/hub/ The-significance-of-the-colors-red-gold-in-Chinese-culture

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Typography http://abc.planet-typography.com http://yalepress.yale.edu http://www.typotheque.com http://www.emigre.com http://www.eyemagazine.com http://sarahkayrebranding.blogspot.in http://www.thinkingwithtype.com/ Science & Liberal arts www.cudenver.edu (Martin Ryder, semiotics) www.aber.ac.uk (Chandler, Semiotics for beginners) www.cultsock.ndirect.co.uk www.chass.utoronto.ca Photography http://www.nadavkander.com/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadav_ Kander http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/ nadav-kander http://www.flowersgallery.com/

SEMESTER DOCUMENTATION / DAISY DUTTA / SEM III / UG GRAPHIC DESIGN 2012