A-Z Project — Daniel Apt

A-Z Project Project 01

Daniel Apt APT11334035 FdA Design for Graphic Communication, Year 2 Group 1 with Karl Foster, Chris May & David Simms 6th of December, 2012 1

Introduction

This was the first university project I’ve undertaken dur my second year of FdA Design for Graphic Communication.

I was placed in Group 1. I had classes with Karl Foster, Chris May, and David Simms.

My one-to-one tutorials were with David Simms.

2

Contents

Project Words

4

Practice Area

5

Engagement

6

Role

7

Secondary Role

8

Brief

10

Plan

12

Experimentation

14

Decisions

18

Development

20

Final Outcome

22

Evaluation

24

Credits

25

3

Project Words

Binding The method of attaching objects to eachother. In my research I mainly focused on bookbinding, the physical act of creating a book.

I also investigated Chinese foot binding, but decided not to pursuit this subject for my project.

Fibonacci A series of numbers which reccur in nature. All the numbers come from the mathematical function Fn = Fn-1 + Fn-2 F0 = 0, F1 = 1 Thus: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, etc.

4

Cartography The study and practice of making maps. Both old and new maps had been investigated. Also nonnavigational maps had been investigated.

Calligraphy The visual art of writing. Often performed with a broad-tip instrument. Each culture has its unique calligraphic style. I investigated Western, MiddleEastern and East-Asian calligraphy.

Also contemporary calligraphy was looked at.

5

Practice Area

A lot of my work is very digital.

My designs are created behind the screen, if they are tactile, they come out of a printer. They are “too clean�.

Why not design with my hands?

Step away from the computers and printers!

6

Avoid

Aspire

Engagement

The final outcome needs to be touched, felt, and handled by users.

Then the audience can admire the physical work that has gone in to this project.

The audience will be young people who are active on Twitter (more on that later).

7

Role

For this project I’ll be an artisan designer. I’ll need to put an effort in to learning the necessary skills.

My stance for this project is purely for self-benefit. I want to learn and experience new fields of design, and creating the final outcome will be my method of doing so.

8

Secondary Role

I will be an artisan designer, but even then I’ll need to create something which has a purpose.

What will that purpose be?

I want to make people aware of behaviour I heavily disagree with.

I have a distaste for people who are disrespectufl to others, are narrow minded and endanger others by their words and acts.

If anything I’m a whistleblower. I’m making others aware of the wrongdoings of other people.

Often these wrong-doers are young people, and most of this wrongdoing is done online, on platforms like Twitter.

9

Brief The brief I created was created in such a way that it would require me to acquire new skills.

How familiar I am with the following subjects: Fibonacci Cartography Binding Calligraphy To step out of my comfort zone, the main design element for my project became calligraphy.

The content I would write out would be silly, stupid, and shocking tweets. The combination of the stupid tweets with sophisticated calligraphy would create an interesting contrast.

The calligraphy needed to be showcased in a certain way. I decided to present the calligraphy in a self-bound book.

10

Content “I’m not racist, I just like saying racist shit #sorrynotsorry” — @a_xo_dro “My hair looks like shit and my cleaning lady said it looks nice. I don’t pay you to lie to me bitch.” — @keykeyvictoria etc…

Design

Medium

11

Plan 33 days till deadline Thursday 6th of December, 11.00am.

0

4

4

Content Find “despicable� tweets which will be showcased.

0

16

20

0

3

3

3

15

18

18

2

Materials

Practice

Decide Binding

Buy calligraphy pen, nibs, ink, folding bone, sewing thread, etc.

Practice calligraphy, until it is at a decent level.

Decide what boo technique will b

0

3

18

12

3

18

Legend

Earliest Start

Duration

Earliest Finish

Activity Activity Description.

20

20

5

25

Latest Start

Extra Time

Latest Start

25

8

33

g

Development

Document

okbinding be used.

Create the final calligraphic pieces and create the book.

Create a PDF, showcasing the whole process.

20

25

20

25

33

13

Experimentation The experimentation process was just as much a practicing as a learning stage.

Binding Since the start of the project I had been attending evening bookbinding classes at Book Works.

During the workshops I learnt how to use the following binding-related techniques: • • • • • • • •

14

Odd-number stitch Coptic Stitch Link Stitch Kettle Stitch Japanese Stab Bind Hardcover Multi-Section Binding French Folding

15

Experimentation The experimentation process was just as much a practicing as a learning stage.

Calligraphy One of the most useful resources I was given was by Hasan Gรถzlรถgul.

This great 128 page PDF about calligraphy. Including instructions on how to write in all the different (Western) calligraphic styles.

16

17

Decisions After experimentation a lot of content had been created.

Now I needed to decide which methods and materials I wanted to use.

Binding Most people reacted the most positively to the hardcover book I created. The initial book was a multi-section book, with 40 pages.

I wouldn’t be able to fill 40 pages with my own calligraphy. If I wanted to create a hardcover book, I needed to learn how to create a single-section book.

A multi-section hardcover has too many pages.

A single-section hardcover is a better medium.

18

Calligraphy To make the content’s look good, my calligraphy needed to be good as well. I experimented with several styles, and I’ve been able to write beautifully enough with the following styles.

Insular Majuscule

Caroline Minuscule

Textura Quadrata

Square Capitals

Foundational Hand

Gothic Capitals

19

Development Time to put my skills to the test, and create my final outcome.

Calligraphy Professional calligraphers write in books, which already have been bound.

Because I’m far from professional, I needed to first write the calligraphy, and afterwards bind the book.

Bootleg Lightbox

Improved the lightbox

Pretty scary when you spill all the ink

Nib calligraphy with a 3mm square nib

20

Binding The final binding technique I chose was a five stitch single section book, with a hardcover block.

The size of the book is close to an A4 landscape book. This allowed me to write the calligraphy at a natural size.

The binding, I was very clumsy‌

Trim the edges

Roughly cut the fabric

Glue boards to fabric

Cut fabric to size

21

Final Outcome

This was the final outcome after a marathon of calligraphy and binding. It actually almost went wrong, when the contents and cover were glued incorrectly to eachother.

Luckily I was able to correct this by trimming the pages. It is far from perfect, but the book is reasonable enough to pass.

22

23

Evaluation

I was extremely pleased with this project. I have learnt two skills which I was terrible at beforehand.

Learning new skills is the most important thing I can do at university (and life in general), so I couldn’t be more pleased with the outcome.

The outcome itself can be improved.

The pages aren’t stuck properly to the cover, and it feels a bit “woncky.” This might be due to the small amount of pages in the book.

24

Credits

Ina Baumeister for teaching me how to book bind at Bookworks Hasan Gözlögul for supplying me with a PDF of The Art of Calligraphy Blythe Aislinn for teaching me how to use scalpels, glue, and all other things I’m terrible at using.

25