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Jordan Hu Typography III Typeset in Brown Instructor: Jan Fairbairn
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Introduction
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Typeface
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Color
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Identity
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Process
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Final
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Agoraphobia Process Book
Table of Contents
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Agoraphobia is the result of five–week long assignment based on the topic of “home.” I was extremely psyched to have gotten this for my final Type III project because it is a topic that is right up my alley. Recently, my work has been significantly more personal. My theory is that after we graduate, the opportunity to do more personal work decreases. I hope to do as much personal work as I can in my time here at RISD.
Agoraphobia Process Book
Introduction
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Initially, I had chosen the typeface Filosofia Grand OT, a serif font designed by Zuzana Licko. Eventually, as my project progressed, I decided to switch to the sans serif typeface Brown. I felt that it was more appropriate towards the childish and amateur qualities of Taiwanese aesthetics. Brown is a typeface that works exceedingly well for both headlines and body text.
Agoraphobia Process Book
Typeface
Filosofia Grand OST Regular
AaBbCc 01234
Filosofia Grand OST Bold
AaBbCc 01234
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AaBbCc 01234
Brown Italic
AaBbCc 01234
Brown Bold
AaBbCc 01234
Agoraphobia Process Book
Brown Regular
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Color was a huge component to my project because it is able to portray a certain mood that typography and illustrations can’t. My color palette originally derives from the central colors of the EasyCard, the standard transportation card in Taiwan that allows access to the MRT and bus for residents to visit different places at their own convenience.
Agoraphobia Process Book
Color
Color Palettes Considered
(0,20,80,0)
(0,88,39,0)
(100,30,0,0)
(70,0,80,0)
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Agoraphobia Process Book
Final Color Palette
(100,30,0,0)
(70,0,80,0)
The final color palette of the design ended up using only two of the four colors from the Easycard.
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In addition to the actual project, the class was asked to design and create an identity. The identity to my project is a logo of an empty snail shell. The concept behind this project was inspired by a simple observation of a snail. The logo of an empty snail shell represents departing from a comfort zone.
Agoraphobia Process Book
Identity
Iterations
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Agoraphobia Process Book
As I started off thinking about the identity of the project, I wasn’t quite sure where to start. Thus, I began by sketching out the most obvious things that my identity could be. The first few sketches that I did was of a camera and a pencil. Because my project is heavily photograph and writing based, I thought that putting a camera and pencil together would represent that. However, as I continued to sketch, I began to drift away from that and focused more on the snail. I chose a handdrawn sketch of snail to be my identity because it not only represented my concept but also it embraces the childish and amateurish quality of Taiwanese aesthetics.
HO ME HO ME HO ME HO ME
HO ME HO ME HO ME
HO 家 ME
HO 家 ME
家家
家
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厜
Final Identity
I chose a handdrawn sketch of snail to be my identity because it not only represents my concept but also it embraces the childish and amateurish quality of Taiwanese aesthetics.
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Week 0
My class recieved the prompt for this assignment the week before spring break. The class was asked to think about this assignment during our spring break. I remember throughout my spring break, I unintentionally was constantly think about the prompt. I’m not really sure why, but everytime I was dazing off, it would be because I was thinking about the definition of home and what it meant to me. Perhaps because I was actually in my home in New Jersey, the place that I have lived the majority of my life, that it became a catalyst for my thinking. The gathering or collecting aspect to this assignment began when I started to rummage through places that I haven’t thought about for the longest time. These places included my old room that has now become an usused guest room, dusty family albums, closets, and the basement. I also looked through the film of my father’s old Canon DSLR, which has a storage of photographs dated all the way back to the year 2002. During this entire process of collecting, I was able to rediscover fragments of my childhood and things that have lost sentimental value over the years.
Agoraphobia Process Book
Process
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Agoraphobia Process Book
During the first week of this assignment, the class was asked to first write out three different essays regarding what home meant to them.
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Home is a familiar place. . .
When I went back to New Jersey for break, I really couldn’t help myself from constantly pondering about this assignment. Starting with the obvious, I began to think about New Jersey; the location where I grew up the majority of my life. What makes New Jersey a home to me? It is a place that holds a significant place in my heart because of the oh so many memories I’ve had there. In this case, I would have to say these are “fragments” that make somewhere I can call home. Home is something that I am used to. However, the weird thing is “home” doesn’t feel like home anymore. The feeling of this familiar place has somewhat subsided ever since I had left for college in Providence. Even though the feeling of familiarity has subsided, it is still present. Home for me used to be constant bickering and picking fights with my sister, arguing with my mother, going to church on Sunday, or comfort Chinese food from my parents. Home is constantly being redefined when one is exposed to new cultures and places.
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Agoraphobia Process Book
2
Home is a secondary place that ties in with identity. . . I have always identified myself as being a Taiwanese American. The one other place in the world that I truly consider as a “home� would be in Taiwan. Pretty much every year, I have had the fortunate opportunity of going back to visit both of my grandparents. The funny thing is that even though I consider Taiwan as my secondary home, I would not say that I fit in. Simply through looks and the way I speak, I have already been identified as an outsider... something about me doesn’t fit in. However, even though I am clearly recognized as an outsider from Taiwan, it just becomes part of my entire experience in Taiwan. Ever since I lived in Taiwan by myself for a month last year, I have come to grow a love for the culture as it is completely different from America. In Taiwan, I am placed in an unfamiliar place where I able to experience not only a new culture but also learn more about myself.
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Home is where your feel comfortable, maybe even too comfortable As I was rereading the example of animal habitats on the assignment sheet, I immediately thought about the snail. Snails are these incredibly slow creatures that carry around their shelter or “home” wherever they travel. That is why these creatures are unable to travel far due to the huge burden of carrying their home around with them wherever they go. This observation of the natural habitat of snails made me think of the word “Agoraphobia.” Agoraphobia is an anxiety disorder where one is afraid of leaving a safe environment. It reminded me of this word because in the snail’s case, they are constantly afraid of leaving a safe environment. Instead of leaving, they bring that safe environment with them. As a result, snails aren’t able to see much of the world because of their inability to let go. In fact, the only time snails actually leave their home is when they find a more suitable home to move into. Otherwise, they don’t ever leave their home until they die. At one point in my life, I I kind of questioned if I had this disorder. It was not a very serious question to myself because I knew I didn’t have it, but it was merely just an afterthought of reflecting back on my life. What led me to this already answered question, though? Being raised in West Windsor, New Jersey, I grew up in a relatively sheltered household and environment. All the way up to my senior year in high school, the realization dawned upon me that there wasn’t anything truly interesting about my life. I had not taken enough risks and have not done enough simply because I was too afraid to leave this comfortable lifestyle in order to experience anything new. Home is somewhere that you feel the most comfortable, or even too comfortable. It is an environment in which you live a routined life without any worries in the world.
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Agoraphobia Process Book
The first two weeks for this assignment was merely just further collecting, thinking, writing, and reflecting for me. I had made the decision of choosing my second proposal which was to create a magazine that explored my identity as a Taiwanese American thro-ugh documentary photography. I made the decision of choosing the second proposal over the third because I was apprehensive about how to deliver the snail concept without it being overly cutesy. I’ve come to acknowledge that cute is an outwardly safe word with a hidden negative connotation to it.I feared that if I had an element that was somewhat cute, that people would view my work as merely just that. I didn’t want people that experienced this project to feel that there was nothing more to it than that.
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Agoraphobia Process Book
A major component to my home project was a collection of personal writing. I originally was just going to use the writing that I had done over the summer on a blog that I had maintained during my stay in Taiwan. However, I realized that there wasn’t as much writing as I had thought there would be. It took an extensive amount of time to write down all the memories associated with the photographs. My initial plan was to design an entire magazine from start to finish because I have never created my own magazine before. I also thought that designing a magazine would teach me a lot about typography and its application in a strict layout. However, based on the feedback that I have been getting for the first two weeks, I started to question if the magazine was the appropriate form for my project and if I should change it to something else.
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Agoraphobia Process Book
Two weeks into this project, I made the groundbreaking decision of changing the form from a magazine to fold-up cards. I had been struggling to find an ethical solution in making my project more personal towards a broader audience. Based on my critiques for the past two weeks, I wasn’t getting the response I was hoping for.
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Agoraphobia Process Book
I ended choosing fold-up cards because I felt that it was a more appropriate personable form. There is something about the tangibility of an interactive object that I personally am drawn towards. By experiencing through interaction, I am able to make a connection with that particular object. The idea of fold-up cards first developed when I was brainstormingover things that embodied Taiwan to me. It was rather difficult trying to narrow down a singular thing that embodies something of a much larger magnitude such as Taiwan. Does this thing take form of anobject, an early morning jog up the mountain, or perhaps even the graffiti at the corner of a building? The form I chose ended up being a fishbone box. Before every meal, my grandparents would carefully make a box from outdated newspapers. The purpose of the box is to place the waste from your meal such as fish bones or fruit pits. This inspired me to make something that involved folding. I liked the idea of having the audience unfold something relatively petite to reveal something else that represented something even bigger.
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Agoraphobia Process Book
For my first revisions of the fold-up cards, the majority thought that it was significantly more personable than the magazine. My critique was that the grid was way too distinct and that the colored squares were a little overwhelming. The class wanted me to break out of the gridded squares, play around with the grid, and add some hierarchy in terms of typography. Somebody also mentioned that I should try to include illustrations within the design as a means to echo the illustrative identity of my project. Another idea that somebody suggested (as they were toying around with my cards) was that instead of having separate cards, that perhaps the cards could become something when seen as a whole.
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Agoraphobia Process Book
My second critique for the fold-up cards was that the design had too much information in it and that I should consider taking some out. I actually already knew that it seemed very crowded previously but I thought that it was better to have more information than not enough. Some of my peers thought that I should focus on either the photography or illustrations instead of both. For the front, some of my peers suggested that the map could be something else.
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Agoraphobia Process Book
After having my final critique for this project with the class, I started to realize that I didn’t really have a working system. Even though I have been following a grid, having so much clutter within the design made it seem as if it wasn’t following a system. I took a step back and basically started from square 1 where I revised my system to be more effective and simple. Even though the system I settled on is fairly simple, it allowed more breathing space that my previous design lacked. This space wasn’t overwhelming and it maintained more fluidity between placement of type and image.
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Agoraphobia Process Book
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Having finally finished developing a much more cohesive system, and simplifying my entire project, I finally have to say that I am satisfied with the outcome. The entire process for this project was rather grueling and overly time-consuming but nonetheless I enjoyed doing it. Even though I was set against doing anything relatively cutesy and still ended up going down that route, I think my project is a good representation of showing how a project can have cute elements to it but have significance to it. My final cards are printed on Wassau Paper: Exact Opaque colors in Gray 24/60 lb. I chose to use this particular paper because it is quite similar to ordinary newsprint used to print Chinese newspaper which are then made into fish-boxes.
Agoraphobia Process Book
Final
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This is my story. I hope my story has inspired you to always take chances and never be afraid of leaving your “shelter� to experience something entirely new.
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