REFORMING THE MATRIX The Insanity of Creating a Form
Emily Sterneman
M
REFORMING THE
MX ATRI
The Insanity of Creating a Form Emily Sterneman
A&D 332 Visual Communications Design 1 Visual Communications Design Department of Art & Design School of Visual & Performing Arts Purdue University West Lafayette, Indiana A publication of Visual Communications Design, School of Visual & Performing Arts All content is copyright in the name of Emily Sterneman, November, 2014.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction:
Page 8
Font Study:
Page 45
On Hand Sketching:
Page 58
On Computer-Aided Sketching:
Page 23
Final Design:
Page 7
Biography:
Page 11
Dedication: To my friends. For putting up with my insanity throughout this project.
9
INTRODUCTION The exploration of the limits of my creativity — that is the feeling that I get when I think about this project. Professor Ichiyama, at the beginning of this class at some point mentioned the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. The way I felt, I felt insane. The beginning sketches, I was putting the letter M and the letter X together in what felt like the same ways until I was striving so hard for something creative and different that I would come up with some ridiculous looking sketch that I could not tell you what possessed me to draw that. I was so obsessed with being creative and different and interesting I did not realize until almost the very end of my computer aided sketches, that my best design in my sketches was also one of my most simple ones. This told me a lot about insanity, or at least the definition we were giving at the beginning of the project. You can
stretch your mind to try and encompass all of the possible solutions, the most creative, the craziest, but it’s not until you reach all of the solutions you can possibly contain in your mind that you can figure out what the best one for you is — even something I thought of in the very beginning of sketching. I can tell you that particular design did not work at all in the initial pencil sketch and I had pushed it right out of my mind until a last ditch effort during computer aided sketching. But right then there was something wonderful that simply worked. So friends, I apologize for any lapse of sanity I may have had going through this project. However, I hope you can realize some kind of growth I accomplished during the most insane sections of my project. Now that the project is (mostly) over, my sense of accomplishment for what I learned is something to be proud of.
10
FONT STUDY Caslon Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Baskerville Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Bodoni Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Garamond Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Times New Roman Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx
11
Gill Sans Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Futura Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Helvetica Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Optima Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Univers Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx Mm Xx
12
13
ON HAND SKETCHING
The first assignment of the letters was more stressful to me than it probably should have been. Even now I’m not sure why. I feel like I have had these letters for so long that they have become a part of me — a part of my identity. I feel like I would be an entirely different person at the end of this semester had I gotten any two other letters ... D and N, R and L, even E and S, my own initials (which another person in my class did receive). I digress, in the beginning I studied the curves and lines in serif, sans-serif, capital, lowercase, italic and bold Ms and Xs. After having all of these lines and forms in my head I began to think of ways that they could go together. How one curve could fit into another, how one corner or line could line up with another in an interesting way. I would lay down with my drawing materials on my
lap, close my eyes, listening to ambient noises and think of some twisted form in my mind. Putting it down on paper, however, was a different story. The process would sometimes take so long, that even if I were trying to be quick about it, parts of the form would slip from my mind and it would be lost forever. The ending result was something, possibly interesting, but not a form with the letters M and X. So my sketching continued. My mind started with using all black, skinny forms and putting them together. Somehow I could not picture taking away a letter using negative space. It came to my mind, yet projecting the idea on paper was difficult. I don’t think until way later I realized I could use very heavy and condensed forms, which is where a lot of my stronger designs developed.
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
This last sketch is the closest that I came to what my final designed turned out to be. It doesn’t look similar and is confusing. Originally I didn’t consider this when I started my computer-aided sketching. However, when I did try a design like this on the computer, it turned out the way I’d originally imagined this sketch to look like in the first place. It simply took time and a great deal of experimentation to get there.
24
25
ON COMPUTER-AIDED SKETCHING The computer-aided sketches were a blessing and a curse for me. A blessing in the fact that I could explore the different intricacies of the individual typefaces more closely, matching up the curves and angles like I had imagined in my head when I was sketching by hand. The curse came in my time constraints. I do not have the means or money to purchase Illustrator for my own computer, so I would have to come into the design building late at night to work on these. I also have a job that forces me to be in the office from the end of every class until anywhere from 9 p.m. until midnight Sunday through Thursday. I work at the school newspaper as the photo editor, so my mind is constantly split between organizing all of the photo assignments, helping my photographers with their assignments and covering all of the events (even on the weekends)
that were not taken. I had a paper to put out every day and would have to edit and produce the entire photographical content on a daily bases. It was never not on my mind. I would wake up every morning to texts from other editors with more assignments, questions from one of my 20 or so photographers and thoughts of homework, meetings and class on my mind. However, any moment I could spare I was in the lab creating design after design on Illustrator. I would have to say even with the struggle of finding time to come in I learned how to use my little, sleep-deprived time very wisely and efficiently. Wonderful things happened in those late hours of the night. I can honestly say Adobe saved my life for this project. Allowing me a little more sanity in finalizing a design that I believed was great.
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
FINAL DESIGN
As I have said before, this design surprised me entirely — the simplicity, the centered-nature of the letters, the geometric quality that was a result of all of this. The typefaces I chose for each of my letters ended up being both capital and both sans-serif. I manipulated them to fit together yet I was expecting my end result to be a combination that included curved, skewed and very differently styled letters. I could not have been more far off in my imagination of my final design. However, I saw what I created and instanwtly knew that this was something different, something special. One of my previous hand drawn sketches attempted to do what I did in my final sketch and was completely unreadable, and yet
my final sketch is readable to my eye, equally so with the X and the M. I thought, this is too simple; this was not what I wanted. But I looked back at my old designs when I was trying to accomplish this look, this feeling, and I realized that it is not simple at all. What I tried to imagine in my head and relay on paper with pencil, I could not achieve right away. It took many levels of design and experimentation to make this design come out interesting and legible. I suppose what surprised me the most was the wave of relief I felt at the end when I finally saw the end result. The insanity dissolved when by the end, I my efforts finally resulted in a form that was something different.
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Junior Classmates Visual Communications Design Co-workers, The Exponent Purdue’s Independent Daily Student Newspaper Friends and Family Wendy Olmstead, visiting faculty, Purdue University Dennis Ichiyama, VCD Professor Purdue University K. Lynia Coates, Xerox Services Purdue University Cathy Aper, Xerox Services Purdue University Scott Benham, Haywood Printing Co. Inc. Lafayette, Indiana
59
COLOPHON
Paper: Type:
Cougar Natural 80# Cover, 70# Text Helvetica LT Std Light, 18 pt., 15 pt., 30 pt., 72 pt., 250 pt., 9 pt., 10 pt. Garamond Regular, 15 pt., 9 pt. [The following fonts were used in various styles for a font study: Caslon, 12 pt. Baskerville, 12 pt. Bodoni, 12 pt. Garamond, 12 pt. Times New Roman, 12 pt. Gill Sans, 12 pt. Futura, 12 pt. Helvetica, 12 pt. Optima, 12 pt. Univers, 12 pt.] Binding: Perfect bound Hayward Printing Co. Inc. Lafayette, Indiana Printing: Purdue Print & Digital Services delivered by Xerox West Lafayette, Indiana Printer: IGen4 Diamond Edition Edition: 6 copies
60
61
BIOGRAPHY
This book depicts a part of myself. To understand my book you have to understand a little bit about my life growing up. My brother is three years older than me, and as the youngest child, I was always looking up to him and always trying to be better at something. Even though I loved drawing and artwork, mine never measured up to his. During elementary school my brother won statewide awards for some of his artwork. This deterred me from art at a young age and I began trying to pursue other things that I could do better than my older brother. As I got older I was very good at math and science, being ahead two years in middle and high school. Though, I
finally got to college, looked back on my life and realized that wasn’t where my passion lied. I joined the art & design program at Purdue after a year of exploring my options and could not be happier. I feel as though the end result for this project has a direct correlation with the way that I grew up. The geometry and symmetry in my result to me, show my love of mathematics and things fitting together like solving a solution, and in design a search for an answer that makes sense and is new at the same time. What I finally discovered was something I never expected, but I completely understand.
62