THE BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO
GRAPHIC DESIGN
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Copyright to NID.
THE BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO
GRAPHIC DESIGN
STUDENT | GDPD Name : Ishita Jain Graphic Design Semester 3 UG 2011-12
Acknowledgements I would like to thank my entire Graphic Design batch for making this semester a wonderful one! I would like to thank our co-ordinator, Mr. Rupesh Vyas for always addressing to our issues, however stupid they may have been. I would like to thank all my faculty for making this semester an extremely enrching one! I’d especially like to thank Mr. Tarun Deep Girdher, who gave us our first ever publication assignment, despite not having a publication course, It gave me the courage to make such a document. I’d like to thank Mr. Mahendra Patel for taking out the time and having the patience to teach us the basics of Indesign and Illustrator, and more importantly for taking out the fear i held towards learning any software. I would really like to thank my roomate, Ann Cherian for being ever so patient and also for keeping my interest in textiles alive! My relationship with the KMC has strengthened over this semester. It’s the place where i go to when i need some inspiration and also one of my favourite places on campus. I hope to learn more and more with every day I spend at NID.
Ishita Jain GD Sem 3
From being confused about discipline decision to being uttery happy and thankful to be Graphic Design, My journey from foundation to graphics has been a really interesting one. I chose graphic design with the hope of being able to explore a lot in various directions, make use of the open inter disciplinary learning that NID offers and apply my graphics knowledge in other fields. In many ways this semester was similar to the first semester of my foundation. There was a sudden specialisation, but So much to understand and see within that specialisation. This semester was like the foundation of graphics, and it took me a lot of time to collect, organise and sort my thoughts. I slowly learnt about my own working style, my strengths and weaknesses. I realised the importance of ‘going back’ to what has been done and constantly reflecting upon what i see and read. Doing so helped me absorb that learning much better.
This booklet documents in brief, the experience of my first semester in Graphic Design.
WHAT YOU NEED : You don’t just need to be skilled with physical tools to become a good graphic designer, a solid understanding of the following course is highly recommended :
01. SCIENCE & LIBERAL ARTS 02. TYPOGRAPHY 03. COLOUR 04. ILLUSTRATION 05. PHOTOGRAPHY
Every designer does have certain tools that they are comfortable with and have a certain level of skill with them. At the beginning of this semester, we were told to make our own tool kits with certain basics like black markers, varying grades of pencils, ball pens, microns, stabilos, charcoal pencils, scale, eraser, masking and double sided tape, scissors, ink, brushes etc. We were also urged to try out new media . All this stationary is kept in a pouch/ a box that is easily portable, so that wherever we go, we armed and ready to capture what we see and think!
Science
Liberal
and
Arts
Course
Introduction to SEMIOTICS
Duration : 1 week Faculty : Mr. Debashish Chakraborty
“ No word matters. But man forgets reality and remembers words.” Roger Zelazny, Lord of Light
Semiotics was one of the most thought provoking courses of the semester which helped me reflect a lot in the courses that followed. It taught us the theory behind one’s train of thoughts, the philosophy behind visual naviagtion and thought processing principles. As designer’s it is important to understand how language, images and thoughts are processed before we begin to navigate them. The course introduced us to famous philospher like Saussure, Pierce, Barthes, Plato, Bacon, Freud etc. The course approaches knowledge by analyzing belief systems, culture, memory and imagination. An understanding of the past that created our present, the philosophical questions that informed struggles over values and cultural difference, and the literary and artistic texts that reflect our world are a necessary complement to understand our disciplnes. We had several assignments where we had to apply our theoretical understanding in popular culture like movies, advertisements, photographs, find meaning in our surroundings. The experience of doing these assignments greatly simplifies our understanding of heavy philosophy.
Assignment
Plato’s cave allegory to interpret the concept using an example of your own through 5 frames.
Plato’s allegory of the cave is about perception and reality. It describes a group of people who have lived chained to the wall of a cave all of their lives, facing a blank wall. The people watch shadows projected on the wall by things passing in front of a fire behind them, and begin to ascribe forms to these shadows. The shadows are as close as the prisoners get to viewing reality. He then explains how the philosopher is like a prisoner who is freed from the cave and comes to understand that the shadows on the wall do not make up reality at all, as he can perceive the true form of reality rather than the mere shadows seen by the prisoners.
Initially, people believed the earth to be a flat plane.
They believed that they would fall off the edge if they went too far.
Ferdinand Magellan ,a portugese explorer decided to undertake a voyage to all “corners� of the earth.
Magellan returned to the same place from where he started at the end of his journey and realised that the earth is round, and dispelled the fear of falling off the edge of the earth.
Scientific advancements proved to mankind that the earth is not flat
Assignment
Plato’s cave Bacon’s Criteria allegory find craft/present an original example from around the NID campus to each of Bacon’s ccriteria
According to Roger Bacon a sign belongs to the category of relation. A sign is a triadic relation- a sign of something to someone. “… a sign has a twofold comparison: both to that which it signifies, and to that to which it signifies; and the first is essential and the sign always has it in act, but the second it has in habit; and it is from the first that it is called a sign, not from the second.” Bacon presents a detailed classification of signs by taking up, combining, and modifying elements of several prior sign typologies. 1. NATURAL SIGNS 1.1 signifying by inference, concomitance, consequence 1.1.1 signifying necessarily 1.1.1.1 signifying something present 1.1.1.2 signifying something past 1.1.1.3 signifying something future 1.1.2 signifying with probability 1.2 signifying by configuration and likeness 1.3 signifying by causality 2. SIGNS GIVEN AND DIRECTED BY A SOUL 2.1 signifying instinctively without deliberation 2.2 signifying with deliberation 2.3 interjections
Signifies necessarily : something in the future - roads to be repaired.
Signifies by inference and consequence : something present - furnace is burning, ceramic work is inside.
Signifies causality : presence of stary animal.
Signifies probability : something in the future building of a nest
Signifies probability : something in the present students are working in the KMC
Sign given and directed by a soul : signifying a deliberation - words
Assignment
Plato’sAnalysis Movie cave allegory identifying two frames from each movie and analyzing how meaning is constructed through set design or elements in the frame .
The play of light and shadow modifies the whole sense of peaceful sleep into something as dreadful as the death bed as we see the mask of V enveloped by the mystifying darkness of fear and nearing end fixes its gaze upon the sleeping old lady. The light is focused deliberately on the mask to lay emphasis on the role of identity. When the lady is mentally prepared for death while V approaches her, she is already dead which adds an extra feather to the irony. The farewell red rose has its redness screaming out danger instead of any stereotyped passion associated with it.
V for VENDETTA is a dystopian thriller film directed by James McTeigue. It is an adaptation of the V for Vendetta comic book by Alan Moore and David Lloyd. The Shadow Gallery ,Vs vaulted hideaway serves as a museum of sorts, a home to his extensive collection of music, film, literature, philosophy and art all of which has been banned by the government’s Ministry of Objectionable Material. V has become a caretaker of everything that the government won’t allow. It gives an air of mystery and isolation .The dim lit alienated interiors give a sense of claustrophobia and anxiety. These interiors put together illuminate V’s rebellion against the government. V draws his inspiration from the lead of his favourite movie, The Count Of Monte Cristo as he fences his rage out.
THE ARTIST is a 2011 French romantic comedy-drama homage to classic black-and-white silent films. Written and directed by Michel Hazanavicius. This frame shows the aspiring actress, Peppy, in Valentin’s dressing room after their intimate dance party sequence which required several shots. Peppy waits for Valentin and starts looking around, she sees his suit on a hanger, she indulges in her fantasy. She puts her arm inside the suit and wraps it around her waist pretending that it is George.
She caresses the suit tenderly and gasps as ‘he’ suddenly grabs her waist, the music is also continuously rising which goes along with the incredibly believable chemistry between Peppy and ‘George’. The music, the privacy of the dressing room, and the suit, which suddenly acquires the charismatic personality of the actor, purely by Peppy’s gestures towards all highlight the spark and new chemistry between George and Peppy. The scene is funny, tender and sensual ,all at the same time.
This frame is a part of George’s hallucination after listening to one of the first ever sound recordings and declaring them to be a fad.
The scene is in george’s dressing room, it starts with him pouring a drink and one of the few scenes that feature sound in the movie and really draw attention. As he puts his glass down, he can hear the chink, he soon realizes that he can hear everything, other objects,the telephone, and other objects as he knocks over his chair. He is puzzled and then terrified by these events as everything is making sound except for..George. Even though it is most natural to hear sounds and talk, sound recordings in movies were the newest thing that time, so it is a very clever shot which shows a part of george’s Life and Not one of his films where he can hear everything but himself, and this actually reality because the whole world moves on to talkies, but it is George who remains stuck with his silent movies and, in effect become silent and washed out from the world of movies.
Assignment
Advertisement analysis adverse portrayal of Race, Religion and Gender n an advertisement
Adverse portrayal of RELIGION in advertisement
Adverse portrayal of RACE in an advertisement The Intel advertisement shows atgroup of dark skinned men bowing down before a ‘white’ man looking smug for being able to maximize the power of his employees. The visual of a white man as a task master maximizing the efficiency his employees, who are bowing down to him in a subservient manner, essentially reminds one of slavery and African-american racism.
These ice cream advertisements by Antonio Federici titled “Immaculately Conceived” and “Submit to Temptation” are mocking the Church. They mean to convey the thought that Ice Cream is religion. The first image shows a pregnant nun standing in a church holding a tub of the ice cream, this image questions the birth of Jesus, while the second image shows a priest and a nun getting intimate and is titled ‘ submit to temptaion’ which questions abstinence .
Adverse portrayal of GENDER in an advertisement The ad starts with the model saying “do you like my bits? Ofcourse you do!. Come let me show them to you” and then she leads the viewer inside the Club soda factory. The main character says “ Mmm.. nice bits” to the worker who is squeezing oranges and replies by saying “ thanks, I squeezed them myself this morning “ Here the commentary goes “we love bits, all bits, as long as they are juicy and natural”
Next, she talks about choosing the best bits from the world. Notice how the earths overlap slightly to create an image of breasts. As the video gets over she says “and now we say goodbye, we know your boys cant wait to get their hands on our….bits “ The advertisement uses a well practical stayle of euphemisms and very obvious innuendos comparing the oranges to breasts, all the visuals are also shown together and the word bits seems like a replacement for “tits” all of which portray a very sexual image to the viewer. It objectifies women’s body parts to sell the product.
Assignment
Poem Presentation to interpret and analyze the chosen poem, graphically, in 5 different frames.
Every 3 minutes a woman is beaten Every five minutes a Woman is raped/every ten minutes A lil girl is molested
Yet I rode the subway today I sat next to an old man who May have beaten his old wife 3 minutes ago or 3 days/30 years ago He might have sodomized his Daughter but I sat there Cuz the young men on the train Might beat some young women Later in the day or tomorrow I might not shut my door fast
The poet talks about looking at men and wondering whether they are simply doing their job or are they also perpetrators of abuse. She starts mistrusting the world and keeps wondering if every man has a dark side. Is it just an old man sitting in the subway or did he also rape his wife?
In the first frame I have shown images of women experiencing pain , anguish and agony. With reference to the play, For Coloured girls who have considered Suicide when the Rainbow is Enuf by the poet, i have shown the women as African . The poem involves repetition of the line “ every three minutesâ€? etc‌ this is done to emphasise on the fact the abuse happens so frequently and that nothing is done about it. I have also shown a woman being strangled as a major theme in this poem is injustice, as mentioned later when the poet talks about the unfair media reports.
Some woman’s innocence Rushes to her cheeks/pours from her mouth Like the betsy wetsy dolls have been torn Apart/their mouths Menses red & split
Here the poet compares the rape victims to broken dolls which have been torn apart. Once a woman is raped, she goes through extreme mental and physical torture. Their innocence (portrayed by dolls) is lost.
I took the coffee & spit it up/I found an Announcement/not the woman’s Bloated body in the river/floating Not the child bleeding in the 59th street corridor/not the baby Broken on the floor/
every Three minutes a shoulder Is jammed through plaster and the oven door/ Chairs push thru the rib cage/hot water or Boiling sperm decorate her body I rode the subway today& bought a paper from a Man who might Have held his old lady onto A hot pressing iron/I don’t know May be he catches lil girls in the Park & rips open their behinds With steel rods/I can’t decide What he might have done I only Know every 3 minutes Every 5 minutes every 10 minutes/so I bought the paper Looking for the announcement The discovery/of the dismembered Woman’s body/the Victims have not all been Identified/today they are Naked and dead/refuse to Testify/one girl out of 10’s not Coherent
“There is some concern That alleged battered women Might start to murder their Husbands & lovers with no Immediate cause”
The poet is horrified as she reads the news, expecting it to be full of rape stories, but finds that the media is talking about a woman attacking her lover. This instills the name of poem With No Immediate Cause, which says that the media and the authorities fail to do anything permanent to solve the issue and victims fail to get justice.
I spit up I vomit I am screaming We all have immediate cause Every 3 minutes Every 5 minutes Every 10 minutes Every dayWomen’s bodies are found In alleys & bedrooms/at the top of the stairs Before I ride the subway/buy a paper/drink Coffee/I must know/ Have you hurt a woman today Did you beat a woman today Throw a child across a room Are the lil girl’s panties In yr pocket Did you hurt a woman today I have to ask these obscene questions The authorities require me to Establish Immediate cause Every three minutes Every five minutes Every ten minutes Every day.
–Ntozake Shange
Towards the end of the poem, the poet can no longer bear the injustice and screams and questions the publics. She asks threateningly asks if YOU hurt a woman today . She is on the warpath and is trying to make the reader understand the injustice of it all.
Course
COMMUNICATION STUDIES
Duration : 1 week Faculty : Ms. Jean D’Souza
“What’s in a name? that which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet; So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d,...” Shakespeare
Communication Studies was the second course under SLA. A lot of what we had done in Semiotics was repeated, and it reinforced it and helped me understand the concepts better.We studied a lot about feminism and how the role of a woman in a society has changed over time. We saw a number of wonderful movies as part of the course like, Possession, Mona LIsa Smile, My Fair Lady, My Best Friend’s wedding and Wuthering Heights. We would discuss the movies in class and relate them to what was being taught.
Assignment
Course Understanding to pick up any topic from what we ahve studied and to present it in any suitable way
“There is no inherent, essential, ‘transparent’,
“Myth is influenced, among other things, by
self-evident or ‘natural’ connection between the
Time. Some objects become the prey of mythical
signifier and the signified - between the sound
speech for a while, then they disappear, others
or shape of a word and the concept to which it
take their place and attain the status of myth.”t
refers.” Saussure says that there is no natural relation
They appear from time to time in history in a
between the signifier and the signified; whatever
different form, but with the same purpose, and
relation exists is just imposed by the prevalent
also to some extent bearing the same objects
culture.
associated with Lord Vishnu.
Let us take the example of Lord Vishnu and his
Barthes says that Myth is a peculiar system, in
Dashavatara or ten avatars:
that it is constructed from a semiological chain,
Matsya; the fish, Kurma ; the tortoise , Varaha;
which existed before it: it is a second-order
the boar, Narasimha ; the lion man , Vamana ;
semiological system. That which is a sign (the
the dwarf, Parasurama ; the axe wielder , Sri
associative total of a concept and an image) in
Rama, Sri Krishna, Lord Buddha and Kalki are
the first system becomes a mere signifier in the
all supposed to be incarnations of Lord Vishnu.
second.
All the above names represent the same: Lord
Here, all the forms signify the first i.e. Lord
Vishnu
Vishnu.
In this case the “form” of the incarnation keeps on changing but the purpose or “concept” remains the same. Saussure thus concludes that the nature of all signs is arbitrary.
Who is
VISHNU ?
Bibliography Visible Signs - David Crow http://people.ucalgary.ca/~rseiler/ semiolog.htm http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/peircesemiotics/ http://dailypicksandflicks.com/2011/06/18/ club-orange-ad-the-best-bits-in-theworld-video/ http://www.scribd.com/doc/86620174/ Structural-Ism-Notes Jaya Mahabharata - Devdutt Pattnaik Nagamandal - Girish Karnad
Course
TYPOGRAPHY
Duration : 3 weeks Faculty : Mr. Tarun Deep Girdher
“ Language is the dress of thought” Dr. Samuel Johnson
Typography was one of the most enriching courses of the semester which bombarded us into a whole new world overflowing with things to be discovered! Semiotics gave me an amazing insight as to how typography isnt just about designing letterforms, It made me question languages, and why different languages have different letterforms and how how each letterform is associated to a separate sound which is completely arbitary, or sometimes has a vast history behind it. It makes you wonder how the whole system of linguistics got converted into these visual characters. After we had questioned all these ways of the world, we studied the technical aspects of typography in the course.
Assignment
Typo Portrait Choose an adjective which describes your personality best and hand letter it in a way which reflects the chosen trait.
Our tryst with typography began with a fun assignment. We each had to make our own hand lettered Typo Portraits. We asked several people to describe our personality, after which we picked an adjective and we had to write out name in a way which brought out the adjective. We learnt how subtle changes in letterforms convey different meaning. I realised how our composition, colours,materials interact so much with the text in order to convey different feelings, experiences and meaning.
The words i chose were sincere and meticulous. I learnt and arrived at my final after several explorations.
My first exploration, which went really wrong in terms of colour and gave more of a classic, royal feel.
In my final portrait, I drew out Future lowercase letters. centre aligned. Futura is a clean, geometric sans serif which has an appearance of efficiency and forwardness. The typeface is derived from simple geometric forms (near-perfect circles, triangles and squares) and is based on strokes of near-even weight,.It is non - decorative, eliminating nonessential elements. The precision and efficiency of this typeface made me relate it to my chosen traits.
Next, i used Baskerville to see how a serif would work. I felt that serifs give a feel of detail, but the letteforms looked very formal and intimidating with the capital ‘I’ and did not give a simple,sincere feel. I used a very basic black border, which i felt worked very well to show sincerity.
Then i tried to experiment with using a sane serif and I tried to write my full name, but it looked too formal.
Assignment
Type Classification + Terminology Presentation of research work done on the fundamentals of typography in the form of a poster.
Along with the typo portrait ,we had a parallel group research assignment to create a basic Typography 101 chart. This learning created a sensitivity about the features of various letterforms which aided our typo portrait explorations. We had various class discussions and presentations on the anatomy of type, type families, their defining characteristics, classifications through the ages. This week really made me stop looking at text as just text, I started to notice ‘typefaces’ and not just words and wondered why a particular tyeface was used in a given context. We worked as a group and chose to use Adobe Caslon as a base to discuss the fundamentals of type. We researched about font families, classification of typefaces, systems of classification, measurement of type, specific defining letter characterisitics, special glyphs etc. The class discussions were very helpful as each discussion provided us something new to think and ponder upon.
Assignment
Meaning Making (a) Creating meaning throught the given quote through the use of basic typographical elemnts in a layout.
We were all given inspirational quotes set in Myriad Pro, and were asked to play around with size and two weights ( regular and semibold) to create different layouts, each of which by virtue of just typographic elements created a different meaning. All this was done manually to understand that typography isnt just a digital process, but also involves a great deal of thinking ,planning and methodology .
“ To live is the rarest thing in the world, Most people,exist. That is all. ” – Oscar Wilde
A good layout should : •
Catch Attention
•
Retain Attention
•
Impart the information
Assignment
Meaning Making (b) A (a) Creating new typeface meaning is introduced throught theand given the quote hierarchy through ( physical the useand of basic typographical meaning) are alteredelemnts for oneincomposition. a layout.
A new typeface, Kelper ( regular and black)
In this assignment, the laws of Gestalt became
was introduced along with the given weights of
quite apparent.
Myriad pro.
We had two different typefaces and four different
We had two things to try out with the final chosen
weights which gave us a lot of scope for
compostion :
experimenting and grouping.
1. Change the physical hierarchy of the layout keeping the meaning the same. 2. Change the meaning of the quote while keeping the physical hierarchy the same.
We tried to analyze our intuitive ‘gut feel’ and tried to figure out logical reasons for how each word was treated in relation to the meaning we were trying to convey.
1. Change the physical hierarchy of the layout keeping the meaning the same..
2. Change the meaning of the quote while keeping the physical hierarchy the same.
Assignment
Typeface Study each one Each oneofof ususwas wasassigned assignedaatypeface typeface, ,reasearch reasearchabout aboutititand and analyze it .
Each one of us studied a typeface in proper
One of the best things about studying different
detail with the purpose of making a publication
typefaces was the knowledge we got from our
on the typeface.
batchmates’ research.
We studied the following attributes for our
By the end of the course, we were familair with
typefaces, mine was was Univers.
atleast 16 typefaces, which was a wonderfully enriching experience.
Typeface : UNIVERS Designer : Adrian Frutiger Time of release : 1957 Classification : Neo-grotesque sans serif Foundry : Deberny & Peignot Technology : Phototypesetting Context : International Typographic Style Similar typefaces : Frutiger, Akzidenz Grotesk, Helvetica, Gill sans, Futura Font family : unique numbering system was devised with 21 fonts. Identifying features : Sans serif, horizontal flow of lines, large x heights,
open counters etc.
Applications : Swiss airlines, Munich Olympics poster, Swiss Airlines etc.
UNIVERS
FUTURA
AVANT GARDE
BEMBO
BODONI
OPTIMA
INTERSTATE
Tobias Frere-Jones
WARNOCK
FRANKLIN GOTHIC
Palatino
KEPLER
BASE 9
MINION
CLARENDON
AMPLITUDE
OFFICINA SANS OFFICINA SERIF
Adrian Frutiger Herb Lubalin
Giambattista Bodoni
Morris Fuller Benton Robert Slimbach Robert Slimbach Christian Schwartz
Paul Renner Francesco Griffo
Hermann Zapf Robert Slimbach Hermann Zapf Zuzana Licko
Robert Besley
Erik Spiekermann
Assignment
Publicaton making a publication from the research material for the given typeface.
The final assignment of the course was to make our first ever publication on our given typefaces. After the research was done, we had to start working on our layouts...this was a maddening experience. I had a big mental block which stuck for a long time! We were free to chose any layout we wanted, our only constraint was the document size and the typeface for the body text. We experimented a lot and learn so much about per- ception, grouping, unity, guiding the eye. All the ‘gut feelings’ we had in the layout assignments slowly started making sense. We moved from the basic typographical elements, letters and words, to small paragraphs and single page layouts, where we saw how words react within a paragraph, space and meaning. We learnt how lines and their spaces work in a paragraph and how paragraphs create hierarchy on a page. We also learnt how other elements like orientation, shapes,distortions navigate one’s eye.
Bibliography The fundamentals of typography - Gavin and Ambrose Thinking with Type - Ellen Lupton Making digital type look good - Bob Gordon About face - David jury Typeface : classic typography for contemporary design - Tamye riggs Meggs History of Graphic Design - Meggs Phillip B. http://explorationsintypography.com/ Typo-Graphy Sketchbooks - Steven Heller and Lita Talarico Oded Ezer: The Typographer’s Guide to the Galaxy http://www.thinkingwithtype.com/
COLOR
Course
COLOUR
Duration : 2 weeks Faculty : Mr. Anil Sinha
“ Colours are light’s suffering and joy” Wolfgang Goethe
Colour was an intensely exploratory course and was nothing like we expected it to be. We approached our work in a very methodic, real world way by conducting organised and unbiased surveys , tallying data and then working with the results. We had a unique method of learning, we were given the concept of an ice cream, and from that basic, seemingly vague idea, we ended up working in a very definite direction. We realised how very subtle changes in colour can make a massive difference in communicating a particular thought. We understood the approach of taking an inspiration, choosing its color palette and then incorporating in our form in such a way so that the feel or meaning deciphered is the same as that of the inspiration.
Assignment
Plato’s cave Choosing Form allegory & Color to conduct a survey and choose the formss which relate to an ice cream
To give some direction towards coming up with a form, we were given the concept of Ice Creams. We created ten different forms and a team of us went to IIM Ahmedabad to conduct a survey to be able to narrow down to a few forms which are assosciated with ice creams. The nezt step was to construct the form in 3D to get a proper understanding of its structure. We could play around, add grooves, cut parts etc while retaining the essence of the form.
We also had to pick a suitable colour pallette that would go with our ice cream theme for which we did a survey again and narrowed down to mostly pastel colors.
The chosen form.
Assignment
Explorations
Digitized structure of the form
I have explored various colour combinations to try to guide the eye in a certain way. I have tried to create illusions and play with negative spaces to give a 3D feel . There is constant movement because the viewer cannot decide whether the forms bends inwards or outwards.
Assignment
Constraints After exploring for a while, we decided to add
The next set of constraints was to use colours
certain constraints to our explorations so that we
and overlaps of transparency in different ways
could understanf how the
to give the feel and representation of certain
form and color interact to convey a particular
flavours.
meaning. My first set of constraints was to use tints of the same colour in the form to create illusions of movement.
This was the base form that i chose to explore under the constraints set. The layers move from light to darker and make the eyes move from the right and left to the centre.
SPICY
MINTY
SWEET
BITTER
SOUR
Assignment
Plato’s cave allegory Themes Once we had explored within the constraints, we had to pick a theme which related to our form and its colour and further explore by changing the attribues of foreground, background and the space around the form. I realised that it looks like a light installation, so i tried to come up with appropriate elements to convey it.
Some explorations for a spotlight theme which highlights the form.
Assignment
Research to study the given color in detail in various contexts.
Each of us had to choose a colour, I chose Green and studied it in various contexts. I studied green in the GLOBAL context and it’s universal associations with nature and ecology. In the LOCAL context, Green is in great abundance in NID’s landscape and environment, and also has been used as a theme colour for poster wars in Monsoon Fiesta. Green also signifies the holy union of Krishna (blue) and Radha (yellow) in the Gujarati context In the NATIONAL context, green is used in the Indian flag and it symbolizes fertility and prosperity of the people and the land. It stands for different things in different CULTURAL contexts. It is commonly associated with money, luck,greed and jealousy in Western cultures. In Asian cultures it is more commonly associated with fertiliy and youth. In African contexts it is associated natural wealth, corruption and the cycle of growth and death in different parts. In Eastern Cultures it is associated with weath, fertility and is also the colour of islam. Green in the SPIRITUAL context has different meanings in feng shui, magic and is connected with the element of the earth. Green has various positive and negative aspects in COLOUR THERAPY.
Green has different meaning in different RELIGIOUS contexts. In Hinduism it is a festive colour, the colour of nature of of the heart chakra. In Islam it is the colour of a vast number of important symbols, their flag and is thought to be the favourite colour of the Prophet, In Christianity , it stands for nature, life, renewal, the season of Epiphany and along with the colour red, it is associated with Christmas. Mint Green is very popular in current FASHION. Designers like Chanel. Vera Wang etc have used it abundantly in their Summer’12 line. Green has many attributes and meanings in the business MARKET. It is associated with money, freshness ,greed, affluence etc. Green is a major part of several BRAND IDENTITIES likes Heineken, Starbucks, Garnier Fructis etc. Green has different meanings in different usages in english LANGUAGE. In an INDIVIDUAL Context, Green to me is the colour of the earth and reminds me of the lush greenery and makes me feel close to nature.
Bibliography www.feng-shui-and-beyond.com www.squidoo.com www.wikipedia.com www.colourtherapyhealing.com www.psychology.about.com www.crystal-cure.com www.egyptianmyths.com www.elizabethan-era.com www.slate.com www.smashingmagazine.com www.beading-design-jewlry.com www.sensationalcolor.com Wedding dress across cultures by Helen Bradley foster and Donald Clay Johnson 128 COLORS a sample book for architects, conservators and designers by Katrin Trautwein
ILLUSTRATION
Duration : 5 weeks Faculty : Mr. Tarun Deep Girdher
“ Thinking is drawing in your head” Alan Fletcher
Illustration was a much awaited course for most of us. We started by discussing that what, exactly, is Illustration. Is it creating images? Is it painting? Is it visualisation? Illustration, i feel, is creating meaningful images which are embedded in a context. It is a ‘context’ which differentiates an illustration from a painting. Illustrations are not just images, they are images which have a purpose and meaning to convey. The context could be anything - comics, graphic novels, children’s books, advertising, newspapers, instruction manuals, T-shirts, merchandise, packaging, lifestyle objects, social awareness etc. Again, after SLA i could understand the importance of guiding someone through an illustartion and being very conscious of the meaning it generates by controlling every possible detail.
Assignment
Head Study ~ volume to observe a person’s face, understand the volume and draw it without using erasers.
I learnt how to ‘construct’ a person’s face and how to build volume by simple line drawing. It is important to observe a person carefully, each feature, not just in isolation, but in relation to other features and the face as a whole. This helps in keeping the proportions correct, and only once that is achieved, the resemblace to ther person and the volume of the face becomes apparent.
Assignment
Object Study ~ contour to construct an object ; an iron from different angles as a simple line drawing without using an eraser.
While doing this exercise, I realised that an iron is made up of several layers. I had to understand and analyse the iron very carefully to get the drawing right. It was quite like Analytical Drawing. Once i understood the construction of the iron, i had to get the perspective right by practising it from various angles. After that i paid attention to the details, details in perspective, position and placement of details. All in all , it was a very ‘planar’ way of drawing, one has to understand all the different planes to be able to draw the object.
Assignment
Object study~negative space observing the negative spaces around the object and not drawing the actual structure of the object at all.t
This was a really unusual and interesting approach. An object is never in isolation, it always interacts with the space around it. But, to draw the space arounf the object, the object has to be observed very carefully. I had to try several times before i somewhat got a hang of the proportions, both overall and relative. After a few tries, I understood the object better and could intuitively decide when to stop extending the line, the angle of perspective etc.
Assignment
Still Life A composition of various objects was setup and we had to draw it from a particular point of view , at various times of the day.
I observed the objects carefully, first in isolation, then as a whole and drew them keeping in mind the techniques and the understanding from the previous assignments. Attention was paid to the form, proportion, relative scale and proportion and how the lighting changed and reflected on the surfaces. While adding tone and colour, I tried to render them in a way that bought out the material, texture and surface of each object.
This was painted on canvas with acrylics at night when the light and reflections changed completely. I was aiming impressionist effect.
Pencil colours
Assignment
Self Portrait study the style, technique, colour pallette and medium of the given master painter in the given time period and to create a self portrait .
I was given ‘Sleep’ ,1937, by Salvador Dali . My first agenda was to try and understand the painting, not just the physical aspects, but also the meaning behind the painting. It was difficult to grasp the mad Dali’s trail of thought, but after going through several books i came to know that the painting deals with construction of dreams,reality and the unconcious. The next challenge was to incorporate something that is so essentially ‘ishita’ into the painting. I tried a few explorations and added various
‘Sleep’ 1937
detailed elements and Dalified myself! Once the conceptualisation was done, i explored with
There were certain things which were so
different media to get the desired, smooth,well
typically Dali’s style, that I did wished to retain
blended and detailed style of the artist.
them. I noticed that for the given time period, Dali’s paintings had certain features : 1. Emphasise and Focus by virtue of a gigantic scale 2. Depth as a result of unusual and exaggerated perspectives 3. Contrasting use of colour 4. Fine and smooth blending of colour 5. Eyes are never properly open or defined. 6. Use of body parts in isolation.
This is a watercolour exploration. I kept the face facing the right because, it is considered that people who use the right side of the brain are more creative. I realised that the melting neck from ‘Sleep’ made no sense in relation to me , so i tried to extend the neck and play with a bit of perspective and illusion. The neck is a crucial element for supporting the head, here, the neck extends to a long road, with ups and downs and and is held up by two hands. This signifies my journey and that I am responsible for my actions. The shadowy person on the road is my father who is someone from my daily life, but of extreme importance in the shaping of my personality.
My final picture , being done in postercolours, ink washes and dry pastel highlights. I decided to drop the concept of an extending neck and decided to make a 3/4 side view which was stable and meant to convey that i am grounded.
The final portrait dotted with details of my own life. All my features are supported by paintbrushes instead of crutches. I tried to incorporate my love for art and show the fact that i have painted my own reality, no one else. The grand monument in the painting is my favourite place back home, Lodhi Gardens. One of the quirky elements i added in the portrait was dali painting me!
Assignment
Media Exploration to explore in black and white media
During our illustration course, we had one week with Mr. Siddhartha Tripathi, who taught some basic techniques for illustration. He gave us some assignments, most of which were using black white poster paint only. We had a lot of fun with him as he helped us forget out inhibitions, taught us new ways and techniques of approaching illustration and really helped us so something fun with explorations that went wrong. Some ink explorations with brush and croquill
We explored textures of glass,plastic,concrete,wood and brick on different mediums and surfaces from memory in a spherical format. I explored and tried to understand all these textures and bring them out in a 2d surface using a 3d representation. I understood how light and shade work differently with different textures and what an important role they play in creating impact.
Assignment
Media Exploration a Still life was composed and drawn, using that as a master we explored in different media to build our our visual vocabulary.
As we already experienced sketching a still life composition, our focus was on trying various techniques for execution. It really widened my visual vocabulary, in the sense, that i understood how different surfaces and mediums might work together in which context, i got to know which techniques could be executed fast if we are short on time. Another very important thing that i learnt was attemtping to fix failed explorations, which sometimes provided very good results. I also gained an understanding of creatung the different textures with the same tools. The most important thing for me was that i got out of my fear of making a ‘wrong’ exploration and felt a sense of inhibition, especially while doing the quick explorations.
CONVENTIONAL MEDIA
UNCONVENTIONAL MEDIA
TECHNIQUE : blending soft pencil colours was very effective because of the texture of the paper, and the highlights were given with the oil pastel.
TECHNIQUE : The base was prepared with photoinks and the forms were added with bleach when the ink was slightly damp.
TECHNIQUE : a water based ink was used and washes with varying gradation and different brush strokes were applied .
TECHNIQUE : I tried to find materials that would help recreate the same textures as those in the composition,
TECHNIQUE : The composition was inked with fat brush strokes, and then coloured with pastels. The composition was highlighted with the help of white poster paint.
TECHNIQUE : First, I inked the composition on a clear acetate sheet with black ink. Then on the next acetate sheet i glued sawdust on several areas of the composition. Finally, i superimposed the sawdust sheet on the inked sheet.
Assignment
Illustrated Poems to understand the content of the given poem, conceptualise , visualise and create a single page illustrationt
I had to represent ‘The River’ by Hazelmarie Elliott, which is the cyclic journey of a river through the seasons of the years. It basically talks about the life of the river, and also is a metphor for the life of a person. The poem is very elegantly written with a lot of visual imagery, the poet has pretty much drawn out a colour palette within the poem. I tried some explorations and thought of ways which maybe changed the meaning of the poem, but then i realised that sometimes poems demand a literal representation. It would be unfair to not represent the wonderful images that come to one’s mind when you read
Planning and basic explorations.
the poem. So i decided to do detailed watercolour landscapes to show the journey of the river.
Planning the layout on newsprint and constantly checking if the panels were continuous or not.
The River There runs the river ~ running through, with shades of brown and muddied hue, old as old ~ and bending long ~ beguiled by Nature’s sweetened song. Reverie in spring’s delight, now fill the river’s lonely sight ~ with warming rays of sunshine gold, beaming on the waters cold. Spring turns into the warmth of June, as the river flows to summer’s tune ~ beneath a silvered moon’s respite, upon a breathless summer’s night. Too soon, the river nods its head, to sleep a dream within its bed ~ when seasons change, and autumn bares its leaves to rest in slumber’s care. Alas, the graying days appear. Cold now hovers ~ ever near, to freeze the river’s running now, as winter takes its chilly bow. Old as old ~ and bending long ~ asleep within a winter’s song, with shades of brown and muddied hue, the river sleeps ‘til winter’s through. There runs the river ~ running through, with shades of brown and muddied hue, old as old ~ and bending long ~ beguiled by Nature’s sweetened song. Hazelmarie Elliott
18” x 70”, Watercolor
Assignment
Media Exploration Editorial Illustration ato Still read life the was givencomposed newspaper andarticle drawn, andusing illustrate that asthea content master for we aexplored newspaper. in different media to build our our visual vocabulary.
I had to study the given newspaper article in depth, with previous references to be able to visualize it well. The article was about the Gujarat riots and about how, after a decade, justice was finally done to the victims. But it also spoke about how so many other riot victims still havent got justice and that, yes, it is a an initial step, but for how long will the other offenders roam free. We were all given a deadline of two hours to finish the illustration just as it was for an actual editorial, so it was quite an exciting approach! I used ink and a croquill for the illustration.
Some croquill and ink explorations.
Final Size : 9 cm (W) x 6cm (H)
Where law wins out
Naroda Patiya convictions are reassuring, if only legal processes had also triumphed in 1984,1983 THE arc of history may finally be bending towards justice for the victims of communal violence that gripped Gujarat in 2002. Thirty-two people, including Maya Kodnani, formerly women and child development minister in the Narendra Modi government, and Babu Bajrangi, a Bajrang Dal leader, were convicted by a special court in Gujarat for their roles in the Naroda Patiya massacre in Ahmedabad. This is the first time, after exhaustive investigations, that convictions have touched Gujarat’s powerful. In April, the special court convicted 23 in the Ode case, another flashpoint in the 2002 violence. The Supreme Court has gone to great lengths to insulate the legal process from powerful vested interests — setting up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) in 2008 at the request of Zakia Jafri and the NHRC to examine nine of the most critical cases, and also sending amicus curiae, Raju Ramachandran, to conduct independent investigations. The divergences in those two reports point to the complexity of assigning culpability in these cases. Kodnani, in fact, had been arrested by the SIT in 2009. This is a moment to admire the judicial system that has wrested some resolution for the trauma of Naroda Patiya. And yet, it must be asked why justice and reparation are still missing for another scar in recent history — the 1984 riots in Delhi, in which Sikhs bore the brunt of the violence as retaliation for Indira Gandhi’s assassination,
under the watch of the Congress government. The police and administration were co-opted in similar ways; prominent Congress leaders were implicated in the violence. However, no powerful figure has been convicted yet. While the 1984 riots and the 2002 riots have become rhetorical tit-for-tats between political forces, the fact remains that one is inching towards answers and the other has been treated as a matter best forgotten and transcended. What, also, of the Nellie massacre, which is not even invoked as a political talking point? In 1983, Muslim settlers were killed and injured in an ethnic clash during the Assam agitation — the All Assam Students Union and other activists had whipped up sentiment against “foreign nationals”. But the investigation reached nowhere, legal proceedings were soon dropped, not a single person has faced trial. As the legal process unfolds in Gujarat, bringing at least a partial justice for the events of 2002, it also casts a sidelight on these other sites of violence, still painfully unaddressed.
Assignment
Picture Book Illustration Media Exploration ato Still read life andwas understand composedthe andgiven drawn, storyusing and that illustrate as a master it in anwe explored in different appropriate style. media to build our our visual vocabulary.
I had to illustrate a hindi short story called ‘ Lamba aur Nata’ which is about a pig and a camel who are arguing as to whether it is better to be tall or short. It was a very short story filled with a lot of movements, and i saw the possibilty of it being interactive so i tried to do some pop up explorations. I learnt a lot about keeping visual continuity and
A vertical layered paper cutout.
also about navigating the direction of the eye and interest, especially when the dialogue boxes for text are to be pulled up.
A proper pop up exploration which i decided not to go forward with as it was too delicate a concept to be used for a childrens’ book.
A pop out with watercolour and salt.
The first final spread which shows the basic paper cutouts and colour scheme which is common throughout.
The second spread, where the dialogue acts as a cute to extend the camel’s neck to emphasize his height.
Bibliography
The Tao of Sketching - Qu Lei Lei Illustration Now! I nside the sketchbooks of the world’s greates graphic designers - Steven Heller and Lita Talarico A-Z of flower portariture - Billy Showell Watercolour - Paul Talbot Greaves Paper Engineering for Pop up books - Mark Hiner The complete drawing course - Stan Smith Dali’s Mustache - Phillipe Halsman The Creative License: giving yourself permission to be the artist you truly are Danny Gregory Dirty Fingernails - John Foster
This photograph was taken using a handmade bokeh filter. Aperture : 1.2 Shutter Speed : 1/2000s
Photography
Course
PHOTOGRAPHY
Duration : 3 weeks Faculty : Mr. Hitendra Vala
“You don’t take a photograph, you make it.” Ansel Adams
Photography was also an immensely exploratory course. We learnt a lot by virtue of experimenting. We understood both the technical and compositional aspects of a good photograph. Photography is a very powerful method to represent reality, create illusions and manipulate meaning. As designers we need to be very conscious of every element in our pictures so that our meaning comes across unhindered.
Dreams to observe a person’s face, understand the volume and draw it without using erasers.
Our first assignment was to explore with Manual
Camera : Nikon fm2
SLR’s. We had to go around the city looking
Lens : 50mm
for subjects that suited our topic, which was
ASA : 100
‘Dreams’.
Film Brand : Kodak Gold
We learnt a lot by virtue of experimentation and just the feel of holding the manual camera, the weight, listening to click and waiting for the picture to develop was quite thrilling!
Subject : Nightmare Location: Teen Darwaza Timing: 11 am Aperture: 2.8 Shutter Speed: 1/60s
Subject : Aspiration Location: Gandhi Ashram Timing: 2.05pm Aperture: 2.8 Shutter Speed: 1/60s
Subject : Lotuses Location: Flower Market Timing: 7.37 am Aperture: 2.8 Shutter Speed: 1/125s
Subject : Baby Bubbles Location: Law Gardem Timing: 6 pm Aperture: 2.8 Shutter Speed: 1/1000s
Subject : Hazy eyes Location: Sarkhej Roza Timing: 9.20am Aperture: 5.6 Shutter Speed: 1/125s
Subject : Prosperity Location: Sunday Market Timing: 10.10am Aperture: 5.6 Shutter Speed: 1/125s
Subject : Prayers to Christ Location: St. Xavier’s Church Timing: 7.15pm Aperture: 1.2 Shutter Speed: 1/2000s
Subject : Lost Dream Location: Railway Station Timing: 8.37am Aperture: 2.8 Shutter Speed: 1/250s
Concept Shoot to understand the technical aspects of a studio shoot when working with a fixed concept.
I wished to do a simple concept where i could really play around with the lighthing and understand it properly. I chose to do a shoot on alcoholism, where i had really interesting glass bottles and a single human form to convey my message. After this shoot, I understood how important it is to visualise what you wish to photograph before you can just start a shoot arbitarily.
Alcohol brings out the monster in you. Aperture : 7.1
Shutter speed : 1/125 s
I also learnt what technical aspects give which effects and this helped me adapt faster for the second frame. We used a NIKON D3100 digital camera with a zoom lens.
Alcohol breaks relationships. Aperture : 13
Shutter speed : 1/125 s
Candid to do a portrait shoot of your partner which brings out a personality aspect.
My partner was Udit, his greatest passion is cars and he is always daydreaming about all the fancy cars in the world. I chose to do his shoot in KMC, where is trying to read but is lost in his carry dreams. I printed two pictures of his favourite Ferrari model and stuck them behind his glasses to make it look like there is a reflection of the car from the magazine that is hidden between his course books.
‘Car’ry Dreams Aperture : 5.6 Shutter speed : 1/80 s
Champaner to visit an outside location and spend a day photographing with the purpose of creating a tourism poster.
Our entire batch visited Champaner, which is UNESCO World Heritage Site and did architectural photography the whole day using a variety of lense : 50mm, 18mm, 35-70mm, 35mm and 28mm perspective correction and 200mm to capture the essence of the place. Then we had to sort through our photographs and make a poster promoting the tourism of Champaner.
Master Photographer to study a master photographer and make an A3 sized spread on his style of work.
I chose to study Phillipe Halsman for this assignment as i found his surrealistic style very fascinating. I had studied about Dali for a previous illustration course and the fact that Halsman had worked so extensively with Dali really made me want to look more into his style.
Surrealism In Paris, Halsman studied the work of other artists and photographers, especially the surrealists, from whom he learned to make images that surprised his viewers. Halsman met Dali on assignment in 1941, and over the next three decades they became partners on many projects, including a series of playful tableaux that had all the disturbing irrationality of dreams or a painting by Dali. Their most notable production was “Dali Atomicus”, in which the artist, his canvas, furniture, cats, and water all appear suspended in air.
Phillipe Halsman Halsman (1906-1979) was born in Riga, Latvia. He studied engineering in Dresden before moving to Paris, where he set up his photographic studio in 1932. Halsman’s bold, spontaneous style won him many admirers. His portraits of actors and authors appeared on book jackets and in magazines; he worked with fashion and filled commissions for private clients. By 1936, Halsman was known as one of the best portrait photographers in France.
The 1948 work Dali Atomicus explores the idea of suspension, depicting three cats flying, water thrown from a bucket, an easel, a footstool and Salvador Dalí all seemingly suspended in mid-air. The title of the photograph is a reference to Dalí’s work Leda Atomica (at that which can be seen in the right of the photograph behind the two cats.) Halsman reported that it took 28 attempts to be satisfied with the result. This is the unretouched version of the photograph that was published in LIFE magazine. In this version the wires suspending the easel and the painting, the hand of the assistant holding the chair and the prop holding up the footstool can still be seen.
1934-40-Work appears in magazines Vogue,Vu, and Voilà. Makes portraits of André‚ Malraux, Paul Valery, Jean Painleve, Marc Chagall, André Gide, Jean Giraudoux, Le Corbusier. 1936-Designs a 9 x 12 cm twin-lens reflex camera; First major exhibition, Galerie de la Pléiade, 73 boulevard Saint-Michel. 1941-42-Accepts fashion and magazine assignments from Black Star Agency in New York 1942-October 5: First Life cover published. 1945-Elected the first president of the American Society of Magazine Photographers 1947-Photographs Albert Einstein at Princeton. 1951- photographs Chagall, Churchill, Matisse, Sartre, Bardot, Magnani, and others. 1952-Marilyn Monroe cover story published in Life . 1954-Publishes Dali’s Mustache (Simon & Schuster), 1955- 75th Life cover published: Audrey Hepburn. 1958-Chosen one of the “World’s Ten Greatest Photographers” in poll by Popular Photography. 1959-Publishes Philippe Halsman’s Jump Book, a collection of more than two hundred images made from 1950 to 1959, in which illustrious subjects jump for him. 1961-Photographs President John F. Kennedy and his entourage, including Robert F. Kennedy, Robert S. McNamara, McGeorge Bundy, Dean Rusk, and Arthur E. Schlesinger Jr. 1963-Major solo exhibition at Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Receives the Newhouse Citation for journalistic achievement from Syracuse University School of Journalism. 1969-Makes official portrait of President Richard M. Nixon 1975-Receives the American Society of Magazine Photographers award for Life Achievement in Photography. Dies on June 25,1979.
Bibliography Creative Digital Photography : 52 weekend projects, Chris Gatcum John Hedgecoe’s complete guide to photography.
WORKSHOPS, HOBBIES and Fun Stuff.
Workshop
PORTRAITURE :
Royal College of Arts, London
Duration : 1 week Faculty : Ms. Betsy Dadd Ms. Solel Ms. Gret
This one week workshop was an absolutely wonderful thing! The faculty from RCA came and gave us fresh new approaches to drawing and breaking away from our own style. This workshop taught me so much and broke away so many of inhibitions, It was an enriching experience! We drew without looking at the paper, by feeling the object and drawing , and the paper was
“The unlike is joined together, and from differences results the most beautiful harmony. �
placed beneath the table, we did larger than life quick sketching of our batchmates, held our breath and drew,created narratives and saw unconventional work by artists around the world.
Heraclitus
Abstract approaches to drawing to sketch in unconventional ways.
We were asked to take our sketchbooks to any part of the city and sketch while talking, walking, running, following someone,holding our breath and other non conventional methods. Once we were back, we were told to pick up random elements from our sketches and make new sketches while trying to retain the quick, speedy strokes. When we were done with that we were asked to create a narrative by arranging our sketches in some order.
My narrative was about a man who got drunk, and felt all dizzy and accepted an auto ride with a few strangers. But the auto went off track, and they found themselves in the middle of some dark eerie woods, where they heard some strange chants and saw an old sadhu sitting and talking to himself.
HOBBIES! I believe that it is really important to stay in touch with your interests and try to absorb as much as you can of what is happening around you!
Monsoon Fiesta
KIRIGAMI
I did a lot of typography during MF for the posters and dealt with a lot of practical application.
Kiri-gami or mon-kiri is the japanese art of making intricate paper cutting art by a few simple folds and cuts.
I enjoyed doing theatre during MF, it was something which really gave me a boost !
Sketching for Animation I have always enjoed sketching, so i often went for morning sketching with my animation batchmates.
TIE & DYE
I have always been really curious about tie dye techniques..so i went and understood the whole process and dyed some shirts using crush dyeing, marbelling and hydrogen sulphide colour removal.
The Semester DOCUMENTED.
STUDENT | GDPD Name : Ishita Jain Graphic Design Semester 3 UG 2011-12