Major Study Book Project:
S T R AT E G I Z E
a Visual Homage to the Art of War
University of Hertfordshire Joanne Chang - MA Graphic Design August 21, 2017
Brief Brief According to a new study from Microsoft Corp., people now generally lose concentration after eight seconds, highlighting the effects of an increasingly digitalized lifestyle on the brain. (A) If this is the case, then people will be more and more accustomed to consuming bite-sized or visualized information rather than putting in the time to read long books. If this is the case, then we will gradually find that the wisdom to be gained from reading old classic concepts will gradually be lost. The project for the MA course is a book called: Strategize: a visual homage to the Art of War. It is an attempt to stir a renewed form of attention for the millennials to learn how to be strategic by producing a visual representation of the ancient text. The original text was written in ancient Chinese prose, which even to the native speaker is hard to read. In this project I propose a way to make it easy for anyone to learn how to be strategic by visualizing the concepts.
Objectives Explore the techniques of visual metaphors, infographics, collage, gestalt and testing out how emotion can be expressed through color and lines affect the visual storytelling aspect of visiualizing the Art of War.
Target Audience Urban professional-millenial Female Age group 20 - 30
Bad attention span, new technology (https://i.pinimg.com/736x/67/d8/6c/67d86c17c1d41069bbac260090391bad--attention-span-new-technology.jpg)
Contents Chapter 1. Preliminary Research: Research to Inform the Visual Language 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12
Art of War Description Case study: “The Art of War Visualized” Designer’s Desponse: Visual Storytelling Picture Book Design Visual Metaphors Infographics Emotion and Design The Book Industry Audience Analysis Relevance of Learning Strategy for the Target Audience Challenges Title Development
Chapter 2. Visual Development 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 2.17 2.18 2.19 2.20 2.21 2.22 2.23
Concept Construction Visual Research- Strategy & War Visual research- Asian Design Visual research- Visual Metaphor Visual research- emotion Visual research- infographics Visual research- line & silhouettes Moodboard Character Development Thumbnailing Line of Action Show Personality Showing Emotions Line work Stylescapes Font Color Grid Linework Texture Cover Development Content Development Separation Page Developement
Chapter 3: Picture Book Design 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05
Manuscript Drafting Storyboarding Composition and Rhythm Creating Movement Analyzing for Repetition
Chapter 4. Spread Design 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 4.11 4.12 4.13 4.14 4.15 4.16 4.17 4.18 4.19 4.20 4.21 4.22 4.23
Spread 1: intro page 1 Spread 1: intro page 2 Spread 2: intro page 3 Spread 3: intro page 4 Spread 4: intro page 5 Spread 5: Know Yourself and the Enemy Spread 6: Win Without Destroying Spread 7: Avoid the Strong, Attack the Weak Spread 8: Deception Spread 9: Path to the Heart Spread 10: the 5 Factors Spread 11: Make Calculations Spread 12: Know the War Grounds Spread 13: Advantage Spread 14: Momentum Spread 15: Balance Spread 16: Master the Tactic of Deviation Spread 17: the 5 Fatal Weaknesses Spread 18: Interpret Behavior Spread 19: Beware of the 5 Advances Spread 20 Conclusion 1 Spread 21 Conclusion 2 Spread 22 Conclusion 3
Chapter 5. Design Methodology 5.01 The Lean Startup MVP
Chapter 6. Design Evaluation Methods 6.01 6.02 6.03 6.04
Design Principles Book Flow Evaluation Summative Conclusion Image References
Chapter 1 Preliminary Research to Inform the Visual Design Chapter 1. Preliminary Research: Research to Inform the Visual Language 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12
Art of War Description Case study: “The Art of War Visualized” Designer’s Desponse: Visual Storytelling Picture Book Design Visual Metaphors Infographics Emotion and Design The Book Industry Audience Analysis Relevance of Learning Strategy for the Target Audience Challenges Title Development
The Art of War About the Text
Current State
The Art of War is an ancient script written in the 5th or 6th century BC by a Chinese general called Sun Tzu. Thus the text is 2,500 years old, it was translated into English in 1908. In regards to it’s popularity in current years, we can see that it had 18M hits in Google search, 1.3 million hits on Youtube, 1.1 million hits on Slideshare and 90k people were talking about it on facebook. (Art of War Codified Infographic). The text is composed of 13 chapters, each of which is devoted to one aspect of warfare and it is commonly thought of as a definitive work on military strategy and tactics. It has had an influence on Eastern and Western military thinking, business tactics, legal strategy and beyond. (Chu, C. 2007) It is a set of strategic thinking skills designed to help you achieve your objective in the most harmonious and efficient way possible. That objective can be military victory, but it can also be winning on the business battlefield or trying to train a baby to sleep through the whole night.
The knowledge of the Art of War is passed primarily through word format in the forms of Ancient prose, interpretations to modern language, language translations. It is interpreted to describe different scenarios, for example dating, for women, marketing, executives, creativity. There are also visual representations to the book, primarlity in the format of graphic novels, infographics and visualized quotes. The content for the graphic novel is masculine and the settings are normally war visualizations from ancient Chinese times. In infographics, it often is used to analyze real war scenarios. Both topics emphasize more on strategy in regards to warfare. There is one visual copy of the Art of War that has a different objective, it is the Art of War Visualized by Jessica Hagy. Jessica uses Charts and Graphics to visualize the strategies of Sun Zhu.
Case Study: The Art of War Visualized Analysis Jessica Hagy’s Art of War Visualized is one of the more innovative books that attempts to visualize the context of the text itself, not by illustrating war stories. However when reading through it. it appears that the author has created her own language using charts and changing different terms into business terms resulting in the situation where it adds more complication to understanding the real text. Just by reading the original text on its own is difficult to swallow, at the same time a reader would have to figure out how it relates to business terms and then need to understand how to interpret the graph charts. The size and format is a 7� square book, which makes it fun to flip thorough as a reference book. The colors used are black, gold, red, white, grey, giving it a dark, stable, war-like feel which fits the theme of strategy. The author wants to convey a minimalistic, yet bold style. The main font used is a bold type, capitalized, san serif font, the font used for the text is a serif font making that portion easier to read. To give a sense of variety to the reader, with each turn of the page, there would be a different color as the background and sometimes the author would put in an extra element of brushstroke to catch the reader’s attention. Visually the charts show concept graphs made mostly from circles and graph charts. However visually it becomes repetitive seeing the same element shapes being used
over and over again. It could be useful if, for example one were to talk about the art of war in a presentation and use the images as their supporting visual material. The structure is simple in that the text is left aligned to the top left corner using a line to guide the direction of reading. The charts are more dynamic in that they are drawn with Chinese calligraphy brush strokes in a more freestyle manner. There is not much whitespace shown making it tightly arranged together. Sometimes the imagery would pertrude out of the page creating the feeling of energy and force. On the whole it has and interesting concept and the design conveyed a unified look, however regarding the effectiveness of understanding the content, I reserve some doubts.
Visual Storytelling Designer’s Response? Since the industrial revolution, design has taken a primary role in modern societies. It attempts to shape a better life for people and humanise information and technology. Everything we use and experience today from a newspaper, to a shelter has been conceived by a designer, whilst historically and politically, designers have worked on the promotion of tolerance and respect, sustainability issues, ideology, beliefs, propaganda and national identity amongst others. (Sasaki, S. 2010) There is also the question of our societal need to preserve knowledge and advance it simultaneously. How do we allow knowledge to keep up with advancing technology and overflow of information? When translating this knowledge, how do we balance novelty and conservatism in our expressions? (FitzGerald, K. 2010)
What is Visual Storytelling? Visual storytelling is the art of creating a piece of work using both artistic elements and language, how do you create those two together to create one offereing, one is the medium, one is the message. (Millman, D) The visualization of information is enabling us to gain insight and understanding quickly and efficiently, utilizing the incredible processing power of the human visual system. (Lankow, J., et al, 2012) Visual storytelling can be done in various forms: it was first found in cave drawings, in modern times there
we use of infographics, picture illustrations, collage, posters, graphic novels..etc
How Can Designers Help? To assist readers to be able to gain access to the knowledge from the text, desigers can use their visual storytelling skills to translate it into a friendlier version. Visual storytelling is about using a visual language to assist the reader to understand context. It results in faster consumption of the information at hand. Thus assists the readers ability and motivation to understand the context. By visualizing this ancient text, it will assist in advancing this domain of knowledge to the mass market.
Why is this Topic Important? Based on the current state of how The Art of War is interpreted into the world. There seems to be a lack of understanding that these set of strategic thinking skills are not just to be used for more professional subjects as war, politics, business, but also in the day to day. Because we live in an era where technology is fast-paced, it is all too easy for us to become reactive vs strategic. Without a clear end goal in mind, it is easy for people to lose sight of what is really important to them, and pace themselves to reach their goals. Sun Zhu’s the Art of War is one of the most comprehensive skill-building guides in how to achieve your objective in an efficient way.
Cave drawings
Picture Book Design
What are Picture books? A picture book combines words and pictures and are generally aimed at young children from 2-8. Some picture books are published with content aimed at older children or even adults. There is a difference between a picture book and an illustrated book. In a picture book, the illustrations are vital to the story, wheras, in an illustrated book, the illustrations are supplementary to the story. Generally for children’s picture’s books it is used for children to “read” pictures, learn meaning of words, places value of stories and reading and teaches how a book works. It is not to teach lessons or morals, the focus should be on telling a good story.
Example of an illustrated book
Example of a picture book
Visual Metaphors What are Visual Metaphors? Metaphors are a way to talk about one thing but describe something else that may seem roundabout, but it’s not. A visual metaphor is the representation of a person, place, thing, or idea by means of a visual image that suggests a particular association or point of similarity. Also known as pictorial metaphor and analogical juxtaposition. Modern advertising relies heavily on visual metaphors. (Nordquist, R. 2017). Often times there are certain visual effects used within visual metaphors, for example symbolism and gestalt.
Symbolism Metaphors are a form of symbolism: It compares two things that are not similar and shows that they actually do have something in common. In a metaphor, there is an additional meaning to a word. This makes it an example of symbolism.
Gestalt Gestalt is a German word for form or shape, may refer to holism, the idea that natural systems and their properties should be viewed as wholes, not as collections of parts
In this WWF poster, the white belly area of the penguin serve to explain this visual metaphor: the white area dripping down like melting ice with the pool of water welling around the penguin. The metaphorical message—of the imact of global warming—is conveyed through a single dramatic image.
This visual metaphor in desiger, Kevin Lau’s instagram post design shows the Instagram icon within a security camera. The metaphorical message—that with the popular usage of instagram, nothing is private anymore—is conveyed through a single dramatic image.
Designer Norma bar’s work shows a pill being split into to that forms into a heart shape. The metaphorical message—that love is a drug—is conveyed through a single dramatic image.
Infographics What are Infographics?
Process Based Infographics
Infographics is method of storytelling. It is a graphic visual representation of information, data or knowledge intended to present information quickly and clearly. They can improve cognition by utilizing graphics to enhance the human visual system’s ability to see patterns and trends. They provide a format that utilizes engaging visuals that not only appeal to an audience hungry for information, but also aid in the comprehension and retention of that material. (Lankow, J., et al, 2012) Ross (2009), outlined the four major types of infographics as statistical based, process based, timeline based, and geography or location based.
Process-based infographics are often seen in the workspaces of offices or factories. Cooking magazines also use process based infographics to show their recipes using graphics. Process-based infographics use images to relate data so that there can be a good example of how to go about a particular process making it very easy to comprehend.
Statistical Based Infographics Statistically based infographics are visual devices used in communicating complex information or data easily and clearly. Some of the devices used include list, tables, charts, graphs, and diagrams. Also, some of the most common devices are oval or round pie chart, vertical bar chart, and horizontal bar chart. Also, a system flowchart may be used to show sequential movement, an organizational chart can be used to show the lines of authority, and diagrams can be used to show how the system works. Illustrated graphics make use of images to relate data.
Timeline Based Infographics Timeline based infographics are used to represent events and information that happen over time. It is a presentation of chronologically sequenced events using a drawn line to enable the audience to understand temporal relationships that exist between the lines quickly. It is sometimes referred to as year-by-year paragraphs or a chronology in tabular form.
Statistical Based Infographics
Timeline Based Infographics
Geography Based Infographics Geography based infographics are present everywhere, from maps to complicated astronomical graphs. This type of infographic makes use of bullets, diagrams, symbols, tables, icons, arrows, and graphs. The different type of lines (straight, dotted, and parallel) are used to define railway tracks, subways, highways, and streets. Also, icons and symbols are used to identify landmarks like hospital, school, bank, church, etc.
Process Based Infographics
Geography Based Infographics
Emotion and Design Importance of Emotions and Design
Emotions and Art
It is impossible to make or appreciate graphic, product, industrial and even architectural design without acknowledging the pleasure and excitement or anxiety and rage found in experiences stimulated or exacerbated by design. (Heller, S, 2004)
Emotional responses are often regarded as the keystone to experiencing art, and the creation of an emotional experience has been argued as the purpose of artistic expression. Research has shown that the neurological underpinnings of perceiving art differ from those used in standard object recognition. Instead, brain regions involved in the experience of emotion and goal setting show activation when viewing art. (Cupchik, Gerald C. et al, 2009)
In the Book Picture This, How Pictures Work, Molly Bang Illustrates how the strucuture of a picture or any visual art form affects our emotional response. She illustrates the story of Little Red Riding Hood. In one section she continues to explain that when we want a picture to feel scary, it is more effective to exaggerate the scary aspects of the threat because this is the way we feel things look, and that’s what evokes the viewer’s response. Throughout art and design, using effects with for example, color and lines to express an emotional experience is often the key to a successful design.
Emotions and Color Patti Bellantoni explains in her book “If it’s Purple, Someone’s Gonna Die” Each color affects us uniquely. Even the slightest variation of a single color can have a profound influence on our behavior. In wise hands, color can become a powerful tool for filmmakers to subliminally layer a story-to make a situation ironic, or absurd.
Emotions and Visual Storytelling
Colors and their emotional meaning
Debbie Millman explains that when constructing a visual narrative, you have to ask, what kind of experience do you want your readers to have? Do you want them to feel happy? or hopeful? Heartbroken? Sad? Do you want them to feel inspired? All these things are real human experience, and people wnat to feel real human experiences when engaging with a visual narrative.
Using Lines to Convey Emotions Lines have been used by artists and designers to convey mood since the first drawings in cave walls. Through repeated use, certain patterns and lines have gained universally recognized meanings. These were documented in Landscape Architecture, by John Ormsbee Simonds, who put together a diagram of 48 Mood Lines.
48 mood lines, John Ormsbe Simonds
Book Publishing The Book Publishing Industry The global book publishing industry accounts for over $100 billion of annual revenue, or about 15% of the total media industry (IPA Global. Publishing Statistics) Most books are published by a small number of very large book publishers, but thousands of smaller book publishers exist. Many small- and medium-sized book publishers specialize in a specific area. Additionally, With the advent of digital information systems and the Internet, the scope of publishing has expanded to include electronic resources such as the electronic versions of books. Within the book publishing, the publisher of record for a book is the entity in whose name the book’s ISBN is registered. The publisher of record may or may not be the actual publisher. Approximately 60% of English-language books are produced through the “Big Five” publishing houses: Penguin Random House, Hachette, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster and Macmillan. (Losowsky, A., 2013)
The Book Publishing Process For works written independently of the publisher, writers often first submit a query letter or proposal directly to a literary agent or to a publisher. Submissions sent directly to a publisher are referred to as unsolicited submissions, and the majority come from previously unpublished authors. If the
publisher accepts unsolicited manuscripts, then the manuscript is placed in the slush pile, which publisher’s readers sift through to identify manuscripts of sufficient quality or revenue potential to be referred to acquisitions editors for review. For a submission to reach publication, it must be championed by an editor or publisher who must work to convince other staff of the need to publish a particular title. An editor who discovers or champions a book that subsequently becomes a best-seller may find their reputation enhanced as a result of their success. The process includes acceptance and royalty rate negotiation, Pre-production stages, this includes the editorial stage, design stage, sales and marketing stage, printing, binding and distribution.
The eBook era “With the coming of ebooks,” writes Paul Mason in The Guardian, “the world of the physical book, read so many times that your imagination can ‘inhabit’ individual pages, is dying.” AuthorEarnings estimates that self-publishing accounts for 38 percent of ebooks sold on Amazon and generated $459 million in ebook sales in 2014. From the infographic above we can see that publishers now are also using Amazon as one of their publishing channels.
Aptaracorp publishing infographic (2012)
Audience Analysis Who to target?
Millenials
The proposed project is to promote strategic thinking amongst the young professional crowd, namely the female, millenial audience aged between 20-30.
As a group, Millenials are unlike any other youth generation in living memory, They are numerous, more affluent, better educated, and more ethnically diverse. More important, they are beginning to manifest a wide array of positive social habits that older Americans no longer associate with youth. including focus on teamwork, achievement, modesty, and good conduct. (Howe, N, Strauss, W, 2000) Due to these traits, it is highly possible that topics of strategy and learning how to turn conflict to harmony would be appealing to these readers.
Persona April, 25 years old, single and ready to mingle. Rents an apartment with a roommate. Is building her professional and personal life together. Trying to find her voice and her clan. Because she is transitioning into the life that she wants to have, she needs to go through the process of finding her voice and her place in society, she will need to go through various interactions with different people to figure out her interaction style. As she gains more and more experience of conflicts and bonds, she wants to be able to be confident when communicating her needs without coming off too strong.
Relevance of Learning Strategy for the Target Audience Educating The Art of War Strategies Can Result in Higher Quality of Life
Reason to Educate the Female Audience
Young women in particular are expected to be connected 24/7, from work, to social life, the pressure is constantly there to be switched “on”. This relentless, social media perpetuating stress of being your best self, in the best shape of your life – at home, at work, in your social life, in your love life, in the world – with your family, friends and with every person you encounter, is exhausting. In a survey targeted towards women aged 18 to 34, from Toluna Analytics, they found that: 48% of the women surveyed find work/life balance when it comes to relationships the most stressful factor. For thousands of years, women living in male-dominated societies have learned the value of appearing more submissive that they really are. Intuitively, women have always used some of the Chinese art of war strategies when negotiating with husbands, lovers, children, bosses, friends, customers and clients. They just don’t know that they are strategists in disguise. (Chu, C. 2007)
The book the Art of War is based on universal principles from Taoist philosophy, which is based on observing the rules that exist in nature. Because it is a type of philosophy, it is not surprising that it can be applied to every aspect of our lives. Young women joining the workforce need to be equipped for the struggles of communication in their various relationships. To be able to have a handbook to affirm their instincts of how to communicate in a natural way can help build confidence as they can back up their rationale for the actions they would like to take, yet at the same time do it in a confident, harmonious manner.
Challenges Initial Visual Storytelling Challenges Possible challenges that a book about the Art of War might have.
Outdated and Alienating Though Sun Zhu’s knowledge is ancient and eternal. It might be associated as something that is dogmatic and dry. It often known to be more of an Asian text. How could it be made so that it doesn’t alienate a global audience?
New Engagement The concepts of the original text is more commonly known as a topic that is more masculine, involving warfare, business, politics, the topic might be a turn off to the female audience. How can it be made so that the reader can read it and be able resonate it with day-to-day life?
Book Title Development How to Choose a Book Title? A good title should have all of these attributes: - Attention Grabbing - Memorable - Informative (gives idea of what book is about) - Easy to say - Not embarrassing or problematic for someone to say aloud to their friends There were two trains of thought when thinking of the title, it was either to continue to use “The Art of War” and use a subtitle to explian it, or to use a different name for the title, and then add in “the Art of War” for the subtitle. Since the book roughly followed the structure of the old text, it would make sense to continue using the original title so that it would strike interest to readers who have heard about the book before. The second line of thoguht was that if it had its own storyline, then perhaps it would be better to have an entrely new name as the main title. However shortly after I found that there was a process for finding a good title.
The Process of Finding a Good Title 1: Understand Your Book And Your Goals - The book is a a beginner’s guide to learning strategy based on the Art of War. The goal of the book is to allow a broad audience be able to easily read and understand the lessons from the Art of War. 2: Brainstorm A Bunch Of Potential
Titles - ideas shown on image to the right. 3: Pick Your Favorites & Test Them - The favorite titles I had chose are as follows: Frenemy Strategies, Art of War Notes, Art of Catwar, Strategizea Visual Homage to the Art of War 4: Make Sure The Title Is Not Already Popular - After searching for names of books in the Amazon bookstore, I found that there are some books titled Strategize, but not any popular publications yet. There are many books with the title “The Art of War” thus using this as the main title may be a problem. 5: Listen To The Results - Most would say that Frenemy Strategies sounds more fun, however it is hard to make that link tightly with the book. The Art of War Notes was too serious if you compare it with the visual designs, the visuals seemed more fun. With The Art of Catwar, cat lovers loved it, but there was feedback that it might narrow down the audience to that niche market. To get even more data on titles, some methods are: using Google Adwords to test the title, use survey monkey if you have an audience, for customer feedback use pickfu, and Google Survey. 6: Check The Results Against Your Goals - The purpose of accessing the data is not to rely too much on the data, but to understand the knowledge around the data, and have careful consideration of how that title would be interpreted by other people in the media.
Book Titile Brainstorm Ideas
Chapter 2 Visual System Development
Chapter 2. Visual System Development 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 2.17 2.18 2.19 2.20 2.21 2.22 2.23 2.24
Concept Construction Reader Experience Visual Research- Strategy & War Visual research- Asian Design Visual research- Visual Metaphor Visual research- emotion Visual research- infographics Visual research- line & silhouettes Moodboard Character Development Thumbnailing Line of Action Show Personality Showing Emotions Line work Stylescapes Font Color Grid Linework Texture Cover Development Content Development Separation Page Developement
Concept Construction Mindmapping At the beginning of this project, I have used a mindmap to help assist the direction and concept of this project. Mindmapping is a tool that is used to help impart critical and analytical skills, to enable us to see relationships between concepts, and also as a method of assessment. It is often used with diagrammatic relationships of various kinds in preference to written or verbal descriptions. Pictures and structured diagrams are thought to be more comprehensible than just words, and a clearer way to illustrate understanding of complex topics. Mindmap exercise
Key Words From the mindmap results, I put together 5 key words to act as the pillars to forming this project. The reason for choosing the words are: Confident, the object of this book is to teach strategy, thus there needs to be an air of confidence to guide the learner along. Witty to act as the spirit of strategic action. Sedate, keeping calm is one skill that is needed when being strategic. Modern, this book is targeted towards a young professional audience. Graceful, as the name of the book suggests, it is an art. Friendly, meaning something friendlyier than what is in the market at the moment.
Confident
Sedate
Graceful
Witty
Modern
Friendly
Reader Experience Constructing the Story
The Reader Experience
finished.
What I spent the most time on for this project has been trying to understand the content of the Art of War and trying to figure out how I can be able to very simply explain some core concepts within the text. From just reading the translations of the original text, it took reading it over more than 5 times and also reading other interpretations of it to really grasp the meaning. With each variation made, I found that I have also needed to make adjustment to the text. My objective is to make it so that readers can easily from just reading the simple text and looking at the pictures and be able to grasp the concepts that are introduced in the book.
Q: What is the narrative structure? - Legible
Q: What is the sensibility? - It is a novelty book, so it should be clever and fun.
Guidelines Debbie Millman provides some questions an author should ask when making a visual narrative in her Skillshare video, I will answer those questions in the next paragraph: Reader Experience. The main point that she expressed was that ultimately it should be so real, and so honest that readers can relate to it. All these things are the real human experience, and people want to feel real human experiences when engaging wtih a visual narrative, but they need to be equally compelling so the art needs to support the writing and the writing needs to support the art.
Q: What will the sequence be like? - This was a struggle as I would like it to be the same sequence as the original text, however because I have simplified two of the chapters to just one page, and also omitted the last two chapters, it made it difficult to use the original structure. In my last attempt to make changes to the structure, I asked feedback to two different structures, the first one was simple with beginning and ending story with all the lessons placed in the middle, without any sub-categorization. In the second version the contents were used to respond to questions that can help the reader understand more directly how to use the concepts. I personally liked the second version, however the first version made the book flow better. Thus there are two trains of thought here, it could be that I could add in the questions as within each spread to assist the reader’s learning, or I could have a poster that summarized the content so that the reader could reflect on what they have read in the book. Q: How much energy do you want people to expand as they are reading? - I would like it to be an easy read in comparison with the original text. It should be immediately understandable as they read it, but it should make them think back after they’ve
Q: What do you want to leave people with? - I want to leave people with the feeling of inspiration, that they can think about how to use different tactics to be strategic. Q: What will the relationship between the words and art be? - The relationships of the words should be more like captions. The images might directly or indirectly through visual metaphor hint the meaning of the words. The imagery may have some optical illustions embedded in them to make the reader wonder a bit.
Maira Kalman’s visual narratives are more like captions.
Christoph Niemann’s visual narratives are tightly weaved with the words as a story..
Visual Research- Strategy Book Covers Exploring what “Strategic Visual Narratives look like To get an idea of what designers have created around the topic of “strategy” I have found some book covers that write about that topic for reference. The usage of color is consistant, as we often see the colors of black, red, sometimes yellow or gold. The designs often look bold with simple shapes or silouettes giving it a serious undertone. There are often silouettes of the dragon or of Chinese statues to let the reader know the lineage of the text. Lines are used in the first book, Strategy in action to convey a feeling of tension. Arrows are used to drive the feeling of going in a certain direction.
Analysis of Strategy Book Covers Based on the target audience and reader experience we would like to provide. I would have to construct a new direction, as these are not friendly enough to express the graceful feminine confidence that I would like to portray. But I can take away certain elements and place within the new design: colors, red, black, white, gold; usage of lines and flat images, it seems that for a more elegant portrayal of strategy, as seen in “Women and the Art of War, Sun Tzy for Women, Friend & Foe, we can see the the title font is a serif font. Friend & Foe uses textured paper, and a play on font where the white portion is serif, but as the words go to the black portion, it turns into san serif.
Moodboard Moodboard Based on the 6 pillar keywords, target audience, and the visual research above bringing in visual elements from topics related to strategy, visual metaphor illustrations, emotion, infographics, and lines and silhouettes, I have constructed a moodboard to bring together the various concepts.
Graceful
Friendly
Modern
Further Development In order to lay out the effect I would like the achieve, I have made a moodboard to convey the 6 key pillar keywords. The effects that I can continue to develop the visual narrative with are usage of silhouettes, visual illustions containing opart, lines, gestalt effects, light and shadow and collage.
Confident
Witty
Active
Visual Reserach- Silhouettes Idea - Characters The idea is to create an experience that is friendly, preferrably for a female audience. Although it is for the female audience, it should not be executed so that it alienates too many audiences from a global, background. Thus springs the idea of using cats and dogs as the main characters, as you can see these types of animals across the globe. When looking at the line work, it would appear that there are some that are more detailed and realistic, and some that have lines that have been redrawn to have
Testing Silhouette Curve Methods I wrote Silhouette designer Kyle Smith and asked him how he drew his Silhouettes, “To smallest detail can make a person unrecognizable once they are simplified down to a silhouette. If i’m trying to capture something more stylized, I’ll do it freehand with a pencil and ink. All the while knowing that there will be natural imperfections along the way to add to the overall character.” Another method often seen in icon drawing is the technique of using the circles as a grid to draw out illustration images. My favorite illustrator, Malika Favre, makes illustrations with beautiful curves, I tried using the golden curve to check to see if it fit the curves of her illustrations, and it seems to match the curves.
Visual Development- Silhouette Outline Curves Testing Silhouette Curve Methods Exercise 1, using circle grids to draw the cat Exercise 2, use illustrator to trace out the image Exercise 3, pencil drawing, then loading to illustrator for changes to see the results. Exercise 4, I will try using the golden curve Original Image
Exercise 1: Circle Grid Version
Exercise 1: Circle Grid Version
Results Exercise 1, this method needs longer term practice to master it Exercise 2, this is a very efficient way of making silhouettes, the results are closer to the photo Exercise 3, the results to this can be more creative as you are able to test out different curvatures for the silhouette
Exercise 2: Hand Traced Version
Experiment: Hand Traced Version With No Arching Back
Exercise 4: Hand Traced Version Modified Using Golden Curves
Exercise 4, instead of using the circle grid method, I used the curves as a guide, and tried to make use of each chance to add in a perfect curve. Going forward, I would prefer to trace the image, and then use golden curves to modify when possible. For more creative positions, I will use the pencil sketch method, then computerize and then use the golden curves to modify.
Exercise 3: Thumbnailing and Pencil Sketch Version
Pencil Sketch Version Computerized
Pencil Sketch Version Modified Using Golden Curves
Visual Exploration- lines Idea - Characters From the visual research, it appears that there are many differences between lines, there are differences between thickness, direction, straight vs curvy lines. When two circle intersect, the way to express the intersecting points of the circles are different as well.
Visual Research- Lines and Emotion Idea - Experimenting with Lines and Emotion These lines in the illustration were documented in Landscape Architecture, by John Ormsbee Simonds, who put together a diagram of 48 Mood Lines. These lines can be used to analyze the emotional feelings that different compositions convey. They can also be used to determine fonts as well.
Visual Development- Lines and Emotion Task - Line Patterns Based on John Ormsbee Simond’s diagram of 48 Mood Lines. Line patterns to test out whether the 48 moodlines would be able to show the emotion in a more repeated pattern format.
Visual Reserach- Lines and Silhouettes/Shapes Idea - Mixing things up It is very intersting to see the mix of lines and imagery or shapes. It often gives a young, energetic feel to it. In the image with the bicycle, the lines are used as part of the picture’s items, to add some depth, different parts of the bicycle has different color on the lines. The image that is part of a piechart is quite fun as the pie chart is split apart, with a light blue pie chart that pops out from the combination. The composition of the surfer poster is witty and fun as when you see the surfer surf across the lines they act as if they were ripples of water.
Visual Reserach- Lines, Silhouettes and Op Art Idea - How to Look Deceptive? Because the Art of War has a lot to do with deception and being in hiding to watch your opponent. The usage of lines and Op Art seems to be a good way to express this message.
Visual Research- Op Art What is Op Art? As we have explored, lines are able to affect the way that we feel. If we were to go one step furter to magnify this effect, we could look into Op Art. Op Art is a term new applied to a movement in painting which achieved its peak of populartity in the years of 1965 to 1968. (Lancaster, J., 1973) Op Art relies completely on visual dynamics or what might be described as quivering illustions of movement, for its effectiveness. Such optical oscillations occur when an interaction takes place between static images so that the viewer perceives a constant vibration or interchange of stimuli resulting from what is termed the figure/ground phenomenon. Because the Art of War has a lot to do with deception and being in hiding to watch your opponent. The usage of lines and Op Art seems to be a good way to express this message.
Visual Development Methods- Op Art How to Experiment with Op Art? Some ideas to experiement with Op Art are by drawing out the effects of curving lines, vertical waves, horizontal waves, vertical stripes, squares, squares with motifs, triangles, circles, 3D models, mazes, and reflecting on how you feel after you have created it. You can also layer the patterns on top of each other to see what effect that brings out.
Vertical Waves
Horizontal Waves
Curving lines
Squares with Motifs Vertical Stripes
Triangles
Ways to experiment: by tilting layered images
Circles 3D Models
Squares
Visual Research- Gestalt idea: Using Gestalt Effects Gestalt is a psychology term which means “unified whole�. It refers to theories of visual perception developed by German psychologists in the 1920s. These theories attempt to describe how people tend to organize visual elements into groups or unified wholes when certain principles are applied.
Common Fate
Figure and Ground
Similarity
Proximity
Symmetry Pragnanz
Continuity
Focal Point
Simplicity
Closure
Visual Research- Light and Shade idea: a Play on Light and Shade A good way to show duality in meaning is by playing with light and shadow effects. It can be combined with a smart use of figure and ground effects to bring out a feeling of mystery.
Visual Research- Collage Idea: Collage Collage is a good way to express subconscious abstract concepts. It could potentially strengthen the feeling of different concepts strung together when trying to describe a visual metaphor.
Visual Development- Collage
Visual Research- Picture This Principles of Emotional Expression In her book Picture this, Molly Bang lists out the principles of expressing emotion in pictures.
Stability & Calm
Dynamic, Motion, Tension
Exciting, Active
Eye caught inside
Stability
Floating
Stability
Focus is on the core
white light feels safer
looks scary
embracing and protecting
the larger the image, stronger it feels
Movement
we associate same or similar colors more stongly than same shapes freedom, happiness power, spirited
threatened, heavier, sadder constrainted, more grounded
contrast enables us to see center of page effective “center of attention� point of greatest attraction
the closer an object is to the edge or center, the greater the tension
the movement and import of the picture is determined as much by the spaces between the shapes as by the shapes themselves.
regularity and irregularityand their combinations are powerful
Visual Development: Stylescape Putting Together the Elements In the first version, I put more emphasis on the rhythem and flow of the picture book from a whole, and also the context of the manuscript, trying the different effects of the gestalt, lines, infographics. Thus did not pay attention to the details in regards to color. On the imagery and silhouette I had not given a consistent style yet, on the whole I was trying to convey a closer to real-life, minimalistic approach. I sent this out to get feedback from numerous people, and it seems that generally the concept and idea of using cats and dogs was appealing, going into the detials, there was some lack of clarity within the structure: the font, colors, grid. I also got feedback that some of the visual metaphors did not make sense with the text. For the visual language, I decided to develop a theme of lines and emotion, with effects of deception through optical illustion.
FONT
TITLE Subtitle
Text
Table of Contents
ABCDEDFGHIJKLM NOPQRSTUVWXYZ
Keep Calm Medium
abcdefghijklm nopqrstuvwxyz
Playfair Display Italic
abcdefghijklm nopqrstuvwxyz
HK Nova Medium
T H E A R T O F C AT WA R
Introduction
Know yourself and your enemy
1 Planning
V i s u a l n o t e s t o l e a r n s t ra t e g y
Win without destroying
The five factors
4 Dispositions
The paths to the heart
Reel in the results Defensive or offensive
Make calculations
5 Momentum
Aim for speedy victory
Mix things up
9 Survival skills Fight on a high ground Dealing with danger Interpret behavior
Master the tactic of deviation
Assesss first, then attack
Master morale
Conclusion
8 Judgement
1
Planning
Introduction
Weigh the situations Follow your own intentions
Find information
Stay calm Find friends
Avoid the strong, attack the weak
Know the tactical variables Beware of the 5 advances
Lead others by the nose Limitations Coordination 7 Advantage Fight for the favorable position
Strike fast
Keep making progress Know the nine grounds
6 Weakness and Strength
Maximize your strength
Plan for a victorious disposition
Deception 2 Waging War
3 Offensive Strategy
The Five Factors The Path to the Heart Deception
COLOR hit when unexpected
Pretend to delay action
evade when they are strong
set one party against another when united
wear them out when well rested
take precautions against the strong and well prepared
Know the 9 War Grounds
T H E A R T O F C AT WA R V i s u a l n o t e s t o l e a r n s t ra t e g y
Visual Language: unorganized - minimal - reaslistic silhouettes - in the beginning is more like infographics - progresses to gestalt emotional visual effects - progresses to usages of line and collage - color not thought through yet
Serious ground Getting here requires the will to fight with no return. You have penetrated through the enemy’s deep inner grounds. Plunder for provisions.
Focal ground
First to gain control acquire s upport of other peers. Form alliances.
Frontier ground
Initial entry into enemy grounds. Keep going, be alert and maintain top performance.
Desperate ground Make a speedy and desperate battle here or else be destroyed. Be prepared to fight to the end.
Dispersive ground
Your territory. Unify your will, do not fight here.
Are they supposed to be friends?
Contentious ground
Encircled ground
Never attack the enemy that has reached here first
Access is constricted, a return requires detour. Ambush the strong here. Devise escape plans, block the points of access.
or enemies? Open ground Land accessible to both the enemy and yourself. Don’t let communication get blocked. Defend yourself carefully.
Difficult ground
Hard to make any moves here, pass through swiftly.
Version 1 FONT
TITLE Subtitle
Text
ABCDEDFGHIJKLM NOPQRSTUVWXYZ
Futura STD Bold
abcdefghijklm nopqrstuvwxyz
Artegra sans Light Kerning 10
abcdefghijklm nopqrstuvwxyz
HK Nova Medium
S T R A T E G I Z E
Lines and Emotion
A V i s u a l H o m a g e t o T h e A r t of Wa r
Deception through Optical Illusion
COLOR Primary color overlay gradients
Table of Contents
Introduction
Introduction
#1 Know yourself and your enemy.............1
#9 Advantage..........................................................1
#2 Win without destroying..............................1
#10 Momentum......................................................1
#3 Avoid the strong, attack the weak..............................................1 #4 Deception.............................................................1 #5 The paths to the heart.................................1
Accent colors with overlay gradients
Version 2
#6 The five factors.................................................1 #7 Make calculations..........................................1
#4 Deception
#3 The Defensive and Offensive
The basic quality of any strategic operation.
Pretend to be incompetent
Conclusion
Lessons
Make yourself seem close when still far away.
Capture enemies in disorder
Hit when unexpected
Set one party against another when united
Wear them out when well rested
#11 Balance..............................................................1
#12 Master the tactic of deviation...........1 #13 Beware of the 5 advances...................1 #14 Interpret behavior......................................1 #15 the 5 fatal Weaknesses..........................1
#8 Know the 9 war grounds...........................1
When there is no chance of winning, assume a defensive position.
Where there is a chance, launch an attack.
Offer a bait to allure when they are in disorder
Pretend to delay action
Enrage the hot-tempered
Evade when they are strong
Take precautions agains the strong and well prepared
Visual Evaluation: Font Christoph Niemann In this is an illustration piece that Christoph Niemann made for the New York times, we can see that it is very entertaining as your eyes become attracted to the lines and circles that seemingly get larger and more complicated. It is also very simple in the structure of the design consists of the swirling images, and also the people characters. After conducting visual reserach it would appear that I have too many ideas to be thought through. However for a book, it might be that it would be more entertaining with more visual effects to guide the reader to the next pages. One main thing to think about is, what will be the main visual structure for the visual narrative of the book? At the moment the idea is revolving around multiple optical illustion effects, including collages of opart, lines and silhouettes, gestalt effects that manipulate shadow and light. Weaving these elements togerher to gain a thoughtful and witty experience.
Visual Development: Font Futura STD Futura STD is a very dynamic font that seemed to bring contrast to the words, making it clear that it was a title font, and because of its structure, it also made it feel very modern and stylish.
Visual Development: Font Lota Grosteque Initially I wanted to use this font because it was fun. The curve of the “R” made it seem like the curve of a cat’s tail, and it seemed to make the book seem more entertaining. however with the friendlyness of the imagery, it would seem to make the whole book seem too fun if the font also had that fun personality.
Visual Development: Font Myanmar I liked the effect of this font because when there is variance to the curve and shape of the letters, unlike a san serif font, it made the text seem readable, yet also have a type of classic elegance.
Visual Development: Font Stixgeneral Bold title I liked how the effect of a serif font gave to the book. It make it so that it seemed more serious. Like a book that I knew I would need to learn something with.
Visual Research: Color How to Choose Color? Usually for a topic that has to do with strategy, the colors scheme is often black, red, white, gold to express strength and power. In Illustrator Malika Favre’s work she mixes opart with pop, thus often uses strong colors to highlight some focal points amongst strong black and white stripes. This is something that I could potentially keep in mind for. In my work, I will use the colors black, white for my primary colors. When trying out the effect, I will introduce red into the color scheme, and then as I work on, try to use some more younger, lighter colors to give it a more fun feeling to it.
Malika Favre, Pop colors with Op Art Strategic colors
Malika Favre, gestalt and more sophisticated colors
Fun colors
Color usage, from black and white & red as focal point to full color
Visual Evaluation: Color Results of the Last Version In this version, the emphasis was to get a working piece together, so no thought was put into color. However the main idea was for black and white to be the primary colors. Because red is such a strong color, I have only experiemented with it in the cover page as the text and last page. The idea to put in other colors was to give the book a bit of a lighter feeling, or else just black and white might make it feel bland. What I could do next is develop a color palette, primary colors being black and white. And then experiment sparingly with color, trying to see how it can be incorporated with the story as a whole.
Visual Development: Color Pixelated Palette In her Skillshare video, Christine Nishiyama provided two methods to develop a color palette. I have used her Pixelated Palette method to develop my colors. First of all, based on the research, it appears that topics based on strategy are mostly colored black, red, white, gold. I will continue with Black and White as my primary color, and add in red. I still like the idea of having some secondary colors to bring in a younger, more light-hearted feeling into the story. So I have chosen an image that has an assortment of color making it feel assorted, yet the shade of colors are muted and mature. First step is to pixelate the image, and take some colors from the pixels. I also experimented with transparent colors, making the shades vary from 75%, 50%, 25%. Step 2, I changed the saturation so that it feels more lively. Step 3, took out repetitive colors and also the lowest transparent options. And lastly step 4, I added in white and light blue. I like the idea of having transparent overlays so the there could be other color mixes, as this was mentioned in logolounge’s logo trends for 2017. What I’ll do going forward is to first use black, white grey as the first colors, and then add in new colors based on the flow of the storyline from this color palette, and then further develop the color palette from there.
Visual Development: Grid 4 Comumn Grid For my first version, I experimented with different grid structures. In my first mockup, I used a 6x7 grid, however because I was drawing my own grids in illustrator, it didn’t help too much in my workflow. In my latest version, I used a simple 4 column grid on my work.
Visual Research: Cover Book Covers It appears that book cover designs are quite interesting, as you can find many different design effects applied to the designs. the most important trait a book cover can have is for it to be attractive enough to get a reader to pick it up at a book store. I have chosen two types of book covers, one uses lines and Op Art effects, the second type use gestalt effects. I would like to try these two different types of cover designs as the Op Art effect one is more eye catching and often gives a feeling of suspense. Though the line cover that looks like the lines have curled off give off a more funny effect. The ones below that show more of a gestalt effect feel as though they show quiet intellegence. Which might be the effect I would like to go for.
Visual Reserach: Visual Language How to Design a Visual Language? Attached are multile versions of websites that are consistent, yet have differences as the user scolls down. What I am looking here is to understand what constructs a visual language. It would seem that most of the elements are reletavely the same, however there are different usages in elements to make it appear fresh. From the examples, it would seem that color is a way to make changes. Font seems to be the same to maintain connection. Sometimes, the visual narrative is a progressing story, where the first image is simple, and as the user goes along, the narrative becomes more complicated.
Question: How to Maintain Consistent Visual Language? Christoph Niemann In this is an illustration piece that Christoph Niemann made for the New York times, we can see that it is very entertaining as your eyes become attracted to the lines and circles that seemingly get larger and more complicated. It is also very simple in the structure of the design consists of the swirling images, and also the people characters. After conducting visual reserach it would appear that I have too many ideas to be thought through. However for a book, it might be that it would be more entertaining with more visual effects to guide the reader to the next pages. One main thing to think about is, what will be the main visual structure for the visual narrative of the book? At the moment the idea is revolving around multiple optical illustion effects, including collages of opart, lines and silhouettes, gestalt effects that manipulate shadow and light. Weaving these elements togerher to gain a thoughtful and witty experience.
Visual Evaluation: Storyboarding 2nd Version Mockup From a bird’s eye view, it would appear that there wasn’t consistent usage of color. Also because of the chapter seperations, the rhythem and flow seems to have been broken.
Visual Development: Storyboarding 3rd version mockup To begin the process, I needed to think through how the story would progress, and which images to place together to create a more smooth flow.
Visual Development: Storyboarding Computerized version In illustrator, I put together the storyboard and started working on the flow. As I put in the visual language of lines, it seemed that the sequence of pages would shift to create the flow for the story.