c T o h a s y G i p p | c T r o h a s y G i p p | c T r o h a s y G i p p | c T r o h a s y G i p p | c T r o h a s y G i p p | c T r o h a s y G i p p | c T r o h a s y G i p p | c T r o h a s y G i p p | c T r o h a s y G i p p | c T r o h a s y G i p p | c T r o h a s y G i p p | c T r o h a s y G i p p | c T r o h a s y G i p p | c T r o h a s y G i p p | c T r o h a s y G i p p | c T r o h a s G i p | c Tyyp r o h a s i po||G p c r h a s G i p c r h a s i p |G c r h s Gra i p c h aphiic s css Research Document Johnny Bedini Thou Shalt Make Use Of Sex
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Thou Shalt Make Use Of Sex Research Document Johnny Bedini
CONTENTS brief 04 intro 06 first attempts 10 inspiration 14 primary designs 20 final prep 22 final piece 24 final thoughts 28
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brief…
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The purpose of this project in response, is to explore reflection and the expressive reaction to nature of a prescribed typography content.
Expressive typography can How readable take language do words have and lettering to be in order to to the edge of understand the readability and message? legibility.
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introduction… t r e
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e g li b & eor ands G t m G n 10 Comt me . l x e . a . e s 3 o s h u N ou s ke of a h T m
I loved
the brief of this project. Typography is probably what I would (prematurely) call my area of expertise, and therefore a project entirely based on experimenting with it was like a godsend. However, I was not expecting to get ‘How to make use of Sex’ as my commandment - in fact, of the 10 commandments, that was the only one that I really didn’t want to get! I am no fine artist, and many design approaches to the idea of sex will take the pornography/photocollage/censored imagery approach; I immediately knew that I would have to avoid that, both for the sake of my project, and myself - whilst I’m no prude, I don’t feel entirely comfortable working with erotic images (which is why I lost my job as editor for Penthouse Magazine*). The first thing to do was to look at the text of the commandment. The next spread will be devoted to such a study.
*A lie.
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introduction…
Art must create a shock if it wants to be new. But at the same time, we believe in ‘de-shocking’. To the person who comes to us and says: ‘That picture called Shitty should never have been created, certainly never exhibited, and I don’t want to see it,’ we answer: ‘ Too late! You’ve said something about the picture we did, it’s actually made, it’s in the world.’ He is ‘de-shocked’. And one person who comes and says, ‘I love the picture called Shitty – he is ‘de-shocked’ as well.
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In fact we are provoking thought. We want to make ‘de-shocks’ normal, the idea of sexuality must be normal. Everybody says: ‘Oh! A penis on our wall! Disgusting!’ We answer: ‘Why?’ If we can accept, together with the viewer, pictures of ourselves like Bumholes – then we shall all be different. We all have wicked roots. The whole Western civilisation is founded on that idea. Whether with atheists, with Protestants or with Catholics, at the foundations of Western society one feels the inspiration of Christ. ‘We are sinners all.’ Our new sense of the individual sexual person is born out of this. We believe that artists who love art to the exclusion of all else produce decadent art. The greatest inspiration we have is closing our eyes once a day and trying to imagine all the people alive on the planet, wherever they are killing each other, having sex, making revolution, going through the desert or jungle or cities. This is our greatest sadness and inspiration.
! g g intin
k s c u o g s hi
l ma nor tty Shi are all we ers n sin
t s e t s a D s e s r e e g d n d a s + spirn n i o s i t e l a o t h n m ade u B c e d
first attempts… 1 Thou shalt make use of Sex. Shitty ShittyBumholes de‑shockingpenis sinners sex This is our greatest sadness and inspiration.
Art must create a shock if it wants to be new. But at the same time, we believe in ‘ ’. To the person who comes to us and says: ‘That picture called should never have been created, certainly never exhibited, and I don’t want to see it,’ we answer: ‘ Too late! You’ve said something about the picture we did, it’s actually made, it’s in the world.’ He is ‘de-shocked’. And one person who comes and says, ‘I love the picture called – he is ‘de-shocked’ as well. on our wall! Disgusting!’ We answer: ‘Why?’ If we can accept, together with the viewer, In fact we are provoking thought. We want to make ‘de-shocks’ normal, the idea of sexuality must be normal. Everybody says: ‘Oh! A pictures of ourselves like – then we shall all be different. We all have wicked roots. The whole Western civilisation is founded on that idea. Whether with atheists, with Protestants or with Catholics, at the foundations of Western society one feels the inspiration of Christ. ‘We are all.’ Our new sense of the individual sexual person is born out of this.We believe that artists who love art to the exclusion of all else produce decadent art. The greatest inspiration we have is closing our eyes once a day and trying to imagine all the people alive on the planet, wherever they are killing each other, having , making revolution, going through the desert or jungle or cities.
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2
3 Art must create a shock if it wants to be new. But at the same time, we believe in
‘de‑shocking’
. To the person who comes to us and says: ‘That picture called
Shitty
should never have been created, certainly never exhibited, and I don’t want to see it,’ we answer: ‘ Too late! You’ve said something about the picture we did, it’s actually made, it’s in the world.’ He is ‘de-shocked’. And one person who comes and
penis Bumholes
says, ‘I love the picture called Shitty – he is ‘de-shocked’ as well. In fact we are provoking thought. We want to make ‘de-shocks’ normal, the idea of sexuality must be normal. Everybody says: ‘Oh! A
e re w lled f ca ictu he p ture ea o ut t e pic the id ether g l, abo e th le ing ‘I lov orma ept, to who h e n ns cc s, met so nd say ocks’ e can a ts. Th datio id o a sh If w sa un n is ro ’ve ‘deu mes ou o co make ‘Why?’ wicked the fol perso t T h o ke use ust e! Y a m nts cs, atl sexua reates lat n wh t to swer: have m li o n n g t o lt a a a e ua all Cath sha . Ar it w same : ‘ To perso e w !’ We We ivid art. Th ’. sex ck if the swer one ght. W usting rent. r with he ind t ing s u e an And den g o of a sho t at shock iffe ft u tho all! Dis be d tants nse o ce deca it,’ w cked’. to y te . Bu ‘desee ing u all es crea e new ve in comes Shitt , to e-sho vok our w shall Prot new se prod b ie nt ed ‘d o o r ted e to we bel n wh re call crea n’t wa .’ He is are pr is on en w s, with ll .’ Ou all else h a n u e pen s – t e, ld so o of heist ers tim he per at pict ve bee nd I d wor ct w ‘Oh! A le h at e sinn sion fa e t h a ,a s: ho To says: ‘T er h ibited ’s in th ell. In dy say e Bum her wit e ar e exclu h ev w k . ‘W h it and uld n ever ex ade, ed’ as erybo lves li . Whet Christ to t m v ea t se sho ainly n ually shock mal. E our hat id n of ve ar f r t eio lo at cert it’s act e is ‘d be no res o ed on o ir , h tu und he insp ts wh did ty – must , pic t tis Shit uality viewer n is foe feels at ar sex h the ilisatio y on ve th ur ie o wit ern civ societ We bel sing to o t is Wes estern f th e is cl rying the o W n av nd t of n out we h e o ling a n r aliv il bo atio a day ple are k ing ir eo ey ak h insp once the p x, m g er t eyes gine all herev ving se goin r ima net, w er, ha o t h , pla ot ion e deser ies. each olut gh th cit rev rou or h le t g jun
is Th
is
rg ou
ness and inspira est sad tio reat n
wall!
Disgusting!
’ We answer: ‘Why?’ If we can accept, together with the viewer, pictures of ourselves like
on our
– then we shall all
be different. We all have wicked roots. The whole Western civilisation is founded on that idea. Whether with atheists, with Protestants or with Catholics, at the foundations of Western society one feels the inspiration of Christ. ‘We are
sinners
all.’ Our new sense of the individual sexual person is born out of this.We believe that artists who love art to the exclusion of all else produce decadent art. The greatest inspiration we have is closing our
eyes once a day and trying to imagine all the people alive on the planet, wherever they are killing each other, having
sex,
This is our greatest sadness and inspiration.
& george gilbert
making revolution, going through the desert or jungle or cities.
For our
second class we were tasked with designing three A3 landscape treatments of our source text, attempting to convey the meaning through the typography.
We then voted on the most effective ones with red stickers, as you can see to the left - my 1st and 2nd did rather well. However I realised that, through doing the first attempt, I didn’t want to do any kind of figurative sexual metaphors - i.e. no more dicks.
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first attempts…
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In the
same class we were given a selection of materials to choose from, in order to make a non-printed, non ‘font based’ typographic piece about our particular commandment.
I chose some screws, wire and socket plugs (is that what they’re called??), as I thought that this might be an interesting combination, and one that would provide a nice visual metephor for my topic; the penetration and phallic elements. This was a useful stage in terms of getting some ideas out, but I needed to take a step back and look around for some more inspiration.
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inspir fionabanner ation… An artist 14 •
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who’s work I’ve been aware of and have appreciated for some time is Fiona Banner. She takes what I would describe as a ‘fine art approach’ to typography; using type, be it printed or handdrawn, to convey emotion.
She is not interested in perfect kerning or perfect alignment, just in using the form of words to tell and show a story. She has also, coincidently, dealt extensively with the topic of sex. However, whilst I appreciate her approach, it is not for me, for this project at least.
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inspir stefansagmeister ation…
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Stefan
Sagmeister is a rare example of a truly famous graphic designer. He rose to fame by instructing his intern to carve a poster into his chest, and since then has continued putting words on people, as well as remaining a fairly hardcore guy. Through using almost entirely hand‑drawn/ cut writing, the text becomes more personal. It is no longer really about what the text says, but how it looks and where it is. The idea of doing some handmade typography appealed to me, purely because its something I haven’t really done before.
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inspir henrymoore ation…
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Back when
I was doing art A Levels, Henry Moore was always an artist I would look to for inspiration, and his work was a perfect example for me for this project. Through curvy biological, yet abstract, forms, Moore was able to depict people without any real detail or anatomical accuracy. Their naturalness is entirely conveyed through shape, texture and suggestion. I decided this was the approach I would take to the subject - one of subtle suggestion, rather than in your face explicity. I also decided I wanted to work in a 3D environment - I tend to get stuck on the computer, and my not even using existing typefaces and by taking a hands-on project concept, I could avoid falling into the digital trap.
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primarydesigns…
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I decided
to begin by using a medium I had never worked in, and I doubt many ever had - white tack. My reasons for choosing it were manifold; firstly it is cheap. This is obviously not a particularly artistic choice, but in the realm of sculpture materials can be astonishingly expensive.
Secondly, I was interested in the interaction between my hands and the white tack - fingerprints, nail marks and smudges of oil and dirt. These, I felt, all served to ‘humanise’ the white tack, and to give it a more biological, organic appearance.
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Thirdly its form and colour. White tack is, well, white, like many of the... ahem, fluids involved in sex. It also seems to naturally form suggestive and erotic shapes of its own accord - you try rolling white tack into a line without it bulging into various sexual organs, I bet you can’t! So I created the title in ‘Sex Sans’, as well as the word ‘de-shocking’, and brought them into uni. In doing so, I carried them in a tupperware; I realised that in that environment it was almost like looking into either an orgy (not that I have much voyeuristic experience) or the sight of a massacre; an intriguing double meaning.
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finalpreparations…
After our
next crit, I decided that I would take my white friendlets and make a video with them; or more precisely a stopmotion.
I felt that animating the white tack letters would push the sexual metaphors to a whole new level, and would provide an interesting challenge for me. I had never really done stopmotion before, although I wasn’t entirely unfamiliar with the concept.
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So my first objective was to set up a stopmotion ‘studio’. Fortunately I recieved a GoPro for Christmas, which allowed me to use a camera that was portable, light, and could be controlled remotely from my phone (nice feature GoPro!). Unfortunately I did not have anything else, and therefore ended up constructing a studio with the top of a clothes box with a hole cut in it for the camera lens, four empty Pringles cans and two household lamps. This essentially meant that a project that would take an awful lot of time anyway would take even more, due to me having to constantly reposition the Pringles tubes (they seemingly have next to no grip), having to awkwardly bend under the box lid without knocking it whilst remodelling the white tack. But oh well!
Not dissimilar to the studio in which they film Wallace & Gromit...
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finalpiece… Now there
was nothing more to do than make the film. This was quite an ordeal bearing in mind many of the factors I previously mentioned, and the fact that the images taken had to be edited to a massive extent. To show this I’ve put an unedited image next to the edited version.
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One other factor I needed to consider was sound. Originally I wanted a soundtrack of ‘biological sounds’ but such sounds were hard to come by and therefore I opted for a soundtrack. Whilst my first thought was Marvin Gaye’s Let’s Get It On, my second thought was that that was the most obvious/cliched option I could choose. So I decided to go with the lesser known Inspiration Information by Shuggie Otis. I don’t want to ruin the film too much, and I don’t think the stills will show up particularly well, so I will only show a few shots from the beginning of the video - I can reveal though that much changes as the video goes on...
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finalthoughts… This was
definitely an enjoyable project. It was fun approaching typography in such a different way to my normal font and Mac based strategy. It was also a refreshing and enjoyable change to have a brief which focused on preparation of the final piece - often in projects I feel like the time allocated for the concluding item is not proportionate to the rest of the unit, but this project was, in my opinion, bang on.
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This isn’t to say this project wasn’t possibly the most stressful project I’ve ever undertaken - completing the video took over two months! Whilst it was fun to go down such a different pathway, I do feel like I should maybe have played more to my strengths in print based typography, but I hope that the time I have put into this project serves me well in the long term, in terms of having more options for completing a project. Overall I feel like maybe I could have achieved a higher grade and had a much easier time of it had I played it safe, but I have no regrets about wading kneedeep into uncharted territory. Although the strange things that hours of fondling white tack does to your hands...
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