visual thinking katie hockley
CONTENTS 4 7 12 15 21 24 27 34 37 43 47
introduction to visual thinking distinctive characters transmedia digital letterpress postcard design notions of taste aesthetic judgement and consumer culture letters in the landscape propaganda letterpress japanese book binding for the love of graphics
this unit aims to extend visual awareness and the grasp of contemporary practice. through attending workshops, lectures, demonstrations and seminars held by the courses across the school of visual arts. our understanding of complex, semiotic and aesthetic nature of word, image and object will be extended further. throughout this book is the process, along with the documentation of what i have learnt from engaging in this unit.
“it is a press, certainly. but a press from which shall flow in exhaustible streams through it. god will spread his word, a spring of truth shall flow from it: like a new star it shall scatter the darkness of ignorance, and cause a light heretofore unknowntoshineamongstmen�
D I S T I N C T I V E C H A R A C T E R S
t y p o g r a p h y is a versatile thing in the 21st century. we now can m a n i p u l a t e and explore what it has the capacity to do in art. this project draws on the idea that the main function of type is to communicate and so we experimented with this concept by being given a letter to work with. my partner and i r e c i e v e d the letter ‘e’ and so we s t a r t e d p r o d u c i n g our initial ideas.
adjective
after exploring our inital ideas and developing our concept, here is our finialised distinctive character. it represents the word ‘elegant’. after researching into what constitutes as ‘elegant’ my partner and i responded to the notion that the nature around us in everyday life is indeed ‘elegant’.
transmedia is the t e c h n i q u e of telling a story through different digital platforms and formats in technology. during this lecture we learnt how it is possible that in this day and age no medium exists in isolation, this is a multimedia world now that we all have adapted to and happy to interact with.
these stories can be told through a number of different formats such as a book, spoken word, radio, t e l e v i s i o n , video games and films. this is called monomedia, which consequently leads to something called ‘ c o n v e r g e n c e ’ which means that these productions have to be adapted during the process of changing its platform.
in relation to our brief, the concept of transmedia c o r r e s p o n d s with the idea that t y p o g r a p h y has evolved and become d i g i t a l i s e d . whilst we still use the older, traditional methods we now lean towards using software that allows us to easily replicate and produce as much text as we wish. c o m p u t e r s revolutionised this idea that typography is p o r t a b l e
here mother, a package all about transmedia
d i g i t a l l e t t e r p r e s s
with technology g r o w i n g all the time we tend to follow. why shouldn’t we e x p e r i e n c e the traditional things in a digitalised way? lettermpress functions in the same way as a letterpress but is portable and fast. it even has the sound e f f e c t s which is always nice.
being able to explore this way of creating outcomes that match that of the traditional process was definitely interesting and i a certain that i will be using the software in the future due to also doing the workshop on how to use an actual letterpress its clear to see that the outcomes are very similar. it also allowed me to consider composition of typography on the screen. it helped that i was able to change things with ease and correct any mistakes that occured when ‘printing’.
another advantage of this application is that there is the option to combine image with text, allowing you to create some visually interesting pieces. above i have used type as a shape and one of the images to make something non typographical. with a normal press this would have taken much longer.
this workshop has definitely extended my knowledge of visual thinking. just like using a letterpress, you have to think about the layout on the bed of the press and i feel as though it has developed my understanding of composition and the importance of planning before you practice.
p o s t c a r d d e s i g n
A word is a combination of letters, just as nature is a combination of life; it is the elegant flow between these things that brings them all together.
A WORD IS A COMBINATION OF LETTERS, JUST AS NATURE IS A COMBINATION OF LIFE; IT IS THE ELEGANT FLOW BETWEEN THESE THINGS THAT BRINGS THEM ALL TOGETHER.
after photographing the letterform we then designe and curated a postcard with a small quote/ bit of writing alongside it to fully represent what our letter and word stood for. visually, the e is intricate and the colours are deep and natural, therefore we photographed
it on a black background to bring out the green and red shades on top of the wood. the photographs came out beautifully due to my partners experience in the subject. i then raised the contrast and began to figure out a layour design for the type.
A word is a combination of letters, just as nature is a combination of life; it is the elegant flow between these things that brings them all together.
A word is a combination of letters, just as nature is a combination of life; it is the elegant flow between these things that brings them all together.
this lecture focused on the notion of how we judge design and therefore form an opinion and a taste towards what we do and don’t like. we explored the different catergories of design and what sort of relationship we have with the objects and how this informs our purchase decisions and our consumer culture. our visual surroundings growing up, our nuturing, helps us to build up a perspective and consequently then a taste in art. this lecture informed us about the most popular pieces of art and how they are mass produced and how the aesthetic value then lowers itself.
we determine our taste by either judging subjectively or objectively. the aesthetics of the design means something to us as individual people. however the culture of our country has a lot to do with what we believe to be fashionable in design. this lecture informed us and made us think about what we personally like and dislike in design. i have always had a guilty pleasure for tacky, kitch items because i love how awful they are. this particular lecture has increased my knowledge of visual thinking as it helped to create my own opinion about design, along with how cultural consumption is key.
l e t t e r s l a n d s c a p e IN THE
we kicked this brief off by visiting poole to take photographs of the typography around the area, the aim was to gather vernacular letterforms that would eventually be compiled into a book that we would bind ourselves. our approach as a group was to gather tyography that appeared much more abstract, to show the idea that letters form from the landscape itself. the brief stated that we needed a full alphabet, therefore we hunted around poole for the best letters. as a group we knew we wanted to gather unique typography, we didn’t want what everyone else had.
we went through the process of selecting what photographs would be most effective and representative of a letter, along with considering it in terms of layout and how well it would work against another letterform. after choosing the photos we distributed them between the four of us and began to edit and retouch them. shortly after we began to plan our layout of the book. we did this by drawing out the pages and labelling each one with our first initial ideas on placement and flow. we then started the task of creating the book on indesign ready to print.
our photographs then proceeded to the editing process before we started to consider the layout of the book we distributed the photos so that we edited an equal amount of photographs. i was given a-f, to improve the appearance of..
Displayed here is the finished book, mounted and trimmed to size. Whilst I believe that the quality of the book is good, there are definitely some changes that I would make if I were to go back to this project. For instance, there are certain pages that need big improvements in terms of the layout of the images. Despite this there are some high points of the book, there are some letters that I really do like and I enjoy the contrast between abstract and modernised t y p o g r a p h y .
the main issue that we came across when working with the layout of the images was that people have different opinions on what looks appealing, which i of course completely respect. this project gave me an insight into what it is like to work as a group and design/produce something together. there are definitely some strong pages throughout this book that we are proud of, which comes down to the quality of the photo and the way it has been edited. when working on the layout on indesign, i learnt the importance of grids and rulers and of course including a bleed and slug, these are key parts of creating an effective book and its something i will always use and remember now. that is the main thing i have taken from this project, i feel as though i have gained new knowledge in using indesign as a tool. the process of developing this book challenged us as a group of 4, but it was successfully done.
throughout history propaganda has been extremely prominent in our world. it is the cause for change, it spreads ideas and information to nations helping to establish a new way of thinking. however it can also be to injure an institution or spread a rumour. a lecture was held on this subject and due to our essay being about propaganda it was vital i went ahead and attended. we were informed about the different types of propaganda and what sort of techniques are used to perpetuate power and persausion. this lecture helped to improve my knowledge of visual thinking due to how it provided examples of how the design in propaganda has a lot to do with how you are effected by what is being said. the colours, the imagery and the words are usually striking and forward, completely demanding your attention.
There is often a misunderstanding of the totality of propaganda. People often generally associate it with propaganda in politics, this is not often the case. Whilst they are the most popular, propaganda doesn’t always lie with design. It may be inducted through social media or a rumour. In a lot of cases it can sometimes be apparent that the rumour being spread (often by a government or the media) is in fact what is called a ‘big lie’. This means that what was said was most like ‘state controlled’ or adapted information. They work like scare tactics. The relation this had to our unit about visual thinking is that it informs us about the techniques involved in creating successful propaganda. I primarily found it useful to find out these methods used and how it applys to the design of visually showing propaganda/campaigns. I feel much more informed.
l e t t e r p r e s s w o r k s h o p
i n v e n t e d by johannes gutenberg the letterpress remains one of the most popular ways to print. after exploring the d i g i t i a l i s e d version of this method it was only right to learn how to use an actual letterpress. i thoroughly enjoyed the process of creating a print and what you can do with type in unconventional ways.
during this workhop we were given the opportunity to be as creative as we so wished. we all grasped the chance to play with the type along with the addition of different textures.
this is a technique that i definitely would love to pursue and take further. however when i compare it with the ‘lettermpress’ application i still think that the outcomes are extremely similar. but i do love the process of creating a print, due to how i enjoyed physically laying out the type on the bed of the letterpress. if i were to take this further i would experiment with textures going through the press more.
i have found this workshop very beneficial for expanding my knowledge on ‘visual thinking’ due to the way firstly, it is something that i have never done before, secondly because of the nature of the process and how you need to plan layout, distance and scale in advance it makes you think in a different way. you have to think about what you want to achieve and how to do it.
it is important when taking a print through the press that you consider the type height. in order for the ink to cover each letter properly it has to be able to reach the rollers. so if you have a letter that doesn’t quite reach when you do an initial test print then you need to build its height up to get a successful print. this is something key that i learnt during the workshop along with how to apply ink to the press.
j a p a n e s e b o o k b i n d i n g
i was looking forward to this workshop as it was a method of binding that i had never tried before. it is definitely beneficial to have the skill to bind in different ways as you never know when you’ll need it. especially considering how
simplistic the method is. once you grasp it, it is fairly easy to remember. as for contributing towards my understanding of visual thinking, it most certainly did. once i made the book i started thinking of how i could take it further.
final outcome to the workshop
for the love of g r a p h i c s e x h i b i t i o n
it was organised that level 4 graphics would hold an exhibition that held examples of what we thought was great graphic design. whether it be packaging, album art or a book; it was all there. it was inspiring to view all the different types of artwork, it is amazing how much it varied and how you could identify work based
on what era it was. this exhibition showed how as a year group we pulled together and contributed to show our love for graphic design. i particuarly loved the vinyl collection as it was so incredibly broad. as you browsed the exhibition it opened up a realisation that design is endless and so diverse due to culture, language and decade.
thank you for reading