KIERAN JAMES TYPOGRAPHIC WORKBOOK
UNIT 2: VISUAL THINKING 1
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LECTURE’S
WORKSHOPS
1.1 Oooh, aah, mmmm: Notions of Taste, Aesthetic Judgement and Consumer Culture.
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1.2 The Power of Persuasion: Propaganda - Meanings, Methods & Messages.
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1.3 Postmodernism and Identity.
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2.1 Mein Gott Gutenbe digital.
2.2 Fukuro toji - Japan Bookbinding.
2.3 Postmodernism an
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erg has gone
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nd Identity.
TASKS
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3.1 Distinctive Characters: Typography as a Semiotic Resource.
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3.2 Designing a Postcard.
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3.3 Vernacular Letterforms: Mapping the Landscape A lexicon of urban typography. 3.4 For the Love of Graphics Exhibition.
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INTRODUCTION Visual Thinking is our second unit on the BA Graphic Design level 4 course at the Arts University Bournemouth. I have learnt alot in this unit, including new skills like bookbinding, screen printing, and 3D workshops, as well as new software like LetterMpress and a more advanced look at Indesign. This book will document my journey through this unit, showing development work, final pieces as well as the lectures and workshops that I atttended. Aims: A1 To extend your confidence and ability to conduct relevant research A2 To develop your critical abilities and improve your theoretical awareness A3 To enable you to use and combine a range of materials, media and techniques Learning Outcomes: On completion of this unit you will be able to: LO1 Demonstrate your ability to conduct visual and contextual research and communicate your findings effectively LO2 Demonstrate your developing critical evaluation of your practice, appropriate theoretical knowledge and related audiences LO3 Demonstrate an appropriate range and level of technical competence in the production of coherent visual solutions.
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LECTURE’S 1.1 Oooh, aah, mmmm: Notions of Taste, Aesthetic Judgement and Consumer Culture.
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1.2 The Power of Persuasion: Propaganda - Meanings, Methods & Messages.
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1.3 Postmodernism and Identity.
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LECTURE 1:
Oooh, aah, mmmm: Notions of Taste, Aesthetic Judgement and Consumer Culture. This lecture was about how we give value to ‘things’ and how our aesthetic judgements and decisions to purchase certain things relates to consumer culture. We looked at the notions of style and luxury in relation to bespoke and the mass produced items. We also looked at hierarchy in relation to taste and popular culture and we consider to be good and bad taste, and how we value such items. Lecture Notes -Notions of taste and aesthetic judgement and consumer culture -Relationship with objects -coolhunting.com -Neomania -Edward Bernoys USA -Design bridge -Black eyes and lemonade -‘Redundency is designed into industry’ planned obsolesce -Notion of luxury -Less is more miles van -Classic design - what decides they are classic? -Kitsch - Kitsch is cool -Pierre and Gilles.
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LECTURE 2:
The Power of Persuasion: Propaganda Meanings, Methods & Messages. We studied what is propaganda, why it exists and how it operates, using contemporary and historical examples from a range of sources of communication. we looked at the notions of mass manipulation; spin; persuasion and control - in relation to propaganda examples including visual, aural and ariel examples and digital and guerrilla methods. How we encounter propaganda today, examples being political campaigns, war reportage, animal rights and news stories. Also the role of social media in our modern age and use of our information and privacy. Lecture Notes -Propaganda is the spreading of ideas, information or rumour for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause or a person. -Black propaganda is lies, adopted by hitler (withhold other peoples view point, can be false information) -White propaganda is sourceful -Grey propaganda is half truths
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LECTURE 3:
Postmodernism and Identity Sex and Gender - Nurse - Maid/ Cleaner - Hairdresser - Daycare - Bus Driver - Doctor - Plumer - Solider Common traits that are pre identified. We identify certain jobs with certain genders. Race - Should not be an issue, as there are laws against discrimination, but is still coherent in our society. People are brought up differently in different areas, that aren’t as racially diverse can develop certain prejudices. Class - Even though we supposedly live in a society that has no class system, it is present in modern day life. Especially in Britain with our history of Upper, Middle and Lower class divides, also the north south divide in Britain. Today I would say that the class system is still in place yet there are now more classes, and the lines between them are blurred and its harder to place yourself within them. I would now refer to people being put into social grades, like how advertisers categorise us.
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A - Higher managerial B - Immediate managerial C1 - Supervisory or clerical and junior management C2 - Skilled manual D - Semi skilled and Unskilled manual E - Lowest levels of subsistence, widows, casual workers, unemployed Occupation - The unemployed are excluded from general society through media - excluded from TV quiz’s but featured on talk shows, crime news, fat fighting TV shows and Fly on the wall documentaries like Benefit Street. Culture Food Subcultures - Teddy Boys, Mods & Rockers. Jameson & Postmodernism - Borrowing and taking things from other cultures. Postmodernism revolt. No Logo - Naomi Klein. Ethical Consumerism, Fairtrade. Alter-globalisation movement. Brands obsessions with the youth demographic and the idea of ‘cool’. She argues that companies are more interested in building the brand rather than the product, and the use of third world countries to produces such products to save vast amounts of money, where the minimum wages are lower or don’t exist at all and lax human rights laws mean that the workers can be exploited. Economical Capital and Cultural Capital - Financial and non financial social assets. Lack & Consumption - Buying into things that fills the void in out lives. Identity is complex and dependent on a number of factors and categories that we can identify with.
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WORKSHOPS 2.1 Mein Gott Gutenberg has gone digital. 2.2 Fukuro toji - Japanese Bookbinding. 2.3 Postmodernism and Identity.
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WORKSHOP 1: Mein Gott Gutenberg has gone digital For this workshop we were using a bit of software called LetterMPress. It is a digital l etter press program which recreates the full process of ‘real‘ but doing it on a computer instead. I have done Letter Press before and the difference in results from both session is remarkable the digital letterpress looks no different compared to real print when looking on a screen. Also you save yourself time by not having to clean up and get ink all over yourself. One thing I really like about this program is the fact you can print on transparent backgrounds, allowing you to take those prints into other programs like photoshop and indesign, and manipulate them further. One of the drawbacks though is that there isnt an overly large amount of different type faces, and moving around the block individually with a mouse is not the eaisiest thing in the world, but there is an iPad version which I allow me to more eaisly move the blocks around.
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WORKSHOP 2: Fukuro toji - Japanese Bookbinding Japanses book binding was different to what I have done before becasue you were creating a professional looking book that was of the stardard that you could buy. This felt good as I have never produced something that felt ‘real’ before, and for something that was surprising easy to make. The process we went through was to take a stack of paper all cut to the same size, then taking two pieces of card to use as the front and back cover. Using bulldog clips we held the pages together and used a template and a drill to drill 5 holes along one edge. After this it was a simple matter of using a needle and thread to sew the book together. I really enjoyed this workshop and hope to be able to bind more books in the future and learn other methods of binding
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WORKSHOP 3: Silk Screen Printing This silk screen printing induction was to show use how to do screen printing properly. I wish the induction was a little more hands on and that we made a day of it being able to produce our own sreenprints. Instead of just printing once on the demonstration screen to give us a quick feel of how it feels to print. I have seen screen printing being done before so this felt like it refreshed my memory on how to do it, and with this induction complete it allows me to go and do screenprinting independently in their studio any time I want now. Which I hope to make full use of over the next few years as I really like the way screenprining look and the mass production element to it.
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TASKS 3.1 Distinctive Characters: Typography as a Semiotic Resource.
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3.2 Designing a Postcard.
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3.3 Vernacular Letterforms: Mapping the Landscape A lexicon of urban typography. 3.4 For the Love of Graphics Exhibition.
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TASK 1:
Distinctive Characters: Typography as a Semiotic Resource. Working in groups of two choose an initial letter from the following set and based on the terminology and glossaries contained within the brief create a word that is related to the unit - you can produce it in caps or lowercase. After careful planning and research you are required to design and make a three dimensional initial character that communicates the meaning of the word. The model can be made of found objects but must finally be wall-mounted. I chose the letter H at 300mm high. This is my initial mind map.
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HH H H H H HHH
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I was working with Tom Oliver for this task and these are our ideas for what t do with the letter H. These are my initial ideas of what to make with my H letter. Strong ideas I feel are the Hollow H, the Hot H which would involve pouring a flamable liquid in the shape of a H and setting fire to it and captuing photos, which would not last. The H for Hedge is also a good idea and if I could get it to grow and sit it in a plant pot, it would last and look very
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visually intresting. We also has the idea of H20 and building a transparent fish tank in the shape of a H and putting a little orange foam 2 and O to float inside thus making the whole word and becasue it is orange it would look like a small goldfish.
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H Open Sans - Extrabold 1000px
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I used the hot wire to cut my letter H out of foam. I used the guide on the hot wire machine to ensure that I got straight lines and 90 degree angles.
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TASK 2: Designing a Postcard
The Brief: Produce an A6 postcard with the image on one side and a brief description of word on the other.
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“Nature is a great artist, the greatest.� Brett Weston Natural Typography, designers have transformed the inspiration they have found in nature into ideas in their work. The power of nature is compelling. Awarness of its omnipresence is deeply rooted into human consciouness. The forms of the natural world have always inspired and shaped our imagination.
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I wanted my postcard design to reflect my natural feel of the 3D letterform I produced, so I went and shot photos in green areas such as parks and gardens. I then the photos were so strong and felt so full I let them take up the whole area of the postcard and then overlayed text of bits of sky and grass so that it blended in to the natural background and was not an out of place text box.
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TASK 3:
Vernacular Letterforms: Mapping the Landscape - A lexicon of urban typography. This unit begins with a visit to Poole where you will identify, collect and photograph, examples of vernacular letterforms in the town. Your images could be literal interpretations of details of road signs, hand painted signs, neon signs, fragments of words, individual characters, manhole covers, gravestones or shop-front signs. Documenting these typographic havens is crucial to rebuff the constant threat from planners and councils that choose to subvert local history and ignore the rich traditions of vernacular heritage. Alternatively, you could choose to record a slightly more challenging abstract collection of ‘hidden signs’ drawn from architectural forms, found objects, and unintentional typographic structures. You will be working teams of two and planning which letterforms you each photograph in order to create a lexicon of vernacular letterforms. Remember, you will need a full alphabet It is important that you keep accurate notes for each of the pictures:ie Photographer, Location, Date, Description before returning to AUB and uploading your pictures to hard drive. You will then go through a process of picture editing and retouching in readiness to prepare layouts for the book they will be published in.
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EDITING IMAGES
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BINDING
We were doing Perfect Binding using a lumbeck press. With the binder you can easily bind loose sheets to make a book. We printed and french folded the pages by foling them in half, and then cut them then placed them in the binder. After applying glue, we let it dry and, made a front cover and glued that across the spine. 41
FINAL BOOK
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EXHIBITION
BA4 exhibition: For the love of Graphics a one day exhibition that aims to explore our love of Graphics through a spectacular display of Graphic artefacts, text and collections collated and curated by students and staff from the BA(Hons) Graphic Design course at the Arts University at Bournemouth. This exhibition aims to investigate how we consider, position, love and cherish examples of Graphic Design. For the exhibition I entered a advertising campaing by Diesel called ‘Be Stupid‘ from 2010. ‘Be Stupid’ 2010 Diesel Be Stupid is a 2010 advertising campaign by the clothing company Diesel. The piece was banned by the ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) which shows the power of advertising and the influence it can have on people. I like the typographic nature of the piece and the way it makes you want to be part of the ‘Stupid’ category. Kieran James.
The exhibition poster designed by Charles Rodriguez
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KEY TEXTS