VISUAL THINKING GRAPHIC DESIGN LEVEL 4 LEWIS MORGAN
CONTENTS TYPOGRAPHY AS A SEMIOTIC RESOURCE.........................................1
IDEA GENERATION...................................................................................3
POSTCARD...........................................................................................9 LETTERS IN THE LANDSCAPE..............................................................14
LETTERS...................................................................................................15 ASSEMBLING THE BOOK........................................................................18 OTHER FORMS OF BINDING...................................................................19 OUR FINISHED BOOK.............................................................................20
LONDON VISIT...................................................................................21 3D PRINTING..........................................................................................22
LECTURES & WORKSHOPS.................................................................23 FOR THE LOVE OF GRAPHICS...........................................................31 EXHIBITION........................................................................................32 TYPOGRAPHIC TERMS.......................................................................35
TASK 1: TYPOGRAPHY AS A SEMIOTIC RESOURCE Typography can be used as a powerful vehicle to transmit ideas and notions of culture, gender, history, materiality and value. The function of typography is to communicate a message so that it effectively conveys and reinforces meaning. In the early 20th Century Beatrice Warde in The Crystal Goblet ascertained that typography should render itself invisible and be subservient to the content. In the 21st Century digital intervention has allowed greater access to typographic technologies and no longer is typography judged on its ability to remain within these constrained parameters. Typography as a semiotic resource in its own right is capable of transmitting meaning. The study of semiotics has been used by academics to analyse and deconstruct Post Structuralist Theories. If we look at the work of The Semiotic Alliance on http://www.semiotics.co.uk we can see how semiotics are used within the commercial sector to help some of the world’s biggest brands find fame and fortune. If we go much further back in history to the Middle Ages we see how religious and secular texts use Illuminated Characters to accentuate meaning, reinforce understanding and establish hierarchical construction. Even the use of colour is codified to provide particular emphasis and meaning to the texts. 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.
N A T L H U I S N I V I G K 300mm high MTRPEASRAEIOICTE S O U C E Y S 150mm high
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For my project I chose the letter V to work with, Initial ideas I have thought of are:
Vaseline Vitamins Vacuum Valuable Venison Vector Vampires Vietnam Versus Vet Veteran Verbal Vanish Vibrate Violin Venom Villian Violet Vertical Viewing Vodka Vulcan Vibrant Voice Vest Violent Vortex Village Voucher Victory Vintage Volley Vulgar
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IDEA GENERATION
Using the concept of a village sign I have Incorporated the letter V into one. The San serif font I used for the sign is ‘Transport’ which is a font designed by Jock Kinnear and Margaret Calvert between 1957 and 1963, it is used on all road signs today.
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I have modified the letter V in a Typeface to give it snake like features. My idea was Venom but from a viewers point of view this would be very hard to work out so I dismissed this idea.
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I used a very bold Typeface for this design to show the significance of the situation. I kept it simple but it portrays a strong message.
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Winston Churchill giving his famous V sign in 1943
Singer Rihanna using the V sign as a peace and friend sign, 2011.
Young Japanese women giving V gesture in Tokyo (2006)
2009 Iranian election protests
Origins A well known tale from where the V sign derived is from the English & Welsh Longbow-men in the Hundred Years War (1415). The rumor was that the French used to cut off the drawing fingers of the longbow-men if they were caught as prisoners. The longbow-men would show the gesture to the French to show that they still had their finger. There is no actual evidence to show that the French used to cut the finger of their prisoners as they has no real ransom value. So it is people’s opinion whether they believe this or not. The only first recorded evidence was in England (1901), when a worker outside Parkgate ironworks in Rotherham used the gesture (Captured on the film) to indicate that he did not like being filmed.
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Using the idea of ‘vector’ we created these in Adobe Illustrator:
Vector graphics is the use of geometrical primitives such as points, lines, curves, and shapes or polygon(s), which are all based on mathematical expressions, to represent images in computer graphics.
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We have chosen to continue with the Churchill idea, we will use photography to represent our idea.
This is the quote we shall be using to add to our photography of the hand.
‌Is for Victory! On July 19 1941 Winston Churchill first raised the V for Victory hand. World War Two called for an influx of expressive visual statements to create bold and interesting poster art. Which in turn significantly influenced graphic design.
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TASK 2: POSTCARD Produce an A6 postcard with the image on one side and a brief description of word on the other. Resources: InDesign, Photoshop, Layout and pre-print specification
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Cropped image we are going to use for our design.
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…Is for Victory! On July 19 1941 Winston Churchill first raised the V for Victory hand. World War two called for an influx of expressive visual statements to create bold and interesting poster art. Which in turn significantly influenced graphic design.
…Is for Victory! On July 19 1941 Winston Churchill first raised the V for Victory hand. World War two called for an influx of expressive visual statements to create bold and interesting poster art. Which in turn significantly influenced graphic design.
…Is for Victory! On July 19 1941 Winston Churchill first raised the ‘V for Victory ‘ hand. World War II called for an influx of expressive visual statements to create bold and interesting poster art. Which in turn significantly influenced graphic design.
…Is for Victory! On July 19 1941 Winston Churchill first raised the ‘V for Victory ‘ hand. World War II called for an influx of expressive visual statements to create bold and interesting poster art. Which in turn significantly influenced graphic design.
Deciding on using the San Serif font ‘Gill Sans’ we changed the alignment of the type on the page to see what suited best. We thought using a colour from the hand would give it continuity but the type doesn’t stand out enough, whereas white stands out and fits with the background colour.
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We changed the quote ever so slightly but this caused the Paragraph to have what is Called a widow.
V is for Victory! On July 19 1941 Winston Churchill first raised the ‘V for Victory’ hand. World War II called for an influx of expressive visual statements to create bold and interesting poster art. Which in turn significantly influenced graphic design.
Definition of Widow: One half of the term widows and orphans, a widow is commonly defined as a word or short phrase separated from the rest of a paragraph and left sitting at the top of the next column or the next page.
I never knew about this rule in Typography so my lecturer helped me fix the problem and we got this final piece below.
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V is for Victory! On July 19 1941 Winston Churchill first raised the ‘V for Victory’ hand. World War II called for an influx of expressive visual statements to create bold and interesting poster art. Which in turn significantly influenced graphic design.
Overall, I am happy with our final piece, I think that if we had made a actual 3D object there would be much more impact, but with our idea we couldn’t achieve this. Finding out all the different meanings of the V sign has giving me the opportunity to use this idea in the future.
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TASK 3: LETTERS IN THE LANDSCAPE 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. Technical specifications: Trimmed size: 300 x 300 mm Four Colour Pix to be saved as 300dpi CMYK Tiffs. Binding: French Fold You print it, then book bind it. Resources: InDesign, Photoshop, Grids, Layout and pre-print specification
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LETTERS
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Location: Poole, Dorset Date: 29/01/14 Photographers: Ollie Richings, Charles Rodriguez, Ty Logan & Lewis Morgan We edited the majority of the photos using Adobe Photoshop, changing the brightness, contrast & size, also changing them to CYMK and TIFF.
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OUR FINISHED BOOK
The images we have used are all very crisp and are all edited to the standard that we wanted. If we were to shoot again we would have to keep count of how many images of each letter we had, as for example the letter K, we only have one image for. The shot we did take are all very unique and different. We were hoping for a Blue coloured cover but due to short resources we could not do this and chose to go withblack instead, I still think that our book has great impact.
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TASK 4: LONDON VISIT
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TASK 5: LECTURES & WORKSHOPS Using the copy provided produce an innovative Typography Workbook that incorporates images of your model and any other outcomes from workshops and lectures you have attended which are relevant. The final outcome will be a web based digital publication. During this project we will be looking closely at: Basic letterform terminology Classification Leading Units of measurement Hierarchy The typographic grid Typographic systems Resources: InDesign, Photoshop, Grids, Layout and pre-publication specification Over the course of the term you will also be attending weekly workshop sessions and lectures that are delivered by the school. You will also be expected to produce a written assignment that isrelated to the unit.
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Lecture Oooh, aah, mmm: Notions of Taste, Aesthetic Judgement and Consumer Date 20th January 2014 Time 9:00am - 11:00am Lecturer Kirsten Hardie
Looking into different cultures and how their society percieves things/events and how it differs from ours was quite shocking yet interesting. We look at how in some countries they have a completely different view on the human body. In China the wealthier women used to get their feet bound, they would use bandages and wrap them tight around the foot to stop any further growth, this was seen as a sign of beauty back when it was popular. I thoroughly enjoyed this lecture and would go again if it arose again.
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Workshop Mein Gott Gutenberg has gone digital Date 24th January 2014 Time 9:30am - 16:30pm Lecturer Roger Gould
We used a piece of called LetterMPress for this Workshop, it simulates letter pressing but digitally.
Left: First go at using the software and trying different colours and paper type. Below: I used an image from DDay and added a famous quote from Churchill. I overlapped type to see the different effect it would give. Although, this workshop was fun and quite interesting I don’t think I will use this in the future as you can get the same effect in half the time using other software i.e Adobe products.
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Workshop Japanese Book Binding Date 21st February 2014 Time 9:30am - 16:30pm Lecturer Roger Gould
We clamped the paper and covers we were going to use in bulldog clips. Also we had a template on the top so that we knew where to drill the holes.
We cut the string to 6 times the height of the book, this made sure we had enough to do the binding, After, running the string through beeswax strengthens the string and in theory, last longer.
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Using a mounted drill we drilled through the markers on the templates to give us 5 holes, that we would then use to thread our string to bind.
I found this workshop very rewarding and useful. Learning how to bind a book in any fashion is a great attribute to have, also it wouldn’t take very long to do when you learn the process. If there was another opportunity to do this workshop again I would jump at the chance. I made a few mistakes with the sewing but there were sorted out and I am happy with my final outcome.
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Lecture Photography Killed Painting and Digital is Dead Date 24th February 2014 Time 9:00am - 11:00am Lecturer Sarah James
Although this lecture was very informative and interesting, many of the points she was making seems to be about just her opinion and not anyone else’s. I think it would have been nice to here some other peoples opinions on the work she was showcasing so it wasn’t such a biased view. To hear about how some designers/artists have chosen to ignore the technology pathway whereas some have chosen to embrace it and accept the change that is occurring in society. Overall I am glad I attended this lecture as I have more knowledge about the history of art than I did before.
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Lecture Cinematic Bodies Date 24th February 2014 Time 11:00am - 13:00-m Lecturer .
Did I enjoy this lecture? No. We watched certain clips with no real meaning, and the meanings that were there in my opinion didn’t actually make sense. We looked at a man called Zuzek, his theory’s and ideology were wacky and completely out-there, even though some of his wording was clever, I couldn’t really understand him sometimes due to his lisp, maybe some subtitles would have been good, and I may have taken more information in from his videos. The only good thing I took away from this lecture was when we discussed the notion of materiality and how if someone starts the break down i.e a nosebleed, you and others get shocked by this then you realize that you are still only mortal. Overall I didn’t enjoy this lecture, maybe if I had a different mind set I would have engaged differently.
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FOR THE LOVE OF GRAPHICS
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This is my piece that I displayed for the exhibition. It is small collection of Lyle & Scott Polos that I have so far, it is an ongoing collection that I i’ll be adding to in the future. I chose to bring these in as it shows of how a brand can promote clothing by just their small logo, I think I like their garments so much due to liking their logo a lot. Lyle & Scott have a very distinct design and they are primarily a golfing brand.