EMILY LIN DES 115 PROCESS BOOK PROFESSOR OKUMURA - DES 115 - SS1 2015 - EMLIY LIN PROCESS BOOK
TABLE OF CONTENTS: 1. MINIMAL LETTERFORMS 2. TYPE HIERARCHY STUDIES 3. PAUL RAND BOOK DESIGN
MINIMAL LETTERFORMS This project prompted me to look deeper into the characteristics of letterforms. After understanding the different aspects of letters, I saw the endless possibilities of combining letters to form smooth movements throughout the page. By using elements of contrast, balance, symmetry, and juxtaposition, I was able to achieve a design that balanced four letters. To start this project, I drew out 1 in by 1 in boxes in sets of 4 on tracing paper to plan out possible combinations (ass seen on the right). Slipping printed pages of type underneath out page, I traced the letters on and brainstomred a number of ideas.
During the process of planning and experimenting with different letter combinations, styles, and fonts, I started understanding how each of the typefaces worked. Seeing the distinctive characteristics of the different fonts and styles helped me to capture the most important elements that would help viewers determine what letter was put on the page.
ajc f After the initial steps of planning, I decided to go with Bodoni Book due to its defining round terminals and balance between the letters a, f, j, and c.
TYPE HIERARCHY STUDIES This project taught us the importance of hierarchy and how the eye is drawn to certain aspects on a page over others. With the provided copy, we experiented with the different ways to emphasize type with the given restricitons. Set 1A: 15pt Univers 45 Set 1B: 15pt Univers 45 & 65 Set 2A: 15pt + 9pt Univers 45 & 65 Set 2B: 15pt + 9pt Univers 45/46 & 65/66 Set 3A: Set 2B + Rules Set 3B: Universe any size, weight, & Rule To draft out the layouts of the sets, we were required to cut and paste the copy for set 1A and 1B. Although the process was long and tedious due to all the number of lines, it was refreshing to use a hands on approach towards layouting.
DRAFTS
FINAL Visible Language A lecture series exploring the relationship between form and content Orientation and disorientation
Visible Language A lecture series exploring the relationship between form and content
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Thursday, December 10 135 Walker Hall UC Davis 6 pm
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Thursday, December 3 135 Walker Hall UC Davis 6 pm
Zuzana Licko Jonathan Hoefler Tobias Frere-Jones
Stefan Sagmeister Andrew Blauvelt Marian Bantjes
Matter/anti-matter/does it matter? Thursday, December 17 Design Museum UC Davis 7 pm
Stefan Sagmeister Andrew Blauvelt Marian Bantjes
Lectures are free and open to the public Visible Language A lecture series exploring the relationship between form and content
Lectures are free and open to the public
Visible Language A lecture series exploring the relationship between form and content Lectures are free and open to the public
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Thursday, December 3
Ruedi Baur
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Nicholas Felton
UC Davis
Richard Saul Wurman
6 pm
Mo re th an ju st a love o f le tte rs
Thursday, December 10
Zuzana Licko
135 Walker Hall
Jonathan Hoefler
UC Davis
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Lectures are free and open to the public
Thursday, December 17
Stefan Sagmeister
Design Museum
Andrew Blauvelt
UC Davis
Marian Bantjes
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Lectures are free and open to the public
Thursday, December 3
Ruedi Baur Nicholas Felton Richard Saul Wurman
135 Walker Hall UC Davis 6 pm
Orientation and disorientation Thursday, December 10
Zuzana Licko Jonathan Hoefler Tobias Frere-Jones
135 Walker Hall UC Davis 6 pm
More than just a love of letters Thursday, December 17
Stefan Sagmeister Andrew Blauvelt Marian Bantjes
Design Museum UC Davis 7 pm
Matter/anti-matter/does it matter?
With each set came its own challenges. Although all were challanging, I found that set 1A was by far the most difficult. Without differentiation in size and weight, it was hard to exhibit clear hierarchy.
PAUL RAND BOOK DESIGN
This project called for the information learned from the two previous projects. Drawing from the knowledge of hierarchy and word layouts, the experiences learned from project 2 greatly benefited in the design of this project. Having background knowledge on how to work with copy layout and hierarchy, I started by reading through the text needed to be placed in the book. After seeing roughly how much text was provided for each “category� of the book, I started drawing thumbnail sketches to brainstorm.I drew out two sets of layouts, one for a 6x9 book and one for a 8x8 book.
After looking at the sketches, I opted for the 9x6 size for my book. However, I inverted the size to be 6x9. As I entered the copy into Adobe Indesign, I decided to use a 3 column grid instead of 2 due to the large amounts of copy.
DESI G N & THE PL AY INSTINC T
“I demand of art,” says Le Corbusier, “the role of the challenger…of play and interplay, play being the very manifestation of the spirit.”1 The absence in art of a well-formulated and systematized body of literature makes the problem of teaching a perplexing one. The subject is further complicated by the elusive and personal nature of art. Granted that a student’s ultimate success will depend largely on his natural talents, the problem still remains: how best to arouse his curiosity, hold his attention, and engage his creative faculties.
Through trial and error, I have found that the solution to this enigma rests, to a large extent, on two factors: the kind of problem chosen for study, and the way in which it is posed. I believe that if, in the statement of a problem, undue emphasis is placed on freedom and selfexpression, the result is apt to be an indifferent student and a meaningless solution. Conversely, a problem with defined limits, with an implied or stated discipline (system of rules) that in turn is conducive to the instinct of play, will most likely yield an interested student and, very often, a meaningful and novel solution. Two powerful instincts exist in all human beings which can be used in teaching, says Gilbert Highet: one is the love of play. “The best Renaissance teachers, instead of beating their pupils, spurred them on by a number of appeals to the play-principle. They made games out of the chore of learning difficult subjects— Montaigne’s father, for instance, started him in Greek by writing the letters and the easiest words on playing cards and inventing a game to play with them.”2
Depending on the nature of the problem, some or all of the psychological and intellectual factors implicit in game-playing are equally implicit in successful problem-solving:
motivation competition challenge stimulus goal promise anticipation skill observation analysis perception judgment improvisation coordination interest
timing curiosity concentration abstraction discretion discrimination economy patience restraint exploitation excitement enjoyment discovery reward fulfillment
This drawing is reproduced from the first volume of Hokusai’s Rapid Lessons in Abbreviated Drawing (Riakougwa Hayashinan, 1812). In the book Hokusai shows how he uses geometric shapes as a guide in drawing certain birds. This exercise may be compared to the Tangram in that both use geometric means. The Tangram, however, uses geometry as an end in itself—to indicate or symbolize natural forms—whereas Hokusai uses it as a clue or guide to illustrate them. In the artist’s own words, his system “concerns the manner of making designs with the aid of a ruler or compass, and those who work in this manner will understand the proportion of things.
H OKUSA I ’ S D R AW I N G
A 3A A
PAUL R AND
It is inconceivable to consider Matisse’s compositions with cut paper without; in some way, linking them to the play element—the joy of working with simple colors and the fun of “cutting paper dolls.” But the greatest satisfaction, perhaps, is derived from creating a work of art with ordinary scissors and some colored paper— with so simple means, such satisfying ends.
One cannot underestimate the importance of restraint and playfulness in almost any phase of Picasso’s work. Here, for example, one sees a restrained use of the brush and one flat color. The drawing of the child’s face, the ornament and the lettering are all one. Lettering is not used as a complement to the drawing, but as an integral part of the drawing. It serves as both a garland and a verbal image—a visual pun. What emerges is a kind of game itself, revealing the ingenuity and playfulness of the artist, his ability to deal with problems in the simplest, most direct, and meaningful manner.
MAT ISSE
PIC A SSO
For titles I chose to use 36pt Frutiger 65 and for body text, I used 9pt Frutiger 47. Similarly, this ability to do much with little—to find a bull’s head in a bicycle seat and handle bars—is another aspect of Picasso’s wizardry,his humor, his childlike spontaneity, his skill as a punster and ability to improvise and invent with limited, often surprising means.
This monochrome, Persimmons, by Mu Ch’i, a thirteenth century Zen priest and painter, is a splendid example of a painting in which the artist plays with contrasts (the male and female principle in Chinese and Japanese painting): rough and smooth, empty and full, one and many, line and mass, black and white, tint and shade, up and down. It is a study in the metamorphosis of a fruit, as well as of a painting. (The artist, incidentally, never used any color but black.)
MU C H ’ I
The reader may find a parallel, at least in spirit, between this painting and the preceding one by Picasso. Both employ a single color, and exploit this limitation to achieve as much variety as possible, and both undoubtedly were painted very rapidly, a condition often conducive to utmost simplification and improvisation.
After designing the book, I bounded the pages together using metal clamps and PVA glue.