ISSUE one
may 1st 2014
Form Follows Function
co
ontents 4-5 . Form Follows Function 6-7 . Street Graphics 8-9 . Earth Artifact 10-11 . Cabinet of Curiosity 12-13 . Typography 14-15 . Manifesto
Simplicity is the epitome of communication, lay out your message, then build from it. It’s all well and good designing a pretty picture, but if it doesn’t have a mesage then it doesn’t have a reason for being.
FO R M FO LLOWS FU N CTI O N
F o r m sa h o u l d l w a y s come after function. A car would not be able to follow a road if it were complex, and our mind’s w o u l d n ’ t grasp the message you are trying to convey if it’s drowing in all the imagery you are using. Simplicity is the epitome of communication, lay out your message, then build from it. It’s all well and good designing a pretty picture, but if ithave doesn’t a m e s a g e then it d o e s n ’ t have a reason ing. for be-
Form should always come after function. A car would not be able to follow a road if it were complex, and our mind’s wouldn’t grasp the message you are trying to convey if it’s drowing in all the imagery you are using.
street. I had started with experimenting using the techniques that I have looked at during research and have begun creating my own work to compliment my research. I have started by creating collage/ de-collage work similar to Mimmo Rotella’s work, which is featured on my blog. His work includes layering images, generally old magazines and imagery (vintage) before cutting into and ripping apart his work to create a distorted piece, leaving just the remains of the imagery. On top of the research I have done into artists, working with collage (both digitally and physically) felt the best way to get the look and feel that I wanted. Using things like watercolours and markers, and scanning paper, card and tape helped me to create my work, and to me this is what ‘street’ art is, consisting of objects
and materials that are man made, much like the streets we live on. My idea was to make a visual journal of what people do on a d aily basis, which I had shortened to the week end (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) due to the fact that most people do the same thing Monday through Friday, such as work or school. If I were to recreate the project from scratch I would have taken a different route, as I didn’t plan ahead well as to where I wanted to take my work. I really did enjoy my work, creating and even though the content isn’t that great, I feel that the concept would work well with many types of content, as it really does identify well with the ‘street art’ culture.
“My idea was to make a visual journal of what people do on a daily basis...�
The reasoning behind my video is to show where I live in a way that the viewer, no matter the nationality, would understand and get a good view of my town. I recorded around Huddersfield, starting in the morning through to night time to show the transition throughout the day. I didn’t use any audio with words due to the fact I was trying to reach a wide audience of all languages, and people that may not speak at all. I decided a video would be the best way to portray my town because you can fit so much into a small video that can give a vast amount of information to the audience. I chose the song primarily because it had no lyrics, but it creates a nice atmosphere for the viewer, and fits nicely with the content. I decided to strip back my idea from portraying the whole of Earth, to only my area/ town. This is mainly due to the fact that I don’t have the resources to travel the world. My other video depicting the whole of Earth didn’t feel personal enough as it was using clips from other people, and wasn’t a real representation of how I see things around me. I looked at the film Koyaanisqatsi before producing my video and it inspired me heavily, and you would see that when viewing my video. They both represent a city in a rater abstract way utilizing things like timelapses.
NEWSOME. HUDDERSFIELD. W E LC O M E
TO
M Y
TO W N
I looked at three different styles, but I felt the first one had too much of an illustrative feel to it, and the second one wasn’t as strong as the third, more bold and thick style which I went with. I started by drafting an extremely rough alphabet to get a brief overview of what the style would look like. These ended up being manipulated multiple times. I was experimenting with different angles and aesthetics for different letters before proceeding, using precise measurements to get the desired look. Testing how the letters look together. I also changed the way the ‘M’ looked multiple times to keep it in the same style as the rest of the letters, without it appearing too similar to letters like ‘N’ and ‘W’. I experimented with holes to differentiate the letters easier but decided against it to keep a thicker looking lettering style. I then created my finalised font in vector format, I decided to keep the solid aesthetics by not incorporating the circles etc. This is definitely not a body font, and would be used for titles due to its bold nature, and would not be as easy to read on a small scale.
ALPHABET
Liam Rose U1357442