Max Lom-Bor

2

Unit

Graphic Design Unit 2 Year 1 Max Lom-Bor

Contents 3D Letter form - Neon Research -Creation of letter - Postcard

Letters in the Landscape -Book making process - Photo analysis

Berlin - Write up

Workshops - Risograph Printing - Colour and Chromophilia -Explosive drawing

11 Distinctive Characters - Typography as a semiotic resource

Lectures - Propaganda - Transmedia -Ohh ahh mmm

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The letter Idea Generation research Initial Ideas The making of the Shape

Brief

Found letterforms Found ‘N’ Our task, as the brief outlines was effectively do with semiotics. We had to create a letter that expressed a word. This was a group project, we worked in pairs. This was different from the rebus project, the final outcome had to be a 3D physical outcome. It was a random selection process and Josh Wainwright and myself got ’N’ as a letter.

This page shows our initial thinking just via the internet, starting with ’N for Nature’. We stemmed from this that day into a brainstorm outlining our thinking process.

Brainstorm

Bran storm

Idea generation

Idea generation

How to make letter

Contact sheet

Final N

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Here I have shown varying ‘N’s’, the thicker ones replicate the Neon typeface BOLD and the thinner ones are done on a quick shutter speed. I much prefer the darker background as it highlighted the letter form.

Lowercase ‘N’

Due to the amount of Neon tubing we had, we were able to create a lowercase N. I was extremely pleased with the leading lines of the tubing which lead off the page. This is where we were experimenting with light distortion and exposure on

‘N’ development

our trip down to bournemouth beach. Once again this was a neon sign outside of its natural environment. In the end we decided to develop the photography of the capital ‘N’ because of out group crits and tutorial advice.

During the photography process of the Letterform, ’N’ we initially hung the letter up in places you wouldn’t stereotypically associate with neon lettering, parks, beaches, swing etc. After our group crit we were told that photographing the letter form is such abstract locations diminished the meaning of the letter and it wasn’t clear what the lit up N was trying to say.

We simplified the idea and nailed, taped and strung up our letter against walls, like a seedy brothel sign. On this page I have shown some examples of the photography. We experimented a lot with slow shutter speed, Photoshop manipulation and light distortion. A few of our photos (see contact sheets) displayed movement, we wanted to see if multiple ’N’s’ showed a different message. In general when we asked people what the ‘N’ on the wall said, the majority said Neon, so we stuck with this and developed it.

Final Postcard Of course having a thicker or thinner ‘N’ changed the hypothetical alphabet that the neon letter would have been part of. I preferred the look of the thinner ‘N’, and eventually decided that the green neon tubing we had bought off ebay suited the photograph. We tried not to use red or yellow because of their angry or posi-

Berlin neon Signs tive connotations, trying to make the letter speak for itself.

The postcard formatting was my first attempt on InDesign and I was pleased with the result.

The blurb to the right hand side describes how we formed the letter based on the sans serif neon font, thin with small curves on either tip of the N.

These neon lettering signs were from the typography museum in Berlin. These are second hand signs taken from demolished or replaced bill boards around Berlin. They make a good example of my work because it shows the varying colour and lighting experimentation that we tried to do. I love the almost handwritten form of the ‘eternit’ sign and wish I had got to see these examples prior to the creation of my N. I could have tried to focus the shape on being more 3D like the example below or worked on getting a clear glow on the letter like the ‘der’ lighting.

12 Distinctive Characters - Typography as a semiotic resource -

The letter Idea Generation research Initial Ideas The making of the Shape

Vernacular Letter forms This book is titled ‘Letters in the Landscape’. It was a group project in which we combined our photography from our one day workshop trip to Poole. We went in search of lettering both typographic, photographing signage, and vernacular, finding letters in our environment. We all digitally manipulated our photos and compiled them on InDesign into a book digital book which we then printed and bound.

This gave me a chance to access software I was not previously comfortable with and let me apply my photography skills, which I was previously confident in.

From the contact sheets on the previous double page spread a few of my images were chosen, a lot of which adorn full pages in the final book which I was pleased with. These photos are just my final outcomes of an alphabet, but collaboratively we have a comprehensive outcome to the brief and a very neat, structured book.

Making the Book 1. We had a day trip to Poole to photograph letter forms, both vernacular and typographic.

We had previously seen a lot of examples of ‘found letter forms’, in the landscape from last years work. I used my Canon 550D and a 15-200 lens so I could zoom on letters from afar and photograph individual letters. We took them to compile an alphabet and ultimately a book documenting the rustic, vintage lettering around the town.

2. Once we had photographed the letter forms, we uploaded them. Then begun the manipulation / editing process in Adobe Photoshop. Sometimes cropping was needed to remove unneeded background noise. If a photo had deep contrasts in tones I would try it in b+w so see if it looked better. I learnt the colour balance tool as well, sometimes in a kitsch, bold, primary coloured character I heightened the boldness of the main colour to accentuate the letter. Saturating the background slightly or lowering the brightness and contrast aided a soft, vintage look to some of the old typeface I photographed.

3. We then converted the files from RGB to CMYK in a batch form to save time to meet the printing conditions. This ultimately enabled being able to print in better colour and in a subtractive colour scheme.

4. In Design. We then created a French Fold layout and begun putting our images in. I sketched out a lot of the pages prior to constructing the book.

So we could visualise what would work well across the double pages. My group placed their images onto mine and named their files after the letters in the alphabet. We then removed the out of focus shots and kept the ones we all agreed on, in some cases if we all liked five ‘z’s’ we would label them z1 z2 etc and decide how they could all collaborate in a visually appealing way on the page.

To ‘lift’ an image off the page a thin black border was used.

5. Once printed, we folded the double page sheets and aligned the crop marks we had outlined on InDesign using a light box, we then stacked the sheets. We used the bone folder to get a sharp edge on the folds.

6. The aligned sheets were then placed in a large guillotine machine and cut down to exact size.

7.

The next process was using the Lumbeck Press.

7a. The binder was turned upside down on a table and the top was opened. I then turned the 4 clamps downwards, to tighten the jaws, and placed the loose sheets in-between. I used a block to clamp the sheets in place.

7b. I then turned the binder with the jaws upwards and turned the swivels out. Once I had this I could bend the sheets either way and glue the edges of the book, lightly applying the glue in dabs. I used scrap sheets of paper to make sure the glue didn’t stick to the pages of the book or the lumbeck press.

7c. Once the swivels were turned back straight, the book was pressed together, I applied one more coat of glue and left it to dry overnight. Roger put the mull mesh on to allow the pages to be glued to the cover, to keep the form of the book rigid.

7b. I then turned the binder with the jaws upwards and turned the swivels out. Once I had this I could bend the sheets either way and glue the edges of the book, lightly applying the glue in dabs. I used scrap sheets of paper to make sure the glue didn’t stick to the pages of the book or the lumbeck press.

8. The following day after the glue had dried we removed the glued sheets from the lumbeck press and got Roger to guillotine them to neaten them up. Roger put the mull mesh on to allow the pages to be glued to the cover, to keep the form of the book rigid.

9. The cover was measured using the book measurements. We scalpoled out the size. We then folded it to the book. We then glued the spine to the cover using PVA. 10.

Finally we flattened the book using a press.

This text gave me a background to french folding during the creation of the vernacular letter forms book. I have included the image below to show the alignment of the pages and how accurate the lumbeck press is.

Overall I was really pleased with the final outcome of the book because it was polished and professional. In hindsight I wouldn;t have had the cover orange or attempted to make a title page for the book as it looked tacky. It was a group decision.

The french fold, cover and final bind of the book.

Vernacular Letter forms “Texture can add to the visual impact of typography” The Visual Dictionary of Graphic Design, Gavin Ambrose and Paul Harris This ‘K’ was found on signage on a pub wall. The scratchy texture makes it look dated and somewhat rushed. The shadow is placed an uneven gap away from the outer curves of the K, bringing it forward.

The typeface is almost Edwardian but with Gothic elements. The offcream background is reminiscent of the textured light sandpaper I use on Letterpress. The earthy tones provide a soft contrast with one another. In general I preferred the uppercase type in our book, they look like they tell their own story online the lower case letters. The tail of the K does not line up with the hairline of it, putting it off balance which is visually appealing to me. It makes it look quirky and handmade. In fact a lot of the typography in Poole goes against any typographic ‘rule’.

The ‘C’ above is a re-invention of one of the serif typefaces.

It also boasts a handmade look.

Imagery/focal point This was one of my Poole images selected. The focal length in reminiscent of ‘miniature photography’ style where the middle of the image is in focus and the rest is blurred. For most of the images the whole image was in focus but the group chose this one for a page spread because they liked the detailing on the ‘D’. If I had the chance to take another shot though I would have focused the whole image. The contrast in shape be-

Layout tween the centre being square and bowl of the ‘D’ being rounded works well. In this vernacular letter form I admired the use of the wall as the hairline, it made the image look truly ‘in the landscape’. In terms of the double page spread, I wanted those two ‘E’s’ to be next to the ‘D’ as they all had similar background colours all the backgrounds looked like they were walls from different places.

I suggested the layout for this page, after seeing examples from the previous years work and from one of the key texts. In the book, all the textures, thickness and colours of the letters juxtapose that somehow it works as a page spread. They background colours range from light to dark, I wanted to re create this on this page so we selected ‘M’s’ that we thought contrast in an unappealing way to see if as a four they would look successful and I think they are. I also think the use of one typed letter amongst the vernacular letter forms makes it stand out.

The extra swash/flick at the start of the ‘M’ makes it beautiful and stylish, it is offset and oblique, I think the contrast between that and an ‘M’ made from metal bike rack curves shows the variety of work we compiled. We agreed that the images should be equal in size and spacing, and that they should have a subtle black border, very thin, to ‘lift’ them off the page.

Lighting

Man made vs Nature

I thought this page worked really well. Evidently it is light versus dark, while the left hand image seems to look down on you, the right one is somewhat playful with its sepia tones. Having two images on a page like this kind of pits one against the other visually. I thought of what visual qualities a broomstick alphabet would have.

Here the idea was nature vs man made. If I could have taken it again I could have got the angle of the right hand side photo right rather than edited on photoshop because the lamppost is sideways. I like that the refer follows the lines in the photographs that both lead off to the top left corners. Maybe

it would have been more interesting to have them in the top left and bottom right corners so the tree line lead into the line of the ‘Y’. In terms of composition of a page it would have been nice to take a few more risks but with group work it is often easier to play it safe.

“Any found object or text in the environment can serve as a point of reference in typeface creation” Visible Signs, David Crow

Contrast The visual styling of these top two letters appeals to me.

Firstly the kind of ‘factory made E’ which has a shadow that follows the whole letter round at an odd angle. You can see the designer wanted a change from what was normal with the strangely angled corners of the letter but it looks very out of place in a town filled with mainly old signage like the ‘B’ to the right of it. The ‘B’ looks like a half done job because of its stratchy paint texture.

I liked gap between the letter and the shadow being subtle.

Selected imagery I love this double page spread. I thought ‘O’ was going to be the most tedious letter when photographed but the circles within a grid works really well. Ideally the main photograph on the left hand page would have been better composed. All the colours of the 4 ‘O’s’ kind of make up the tones of the main page ‘O’. The counter of the full page O is the same rustic texture as the top left O, which leads the readers eye into the 4, as you read visually from left to right etc.

I have included the J as it is a personal favourite of my photos.

I cropped it down and adjusted the contrast to make the image sharper. I like the brick colour so I accentuated it in colour balance in photoshop.

This detracted from the jetblack of the ‘J’. I also slightly heightened the exposure.

The Bind This was widely admired my classmates as our best image, it was taken by Will Curtiss. It is clever in that nobody else picked up on using nature in the town to create our letters (he also provided the ‘Y’ tree shot). The focus throughout the image makes it perfect for a double page spread. You can imagine an alphabet from found puddle working well visually.

I also have shown how accurate the join is between the two W’s.

I was really pleased with this because in InDesign the initial layout was really difficult to get right, on top of that making the book and hand glueing it I thought the images wouldn’t run into the bleeds correctly but this double spread does.

13 Distinctive Characters - Typography as a semiotic resource -

The letter Idea Generation research Initial Ideas The making of the Shape

Berlin Write up / Bauhaus

Street art tour The best 13 Euros I have ever spent.

This tour gave you the complete overview of all the street art from the end of the war till the modern day. There is such a rich back story running throughout the city documenting prisoners of war doing antigovernment graffiti, commissioned work and huge iconic murals. Its more than just seeing a Banksy work in person, so much more than vandalism or a sarcastic political jibe, evidently so much passion and time had gone into creating some of the larger pieces.

I went on the AUB Berlin trip on the 3rd to the 7th of February. I had previously been there a few times as my brother lived there. My family encouraged my to engage in the Jewish history surrounding the city. In terms of design, Berlin is at the forefront of it and I was keen to see the Bauhaus Exhibition and had researched into what was on at The Contemporary Art Museum.

Bauhaus, Unlike many on the course I had never really heard of Bauhaus.

It is now my understanding that this is the design movement that started modern design as we know it. I was interested by the modern tubular chairs, so simplistic in the design, which sculpted the future for so much simple yet beautifully designed furniture. The poster work was fascinating

These served as the first works in which the designers cared about spacing, almost the first non commissioned work, where layout and typography became significant. The colour schemes were reminiscent of Russian constructivist work, I remember looking at Alexander Rodchenko’s work on my Foundation year and the work mimics the visual styling.

I wasn’t happen with some of the overpriced gift shop items, like a teapot without a proper spout, almost too simplistic I think, I think if designing for a purpose, the designer has an obligation to make the object user friendly before making the aesthetics uniquely uncomplicated.

One piece on the East Side Gallery gave me initial inspiration to write my essay about Jewish History. It depicts a mass of Jewish people squeezing through the wall into freedom. I have a piece of this wall back home and now like to imagine the conditions and yearning for freedom that was felt in 1989. This is the largest piece of the wall still standing and it is uplifting to see such a horrific event in history documented through such colourful, positive work, this was a perfect place for the tour to end.

‘The Kiss’ This mural shows “The Kiss”. I researched into it. It was captured by a photographer, Regis Bossu at the precise moment in which Brezhnev, the Soviet leader and most powerful man in the Eastern Bloc was congratulated with a kiss from the German president at the time, Erich Honnecker.

Architecture This image went ‘viral’ and magazines and various publications used the image as their front cover, even the East Side Hotel had it as their logo for a while. Ironically, given Brezhnev’s views on homosexuality this now served as a symbol of sexual freedom and peace for the German people.

I also photo-documented my journey through Berlin, the architecture was astonishingly intricate. In particular, the rebuilt Reichstag was very powerful to see. I wish I had the opportunity to go inside. Everything in Berlin seems to be on a grand scale, even the embassies look as prestigious as The Houses of Parliament in the UK. The Opera House and The Brandenburg Gate were incredible to see, the gate being the places Hitler was addressed by hundreds of thousands of people as the new Furher, and was the first man to walk through the gate who wasn’t a King

Jewish History

Holocaust Memorial The Jewish History Museum was heartbreaking. Walking across the ironclad masks on the floor was very overwhelming and it reminded me of all the family I never got to meet due to the Hollocaust. There was a lot of information on Auschtwitz, the concentration camp, which aided my essay. Given another week I would have spent a full day at the Museum.

The Memorial for the Murdered Jews had the biggest impact for me on my trip. I wrote down the feelings I felt once I had walked through it.

The silence and feelings of vulnerability it conjures in unparalleled.

Every block represented thousands of people that were exterminated for their beliefs. There are a lot of designers that inspire my work and

portray their design ethics, passions and convictions, through their work But I knew I had to write about this.

I needed to know how something so simple could be so perfect, so fitting as a memory to 6million deceased.

Amazing to think that grey slabs could be so powerful, and beautiful.

14 Distinctive Characters - Typography as a semiotic resource -

The letter Idea Generation research Initial Ideas The making of the Shape

Explosive Drawing For this workshop brief we were asked to listen to the audio book called Withering Heights. Whilst listening profoundly the aim was to use our imaginative flow to paint and draw what our representation of the book was. Using our creativity and found inspiration we filled a large canvas area in the day activity. We used a mixture of paint, paper and water. We alternated shifts in certain areas of the canvas to develop other peoples work. I was pleasantly surprised with the results and varieties of reaction to the story.

Colour and Chromophilia

Risograph

Colour and Chromophilia

Gig posters are an integral method of advertising live music on the streets.

Plastered over walls, stapled to poles, hanging in venues and record shops, gig posters help to spread the word about the best concerts in town.

But they have evolved to become more than just advertisements. The best gig posters work at any level far beyond their original function-they transcend advertising and stands as work of art” - Clay Hayes, Founder of gigposters.com

Colour is fundamental elements of Communication available to an artist or designer.

Favves Wild beast

Notes: (kind of a timeline of colour theory)

Henry Matisse -slabs of colour - start of life -flat colour against another later life

In aboriginal/ Egyptian painting, pigment Derived from ground minerals

Political Artist -used off blacks to cover portions of her models

First notion of layering, mainly flat

-Bauhaus 1963 - interaction of colour

13th Century Italian Art Elaborate space Exploration -Volume -Lighter and darker pigment Massaccio 3D Forms/ physical sculpture forms -Individual expressing an emotion Paulo Uccello National Gallery, London -Spacing -Foreground/background -First look at formal, grid-like layout 19th Century Colour made through chemicals -tube of oil paints George Seurat -painted with dots of colour Van Gogh -different colours look separate, but communicate differently

This workshop taught me colour theory, how colour has been used throughout history. It also showed me examples of work from the 13th century to the present day in which colour was vital for communicating a message.

I didn’t know about the making of colours, or the lack of availability of colours just at the start of the 19th century. I am very grateful for digital media now. Its almost cheating.

We were asked to create a quick drawing due to the lack of time left in the workshop day. The drawing was of a few letterforms in a grid system, we then were each asked in teams to fill the shapes formed in the grids with different colours from different colour palettes. I made a 85percent warm colour, from what I understand now to be mainly oranges, yellows, reds etc, vs a 15percent cool colour palette made from pastel blue and white etc.

Brief: Design an A3 Poster for a band/album.

Your work should be a personal interpretation of the music, not influenced by the musicians existing brand/ artwork.

Maximum of 3 colours: Fluorescent Pink Yellow Black Blue

I did a design for a Blur album that already exists called Coffee and TV. The concept of the album cover is to show that their music will never die. They have now played their last concert and the spilt coffee, still-on TV and still-smoking cigarette are meant to show that the music will continue. I liked having the limitations of a few colour and I wanted to keep my design simple to coincide with the ‘albums being works of art’ quote from the brief. I loved the process, it is like digital screen printing. Initially I was a bit confused as to how they differ, but for mass producing work in one colour I can’t think of anything more effective.

After I made my main design in Illustrator I realised I only had 3 colours so I separated the colours in layers, my red colour was resided to a fluorescent pink in the printing process. I changed the ink barrel slammed the press shut and printing the black first, after which I applied the pink. Risograph is a very satisfying process and I’d like to use it again. Potentially for basic flyers or mass producing posters.

15 Distinctive Characters - Typography as a semiotic resource -

The letter Idea Generation research Initial Ideas The making of the Shape

Ooh ahh mmm Lecture Ooh ahh mmm - Monday 20th January Lecture notes: • Notions of taste • Aesthetic judgement and consumer culture • Our relationship with objects and how we respond to and give value to ‘things’ • How our aesthetic judgements and purchase decisions relate to consumer culture Gender is assigned to products to change your relationship with them Edward bernays USA Neomania - need for the new, the latest Taste - ability to understand or appreciate, the ability to make judgement Taste makers - parents, what do they collect? Eclectic taste?

Cultural preferences, social taboo Adidas became the uniform of the London riots 19th century mass markets and mass consumerism Planned obsolescence Costume-dispose-waste Paper dresses We invest objects with meaning, backs of phones, branded items, needless spending James twitchell writes about consumer culture and the notion of luxury

Americas love affair with luxury text Thorstein Veblen talks about how people buy to show off their knowledge of the world, they understands more Subjectively Objectively Experience of objects Influence from media Education, knowledge of objects Judge design by Size, handling, storage Recycling Shape, colour, style Materials • Production process • Manufacture • Cost • Target audience • Competitors • Marketing • Function weight safety

Ooo ahh mmm This lecture made the question the aesthetics of the everyday objects. “One mans junk can be another mans treasure”. It can me grounds to delve into the aesthetics of everything in daily life, on the way home I was questioning why people wore the branded clothing they did or smoked their certain packs of cigarettes, a designers way of thinking. I learnt about the notion of kitsch, and the borderline between that and a collectors item.

Propaganda

Transmedia

Propaganda Lecture Monday 27th Kirsten How we engage with propaganda Propaganda: Power and persuasion, David Welch • Anti war • Pro war • Advertisement • Amnesty international influence on opinion

No valid source Artificial lies

Lecture: Transmedia 13th January 11-1

• • • •

White prop Reliable source Evidenced Substantiated

• Transmedia: Storytelling and remix culture Telling a story through an image Typefaces connect to the story

• • •

Grey prop Some facts Half truths

• • • •

Censorship Downloading music Youtube Films

• Interpretation/adaptation: Remaking one media product into another, i.e. Book to film Continuous success of adaptations: marvel, the hobbit Relates to popularity, a lot of films are adapted from books, James Bond Alan Moore, comics to film, he was apprehensive to let the two medias combine, He says that the comics were written to be comics, made in films the narrative is compromised

logo,

Spreading of ideas for the purpose of injuring/helping an institution Rumour • •

• •

Milton glaser Design for dissent

Index and censorship (small booklets in library) Professor jerry Kroth. Youtube insight into American operations • Philip knightly • The first casualty • Suffragette to she devil, Liz. mc quiston) • Graphic agitation Jowett and o’donnell, propaganda and persuasion S.rampton am j.stauber, weapons of mass deception

4 varieties 1. Big lie, hitler and Stalin 2. ‘It doesn’t have to be the truth, so long as it seems plausible’ 3. Tell the truth but withhold the other sides point of view 4. Most productive, to tell the truth, the good and the bad, the losses

This lecture made the question the aesthetics of the everyday objects. “One mans junk can be another mans treasure”. It can me grounds to delve into the aesthetics of everything in daily life, on the way home I was questioning why people wore the branded clothing they did or smoked their certain packs of cigarettes, a designers way of thinking. I learnt about the notion of kitsch, and the borderline between that and a collectors item.

• Multimedia: While the illustrated book may count as multimedia, we tend to think of multimedia In terms of rich content (film/animation) or interactivity Multimedia or multimodality is commonplace (Kress and Van Leeuwen) Transmedia: • Co existing • Open ended • Adaptable • Interactivity

Propagate, grow and spread • •

Black propaganda Unreliable source

Culture of convergence “As consumers are encouraged to seek out new information and make con-

nections among dispersed media content” (Jenkins, 2006, p.3) Media convergence : Xbox, iPhone, digital tv Fagerjord: disagrees with transmedia, says it is simply digitalization Commercial transmedia storytelling The matrix, Jenkins (Film trilogy, comics, animations, computer games, action figures, online forums) Best example of early transmedia, all narratives combine to form a whole story Each medium has it’s own potential and target audience and communicative ability • Pokemon • Cartoon • Computer game • Physical game • Toys A transmedia product does not simply disperse information, it provides a set Of roles and goals which readers can assume as they enact aspects of the story through their everyday life

This lecture made the question the aesthetics of the everyday objects. “One mans junk can be another mans treasure”. It can me grounds to delve into the aesthetics of everything in daily life, on the way home I was questioning why people wore the branded clothing they did or smoked their certain packs of cigarettes, a designers way of thinking. I learnt about the notion of kitsch, and the borderline between that and a collectors item.