Typography II Process Book: Setting the Stage

PROj ECT/I setting the stage

Molly Magnell BFA Candidate in Communication Design, 2018

Washington University in St. Louis Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Art

Typography II Fall 2016

— Molly Magnell —

INTRODUCTION

At first I was dismayed with the title of “Data Feud.” I pleaded with Calvary to trade with me so I could have “Mapping the Interior Realm,” but he found my desperation as incentive to keep his own title. “Data Feud” sounded like a fast track to clichés of number, bar graphs, and cyber security battles.

When I sat down to develop story lines, I tried to escape the obviousness of hardware and statistics to find a more humanistic approach. My first – and best – idea was about a data analyst, Garrett, whose dreary job of turning people into figures for marketing research, struggling to look at people as more than a walking statistic. That is until a mysterious woman, who defies all typecasts, walks into his life and breaks his algorithm of scrutinizing strangers.

The “feud” comes from the interruption of reality into the protagonist’s safety net of knowing more about others than they know about themselves.

The heroine, Charlotte, is an enigma. She’s a whirlwind of unpredictability and yanks Garrett out of his comfort zone as he tries to understand her.

More than a manic pixie dream girl, she has her own vulnerabilities and her emotional unrest tests Garrett’s limits of human understanding.

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— Project I —

I began my brainstorming book plots by creating association webs for both “data” and “feud.” My biggest concern was figuring out how to communicate data through physical objects to be placed in a set.

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— Molly Magnell —

DISCOVERY + RESEARCH

I branched in three very different story directions to keep myself from limiting my options. The proposals were: •

A data analyst melds into the real world once a new girl introduces him to the complexities of others

•

A scientist tries to take down an unstoppable doomsday invention with the help of his other robotic experiments

•

All personal data gets erased by a hacker group bent on watching the world rebuild itself from scratch

From there, I explored thumbnails for all three concepts. I had this idea of manifesting digital concepts into tangible ideas by creating metaphors with physical objects. I had two recurring themes: using computer hardware to communicate a message of destruction and using modular forms to build up a more complex concept.

Inspired by airplane route maps to show two competing hubs of information

I started to think about light and how to create eerie scenes of destruction.

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— Project I —

“Data Feud” spelled in wires and ribbon from a motherboard (whilst on fire)

All identifiers are erased and identity gets reduced to “John Smith” accounts

Pieces of hardware arranged into literal menacing forms

Complexity behind the facade of an identity while stripping away identifying features

I was drawn to this design for its simplicity.

I had the idea of bringing pixels into a threedimensional space by using sugar cubes to build depth. Similar to my final cover, I wanted to place the cubes on a stark white background to represent Garrett’s sterile and contained world.

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— Molly Magnell —

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— Project I —

Still trying to escape the obviousness of The Matrixlike imagery, I tried encoding “data feud” into a more visual less readable language: binary code. I quickly figured out that the traditional 1’s and 0’s could be replaced by a system of objects to indicate “on” versus “off.” Initially I explored the idea of “off” objects being ordinary things that would represent Garrett. The “on” things would be a variety of quirky, unexpected, nostalgic, depressing, and beautiful items that would paint a picture of Charlotte, whose multifaceted character could only be described through an assortment of objects.

I quickly scrapped the idea when I started making lists of items I wanted to use to represent each character.

The size, cost, and complexity of the set quickly became overwhelming, and I had to generate new ideas.

One of my ideas was to create a secondary cover with diecut circles (where the 1’s would be in the code) to create a sensory experience. The inside cover—at this point undetermined—might be some wild scene to represent Charlotte. I wanted two entirely different covers to create their own “feud” between the differences of the characters.

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— Molly Magnell —

I considered ways to make reality appear as if it were glitching. My first study involved creating a canvas lined with masking tape. I wrote “DATA FEUD” over the tape, and then repositioned some of the pieces to the left or the right to mimic a blip on a computer screen. This led me to think of image glitches.

I began with a test picture of a racially ambiguous girl. I cropped out her eyes and gave a hint of her neck to incite curiosity and some sensuality. I then sent the picture through a shredder and pasted the image back together on a piece of paper. I shifted the strips up and down to still make the picture legible, but corrupted.

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— Project I —

The lasercutter speed was set too slow, so it produced these burn marks on the inside of the jacket.

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— Molly Magnell —

TITLE TESTS

I tried to make several acetate tests in order to find ways to incorporate the title three-dimensionally. Unfortunately, all my tests failed because I had the wrong type of acetate, which results in melted plastic and wet ink. I like the destruction of the type, but it didn’t seem to fit with my story. I wanted to scan the experiments and distort the colors through manually moving the image on the flatbed. I realized this wouldn’t work because the ink wouldn’t dry and my hand would be visible behind the plastic. As a result, I was stumped as to how I would add the title text.

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— Project I —

After cleaning out as much plastic as I could from my first failed acetate attempt, I sent the file through the printer again, and the remaining plastic stuck onto the fuser melted onto this sheet, which came out crinkled from a bad paper jam.

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— Molly Magnell —

THE PHOTOSHOOT

This developed into a more fleshed out photoshoot with pink vibrant, sensuous light. My model’s outfit and accessories evoke a greater sense of personality.

When I scanned in the reconstructed picture, I did about 20 test scans in which I shifted the picture across the scanner bed. Sometimes I vibrated the picture in place, moved the picture in the direction of the scanner, moved against the scanner, adjusted the scan speed, etc. This produced waves and strips of colors on the final image.

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— Project I —

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— Molly Magnell —

Scan chosen for the cover

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— Project I —

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— Molly Magnell —

REFINEMENT

My concepts didn’t change much from the beginning of the project. In the refinement stage, the toughest decisions arose when I needed to make the other elements of the dust jacket feel cohesive. This involved changing the text colors to match the color of the lasercutter engravings, keeping the outside simple to contrast the chaotic inside, and figuring out where to place the title and author. I tested a series of combinations of cutouts and engravings to determine how much of the inside should be revealed to the reader.

Final cover with lasercutter instructions.

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— Project I —

The areas in red denote where the machine should engrave, and the green outlines tell the lasercutter where to create cutouts.

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— Molly Magnell —

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— Project I —

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— Molly Magnell —

CRITICISM

From the very beginning of the project, I struggled with finding a way to incorporate the title into a threedimensional set. I looked at numerous examples of experimental type for inspirations, but my mind kept fixating on a scene that would be better suited to accompany an editorial.

In the end, my title came out as a flat—but textural —engraving on a matte cover. I feel like I cheated a bit on the requirements of the assignment. Others agreed that I may have bent the limitations a little too much.

While I’m satisfied with my cover as an object, I wish I could have held a second photoshoot with projections of the title or letters stuck onto the wall. But with time constraints and difficulties with model availability, a reshoot wasn’t possible.

Other criticism revolved around the plainness of the information on the flaps. I think my attempt to keep things as simple as possible translated into staleness.

I might’ve been able to liven up the summary panel with the inclusion of another large-scale quote or critic reviews. I would like to reconsider some of my design options and explore other ways the jacket can feel sterile, but considered.

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