A-HA! by Naomi Edmondson

A-HA!

Naomi Edmondson

CONTENTS A-HA MOMENTS A-HA!

ALRIGHTY!

CRIPES!

FORIZZLE!

HOT DAMN!

MILEY CYRUS!

100

OH YEAH!

106

OOF!

118

OOOH!

132

RIGHT ON!

142

SNAP!

152

SWEET MERCIFUL CRAP!

166

WORKSHOPS Typographynegative space

Sorted Information

124

Graphic Outcome

Pictograms

134

Grids

Design History

144

Colour

Composition

154

LATCH

58 EXTRA BITS AND BOBS

Mapping

Hybrid type & animation

Bookbinding

102

TypographyUnivers

108

Introduction

Bibliography

168

This pictogram represents work that I have researched and developed further individually and outside of the workshops.

Introduction

This book is intended to represent an insight into my thought processes during each workshop. Additionally, the exclamation pages at the end of each chapter refer to the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;A-ha momentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; when my brain fully comprehended certain elements from each workshop. Whilst every attempt has been made to re-produce these phrases correctly, I cannot guarantee that these are the exact words shouted during each epiphanic moment.

Throughout this project my ideas of how I wanted to make this visual research book have altered many times. As my knowledge of graphic design processes and theories expanded with each workshop, along with my exposure to the work of other designers, I wanted to subsequently incorporate this new information. The order I developed the ideas in my book are in no way presented in chronological order. It would be impossible to structure the chapters in this way as each workshop influenced the way I interpreted others. For example, principles that I learnt in the composition workshop and the negative space typography workshop influenced my approach to page layout, and in turn these ideas were then influenced by the LATCH and sorted information workshops.

I feel I have managed to refine some of my ideas which were originally perhaps a little unsophisticated and raw and present them in a more mature and legible way. One of the hardest parts of this project for me was editing my ideas for features and structure so that the book would be consistent in its theme, style and content and not a jumble of disjointed separate elements. I found the tutorials and crits helped massively in this way as they enabled me to be able to see the book from a more objective perspective. After working on ideas on my own for so long I found it difficult to judge whether or not it actually was a good idea or whether it was just that I’d spent so long working on it and was initially excited about it.

Part way through the project I realised that my book was pretty boring to read as I was purely documenting the workshops without adding any personal reflection or sense of personality to the book. Once I discovered this I found I made much quicker progress as I began to brainstorm ideas of key learning points I wanted to include and how to present them. Also, deciding that I wanted to have an ‘A-ha moment’ for each workshop made me think deeper about some workshops where I hadn’t had an instantly obvious epiphany. This introspection led me to discover different and interesting things with regards to what I’d taken from these workshops.

Using the negative space of letters to create an alphabet. In this workshop we cut out letters from black paper and kept both the positive letter form and the negative space that was cut away. We then had to create a full alphabet from letters formed in this way, which was composed on an A1 sheet of paper.

Right My first cut out letter.

I tried to think about how I could layout the letters so to create a more dynamic effect than if they were evenly spaced and aligned. I wanted to create something that highlighted the negative space of the letter and I tried to push to use as few cut away pieces as possible whilst also to use as few positive letterforms as I could throughout.

Left Experimenting with laying out my letters.

I varied the size from one letter to the next but tried to keep them tied to one another through connecting the edges of negative space.

Above A few completed alphabets on display in the studio. Left My final alphabet

When using the same principle of letter composition to write this phrase I think the legibility is right on the edge of becoming abstract. I think the alphabet on its own was more successful.

A-HA!

Negative Space Letters and forms can be described with far fewer lines and shapes than I had previously thought. The negative space of a shape, even when distorted is extremely descriptive.

Graphic Outcome

I wanted to further utilise the negative space alphabet I had created. I decided to create a screen printed poster and to incorporate colour.

To begin with I experimented with colour schemes. I converted the photograph of my poster into an illustrator document and then used that to quickly change the background and letter colours to try out different combinations.

I then matched my colours to the Colorplan paper swatch and ordered the most closely matched colours.

Right My digital colour experiments.

Left Colorplan paper swatch.

I screen printed my poster, with several colour combinations.

Previous Page Screens stacked in the print workshop.

Left Mixing ink for printing my poster.

One of my final screen prints.

The full range of colour combinations I printed.

Placing set numbers of small and large squares to create themes within a grid. Using a basic square grid we created a selection of compositions with varying dynamics created through the positioning of the squares.

Top Working on a layout in the workshop. Bottom Some of the layouts in the workshop.

My final layouts for each theme.

Across

Up & Down

Symmetric

Asymmetric

Unbalanced

Balanced

ALRIGHT

TY!

Balance Balance does not rely on symmetry. One smaller element set at a greater distance apart can balance a large object or collection of objects. I particularly realised this when working on the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;balancedâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; layout seen below.

Developing different grids.

When on a flight earlier in the year I noticed how from the air the fields are so clearly delineated by their boundaries. The plan view of the land flattens the fields and makes them appear 2-dimensional

These field shapes are all unique and interesting, even in areas of the country where they are relatively regimented.

I thought that to use these shapes as the basis 39 for a grid could produce a really interesting and unusual layout.

Left Looking at fields from my plane.

Above Tracing the top photograph of fields to create a grid.

This grid could be used when the content of the information has a natural or organic theme.

Gutters are automatically created by the widths of the field hedges, walls and dividing roads

For example, a book about farming in different The country or area of communities across the UK The could use a field grid land chosen to dynamic effect created create a grid of using this using could also be grid could also land relevant to the mean it could layout information apply to more presented. unusual or quirky from each region. content. Differences between agricultural and urban environments could also be highlighted by using a city street plan.

the street plan of a city vs a field plan.

Above Using a field format like this would produce an even more dynamic layout.

Left Using the field grid from the previous page.

Choosing a grid for this book.

Left Page Top The square workshop grid. Bottom Grid version 2.

Below My final grid used throughout this book.

After the grids workshop I had the idea of using that same square grid in this book. I experimented with using it on a few pages but it quickly became a nuisance.

I then tried out a version that filled the page more, but the uneven distribution of columns made it very difficult to use.

Learning different elements of Colour Theory and then teaching this to the rest of the workshop.

I chose to investigate the Readymade or Natural Colour element.

Expanding on the knowledge that colour originally comes from naturally occurring pigments, we wanted to create some of our own natural colours. Rather than attempt to find examples of already existing natural colours, we wanted to try to create our own colour chart. Below The unwitting fruit, ready for pulping.

We used a selection of fruit and vegetables and squashed the flesh and juice to experiment with the colours they would produce.

49 Top Left Squashing mint leaves Top Right The mint leaf colour created. Left Page Fruit sliced and ready for smashing!

Bottom Mashed prune, red pepper and plum.

We wanted to order the colour chart in relation to how much fruit needed to be pulped to produce a good depth of colour. Using this scale, limes were the most valuable as you needed a lot of lime juice to produce its light green colour. At the other end of the scale was the beetroot as it produced a large quantity of vivid red with only a very small amount of the flesh. Having decided to order the colours by this value, when naming the colours we also wanted to give them names that related to our own personal value perception of them.

Below Creating the colours in our value order on the presentation sheet of material

Another one of the elements of the colour theory workshop that I found particularly interesting was about the part of electromagnetic spectrum that’s invisible to us.

Below The ‘visible radiation’ spectrum, aka light.

What was presented in the workshop related more to the colours we can see on screen vs colours we are able to print. However, I was really interested in these invisible parts.

The colours and fruit samples presented in their final format.

Below A â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;scrambled colourâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; footprint after another colour theory presentation was trampled over by photography students.

CRIPES!

Invisible Colour I had never really considered the fact that there are colours in the electromagnetic spectrum that are not visible to us. Whenever thinking about Ifra-Red or X-Rays etc Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d always just thought of them as totally invisible. I had never realised that there are all these other colours and kinds of light all around us but that we cannot see.

Organising objects and information using the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;LATCHâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; criteria

L-ocation A-lphabet T-ime C-ontinuum H-ierarchy

Alembic Bebop Cheongsam Drogue Erse

Old distilling aparatus Jazz, 1940 An Indonesian and Chinese silk dress Bucket or canvas bag; A sea anchor Gaelic

Fipple

Mouth piece of a recorder

Goon

Thug, hired hooligan, fool

Homograph Inspan Jodphur

Same word, different meaning To harness an animal to a vehicle Horse riding leggings; a place in India

Khaki

A colour

Lariat

Long noosed rope used to catch animals

Malathion Nystagmus Ogive Petersham Quisling Rectrix Shemozzle Threnody Uniat Viviparous Widdershins Xi Yin Zend

Organic phosphate insecticide Involuntary side-to-side eyeball movement A pointed arch, curved nose of a rocket Heavy woolen cloth used in menâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s overcoats, etc Person who betrays own country by aiding an invading enemy A birdâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tail feather controlling direction during flight Noisy confusion or dispute, an uproar Poem or speech of lamentation, a funeral song Eastern church in union with Roman Catholic Church Gives birth to live young or when seeds germinate on a plant In the contrary direction 14th letter of the Greek alphabet Negative, dark, feminine Ancient East-Iranian Indo-European language

Here I used a set of professions to order the words. I imagined what kind of people would use the words, and sorted them into the 4 categories below.

To try and move away from the obvious criteria with which to organise the words (number of letters, alphabetically etc), I tried to think of silly and slightly ridiculous categories

For example, in what kind of theatre production would you hear these words.

Teacher

Farmer

Prime Minister

Priest

* * * * * * * *

* * * * * * * * *

* * * *

* * * * *

Bebop Erse Fipple Xi Khaki Nystagmus Ogive Zend

Alembic Drogue Inspan Lariat Malathion Petersham Rectrix Viviparous Widdershins

Left The words to be organised and their definitions.

Cheongsam Goon Jodphur Quisling

Homograph Shemozzle Threnody Uniat Yin

The next task was to organise a selection of the huge array sweets that had been collaboratively compiled. The sweet packets were also saved so that we could potentially use the information on the packaging.

I toyed with several ideas of how to sort the selection of sweets that I had. One initial idea was to rate the sweets depending on the number of E-numbers contained and therefore on a hierarchial scale of how hyper they would make a child! However it turns out that almost all the sweets were made using only natural ingredients and so this wouldn’t have created a dynamic selection.

I also experimented with organising them using the following criteria:

* Hierarchial scale of sweets that smell most like the objects they’re meant to represent. * Location produced. * Grouped according to larger companies that own each brand. Most popular with * adults.

Eventually I decided to organise the sweets using a criteria which hadn’t already been provided either on the sweet packed or from the obvious physical attributes, e.g. colour, size, etc.

I wanted to do this as I thought the new ordering of the sweets would make a viewer see the sweets from a different perspective in terms of their function and your experience of them.

‘Likelihood to stick to the bottom of your shoe.’

In this exercise everyone in the workshop submitted 5 favourite designers and 5 favourite artists. Along with their names was the following information:

These different pieces of information were then ordered along a line which highlighted the popularity of certain factors such as, most peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s favourite designers started around 1970s.

* City & country they came from * Year they started * Genre

Above Designers below the line, artists above.

Right I like the abstract quality of this photo; the way the shapes formed by the information look like plants, the horizontal line as the ground/soil level with the roots beneath and the plant above.

Artists and designers in date order.

FORIZZL

LE!

Being Silly I especially realised in this workshop that my work is often more successful if I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t try to be too serious. When trying to think of an unusual way of ordering the information, I found that thinking of a seemingly random and silly/fun thing can act as the stepping stone to a more interesting and unique outcome.

I guess that by looking at the information from a humorous perspective is to think slightly abstractly about the information. I am going to try and apply this to many other areas and try to look beyond the obvious and given attributes of the information.

Experimenting with unusual ways of mapping. For the first part of this workshop we each created a section of a map of London using only Helvetica Bold.

Right My section of the map.

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All of the map sections put together to form a type map of London.

The next stage was to recreate a different section of the map in any way we chose. Buckingham Palace seemed to be the central feature in my map, and a lot of the roads appear to lead to the palace. I therefore decided to give all of the street names a royal theme. I also tried to create some kind of perspective/ change in scale of the roads so that they all seemed to stem from the palace. However, this didn’t work quite as well as I’d hoped, I think I needed to allow more time to properly work out that part.

Right ‘Corgi Hill’. Left The second map of London.

HOT DAMN!

Using more relevant materials. I think that if I’d used a wider selection of materials in my ‘Corgi Hill’ map it would have added a more interesting dimension. Also, I could have perhaps been more abstract in my representation of the streets. The maps that I thought were most effective on the wall at the end of the workshop were the maps created by collaged coloured papers and where the street layout had been distorted.

I think one of the main points I learnt during this workshop was that maps can be used to represent so much more than just a literal street plan. I believe that I had an interesting concept in the royal theme, but I didn’t give enough attention to the form I used to create this.

Creating a hybrid typeface in Illustrator. In this workshop we cut up and combined 2 different typefaces to create new unconventional letter forms.

Top Cutting each letter across 2 diagonal lines. These separate pieces are then interchanged randomly to create a new letter form. Bottom We used one Serif and one Sans Serif typeface as the basis of a new hybrid alphabet.

Above Moving the separated letter parts around to create new shapes.

Alphabet 1

Alphabet 2

Animating the hybrid typeface in Flash. I wanted to create a more dynamic animation where the letter pieces broke fully apart before forming the next letter. This was instead of the letters staying relatively stationary and morphing through the alphabet.

Left A selection of hybrid alphabets on display in the workshop.

Left ‘Alphabet 2’ in its fully broken apart state. Right Placing both the complete and broken apart letters from my alphabet onto the stage in Flash. I then ‘tweened’ the frames in-between to morph the shapes.

Simplified image sequence of animation between letters A, B and C.

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MILEY CYRUS!

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Movement Working on the animation element of this workshop has made me realise that I often visualise images with some form of movement rather than as static objects. For this reason animating the type was especially satisfying and felt like an obvious process to go through.

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Experimenting with bookbinding formats and binding methods. For my ISHE project I wanted to use an unusual format and so spent this workshop testing out different ways of folding my catalogue. I already had some knowledge of bookbinding and had tested out some basic japanese stab bindings for the French Fold element of the principles book.

105 Top Experimenting with folding formats. Bottom Right Thinking about fold-out formats to incorporate with French Fold. Bottom Left Testing out Japanese Stab binding.

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OH YEAH!

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Experimenting Experimenting with different fold-out formats for my ISHE catalogue made me more aware of different ways of collating together and binding a book. Although my final ISHE format wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t as successful as Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d hoped, it was still exciting to experiment and work in a different way.

I will continue to experiment and challenge myself in future projects. Eventually it will work out!

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109

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Designing a black & white poster for a typography conference. The poster had to be created only with the supplied typesetting and a photocopier to manipulate the size.

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Top Left Photocopying original typesetting and adjusting the size. Top Right All text in one size. Bottom Cutting and experimanting with basic layout ideas.

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Emphasizing the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; element of the conference.

Right Using a strong verticle line from which to hang the alignment. Below Right Trying out different speaker name alignments. Below Left Playing with removing all of the leading.

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Using punctuation and both the lowercase and uppercase letters ‘I’ and ‘L’ to create a line joining the 2 areas of text. We thought the line might add continuity to the vertical line theme and also help draw the eye down to the bottom information box. However, I think it cluttered the design and was unnecessary.

Trying out different placements and sizes for the exhibition title and information text.

Final layout for bottom text area. We removed the leading between ‘Typography’ and ‘Today’ and joined the two capital letters to continue with the theme used for the speaker’s names.

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Above A selection of posters in the workshop

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My final poster.

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OOF!

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Keeping something back. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s often better not to be 100% obvious with a theme or design. A good idea in a design is often more enjoyable when itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not explicitly spelt out. For example, in this workshop we wanted to have a strong verticle line joining the main speakers at the typography conference. However, creating small gaps between the names instead of them butting right up to one another proved more effective and meant that the poster read more smoothly.

Typeface/ Font/ Type Family/ Univers

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Typeface A typeface is the specific design of an alphabet, including letters, numbers and punctuation. For example, the typeface used in the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Typography Todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; poster is Univers 55.

Font A font is a complete alphabet of one size of one typeface, e.g. the font on the right is Univers 55 in size 18-point.

Type Family A family of type is the combination of all the styles and all the sizes of a typeface.

ABCDEFGHI JKLM NOPQRSTU VWXYZ abcdefghi jklm nopqrstu vwxyz 1234567890

Above Right 18-point Univers 55

Univers 45 Light Univers 45 Light Oblique Univers 55 Roman Univers 55 Oblique Univers 65 Bold Univers 65 Bold Oblique Univers 75 Black Univers 75 Black Oblique

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Univers The Univers typefamily was designed by Adrian Frutiger in 1954.

At 16 Frutiger was He believed that from working as a printer’s all his experiences of apprentice near his working with type, that; home town of Interlaken, Switzerland. From here he went on to study at Zurich School of Arts and Craft, after which he moved to Paris and began working at the Deberny & Peignot type foundry. legibility and beauty stand Whilst there he was close together and type design, in involved in adapting its restraint, should be only felt and classic typefaces used with traditional not perceived by the reader. (relief) processes, to newer photosetting technologies.

“

”

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Univers is a neogrotesque sans-serif font and is sometimes confused with Helvetica and Folio as they are all based on the typeface Akzidenz-Grotesk.

This table compares a selection of letter forms from these typefaces.

Some differences are: * ‘G’ is formed without an arrow head (called a spur). * The tail of ‘Q’ runs along the baseline. * The top of ‘1’ is much less rounded.

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The different weights and variations within Univers are designated with numbers rather than names. Frutiger designed a unique classification system, which was first used with Univers, and was intended to eliminate naming and specifying confusion. This system is comprised of the typeface name as a suffix, followed by 2 connected numbers each of which refer to weight and width & position respectively.

For example, you can see in the table below that Univers 55 has a Normal/ Roman weight and a Normal position.

Number

Weight

Width and Position

Ultra Extended

Ultra Light

Ultra Extended Oblique

Thin

Extended

Light

Extended Oblique

Normal, Roman or Regular

Normal

Medium

Oblique

Bold

Condensed

Heavy

Condensed Oblique

Black

Ultra Condensed

Ultra or Extra Black

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Sorting and curating information. We sorted objects and information in this workshop by using Nathan Shedroffâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 7 ways to organise anything: Alphabets, Locations, Time, Continuums, Numbers, Categories and Randomness.

Some of the criteria we organised the objects by were:

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Location

Time

* Spacing objects proportionally to their footprint.

* Lifetime usage of object.

* Geographically on a world map according to national stereotypes. * Junk drawer natural arrangement.

Below One of the collections of objects we were organising.

* Time in life you might use or want the object. * Time of object invention.

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Here I had to sort a collection of elastic bands into an interesting composition and label it with a relevant title. The title was supposed to help the viewer read the meaning behind the way the objects were sorted, but not explicity spell it out.

‘Postman’s Guilty Pleasure’.

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Incorporating Sorted Information ideas.

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After seeing how information can be more interested if presented in an unusual way I wanted to incorporate that into this book.

I began by thinking about splitting the workshops into categories that would form 3 sub-sections to the book:

Methodical

Experimental

Transformative

* Hybrid & animated type * Type- negative space * Mapping

* LATCH * Type- Univers * Pictograms

* * * * *

Grids Colour Theory Composition Design History Sorted Information

However, I didn’t think that this set of categories made the book especially more interesting. I tried to use what I’d learnt in the LATCH workshop, and look at it from a silly perspective. I wanted to record the moments in workshops when I had realised key design principles or had discovered something new.

Once I had designed a list of ‘A-ha moments’, ordering the chapters alphabetically by these exclamations seemed the perfect way of fully incorporating these elements and giving the book a slightly more unusual slant. Right The alphabetically ordered list of A-ha moments:

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A-HA! ALRIGHTY! FORIZZLE! HOT DAMN! MILEY CYRUS! OH YEAH! OOF! OOOH! RIGHT ON! SNAP! SWEET MERCIFUL CRAP!

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OOOH!

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Leaving something for the viewerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s brain. Similarly to the previous chapter, there is something more satisfying about reading a piece of graphic design where there are some elements that have to be worked out.

To feel like you have taken some kind of participatory role in reading and working out the piece is satisfying and also makes it more memorable. The tricky thing however, is working out how much information is enough!

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Using graphic reduction to create pictograms. Reducing images to their simplest and most identifiable forms. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve then used these principles to create navigational icons for this book.

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In the workshop we used photos as the origins of our pictograms.

Through stages of digital image reduction we reduced the objects down to simple black and white pictograms.

Top The original photograph Below Resulting pictogram

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I wanted to continue developing pictograms to use in this book to aid navigation. I found the workshop process of reducing down photographs overly complicated so I just drew the images directly in illustrator.

Below Bookbinding

Colour

Hybrid Type

Grids

139

Below LATCH Type-negative space

Mapping Type-Univers

140

Below Pictograms Composition

Sorted Information Design History

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I wanted to be able to clearly show the parts of the book that I had researched and developed further outside of the workshop.

Below All 3 versions of the logo. These are also used on my â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Graphic Extensionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; title page.

I chose to use an arrow as I wanted it to represent continuing and personally driven experimentation and development.

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RIGHT ON!

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The simpler the better. Pictograms seem to be most recognisable when they are as simple as possible. When designing the pictograms for this book I tried to visualise a silhouette kind of image, and work out what outline shape would be most instantly recognisable.

Luckily, my brain seems to automatically visualise images and shapes in super-simple forms anyway. I will try and think of this as an occassional advantage rather than a permanent disadvantage!

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Researching and learning from design history. “Good design history is not just a roster of names, dates, and objects; it is the history of how we have come to believe what we believe about design” Tibor Kalman

Right Page Soviet Constructivist graphic design. Top Rodchenko, front cover design for the book ‘The Last Contemporary’. Bottom Right Rodchenko, ‘Mayak Nipple’. Bottom Left Mayakowski, ‘Gross’.

Researching Neville Brody

Neville Brody was interested in Soviet Constructivism and avant-garde early 20th Century art as well as the rejection of autonomous art. His graphic work uses unconventional and de-constructivist typography often using digital effects and technology.

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This piece of work by Brody uses an unsettling and slightly erratic use of type and white space and communicates a sense of unusual rhythms and movement. I found I read it in a jerky way.

Although I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know the exact reference of the text it seems to reflect the obviously available themes.

Below Graphic design by Brody.

During the time that Brody has been working some key events in history are: * Personal computers became available * Berlin wall fell * Collapse of the Soviet Union

Below Brody, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Autotraceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;.

* Internet exponential growth

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I believe the piece of his work below illustrates this social context. It uses massive digital manipulation of images and this is deliberately referenced in the wording and theme.

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The second part of this workshop comprised of designing a poster for an exhibition featuring the work of our researched designer. The poster was supposed to ‘find a form that is appropriate for your subject matter and communicate what is unique or significant about the designer’s work’.

Right My Neville Brody poster. Actual size= A2. Below Brody was Art Director at The Face and Arena magazines.

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SNAP!

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Social Context. I found that to research the social context of the time when the designers were working made me able to comprehend their work more fully. It also made me remember the techniques theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d used as I could see their relevance.

This matching of the social and historical context also made me feel better about my own work. The designers had been heavily influenced by events and trends happening around them, rather than being geniuses who thought up ideas from nowhere!

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Creating black & white page compositions and learning about Gestalt Theory.

Definitions of Composition 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Arrange, put in order Write, invent Make-up Calm Settle, adjust

The combining of distinct parts or elements to form a whole.

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Gestalt Theory

‘Gestalt’ is a psychology term which means ‘Unified Whole’ and refers to theories of visual perception. These theories attempt to describe how people tend to organise visual elements into groups or unified wholes when certain principles are applied.

Similarity

Occurs when objects look similar to one another. People often perceive them as a group or pattern. When similarity occurs an object can be emphasised if it is dissimilar to the others. This is called anomally. This dissimilar object can become a focal point.

The Gestalt Principles comprise of: * * * * *

Similarity Continuation Closure Proximity Figure-Ground

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Continuation

Occurs when the eye is compelled to move through one object and continue to another object.

Closure

Occurs when an object is incomplete or not completely enclosed. If there is enough of the sense of the shape indicated then the viewer perceives the whole by filling in the missing inforation.

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Proximity Occurs when elements are placed close together. Often they are then perceived as a group.

Figure-Ground Relates to our perceptual tendency to separate whole figures from their backgrounds. The focus at any moment is the figure and everything that is not figure is ground. As out attention shifts, the ground shifts so that an object can go from figure to ground and back again.

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My compositions The top 4 compositions on this page are originally based on the furthest left sheet. This was a â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;randomâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; composition. As the compositions progress from left to

right, we were required to cut down certain strips and re-create compositions using these different lengths.

The 2nd set of compositions again used only strips but were meant to reflect distinct themes, such as symmetry and asymmetry and used different quantities of paper strips.

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Left Page Top Developing from one original random composition. Bottom Further theme developments but using different paper strips.

Below All of the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;strips onlyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; compositions on display.

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Top Active & Static Bottom Harmony & Discord

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Top Conventional & Irregular Bottom Danger & Safety

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Below Continuity & Interruption

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SWEET MERCIFU CRAP!

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In this workshop I realised just how much influence page layout has on a theme. We were using the most basic of components yet the feel of each composition was very different.

I also became aware of how the vertical distribution of elements can affect the theme, as seen below.

Also, these themes can be created through abstract shapes rather than literally representing an object with the layout. For example, to represent harmony you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t need to shape the page elements into a heart.

Negative

Positive

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Bibliography

Books *

Feisner, E. (2006) Color studies. New York; Fairchild Books

Marks, T. (2009) Color harmony compendium: a complete color reference for designers of all types. Beverley, Mass; Rockport

Krause, J. (2002) Color index. Cincinnati, Ohio; HOW Design Books

McAlhone, B. (1996). A smile in the mind: witty thinking in graphic design. London: Phaidon

Ambrose, G. (2005). Colour. Lausanne; AVA

Ambrose, G. (2005). Typography. Lausanne, AVA

Ambrose, G. (2005). Layout. Lausanne, AVA

Bergstrom, B. (2008). Essentials of visual communication. London; Laurence King

Wurman, R. (1996). Information architects. Zurich; Graphis Press

Ikegami, K. (1986). Japanese bookbinding: instructions from a master craftsman. London; Weatherhill

Mirzoeff, N. (1998). Visual culture reader. London; Routledge

Holmes, N (1990). Designing pictorial symbols. New York; Watson-Gupthill

Craig, J. (1990). Basic typography; a design manual. New York; WatsonGupthill

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Aynsley, J. (2001). A century of graphic design; graphic design pioneers of the 20th century. London; Mitchell Beazley

Wozencroft, J. (1994). The graphic language of Neville Brody. London; Thames & Hudson

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Websites *

http://www.linotype.com/720/adrianfrutiger.html

http://typophile.com/node/12118

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Univers

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_Frutiger

www.whynotassociates.com

www.swissted.com

www.creativereview.co.uk.cr-blog

www.printmag.com

Exhibitions *

Toulouse Lautrec and Jane Avril; beyond the Moulin rouge. Courthald Gallery, London. 16 September 2011.

Gerhard Richter. Tate Modern, London. 15 November 2011.

Post-modernism. V&A, London. 16 December 2011.

Energy & Flux. Tate Modern, London. 19 December 2011.

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