3 D O W N NOOSHEEN MEHTA
NOOSHEEN MEHTA GRAPHIC DESIGN 3 SEM SEMESTER DOCUMENTATION 2012
18. SLA - Semiotics
01. Drawing and Illustration
48. Photography
38. Colour
28. Typography
24. SLA - Communication Studies
DRAWING & ILLUSTRATION
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Course 5 weeks Faculty: Tarun Deep Girdher & Immanual Suresh
Still Life
A still life comprising of various objects such as glass bottles, a lamp, slippers and a ceramic pot was set up and we had to observer and chose a view and draw the composition. We were given the freedom to use any medium, which we were comfortable with and work. The main aim of this assignment was to understand the space, proportions, the form, and the various surfaces of the objects.
I began by choosing an appropriate view of the still life and drawing it. We were given the freedom to remove any one object from the composition. I decided to exclude the lamp, since it was a complex object. I was able to observe the objects more carefully and accurately. The first one is done using water colours, it was fun, but it was difficult to recreate the texture on the surface of the bottles and also the reflections of the surroundings on the glass surfaces. The other still life I did using dry pastle colour pencils. At first tried using them on newsprint sheets, but
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I found that the paper was not able to give a very good result and that the colour was not spreading on the surface. Then I decided to use cartridge paper, which is slightly textured and gives a better result with dry pastles. This one I did at night to see how the light changes and how the reflections on the surfaces change.
Portrait
We were all given a print outs of various masters’ paintings from various art movements. Using these as refence or any other painting of that artist from that period we had to make our self protraits using that technique. I was given Rembrant van Rijn’s self portraits from his later years I.e. 1663
At first I decide to use poster colours. It was only while painting that I realised how difficult it is to perfect chiaroscuro. It was a challenge getting the colour palate correct, I ended up making myself look a too pale and ghostly. I tried to imitate Rembrant’s brush strokes but was unable to recreate the same effect. At the end I was simply left awe struck by the amount of detail he was able to represent on the canvas eventhough more that 50 % of the painting was in darkness.
and oil paints. Working with oil paints was a rather messy affair, but here I was able to experiment with the colour pallet since I worked on the painting over 3 weeks. It was interesting to use oil paints since it is unlike any of the other mediums I use to work with regularly. For this painting I also used Rembrants Young Woman Bathing (1655) as a reference beside his self portraits.
I really enjoyed this assignment because I was able to research Rembrant and his works. It also got me My second attempt was using the to challenge myself and my skills. same composition but I used oil paper
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Media Exploration Three different sets still life were set up in class and we had to chose one and from a good point of view do various explorations in conventional and unconventional/ experimental media.
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After using various media for the conventional methods such as poster colours, water colours, oil pastels, sketch pens etc. realised that I enjoyed the monochromo watercolour exploration the most. Here I gave a watercolour wash to the still life in shades of green. Then I wrote the name of the material or object in Hindi all over that particular object. Example all over the cloth is written ‘‘kapda’’. The writing is done in shades of green stabilo pens. I did this to create a visual texture. I then cut out the still life and stuck in on a maroon paper so that the contrasting colours, help bring out the vivid greens.
Thermocol fiber bits stuck with fevicol on a diogonal corrugated card paper. Among the unconventional media ones this seemed to be the most striking and interesting composition.
Poem-Where The Mind Is Without Fear
We were all given individual poems and had to illustrate them the way we want on a single page. It is compulsory to include the text in and base the illustration on it. We had to wwVisualise and conceptualise the poem. I was given the poem Where the mind is without fear by Rabindarnath Tagore.
I started with trying to understand and interpret the poem in the best way possible. It being an abstract poem I tried to make it as literal as possible. I came up with quite a few concepts but none were accepted and it became a little frustrating. Since the poem is Philosophical I tried to make the illustrations as serious as possible. In then end after feeling completely disheartened I was guided by Tarun in the correct direction. I was told to try making the illustration more general and was given the idea of some how incorporating the a hand, Brain and the heart.
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Then I stared a fresh with a different outlook to the poem and after a series of exploration and discussions i was finally able to get my idea approved. Thought this I learned that good ideas and concepts don’t just come to you and that the more you explore the more you learn and it si only after brain storming that one can Deliver .
Story-Babloo Bemisal All of us were given different short stories either English or Hindi, we had to visualise them and make a illustrated picture book based upon the story. I was given a Hindi story called Babloo Bemisal.
Here learnt how to go about making a picture book. I started with deciding what image would go with what text and in what order, I.e. pagenation. I am doing my book in the 6.5inchesW x 9inchesH. Then came the most challenging part which is the characterization of my main lead in the Babloo. I made a lot a of explorations and then finally with the help of Tarun and my friends I came up with my Babloo. After which I created the other
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characaters but decided that they would all me faceless or only silhouettes, since I wanted all the attention on the main charcater Babloo only.
bbl¨ A#sr ApnI büAw ky Gr jwyXw krqw Qw[ buAw bbl¨ k¥ HwQ askI mw k ilE küC n küC ByjqI QI[
bbl¨ kw Gr
W kw Gr
Ek idn buAw ny kyk kw Ek bVw sw tukVw idXw[
bbl¨ ny asy HQylI myˆî kskr pkVw AOr Gr kI Aor cl pVw Gr phuÂcny qk kyk c¨Rr-c¨r ho gXw [ bbl
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SLA-SEMIOTICS
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Course 1 week Faculty: Debasish Chakrabarty
Adverse Portrayal of Women In Advertising We were asked to analyse any 3 ads in which gender, race and religion have been portrayed in a negative light. This is one of the Ads that I analyzed, showing gender discrimination.
This ad is a very smart and subtle portal of a woman in a submissive position bending over presenting her posterior to be viewed by all. The ad is to encourage the people of New York to pick up after their dogs. But one doesn’t even notice the message of the ad until you actually pay attention; all one notices are the shapely hips of the woman as she is objectified as a male fantasy. The way the it is written “for beautiful city” is extremely deliberate; it makes it seem as if the woman is a beauty, who has
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full hips and is for the city to be viewed. Thus making it seem as if she is for the city’s people, for them to objectify. Also the tag line reads “Clean after your dog”, thus emphasising the domestic role of women in society. It makes it seem as if that is what women are supposed to do, clean up after “dogs” which could also be seen as saying that women must clean up after their men.
Poem - Analysis LOVE SONNET XVII
I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,in secret, between the shadow and the soul.I love you as the plant that never bloomsbut carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;so I love you because I know no other waythan this: where I does not exist, nor you,so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep. Pablo Neruda
The poem Love Sonnet XVII is an extremely romantic and beautiful poem. The honesty with which the author writes about his love for his wife/lover is particularly moving. The poem speaks of a true and pure kind of love that develops over time. It is not concerned with physical beauty and other trivial matters. It not boastful, selfish or conceited. It is straightforward and simple. It is about the coming together of two souls. I have represented the coming together of two halves , that are incom-
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plete and lonely without one another. They come together virtually since, to them it doesn’t matter how they look, or who and from where they are. Only they can see a beautiful light within each other, their love is not superficial.
SLA-COMMUNICATION STUDIES
Course 1 week Faculty: Dr. Jean De Souza
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Essay Choose any quote which has been discussed in class and represent it in any way you choose to. It could be through images, drawings or even a esssay.
“One is not born a women, but becomes one” – Simone de Beauvoir Is it a boy or a girl? Is the first question one asks when a child is born and every often even before the birth. The sex of the child, male or female, is a fact, but how the child is raised determines the gender role of the child. The naming of the child is one of the first and most important rituals that one goes through. Ones parents put in a lot of thought into naming the child. It is the identity with which one lives for the rest of their lives. It is also to convey one’s gender and religion. You would never find a Muslin girl with a name like Rahul or Karan. Also the prefix before one’s name is used to determine one’s gender. Thus we see the naming of an individual as the first sign of distinguishing the child as male or female. Once named the child’s socialisation as a girl or a boy begins. Socialization is the process of developing a sense of self connected to a larger social world through learning and internalizing the values, beliefs, and norms of
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one’s culture. Through socialization we learn to perform certain roles as citizens, friends, lovers, workers, and so forth. One of the main types of socialisation is gender socialisation. Here one learns to be feminine or masculine. A boy is taught to internalise values like bravery, leadership, adventure, responsibility, strength, dominant, forceful, competitive, and individualistic. Where as a girl is expected to be graceful, polite, gentle, well mannered, obedient, affectionate, cheerful, tender and compassionate. There worlds are from the very begging divided into two halves, boys are expected to play sports outside in the sun while girls are expected to play house or learn to cook or knit clothes. This continues throughout childhood and latter on as adults also. Children start watching TV from the age of two. Most of these shows and movies have a very general theme where good prevails over evil and good behaviour is always rewarded and everything ends happily ever after. From these shows and movies children unconsciously learn how to behave with their peers, adults, strangers and other people. Here the female lead is portrayed as a well mannered, graceful, beautiful spirited girl, gets into some kind of trouble and then the male hero who is portrayed as a brave strong, responsible and smart charming man saves her from all evil. The advertising industry has taken this to a whole new level, there are several advertisements that show a woman taking great joy in washing stained clothes with her magical washing powder, getting lyrical while making healthy soup for her family, or rejoicing in the fact that her son has grown taller, become faster and is much stronger than other children after drinking a special milk portion. In short all these women are depicted as the super-servitor and nurturer who glories in her magnificent servitude and motherhood. The women are portrayed as those loving, giving, eternally smiling supre-slaves. It clearly shows the two domains – public and private – where the women are typically confined to the private sphere whereas men are rarely shown in the private sphere. Since our society socialises us into believing that it is only ‘natural’ for men to occupy the public sphere and the women the private, the media has monopolised on this and restricted women to it. Even if a woman dares to venture out into the public sphere she must be able to maintain a balance between both. Now days, we see this in many ads where a new “superwoman” is able to take care of her family, cook, clean, hold a high profile job and manage to look glorious while doing all this. She manages to be “perfect” in extremely imperfect circumstances. Such a marginalised portal of women is what is responsible for stereotypical socialisation of children. I have chosen the television as a medium here since it is the most widespread and influential medium to which most people are exposed. We can clearly see that there are so many external forces that make the female gender into a woman; she is expected to be in her society. Any kind of deviation from such a structured role leads to some kind of scorn or punishment in society.
TYPOGRAPHY
B O D O N I
MINION PRO
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Course 3 Weeks Faculty: ww Deep Girdher
FRANKLIN GOTHIC
VANI
Typeface Research & Publication All of us were given different typefaces to research, I was given Amplitude and had to do a detailed study on the typeface and the typographer and compare it to other similar typefaces and also find out about its usage.
The most exciting part of the whole course was towards the ends when we were given the opportunity to study a typeface and then make our first booklets about that typeface. Here we learnt about layouts. The whole experience no matter how tiring and exhausting it was absolutely brilliant. At the end when we got to see what all of us where able to come up with and hold our first designed booklets in our hands, we were all so proud of ourselves and also so grateful for the opportunity that we got.
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It was during typography that we learned to use different software and also learned a little bit about printing. In all it was an extremely fulfilling course where we got to learn so much.
Meaning Making We were then given Quotes in 2 different weights. Which we were allowed to use at any size, in a 180mm X 180mm box. Here we were supposed to change the meaning of the quote by giving importance to some words and not to others
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Here we learned the limitations and the boundaries of typography. After that we were given another typeface to work with and come up with variations of both the typefaces together, using the same quote. Here we came up with variations of the same quote at times changing the meaning and the layout. The class
discussions we had throughout were extremely enriching and very often an eye opener.
Type Terminology We were divided into groups and asked to do a detailed research on type terminology and make a chart and then present it to the class.
We than had a group assignment where we had to study Typography .Here it was a big challenge to come together and work as a group. In the end we did manage to finish our work but managing time was a big struggle. The learning in this a ssignment was the most important, since it was here that we
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learned the extensive Anatomy of type and its family. For me it was here that I learned the most about typography.
Typo Portrait Our course stared of with an assignment where we had to write our names in a way that brings out any particular characteristic that can be associated with your personality. The restrictions being that we could only write our name once.
The word that I chose to associate with my personality was exuberant. It was quite challenging to write my name on an A4 sheet, the sheet just felt too restricting. My name just did not seem to fit in the frame. Since the word was exuberant, I just kept using long strokes, my first exploration was actually falling out of the page. Later I was told to explore using other medium like thread and ribbons. The ribbons worked out well. But still I could not seem to fit my whole name and that was when
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I decided to use my pet name. Here I learned how different materials can be used to bring out different characteristics. The colours and the flowing material of the ribbons really helped make it look exuberant.
COLOUR
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Course 2 weeks Faculty: Anil Sinha
Form and Colour of Ice- Cream
The colour course was an experimental course where we were given the freedom to approach the the assignments the in a different way. We started out with a reserch, on ice- cream as an object to give us some direction.
We did a group project on ice-cream; we researched Amul ice-cream parlors’ and its presents in the Ahmadabad market. We learnt of the importance of the importance of form, and how form helps us perceive colour. It helps us differentiate between the form and the background. We learnt how nothing can be perceived without form, just as a colour. They both go hand in hand and one is incomplete without the other. We started of exploring various forms, and took icecream as an object to give us some
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direction to help us achieve our individual forms. We did a survey which forms people associate with ice-creams and found out that ice-cream is associated with softer and rounder forms as opposed to forms with sharp edges. We started of exploring various forms, and took ice-cream as an object to give us some direction to help us achieve our individual forms. We did a survey which forms people associate with ice-creams and found out that ice-cream is associated with softer and rounder forms as opposed to forms with sharp edges.
Taking Form and Colour Forward... Once we had our forms we did a survey on which colours people associate with ice-creams. We found out that people prefer tints of white, yellow and red for ice-creams. Here we learnt the importance of surveys and how to conduct them. After this we created various thermocol forms which resembled ice-creams, then we drew these forms and split them open in
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different ways and directions. After this we chose the most interesting form and went on to work digitally.
Creating Colour Themes for Bags All of us were individually guided after we explored various colour schemes on the chosen forms, and i was guided towards creating themes for various types of bags.
We created various explorations first only in monochromatic colour schemes of the ones which were chosen I the survey for ice-cream. We then went on to use more colours; these were just random combinations of colours that look good together. They were limited to not more than 3 colours in each form. From here Anil Sinha guided me in the direction of making themes for school bags for different age groups. This idea came about from one of my explorations which resembled an
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existing bag’s colour scheme. I then took this idea forward and made variuous explorations of bags for pre-school children, teenagers, young adults etc and also made explorations of camping bags. Overall the entire course was very interesting and we learnt a lot since the entire approach to colour was very different. Since this time we had an object which we had to keep in mind while making our explorations.
Colour Research; Orange All of us were asked to choose any one colour and and do a wholistic research on it and its various uses and significance.
I took up the colour orange, since I like it a lot and don’t think it has been exploited enough. I researched the colour in the Indian context i.e. the presence of saffron in the flag and its significance. Also it is very significant to various political parties in India. On the global, the Dutch Dynasty is known as the House of Orange. Orange is the colour of the uniforms of the prisoners in USA.
life and it can also mean distrust. It is also a colour that is a strong association with food and encourages eating. From a marketing point of view it is used in the packaging of food products. Tangerin Tango was the colour of the season in the fashion industry according to Pantone. It also has a strong significance in Hinduism and Buddhism.
Individually it is either a colour people love Psychologically orange is a strong or hate. It tends to provoke strong feelings. colour that signifies warmth, happiness, spontaneity, positive outlook on
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PHOTOGRAPHY
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Course 3 weeks Faculty: Hitendar Vala
Dreams
Our first week of photography was spent taking pictures of dreams around the city. We were paired up and had to share a camera, Nikon FM2. We were only allowed to take limited number of photos since we were using film role cameras.
The entire experience was delightful we explored parts of the city that we did not know about and got to meet some very interesting people. Since we were only allowed to take limited pictures it was important that we were a hundred percent sure of the frame, aperture, and shutter speed at which we were to take the photos. It was challenging but it encouraged us to
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take better photos and not just point and shoot. The first Picture is at Sarkhej of an old man praying . The second picture is taken during Ganesh Utsav of a man counting how much money he has made.
Dreams The first Picture is of a street urchin looking at party decoration and wishing she could have a party. The second picture is of a cupcake, being a foodie it is a personal favourite.
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Tourism Poster We went on a day trip to Champaner a town further down from Baroda, which is full of ancient architecture, where we again had to share a Nikon FM2 camera, and take photos with the aim of making a tourism posterafter we were back.
The trip to Champaner was a lot of fun. We visited the various mosques and took a lot of pictures. Through the poster I was trying to bring out the old world charm of the town and its grandness, along with its the beauty.
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I used a green band since the place is in the middle of a forest and I wanted there to be a hint of greenery in the poster too. The poster is 18inches x 22inches big.
Concept Studio ShootMacbeth and his Witches
We had to do a studio shoot where i was the art director and my partner was the photographer.
The concept was inspired by Shakespeare’s Macbeth and the three witches. In the first frame I have tried to portray a evil yet hauntingly beautiful image of the witches. In the second frame the Witches try to seduce Macbeth and thus lead to his ruination. In the final frame we see a dead
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Macbeth and the evil witches going mad with happiness since their evil nature has won and they were successful.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 58
Book History and Techniques of the great mastersREMBRANT Safer by Design Alphabet evolution and design of letters Haley Work book of typeface Websites www.google.com http://www.type.co.uk/open_type http://papress.com/thinkingwithtype/letter/classification. http://www.fontshop.com/glossary/ www.fontbureau.com/fonts/Amplitude/ www.myfonts.com/fonts/fontbureau/amplitude www.urbanfonts.com/fonts/Amplitude.htm www.linotype.com/496401/Amplitude-family. htm en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Schwartz www.christianschwartz.com www.fontbureau.com
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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Tarun Deep Girdher Anil Sinha Dr. Jean d’ Souza Dr. Debashish Chakrabarty Hitendar Valla Siddharta Tripathi Naomi Kundu Geetika Shetty Gowri B. Noopur C. Pupul Bisht Rembtant Christian Schwartz Mahindar Bhai Ninad K.