Form and Concept Portfolio

T EP C N RM & O C FO Spring Semester 2015 Olivia Albers

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table of contents Project 1: Letter Form Study

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Project 2: Personal Symbols

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Project 3: Patterns

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Project 4: Line Sequence Book

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Project 5: Flash Animation

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Project 6: Poster

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Colophon

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project 1 The prompt for project one was to use a specific typeface, find a couple letters to analyze, and then transform them into a work that utilized both positive and negative space.

The goal was to have figure/ground reversal of the entire composition. The difficult aspect about this assignment was not thinking of the specific letters I chose as type, but rather as just shapes and symbols. Once I viewed them as shapes, I started looking at the composition as a whole and was able to take the rest of the piece into consideration.

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Avant Garde Gothic “Q”

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Baskerville “T”

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project 2 This point of this project was to develop three different symbols that describe me as a designer. Each symbol was supposed to land in one of these categories: abstract, text-based, and pictorial. The category that was the most the hardest to wrap my head around was the pictorial representation. First, we had to make 10-15 sketches for each category, then narrow those down and do 3 different renditions of each symbol on the computer. The final symbols represent me as a designer and are designs I could use on professional items like my resume or cover letter.

abstract

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text

pictorial

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a a a a

First computer renditions of symbols.

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Final symbols for text, abstract, and pictorial renditions.

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project 4 The project photo book is a composition that emphasizes the relationship of line between photos. With each transition, there should be continuous lines that link the pictures to one another. With this assignment, I first picked out pictures that I thought connected visually and also told a loose story. However, I didn’t check the sizes or dpi of the images when I was choosing them so I ended up reworking my entire idea and choosing almost all new photos. The aspect of my book I enjoy the most is how some transitions flow quite well while others are not always as clear. I think this shows a variety that makes the book unique and allows certain photo transitions to stand out from the rest.

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project 5 This assignment required me to use Adobe Flash to create an animation that was between 8-15 seconds long. The animation was supposed to be based off of one of the personal symbols created earlier in the semester. At the end of my animation, by pictorial symbol is created.

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project 6 The poster project was meant to promote a mock event at the Des Moines Art Center.

Out of several images of the Des Moines Art Center building, I chose one showing a wing created by architect I.M. Pei. My first sketches of the poster involved text sitting right on top of the lines in the building itself. To add more visual interest and declutter the image, I extended certain lines of the building and then set the most important informaiton on those extended lines so they no longer sat on top of the building. My final design has visual interest and utilizes visual hierarchy to show the viewer which information is the most important.

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the wo Apr r il 15 k of I.M. - Ju P ne 6, 2 EI 015

Join us for a night of analyzing the revolutionary architecture of the Des Moines Art Center; specifically the work of architect I.M.Pei Anna K. Meredith Gallery 4700 Grand Avenue 515.277.4405 www.desmoinesartcenter.org

Photo Courtesy of the Des Moines Art Center

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colophon This book has been designed by Olivia Albers, under the direction of John Fender as part of the course Form and Concept at Drake University in the Spring semester of 2015. It was designed using Adobe InDesign CC on an Apple computer. The type was set in Clear Sans, a type face designed by Daniel Ratighan at Monotype under the direction of the User Experience team at Intel’s Open Source Technology Center in 2013. The principals utilized to design this book are based upon those employed by Josef MßllerBrockmann (Grid Systems in Graphic Design) and Armin Hofmann (Graphic Design Manual) This book has been produced in an edition of one.

Olivia Albers May 8, 2015

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Form & Concept Spring Semester 2015