NEW VISUAL LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT BOOKLET REBEKAH HOLLINS
You are to submit design proposals for a new graphic design publication entitled, New Visual Language. The first issue will focus on Form follows function - an exploration of Modernism and Post Modernism. Part 1 Research into Modernism and Post Modernism generating a body of work that explores the origins and philosophy of the movements related to your area of practice. Your visual work should be an expression of the movement and not a pastiche. You should aim to convey the essential nature of the movement. You will need to understand the social, industrial and political concerns which influence both movements. Part 2 You are to submit designs for a broad sheet, which should be based on your personal and original visual research from the year.
Modernism became popular in the late 19th Century and early 20th Century and was formulated by the desire to break away from the conventions after the war. It was triggered by the industrial revolution somewhat and artists would ditch the traditional rules of colour and composition in order to formulate their own visions and interpretations of the changes around them. Modernism was a response to new media and techniques, allowing artists to experiment with unique ideas and concepts unlike any that had been created before. It was very much derived from ideas of form following function, particularly in architectural design work. There were many artist movements that were highly influenced by the likes of Modernism including but not limited to Futurism, Dadaism, Cubism, Fauvism, Post-Impressionism, Symbolism, Art Nouveau, Surrealism.
Cubist painters rejected the norms and expectations of art, following the belief that art should not necessarily copy nature exactly but warp it to emphasise the two dimensional structure on canvas. They simplified objects down to geometric shapes and repositioned them in order to fit them into a two dimensional composition. Early influences of cubism were said to have been developed from African art, and were a more developed and stylized version of it. Many of the pictures feature still life and musical items, many including bottles and guitars however some also included the human face and female figures. Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque were said to have been the initiators of cubism, creating one of the most influential art styles of the early twentieth century.
Futurism celebrated advancements in technology and materials, representing the beauty of speed and technology through artworks and was very much inspired my postimpressionism and borrowed various features from other art movements such as symbolism and divisionism. Futurism was a product of cubism and evoked many different sensations rather than just visual stimulation. They were fascinated by new technology and this was a huge influence to their work, they showed movement and rhythm through their artworks, creating unique and abstracted designs.
Art Nouveau was a new style of art, a reaction to academic art that was based on natural forms with curvy lines and floral borders. The style was very decorative and was often used for promotional and media purposes to sell entertainment and arts. Art nouveau was also used in furniture and utensils, as architects tried to create harmony with natural forms and structures. Many of the works featured female figures such as the works of Alphonse Mucha who represented women in the different seasons of the year in one of his pieces. It was the first movement that really mass-produced graphics and many were used for posters. One of the key features of the Art Nouveau style was the erotic elements that it encompasses. Many of the pieces featured provocatively posed women, some were mildly explicit and others were extremely explicit featuring the likes of a brothel. Others simply used the forms of a female body to represent a narrative and to sell lifestyle ideas.
Postmodernism on the other hand appeared after modernism, rejecting the notion of pure form and perfection and embracing the idea of complete freedom in artwork. Postmodern artists often would pay no attention to traditional conventions of composition such as legibility and many of the works are created from a combination of styles rather than just one. Postmodernism was very playful and expressive, erasing boundaries and providing a new way of thinking. Although Postmodernism challenged the constraints of Modernism, it was greatly influenced by it, with many of the works either reflecting the styles of Modernism or hugely contrasting to them.
Pop Art challenged the traditions of fine art and typically collaged images of popular culture to create irony. The images were typically associated with mass culture, advertising and comic books, used to emphasise and mock culture at any given time. It takes existing imagery and combines it with a combination of other imagery and typography. Many of the pop art designs were used in media and advertising, concerning many social issues and representing them through the designs.
Robert Rauschenberg was a painter, sculptor, printmaker, photographer and performance artist who works in a abstract expressionist and pop art style. He creates work that is iconic of modern life. His work was very colourful, exploring a range of media and tecniques and experimenting with collage and montage of images. The designs seem to be very politically themed and represent issues of the time. this style is a typical representation of postmodern art, using signs and symbols as well as images and some text to portray the desired message to the viewer.
Stieg Persson is a contemporary artist who was considered to be among one of Australia’s first postmodern painters. He uses various materials and tends to have a limited colour palette. His designs vary between abstraction and figuration, and appear to have a somewhat graffiti like style to them. His designs appear to have no fixed direction or order to them at all, constructed of what would appear to be random splatters and swirls which are then layered with various images and textures.
David Salle was a printmaker, painter and stage designer who’s work appears to be constructed of a series of images placed randomly on top of one another. His worked are said to have helped to define postmodern sensibility. Many of his works feature suggestions of erotic imagery and are paired with bastract images and sprawled text that appear to be layered up with a combination of digital and physical collage tecniques. The images are bery vibrant and capture attention, seemingly to have no direct theme or intent for each.
Magazine Cover Examples I have collected a range of existing magazine cover designs to see the kinds of styles and layouts that other designers use in their work. Some of the designs are very much cenered around the masthead and others simply have a masthead featured in the piece but it does not play a huge part to the design. I really like the central text in many of the designs as I think this really creates a sense of balance in the designs, and the smaller text looks really effective as it contrasts with the masthead and looks tify as part of a wholesome design. I have gone for a series of very modernist designs in terms of the layout as I think this is the most effective in my work and will work best with my style.
Masthead Design Examples I selected these particular examples as they show a variation of different approaches to amsthead designs, for example some of them use whit to create the logos, others combine simple text with decorative text and others are just well made and straight forward. I relly like the combination of a simplified logo with the writing of the whole masthead below it and think that this will be the kind of approach I take in my masthead design.
Masthead Sketchups I created a range of different sketchups roughly and neatened them a little to show a range of different options I have interms of the kinds of designs I could do. I focused hugely on the forms of the letters to create unique designs, I particularly like the first and third ones. The second design is a little too straightforward and doesn’t really stand out in terms of uniqueness. The final design looks a little too poorly constructed and the linework isn’t the best it could be. I think that the parralel lines uned inthe first design is really effective as it creates a sense of movement through the piece and draws the viewer along the design. The third design is much more of a rounded logo design and works really well as an imaged based design rather than text. I also really like the angles that are used and the way it is squared off at the bottom as I think this will look really effective with the text underneath. I will now take these designs forward and create the one I like best in Adobe Illustrator so that it is in a vector format and can be added onto the designs as a masthead at a later stage.
Arial
verdana
Helvetica Light
Futura
Tahoma
Futura Squashed
Font Experiments I experimented with a range of different fonts once I had created the masthead logo on illustrator. I decided to go for the Sans Serif fonts as I felt that the modernist design of the logo worked best with these kinds of fonts. I think that Helvetica Light and the shortened Futura font are the best two. I particularly like how clean the Helvetica Light font looks as part fo the design however it might become lost as part of an overal cover photo due to the delecacy of the font. For this reason I particularly like the shortened Futura font as it is a little more bold than the others and stands out more effectively alongside the larger logo.
Coverpage Sketchups I created a few thumbnails to get me started on some design ideas for my cover page. I will experiment with these styles and see which ones work best and then develop them further once I have picked the strongest. I think that the strongest ones will be the ones that make use of symetry int he designs as this will create a more aesthetically pleasing experience for the viewer when they are viewing the cover. I will need to experiment with adding the finer details to the designs at a later stage such as the issue number and name as I will have to decide on a font that is clear but also fits with the modernist theme I am going for.
I have not yet had chance to take photos for my cover design so I found this photo from http:// thisnormallife.tumblr.com to use temporarily. This will allow me to experiment with the layout of the design and which I think works best ebfore I do my photoshoot. Obviously the colours and positioning may vary depending on the colours and composition of the photos I take however I will make any changes nessecarily when I have the photo I will be using.
Cover Page Experiments I experimented with a variation of positions as well as changing the scale and colour of the masthead on the design to provide an array of different options to choose from. I particularly like the design with the smaller more centralised logos and it creates a lot of space to complement the cover and for it all to work in harmony. I do however also like the design above where the masthead takes up the whole of the cover as I think this is a really unique design. I will try these again once I have done my photoshoot and see which colours and layouts work best with the images.
Photoshoot at Digley I chose to do my photoshoot looking over Digley as I thought it linked in well with each of the projects. In many of the images I have featured some road signage, this is a good example of semiotics and visual language. Additionally there is evidence of the flux of life in the road and the barriers as it shows the existence of human life and movement.
Finally the nature and landscape along with the evidence of human existence work well with the earth artefact project. In a sense, a resovwa is a visual representation of where the flux of life meets nature as it is a manmade way of holding one of natures most valuable resources.
I really liked this image due to the clarity and I felt that it is probably the most effective image interms of the composition and inclusion of the masthead. However, it is the least relevent to the three projects that the magazine contains. Although it is a nice picture, I don’t think this will be enough to create a strong result interms of a magazine cover that links with the content of the magazine itself.
Out of the three I think that this is the most effective image as it contains the nature setting in the background which links strongly to my Earth Artifact project, the road which represents movement and links in with the City in Flux project. Finally, the evidence of semiotics and visual language in the road signs that are evident in the image links it in with all of the projects and the theme of the magazine as a whole. Furthermore, the contrast in the shadow of the image adds depth to the piece and creates a really interesting visual for the viewer to look at.
Although I do really like this image as it features the clearest road and more variation in the visual language on the signs. I think that the bits of rubbish thrown in the gutter of the piece deters from the professionality of the image and may effect the impact that the image has on the audience. Additionally, the hills in the background are a little darker in this image which clashes a little with the masthead. This is not a huge problem as I will be experimenting with a few different layouts regardless of the image in the background so I may consider using this image and tweaking it a little as it may be possible to edit the pieces of rubbish out of the image using photoshop.
This is the initial composition I came up with, although the title is very effective, the masthead logo clashes a little with the background which I think deters from the quality of the composition.
I reduced the opacity and repositioned the design a little, I do really like this design and think it’s really effective however I do not like reducing the opacitiy of the image as it deters from the photo and ruins it in my opinion.
The opacity of this design has been put back up a little, I also moved teh text to the bottom of the image to create a more interesting composition.
I added the line at the top to blend the isue number and date better with the composition, I also enlarged the logo so that it was overall more rounded and balanced.
This is the initial design that I put together which was a little iffy in terms of composition. The subheading the the center is a little too light in comparison to the sky in the position that it has been palced and it also looks a little out of place.
I decided to lengthen the text and also mov issue number and date down in to the botto left hand side of the design.
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I thought the overall design would look much more balanced if I centralised the text and I also made a few spacial adjustments to the text and lines at the top to ensure that they were most aesthetically pleasing to the viewer.
I put the three final layout opt after having created a white v first design. I compared them that although the image to the effective, I don’t really want to image in the background and i the text ledgable I have to do I have decided to go for the ce making a few tweaks to the de using this for the cover of my
tions together version of the and decided e far left is really o deter from the inorder to make that. entral image after esign, I will be magazine.
Here you can see I have collected a range of both magazine interior layout as along with a few content page ideas. I will be using these modernist styles magazines as influences for the development of my own work as I have chosen to work in the modernist style. I really like the use of the double column text which is often paired with a large image on the left or half way up the page. I also really like the use of large text in the subheadings of the page as I think this creates a really unique result.
For my contents pageI experimented with a variety of the thumbnails that I sketched up. I decided that the image across the top was the most effective of them all and then experimented with the text to create the most effective outcome.
I also sketched up some layout ideas and experimented with a few of them before creating my final outcome layout. I decided to go for a more modernist approach to my layout as I felt that it worked best with my style and the content that I had already created.