New Visual Language by Rebekah Hollins

NEW VISUAL LANGUAGE FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION

AN EXPLORATION OF MODERNISM AND POSTMODERNISM

ISSUE 1 SUMMER 2015

CONTENTS 1 2 3 4

CITY IN FLUX EARTH ARTIFACT CREATING A TYPEFACE MODERNISM AND POSTMODERNISM

CITY IN FLUX

For the first brief of the year we were asked to visually represent the flux of the city, I took what some might consider to have been a Modernist approach to this by using a cubist style approach and restructuring the city into a two dimensional form. Others might consider it to be a Postmodern approach due to my deconstruction of the city.

By simplifying the city down to its purest form I was able to capture it at a specific point in time and represent it through the imagery and compositions that I created. I believed that this was the best way of capturing the flux of the city, as it was a representation of the city, frozen at that specific time.

For this particular project I paid close attention to the subconscious effects of colour and form and the impact that it can have on the viewer, depending on what colour the design mostly represents. I decided that visually representing the city in flux would be difficult, as it would only represent one particular moment in time, despite the flux being the movement and development of something. I thought that for this reason I would try and allow the feelings and emotions of the city to live on through the viewers emotions of it by influencing the mood they are feeling and allowing them to experience the city in that way.

I combined the use of colour theory with different types of shapes to influence the mood of the viewer and to allow them to recall subconscious feelings from previous experiences, in hope that it might give them a realistic experience.

I think the outcomes for this project were really effective, the forms and composition of the designs were strongly put together however I think that the typography could have done with a little more attention. This may have brought the designs together a little better.

EARTH ARTIFACT

My earth artifact brief focuses on allowing the viewer to experience the stimulation of the earth and the types of things that they might find on it. I took a documentary approach and created my designs in a very nature journal kind of style. The designs encapsulate the different textures of the earth and have a very sketchy kind of finish using pressed flowers that create the illusion that the designs are three-dimensional.

This particular project was difficult to work with due to the less digitalized style I approached it with, as I was unable to align things perfectly I found that a lot of the designs weren’t working for m. However when it finally clicked I was really happy with the result that I came up with. The designs I have created work as a set of three and each of the compositions complements the next by the use of colour and layout that I decided to use.

CREATING A TYPEFACE The font that I created has a very simplistic appearance, using the art nouveau as an influence I created a font that I initially thought looked really effective. Once I put the letters together however the curls used in the designs clashed and overlapped with one another. For this reason I decided to approach the project by creating a much more simple font.

Still using the same picture I chose a single element of the image that I could base all vertical parts of the type on. I then simplified the remainder of the font and experimented with creating the most visually stimulating shapes and forms for the font.

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.

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.