Project 01 - A to Z
A to Z is a project that will help me to develop my personal design practise by exploring a selection of four words from a list I have been given. I will explore these words through in-depth research, idea development and design production. Over the course of the project I will undergo a series of workshops that will help expand my technical skills and general design knowledge. The project has been divided into several different stages these are: Week One to Four - During these weeks there will be a series of practical and theoretical workshops, the themes tothe workshops are. - Select, question and generate content. - Explore the various areas of practice within communication design.
- Examine how communication design can engage with audiences. - Determine your individual position as a designer. Week Five - The aim of this week is to produce and display a presentation on our project direction proposal, it should also include the work that we produced in the previous weeks workshop and our personally generated research. The are four main key interrelated aspects of the presentation. - Content. - Designer for. - Designer to. - Designer as. Week Six - Research Week Seven - Analysis Week Eight - Development Week Nine - Production Week Ten - Submission
ACCENTS, ADAPT, ALGORITHM, ALIGNMENT, AMPLIFY ANALOGUE, ANALYSIS,ANTI-ALIASING, AREA, ARRANGE AUGMENTED REALITY, AWE, BASELINE, BINDING, BITMAP BLEED, BLOCK, BOLD, BORDER, BRAINSTORM, BRANDING BRIDGE, BRIGHTNESS, CALLIGRAPHY, CAPS, CAPTION CARTOGRAPHY, CHANNELS, CLICHÉ, CLIENT, CMYK CO-DESIGN, COLLAGE, COLLECTION, COLOUR, COLUMN COMPOSITION, CONCEPT, CODE, CONSTRAINTS, CONTEXT CONTRAST, CONTROL, COUNTER, CRAFT, CRIT, CROPPING CULTURE, CULTURAL-PROBE, CUT-OUTS, CYMATICS, DATA DEBOSS, DECODE, DECONSTRUCTION, DEMOGRAPHIC DRAWING, DUOTONE, DYMAXION, DIAGONAL, DIAGRAM DISCOURSE, DOTS-PER-INCH, DESCENDER, EDIT, EDUCATE EMOTION, EMPHASIS, ENGRAVE, ENLARGE, ENQUIRE ENVIRONMENT, EPHEMERA, ERASE, ETCHING, ETHICS ETHNOGRAPHY, ENTICE, EXPLAIN, EXTRACT, FACEBOOK FACILE, FASHION, FIBONACCI, FILE-FORMATS, FILL, FILTER FLAIR, FLICKR, FLUENCY, FOLDS, FONT, FOOTNOTE FOREGROUND, FORMAT, FORMULATE, FOUND, FOCUS GROUP FRAMING, GEOMETRIC, GENERATIVE-SYSTEM, GOTHIC GOLDEN-SECTION, GRADIENT, GRAIN, GRAMMAR, GRAPHITE GRAPHIC-USER-INTERFACE, GRID, GREEN, GREYSCALE GROTESQUE, GSM, GUTTER, GUT-INSTINCT, HALFTONE HAPTIC-INTERFACE, HEADLINE, HEIGHT, HEXADECIMAL COLOUR, HINDSIGHT, HIERARCHY, HOST, HOMOGRAPH HORIZONTAL, HUMANIST, HYBRID, HYPHENATION, IDEA IDEATION, IDENTITY, IMAGINE, IMPOSITION, INCREASE INFO-GRAPHIC, INFORMATION, INFORM, INITIATE, INK INPUT, INSTIGATE, INTERVIEW, INSPIRATION, INSTRUCTION INTERACTION, ITERATION, JAGGIES, JARGON, JOKE JUDGEMENT, JUXTAPOSITION, KEYLINE, KINAESTHETIC KINETIC, KIRLIAN PHOTOGRAPHY, KITSCH, KNOWLEDGE L.A.T.C.H, LATERAL, LAYERS, LAYOUT, LETTER-SPACING LEGIBILITY, LINEAR, LINE LENGTH, LINOCUT, LITHOGRAPHY LOCATION, LOGIC, LOGOTYPE, MAGNIFY, MANIFESTO, MAP MARGIN, MASTER PAGES, MATERIALS, MEDIA, MEME
METADESIGN, METAPHOR, METONYM, MILLIMETRE MODULE, MOIRÉ, MONOCHROME, MONOTONE, MONTAGE MOTIF, MULTIPLY, NARRATE, NARRATIVE, NAVIGATE, NEGATE NEGATIVE SPACE, NOISE, NOSTALGIA, NOUN, NUMBERS OBLIQUE, OBLONG, ODD, OUTLINE, ONOMATOPOEIA OPACITY, OPEN-SOURCE, OPINION, ORGANISE, ORIGAMI O R I G I N AT E , O R N A M E N T, O R P H A N , OV E R- P R I N T PAG E F U R N I T U R E , PAG I N AT I O N , PA P E R , PA P E R N E T PARAGRAPH, PARAMETER, PATTERN, PERFORATION PERSPECTIVE, PHOTOGRAM, PHOTOMONTAGE, PICA, PICTURE PITCH, PIXEL, PRINT-ON-DEMAND, PROBLEM-FINDING PROBLEMSOLVING, PROCESS, PROJECT, PROTOTYPE PUNCTUATION, QUALIFICATION, QUALIFY, QUALITY, QUANTIFY QUANTITY, QUERY, QUESTION, QUEUE, QUOTE, RASTER READABLE, READING, REDUCTION, REGISTRATION, REPEAT RESOLUTION, RESPONSE, REVEAL, RHYTHM, RGB, RIVERS ROUGH, ROUTE 2 RECTANGLE, RULE OF THIRDS, RULES SACRED GEOMETRY, SATURATION, SEMIOTICS, SENTENCE SEPIA, SERVICE DESIGN, SHOWTHROUGH, SIGN, SILHOUETTE STOCK PHOTOGRAPHY, STRUCTURE, SUBVERTISING SUPER-GRAPHICS, SUPPORT, SUSTAINABILITY, SYMBOLS SYMMETRY, SYNECTICS, SYSTEM, TACTILE, TANGIBLE TARGET AUDIENCE, TAXONOMY, TESSELLATION, TEXTURE TETRAHEDRON, TERTIARY COLOURS, THAUMATROPE TIME, TINTS, TRIBES, TROPE, TWITTER, TYPOLOGY, UNBLOCK UNLOCK, UNDERSTANDING, UNDERLINE, UNDO, UNIFORMITY UNIFY, UNIQUE, UNIT, UNITE, UNIVERSAL, UNJUSTIFIED USER-FRIENDLY, USEFUL, USE, VAN DE GRAAF CANON, VARIETY VECTOR, VENN, VERIFY, VERNACULAR, VERSE, VERTICAL VIEWPOINT, VIRTUAL, VISCERAL, VISUALISATION, VOICE VO L U M E , WAY F I N D I N G , W E B , W E I R D, W H I T E S PAC E WIDE ANGLE, WIDOWS, WINDOWS, WONDER, WORDS XEROGRAPHY, XYLOGRAPHY, X- RAY, ‘X’, YAPP, YARD, YELL YELLOW, YOUTUBE, YOU, YOUTH, ‘Z’, ZZZ, ZAP, ZERO ZERO-POINT PERSPECTIVE ZIG-ZAG, ZING, ZOOM, ZOETROPE
Grid A Grid pattern I created in Photoshop for a personal project of mine.
Word One - Grid
Origin
Grid is simplistic sounding word, it has a technological and structural natured sound as well as being quite harsh and masculine.
The word has been used since the 1830’s, it was developed by shortening the term Gridiron, Although the term stemmed from gridiron, it did not change the original term and it is still used today.
Structure
Meaning
Sound
As the word is so short the structure is simple and basic with no complex letter combinations to create a hidden sound.
Use The word is used in a lot of art and design subjects, another one of its main uses is in surveying and electronics. The word also has a personal use for me which stems from the cult film Tron, where it the term used for the digital world that is created by Kevin Flynn.
1) A grating of crossed bars; gridiron 2) Electricity. a. A metallic framework employed in a storage cell or battery for conducting the electric current and supporting the active material b. A system of electrical distribution serving a large area, especially by means of hightension lines. 3) Electronics. An electrode in a vacuum tube, usually consisting of parallel wires, a coil of wire,
or a screen, for controlling the flow of electrons between the other electrodes. 4) Surveying. A basic system of reference lines for a region, consisting of straight lines intersecting at right angles. 5) A network of horizontal and perpendicular lines, uniformly spaced, for locating points on a map, chart, or aerial photograph by means of a system of coordinates.
Monochrome A photograph of the Museum der Moderne, Salzberg, I took whilst travelling.
Word One - Monochrome
Origin
[mon-uh-krohm]often pronounced “oh” rather than “uh” This changes the length of the word by elongating it, which is wrong.
The origin of the word comes from medieval Latin, more precisely 1655. Up until 1940 the use of this word was used to describe drawings and paintings, but since then it has been used in a photographic sense.
Structure
Meaning
Is form by the combination of two Greek words, “mono” and “kroma”It is also formed by a three syllable structure.
Noun 1) A painting or drawing in different shades of a single colour. 2) The art or technique of producing such a painting or drawing. 3) The state or condition of being painted, decorated, etc, in shades of a single colour.
Sound
Use Descriptive, Artistic, Photographic.
Adjective 4) Being or made in the shades of a single colour. 5) Having the image reproduced in the tones of grey. Mono 1) One; single 2) Indicating that a chemical compound contains a single specified atom or group. Chrome 1) Colour, coloured, or pigment.
Overprint Stamp of New Caledonia, representing a cagou, with overprint for Wallis and Futuna. Circa 1905.
Word One - Overprint Sound
[v. oh-ver-print; n. oh-ver-print] A simple sound as the word is formed from two basic and common words.
Structure
It contains three syllables and is compound word, as it was created by combining Over and Print.
Use
The word is used both as a noun and a verb, and is a common term in the design/printing industry. But it is also very common when describing postage labels and stamp collecting.
Origin
The word was first used around the time of 1850-1855.
Meaning Verb (used with object) 1) Printing. To print additional material or another colour on a form or sheet previously printed. Noun 2) Printing. A quantity of printing in excess of that desired, over run. 3) Philately a. A stamp so marked. b. Any word, inscription or device written or printed on the face of a stamp that alters, limits or describes its use, place of issueor character.
Over - prefix 1) Excessiveor excessively; beyond an agreed or desirable limit. 2) Indicating superior rank. 3) Indicating location or movement above. 4) Indicating movement downwards. Print 1) To produce (a text, picture, etc.) by applying inked types, plates, blocks, or the like, to paper or other material either by direct pressure or indirectly by offsetting an image onto an intermediate roller. 2) To cause (a manuscript, text, etc.) to be published in print. 3) To write in letters like those commonly used in print.
Thaumatrope An illustration depicting the popular Victorian era toy, the thaumatrope.
Word One - Thaumatrope Sound [thaw-muh-trohp] is an elegant and mysterious word, when I first discovered the word I was unaware of its meaning and had to look it up in a dictionary.
The word has been lost over time and isn’t used regularly anymore, as the toy lost its popularity after the early Nineteenth century.
Origin The word was first used around the time of 1820-1830 after the combination of two Greek words.
Structure
Meaning
It contains three syllables, the word is complex and lengthy and although it is technically a compound word. The words it was formed from can’t be used individually.
Noun 1) A card with different pictures on opposite sides, as a horse on one side and a rider on the other, which appear as if combined when the card is twirled rapidly, thus illustrating the persistence of visual impressions.
Use The word is a noun so it can only really be used to describe the object.
Thaumato 1) A combining form meaning “miracle,” “wonder,” used in the formation of compound words. Trope 1) A combining form meaning “one turned toward” that specified by the initial element.
During our second week we had a collaborative workshop task of creating a visual map of all the different areas of design and what they meant to use. We were than asked to choose an area that we felt we didn’t know a lot about or didn’t fully understand. The area that I chose was Media Design.
Map Some images that one of the tutors took of the map we create form our task.
Newspaper A publication issued at regular and usually close intervals, especially daily or weekly, and commonly containing news, features, and advertising.
I decided to try and research this area in a different way to how I produce all of my other research. So rather than opening up my computer and googling it, I decided to head to the library. After a quick search I found a book called “Designing Media� by Bill Moggridge. The book proved to be very helpful and contained a
wealth of knowledge. After getting a few pages in I realised I had made a mistake, as I am actually quite familiar with designing for media purposes but never fully understood the term of Media design. The area is actually properly the one that I have the most interest
in pursuing as a career, especially editorial and newspaper design. And after a few of the interviews and segments from the book I think a newspaper format document may be a strong possibility for an out come for my project.
Honeycomb A macro photograph showing the detail and intricacy of the structure. Phi As A Number This shown in Algebraic form is:
The concept and application of grids is something that I am quite familiar with as the often form the template for a lot of my design work. Something I am not familiar with though is the theory behind them and the origin of there use in graphic design. The influence of the use of girds on human beings I think is something that is almost embedded into human nature, as the use of grids can be found all through out the natural world. A great example of this is the Honeycomb. Honeycomb is believed to be a hexagonal grid shape because the hexagon tiles the plane with minimal surface area. Thus, a hexagonal structure uses the least
material to create a lattice of cells within a given volume. There is another well known natural influence on grid structures and layouts, this is known as the Golden Ratio or Golden Section. The Golden Ratio is : 1, the character is the Greek symbol Phi. The amazing thing about this shape is that if you create a rectangle by these dimension and then draw a diagonal line from one corner to a horizontal line to create a square. It will leave you with another Golden Section rectangle. This process can then be repeated on the new rectangle and the process can just keep being repeated.
Golden Section Spiral A Diagram showing a spiral that can be created with in the Golden section, this spiral also encompasses the numbers in the Fibonacci sequence somehow.
Shell Section A section of shell shows how the Golden Spiral can be found within nature.
Page Spread from 1792 The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, published in 1792, uses the golden section to determine the text area, and the Fibonacci sequence to arrive at relative margin sizes.
(a) Regular Grid
(b) Irregular Grid
Grids 9 Ă— 9 regular and irregular grids. The irregular grid is generated from the regular grid by random diagonal swapping and smoothing.
Paper Sample This is a paper sample I was given when I attended the Made for Thought exhibition by GF Smith.
When the word Grid is mentioned the automatic image reaction is to imagine a uniformly regular square grid pattern, for me it is in the form of a piece of high school graph paper with a grid made from pale blue lines.
Although the graphic designer within me enjoys these grid I find a lot more fascination and beauty in an irregular or partially dismantled grid, which think are often over looked by people.
Graph Paper Drawing An illustrative drawing I found showing how grids can be overprinted.
Overprinting Chart A Pantone colour chart showing how different colour tint value can produce different results.
I came to the conclusion whilst research into different types of grids and graph papers, that there is a very close link between them and overprinting. As most grid are either draw over or overlaid on top of a design to check its dimensions.
But overprinting is a more specific process than just printing or mark making on top of another layer of print. It is a process most commonly used reprographics. It is often used to create a very rich by printing black over another dark
colour, this colour is often referred to a colour “blacker than black�.
The Falling Soldier An iconic photograph taken by Robert Capa, full title: Loyalist Militiaman at the Moment of Death, Cerro Muriano, September 5, 1936.
Black Square Kazimir Malevich, Black Square on a White Field, 1915, Oil on Canvas
I chose the word monochrome as it is something that I features heavily in my previous work and is something that I want to investigate further, especially monochrome photography.
Monochromatic paintings and drawing have been produced since the turn of time, but it was at the beginning of the 20th century when it really became popular as a part of the Suprematism and Constructivism movement.
Nicéphore Niépce
La cour du domaine du Gras, Also known as View from the Window at Le Gras, a 72 hr exposure, 1826-27.
Early 35mm Stills Negative A test shot done by Oscar Barnack ca. 1914 in the city of Wetzlar. Using the Ur-Leica.
Photography like many other technologic areas has a great debate to whom invented the process, but many people acknowledge Joseph Nicéphore Niépce as the person who created the first fixed photograph using a camera obscura, pewter plate and a substance known as bitumen of Judea.
Monochrome photography evolved very rapidly over the next 90 or so years, but it was Oscar Barnack who radically changed photography once again when he invented the first camera that adopted the use of 35mm Cine film. Which is a remarkable achievement as this format is still used today, nearly 100 years on.
Thaumatrope Experiment An experimental thaumatrope I made with the classic bird and cage design on each side.
Louis XIV The music video was inspired by the thaumatrope and uses PoV theory to show the band in the same frame. View the video HERE.
The fourth and final word I chose was thaumatrope, I chose this word even though I was oblivious to its meaning. It has transpired through my research process that this is the word that I have become most interested in, Although more specifically a visual theory that is related to the toy known as “The Persistence of Vision�.
Persistence of vision is the phenomenon of the eye by which an afterimage is thought to persist for approximately one twentyfifth of a second on the retina. Although this theory is said to be disproved by Max Wertheimer, it is still believed by many people and is often still taught in many film and animation schools.
Apple Loading Screen Apple users experience the Phi Phenomonon on regulary, as the loading cirlce is a great example.
My discovering of the Persistence of vision theory feels like I have just pulled at a piece of thread and have unravelled the entire seam. After looking at this first theory I went onto look at other theories of the perception of motion know as the Phi phenomenon and Beta Movement. And soon I was engrossed in the subject of cognitive science even though I was struggling to understand it.
I have decided that these theories are going to be the base of my work as it will benefit me in the future as a design if I can understand why people’s eyes are drawn to certain things or than others. To research the subject further I have ordered a couple of text book off amazon.
Process Journal: Seven Some page spreads from the most recent issue.
Another on of the workshop tasks was to start looking at designers that inspire/aspire to. The first person that I wanted to show was a publishing house from Australia called Process. Process publish two magazines MADE and Process Journal, both of these magazine in my opinion are among the highest quality printed magazines in the world. MADE is one of their newer magazines having only released one issue, the description of the magazine is: MADE focuses on inspirational people from around the world who create incredible things, including but not limited to industrial design, architecture, fashion, interior design, photography and the culinary world.
Although I do like MADE, I prefer their magazine which gave them there outstanding reputation, their Process Journal. Strangely they don’t actually have a description for the Process Journal, people either just know what it’s about, or don’t. But is essentially a quarterly magazine that showcases beautiful and current graphic design projects from around the world, as well as interviews with reputable designers. The most recent edition featured: Heydays, Lars Müller Publishers, Studio Dumbar, Semi-Permanent, Colophon, Projects of Imagination, ManvsMachine, This is Real Art, Lundgren+Lindqvist, MadeThought and with a conversation between Rob Duncan and Clinton Duncan.
Basic Vision An introduction to visual perception oxford text book by Robert Snowden, Peter Thompson and Tom Troscianko.
I bought this text book of amazon to try and gain some more knowledge into the area of visual perception and cognitive science, I decided to by a book to do my research as it work very well when looking into media design and the internet has a lot of conflicting theories. The book was very useful and interesting, but also quite troubling. Firstly it was very time consuming and it took up nearly all of my research time as I had to read and understand an undergraduate text in such a short space of time, so I have neglected doing research into other topics before my presentation.
Secondly although I’m sure the design of the book has been considered for its true target audience, but I just found it to be so monotonous and unstimulating. The worst factor of the book was simply just the basic layout of each page, it also featured these pointless light hearted cartoons which almost aggravated me rather than made me laugh this combined with some really terrible photography almost made me want to tear the book in half when I finished it.
My initial project proposal was to was to “Explore the theory on the persistence of vision through printed work and present this as a research document” I came up with the proposal as I was collating the presentation and looking over all of my research and thought it would make an interesting project. After the Q & A part of my presentation and a discussion with my tutor I have decided to change my proposal to “Explore the theory on the persistence of vision and other visual theories through printed work and present this as a research/explanitary document”. Although I have said I want to produce an editorial piece I also want to keep developing a more experimental approach to my work.
Presentation Slides A selection of slides from my project proposal, I decided to project my presentation in a slight irregular manner so decided to draw each slide on a blackboard and photograph it.
I decided I needed to review some other design work to help me understand what sort of aesthetic I wanted my work to pursue. The First think I reviewed was Crack magazine, I have read Crack intermittently as it is quite hard to get hold of without out subscribing. There are two main aspects that draw me to this magazine, firstly being the subject of its content and second the fact that they produce the magazine in a newspaper format but don’t convey any mainstream current news.
I think that I may look into the possibility of printing my editorial piece as a newspaper as I think I would like to have a large quantity of them that I could distribute rather and one individual polished magazine. One of the ideas I had about distributing the magazine was to slip it inside a stack of Evening Standards, so I could randomize my target audience.
Crack Magazine A selection of spreads from the latest issue of Crack Magazine.
Big bold images that fill the page, one of the other spread has letter boxing to fill more of the page.
Photo and article credits in small type at the beginning of the article. Most people try to hide away there credits where as Crack makes them the first thing you read.
Text wrapped around a fully justified quote in the centre of the page.
Three columns of text justified with the last line aligned left. I have used this as the format for this research document although slightly altered.
Sketchbook A selection of spreads from my sketchbook
Our week six workshop task was to get all of our information down on paper in a mind map and then start brainstorming ideas, considering the most dominant, thinking of the opposite of it and applying several other filters to out project proposals and ideas.
I never imagined that something so simple would be so helpful and move my project ideas on such a long way. As a home work task from the workshop we were told to come up with two different prototype ideas,
As I couldn’t decide between two of the ideas I decided to come up with three designs to gain feed back on.
Sketchbook Prototype sketch pages.
The three prototype ideas I came up with were: - A flip book that would show an animating piece of graphics explaining the theory of the persistence of vision as it was flipped. - A newspaper style editorial piece that contain and explained a variety of different visual theories, the persistence of vision being the headline story. - A luxury thaumatrope toy that
was laser cut from wood, that would be supplied in a presentation box and a small booklet that explained the theory. Before even presenting these ideas to my tutors or peers I was luck enough to attend a mentorship event with LCC alumni and industry practitioners. This event turned out to be incredibly helpful. After speak to three or four different people they advised me to ditch the
idea of the editorial document as it was nothing new and to really focus on the thaumatrope and what I could do with it, as the were all mesmerised by it and to look what I could put on it. One person said “the weirder the better� After reflecting on the evening and the past week I have realised that I just keep going back to play with that same thaumatrope I made in the first few week with the bird and the cage on it.
Mermaid Thaumatrope A thaumatrope toy I made with a reverse mermaid design on it, I found the image whilst looking through tumblr.
With the mentor advise in mind I created another toy, but this featured an illustration I copied of the internet of a reverse mermaid, Fish head and Human legs, as I thought it was weird and unusual. Although I liked what I made it wasn’t my image and I am not very good at illustration so I thought it would be a good idea to start exploring other thing that I could put on the toy. This is where I had a little eureka moment which defined the rest of my project, what if I put type on the thaumatrope.
I start of with the first short word that came into me head with a nice meaning to it, SMILE. I made a few different versions of this design. I had looked at a few videos online of other thaumatropes and how people had made theirs. One person had used elastic band to spin there design so I gave it ago and producing my own. The elastic bands worked a lot better and enabled me to spin the image a lot quicker, therefore making it clearer.
Smile I & II Thaumatrope A thaumatrope with the word smile divide on each side.
SVA Motion Graphics 2011’s SVA Motion Graphics course showcase reel. Please click image for link to the video.
Drill Thaumatrope My attempt at self powering a thaumatrope. Please click image for link to the video.
Whilst looking at ways other people had made their thaumatropes I discovered a video made by some a Motion Graphics student and thought why don’t I just attached my design to a drill.
I was getting fed up of drawing each of the letter segments and not being able to line up each side of the design very well by hand. So I decided it was time to start produced the designs on the computer.
This is where I quickly learnt that power drills and paper prototypes don’t mix well together so I gave up on this idea for a while until I had perfected getting type on the toy.
For the typeface I decided to start with an existing one and modify it, I decided to purchase the typeface Transport and use that as the starting point.
The reason I chose it is because I remembered recently watching an episode of Top Gear where one of the codesigner explained how it had been design to be viewed at speed and to aid word recognition that used a capital first letter and then lowercase for the rest of the letter. Now I had my typeface I could begin dissecting it into two layers.
Transport Typeface A slightly modernised version of the Transport typeface, and an image of how it is used in UK.
Dissected Typeface My Version of Transport lowercase split into two separate layers.
Digital Smile design Both layers of the design ready to be printed.
Digital Smile Test A test to see if my typeface worked. Although it did work the image wasn’t quite lined up. Please click image for link to the video.
Digital Smile design I tried four other test of trying to line up the design when I realised that I was completely over complicating it, Why not just split the letters of the word on to different sides rather than cutting up each letter.
Th Thaumatrope As well as changing to using just letters I also change what I was trying to say, I wanted to try and say The across two adjacent design. Here is the first test.
Th Thaumatrope I also realised that part of the reason my smile design wouldn’t line up was because it was aligned by the centre of the circle, and the design needs a base line from the bottom. Please click image for link to the video.
Th Thaumatrope I wanted to progress the design further and step away from basic toy design, so I started looking at more efficient ways of spinning the design and ways that the design could be powered or connecting to multiple discs. The best way I found was to use two short pieces of thick copper wire bent into and L shape each side of the circle. Please click image for link to the video.
Design Sketches Although I had worked out how I could line text up on the disk, I had almost lost sight of my brief, so instead of just trying to say The I started sketching out some ways that I could create a powered animation similar to the SVA video. But so the design said The Persistence Of Vision.
Design Sketches With a slightly more accurate sketch and the idea of blowing a fan at my paper disk to make them spin I approached Gregor in the 3D workshop to see if he though it would be possible.
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Rhys Atkinson - ATK11333524 - 30/11/12 A first angle projection of my proposed final piece as well as what materials and measurement are needed.
Technical Drawing Gregor advised me to go away and produce a technical drawing with measurements and then to come back in after my induction and he would help me build the frame.
Frame Construction As time is limited in the 3D workshop and it takes quite a long time to get things done, I decided to produce the most time consume part at home, the disks.
Frame Construction I worked out a method of using the grided pattern on my cutting mat to make sure that all of the wire were straight.
Frame Construction It was a very long process to produce all of the disks as each one was made from two circles so in total the were 96 hand cut circles that had to be glued.
Frame Construction Rather than waiting till I had all of the disks made to start constructing the frame I set up a sort of assembly line so I had disks glue, drying and being inserted into the frame.
Frame Construction Each disk needed to be measured as it was going into the frame so I could trim the pieces of wire so the spacing each side was equal. I also had to put the last row in before the end so I could work this out as the end hole weren’t drilled all the way through.
Frame Construction With the frame fully constructed and all of the disks enter the last stage was to attach the legs to it so it could stand on it’s own.
Frame Construction An image of the final frame, it stood over 1.5M wide and 1.7M high.
Frame Construction Images displaying both sides of each disk.
Frame Testing A image captured of one of the disks in motion. Please click image for link to the video.
Frame Testing A image captured of one of the disks in motion Please click image for link to the video.
Sadly I was never able to get my design to work as I had fully intended simply because of time constraints and not being able to locate powerful enough fan. Although I have not got the design to work yet I am going to continue to develop the design further to try and make it work as I intended.
Earlier in the project I discussed that I didn’t want to have a specific target audience and I think my design has maintained that. Although I would say I have created an exhibitions style piece that could be featured in a museum it still doesn’t communicate what The Persistence Of Vision theory is. So I
am going to produce a simplistic A3 poster to be featured along side of the design which explains what the piece is and how it works in relation to the theory.
Sketchbook Page Some quick sketches of potential layouts of my poster design to be feature with my model.
I always find easier to make a few rough sketches for a design before working on the compute. I have decided that the design should contain three main elements. The first being a diagram of the human eye which has been labelled to show the retina, The second the title of the piece “The Persistence of Vision� which I think should be in the same
type face as the model to add some continuity to the designs. Finally I think the should be a drawing of the model with a brief explanation of how and why it works. I think the bottom left design is the one that I am going to pursue although the scale of each item is a bit distort in the drawing.
Eye Diagram A labelled diagram of the human eye.
Poster Development The layout of the post that will accompany the installation.
Poster Development The text labels on the image were quite pixelated so I replaced them with Vector text.This also enabled me to change the colour of the retina label to red, highlighting the part even more.
The Persistence Of Vision is the theory that the human eye retains an afterimage for approximately one twenty-fifth of a second on the retina.
When the disks are spinning slowly you can see that the letters are sperate, but as they increase in speed they appear to be whole. This is because the disks are spinning over twenty five times a seconds and quick enough to be retained on the retina of your eye.
It is also the theory which influenced the design of this installation. The design works by separating the characters from the title sentence on to each side The theory is also the same reason of the disks and blowing a stream of air behind why we don’t see individual or at the frame work causing them to spin. blank frames when watching a movie.
Sclera
Choroid
Retina
Cornea
Lens Iris
Optic nerve
Ciliary Body
Above you can see a diagram of the human eye and where abouts the retina is located. - Labeled in red.
Final Poster Design A copy of my final design to go along side my installation.
Final Design A picture of my piece with the poster design mounted next to it.
Overall I am quite happy with how my project has turn out. I had a very slow start but as soon as I started to build some momentum I came up with and imaginative and original idea. I think time management and decisive decision making are two key areas, which I will need to work on in the next project.
I also think that this design is something I will pursue and perfect in my own time as I have developed such and interest into the area.
If you liked my work or would like me to produce work for you, please feel free to contact me. Rhys Atkinson Graphic Designer & Photographer [e] rhys-atkinson@hotmail.co.uk [t] 07540663284 [w] cargocollective.com/rhysatkinson