Thinking
Vis ual
Visual Thinking’ focuses on extending my visual awareness, individual creative language and understanding of contemporary practice while examining the fertile and complex semiotic and aesthetic nature of word, image and object. I will examining these relationships while engaging with broad and experimental creative processes through a series of workshops, demonstrations, seminars and critiques provided across the courses in the School of Visual Arts; Fine Art, Graphic Design, Illustration and Visual Communication. I feel this unit is going to help me greatly because a lot of the time I struggle putting together multiple formats of work. The relationship between the different building blocks of visuals is very important, if components are not positioned correctly then the whole aesthetic and semiotic feel is lost. Semiotics alone is also a very vast part of designing that needs to be fully understood.
Contents Letterform International Visit To Berlin Postcard Letters In The Landscape French Fold Book Binding LetterMpress Lectures Exhibition Key Texts
TYPE
Introduction
Unit Topics • Text and image/object • Ideas generation • The many uses of type and letterforms • Study visit to Poole • International visit to Berlin • Grids and columns • Typography • Photography • Placement • Branding •Semiotics •Function •Form
task one
L E T T E R
A
For this task everyone was paired together with another Graphic Design student. Our primary task was to design/create an existing letterform in a unique way, however it was extremely important that the letterform was recognizable.
Each Pair was given one letter and a size and had to form a word relating to the visual letterform they where going to create. As our letter was A we decided to use the word ash. Although this word is not directly linked to typography we decided we would create a letterform out of actual ash, then we could relate our project to the structure of fonts and show some examples of how/why specific fonts are so effective/functional.
To create this letter made from ash we would need to make a stencil of the letter A. Do to so we needed to decide which font we wanted to present, we wanted to use aFfont waswebold however had a topurpose. Although or ourthat project werestructured given the character A, also we needed generate a word that the begins
with
the
letter.
We
had
many
ideas
however
we
needed
to
ensure
that
our
Arial fontletter is seen veryhow basic; was a suitable letterform wasnotour decision. form some couldit be linked to typography otherwise and it would for final fill the brief.
Alphabet
ideas
Abstract
Abrupt Ash
A
Apex A4 A3 A2 ect
Ancient Alignment Arial
Abbreviation Abound
R F O R M
Arial
Arial, s is a sans-serif typeface and set of computer fonts. Fonts from the Arial family are packaged with all versions of Microsoft Windows, some other Microsoft software applications, Apple Mac OS X and many PostScript 3 computer printers. The typeface was designed in 1982 by a 10-person team, for Monotype Typography.
Monotype Imaging Holdings is a Delaware corporation based in Woburn, Massachusetts, and specializing in typesetting and typeface design as well as text and imaging solutions for use with consumer electronics devices. Although the typeface we have chosen has a very vast history full of purpose and functionality it can still be admired and looked at in different ways. This font will look totally different when made out of ash; if people can recognize the font in that style then it only proves how pretty a font really is. Fonts are amazing in some cases because of how recognizable they really are. There are many businesses that brands rely upon the use of a specific font, some good examples of business that do so would be apple, fed ex and Lego. I will show these example and more later on in my book.
Arial Arial Arial Arial Arial
Another idea we had was to build a 3D character A out of transparent perspex and then fill the structure with Ash. This would leave us with a 3D shape that would look different at each angle due to the texture of the ash through the transparent layer of perspex. Having a 3D mass also allows you to experiment with layers; as the contents of the letter can be seen all the way from top to bottom it could visually add more to the piece. The main issue is obtaining/creating layers of ash that looks considerably different from the next. If possible our letter A could follow a natural form like the layers of volcanic ash a soil. We could then relate this to how geometric forms can still sometimes be presented as something natural. In the end we decided not to use this idea as the making process was too time consuming and we had a limited amount before the deadline. It would also be hard to replicate a font with a perspex structure; it is possible however much more thought and time would have been needed. Perhaps this is a task to complete in the future where there will be less restrictions.
Arial
Black Our final font choice for our ash design was Arial Black. Although all Arial fonts are very basic they are too very recognizable and were created with function in purpose. This is a font that was designed for digital reading and typing on computers and macs. The idea was that we could show how functional geometric fonts can still be looked at in different ways, with the power of perspective any nice font can turn heads.
ab “Typography
is what language looks like.”
Ellen Lupton, Graphic Designer.
bc Robert Bringhurst, Typographer.
“By all means break the rules, and
break
them
beautifully,
deliberatley, and well. That is one
of the ends for which they exists.�
Berlin
Ger
many For me the berlin visit was very useful and aided in the completion of the visual thinking unit. We explored a range of museums and galleries all over the city of Berlin. The one museum that was really valuable to me was the Bauhaus Archive. The museum contained strong examples of type, composition and aesthetics/ergonomic design.
Bauh 93
haus Bauhaus 93 is a variant of URW Blippo Black (shown below) created in the Bauhaus institute itself. It has been included in recent versions of Microsoft word and Adobe InDesign.
The font follows a very continues flowing style. The lines that split the profiles on many of the characters create this and the smooth edges that add a pleasant aesthetic feel to them. Overall it is a very balanced structural font that is only suitable as titles or sub-titles, not body text.
The
Letter
establishment
Museum that
was
another
attracted
our
attention while on our international visit in Berlin, Germany. The goal of the letter Museum is to make the exhibits available to the public in a prestigious manor. Within the museum there is a selection of permanent and temporary examples of typography.
THE L
Letter Museum
The museum had a huge collection of many great examples of type, from huge 3D letterforms to neon lights. I felt the visit was valuable because looking at these visual forms gives you some knowledge regarding structure, lighting and placement. It was a great opportunity so I took many photos.
A
A
The Results The results for our ash letter looked very effective, the letterform was not lost as others could identify that we where using the Arial font. As the ash was very fine it was easy to manipulate and control which meant we could neaten up the structure after pouring the ash through the stencil. I took many photos from different angles to add perspective to our work. Personally I prefer the close up shots as texture becomes a bigger aspect of the entire image, and it becomes a lot more obvious that we have used ash to construct the letterform. The main problem that we encountered was that the ash was a light brown colour therefore it looked more like soil; the flash from the lighting provided from the camera flash only made this worse. We knew from the start that we would need to edit the photos anyway, therefore we could easily adjust the saturation and make the images black and white.
After increasing the contrast of the image the letterform instantly had more depth and texture, however the brown coloured ash still looked more like soil. Therefore the next adjustment, which was increasing saturation, only made the colours more vibrant. To make the ash process clearer I would have to convert the photo into black and white, or decrease the saturation.
After looking at the black and white images its clear that they are a lot more suitable for my postcard design. The letterforms look like they are constructed out of ash and I think the images actually look crisper then the images I edited previously. I also think the lighting looks a lot nicer in a monochrome theme; the ash stands out a lot better. My final design will definitely follow A monochrome style.
As well as creating a solid ash letterform I also created an inversed Arial Black A. I did this by using the cutouts from the stencil that I made from the previous letters. It was a lot harder to control the ash therefore the outcome was not as crisp/neat as before. I like the idea of having an outline of ash and then the negative space in the middle however I still don’t think it looks as effective compared to the solid letters.
task one
p
o
s
After creating a letterform the next part of the task was creating a postcard that contained an image of our letterform and a chunk of text explaining it. During this process the layout of each component was crucial therefore It was vital that I experimented and used a grid system. The postcard needed to be a size of 105mm by 148mm and would be printed double sided. We needed to ensure there was enough space for a post stamp and some lines for an address.
t
part two
c
a
r
d
This was the first basic postcard design I created. As you can see I used the exact same image of the letterform I created in the previous task. Towards the bottom of the page there is also a quote from a well know typographer called Robert Bringhurst. This design as a whole is very simple and actually boring in my opinion therefore I created many other designs looking for a perfect result.
As a postcard I think just having one image is suitable however I looked into creating a range of images that could go together. Creating a timeline of ash letterforms came to my attention; the idea was to re-construct the ash letter A and then slowly blow away a specific amount then take a photo. I did this process six times until the structure of the letter was completely lost.
Together I think the images look very powerful, they tell a story so they become a lot more interesting then just one image. The time line shows the geometric structure of the Arial Black font slowly dissolving into nothing but a pile of ash. In a way its suggesting that fonts are nothing but structure and that once you take that away you are left with nothing but the materials or building blocks that are required to make an typeface.
T he Arial font was created with functionality in mind so that it for filled its purpose. This particular type form proves how one font can be presented in many ways, even with ash.
By
all means break the rules, and break them beautifully,
The dark background doesn’t blend well with the images and the placement of the text doesn’t look correct on this particular layout. I feel the images should have an equal border around them.
This design is definitely looks a lot cleaner due to the white space around the dark images. The images are still the main focus however they do not overpower the text as the previous layout did. I feel the text needs to be moved around and placed in a column system to fit the structure of the layout of the images.
The whole design together a lot more. I have also scaled down the images so that the post card wont look too crowded. Overall I prefer this design just because it contains more to look at, as well as looking simple and clean. I adjusted the 3 columns until each margin was at 7mm; this leaves a nice white border around the images. I also set the gutter to align the images perfectly without any white lines showing in-between the sides of the photos. However I still think having done this design is should try to perfect It even more, on he next page I pulled the gutter up to 7mm to match allof the margins.
For this postcard design I still used the 3-column layout however I added a gutter of 7mm, which matches the 7mm border going around the whole images. As a result the images are nicer to look at and a lot more neutral as neighbouring images aren’t over powering others. I also repositioned the text to fit within the columns. Personally I prefer it to the previous layout because it is more flowing. Although it was not the case I felt the images where overlapping in the previous design thereforeIt was only logical to see What they looked like apart.
task two
Letters In Th
he Lanscape
This task began with a visit down to the town of Poole. Our goal was to take a range of photos of letters within hte Poole area. We needed at least one of each character as we were told that at a later as we would be amking a booklet of our collection. We were put into groups of 4, and began taking photos.My group decieded that we would target abstract letterforms hidden in the lanscape.
While exploring we found many great examples of how areas like arcitecture and signage can be related to letterforms. The H above was one of our best finds both becuase the photo was exelenet quality but mainly the image was a very clear example of leterforms in arcitecture.
After taking many photos we then needed to edit them so that they where of a better quality, this was very important because they would be printed into a book eventually. All of the photos we took have been edited in some way. For most images we increased the contrast and saturation, however when doing this we didn’t want to over-saturate images as that creates noise and makes photos look un-realistic. Some of the photos also looked a lot better in black and white or with a photo filter turned on. We wanted each photo to look different however they also needed to go together otherwise the book wouldn’t be very flowing. We looked strongly into the colour palette for each page to avoid clashing colours or themes.
-100% Saturation
Warming Filter
Cooling Filter
As we where a group of 4 the most efficient method of working was to spread out our tasks and all contribute. This way everyone had some input. It simply wouldn’t work if one person edited all of the photos because it would be too time consuming. So we distributed the images between us and edited them. The images below are the ones that I was responsible fo editing.
Bookbinding
French Fold
Items Needed: •
Lumbneck Press
•
Reinforced PVA Glue
•
Fine Brush
•
Scrap Paper
•
A Pair Of Hands
•
Binding Mesh
After all of the photos had been edited and the layout of the book had been completed we then needed to bind our book together. For this process we used the French Fold binding process. It’s a fairly simple and cheap way to bind a book. It is often referred to as perfect bookbinding. Each page of the book needed to be two sheets of paper thick and so it could be folded. Therefore when organising the book we needed to think twice about which page shares a spread with another.
The Process The diagram shows where each page should be folded and how a double spread image should be positioned.
It was vital that we applied thick layers of glue every 15-20 minuets for an hour.
It was important that we sandwiched
This allowed the glue to interlock with the binding mesh on the spine of the book
the book in-between two pieces of
and firmly hold the pages in place.
scrap paper, this stopped glue from dribbling down the side of the book and made gluing the mesh on the spine of the book possible.
We needed to slide these two blocks down until the upper section of the press collapsed. This meant that the pages where then forced to sit at an angle. As a result we could then apply more glue except this time it would drip down the pages by about a 1mm to aid in the strength of the spine.
This screw was responsible for tightening the lower vice that secures the whole press on the side of the table. This was important during the gluing process as the book has to left still otherwise glue could spill down the pages or the book could be glued at an angle and wouldn’t bind properly.
In conclusion the final completed book was of a fair quality. However I do think my group had the capabilities to do a lot better. There were some people in my group that didn’t maintain the internal communication that was nessacary within our team. They also lacked enthusiasm for the task, this was proven when myself and anther student went away on an international visit and gave them the responsibly for binding the book. They did complete the task however it was clear that not enough effort was present during the process. There were also only two of us out of the 4-person team taking photos on the Poole visit. This left us with far less photos then all the other groups, which is why the outcome was not brilliant. In my next group based task I would like to have the freedom to choose my own group as I know who I can’t really perform with.
LetterMpress
My favorite workshop was the LetterMpress session in the it suite. I have always been interested in traditional methods such as the use of wood type blocks to print onto paper. However I have never before been so interested and amazed by an app that imitates a traditional method.
The program comes with a huge range of traditional fonts and gives you the freedom to move, rotate and scale blocks to create some realistic looking prints. Even though the entire process is happening on a computer screen the process still manages to create a relationship for the creator as if it were hands-on.
One feature that I really utilise is the coverage of the ink that is applied to the wooden type blocks. You can overlap type and experiment with colour for some interesting results.
Not only can you change the ink that you use but also what colour or textured paper you want to print on. This means you can create some really crisp looking prints that look extremely realistic and could possibly follow a specific style. The program also allows you to print onto a transparent surface; this is very helpful if the image needs to be edited in Adobe Photoshop or another program in the future.
Overall I feel this workshop was the most vlauble for me becuase I love the how the app works, looks and sounds. Its a great piece of design that showshow the future is changing what the past has left for us. Unfortuntlety I wasnt able to go to the traditional letter press as there where no spaces left in the workshop. I feel it could have a good experince as I could almost compare the two and acces how accurate the app really is against the hands-onreal process.
Lectures
Notions Of Taste
I found the Notions Of Taste lecture very helpful as it broadened my understanding of how specific styles and objects create different relationships in the world of design. We looked at different design styles that have been formed over time such as post modernism and the minimalist concept. Overall I can now easily identify these different styles and understand them at the same time. This lecture was spoken by Kirsten.
Propaganda
This was the most helpful lecture for me as it was extremely relevant due to the brief of my essay. During the lecture we were shown a vast selection of propaganda that has been used in many different time periods for different reasons. I now know about all of the different types of propaganda and the key aspects that make propaganda what it is. I found it a lot easier to construct my essay as I could go into depth and pick out key point of the example I had chosen. This lecture was spoken by Kirsten.
Exhibition
For part of the unit the whole course got together and was responsible for organizing and running a graphic design based exhibition. The event was called For The Love Of Graphics and each student in Ba Graphic Design level 4 had to contribute by providing at least one object to display. The exhibition was open to anyone at university from 12:00am to 04:00pm. It was a great opportunity to show the world what we love about graphic design and what items we believe are good examples of design. We had access to the whole of the main studio, which was a lot of space to work with. Not only did we have to obtain suitable items but also decide what the layout of the room would be.
Sound
Most exhibitions occur in dead silence however ours was going to be different. We had a fantastic idea of using an actual item on display to produce crisp relaxing music. The vinyl turntable was a great contribution that added some atmosphere to the event. The music was also good for attracting attention and bringing guests to the event.
Vinyl
To
accommodate
the
turntable
a
group of fellow students formed a huge collection of vinyl records. As the collection was so vast we saw them fit to be hung from lines of string from both of the support pillars in the studio. As the vinyl records dated back quite a lot the artwork was unique and very retro. This display filled up a lot of space however it deserved it. They sat nicely with the vinyl player itself.
Games
Several
students
including
myself
thought a vast collection of board games would be a good contribution to the event. Although between us we only owned newer versions of games we dedicated ourselves to obtaining some older board games to create a contrast. We contacted the Modip museum and received a very generous amount of older games to bulk out the display. It was amazing to see the change in packaging styles, as the games got older. We also set up some board games so visitors could interact with our items and really appreciate the designs themselves.
Trains
Everyone has had a childhood and has some memoires that take them back there. In this case it was a huge collection of Thomas The Tank Engine characters that a student had collected. With so many toys to observe this display became a very popular part of the event. This was a good example showing how some items can hold sentimental value and how something can be so familiar to everyone.
Books
Most of the items at the exhibition where books however we had such a range that it didn’t matter, they weren’t boring to look at. From graphic design books to comics and magazines the event had it all. It was truly amazing seeing each individuals items that they had collected over time. They also showed some exceptional pieces of graphic design.
My Contribution
As well as being part of the board game group I also went out of my way to include a personal item in the many that I haven’t shown in this book. The one item that I have grown extremely fond of is my film camera. The future is a result from the past, which is why I feel this item deserves to be part of the exhibition. The Canon AE-1 truly is an amazing piece of design that allowed all types of designers to take photos on the move and with such ease. Photography has changed a lot up to today however it had such a humble beginning, which has affected graphic designers work forever.
Overall the exhibition was a great success, it was managed correctly and there weren’t a lack of items to present. If I was to be part of another similar event I would defiantly spend more time designing a brand image for the event because I feel many students and staff where not aware of the event even taking place. We needed to create a bigger awareness.
Key T
Texts
End Overall I really enjoyed the visual thinking unit. It has been a valuable process working in different sized groups and taking part in numerous workshops with other courses at the university. I feel a lot more welcome to use all of the facilities in the university and communicate with different people who are not on my course. I also have a wider understanding of Graphic Design and the notions of propaganda and style.
Produced By Sam Tillen