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Static - Dynamic Just Jammin’ form + function chrissi cowhey fall 2017 So A Ryu
An exploration for the word Hypnotic
static - dynamic | so a ryu
Flux, Hypnotic, Musky Gramatik’s Just Jammin’ is a mix of funk and pop music. The jazzy beats and the complexity between base and melody creates a journey through this six-minute-song. I like the variety of changes and unexpected twist and turns and wanted the 30 second promotional video to reflect these qualities. In order to get familiar with the song and to understand the grove I played Just Jammin’ on loop until I was truncating it to 30 seconds. We each picked three words that best described our experience of the song and I chose Flux, Hypnotic, and Musky. This exercise reminded me of illustrator Molly Bang’s book Picture This. Bang uses various shapes to describe how semiotics of form making has a direct corrleation to setting of the mood. In the later part of the book she explains her own process of how she sets a word like: angry, frustrated, lonely, etc before starting her work. It made a immense difference in her process of creating a fictional world because she said it makes her question the intentionality of her line and color work constantly.
01 forms
It does seem like an obvious one how designating a word facilitates creating visual language that corresponds with it. As obvious it is, actively putting this method in the process has definitely changed the way I approach the problem. I had previously thought assigning one word would be limiting, but it turned out I was reflecting on the word in all ways possible while help me grounded in the initial mood the song instilled in me. An exploration for the word Hypnotic
After choosing these three words, using all traditional and new media available, I created total of 72 forms that reflects the words in the context of the song. I pushed myself to use uncovential materials and objects, and I ended up using anything and everything that was around me to see what I can come up with. Some of the more interesting forms came out of things like paper clips, crunched papers, tracing papers, belts, and wrappers. I let the materials take the lead in creating most visually corresponsive form to the chosen word. I realized that at a certain point, we exhaust our most familiar materials available to us when we make about 20 forms and images on that topic. Once past that, we start to push the boundaries of our habitual resources and look beyond it. I don’t think, however, that it needs to be somewhere far. Irma Boom has once said the solution is always in the assignment. For this project I took advantage of the sheer amount of form I had to make. At first it felt forced to look at everyday object differently, but after few practices and looking at great influencers like Christophe Niemann’s projects I realized that the conscious thinking itself is the most important step in excuting it. After few tries, it became more natural and I was able to look for more complex forms/create new forms based on the previously noted ideas.
Explorations through handmade, found images, photography and manipulated scans
These are come of 32 hybrid images I made after making the initial 72 variations of forms. I was till thinking of all three words while making them, and it was interesting seeing the collection afterwards. These forms respond with each other while maintaining the “otherness.
static - dynamic | so a ryu
Pierrot le Fou | 1965 Jean-Luc Godard
Cléo de 5 à 7 | Agnès Varda
02
research
Title sequences
keywords
Even though I watched Cléo de 5 à 7 by Agnès Varda, French new wave filmmaker, almost a year ago I still remember how fascinating the opening was. I don’t remember the movie by the plot, but I remembered it by its title sequence. These openings all have the same agenda: to captivate an audience with excitment for what is to come. Along with the website Art of Title, these two books helped me get a sense of how some of the greatest title sequences have done the pacing:
pacing, clear direction of eye, breathing moments, typechoices, grid work in relation to image, scale shift, moments of surpise, frames, transitions, visual pun, multiple shift of a form, ‘follow the lane,’
American Typeplay by Steven Heller & Gail Anderson
predictable system
Type in Motion: innovations in digital graphics by Jeff Bellantoni and Matt Woolman
portals,
with interesting form, stepping in and out of space I Shot Andy Warhol | designed by Bureau
Gramatik Just Jammin’ So A Ryu Flux H y p notic Musky
Gramatik Jus tttt Jammin’ So A Ryu Flux H y p notic Musky Gramatik Just Jammin’ So A Ryu Flux Hypnotic Musky andale mono
Gramatik Gramatik Just Jammin’ So A Ryu Flux Hypnotic Musky
Gramatik Just Jammin’ So A Ryu Flux Hypnotic Musky
just jammin’
Gramatik Jus tttt Jammin’ So A Ryu Flux H y p notic Musky Gramatik Just Jammin’ So A Ryu Flux Hypnotic Musky
Gramatik
Gramatik Gramatik Gramatik
GRAM ATIK GRAMATIK
Gramatik Just Jammin’ So A Ryu Flux Hypnotic Musky arial
Gramatik GRAMA TIK GRAMATIK
andale mono
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typography
Gramatik Jus tttt Jammin’ So A Ryu Flux H y p notic Musky
Initial research with existing typefaces in my archive.
scanned references from Letter Press: The Allure of the Handmade by David Jury pg. 131 and 79 , and Hatch Show Print: the History of a Great American Poster Shop by Jim Sherraden, Elek Hovrath, and Paul Kingsbury pg. 116, 153, 96, 135, and 34.
Typographic research When it was time to put all the forms I made into a video, I shifted my direction a little bit to animation. I thought putting a character that fits the funky music to guide through the forms i made would be a great way to emphasize my storyboard. I felt limited in the typeface archive I already had so I went to the library and found a lot of books that shows type used in various platforms. These resources also showed using of grid and the scale of type can influence communicating motion.
Typefaces include: Futura, Onyx, Poplar std, Rosewood, Univers, Zwo
just jammin’ Agramat GRAMATIK MATIK GRAMATI G G G G JUST ggg OCT. JAMMIN’ just jammin’ JUST JAMMIN
g
gramatik JUST GRAMATIK JAMMIN’ just jammin’ JUST
scanned references from Letter Press: The Allure of the Handmade by David Jury pg. 109 and 79.
G R A M A T I K
G RAM
A
IK scanned references from Weingart: Typography by Lars MĂźller and Wolfgang Weingart pg. 96, 238 - 241, and 254-5.
While considering type, I was experimenting ways to have the animated monster interact with the type.
GRAM
04 storyboard
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animation
Fram by frame animation For the first time, I’ve made series of short frame by frame illustrated animation. Richard Williams’s the Animator’s Survival Kit has helped tremendously in understanding how motion is illustrated and turned into action. The challenge was to create a believable walk, but I wanted the character to have a quirky feel. So instead of completing the entire sequence, I’ve left out some of the inbetween illustration so the intened awkwardness comes through.
06 video
This hypothetical promotional video of Gramatik’s Just Jammin’ was created for Static-Motion project in Fall 2017 Form and Function Capstone in Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts.