New visual language by Sophie Gill

Modernism Postmodernism Grid System Masthead Research & Design Cover Research & Design Content Research & Design Inner Page Research & Design Street Graphics Cabinet Of Curiosity Earth Artefact Typography

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Modernism happened in the late 19th century and the early 20th century, emerging just after WW1 and the Russian revolution.This was a time when Avant Garde dreamed of a world that was free from conflict, greed and society inequality. It rejected the certainty of enlightenment thinking,which was a cultural movement of intellectuals. Many modernists rejected religious belief,rejecting history and applied ornament too. Modernism had a preference for abstract and had beliefs that design and technology could transform society, this was recognised by the change within modernism by the adoption of new technology (the telephone, electricity, the radio an the automobile) We felt a need to work,repair and live with them and this created a social change,it used bold colours and was influenced by the Russian revolution, growth of consumerism afterWW1, art and craft movement (which shared its dislike of ornamentation) and engineering (methods such as the cantilever principle) movements that are associated with modernism are cubism, impressionism, Bauhaus, surrealism and futurism.

El Lissitzky was born on the 23rd of november 1890 and died on the 30th of Decemeber 1941, he was a Russian artist, designer, photographer, polemicist and architect. along with his mentor he helped develop Suprematism, his work majorly influenced the Bauhau and constructivist movements. He used lines, circles, triangles and rectangles to create his paintings, basing them around geometry and construction. He started his career through illustrating Yiddish children books, this was to try and promote Jewish culture as russia was going through massive changes at this time and had just annulled its antisenitic laws. He experimented with production techniques and stylistic devices, this ended up dominating the 20th century graphic design world.

Walter Dexel was born on the 7th February 1890 and died on the 8th June 1973;he was a German painter and graphic designer. However, he worked as a typographer, advertising designer, designed interiors and stage settings too. He has been classed as one of the outstanding exponents of 1920s constructivism; he was influenced by cubism and expressionism. He was a lecturer between 1928 and 1935 until Nazi’s dismissed him, after the war he published many books on form after studying it. In 1914 he held his first individual exhibition using cubist artworks, “Galerie Dietzel” and was held in Munich. Dexel then became head of exhibitions in 1918 Jena, this is where he organised first exhibitions and then he later went onto Bauhaus artists. I really like the use of simple shapes, I think that the subtle colours adds to the simplicity.

Cubism is a movement that happened in the 20th century;Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque first explored it. It changed European painting and sculpturing;it is considered the most influential art movement of the 20th century and inspired music,architecture and literature.It began between 1907 and 1911 with Picasso’s painting “Les Demoiselles D’Avignon” being considered proto-cubist work. Paul Cezanne influenced it; it was his three-dimensional form in his late works. Objects are analysed, broken up and then remade in an abstract form. This art movement was complex and it stood out, I think this is because of how abstract and unique this work is. I really like Picasso’s work because he was considered the inventor of cubism; I think his work is amazing to look at.This is because all of his work is different from the other; it is also different from any other cubistic artist.

Postmodernism is a movement that happened in the mid 1960s onwards, it took the beliefs of modernism and challenged them. It was a reaction to modernism, rejecting the boundaries between high and low forms of art. It is post because it denied the existence of any ultimate principles; it lacks the optimism of there being a scientific, philosophical or religious truth that will explain everything for everybody.This means that it is highly sceptical of explanations that claim to be valid for all groups,cultures,traditions and races. It mainly affected, art, architecture and literature, it is defined as being postmodern because it uses bricolage,collage,simplification and appropriation. Surfaces were glossy, faked and deliberately distressed, they reflected the desire to combine subversive statements with commercial appeal. It makes you question what the purpose or what the design is,postmodernism doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t look at the structure of the design,it preferred to reject this.

David Carson was born on the 8th September and he is an American graphic designer and art director. He is best known for his magazine design and experimental typography, he was an art director for the famous magazine Ray Gun.This magazine made Carson known and people started to become interested in his work; he then left in 1995 to open his own studio. David Carson Design attracted major clients such as Pepsi cola, Ray Ban and many many others. Steven Heller who is a design writer commented, “He significantly influenced a generation to embrace typography as an expressive medium.” I really like David Carson’s work because it doesn’t follow any rules,its very experimental and it definitely makes you look twice. I really like the top left image, this is because its hard to read but its interesting, I like how he has colourful numbers and text going over his image and copy.

Neville Brody was born on the 23rd April 1957 and he is an English graphic designer, typographer and art director. He is mostly known because of his work for The face magazine which he was apart of from 1981until 1986. He then went on to work for Arena magazine from 1987 for three years, 1994 him and his business partner, Fwa Richards, opened his own studio. Research Studios first opened in London, later one opened in Paris, Berlin and there are plans for one in NewYork too. His work is experimental, uses vivid colours and this is why his work is postmodern. I really like his choice of colours because they are really bold and they get your attention, I really like his magazine layout because itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not what is considered artistic but thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s why itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s so good.

Neo-expressionism happened in the 1960s in the USA and Europe, it took over the art markets there and it began as a reaction to the philosophies of modern art. It rejected the over simplicity of it, they cared more about individual expressionism and culture than artistic ideas and design. It embraced painting as a creative medium,George Baselitz is thought of as the pioneer for neo-expressionism, this came about when he opened an exhibition in 1963 in Berlin. It first developed in reaction to minimal art and conceptual art; it argued that it didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t activate the imagination.

Grid systems have been used for years by graphic designers, they are a structure that allows the organisation of the elements that will go into the final design, the lines can be straight or curved and they give balance to the overall design. Josef Muller-Brockmannâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Grid systems in Graphic Design book tells you everything you need to know about grid systems and it explains the basics and the most complex of grids. He explains the width of columns, how to construct the type area, the leading, paper size and then the more complex stuff of grid fields. In the images, I have selected what I think to be useful; I find these useful because you can see his thought process.This is through the design ideas being on one page and the developed ideas on the other; he has clearly planned out where the text and images will go.

I looked into different mastheads before starting my own design; this gave me an insight to where the other magazines had placed it. It also showed me how they had incorporated the title, how well it fitted in with their cover design and what colours they had used. I like the D&G logo because it’s used the initials and not the full title, this appealed to me more because the title for our magazine is quite long. I would definitely base my ideas around this type of design because it’s simple and works on mostly all of their magazines, I also like ok! and the computer arts mastheads because they don’t take up much room and they stay in the same place every issue. I like this approach because then people don’t have to search for what the mag is, they’ll instantly recognise it as ok! or computer arts.

I started to draw my own masthead; I wanted it to look quite modern with a twist of postmodern to it. I decided to try different shapes and have the letters bigger than the actual shape; this didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t work as I wanted it to so I took these mastheads a bit further. I made the areas that came out of the shape black, this made it readable but also made it look postmodern which I preferred to my modern approach. To improve this I then chose to just use circles, I tried this out without the black at first to see if having two circles would improve the look of it. I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t like this idea so I changed it, I made it so where the two circles overlapped, I made the colour of the text black as well as being black outside too. This made it look more postmodern, the next step from this is to start creating them in Photoshop.

I started to make my designs on illustrator; I used the shape, text and pen tools to create my masthead designs. I tried out different shapes to test if this solves the legibility problem; however I prefer the last idea.This is because I want my theme to be a postmodern one; I want the logo to be readable but also confusing. I decided to choose this design because of these reasons but also because I feel it is my strongest and more produced design, I think that this design will go with magazine covers in the future if I decided to do more. I like the simplicity of the colours but the complexity of the design, I think this one fits in more with my theme because itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s postmodern and very out there.

For my research on magazine covers I looked at where the image took up the whole thing with text on top and where the image was central, this influenced my design ideas. I like how the images take up the whole cover on parade and bazaar; this is because youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re immediately drawn to the magazine and the text is easy to read because of the colour. I think that these magazine covers are too simple, I want my magazine cover to be in the style of postmodern so I want it to be mental and colourful. I think that my design ideas will incorporate these design principles, this is because from my research I know the look I want and the look I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t. For the next part of this process, I will sketch my ideas and choose the best ones from them.

I sketched out some ideas for my cover; these were based on my research. I like the styles of 1, 3, 4 and 5 so to start my design process for my cover I think that these will be the ones that I try out. I like them because only one has where the background isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t taken up by an image; I want to try this idea out because I want to see if it looks better than a full image. I think my strongest idea on this page is definitely number 1; this is because I like the text not being all together and this seems to work better as whole page.

I decided to pick the four best ideas I had out of my sketched ideas, I then did computer versions of each to see which I preferred and which was more postmodern. I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t think that idea 2 really worked that well because it was dull and nothing was really making you want to read it, I think my strongest idea is idea 1; this is because itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s eyecatching and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not boring or simple. I like it also because it fits in with my postmodern theme; I think however that it still needs work on it. In the next part of this design I will test out different layouts to see if this improves the overall design.

These are my further design ideas, I really like the last one because the text is easy to read and the background isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t too bright or in your face. I think that adding in more colourful circles really helped as it had blank patches, I think that on some of them they are still too bright but I changed this to make them darker and less visible. I chose to do the text in the primary colours because postmodernism used a lot of primary colours; I decided to use this piece of work because it uses basic shapes and again primary colours.

For my contents I researched some different design ideas, I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want my design to be cluttered or confusing. I like the idea of having a picture on the page, I want my contents page to be over two pages this is so you can turn over and then begin reading it like you would in a normal magazine. I think that idea 1 is too cluttered, too much is going on but I like how its broken up into sections so maybe this would be something I tried. I think that idea 3 is more the style I wanted, this is because it is simple and mine wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have as many pages and I would have a title that fitted in with my overall magazine design.

After my research, I decided to sketch out some ideas and this helped me to see which would work with my cover and which wouldn’t. I like idea 1 because it uses a basic shape, I also like idea 2 because it’s very simple and it fits in with my research. I would like to try out ideas 1, 2 and 6, this is because I think these ideas could work better than the other 4 that I have sketched out. I like the composition in each, I like the use of geometric basic shapes and I like how well they would all fit in with my cover page. I think out of all my designs, 5 is the one I wouldn’t want to try.This is because it would make the text hard to read due to it being slanted, the text wouldn’t really fit if it was a certain length and the text would have to get smaller because space would out.

These are my further design ideas; I think that the best one is definitely idea 5.This is because the background is subtle but still links in with the cover, I also think this is the best because it all works well as a layout. I decided to work on my original idea because it was just plain and it was too bland, I wanted it to tie in with my cover but idea 1, 2, 3 and 4 are too bright. I chose the background that is on my cover but rotated it so it was mirrored to the cover; this made it different but also kept it tied in. To finish this page off I need to change the page numbers, this is because these ones are just a rough guess and were done before I knew how many pages there are going to be in my magazine.

For my inner page research I looked at different styles of pages, I looked at cosmopolitan, OK! and computer arts. I really liked the layouts of computer arts and cosmopolitan, this is because the image and text were on separate pages and I like how it made it really easy to follow. On OK! Magazine, I like how the image goes across both pages, this works well when its only one image.

These sketches are my inner page designs, I think the first design has too many images; I want to keep the pages simple and orderly. To do this I want to keep the pages basic and I would like each page to be easy to understand, I like the designs that separate the text and image. This is because they are the look Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m going for and they are simplistic, as with the first design, I feel that design 1 and 4 has too many images and it looks too cluttered. The ideas I would like to take further are 2, 3 and 5, this is because they keep the text and image separate. I also like these designs because they look simple and orderly, this is the look I want.

and applied ornament Modernism happened too. Modernism had a in the late 19th century preference for abstract and the early 20th and had beliefs that century, emerging just design and technology after WW1 and the could transform society, Russian revolution. this was recognised This was a time when by the change within Avant Garde dreamed modernism by the of a world that was free adoption of new from conflict, greed technology (the and society inequality. It telephone, electricity, the rejected the certainty radio an the automobile) of enlightenment We felt a need to work, thinking, which was repair and live with them a cultural movement and this created a social of intellectuals. Many change, it used bold modernists rejected religious belief, rejecting history colours and was influenced by

the Russian revolution, growth of consumerism after WW1, art and craft movement (which shared its dislike of ornamentation) and engineering (methods such as the cantilever principle) movements that are associated with modernism are cubism, impressionism, Bauhaus, surrealism and futurism.

Modernism happened in the late 19th century and the early 20th century, emerging just after WW1 and the Russian revolution.This was a time when Avant Garde dreamed of a world that was free from conflict, greed and society inequality. It rejected the certainty of enlightenment thinking, which was a cultural movement of intellectuals. Many modernists rejected religious belief, rejecting history and applied ornament too. Modernism had a preference for abstract and had beliefs that design and technology could transform society, this was recognised by the change within modernism by the adoption of new technology (the telephone, electricity, the radio an the automobile) We felt a need to work, repair and live with them and this created a social change, it used bold colours and was influenced by the Russian revolution, growth of consumerism after WW1, art and craft movement (which shared its dislike of ornamentation) and engineering (methods such as the cantilever principle) movements that are associated with modernism are cubism, impressionism, Bauhaus, surrealism and futurism.

These are my designs for my inner pages, I decided to try the text in three columns instead of just the one, I tried the title going across both pages and I also played with the images. I like bits from all three ideas, I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t feel they are successful on their own and because of this I wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t use any of them. I like the title going across both pages because it makes it a lot more interesting, I also like how the images are on the last design. This is because I like it makes it more eye catching and appealing, I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t really like how the text is in three columns I think it looks too small and I like the text being centred. This makes it a lot easier to read, I think that my inner pages will take inspiration from all these designs and this will improve it.

For this project I looked at a range of different ways to show the streets, the first thing I did was a mind map which helped me to pinpoint exactly what I wanted to do, which ideas I wanted to try. I decided to go with two ideas, glitch art and photomontage, this was because I hadnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t done them before and I wanted to try something new. It also interested me the most and I wanted be able to make the streets look less perfect, more confusing and these seemed to fit that idea. My area of thought was how confusing and misleading street signs can be to pedestrians, drivers, cyclists, so to be able to glitch or cut the image up it made it confusing and the person who views it needs to think what it is. I experimented in both these areas; the photomontage took quite a while to do because it was complex. After experimenting with both ideas I decided that I like both outcomes, this then became a joint idea and it made it more successful too.

Kim Asendorf was born in 1981; he is a German conceptual and digital artist.He is very experimental with his work with it leading into installations, visualisation and abstract geometric image manipulation. He is a co-founder at Fach & Asendorf gallery; this is a major online exhibition. I got inspired by Asendorf’s work because it’s different and I liked the outcomes, you don’t know how it’s going to turn out and I like this about his work. I also like how stunning his work is, even though its only computer errors but it is so lovely to look at.

Glitch art was the first idea that I wanted to do within this project, I like the unpredictability about the outcomes and how the image was distorted. I wanted to achieve confusion around the street signs, whether they are for pedestrians or road users, I wanted to show how confusing and misleading signs can be. I took inspiration from Kim Asendorfâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work and produced my own glitch art, these need to be further developed. I think to do this I need to go out and take photographs of street signs; this will then give me the basis for me to start to glitch the images.

David Hockney was born on the 9th july 1937, he is an English painter, printmaker, stage designer and photographer. He was an important contributor to the pop art movement in the 1960s and is considered one of the most influential british artists of the 20th century. He is well known in the graphic design world for his photomontage work, these greatly influenced my ideas for this project. I liked how Hockney cut up his images and reassembled them, this made the image a lot more interesting and made you look twice. I took inspiration from his work because its really good and its like a trick on the eye more than a piece of work.

Photomontage was my second idea;this involved taking inspiration from David Hockney. I cut up the image and put it back together jaggedly, I liked this idea because I could change the main focus to the sign instead of the surroundings. I wanted to do this because I based the project around the signs themselves; this gave me the power to make the sign as big as I wanted. The downside to this idea was it was time consuming, it took ages to finish it and it was hard to match the image up even jaggedly. I think if I was to do this again I would put aside more time and not do the whole image, this would make it easier and quicker.

I went out and took my own photographs; this enabled me to experiment further with glitch art. I prefer this image as the sign wasn’t too big and the background is quite dull, this meant that I could make the sign the main focus and it would stand out more from the church in the background. I think that I could improve this idea though; this is because I still think it’s lacking something. I think that to improve this I could make my two ideas – photomontage and glitch art – into one main idea.This would improve as it makes the idea stronger and it shows confusion better, I also think that the sign would become more visible.

These are my finalised booklets; the middle image shows the booklets I tested out my design ideas on. I think that these needed more refining, I originally used glue to stick them together, this was strong enough to hold the paper and they began to fall apart. I decided to take my two strongest ideas, ideas 5 and 3, and tested out a better way to put them together. I used double sided sticky tape; this worked brilliantly and held my booklet together. I think the idea on the left is (idea 5 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; see if this is on the left side) nice because itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s different and it makes you more confused to how to open it. However I decided that the idea on the right was easier to open and it worked easier, it was more appealing and worked really well for my final outcome.

These images are my final design ideas; they are a mix of photomontage and glitch art. The images get progressively worse to add to the idea of confusion, however, I still aren’t sure this is the final idea. I think I could improve these images by making some sort of mini book; I would put the unrecognisable image on top and have the image getting better and better. I think that this will work better as you have to interact with it, I also think it’ll be better because it’ll become less confusing the more you go into it – this could symbolise researching the sign. I think I will sketch out some ideas, this will help me to see which way would be best to cut the images so you can open them.

For my cabinets of curiosity project, I looked at a range of different cabinets and how I could display my items.I started my general research on what people put in their cabinets, what cabinets they were and how all the items looked as a whole. I liked the ones where it was obscure to see what was inside, this made it more curious and this appealed to me.This was because I wanted my final to be obscure, I wanted it to be personal and didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want anyone seeing the full inside. I looked at a range of different artists, different cabinets and my final conclusion was to display my items in jars. I looked at frosting and papering the jars, I tried both ideas and both needed work to them. In the end, I decided that the frosting was working very well and this led me onto idea 2.

Akinobu Izumi is a Tokyo artist and architectural model maker; she creates tiny models from paper, glass jars and sometimes liquid paraffin. She cuts the paper into shapes, delicately making tiny models to fit in the thumb sized jars.To finish her design off she puts a cork in the top, selling them on her website afterwards. I really like Izumiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work because of how great they are to look at it, each is different and they are really small. I also like how she has created each one, making them in her spare time and how good the finished thing looks.

Paper wrapping was my second idea in this project; I really liked how you could choose any quote you wanted to appear on the jar and you could make it as personal as you wanted to. I really like the one with the love hearts cut out, this is because you can see into the jar but not much and this still keeps the intrigue. I really like the string that they have put around the top of the jars because it adds to the visual beauty of the designs, I prefer the ones that look old and dated because they look more interesting and you immediately want to know whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s inside.

These images are my paper wrapping jars that I did for my final piece; I liked how on my research they had made it nearly impossible to see into the jar. I decided I wanted to use a quote about army life as my wrapper, I then decided to make it look a bit older as if it’s been viewed a lot by someone in a desert country. I did this by using teabags and staining the paper, I then glued string to the jar to make it even harder to look inside. The string symbolises tying packages together when they are sent to wherever he may be, the horseshoe I used was because it’s a sign of good luck. As the jar is personal items that I would give to my boyfriend when or if he goes to war I thought that this would bring the whole project together. I like how you can’t really see what the items are; I didn’t want people to see everything that I had included in the jar because I wanted it to remain curious at the same as being visually beautiful.

For this project, I firstly made a mind map and this helped me to figure out where I wanted to take my project. I looked at economy, emotional responses, human needs, animals and the natural world and culture. Before I researched any of this, I looked at what the golden record contained â&#x20AC;&#x201C; this was a project to update the golden record that was sent into space in 1977. I had a looked at what images, sounds and language they had put onto this record and I found that it was mostly scientific. After I researched the mission, I looked at what I would like to put onto the golden record if I was given the chance. For my ideas, I chose animals and the natural world, emotional responses and poverty. After this I needed to figure out how to display this information, I wanted to try infographics because Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d never done it before and I wanted to enhance my skills.

Infogr8 are a design company who are based in London, they are a modern visual data and information design agency. They believe that information should be designed for sharing, this is what they do working with clients such as P&G, Microsoft and many others. I like this company’s work because it’s creative, innovative and very informative. I especially like their global carbon footprint infographics, this is because they’ve made the circles form a foot shape and this really catches your eye. I like how to keep it simple; they made each country a different colour and wrote in each country. I also like how they’ve displayed all their information in the same colours as the circles, this keeps it easy to understand and you can find the right country.

After I sketched out ideas I developed these 3 areas, I chose to develop all three ideas to see which would look better on screen. For my emotional responses idea I decided to put the key thing in the centre, the colours I think make it stand out, however, I think this could be developed further. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m not sure the white background makes it as eye-catching as it could be; the poverty infographics is my least successful. I think this is because the graph is too bulky and doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t really fit in with the rest of the design; I use a circle on my animal design around one of the points where the eye is drawn to. I decided the one that I wanted to develop further was the emotional responses; this was because I think that it will be easier to work with but also because it has the most information for it. I can do the research myself; this would be achieved through doing a survey.

For my further development I looked at the background, the text colour and adding orange to my colours. I think that the final design works better because the background makes all the colours and text stand out more, originally the text was black on a white background. I don’t think was very successful because it looked dull, the colours didn’t stand out that well and it just wasn’t appealing. I tried the background grey to see if this would make it more appealing and I found that it didn’t work as well as black, I changed the background and then the text to white. However, I still thought it needed improving so I changed the colour of the text to each of the lightest colours in this infographics. I thought this made it more successful and took inspiration from infogr8s global footprint, this is because they used different colours for different countries just like I used different colours for different emotions.

This type project was a mini project we did, we had to choose three different artists and then get influence from their work to create type. My final design is based on El Lissitizkyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s works; this is because I liked the range of circles, straight lines and triangles. I sketched out ideas, this was just initial design and it helped to figure out which characters I preferred. Afterwards, using the characters I had chosen, I started my final sketching and it took some attempted to finally get it how I wanted it. I decided to work with circles and straight lines, I incorporated the circles into most or all of my characters and from this I built up my type.

The final process was to re do it all on illustrator; I used shapes, the scissors and the pen tool to create my characters. I made the width on each character the same, 3mm, this ensured that characters would all look fine when put in a sentence. I found this stage a bit difficult as some characters needed a lot more work that others, the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;jâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, for example was hard because I had to do the curve myself.This was hard because I had to make sure the width was 3mm as well as making sure that the curve wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t too big.