City in flux by Tasha Kosak

natasha kosak

natasha kosak TFD1411-1415: 1415 - Foundation Studio Practice

TFD1411-1415: 1415 - Foundation Studio Practice

Concept 1

I want to look further into this concept of isolation in the city and portray this theme through a mixture of photography and collages. I want to look in to different styles of photography, including using a short shutter speed, layering various photographs and maybe try a time lapse video using lots of photos. As i am looking at isolation, i want to keep my theme generally dark and subduded, to make sure I portray how dark and lonely isolation can feel. Artists/Photographers/ Designers I feel will be good for this theme include Edward Hopper and Tatsuo Suzuki. I will reserahc these further to see how they could influence my work. .

Tatsuo Suzuki Untitled. Camera Make: FUJIFILM Camera Model: X100SAperture: F2Exposure Time: 1/125 secFocal Length: 23.0 mmISO: 4000Exposure Bias: -67/100Shooting Mode: Aperture priorityFlash: Flash did not fire, autoMetering Mode: Multi-segmentSensor Type: 2 http://justatoy.pixyblog.com

natasha kosak TFD1411-1415: 1415 - Foundation Studio Practice

Isolation in the city may seem like a bizarre concept, but it is completely possible. Even in a bustling city with hundreds of people, an individual can still feel completely isolated. I have taken this concept from how I felt when I first moved to university. When moving to Huddersfield I knew no one. I moved in to halls, met my flat mates and was thrown in to the student life. It takes time to form friendship groups and so for the first few weeks I felt very isolated and alone. Coming from a small town I have never felt this, I was always surrounded my family and friends. You couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t walk down the street without passing somebody you knew or who knew your family. This, is completely different in a city. I can often still walk through town and not recognise a single person.

Concept 2

Photo credit: Natasha Kosak Taken on the streets of Huddersfield using my Sony Cybershot camera. I feel this photograph perfectly represents Urban decay becasue of the state the ‘box’ is in. It is obvious over the years it has had layers on paint, posters stuck on and rust has formed. The council were probably responsible for looking after the city streets yet after years it seems they have given up and let nature runs its course.

Photo credit: Natasha Kosak Taken on the streets of Huddersfield using my Sony Cybershot camera. Again this shows the typical decay of a city. Rust, chipped paint and old /worn posters are huge elemenents in this.

Photo credit: Natasha Kosak Taken on the streets of Huddersfield using my Sony Cybershot camera.

natasha kosak TFD1411-1415: 1415 - Foundation Studio Practice

“Urban decay (also known as urban rot and urban blight) is the process whereby a previously functioning city, or part of a city, falls into disrepair and decrepitude” Urban decay is a highly visible feature in cities. I feel like wherever you look there is some form of decay taking place, whether its paint peeling off a building, remnants of posters left on billboard signs or wear and tear of the cities roads. Ubran decay happens in all cities, it’s never subjected to a certain place. For this reason I feel decay would be suitable for the city project. I am going to look in to the textures that decay creates and how this looks in a city. For example, I will look at chipped/peeling paint, rust, road surfaces and wall surfaces etc. I feel there are lots of texturesi can look in to!

Concept 3

My plan to encorperate typography is to simply look around the city and see what types of typography there is. Visually i want something appealing and eyecatching rather than something boring and expected. I think things such as streetsigns, graffiti, informative signs such as traffic signals and also signs painted on roads will be interesting points to start looking at. I am going to go out and take photos of various typogrpahy pieces i see in the city and see how these might inspire me in this project. I also think I might encorperate decay into this as well, I think alot of the typogrpahy I will find will be old and decayed so this connection will be rather suited. Once I get a collection of images this will be easier to visualise.

HOLZER Untitled. http://www.theacademynewyork.com

natasha kosak TFD1411-1415: 1415 - Foundation Studio Practice

Typography has been a love of mine since Art in high school, i cant help but notice it around me. A letterform, a house number or street sign. i’m intirgued by typography and often how it has become to be a part of the city, whether it’s supposed to be there (street signs) or it has been added by youths of the town (graffitti). i want to encorperate typography into this project as it is almost near impossible to walk through a city and not see some form of typography. Most people wouldn’t even take a second glance at street signs or graffitti in the street, but I know personally I cant walk two feet without finding something interesting to see. Typography is a huge part of the city and also how the city has developed over the years, therefore I think it would be a very interesting addition to this project.

natasha kosak TFD1411-1415: 1415 - Foundation Studio Practice

ISOLATION - CITY - FLUX SOLITUDE - DECAY - DESOLATION SOCIAL ISOLATION - ILLUSTRATION - URBAN DECAY - DESTRUCTION - PHOTOGRAPHY - TYPOGRAPHY SIGNAGE - TEXTURES - GRAFFITTI -

natasha kosak TFD1411-1415: 1415 - Foundation Studio Practice

These are both primary and secondary source images I have taken/found. my initial research began with the secondary source images and I felt like the theme of isolation in the city was a good place to start. The idea that even in a bustling city, being constantly surrounded by people, you can still feel incredibly alone. with this in mind, I am going to research more in to this style of photography and other artists.

Nikolai Curtis

natasha kosak TFD1411-1415: 1415 - Foundation Studio Practice

The City was large and spacious many even called it gracious Buildings and its bosses sprout from everywhere Supplying the workers with work and care Parks lure visitors to its attractions a fun Animals fill the city by the ton People fill the city to help them and the city out To have the life others want to learn about However, the city can fool you with its strong outward cohesiveness, it can trick you Many people enter this city Thinking their lives will be just like this city But the people soon learned That their lives were not cohesive Since having a good social and work life Is scarce within the city People seemed to be fortified and shady Like buildings after midnight The surety of having good services, friends, and acquaintances Is of little availability everyday The service in the city stinks like dung since people seem to care only about themselves I bet no one in the city knew who committed suicide last week When the city by appearance is wholly connected and open The people are divided and fortified Finding a good job and snack maybe very easy But finding or making a friend or acquaintance is really difficult The City is outwardly majestic The City is outwardly cohesive But Inwardly, the city lacks that all together Which makes the city a dangerous place to be.

natasha kosak TFD1411-1415: 1415 - Foundation Studio Practice

These are some primary source images that I took around Hudderfield for the term ‘‘Urban Decay’ as this is somethng I want to look in to. Urban decay (also known as urban rot and urban blight) is the process whereby a previously functioning city, or part of a city, falls into disrepair and decrepitude.

natasha kosak TFD1411-1415: 1415 - Foundation Studio Practice

These are some primary source images I have taken while out and about. The images to the right are from the Yorkshire sculpture park. ‘Brick Lane’ and ‘Shop Lifters Welcome’ were all taken in various places in London. The image at the middle bottom isn’t a typical typography piece, it was a decorative wall piece at Leeds armoury. although it isn’t typography, I think it looks almost typographica and this simple shape looks good against the more complex typography pieces.

natasha kosak TFD1411-1415: 1415 - Foundation Studio Practice

I am going to look in to the types of typography you may find around the city. My intentions are to walk around Huddersfield and take photographs of any typography I may see. I am specifically wanting to find decaying/old typography that may not have been intended to by typography such as building shapes. The images on this page illustrate the types I may look out for.

natasha kosak TFD1411-1415: 1415 - Foundation Studio Practice

I am wanting to incorporate typography in to this project by possibly layering it over photographs / videos that i may make as a result of this project. i am not yet quite sure what i want my final outcome to be yet but i like the idea of collages and layering to create something visually appealing. with this in mind i will look at the Italian artist and poet mimmo Rotella.

The painting ‘Automat’, portrays a woman staring into a cup of coffee in an Automat (Cafe) at night. The restaurant appears to be predominately empty and there are no signs of people on the street outside. This adds to the sense of loneliness, and has caused the painting to be associated with the concept of urban alienation/isolation.

Artist: Edward Hopper Year: 1927 Type: Oil on canvas Dimensions: 71.4 cm × 91.4 cm (28 in × 36 in) Location: Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines

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Edward Hopper was born in 1882, in NY, into a middle class family, who encouraged the art work. From 1900 to 1906 he studied at the NY School of Art, and while in school, shifted from illustration to works of fine art. Upon completing his schooling, he worked as an illustrator for a short period of time. Once this career path ended he travelled internationally, which had a great influence on the future of his work. He made three trips to Paris between 1906 and 1910. This city , its architecture, light, and art tradition, decisively affected his development.

I am going to experiment by using my own photographs of typography I have seen in the city, and I will try layering them to create my desired effect. Johns let the process of painting the number sequence dictate the structure of the painting. This allowed him to concentrate on the qualities of the paint itself, exploring colour and thickness. The result is a highly abstract structure, but one rooted firmly in the real world. h t t p : / / w w w. t a t e . o rg . u k / a r t / artworks/johns-0-through-9-t00454

Artist: Jasper Johns born 1930 Title: [title not known] From First Etchings, Second State Date: 1967–9 Medium Etching and drypoint on paper Dimensions Image: 335 x 250 mm Collection: Tate Acquisition Purchased: 1998

Artist: Jasper Johns born 1930 Title: 0 through 9 Date: 1961 Medium Oil paint on canvas Dimensions Support: 1372 x 1048 mm frame: 1401 x 1078 x 48 mm Collection: Tate Acquisition Presented by the Friends of the Tate Gallery 1961

natasha kosak TFD1411-1415: 1415 - Foundation Studio Practice

From concept number 3, I wanted to incorporate typography from the city in to my work as I feel layering this over photography from the city and other collage materials could result in some really interesting visual work. Typography is everywhere you look ing the city so I feel it would be a good use of it to tie my pieces together. I have decided to research in to Jasper John’s work as I feel his typography style would work well. It is sort of messy and chaotic, which I feel will work well with the empty, still photographs of an empty city street. I also feel like it represents the busy lifestyle of the city goers really well. Almost as if the paths the lines in the typogrpahy make are the paths each person makes. I feel the contrast of messy typogrpahy and the rather empty photogrpahs for isolation will create a lovely juxtaposition.

Artist: Mimmo Rotella Title: Omaggio a Marilyn (A Tribute to Marilyn) I Year: 2004 Medium: Serigraph with Collage, signed l.r. Edition: AP Size: 38 x 28 inches / 100 x 70 cm Price: On Request

natasha kosak TFD1411-1415: 1415 - Foundation Studio Practice

Domenico “Mimmo” Rotella, (7 October 1918 – 8 January 2006), was an Italian artist and poet best known for his works of décollage and psychogeographics, made from torn advertising posters. As I possibly plan to incorporate collage/ décollage in to my project, I am going to look at artists of this style. Mimmo Rotella is a good example of this. He uses décollage to create his work by cutting, tearing away or removing, pieces of an original image. His most poplar work I believe would be his series of Marilyn Monroe pieces. Rotella found his inspiration from looking at Rome walls, covered by broken posters. He lived in Rome from 1940 to 1954 and in 1953/1954. I am going to try incorporate Rotellas style in to my experiments by using collage and decollage to build up layers. I feel this collage effect is representative of billboard and old posters you often see around a city. For me it heavily visualises decay and I feel this style would be good for me to experiment with to show how the old neglected billboards are shown in the city.

Description: 1930 - 1982 EMERALD COAST SIGNED AND DATED 58; SIGNED , TITLED AND DATED 1958 ON THE BACK signed and dated 58 twice ; signed, titled and dated 1958 on the back below posters pasted on panel 49 x 118 cm ; 19 5/16 x 46 7/16 in

natasha kosak TFD1411-1415: 1415 - Foundation Studio Practice

Francois Dufrene is another collage artists I feel has inspired me. His work of collage is similar to Mimmo Rotella but I feel his has more of a neglected empty look about it. Some of his pieces also incorporate typography so I feel he is a very suitable artist to involve a few of my concept ideas. Dufrene was a French Nouveau realist visual artist, Lettrist and Ultra-Lettrist poet. He is primarily known as a pioneer in sound poetry and for his use of décollage within Nouveau réalisme. I love Dufrene’s work, the use of colours I think appeal to me as they are quite dark and subdued. I think this colour pallet could be reflective of the city due to the environmental impact of traffic in the city and the pollution. I also like his work because of the decayed/ deteriorated effect. It almost looks as if someone has taken sand paper to a wall and scratched away the top layers to expose the underneath. I am going to also try incorporate the decayed effect in to my work. I may try this by collecting images from across the city but also physical things from the city such a flyers or hand outs from the bars. Layering these and then decaying certain parts will hopefully create my desired effect physically as well as digitally.

Tatsuo Suzuki was Born in 1965 in Tokyo, and is still living there. He started his journey in photography in 2008 and has developed his style showing a very unique perspective. I chose to look at Suzuki as an artist because of his photography style. He often created his pieces by using a slow shutter speed release. The slow shutter speed, combined with the rush of the city traffic makes for a very beautiful photograph. I feel like it can also look almost like a double exposed photo.

natasha kosak TFD1411-1415: 1415 - Foundation Studio Practice

I am going to try this style of photography for myself to see if it is something I want to look in to further. I have never attempted slowshutter speed photography so it will be something that could be very interesting.

natasha kosak TFD1411-1415: 1415 - Foundation Studio Practice

These are a collection of images I took to illustrate the idea ofisolation in the city - this was after I decided that solely using pictures with no people in wasnt going to show the connection between the person and the city.

I wanted somewhere to show all the images i have taken before I startd experimenting. The next few pages of images are all ones I have taken that I will then go on to use in my experiments.

natasha kosak TFD1411-1415: 1415 - Foundation Studio Practice

These are my initial photos that I took in the first few weeks of the project. I didnt really have a great visual eye becasue I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know exactly what I was looking for. At this point I just took photos of things I thought might be useful.

natasha kosak TFD1411-1415: 1415 - Foundation Studio Practice

This was my first experiment using photoshop. I used a combination of images I had taken in order to create this. I used my images that I felt related to the them decay. These were the images:

natasha kosak TFD1411-1415: 1415 - Foundation Studio Practice

I did this by layering, editing and croping. I feel the overall outcome was a little bland - the outcome is rather pale and subtle. It doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t really catch your eye, and I feel like it isnt avery good representation of decay. I feel it needs to be more striking and in your face, maybe by it being brighter or even posisbly darker - just so the colours arent so subtle. I feel it needs more depth to it in order to it to be striking. do however feel the pale look works with the theme of decay as colours do decay over time and wear away. To develop this further I will play around with the brightness/contrast, the levels and also maybe add some other images in to the back ground.

natasha kosak TFD1411-1415: 1415 - Foundation Studio Practice

This was my second experiment using photoshop. I had decided the first experiment was too subtle and well, boring - so I attempted to brighten it up by using various elements in photoshop. i.e. brightness/contract, levels, curves.

I am not 100% sure what to do next. I may experiment a little more by adding more layers, and posisbly try cropping certain parts. I feel that if you can only see a fraction of the original image, it can give off a whole new message.

natasha kosak TFD1411-1415: 1415 - Foundation Studio Practice

I also added another layer - this image: I felt that adding this photo (a cropped version) would brighten it up becasue of the yellow hues. I felt it would work well against the blue hues of the poster layer. I feel this edition works much better than the first, it is much more vibrant.

natasha kosak TFD1411-1415: 1415 - Foundation Studio Practice

This was my third experiment using photoshop. I had decided the last experiment okay, and didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t really know how to progress further. I decided to just experiment a little more by adding more photos and adding filters etc. I

added

another

layer

this

image:

I felt that adding this layer didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t really benefit the concept of decay much, it did visually show decay as the image itself is of something that is decaying. However, I feelt that it took away from the depth I had just created in the last image. I persevered with it as I wanted to see how it could be developed further.

I think the next stage of my process will be to crop the images I have created and try select areas of them which looks good visually but can also pass off the message of decay.

natasha kosak TFD1411-1415: 1415 - Foundation Studio Practice

After talking to my tutors - it was suggested that I looked in to swiss graphic designers and their style. Jeffâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s example of showing isolation in the swiss stule was simply a blac circle on a white page. I think this shows isolation very well as my firth thought when seeing someting like this is alienation. I began to look in to the minimalist designs and how my work could be effected by this - I found an artist names Genis Carreras (who is actually spanish (not swiss) by birth and is based in London). I found that he had designed a series of prints that were to explain complex philosophical theories and stripped themto down to their very essence. Using a variety of shapes and a limited color pallate with a little bit of text he creates this simple and yet effective explanations of the various philosophical theories. After looking at some of this designs I decided my favourite were the circular ones - I felt this style (as suggested by Jeff) would represent isolation very well. However, I didnt want to simply put a black circle on a white page and call it a day because i felt this didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t push my design skills (more just copying some poor designer who had already done this). Therefore, I came up with the idea of possibly using the circular shaped within my phorography -

natasha kosak TFD1411-1415: 1415 - Foundation Studio Practice

Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m a 25 years old graphic designer based in London and born in Catalonia. After working for some design agencies and as a freelance, I decided to move to a studio so I can actually spend some time on personal projects like the Philographics series. I love things like simplicity, books, modernism, videogames, nature, London and beagles. And beer, I love beer too.

natasha kosak TFD1411-1415: 1415 - Foundation Studio Practice

After talking to Jeff and Paul during our session, it was suggested that I look in to Swiss graphic designers and their simplistic design and how they could inspire me. One example that was given to me was how isolation could be portrayed as a simple black circle on a white background. I love the idea of this simplicity and also the idea of using geometric shapes wthin my photography. I am going to look in to this more and find some graphic designers who use this style.

natasha kosak TFD1411-1415: 1415 - Foundation Studio Practice

THE PIONEER OF SWISS GRAPHIC DESIGN, JOSEF MüLLER-BROCKMANN CHANGED THE FACE OF THE GRAPHICS INDUSTRY AND INSPIRED A GENERATION. BORN IN 1914, HE STUDIED ARCHITECTURE, DESIGN AND HISTORY OF ART AND IN 1936 OPENED HIS OWN STUDIO IN ZURICH, SPECIALISING IN GRAPHICS, EXHIBITION DESIGN AND PHOTOGRAPHY. MüLLERBROCKMANN WAS A TRUE MASTER AND RARE PIONEER OF HIS CRAFT, AND EVEN AFTER HIS DEATH IN 1996, HIS WORK STILL SETS A BENCHMAEK FOR OTHER IN THE PROFESSION. http://www.blanka.co.uk/Design/Muller-Brockmann born in Rapperswil, Switzerland in 1914, JMB studied architecture, design and history of art at the University of Zurich and at the city’s Kunstgewerbeschule. As a graphic designer, Müller Brockmann’s skills included letterpress, silkscreen, and lithography. His geometric style was demonstrated in “Musica viva”, a series of concert posters for the Zurich Tonhalle in 1951. JMB was soon established as a leading practitioner and theorist of the Swiss Style, which sought a universal graphic expression through a grid-based design, purged of extraneous illustration and subjective feeling.The grid was the prioritization and arrangement of typographic and pictorial elements with the meaningful use of color, set into a semblance of order, based on left-to-right, top-to-bottom.

natasha kosak TFD1411-1415: 1415 - Foundation Studio Practice

In graphic design, a grid is a structure (usually two-dimensional) made up of a series of intersecting straight (vertical, horizontal, and angular) or curved guide lines used to structure content. The grid serves as an armature on which a designer can organize graphic elements (images, glyphs, paragraphs) in a rational, easy to absorb manner. A grid can be used to organize graphic elements in relation to a page, in relation to other graphic elements on the page, or relation to other parts of the same graphic element or shape. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grid_(graphic_design)

natasha kosak TFD1411-1415: 1415 - Foundation Studio Practice

â&#x20AC;&#x153;In my designs for posters, advertisements, brochures and exhibitions, subjectivity is suppressed in favour of a geometric grid that determines the arrangement of the type and images. The grid is an organisational system that makes it easier to read the message...The grid is an organisational system that enables you to achieve an orderly result at a minimum cost. The task is solved more easily, faster and better. It brings the arbitrary organisation of text into a logical system in keeping with the conflict. It can demonstrate uniformity that reaches beyond national boundaries, a boon to advertising from which IBM, for instance, has profited. Objective-rational design means legible design, objective information that is communicated without superlatives or emotional subjectivity.â&#x20AC;?

natasha kosak TFD1411-1415: 1415 - Foundation Studio Practice

David Watson of Trebleseven designed these simple, modern posters for Euro 2012 (European football championship). Each poster represents a particular country thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s playing, and the colors of their flag are incorporated into one of the various circular designs. I love the typographic twist these posters have and how they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have obvious sports references in them. They are amazing graphic representations of the flags. Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re so simple, yet still incredibly interesting.

natasha kosak TFD1411-1415: 1415 - Foundation Studio Practice

Swissted is an ongoing project by graphic designer Mike Joyce, owner of stereotype design in New York City. Drawing from his love of punk rock and swiss modernism, two movements that have (almost) nothing to do with one another, mike has redesigned vintage punk, hardcore, new wave, and indie rock show flyers into international typographic style posters. Each design is set in lowercase berthold akzidenz-grotesk medium (not helvetica). Every single one of these shows that the posters advertised actually happened.

natasha kosak TFD1411-1415: 1415 - Foundation Studio Practice

I really love Mike Jocye’s work and I feel it could inspire my project a great deal! I am going to try encorperate my photography into the various geometric shapes used in Joyce’s work . I also think I might try adding some typography in to this.

natasha kosak TFD1411-1415: 1415 - Foundation Studio Practice

After creating a few designs using the Swiss style of geometric shapes, I have decided I want to add some text in to it. Typography is a huge part of Mike Joyce’s designs for the music events. It is often used at the imagery, as well as the informative part. For example, on the design for ‘The Jam’s” concert, he has placed imagery/text inside other text. This is something I want to look in to further. Using a selection of words chosen from my ‘key words’ I am going to use them in the designs. I am going to sick to simple imagery and shapes, so that with text it doesnt look too cluttered. I was also considering the idea of adding colour too, but im not sure if this will fit in with my theme. Originally I said that black and white, very subdued photography works with the theme of isolation as it isn’t in your face and is very subtle. But now after looking in to Swiss designers, I feel I may need to add colour as this is a HUGE part of Swiss design.

natasha kosak TFD1411-1415: 1415 - Foundation Studio Practice

I am going to use my images to produce photography edits for places in Huddersfield. I want to produce a series of ‘posters’ to show the places. I will do this in the swiss style I have been lookng at, but also encorperating the style of Tatsuo Suzuki‘s photography that I began with.

natasha kosak TFD1411-1415: 1415 - Foundation Studio Practice

After much discussion, we decided the path I was taking was not suitable for my theme of isolation. There was no solid targer audience or need to these pieces.

natasha kosak TFD1411-1415: 1415 - Foundation Studio Practice

It was decided that a book, illustrating the truth and facts around urban/social isolation would be best suited to demonstrate my photograpy research and experiments. Therefore I am now going to look into book layouts and the possibility of producing a small book relating to urban isolation filled with my photography, quotes and facts.

natasha kosak TFD1411-1415: 1415 - Foundation Studio Practice

An estimated ONE million people over the ages of 65 reported feeling lonely

natasha kosak TFD1411-1415: 1415 - Foundation Studio Practice

75 % of doctors say that they see up to 5 patients a day whose main reason for visiting their doctor was loneliness

natasha kosak TFD1411-1415: 1415 - Foundation Studio Practice

â&#x20AC;&#x153; Loneliness comes with lifeâ&#x20AC;? Whitney Housten

natasha kosak TFD1411-1415: 1415 - Foundation Studio Practice

Loneliness comes with life Isolation is the enemy of improvement

Tony Wagner

natasha kosak TFD1411-1415: 1415 - Foundation Studio Practice

iso lation

natasha kosak TFD1411-1415: 1415 - Foundation Studio Practice