575 Project 3 Advanced Typography Process Book by Whitley Kemble

#ILoveItWhenYou

A Typography Experiment by Whitley Kemble

This project was completed for graduate studio course ArtGR 575, Advanced Typography Iowa State University Spring 2013

CONTENTS Introduction 4 Concept 12 Experimenting with Type

Compositions 38 Variations 40 Finals & Summary

#ILoveItWhenYou

#Project3Concept @AdvancedTypography This book contains the development of a series of memes designed for my Advanced Typography course at Iowa State University. The purpose of this project was create a set of posters, postcards, etc., with a social or political theme. The primary constraint was that they be designed using only experimental letterforms.

INTRODUCTION I started this project with more than enough ideas. I was researching topics ranging from health and wellness to historical and political significance. Initially I wanted to make something three-dimensional, but after reviewing the project requirements, I decided my ideas were getting a little too far from the project requirements. I wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t interested in doing an animation, so I started to convert some of my early ideas into poster or postcard series. To the right, you can see some of the research and resulting sketches.

ABOVE: Rafael Marques de Morais exposed corruption in the Angolan military. His work shed light on the damaging effects of the blood diamond trade. He is now facing charges for slander against the government. Read the story at One.org. OPPOSITE PAGE: At the time we started this project, there had been news about a journalist facing charges for exposing corruption in the Angolan military revolving around blood diamonds. This would have been a diorama about free speech and illegal goods.

http://www.one.org/us/2012/02/14/interview-angolan-anti-corruption-activist-rafael-marques-de-morais-on-ﬁghting-for-whats-right/

Interview: Angolan anti-corruption activist Rafael Marques de Morais on fighting for what’s right This piece is part of a larger blog series on transparency in the extractives industry. Stay tuned for more updates on this topic. In 1992, Angolan journalist Rafael Marques de Morais was asked to write an investigative piece, for the state daily newspaper Jornal de Angola, on a number of thefts taking place at a terminal in Luanda’s harbor run by a member of parliament for the ruling Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA). From his reporting, he discovered that the culprit was in fact the MP himself, and the army. He would let his employees steal merchandise from the shipping containers to sell at his retail stores. Then, the employees would lock up the containers again and send them back nearly empty to clients. Members of the Angolan Armed Forces also frequently stormed the harbor with their guns firing, and took their loot. De Morais wrote the story and got it published. The next day, his photographer who took photos of the empty shipping containers for the piece, came back to the newsroom beaten up and bloodied. He had been attacked and threatened by the MP. The newspaper was ordered to deny everything. The MP sent his brother, a general, to the newsroom for the editor to write a denial piece, the editor refused. Then the MP himself turned up on the newsroom and demanded de Morais’ to write the denial piece, de Morais refused. De Morais was an obedient man, but on that day, upon seeing his colleague bloodied, he could not bring himself to say yes. “If you want to deny it, deny it yourself,” he told the MP. And it was precisely at that moment when he realized the damaging effect that corruption has on society. In a country where standing up for what is right can put your safety and life at risk, fighting corruption is not a popular line of work. But since that fateful incident in the newsroom, de Morais has devoted his whole career to increasing transparency in Angola. He holds international and local companies accountable to Angolan anti-corruption laws, and exposes violence, rampant killings and other injustices to workers and miners in the oil, gas and mining industry. He also urges his fellow Angolans to educate themselves on Angolan law and speak out against corruption. Over the course of his career, he started Maka Angola, a democracy watchdog organization, and has published a number of books, including “Blood Diamonds: Corruption and Torture in the Lundas” an expose of human rights abuses and corruption. De Morais recently came by the ONE office in Washington to discuss our extractives and transparency campaign with us. We had a chance to interview de Morais and ask him more about his work in Angola, corruption in the oil and gas industries, and what ONE members can do to help.

#ILoveItWhenYou

ABOVE: A series of E-cards based on the top Tweets for the hash tag #ILoveItWhenYou. Purely social.

ABOVE, TOP: A marketing piece for a hypothetical volunteer coordination site. This would help connect people (most likely students) with volunteer efforts based on their interests. ABOVE: A last-minute sketch about poverty & fair trade. This would have been for the FTO. OPPOSITE PAGE,: These were based on literacy statistics for the United States. The middle set represented refugee statistics, and would have advocated policy change in the United States. The poster set on the bottom was for breast cancer awareness.

#ILoveItWhenYou

ABOVE: Several more iterations for the literacy poster set. These would have been composed using a combination of propped up books and quilled paper. This set could have served well in an awareness campaign for organizations like the National Assessment for Adult Literacy (NAAL).

RIGHT: Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m an avid baker, and I have several friends who have decided to become vegans. The postcard set at right would have shown different substitutions for common ingredients used in baking. The reverse would have had recipes, as well as a space for a personal note. It would have been nice for a site like Vegan News, shown above.

#ILoveItWhenYou BELOW: Aromatherapy-inspired postcards for a soap company.

BELOW: Further iterations for the #ILoveItWhenYou hashtag.

#ILoveItWhenYou

#ILoveItWhenYou @AdvancedTypography Twitter is a very popular, highly social site where users can frequently share information and keep fellow users updated on whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s going on in their lives. Users generate buzz with the use of hashtags. This information helps indicate trending discussions and topics, as well as encouraging active conversations.

CONCEPT After much deliberation, I decided to use the Twitter concept. I rarely use my Twitter account, but itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s definitely a nice tool. Because this project had the option of being used in a social context, I thought it would be a great opportunity to explore how Twitter has changed over the past few years. With the recent addition of photo tweets, it seemed like a fun fit. Rather than just send plain e-cards, I decided to structure my compositions as memes. Memes are very popular, and are frequently shared via Facebook, text messages, and other social media. Typically memes are meant to be funny and a little cheesy, but they offer a lot of flexibility in the sense that they can be almost anything. The really nice thing about this idea was that it opened up a wide range of possibilities for type experimentation.

ABOVE: A few examples of memes. Memes are generally not well-designed. The simple concept is to overlay a photo with more formal text. RIGHT: Composition ideas based on the top responses to the #ILoveItWhenYou hashtag. There were thousands of responses, with more added each day.

#ILoveItWhenYou

#ILoveItWhenYou experiment with type.

These are a few of the most recent trending Tweets for the #ILoveItWhenYou hashtag, which is frequently used between couples and/or close friends. These change almost daily, and though the text wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t always exactly the same, there are definite patterns in what is frequently re-tweeted. The top responses when I started this project were: #iloveitwhenyou text me first, #iloveitwhenyou text me good morning/good night, #iloveitwhenyou hold my hand in public, #iloveitwhenyou give me your coat when I get cold, #iloveitwhenyou hug me from behind, etc.

Obviously not all of these were a good fit for this project. Some were too complicated, some inappropriate, so I had to be a little selective. I added a few of my own. The following pages show some of my the type experiments.

#ILoveItWhenYou PHOTOGRAPHY

#ILoveItWhenYou

#ILoveItWhenYou COMPOSITIONS

#ILoveItWhenYou VARIATIONS

#ILoveItWhenYou

#ProjectSummary

I really enjoyed the challenges presented by this project. I loved being able to experiment with the different methods and materials, and I think this is something I’d really like to explore further. There were some definite challenges during this process, namely getting the photos just right. I had to do a lot of lighting adjustment in Photoshop, and it was difficult trying to add dimension with a generated background, but I’m pleased with the overall results. The ultimate decision on the format and formal type selection was based on the existing Twitter branding. I thought this would help if these were shared in another context, and although it’s a little cheesy it’s clear these were for Twitter. I’d like to try to develop a few more. It had some difficulty staging the “#iloveitwhenyou hold my hand” composition, so it would be nice to attempt that again. I’ve actually posted a few of these on my Twitter account, so I’m eager to see how or if they’re used.

#ILoveItWhenYou FINAL SELECTIONS

#ILoveItWhenYou

#WhitleyKemble