Ego- searching for my identity in a postmodern world.

So my concept for this project is to implement rules onto postmodern graphic designs, namely those of April Greiman who I believe truly embodies the postmodern view of relativity and rejection of a single design style in her work. In our current postmodern society, people are starting to lose a sense of their identity due to many factors which I have elaborated on in my previous post, and I especially relate to that. Metamodernism is a reaction to the ambiguity of postmodernism, and seeks to bring back modern rules/positions in search of an ideal which may or may not exist. Thus I will begin the 12 squares with postmodern designs influenced by April Greiman, and after gradually applying rules/guidelines to these designs an image of my self/identity will emerge. The squares will also be arranged in a linear fashion instead of the recommended 3×4 as it better conveys the flow/change in designs.

extro

EXTROVERT:

This square conveys my extrovert/noisy side, as seen from the messy composition consisting of numerous colours with random textures. The colour gradient in the background is also altered to increase the contrast (such as having purple next to yellow etc). Random images are scattered throughout the square and the text symbolises my ‘noisier’ thoughts, which race around in my head. Other examples of colour contrast used here include green text with red pixelation around on the left and the pink rectangle with green surroundings, and the general haphazard colour scheme is an insight to my extrovert side.

intro

INTROVERT:

This shows my introvert side, conveyed through simple compositions and a basic colour scheme of blue/yellow and pink which not only are April Greiman’s most commonly used colours but also are highly complimentary. The use of this basic triad colour scheme also evokes a peaceful feeling as they seem to go so well together. The text is also smaller and communicates how I feel when wanting to be alone. Blue is the main colour here to represent the peacefulness I feel when alone.

extrointro

Extrovert + Introvert = ME

The main emotion conveyed here is chaos, which results when the opposite sides mentioned above come together. Many random colours/textures collide here to show the incompatilibity of my quiet and noisy side, which is further enhanced through the use of an orange background to convey a wild chaos/confusion. The many elements are also carefully layered on top of my face, revealing only the forehead, which symbolises the lack of identity I feel due to my incompatible personalities. This square also highlights the postmodern denial of a single truth and rules (such as that opposite traits shouldn’t exist together) and begins the search for an identity.

thinkmuch

THINKS TOO MUCH:

To represent the wide variety of things that I think about on a daily basis I have placed many different coloured graphics in a messy way around the centre, similar to that of a colour wheel. Here I have also begun to implement rules in the design, namely making the typography neater and sticking to one font. The colours light blue and purple are chosen for the text as that range expresses thinking, and has sufficient contrast to allow the text to stand out amidst the confusing background. If you look closely you can see a small image of my face hidden beneath the text box, thus showing that as I implement rules/defining myself a ‘picture’ of me begins to emerge.

negative

NEGATIVE THINKING:

From my research on colour I learnt that dark colours recede and warm ones seem to advance, hence my choice of dark purple for the background and bright yellow for the text for increased contrast. This contrast immediately draws attention to the main text, which spells out my main negative qualities, and it reflects my extreme pessimism at times where I only focus on the ugly/bad aspects. The graphics in the background also seem to be drowned out, along with the grey text at the top which lists some of my positive traits. The grey text is in stark contrast both in size and colour to the main ‘negative’ text to enhance the pessimist narrative, and at the top right hand corner a bigger picture of my face emerges, where flaws such as acne are highlighted.

peace2

Thinking too much – Negative thinking = A BETTER ME (PEACE OF MIND)

Light blue is the dominant colour here to express the resultant peacefulness I would feel if I were to weed out negative thinking from my inquisitive mind, and the middle trapezium also seems to ‘block out’ the noisy background. The background borrows not only the same colour (orange) but also elements from the first ‘ME’ composition to highlight the progression/growth of my character. The colour contrast in the main text is a little different here than in print as I designed it using the CMYK scheme, but nevertheless the use of light blue and slightly dull yellow is used to convey peace/contentment.

time2

TIME MANAGEMENT:

A split complementary colour scheme of red/orange/blue-green is used here to convey how urgent this particular skill is needed (thus the dominant use of orange in a similar fashion to that of warning signs etc) and also the delicate act of managing a busy schedule well (matching red/orange with a contrasting blue-green without being garish). The circle in the middle and the graphics around it is inspired by a poster from Josef Muller-Brockmann, and it is used here represent the act of ‘chasing time’ as it resembles the many lanes in a running track. The compositions also begin getting neater from here onwards, which is the second rule I implement on the designs, thus my reference to modernist/swiss style graphic designers.

knowledge

KNOWLEDGE:

One of my goals in life is to be extremely well-read and knowledgeable in a wide variety of fields other than design/art, and I believe my time here in ADM will allow me to accomplish that from the large amount of time spent researching. Thus here the colourful circle represents knowledge from different areas around the world, and is positioned right at my head to further emphasise a constantly stimulated mind. The dull grey background is used to allow the colourful circle to stand out.

mark

Time Management + Knowledge = ME IN 5 YEARS (READY TO MAKE MY MARK ON SOCIETY)

In 5 years I will begin my career in the creative field, and complete with the various skills picked up from university I hope to make my mark not only in that field but also in society with my designs/ideas. The background image of a vast blue sky represents the scale of my ambition, and the scatters of purple around highlights the boldness of such a grand idea.

different

BEING UNIQUE:

I’ve always valued being unique and standing out from the rest, and is something I constantly strive for. Thus I chose a minimalist vector style using an analogous colour scheme to stand out from the previous designs which were characterised by multiple layers of graphics and colours. The colour yellow also perfectly represents being exciting and fresh, and the use of the letter ‘i’ in the design is also a raw expression of individuality/standing alone.

accepted

FITTING IN:

Even though I strive to constantly push boundaries and be different from everyone else, life would be miserable without certain universal norms such as friends or a warm meal with family. Being different can be exciting at times but as social creatures humans naturally require some form of acceptance from others, and it is this juxtaposition of incompatible desires that I attempt to show here. The use of dark purple is in stark contrast to the bright yellow used previously, and the analogous dark blue also ensures that nothing in the composition really stands out. Dark purple is a colour that seems to recede, and the image of myself slowly losing saturation and fading into the background highlights the desire to ‘blend in’.

impossible

Being Unique + Fitting In = AN IDEAL ME (IMPOSSIBLE)

What I want to show with this square is the impossibility of not only an ‘ideal’ person (which I have elaborated on in the previous post) but also in my 2 previous desires coexisting. This is not only highlighted by the impossible square here, but also in the use of primary triadic colour scheme red/blue/yellow. Yellow (unique) mixed with purple (fitting in) results in an ugly brown colour, and the use of complimentary red/blue/yellow here conveys the impossibility of such desires going well together. The simple vector graphics also expresses my view of an ‘ideal me’ as an overly-simplistic conception. Being the final square and the end of my search for identity, I not only have a clearer picture of myself but I also realise that my strength lies in breaking rules. Thus the use of pixellation/warped text highlights that and also a sort of return to Greiman’s disdain of rules. This is also characteristic of graphic design/societal trends in general where people continuously seek progress through a renaissance of past styles.

I love you G1. Joy you are awesome.

Traaaaannnnnn……..

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……

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SITION!

 

Ego research/journal 4

Oops sorry Joy I didn’t know if my last update on Friday counted as the update due today but anyway here are some pictures.

My concept: to gradually apply a meta-modern approach to April Greiman’s designs. April Greiman truly embodies postmodernism’s disdain for rules in her works, which I feel results in a loss of identity, thus I will gradually be ‘applying ‘ modernist design rules to Greiman’s design. So as the pictures progress the compositions will be neater but still retain certain key features of Greiman’s style. The last 3 squares will also incorporate some contemporary photoshop features that weren’t present back in the 60’s such as vectors to pay homage to Greiman’s embrace of new technology for designing.

Here are some pictures of my progress

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I hope

April Greiman sees my final work somewhere online and isn’t disgusted

Ego research/journal 3

Where do I begin.

So my initial idea/theme for this project was to show a postmodern loss of identity/sense of self, which was how I felt while looking at my classmate’s research and ‘personality drawings’ a few weeks back. I’ve always felt that I had certain defining features which were uniquely mine, but I soon realised that traits such as philosophical/emotional/contradictory could also be applied to many of my friends. Research on reference artists also revealed that a lot of ideas I had which I felt were ‘groundbreaking’/new had in fact already been executed. Individuality/being unique has always been an important aspect of my life and was now left a little sad that I wasn’t as different as I thought.

Fast forward to buying books at basheer (previous post) and I now have an actual phenomenon to base my concept on. Here are some reasons why postmodernists are arguing that people do not have a ‘self’ anymore:

  1. there is no single defining source of truth anymore (like religion for example) and thus the narrative of multiple ‘truths’ and individual preference became popular
  2. globalisation exposes us to all sorts of people and hence a multitude of expectations/values/ways of living
  3. technology essentially gives anyone a platform to express their thoughts and to preach whatever they want (such as their interpretation on living a fulfilling life)
  4. loss of global norms based on gender/race/class etc
  5. thus people are not limited anymore to traditional stereotypes and can play a wide variety of roles
  6. ever-changing world of continuous progress, everything is constantly in flux
  7. increased mobility results in loss of identity formed from birthplace/community
  8. consumerism provides an avenue for people to create an identity

So now that I had a concept, all I needed was a style, hence my reference to Wolfgang Weingart and April Greiman in my previous post. Both Weingart and Greiman truly embodied the notion of breaking rules such as the grid and enthusiastically explored different ways of designing, which cemented their positions as pioneers of postmodern design.

images-3 70603-004-EEA8C4E6 Wolfgang Weingart3[1] Weingart_03_640 40923_415 tumblr_m8ay794mnN1rd7x8to1_1280 01

So for the visuals I wanted to show a progression of designs with simple elements but with saturated colours a.k.a modern style

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to ultimately more complex compositions (Weingart/Greiman style) with unsaturated colours. This is to show that the more I explore/find out more about myself the less unique I feel.

I also had the idea to use really simple compositions for ‘the ideal me’ square as I felt the notion of an ideal person is an uncomfortably idealistic/simple approach to life. From my research I came up with more specific reasons to elaborate on this:

  1. ideal=perfection, but it is impossible to say a person is perfect due to the many complicated facets of life
  2. perfect means excelling at everything (material success and happy relationships etc) and there are an infinite amount of areas to excel in as a person but our lives are constrained by limited amounts of time and energy
  3. life is too complex to be summed up in a single construction
  4. people and their ideas are in a continual state of flux and thus your conception of ideal now may be different from that in a few years time
  5. it is impossible to proclaim a certain characteristic/trait is wholly positive/good in every possible situation (trolley problem)
  6. there is no limit to ‘goodness’ or a physical endpoint/constraint to positive traits/aspects thus the goal of ‘ideal me’ is akin to a continuously moving and unreachable target

Okay that was largely me philosophising but it still counts as research right???

Some reference pictures to convey the simplistic notion of ‘an ideal me’

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Some sample graphics I created for ‘an ideal me’

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As you can see the colours used are not only basic but also complimentary, and along with the simple vectors I aim to show the points mentioned above.

So fast forward to current day where after consultations and way too much time spent researching on topics that academics can only slightly agree on, I have decided to chose April Greiman as my main reference artist. The 12 squares will take Greiman’s signature postmodern style, and apply a metamodern twist to it.

Some drafts.

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I hope you dance

Ego research/journal 2

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lol

#2dInspiration #ComplementaryColours #WhatFontIsThat #MyFloorProbablyHasMoreVitaminCThanThis

So yeah this has been the hardest project thus far as there wasn’t a basic unit/point to start with like in the first 2 projects. But I also believe that this will be the project that I learn the most from as I’ve been sketching/researching/conceptualising way more.

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IMAG1039
As you can see I took this piece of advice really seriously

Now I will proceed on to elaborate on some of my ideas in my visual journal. Early on I was interested in designing various effects on pictures of my face to represent the various sides to myself, and is heavily inspired by some of the following album covers. The heavy use of blue in the first 3 albums are also a little weird to me as those albums are anything but calm.

1_twigs 021544fb best-hip-hop-album-covers-4-1386002950-view-0 images-3

Royal-Blood-1500 sbtrkt---wonder-where-we-land

I am also heavily inspired by these 2 collage artists Bene Rohlmann and CUR3ES and how they are able to create such magical landscapes._Bene_Rohlmann_Sightseers_Landscapes_002 01b8d65713f8c369ce66ea40f5351a28 3a403c00af52345d319eef11d8a36d50_i

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Now on to my concept. Long story short last Saturday I went to bras basah to buy some styrofoam balls for Jason, went to browse Basheer’s bookstore and left with the 2 books below.

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On the train ride home I realised that I probably won’t have time to read them in the following weeks and will probably end up contributing to my pile of unread books back at home. Puzzled, I went to google ‘why do people buy books they don’t read’. And that was when I came across the concept of postmodernism. It basically said that in a consumerist society, people purchase items to communicate certain messages to others and to build/strengthen and identity. This is because in current postmodern times the ‘self’ is eroded due to many factors (which I will elaborate during my presentation), and thus the increased urge to ‘build’ an identity through various means like buying books full of Kim Kardashian’s selfies for example.

kim-k-barnes-nobles
you thought I was kidding huh

Not going to reveal too much but basically I’ll be using the 12 squares to show the loss of self/individuality. If all turns out well you’ll leave ADM a little depressed after realising that you’re not that special anymore ;(

Reference artists:

Wolfgang Weingart

01 40923_415  Wolfgang Weingart3[1]

April Greiman

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Fons Hickmann

436 996 2987

Will be doing lots of research on graphic designers from previous periods.

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ZT was judging me in the library but I don’t blame him cos even I can’t believe I borrowed a heavier amount of books for 2d than for my art history essay.
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experimenting with colour and composition
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some possible final squares, but highly unlikely as more research into reference artists needs to be done

Hope you look forward to my presentation.

Or not.