Month: January 2016

So after coming up with many concepts/ideas (as listed in last week’s post) and many days of doodling I decided to chose a few I thought had potential and come up with ideas for it.

The first idea I settled on was ‘Hi my name is Andrew and I think a lot’ and here are some thoughts that immediately sprang up:

• image of messy bedsheets (late-night anxious worrying/pointless reflections)
• crease of messy bedsheets forming alphabets that make up ‘ANDREW’
• messy bedsheets with a piece of paper with my name typed out on it (preferably crumpled)
• bedsheets with name written on it with permanent marker, and made messy/creased
• substitute above bed ideas with pillow?
• close up image of hands scratching back of head, maybe with ‘ANDREW’ written on individual fingers/hand
• biting fingernails

The above ideas had photography as a common theme/element and it didn’t take long for me to realise that I was probably inspired by a work from Stefan Sagmeister which I didn’t include in last week’s post.

This is a campaign to discourage drug use with the main tagline of ‘Drugs are fun in the beginning but become a drag later on’, and coupled with the disturbing/weird imagery I would say the message has been communicated pretty effectively. The chosen images had nothing to do with drugs nor were they carefully selected, but instead were from an old tv show that Stefan had seen, and decided to replicate the 6 ‘scenes’ as best as he could. What struck me most about these 6 images is the very creative use of text, namely that they are on the objects in the pictures rather than typed out in photoshop during post-production. I couldn’t quite put my finger on where a campaign like this stands in the art-design spectrum nor could I quite articulate what I liked about it, but I felt it was a good direction to head in.

To elaborate on that last point, I decided to explore this particular ‘genre’ as I promised myself to do something different (other than plain graphic design) but also to avoid projects like these:

No offence to anyone but I think real-life typography like the above are not only really cliche but don’t actually communicate anything other than the large amount of time spent shaping mashed potatoes or whatever chosen medium. It looks cool and probably will be really popular on sites like designspiration.com but okay enough ranting #positivevibes #enoughnegativeenergy #youhavedistractedfrommycreativeprocess #wizwearscoolpants

So I printed out my name in various fonts and went on to explore what I call 2d text in 3d spaces and its resulting meaning.

Reference artist 1

I also discovered the artist/graphic designer Marco Ugolini, and to be perfectly honest I have no idea what exactly he does, but I kinda like it. Marco’s works explores the interrelation between graphic design and visual art and “readjusts objects within a context for reflection”.

You can check his work out here: http://www.jesuismonreve.org/about/

I think what ties all of Marco’s works together are the strong concepts, and one particular project that stood out to me was ‘removed posters’.

Marco took a picture of a wall with many leftover pieces of flyer paper, printed the image out and pasted it on the same wall, only to remove it later. I like how Marco ‘contributes’ to the wall’s meaning, and I wonder how the end result might be affected if Marco pasted a regular flyer for example. Still not very sure what to call this particular type of art/design, so I went on to instagram to look for inspiration/similar images.

So my choice of medium/theme/style (you get the point) will be experimenting with 2d text on 3d surfaces and the resulting meaning. Within these dimensions I have lots of variables to play with such as:

• design of text (font, kerning, leading, upper-case etc)
• material used to form text (ink, charcoal, paint, unconventional ones etc)
• type of paper/thing/object that text will be on (normal paper, newspaper, tape)
• placement of text and supporting object (dustbin, carpark, tree etc)
• camera effects like lighting/angle

I am also really leaning towards using all 6 rectangles to express 1 single trait of myself.

Or not.

Stay tuned looney tunes!

 

 

Reference artist

The reference artist I researched on for this week was Stefan Sagmeister, a famous graphic designer/typographer who is known for his playful approach to typography.

Stefan Sagmeister has always been a name that appeared when reading about famous graphic designers and I thought his works were really innovative in their use of unexpected materials to form words, thus I borrowed his book “things I have learned in my life” to hopefully understand his creative process.

I was not impressed.

Here are 4 of his works and the story behind the respective taglines.

‘Thinking life will be better in the future is stupid. I have to live now.’

This is a billboard created for a visual arts school using images of butterflies in their various life stages which complements the warm, autumn vibe of the brown background. The text is skilfully made out of sticks, and the main words ‘stupid’ and ‘now’ being bigger from the others really helps to emphasise it’s message. The word ‘now’ also seems a little bolder than ‘stupid’, thus driving home the importance/urgency of living in the present.

Long story short, the tagline was a quote from an acquaintance in a backpacking trip Stefan made to Austria in his early days, where the group got robbed of all their belongings one night. Stripped of their possessions, the group decided that this is where their trip/fun would officially start, and eventually Stefan made it back home with a sleeping bag that the aforementioned acquaintance gave to him.

In my humble freshmen-in-design-school opinion I think that the chosen imagery/style is completely random and has no link to the tagline, and it actually contradicts the school’s aim, which is to provide an education for a better future.

‘Complaining is silly, either act of forget.’

This was done for a Portuguese brand of beer, and was done using large pieces of newsprint with stencilled alphabets. The newsprints were left in the sun for 3 days, and the un-stencilled parts turned yellow, resulting in the typography seen above.

Again, I think the choice of font/materials used was pretty random/arbitrary and the layout could have been done better.

‘Everybody who is honest is interesting’

This quote came from writer/gay icon Quentin Crisp at a press conference. Quentin initially told reporters that everybody is interesting, only for the reporters to claim that they knew many people who were simply boring. Quentin thought for a few moments before updating it to the quote used here.

The quote is represented in 5 different posters, each decorated with childish/fantasy-land characters and unique typography made out of things like ladybirds. Overall the colour scheme is pleasing, and there seems to be a certain narrative throughout the 5 layouts, but perhaps Stefan could have made words like ‘honest’ bigger than less important ones such as ‘is’.

The reason behind this choice of style seems to be influenced by the location of these posters, which is in a non-profit library for young kids in poor neighbourhoods.

What I hope to learn from researching Mr Sagmeister’s work is to have a concrete link between the text and chosen imagery/style in this upcoming project.

Typographic inspiration

I also borrowed a book on typography by Emil Ruder which was very informative.

These last 2 pictures interest me the most as this current project will be focusing more on designing/expressing a single word rather than entire paragraphs, which is what the majority of Emil Ruder’s book was about.

I really like these posters done for D&AD’s 2013 award ceremony which uses simple manipulation of a letter to express something entirely different.

Here the ampersand has been slightly tilted/edited to create an entirely different word ‘dead’ from the original ‘d&ad’. I’m really inspired by this and am still trying to see how I can incorporate this into my work.

A poster done for the following year’s award ceremony is also really nice in it’s use of yellow umbrellas to enhance the text.

Posters with nice use of layered text.

 

Alphabet design by Greek fashion designer Mary Katrantzou.

 

Thoughts on attributes.

I spent some time writing down a list of potential attributes and I realised that the things people say about themselves can be further classified into 3 main groups: plain/everyday facts or characteristics (as seen by others), deep hopes and aspirations (as contemplated when alone), and quirky views on almost anything.

Plain/everyday facts or characteristics about me (as seen by others):

• I am funny (at least to some)
• I don’t take many things seriously/ like to joke around
• I don’t often try out new foods
• I am weird
• I like walking/exploring different places
• I am indecisive
• I procrastinate
• I tend to do/say the wrong things at the wrong times
• I am a student/live in the east/favourite sport is MMA and blah blah all that boring stuff which I probably won’t use

Deep hopes and aspirations (as contemplated when alone):

• I don’t actually know who I am ( due to loss of identity in a postmodern world, which I explained in last semester’s project Ego, so if you’re interested you can go have a look )
• I am constantly changing/never the same person
• I am composed of contradictory aspects
• I want to be remembered for being different/breaking stereotypes
• I am obsessed with concepts
• I am a pessimist
• I like to think (maybe a little too much)
• I like knowing more than reading
• I want my work to change society
• I like to break stereotypes
• I have more interests than hobbies
• I rarely construct/reinforce my identity ( links to postmodernity again)

Quirky views on almost anything

• I think handshakes are a little too formal when meeting someone new
• I am starting to not like coffee as it gives me the jitters