January 2016 – Kaysieeeee

Typographic Portrait- Research & Ideas

Preliminary Ideas

In this post, I will be discussing some of the ideas that I had with regard to this project. They are by no means the final ideas that I will be working on but they will serve as a stepping stone to better ideas. The first few attributes that I thought of offhand were procrastinator, clumsy, narcissist and mysophobic.

The Procrastinator

For the attribute of ‘procrastinator’ I wanted to play with the idea of time and how often a procrastinator wastes time. There are twenty-four hours in day and I have to admit majority of that time is spent planning what to do for the rest of the day but never really getting to any of the work. Time passes quickly and no work is ever done.

My idea involves the use of diy clock mechanisms attached to a board. The clocks will be allowed to run as per usual and at a specific time, the hands of the clocks will the letters of my name.

The starting time for each clock would be different to represent the different things that I had planned to do. This will only occur once every twenty-four hours at a specific time when hands are at right position.

Clock typography 3 — Arrangement of clock mechanisms

If you ever want to know what it would be like to let time pass quickly and have nothing be accomplished, you can quite literally watch the clocks hands go through several rotations until they finally form the name. The fact that my name only appears once every day shows that procrastination lasts the whole day except for maybe a short period of time where I would actually get something done.

Using just clock hands to make up letters poses a problem because there are a limited number of them and the length as well as the point where they are pivoted is fixed (assuming no modification is done to them). Hence, the letters need to be simplified down to made of not more than three strokes. See image above. Additional: transforming work into a two-dimensional piece.

The Narcissist

Like every other self absorbed person, I like to look at my own reflection, more specifically in the mirror (after all it gives the clearest and sharpest reflection). If I do go ahead with this idea, I will most likely be working with broken shards of mirror to form my name. The mirror will be broken instead of complete pieces because I do not find it an entirely good attribute to have and I am trying to break and rid myself of it. With smaller pieces, less reflection can be seen (not a full image). Additional: Other reflective surfaces to emphasise the need and desire to see one’s reflection even in the most unusual places.

The Clumsy

The idiom ‘a bull in a china shop’ creates the best imagery for the attribute of clumsy. It has a tinge of humor in it which I really like. I would like to illustrate this idiom using my name. I did a brief analysis of Dan Fleming’s animal typography andI might use that very technique to create this work. I will modifiy the six letters of my name into a shape of a bull. This would most likely be done digitally. As for the ‘china shop’, the background of the work will carry it. Using watercolours to paint the designs commonly seen on Chinese ceramics and porcelain.

The Mysophobic

In my last post, I mentioned that I wanted to try using various unconventional mediums for this project. For ‘Mysophobic’, I may be working with indeed unconventional materials, petri dishes and bacteria. Working with bacteria colonies outside of a lab is admitedly a health harzard so precaution will be a prority for me. Mysophobia is he abnormal fear of dirt and germs. I have listed some details:

Name will be the negative space
Bacteria to be grown around the name itself
Inoculate dish. Streak petri dish with swab from somewhere(hands, handphone, etc)
Place paper (cut out letters) soaked in alcohol or antiseptic liquid onto dish. / use several small disks (punched holes) instead of full letters
Bacteria will not be able to form colony where the disks are. Thus creating a ‘free’ (almost germ free) and clean zone on the dish.
Petri dishes can be substituted with rectangular containers
Several small dishes (one for each letter) or one single dish for entire name

The beauty of working with bacteria is that one will never really know what the outcome will be. There will be different kinds of bacteria depending on the sources. The result would be petri dishes stained with various patterns and colours.

Bacteria (Petri dish) art

More examples : http://www.livescience.com/52547-microbiology-agar-art-photos.html

References: Zachary Copfer . ‘Bacteriography’

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2204850/Portraits-famous-faces-created-petri-dishes-artist-using-bacteria.html

Cultivation of E.coli colonies on petri dishes to form portraits of people such as Charles Dawin.
Images in the positive

References: Natalie Nadeau

http://incubatorartlab.com/home/bioart-osc/natalie-nadeau-2/

Bacteria colonies grow and cover dollies (second hand) placed in agar plate.
Image in the positive

A Biological Aspect: The petri dish is the canvas

Biology plays a rather important part in my life. I studied it for many years and it is something I enjoy. I do like all the sciences but I had the most affinity with biology if I may phrase it that way. Since this assignment is supposed to be about me, it would be apt to use biology as a start point or base. Instead of using paper, all works could be done on the petri dishes. With different attributes, bacteria can be obtained from the relevant objects associated with the attributes and cultured. The entire work would be three-dimensional. To tackle this problem, photographs of the work can be taken and as advised, edited (change of colour, etc.) to create a set of works (see Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s soup cans).

Lore 2- Wildlife

The Animals of the Voitheia

The Voitheia was made for all living matter, not just humans. This was to ensure that the ecosystem would not be thrown off balance from the sudden removal of animal species. Animals were brought into the building but due to space constrains and finite resources, only a limited number of each species were brought in. Bringing in additional living things into the Voitheia means sharing of resources such as food, water and air or you could also see it as extra competition, less resources for yourself. A large number of animals could bring about a significant decrease in oxygen levels in the area as well as increasing chances of disease, all of which would decrease the success of survival of the Voitheia.

The animals were brought into the two of the many inner domes (4^th and 5^th layer from the outer) and were out of sight from The Outskirts. It is said that within one dome, there contained every single species one would find in that continent. The dome created for the animals (wildlife) is further subdivided into different areas that mimicked the original habitat of a particular group of animals. For example, (in the North American Voitheia) a forest habitat was created to house black bears, snowshoe hares and blackpoll warblers just to name a few.

This dome also served as the zoo or safari for the Voitheia and all from the inner domes have full access to this zoo. The people in The Outskirts had no share in this. It was a place of attraction. Places of attraction and other facilities were included in the building in the hopes of adding normalcy into the whole idea of the building. A sense of familiarity was needed in the dome and was done so by incorporating these features that used to be present in society before Earth began to die out.

As for livestock, they were kept in another dome. Cows, sheep, pigs and chickens were some of the few livestock found in this dome and were kept for the sole purpose of providing food. The dome for livestock is a lot less elaborate for the main purpose was to ensure a clean and sanitary environment for the animals. Calculations were constantly done to ensure that more resources (produce) would be gained rather than lost through the rearing of the animals. Should there come a time when livestock numbers grew too large and more resources were being used up, the numbers would have to be cut and slaughtering would commence. Resources here are finite and priority will always be given to mankind instead of the animals.

Lore 1 Continued- The Voitheia

The Backstory. How the end started.

There had been in increase in the number of auroras observed. They were bright, brighter than ever seen before and were even visible during the day. The auroras were also being observed more frequently at lower latitudes which would have been considered rare in the past since they were known to only occur at higher latitudes. This was all very unusual but many thought nothing of it. But as quickly as the auroras came, they left. Not a single aurora has been observed since then. It was not three years later that a theory surfaced that the irregular behavior of the auroras observed was a foreshadowing of a waning magnetosphere.

The Earth had been experiencing an acceleration in planetary cooling which eventually led to the weakening of its magnetic field. It is known that this magnetic field is what creates the magnetosphere and without it, the magnetosphere that protects Earth from the Sun’s solar winds would slow disappear. This was also the reason auroras were no longer observed. The lack of a magnetosphere meant no auroras could be produced. The lack of auroras however would be the least of mankind’s problems.

Solar winds from the Sun are not uncommon and Earth was never significantly affected by the winds but that was when the magnetosphere was still present. As the magnetosphere slowly disappeared, solar winds began to strip away Earth’s atmosphere. The charged particles (electrons, protons, etc.) in the solar wind were ridding the atmosphere of water vapor and carbon dioxide. It was taking away the very thing that made Earth habitable.

The lack of an atmosphere means heat is no longer retained around the planet, temperatures will start dropping drastically beyond freezing point. All remaining bodies of water (whatever has not been removed by the solar winds) will freeze entirely. Water will no longer be readily available in the liquid form (much like it is on Mars now). When temperatures drop, you might expect hail or snow but that would not be the case. Rain, snow, hail will never be formed. Think climate of Antarctica but without the snow and ice, it would just be dry land and the cold, like a desert. Global warming would start looking like a favorable thing here.

Air will become scarce and air pressure drops, and finally no oxygen, carbon dioxide, nitrogen or any gas will be present on Earth. Breathing will become almost impossible on Earth. In short, try to imagine what would happen if right now there was no air, no carbon dioxide and you could no longer breath normally, you will start gasping for air, cyanosis of the face occurs, your pulse rate increases until you final cave in and suffocate. And that is longer the tip of the iceberg. The ozone will be destroyed making Earth susceptible to ultraviolet rays that decomposes water molecules and not to mention the effects of UV rays on living things. Long term exposure or high levels of radiation would probably lead to genetic mutation that could be passed on through generations, disease would be imminent.

As of today, Earth is without a magnetic field, no magnetosphere and is left the remnants of atmospheric gas waiting to be swept away by the next wave of solar winds. Cloud watching would be a thing of the past because they no longer form and the sky no longer carries any colour, be it blue during the day or red during a sunset, colourless. Should you survive the harsh conditions for any reason and were to look up to sky, you would be staring straight into the depths of space and be faced with darkness speckled with distant stars and neighbouring planets. Stars would not ‘twinkle’ defying the nursery rhyme you grew up hearing because the atmosphere is missing. During the day, you will be faced with the full face of the sun against a black sky. Life would never thrive or even survive on a planet like this.

Additional character information

A brief description of your character’s appearance as well as their temperament.

Whether your character is left or right handed.

Lore 1- The Voitheia

The Voitheia

It is the year 2098. Earth has become the new Mars. Earth has become a desert. It is no longer able to sustain life. Mankind was not able to find another habitable planet in time before Earth lost almost all of its atmosphere, water and everything else that made it suitable for life to flourish. In order to survive on Earth, the very first Voitheia was built. There are seven other identical buildings that were constructed around the world, two in Asia and one each in Europe, Africa, North America, South America and Australia.

They were built as a form of refuge for mankind as Earth entered its dying days. Each Voitheia was dome shaped and encases its very own ecosystem where all life forms are able to survive and sustain themselves without ever needing to leave the dome. The first Voitheia built, which is situated in North America is currently led by a man by the man of Spector. No one knows what he looks like, they have never seen him before, only felt the effects of his decisions and his power. As with any society, there is a hierarchy that has to be established, and Spector, he is on the top of the hierarchy. The strong, rich and powerful are ranked below him while the weak and poor are naturally pushed to the bottom. A caste system would be another way of looking it.

The dome was built much like a matryoshka doll (more commonly known as the Russian doll). Within the large dome of the Voitheia lies several other layers, one within another. Each caste is allocated a layer. A person with a higher social standing would be situated on the inner domes while those with the lowest social standing are banished to the outermost dome termed ‘The Outskirts’. No one from a lower standing can enter into the inner domes. All entrances are locked and guarded.

Recently a number of children from The Outskirts have gone missing causing quite a disturbance in the outer dome. However, an uproar or riot was not an option here since a lack of order would prompt the guards to restrain and punish anyone who was seen to be acting unruly. A unanimous decision was made on the quiet by all in that dome to search for these children. The search party that was created included two individuals who grew up outside the Voitheia but joined the dome when it was no longer safe to remain out in the open. Both had been part of Voitheia for as long as it existed which was approximately fifteen years.

Characters (the two individuals)

Name: (A full name is not required, you may choose to give a nickname instead if you wish)

Gender:

Age: (26< Age< 50)

STR:

INT:

AGI:

Additional

+Leaving the Voitheia is not an option, it will lead to immediate death.

+Once you decide to leave the current (outer) dome into the inner dome, you are not allowed to return to the outer dome until your goal is completed.

Typographic Portrait- Research

Research on TYpography

What makes for effective typography? It certainly is not just the font that make for good typography. There are many other elements that go into a design such as the font, spacing and font size.[1]

With that being said, the nature of the text also makes a difference. It would not make much sense to use a typeace rendered with feathers and animal fur used for the phrase say ‘Save water’. There are definitely much better ways to illustrate water. There is relation between animals and water no doubt but it would be harder for viewers to comprehen since the relationship is not direct as it could be. This may then result in a misinterpretation from what was originally intended.

In this post, I will be exploring the typographic work of several artists and hopefully find out what makes for a good piece of typographic work, but first, an overview of the anatomy of typography. I recently found out how important it was to know the names and the parts of each letter while I was doing the previous project names “Hello”. I decided to use a minimalistic approach with regard to the letters and knowing what makes up a particular letter made the process much easier. Each letter of the alphabet has its own special features that allow one to identify them, keep those portions and strokes in and removing the rest would thus still allow one to identify the letters even if it is not drawn in completion. The image below is a guide to the anatomy of typography.

Website: https://thelogocompany.net/blog/typography-2/typography-font-deconstruction/

Anatomy of Typography

Artist References

Marc Böttler

His works include a set of photographs of carefully positioned wooden blocks to form letters of the alphabet. This is not exactly an example of typography but rather one of a typeface and indeed the reason for choosing this work is of the typeface. The focus of this piece not so much on the font type or size but rather the issue of perspective. A play on perspective, letters only visible when viewed from the correct angle and position. In this case however, Böttler has already fixed the angle for the viewer through the photographs. It would be interesting to apply the same concept but with the actual objects so that the viewer has to change his/her perspective and challenge how they view things. Such a typeface, which plays on perspective, could and would make for an interesting element in typography.

Marc Böttler: http://cargocollective.com/marcboettler/Klotz-Type-Experiment

While we are on the subject of perspectives, let us talk about anamorphosis. Anamorphic art relies heavily on the concept of perspectives and can be considered a form of optical illusion. This form of art comes in various forms such as mirror anamorphosis, sculptures (e.g. Jonty Hurwitz) and typography just to name a few. An example of anamorphic typography can be seen in the work of designer Thomas Quinn. The text is painted in a skewed manner onto several areas of a wall and as a result, it looks like a distorted group of letters. However, by changing the position one is standing at, one will be able to finally see the undistorted text in full. It is thus an interactive piece of work, it is only with interacting with the work that one will get to see the intended text.

It would be challenge to try out anamorphic typography but I would like to try it out regardless. I do feel it makes quite an impact. It gets people involved in the art thus hopefully bringing across the message (whatever it may be) much more easily.

Thomas Quinn: http://www.tqvinn.com/post/24799863149/face-reality-as-it-is

José Ernesto Rodriguez

Rodriguez created the “Handschrift” typeface where letters of the alphabet were created by photocopying and scanning his own hands to create organic letters. This typeface involves the use of the body and it almost becomes a piece of performance art. The special aspect of using body parts is that one can create forms that one probably could not create otherwise (not easily anyway) and yet there are limitations as to how much one can bend and contort to form the letters.

José Ernesto Rodriguez: https://www.behance.net/gallery/Handschrift/1271211

http://jerhandschrift.tumblr.com/

Anna Garforth

This is a 9m long installation made from masking tape stuck onto a wire fence spelling out the phrase ‘wild at heart’. Masking tape is taped in a diagonal manner from top left to bottom right. The left to right direction similar to how words are read in the English language, eye is thus also drawn and directed from left to right which in a way facilitates the reading process and urges the viewer to read the full phrase.

There seems to be a system and some sort of order with regard to the way the tape is stuck. The fence ensures the strips of tape are equally spaced apart and are parallel to each other (angle of each tape is consistent throughout).

This is one of the few typography examples that I would consider to be really interesting simply because it is a 3-dimensional piece and it requires the use of the surrounding environment. It proves that typography does not have to be limited to just the traditional pen and paper or digital means but can be so much bigger. But of course aesthetically pleasing typography really serves little purpose unless the words and design are related and complement each other. The overall design should place emphasis and support the text as best possible. In Garforth’s case, the environment complements the phrase ‘wild at heart’. The text is placed outdoors, amongst (‘at the heart’ of) the flora and fauna thus giving meaning to the word ‘wild’.

Anna Garforth: http://www.annagarforth.co.uk/about.html

Other references

Another example of text and design going hand-in hand would be one where the words are arranged and manipulated to form the shape of whatever it represents. For example in animal typography by Dan Fleming, the word ‘rabbit’ is shaped into the form of a rabbit. They are direct and simple.

Dan Fleming: https://www.behance.net/gallery/6769383/Word-Animals

Food typography has also recently become quite popular. Using food, ingredients to spell out words, for example, using flour to spell out the word flour. The examples that I have seen online are indeed beautiful and straightforward. They also prove that there are few boundaries when it comes to use of medium. There is no reason why anyone should limit themselves to just pen and paper. But of course food typography is also done using digital means.

See Fast Food typography by Thomas Cheng: http://thomascheng.com/academic-work

I have taken a particular interest in typography made using interesting and non-conventional items. I might not use the same items to create my typography but they give me ample reason to break boundaries and not limit myself in terms of medium. An example would be bubblewrap typography by Lo Siento. Coloured water is injected using a syringe into each bubble. One can create their own typeface but one can also choose to find these typefaces in everyday life. To put it simply, finding ‘hidden’ letters in the environment. For example, finding alphabets in the wings of butterflies, ‘Butterfly Alphabet’ by Kjell Bloch Sandved.

Lo Siento: http://www.losiento.net/entry/wired-magazine-lettering

http://www.losiento.net/

[1] “typography.” The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press, accessed January 20, 2016,http://www.oxfordartonline.com.ezlibproxy1.ntu.edu.sg/subscriber/article/opr/t4/e1720.

Hello My Name is…

“Hello My Name is Kaysie”

Typography

Medium: Pen (0.5, Black)

I approached this first name tag with the aim of representing my introverted nature. As with any other introvert, I find myself most comfortable when I’m alone, with that being said, on the occasions where I do have to interact with people, what I share about myself is limited. With that in mind, I decided to take the minimalistic route.

Minimalistic typography in a way embodies how I would represent myself and how little people actually know about me. I decided to omit certain details of the letters and kept only the essential portions and lines therefore allowing one to still make out the letters. For example, with the letter ‘A’, if the crossbar is removed, one would still be able to identify it as an ‘A’ since no other letter resembles an inverted ‘V’. If I were to instead remove the diagonal stroke of the ‘A’, the result would be a little more ambiguous, it could be an incomplete italicized ‘F’ or an ‘A’. Only the necessary and basic information are given in this typography work much like how I would only share basic information about myself to others.

Abstract Solution

Medium: Pen (0.1-0.7, Black)

The abstract solution for this exercise was the easiest for me to think of and draw out. The design that I created has always been my form of doodling, some people draw flowers, animals and imaginary creatures when they are bored or daydreaming, I draw this instead. It is admittedly quite difficult for me to talk about how I came up with the design itself because it is almost second nature to me and find that I do not think about the process like where to place the next line. It is almost as though the conscious part of my mind shuts down and another part takes over. However, I can say that I usually start with the general shape of a leaf and then start to break down and divide the shape, adding lines where I feel is appropriate in order to create consistent density throughout in this case (equal amounts of negative space).

I usually prefer to use a pen with a finer nib because I like to add in as much detail as I can. I would like to think that I have a keen eye for detail and details matter to me and I feel this work best represents that. At a glance, this piece is significantly different from the minimalistic typography piece. One is void of extra details while the other is filled to the brim with details.

Conceptual

Medium: Digital

This tag represents my sarcastic nature. I decided to keep the design fairly simple; I would admit that this piece is stronger at bringing across a message rather than being an aesthetic piece. Comic Sans, the most controversial font there is. I do not ever recall using it for anything but I decided to use it this time round. I wanted to ‘embrace’ the font and put it in the spotlight. I do have to say that I actually do not hate the font. The fact is I just never found the use for it and found it too informal for my needs (it is not my go-to font). Needless to say, it certainly is not the font I would use for something such as a nametag where it is one of the first few things that people see on one. A first impression made by this font would probably lead to people not taking you seriously, in my opinion anyway. Hence with all these thoughts about Comic Sans, I decided to use it.