Visual Language: 6th October

Today was my second visual language session and now knowing what was in store I was quite looking forward to working with few materials and short time periods. I am beginning to understand and appreciate what these sessions will do to improve my graphic design abilities. Here is what we did.


1. Jumble This first series of four squares is supposed to represent the word 'jumble'. I feel the series is successful because the word was quite easy to work with and required no real precision, I could literally stick the letters onto the square in any order. However I did feel a little continuity was needed and therefore made sure two examples of each typeface were present in every square, ensuring a total of eight A's in each.


2. Hybrid This second series of 10cm x 10cm squares visually communicates the word 'hybrid'. I found this word quite challenging to work with, but quickly realised I had four different typefaces to work with, and an example of uppercase and lowercase of each one. Therefore I decided to use all these components for my design. I placed them in a simple straight line so as not too make the square too complicated and keep simplicity the key factor.


3. Extend The third word visually represented here is 'extend'. This is the group that I feel works best as a series, so much so they would not deliver the same effect if only one was used. I used the boldest typeface I had to really enforce the idea, and placed the lines at the bottom of the templates to ensure a stright line was kept throughout the series. If I had started in the middle, by the fourth square the line could have veered upwards of downwards.


4. Edit This group of four is meant to communicate 'edit'. I found this word the most difficult to visually represent with such few materials. After a little time for consideration I decided to just go with my gut and do what I thought would work, not thinking about whether other people would interpret it the way I would. Using the uppercase of the four typfaces I had I decided to literally construct a capital A with each one. In a series I do feel they work, however when on their own they might not be as successful.


5. Deconstruct This last set of four squares visually represents the word 'deconstruct'. Again with this one I decided to be very literal and deconstruct the letter. I started with a complete A in the first square and gradually reduced the lines in the ones that followed. By the end the letter A has been so deconstructed that it is actually illegible, therefore rendering this set as one of the more successful series.

At the end of crafting these sets of four we had to move around the room to another persons work, then we had to try and match their work with the correct word. Mine were very successful, gaining five out five correct assignments. However after this was done we then had to go back to our own work and create another square for each series. This square had to be a summary almost, and had to communicate the work in one rather than four. These are what I came up with:


Deconstruct, Jumble, Hybrid, Extend, Edit