Visual Language: 20th October

Inspiration


In today's visual language session we were working in teams. We were given the Channel 4 ident as inspiration and told to create a piece that closely resembles the idea. We were also told to bring in several different boxes, all different sizes, as long as they remained smaller than a shoe box. At first we arranged the boxes in order of size, from smallest at the front to biggest at the back. We then realised this wasnt the best idea and instead arranged the boxes into different planes, so that when looking through the view finder all that was visible was boxes. We then decided to print out seven different E's, each one getting gradually lighter and lighter. The next part of the task involved a lot of effort on behalf of everyone in the group. We had to cut out parts of each letter and place them on the different planes, deciphering as we went along, trying to figure out the logical way and appropriate way to arrange the cut outs. A lot of compromise and hard work went into trying to get it perfect and I think we were very successful in incorporating the idea of light and shade and the Channel 4 idea. Heres what it looked like:
Below is a video that shows the effect of our finished piece. I think it works really well and is very similar to the 'E4' inspiration we started off with. I don't like the fact that I'm in the video.



And the team that put it together:

Alphabet Soup Part Two

I started off this project by interviewing the partner selected for me from the 'randomizer'. We were given 10 set questions that we had to ask our partner, and then answer personally as well. The questions ranged from incredibly personal; 'What is your most treasured possesion?', to more light hearted; 'What would be your fancy dress costume of choice?'. Initially we had no idea what we would have to do with the information, therefore I tried to get as much as I could. Once we were finished we were then told we had to design a complete alphabet that visually communicates them and their interests. At first I was quite overwhelmed and could not figure out how I would manage to represent a person I had never spoken to before, but once I settled on a theme I was set.

I decided to use one of my partners biggest interests; tattoo's, and expand on the idea. I researched 'Sailor Jerry', one of the founding tattoo artist's, and his infamous traditional designs. I wanted to incorporate these designs with a pre-existing font but realised I couldn't just place the drawings with the font as this would not answer the brief correctly. In order for it to be done correctly I had to edit the font, not just place illustrations with it.
Above is a quick example of how I printed off pre-existing fonts and then drew over them to create a more traditional feel. Once I settled on using Arial Narrow as the existing typeface I then worked on a larger scale so I could add better detail to each letter. I then worked on the illustrations that I could pair with the letters, initially wanting to go with a traditional rose I sketched a few designs.
This is an example of how I paired the rose design with the letter A. Also featured is the cut-out on the right hand side stroke and serifs. Now I had to decide on where the rose would feature on every other letter and the glyphs. Below is the sheet that I took into my final crit. I was pleasantly pleased with what I had created and hoped it wouldn't be too heavily criticised. Luckily it wasn't but a few issues I had expected to be raised were. For example from a distance it was hard to decipher that the roses where actually roses because of the dark red colour, this would need to be addressed. Another issue was the continuity of the serifs, but I knew I hadn't looked into it thoroughly enough, and expected repercussions.

Therefore I decided to remove the colour and all the serifs that were unecessary to create what you see below. My absolute final alphabet.

Visual Language: 13th October

Today we had another visual language session, and that means another session of cutting out 10cm x 10cm squares and using variations on the letter A to visually communicate certain words. However today was slightly different. We had to create five different ways of portraying the word scale, and with this we had to really think about format and composition. We were told to make the five examples as different from each other as possible, and to really project our ideas by having letters disappear off the page in some cases.

As soon as we had finished designing the five variations we then had to move around the room and find another persons work. We then had to take this persons work back to our own table and work with their examples for the rest of the session. We were told to use each example and create a further three variations on the initial idea to communicate 'scale' further.


With this design I moved the top of the A slightly further down each time, therefore decreasing the amount of smaller A's at the same time.


With this example I simply removed a letter each time, therefore reducing the amount of information in each square.


This one was easy to vary, for example I just moved the bigger and smaller letters into different corners of the square. However I don't think it represents 'scale' very well.


This one is incredibly subtle but I really like the final outcome. Each time the slope gets slightly less steep, therefore reducing the amount of A's on show.

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

Alphabet Soup: Part One

On Monday 28th September the class was given a new brief entitled 'Alphabet Soup'. Each person was given a word to visually communicate, mine was: 'Dissect'. I found myself stumped as to what to do with this word, so I decided to brainstorm a few ideas and just try to come up with something interesting. I started by looking at the actual definition found in the dictionary and found this:

Dissect:
1. To cut apart or separate
2. To examine, analyse or criticise in minute detail

I decided to follow the first definition and literally pull apart my letters. Once this idea had come to the forefront of my mind I instinctively thought of the traditional Channel 4 ident. The idea that the number 4 had been split up and pulled slightly apart, making it appear disjointed really appealed to me and addressed the brief perfectly. I then started to look at different type faces, exploring many different ones but eventually landing on Arial Black. The boldness of it was perfect and when using upper case letters the thickness of all the lines was ideal for 'dissecting' them in half.

I could not decide which 10 letters to use for this project so I used a 'randomiser' similar to the one used to assign the word 'dissect' to me in the first place. The 10 letters I picked were: A,E,H,X,N,V,Y,L,K,Z. With my final 10 letters I decided to trace each one and then work over the top with experimentation. I split each line in two and then also added serifs in certain places. Once my final typefaces had been designed I printed them off and used a scalpel to create 'stencils'. With these stencils I experimented with different materials including felt and foamboard.

I scanned all different letters into my computer with all different colours of felt.

I liked the solid colour approach but I also liked the idea of combining a few different colours. So I decided upon using the primary colours red, yellow and blue. Once I had designed all ten letters using my primary colour format I could have finished the project then and there. However I decided to take the design one step further. I remembered that I liked the 3D approach of the Channel 4 ident and so used photoshop to distort the perspective of my designs. Each one was given a slant so I could put another layer behind, this one would be black to communicate the 3D design.

Below are a few examples of my final design:

Visual Language: 29th September

Today was our first Critical and Theorertical studies session and it was nothing like I expected. I showed up thinking it would be similar to a lecture, with the class just taking notes from a tutor talking about a particular aspect of graphic design. However I was more than surprised when we were given a very practical, sometimes challenging task to accomplish. It involved ten 10cm x 10cm squares and two contact sheets full of the letter A. Some letters varied in size and font type, but all were black and purely A's.
We were then given ten words to visually communicate using only these materials, and glue of course. With each word we were allocated 5 minutes, at first it was difficult to work that fast, but as the task continued it became easier to work within such a short period of time.



Loop, Finished, Enclosed, Connect, Break, Systematic, Spine, Right Angle, Project, Negative

After we had all finished the task we had to display all ten of our completed pieces on our desk and move to a different place in the room. We then had to analyse another persons piece of work and try to pair each word with its correct counterpart. When I returned back to my space I found that seven of mine had been correctly guessed, a slightly higher than an average result that I was pleased with.