Monday 30 January 2012

Zine Research.

This zine is really simplistic, but I think the line drawings are really effective especially with how the black contrasts so strongly with the white. I also like the handwritten style type, this is something I would like to re-create.

This zine has a really cut out appearance, I think this cut and stick look is effective and also fits with the ideas I have for my own zines.

This publication is very similar to the previous but I feel it is a lot less strong. I don't like the use of type as I feel the choices they've made could be improved. The print quality also appears quite poor which doesn't do the piece any justice.

There are aspects I like and dislike with this. I really like the choice of colour and style of type and illustration, but I think the layouts could improve especially with the photos on the front cover.

I really like this front cover design. I feel that it has a very naive quality with the illustrations that work well together with the photos and type.

Here is a selection of covers for the same zine. This demonstrates how varied I could be with my illustration style yet still have an effective end result.

Monday 23 January 2012

Essay.

Focussing on specific examples, describe the way that modernist art and design was a response to the forces of modernity.

The Modernity era began around 1760 and ended at about 1960. During this time lots of changes occurred which helped us to progress to the world that we live in today, these are often called the forces of Modernity. Here M. Barnard also describes the situation, ‘Every institution, cultural tradition, social class, economic practice and political relationship that had existed before had been fundamentally transformed. In such a context, then, it is only to be expected that European institutions and traditions of art, along with beliefs about art and design, were also profoundly shaken.’ (Barnard, 2005, p.120.) The main change was urbanisation, where people moved from a rural life to one of industry and industrialisation. People’s lives became linked with their shift patterns, which led to less freedom due to them being controlled by their working hours. The split of work and free time made class a lot more noticeable and people’s interaction with each other changed dramatically. Population in these industrial areas also increased as people fled there for work and to be part of the big cultural change. Technology was a new phenomenon during this time with the invention of new materials such as concrete, steel, plastics, aluminium and reinforced glass which led to mass production. On a design level Modernism is associated with innovation and experimental work, focussing on progress and moving on from previous ideas to create entirely new and original developments. Designers of this time took their work very seriously and had the belief that they could change the world for the better and for good. It was also thought that each area of the Arts should remain pure and separate from everything else.

One of the places to be most affected was Paris and by 1900 it was the most progressive city in the world. It was specifically designed to be the most modern city, which is why a renovation called Hausmannisation occurred to ensure this. Paris was developed into an entirely different place to what it once was, large and open boulevards replaced crumbling alleyways and electric street lighting was introduced in an attempt to reduce crime and push the poor out to the suburbs. The effect of this still remains today. There was a strong rivalry between Paris and London during the 1800’s due to the cultural race, new exhibitions would take place across the years. The most significant of these would be the Eiffel Tower, finished in 1889. At 1056 feet it rose above the traditional architecture and was at the time the tallest manmade object on earth. It was said to represent the triumph of the present over the past, which as a statement sums up the main belief of modernity as a whole. The man that created this historic structure was Gustave Eiffel who was 57 at the time The Paris World Fair’s commissioners chose him to take on the job. He was also an engineer not an architect, which could have been the secret of its success, or the fact that The Tower could be viewed by millions of people compared to the select few that attended galleries to view this new modernist art.

Because of this new mantra believed by the majority in the modern world you can see changes in the art of the period, in order for it to stay relevant and fashionable as it can be said that ‘society modernises art’. Although, ‘Modern Art also involves a variety of challenges. Here we may identify three: some art may represent a challenge to the modern world, for example to the persistence of social inequality, or to the way individuals’ lives have been transformed by technology. In addition, modern art may also, involve a variety of challenges to traditional forms of art itself. It follows from this that such art also involves a challenge to conventional forms of response to art… a deliberate challenge to ‘taste.’’ (Meecham and Wood, 1996, p.7) Paris was a city that became an area of study for artists who turned their attention away from myths and wealthy individuals as their subjects for art. Their new focus was not to paint the world but to show the experiences of people in this new, urban environment. For example, this painting by Caillebotte, which depicts a man stood at a window looking out onto the streets of Paris. As you can see the new, modern architecture is visible. The composition has a cropped appearance brought from the invention of photography. This movement really pushed artists into thinking of new styles, for example classical painting followed the rule of thirds but this soon gave way to the idea of cropping. Artists also abandoned realism, as surrealism was something that a camera couldn’t capture. In relation to this here is a piece by French artist Robert Delaunay, an impressive piece capturing the symbol of Modernity in France. Robert Hughes comments on this piece by saying, ‘Delaunay must have painted The Tower thirty times, and he was almost the only artist to paint it at all… ‘The Red Tower’ shows how fully Delaunay could realise the sensations of vertigo and visual shuttling… The Tower is seen, almost literally as a prophet of the future – its red figure, so reminiscent of a man, ramping among the silvery lead roofs of Paris and the distant puffballs of cloud. That vast grid rising over Paris with the sky reeling through it became his fundamental image of modernity: light seen through structure.’ (Hughes, 2000, p.21.) The development of optical science led to experimentation in styles of painting, like dots of contrasting colour. Also, because of the new camera technology new bird’s eye view angles documented a big shift in visual culture. Another innovative painting style was that of staying true to materials, letting paint appear as paint and not trying to use it to represent something else. An example of this is work by American, abstract painter Jackson Pollock who is best known for his ‘drip and splash’ style. To achieve this look he attached his canvas to the floor instead of an easel and discarded brushes for sticks or trowels to manipulate the paint that he poured from a can. You can tell that he used this technique because ‘You cannot get that kind of looping line with oil paint on a brush. (Wood, 1996, p.109) He also commonly mixed in sand, broken glass and other matter. In the example here you can clearly see his style in action, the paint appears very free without any intention to replicate another form or material, which was the purpose of works like this.
As well as Architecture and Fine Art being radically changed these changes also applied to Graphic Design. ‘The roots of modern typography are entwined with those of twentieth-century painting, poetry and architecture. Photography, technical changes in printing, new reproduction techniques, social changes and new attitudes have also helped to erase the frontiers between the graphic arts, poetry and typography and have encouraged typography to become more visual, less linguistic and less purely linear. (Spencer, 2004, p.11) Before the modernist age type had serifs and often had a high stroke contrast. However, this all soon changed with the sans serif style. Type became about appearing simple and stripped down with the main focus being communication not decoration and although this look was around in the 1800’s it wasn’t until the Modernist era that it became popular. During the nineteenth century the monumental changes happening in society went un- recognised by the printing community. As typefaces grew bigger and fatter due to advertising and the competition of production the printer still clung to the small book layout. As time passed designers became more forceful, although printing still revolved around using metal type on a letterpress, the typographers of this era had ideas that would push this process to the limits and discarded the horizontal discipline that moveable type inflicted. They started to look at the composition with the recipient in mind and how they would view it, rather than through the eyes of the producer. Printers now had to tackle very difficult demands of non-linear compositions and way before the development of methods such as photo-typesetting and dry transfer lettering. Another common feature in typefaces was ‘unicameral’ type, where all the text was lower case and the capitals discarded. An example of this is one of Herbert Bayer’s sans-serif fonts called ‘Bayer’. The most popular style of type for the modernists was the ‘Grotesk’, the name was made by William Thorowgood who was the first person to produce a sans serif type with lower case. Akzidenz-Grotesk is perhaps the most famous of this style a modern interpretation of this is Helvetica, which as one of the most successful fonts of all time shows its good design.

As time passed the idea of Modernism faded to become less popular and by the 1960’s it could have been said that it was over and a new era began, Post Modernism.



Bibliography



1.    Laclotte, M, (1987), 'The Musee d'Orsay', London, Thames and Hudson.
2.    Gablik, S, (2004), 'Has Modernism Failed?', London, Thames and Hudson.
3.    Johnson, D, (1987), 'The Age of Illusion: art and politics in France 1918-1940', London, Thames and Hudson.
4.    Bernard, E, (2004), 'Modern Art, 1905-1945), Edinburgh, Chambers.
5.    Meecham, P, (2000), 'Modern Art: a critical introduction', London, Routledge.
6.    Barnard, M, (2005), ‘Graphic Design as Communication’, Oxon, Routledge.
7.    Hughes, R, (2000), ‘The Shock of the New’, London, Thames & Hudson.
8.    Spencer, H, (2004), ‘Pioneers of Modern Typography’, Hampshire, Lund Humphries.
9.    Rodrrigues, C and Garratt, C, (2004), Introducing Modernism, Royston, Icon Books.
10. L, Dawtrey, T, Jackson, M, Masterton, P, Meecham and P, Wood, (1996), Milton Keynes, Yale University Press and The Open University.

Friday 20 January 2012

Blog, Marry, Avoid.

Male Designer - Joseba Elorza


  • Male, Spanish.
  • Specialises in photomontage and mixed media.
  • info@mirarudio.com / +34665730556
  • mira=look rudio=noise
  • www.mirarudio.com
  • Collage effect
  • Mixed media
  • Surreal subject matter
  • enhanced colour
  • incorporation of pattern
  • old style imagery
  • landscape scenes
  • incorporation of type

Female - Lucy Joy

  • Female, English, lives in Bath.
  • Specialises in illustration.
  • Motivated by eye catching objects and surface decoration.
  • lucy.joy@live.co.uk / 07716085911
  • www.lucyjoyoldfield.com
  • Hand rendered style.
  • Interesting use of shape.
  • Linear.
  • Muted pastel colours.
  • Feminine style.
  • Vintage style.
  • Hand written type.
  • Block colour.
  • Use of pattern.
  • Attention to detail.

Company - Mammoth and Company

  • Group of mixed gender, Canada.
  • Covers art, photography, illustration, mixed media, vintage and modern.
  • Mammoth & Co. 546 Taylor Road, Victoria BC, VAC 3YZ / hello@mammothandcompany.com
  • Established in 2010.
  • www.mammothandcompany.com
  • Covers a variety of topics.
  • Sophisticated style.
  • Strong focus on nature.
  • Lots of mixed media.
  • Lots of monotone
  • Contemporary style
  • Wide variety of art from across the world.
  • Common use of watercolour texture.
  • Surreal imagery.
  • Collage. 

Artist List


New Designers

Male - Scott Allbrecht
I like how these pieces focus strongly on type and pattern which are two aspects which strongly interest me. The vintage look paper used is also aesthetically pleasing to me as I think it adds another level to the work.

Female - Silke Werzinger
I really like the illustrative style of this work with the doodles, scribbles and hand drawn typefaces. The texture incorporated also adds to the piece to give an interesting look.

Company - Neighborhood Studio

I have chosen this company because I really like their use of geometric shapes. I think they also work successfully because of the minimal colour  palette of similar tones that compliment each other. I find the pattern aspect very interesting and I would like to focus on this myself in the future. 

Friday 13 January 2012

Lecture Eight - A History of Type.

General
  • Type is the intersect or overlap between visual and verbal communication.
  • Typography covers: a meta communication - a language that is used to comment on another language, paralinguistics - structures another language or the rhythm of communication and - gestures alongside words to change meaning.
  • Type classification: Humanist, old style, transitional, modern, slab serif (egyptian) and sans serif.
Type through time
  • Roman Age - most of our alphabet came from this time. Tragans column.
  • Dark Ages - 1000 years of no development
  • Medieval - lower case was developed.
  • Age of Print - Guttenberg printing press invented in 1450, moveable type. First moveable  typefaces were based on human writing, black letter/gothic.
Humanist
  • The first typeface was created by Nicolas Jenson and it was called Jenson.
  • More readable and modern than black letter.
  • Designed to look Italian renaissance.
  • Characteristics are little difference in first and second stroke and inclination of the 'e'
  • Painter Geofroy Troy believed the alphabet should reflect the proportion of the human form.
Old Style
  • The next fifty years of type really developed.
  • Shift between imitating human writing to type, as an art on its own.
  • Characteristics are no upturned 'e' and spacing.
Transitional 
  • Type as a distinct form.
  • Now type wasn't based on the human form but created on quasi-scientific lines.
  • During the enlightenment period, 1693.
  • Characteristics are difference in stroke width. Also as society became more rational the letters became more vertical.
  • Late 18th century John Baskerville created a type with a contrast between thick and thin.
Modern
  • Start of Modernity.
  • Sometimes called Didone.
  • 1784 French Modernity, Giambattista Bodini.
  • Characteristics are very high stroke contrast, every angle horizontal and vertical, ordered, represented elegance and style.
Slab Serif
  • 1880's, industrial revolution.
  • The nickname 'Egyptian' is random and does not relate to the style.
  • Characteristics not sophisticated, rules of hierarchy broken, condensed to fit lots on a page.
  • Typewriter font.
Sans Serif
  • Around in the 1800's but popular in the modernist era.
  • Progressive, looking to the future.
  • Uni cameral, all text lower case.
  • Grotesk typefaces are simple and stripped down, all about communication and historicism.

Thursday 12 January 2012

Inforgraph Research.



Here are some info graphics from student website, Student Beans. I feel the use of colour and type is really good and creates a clean look where it is easy to read the information. The imagery used is very simple and is often repeated across the composition.

The use of type in this piece is good. I like how it relates so strongly to the topic. The use of contrasting colour is interesting as well.

This deign is quite simple and I feel the layout could be improved to make it appear more exciting. Although the colour scheme works well together and the information is displayed clearly.

I like the use of humour in this piece as I think it relates strongly to the student target audience as does the style of imagery. This is a look I could try to re-create in my own work.

This design has been very clearly separated which is good for distinguishing the information, but I don't think it had been executed very well concerning the design. The use of type is uninspiring and the colours of the sections don't work well together to give an aesthetically pleasing outcome.

I really like the colours used here and I feel the sections are more successful than the previous design. The illustration style is also very quirky which I think will help it stand out.

This design has a very corporate and professional feel which I think works well and looks good but maybe isn't as relevant for the theme that I am going for.

I like the use of handwritten type in this piece and the lined paper samples really give off a student vibe that I like. Even though, I think the composition maybe looks a bit too busy and a bit more white space could improve it.