BLOG 14 Essential Mathematics for Games

This my husband's textbook that he uses at work. He's a computer scientist and he works at Volition as a game programmer.  He brought this home one day and I thought it was a well done cover for a textbook ― especially a computer-math textbook.

The scanned colors didn't come our very well.  The cover is more tan than the sickly green it appears to be and all of the adjustments I tried made it look more like puke.  Sorry.

So, what I like about the cover... I like the shape and placement of the E and M and how they relate to the angle and triangle. The line represents a 2-dimentional vector (direction [angle] and length [magnitude]). Game programming uses lots of 3-dimesional vector matrix processing linked with velocity and acceleration matrices. I really like the geometric font for the word GAMES and the cut-away A. I could live without the swirly thing but I think it is suppose to represent the 3-D aspect of programming.  All-in-all, I like the clean, angular, almost Swiss style of the cover.

Source: Van Verth, James M., Bishop, Lars M. Essential Mathematics for Games and Interactive Applications: A Programmer's Guide, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, San Francisco, CA 2004.

BLOG 13 Cocaine

This an PSA put out by the Citizens Against Cocaine Abuse.  I find it haunting. I've shown the block of words below the composition.  The words in black on the white background say The average high induced by cocaine lasts thirty minutes. The white words on the black background say The average death induced by cocaine lasts slightly longer.

I think this composition is very well done.  The large canvas and small text force the reader to pay attention to the chilling words on the page.  The proportions of black (representing death) to white (representing the high) have the same unsettling effect. 

The ad is asymmetrically balanced with vast amounts of black negative space outweighing the white.  The text however balance each other perfectly.  I think the text is Calson.

Source: Stewart, Mary, Launching the Imagination, McGraw-Hill, New York, NY 2008.

BLOG 12 Obama

This is such an interesting and powerful typographic technique that I couldn't resist posting this creation of President Obama. In the image, you can clearly see the toll that the tremendous responsibility of presidency has taken on Obama.  Superimposed on his face, hands, hair, and clothing are all of the burdens that he has faced in office.  Some of the more difficult issues are in heavier weight and larger type - Health Care, Afghanistan, H1N1, Bailout, Global Economics, Global Warming, Iraq, etc.  I am drawn to the way the words arc around his eye, dip under his chin, bridge his nose, circle his forehead, follow the curve of his hand and fingers...  It's as if we can see how all of the issues are intertwined within him, how they weigh him down, show the great responsibility that has befallen him.

The typeface looks like Helvetica in varying weights and sizes. Although it is difficult to say for sure - the numeral 1 in H1N1 looks like the Helvetica numeral 1.

BLOG 11 Butterfly Wings

Most of you have probably seen these before but I find this phenomenon incredible. Every one of these images comes from the brilliant patterns on the wings of moths and butterflies. These designs - each one unique to its species - are used either to attract a mate or for disguise against predators.  The photographer Kjell Sandved has made it his life's work to capture them and create this amazing butterfly alphabet, with every letter from A to Z. 

Nature continues to amaze me! The patterns that occur in nature are so beautiful and so astounding - the colors, shapes, designs.  It re-enforces my belief that so much in our world is interconnected through science, math, sound, literature, art...  There is so much interconnectedness to discover about this world of ours - the Golden Rectangle which appears in the architecture of the Parthenon and the Great Pyramids of Giza. This same number appears in the number and arrangements of many flower pedals - in how they expand from row-to-row based on the Fibonacci sequence (an infinite, irrational series that defines the Golden Number).  Also, many details of the wings of butterflies have been explained and graphed by fractals. Surprise! Many of the fractals are sequenced and end in the Golden Number! If you are really curious, I can explain a little of the math to you but I won't bore you with more details here!   Anyway, it gives me chills when I think about it.

Picture Source:  Extraordinary Pictures of the Alphabet Spelled Out on Butterflies' Wings, 18 January 2008, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ushome/index.html

BLOG 10 Don't mistake legibility for communication

This is a piece from David Carson. I used to find his style somewhat cluttered and difficult to parse. But as I explored more of his work, I find it more appealing and understandable. Just looking at images on Google, this one jumped out at me as representing his ideas on design. He uses type to evoke emotions.  He makes the viewer work for the message. In this composition, he overlaps various typefaces in a black mass.  Looking at the less dense areas, one can determine that he is stating his message (Don’t mistake legibility for communication) over and over again. On top of the mass of text, he obviously states his message using positive and negative text images. In the composition, the use of white space and the placement of his name in red at the upper left-hand corner is very appealing to me (using a 5 for the s in Carson). His name in red and the large separation from the main composition creates a dual focal point. Although, the font unifies his name with the rest of the piece. The typeface for his name, Don’t mistake and for communication is a serif font reminiscent of an old-time typewriter perhaps Courier - it looks like it is an mono-spaced typeface. The typeface for legibility is a san serif typeface with a fairly high x-height. The idea that communication and legibility are not mutually exclusive is one that I am just beginning to realize - the lines between text, art, and communication are blurred in our digital age.

BLOG 9 MACBETH

This poster was created by Lippa Pearce for a production of Shakespeare's Macbeth.  I found this illustration compelling for three reasons; it was created completely of type, the type is formed from a non-traditional medium (a bloodlike substance); and the negative space is the means to the graphic force.  The use of splattered blood in the poster creates an immediate visceral reaction.  We have all seen it used before in horror movies and to depict murder.  But it also represents more serious and deathly issues such as war, crime, and genocide.  In this case, I feel like it was used judiciously to represent a serious crime - a crime that will haunt the audience not just give them a momentary chill and thrill.  Blood is the frame for the title in the Macbeth poster which makes it take on a distorted, obscured shape.  Thus, creating a greater significance.  Also, creating text from the negative space forces the viewer to decipher the composition which increases the interaction between viewer and the message.  

As far as the type goes, I thought it was Helvetica Bold Condensed but then I looked at the rounded edge on the E. But maybe that was an intentional imperfection?

Source:  Heller, Steven and Mirko Ilic, The Anatomy of Design, Rockport Publishers, Beverly, Massachusetts, 2009

BLOG 8 Lou Reed

I was reminded of this poster after seeing our classmate Jason's blog post last week.  Admittedly, it's it low-tech version but still very powerful. The poster was created by Stefan Sagmeister to promote Lou Reed's 1996 CD, Set the Twilight Reeling.  I've included the CD cover, too. It's very dark which definitely reflects the mood of the CD. The poster is a black & white photo of Reed with hand-written lyrics of the title track of the CD printed across his face like graffiti. This creates a frank and unyielding directness which is typical for this period in Lou Reed's career. The important words and phrases of the song are capitalized and/or enlarged for emphasis; heart, sex, seems to cry, sun, retards, as the twilight sunburst gleams.  Yet some of the lyrics are hopeful and even tender: As the twilight sunburst gleam, as the chromium moon it set. As I lose all my regrets and set the twilight reeling. I accept the new found man and set the twilight reeling. These are the last words of the song after a huge transformation takes place; years of drugs and rehab that finally took root. Anyway, I love the idea of using the contours of the face to reflect the ideas of the person.  I think this is a very effective portrayal of Lou Reed using own image, soulful eyes, and thoughtful lyrics.