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.

BLOG 7 GÖDEL, ESCHER, BACH

Before you take on reading this blog post, I am giving you fair warning! It is long and I am passionate about the subject because changed the way I look at the world. It gave me HOPE. I truly believed that I had no artistic ability at all. After reading this book, as a sophomore in college (oh so many years ago), I had a new understanding of the interconnectedness of art, math, science, literature and music. Was it possible that I did have some artistic talent somewhere deep inside my being?  Maybe I could harness some of the my mathematical skills and apply them to art? Read on...

Okay, I am a total math geek. I have always loved math and after working in civil engineering for a number of years, I decided to go back to school and work on a PhD. in Statistics. How does that relate to graphic design, you ask? Well, it really does more than you can imagine. As I said when I was a sophomore in college, I read a book that rocked my world. It was entitled Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R. Hofstadter. In it, he discussed the connection between math, art and music - specifically the mathematician Kurt Gödel, artist M.C Escher, and musician J.S. Bach. It also tied in literary and historical findings. It borrows from author Lewis Carroll (Alice in Wonderland) in that each chapter has a dialogue between historic characters like Achilles and the Tortoise. This book made me see how everything - even the most obscure mathematical findings - are interconnected in our world, through art, pattern, music, and ideas. Again, the relationship of the drawings of Escher and the mathematical idea of tessellations (that I was studying) made me look for patterns all around me. I was totally oblivious to these beautiful patterns before reading this book and studying mathematics.

Knowledge is doubling at an astounding rate - nearly every 18 months now according to many experts. Since the book was written in 1979, many of the ideas in the book have been expanded to the nth degree - chaos theory, fractals, fuzzy set theory, number theory - yet the connection remains unending - the connection between math, art, literature, and music. To me, this represents the connection between creativity and the quest for knowledge.  The connection between that makes it possible for everyone to find artistic, mathematical, and musical ability within themselves no matter how deeply they believe it to be buried.

Okay, now onto the book cover... The title of the book is definitely the first thing that catches the eye. The cream colored, slightly rounded, all-cap letters on the black background are striking because of the high contrast. I looked for a typeface but I couldn't find anything like it.  Does anyone know of anything similar?   The author's name is written in the same typeface and color but has a thin black stroke.  The rest of the text is in Helvetica of varying weights and sizes. I love the wood block that is carved such that projections show the letters G, E, and B.  It is in the style of the engineering orthographic projection.  The color scheme is black, cream, and gold (which doesn't scan well). Very clever. Very clean.

Source: Douglas R. Hofstadter, Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, Basic Books, Inc., New York, NY 1979

BLOG 6 eye Magazine Cover

This is from the cover of the of eye magazine which launched in 1991 by Rick Poyner as a forum for graphic designers and typography.  This cover appeared in 1993 and was designed by Poyner himself.  I was really attracted to the overlapping of the outlined letters in primary colors on the black background.  It is interesting that if you really look you can find a bit of a letter - like the serif of a lower case, small point-size "p" in red and trace the letter through the jumble of "p's."  The composition also has a three-dimensional quality to it because of all of the overlapping within each of the letters and even across the letterforms.  Also adding to the three-dimensional quality is the white "t" that looks like it has been spun about its vertical axis.  Very cool effect.  I can't imagine how many typefaces are used to create this piece and I really can only indentify one - the large, white blocky "y".  I think it is something like hodge 06_65. 

The composition of the piece is very chaotic yet it is well balance  - the random swirl of letters are balances by the strong, bright-white eye (title) in the upper right-hand corner.  The typeface for the title is Helvetica.  The cover is also strangely unified by proximity and color.  The letters creating the word "type" are literally right on top of one another and overlapping one another.

I generally prefer a clean, simple design but somehow this caught my eye.  Sorry about the quality of the scan but this was a rather small picture in the center binding of a very large book!

Source: Feiedl, Friedrich, Ott, Nicolaus, Stein, Bernard, Typography:
           An Encyclopedic Survey of Type Design and Techniques
           Throughout History, Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers,
           Inc., New York, NY.

BLOG 5 Metropolis

This is the poster for the famous German Expressionist film by Fritz Lang entitled Metropolis.  The poster was created by Heinz Schulz-Neudamm, Germany.  The landscape that Lang created amazed critics and since then the film has been seen as the forerunner to modern science fiction.  The female robot has been the model for many other robots including C-3PO.  The buildings in the film and the poster were inspired by New York City in the 1920's and reflect the Art Deco style of the city's skyscrapers.  

Anyway, Schulz-Neudamm created the poster as a lithograph and created the font specifically for the film.  It fits the angular, angst-ridden world created by Lang in the movie.  I went searching to see if anyone created a font similar to font used in this poster.  I found one on DaFont.com.  It was a free font so I downloaded it and started to play around with it.  It didn't have the qualities that I would have liked...  The tracking and kerning were way off and the letters weren't in the same proportions as the poster.  This what I came up with.  It's a free font but you can get the look of the poster although it requires a fair amount of manipulation.  I guess you get what you pay for!

Sources: King, Emily, A Century of Movie Posters From Silent to Art

             House, Octpus Publishing Group, Ltd. 2003

             www.dafont.com

BLOG 4 Anni Kuan

I found this advertisement for a clothing line so clever and unique.  I love the way the thread and pins create tension and the words are loosely written between a set of tightly held thread.  I was immediately attracted to the easy style of it.  As I said there are some areas an tension and density in the advertisement there is really no contrast at all - except for the designers name ANNI KURN which is all caps, bold, boxed and in a different font. More on the fonts later...  Almost all of the negative space is created by the back-and-forth motion of the thread lines which are similar in size, shape, and presence.  Almost all of the elements are the same distance from the edge.  Also, all of the elements are linear with only slight changes in weight and size.  The result is a very quiet casual, laid-back expression, that is unpretentious, comfortable, and utterly charming.

Now about the fonts:  The designer ANNE KUAN is in all caps and boxed.  After a lot of comparing and contrasting various fonts, I am fairly certain that the font used is Colossus.  The other text font is Helvetica Neue Lt. Std. The dates and information for the fashion show are directly beneath Anni's name flush right.  To completely unify the advertisement, the locations of her storefronts are pinned beneath her show info flush right.  These are also in Helvetica Nueu Lt. Std. and they connect with a thread to her name to fully unify the design. 

Source: Top Creativity Gallery, CMYK Magazine Volume 45, November 2009, Aroune-Freigen Publishing Company.