Anton Ranger

Graphic Student

[anranger]

Colour Theory

Complementary colours are colour opposing colour that cancel each other out and have the highest contrast when placed beside each other. These colours are good for creating high contrast as the opposing colour making a vibrant look that is eye catching.

Split complementary colours consist of three colours, the first is the main colour, and the other two are the colours adjacent of its complementary colour. These colours have good contrast and work well together, they are less harsh that complementary as the lower contrast takes away some of the tension.

Double split complementary colours are colours that are adjacent on both sides of two complementary colours, this creates two complimentary pairs. These colours work best with one colour dominating and with a good balance between warm and cool colours.

Triadic palettes are three colours that are equally space in a triangle on the colour wheel. These colours are most of the time vibrant and work best with one colour dominating and the other two been used to assist.

Analogous colours are three colours that side in a row on the colour wheel. These colours will create a comfortable design; they have a more nature look and will be pleasant to the eyes. When using these make sure to have high enough contrast between the chosen colours.

Monochromatic palettes is using one colour is different shades, so it can range from a darker tone to a pale tone of the chosen colour. A greyscale image is classed as monochromatic as it uses black as the hue and white as the base.

Warm colours are colours that are associated with warmer feeling and other heat associated factors. Reds and yellow are example of theses as they are associated with fire, heat and warm temperature.

Cool colours are colours that are associated with calmer feeling and other relaxed and neutral environments. Blue and green are examples of these are associated with ice, water, sky and cool temperatures

Source: http://www.tigercolor.com/color-lab/color-theory/color-harmonies.htm

[anranger]

Anatol Knotek is an Austrian artist, visual and concrete poetry, installation and conceptual art. I like his work because how he uses typography to make other aspects of the work, I like the way that instead of an hour glass it is an ampersands and the instead of sand it is the letter ‘S’. I also like the transition piece where it changes from saying “time passes by” to “I pass by” then to just “Bye”, I find this very interesting and think it a smart use of the phrase.

Source: http://www.anatol.cc/concrete_poetry

[anranger]

Maurizio Nanucci

Mauurizo is an artist that experiments in concrete poetry, fluxus and conceptual. He uses a variety of different techniques including a complex mix of art, language, images and multimedia, he applied in different ways from photography to neon visuals.

I like this because it catches my eyes, it basic and simple but the use of the neon lights allows the work to stand out and look interesting, it don't look boring, it has use the combination of the lights and colour to add depth and feel to the work.

Source:http://mrkcoolhunting.com/en/posts/687/maurizio-nanucci.html

[anranger]

Rachel is a British artist who works in hand coloured & reduction linocut, mixed media engraving & unique pastel drawing.

She does hand coloured lino cut in which you do the lino cut then it is hand coloured using watercolours, this makes it so her works is very detailed and has some realism to the look of her work.

Sources:

http://rachelnewling.com/about-rachel-newling-artist-linocuts-engravings-drawings-curriculum-vitae/

http://rachelnewling.com/linocuts-all-gallery-rachel-newling/

[anranger]

James Brown is a British artist, he does illustration and print making.

His work is colourful and playful, it looks like circus post because of the style and layout. He also had letters that are also bold with strong use of lines and shapes to compliment the letters.

Source:

http://www.thecalmgallery.com/artists/james_brown

[anranger]

Mark Andrew Webber is a British artist known for lino cut maps.

His work is very detailed and most commonly large in scale, his city maps made only typography are intricate and precise. The use of street names and areas and typefaces seen in the areas is smart and intriguing.

Sources:

http://markandrewwebber.com/?page_id=17

http://markandrewwebber.com/?category=maps

[anranger]

Lino Cut

Lino cut is the technique of cutting a design into linoleum.

You create a lino cut by using a knife or gouge to cut a design into the linoleum, cutting out the white areas of the design. After apply paint using a roller to get an even application, you then can use your hands or a press to apply the design onto paper. If you want to do several colour start with lightest colour and then cut out the areas which contained that colour, then repeat with next colour until fully coloured.

[anranger]

Barbara Garrison is a British artist her work includes etchings, woodcuts, linocuts, collographs and monotypes.

Her work looks like a children’s book but it kind of has a Persian or Indian style to it. The colours are quite pastel and the images are very playful for example using bears, hence why it look a bit like a children’s book.

Sources:

http://www.barbaragarrison.com/aboutme.html

http://www.barbaragarrison.com/largeCollagraphs.html

[anranger]

Stefan Barton is a German artist, his work has been exhibited in galleries in San Francisco, Portland, Boston, Cambridge and also the Stanford University.

His work is dark and gloomy, it has a very murky look to it, some piece even look a little twisted because of his use of dark swampy colours and creating weird abstract figures.

Sources:

http://www.collagraphs.com/bio.php

http://www.collagraphs.com/index.php

[anranger]

Kim Major-George is a British artist and printmaker, she specialises in texture and hand pulled Collography.

You can tell she has been influenced by old/ancient times as it has a mythical/spiritual look to it, her colour have an old look a bit like an oil painting.

Sources:

http://www.majorgeorge.co.uk/

http://www.majorgeorge.co.uk/gallery/

[anranger]

Collography

Collography is the art of applying materials to paperboard or wood.

Coll (koll) meaning glue and graph meaning drawing.

You create a collograph by gluing different materials like string, cardboard or other different textured items to a rigid substrate for example paperboard or wood. After you apply paint then using a press you transfer it to paper.

[anranger]

Ideogram of all the stuff I like, it contains hobbies I like to do and some of the items I couldn’t live without.

[anranger]

For this I was working on drawing a technical drawing of the letter 'A' in Times New Roman. I had to work out the weight of the strokes and the crossbar, as well as the angles of the curves entering the serif. I did this my measuring lengths to get the strokes and using an ellipsis to get curves.

[anranger]

Grime Reaper Made of Type

For this piece I used the words from William Butler Yeats poem 'Death'.

Nor dread nor hope attend

A dying animal;

A man awaits his end

Dreading and hoping all;

Many times he died,

Many times rose again.

A great man in his pride

Confronting murderous men

Casts derision upon

Supersession of breath;

He knows death to the bone

Man has created death.

When I read this poem the phrase "He knows death to the bone" it stood out to me, it also made me think of the grim reaper, I wanted to create the poem out of type and since that spoke to me I decided to create the grim reaper, so with words from the poem repeated in different tones of grey I designed the grim reaper then applied it to a contrasting black background so it would stand out. Created on Adobe Illustrator CS6

[anranger]

Helvetica was created by Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann in 1957.

Several different companies use Helvetica including; American Airlines (former logo), American Apparel, Urban Outfitters, IRS, EPA, Samsung, NASA (on the spaceships) and many more.

Massimo Vignelli stated that Helvetica was modern clean and clear, it was like a visual disease.

Rick Poynor said that the use of Helvetica has become the default type and this needs to change.

Wim Crouwel stated that he is likes the clarity and legibility in a font which is why he chooses to use Helvetica.

Matthew Carter mentioned that it is hard to improve Helvetica, as it is just seems exactly right.

Alfred Hoffmann (Eduard Hoffmann’s son) showed the first trials of the font and spoke about his father’s work.

Mike Parker stated that Helvetica is such a strong font, it’s a letter that lives in a powerful matrix of surrounding space.

Michael Bierut said that Helvetica is just like air, it’s just there.

Leslie Savan believes that a font has to have 3 things; Characteristics, Accessibility and Transparency.

Jonathan Hoefler stated that Helvetica says everything which is the reason it has such a strong appeal, and it is too hard to evaluate or improve.

Tobias Frere-Jones felt that Helvetica is the ultimate typeface due to everyone being very aware of the font and that its classic modern.

Erik Spiekermann said that Helvetica answered to the high demand, and is like the current default typeface.

Neville Brody believes that Helvetica is the perfect typeface as it is clean and you are destined to fit in therefore it is the best weapon of choose for any company.

Lars Müller believes that Helvetica is like the perfume of the city, something that you never notice but if it wasn’t there, and then you would definitely miss it.

Stefan Sagmeister felt that Helvetica was a boring font, and when there is any sign which uses the Helvetica typeface, it says, “don’t read me”.

David Carson believed that there is a thin line between boring and explosive when using the Helvetica font

Norm only liked rational typefaces else it has too much expression; therefore, Helvetica was just perfect because you would just use it as it is. They said it will always look good if you use Helvetica Bold.

Michael C. Place said that he enjoyed the challenge of making Helvetica speak in a different way.

Vignelli believed that typography should be expressive and Helvetica makes this very difficult.

A lower case h is usually the starting point when designing a typeface because it tells you whether the letters will be serif or sans serif, the cup height and x height of the lettering and shows you the curvature of a letter.

The letters o and p show features, so the typographer is able to use the measurements from the ‘o’ for other round letters with counters or open counters such as ‘c’. Also the ‘p’ is round and straight and so will help with other letters such as the ‘d’ or ‘b’.

Helvetica is based on the typeface Akzidenz-Grotesk.

Helvetica was originally called Neue Haas Grotesk, however it was changed because it didn’t sound very good if it was intended to be sold in the globally.

Helvetica means ‘the Swiss typeface’ which was first going to be called Helvetia which is Latin for Switzerland, however after thinking that a typeface cannot be called a country, Helvetica was chosen as the final name.

I believe that Helvetica is one of top sans serif typeface because it is just simple, legible and strong, however it can’t be used for all occasion because sometimes it can just appear flat and life less.

Arial’s relationship to Helvetica is that Arial is just a variation which was created by Microsoft as they refused to pay for Helvetica.

[anranger]

The Harrods logo was designed by Brian Tattersfield, is a script type that show heritage, it is effective in different colours and sizes. Even though it is a script type is still keeps is class and professional look, it in fact created a sort of homely feel to it.

[anranger]

The Victoria and Albert Museum Logo was created by Alan Fletcher, the serif design contains a 'V' and an ampersand beside a cut of 'A', this is a smart use of composition as it shows that style of the company through the type and creativity through the layout.