b does design... ish

bethany robinson - rmit student - relatively sarcastic

[bdoesdesignish]

grap2199 final summary featuring elliot's goodbye song

ABC Kids - Rollercoaster - Elliot's Goodbye Song (2009)

goodbye for now, not forever

our first semester of comm design is over. wow, that feels really weird.

coming into grap 2199 I was unsure what was really in-store but from the first fire alarm to our final doughnuts, I don’t think I’ve ever had a boring moment in this class (I may have dozed off a few times but that is purely my own fault), being a history nerd, this was truly the class for me. 

my two main objectives were to try my best and not give in when something isn’t working for me. I think I have achieved these to the best of my ability and have passed well enough to be content with the design choices I have made. 

learning about the memphis group and its impact on post-modernism was really interesting and one of my favourite movements we were introduced to purely because I liked how busy and chaotic the work looked and how satirical it appeared. I didn’t know much about how asymmetry has had an impact on design “rules” and, being a lover of simple design and symmetry, the sculptural mess was surprisingly fun to look at.

my favourite workshops were the typeface in my pocket, shapeshifters and our pop up exhibitions. these three activities gave us the biggest and best chances to work as a team, get hands on and use what we had and only what was around us to create. these activities really gave  us the chance to see what we could do and honestly helped me find ways to create basic concepts for other assignments.

okay so I’m well over 200 words so I only have this left to say,

a massive thank you to andy and karen for opening our eyes to so much of history, for cheesy powerpoint transitions, for doughnuts and for creating the only course I happily woke up at 6:00 AM for.

grap2199, you’ve been a blast.

b out xo

[bdoesdesignish]

when you finally get a knock back email, a week too late, basically from yourself? dun dun dunnnnnnn glad I interviewed brittany in the end, not many people have a friend as amazing and strong minded as mine

[bdoesdesignish]

an interview with a designer, artist, photographer, friend brittany drysdale sweetly agreed to answer my questions although I could’ve probably predicted her answers a rough final - I didn’t get proper photos of the final but quite proud of my little chatterboxes

[bdoesdesignish]

fri 25/5 9:02 am week 11 lecture 18/5 what’s next for design

week 11’s lecture saw us investigate deep into our futures, except andy’s slideshows were the crystal ball and there were no psychics involved.

we were first introduced the the inspiring work of the graffiti research lab, free art and technology lab, open frameworks, the ebeling group and their creation of the eye writer, a low cost eye tracking device developed for paralysed street/graffiti artist and activist tempt1. in 2003 tempt1 was diagnosed with als (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) wherein all muscle function slowly deteriorates resulting in paralysis, aside from tempt1’s eyes. the eye writer was developed by friends of tempt1 and he was given the first prototype in 2009. the eye writer works by tracking the movements of the users eyes using a series of low cost cameras, connecting the images through code to projectors to display the work onto solid surfaces in the urban area.

designers developing for the greater good and a purpose seemed to be a major aspect of the future talk with the introduction of images of 3d printed digital nomadic codes and physical data being produced into musical boxes by one of karen’s workshop classes.

and then more nonsensical creations of a twitter/advert analysing robot, predictive art bot, that uses code to create headlines and, my personal favourite, inspirobot.

The inspirobot describes itself as “an artificial intelligence dedicated to generating unlimited amounts of unique inspirational quotes for endless enrichment of pointless human existence”, essentially random words in decorative typefaces, teamed with a square stock image background that have no correlation to one another creating strange quotes. most quotes would only seem inspirational to sociopaths but it does make for a good laugh.

http://inspirobot.me

Our workshop consisted of a layout and printing instructional session to help those who were printing and folding their own zines and to teach us how to use various shortcuts on indesign, how to place images using command+d etc. I don’t have any photos from the workshop so ill put some inspirational quotes up for you.

b out

[bdoesdesignish]

fri 1/6 2:41 pm week 10 workshop 11/5 prototyping

so I missed week 10 because I was back in the hometown (hellhole) of shepparton at my baby sister’s debutante ball but I know that andy pulled out the magic box of supplies aka the recycling bin and everyone created something with the cardboard as a quick prototype? I think?

here are some photos I took at the deb instead :)

b out

[bdoesdesignish]

fri 1/6 2:32 pm week 9 workshop 4/5 who decides design

The week nine workshop saw us explore further into the same ideas of week 7, working to find letter forms in editorial/magazine pages and then creating a collaged zine with what we had found. working as a table, I think the most common letters were o and w as you could easily cut along a simple line to make either of these without moulding the shape too much to suit the letter. The major struggle of this task was finding the letters in the artwork and not simply cutting an a out of a textured piece and be done with it. my final zine was mostly an exploration of collage and only used 4 letters as letters and everything else as decoration trying to get a feel for how a zine can appear messy but make sense as well. 

b out

[bdoesdesignish]

fri 1/6 2:30 pm week 9 lecture  4/5 who decides design

in week 9 we first looked at high scoring ask me anything projects from past students and I honestly thought they were 3rd year projects they were so good, safe to say I’m never going to be that creative or good at this business oops. self deprecation aside, it was really interesting to see what others before us had done and made me think about doing something that wasn’t a zine so something about my project would be in some way unique. 

the lecture itself saw us investigate how the rise of the machines conquered art and design or simply how computers influenced how we operate as creatives now. We discussed how the use of metal type was slowly becoming obsolete and were introduced to images of a printers with rows upon rows of metal printing plates that now are virtually useless. we looked at the launch of the amiga computer and the iconic images of andy warhol drawing debbie harrys on the new computer system in 1985, interview magazine, raygun magazine, the face magazine and how digital art and post modernism began to rise in the creative world. the memphis group created by architect ettore sottsass was a major focus of the lecture as we explored how his pioneering post-modernist architectural furniture and furnishings changed the game of industrial design and how designers approach form and function. being introduced to the geometrically satirical work of the memphis group has been one of my favourite lectures so far as I found the exotic blend of pop art, asymmetry and riot of colour, things I don’t normally love, to be very fun and so unique. I definitely found a quote from the san fransisco chronicle to be the best and most accurate description of the the group, "a shotgun wedding between bauhaus and fisher-price".

b out

[bdoesdesignish]

fri 1/6 2:29 pm week 8 workshop 27/4 zine time

in week 8 we began with a worksheet to help us develop our questions for our respective interviewees, as I had received no response from anh do’s management and was unable to connect my past teachers, I found this worksheet to be a little unhelpful at that stage as I had no idea who I was going to interview. I decided to write my questions as if karina was my creative so I could gage whether I was being too wordy with my queries. 

we then learnt how to properly set up, trim and bind a zine which was really cool. before that workshop I had no fathomable idea what a zine really was, so you can imagine my surprise when I learnt they were just the little booklets we used to make in primary school with an edgier concept to its composition. It was good to learn what order and what the layout of our zines would look like when printed and should be a very helpful thing to know for the future. 

b out

[bdoesdesignish]

fri 1/6 2:28 pm week 8 lecture  27/4 what is this bauhaus anyway continued

is everyone sick of the spam? cos same

okay in our week 8 lecture we continued looking at the enigma that was the bauhaus and its legacy within typography, specifically the impact it had on the international typographic (swiss) style. The international style continues with a designers love of grids, promoting a basic sans serif typefaces that were apolitical and encouraged a universal approach to typography that offered a clear communication of information that had no underlying agenda. 

jan tschichold was a typographer and book designer that andy introduced us to in the lecture that I found very interesting. he was an enthusiastic proclaimer of modernist typography movement and developed the unashamed abashing of any non sans serif text, the typographic work die neue typographie (the new typography). he was also an advocate for the development of asymmetry and how it can form a pleasing aesthetic all whist pertaining to the golden ratio and the grid system. what was most interesting was his complete 180 on the principles of modernism condemning the movement as “inherently fascist” after his return to a classic middle centred design and the rules of classicism. as the unrest in germany began to climax, he started abandoning his rigid principles and welcomed roman serifed back into his designs, creating the iconic medallion series of the penguin books covers leaving the company with a 4 page booklet known as the penguin composition rules with a set of basic typographic rules for editors. a very strange change in personal design preference…

b out

[bdoesdesignish]

fri 1/6 2:26 pm week 7 workshop 20/4 architexture / what is this bauhaus anyway

week 7’s workshop consisted of us (i worked with karina again yes, ask a stupid question) traipsing around campus whilst trying to find the alphabet all around us. I did the exact same task in year 10 and found it a lot more fun this time that we were collaborating with the rest of the class. we found it a lot easier to collect capital letters overall but I think the lowercase ones we found looked the best out of our set. I don’t have a lot to say about this task other than it was really fun and it helped open up my eyes to the design and typographic opportunities that are literally everywhere.

b out

[bdoesdesignish]

fri 1/6 2:21 pm week 7 lecture  20/4 architexture / what is this bauhaus anyway

spam on

the week 7 lecture began our introduction to the design giant that was the bauhaus (construction house/school of building) and what it produced and what its legacy has developed. the bauhaus is world-renown for not only its teaching techniques but the movement it created at the intersection of art, design and architecture. the bauhaus masters developed the basic concepts of minimalism and how art/design meet with rationality, functionality and mass production, further developing the concept of german modernism and encouraging apolitical views through the geometric art styling. another idea developed by the bauhaus under its apolitical views was the idea that every home should have art and everyone should have access to it. 

students worked through a 3 year course where they began first with a preliminary base course and then specialised in the one of the studies of nature, materials, space-colour-composition, construction and representation, and materials and tools. Following their specific study they moved to wood, metal, textiles, colour, glass, clay or stone depending on their previous study and in their final year they finally created a proper final work of architecture. 

I had previously studied the bauhaus through my year 10 studies in vis-com and history and knew a fair chunk of its beginnings, the school’s locations of weimar, dessau and berlin and its impact on many elements and practises of design. it was interesting to learn that their was a core studies chart and that the “triadische ballett” was a bauhaus student creation. being an ex-ballerina myself I had heard of and seen clips of the eclectic performance but never knew it was a bauhaus creation. designers becoming choreographers is truly entertaining.

b out 

[bdoesdesignish]

fri 1/6 2:19 pm week 6 workshop 6/4 what is the space of design

our workshop way back on the 6th of april was probably one of my favourites so far.

in our little table group, we were presented with a plastic bag filled with bright orange quarter circles and instructed to construct the alphabet from these little geometric shapes. after each creating our own 4-5 letter section of the alphabet we were gifted with green triangles and decided to work around the table adding to each others work to create a more streamlined similar typeface through the influence of different ideas, we continued this when we were presented with blue squares. our final typeface looked really good and definitely demonstrated a clear continuation of an idea and looked quite smart being that we had made it placed around the table rather than in a standard two-line makeup.

I though this project was really smart and helped us to explore not only each others thinking but clearly related to the idea of grids and how we shape things to suit our own needs. very fun idea

b out

[bdoesdesignish]

fri 1/6 2:14pm week 6 lecture  6/4 what is the space of design

hey tumblr long time no see  hoping you are all prepared for a 4 week wrap up (aka a massive spam of posts)

so our week 6 lecture was based around shapeshifters and how mathematical grids shaped early typography. we looked at the idea of “divine proportions”, more commonly known as “the golden ratio”, developed by ‘the father of accounting’ luca pacioli and leonardo davinci and how blackletter balanced script originated from the grid-like system. 

we talked about how the grid system influenced basic tiles for printing presses, metal plate printing and the structure of a typewriter. following the typewriter discussion we looked at the development of ASCII art, the use of keyboard characters to create small symbols such as :) <3 (little faces and hearts and such) seen using vertical characters to create horizontal images. we also looked into the further development of these glyphs in the form of kaomojis, vertically based faces that have the capability to show better emotion similar to anime/manga displays of facial expression.

being a geometric thinker, I really enjoyed looking at the idea of type being based on a mathematical grid and how everything we know and practise today is based off of basic maths.

i’m off to buy a typewriter

b out

[bdoesdesignish]

wed 11/4 7:09 pm week 5b workshop hello my question is...

friday’s workshop consisted of some teamwork, collaboration, creative thought and some appreciation of the talented people surrounding us. our task was to curate a pop up gallery exhibition in three groups and find a unique way for our audience to view our work and guide them through the story.  our group at first decided to create a maze using the tables to guide people through our gallery space but found with linsy’s and ruby’s work, they spelt out a finale in their conception “is design dead?” and “how do you know when to stop?” leading our group to decide to abruptly finish the gallery walk at these pieces as they had the most impact in their message and created that stopping moment that most artists want their audience to have, making viewers think about what they are really viewing. we definitely found the space made more of an impact when many people had entered into the gallery all at once as it gave people the chance to question those around them on the artworks they were viewing and worked well to emphasise the the enclosed space and dead end. 

the other groups had some excellent ideas that I feel insanely stupid of not thinking up myself that really immersed the audience in their work but I am very proud of our setup and the quick work we made of setting up the tables and artwork.

b out 

[bdoesdesignish]

wed 11/4 6:54 pm week 5b lecture

halfway through the semester and I finally got to sign the roll for the first time. I really hope Andy and Karen aren't really confused as to my constant absence on the lists but I haven't missed a lecture or class unlike someone else *cough* *cough* karina *cough*

anyhoo, our lecture this week introduced us to the creation of the gothic blackletter, early printing and the invention of the gutenberg printing press.

due to an increasing need for books and bibles, production needed to meet demand and thus blackletter, a quick and easily distinguishable typeface, was created. the constant connection between page and quill meant words could be created consistently and quickly. the typeface often directly connected to germany (due to its varying styles of the typeface and its connection to much propaganda) is still highly influential in todays society featuring as the Disneyland major type for a long length of time and the chosen typeface for many fairytale storybooks, most notably the works of the brothers grimm. 

in learning about early printing, andy discussed the diamond sutra one of the earliest known printed books created using a wood cuts or a wood block printing process and the incunabula texts, printed using similar wooden blocks or movable metal type used in printing presses before the popularisation and mass production of the gutenberg press. these were long processes requiring a lot of time and effort due to the need to carve the wooden blocks, ensure the blocks were in correct order, etc. 

being able to write and print in any ancient or past society/era must have been painful and incredibly time consuming, you would hope that your services would at least earn you some land or livestock in return.

b out

[bdoesdesignish]

fri 30/3 12:48 pm image and identity  personal app icons brief one

good friday is my favourite day of the year as a sad period in the christian calendar is made hopeful (early) thanks to the good friday appeal. please donate to the royal children's, they do so much good for the littlest of our population and its a lot to admire.

back to the school work, honestly in love with everyones app designs and many of you extraordinarily talented people have seriously made me rethink my design dreams and what the hell I am doing in this course, still proud of you all anyway.  I am relatively okay with the (very boring) final layout and (average) app designs I created but adore my little shakespeare. I definitely feel I have much to improve on and hope this year starts looking up for me.

b out

[bdoesdesignish]

mon 26/3 5:59 pm hello my question is

20% of communication design studies complete

not entirely happy with the final product as the intended play on words using “make” is slightly lost, I didn't have a better background due to the rain and I ran out of ribbon very quickly. The colours are quite gorgeous and I do love the lovely lines created by the flowing ribbon but things never quite work out how you expect

b out