Kirk Simpson @kirkatmeca - Tumblr Blog

From the Smithsonian traveling exhibition American Letterpress: The Art of Hatch Show Print, this video shows you the art of letterpress printing as practice...

Putting together the presentation for my first project in Design Issues & History and wanted to learn more about the letter press, wood type and more for a better understanding of how printing changed during the Industrial Revolution and the onslaught of the Arts & Crafts Movement.

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In this typography tutorial, Ina Saltz explores type anatomy and terms, including x-height, ascenders, descenders, serifs, and more. Watch more at http://www...

A little refresher as 2016 Fall Semester approaches.

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An "S" from hand-lettering Spring 2016. (at Maine College of Art)

These are some of the photos towards the end of the process of the Graphic Design Type and Meaning project which highlighted several graphic designers in the industry. James Victore was my designer. Shown here are my two books I produced for the final critique. The second image are the final book spreads on the wall towards the end of the process. These were also up for critique, showing a few selections for the cover as well. Using actual scanned paint splatters that I did on white paper and scanned I used the paint splats to create an abstract design of the designers signature mustache and soul patch.

The third picture is the copier i used to produce the final book.

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I am a Maine College of Art Graphic Design Major and this is a book about James Victore, a graphic designer that turns the rules of graphic design upside down. Through his own style of hand lettering, illustration plus a brash and bold attitude, he is a graphic design force to be reckoned with.

Graphic Design: Meaning and Type a class that has gone through the basics of form, hierarchy, color, typography, grid, book and magazine layout and design and so much more. It has culminated to this, a book about a graphic designer given to us by our Professor. I have learned so much about James Victore, a designer who “colors outside the lines” and has a no-holds barred design method.

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An animated view of some of the process of the Periodic Element Middle School Poster Design in Graphic Design: Meaning and Typography. From conception to thumbnails, to sketches, to comps in photoshop to numerous iterations for critique, this process was rewarding. Pushing the design further and further through an iterative process, collaboration, and being able to “weed out” what is necessary is crucial to ultimately creating a good design

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The designer’s role is to combine graphic materials including words, pictures and other graphic elements to construct a visual communications gestalt, a configuration or structure with properties not derivable from the sum of its individual parts.

My task was to deliver to Middle School students, information pertaining to the periodic element krypton. Made up of gasses that when introduced to electricity produce light (i.e., flash photography) which emits a green and yellow light. Krypton also calls to mind the pop culture image of Superman and his home planet of Krypton.

Using a comic book aesthetic for my idea, I used hierarchy in placing Krypton in a bold comic book-like typeface jumping off the page placed over the main focal point, the flash of Clark Kent’s camera. I created thumb nails along with cutouts of existing comic books. I also illustrated an image of Henry Cavill who is currently playing Superman in a new release of Batman vs. Superman.

Creating the poster itself for the element, I then treated the poster as if it was the actual cover of a comic book placing on the top of the stack of other comics which helped in identification and cohesion of the design.

The images here show a brief of my process culminating in a final poster that was shown in the Merit Scholarship exhibit in Spring of 2016.

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90 percent of product assessment is based on color. But are you using the right ones?

An interesting article on color and how it affects marketing.

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Image Exercise

Throughout the critique each student’s z-fold reflected one of the six types of transitionary images by Scott McCleod.

Moment to moment - when images require little closure, streaming together in a sequence seamlessly

Action to Action - a single subject in progression

Subject to Subject - staying with a scene but utilizing reader involvement to render the transition meaningful

Scene to Scene - transporting the viewer across time and space, one panel could be one moment in time, while the next 10 years later

Aspect to Aspect - Bypasses time moves toward a different aspect of a place, idea or mood

Non-Sequitur - No logical relationship between subjects or panels.

My chosen picture, the Golden Gate Bridge being built along with the word “PLETHORA” was a Non-Sequitur of sorts, but added with the two pictures from fellow students it created...

- Aspect to Aspect - showing the building of a bridge in a mixture of man-made over nature juxtaposed against the fish in the natural space and gears and machinery in the making

- Using Avenir Next Condense to emulate the vertical span of the bridge and in reverse blended well with the imagery.

- The motion of the fish and the lines in the fish alongside the lines in the gears and the holes blended well as well as the motion of the ocean creating a movement throughout all three pages.

- Scene to scene - showing the building and another moment under the water to the gears in the machinery putting it together

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The Final Vivaldi Project

The pairs of boards above show a contrast, juxtaposition, or complimentary aesthetic to each other. The selection of eight show a progression from simplistic start of project to the end and most complex.

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GD102 Design: Meaning & Typography 2016

Vivaldi Project

Throughout the first half of the semester I was challenged by what could be the most important project of my time at Maine College of Art. I often tell people that throughout the years I have taught myself graphic design and have built a well standing house but with no clear foundation. I’m now building that foundation. The Vivaldi Project is in support of that.

Utilizing a set amount of information pertaining to Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, we were tasked through a very thorough step by step process first utilizing one typeface (Futura) and one type size we went to work building every week on the theme. As the weeks went on we moved into larger typefaces, heavier weight, line spacing, leading, kerning and used different set ups as well to include:

Grid - Using a ruled horizontal and vertical baseline grids enabling symmetry. Dilational - Circles expanding from a central point. Transitional - Shift bands and layers. Random - Spontaneously placed on a page. Modular - Standardized units. Axial - Left and right of a single axis. Bilateral - Symmetrical to an axis. Radial - From a central point or axis.

As the project neared completion we moved utilized color to push the boundaries of the project.

This project taught me about hierarchy while being able to activate a space, utilize positive and negative space, scale, how to utilize white space, and using form. I also learned the importance of seeing what’s important in a design and making it consistent, seeing what the important pieces are making sure that the space makes sense.

I loved this project. A very important project indeed.

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4 min. excerpt of 12 min. HD video projection loop by Lin + Lam, 2015. In April 1938, on the eve of Sigmund Freud’s exile from Vienna, photographer Edmund…

Lin + Lam

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Research for Contemporary Art Research Paper: Lin + Lam.

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4 min. excerpt of 30 min. 16mm film by Lin + Lam, 2007. Unidentified Vietnam examines the contested relationship between Vietnam and the US, between nation building…

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