Graphic Design @pleckauskaite-uni - Tumblr Blog

Andrew Byrom

Typography in the environment

Here are some inspirational images which I have found on pinterest of type in the environment:

3D Type

Here are some inspirational images which I have found on pinterest and weheartit.com. Some of these are absolutely incredible!

#typographicstudies

Tien-min Liao

This is a self-initiated typographic experiment that explores the relationships between upper-case letters and lower-case letters, and also records the transformation between them. In this experiment, I drew shapes with ink on one or both of my hands, manipulating my gestures into the corresponding shape to signify an upper-case letter. Then, using the same shape on my hands, I manipulated my gesture or changed the perspective through which the shape is viewed in orderto transform the upper-case letter to a lower-case of the same letter. Removing or redrawing the darkened shape on my hands is not allowed in the experiment. The only way to make the model transform from an upper-case to a lower-case (or vice versa) is changing the gestures or the perspectives. I created 26 sets of these inked shapes and drew them on my hands. Each set is made to create both an upper-case and a lower-case letter, such as A and a. I also created some italic letters, hand-writing letters and some new typefaces with the same shapes.

#typographicstudies

The brief

TYPOHOLICUS ERECTUS TYPE WILL WALK AMONGST US

It’s all a Question of Time: A Calendar

see: Antonio Basoli : Alfabeto Pittorico (1839) Abelardo Morell: Water Alphabet http://gordonyoung.net/crawley_typographictrees.html

Recommended Reading:

The 3D Type Book FL@33: Laurence King (2011) 3D Typography Abbink &Anderson: Mark Batty Publisher (2010) Typoholic (Font to Form) Victionary (2012)

Pioneers of Modern Typography Herbert Spencer: Lund Humphries (1982) The Liberated Page Herbert Spencer: Bedford Press (1987) Typographica Rick Poynor: Princeton Architectural Press (2002) Communicate: Independent Graphic Design Since the Sixties Rick Poynor: Laurence King A Century of Graphic Design Jeremy Aynsley: Mitchell Beazley (2001) The Typographic Experiment Radical Innovation in Contemporary Type Design Teal Triggs: Thames and Hudson (2003) Twentieth Century Type Designers Sebastian Carter: Trefoil Publications (1987) Type and Typography Phil Baines and Andrew Haslam: Laurence King (2002) Type Addicted The New trend of A to Z Typo-Graphics Index book (2007) Letterforms: Bawdy, Bad and Beautiful Heller and Thompson: Watson Guptill (2000)

With this brief we aim to explore type in three dimensional form. We are bringing type back to the human side of the screen.

In recent years there has been a trend amongst graphic designers to move away from the digitally rendered towards a more hands-on approach. This represents an eschewing of the digital aesthetic, rendered exhaustively in the 1990s, enabled by the advent of the Macintosh.

In Andrew Byrom’s foreword to FL@33’s book The 3D Type Book he states “Typographic design is going through a post-digital reaction.”

Karrie Jacobs in the foreword to Abbink and Anderson’s plainly titled book 3D Typography writes “The hunger to “rematerialize” type, as Katherine McCoy described it, is a direct response to type’s increasing dematerialization.”

Joseph Egan writes as a foreword in Typoholic “A piece of type that you can touch, walk around and look through will always be more interesting than the same thing on a screen, if only because it is not what we are used to”.

The aim is to take a calendar month and treat the dates (days, hours, minutes perhaps) in 3D form. A2 format. The theme is TIME or a theme of your choice in relation to the month you choose. The materials you choose are part of your creative process. The finished design will be a photograph of your concept.

Research 3D type and type in the environment.

#typographicstudies

Projections in to posters

I have finally created posters from my projection images. I love them as they look so interesting and unique! I believe that it would look better enlarged as you could see all of the details more. I do think that the red is much more effective than the yellow as it gives the piece a strong character, it sets a mood, and just looks lovely visually in red!

The quality of the photos is not that great as I have made it on A1, this size is too big for this blog meaning I had to take screen shots of the posters.

#typographicstudies

Editing the chosen ones

I have narrowed it down to 3 of my favourites, which could be potential future posters. I have applied colour to it, yellow and red as these are the main used by Scher. I think that they look rather interesting but just need some more boldness on the type.

#typographicstudies

Changing the logo

As my logo was not very successful I have decided to simplify it by just making it rather bold and using black and white colours only. I personally do not find it amazing, but a logo just needs to be informative and I feel like it is doing its job:

#typographicstudies

Most successful projections

I have chosen the most successful projections and have cropped in to them:

Clear typography, easily read and an interesting structure behind with the projection on the structure.

Clear type and projection, works well within the structure.

Using a radiator as a texture, works in a very different way. No stencil within the image only a reflection.

A zoom on the typography for a poster, works rather well as the projection can also be seen.

Including the whole structure, interesting texture this is to make it unique as who would work on a radiator? Very random, but works rather well. Although the typography is not so visible.

Another attempt shows improvement as the type is much more clearer.

One of the best as the typography is very clear, the projection is also visible in the background.

An interesting use of space, stairs, however it does not work well visually as it does not line up to create a poster, some of the type is missing.

A much better attempt as the interesting use of a space is visible as well as the typography on the stencil.

This is just a random shot, but looks quite interesting due to the background, the hand included and the angle it is held at.

I have decided to only use one stencil for the projections as the other is not so great due to the lips not looking like lips from closer up. I believe that I have took some interesting shots and have something to work with.

#typographicstudies

First attempt

As the projector is only available to use untill 4:30pm I did not have time to do the projections using a projector due to class finishing at around 5/6pm. However, I thought instead of not creating anything I could play around with the light I had on my phone. I have asked my brother to help me, by holding the stencil in interesting ways. I have tried to use different textures in relation to Scher, also I have created a structure using white folders, an architectural structure made by my mum and a white box lid. I have chosen everything white as it makes the image/typography stand out the most.

It was very challenging as it was hard working with a light such as a torch as it does not focus on one thing, also, I had to place the light somewhere meaning I could not aim it at the stencil very well. Also, when taking photos it was hard to get the right angles as I wanted to go behind the stencil, but that made the light block out, which has made my shadow appear in the work. Although I had a few struggles I have managed to take some photos. They are not great, and I imagined them to look different, but I think they are not awful and I could play around with the colours, contrast etc.

#typographicstudies

Projection idea

Inspired by one of Paulas pieces I have decided to experiment with projections. As she has created pieces on structures, my favourite on a theatre, I have decided to re-create that. However, it would be impossible for me to find a building/structure to draw/paint on, and it would be a very long process. So, I have decided to project my work on to something interesting. To begin with I have hand traced my two poster designs on acetate:

I wanted to hand trace it to make it a little more personal as well as make it hand made. This gives it originality and makes it look more artistic and unique. It also looks like they are completely different pieces in comparison to the original ones just because they are black and white. I quite like how it looks as a stencil, it just needs an interesting background.

#typographicstudies

Final Critique

This was our final critique looking at our final pieces. I was very disappointed as viewing my piece it has been roughly rated at this stage as one of the lowest marks. I am not sure where I went wrong with this project but the feedback I have been given was to use the colours that Scher has used, strong, bright colours such as yellow, red, blue, as mine look rather pastille like. I have previously came up with an idea of projections, and I believe that to boost my grade up a little I should try them, even if they do not work at least I will know that I have tried my hardest.

Also, my logo was not very good due to it including imagery and detail. This means that if I was to put the logo on a different image it would not work with the colour scheme or the design. I believe that I could use the same logo but just make it much more bolder, with just using the negative space or using the letters only, no imagery.

#typographicstudies

THE CONCLUSION

Before I have recorded my data I thought that the less capable are more likely to use the lift, such as the elderly, parents with young children/buggies, cyclists, disabled. However, my chart shows that everyone uses the lift, and in fact I believe that mostly young people use it such as early 20s.

IF I COULD IMPROVE MY PIECE...

If I could improve it, I would collect the same data but from the stairs which lead to the tunnel as well, this would be very good in comparison to how many people chose to use the lift and how many chose the stairs. Also, it would show the age differences and gender. This would be very interesting too see, as now after analysing the lift I believe that not many people use the stairs, I wish I have thought of this idea before. But I am quite happy with the outcome of my project.

#Graphicdesignprinciples

Final Critique

Today we had our final critique. We looked at each others work and had to present our work in 3 minutes, another 3 minutes were given for questions etc. This Critique has brought my confidence up as nothing bad was said about my piece, of course a few changes need to be made, but I was very happy knowing I am on the right track!

The comments which I have received included re-looking at the layout of my piece. This is because the white space on the right is very odd, so the easiest and the most effective would be to crop it. This would make my piece much more tighter and decrease the look of something being missing.

Another piece of advice was to play around with the images, brighten them up a little as they are quite dark/dull, meaning the most important shapes do not stand out very well.

Taking the feedback in to consideration I have made the changes and am much more satisfied that I have made these changes. The shapes and forms are much more visible and indeed it is much more tighter, which could relate to the tightness of the lift/tunnel.

#Graphicdesignprinciples

Putting the data visualisation together as one

Now that I have my data finalised within the right groups and the right order I would like to start thinking about the layout of it all and what it is going to look like as a final piece. This I have decided to create using Photoshop.

To make life easier I have created a stencil to use, this I have done by finding an image of lots of dots and applying it on to paper. This will make my life easier as the layout is completed for me, meaning I just have to change the size of the images for them to fit in.

I have then cut out the circles, for better use as I can place the layer of my photo under the outlines of the circles and then fit them to he right size:

This is how the final outcome looked on the dots. I feel like the black dots seem like part of it and that they should mean something and be part of it, however, I believe that I should get rid of the extra circles for the ages to stand out.

However, just for experimentation I have inverted the colours and the ages stand out much better, but the extra circles are not needed.

I have also used a heat map effect, as I have recorded the body temperature of these people also. It looks good visually but it is not accurate as the program just randomly chose the colours, and the layout of the colours. It would be an interesting idea if it was accurate.

Sticking to the original outcome would be mostly wise as it is rather accurate and natural, which would put the correct data across. This is what the original looks like:

I have chosen this layout (From left to right, each group going down) to represent the tube/tunnel. I believe that it works well as you can see the different people entering the lift, different ages and different numbers of people who have entered between 0 and 5 minutes.

I wanted to try a few different angles and layouts, but these seem rather random as they do not represent a lift or a tunnel, maybe the vertical could represent the tunnel as that is how it goes under the river, but I prefer the original idea above.

Once again for experimentation I have inverted the final piece as from previous experiments it seemed to work well. I believe that the shapes and the details stand out much better, but the original and natural shapes work better with data.

#Graphicdesignprinciples

My final piece

I have finally finished my final piece, I have transferred it all on to A2 size, meaning that the resolution should be very good. I have concentrated on a creative use of typography to echo the work of my assigned designer. I have chosen green and blue colours as I believe that they work well together, and green is not a very painful colour to look at, in fact it is calming. I have added a made up link at the bottom just to give my poster the feel of a professional poster. I have used similar techniques and typography as Paula Scher, but I did make a pastiche of their work as I have considered different colouring and imagery. I am pleased with the outcome as it seems like a solid piece. The type is bold and attractive, the blank space on the left hand side brings the text out even more and it is not too blank or too full. All now that us left is to print this piece as an A2, which should change the way it looks and I am excited to see it!

#typographicstudies

Other means of publicity

Bus stop bill board

A rather suitable place to have a poster up as many people use public transport, also, people drive and walk past bus stops every day, meaning it would get noticed by many people. this is just a simple idea but fits in well, the colour could be decided on the atmosphere of the place, making each poster stand out more. I believe that yellow is the perfect colour for this form of advertisement as it is very bright, which would catch peoples attention!

Post card

This would be very practical as the people at the Design Museum who are interested in design would pick up a free post card at the door and are more likely to find interest. This would also be cheap to make, so would work out rather well. I am please with the way it has came out as it looks very neat, tidy and quite professional.

Oyster card holder

Most people use public transport and a case for their oyster card would work well as it would be used for a while. This means that if a person is holding it in their hands, the person sitting/standing next to them are quite likely to spot it, and this would work as a form of advertisement not just to the owner of the card holder! This did not come out very well as it was a quick idea. I have chosen the colour blue, as oyster cards are normally that colour, meaning it would fit in well.

#typographicstudies

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