#reseachproject

[elizabethyora]

It is published!

A year ago, I joined an Urban Research Workshop at the University of Thessaloniki.

I had just finished my final project at my home university back in Bandung and then I went to an exchange to Vienna. There I had the opportunity to go to my first-ever research workshop!!!

Oh God, despite a lot to catch up on back then, I am grateful for the opportunity given. It was a great experience to enter the research world.

Define Publicness! An International Urban Research Workshop

[maddiecopesblog]

I went to the library this morning to take out some books I was interested in, and to have brainstorm about the ideas I wanted to present to Sally. I knew I wanted to do something to do with revival and I knew roughly the sectors I was interested in (wallpaper and interiors, fabrics, type) but I didn't quite know how to articulate these thoughts into a question that I could do for my research project.

I took out two books, Revival of the fittest and Revival type, I had read of them both for a few hours, looking at the process in which designers go through to revive a typeface, different levels of revival, when to know which typefaces are appropriate to change or keep the same but there was a couple of points that really stood out to me that I wrote and reached further into.

Isn't every typeface a revival?

I detailed this a little more in my notes above, but one of the things I was thinking about (and they mention briefly in one of the books )is that surely every typeface is a revival as we are just reinventing the same letters. This might be an interesting point to touch on, as at what point do we consider something a revival?

Revival returns to the charming imperfections of the handmade

One thing that I don't like as much about modern design, is how streamlined everything is, logos look about the same, websites have loads of negative space and artwork lacks features that show hand crafting. Reviving older ways of working keeps the joy of that craft alive, colours can be changed and reworked to suit a modern audience but returning to the original craft is a really cool idea. Sally brought up the point that in textile creation, while looms have improved massively and have become much better functioning machines, they are still a loom, and can mess up sometimes, but with type design , we went from using metal and wood to just using computerised methods, that can easily be pixel perfect.

I want to continue my research on revival, look further into textiles but I think im nearly there in terms of coming up with my question.

[maddiecopesblog]

A type revival story: lessons from Type West

Last fall, I became a student again. Here’s my revival typeface assignment and a few design life lessons I learned along the way.

I read this article by designer Emma Linh about type revival where she details the Type West program at the Letterform Archivein San Francisco.

She speaks about reinventing a victorian typeface and the process in which you have to do it. One thing that I found interesting was that when she was trying to copy the original print, she ran into trouble with the fact that many of the letters have inconsistencies because of the metal printing process.  

'Some pages were light with faded ink, while others were so heavily printed that you could see the leftover imprints of the metal letters on the flip side of the page. The inconsistencies were so charmingly human.'

The idea of imperfections in design is something that has always interested me, whether this is through the grainy nature of letterpress, the bleeding of ink onto another page, organic graphic design done without a grid, I think its all really charming, really human. With technology improving faster than we can keep up with sometimes, a return to the original, messy, often incredibly time consuming methods is appealing.

[maddiecopesblog]

Revival in interior design

The New Maximalist Design Style You Need to Know

Move over, Grandmillennials: Design's latest darling is a fresh riff on classic maximalist design.

I wanted to have a closer look at some other elements of revival, and one of the things ive mentioned is the revival of Victorian era wallpaper in modern homes. I found this good house keeping article detailing how and why revival designs are gaining popularity. One of the reasons they said was COVID with 'the pandemic-induced need to stay home (possibly even in your own childhood bedroom). The preference for a lighter, more modern spin on these old-timey motifs is now picking up steam.' I also think people find comfort and nostalgia in these sorts of prints, they're reminiscent of well known vintage designs but with a classy, clean rework avoiding the beige frilly look people often try and avoid.

'It's 80s splendor without the ruffles, chintz that doesn't feel grandmotherly, Victorian-era patterns in defiantly modern colorways.'

[maddiecopesblog]

Paul Smith

Paul Smith is a British fashion designer who's reputation is based on designs for men's clothing, but his business has expanded into other areas as well. Pauls incredibly diverse portfolio includes two redesigned minis, a winery collaboration , he's showcased in Paris fashion week, and even designed a school tie.

Much of his work focuses on revival but still paying homage to the original charm of the item. For example, his recent redesign of the Mini Cooper has kept many of the aesthetic charms of the car, but with added environmentally friendly features, making the British classic more appropriate for todays roads. According to MINI Chief Designer Oliver Heilmer, the pair 'kind of broke the unwritten law that even small cars have to be shiny, polished luxury products'. the mini has a cork interior and features some imperfection and scuffs on the exterior sustained from shipping between countries. When asked why those imperfections werent polished off, Paul responded To show its material honesty and just how robust the MINI is. And to challenge how we think about what looks good. Paul described this further in terms of clothes. “We also like imperfections in fashion: take jeans that are bleached, roughened, patched or have holes. And what feels unfamiliar at first can, over time, become even more comfortable and likeable.” 

This is just an example of revival, I want to collect other examples of this as I think it will lead to my research project being much more rich in content and will give me more insight if I then specify what kind of revival im going to go into. Whether this is interior design, type, or something else im not quite sure, but the idea of revival is so prevalent in design and I think it would be a really cool thing to look into

[maddiecopesblog]

presenting my initial ideas

I presented my initial ideas to Sally in hope to get some further clarity about which area I should go into. She mentioned the term 'revival' which I think is the word I had been searching for to describe a lot o fate things I'm interested in.

I love gothic fonts architecture, Victorian wallpaper and fashion but I'm utterly fascinated about the way these styles find their way back into modern day but in a slightly different format. For example, for the type project, I created an Art Nouveau typeface, adjusted for more modern day use and I loved creating it. I think seeing elements of history within modern art is fascinating, and maybe being more specific about this area could be a really good subject matter for my project. Below are my notes from the tutorial:

My goal now is to really look into revival and the different forms it can take. I want to have a look into revival type and also explore V&A online for inspiration.

You’re Not Going Out Like That!#15 – Tartan

Along with the more usual materials like leather and rubber, Vivienne Westwood started toying with the idea of creating wearable bondage ite

[maddiecopesblog]

tags for different projects

[maddiecopesblog]

Beginning my research project

We have been tasked with a 2500 word essay relating to a subject of our choosing due in May. We have to make it somewhat relating to visual communication however the way in which we do this is up to us. Above are my initial ideas relating to what I could choose to study