F+S

I kinda want this. It seems interesting.

Color is...

...the subject that causes trouble.

...more than just a visual phenomenon - it is a uniquely emotional language and a symbolic tool for all designers.

...the element closest to the client and the audience's subjective identity.

- Sean Adams

I really enjoyed the readings, especially the reading from the workbook. It helped clear up a lot of questions pertaining to color theories. Saturation and value is still confusing so I'm hoping a "a-ha!" moment will come soon. I thought I understood it but then I read the reading and then started doubting myself. I understand that saturation is the intensity of a hue and value is the brightness of the hue. The part I guess that I'm not getting is how to not mix the two together. Other than that, when I read about color harmonies, it was just a review of what I learned earlier, just with more details. I liked the Albers reading but it was still hard to read. The exercises that he talks about makes a lot of sense and it describes how we see color. I tried taking notes but that didn't go very well...I do get the overall idea though. :D In general, LOVE the color workbook, pictures help (and that it's in color and has awesome examples).

Final 30 Words

I reworked my words from last class and I think they work in general. They are much improved from what I had before I think. I reposted the haiku so people can reference it better.

Night is bright with stars

...silly woman, whimpering:

Shall I light the lamp?

- Etsujin

Line 1

1. calm

2. quiet

3. relaxed

4. cloudless

5. empty

6. bright

7. dark

8. breeze

9. moonlit

10. luminous

Line 2

11. whimpering

12. longing

13. remembering

14. lonely

15. simpleminded

16. earrings

17. handkerchief

18. tissue

19. hair stick

20. hair tie

Line 3

21. radiant

22. friendship

23. invulnerable

24. pity

25. warmth

26. match

27. candle

28. candle stand

29. candle wick

30. candle wax

The last line was tricky since there are many types of lamps. So I thought about the time period and where this poem was made and decided to stick with a candle lamp, but one that is super simple with a holder that is something like this:

Yup. :D

Color Basics

Last week we turned in our final accordion book of our contrast photos and started on our color unit. My accordion book turned out ok, the pictures weren't as good as I wanted them to be but whatever. Color is really fun. We did our color circle in class. I chose some pretty good ones but then we had to switch some around so that they would make sense. Now we are learning about value and saturation. I am still confused about these two. I can grasp the concept of them, but I find it hard to choose colors to represent what I know. The readings that were assigned definitely helped. Notes will come before Wednesday, right now is not the time to do that. Next week, I will try to have pictures of what color exercises we have done and maybe my accordion book. We shall see.

Haiku and Words

Night is bright with stars

…silly woman, whimpering:

Shall I light the lamp?

-Etsujin

Line 1

1. night

2. bright

3. stars

4. glitter

5. glimmering

6. moon

7. dark

8. breeze

9. peace

10. quiet

Line 2

11. woman

12. tears

13. handkerchief

14. whimper

15. sitting

16. sad

17. longing

18. leaning

19. fabric

20. disheveled

Line 3

21. lamp

22. question

23. caring

24. handle

25. candle

26. light bulb

27. match

28. worried

29. helpful

30. radiant

Reading "Anatomy of a Visual Message"

There are three ways to depict an object or thing: representationally, abstractly, and symbolically. The representational way is "what we see and recognize from environment and experience". It is reality and the most effective way to represent what we see. Abstract is the "kinesthetic quality of a visual event reduced to the basic element". The more abstract it is, the more general and all encompassing it becomes. Abstraction can exist as a pure abstraction, where no connection can be drawn, or in a visual statement, where minimal representation is used. Symbolic messages has the ultimate simplicity. It is in the "world of coded symbol systems which man has created arbitrarily, and to which he has attached meaning".

The reading in general was helpful in defining what makes representational, abstract, and symbolic work. At the end of the reading somewhere, it refers to a Chinese quote that says "one picture is worth a thousand words" and that "one symbol is worth a thousand pictures". I really liked that idea. Also in the reading by Ellen Lupton, it talks about one of Dondis's study regarding a square and how literate and illiterate people read it. It really does prove that abstraction is a skill and not a universal perception.

Environmental Narrative Ideas

1. Doorways

I want to focus on doorways of houses and how they interact as a whole with the house color. I see some doorways that are just odd colors but as a whole, they work. Maybe it would good if I chose one specific hue and then see how the color of the house relates to that hue.

2. Colors of Fall

This is an idea that I definitely want to pursue. I want to capture the leaves as they are changing colors, from green to reds, oranges, and yellows. I think it can become a very nice book showing the transition of trees from summer to fall. The hard part would be time. I would have to do this very quickly before the leaves all fall off.

3. Shopping Windows

This is pretty self-explanatory. When the assignment was given, I automatically thought of stores and their window displays. I work in retail so I know that there are color themes that they use for a season and their window displays reflects that. I’ve seen some pretty awesome window displays that just used several colors that are part of different schemes.

Final Statement

The line project was a lot more fun and interesting than the dot project for me. I really liked all of the process work. At first, we worked with a partner to create lines studies based on balance, progression, and random. While making lines, we created rhythm and if placed correctly, tones and textures. I really like that we did them in black and white since we can see either the black as being the background or the white being the background. It changes the figure/ground relationship a lot. After that, we went into a photo safari looking for lines in our environment. I really enjoyed this part because it made me see KC in a different way. I had to look for lines everywhere. It was hard at first but then you get use to looking for what is needed. Then we paired that with our lines studies. This was the hardest part for me because it made me felt like I did not have good enough line studies to juxtapose the pictures with. In the end, I made some good pairs that I am proud of.

For the photographs, I started off by walking around Downtown and just taking random pictures. After I chose which pictures will work, I went to shoot at Westport, looking for things I know I need. At first, I had no particular direction as to what I was capturing. The more I took pictures and paired them up, I saw this pattern of close shots. So I decided to focus on the things that go unnoticed in the city, like the sidewalk or the cracks in the wood. I feel like I captured KC well through just Downtown and Westport. I think these are the two of the many places that KC is known for and they work well together to get a scope of what KC has to offer.
As said above, we paired our photographs with our line studies: horizontals, combined, and manipulated. With the curve and diagonal manipulations, we had to trace them and then translate that into vectors. It was definitely hard drawing curves but it taught me a lot about hand eye coordination. Tracing the lines to correct bumps and curves was a lot of help after we had to vector them. It would have been harder to just go from the raw manipulation into the vectoring and being selective on the computer. When we did it through our hands, it was easier to draw and be selective. Vectoring them was not as bad as I thought it would be. I can make better curves with the pen tool now because I know that the less anchor points you use, the better the line looks.
The main point I think of this project was to learn how to move between the computer and our hands along with juxtapositions of photographs. With the juxtaposition of elements, I started seeing things in pairs and how they relate to one another and enhance the meaning. Overall, I really liked doing this project and I liked how it is presented, through an accordion book. Since it was the first time I did a book like this, my craft can definitely by worked on.

Scher Video

I love how Paula Scher used New York as an inspiration. Since New York encompasses so many things and when they go big, they go BIG. I love that she "follows" the city and goes big with her art work too. In perspective to Kansas City, I really found the old style of Kansas City to be an inspiration. I liked that we had to go into our environment to shoot lines. It has really taught me to appreciate Kansas City more. It has really turned into a place that I absolutely love because there's so many distinct places that define Kansas City individually.

Project 2 Reading Response

"All things exist in interaction with other things" - Malcolm Grear

The above quote made me think about the juxtapositions that we made using photographs and our line studies. The two different compositions come together to create a cohesive spread.

I totally agree with the section about framing. It is a variable that graphic designers think about all the time and it isn't something that we can avoid. Cropping also plays a big part in how the viewers see the image and it could make or break a picture. A lot of my pictures were nice, but when cropped in, it loses its characteristics and it doesn't make sense anymore (so I didn't use them). Some were cropped really far away and it was much strong when zoomed in, like the above pair. The reading in general was a review of framing and figure/ground relationship for me.

Sequential Process

This is my sequential process from the basic horizontal line to a vectored curve. It was fun looking back at how I got from just a line study into a complex vectored curve. I learned that through manipulation and hand drawn work, we can change what the viewers see as the end result. The hand drawn part was the most difficult because I suck at drawing nice, curved lines but that was the part that taught me the most about hand-eye coordination along with how we choose to edit out unnecessary lines and bumps.

Basic line:

Horizontal + vertical (which I used):
Horizontal + vertical v.2:
Raw manipulation:
Hand edited:
Final vector:
Final vector with my juxtaposition:

Contrasting V

This week we worked on contrasting pairs in relationship to design principles like figure/ground relationship, balance, and movement. Below are some of my pairs but first is just a shot of my 12 inch letter form.

Craft could be worked on. It was definitely harder working on the big letter as opposed to the small. Focal point:
Neutrality:
Contrast (I really like this shot because I shot it from behind):
And minimal detection:
Minimal detection and reversible is pretty similar but they work individually and with the pairs. Making the pairs was definitely hard. The reading Terri assigned didn't help very much in what each pair should be like. It was helpful to define contrast in a whole though. The first round of pairs was horrible and my second attempt was more successful because I knew what I should be aimed for. I'm really excited to make it into an accordion book and we are now moving into color!!~!

Radium

We are working on "logos" in Type right now using the elements in the periodic table. I was assigned radium, an radioactive substance that can't even be handled because it is a million times more active than uranium (awesome, I know). The symbol for it is Ra and I started by picking heavy, bold fonts because radium is pretty hardcore and then trying to combine R and a into a successful composition. We had to make 30 sketches, which by the time I had 15, I was stuck. Anyways, apparently I had some really good ones and below are the three that the class chose, in which I made five different iterations of each one.

I really like the fourth and the fifth of the first row, the third one of the second row, and the second and fourth of the third row. They were really fun to make, besides the bottom row since it was a bit harder to have to cut a stroke out of the A and the scissor tool wouldn't work on it nor could I get the knife tool to work properly.

Text Options

Titles:

Downtowned Westport

Westport, Downtowned

Quality Hill

Downtown Kansas City

Downtown Meets Westport

Kansas City's Downtown

Texts:

1) Kansas City’s Downtown contains many buildings. It has corporate buildings, churches, banks, and headquarters of big companies. When downtown, most people focus on the buildings and how grand everything is. Through this book, we start to notice the tiny things, like the sidewalks and driveways that are overlooked. When mixed with Westport’s scene, we get a better sense of our unnoticed surroundings. It is there that the spirit of Kansas City is captured, when the old meets the new, modern structures.

2) Westport is an essential place to visit when coming to Kansas City. It has many good restaurants and bars. Downtown is where the business of Kansas City is located. When combined, we get a whole sense of what Kansas City is. It is the mix of the old traditions with the new traditions. It encompasses the history of the city with the one in the making. It is the Kansas City that brings visitors back.

3) Walking through Westport, we notice all the bricks and cracks of the city. It is here that Kansas City is best summed up. When looked at with Downtown, the city has a whole new meaning. Kansas City is a place where visitors can experience tradition as well as a developing city. This book attempts to view Kansas City with a mixture of both tradition and the modern era. Through it, we can see how Kansas City was, and how it can transform through time.

Extrusion V

Last week, we worked on our 12" extrusions of our letter. I stuck with the Univers V. I shall post pictures later of it (as you see, I fail when I have to take pictures of projects) but above is my 6" letter. The 12" one had a V inside of a V. It was definitely harder than doing the 6". Which you expect it to be easier because it was larger and you know what you were doing, wrong. It was much harder for me because my V inside of my larger V was small and my hands are small, but it was still hard to get between to fix the craft. Overall, I like it and I could have definitely made it more interesting. Craft was really bad on it so hopefully it will look better when I photograph it. Next week we are taking photos of it to describe pairs like stability and instability. I'm pretty excited for that but I think I will find it challenging. Then we are moving onto color!!! I'm excited for that.

F+S

Milton Glaser, creator of famous icons like the I Love NY logo, uses lines and rhythm in many of his works. Below is an example where he conveyed the design principle very nicely. It is for the menu of the Jean George restaurant in New York. The cover for the menu:And then their business cards and stationaries:
He used the repetition of the basic square with 7 lines, rotated, to make a pattern, creating rhythm at the same time. He put that pattern into everything of that restaurant's to tie everything together.

Kings and Kingdoms

So we are done with our third project. Below are my compositions, images, sequences, and animation. I used to letter k along with the font Arno and Avenir.

These are the best two compositions with images applied to them:

All of my images:
I did so many sequences but these are my final and probably my best ones:
And then my animation using flash. I don't know what happened but the pictures have cuts in them even when I export them as an animation and mpeg-4 at the best quality. It looks fine when it's an .swf file though. Eitherway, imagine it doesn't have any cuts. :D

Yup. I loved doing this project because I learned a lot more about Illustrator and especially Flash. K was a hard letter to do since there are only so many pairs that can go along with each other. I think I chose a fairly successful pair, considering I made other pairs that weren't as good.

Line Pairs

So these are my line study pairings so far. I have 9 really, but only 6 do I have digital files to put together. The other 3 I need to scan in the lines to combine and then trace.

I already traced this one but I'll need to retrace it since I changed it around:
I also need to retrace this one:
Yup. Input would be helpful. I feel like they all work, some better than others though. The other 3 includes 2 diagonals and 1 curve, so I just need to find 1 more curve and 2 more straight lines (which you wouldn't think is hard, but it really is) for my 12 pairings.

Presidia Creative

So I was stumbling around because sleep wasn't coming and I stumbled on this site, Presidia Creative, and it's amazing. It has designs made by graphic designers as well as photographers. It's presented in a blog format type deal and it's a good site to thumb through when time is available. All of the pictures are stunning and really high resolutions so they can be used as desktop backgrounds and whatnot. The picture above is now my desktop and all the tiny details in it is extraordinary (click to enlarge).

NY Times

I really enjoyed the SpeakUp article because it made me look at juxtaposing in a different light (and she mentioned Berger, who I love). Her examples of page three of the Times were definitely inspiring. When I was looking for pairs between my photographs and my line studies, I was looking for somewhat exact shapes. After reading her article, I see juxtaposing does not have to be in just similar shapes but also in content and the lines that are created.

^^ one of my juxtaposed spread (it still needs to be fixed).

Another thing I loved about the articles was that she pointed out the similarities that were unplanned. There were some that worked for me and some that didn't. The ones that did work relied heavily on the text as well as the image. I think from that, the juxtapositions develop a more conceptual meaning than just being images.

Building V

Last week in Form, we built a 3 inch letterform. I chose to do V for my name. I figured I could put it in my room after I was done. So anyways, that was a fun project. I wish I took some process pictures but I'm really bad at remembering to take pictures. I started out doing a Baskerville V but then ended up doing a Univers V instead. I cut out the form for the Baskerville but I didn't like how it looked. I can't really do curves well on foam core so I figured I should do a more simple font so my craft will be better. So I did that and I was very pleased with it. I learned that sanding bristol paper does not work and building the inside of the V and then covering it with bristol makes it look so much better. I also painted the edges with white paint to make it even but some fell through the cracks so it's not perfect perfect. I really enjoyed the practice because now when we build our 12 inch letterforms, it will be somewhat easier. There are final pictures on Amber's blog so go there and check out all of our letters.

Project 2 Reading Response

In Lupton's reading over rhythm along with the class lecture, repetition plays a big part in creating that. It can be created by line, spacing, and line weight. Following are my line studies that I felt were most rhythmic. So first is balance:

Progression:
And then randomness:
Even though these lines studies aren't the best example, I still feel like they convey rhythm most (compared to my other ones). I really liked the example that Lupton used on page 36 and 37. It showed rhythm in an overall picture which helps me imagine how the end product of this project will flow and how each page will lead to another one. In the pages about lines, I liked how she describes lines as being everything and it just simply exist. This can definitely be applied to the photo safari that was assigned. It exists everywhere you look and it enters the picture plane and creates space and volume.