Thursday, December 15, 2016
Wednesday, December 14, 2016
Thursday, December 8, 2016
Friday, December 2, 2016
Thursday, December 1, 2016
Thursday, November 10, 2016
Sean Adams Grid Documentary Review
Although visual communication can be artistic, it's harmony is often affected by mathematical order and proportions. The fibbonancci sequence and the golden ratio are mathematical proportions commonly found in nature and art that when applied produce pleasing and balanced work. The golden ratio is 1= 1.618033987. This proportion is also expressed as the fibbonancci sequence when the preceding number in the sequence is the sum of the past two numbers. For example 1,1,2,3,5,8. Artists, designers, architects and god (debatably) have been using these proportions since the dawn of time.
In graphic design, using an underlying modular grid system can help structure proportions and order either in respect to the golden ration/ fibbonancci sequence or a proportion of the designers creation. Either way, the human eye will naturally look for patterns and consistency when intaking information. When organizing large amounts of information, placing similar information like the page number, title and subheading gives a large body of text structure and order that will make it easier for the reader to find information. A modular grid helps to maintain stable proportions and alignment when organizing content.
Using a grid and pleasing structured proportions will be a safe choice when designing a piece. However, "going off the grid" can produce surprising and pleasing results. Some designers choose to defy the grid and succeed, or just plain fail.
In graphic design, using an underlying modular grid system can help structure proportions and order either in respect to the golden ration/ fibbonancci sequence or a proportion of the designers creation. Either way, the human eye will naturally look for patterns and consistency when intaking information. When organizing large amounts of information, placing similar information like the page number, title and subheading gives a large body of text structure and order that will make it easier for the reader to find information. A modular grid helps to maintain stable proportions and alignment when organizing content.
Using a grid and pleasing structured proportions will be a safe choice when designing a piece. However, "going off the grid" can produce surprising and pleasing results. Some designers choose to defy the grid and succeed, or just plain fail.
Thursday, November 3, 2016
Tuesday, November 1, 2016
Hierarchy Documentary Review
Hierarchy in graphic design helps the reader successfully navigate information on a page.
Size, typeface, weight, color, texture, and space are all used to create a sense of hierarchy.
Size:
Naturally readers notice the largest object on the page first. Headers generally should be about 250% bigger than the body copy and secondary headers should be 175% the size of the body copy.
Typeface and Weight:
Choosing different typefaces will help the reader differentiate between bodies of text or a headline. Often a mixture of sarif/san sarif is used to differentiate copy. More ornate fonts are often used for headlining text. Finally, the weight of the text will attract more attention or help the copy recede into the background. Bolded texts obviously grab more attention.
Color:
Color can help to categorize information. Warm colors advance on the page while cool colors retract.
Texture:
A body of text creates a pattern or texture. Textures that are easier for the eye are those that have the lease amount of interruptions. Widows/orphans and ragged edges create a distraction for the eye when reading. It is best to have clean edges and have the whole sentence on one line.
Space:
White space can call attention to an object or text. Large amounts of white space can make text feel cramped or more readable depending on the proportions. Balance the size of text to white space on a page.
In addition to the documentary information for this post was inspired from:
Cousins, Carrie. Creating Visual Hierarchy With Typography. Design Shack. 3 March 2014, https://designshack.net/articles/typography/creating-visual-hierarchy-with-typography/. Accessed on Oct 27, 2016
Size, typeface, weight, color, texture, and space are all used to create a sense of hierarchy.
Size:
Naturally readers notice the largest object on the page first. Headers generally should be about 250% bigger than the body copy and secondary headers should be 175% the size of the body copy.
Typeface and Weight:
Choosing different typefaces will help the reader differentiate between bodies of text or a headline. Often a mixture of sarif/san sarif is used to differentiate copy. More ornate fonts are often used for headlining text. Finally, the weight of the text will attract more attention or help the copy recede into the background. Bolded texts obviously grab more attention.
Color:
Color can help to categorize information. Warm colors advance on the page while cool colors retract.
Texture:
A body of text creates a pattern or texture. Textures that are easier for the eye are those that have the lease amount of interruptions. Widows/orphans and ragged edges create a distraction for the eye when reading. It is best to have clean edges and have the whole sentence on one line.
Space:
White space can call attention to an object or text. Large amounts of white space can make text feel cramped or more readable depending on the proportions. Balance the size of text to white space on a page.
In addition to the documentary information for this post was inspired from:
Cousins, Carrie. Creating Visual Hierarchy With Typography. Design Shack. 3 March 2014, https://designshack.net/articles/typography/creating-visual-hierarchy-with-typography/. Accessed on Oct 27, 2016
Thursday, October 27, 2016
Tuesday, October 25, 2016
Heeber Caligraphy Workshop
Heeber gave a very casual and conversive calligraphy workshop. He was fascinated by a blackletter style that references some of the first fonts used in history.
Calligraphy is an ancient artform. Calligraphy was preformed as early as 800c by the Japanese and Chinese. Calligraphy was practiced in the west at the onset of antiquity with papyrus and ink. Deriving from the Greek words "beauty" and "to write" calligraphy literally means to beautifully write.
Gutenburg modeled the first set of moveable type after the blackletter style found in early calligraphy. Even after the development of the printing press, calligraphy continued to be valued and evolve. Although it is not as widely used today, there continues to be calligraphy heads who will pay 700$ per pen.
"Calligraphy is great, because it looks so cool everyone wonders how you made it". - Heeber
Calligraphy is an ancient artform. Calligraphy was preformed as early as 800c by the Japanese and Chinese. Calligraphy was practiced in the west at the onset of antiquity with papyrus and ink. Deriving from the Greek words "beauty" and "to write" calligraphy literally means to beautifully write.
Gutenburg modeled the first set of moveable type after the blackletter style found in early calligraphy. Even after the development of the printing press, calligraphy continued to be valued and evolve. Although it is not as widely used today, there continues to be calligraphy heads who will pay 700$ per pen.
"Calligraphy is great, because it looks so cool everyone wonders how you made it". - Heeber
Thursday, October 20, 2016
Tuesday, October 18, 2016
Gestalt Principal Documentary Review
In the documentary about Gestalt Principals we learned that, simply put, gestalt principals are groups of objects situated in a way that forms a correlation between each other without being directly connected.
To expand upon the documentary, I wanted to find examples of this theory playing out in our every day lives. IBM, Starbucks, NBA and Girl scouts are a few examples of use of gestalt principals in logo design. They are seemingly "whole" images who are made up of smaller parts.
To expand upon the documentary, I wanted to find examples of this theory playing out in our every day lives. IBM, Starbucks, NBA and Girl scouts are a few examples of use of gestalt principals in logo design. They are seemingly "whole" images who are made up of smaller parts.
Amor and Keisuke
Amor and Keisuke were armed with an arsenal of knowledge. Foreign (to me) vocabulary like "painpoint" and "mind share" seem to be well worked out concepts that they picked up along the way. One golden nugget that I picked up during their presentation is their process.
1. Research and Discovery. Not restricted to books, magazines, scholarly articles and web pages. Focus groups, interviews and on the ground experience help to gain an understanding of the problem at hand.
2. Ideation. Once the problem is understood, how can it be solved?
3. Production. What are the processes that are needed to produce the chosen solution to the problem?
4. Implementation. At this stage most of the work has been done, you only need to follow through with the plan.
As Keisuke explains, this process could go on forever. The idea can forever continue to be evolved. The only stop is the deadline.
1. Research and Discovery. Not restricted to books, magazines, scholarly articles and web pages. Focus groups, interviews and on the ground experience help to gain an understanding of the problem at hand.
2. Ideation. Once the problem is understood, how can it be solved?
3. Production. What are the processes that are needed to produce the chosen solution to the problem?
4. Implementation. At this stage most of the work has been done, you only need to follow through with the plan.
As Keisuke explains, this process could go on forever. The idea can forever continue to be evolved. The only stop is the deadline.
Thursday, October 13, 2016
Thursday, October 6, 2016
Color Documentary Review
Jim Krause drops some serious knowledge about color and advice on using it professionally in the documentary about color theory. He explained how to choose colors for clients that suit their audience, are unique and practical. An aha moment happened when he explained how to fake multiple colors by using one spot color and black and mixing the two together to get more "bang for your buck".
One thing that left me hanging is his apparent favorite quality of color: "value". He repeats it a few times, but never quite explains what it is exactly. When it comes to color, value is another word for light. Therefore when he says that hue and sataration are important but neither would exist without value, he means they woulden't exist without light.
Light is made from all of the colors of the rainbow. When light hits an object, the object either absorbs all of the colors contained in light making black or it reflects certain colors like blue that are then read by our eyes. Objects aren't inherently one color or another, but give off color vibrations based on how the object interacts with the light. In weak light everything seems greyish because there is not enough light for objects to grab onto.
I often find myself perplexed how a computer cannot create a gold, silver or any other shiny colors in the same way that we see it in the physical form. That is because the qualities of gold reflect the light in a way that gives it a glow or sheen. The computer can recreate the color, but not the shine because it cannot interact in the same way with light that gold or reflective surfaces can.
One thing that left me hanging is his apparent favorite quality of color: "value". He repeats it a few times, but never quite explains what it is exactly. When it comes to color, value is another word for light. Therefore when he says that hue and sataration are important but neither would exist without value, he means they woulden't exist without light.
Light is made from all of the colors of the rainbow. When light hits an object, the object either absorbs all of the colors contained in light making black or it reflects certain colors like blue that are then read by our eyes. Objects aren't inherently one color or another, but give off color vibrations based on how the object interacts with the light. In weak light everything seems greyish because there is not enough light for objects to grab onto.
I often find myself perplexed how a computer cannot create a gold, silver or any other shiny colors in the same way that we see it in the physical form. That is because the qualities of gold reflect the light in a way that gives it a glow or sheen. The computer can recreate the color, but not the shine because it cannot interact in the same way with light that gold or reflective surfaces can.
Tuesday, October 4, 2016
Tuesday, September 27, 2016
Marian Bantjes Documentary Review
When observing Marian Bantjes, you get the sense that she detests living life in the rat race for money. She left her digital agency, Digitopolis, to live full time in her small island vacation home off the coast of Vancouver. She kept herself creating with a series of self-guided excersises that were preformed purely for the joy/ challenge of creating. We got to peek inside her dirt collection from all over the world, her process for making her annual valentines cards, and her bedroom were she revives her creativity by sleeping, alot.
One thing that struck me is the slightly occult feeling about her. The clothes that she wears, and the book store that she took us to exudes an old world flavor that reminds me of mythics of ancient craftsman and magical beings. Later, she reveals briefly, that she has been known to have an interest in illuminated texts. "I like to read anything that invokes wonder".
Her work reflects the style of illuminated texts with the use of patterns and symbols that are meant to create a riddle that rewards the viewer when it is figured out. "Marian is often not hired for her style, but her brain". It was her insightfull contributions to the blog "speak up" that caught the attention of the graphic design community. Her deconstruction of Santa Clause and the alphabet brought these seemingly average parts of everyday life into a new perspective, invoking wonder in everything around us.
One thing that struck me is the slightly occult feeling about her. The clothes that she wears, and the book store that she took us to exudes an old world flavor that reminds me of mythics of ancient craftsman and magical beings. Later, she reveals briefly, that she has been known to have an interest in illuminated texts. "I like to read anything that invokes wonder".
Her work reflects the style of illuminated texts with the use of patterns and symbols that are meant to create a riddle that rewards the viewer when it is figured out. "Marian is often not hired for her style, but her brain". It was her insightfull contributions to the blog "speak up" that caught the attention of the graphic design community. Her deconstruction of Santa Clause and the alphabet brought these seemingly average parts of everyday life into a new perspective, invoking wonder in everything around us.
Thursday, September 15, 2016
Jessica Hische Documentary Review
Jessica Hische goes about her day in her San Francisco storefront studio in slippers. When she mentions how graphic designers use the term "type nerds" endearingly, you get the sense that she has surpassed being a nerd and graduated into being a full time obsessive typist. She shows the audience her portfolio of work as a tattoo that reads "type" peaks out from under her sleeve on her upper arm.
It is easy to disappear into the vision of art directors, large firms and clients. As a young female designer who has carved a unique niche for herself, she is an inspiration. She explains that she wasn't always sought for her personality. Her "passion projects" led her to develop her own style.
She challenged herself to create one drop letter every day and publish it online. She also contributes to a blog "friends of type". Neither of these projects seemed to be created with the intention to bring income. What they did do is challenge her to consistently create beyond the boundaries of clients and bosses.
In her words she doesn't just curate elements to put together but "creates her own world from scratch". Authors, businesses and fellow artisans have sough a slice her world which has landed on the pages/covers of books magazines, and websites.
It is easy to disappear into the vision of art directors, large firms and clients. As a young female designer who has carved a unique niche for herself, she is an inspiration. She explains that she wasn't always sought for her personality. Her "passion projects" led her to develop her own style.
She challenged herself to create one drop letter every day and publish it online. She also contributes to a blog "friends of type". Neither of these projects seemed to be created with the intention to bring income. What they did do is challenge her to consistently create beyond the boundaries of clients and bosses.
In her words she doesn't just curate elements to put together but "creates her own world from scratch". Authors, businesses and fellow artisans have sough a slice her world which has landed on the pages/covers of books magazines, and websites.
Tuesday, September 13, 2016
Thursday, September 8, 2016
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