Typography Drawing

What I Did In This Lesson

Within this process and production lesson, we were given the task of creating several different typefaces for the letters "A I N E G". I found that this task was very fun and exciting because it allowed me to produce the letters in different styles that I haven't tried before. This task allowed me to experiment and learn new techniques about drawing and how I could could look at new font styles that I don't normally use within my work.

The Process

To create several different typefaces, I had to use paper and different materials to experiment with styles even further. The materials that I used to create the typefaces were Pens, a Fine liner and Pencils. I found that this materials allowed me to experiment with the design, this meant that the font styles allowed me to improve my skills even further.

What I Like

My favourite part about this process and production was the font types that I had created because I was able to look into new font types that I haven't used before. This allowed me to look at the font styles even further and expand on my skills more than I have done before.

What I Didn't Like

What I didn't like about this process and production lesson is that towards the end of the lesson, I wasn't sure about other ideas to produce for different typefaces because I found it quite hard to think about different idea.

Adobe Illustrator

 What we did

In this process and production lesson we were set several tasks, which were very interesting. Within this lesson, we told the basics of Illustrator I had basic knowledge of this as I am quite used to using the programme Adobe Illustrator. However, I found this a good task because I was able to learn new skills to expand my knowledge. 

The Process

To create these tasks I used the programme Adobe Illustrator. The first task that I was given was to find a photograph of a celebrity and trace around the celebrity using the pen tool. The celebrity that I chose to use for this task was Ed Westwick who plays Chuck Bass in the tv show known as Gossip Girl. I found this task was quite easy because I found the pen tool quite easy to use, within the software. After this I had download an app onto my phone called Adobe Capture. I found this programme quite hard to use at first because I wasn't sure how to use the app, however I am now getting used to it. This app changes the photograph or sketch from real life to a vector image, which I think is quite creative. I then experimented with the image by changing the colour of the designs using the colour scheme that I had created within the app. After this we then moved onto our final task where we had to find a sports photograph that we wanted to use for a poster design, once I had chosen a photograph I then added a effect to the design, which vectorised the image even further. I then added type to the design, I used the font style Caflisch Script Pro, I used this font style because I thought that the font style was very creative and stylish. I also thought that the font style was very simple, but very fancy. I then added a little copyright symbol to my design, just above the text that I had placed onto the poster.

What I Like

My favourite part about this process and production lesson was the dancer photograph that I was able to edit into a vector that I could use for my piece that I was creating in Adobe Photoshop. I think that this was very different to what I had created before, I found this part very fun and exciting, as it was something different that what I have created.

What I Didn't Like

What I didn't like about this process and production lesson was that I kept getting lost, as I didn't understand what we had to do. However in the end I did work everything out, so my design wasn't very professional and was slightly messy, but overall I am pleased how it turned out in the end.

Adobe Photoshop

 What I did in this lesson?

In this Process and Production lesson, I was given the task edit a photograph of a cityscape scene using the programme Adobe Photoshop. I understand Adobe Photoshop quite well, so some of the tools that we used in this programme, I was quite familiar some of these tools. Another part that we did in this lesson was to create a visual piece using two curved lines that I had created using the pen tool. I thought this lesson was quite fun.

The Process

To create the edits of the cityscape photograph, I used the programme Adobe Photoshop. The tools that I used to change the photograph was the enhance tool, which changes the brightness and intensity of the colours within the design. I found that this process was quite fun because it allowed me to see how the photograph would look if the design was edited using different tools. Within the lesson we also look at all of the different tools that we could use within photoshop to edit the photo or to even use generally for my own designs. Whilst doing this I noticed that I hadn't used some of the tools before. I used the programme Adobe Illustrator to create the curved line experiment. To create this I use the pen tool to create two separate swirly lines, where I then used the option object > blend > blend options and selected the Specified step option, then clicked ok. I then had to select the option blend > make for the design to work correctly.

What I like

My favourite part about this Process and Production lesson was learning about and using tools, that I hadn't really used before because it allowed me to expand on my skills within photoshop, which I will be able to use in the future. I think that this will help me to make my designs better and more professional than they already are.

What I Didn't Like

The part that I didn't like about my designs was the line design because I feel that I could have been a little more creative with how the design were displayed, so that when I took the design into Adobe Illustrator. I would be able to create a more creative and funky Illustration. Another reason for this would be that the people who look at my design would be a lot more interested in the design, if it was more creative overall.

      

                  

The final task that we were given in this lesson was to edit a final photograph of our self using some of the tools that we had learnt whilst in this lesson. Once I chose a photograph of myself, I had to decided how I wanted to edit the photograph even further my changing the design from an original image to a vectorised design. I think that after editing the photograph even further, I was quite proud of the design because I found that the design was very creative. To edit my photograph I decided to use the programme Adobe Photoshop, to edit the photograph from a colour photo to a black and white photograph. To add this effect to the design I used the option Image > Adjustments > Black and White. I then had to add another effect to the photograph using the posterize option, which can be found under Image > Adjustments > Posterize, I think that this was a very creative process because it allowed me to change the photograph from a real life photo to a vector image. After using this process, I think that the design reminded me of a Pop Art design that I have seen before. To develop the design even further, I decided to add a colour to the design to brighten up the design, I think that the design looked very interesting, I was quite proud of how the design the design had been created within the software. The colour that I decided to change my design to was the colour red, I chose this colour because I think that this colour is very bright and vibrant, which I think is very important as you need to use bright and vibrant colour to make the target audience very interested in the design that you have created.

Kinetic Typography

Kinetic Typography from Rebecca Thorp on Vimeo.

What I Did In The Lesson

Within this process and production lesson, I was given the task to find a quote, lyric or poem that I could use for the kinetic typography animation. The quote that I decided to use for this animation was "Those who bring sunshine to lives of other cannot keep it from themselves". I chose this quote because I thought about creating a sunshine that would be relevant to the quote, I also think that the quote is also very inspirational. 

The process 

To create the Kinetic Typography animation, I had to use the programme Adobe After Effects, using the several tools to make my design better and moving. I found that this was quite difficult because I wasn't used to the software, however when creating some parts of the design I found this quite easy because I picked up how to use them straight away, which was very important as we had to create the design quite quickly. Before using the programme Adobe After Effects, I had to use Adobe Illustrator to create the words of the quote and the vector illustration of the sunshine. To create the sunshine I had to use the shape tool, the pen tool and the paint bucket tool to add the colour to the design. I also had to use the text tool to create the quote. 

What I Like

The part that is my favourite in this design is the sunshine vector illustration because I like how the sunshine begins to become bigger throughout the animation. I think that this is the part that I am most proud about because it is something that I haven't created before. Another part that I like about the design is the layout of the design because I think that it is very professional, easy to read and quite easy to understand what the quote is saying. 

What I Didn't Like

The part that I dislike from this animation is the typography font style that I have used for the design because it is quite fancy. I feel that the typography could be better because it is quite hard to read. I think that the font style could be slightly more simple, which could allow the target audience to understand and read the quote better than it is now. 

Avenir Next

Avenir Next from Rebecca Thorp on Vimeo.

What I Did In The Lesson

Within this process and production lesson, I was given the task to create an animation that is about a font style of our choice. Once we had picked a font style we then had to look into the design even further by finding out different facts or figures that I can place into the animation. The font style that I chose to use for this design was Avenir Next, that contained four different types of the font style. 

The Process

To create my design, I used the programme Adobe After Effects because this was the best programme to produce a animation that was perfect and very professional. The tools that I used to create the design was the text tool, for this design I had to learn new techniques that i could use for my design because I am still getting used to the programme. This is because I am still new to the software and I am not used to every technique within the programme. 

What I Like

My favourite part about the design is the way that the font style enters the animation because I think that the design is quite consistent throughout. I am also happy with how the colour scheme that I had chosen for the design worked well with the font style that I had use for my design. I think that the colour scheme that I have used is very simple, but is still very effective. I think that choosing the colour scheme needs to be considered very carefully, as choosing the colour scheme is very important. This means that the design can look professional and attractive towards the target market.

What I Didn't Like

My least favourite part about the design is the way that the font style enters and exits the design because I feel that this could be improved, as it needs to more creative rather than the design fading in and out or flying onto the page. Another part that I don't like about the design is the layout because I think that this could be considered further, as it could be more professional and presented better.  

Monday Morning Lecture - Week No 26

Within this lecture, we looked at Modernist Universalism, which is to talk to everyone once and that there is an ideal way of living. Once we had looked at this we looked at a László Moholy-Nagy, who is a Hungarian painter and photographer who was a teacher at the Bauhaus school. Whilst looking at László Moholy-Nagy we looked at the Importance of Technology.  After we had researched into this we then moved onto look at a Swiss artist, designer and writer called Johannes Itten. When looking at Johannes Itten, we found that the designs had to include bright colours. In this lecture we recapped on a black mountain college that we looked at in the previous lecture. The artwork is like a hippy culture but have expanded interventions.

The next part we looked at in this lecture was Trellick Tower in London one piece of modernist architecture and has a structure. Hostility to ornamentation (rejection of Baroque/Rococo) Hostility to serif fonts- promotion of sans-serif fonts, that has a twist. Sans serif built on legibility and wanted to strip back all of the hand crafted font styles. Helvetica font style is mainly used in posters and advertising designs like banners. A man did a documentary about the font style Helvetica a few years ago. We questioned whether we see the Helvetica font style everyone and huswick makes a documentary that the font style is used a lot more than it actually is.

Modernist design became interested in photography and adding photography into their work. They wanted to use experimental techniques. The birth of modernism was our of the soviet context, the Russian constructivism, modernist designer learned much form the European artistic avant-garde. We then watched a short clip called the man with a movie camera, which is a machine aesthetic. The film we watched is a silent film, Vertov’s opening statement. Kinography- means kinetic/moving. Music was played throughout the film, the film included kinetic moving images and the screen was split into two. There was lots of evidence of the movie maker himself in the film. The film we were shown was produced in the 1920’s. Fast paced music.

I found this lecture good, as I learnt lots of new information about art in the past that I hadn't known about before.

Monday Morning Lecture - Week No 25

We firstly talked about how Kant had different aspects of thinking. Within in this weeks lecture we will be looking at how designers and animators cope with visualisation. There is a universal thing to Kant’s thinking, we he says that we are have a different understanding of something. Types of modernism come out of Kant’s thinking. The first part that we looked at was the Bauhaus museum because it is place of Constructivism, also known as the School Building.

The next part that we looked at was the Black Mountain college, this was because the college had a progressive education, within this college you wouldn’t have any lessons and a very loose style of education, as it has a lack of structure and is completely opposite to the Bauhaus school. We then looked at some pieces of work that come from the Bauhaus school, we noticed that the work was more structured than the work that is created in the Black Mountain College.

Work we looked at was:

• Rauschenberg

• Rockbourne

• Twombly

• Vanderbeck / Vanderbeek

The last part that we shown was a writer called Johannes Litten, who attended the Bauhaus School and a Hungarian photographer and painter known as László Moholy-Nagy  Importance of technology.  

Monday Afternoon Seminar - Essay Part 2

Within this seminar we looked into the essay that we are writing even further, by discussing the subject that we were going to be looking at within our essays. The first part we did in this seminar was to look at an artist and inventor called Brendan Dawas, where we were shown some examples of his work, which were The Happiness Machine, Flippin' Big Remote, Doris Le Bot and EE- Digital Cities Portraits. Once we had looked at Brendan Dawas we then moved on to look at our topic of the essay question that we had chosen to write about. Mine was Brand vs Anti Brand, I firstly decided to look at the subject of Supermarkets that battle to get more people to come to the store, using different branding techniques such as Tv Adverts and Posters. Another point that I thought about looking into for my essay was to look at Graphic Designers and Animators to help promote their business to the target audience.

Other points that I have decided that I am going to look at for my essay research will be to look at Tesco's vs Aldi and small brands for Anti Brand, such as Cooperative, Costcutter and Premier. I am also going to look at Tesco Adverts in general and christmas, the brand guarantee, opening hours, advertisement e.g billboards and posters. Once I have done this I will then look into the aldi adverts for christmas and in general and the designers that create the designs. Also the opening hours, advertisements and designers. Where I will then be able to look at smaller companies designs that will effect the big supermarkets, also how brands have changed over the years and how have the designs and media over the years been used to attract more people to come to their local store. I am also going to look at the different types of shopping by looking at delivery boxes that are used to deliver your shopping in. The final point that I thought about looking at for this essay that I am going to be writing is who the top supermarket was and how similar the tv adverts were in 2015?

Jonathan Lindley

Within this lecture we looked into several designers and composers of music, I found that this lecture was quite interesting, as it was very different to some of the lecture that we have had. The first person that we looked at within this lecture was Jonathan Lindley who is a creator of music videos, we watched a video of his called Drumcorps - Geist . For this video he looked up statistics when people died, using seconds, minutes and hours, he also looked at what the causes were. I found that this animation was very creative and thought that the design was very well put together and very clever.

The next animation that we watched was again by Jonathan Lindley, which was called the fall line. We were told that we should always experiment with our work, I found that this video was very nice and creative. We then looked at the Enter Shikari video and No Guts, No Glory video, whilst watching these two videos I had mixed emotions about these video. I found that these two videos were very strange and I wasn't sure if I really liked them, I thought that the video were very weird and different to some of the videos that I would usually watch in my spare time. We then looked at another film called Smile around the face, which was created in 2005 by Fourtet, I thought that this video was very different and very creative. This translates the instrument and the artist within the video. We were told to work out the energy within the music to figure out what the music or song is trying to say. We then look at a video called Danny Brown Grown Up, which was a music video of a rap song that feature a boy walking around the streets, I like music videos because you can always find a different variety depending on the artist that you look at. Another video that we looked at in this lesson was called Transparent.

We then looked at something different, which was known as Performance that looked at someone dancing and moving around, this got me to think about something and whether I could incorporate dance into one of pieces for my visualisation of sound designs, as I think dance would be a great combination and a very different style that I could look at to use for my visual project. At the end of this lecture we were told that you need to be engrossed in the music, by listening to the music and that we need to research into the song to understand and see how it feels and that we need to look into the song artist. Another point that Jonathan Lindley made was to go out and meet the artist if you could. I found that this lecture was good, as it gave me a few ideas of what I could do for my Visualisation of Sound.

Monday Morning Lecture - Week No 24

The first part that we looked at in this lecture was that some artists are interested in the beauty of the artwork that people produced. I think that this is a perfect point because the beauty of the artwork is such an important that is used to attract people to look at the different types of artwork that is created. I think that this is a very interesting point and should always be considered as important factor when designing your own artwork, as you want the target audience that you will be aiming at towards. Within today's lecture we are looking at other people that have contested with Immanuel Kant. Once we have done this we will then move on to look at what is Modernism and Postmodernism.

The first person that we looked at within this lecture was Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, who was a german philosopher and polymath. Whilst looking at Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz we looked at Micro perceptions and the roar of the sea and how he Gottfried is emphasising the point of that. We then looked at monadology, which is one of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz best known works. It is a selection of a world, Critical Realism, Alice. Whilst looking at the story of Alice, we looked to two separate versions that was created by Walt Disney and the creator known as Jan Svankmajer, whilst looking at Jan Svankmajer we watched a clip of Alice that was created in 1988.

The final part that we looked at within this lecture was Modernism and Postmodernism, within this part of the lecture we learnt what was meant by Modernism and Postmodernism. Modernism is a movement that is philosophical that allows changes and cultural trends, the movement was based between the late 19th century and the 20th centuries. Postmodernism is the movement that is based in the late 20th centuries the movement that has left the modernism movement.

I found this lecture good and helpful, as I got to look into new parts of art that I haven't looked at before. It also allowed me to recap on what is Modernism and Postmodernism and why it is so important when it involves art.

Monday Afternoon Seminar - Essay

Within this seminar we talked about the essay in more detail, I found that this seminar was very helpful, as it allowed to me to look and choose a essay question that I wanted to answer. I found that choosing an essay question was quite difficult as I wasn't sure, which one that I wanted to choose, this was because I had never been given an essay to write before, I found that this made me really nervous about writing the essay because I wasn't sure whether it would go well or not. However I did find the seminar very helpful, as it boosted my confidence on the essay that I going to be writing.

The question that I decided to take forward to answer for my essay was question number 3, which was about Branding vs Anti-Branding. The question that we were given to answer was:

"Brand versus Anti-Brand. How have graphic designer or animators worked with or against brands and to what effects?"

From this I had to think about what I could write about, as I had to choose a subject to focus the essay on, we were told that it could be something that you are interested in and take a branding perspective on it. Other points that we were told to think about when writing our essay's were to think about the things that have been used/reused? Look into anti-branding and think about the big brother eye for example and how it has been used for logos. Also branding is about our own belonging in some aspects, like how have our hair.  Branding is opinionated and this can be down to the age range etc. We were also told that we could look into McDonalds as a case study, or a big company and use this as a main focus point. We could look at how it has changed over the years from the branding to the menu choices. Another part that we could look at is Adbusters for Anti-branding and how they use McDonalds things to show them up. We were shown that companies pay lawyers to protect there brand these days, which shows that this has changed how the branding world is now than it used to be. 

I thought about how I could look into TV Series, my example for this was to look at the song that had been used for the Pretty Little Liars theme song in the opening sequence. I could look at how the song was sung by a band, but was then used for the theme song. From this you would be able to recognise and think a lot more about the TV Show rather than the band that originally sung the song because the show is very popular and could be recognised anywhere in the world. I also thought about looking into the company Marks and Spencer and how design companies that compete with each other or against each other with supermarkets. For example Tesco, Sainsbury's, Aldi and more. I thought about I looking at the christmas adverts, as I could focus on one but expand out and looking into more. 

Sound Visualisation

Within this lecture we looked at sound visualisations and the graphical responses that are used for electronic sound.

Graphical Responses to electronic sound

• Notation -  Marks on Paper
• Frequency and Oscillation
• Harmonics and Vibration
• Digital Responses

Notation - Marks on Paper

We were shown a quote by Nikola Testa in Electronics which was:

"If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration". 

We then looked at Telegraphy in 1840 and people known as Joseph Henry, Alfred Vail and Samuel Morse. The one that we looked into further was Samuel Morse who created the Morse Code, which was the first graphical representation of sound. ( - . ) Ticker tape links under visualisation. We were told that Telegraphy + Morse Code = Early Text Messaging. 

We then looked at Joseph Schillinger who was a Mathematic notation - Bach. We were told that he brought his maths to sound/notation and that he also experimented with skylines and created a piece known as the Skyline Melody. After we had done this we looked at the musician called John Cage who created Song Books (1958), his work looked more like morse code. He created books of these scores, known as Fontana Mix (1958), Visual Score (1960) and Music for airports (1978) - Brian Eno Electronic Music. 

Muzak is the type of the music that is played in a hotel or played in a lift, which is known for culture and was very revolutionary. He is also a design that went to design school. 

Frequency and Oscillation 

Oscilloscopes - Heart Machine Line

The first person that we looked at for this section was Karl Ferdinand Braun (1987), who was a german inventor and contributed to the development of television and radio technology. We then looked at Leon Theremin, who was a Russian that lived in New York City. We watched a video called Leon Theremin playing his own instruments, I found that this clip was very interesting and very different because we hadn't seen anything like this before in Graphic Design. We then looked at Mary Ellen Bute, who is connected with Leon Theremin, Oskar Fischinger and Joseph Schillinger, we found that she worked with Dr Ralph Potter and Bell Telephone Labs, that moods contrasts. 

We also looked at Abstronics (1954) known as Abstract Electronics. We were also shown WMP Visualisation, that is mainly used using the programme Window Media Player which creates a waveform that is a generator by what is being played in the programme. This is not hackable. 

Harmonics and Vibration

Within this section we looked at many artists, the first that we looked into was Robert Hooke (1680) who experimented with Slate and Flour and a Violin Stick. We also looked at Ernst Chladni (1787), who is best known for the Discoveries of Sound. Another person that we looked at was Hans Jenny (1967) who was best known for Cymatics, he did lots of experiments with plates, we watched a clip from a documentary that was an hour long. We talked about 37, 44 Hz from Cymatics. 

Another person that we looked at within this lecture was Mandala, where we talked about the subject of Hayagriva Sand Mandala. We then moved onto Nigel John Stanford, who was also known for Cymatics. Nigel is also known for Science vs Music 2014, which we watched a clip from. In this piece of work we were shown all the features that we had from the start of the lecture, which I found was very interesting and very creative. 

Digital Responses

Within the digital responses section of the lecture we looked into Adobe Audition and Audio Waveforms. Cubase -  Digital Music Sequencing that helps you to write music. Another part that we looked at was Max MSP, which is a Node Based Editing, it is like one John Cage's abstracts. Expressive Language. We then watched two clip called Remnant 2010 - Small Hands, Jason Payne - Geometric on Vimeo.