Working towards manifesto

Following the writing of a short piece on the theme of "Design That Makes Me Happy" there was a session with John Hammersley where the group evaluated each otheres' writings  to consider emerging themes. I was unable to attend that session but had the opportunity to discuss it this week with John to consider potential statements that might be isolated in my writing leading to a possible "thesis statement". 

The group selected the idea of "Balance, Juxtaposition and Space" (relating to typography) as a recurring theme within my writing. From this we were asked to develop a creative piece in response to this (above). I can now see possibilities arising from the study of this theme  and considerations relating to periods, styles and trends in typography, particularly within the field of information design. I am becoming increasingly interested in trends and the period of the 1950's (influences of modernism, swiss graphicsetc) and the changes and developments through digital intervention and the current resurgence of hand drawn lettering and illustration. I now feel that I need to refine my ideas to develop a clear direction and content for my "Manifesto"

Developing Research Skills

After some delay, a follow up to John Hammersley's session on "Developing Research Skills" on 29 October 2009. I have spent some " library time" today, on-line and in the library covering some of the research approaches discussed in the October session. After completing the izone quiz.... I have moved on to relevant research related to the Animation project using book, journal and database searches. there will be evidence of this as screenshot print-outs in the learning journal. 

Update on progress - Animation

The technical issues that have arisen with this project have hindered/delayed my progress with an outcome. Unfortunately the version of Flash that I have (8) in CS3 does not seem to support the import of Photoshop files with layers ( in the way that later versions of Flash do).  Therefore, having spent time building a series of slides as layers in Photoshop CS3 I have had to consider an alternative ie complete the basic animation in Photoshop; export as a movie and import to imovie and overlay sound file there.

This has had the effect of me having to consider a simpler version of "tweens" between frames and sections of the animation and I feel that I am, unfortunately, designing down to my technology knowledge. I have to say that my own interest in animation/moving image is limited and that I would prefer to be developing my ideas as print based outcomes. Some of the sources for imagery in the animation would be useful starting points for exploration in print and in that medium I feel that I could extend the depth of my work much further.

Sweet talk 38 - Watershed 5 November 2009

SweetTalk is CandyCollective’s self-initiated series of creative-to creative live events. It’s a way of bringing together local creative talent with international luminaries in a relaxed, social environment.

The talks also hope to promote discourse and knowledge transfer between the creative industries, academics and students.

SweetTalk 38 Speakers: 
Ian Anderson – The Designers Republic (tDR)
Maria Mochnacz – Photographer
Andy Council – Illustrator
Gabriel Solomons – Designer/Publisher/Editor/Educator/

£10/£8 students

The re were interesting moments in these talks with a very nervous Andy Council being the most endearing. Elements and humour and reflection in relating the development of his work - almost self deprecating. Gabriel Solomon's message that you cannot rely on one role/job and that you must be willing to become involved in more than one venture certainly rang true. Maria Mochnacz's approach stating that she did not involve herself in digital seemed disjointed as some of the work show seemed certainly to have been constructed with digital intervention. Ian Andersons laid back arrogance rather stuck in my throat; maybe because it was getting late and the chairs were uncomfortable. There is no doubt that he has done some interesting work from untrained beginings. However when questioned by a young student over his ethics with regard to his involvement with Coca Cola I felt that he rather dodged the issue. "I only get involved with things where I can make a change/difference" he said. Also citing reasons for getting back to taking control of his work - whereas he agency had distanced himself from this. Come on Ian - isn't the basic reason for the Coke account that it made big bucks for you?

Keeping up to date with reading

I have been addressing the essential reading list and have recently covered  "What is Graphic Design" Newark, Quentin. Notes on reflection on this are contained in studio notebook 1. One major point of note is that the underlying premise of the book relates back to the quotes by Dwiggins "Super Printing"  and Meynall  and the debate of "Artist or Artisan" from "Loooking Closer" The idea of the designer "finding a position".  There are considerations of Art over Design - Art being implicit, Design being explicit. In terms of design evolution the book relates early 20th century design as a "mechanism that would tranform society and help to build a utopia". Industrialisation was seen as a context for this. With regard to "Visual Communication" Jaques Derrida, a french philosopher and fellow theorists root their thinking in "structuralism" - "all language communication (graphic design) is a system of relationships between signs (semiotics) and each individual sign only has a meaning because of its relationship to other signs - word/pictures/symbols etc" I found that this linked to the idea of Bias and Context discussed in recent seminar with John Hammersley. Contexts in which design is made - the self - what is self expression? The idea that we all take our influences and bring them together to create our own design.

Other books which I am already familiar with through my own work (education) include "A Smile in the Mind" and " The Art of Looking Sideways" My current reading from the esssintial list is "Visible Signs" - more on this later.

Getting up to date

I have become aware that due to my recent and lingering bout of painful  sciatica that I have been neglectful of my intentions to keep up to date with my reflections via this blog. So I need to address some of my more recent progress with work for the module.

My current progress with the "Moving Image, narrative" project has been slow: due to the sciatica and discomfort; but equally due to my lack of technical experience of Flash and my reticence to be involved with time based visual media. However, I am making progress. I have run some test tutorial pieces in Flash 8 to learn the basics and started building slides towards my narrative piece based on thoughts for my "Manifesto".

My focus for this work is on typographic approaches in print based design. My influences start from the work in the 1950's and early 60's of the work of Reid Miles who for a period of 15 years maintained the role of the main designer for Blue Note jazz record label. He maintained this role as well as designing for other agencies and running his own studio (s). Later in his career he started to focus more on the role of photographer. His work was ahead of its time. I feel that typographicaly he was the "Brody" of the 1950's. His methods of cut and paste type, visual alignments and juxtapositions with shapes and photo's are inspiring and take leads from early modernist typographers.

My aims for this time based piece take a starting point from the idea of drawn shapes with typography inspired by Reid Miles work and I hope to develop this though animation to show some other typograhic considerations linked to quotes to qualify this piece. Images above show initial starting points of drawn elements and composite Photoshop slide of elements starting to come together.

Feedback so far from Rob seem to suggest that each f these slides being built for the animation do link to the period discussed and that each could be seen as an individual "poster" and considered for some developmental print work, maybe later on scanning prints back in to develop further animation.