THE MAKING OF A TYPEFACE

Here is an article I found on I LOVE TYPOGRAPHY which shows a little insight in the creation of a contemporary typeface.  I found the most interesting part in which he talks about the necessity for a corporate typeface to not only be usable by designers in a corporate identity but also the typeface needs to be easily used by non-designer employees.  5 years is a long time to spend on refining of a typeface and the commitment obviously pays off.

Acorde

MINIMAL VS. EMPTY

In my most recent posters for viscom I have been trying to focus on simplicity and minimalism, while it is apparent I am not afraid of using white space, at times the posters can seem empty and unresolved.  So I decided to do a little of digging for minimal posters and found a bunch of blog posts from Vidotto.  Cool.

OOPS

:(

MIDTOWN POSTERS

Critique feedback & whats coming next:  Jamie wants me to expand on the "cross" like motif in the third image and translate the framing into the other two posters, like by cropping out the other stop signs around the cross form.  Also generating a series with the use of a-symmetry like in the 6th image with the house.  Also the imagery of the house will be filled with textures or surfaces from the image of the house.  The surrounding stop signs will also be un-tagged.  Furthermore I am going to  incorporate the image of my raw curvilinear line study instead of the vectorized version.

POSTERS

We have been working on posters in VisCom and I have found myself looking at a lot of posters online at gigposters and other creative databases.  I felt the need to share some of my favorites.

BITMAP VS. VECTOR

Vector and Bitmap have a different look and feel to them and can be used to communicate different ideas.  Vector is based off of a mathematical algorithm and creates "perfect" shapes and lines.  These graphics are infinitely scalable and look smooth neat and computer generated.  While bitmap or raster images/graphics are made up of tiny pixels which limit the amount of information stored in the image.  Raster images are not infinitely scalable and only look smooth at there intended viewing size.  These characteristics can be used in your favor or against you while communicating with them.  If you want a fresh and completed look a smooth vector would be your method of choice, while if you want to create a sense of grudge, distress, or just a more personal/humanist feeling you should use a bitmap.  Each can also be used together to create an interesting juxtaposition.    

KRYPTON MONOGRAM

Here is some process of the process for creating a monogram for the element Krypton, which is represented by the letters KR.  The two main topics I was trying to communicate was the stability of the element and it's natural gaseous form.  I chose the top monogram as my final version because of the organic directionality of each arm and leg of the K and R, while the serifs and stability so does the symmetry of the form as a whole.  Soon we will be taking a trip to SKYLAB letterpress and all of our classes monograms will be printed on a card while we will get to observe the process of a letterpress in today's culture.

DEFINING LINE

Our basic, complex, raw curvilinear, and angular line studies have now transitioned into a photography assignment with a connection and interaction of the studies and lines found in the city.  The juxtaposition of photos and line studies can be handled with continuation or comparison  the example above is a complex line study paired with a photo of the exterior of the nelson atkins, it has the continuation of the 2 vertical lines yet is comparing the composition of the two.  Still the comparison between the two leaves the viewer searching for the difference between them and thus keeps them interested. This comparison should also lead to communicate the area within kansas city you were in.

Crossroads

-Artsy

-Character/Builidngs

~old-made new

-friendly/strong sense of community

-local business

-creative

Insipired 

Refreshing

Rivermarket

-urabnized

-sastiainable

-culture

-mid-western collective

-local

-historic

Interactive

Crown Center

-family oriented

-established

-upper-middleclass

attraction/tourism

-Hallmark

Staged

Power & Light

-glam

-flash

-tourism

-attraction

-size

-show

-commerical

-night life

-party adults

touristy

Brookside

-established

-wealthy

-community

-inviting

-connected

-active

-educated

-strong sense of family

Welcomed/invasive

West Bottoms

-sketchy

-run down

-ghost town/ unpopulated

-machines/ industry

-underground nightlife

-forgotten/ under used

adventerous

Business District

-governmental

-direction

-time/order

-professionalism

-cold/unwelcoming

-fast paced

in the way/outsider

Plaza

-commercial

-tourism

-over-rated

-fake high-end

-all ages/ diverse

-spanish/ european style

consumer

East KC

-violent

-unsafe/uninviting

-seperated

-low class

-community pride

outsider

Midtown

-Home life

-middle class

-artsy

-community

-inviting

-young life (families)

nuetrality

Westport

-hisotric

-culture

-night life

-young

-environmentally aware

-diverse

-local business connection

purpose/intent

Union Station

-educational

-familty oriented

-historic

-tourism/travel

-grand

Historic

ON THE MOVE

I am working on creating a portfolio/blog, with my exterior domain of www.patrick-drake.com  So soon this blog will be featured along side my portfolio and contact information.  My portfolio website is in great need of an update and I feel this is the perfect opportunity.

UNPLANNED JUXATPOSITION

In the article Speak Up examines artist Laura Fields juxtaposition of the Tiffany Co. Ad and the news article found on page 3 of the New York Times.  The constant juxtaposition often creates an unexpected emotional response from Fields who looks at the interaction daily, and creates an artistic awareness to its interaction.  This interaction can sometimes be playful and other times negatively ironic.  This interaction though could be controlled by the papers editors yet seems to be ignored or overlooked.  The gaze or pointing of humans in the times article often interacts with the luxurious jewelry featured in the Tiffany ad.  Sometimes the shapes mimic each other.  If we could harness the power of juxtaposition of image & image, text & text, and text & image, we could further or control the response the viewer has to the layout as a whole.  Though this interaction may often consciously go over looked it is still being noticed and effecting the reader.  Directly after reading this article I switched over to my i-tunes and while flipping through trying to find music to listen to I noticed an unplanned juxtaposition of album art, with text & image.  ( Don't judge me on the contents of my library) A single by Britney Spears titled WOMANIZER is being pointing to by the rap artist Lil Wayne whose lyrics often contain womanizing phrases.  Had Lil wayne's designers known he would appear next to such an album they probably would not have had him pointing in that direction, but somethings you just cannot control.

TYPEFACE

Kansas City AIGA, A REEL DESIGN FILM SERIES, hosted TYPEFACE a film about the Hamilton wood type museum in North East, Two Rivers, Wisconsin.  The film addresses the struggle of a dying practice of wood type printing.  The digressing nature of a experiential process, the efficiency of printing with wooden type blocks is getting overthrown by the speed of the modern computer.  The intent of this film seems to be to aware the public of the wonders and connections someone can make with ink and wooden letter forms.  Yet seems to be distracted by the characters established in the film.  Dennis Ichiyama  a professor at Purdue, is one of these characters, along with the curator of the museum and former employees.   Overall I feel as if the film was not as successful at pulling people into the museum because of its ability to (unintentionally?) highlight the negative aspects of the small town of Two Rivers, Wisconsin.  The home of the ice cream sundae.  Not to mention the "main character" the museums curator quits his job to take up painting.  But a trip would be nice for a day or two, just to experience the history of how my practice came to be what it is today.  Not to mention it was good to see that a large majority of the audience was KCAI affiliated, and a majority of those were typography 1 students.

CANDY SKETCHES

Here are some images of the sketches I made of initial bitmap letter forms, before I finalized which one to refine.

BITMAPPED

After the creation of individual bitmap letter forms we were then asked to place those letter forms together into words protaining to our specific "bit", while exploring the relationship between different Capital and lowercase patterns.  I chose delicious, FLAVOR, Peanut Butter.

KRYPTON

I am Creating a symbol for the element Krypton, Kr 36

LINE FIND AND SHARE // READING

We have moved from dots to line compositions.  Again exploring abstract communication of selected themes.  Regularity, Progression, and Random line compositions. The first image is of a Basic composition with Regularity and the second is a Complex composition (combination of multiple basics) communicating Progression.

These are just some different line exploration compositions I have come across by artist Joe Kievitt.

THE NEW BASICS draws a connection between design theory and our current project with an explanation of using a transitioning figure ground relationship like we have explored in our complex line studies.  The first image has an alternating illusion between the 2 smaller lines and the 3 larger ones.  Which of the lines is in front of the other? Which is the positive and which is the negative?

While rhythm in the line compositions are what generate the progressive feel of the second line study. 

Then the introduction of three dimensional surfaces with 2 dimensional imagery literally adds a whole new dimensional to the studies, lines began to bend in space and conform to the planes they were projected on. This information is then again translated back to 2-D (photographed) which flattens the lines and creates the "simulation" of spatial volume.