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.

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.    

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

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.

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.

INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION BOOK

Industrial Evolution:  An exploration of abstract communication and text and image.  This book is the final product of a collaboration of Typography 1 & Visual Communication.  The Typography was printed on transparency paper, and layered on top of the dot compositions which were created in Visual Communications.  The theme of my book is deindustrazation. 

The 9 representing words I chose to represent the theme, were:
Utilitarian, with symmetry, to represent the "sameness" feeling that utilitarian expresses.

Creation, In which I used A-symmetry to balance the composition visually.  This also has a nice contrast from the centered symmetrical composition the viewer just witnessed.

Demanding, In demanding I used scale to allow the larger dot to have a sense of,"look at me!, Look at me! I'm front and center."  This shift in scale really draws the viewers attention to the center dot, as does the break in the pattern of smaller dots in a line.

Force.  Here I am relying on the proximity of the form to the frame.  The forms heavy nature also rely on the viewers natural knowledge of gravity.  The moment just before impact.  The force is only moments away of occurred.  

Friction.  Here I I am using an graphical representation of the tight framing seen through a lens, to isolate the action of friction.  The dot is grinding along the edge of the larger dots which contain the smaller one with no place to go.

Stress.  A radial line movement away from the center of the composition makes the viewer unease.  The correspondence of scale separates the dots into a group which is dependent of the other.  With out this scale shift it would seem as if these two elements  they would seem as one compound shape.

Complexity.  Looking at the pipework found in factory I again used scale correspondence to separate the single forms in the composition , but in this case the change in scale also add depth to the 2 dimensional space.  

Capacity.  Literally filling the space with a uniform dot with uniform spacing. With out the perfection of size and space the "odd mans out" become the attention grabbers, and then the viewer searches for another meaning, and meaning that the design didn't include.  

Deteriorate.  I am representing temporally in a single graphic.  The passing of time from top to bottom, from perfection to destruction all in a linear fashion. It A-symmetry also adds the tension between the perfection and destruction, through the perfection of bright clean white surface while aganist a manipulated surface.  

Within the compositions we also included imagery.  To alter or support our theme/ our personal view on it.

Utilitarian is only drawing the viewer into this mindset of industry and sets the tone for the type of images you would expect to see throughout the rest of the book.  But then on the second page things start to change.  

With creation, I am highlighting the removal of humans in the industrial environment and replacing them with robots who are capable to do the mans job.  

In Demanding I wanted to relay my opinion for the need of retail stores like walmart and target.  This need is soley based off the america need for cheap stuff.  If you have cheap stuff, you sell stuff. The concept of supply and demand with comsumerism is represneted by the agressive bull at Wall Street.  

The Force in the book is representing the force of the companies to expand to outsourcing jobs in different, cheaper countries, in-order to keep up with the American need for goods.  

Friction, uses the imagery of a working man and a chain locked door (to signify a closed factory), while a smaller dot grinds against the larger ones.  The litter dot has an image of the great depression in which a line of unemployed men are getting free soup.  

The stress mainly uses the sharpness of the color yellow surrounding a lone image of a depressed man.  

Complexity intertwines all of the negative aspects that I have touched on in the book into a single composition.  

Capacity uses the imagery of landfill and American garbage reflecting on the unnecessary waste of American culture.  

Deteriorate uses imagery of urban decay from the city of Detroit a major victim of deindustrilization in the United States.

Some things that could have been different about this book would probably be the stress page.  The connection between the two compositions are terrible.  They have no connection compositionally and the interaction between them spatially is confusing.  Also the craft was difficult to have a high level of cleanliness because of the small size of the dots.  Thus the glue probably shows in a couple of the more intricate pages.




For all of the Images of the final artifact look at this