Category Archives: Learning Log

A type of island: San Serriffe!

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San Serriffe

On 1 April 1977 the Guardian produced a 7 page travel supplement on the tiny tropical republic of San Serriffe, “a small archipeligo, its main islands grouped roughly in the shape of a semicolon, in the Indian Ocean”, which was apparently celebrating ten years of independence.

The country was in fact completely made up as an April Fool’s joke. The name San Serriffe and the shape of the islands were just the first clues; everything connected with San Serriffe was named after printing and typesetting terms.

The name itself refers to sans serif typefaces; Bodoni, the capital, is a variety of typeface; the two main islands are called Upper Caisse and Lower Caisse; the indigenous islanders are known as flongs, a mould for making type, and the whole Republic is ruled over by the dictator General M J Pica, named after a unit of measurement in type. The Guardian

I howled with laughter when I found this, it really appealed to my sense of humour. I love the detail that went into the joke and was amazed by the follow up coverage it has also generated.

What was interesting was how many of the clues I could now spot having done section 4, it was made all the more delicious because I could join in the joke and spot most of the typographic terms. Something I doubt I would have been able to do before the course!

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Typefaces around you

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Collage of typefaces from a journey to London

Street Typography

I used my trip to see the Crewdson show at the Photographer’s Gallery in London as an opportunity to look at some of the typefaces I encountered on the way. To say they were ever present seems like an understatement. Typography was there in every aspect of my journey from my number plate and parking ticket to underground adverts and Emergency call systems.

The most common feature, with the exception of the Royal Academy logo, was that all the typefaces were sans serif. A couple used a script typeface. They were also a mix of all uppercase and upper/lower case. By the time I got home the exercise had almost become overwhelming, and it was interesting to note how much I probably screen out everyday.

I was intrigued that most of the typefaces were sans serif because my understanding was that serif type is easier to read (although Poole’s research suggests this is not a clear cut debate). Sans serif typefaces certainly look more contemporary but for me it highlighted the importance of the relationship between design and purpose, particularly where the intention is to convey a specific message.

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‘Job Well Done’ ideas

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Thoughts for a ‘well done on finishing your report/thesis/dissertation’ greetings card, based on quotes and sayings:

  • It always seems impossible until it is done. Nelson Mandela
  • You did it!
  • She believed she could, so she did!
  • The pride in finishing a marathon is much greater than all the pain endured during the marathon
  • The hard part about writing a novel is finishing it. Hemmingway
  • A job well done stays well done forever
  • Facing challenges with strength, determination, and confidence is what matters, and you have done it! Congratulations
  • People forget how fast you did a job – but they remember how well you did it
  • Put on your positive pants!
  • You did great
  • Pat on the back! The final full stop!

These suggest different sentiments that the card could convey visually; the effort, the celebration, a journey, attention to detail and so on. It is also possible that one of the designs could be just typography which is something I hadn’t thought about before.

Assignment Two Development

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I started thinking about assignment two ahead of time in late August; I thought it would be a good idea to give myself time for things to percolate. I also started talking to friends and families about what they thought were gaps in the greeting card market. This made me think about some of our recent life events and what sort of cards might have been appropriate. This led to a long list and I started doing some thumbnail sketches of the different themes:

  • Your first harvest (I had not long pulled up my first lettuce of the season)
  • Summer solstice
  • Your first kitten
  • Congratulations on eating your greens
  • Well done for getting active
  • Not checking your e-mails all weekend!
  • Baking your first cake
  • Your new pushbike
  • Finishing that report
  • Congratulations on your new pet snake
  • Congratulations on your first tattoo

Over the weeks that followed I gradually narrowed the list – partly by those that interested me and partly by those that were genuinely gaps in the market. Summer solstice and kittens seem to be well catered for and there are lots of generic ‘well done’ type cards.

The ones that immediately attracted me were:

  • Harvest
  • Greens
  • Baking
  • Snake
  • Tattoo

I started collecting and pinning different ideas, thinking about relevant markets and making some more thumbnail sketches.

 

Greetings cards

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Having talked to various friends and families to develop some ideas I also thought I would find out a bit more about the greetings card market generally. This helped in terms of understanding the brief and refining my approach to the cards.  According to the Greetings Card Association the UK greetings card market was worth £1.5 billion in 2015 (up by 5% on 2014).

The statistics are fascinating and not necessarily what you might assume given the digital alternatives:

  • Everyday cards increased by 60.1 million on 2014
  • Birthday cards £564 million (up 10.4%)
  • Relations and occasions cards £586.4 million ((up by 17%)
  • Christmas cards are 12% of total card sales
  • 85% of all cards are bought by women
  • the market includes 1,000 publishers, and there are 400 members of the GCA (350 are micro/small businesses)
  • £50 million was raised for good causes from charity card sales

Greeting cards are divided into a number of categories:

  • Spring season
    • Valentines
    • Mother’s Day/ Father’s Day
    • Easter
  • Everyday
  • Ages – Birthday specific
  • Everyday – congratulations, Engagement, New Home, New Job, Get Well etc.
  • Relations – specific family members
  • Christmas: Singles or counter, and Boxes or multiples
  • Wedding Anniversaries

I also discovered there is something called the Henries Awards for Greeting cards and they use slightly different categories:

  • Cute
  • Contemporary Trend
  • Wholesale
  • Traditional words – sentimental
  • Contemporary words – sentimental

This additional research helped me think more about the possible markets for my proposed cards and who their buyers might be.

Point of Sale feedback

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Love fruit poster with fruit heart in the middle

I am slightly conscious of working in my own bubble recently and although I have been getting feedback from friends and family it felt like I was at a point where I needed something more. I decided that with the point of sale exercise I would go to some of my fellow students and ask for their views.

I am not as confident in the graphic design field as I am with my photography so this was quite a big step. I felt comfortable approaching the Facebook Visual Communications group, partly because it is more visual platform and partly because I still seem to have tech gremlins logging into the OCA fora for some reason.

That aside I got some very generous responses and I am grateful to everyone that replied. Opinions naturally varied and some people preferred the backlit fruit whereas others liked the puppet warped fruit. Comments included:

…It reminds me of a stained glass window and I think would definitely work well from a distance. Using lots of different fruits too makes it versatile…

…this feels like 2 totally separate posters (the landscape version of sliced fruits) and not as coherent as the first image.

I like this, fresh and simple.

…it’s my favourite but I feel like the fruit blends into the background a bit. Perhaps a green or blue background would be punchier?

I really like the photographed fruit but the Heart + ‘Fruit’ in the middle is not as interesting to look at… I’d rather fill my eyes with all those translucent shapes! Why the typewriter font? Is there a reason for choosing it?

It was obviously great that people responded positively to the ideas but what was interesting was the questions that were raised:

  • The colour of the backgrounds
  • The choice of typeface
  • Whether there should be gap in the centre of the sliced fruit
  • The red heart being distracting

All the points were useful insights because they were not necessarily the things I had seen and/or they were a good test of whether I had made conscious choices about what I put where. Taking on the comments I played a little with the backgrounds, and the typeface and heart on the sliced fruit version. Thanks to Charlotte for suggesting what now seems obvious about combining the two ideas (if I were to rework it again I’d use a backlit orange slice too)! In the end my preference is still with the single fruit & veg on a white background but other people did seem to prefer the backlit versions.

While the process was a little nerve-wracking I’m glad I did it and it has given me confidence to ask for feedback again. It was particularly useful in highlighting the value of different iterations of a design and a good test of how willing I was to let go of some of the aspects of what I had produced. The exercise also highlighted the challenge of managing the seemingly infinite variety of solutions – colour, composition, typography etc.!

 

Brighton Photo Biennial 2016: a sense of space

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I am determined to capture some of my thoughts about my experiences of an OCA study visit quickly for a change! Often the spirit is willing but my attention span is weak and too much time elapses between the experience and the reflections. It is also important to record my reflections quickly because yesterday was very much an aesthetic day; a multi sensory, multi-modal experience, and I recognise a need to record that while it is still fresh.

This weekend, alongside 38 other OCA photography students, I was at the Brighton Photo Biennial 2016. On the first day I went to four exhibitions – ‘Reimagine’ and ‘Into the Outside: The Story so Far’ at the University of Brighton Galleries (Grand Parade), ‘The Dandy Lion Project’ at University of Brighton Galleries (Edward Street), and ‘Kick over the Statues’ by Ewen Spencer at Fabrica.

I will pick up on the exhibitions themselves more in later posts but for now what is sitting with me is more about seeing the work in situ and thinking about the physical context of the exhibitions, something that connects my interest in both photography and design/graphic design. I may struggle to describe this because it was an embodied experience and I sense my learning involves tacit knowledge primarily. (Polanyi, 1967)

What struck me forcefully was the quality of the energy in the space at Fabrica. It was markedly different to the other venues. This may in part have been influenced by the subject matter and the fact it included a great dance beat. But it was buzzing and seemed like people were really paying attention to the photographs. This is not intended as a criticism of the other shows; they each had their own personality. I write about it now because I think it surfaced something important for me in terms of how I go about developing my own work and the relationship I want it to have with possible audiences.

The ‘Kick Over the Statues’ prints are large (deliberately billboard style), beautiful, arresting and in some cases haunting. There is music playing, the lighting is subdued apart from bright spots over the photographs and there are projected images from Spencer’s own archive spanning years of youth/music subcultures.

What I noticed was peopled engaging with the work in a way I don’t think I saw in the other exhibitions that were more traditionally ‘white box.’ People were talking about their experiences of their own youth subcultures. They were discussing lighting, composition, walking up close, standing back, and observing each other observing the works. Children were being encouraged to dance and there was chatter, and a lot of smiles. It was OK to be noisy.

The exhibition was busy and alive, an experience I will remember.

References and citations:

Polanyi, M. (1967). The Tacit Dimension. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd.

 

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Exercise: Book cover design

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Exercise (p.40 OCA Graphic Design): Your brief is to design a stunning and contemporary cover for one of the 20th Century’s most acclaimed authors, HG Wells. When you have a range of ideas and have notes in your learning log, make some rough drawings or sketches to show your ideas.

I could sense a little hesitation when I first read through the brief, this sounds like ‘proper’ graphic design! Rather than worry about whether I could come up with an appropriate design I thought about the research process. I started with an overarching mindmap drawing out some keywords, identifying research needs, thinking about different angles on the brief and drawing out some of the decision process. This process helped me think about which books I might design the book cover for, secondary online research showed that the most common titles for this sort of exercise seem to be ‘War of the Worlds,’ ‘The Invisible Man,’ ‘The Time Machine,’ and the ‘Island of Dr.Moreau.’

When I looked at HG Wells’ bibliography I came across a number of short stories that I hadn’t read before and decided this was the direction I wanted to take, that way I could perhaps develop something more distinctive. The short stories are full of rich symbolism with a glorious sense of the Gothic; several of them reminded me of Grand Guignol plays. I then decided on the three short stories I wanted to work with and did a further mindmap drawing out keywords for each of the titles. As I did this I had a sense I was starting to visualise how the design might develop, I could see some layouts in my mind’s eye.

In parallel I looked at lots of other examples for inspiration and tried to analyse the designs in terms of what I felt worked and what I might have done differently. I am now deep into playing with typefaces and thinking about which designs I might develop.

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What is graphic design?

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Grey question mark on black background

Graphic Design is the creative discipline that brings together words and visual imagery to communicate to an audience…Graphic design is essentially a process of problem solving – how best to get the identified information to a particular audience…Graphic design is rooted in language; it deals with written language through typography and  visual language through images, colour, composition, signs and symbols… (Open College of the Arts., 2010:12 -13)

Graphic design, also known as communication design, is the art and practice of planning and projecting ideas and experiences with visual and textual content. The form of the communication can be physical or virtual, and may include images, words, or graphic forms. The experience can take place in an instant or over a long period of time. The work can happen at any scale, from the design of a single postage stamp to a national postal signage system, or from a company’s digital avatar to the sprawling and interlinked digital and physical content of an international newspaper. It can also be for any purpose, whether commercial, educational, cultural, or political.  American Institute of Graphic Arts,

One of the delights of moving into a relatively new field is that it opens up your perspective and brings new insights. Graphic Design could be said to be ubiquitous and I realise that for me that means it potentially goes unseen, it’s outputs have become so much a part of the fabric of cultural life.

I don’t think I had taken it for granted, in fact in my own search for a sympathetic Graphic Designer I discovered how challenging it is to work with someone who couldn’t seem to communicate what I was looking for as a client . It is a complex relationship that takes effort to build into a visual language. Anyway, I digress.

As part of my introduction to GD1 I have challenged myself to consider exactly what graphic design is and how it potentially differs from other art related disciplines. Interestingly, others seem to have framed a similar quest in terms of ‘what is the purpose of graphic design?’, which already highlights something distinct as it is not necessarily a question you might ask of other artforms.

Definitions seem to focus around graphic design being art with a message, rooted in visual communication. It could be said to have three roles (Hollis, 2001: 10):

  1. To identify: to show what something is or where it came from
  2. To inform and instruct: indicating the relationship of one thing to another in direction, position or scale
  3. To present and promote: to attract attention and put forward a memorable message

To do these things it seems to me that graphic design needs to be aware of its context and constantly adapt.

Graphic design constitutes a kind of language with an uncertain grammar and a continuously expanding vocabulary.(Hollis, 2001: 10)

Although this poses challenges in terms of how I might ever get hold of such a slippery practice the notion of it constantly evolving is very appealing. One of the things I have often found useful in my photography is to know some of the ground-rules but to be ready to bend or abandon them where appropriate.

One of the definitions I therefore prefer focuses on graphic design being ‘a shared framework in which to invent and organise visual content.’ (Lupton & Phillips, 2015: 8)

This seems to place emphasis on the capacity to experiment and develop work within given parameters. I hope the course is going to help me understand what constitutes the ‘framework’ for graphic design.

References and citations:

Hollis, R. (2001). Graphic Design: A concise history. London: Thames & Hudson Ltd.

Lupton, E., & Phillips, J. C. (2015). Graphic Design The New Basics (2nd ed.). New York: Princeton Architectural Press.

Open College of the Arts. (Ed.). (2010). Graphic Design Level 1: Core Concepts. Barnsley, UK: OCA.

http://www.aiga.org/what-is-design/

 

Initial observations

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At the moment I feel a bit like I am flying in all directions so I decided to blog about it as a means of journaling my process. On this basis it is probably more a stream of consciousness than it is fully formed reflections.

The books I’ve ordered have starting arriving; they include the recommended reading as well as a few others that attracted my interest. I’ve been skimming each of them as they arrive and noticing what captures my attention.

While on the one hand this is giving me a good introduction to Graphic Design I am conscious of skipping from history to theory to psychology to designers and back again. Now that I feel pretty immersed I need to refocus and concentrate on a few areas, this is not unusual for me and is an approach I found has worked in other courses. A number of interesting things have emerged to date:

  • Much of the history both on and offline seems to concentrate on graphic design/visual communications in the west (accepting that most do include Russian Constructivism)
  • As with other art historical texts I wonder where the women are (although to be fair some do bring in key female figures in the later periods). This blog on Central St. Martins Exhibition ‘100 years of women graphic designers’ is an interesting counterpoint and confirms my observations
  • Graphic Design along with other human endeavours is contextual and has both influenced and been influence by its political, social, and economic environment
  • I am starting to look differently at things around me, noticing with fresh awareness how ubiquitous graphic design is
  • I am fascinated by the debates around ethics and authorship – I recently watched Century of the Self which seemed to me to highlight issues around the state’s involvement with visual communications and those who

My next steps are a very quick historical timeline, probably in my sketchbook and then on with my postcards.