harrietdesignresearch
harrietdesignresearch
Design Research Blog
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harrietdesignresearch · 4 years ago
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Final Poster
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harrietdesignresearch · 4 years ago
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Changing my Subtitle
After writing my critical commentary, I decided to tweak my subtitle slightly so that it links to the terminology I use in the essay and the order I discuss things in.
The revised version of my subtitle is:
To convey context, tone, and personality
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harrietdesignresearch · 4 years ago
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I decided to add two postcards of my own work into my set as I reference them in my critical commentary, so it makes sense to include them. These are both pieces that I have designed this year in which I used their contextual positioning to inform my decision on what typography to use for them.
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harrietdesignresearch · 4 years ago
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The H ideation process.
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harrietdesignresearch · 4 years ago
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Whilst I was ideating and designing my letters, I listened to some podcasts by the Ohno Type Co, who are one of my fave type foundries to follow on instagram as the do heaps of unique and funky fonts; the perfect inspiration for the style I was designing in. This particular episode was a Q&A.
Erik Marinovich equated looking at inspiration as a designer to looking at the answers in the back of a maths book. It can be tempting as it results in quick wins, but it also stunts the creative process and consequently, you don't improve your skills as much. This was something I needed to hear as I often rely on inspiration to shortcut the design process, however I rely want to improve my design practise, so I try my best not to do this.
He also mentioned that there is a lot of cool typography out of france at the moment, which he pinned down to them being able to tap into emotions which we maybe aren't aware of. I thought this was an interesting perspective as I've been researching a lot into the relationship between type and emotions.
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harrietdesignresearch · 4 years ago
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For the R, I chose to visualise top-heavy. When I got to digitalising my letterform concepts, I first tried to adjust my original R to make it feel top-heavy, but it felt wrong for such a traditional style of typography. When designing these letterforms, I considered their negative space by keeping it all the same width.
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harrietdesignresearch · 4 years ago
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For the G, I was inspired the descriptive word 'pointy'. I started by doing literal points on the letterform, but that didn't feel like it tied in with the rest of the letters on the poster. I then tried to represent a pointing arrow through the form of the G. I decided to outline the letter to create balance with the P on the poster.
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harrietdesignresearch · 4 years ago
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I wanted to represent bulging, bouncy, and expressive with the letter P. I took me a couple of goes to get the bulges and width of the stroke just right, but I'm really happy with how it turned out in the end.
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harrietdesignresearch · 4 years ago
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I tried my hand at designing an O which used the graphic application of 'bold'. I decided to use the second one for the poster as the weight felt like a better balance for where it is placed in the composition.
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harrietdesignresearch · 4 years ago
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Concept Tree
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I used the concept tree method to help me think of abstract ways of expressing a concept through letterforms. I am going to use this to help me re-design some of the letters on my poster. I am going to leave some letters as they are as they already have characteristics which could represent power, so there's no point in redoing them.
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harrietdesignresearch · 4 years ago
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Shifting my poster concept slightly
After reading about Caterina Bianchini's process of designing typefaces, I decided I wanted to change my poster slightly so that I could practise the process myself. I am going to redesign the typefaces on poster so that they are an abstract representation of 'power'. This will help convey the idea of 'the power of typography' without literally spelling it all out in the poster. I am going to do a concept map to ideate ways of representing 'power' through graphic expression.
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harrietdesignresearch · 4 years ago
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First Poster Draft
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Today in class I showed the first draft of my poster, with a couple of different composition options. I'm not happy with all of the typefaces yet, I think the bottom half is feeling a lot more fun and striking at the moment, so I need to adjust the top typefaces to balance the poster out a bit better. I'm also not loving the negative space to the right of the 'g' in the first composition, but overall think it is stronger than the second. I also might try playing around with texture and colour to add a bit more interest, although I am liking the simplicity of the black and white treatment.
The feedback that I got from David was that the 'THE POWER OF' text feels out of place and is not needed, which I definitely agree with. For now I'll remove it, unless I find a way to incorporate it in a way which feels more integrated. He also agreed with me that the first composition is working better, and that he didn't mind the negative space, so I'll keep that in mind as I develop it.
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harrietdesignresearch · 4 years ago
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Breaking Down my Critical Commentary
I did the first draft of my critical commentary structuring it with four big body paragraphs (2 methods, 2 contexts), with two pieces of evidence for each idea. When it came to editing, I realised I had tried to squeeze too many ideas into each paragraph, making it confusing for the reader. The paragraphs were also insanely long, meaning it just wasn't a very pleasant piece to read through.
I have decided to split up each paragraph further down by the two ideas I explored in the initial paragraphs. This means there will now be four paragraphs for each concepts and methods. I think this has made the piece way more digestible to read, and makes my ideas much clearer.
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harrietdesignresearch · 4 years ago
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I usually begin my process of designing letterforms by sketching out my ideas on paper. This allows my to try out lots of concepts quickly until something feels right. I then take a photo of the sketch and transfer it to illustrator. From here, I use a variety of tools to create the letters digitally. In this example, I used the pen tool to create the outline of the Y, and then the stroke width tool to thicken the stroke where needed.
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harrietdesignresearch · 4 years ago
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In this virtual step by step workshop, Caterina Bianchini demonstrates her creative process when it comes to designing and working with typography through the brief of creating a typographic poster which represented 'what does change mean to you?'. To say this workshop was insightful and inspiring would be an understatement. Being able to see Bianchini's creative process in-depth from start to finish allowed me to gain a greater understanding for what goes into designing a balanced, cohesive, and meaningful typeface.
Bianchini began her creative process with a some visual research to understand what sort of visual language would be appropriate for the contextual positioning of the work. She was particularly inspired by the typography used on activism posters such as 'War is Over', as they are often catalysts for change. This typography is strong, bold, and confident, the same tone in which you would expect someone fighting for change to speak in.
A 'concept tree' seems to be a great method of ideating ways to convey the appropriate behavioural attributes through the type. I've referred to type's ability to have personality frequently throughout this project, but haven't really thought about how these characteristics can be physically portrayed through a graphic application. I would be interested in trialling this technique in my own design practise to see whether it helps me to think laterally about how I can portray an idea or personality through typography.
Through this typeface, Bianchini is aiming to convey the idea that change is growth, linking to the concept of metamorphosis. She has done this by creating a shape that allowed her to embed the cocoon-like form into every character. This treatment is subtle in concept, by dynamic and striking in form. By keeping the negative space as the constant between the letterforms, she has created a beautiful rhythm and balance within the typeface.
It was interesting to see Bianchini's method of creating letterforms by creating negative space within a solid block, rather than the other way around. I have been learning quite a bit about the role negative space plays in typography design, so to see this method in action was a good solidification of these ideas.
The way in which Bianchini has applied the typeface within the posters further conveys the idea that 'change is growth'. In some, the typeface gets bigger with each letter, symbolising growth in quite a literal sense. In others, the jarring compositions or slanted letterforms suggest the idea of movement and growth.
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harrietdesignresearch · 4 years ago
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Poster Development
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I developed my chosen poster concept by planning the composition better and deciding what sort of letters I want to include. I will probably make adjustments to both of these things as I digitalise the poster, but I'm happy with how this is working for now.
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harrietdesignresearch · 4 years ago
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Poster Compositions
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After doing a few quick sketches of possible poster compositions and concepts, I've decided to develop the scattered 'typography' concept, as it allows me to design a whole range of display typefaces, rather than just one.
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