amiiirayy

[amiiirayy]

Cyberspace

This weeks lecture focused on what the internet is and how a person can visualise as a combination between physical and contextual things. A common way that artists have used to capture the internet is maps, for example both Martin Vargie and Rusian Enikeev created a map to imply the internet as being geographical. This almost suggests that the internet is a world where you have different places (countries) to discover and explore. It is also viewed as a place to escape the control and power that politics has over a persons life, somewhere you’re alone and vulnerable. John Perry Barlow wrote a declaration of independence for cyberspace where he told politicians to stay away as he wanted individuals to control the web rather than large companies.

There has been many art installments and pieces which were inspired by cyberspace and the internet in general. Rafael Rozendaal and Jonas Lund took away texts from websites leaving the bare architecture to represent and appreciate the design of pages. There are also a lot of interactive websites which can be visited by anybody which act as art themselves. The image on this blog was from a website called mirrrroring.net! 

How are we beginning to explore this cyberspace world in an immersive way? That’s a very easy question to answer surprisingly, as of late VR has become progressively more advanced meaning people are able to easily connect the real world with augmented reality. Aswell as this, there have been many movies and games dedicated to showing how technology can truly take over the world. For example: Avatar, The Sims, Second Life etc.

I really gained an understanding and realization about how interesting the internet itself truly is, and began to look at it as something intricate and deep rather than it just being something I use on a day to day basis. 

[amiiirayy]

Intro to Type

I attended another contextual studies lecture today which focused on typography and why it is important. Typography is seen as the most influential element on the character and emotional quality of a design. 

“If you create bad typography then you may as well just throw the design away”. 

Typography is the style, appearance and art of arranging. Whilst lettering is a specific bit of painted or drawn words created for a specific purpose. Some great designers which I was introduced to were Herb Lubain (creates expressive typography with power and elegance), Craig Ward (manipulates text to represent its meaning) and Alison Carmichael (very controversial and edgy). 

As I am quite new to the world of typography, this lecture gave me an insight into why and how it is so key to creating a great piece of Graphic Design. 

[amiiirayy]

Intro to Semiotics

I recently attended a contextual studies lecture about Semiotics and what role they play on the design industry. The word semiotics means the study of signs and their use or interpretation. A specific person which I learned about was a person named Charles Sanders Peirce, who developed a more complex semiotics system which was centered around the idea of interpretation. Another person noted was Roland Barthes who found semiotics very helpful with his analysis of various cultural materials. Barthes quoted that signs are either denoted (directional meaning) or connoted (interpreted meaning). In the modern day world it’s often realised that adverts aren’t selling the products themselves (denoted) but rather the lifestyle (connotation).

The founder of semiotics (Ferdinand de Saussure) explained that a sign is made up of two key elements, a signifier which is also known as an image or sound and the signified meaning the concept or idea. According to Peirce signs can be one of the following iconic, indexical or symbolic.

Throughout the lecture I was able to build a foundation of knowledge about semiotics and learn a bit of background on sign design.

[amiiirayy]

Architecture Photography

Took some amazing photos of the Lichfield library today for my current project. When I was told I had to choose a piece of architecture for my magazine my mind instantly went to here as it is so beautiful. Although the travel was fairly long it was definitely worth it because it’s made me very inspired about getting started with my magazine.

Whilst I was there I already found some information on the history of the building so this will definitely be implemented into the text of the magazine. This specific town means a lot to me as it is where my girlfriend lived before moving in with me, it has a lot of happy memories and reminds me of exciting days out to see her. Selecting a place in Lichfield as my chosen architectural building will definitely inspire me to do the beautiful city justice by producing a well designed and informative magazine.

[amiiirayy]

Layout & Grids

This week is all about editorial and publication design, specifically creating a magazine on Architecture. Considering that publication is my favourite area of design currently, I’m feeling very excited and motivated. We started off this project analysing grids and layouts in magazine design, this was to get us thinking about how we may lay our own magazines out in the future.

For this piece of work I thought it was most fitting to use an architecture magazine from online as my template for the sketches. We also began to look at terminology for grids and layout which is something I haven’t looked much into yet.

I’m very excited for this area of the project and will begin to take architectural photos very soon aswell as look at illustration and the actual designing of the magazine.

[amiiirayy]

Colour Theory

This is my outcome for the ‘What Colours Am I?’ task. Considering I was going into the task quite clueless I’m quite happy with the final outcome of it. It was a lot of fun to question myself and look at colour in a different way than I am used to. Surprisingly looking back at the outcome, I feel as though that palette does summarise me quite well.

I’m definitely very excited to learn more about colour and how I can use it effectively within my design pieces.

[amiiirayy]

Digital Letterforms

This is a few test outcomes from a printmaking session we had today looking at digital wooden letterforms. Handmade printmaking is something which I’ve never explored however after today’s workshop it’s something that I’m interested in. We looked at how we can combine and distort our letterforms with colour layering and things like rotation.

I made sure to save all the PDF files to the digital letterforms so I can continue to experiment with them and definitely use them in future outcomes for this project. This is probably one of the most informative and interesting things I have done so far during this project.

[amiiirayy]

Colour Theory

The current project which I’m studying focuses a lot on the principles and elements of Graphic Design and what they mean/how they can be used. For today’s session we looked at colour specifically and why a lot of designers find it to be one of the key components in Graphics.

One of the tasks for today that we had to take away and look at was what 5 colours would we use to represent ourselves. This task is making me think of colour in a completely different light aswell as myself. It’s definitely challenging my creativity too as we also have to name our colours.

[amiiirayy]

Type Portraits

Some digital work on literal type-faces, this was a mini task from a few days ago however I’ve been trying to push it further and try out different fonts. Although this was a small task I’ve been really enjoying producing work for it and will most likely continue creating these in my spare time.

I’ve never had much of an interest in typography however now that I’m studying it, it’s becoming something I really enjoy. With this task I really like how such a simple illustration using minimal elements can create an effective piece of design.

[amiiirayy]

Typographic Layout

One of the last tasks for the week is to create a typographic layout of our own. I began to look at different things I could do for this as we have a choice between a song lyric or just a quote. I decided to look more at film quotes especially from Studio Ghibli as it produces some of my favourite quotes.

The quote I settled on but may change at a later date is from Ponyo on the Cliff and, although it may not make sense to people who have watched it, the true meaning of unconditional love comes through. I’ve began to look at different layouts I can do through quick sketches aswell as picking out areas which I particularly like and want to carry through to my other designs.

[amiiirayy]

Micro & Macro

This is the start of an outcome from the earlier post about looking at typography from my kitchen! I chose a number of the photos and began to look at the letters in detail and draw them into my sketchbook. I would like to push this task in the future and try to create them on an even larger scale. One of the things I struggle most with is creating design work and illustrations on a big scale therefore this would help me with getting over that hurdle.

The main thing which I took away/learnt from this task was how easy it is to find effective and attractive typography from just around the house. It’s also very interesting to begin to analyse it keeping in mind the typographical terminology I began to implement in the ‘Call My Name’ brief.

[amiiirayy]

Call My Name

Completing one of the tasks for today titled ‘Call My Name’ throughout this we had to recreate either our first or last name by copying a digital font. I decided to do both my first and last name as they’re each very short! For the fonts I did Courier New and Century Gothic, this was mainly to ensure I did both Sans and Sans Serif.

Throughout this task I learnt a lot of new terminology about typography and where to use it. I’ve already begun to look at type differently by trying to analyse it and see if I can point out any key features. I also learnt how exciting it is to hand draw type, as I have never done it before it was really interesting to try and produce something digital using handmade techniques. The slight wobbles in the lines and messy line work made it especially charming.

[amiiirayy]

Micro & Macro

Starting to analyse some typography from my kitchen for a mini task. Hoping that this will start to teach me how to produce clean and well measured typography by hand.

It also surprised me how many interesting packets and fonts I had lying around in my kitchen that I never knew about.

[amiiirayy]

Typography Warm-Up

Getting warmed up for a typography week by looking at creating different typefaces from word prompts. This was quite stressful as I never saw typography as one of my strong points, however it was a really quick and fun task. It showed me that it’s easy to produce some effective outcomes in a short period of time, especially when you can develop them into something bigger at a later date.

[amiiirayy]

Principles & Practise

Starting my new project for university: ‘Principles and Practise of Graphic Communication’.

Throughout this project I’m aiming to produce a magazine aswell as an advertisement to promote something which I’m passionate about. I want to make sure I push myself throughout testing out new techniques and developing on my existing skills.

This blog is intended to showcase my journey through the project aswell as the future ones to come, hopefully my work gets better from here!