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Advanced Research | 7 March 2017 | TEXT 03 |  New Retro , Brenda Dermody. Teresa Breathnach

Brenda Dermody practices as a designer and is also a lecturer at the Dublin Institute of Technology. She is an active member of the International Society of Typographic Designers.In her book ‘New Retro’, she referenced a collection of retro styles in Graphic Design. A one-third portion of the book represents archives of design journey till the 20th century.

“Throughout the last century, the limitations and possibilities presented by technology have seen combined with social and aesthetic concerns to produce designs distinctive to their own eras and cultures.”

She also illustrates how Type, image, materials, techniques and colors have played important role in change of visual languages over the years. Retro collection with description of an art piece encounters the development in the design techniques.

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Advanced Research | 21 March 2017 | READING SEMINAR 04 | Nimkulrat, N. (2013) 'Situating Creative Artifacts in Art and Design Research'

Look at figure 5.  What kinds of documentation does this artist use in her process?  Do you use any of these methods?  Can you begin to construct your own diagram that represents how you have thought about a particular material consideration whilst developing an art/design project?  What would be the criteria you would use for selection?  How would these choices to the theme of your project?

Nimkulrat has divided her exhibition feedback process into five phases.   

1) Before the actual creation of the artwork 

2) The actual creation of Seeing Paper

3) After the actual creation of Seeing Paper

4) The actual creation of Paper World

5) After the actual creation of Paper World 

I am using a basic diagram of understanding which helps me to come up with the concept by putting research, practice and my interest together. I have to find a common thread among all of these to create my own artwork. This is my diagram of developing the design. 

Concentrated circles with

1) Studio Practice (Typography/Branding)

2) Interest in Design (Old printing techniques such as letterpress)

3) Personal Interest (Talkativeness)

The criteria I would use for selection is on the listening skills on daily basis. The choices of the theme of my project are Typography and Printing. Currently, I am working on the first draft where all the interesting statements that I noted down from day one of my Postgraduate course will be gathered together. These statements will be designed in Typography using various printing techniques such as Letterpress, Riso and Embossing techniques. Also, the process will include areas where the project can be applied. 

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Advanced Research | 14 March 2017 | READING SEMINAR 03 | Thompson, C. (2011) 'Revealing the Self' in Travel Writing, London: Routledge

Write a short travelogue (300 – 500 words) that incorporates an encounter with your own area of practice. For example, you might write an account of your encounter with the typographic landscapes of London (or any other city you have visited), or with the fashion cultures of another locale.

Pune (India) is considered by many to be Maharashtra's cultural capital and the form of Marathi spoken in Pune is considered to be the standard form of the language. Along with the speaking, people use this language for writing notice boards as well. Instructions, orders, notices are written in a humourous and sarcastic way (informal language). There are no as such rules for printing techniques and places to hand boards. For instance, Traveller could easily see the handwritten boards on the road, hospitals, hotels, stalls and even outside the bungalows/ houses. They are generally known as ‘Puneri Patya’ which means Slates of Pune. 

Slates are based on general habits observed in common people depending on the location. Here are few sentences are written in a humorous way to convey a message.

Situation: Traffic road where people keeps playing car horn being unreasonable since there is already a ton of vehicles are in the que.

Location: Sticker on the back of the private Car.

Meaning: ‘WE DO NOT LIVE ON ROADS. PLEASE DO NOT PLAY HORN.’

Situation: Customers blame photographer working in photo booth if their photo does not come good. 

Location: Board outside of private photo booth.

Meaning: ‘IF YOU PHOTO DOES NOT COME GOOD, ASK YOUR DAD, NOT US.’

Situation: People often take a lot of time to decide menu in the restaurant.

Location: Board outside of restaurant.

Meaning: ‘PLEASE DECIDE FAST WHEN IT IS CROWDED.’

Situation: Customers sit in the restaurant for a long time even if they are done with the food. Hence, it keeps people waiting who are standing outside the restaurant waiting for the table.

Location: Board outside of the restaurant.

Meaning: ‘PLEASE DO NOT SIT FOR A LONG TIME. OTHERWISE, IT WILL BE CHARGED £50 / HALF HOUR.’

Situation: People park their car in right in front of the entrance.

Location: Board outside of the entrance.

Meaning: ‘THIS IS SADASHIV PETH. WE HAVE A TRADITION OF PUNCTURING THE CAR IF IT IS BLOGGING ENTRANCE.’

This city has a methodology to express individual thoughts openly. These typographic slates have no rules of Designing such as typeface, colors, material knowledge and location. Most of the statements are handwritten on basic draft paper or cheaper boards where the motive is to convey the message in a straightforward manner.

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Advanced Research | 07 March 2017 | READING SEMINAR 02 | Stewart, S. (2007) 'Objects of Desire' in On Longing: Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection, London: Duke

Stewart writes about souvenirs as memories/traces of lived experiences.  How would you capture memories or lived experience in your own creative work?  What kind of methods/approaches could you use?

In my creative practice, I wrote down some interesting sentences that I heard, noticed, read from the day one of my postgraduate course. These are traces of lived experiences. This collection of sentences has taken from many areas such as live talks, lectures, written material, advertisements and design briefs. It can be extended further with the help of stronger listening skills and as much as live experiences will be faced. This collection is available in the very rough format in my daily notebook. It can be used and developed into the design only after gathering them together.

Identify some collections of objects or archives that you could use or already have used as part of your creative research.  Who put these collections together and when?  Why?  Have these collections been added to since they were first conceived?  What are the organizing principles in the collection/archive?  How does this affect your use of the material for your own creative research?

I have already have used archives of Royal Airforce Museum, London, as part of your creative research. The teamwork created an identity for exhibition ‘Wings of Love’ held in the museum. Archives were included postcards (handpainted and written), Love stories of pilots and their wives/girlfriends in the form of letters, Old photographs of soldiers and much more. Unfortunately, original collection was not available. However, the copies provided to the team seems to have an impact of hand lettering and old printing techniques such as letterpress and calligraphy. This affects my use of the material for creative research.

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Advanced Research | 28Feb2017 | READING SEMINAR 01 | Reading the Landscape: Describing and Interpreting Field Sites

A field trip can be considered as a creative approach before jumping into the design. Another has mentioned many ways to collect notes on field trip including pictures, Sound recording, smell sensing on field trip site. However, I believe, sketching is one of the different ways to maintain field notes because artist gets the opportunity to express the experience in his/her own way.

Additionally, everyday documents such as TO-DO lists, emails to friends, Left voice messages, Post-it reminders, Homemade maps giving directions to a friend and personal diaries can be also part of Collectables. These small elements can be a hidden with real potential for your art piece.

What are the key uses of field notes? Why are they a useful tool in research?

Fieldnotes in form of text, sketches, photographs, souvenirs result finally into surprising and spontaneous results. They end up with the open-ended thoughts which we would have not imagine before. Field notes can help one to find actual interest. Observation can define and refine research questions and becomes more analytical. We can again go through our ideas, thoughts, and experiences.

What does the text indicate as the key issues in interpreting and manipulating visual images as part of your research? How might the interpretation of visual material be pertinent to research in your own field?

‘We learn to see a thing by learning to describe it’-Raymond Williams. Visuals help us to see actively and more responsible for observing in detail. The field trip is an opportunity where observations and ideas can form a connection with personal interests.

Pages 124-126 describe the use of found images in a research project that used postcards from Paris as a means of investigating the connections between France and Algeria during the era of French colonization. Can you think of a research use for found images in your own discipline? Briefly, outline a possible research project of your own that makes use of found images.

In my own discipline, two main field trips were responsible for finding images. 

1) ‘The Oval Space’, area targeting to the riso printing: Riso printing technique is used for budget printing by mixing and overlapping number of colours together. 

With the help of the same methodology, some experiments has done in my design practice for RSA Student competition. 

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Advanced Research | 21 Feb 17 | TEXT 01: ‘The Welsh Dresser: An Atlas’, Brandon La Belle (ed.), Surface Tension, (2003).

Brandon describes moments of nostalgia attached with The Welsh Dresser depicting cultural stories in Wales. Another has captured various objects such as luster jug, Site-Writing, Keys, die, random buttons, coins, hook, diary, chalk, badge, etc. Each object has history and personal memories with Belle.  

It can be said that may meaning of an object is literally given in the dictionary. However, its definition differs person to person. 

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Vision and Authorship | RAF Caption Cards

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Vision and Authorship | RAF Identity

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Vision and Authorship | RAF Identity Design Concepts

Calligraphy Logo: (Wings of Love)

Airplanes Origami Letters:

Logo:

Postcards:

Bubbles Concept:

Hording:

Feedback Board:

Instruction Board at Tube Station:

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Advanced Research | Field Trip Notebook

A field trip can be considered as a creative approach before jumping into the design. Another has mentioned many ways to collect notes on field trip including pictures, Sound recording, smell sensing on field trip site. However, I believe, sketching is one of the different ways to maintain field notes because artist gets the opportunity to express the experience in his/her own way.

Additionally, everyday documents such as TO-DO lists, emails to friends, Left voice messages, Post-it reminders, Homemade maps giving directions to a friend and personal diaries can be also part of Collectables. These small elements can be a hidden with real potential for your art piece. 

In Drawing prize 2011, the judging panel selected 42 Handmade sketchbooks based on field trips. Apparently, this book has a variety of sketching styles such as Story sharing in Calligraphy techniques, Abstract painting, random sketches (presented as original artwork), collages, drawing of scenarios, collectives, patterns and souvenirs. 

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Advanced Research | 21Feb2017 | TEXT 02: 'Subtle Technology: The design Innovation of Indian Artisanship'

The nostalgia of personal objects depicts human attachment with their past memories. Similarly, the contemporary craft can be considered as the part of the same. The activity of capturing photos preserves the remembrance of some moment, condition, product and the even relation which can be never forgotten.

'Subtle Technology: The design Innovation of Indian Artisanship', written by Ken Botnick appears interesting to me since it tells a story about small objects, habits, lifestyle and facts in India by capturing its photographs. On the other hand, I could see the similar fact in the text written by Rendell, Jave's sharing stories of personal belongings. However, both the texts have a small difference when it comes to individual memories attached to the past than social memories during travel.

My research topic is cultural patterns can be including various areas such as food, travel, lifestyle, people, fashion, and language. I believe these single object/travel photographs can help me in my research as a starting point. It inspires me to find memories or reading stories shared by people.

Ken Botnick shares some photographs from India depicting culture, habits, and craft. 

Vehicles, Animals, and Transport:

‘Sound as embellishment: Embellishing is the way we identify the object as part of a larger cultural tradition using colors, symbols, patterns, and even language. It is what takes a generic, functional thing and places it firmly in a larger cultural context. It makes the object simultaneously more particular to the maker’s personality and brings it into the shared cultural values of beauty and function.’

Traditionally, buffaloes used to play a role in a vehicle since there were no vehicles available for transport in rural areas. Apart from decorating animal, small bells hung on the legs functions to create a sound so that people come to know it is animal walking somewhere by recognizing the sound.

Painted truck with the eye. (left)

“I am the holy basil plant of your courtyard.”- sentence painted in the Hindi language at the back of the truck. (Right)

‘The use of soft and expandable sides allows for these overloaded trucks to carry the absolute maximum, which also maximizes the danger of encountering one on the road.’ (left)

The shape of the basket places the load highest on the back and allows for more to be carried in every trip, Manali. (right)

Situation:

Used saris (Indian fabric worn by women) are soft enough to cradle children.(left)

Same fabric material (sari) used here as fencing around a newly planted vegetable garden, Rajasthan. (right)

A water tap near Kalleda, Andhra Pradesh. (above): Pot are carried out by women on the top of her head and placed in the ascending size of the pots to balance weight.

Food:

The classic Indian tiffin (above) has different compartments for each course. For instance, salad, curries, bread, and rice. 

The terracotta tumblers (“kulhad”) used for serving tea on train platforms. (left) When they are thrown out on the track or in nature, they can either be reabsorbed into the soil or is sometimes reused by the potter to make new cups.

The leaf bowls that are filled with dal and quickly handed off to arriving or departing passengers (right). When the bowl becomes saturated (passengers must eat in a hurry, even as they must find their seat), it can be discarded on the railway platform, where it becomes fodder for the cows.

Questions:

Apart from India, there can be unique contemporary crafts in various countries depending on the conditions. How those can be gathered together to make a theme?

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Digital test prints for the concept: Mixing twp personalities and sharing their stories. Looking forward to develop them into riso.

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Vision and Authorship | RAF concepts and visuals