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I’m Curious! 6

Historical Research

Bitmap fonts were created by Susan Kare in 1984 for the Classic Mac OS. Susan Kare was the designer for many typefaces, icons and the original marketing material for the original Macintosh operating system. Kare was one of the early pioneers of pixel art. Susan Kare’s most recognizable works while working with Apple was the Chicago typeface. The Chicago typeface was most seen in the classic Mac OS interfaces from System 1 in 1984 to Mac OS 9 in 1999. It was also the typeface that was use in the first four generations of the Apple iPod Interface.

The Macintosh is credited for creating the first user-interface concept, but without the help of designers like Susan Kare, the user-interface concept would have just remained a concept and nothing more. Because Susan Kare created the icons/typefaces specifically for user-interface, the concept was able to be brought to life.

After working for Apple, Susan Kare began working for Microsoft. While there, Susan Kare created the deck of cards for the game solitaire. Her design helped individuals learn how to use the mouse to click and drag objects. Susan Kare’s work and contribution to the beginning of icon designs was and is still extraordinary.

 Current Research

Susan Kare’s original designs can be seen in today’s technologies. Examples include the lasso icon, the grabber, and the paint bucket. Thanks to innovators like Susan Kare and [blank], we can communicate and read things in different ways other than through words. We can understand what different icons and symbols mean whenever we use a new program. Examples of icons being used in our everyday lives in how when we look at apps in our phones, the only way were would be able to differentiate the different types of apps besides reading their actual name is through the icon/logo it is associated with. These icons are how we can quickly tap and open the specific app we’re looking for since many people like the idea of being able to find what they are looking for as quickly as possible. Everyone is prone to becoming impatient. Examples of these icons/logos are the F in Facebook, the bird in Twitter, the N in Netflix, etc.

When it comes to icons and typefaces, we see them everywhere in our everyday devices. Not only that pixel art has become something that has evolved into something pretty astounding. When I think of pixel art, I would associate it with old Nintendo games like Super Mario or Donkey Kong. Another well-known old timer game that is known for its pixelated art is Pac Man. Back then, the idea of creating moving pixels was mind-blowing. It was never done before, but now, we see that animation and pixilation has reached a point where it is possible to create something super life-like. An example would be the “Instagram Influencer”, Miquela Sousa, better known as Lil Miquela, a 19-year-old Brazilian-American model, musical artist, and influencer with over a million Instagram followers, who is computer-generated.

Work Cited

“Classic Mac OS.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 15 Dec. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classic_Mac_OS.

“Susan Kare.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 2 Mar. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Kare.

Brud. “Lil Miquela's Body Con Job.” The Cut, 11 May 2018, www.thecut.com/2018/05/lil-miquela-digital-avatar-instagram-influencer.html.

 This is a photo of a 16-bit Mario

This is an image of what a typical PacMan game layout would look like.

This is an image of the life-like avatar Lil Miquela posing for a Calvin Klein advertisement with model Bella Hadid.

For my artifact, I decided on making my own pixel art. I made a simple heart

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I’m Curious! 5

Historical Research

Théo Ballmer (1902-1965) was one of the pioneers of the Swiss Style movement. He had briefly studied under the Bauhaus Dessau and he used an ordered grid to construct visual forms. Another artist who utilized grids in their work was Max Bill (1908-1994). He believed that grids are a mathematical structure to contain elements, linear division of space in harmonious parts. The main theme among these two artists are their emphasis on the usage of grids in design and how they both studied the way of the Bauhaus. The thing that made me curious was how the idea of a grid came into design. The idea of a grid structure is not new. Dating back to centuries ago, before the age of graphic design, artists used mathematical principles in order to produce linear perspective. These linear perspectives were seen in many renaissance paintings. Even though it would look like a simple page layout, it was the beginning of the use of grids.

In the 13th century. Architect Villard De Honnecourt developed the famous diagram used for producing page layouts with margins of fixed ratio. Villard’s diagram proved against the odds of time because his diagram is still being used today as a reference as to how books would be laid out. Another reason why grids became such an important part of graphic design was due to World War 1. During this time, Switzerland became a meeting ground for many scholars/designers because ink and paper were still available due to it being a neutral country during the time of war. This neutralism gave many intellectuals the ability to print many documents with multiple languages like French, Italian, German, and English in columns. This presented a problem with legibility so thus started the development of a grid where multiple languages being printed on one page would still be legible. The pioneers behind this feat were Herbert Bayer and Jan Tschichold. Grids has always been there, but they have just been refined and/or been developed into newer ways of being used over time due to certain circumstances.

 Current Research

Designers today are always to taught how to design within a grid first and then when they have felt they have mastered the skills of a grid; they can start designing outside of the grid. The grid has just become something that people tend to love or hate depending on the type of way people design. There are some people who hate the idea of containing their art within set grids because it is just their preference and there are others who meticulously try to keep all their components within a set grid. When it comes to designs, no one is the same because people have their own way of creating, but it is always good to know the basics of design above everything else.

Shigeo Fukuda (1932-2009) was and is one of the many Swiss Design artist who utilizes the grid in order to create some of the simplest eye-catching designs. Because he was train in Swiss Style Design, he most definitely utilized the grid structure as a basis for all his designs. Another modern-day artist that is known for their use of a structured grid is Felix Pf��ffli.

Felix Pfäffli is known for his use of vibrant colors, incredible illustration style, and fearlessness in the use of typography. Because of these skills, he can be marked as one of the best.

Work Cited

Bigman, Alex. “History of the Design Grid.” 99designs, 99designs, 23 Jan. 2018, 99designs.com/blog/tips/history-of-the-grid-part-1/.

Victory 1945 by Shigeo Fukuda

An ad for Nike by  Felix Pfäffli

I tried creating my own book cover using the grid as reference.

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I’m Curious! 4

Historical Research

The information that caught my eye while reading through Megg’s book is the section on The Beggarstaff. The pseudonym J & W Beggarstaff were used by the two British painters, James Pryde and William Nicholson for their collaborative projects in the designing of posters and other graphic works between 1894 and 1899. They were sometimes referred as the Beggarstaff Brothers, but they never went by that name.

William Nicholson met James Pryde through Pryde’s sister, Mabel “Prydie” Pryde at art school in 1888 or 1889. In 1893, William Nicholson and Mabel Pryde decided to elope and were secretly married. They made an old pub their home, and James Pryde eventually came to visit them. He then stayed there with them for two years. The couple had frequent visitors, one being the actor Edward Gordon Craig and his wife May, who had also recently eloped. In the summer of 1894, Craig was preparing to tour with the Shakespearean Company of W. S. Hardy. Craig was playing the role of Hamlet. The role of Hamlet was very important to Craig, so he asked both Nicholson and Pryde to help design and produce a poster to publicize the play for him. That was the first collaboration of William Nicholas and James Pryde.

The design for the poster was done with a technique called collage. The Beggarstaff introduced the idea of cutting pieces of paper and moving it around, changing the position and pasting them onto a board. Collages are usually made incomplete so that viewers would have to think about what they are looking at.  

The thing that I am most curious about is how collages are used in modern times. Where do we see this type of technique being used?

  Current Research

Collage art was created from a range of materials. Most were created using paper and wood and would often feature cut-and-pasted photographs, painted forms, and 3-dimensional objects. As the art became more well-known towards the 20th century, the making of collages became more experimental.

There is an actual art movement where the use of collages is being utilized. Unlike paintings where they would seem flat, collages are the opposite of that. Picasso and Braque were two of the pioneering artists who used collages in their works. Some examples of their works include Picasso’s Bottle of Vieux Marc, Glass, Guitar and Newspaper and Braque’s Violin and Pipe.

In the 1920’s, inspired by the collage works of Picasso and Braque, Dadaist artists began creating their own versions of collage art. “Dadaists created collages that incorporated a wide array of iconography, from reinterpreted portraits to figures rooted in fantasy. Dadaists also creatively incorporated more materials into their collages than their Cubist counterparts. Members of the movement are particularly renowned for their innovative use of seemingly worthless or often overlooked items like tickets, magazine clippings, candy wrappers, and even 3-dimensional trinkets. By transforming ephemera into polished pieces, the Dadaists challenged traditional perceptions of art.”

We can see this type of work beings used in our generation today and artist aren’t the only people using this technique. When it comes to collages, the most distinct example of a collage that I would identify with is when it is used in movies where there is some sort of old school kidnapping is involved and the kidnapper would leave behind a message using  letters from magazines to spell out words. Also, due to the simple nature of creating collages, anybody can do it. Many people who journal tend to create an appealing journal spread using collage techniques etc.

   Work Cited

“The Beggarstaffs and Their Artist Inspiration.” The Importance of Packaging and Branding within the Food Industry, 2014, carltanti.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-beggarstaffs-and-their-artist.html.

“Beggarstaffs.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 8 Feb. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beggarstaffs.

Richman-Abdou, Kelly. “Exploring the Cutting-Edge History and Evolution of Collage Art.” My Modern Met, 3 Oct. 2017, mymodernmet.com/collage-art-collage/2/.

Georges Braque, ‘Violin and Pipe’ (1913)

Picasso, ‘Bottle of Vieux Marc, Glass, Guitar and Newspaper’ (1913)

 A modern day journal spread

This is my take on using collage techniques to create my own journal spread.

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I’m Curious! 3

Historical Research

Jules Chéret was a French painter born in 1836 Paris, France. Jules Chéret made a name for himself as Father of the modern poster. His works were influenced by Watteau and Fragonard who utilized figures twisted in space, color graphic vitality, stipple and crosshatch. One this this made my curious about this specific artist is how his figures called “Chérettes” were neither prude nor prostitute. How did this man become known for women’s liberation and how his works influenced fashion? Because Chéret was making posters for cabaret clubs, it would seem “normal” for him to depict these women in a more sexual manner to attract more people since everyone else during this time is doing just that. His influence on how women were depicted in advertising caused man artist to follow in his footsteps when it came to creating images of women having fun. Chéret gave women in his poster art the type of courage that many artists of his time did not do. He created images of women having fun without any of the risqué aspects that once came with these types of advertising. Because of this, many women were able to express themselves in a similar manner in real life. They were able to confidently engage in taboo activities like wearing low-cut bodices and smoking in public to name a few.

 Current Research

Thanks to Jules Chéret’s influence in how women are depicted on modern art, it’s safe to say that he contributed to how women were able to confidently participate in taboo activities. In this modern society, it is observed that women are also able to wear what they want, present themselves in a way that makes them feel confident etc. This is all thanks to people like Jules Chéret who saw women for more than some sexual exploitation for a product and/or event. Even so, sex appeal in advertisement is very important. Even though people tend to frown down upon an advertisement that features an appealing woman straddling something while eating a hamburger to be tasteless, it is something that appeals and sells to the male audience.  With that said, it’s clear to say that Jules Chéret is an artist who thinks about who his audience is. He made it so that not only would the sexual cabaret show posters appealed to the male audience, he made sure that it also appealed to the female audience as well. In this time of the century, advertisement has expanded to more than just a graphic poster, it has become something we see everywhere. Whether it be on our phones, televisions or on billboards while driving home, advertisements are always catered towards who it is going to see it. Generally, when a beer advertisement is being shown, visually it is an appealing woman wearing a bikini having a good time somewhere hot like the beach. This is because the generally consumer of the specific beer are men or the person watching the advertisement is on a channel where men are the general audience i.e. a sports channel. When it comes to catering women, it is best to avoid overly sexualized women because it would be deemed unappealing unless the company is a lingerie company. If so, the advertisement would need to make it so that the female audience feels like it could be them who are wearing those specific lingerie pieces. To conclude, Jules Chéret should be considered one of the pioneers for creating advertisement that appealed to both genders in a way where it doesn’t lose its original intentions. In his case, to advertise a club where pretty ladies perform.

 Works Cited

“Biography of Jules Cheret.” Jules Cheret - The Complete Works - Biography, www.jules-cheret.org/biography.html.

Lanseng, Even J. “Relevant Sex Appeals in Advertising: Gender and Commitment Context Differences.” Frontiers in Psychology, Frontiers Media S.A., 30 Sept. 2016, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5043062/.

   Posters by  Jules Chéret

A vogue image that has the same feel of a “sexy, confident” woman without the sexual connotations 

A modern-day advertisement that has a subtle sexual connotation

Getting inspiration from the idea that nothing needs to be sexualized in order to create an eye-catching advertisement, I decided to turn my friend into someone who would be seen on the cover of a fashion magazine. His gaze alone is enough to make others swoon. 

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I’m Curious! 2

Historical Research

Wood Block printing, the technique of engraving onto a wooden piece of wood in order to create images, text, or patterns. The technique originated from China and was a widely used throughout South East Asia. Blocking Printing didn’t arrive to Europe until the Crusades opened up Europe to Eastern influences in the 1400’s. According to evidence found through watermarks of this period, the time were wood block printing was at its peak was around 1460’s. The very first prints were used in creating playing cards and single sheet prints.

Most books that were created using the wood block printing method was only printed on one side of the paper. After being printed on one side of the paper, the makers would them proceed to glue the two empty sides of the paper together in order to make it look like the images/text were printed on both sides. This is what they called block books.

What I wonder is how long it would take someone to create a wood block for printing pictures. I think this because base of the examples shown, a lot of the illustrations that was done for books like the bible etc. had very complex looking illustrations. Based on the minimal amount of evidence available, it seems that to create a wood block and the time it takes to create one depends on the complexity of the image itself. According to tugboat print shop, one of their pieces took roughly 4-6 months to complete due to its complexity.

Current Research

Like how wood block printing opened the Europeans to the world of making it easier to transfer information in one go instead of handwriting everything out for hours and hours, I feel like it’s similar to how the inventors of today try to find ways of making things easier and faster. Because of wood block printing, it led to the invention of movable typography and in turn led to the discovery of newspaper printing. Newspaper printing would then lead to the idea of creating the fax machine, copy machine, and now we are able to look at text and images on cellular devices. Over time, things just get easier and easier due to the many discoveries of inventors from back then and today.

Back then, wood block printing were mainly used to create images of Saints in European countries, eventually, with the rise in wood block printing in today’s modern society, the image can be anything you want as long as you put in the time and energy to create your image. Here are some images that I found interesting with how people can go from creating realistic looking print as well as contemporary abstract pieces using the same medium.

Work Cited

“Woodblock Printing.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 19 Jan. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodblock_printing.

Pietzcker, Eva. “Woodblock.” Druckstelle, 1 Jan. 2009, www.druckstelle.info/en/holzschnitt.aspx.

Tugboat Printshop - FAQ (About Our Woodcut Prints), www.tugboatprintshop.com/INFO_process.htm.

For my artifact, I decided to draw out a design that I would like to carve out into a wood block. Trying to figure out what I want to be colored and not to be colored is what I believe to be the hardest part in designing something to be printed on wood block.

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I’m Curious! 1

Historical Research

The human language has gone through so many phases and had evolved into such a complex category of its own. Where each country/ethnicity would have their own form of a written language and through the hard works of scholars, we are able to translate one language into another language so that we are all able to communicate with one another. The thing I am most curious about is how long it takes for one language to be translated into another language and the amount of work that is put into these translations. I can’t imagine how long it took for Jean-Francois Champollion to decipher the Rosetta Stone hieroglyphs. Not only that, I am amazed at how he was able to discover that one way of deciphering the name Ptolemy was found in the Rosetta Stone and through that discovery, he was able to sound out dozen hieroglyphic translations. Because he had this newfound translation of hieroglyphs, Champollion went on to decipher the cartouche of Alexander the Great.

There are many great translators of hieroglyphs, but Jean-Francois Champollion was one of the first to pave the way for other translators to discover more and more deciphering. Because of these dedicated individuals, we are able to expand our knowledge as to what they scholars from ancient times were talking and thinking about. Without them, I’m pretty sure we wouldn’t have been able to figure out that almost everything was connected in some way.

 Current Research

When it comes to the written language, we now see it as a complex form of letters grouped together. Currently, I see that the youth has begun to shorten their own written language with the rise of technology. Before, if we were to write out the word “you”, it would be spelled the way it was intended to be spelled, but with the rise of texting, “you” was then shorted to just the single letter “u”. This shortening of words did not just happen to the English language. As someone who would sometimes message their family members in Vietnamese, if I were to message someone that is a millennial or younger, they would send me words written in their version of slang. But, because I am not someone who lives in their country/community, I would have a hard time deciphering what they are sending me. This can become hard when I am trying to get closer to my cousins who are already located so far away from where I am.

Even now, I see that the way people communicate has come to only using images to describe how we feel. Emojis and Memes are on the rise and I think, in a way, we are going back to how everything was recorded in pictographs. Not only that, we have strayed away from the weird abbreviated words or “ur” and “h8”. Even though this generation has returned to using the full spelling of a word when communicating, the use of images has taken over.

This is an example of emojis being used in place of words.

These are examples of memes.

This is my take on creating my own form of writing.