Friday, February 26, 2010

InfoArc: MCCOY/VIGNELLI round 4

This grouping is the latest series of the website development. The main concept for this one is to have everything all on one page with roll overs for images and clickable popups for the essays and bios. As of right now I'd rather have only one thing open at a time instead of having layering, that way each box can be relative to the clickable little link thing. Working on color coding each thing to the appropriate artist, but it still needs work. Thinking Red for Vignelli and Purple of Mccoy. We shall see. 

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Typo 4: about this EXperIMENTal typoGRAPHY

In looking into designers that use shadow-puppet text, I realized that there is not a lot to base my project off of. People project text, but that is generally about where it's projected, the context, the thing it's projected on to.... and not about how the type can be altered by what it's projecting THROUGH. There are many shadow puppeteers out there, but they all focus on telling a story with images rather than with text. I know I'm writing this kind of late in the game and I know now that my text has taken on a slightly different form than what it originally started off as, but I still feel there is not much being done with type as a photographed entity that is projected or manipulated based on the projected-upon screen. I believe this has become important to me because I've realized just how amazing physical analogue type can be. Each image that I have taken cannot be duplicated by hand or by computer in reality. Each composition I created has a life and a vitality of it's own. Sure you can blur text in photoshop but you would lose the depth and the visually tasty texture that I feel I've managed to capture. This is not a process done regularly. There is no specific avenue of the world (design, advertising, print, book layouts...) that this typographic concept may be used/exsits for. This isn't a product design or an identity except through itself. I've fallen in love with this sort of type because it exists on its own for its own sake. Epp would be happy to hear me make a post modern reference to art-for-arts-sake I'm sure, but it's what I believe in and I feel that this type is the perfect representation of that ideal. 

Typo 4: Experimental Type, Designalogue Banners

Really had fun playing with my tape sheet the other day. Tape is translucent so the letters show through, and you can "select" certain letters to be more in focus than others by sticking them to the tape. The closer the letter form is to the tape screen the more clear it is. Bend the tape/bubble it and you get different warping effects (such as the third one down on the right row). Each image is unique and un-re-do-able which I find to be really interesting in and of itself. Some of these are more successful than others, but even the "boring" ones have unique qualities that you could only get by playing with analogue means of experimentation. 

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

InfoArc: MCCOY/VIGNELLI site

The black and white image was the first go at a combined page that talks strictly about Mccoy and Vignelli. From there, I created the red home page. The user would click an image and either go to the main green or main blue page based on whom you wish to look at. From the artists page you could read their essay and a brief bio as well as view examples of their work. 

Monday, February 22, 2010

Desn305: BATMAN.... and other inspiration...

Looking at random food packages and came across a few I enjoyed:




My general overview: Acme Ice Cream Toppings: Nuts Sprinkles Cookie Crumbs

This item is often sold as a cheap uninteresting product. My goal for this assignment would be to take a package of sprinkles and make it as personalized as the experience of adding things to every-day ice cream already is. Adding sprinkles to ice cream is exciting. That excitement should start from the moment you pick up the product at the store. My product design would be for anyone that enjoys ice cream and a higher quality life style. My audience would probably be adults in the 25-40 years of age category. The product line would probably be found in higher-end grocery stores or in an exotic food store such as World Market. The World Market shopper quality is generally a fairly well-off portion of the population looking for exotic products and different packaging. They are generally people that aren't against spending an extra dollar or two for something that looks cool and has a unique style to it. 

Another goal I have is to make it an all-year type product. Ice cream sales are better in the summer because no one wants to start off cold and get colder, but the toppings can be used for cake decorating, christmas cookies, etc. and does not have to be limited simply to ice cream. That being said, the product should be exciting to people all year round and not rely upon the ice cream part of the sales.

Friday, February 19, 2010

type

Sooo..... Round three.five. Uh.... Well... Playing with type. Positive and negative space interaction. I started by cutting out letters and taping them to my computer screen to play with the light source as the negative space. I "projected" light from my computer screen through the negative spaces onto both flat, and crumpled paper. Different distances from the screens led to clearer or blurrier type. I also tried projecting a movie as the light source to see what interactions I could get between type and image as the light source. From there I tried to do the same things but with the 8.5x11 with the cutout letter forms, thus the light acts as the positive space. The relationship between type and image was much more interested when projected through as the positive letterforms because darker colors didn't show up as well and ended up blocking out some of the actual letterforms. I also played with clear and blurred focus with my actual camera as well as camera angle in relationship to the screen. I believe this set of directions is much more interesting than the flashlight-sheet (previous) versions. The direct layering allows for more control, more play, and more dramatic results.