itap Lecture 26/10/2010

 Integrated Theory and Practice - Reflective Visual Journal
Chosen principles, Utilise your Creative Brain & Developing Visual Language 

During this weeks itap lecture we looked at the RVJ (Reflective visual journal) and elements of our thinking and way of work that can help improve this and in the end, improve our work. The first principle I am going to talk about is that of utilising our creative mind. As you probably know, our brains are in two half’s. The right brain is like a child playing. it’s spontaneous, likes adventure, it’s innocent, sensitive, experimental, playful and most importantly curious. We use this side of our brain when we just sit and create. As you can see from the examples below, the more messy, fresh and raw looking illustrations are from a person who is more right brain orientated. Although yes, some of this comes down to factors such as skill and style to what the piece of work turns out like, they also are ultimately controlled by which side of the brain you are inclined. ‘My 4 year old could do that’ may be a phrase that springs to mind, but looking deeply it helps you understand a lot about the artist and where they are coming from. The colours tell you they’re vibrant, excitable and carefree, when I look at a piece of design or illustration I always get a feeling, and this makes me feel good, bubbly and happy. Much like what the right brain is inclined to help you do.

 Artists n/a

The left side of the brain is more like an accountant. Whilst our right hand side of the brain is busy scribbling down, doodling, painting etc, it’s our left brain that is organising, clarifying, quantifying, editing, selecting and classifying the things that we are actually doing. Our left side of the brain is like our inner critic. It is possible to tap into these two parts and utilise them to the best of their advantage. If you look at the llustration’s below that you can see it’s more skill orientated, intricate and if extremely life like to the object of the illustration. The colours are still colourfull but unlike above, are intertwined and delicate, there isn’t block of solid colour. This kind of illustration makes me feel content, happy, slightly serious and reflective, again, a lot like the characteristics of the left side of the brain.

 Artist: David Bray

 The key to utilising the brain is for them to work in harmony, be child like, create, go mad. Take a break. Come back to it and using your left brain characteristics, criticise it (but not too much) and ask ‘What is this bit’, ‘Why have I done that’, ‘What could this be’ and let your right side out on it again to develop it, then the left side to critique it and continue the cycle and eventually you will have a stunning piece of work.

The second principle I am going to talk about is that of developing a visual language. Thinking and working visually is completely different than thinking in words. Visual language enables us to make complex ideas that would take pages and pages to explain and that wouldn’t really do them justice anyway, it takes these ideas and makes them comprehensible. As Visual Communicators is it important that we develop our own visual language as habit rather than always using textual language. 

Artists n/a

For some people, as shown below, this comes in the form of using your day to day diary or journal to develop this language and use to develop your creative mind. For example in the first piece, a person has been out that day and instead of just describing the day, they’ve expressed it visually, giving the piece of text more meaning than it ever could if it didn’t have the visual to go with it. The diary entry would be just as comprehendible if it were just titled ‘Day out.’ The following pieces are just written in a normal diary and range from using a fair bit of text such as the banana and orange ingredients list to just a sentence with the lunch and cinema day out, by just looking at the burger and the cinema image, you know what he did on his day out. Using visual language opens up a range of creative responses and a different way of thinking. Visual thinking isn’t just limited to working with images, you can organise text visually. Such in the examples below of Tony Buzan (a master of the mid map) he uses different weights, colours sizes and types of text to get his point across in a more free, visual way. He also uses images to compliment his words.

 Artsit: Tony Buzan

Bibliography (photos-top to bottom)

Image 1:http://version1.itsnicethat.com/index.php?month=2007-06&pg=2&s=blog
Image 2:http://www.lostateminor.com/tag/denver-illustrators/
Image 3: http://omydog.wordpress.com/
Image 4: http://www.amanobooks.com/blog/category/visual-journaling/
Image 5: http://blog.journalcraft.co.uk/index.php/2008/12/07/the-smoothie-dave-terry/
Image 6: http://danclark.wordpress.com/
Image 7: http://www.brianmicklethwait.com/education/archives/001297.htm
Image 8: http://www.mindmapinspiration.com/top-10/

itap Lecture 12/10/2010

Integrated Theory and Practice - Good Graphic Communication; Disciplines and Theory
Chosen principles are Visual Hierarchy & Legibility.

During this weeks ITAP lecture, it was all about the disciplines and theories behind making a good piece of graphic communication.  The first principle I am going to talk about is Visual Hierarchy in a piece of work. This just means what you are going to look at first in a piece of work and what you will look at last, all pre-determined by the designer. Many things can help determine what you look at first, the top three would be the colours, typography and the images. Other things that also help are lines, weight of text, scale, composition, structure, the use of grids in the design process and grouping. A company that I believe always uses visual hierarchy to it’s best is Coke. In the advertising campaign below, Coke know where they want you to look, what your thought process is. In the first advert, the majority of people will primarily look at the colourful shaped heart, they may study the shapes and images that make up the heart for a second or two and then naturally their eyes and focus will pan down. They will recognise and familiarise themselves with the Coke bottle shape, the block red background and the type that they use and know that this is a Coke advert. Once all that is taken in they can then look at the advert as a whole and understand that Coke is trying to say that their ‘side of life’ is the better side, that essentially inside the coke bottle is happiness and a warm fuzzy feeling, like what you probably got when looking at the heart shaped image. The audience with these pieces, as is with alot of Coke adverts is early to late teens. With a brand as big as Coke, once you're a Coke drinker, you rarely switch to other brands such as Pepsi, so Coke need to get you hooked as early as they can. The bright, modern, stylish yet quirky and intricate design will catch the eye of the young to late teens and intrigue and persuade them to buy this product. This can also be applied to the next two adverts.

Another company that uses visual hierarchy in a different way is Marmite. The advertising campaign below was used in magazines and Marmite doesn’t seem to have a distinctive thing you would look at first. It could be the large image, or you may focus and the small text. The idea of these adverts, remembering they are in a magazine, is that you sit the and study them, turn them sideways and upside down to find the double meaning, something more interactive like this needs the reader the think outside the box and not have their hand held on which part to read first. This reflects the type of audience the adverts are aimed at, something that can't just be taken in on one glimpse requires more concentration levels and a quicker brain. Given that these would be magazine adverts I'd give the audience range from early to late twenties. Marmite, still an iconic brand but not as much of a universal product as Coke wants to hook customers when they've flown the coop and no parents ranting 'eugh it's disgusting!.' Marmite need the audience to discover the product for themselves. A fun, friendly ad campaign connatates a good, nice, trusting product.

The second principle I am going to talk about is that of Legibilty. Many things can make an advert legible or illegible, a lot of the things that determine the visual hierarchy can also determine the legibility. High contrasts and block colour spaces also equip an advert for legibility. For example, the two adverts below are very different. The first, an advert for the morning after pill is very legible, the most important type is big and send the message across well and there is also the medium sized picture to give you a clue of what to look for. There is also smaller type included, but as with the visual hierarchy, maybe it is not as important. A good, legible advert gets the message across quickly and sufficiently if for example it’s a billboard or poster and the information needs to be taken in over a period of a few seconds. This is especially relevant to a subject such as the morning after pill which can be quite sensitive, the audience, late teens to late thirties may not want to get caught reading it. The pink font utilises sex stereotypes well and females know that this advert is for them. The second advert, for a shoe company, at first look doesn’t seem very legible. There is the picture but no type? However, the company is obviously telling you that their shoe collection includes ‘killer heels’. The audience, females as a given would include the age range of early twenties to late thirties, the shoes look sophisticated and simple, something the readers can relate to their work outfit or a smart night out. Also the play on words in the advert requires some level of understanding and humour that this age range of professionals wouldn't have a problem understanding.

Bibliography (photos left-right)
Image 1: http://www.neoco.com/blog/2008/06/coke%E2%80%99s-trans-media-storytelling/
Image 2: http://www.designflavr.com/Coca-Cola-Karl-Kwasny-i535/
Image 3: http://www.designflavr.com/Coke-side-of-life-Karoly-Kiralyfalvi-i302/
Image 4-6: http://pu3sarah.blogspot.com/
Image 7: http://www.adpunch.org/entry/nsa-killer-heels-by-nma/
Image 8: http://adsoftheworld.com/forum/exhibition/ipill 

itap Lecture 05/10/2010

Integrated Theory and Practice - Research and Development from an Illustration perspective
Chosen principles, Understanding the Various Practices of Illustration & An understanding and Knowledge of an Audience can Enhance and Focus the Communication

This weeks itap lecture was all about research and development from an illustration point of view. I will carry on with this exploration from this point of view, however this can be transferred and relevant to other practices such as Graphic Design and Photography. The first principle I am going to talk about is that by ‘understanding the various ‘practices of illustration’ one is able to progress and advance one’s own practice’. Traditionally illustration is thought to be the art of hand rendering and hand drawing. An illustrators traditional role was for illuminating, clarifying and elucidating text and narratives. They would create pictures and images to visually communicate the meaning of the word. However nowadays, illustration can mean a number of things, hand drawings, photographs, paintings, etchings, collages, sculpture, anything.  What I think that this principle is trying to get across to us is that, to progress as an illustrator in this day and age you have to explore and dabble and take chances of other mediums of creating. For example, you have a brief which asks you to produce an image of a strawberry, it would be easy to go down a traditional route and hand render this, and although you can add your own stamp or style on drawing of a strawberry, to progress as an illustrator in modern times you have to explore the mediums. For example you could add textures to the piece of paper, you could make a textile model, you could take a photograph, digitally enhance it or physically add things to this. With this principle and theory, I think whilst studying this art, if you have a go at being brave, being different and straying from the norm, even if it doesn’t work out how you wanted or look as good as you wanted, by doing all these you will look back and realise why you are successful at what you do now. You explored, you tried and tested and you got a hell of a lot better!

The second principle I am going to talk about is that ‘an understanding and knowledge of ‘an audience’ can enhance and focus the communication.’ I believe this one is pretty self-explanatory however it is extremely important. This is also heavily transfers into other practices as any piece of art/graphics/photography/typography will have an audience, even if it’s yourself! Many things in a piece of work can determine if it does indeed catch the eye and suit the audience that the piece is aiming at. The factors include colours, patterns, type, layout, texture, interactivity, style, detailing, mediums and media used and the list goes on. What you really need to keep in mind when factoring in your audience in the design process is that an understanding and knowledge of an audience can enhance and focus the communication. Something every piece of work should be aiming for.

itap Lecture 28/09/2010

Integrated Theory and Practise - Connectivity Lecture

Chosen categories: Notions of Originality & Recontextualised Ideas in Contemporary Culture

 

The first point of the lecture I am going to talk about is the ‘Notion’s of Originality.’ You’ve either got to be blind or stupid to contemplate that a piece of your work is original. Of course we were talking in the context of art, design and visual communication. In every piece of work you do, whether you are affected directly or indirectly, you will be inspired by something you’ve already seen. If you’re taking a pattern, shape or pose you’ve seen on a poster and using that, or you’ve seen someone’s particular style and methods that you like and replicate them, it is not original. Someone has done it before you, whether you realise it or not. To re-enforce this, the notion that nothing is actually original can be outstretched to other parts of life. An example could potentially be a toaster. When the toaster was invented people were amazed you could put some bread in this box and 2 minutes later toast pop out, but isn’t that what a grill was for? It may have seemed like a new invention, but the technology was the same, the electric powered grill lines were just re packaged and re branded, the toast wasn’t being made by a new technology, the technology was just put in a rectangular box.

Above: Lucas Cranach Below: Desperate Housewives

The above point of the toaster being a re packaged links to the next part of the lecture I will talk about, ‘Recontextualised ideas and concepts in contemporary culture.’ I believe it overlaps with Notion’s of Originality. From examples shown in the lecture I concluded that the main difference between points is that with Notion’s of Originality, it talks of the style or small details within someone’s work that is never original, within ‘Recontextualised Ideas’ I think it is linked more closely to the fact that two pieces of art, of which were created years apart, may be or look strongly similar. However take into consideration context of society, new methods available and subsequently used, they are in fact different and the audience won’t think negatively of them as an imitation of the past works. An example (see above imags) is the iconic scene of Adam and Eve picking forbidden fruit. From the painting created by Lucas Cranach of his depiction of ‘Adam and Eve’ c.1520’s, the same image, composition and event looking very similar is used in the Tv credits of American drama Desperate Housewives. Some people may potentially argue this is a copy of Lucas Cranach, but if you look closer at each of them you see that the Desperate Housewives version is made from different methods, most recognisably the digital format and the context of the two depictions are completely different. With Lucas Cranach, it is most likely that this was for a religious reason that he wanted to illustrate this scene to warn people visually, whereas in the Tv credits version the contemporary context reveals that the picking of the forbidden fruit, by Eve standing next to her partner Adam, is a way of saying that the wives in this programme aren’t your typical housewives, they rebel and they aren’t under the control of their husbands. 

Bibliography (photos top-bottom)

Image 1: Connectivity Lecture PDF

Image 2: http://readingart.info/desperatehousewiveslesson.htm