Data Visualisation

In last weeks Tuesday sesh, we were asked to gather some data and visually express it in an interesting way. I decided to collect the average number of mugs of tea drank per day by 25 women.

I went through all the obvious ways such as mugs, sugar cubes, milk, spoons of sugar yet wanted to keep it topical so (with a little help from Jonathan, I will admit) came up with trying to use a mugstain in some way.

Like a clock face, the circle of the ring represents the number of mugs of tea drank per day (see key), and the size of the tea blobs is the number of women who drink that number of mugs. I.e 9 women drank 0 cups a day, whereas 4 women drink 3 cups a day.

Viral ad: Typhonol Glue

One of the Tuesday Morning briefs we got was to think of and create a viral ad for the ficticious glue company Typhonol and have it ready by friday.

Here is the link to the post on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQUwWg2415U

Enjoy!

Design Canons: Smile Logo pt 2.

So after doing the tutorial on using the 3D Bevel and Extrude tool in Illustrator I had ago doing it myself.

This is for the Smile toy company Logo which I wanted to be represented by childrens toy blocks.

I think it's a pretty fair attempt, the only thing I will go back and work on it how to make the one on top of the others look a little more real!

Design Canons: Smile Logo pt 1.

Well as you can probably tell from my blog I've been abit slow on the uptake uploading/actually doing the projects set in the Tuesday morning sessions.

I'm usually pretty tidy with my time keeping, I just don't know what happened! However with still 7 weeks to go until the end of term, 1 or 2 a week of the projects I'm dawdling behind with will get me up to pace.

 

I'm currently working on my 'Smile' childrens toy company logo and needed to know how to create a 3d shape in illustrator to help me with my idea (which you won't see until it's done). I thought I'd update you with what I created in this tutorial and my finished logo should be uploaded soon!

Enjoy.

itap Lecture 15/03/2011

Semiotics in Graphics

Semiotics is the study of the difference between illusion and reality.

Simpler terms, it is the theory of signs.

There are 3 main types of sign, but more about them later and more about what their relation to Graphics is now. Through understanding a sign both visually and culturally in context, it helps us better apply them and the theory to our work to make it more efficient in  visually communicating. Signs are things that point towards a meaning and come in many different forms. A sign can be a gesture, drawings, speech, noises, slogans, clothes, facial expressions, body language, food, marketing; almost anything can be a sign. Signs can be universal, culturally dependant and learnt.

Back to the three main types: Iconic

An Iconic sign is something that looks like the thing it is trying to represent.

Some good examples of these are fire exit signs, roundabout signs and maps.

Personally I think these, especially the above examples can be semi universal, say, international. I have been in other countries where their fire exit and roundabout signs are the same, I’m sure we can all agree that the map of the world is universal. Everybody knows what it is, it looks like what it is representing, the countries of the world.

But Iconic signs aren’t all universal, such as this:
    

                                                                                 X

 

Im sure you’ve all got something in your mind which you think this represents, but what if someone else is thinking something different?

This could be a kiss at the end of a text, it could be the toxic sign on a label, it could be where the treasures hidden, it could be a marks mans point, you get the picture.

The whole point of this bit is that we locate the meaning of a sign by recognising the other signs around it. It has to be in context.

If you saw the X at the bottom of a text message, you would understand that it is a kiss. Another example is flowers.

  

This bunch of flowers could mean anything? But add it into context and you have an array of meanings.

 

These flowers are celebratory, you can see it is at a wedding by the white dress, you feel happy about this.

These flowers could be in sympathy for a lost loved one, you recognised that by the black funeral car.

Onomatopoeia's can also be seen as Iconic signs. These are the words that sound like the noise that they are describing.

Indexical sign

This is a sign which is caused by something. Slightly trickier to get your head around but the best example for this is medical symptoms. A cough, a fever, a sickly feeling are all signs that point towards a certain illness. Other examples of this are smoke, smoke is an indication of fire. A tail, a tail is an indication of a dog.

Symbols

Symbols don’t have a signifier. They don’t necessarily point towards the meaning and/or have any direct relation to it. We have to learn these meanings which needs to be accepted within the culture for it to actually be a symbol.

Take this:

It again also relies on context. In a country this could be the symbol for the fruit isle down the supermarket.

However put it on a laptop and put it in most western countries, you recognise this as an Apple Macintosh  without being told. This is an established company in most Western countries and this logo is accepted by society nowadays as representing the Apple company.

itap Lecture 01/03/2011 Ethics in Graphics

This weeks itap lecture was all about ethics within graphic design . I did an A level in Psychology and it all came flooding back to me, particularly the bit about there’s never a right or wrong answer when talking about ethics. But what is ethics? Ethics is about morality, what is right and wrong within society? Here in lies the problem. There is no universal rules for right or wrong. These social norms and rules differ throughout the hundreds of countries, societies and religions of the world.

But how do ethics come into graphics? Anything you say or do, anything you create will probably strike a nerve with someone whilst at the same time inspiring someone else. Everyone’s personal beliefs depend on a lot of things, where they grew up, the views of their friends, the views of their families, their religion, the school they went to. Graphic design is a way of visually communicating something to someone, and in the way this lecture was talking about, advertising. The purpose of a poster, an advert, a billboard is to inform and invite someone to act upon a suggestion. Now depending on this persons beliefs, they may choose to accept this invitation, or decline it. This is the important point, the person we are addressing has a choice. If they decide this doesn’t agree with their principles, they may decline, if it doesn’t, they may accept. Although as designers, we have an obligation to take ethics into account, and most designers will act in an amoral position, if we want to make something a bit sketchy or controversial, what’s wrong with that? The audience can always decline if they wish.

Some designers stick by their views by declining work. For example, Sarah Coleman has declined jobs from a cigarette company and fast food chain McDonalds because she didn’t agree with the product or ethics of the business. Some designers won’t even let the audience make up their mind by just refusing point blank not to design for them.

An example of a campaign that brings morality and ethics into question is something that Bal touched on in the lecture which was interesting. Joining the Army. Some people agree with the Army, some people don’t. The latter may argue that they are recruiting people to fight and kill, which in most societies, not just our own, is seen as immoral. However the former half will see it as defending the country, their honour, and their beliefs. However, surely if you are going to agree with second statement, people in this society should understand the intentions and actions of terrorists. I’m guessing if you went and asked Army personell they would not.

Another potentially touchy subject could be Plastic Surgery. So a young woman wants to get a boob job. Now then, if she was brought up in an atheist household with free spirited parents, I’m sure this girls outlook on this would be along the lines of ‘It’s my body, the technologies there, why shouldn’t I improve what I deem not good enough?’. However, what if this young woman had a strict Catholic upbringing with traditional parents, perhaps her outlook would be something more like ‘this is the body God gave me, I am happy with his decision, beauty is only skin deep’. As you can see it’s all about different countries thousands of miles away from each other, people in the same society, but different sectors can have vastly different views and opinion.

Personally I would like to think that I would be able to stand by my views and do something as honourable as Sarah Coleman. However. As a new designer, work may be hard to come by, Graphic Design for me isn’t about the money but I’ll have bills to pay, my mouth to feed so I may have to take some jobs that I might not agree with ethically, but aren’t we supposed to be amoral?
And isn’t someone else just going to do it anyway?

itap Lecture 22/02/2011 Bill Bernbach & Helmut Krone

This weeks lecture as on one of the most fascinating greats of the advertising world, Bill Bernbach. During the 1950’s, Bill Bernbach along with a few others managed to revolutionise the advertising world. They took American advertising from below top, to below bottom. Quite a feat, but more on that later.

He was one of the founders of DDB who are most famous for their Levi’s adverts. During this time he also managed to revolutionise the way that advertising agency’s were run. Beforehand, it was unheard of for a creative director and a copywriter to work together, however Bernbach saw this as something that could produce amazing work and to this day now, you won’t find a creative director without a copywriter and vise-versa. The team is now an industry standard.

It was with Helmut Krone during the 60’s that Bernbach created one of the most famous print campaigns ever. The Volks Wagon Beetle. This campaign really revolutionised advertising, but before this, you have to realise what they were trying to do, and why it is such a feat not just creatively. First of the Beetle was designed by Hitler and a lot of the target audience as well as Bernbach were Jewish. How on earth are you supposed to sell a Nazi car to a Jew? Secondly, the way in which all other cars were being sold was with this vision of the perfect American life, which frankly, during America in the 60’s, didn’t exist. People just wanted to buy into that idea. How could they change their minds? Honesty and a little bit of humour.

 

Bernbach and Krone, like many advertising moguls take their inspiration from Fine Art, and as you can see from looking below and the examples coming, he took inspiration from artist of the time Mark Rothko.

One way that Bernbach and Krone revolutionised advertising was the use of white space. Such as above (top left), good adverts then were seen to be the ones with lots of detail and really quite busy. They really were genious’, when this campaign was released, there was nothing like around at the time.

All the car ads before the VW Beetle were for the big burly muscle cars and tried to sell the ‘life style’. The Beetle ads were just honest.

 

And a little bit funny.

More importantly about the above image, how many times do you see a poster successfully advertising a car without actually showing it?

And again, finally, honesty.