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OUGD401 - Studio Task 1

In our most recent context of practice session, we got out our four images which we liked and disliked and put them all together in a table in our groups. We wrote on the back of each one either an L or a D referring to whether we liked it or disliked it and then switched tables to judge the other's images.
After we judged what we liked and disliked on their table, we all found out that we used the same mental list to criticise the work in front of us, this consisted of:

Quality

Layout
Composition
Colour
Communication
Context
Legibility
Function
Suitability for Audience
Content
Medium

We subconsciously always use this list to analyse and criticise work around us and it gives us reasoning as to why we like or dislike a piece of art/design.

D.I.E.T. - 

D - Describe (What can you see?)

I - Interpret (What is it about?)
E - Evaluate (How good is it?)
T - Theorise (How could it be improved?)

We got into pairs and chose a piece of work to analyse each, and then began writing a description and interpretation of each piece.

First, we bean writing about the album artwork I had brought along:





Here is what I wrote about it - 



And then my partner's image which was:


And here is what I wrote about it - 


After we reviewed our answers, we discovered that they were all pretty identicle! And from what were different we both agreed upon. This told us that by assessing in the same manner we were finalised with the same opinions, it helps that me and my partner both have very similar interests in design! He has great taste.

OUGD401 - Lecture Notes - Post Modernism



OUGD401 - Graphic Design Seminar Notes

Today with Richard we touched upon the Russian revolution and the development of art and design during this period. Throughout the presentation and debates i made notes on the handout we were given on the slideshow he had made. Here are my notes for reference of future briefs/work.







OUGD403 - Alphabet Soup: Typeface


OUGD403 - Alphabet Soup: Typeface

So after having a good chat with Andy and learning a lot about him I went and had a bite to eat and ponder on what to do.

I really like Andy, speaking to him was very comfortable, he seemed a bit nervous and shy to begin with and slowly came out of his shell telling me all about his life and what he loved to spend his time on. He has a very classy appearance, not scruffy like myself and not too over the top but just enough to fit into the smart casual grouping. He was very friendly and after introductions he slowly came out more and more, overall a really nice guy!

I wanted my typeface to represent him as a person, not a particular hobby or all his interests or anything like that. I had already done that with mine.

What I wanted to do with this brief was to delve into the effects of his personality and try and communicate that through type.

To do this, firstly I noted down some characteristics I needed to portray in my typeface in my sketchbook whilst eating my tasty sausage sandwich.

  • ·      Neat – To represent attitude, body language and organisation.
  • ·      Simple – He’s not insane/crazy/bizarre. He’s pretty down to earth and simple.
  • ·      Pressured flicks – A sense of style but also some edge on the letters to represent his punctuality/appearance.
  • ·      Lower case – Capital letters wont be necessary, I haven’t gone partying with him yet so I am so far unaware of him getting too outgoing at parties or nights out. But then it also shows how calm/quiet/shy he is.
  • ·      Joints – If the letterforms are placed together as a word or sentence (or maybe even a jumbled mess) I’d like the letters to connect to also show how neat he is.
  • ·      Drips – He mentioned to me that his workstation is always quite messy with papers everywhere and stuff, the drips on the typeface will help show this to the viewer subtly. 

Next up was to research different typefaces to see if they sparked up any inspiration at all!



The first font I found which I took an interest in was Mutter Krause, This font was built for the reconstruction of the 1929 silent movie "Mutter Krausens Fahrt ins Glück", where it was used for subtitles, that were missing. The font is redrawn from the original inter-titles.
After researching the movie I found it was actually a very political story from Germany in the 1920s, and as far as I know.. Andy isn’t political at all but the typeface would represent him well.

Even though the aim of the type was for a political silent movie, I feel a different vibe to it.

When I look at these letterforms I see a classy, casual and sincere group of lettering which bend to the right making them seem smoother and more laid back as a typeface.


The next font I saw which caught my attention to being similar to the imagined font was Baskerville Italic, a standard issued font on most computing systems.
I feel a very laidback but intelligent ambience to it and feel like it would represent andy as a person well.



Finally I found a more handwritten approach of a typeface. In my head I was imagining a combination between a well-constructed formal font to take part in structure but also a hand written/illustrated form of lettering to exaggerate the artistic abilities of Andy whilst also representing his personality. This font here, Reklame Script takes part in the plan I had to join everything together when it was typed out. But also adds character to it, Andy isn’t a boring guy, he’s creative artistically as well as musically and I want to show that through the letterforms.­­­­­­­

OUGD401 - Lecture Notes - Modernism

My handwriting is really bad..






OUGD401 - Study Task 3


The first image we looked at was the ‘Uncle Sam Range’ advertisement poster from 1876 by Schumacher & Ettlinger and the second was a British propaganda poster from the First World War by Savile Lumley in 1915.




This ‘Uncle Sam’ image is an American advertisement promoting a range of cookers by use of patriotism and western power. The first thing that hits you is the colour scheme: Red, white and blue have never hit you so hard before coming across this poster. Different tones of each colour are used for a variety of shades to make it blend in more with the atmosphere of the picture.
This poster is definitely promoting an idea to sell their product and that is the American dream. Highlighting this, we can see that the target audience is middle-class and lower class citizens in the United States, this is obvious because of the characterization within the image. All of the people are wealthy, it’s a family unit but also an aspect pushes this out a bit more – the impact of slavery. Having a slave back in the time of this image’s publication was a status symbol of wealth and power, which would clearly be admired by the middle/lower class. There are small details of this image which subliminally would make the audience feel proud of their country and feel as if buying this cooker would make an impact on their lifestyle.  The use of type is also a clear representation of its American theme.

Savile’s poster is iconic in war propaganda history. Using emotional persuasion, this poster has an objective of encouraging the rate of recruitment for the Great War, which works an absolute treat!
The characterization of this piece consists of two children and their father timed after the War had ended and supposedly won by the Brits. The daughter is sat on the father’s knee with what looks like a history book or story whilst interrogating the father on what he did in the war. The son is sat playing with little toy soldiers which throws in a practical idea of what they are discussing.
The most important part of this image is the father’s emotion. The story/feelings what his face is telling is of shame, emphasized by the typeface at the bottom of the poster displaying “ Daddy, what did YOU do in the Great War?” in a scripted font. The emphasis of “you” in this sentence engages the viewer and triggers an interaction with the image to think like the father in the poster.

Both of these iconic forms of propaganda are a real success in relation to their target audiences and the feelings they provoke. Which in mind are completely different: Schumacher’s poster promotes a feeling of patriotism and sells it’s product adding values of a better life and a more American way of living in positive feelings. Whilst Savile’s image uses persuasion and guilt to make people engage with and follow the poster’s description.

OUGD401 - Study Task 2

In our first Seminar with Richard we began by having a look at our Love/Hate Posts and had a good laugh about the 'bad' design and moments of appreciation towards the 'good' graphic design.
Soon after we moved on with Leeds College of Art's new prospectus in hand.

Richard explained to us that we were going to spend some time observing the new prospectus the marketing department had designed and we were going to form a critique on the book in groups.

We all got into groups and started flicking through the little book... Expecting a remarkable design of the prospectus once again (the year before's were fantastic) we were proved wrong.


  • To begin with, we decided the first page wasn't very welcoming at all, it had a boring typeface and very bad composition in our personal opinions. It just didn't say "Leeds College of Art" in our thoughts whatsoever, if anything just a specialised art college without standards and the amazing results throughout.



  • Our main pet-peeve over this book was the spacing, layout and entire composition of the book in general. It was all over the place and had no flow or direction. Just random, spontaneous and generally awful!



  • My opinion on the photography used in the book was stunning, I really appreciate good photos but for the reasons they were there.. they were bad. "Too arty" as someone from another group said after our analysis, this described it perfectly. All of the photos were composed in a way to visually please, but not communicate. An example would be a section on the staff information... with a photograph above it of a ceiling.



  • As we flicked through the book, we realised there was a variety of different paper weights and stocks. We just couldn't understand this at all, what is the point in changing the paper stocks throughout the book!? I made a joke about them running out of money half way through and having to downgrade to a different paper stock purely because we couldn't figure out any other reason.



  • After going through the first few pages it became the same. It became repetitive, overwhelming, boring and badly designed. If I was a new student looking to study here, the prospectus would put me right off the institution as a whole, just because as a college of art, you'd expect something outstanding from their prospectus.

There is my criticism on the new prospectus, so yeah... hopefully it will change for the new students as I fear it will put some amazing artists off of the institution which will lower the standards of the university!

OUGD401 - Study Task 1

Task 1.


Find something you love, and something you hate. Discuss.


Love:


I found this advert in a design blog focused around humorous advertising and I was thoroughly impressed. Humorous design has always been something I enjoy looking at/reading, but this set the mark a notch further.

We are very accustomed to seeing posters with this compositional layout which are directed at us to make us stop and think about a serious problem or cause such as poverty, starvation or sexual abuse. 

The short, bold, eye-catching title catches our attention first telling us the message of the poster almost instantly, following that we can observe the mangled piece of toast as an image to give us a visual representation of what the title says. Generically with this kind of poster there would be a website or a phone number or further information to fix or help the cause, this poster follows that by advertising an easy-spread butter.

Overall it communicates the message quickly, and with enough impact to feel serious. But then when the idea settles in your mind and you see the image and further information it amuses you which makes it memorable and therefore a successful advertisement.


Hate:


Sometimes it is very difficult to determine what is graphic design or not. However in my opinion, something that sets out to communicate a message visually is graphic design. Bad graphic design is everywhere, but that is only my opinion. Graphic design should communicate the message effectively but at the same time look good to the audience. 

This health risk assessment doesn't necessarily have much of a reason to be an amazing design, however it is technically classed as bad graphic design, or graphic design which I personally hate. I dislike to see that people don't make the effort to make things look good to their audience and this is a good example.

The layout appears disjointed because of the way the text is both below and above the images, and the tracking of the bolder letters appears too big and makes the words too spread out and less easily read. I think small changes in composition and layout would make this communicate better, easier and more effectively at the same time as looking better.
 

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