process notebook / art 309

PROCESSnotebook

PROCESS MATERIALJessica Simon Professor Scherer Art 309

notebookCONTENTS

PROJECT 1

PROJECT 2

PROJECT 3

type classification posters

kinetic typography

typographic calender

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PROJECT 1type classification posters

Project 1 Type Classification Posters - Simon

Creative Concept Statement Type Classification Posters - Simon

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Project Brief & Requirements In Intro to Graphic Design, students were introduced to key elements of type and design. Applying what we learned during that course, for our first Typography project we explored ways to create visual compositions that would describe elements of a typeface while incoporating what we now about form. We were required to create six visual compositions in which had specific requirements. For the first two posters, we needed to first choose a serif font and a lineal font that we would describe the history and key anatomy of. I choose Baskerville as my serif font because I used it a lot in my process notebooks in my previous Graphic Design course and felt emotional interest to it. For my lineal font, I wanted to choose one that looked visually appealing to me and I went with Futura. Research was a ;large component of this project because we had to learn the chosen fonts inside and out before we could begin to share our knowledge through oomposition to the audience. The next two compositions stayed within the chosen fonts, but used the numberic and alphabetic set of each to create a chosen image. Each poster had each font and the created image, but both images were to be similarly related. I choose to create a skull and a pirate ship for my chosen images as they were both related objects. The goal for this part of the assignment was to be able to “understand the relationship between the fonts construction and its form” so it was important in the first two posters that we took time to study the typeface. Using constrast and heirarchy, the type in our constructed images had to fit within eachother and work with eachtother in order to create a successful, fully readable image. When the images were completed we then had to label specific anatomy of the font on the poster. These included the labeling of the spine of the “S,” a serif, an apex, etc.

What I Learned After completing Project 1, I understand how much thought designers put into their work while creating a typeface. Certain typefaces are made for specific reasons, for example Futura being made to look like a perfectly geometric face, and changed multiples times until the creator is pleased with their design. Even when the font succeeds, later designers still play around with the font, which then contributes to a fonts various weights and updated versions. While choosing a font in everyday use, I never thought that research behind fonts would be necessary. After researching what was just two fonts, Baskerville and Futura, I will make sure to look into the next font I use before I finish a project with it. There are so many elements of font faces that would be beneficial for different things, but one can never know of these characterisitics without research. For example, the tail on the uppercase “Q” of Baskerville is beautifully designed. The unique shape of its tail makes the “Q” very popular amongst Baskerville users. This was something I never took notice in until I fully researched the font. Now that I know that the “Q” has a light, feminine, romantic feel to it, I can apply it to work that I want to recreate the mood of later on.

CREATIVE CONCEPTstatement


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Research Type Classification Posters - Simon

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Project Outcomes I struggled originally with creating visually appealing compositions for my first poster phase because I did not do enough research. After looking on Pinterest to how other people presented font faces, I understood more how to effectively express a font face through form and design. My first two compositions had a lot of changes made it to make it to their final products. I believe that eventually, with enough research, strong analytical eye, the influence from my peers and Professor, and hard work, that my compositions ended up turning into well structured and visually entertaining pieces. For my next set of posters I originally was going to do a skull and cross bones, instead of a ship. However, the cross bones I was drawing from overlapped, which made it very difficult to emphasize one another when they were sitting on top of eachother (they blended together as one image). With the input of my peers and Professor, I decided that using cross bones would not be beneficial to my project outcome. Instead I chose to do a pirate ship. I thought visually this would be more successful, as well as easier to execute. When I first started this project both images were not working as individual wholes because I did not grasp the concept of constrast. After going over and over my design, I started to understand this concept more as time progressed. I used my knowledge of the fonts to show contrast in size and weight in order to make my images represent the type face and how its elements work.

Industry Typography is a major component of graphic design so it is important to go into industry with the knowledge of type and type elements. Graphic design professionals use type to convey messages, so it is essential they use the appropriate font face to do so. Anatomy of lettering in type is also important as graphic designers take every element included in their designs very seriously. They often analyze type to see which would be most beneficial for the project they are working on. In order for graphic designers to be successfull in both their graphics and type, knowning key anatomical elements is needed. After this project, I feel very aware of the features that make up a letterform and their purpose they serve.

Discoveries What I learned about myself during this project is that I tend to “stay inside the box” a little too often. Before I start to really warm up to an assignment I will often play it safe. My compositions end up changing drastically towards the end when I start to feel comfortable enough to really push myself. It would be more beneficially to go perhaps too far then be told to take it down a notch than vice versa. I would like to work on this for I believe that if I push myself more in the beginning critques in projexts, I will have an easier time later on deciding on final compositions .

ResearchUpon choosing the initial fonts we were going to use, we had to research ones that we found interesting. I started my research with Baskerville and Futura because they were fonts that I never worked with before in the past and typefaces that I wanted to know more about. My research on the fonts came from books and Pinterest.

All of these images include different variations of the font Baskerville. The book is called Typographic Deisng: Form and Communication and is by Rob Carter, Ben Day, and Philip Meggs. Overall, I think this is an interesting font and was happy I chose to work with it. I think there are distinct features of different letters that can be represented by the phase two posters, such as the hairline of the “v,” the loop of the “g” and the tail of the “q.”

Top left: Baskerville (bold, uppercase)Bottom left: Baskerville (regular, lower/uppercase, numbers/symbols)Right: Baskerville (italic, lower/uppercase, numbers/symbols)

BOOK IMAGES:


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This page and the next three pages all contain images from the book called Typographic Design: Form and Communication.

Top left:Tbis image describes different grid pattern options. The different colored boxes represent different pieces of information that could be arranged in various ways that will work sucessfully.Bottom left: This picture is where I got a lot of my information about transitional typefaces. The page displayed the different classifications of typefaces and used amperstamps to show the differences amongst them.Top right: This picture displays different fonts showing the way each typeface’s letter “o” looks. Based on certain typeface characteristics, letterforms are written differently. Ultimately this makes for easier classification of texts.Bottom right: This picture shows typeface anatomy. which I will need to include in my phase two posters.


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Left: Paragraphs in the Futura Book font are displayed here to show what text bodies will look like when set in this font.Top right: This picture shows a grid structure that uses multi column grid lines to create compositions.Middle right: Sans serif fonts, like Futura, are shown with serif fonts together to show the way they successfully work against/with eachother.Bottom right: Different type faces at gradual larger weights are shown with eachother for optimum classification in their contrasting qualities.


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Top left: This picture shows a grid structure utilizing space with curves and straight edge lines. I like the way the one curve ends up taking up most of the composition.Bottom left: This is the alphabet and numeric set writting in Futura.Right: This picture gives a lot of ideas of how to set up a grid structure with just straight lines. While most of my grids were not intentionally planned like these, some of these designs are good references to look at while I work within my own grids.


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Top left: Baskerville is displayed in regular, italic, and bold weights.Bottom left: Grid structure placement is expressed using the letter “T” as a placeholder for different compositions.Top right: Here I got information about sans serif font faces.Bottom right: This is a picture showing capital and lowercase letters is written in Baskerville italics.


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Left: I like how the designer of this poster outlined the numbers in visual puncuation circles. Bell Gothic has many rounded counters and bowls so the use of the circles in the composition relate back to the font that is being expressed.

Right: The designer of this composition took advantage of the beautiful amperstamp of Caslon and highlighted it making it the overall piece’s focal point.

PINTEREST:

Left: Another version of a Caslon poster incorporated an opaque O into the background of the composition, making it act as a texture. I like how the type anatomy sits along the O’s curve.

Right: Futura is known for its perfectly geometric lettering and the designer showed this off by using the O’s as a patter in the composition.

Left: There is so much contrast being used in this frog type image which makes certain features of it stand out. This is successfully done and the viewer can clearly read that it is a frog.

Right: The praying mantis looks great and expresses the way the certain type face works within itself. For example, letters are shown fitting within other letters for best results.

Below: The unique link of Garamond is featured here helping to classify the font.

Above: This is a simple approach to defining the type face Futura. I want mine to be more exciting and visually appealing than this. I also think the line length is too long.

Right: The designer made this poster look as though the words are sitting on stair steps. I think it looks interesting, however there is so

much going on that makes the composition very hard to read.


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Left: As soon as I saw the very large U I knew this font poster was about Univers. I want my font face compositions to have the same effect on the audience as well.

Right: I like how interesting this composition looks with just a simple tweak of the baselines of each letter. The word Bodoni still reads clear and the design is quite appealing.

Left: I really do not think this type anatomy poster was created successfully because there is hardly any contrast. All of the lettering is almost the same size so everything in a way blends together as one.

Right:One of my posters was for Baskerville and I contemplatedsplitting the word up like this,because it is so long. I think theposter ends up being more effectivewhen the word is not broken up.

Left: Again, the word Baskerville is broken up. This poster is less succesful in terms of readability because I immediately read the “er” part of the poster first, then when to the “Bask” then “ville” so it read to me as “erBaskville.”

Right: This is a simple, yet elegant approach to poster design. I like the alphabet surrounding the large B in a low opacity box format.

Below: Incorporating letters like this, how the Garamond sits on the serif, is a great idea!

Above: An funny play on type anatomy. Instead of the type creating anatomy, the anatomy created the type to form the letter R. I found it interesting that it really can work both ways!

Right: Although it looks like some letters were stretchedand pulled here and there, I think this hand was createdsuccessfully with the use of contrast and weight changes.


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Left: I think this hummingbird turned out quite successfully. The designer incorporated different elements of the text, both alphabetical and numerical, to create different edges and contours without having actual lines make up the figure.

Below: I like the use of the black bar on the diagonal highlighting the font name, but everything seems to be too large in comparison to the main focus, which is Helvetica. Ultimately, there is not enough contrast created


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BOOK TEXT:

Typographic Design: Form and Communication, Fifth Edition by Rob Carter, Ben Day, Philip Meggs According to this book, I read that designers rely heavily on proportion. In order to create a successful composition, designers use planned out grids to split up elements of their work in a balanced mannner. These grids become models for designers to use with them and hold onto for other areas of work in the future. Often designers will look back on previously made models, whether it be made by themselves or other designers before them. Once they find ones that work successfully amongst many areas of design, they often hold onto them.(pg. 94)

Structure is an important part of typographic communication. According to this book “space is the common demoninator for all typographic communication.” This means that everything first relies on the space of the composition. If space is not utilized correctly, the design can start to fail. I also learned from this book that we are so often used to elements set horizontally that we as designers are often afraid to gear away towards that and use verticals. I want to challenge myself in this project to try and utilize those “scary” verticals.(pg. 93)

A lot of the information about sans serif and serif typefaces were found in this book. One thing I found interesting that I did not know about was that sans serif faces are more typically used on the web than serif fonts. This is because sans serif fonts are more simple in form. (pg. 144) I also learned that sometimes in order to create successful contrast a designer may often mix a sans serif font with a serif font. When they do this, they often test the relationship of the two next to eachother and put them in different sizes, weights, capital letters, lowercase letters, etc., to see how well the two typefaces work together.

Thumbnail Grid Sketches Type Classification Posters - Simon

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THUMBNAIL SKETCHESgrid structure

We were required to create a wide range of grid structures to help us create successful compositions. I created an array of grids and used previously made grids in order to have a large, well rounded library of grids that I could potentially use. From these grids I was then able to create design sketches that I could take onto the computer when I felt as though I was ready to.

Most of these grids did not incorporate enough curves and rounded angles for me to work on. The font Futura, which I used for my project, is based on perfect geometric shapes so I want a grid structure for especially that poster that has a circle within it.

Most of these could work to create a successful composition because there are so many different options to choose from with so many lines. Shapes and figures could be created within these compositions as well as different curves and angles.


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Annotated Process Work Type Classification Posters - Simon

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I can infer that many of these grids would work for compositions nicely By connecting different lines or points together, new lines end up being formed. *The outlined grid was the structure I chose to go by while laying out my compositions.

annotations&PROCESS WORK

It took many critques from both my peers and my professor in order to create my final successful compositions. I played around with my designs from my grids before moving towards the computer. My process work includes both sketches and digital designs for my typeface posters of Baskerville and Futura and for my type anatomy posters. My design process included making an umpteen amount of changes, both ones that were small scale and large scale. At the end of the critque process, I accomplished to create compositions that I find are visually pleasing, successful in terms of readibility, and communicate my creative expression.

Above are some of my early stages of planning of my Baskerville typeface poster. They are kind of all over the place with different elements of the poster being disconnected from eachother. This was the result of not successfully using my grid structure. I also have my font name set very small making it became lost throughout the composition. I need to make these more fluid and use more contrast.


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These designs above start to become more fluid in their overall composition. The first composition here still does not follow great lines of the grid structure. There were so many lines and curves that I could have taken advantage of. The second composition reads as “pbaskerville” instead of Baskerville. The third poster starts to look more creative in its design, but I still do not like how Baskerville is being split in two on two different lines.

The first design on the left has no coohesion. Part of the design is set on a straight horizontal (the type anatomy portion), part is on a diagonal (the title), and the numbers are scrambled. My second design is so unsucessful. The title itself does not read correctly because letters should never be stacked on top of eachother like that. The third design on the right is something I want to geat myself towards. I like how the large Q is incorporated within the composition and elements start to work successfully around it.


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I knew I wanted to express Futura’s geometric letterforms in some way. I like what I potentially had going on in the first composition, but the other two lack movement and fluidity. The third composition also looks like it would be a headache to read and is asking the audience to do to much work.

I think the most successful composition in these sets is the third. Not only do I play around with my type, for example not having it all horizontal and linear, but I also play with size and contrast. It is clear in this composition that I want the viewer to read “FUTURA” first. I also extended the stroke of the capital F to be used as a sort of visual puncuation in which my type anatomy could sit on.


Annotated Process Work Type Classification Posters - Simon Annotated Process Work Type Classification Posters - Simon

PROCESS WORK

This was my very first original mock up of my Baskerville typeface composition. I struggled a lot at first because the word “Baskerville” I thought was way too long and I could not seem to get it to fit on the page right. My only way to correct this at this point of time was to put the word on a diagonal. This made making all the other components look unified harder because I believed everything had to be on that same diagonal.

Here are some annotations made by my professor on my work. One of the biggest issues with this composition was the diagonal that I put the type anatomy on. It was not fluid at all and was also at too large of a size. Also, the typeface classification (transitional serif) text that I had was lost because I put it at the end of my paragraph texts. For my next composition I would try to aim at placing that in a more successful spot. My numbers in this design are also sporadic and do not feel as though they are part of my composition.

This was my first composition for my Futura poster. I started by going off on the fact that Futura was a geometric sans serif typeface, so I wanted to somehow incorporate a geometric shape into the background. My first attempt at this poster, I would say, worked more successfully than my first Baskerville poster, but this still needed more work and changes to be made to it.

This is the annotated version of my first Futura poster. The capital O used as a texture in the background is way too heavy here. This is when I first started to grasp the fact that opaque elements to compositions really do not ever go above 5% opacity, or atleast in most cases. I extended the T in Futura, but to me it looks awkward and not necessarily needed to benefit the composition. I tried again incorporating the “perfect circle shape” with my paragraph and alpha/numeric elements, but instead failed and was left with awkward white space.

phase one posters



I left the title of the composition on an angle, but incorporated a background texture of Bakserville’s capital Q for more ways to connect the composition’s elements. I do not really like the look of this at all because it seems too heavy with the black bar running across the page. The black bar also ends up splitting the composition in half, making it still not coohesive enought as a whole. The type anatomy was the last element I put into this composition and my classmates noticed that because it looked like it was just “placed in” last minute anywhere that it fit.

This is a completely new design for Futura that I did not try before. I had some small issues with it, but worked within this composition for my final poster. I was notified to kern the spacing between the “f ” and the “u” in Futura because they sat too close together. I also think the “f ” being in black is way too heavy. If I change it to have a lower opacity I could use the stroke of it to put something within it, like the alphabet.

This is an edit that a classmate did for me. I did not understand why the tail of the Q changed in this composition and think they played around with a different font. They also have my paragraphs at too long of a line length. My professor noted that using a hyphen between the date and the typeface creator’s name does not read right at all, too. However, I do like how the title at the top of the poster and then the alpha/numeric line at the bottom kind of hold everything together in place in the middle.

This composition starts to work a little more succssful than the last. I still was not comfortable with using size and opacity to create textural backgrounds on the composition, so my professor encouraged me to try blowing up the capital Q for the next critiques to really show off the unique tail of it. I also changed the title text so that it sit on a horizontal line instead of the vertical. This gave me more options as the text now did not “cut” the poster in half anymore. In this design I could have found better use of placement with my paragraphs because they seem to sit too low on the Q. I also forgot to add the different weights of the typeface in this composition.



These two designs above are almost identical, but one includes the typeface classification (the top poster) and the other does not. It is important to include all required elements of the composition within one’s work. I change my last Baskerville design around a little by using the curve of the capital Q and putting the weights of the font against it. I think this works most successfully than other options I had previously tried.

This was one of my last designs for my Futura poster. I changed the heaviness of the dark “f:” I had before by making it act as a texture to the composition by dropping its opacity down and enlarging it. I then wrote the actual title in the dark text, but because I used a lighter weight overall, it felt lighter than the previous design. I also liked how the large date looked on my last composition so I kept that, but incorporated it more into the design by lowering its opacity, but keeping it less opaque than the “f.”

phase 2 3 posters Baskerville is considered a transitional serif typeface, which means that while it incorporates new letterforms and attributes that are considered to be designs of modern serif typefaces, it still incorporates ideals used in old style serif fonts. Since it is between what was considered the “old” and the “new,” I decided to pick an image for my phase two poster that made something considered ancient more modern. I immediately thought of a human skull and thought that would be interesting to create out of Baskerville’s type elements. Skulls are often looked at as treasures or artifacts from the past, but could also be considered modern as we as living humans have within us a “living” skull. For Futura’s phase two poster I tried to think of objects that went along with the skull. I first tried crossbones, but was told by my professor that the way I wanted them to overlap would not come across clearly. I then began to think of pirates because skulls are often considered a symbol for them. I went with this idea and came up with the notion to eventually create a sort of pirate ship out of Futura’s typeface elements. Below are my sketches for the skull and the cross bone images.

&PROCESS WORK

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On the left is my first computer design of my Baskerville skull. There is not a lot of contrast within it at all whch is why it looked as though it was flat when looked at from far away. To move towards making a more dynamic version of it, my professor and peers thought it would be best to first eleminate the large D’s as eyes and make the eyes from various letterforms. After I did that I would have to go back into how I filled the skull and play around more so the letters work better with eachother and fit together in a succesful manner. At this point I ultimately needed a lot more contrast than what I had. On the right is my second try at my Baskerville skull. I think this one looks more visually pleasing and successful because I have more contrast within it. Because I added more contrast, the facial features of the skull became more pronounced. The teeth of this skull are not convincing still enough so that was something I had to take into consideration for my next try.

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On the left is my first Futura pirate ship. Everything is relatively the same size so it is hard to differentiate different parts of the shiip from eachother. What I needed to do here was use a LOT more contrast than I have. The ship also looks more squared shape than rounded which was throwing some of my classmates off. The next ship looks a lot more successful than my first attempt because I tried to add more contrast to it. I put very small leterforms within larger ones, such as a “o” inside the bowl of a “d.” I still wanted to push the ship more to give it more of a realistic look.

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At this point I added type anatomy features to both my compositions. On the left I improved on my skull by focusing on the contours of certain facial elements rather than filling the whole skull in. By only highlighting certain parts of it, viewers can read it more clearly and interpret it more successfully. I still had to work on some parts of it, such as making the nose look more dynamic by perhaps using upside down 9’s or right side up 6’s, and also try to make the teeth of the skull more recognizable. I did not have changes for my ship design on the right because I wanted to make sure I had all the type anatomy I needed within it before I moved further. I realized here that my composition would work so much better if I made it landscape. The ship would fit better and my type anatomy would not look so chaotic. My classmates also thought it would be a good idea to make cannon holes on the ship to make it look more as a pirate ship.

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Final Compositions Type Classification Posters - Simon

FINAL COMPOSITIONSphase one

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FINAL COMPOSITIONSphase two

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FINAL COMPOSITIONSphase three

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FINAL D I S P L AY

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PROJECT 2kinet ic typography

Project 2 Kinetic Typography - Simon Creative Concept Statement Type Classification Posters - Simon

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Creative Concept Statement Kinetic Typography - Simon

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Project Brief & Requirements In our first project we learned how to work with contrasts in order to create successful type compositions. In this project, we were able to apply what we learned and took from the previous projects in order to compose a video containing kinetic type. We first were to choose an audio file, whether it was from a movie, television show, commercial, song, etc. We had to take the text from our audio and create an interesting, interactive, 90 second file that expressed what was being heard. Kinetic type meant taking words and making them replicate how they are being said or showing how the speaker saying the words is feeling. For example, in order to create a successful video, our choices of audio needed to have a lot of emoition. WIthout expression, our kinetic type projects would have an uninteresting and boring outcome. I chose to pick a scene from the television show, “Breaking Bad,” where the character that is speaking has a ton of emoition in his voice. It was our job to recreate the emotion from the audio file by showing it through type. The main goal for this assignment was to be able to get the audience to feel the emoition of the words of the audio chosen without actually seeing the specific show, or music video, or movie.

What I Learned Originally I wanted to recreate the emotion from a song, but I eventually learned that with a repeating chorus and hook, there are many times where songs lack full expression in some parts of it. I had to research different medias I am interested in and evenutally decided to choose a Breaking Bad scene because of how much emotion the characters had. I learned that showing the expression of someone through type is very difficult. Every element to kinetic type matters, so it was extremely important to thoroughly listen to the audio source multiple times before going to the computer. If something was soft spoken and whispered, we had to make sure the size and weight of the type we used conveyed that by making it of a smaller size and lighter weight. If a word was screamed, it also had to be conveyed a certain way, such as making it go off the page at a larger font size. Even the font choice was something to read into because if a woman was speaking, the audience may have an easier time relating to her if the font was in a serif typeface. The same goes for if a man was speaking where the audience may feel his emotion more if the font face was a sans serif one. These became factors that decided whether or not our compositions would be successful so I learned that planning before moving to the computer would only help make my work stronger in the end.

Project Outcomes After playing around multiple times with different means of arranging compositions, my final video conveys the emotion of the scene I chose. It was difficult at first for me to grasp the concept of “showing” through type how one feels, but once I understood how constrast helps to create a differentiation between emotions, the project becamse easier to construct. I believe that the color choice also had me at a road block for a while, where I originally choose colors red, black, and white. I left the colors alone for a long time while working on my project in hopes that once I came back to it I’d be able to see if it worked or not. I evenutally ended up working with a more appropriate color palette that well represented the Breaking Bad scene I chose. In the end, I was happy with my project outcome and had a really great experience working with Adobe After Effects. This was my first time using the program and although it took a while to get the hang of, I am pleased to be able to say that I completely taught myself a program within a couple weeks. I am still learning, and will continue to learn, how to advance my skills in this program, but I taught myself enough to the point where I was able to successfully create a kinetic type project that I am happy with the outcome.

Industry The graphic design industry and beyond relies heavily on kinetic typography. I was not aware that so many everyday occurences I run into were called kinetic type until working on this project. Commercials, movie credits, television shows, music videos, etc., all more than likely include kinetic type in their work. Now that I have worked with this before, I definitely have been noticing more and more industries incorporate certain elements of kinetic type in whatever they may be creating. Some industries are more successful than others while using this specific type, making myself as an audience member feel more comfortable when viewing the work. I believe that while communication means are changing over time to advanced methods, industries are all in some aspects moving towards using “moving type” to convey messages or communicate subjects. As technology continues to advanced, it is possible that we look into a future that relies almost solely on moveable text.

Discoveries One of the main discoveries I made during this project was that it is possible to teach oneself a new program if enough time is devoted to it. Many students struggled with the fact that we needed to take the time to learn the program enough to make a video with it, but since I grew up on learning computers inside and out from my father, I took this as an opportunity to expand my knowledge. I bought the book for After Effects that explained basic to advanced skills one might not know of when first using the program. After reading certain sections of the book and watching an umpteen amount of video tutorials, I taught myself how to get my text to move the way I wanted to. I also discovered how difficult it is to convey someones emotion through text. I had to go back to my audio so much to really hear what is being said and how it is being said. Taking away the visual means of an audio file makes it even harder for an audience to be able to process what they are hearing. For example, it is hard to picture someone screaming as you hear them screaming if you see what they are saying and it is written or shown very small. I believe that this is why watching movies in subtitles is often difficult. If subtitles had more contrast in their texts, audiences would be able to actually feel the emotion of people, not just read what is being said.

Creative Concept Statement Kinetic Typography - Simon

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Research Kinetic Typography - Simon

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ResearchMost of my book research came from the book called Adobe After Effects CS6 Classroom in a Book. I had to read this book thoroughly because we were told to try and teach ourselves this program. I also observed logos and designs that used successful contrast in the book called Designing Brand Identity by Alina Wheeler. Other research included story board exploration from Pinterest, as well as watching kinetic typography videos on YouTube.

All of these images on this and the next page are part of the Adobe After Effects Classroom in a Book tutorial book. This book was probably the most helpful to my kinetic typography project out of all the research I did. It gave step by step directions on specific parts of the program and because I fully read the book, I was able to successfully teach myself everything I needed to know. I have included in these pages photographic research of what I found to be the most helpful parts of the book. They include basic knowledge about the program’s time graph organizer, basic effect tutorials, animation tools, and composition and layer information.

BOOK:


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All of these images on this page and the next are from the book Designing Brand Identity by Alina Wheeler. I think all of these brands or companies successfully use contrast in their logos or identities.

Top left: Chipotle could use a little more contrast in this description of their burritos. I do however think that what they are working with is successful because all of the text fits together on the curves, making it all more fluid and giving it rhythm.Bottom left: I like how this company used different weights between the two lines of text making for a visually interesting, yet simple logo.Top right: This flyer is very appealing to the eye. The word EXPLOSIVE jumps out at me because it is so much larger than the rest of the text. As a result, great contrast!Bottom right: This logo occupies two lines of text that fit together by making the bottom line set at a smaller size. This could also be considered to be good contrast.


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Top left: I like how two different fonts were used in this logo. Although I am not a fan of the bottom script sans serif, I do think that both fonts work well together. The differentiation of fonts, different colors, different sizes and different use of capital and lowercase letters of the first and second line add a lot of contrast to this logo.Bottom left: I like how the designer extended the stroke of the M making for a spot that the word CORPORATION can fit into. I also enjoy the use of different weights between the two lines.Right: I think the way the word LIGHTHOUSE is set at a smaller size and condensed weight looks interesting against the large size of the words above it.


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All of these images on this page and the next are from the book Designing Brand Identity by Alina Wheeler. I think all of these brands or companies successfully use contrast in their logos or identities.

Top left: Saks Fifth Avenue has an elegant logo that incorporates different sizes of text. The text lines all have a different amount of letters in them, but the designer still was able to play around with the type so all three words matched up edge to edge.Bottom left: I particularly like the way the word BRAND fits within the stroke of the x in Kleenex. I think doing this sort of design in my kinetic type would be visually interesting.Right: This is a book designed by Zappos and I think it incorporates a lot of ideals I would be interested in trying for my video. Text is turned on different sides for emphasis and also the word WOW is the most powerful because of its text size and weight.


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Top left: I like how this bag packaging uses both uppercase and lowercase lettering. I would have liked to see how it would have looked if the first line was completely in all lowercase letters.Bottom left: The FedEx Express plane uses good contrast. The word FedEx is at a larger size and heavier weight than the rest of the logo, making it the first thing the audience starts to notice.Right: The logo for Seventh Generation displays what I would have liked to see on the bag packaging for Waitrose (on the left). The first line is put in all lowercase letters, but is large, and the second line is set in all capitals, but is a little smaller.

PINTEREST:


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Top: This is a story board set for kinetic type. Although there is not color, I think it would appear to look cool and successful once in motion. The word “irresistable” looks as though it comes together in the third grid to the fourth. Things that are often irresistable are wanted from afar by many people that keep coming back for more. The letters of that word being scrambled around represent how so many people are chasing after it, but when it comes together in the last grid is when that irresistable thing is finally obtained.

Bottom: I like how this screenshot of a kinetic typography movie uses different weights for different words. This makes the text more visually interesting to read as it moves. I also like how some words are turned onto their side. It looks as though this person was aiming for a box shape to contain their words in, which they successfully did.

Top: This is a hand drawn design of a story board for kinetic type. I think the way it is laid out works successfully because there are certain parts of distinct contrast. For example, the words “BUM” and “GO” almost take up the whole screen at a very large size where other words, like the second grid, are at a extremely small scale.

Bottom: I do not think this screenshot of a movie is working that great. It is hard to read and decipher what the text says because it is way too close together and almost all set in the same size.


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Top: This design looks like it starts to work, but there is an evident amount of movement throughout it that it does not necessarily need. Sometimes, I learned, it is better to get the message across to the audience through simple means of communication. It looks like this design went beyond that to make the kinetic type look entertaining. A lot of the text is the same size, too.

Bottom: This screenshot looks like it has the potential to be a successful kinetic typography video. The words are all capitals, but they work together because the second line is much smaller than the first line. The first line also only has one word, and the second contains three, but they are still proportionately designed so they line up at the same edges.

Left: I do not particularly like the way this design is coming together. I think it looks visually unappealing because of many reasons. First, the black text on the deep purple background clashes and creates a “push-pull” effect that is distracting and makes the composition hard to read. Second, the text is awkwardly placed around the grids making for a lot of white spaces. Lastly, it seems although the designer was trying to fill the entire grid up with text. This made them focus more on stretching words or keeping them at a large size rather than incorporating words of different fonts and weights within eachother.

Right: I like the design of this kinetic type composition. I think the designer really explored their options when it came to creating a visually appealing, yet effective, type design. I am not sure how the audio sounds, but by reading this, I believe the “re” would be emphasized because it is so large.


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Top: I think the design in which the text is making in this composition may be interesting and entertaining, however, there is no contrast in this at all. Everything is pretty much the same size, the only difference between the text is the colors.

Bottom: I really like the way this type is expressing what is written. The text says “I’m only burning my ...” and the words look as though they are starting to go on fire. They have a smogy/smoky effect to them which replicates the beginning of a start to a real fire.

Top: This screenshot is extremely confusing to read. I read it as “Home so going what to do else when you are you go” which I believe it SHOULD read “So what else are you going to do when you go home?” I want to make sure my kinetic type is not confusing to the reader like this is.

Bottom: This is a story board for a kinetic video for Ocean’s Eleven movie. The story boards are starting to work successfully, they just need a lot more contrast. The second and the fifth story board seem to be working much better than the others because of the incorporation of different weights and sizes to create the contrast needed.


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YOUTUBE:Dumbledore’s Speech with Harry:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52ubwhA4TaQ

I think that this video did not have enough of an emotional context behind it to fully let it grasp the idea of kinetic typography. For the first minute to two minutes, the characters spoke in a very montone manner. I think the designer tried too hard to give the effect of the voice because they started emphasizing words, that were not at all actually emphasized in the audio, just to have contrast.

Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked-Cage the Elephant:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uPbhXAd7iE

I believe this video did a successful job with keeping up with the fast pace of this song. I like how the words were expressing what was being said, such as the words looking like they were going down a street when the artist sang that he was “walking down the street.” I think, however, that the video would have been just as, if not more, successful if the images were removed.

Imagine Dragon’s-Demons:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TroWh3u0ZiI

I do not understand the colors used in this project. They do not fit a song that is called “Demons” and also do not fit what is being spoken about in it. I actually liked this video a lot because they arranged their type in a very pleasing compositios.

COLOR:I originally started working with just black and white to help me focus on just my typography. I then changed those colors to red and black, thinking that red could symbolize the blood seen in the Breaking Bad scene I choose to use for my project. After looking up “Breaking Bad” at Adobe’s Kuler color website. I was suprised to see that none of my results had the color red in them, which I originally was using. My favorite results from my search are shown below.

Thumbnail Sketches Kinetic Typography - Simon

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Thumbnail Sketches Kinetic Typography - Si-

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THUMBNAIL SKETCHESstoryboard sets

When we first picked the audio we wanted to turn into communicative kinetic typography, we had to lay out how we wanted major parts to look like in storyboards. Storyboards were a great way to organize the information and text we were using and were an effective tool to display whether or not we had enough contrast in the type. The first storyboards I created were hand drawn and then later transferred into Adobe Illustrator on the computer.

These are the first storyboards I created for my kinetic typography compositions. After listening to my audio I decided that this specific layout did not include enought contrast, which meant that my audio did not have enough emoition within it to convey. It was hard to make feeling out of my type when the words were spoken almost at the same tone the whole time. After designing this, I explored more audio options.

I decided to try another audio clip to work my kinetic type of. This, as well as my first choice, are both scenes in Breaking Bad. I found I had the same trouble with this clip as well because I was getting stuck on how to convey emotion of something that did not have enough of it. My professor gave me comments on how I can think about giving the type a voice, but I ended up changing to a different Breaking Bad clip after this. I wanted to keep going forth with that topic and not give up just because of a few mishaps.

Annotated Process Work Kinetic Typography - Simon

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These are my mock ups for my chosen audio. While working with it, I had to listen endless amounts of times to how the characters were saying the words they were saying and portray that wtih type and motion. The hardest part was giving the type a “feeling” because so often we say how we feel, and not write it down in wording. Every element and change added to the type had an effect on it so I had to really think about where I wanted the type. If something was whispered it would appear small; if it was yelled it would be bigger. Understanding that was not as difficult as dealing with the placement of my type. For example, if the voice of someone sounded lonely, then I would have to figure a way to make the actual type look lonely.

These storyboards are my second attempt to lay out my kinetic type. I think there are evident type changes from my first attempt to this take because I really listened to the type more. I believe that with each time listening to the audio I will improve my compositions because I will fully understand the audio more and more. I tried to display how I would make the type of the page move, appear and change with overlays and gradual type build up. After this point I went to the computer to teach myself After Effects. The program enabled to create a full on composition layer by layer, so instead of storyboards, I had different text overlays that I could edit, add elements to, add animation to, add audio to, etc.

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Annotated Process Work Kinetic Typography - Si-

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(Image storyboards continue onto next page)

These are the first designs I started working with on Adobe After Effects. The program was completely new to me so I struggled at first to try to improve on what I previously designed in my computer sketches. After I started developing an After Effects skill, the program became more understandable and easier to work with. I took my computer sketches even further by adding more contrast, as well as manipulating sizes of text. A lot of my annotations made by my professor in this set of storyboards relate to the need for even more contrast and more push. For example, the word “SHIT” in my second to last storyboard is screamed in the audio and I currently do not have the text portraying that.

Although I made some minor improvements, I still have a lot of work to do.The biggest struggle during this project is finding ways to really give the text a voice that has true meaning and feeling behind it. Because many of the words in my composition are not action words, it is even harder to give them movement. For example, if the audio said “shake” in the text content, I would go ahead and make that text actually look like it is shaking. Instead, I am trying to match the how a character says something in my audio to the way the text moves. When the character Jesse says “ruined, turned to shit,” he almost sounds like he is shaking with so much anger when he says the word “shit” so I made that specific word look like it is rattling with anger.

Final Display Kinetic Typography - Simon

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FINAL D I S P L AYHere are my final storyboard sets to my Kinetic Typography Project. From my last designs, I have made contrast improvements and significant adjustments,

such as a drastic color change.


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PROJECT 3typographic calendar

Project 2 Kinetic Typography - Simon

Creative Concept Statement Typographic Calendar - Simon

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Project Brief & Requirements The goal for this project was to make our type have a voice and be able to express that voice and emotional through text to an audience. To do that, we had to visually communicate the type by diagonals, overlays, breaking grids, changing text sizes drastically, etc., and by doing any means of experimental type to fully convey the meaning of words we would be sharing. We had two options in this project to choose from, a typographic calendar or a chap book. Both options had their own sets of guidlines we would have to follow, such as, for example, the chap book could contain images, but the calendar could not. Both of the choices, however, had to have some sets of texts, whether it was song lyrics, movie quotes, poems, etc. The self chosen text had to be worked in ways that would fully represent the emotion or feeling of it. It was up to us to choose an option, choose a text, and then finally choose ways to communicate our texts successfully through typographic variables we explored and studied all semester long. I choose to do a typographic calendar because I thought it would be an interesting project to save and have as my own calendar. The self chosen text I picked was quotes from Alice in Wonderland. I thought that typographically I could have a lot of fun with the quirky quotes and unusual sayings. I also particularly like this movie and children’s book a lot and ever since I was a child, so I wanted to something for my final project that hit home for me. I decided to keep my quotes simple and short because I wanted to have my calendar be a magnetic calendar. No one wants to have a huge 11x17 magnet, so I chose to do my calendar on 4x6 magnetic plates. To make it more interesting, to go along with the uniqueness of my Alice and Wonderland theme, I chose to make each typographic element have its own magnet and then every number up to 31 and all of the twelve months would also have their own. I thought it would be interesting to do it like this because if the person using the magnets has a particular liking to a specific quote, they can keep that quote up as long as they so please and just change the different months with the corresponding dates. Also, the person using it does not have to have every single number of the date up; they can just have the specific date with the corresponding month if they want. For example, instead of having the May magnet with all of the numbers in that month, if it is May 8th they can just have the number 8 up and change it every day. For my packaging purpose I found a cloth like organizer that has two sections to hold things in that you can hang up. I would put the larger 4x6 quote magnets on one side and then the months and numbers in the other. The numbers would be separately contained as they would be smaller in a separate holder so it would be less likely to misplace them. I got creative and ordered custom “Drink me” labels that go along with the theme and also found an antique looking old key that is similar to the one in the books and movies. This whole organizer can go right on the fridge, or other magnetic surfaces, by hangning it with a suction cup hanger included in my packaging.

What I Learned I learned that it is very hard to come up with unique ways to present a project. I found many of my classmates were doing the same things or ideas, like business cards or coasters, and although those are very interesting ideas, I wanted mine to be different. I put in a lot of research time to look for ways that I could package my product and ultimately came up with something that I find effective, useful, and successful to my project’s theme. I also learned the importance of contrast. I struggled a lot with this idea at first and could not grasp that changing a font size by only a little would not have a benefitting difference in composition. As a student, we have to explore while we can now during our studies. When I finally took a step forward and out of my comfort zone, I was seeing tremendous differences. What I thought may have been too large next to something that was too small ended up looking beautiful. All I needed was time, more research, and a push from my classmates and professor.

Project Outcomes Overall, I am very pleased with my project turnout. I wanted to create something that typographically conveyed a message and with my use of overlays, opcaities, layers, different font weights/sizes/typefaces, and color, I think I sucessfully was able to convey expression through my work. I enjoyed making the calendar because it was something that I know would be useful. The hardest part of this project was understanding the way contrast works and it took a lot of time for me to fully get this idea. My typographic quotes were so unique and different and that had to be represented through the way they overall were written. When I finally found an interesting font that fit the “wonderland” type feel, called Modern 2.0, I was able to explore more. However, every now and then I felt stuck using this font because it did not have very many weight options. This meant I could not really alter the way it felt so much. I incorporated Futura, which has a lot of weights, into my composition to get the full effect. When using the Modern font, I tried to use lots of overlays and transparencies to really push the emotion out of my words. This ultimately taught me that there can always be a way around obstacles, especially if your obstacle was that a chosen font did not have weight differentiation like mine!

Industry Having the ability to communicate type and give text an emotion is a very important skill of a designer to have. Giving “life” to text in industry is what differentiates a basic designer from a knowledgeable, successful one. Through typography, it is the goal of a designer to communicate messages filled with emotion to audiences. It not just about reading the text, but also feeling it too. However the designer chooses to convey their messages, they are only truly successful until they get a feeling across to people. Typographic variables have been explored for some time, first by the Dadaists with rotating text, then the Futurists by giving type movement and sound, then by Post-Modernists by breaking out of grid structures. The industry is constantly changing and advancing and designers keep learning from eachother and growing.

Discoveries I discovered a lot with this project, most importantly that thinkning of a unique way to package a design that goes along with the theme is very hard! I wanted to think outside of the box and originally thought placing my magnets in a teapot holder of some sort would be successful. I however thought realistically with my project and thought if people would actually like having a teapot, an extra thing in their homes. So instead, I discovered this hanging organizer to place my magnets in. When the calendar is over, people can still use the organizer to hold other things, such as cards, invitations, or even other magnets!


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Research Typographic Calendar - Simon

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ResearchBOOK:All of my book images came from the text entitled “Designing Brand Identity” by Alina Wheeler. Images below: I believe the first image shows what I do not want to do with my typographic calendar. I believe that although it is trying to make everything align, it has absolutely no contrast. The image below that show packaging of the brand U by Kotex. They use successful, unique ways to package their items. I want to keep exploring options on how I want to package my calendar.


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All of these companies use successful packaging in their products. The image to the left displays a sushi packaging. I like how the box opens and then has separations within it to contain different elements. I perhaps can do something like this for my calendar to separate the typographic quote, the months, and the days.


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Top: I like how the word SPRING really pops out at first glance. This lets the reader know that it truly is the most important thing in that magazine spread.

Middle: I would find it interesting to take the idea such as this where a word goes inside a letter. I would have to find the right quote to do it on, but it would not hurt to take a shot at this type of design.

Bottom: I particually enjoy the way the bottom text fits within the descender of the top text. Although there is not contrast within it, the way the placement of the text is starts to work successfully.


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Left: I think this logo for a gelato company uses good contrast within it. Although I am not a fan of all of the different typefaces used, I still think what is most important in the logo is read very clear, being gelato. Top left: I do not like this logo for this museum. I think that it really does not capture a museum type feel which is supposed to showcase different types of arts or sciences. To add more contrast, they could have let the “o” be at a regular or light weight, since it standing for “of,” becomes less important. Middle left: I like the way Kleenex uses two different fonts that both work successfully together. At the end of the word, “BRAND TISSUE” is able to sit within the strokes of the last x. Bottom left: I do not like the website design at all for this company. Although we see “This is Watson” first, it does not display any type of contrast that I would be interested in looking more into for my project.


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Top: This business card is an example of packaging. I could perhaps make my typographic calendar into a business card shape and feel, so that people could always have a calendar handy in their wallets.

Bottom left: I think this museum does a better job than MoMA because of its use of contrast. The word museum is able to fit proportionately underneath MILL CITY for a more interesting design overall.

Bottom right: I really like the way this design is working. I think highlighting the word “sciences” really gives the audience a feel for what the academy is actually for. I also really like this font and would consider finding one similar for some of my compositions.


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Top left: This widely known logo for amazon has contrast within it. Although it necessarily does not even need it, it still makes the design more interesting by having the “.com” at a light weight and different font than “amazon.” Top right: The logo for Laura Zindel is appealing because although it uses all capital letters, the bottom part of the logo is at a heavier weight, but sized down very small in comparison to the rest of the text. Bottom left: I like the packaging label for this company. I think it would be appropriate to my theme if I incorporated a ribbon and label (as if for a drink or potion jug) that says something pertaining to my project. Bottom right: Here are different packaging ideas for one set company. The company uses boxes, labels, bags, etc., to display their designs in various ways to the consumer. So many different packaging tatics with the same logo allows for the viewer to identify with the brand under different circumstances.


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I pinned ideas that would be useful for both the chap book and typographic calendar so I had plenty of ideas to go by whichever project piece I ended up choosing.

PINTEREST:

On this page shows some ideas that would be interesting to take on for the chap book. I like the look of the first top designs, where the text is very heavy and bold. The bottom two designs work within a lighter, skinnier looking book, but also look very professionally designed and packaged.


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Here are more options to go by when designing my calender. I do not like the way the bottom left image uses little contrast, but I do however think the idea of making the number date of the month in a cool pattern like that would perhaps work for my projects theme. I also like how modern looking the calendar in the top right image appears, but it does not allow space for any typographic design elements to be placed in.


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All of these calendar displays look visually interesting. They all caught my attention because they are all designed uniquely. I think the most successful design and package out of this group is the image below on the right. It was such a different idea that worked outside of the norm to use the wood as the calendar holder. If there was an object like wood that was related to Alice in Wonderland, I would have loved to try something along the lines of this out.

Thumbnail Sketches Typographic Calendar - Simon

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THUMBNAIL SKETCHEScalendar designs

Here is a look at my written composition ideas for my Wonderland Calendar. Some of my earlier ideas incorporated symbols, which are not allowed by the project guidlines.When I moved to the computer sketches I eliminated all of my images.

Again, most of these designs include symbols. I think my most successful of this set is this design on the top left (curiouser & curiouser). I made the amperstamp the largest element of the design and plan to drop it down in opacity while the quote text lays over it. I think most of my designs will have to include different types of overlays and transparencies to make it more dynamic and go along more successfully with the wonderland theme.

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I plan to work with these two quotes throughout my calendar. I really need to start planning on how to make these designs more successful in terms of contrast, composition, and overall in typographic variables. I think I can really play around with the top “Bonkers” design and use different fonts, overalys, and colors to make it look very unique and crazy.For the bototm quote, I believe I will try to make the 6 the largest element of the design and drop it down in opacity. My body text will either sit over the 6 or end up working around its natural curves.


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Once I started to take the sketches to the computer I struggled to find ways in order to create contrast. I felt like I had to utilize enought space for both the calendar portion of the design and the typographic quote. Here, both elements seem to have a balanced amount of space in which they occupy. My peers told me that in order to create a successful composition, I had to not be afraid to blow my typography up across the page and use the white space to my advantage.


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Most of my compositions utilized the same format (lines of text stacked on top of eachother). This did not read successfully and my professor encouraged me to try to gear away from doing that so much. For example, I tried to have words and lines fit within other words, but as a result ended up becoming too “boxy” with my design.


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As you can see some comments from my professor on compositions, the most important one noted was in the first design saying to use contrasts and opacities. My professor explained that they would become beneficial parts to my compositions based on my design topic. She noted that it would be a good idea to incorporate a waterfall effect of transparencies in the last (bottom right) wonderland design and have the word wonderland repeat and fade out onto the white page.


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At this point I started to use color in my designs and incorporated some layers into them. The colors appeared more dull once printed than on the computer, so it was important that I test printed each time I changed colors in my composition. I think the design that needs the most work here is either the first (top left), or the third (top right)because they appear to look very boxed in and do not have any visual attention grabbing variables.


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When I look at these designs I know that I am still “playing it safe.” For example, the first “bonkers” design could be so much more successful if it really actually felt like it was bonkers and not boring. Right now it screams “plain” instead of the craziness it is reaching for. Tbe bottom middle “wonderland” design also does not read right in this set. Right now it reads as “wonderland my world would be a” instead of “my world would be a wonderland.”


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When I started capturing the ideas of transparencies, my compositions started to come together. However, they still did not look completely successful. I felt too tight within these portrait style compositions, so I was encouraged after these to try putting them into a landscape format. A landscape format would allow for more room for my typographic variables to stretch across the page.


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Here are updated versions, with color, of my designs. I took the comments and considerations from my professor and my peers to come to this point. My professor noted that she did not see many uses of transparencies and wanted to see more. A lot of people did not like the fancy designs I added to the “TEA” composition. Also, many students I thought I could better rearrange the “Crazy” composition to actually look like it is crazy.

Annotated Process Work Typographic Calendar - Simon

computer sketchesPROCESS WORK

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These two designs have so much potential, but I for some reason am struggling with them. Perhaps when I turn my designs landscape format I will be more successful. I really need to work on how to communicate the type to my audience, especially with the “bonkers” composition. It right now does not scream bonkers to anyone in the classroom.


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I am working too small for my pages right now in these two designs. I choose to annotate my work on them because I feel as though they are lacking in both contrast and visual excitement. I think I want to change the layout of the first composition by making the question mark even larger and having the elements fall around and work around it. As for the second composition, I think it would be more successful if I really blew the size up of the words “drink” and “eat” and made the “me’s” tiny next to them.


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When I finally moved my sketches over to a landscape design format, I found them instantly looking a lot more successful. Most of my quotes I wanted to be large in size and take up the whole composition, which made it hard for me to fit everything typographically into a design that was portrait format. My compositions improved, but I want to start completely over on the first (top left), second (top right) and third (middle left) designs because I feel as though I can express myself more with these now that my format is set.


FINAL D I S P L AYAll of these graphics will be placed on magnetic backing. The months and numbers will be separate elements from the typographic quotes. This is an interactive magnetic calendar where the audience can swap out different months with different quotes if so they choose. The remaining elements of the calendar that are not in use will stay in the calendar

holder that hangs on the frigde.

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Final Display Typographic Calendar - Simon

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