Stuff that inspires me

Stuff from the Dieline awards that I liked

Final poster

I really like how this poster turned out :)

stuff I like

I really respond to handmade stuff like this:

http://www.designobserver.com/

Journal entry 13

"common sense"

This was an ok speech. It was interesting how you didn't know what he was talking about during his story and then he'd come out with something funny like "common sense."

User generated content - expands creativity. People do it for the love of what they're doing, not for money. It's what your kids are doing right now. Anybody can do it. They can remix stuff and make it new and creative. It's not piracy.

(Re)creativity. It rejects copyright, or instead, rewrites it.

Journal entry 12

Paula Scher was really interesting. I love most of her work. I really liked the "Jazz" signage that she talked about. She listened to the owner who knew about jazz and designed it like jazz would look. I also really liked some of her other signage. She made it fit into the city, on poles and in windows.

She says that she begun illustrating her own type, instead of using nice clean helvetica.

She said that a computer doesn't feel or smell like an art supply. She says that it's more like a car.

She also doesn't believe in process ;)

David Carson put typography into scenery and put stuff together that didn't really go together. He says that his lack of training probably help him. He says to pull from what you are as a person.. and put that into your work.

He did Raygun, which nobody approved what he did or anything. He did crazy stuff sometimes and you couldn't even read the articles. Some people said that it was disrespectful to the writing, and some said that it was genius.

Lawrence Weiner has a funny ponytail and he says that an artist lives in the stream of life. They don't live up on a mountain, they live within culture. He says that he prefers sans serifs that are non-authoritative. He says that he hates helvetica, because it's always saying the same thing.

He says to figure out a way to go around it, under it, or above it. Don't just accept it.

All of these designers don't really like computers....

AE Trial

Here is the first version of the first 7 seconds of my speech

Journal entry 11

Debbie Millman - is the president of the Design division at Sterling Brands, New York, host of the radio show "Design Matters" on DesignObserver.com, the Chair of the new Masters in Branding Program at the School of Visual Arts, a contributing Editor at Print Magazine, a design blogger for Fast Company and an author on the design blog Brand New. She is the President of AIGA and the author of three books.

Design Matters - "Design Matters" is an opinionated and provocative internet talk radio show. The show combines a stimulating point of view about graphic design, branding and cultural anthropology. In a business world dependent on change, design is one of the few differentiators left.

I listened to the interview with Dee Dee Gordon - She is a youth-culture expert and trend researcher. Her work was featured on PBS' Frontline special "Merchants of Cool."

It had a funny and interesting little story at the beginning about Debbie as a middle-schooler in the 70s. They then go on to talk about Facebook and other social media, and laugh about it.

Someone said that Dee Dee's skill is "understanding." She worked at Converse and has done some really cool things. Interesting fact: when Kurt Cobain committed suicide, he was wearing converse.

She feels that she's found her niche. She created the L-Report. She is interested in graphic arts, social media, trends, mixed media, creative writing... everything. It was called "a pretentious European arts magazine" and that no one would care about it. However, it is very successful now.

Awesome Type videos

Typolution:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVPfTlpCKaw&feature=related

This is an awesome video that makes rain and trees out of type. Love it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbwXnFbCTDA&feature=related

This is almost like our project.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHBSVhjufFo&feature=related

Super awesome.

Journal entry 10

"State of the Planet"

is a good After Effects video, but I think that there is a disconnect between the tone of the speech and the visuals. The visuals are fun and full of bright, childish colors. But there is good use of typography and the important words are emphasized using size contrast and color.

"Inner City Arts"

videos combines simple animation with video footage and music. The cute, simple animation at the beginning works really well with the rest of the video. The tones match, because it is for a kid's art organization.

"Saturday: Piles of Paper Medical"

is a great infographic. It shows the percentage of medical institutions that use electronic records, by showing these cute folders with faces. The smaller percentage one is accordingly smaller.

Speech

I am doing the Eulogy for Robert F. Kennedy for my speech project. Ted Kennedy is such a powerful speaker and the speech really made me think. Ted gives such dramatic pauses between his words, that I think it will work really well for this project.

"Like it or not, we live in times of danger and uncertainity.. That is the way he lived, and that is what he leaves us. My brother need not be idealized.. or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life. To be remembered simply as a good and decent man... who saw wrong, and tried to right it... Saw suffering, and tried to heal it... Saw war, and tried to stop it. Those of us who loved him, and take him to his rest today, pray that what he was to us, what he wished for others, will some day come to pass for all the world. As he said many times.. in many parts of this nation.. to those he touched, and who sought to touch him: some men s-see things as they are, and say why; I dream things that never were, and say why not."













We made a book out of magazine clippings to teach us about sequence. It helped me think about pacing a lot. With this speech in particular, pacing is going to be key. The dramatic pauses need to be emphasized. Michael Selby did a great job with this speech last year. The music that he added behind the words worked really well also.

Google Topeka

Graphic Design - The New Basics reading

The reading starts out talking about how important balance is. If a design is unbalanced, then your eye can get stuck at certain points and it just doesn't look resolved. Balance creates relationships between elements. Symmetry creates balance, however, asymmetry is usually more pleasing to the eye. Balance can be created with contrast in asymmetrical design. Repetition can create melody in design, and a change can break it up. Repetition can also make rhythm in a design.



















Scale is also very important to a design. It is the impression of an object's size. Contrasts in scale can make or break a design. Contrast can imply motion or depth in a flat piece. A great example is the Loop logo and the colorful dancers.

Never having to say you're sorry... unless you use Futura

"And there they were — virtually all of them — typeset in Futura." Ahhhh!

Futura was inspired by the modern machinery in 1928. I'm sure it was beautiful then, and there still is a time and a place for it - just not everywhere.

We can't just "kind of like" a typeface. There needs to be a reason that we are using it.

"There are those who believe typography, like beauty, rests in the eye of the beholder. And while it is not now nor has it ever been a science, there are certain typographic tenets that remain somewhat protected by, well, the vicissitudes of cultural civility."

Typography is difficult for me. I still find myself not knowing if my type looks good or not. Type takes a lot of trial and error for me to get it to look correct.









Alternatives for Futura: Helvetica, Gotham, Gill Sans, Univers..

Journal Entry 7

I went to Austin for spring break, so I tried to take some pictures of typography there.

Journal Entry 6

Thirty Conversations on Design

I listened to:

Sean Adams - who said that the most influential piece of design for him was the Declaration of Independence, which was an interesting choice. He said that he thought it was the biggest accomplishment to design a government. Design is solving problems.

Steven Heller - said the Michelin Man. Haha. He thinks that it is a hugely successful logo/spokesperson. I feel like that is a really strange choice. I don't know if the Michelin Man would be the trademark that I would think is most successful...?

Erik Spiekermann - said the alphabet. Gutenberg invented the printing press and created the first typeface that was not just handwriting. It was the beginning of typefaces. -- like Meta. The alphabet is art.

Monica Nassif - said the spoon. The spoon is a great invention for the kitchen. She says that green design is working with what you have, and making it better. The spoon is a simple, well-designed tool that helps people make things better.

Joe Duffy - says that nature is the root of design. He strongly believes in reducing and reusing. Natural colors and natural forms create strong design. Ex: the Bahamas redesign was meant to mirror the look of the islands.

And to answer the questions for myself.... wow... that's hard. It's something that I'm going to have to think about over a few years of working, I think. However, I that design can change the world. Who doesn't want to live in a well-designed, beautiful world?

Timeline Final

Yay, here is my final timeline

Timeline Process Work

Timeline Process Work:

Project Brief:
This project was all about organizing information. I had to make my timeline easy to read and understand. It had to communicate time in a way that the viewer could see it. There needed to be some kind of organization that made sense to my subject: History of the Bathing Suit. I needed to create hierarchy with type size, weight,.. -- color and position on the page were my main tactics.

I used a seashell to communicate the feeling of the beach. The seashell worked well for my timeline because it spiraled in and created a feeling of depth of time. I put the 50,000 BC date wayyy on the inside of the shell. The dates then spiraled out in rainbow color order.

Overview:
Overall, I really liked this project. I think that mine turned out really well and it has a sophisticated feeling that I didn't think I would get with the swim suit topic. I think that my type looks clean and simple, and then that contrasts with the fun rainbow colors. The colors help the viewer see the dates in order, which I think worked really well. The colors were also pulled from the colors of the shell before I made it grayscale.

Stefan Sagmeister

TED Talk - 

This was a really funny and interesting talk. I think that design can definitely affect our happiness. I feel happier and calmer when I'm in a space that is well designed - or keeping with my design aesthetic. I even feel happier using a mac (which I'm typing on right now) rather than a pc. It just feels better and makes me feel better. Being in a creative environment, can make you feel creative - being in a happy environment, can make you feel happy. 

I think that Sagmeister is successful - first of all, because he knows how to communicate well. His audience is very entertained and interested in his talk. I loved the subway instructions that he talked about - they are something that nobody ever notices until they are different. "Riding with despair - prohibited. Keep your hopes up." 

Final Bookcovers

Journal Entry 4

I actually liked the first mantra from the list the best:

Allow events to change you.
You have to be willing to grow. Growth is different from something that happens to you. You produce it. You live it. The prerequisites for growth: the openness to experience events and the willingness to be changed by them.

Bruce Mau: Canadian Designer

He was born in Sudbury, Ontario. He studied at the Ontario College of Art & Design in Toronto, but left prior to graduation in order to join the Fifty Fingers design group in 1980. He stayed there for two years, before crossing the ocean for a brief sojourn at Pentagram in the UK. Returning to Toronto a year later, he became part of the founding triumvirate of Public Good Design and Communications. Soon after, the opportunity to design Zone 1/2 presented itself and he left to establish his own studio, Bruce Mau Design. Mau remained the design director of Zone Books until 2004, to which he has added duties as co-editor of Swerve Editions, a Zone imprint. From 1991-93, he also served as creative director of I.D. magazine.

From 1996-99 he was the associate cullinan professor at Rice University School of Architecture in Houston. He has also been a thesis advisor at the University of Toronto’sFaculty of Architecture, Landscape & Design; artist in residence at California Institute of the Arts; and a visiting scholar at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles. He has lectured widely across North America and Europe, and currently serves on the International Advisory Committee of the Wexner Center in Columbus, Ohio.

In addition, Bruce is an honorary fellow of the Ontario College of Art & Design and a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. He was awarded the Chrysler Award for Design Innovation in 1998, and the Toronto Arts Award for Architecture and Design in 1999. In 2001 he received an Honorary Doctor of Letters from the Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver.

In 2006, he participated in the Stock Exchange of Visions. He is married to Bisi Williams Mau.

As of 2007, Mau was in residence at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, in the Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Design Objects Department.

Journal Entry 3

I read "Twenty Rules" for this journal entry.

I think that #1 is the most important - "Have a concept." This is the first thing that I learned back in Design 1. You must have a concept for every project you do, otherwise it will just be random. How are you going to explain your final product to someone if you didn't have a concept to start with?

#2 is just as important - "Communicate, don't decorate." Graphic design is not just decorating things. It is designing them with a purpose. Every thing that you put on the page must have a purpose and not just be decoration.

I also really like #7 - "If you can do it with less, then do it." I like simple designs normally. I don't like things that are over-designed or too crowded. Simplicity is nice and gives the viewer breathing room.

I'm not sure how I feel about #10- "Type is only type when it's friendly." I think that type can be unfriendly and still be effective. It depends on the message that is being conveyed. If it is an unfriendly message, then it can have unfriendly type to make a point.

#16 - "Create images, don't scavenge." This is an interesting point. I often scavenge the internet for images, but it always works out better when I create my own. I think that looking on the internet is a good starting point... but then you should recreate the image to some point. Don't just use something you found.

And #20 - "Symmetry is the ultimate evil." Amen.

Here's what I've been up to in typography

Journal Entry #2

Chip Kidd

Whoever first said "You can't judge a book by its cover" has been lost to the ages, but Chip Kidd, the most celebrated of book cover designers, isn't arguing.

At 39, Kidd has designed more than 1,500 covers for authors from Michael Crichton to John Updike. But he says that judging a book by what's on its jacket is "irredeemably shallow."

He asks, "Would you want to be judged by your face?"

But don't people do that all the time?

"Yes, but it doesn't mean you should."

Kidd's work is now the subject of a book, Chip Kidd (Yale University Press, $19.95) by Veronique Vienne, a designer turned writer, who offers another view:

"Whether or not we know it, we all judge a book by its cover. Its role is to communicate not only what the book is about, but who will enjoy reading it. There is a subliminal language of images and typography that speaks directly to the subconscious mind of the potential book buyer."

Some covers, she says, can be misleading: "Serious anthropological studies can be disguised as mystery novels, but more often than not, they accurately reflect the mood, the style and the literary merits of what's between the covers."

USA Today

John Gall

SB: Why did you become a graphic designer?

Gall: I was studying—one semester—to be an architect. Ha! I was also taking some art courses, drawing, etc., which led to some design courses, then seeing and being turned on by certain things that were going on in the field at that time … mid-80s. The immediate attraction was purely visual. The learning-to-think part came later. Unlike kids entering the field today, where they know what they are getting into, I didn’t even really know what graphic design was. My first freelance job was to make these hand-painted signs for this little grocery near my house. It took me about two weeks to imitate the kind of signs you see hanging in supermarkets —ground beef, $1.99 lb. I think I was paid $10.

SB: What makes a good book cover?

Gall: Different groups within the publishing company will each have different answers for this question. What an editor thinks is good, Sales might not. And as designers we have a different set of criteria, which must also include everyone else’s criteria. How that gets resolved is always a bit tricky. A really great cover is going to convey the essence of the book in a unique and surprising way that maybe pushes the design envelope a bit. It might even add to and enhance the editorial content of the book. A cover that is seen and respected by other designers is a good thing too, I guess, but the mission is really to allow the book to make a great first impression.

Whether people actually buy books because of the cover is open for debate. I mean, even I don’t know, though I’m usually checking the credit to see who is designing them.

SB: Your design solutions have a great plasticity—range, the creation of illusion of depth, elasticity—as if you were a master fine artist manipulating collage elements or sensually moving oil paint on a canvas. Your work pushes the range of the design medium. How did you learn to manipulate the 2D surface in such fascinating ways?

Gall: I’ve always been kind of interested in flat 2D space vs. representational 3D space and how to create space using 2D elements as well as negating or poking holes in space within a 3D context. When designing a cover we’re basically reworking the same 5 x 8 or 6 x 9 space over and over, so I’m always trying to arrange elements into interesting juxtapositions and trying to find some breathing room. It’s very easy to clutter up the page.

Journal Entry 1

The idea of "visual writing" is that you start off with the private processes of writing, brainstorming, and concept mapping --- and that leads to a better visual end product. This is creative problem solving. Sketch books have been used by geniuses such as Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, Darwin, and Pablo Picasso.

Mind maps, concept maps, free writes and word lists help you come up with ideas without really thinking about them as ideas. You just write down the first things that come to mind -- and a concept can develop out of that.

Writing these on paper can be a more effective way to get out all of your ideas because you aren't worried about making it look pretty or designing it.


Mind Map
















Free Write























Concept Map Free Write

Concept Board

Mood Board for Book Covers

I wanted to go with a Victorian kind of feeling, but also incorporate a feeling of freedom. Two of the books have to do with the ocean, so I thought that was important to include- and the ocean also gives an open feeling of endlessness.

New Concept Statement

Concept Statement -

The compound word that I chose for my book series is:

Feminist-Traditional

Feminist - the doctrine advocating social, political, and all other rights of women equal to those of men

-radical, change, going against the grain, modern, female, strong

Traditional - the handing down of statements, beliefs, legends, customs, information, etc., from generation to generation, esp. by word of mouth or by practice: a story that has come down to us by popular tradition.

-stuffy, old, stuck, turn of the century, victorian, southern, 

These books all have a strong female main character that is fighting against social norms of the traditional society that she is stuck in. Critics have said that Kate Chopin was the pioneer of the feminist modern movement in literature. Her writing was almost ignored until about 20 years after her death when the feminist movement started taking shape.

For my book covers, I really want to convey the juxtaposition between the feminist values and the traditional southern society and time period.

Audience and Concept Statement for Book Covers

Audience Persona -

Beth is a 17-year-old high school student. She has a few close friends, but she mostly likes to spend time by herself. She does okay in school, but she can usually be found day-dreaming while the teachers are talking. She has a part-time job at the Goodwill. She also buys most of her clothes at the Goodwill or sews them herself. She rides her bike most places around town.

She wants to go to college next year to be an English major at Colorado University at Boulder. She has never had a boyfriend, and doesn't want one. She thinks of herself as an individual. She writes in a journal every day and is also interested in writing poetry. She also does some black and white photography in her spare time.

Beth wants to be a high school English teacher when she graduates from college. She does not see any children in her future, except for her students.

Concept Statement -

I want to show the time period and its influence, but I want the books to have a modern flair that can relate to women of today.

Book cover project research

1. Series - a group or a number of related or similar things, events, etc., arranged or occurring in temporal, spatial, or other order or succession; sequence

Sequence -

1. the following of one thing after another; succession.

2. order of suc

cession: a list of books in alphabetical sequence.

3. a continuous or connected series: a sonnet sequence.

Sign -

-a token; indication. any object, action, event, pattern, etc., that conveys a meaning. a conventional or arbitrary mark, figure, or symbol used as an abbreviation for the word or words it represents

Icon - looks like or resembles the thing it represents

-a picture, image, or other representation. For example: a representation of some sacred personage, as Christ or a saint or angel, painted usually on a wood surface and venerated itself as sacred.

Index – is something that points to something else. Like how a paw print can point to a bear. Something used or serving to point out; a sign, token, or indication: a true index of his character.

3. See Post below

4. “The Awakening” by Kate Chopin

“Bayou Folk” by Kate Chopin

“At Fault” by Kate Chopin

Women’s search for selfhood, self-discovery, and identity

5. American author Kate Chopin (1850–1904) wrote two novels and about a hundred short stories in the 1890s. Most of her fiction is set in Louisiana and most of her best-known work focuses on the lives of sensitive, intelligent women.

Her short stories were well received in her own time and were published by some of America's most prestigious magazines—Vogue, the Atlantic Monthly, Harper's Young People, Youth's Companion, and the Century. A few stories were syndicated by the American Press Association. Her stories appeared also in her two published collections, Bayou Folk (1894) and A Night in Acadie (1897), both of which received good reviews from critics across the country. About a third of her stories are children's stories—those published in or submitted to children's magazines or those similar in subject or theme to those that were. By the late 1890s Kate Chopin was well known among American readers of magazine fiction.

Her early novel At Fault (1890) had not been much noticed by the public, but The Awakening (1899) was widely condemned. Critics called it morbid, vulgar, and disagreeable. Willa Cather, who would become a well known twentieth-century American author, labeled it trite and sordid.

The Awakening cover as it looked in 1899.

Some modern scholars have written that the novel was banned at Chopin's hometown library in St. Louis, but this claim has not been able to be verified, although in 1902, the Evanston, Illinois, Public Library removed The Awakening from its open shelves. Chopin's third collection of stories, to have been called A Vocation and a Voice, was for unknown reasons cancelled by the publisher and did not appear as a separate volume until 1991.

Chopin's novels were mostly forgotten after her death in 1904, but in the 1920s her short stories began to appear in anthologies, and slowly people again came to read her. In the 1930s a Chopin biography appeared which spoke well of her short fiction but dismissed The Awakening as unfortunate. However, by the 1950s scholars and others recognized that the novel is an insightful and moving work of fiction. Such readers set in motion a Kate Chopin revival, one of the more remarkable literary revivals in the United States.

The Awakening is a short novel by Kate Chopin, first published in 1899. It is widely considered to be a proto-feminist precursor to American modernism. Her stories of fiercely independent women, culminating in her masterpiece The Awakening (1899), challenged contemporary mores as much by their sensuousness as their politics, and today seem decades ahead of their time. Now, The Library of America collects all of Chopin's novels and stories as never before in one authoritative volume.

The explosive novel At Fault (1890) centers on a love triangle between a strong-willed young widow, a stiff St. Louis businessman, and the man's alcoholic wife.

Many of the twenty-three stories included in Bayou Folk (1894) are set in the Cane River country of Louisiana where Chopin herself lived for several years. In these stories her characters challenge the limits of their socioeconomic station and rebel against the social mores of their times. While this collection earned Chopin praise, her acclaim diminished within her lifetime as she more frequently turned to subject matter that critics considered scandalous.

Associated Word List –

Women, strength, individuality, sea, journal, diary, thoughts, men, suicide, break, nontraditional, youth, rebellion, intelligent, sensitive, identity, self-discovery, nonconformity, life, sexuality, sensuality, revolt, feminine, motherhood, selfhood, fault, awakening, dark, modern, modernity, romantic, realistic, stormy, feminist, historical, French, influence, eyes, open, closed, misty, upper-class, formality, music, study, books, education, lace, frills, covered-up, suppressed, depressed, freedom, birds, sky

Strength - moral power, firmness, or courage

Individuality - the particular character, or aggregate of qualities, that distinguishes one person or thing from others; sole and personal nature

Awakening - a recognition, realization, or coming into awareness of something; a renewal of interest; a revival

Feminist - the doctrine advocating social, political, and all other rights of women equal to those of men; feminine character

Freedom - the power to determine action without restraint

Rebellion - resistance to or defiance of any authority, control, or tradition

open - having no means of closing or barring

Tone – These books have a serious tone that mirrors Chopin’s real life and speaks to the changing status of women. The individuality of women is still shunned in the upper-class in this time period. The books are all about the strength and suppression of women.

more organic

more complex

nontraditional

modern

handmade

To Suggest –

-the time period
-feminist tones
-the feeling of discovery
-modernity
-upper-class society

-changing status of women

-scandals

-freedom of the individual

Quotes -

'You are burnt beyond recognition,' he added, looking at his wife as one looks at a valuable piece of personal property which has suffered some damage.

"The voice of the sea is seductive; never ceasing, whispering, clearing, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander for a spell in the abysses of solitude; to lose itself in mazes of inward contemplation. The voice of the sea speaks to the soul. The touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body in its soft, close embrace."

"That she was seeing with different eyes and making the acquaintance of new conditions in herself that colored and changed her environment, she did not yet suspect."

"She looked into the distance, and the old terror flamed up for an instant, then sank again."

A person can't have everything in this world; and it was a little unreasonable of her to expect it.

It was still quite light out of doors, but inside with the curtains drawn and the smouldering fire sending out a dim, uncertain glow, the room was full of deep shadows.

The bird that would soar above the plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings.

When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease- of joy that kills.

“There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully.”

“She said it over and over under the breath: ‘free, free, free!”

“There would be no one to live for in those coming years. She would live for herself.”

Book Covers

Here are some book covers that I've always loved. I wanted to do a couple Chuck Palahniuk books, but they are already too good :(