Library Inspiration

After today's lecture on Form Follows Function, I had a seminar that covered using the library. I was given the task of finding an inspiring quote from a book that I could then share and analyse. Using the Huddersfield Library 'summon' website, I managed to find a book called 'The laws of Simplicity' by John Maeda. I engaged with this book because I thought it really connected with the Form follows Function theme I learnt about today. 

The quote I found was as follows:

“Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious and adding the meaningful.” 

I believe the quote above is inspiring to me, as well as interesting. The Bauhaus lecture was interesting to me because I love the new, contemporary designs that take away unnecessary decoration, helping to portray the function of the design, rather than the form being the most important. The quote I found, really relates to the Form follows Function because modernistic designs are simple, but meaningful. 

I will make sure this quote is remembered throughout my design work, it will be useful to portray in a lot of creations. 

Workshop: Species of Space

Today's workshop followed on from the seminar on mapping and perspectives, I had yesterday. I worked individually through the morning, creating mini sketchbooks, each containing four aerial views of the same image (a memory; for example a holiday, trip, family).  The views progressively zoomed out, relating to the video shown in yesterday's seminar. It was a challenging activity judging the distance between you and the object you were drawing, but looking at objects differently from different view points will really help towards my assessed concertina. I can create thumbnails from sections of objects/views whether it be zoomed into the texture, or zoomed out for a larger scaled image. 

After my mini sketches were completed, I worked with a group of other students, using our ideas together to create one large map of one another's memories. The long piece of paper shown below includes key places from the individuals in my group, however we did not use an aerial view for each drawing. I created the New York skyline, also drawing a yellow taxi that drives forward onto the next destination, Paris. As you can see, the large swirl that covered the entire length of our sketches, is part of a rollercoaster. The rollercoaster idea originally came from my mini sketchbook, representing my day trip to Alton Towers. 

The end result shows a mini fictional world containing sections of everyones memories. This piece of work is exactly what I need to produce for when I start my assessed sketchbook. Different areas, with links between every sketch. 

Location Drawing: Huddersfield Town Centre

My second Process and Production session was an exiting adventure taking place throughout Huddersfield town centre. As groups we captured various iconic buildings/pieces of architecture that we then sketched on large drawing boards. My group was assigned to the old Huddersfield Market, a very old building, using clashing colours around the architecture. 

Looking into different parts of the area was important, we achieved this by splitting into smaller groups and taking different samples from the market that we could then piece together to become one large overall collage. I drew the outside of the market, while other students focused on the inside, covering everything from fruit and veg, to pillars that held the building together. I thought this task was a really good way of sharing how I and other students examine and observe the same attraction but approach there sketches differently, from different perspectives. 

Once our sketches were finished or nearly on there way, we as a whole group stuck them up in the studio. The drawings ranged from, pencil sketches, to dark fine liner outlines, and a few colour pieces. I think the work looked fantastic all put together, it mapped out Huddersfield's finest buildings/expanse and everyone put in the effort that is clearly shown in the picture I personally took. We had critical discussions as well as complimentary praise, leading us towards better results in the future, for example our sketch books to be assessed. 

Academic Writing Skills

Thursday morning Beth Caldwell came to talk to my group about how to write an assignment, to help me with my Theory as Practice module. I found it extremely helpful as I wrote down all the notes I needed, to make sure my future assignments have everything in that needs to be in, or structured the right way. My essay brief will be handed out next week so I feel I am ready and know exactly what they are after when it comes to writing my assignment.

Seminar: Species of Space

Today’s Lecture with Rob focused on the development of maps. We looked into how several artists represented places differently, and had their own take on an area. Maps have been designed in a range of ways, from full illustrations in a panoramic view, to symbols and lines that have become more of a modern day use. There were maps such as road sign maps, trees (plotted on a map, suggesting where streets are), seasonal specific maps where language replaces the icon (looking at the colours of leaves for example), light maps, sound walk; which maps the invisible, also a timeline which looks like sound waves. 

Before aerial views were available, maps were designed as a landscape, some in immense detail such as the piece below. Designed by Jan Visscher, this panorama of London consists of everyday life, boats, birds, trees. It also includes a banner at the top to show the audience where the map has been captured. To me, this does not display the body that I would look for on a map, however we as a group carried on looking into maps that became more recent.

http://www.thelondonmagazine.org/article/to-be-a-pilgrim-2/

The simplicity of maps did increase with time, using lines, symbols and colours to help guide the audience correctly and easily, such as the London map of today. Maps can also just include key information, such as the route someone is travelling, or landmarks with historical interests. We were shown a map created by Laura Klein which she had made with text/written language. Lines of paper became the paths. The visual language associated with street maps, however, was still maintained. This style is known as the ‘cut off’ method.

‘The Power of Ten’ was a video we were shown in the seminar, focusing on an object that had a starting point of viewing a 10cm box. This gradually became larger as the viewing range added a 0 onto the size of the viewing box, for example, 10cm, 1m, 10m, 100m. This was really effective I thought, because it was showing different perspectives and something quite large to use, was only really tiny once we zoomed out millions of metres away. This video was useful because I now see that different formats allow people to explore an area or object differently. This technique can be used in my assessed sketchbook for the module, A sense of place.

Guest Lecture: Brass

http://www.brassagency.com

On Wednesday 5th October, I had a guest lecturer from Brass, a company that works with advertising agencies, and creates business - transforming campaigns and content. Andrew, our guest lecturer is from Leeds and specialises in the digital side of the company; he is one of three creative directors.

The digital side of Brass includes creating websites, apps, games, campaigns and installations. They have created a game for the well-known puppets, Hacker and Dodge, along side working with companies such as Ribena, Haribo, Lilets and L'Oreal. 

Andrew spoke in detail about Brass working closely with Ribena. They were asked to focus on the target audience being over 18's, which involved opening a cafe that included drawing, eating and drinking for adults only. They needed a range of equipment, from props, a cafe, cake/ribena to a film crew. Also needing an illustrator, photographer, website, recruitment and most importantly, a 'wow' moment. There overall result was shown in three videos throughout the lecture and the whole experience looked communicative and enjoyable. 

The last words of advice Andrew gave to the design in the room, were to work hard, speak up, work with people and have fun. Thinking outside the box is extremely important, and ideas will grow as you work with different people.

Convergence

Today, we had a lecture on convergence and a guest lecturer, former student Jonathan Lindley, came in to speak to us. To converge is the translation of information; from information being communicated, to it being understood by the consumer. An idea that converges due to of a complex mix of circumstances is a catalytic culture. A catalyst is a substance that increases the rate of a chemical reaction, or in our case a person or thing that precipitates an event. As a Graphic Designer I now understand that I need to recognise and identify my own style of visual communication, helping me to produce high standard pieces of work.

Paul Rand is an artist that uses visual metaphors to communicate a message through an illusional device. He uses pictures to represent words and the true meaning, in the lecture we were given a piece of his work to look into. Image found at (http://qz.com/461040/how-to-design-an-enduring-logo-lessons-from-ibm-and-paul-rand/) (Shown above)

On the left, is a quick piece of work my group put together in the afternoon seminar following on from the Convergence lecture. We looked at The Medium is the Message, written by Marshall Macluhan (theory behind the piece, shows the medium which content is carried, and how it plays a vital role in the way it is perceived). We were to produce our own version of the Medium is the Message. The pieces of newspaper were given out to create an object or a phrase that related to a word we found interesting in the articles. The phrase my group put together read ‘We need jobs, now they chop and make power & profits’ relating to the government. The second phrase read ‘guilty politics have caused misery and betrayal.’ The words are very strong and send out a powerful message towards what we as a group believed in.