OUGD401 - History of Type Lecture notes

A History of Type 


Elements of well working typography: 

Paralinguistics 
Para-linguistics are the nonverbal aspects of communications in different languages, such as body language and wordless expression. Examples are smiling,gestures or body movements, laughing, and more specifically, English-language examples include "um," "erm", "aha," and "mm-hmm."

Kinesics - creates impact
inesics is the interpretation of body language such as facial expressions and gestures — or, more formally, non-verbal behavior related to movement, either of any part of the body or the body as a whole.

meta communication can change communication 
These indicate how the verbal communication should be understood and interpreted.

Eric Gill- the creator of Gill Sans.

The 6 families of typography: 

• humanist
• slab serif
• sans serif
• old style
• traditional
• modern

'The late age of print'

'...If a new technology extends one or more of our senses outside us into the social world, then new ratios among all of our senses will occur in that particular culture. It is comparable to what happens when a new note is added to a melody. And when the sense ratios alter in any culture then what had appeared lucid before may suddenly become opaque, and what had been vague or opaque will become translucent' - Marshall McLuhan, The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man.

Built in around 113AD, Trajans column clearly exhibits modern lettering.

In around 1450, the Gutenberg press made print readily  available to a wide audience, powering the renaissance era of type and communication. 
Gutenberg's gothic script from 1450 was inspired by medieval handwriting.

Nicholas Jenson in 1475 realised the more elegant humanist typefaces.

Geofroy Tory believed that letterforms should reflect the ideal human form.

'old style' fonts are those that reflect the fonts gone before them but are more refined and less calligraphic. (palentino, garamond, perpetual, goudy old style)

'Romain du roi' is a roman font. Literally meaning 'roman for the king' it was commissioned by king louis XIV for the imprimerie royale in 1693.

William Caslon and John Baskerville, creators of the typefaces Caslon and Baskerville, were contributors to the transitional age of type.

The modern age of type began in 1794 with Firmin Didot's typeface 'Didot' and 'Bodoni' (Vogue). It was around the time of the French revolution. 

The slab serif/ Egyptian style of type originates from the 1800s/Victorian era. It was created for billboards to stand out to passing crowds.
(the typeface 'fat face' has elements from Bodoni but is still an egyptian font)

In 1932 Stanley Morison oversaw the refinement of a roman typeface to the well known typeface we know today: Times New Roman. It was commissioned by the Times newspaper after it was publicly criticised by Morison for having inadequate type in it's print.

In 1921, Oswald Bruce Cooper created the typeface: Cooper Black.

The postmodern era of type was shaped by artists such as David Carson and Rudy Vanderlans by ignoring the rules of type that had gone before.

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'The Crystal Goblet' by Beatrice Warde

" You have two goblets before you. One is of solid gold, wrought in the most exquisite patterns. The other is of crystal-clear glass, thin as a bubble, and as transparent. Pour and drink; and according to your choice of goblet, I shall know whether or not you are a connoisseur of wine. For if you have no feelings about wine one way or the other, you will want the sensation of drinking the stuff out of a vessel that may have cost thousands of pounds; but if you are a member of that vanishing tribe, the amateurs of fine vintages, you will choose the crystal, because everything about it is calculated to reveal rather than hide the beautiful thing which it was meant to contain.

Bear with me in this long-winded and fragrant metaphor; for you will find that almost all the virtues of the perfect wine-glass have a parallel in typography. There is the long, thin stem that obviates fingerprints on the bowl. Why? Because no cloud must come between your eyes and the fiery heart of the liquid. Are not the margins on book pages similarly meant to obviate the necessity of fingering the type-page? Again: the glass is colourless or at the most only faintly tinged in the bowl, because the connoisseur judges wine partly by its colour and is impatient of anything that alters it. There are a thousand mannerisms in typography that are as impudent and arbitrary as putting port in tumblers of red or green glass! "

OUGD401 - Graffiti and Street art lecture

Graffiti and Street art lecture

The very roots of wall/ street art could be argued to be cave paintings. 
The caves at Lascaux, France. The paintings were executed using the local resources of animal bones and natural pigments from sources such as fruit etc.

And so, the word graffiti comes from the Italian word,'Graffiato', meaning, 'to scratch'.

But the earliest signs of graffiti as we know it today would be those in Pompeii, which date back to 75AD and show caricatures of famous politicians at the time, with a witty remark from the artist.

This then develops over the years into examples such as 'Kilroy' or 'Chad' as he was known in the USA. The image of the little man with his nose poking over a wall, accompanied with the phrase 'wot no...?' as in, 'what, no sugar?' etc. relating to the rationing of food and supplies that both countries were experiencing at the time.

In Paris in May 1968, the largest general strike ever occurred and as a result, graffiti started to also appear, as a tool to voice the opinions of the people. The image of 'we are the power' shows a crowd who's bodies are fused together to resemble 1 unified being with the same opinion.

Urban graffiti started to develop with examples of street artists such as Chris Osborne AKA 'Sweet Toof'.

But graffiti exactly as we know it today (excusing Banksy) is heavily visually influenced by New York City in the 1970's:

• introduction of spray can graffiti 
• evolves alongside hip hop culture
• makes language of the streets/ slang visible to all parts of the city via subway trains
• announcing a prescence of those from the ghetto 'we will not be ignored'

Two cultures alongside each other in NYC in the seventies:

• Graffiti/ Hip hop culture : heavily politically inspired.
• Disco culture : superficial, live while you're young lifestyle.

Jon Naar, a photographer during this time often showed his dissatisfaction with the clashes in wealth segregation in the city in his book 'Becoming a Graffiti photographer'.

Jean-Michel Basquiat was an American artist. He began as an obscure graffiti artist in New York City in the late 1970s and evolved into an acclaimed Neo-expressionist and Primitivist painter by the 1980s.
He invented a comical character that featured in most of his graffiti artwork: Samo. (same-oh = Same-old). New York City almost followed Samo's life until his 'death' in 1979, Basquiat trying to symbolise what he considered to be a decline in Graffiti art.
Basquiat also collaborated with Andy Warhol in their piece, 'General Electric with waiter', 1984. General Electric are a massive corporation, and through this piece, Warhol and Basquiat are trying to get their opinion across (kind of the ethics of graffiti art)

Keith Haring a social activists', 'Radiant Baby', 1990.

Graffiti becoming an almost elitist culture, with graffiti art being commissioned on subway adverts and the opening of the Popshop. (closed 2005). Popshop was a celebrity hangout, and sold t shirts, posters, toys etc bearing signature images. This caused a focus for dissatisfaction as the founders of graffiti felt that graffiti should be free, for the people!

John Feckner, 'Broken Promises', 1980 - refers to political misuse of free space in the city.

Graffiti was never a male-dominated art form. Jenny Holzers 'Time Square Show', 1980, mocks the adverts in NYC's time square showing the 'truisms' of advertising. 

Video game culture and other contemporary cultures of the time filter through into this relatively recent art form. Such as those on the Berlin Wall in 1961.
'Felis' , 1984, expresses the anger for the lack of goods in the 'eastern block'. 

Advertising and popular art forms started to take up the graffiti style in an effort to appeal to younger audiences such as Tats Cru for Coca Cola in 1997. This caused a distortion of the original unspoken manifesto of graffiti. It is fuelled by political arguments and opinions. It has to mean something!
Graffitiing was featured in video games such as 'Bomb the world' (2004), Jet Set Radio (2000-2003) and as something you could do on the Grand Theft Auto game.

'Invader' a french graffiti artist, born in 1969 executed his works with a slightly different approach. His first mosaic in mid 1990s Paris. Because his art was made out of tiles it meant that they are a lot harder to remove. The video game culture was filtered through again in this style as the tiles were treated like pixels.
The 'Invasion' of space invaders characters slowly started to spread across cities in France then across 22 different countries. There is also a conceptual element to these pieces, as you can pick up a free map and see all of these art pieces in Paris. The points on the map form a space invader character itself.

The re-emergence of street art began with the appearance of 'Banksy' (Kate Moss) and Shepard Fairey (Obama, 2008). Another example would be the Parisian photographer JR (Favella Morro Da Provienda). He paints across multiple buildings and photographs at the perfect angle to create one huge piece.

Artist, 'Blu' started to appear in Italy and another, Os Gemeos in Brazil. (Lisbon 2010) makes some sort of social comment but they did receive a form of permission to paint on people's houses, which takes away from the outspoken rebelliousness of Graffiti.
Blu became an animator based on his graffiti works in around 2008. Something similar appeared in the Vauxhall Corsa advert in 2011. 
The 123 Klan from France maintained the graffiti style but in a more controlled way by decorating expensive cars. (Lamborghini in particular)

Paul Curtis AKA 'Moose' introduced an almost reverse of graffiti by jetwashing a dirty wall to reveal his patterns.

'Bomb it' - a useful documentary on Graffiti.

Free art friday - artists place free art out in public for people to enjoy and take home. Sometimes games are made out of it, and clues as to the secret hiding places are revealed on twitter.

Sam 3 from Spain, responds to an exsisting environment using only black paint (Murcia 2010)
VHILS aka Alexandre Farto from Portugal, his piece in London 2008 works on the idea of plaster removal.

Faith 71 in Amsterdam celebrates Hyperrealist and hyperabstract art.

More examples of graffiti:

• Diva (Brooklyn)
• Fafi ( France)
• Miss Van
• Herakut
• Swoon

OUGD401 - Cop1 - Harvard Referencing Task

Harvard Referencing task

Essay Question I have chosen:

Choosing a particular period from 1800 to present day, in what ways has art/design responded to the changing social and cultural forces of that period? ( at least 2 examples to support this )

In response to this, I have decided to write about 1960s-70s Psychedelic Art/ War art and how the peace movement was affected by events such as the Vietnam War, because I feel I know a lot about this subject.

Books that may assist with my essay writing:

• Grunenberg, C. (2006) 2nd Ed, 'Summer of Love : Psychedelic Art, Social Crisis and Counterculture', Frankfurt, Schirn Kunstalle.

Library number: 709.065

Why this may assist me: This book talks about the connection between the culture and the art of this period in time.

• Aulich, J. (2011) 2nd Ed, 'War posters: weapons of mass communication', London, Thames & Hudson.

Library number: 741.67

Why this may assist me:  This book documents the alternative art going on at this time, as opposed to psychedelic. This could be my second example of art used in this essay.

• Crow, T. (1996), 'The rise of the 60's', London, Orion Publishing.

Library number: 709.065

Why this may assist me: This book documents the events in my chosen time period. 

• Dickenson, D & Owen, T. (1999), 'High Art: A History of the Psychedelic Poster', London, Sanctuary.

Library number: 746.67 Vernon St. Campus

Why this may assist me: This book documents a visual history of the time period, with descriptions of artists and their practices.  

• Harrison-Ball. J. (2002) 'Vietnam behind the lines: Images from the war 1965-1975', London, Bristish Museum Press.

Library number: 756 Vernon St. Campus

Why this may assist me: This book visually documents the brutal war which affected the art and culture movements of that time period.

OUGD401 - Modernism & Modernity Lecture notes

Modernism & Modernity

Modernism comes from modernity. Modernity being the industrialisation and urbanisation of city life. Modernism is very much artists documentation and response to rapidly changing city and consequently lifestyle. It is the psychologic and subjective experience of the new modern world.

Modernism : 1750- Mid 20th Century (arguably)

John Ruskin (1819-1900) first coined the term in his book title 'modern painters' modern in this context meaning contemporary.
Artist William Holman-Hunt's the Highling Shepard. Classed as modern at the time because the term meant 'of the moment'.

What modernism means now: not just latest but best. consumer culture depends on that notion. Modernism nowadays means cutting edge, progressive, to improve the old.

According to Charles Jencks, the demolition of the Priutt building in St Louis on 15th July 1972 at 3:32pm signified the death of Modernism culture. As this 'timeless' building that was supposed to unite people was taken down less than 20 years after being built.

Paris 1900 considered to be most 'modern' city at the time. Peoples lives are dominated by industry/ production. New inventions and a rapid advances in technology, innovation in transport, electricity, telephones, railways, world time being standardized. 'Shrinking the world', uniting it and making it a more manageable place.

A dense, unified society. A fast, new, industrial lifestyle. Arguably unusual/scary so new and so different. "Trattoir Roullant" - electric moving walkway in Paris travelling at 7km was innovative and frightening. Reports of injuries!

The enlightenment project:
Late 18th century when scientific/ philosophical thinking made leaps & bounds;

• secularisation
• the world fair united and showcased the nations 

The building of the Eiffel Tower is a monumental example of fundamental modern design. It signified a domination of the modern in the city of Paris.

The impressionists: the painters and documenters of modern life. The first experiences of what we would consider a contemporary city.

Hausmannisation- The city of Paris from the 1850's onwards quickly transformed from the narrow, twisty, derelict streets overrun with crime and disease into an organised, 'modern' city. Hausmann was employed by Napolean to rebuild his city. Grande boulevards were favoured over the narrow streets - which were in reality, easier to patrol for the police. Although crime rate dropped, the city became and unsure and distant place, alienated from their home they knew before. Even though they were cramped in neat rows of terraces, the city seemed to get bigger. They never became familiar with their neighbours, and saying hi to passers by in the street became a thing of the past.

The psychology born from the idea of modernity was that: " modern life will send people crazy" - how does life effect us?

Hausmannisation saw an emergence in fashion and trends as people started to communicate their wealth and style to each other without words. Making statements in the street to strangers.

A new scientific investigation began into optics.

The Kaiserpanorama, 1883, was a slide-show booth in which around 10-15 people could be seated around. The kind of images shown in the booth were of scenery such as trees and landscapes. Because of the lack of the real trees and open fields in their lives, devices such as these were all the more fascinating. There was an emergence in the fetishisation of technology, or nature through technology - the image of the tree in the little magic box was more interesting than the real tree itself.

Max Nordau, 'Degeneration' 1892 (an anti modernist) wrote about his worries on the modern world. he predicted that,

“the end of the 20thC. . . will probably see a generation to whom it will not be injurious to read a dozen square yards of newspapers daily,
to be constantly called to the telephone, to be thinking simultaneously of the five continents of the world, to live half their time in a railway carriage or in a flying machine and . . . know how to find [their] ease in the midst of a city inhabited by millions’

Modernism (thoughts about modernity) emerges out of the subjective responses of artists/ designers to modernity (modern life).

The threat of photography to painting grew, as paintings were originally for documentation, but photography was much more accurate in capturing the moments.

So, the painting reinvents itself, it becomes more psychological than accurate. We see an emergence in new angles, for example from up above, from modern skyscrapers.

Modernism in design:

• Anti-historicism
• new processes
• truth to materials - appreciating them more
• form follows function
• new technology
• minimalism
• internationalisation through design
• anti decoration
• functionality first

'Ornament is crime' - Adolf Loos (1903)

The idea that trends are bad because they age quickly was adopted by many designers and artists. If you strip a design of it's decor, it becomes timeless.

The Bauhaus building

Features

• big windows for lots of natural light
• easy, functional boxy shape
• shows off raw concrete- relatively new invention
• new typeface - futura (SANS SERIF!!)
• Simplicity

Internationalism

• a language of design that's understood & recognised by all.
• An equal world where technology unites it.

Heber Bayer's typeface doesn't include capitals because he didn't think you needed them.

The Nazi's shut down the Bauhaus because they were anti modernist and believed in nationalism.

Conclusion

• 'Modernity' - (1750-1960) was/ is a social/ cultural experience.
• 'Modernism' - range of ideas and styles that sprang from modernity.
• Vocabulary of styles
• art and design becomes an education
• the idea of form follows function

OUGD401 - Context of Practice - Task 2 - Beauty, Style & Taste

My 3 rules of aesthetics:

1. Must be high quality (pixelation / execution)
2. Type must be clear and legible/ readable but not necessarily clean.
3. A composition must be recognised IE a border/ layout.

High Quality Aesthetics:

With a high-definition photo in the background and a complimentary colour scheme, I would agree that this editorial cover is aesthetically pleasing. The highlight of one word from the greyscale background stands out vividly but not outrageously and still in-keeps with the minimal, contemporary theme. The type and layout does not interfere with the image and compliments the whole piece.

Although the compositions are somewhat crowded, the high quality execution of these illustrations compensate and balance it out. the soft gradients and crisp lines help to modernity and quality in this piece.

This high quality photo with the blank background and crisp edge around the subject is mirrored in the crisp outline of the logo. 

Legible Type:

Even though this choice of type is hand written in style and a little messy, this composition proves that not just sans-serif modern fonts are legible. Pushing the boundaries of type as image rather than just a caption for the image is apparent here.

Again, the idea of type as image is apparent in this cover and serves further interest in the design other than just the photo of the bowl of food. 

Although the title is almost invisible, to me, it is still very clear and readable, and especially on the magazine-sized scale it was intended. And the title 'Northern exposure' also challenges type as image, while still being readable and not interfering with the image itself.

A recognised border/ layout:

This may appear in contradiction with my point itself, but there is still a somewhat recognisable border that this design has both established through the title and other text and broken through image which I think is both interesting and clever.

The busy main subject is cooled with the plainly coloured border.

Again, the main body of busy text is main processable through the use of a recognised composition which is even on both sides.

Examples of non-graphic design that fulfill these same rules:

High Quality Aesthetics:

The smooth curves of the interior of the Guggenheim museum in New York are well thought out and have good focal points throughout. This high quality type of design reflects in this.

This unusual design works so well because of it's high quality execution and materials.

This design would look out-of-place and odd if it wasn't of such high quality. Instead, it is a spectacle.

In it's time, this was incredibly outlandish because of it's sharp shape. 

Legible type:

Using the numbers of a calculator can spell out readable words when turned upside down.

Topiary is a creative way of displaying type in an outdoor environment.

Although highly calligraphic, this tattoo is still clearly readable.

A popular and creative way of displaying type is through floral arrangements.

Although unreadable to me, the Rosetta stone has preserved the earliest forms of writing.

A recognised border/ layout:

The busy and precision layout of the Queen's table is perfectly centred and perfectly symmetrical.

The artwork in this gallery is given space, or a 'border' to view the artwork appropriately.

The path around the edge of this not only give access for maintenance but creates a perfect border to a beautiful layout to this knot garden.

The border around this defines the perimeter walls and the even composition ensures maximum readability,

The colour of the border around this stationary helps it to stand out and compliments the logo and the simplicity of the design.

OUGD401 - Context of Practice - Aesthetics

Aesthetics

As a class, we put together a list of things that we thought determined good and bad aesthetics.

:) - What contributes to good aesthetics?

• simple
• minimal
• sophisticated
• textured
• colourful
• selective
• hand rendered (?)
• symmetrical
• crisp (?)
• clever (?)
• clean

:( - What contributes to bad aesthetics?

• dull
• cheesy 
• blurry
• random
• boring
• grainy
• confusing
• cheap
• inconsistent
• silly
• colourful
• cluttered
• illegible

The words with '(?)' are words that we re-considered. Sometimes they weren't necessarily a trait. We also saw that colourful appeared in both good and bad aesthetics, and that when used in different ways can be positive or negative.

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When dealing with aesthetics we immediately respond in a positive or negative way.

But, it's a philosophical debate rather than a factual debate. To a certain point, it's all down to taste.

But, understanding other peoples aesthetic responses is an essential skill of being a Graphic Designer.

When artwork is given an immediate response, it is important that it makes an engaging first impression.

Aesthetic judgment is unfortunately subjective.

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We created rules in pairs for what should be considered when designing to contribute to good aesthetics:

1. Immediate good response
2. Text is legible
3. Quality of image ( resolution and execution )
4. Limited colour scheme
5. Consistency of style
6. Contemporarily styled
7. Quality of message
8. Consideration of context
9. Consistency of composition
10. Clarity of message

In preparation for this session, we brought in our 6 examples of design we do and do not like. We laid these in the middle of the table, and, using the list we created and our own judgment, tried to determine what category (good/ bad aesthetics) the work fell under. We put what we thought was good at one end of the table and what we thought was bad at the other.

My good aesthetics purely image based example was put in the bad pile!

In our pairs again, we got an example of good and bad design of our own and analysed them using only singular words. But we did it by glancing at the image for firstly, 1 second, then 5 seconds, then 10 seconds and so on and flipped the image back over each time. Between each interval writing a different describing word. We then swapped and did the same with our parters chosen images. Here are my post-it notes:

We learnt how important it is to make a good first impression, as a lot of graphic design in life is only given 1-5 seconds judging time!

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We then created individually 3 rules of aesthetics and as a class put them together on the board as a 'rule wall':

 My 3 rules of aesthetics:

1. Must be high quality (pixelation / execution)
2. Type must be clear and legible/ readable but not necessarily clean.
3. A composition must be recognised IE a border/ layout.

TASK 2 - BEAUTY STYLE AND TASTE

OUGD401 - Context of Practice - 6 examples of design i do and do not like

Example of use of type and image which i like: 

And an example of type and image which i do not like:

An example of use of purely image which i like:

And an example of purely image based design which i do not like:

An example of typographic design which i like:

And an example which i do not like: