Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Final Question 4


The above image is an advertisement (or rather the cover of a magazine) which is used to undermine the credibility (and in this case, the masculinity) of Richard Nixon using visual associations. In this image, the implication is that because Nixon did not wear make up on camera during his campaign, and people did not respond well to that or his 5 o'clock shadow, he had one last chance to "get it right."

The image also undermines his masculinity, with the overall pink hue to the image, numerous cosmetic products, and multiple persons applying the makeup, as if he were a supermodel. This image also portrays the idea of the shallowness of the American people, because they will not accept him unless he does wear makeup and shaves before public appearances.


This cover of the New Yorker shows an image of Sarah Palin looking out from the window of her home at Russia off in the distance. This is making fun of a statement she made during the campaign, stating that she could see Russia from Alaska. The implied idea is that based off of that statement, she is lacking intelligence, and therefore, her credibility as a political figure is undermined.

Comparing this image to the image of Nixon above, one can say that the undermining of the credibility of the political figure applies in both situations. Both images use a high level of non-verbal communication, using implications based off of commonly known information.  The image of Nixon is bashing how he looks and how the American people view him because of it, but the image of Palin is bashing her intelligence. The second image also lacks multiple levels of meaning, whereas the first contains three.

Final Question 1


Herbert Bayer Great Ideas

Bayer's "Great Ideas" advertisement associates corruption, gambling, and excess, with women, implying a negative correlation between the two. Compared to advertisements now, there is certainly an association between women and corruption, but it has a more positive implication than Bayer's ad. In many of the ads I found online, there were many pictures of scantily clad women, and although in most cases the idea of excess was not portrayed, the idea of sexual corruption was very strong throughout. In the ad below, you can see how the idea that "sex sells" is strongly tied to a large portion of advertisements today.


 Many contemporary ads, portray this corruption in a positive way, unlike Bayer's ad. In terms of changing, the correlation of corruption and women is not really different, it's focus has just shifted. You can still find advertisements showing women associated with excess as well, such as the one below.


Excess is portrayed here in a positive light as well, and using women to emphasize corruption in a positive way is also present.

Generally, what I found was that compared to Bayer's ad, the actual content of contemporary ads has shifted in the direction of sex and corruption, and more importantly, the idea that corruption and excess are negative things has switched completely to the opposite end of the spectrum.

My Lester Beall Influenced Tornado Relief Poster


My design relates to Beall's Rural Electrification Administration work in several ways. I incorporated the red, white, and blue color scheme he used in order to evoke a strong sense of patriotism. I also used a strong graphic element on the top left region, using diagonal arrows not only to bring more attention to the can, but to encourage the idea of positivity and moving forward. I tried to make the type relatively close to what Beall used in most of his posters, and the placement of the text at the bottom is reminiscent of Beall's REA posters as well. I used an image of a woman preparing food for victims of the tornado to show that people are happily willing to contribute to aiding people in need, portraying a positive message about American identity. Lastly the text 'Donate Hope' adds to the positive identity of America, and brings another level of meaning to the poster.

Edit

Here are links to places I've posted it online:

http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=fe04rp&s=7
http://www.flickr.com/photos/49489368@N06/5707965733/in/photostream
http://s1138.photobucket.com/albums/n539/poraykoc/?action=view&current=beallposter.jpg

Monday, April 18, 2011

My Finished Poster

I based my poster off of the film What Dreams May Come, in which Robin Williams character loses both his children in a car accident, then his own life near the beginning of the film. He goes to heaven, and soon finds out that his wife committed suicide and went to hell, so he decides to get her back.

The 10 components from the Art Nouveau and Arts & Crafts Periods found in my poster are as follows:
1. I have a very bright color palette, at least on the top half, the bottom is supposed to represent hell, and so it looks dead and dark. The bright color palette is very common in Art Nouveau stylings.
2. Symbolism is a major part of my work, The tree is a representation of a tree that Robin Williams sees in the movie, when he first finds out he and his wife were soulmates, and that he has a chance to save her. The bright and dark on the top and bottom respectively represent heaven and hell. Symbolism was generally used in the Art Nouveau period.
3. I have floral emphasis in the border at the top and the bottom, and I suppose the tree can count as a floral object as well, something used often in the Arts and Crafts as well as the Art Nouveau period.
4. The Ando Hiroshige print is obviously a reference to the influence of Japanese art on people during the Art Nouveau period.
5. The woman is a Beardsley work, and shows the use of simplified shapes to indicate figures and clothing with minimal lines and flat shapes. This is becomes popularized during the Art Nouveau period as well.
6. The use of the female figure is another obvious throwback to Art Nouveau.
7. The use of medieval book styling and ornamentation of large capital letters by William Morris is from the Art Nouveau period.
8. The border around the top and bottom are pattern-like, although only the top border is technically a pattern, which was very popular during the Arts and Crafts period.
9. The use of typographic form is relatively self-explanatory. Exploration of type was very popular during the Arts and Crafts period.
10. Ornamentation was a major part of the Arts and Crafts period. There are many examples of ornamentation in the book on pg. 174+175, and my William Morris pages in the poster are no exception. There is major ornamentation around the borders of the pages, and there is ornamentation of the capital letter in the text.

Here are the images I used in the final poster:

Ex Libris Aubrey Beardsley

Jasmine Wallpaper William Morris

Kelmscott Chaucer Edward Burne

May Tree Frieze Walter Crane

Shiojiri Pass in Shinano Ando Hiroshige

What Dreams May Come Movie Poster

The Story of the Glittering Plain  William Morris

Friday, April 1, 2011

Chapter 9 Thoughts

One of the most interesting things I learned was that photography was not really its own medium initially. People basically used it to copy traditional portrait and classical painting styles, and although it was an interesting use of the camera and lighting, it was not used to its fullest potential. The extensive usage of lighting, cropping, burning and dodging, and the idea of capturing a specific feeling as well as a moment in time, did not come about until later on. I also thought it was interesting that Matthew Brady pioneered the idea of using photography as a reporting/documentary tool, and that this was the first step into photography as we know it today.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Pre & Post Printing Press

Illuminated manuscripts, or rather books, that came before the printing press were not only much more expensive, but were also very time consuming. The use of color, gold leafing, and intricate decoration on every page, meant that these manuscripts were not reproduced. They were put on vellum pages, and the work was done in scriptoriums, usually by monks, because the church funded and used the works. There was a supervisor, someone who decided the layout of the text and illustrations, and someone who did the illustrations and text (the illustrations and text were usually done by the same person, but occasionally the two jobs were divided amongst more than one person). After the printing press, the need for scriptoriums did not disappear, as people were still needed to create layouts for the text, and illustrators were needed to add illustrations after the book was printed (space was left for the illustrations). But going back to pre-printing manuscripts, it is important to note that in Celtic manuscripts, they began leaving a space after words to enable the reader to separate the words more quickly while reading. They also used insular script, or a half-uncial (Roman half-inch) script containing ascenders and descenders. As you can see in the Book of Durrow below, the use if insular text, highly decorated letters, and the use of spacing after the words are all major elements of Celtic manuscripts at the time.



The Book of Durrow Opening Page to the Gospel of Saint Mark, 680 A.D., anonymous, Ireland

Gothic illuminated manuscripts could be said to have taken a step backwards in terms of legibility in text. The use of dense black textura script (lettering style with a repetition of forms, picket fence-like), elimination of rounded script, and lack of spacing made the text hard to read. On the other hand, the marginalia is very fanciful, and serves the purpose of prompting the priest to tell relevant stories as he reads the text. There is also an integration of geometric abstract form, animal form, and human form that is not found in most Celtic manuscripts. The use of decorative capital letters is obvious and continues to be a major part of illuminated manuscripts, but the use of decorative lettering and illustration declines as the printing press begins to take hold. There is a standardization of printed work that is not seen before the printing press. This is good because it increases legibility of type, but is bad because it takes some of the individuality and expression out of later works. As you can see in this page from the Douce Apocalypse, all of the problems with the type can be seen, as well as the successful work in the margins.



Page from the Ormesby Psalter, c. early 1300s A.D., anonymous, England

Once the printing press came into existence in around 1450, text was still somewhat illegible initially because of the lack of spacing, but as type evolved, it became smaller, more uniform because it was no longer handwritten, not to mention the type was not unique to the handwriting of the person writing the text. The spacing issue was also fixed, and punctuation, capital, and lowercase letters were created over time. Books became less aesthetic objects and more so a commodity, because now it could be reproduced and easily spread throughout the world, but the time and detail spent on the books was lacking because it was a new technology, and that level of detail could not be transferred to printing at the time. Once the merchant class started funding artistic endeavors, art spread all over Europe, because it was no longer funded by an elite class of wealthy people, but it was spread to general population. There were also people who helped push art throughout Europe, including Pope Julius II, who had a love for the arts and commissioned several pieces around 1490's, as well as the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo. Lorenzo de Medici also played a major part in spreading art throughout Italy. He also helped make the Italian Renaissance boom along with the printing press. He funded peoples work, and told everyone he new to read the classic philosophers (thanks printing press). The combination of these things helped push people to think in a different way, or at least in a way that was more pro-human, not like in the medieval ages. Lucas Cranach the Elder also played an important role in adding to the work during the Renaissance and helped bridge the fine arts world and the graphic design world. It is also important to note that Martin Luther would never have been able to spread his 99 Theses and start the Protestant Reformation had he not lived in Germany and had there not been a printing press. People started making specific typefaces, and two men that were particularly influential in universalizing type were Arnold Pannartz and Conrad Sweynheym. A cardinal at Subiaco told them to revive a Latin-Roman writing style after having found a Carolingian medieval text which they thought was Roman. They created a new text style called Double Alphabet, in which they made upper and lower case versions of all of their letters, and by introducing this uniform type, they caused the general population to speak a more uniformly. Eventually, they moved to Rome and created a "more fully Roman alphabet that became the prototype for the Roman alphabets still in use today." During the Italian Renaissance (which took place around the same time period), type was relatively close to perfected, if not already, as well as the harmony between type and illustration on the page. As you can see in the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, an Italian example, the type is clean, well spaced, and punctuated with capital and lower case letters. It is obviously influenced by  Pannartz and Sweynheym's typefaces, but is a bit cleaner (in my opinion).


Conrad Sweynheym and Arnold Pannartz, Specimans of the First (top, 1465) and Second (bottom, 1467) typefaces in the evolution towards Roman-style typefaces, Italy.




Page from Hypernerotomachia Poliphili, Aldus Manutius, 1499 A.D., Italy.

The level of illustration in German printed books is not nearly as intricate as illuminated manuscripts before the advent of the printing press, but once Albrecht Durer came along, he raised the bar for the level of intricate detail used in an engraved illustration, as well as regular illustrations. Since he grew up in Nuremburg during the time the printing press was starting, he absorbed the culture from a very young age. He also went to Italy to learn the ideals of the Renaissance, and when he returned to Germany, he was under the impression that German art was inferior. In his later work, he "achieved mastery in the use of line as tone." The fact that he could not cross hatch for a print meant that he had to use all linear shading, and he was very good at doing so. He was able to use line to express movement or stability as well as you can see in his work, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.


De Ackerman aus Bohmen, c 1463, Albrecht Pfister, Germany.


The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, 1498, Albrecht Durer, Germany.

It is also important to note that national traditions and styles of books change after the advent of printing. There is a general loss of color and intricate detail overall, but each country has its own style. In Germany, they used illustrations that Durer thought were "inferior", and they used gothic style type. But more notably, in France, they tried to emulate the fancy marginalia from the pre-printing press era by cutting illustrations with modular blocks and pressing them onto the margins of the page. They experimented with making print more appealing to the eye. Unfortunately, their type was relatively close to the late medieval writing from old illuminated manuscripts, as you can see on this page of Sir Thomas More's Utopia.


Sir Thomas More's Utopia, 1518, Johann Froben and Hans Holbein, France.

Friday, February 4, 2011

Spanish Illuminations: They's got purdy colors!

These I didn't like as much as the Celtic illuminations. I did like the use of diagonal lines, concentric circles, and color bands. The random border action with the fancy designs seems to not fit the rest of the page, but other than that I think the writing of apocalyptic texts is kind of interesting. I had trouble finding modern art influenced by Spanish illuminations, but I did find a Picasso painting that contains some of the elements found in the Beatus Manuscripts we discussed in class, which I also have pictures of for comparison.

 It has diagonal lines, color blocks in the background, and a strange-looking 2D figure. The colors used, at least in the background, are similar to those used in the Beatus manuscripts.


Hey look, color bands and unusually anatomically incorrect persons!


And again.

Irish Illumination: Then and Now

I'm generally liking the Celtic art. I love the long, curving, organic shapes, the big line spacing between lines of text, the use of earthy tones, and the interesting division of space in various pictures. I don't know how I feel about the excessive use of pattern, but that is something that a lot of people at the time seemed to do.

 
The shape that this makes is awesome, but it is extremely patterned as well.
This is a cool design, has shading, pretty wavy lines, and texture on the wing. Plus the line draws your eye to the bellybutton. Perfect.

This is cool, because it combines the use of line and pattern, but keeps it from getting cluttered by adding some negative space instead of stuffing more pattern in between.

Hmmm...

Realized that last statement in my last post didn't make a whole bunch of sense. Meh.

Monday, January 31, 2011

Cave Paintings and Modern Graphic Design

Ancient cave paintings have inspired many things in Graphic Design, and I think this is because we are innately drawn to the contours, simplicity, and shading that you find in many of the cave paintings. I think it is interesting that any design that has ever been created now has already been done in the past, to some extent. It gives graphic designers the ability to not only build off of things in the past, but to bring something new and interesting into our designs in the future.

A cave painting of unknown origin. You can see the simplicity of of the design, the bare minimum of the contours still gives the impression of a horse.

Another cave painting, this one has more coloration and shading.

This is an image of a shawl made by Giorgio di Sant Angelo that works off of cave painting like simplicity and design. It has a native American feel to it as well, which shows that the design has become its own since the old cave paintings.

This logo was designed for a London based literary agency. You can see the use of contour and simple design, both reminiscent of cave paintings.