BLUUPRINT

*GIF I made for Colour and Information Design

However, I believe I’ve learnt new ways on how to present my information that I didn’t know of before.  That’s what I really love about Design, nothing is seen as black & white.  Instead, there’s always a constant of presenting an idea.  This assignment has also given me the opportunity to brush on my photoshop knowledge and also learnt a few neat tricks as well.  

*Also, computer was struggling to run at the end with the amount of images and layers I had.  Note for next time to make separate Photoshop files so that it’s not all on the same document.  

I’ve taken inspiration from 80s Magazine RollingStone.  I love the use of large images to fill up the page.  It’s as if though the image is enough to tell the full story without the need of a lot of text.  I also like the use of large bold text, which gives a heavier and darker style than the regular type.  Using bold font gives emphasis to make certain words and phrases stand out from the rest.  I hope to replicate this aesthetic throught the contents of my zine.  

This week I came across an episode from Netflic series ‘Abstract: The Art of Design” - Starring Paula Scher on this particular episode.  It delved into her design world, from where she started and where she is today.  Her ability to understand her surroundings to find the right Typography amazes me.  There’s so much planning that goes into her work, and in general all design.  The process may be slow, but It’s the trial and error that makes sure that nothing goes wrong when released to the public - as seen with the election voting system failing because of bad design.  Paula is always creating and is “driven by the hope that [she hasn’t] made [her] best work yet” and that is something I want to live by moving forward.

Overall, I’m qute happy with the format of the front cover.  I believe it replicates the 80s era with large bold text and vibrant colours.  

https://cv.vic.gov.au/stories/creative-life/keith-haring-mural-collingwood/ 

This week I made great progress with my Interview questions to ask Keith Haring.  I researched many articles about his art career.  A man so young was capable of starting an art movement.  Haring explained that he had always loved art ever since he was young with his father playing a big influential figure as he too was an artist.  Haring took his art more seriously in his late teens, wanting to take it to the next level.  Haring observed his surroundings and being in NYC, known for being flooded in billboard advertisements, he noticed that in the underground subways there were blank empty billboards and there he realised that would be his canvas.  He would use chalk to quickly draw his sketches, in the act he would catch the attention of the public and gain a new audience every time he painted there.  That is how his career started off.

This week I began my research for “Ask Me Anything” project.  We are required to ‘interview’ a historical figure in the design field or a particular art movement.  I started off my brainstorm by listing 5 potential design figures.  I went with artists that gave me inspiration, such artists include, Banksy & Shepard Fairey known for their stencil graffiti art, Van Gogh for his expressive paintings, Keith Haring for his doodle style art, or just the Pop Art Movement as a whole.  I did some brief research on the inspirations I’ve chosen and discussed with my peers and teacher.  In the end I decided to interview Keith Haring and his body of work.  

In this pandemic time, we still need to all take part in social distancing.  This fight isn’t over and with the whole world being affected it would be selfish if there are those that flaunt the system and end up affecting us all.  My stencil piece ‘No Hug’s’ emphasises the need to social distance.  Take care of yourself and the whole world.  

Overall, I was quite pleased with the final outcome.  It was pretty much spot on to my initial sketch.  The letter shadows were bold and could be read clearly.  However, one problem that bugged me and my peers was that the aesthetic seemed a bit eerie… to fix that I decided to place vibrant coloured filters to give a more positive vibe to the overall piece.    

This was our first week of transitioning to online studies.  Very interesting to say the least, but it’s something we have to work through together to ensure we can come back to Uni and work as a team again.   This week’s lecture we continued learning about the history of typefaces in different cultures.  For example:  Italy with their hand gestures, Ancient Egyptians and their own engrained typeface on walls, and Japan with their fluid brush stroke letters.   It’s truly beautiful to see how the world communicates so differently with their own unique typefaces and how it’s evolved over generations, but what remains is the original concepts. 

After that time-consuming process was over, I could finally start the fun part of actually making my scene for my question.  Using my garage as my set I began tying my objects with rope to be hung from the ceiling.  My first try of hanging the objects from the ceiling didn’t work out so well with using duct tape to attach to the ceiling it wouldn’t stick because the rain on the roof.  I had to improvise and used long rods of wood to slide in-between the ceilings wooden support beams and there I was able to tie the rope around the rods of wood.  Positioning the objects took quite a bit of time.  I spent around 5 hrs in total playing around with the depth the objects needed to be at in order for the question to be uniform.