K A R I S M A

What I thought was going to be numerous long walks from Swanston St to RMIT Building 45, turned out to be a 30 second walk from my bed to the dining table. As a first-year student, I wasn’t expecting such a turn in events to online learning. Nonetheless, I still feel like we got to engage in group activities through breakout groups, as if we were splitting off into different tables in the classroom.

I have learnt so much about key design movements and historical events as well as modernism and how conceptual design is the start of helping humanity through Andy and Karen Ann’s lecture series. It is through these assignments over the semester that I have really seen growth in putting this knowledge to action and understanding the roles of different contexts, aesthetics and movements in communication design.

I believe that design fits in anywhere and everywhere. The typeface in my pocket and architexture tutorials really enabled me to see that. I’ve been thankful for the connections I’ve made along this journey in the course and the feedback and guidance I’ve gotten from my tutor Bailey. I hope to see you all at RMIT again someday :)

ASK ME ANYTHING REFLECTION & FINALE

I HAVE STRUGGLED....like really struggled with this task. Working with an aesthetic so unfamiliar to me was something that I didn’t really put into consideration when choosing the infamous Comic Sans as my subject for this assessment. I have no doubt that everyone has been in some sort of design rut trying to replicate their subject’s aesthetic in their zine, but if only I could call Vincent Connare and Comic Sans and ask what do I make my zine look like?

What I’ve learnt throughout this iteration process is that there really is no exact formula and impression. Like beauty, the aesthetic is in the eye in the beholder and this is the way I chose to interpret my subject.

Working right to the crunch time, a few days out from submission has enabled me to make critical design decisions and work to a strict timeline, instead of fiddling around and trying new things.

I wouldn’t look at my zine and say WOW that is really nice, but I think that’s the point. It’s not supposed to be pretty or elegant, but I hope you can see and appreciate the design thinking applied in my iterations.

I have explored with vibrant colours, allocating a certain hue to each of my five questions and paired these with collage knick knacks and scrapbook features to enhance my ugly-childish aesthetic.  

I also adopted a sarcastic and witty tone in my Comic Sans responses, in the hope of emphasising the subject as an actual person rather than just a typeface.

Despite the challenges I’ve faced with this assessment, I truly believe that I have grown as a designer and learnt to step out of my comfort zone. Not every client is going to want you to create something that matches your own style and aesthetic, so it’s important to adopt other styles in order to learn and be versatile in the industry!  

Boy did I ever see this day coming? Answer is no! This zine has constantly been in the back of my head calling for me to hurry up and finish it but we are finally here! 

I severely struggled to stay motivated with the iteration of the zine due the aesthetic that I was trying to produce as apart of Comic Sans’ style, completely different to my own. Nonetheless, I think it paid off. For a while I thought there was this certain impression that I had to give off and felt that I couldn’t deliver that, causing me to spiral and stop working altogether. Despite this, once I had gotten into the groove of things I was motivated to finish the remaining spreads and fine tune where needed. 

Above I’ve added some of my favourite spreads from the zine! (Full zine with Issuu link coming soon!) Surprisingly, I used all 16 pages that we were allowed to use. I never thought that I would need so much space but when it came to using collage elements, the composition looked a lot cleaner with negative space so I critically chose to use 2 pages per question (on average). 

Each page has its own monochromatic colour scheme, playing along with the childish use and impression of Comic Sans. Although it is quite overwhelming to look at, I felt that acquiring a rainbow of colours for each spread would have been even more overwhelming for the reader. This application of colour also allowed me to focus more of my layout more than anything else. 

I think my favourite part of this was consistently using the font Comic Sans and making it somewhat design-friendly! When I was writing my own responses to my questions, I also chose to write them in this font to see what the subject would look like when saying it - which I thought was kind of funny. 

This lecture was bitter-sweet to watch. Karen and Andy reviewed the lecture series in a quick 30 minute summary of some of the concepts and history of design they had covered.

One of my highlights was from the first tutorial, the typeface in my pocket task, providing the message that we already have everything we need to design and on a lighter note stated by Karen, we never really know what fellow designers are carrying with them on hand! I also really liked learning about ancient script writing and the tools that we use to communicate. No matter what medium and inscription we use, they both shape each other to create a purpose and message!

DECOLONISING DESIGN 

Karen touched on the the idea that we should open up our perspectives and cite the other half of designers. For a long time it’s been clear that like most industries, design is another that has been male dominated, however, we should not acknowledge just one side but see that all voices should be heard. This goes way beyond gender, citing designers of all races, cultures and creatives. Karen shared with us a few females in the industry, encouraging us to cite them and celebrate them!

Tolu Coker | Fashion designer

Tolu Coker is one of the female creatives on Karen’s list to check out and cite! I was so attracted to her fashion pieces in the lecture that I had to find out more about her and her work. Originally from Nigeria now London based, the young Fashion Designer, Textile Designer and Illustrator graduated from the Central Saint Martin's Design school in June 2017 with First Class Honours. 

She has taken off her fashion career quite quickly post graduating and already has a Spring/Summer collection out (2019)! It is known for her unisex fashion brand centred around inclusivity, diversity and social responsibility.

This collection features reworked and recycled fabrics, such as denims, leathers and plastic paired with striking and daring silhouettes to showcase a collection based on a documentary following the lives of 4 people in London and Paris. The collection was about their identities, their childhood, their vulnerable, untold stories and black heritage young people growing up in a Western world.

It is evident that her fashion designs are striking and unique but it’s also great to see how they have a special meaning beyond current fashion trends, she has a clear connection to her work.  

Tolu Coker, Spring/Summer 2019 Collection

OBJECTIVES OF THE COURSE

On a final note, Andy highlighted the three objectives apart of this Communication Design Studies course. What stuck with me the most (along with how much we had learnt in such a short period of time) was that we should always be creating a fourth objective... or even more than that!

I think my fourth objective for this course would be taking risks and learning to stick with one idea. In a feedback class that Andy popped in to, he stated that it’s always better to have finished the project then perfecting it and submitting something incomplete. I’ve learnt particularly with our last assessment, Ask Me Anything, that as much as zines can create such experimentation for the designer, in such a short amount of time alongside other workloads, it’s okay to scrap the other ideas and focus on one! Believe in that idea! 

I’ve also explored beyond my own style in this assignment which has been quite challenging, but has helped me to grow as a designer and broaden my aesthetics!

SOURCES

https://www.hungertv.com/editorial/emerging-british-nigerian-designer-tolu-coker-is-one-to-watch-this-season/

IMAGES

https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/what-does-it-mean-to-decolonize-design/

https://pmcwwd.files.wordpress.com/2019/01/tolu_coker_designer.jpg?w=640&h=415&crop=1

In our final formal class, we experimented with a Photoshop file that Bailey shared with us, allowing the class to get out of our comfort zone using different Adobe programs, consider our own layouts in our zine submissions and also focus on hierarchy. 

We were given three different briefs 

hierarchy being text

hierarchy being image

distort the layout, collage and go wild!

The catch was that we only had 5 minutes for each task. This proved to be quite difficult for me as I’m not one who works well under pressure. I also only use Photoshop for image manipulation and editing, so having to adjust to playing with both text and image was something I wasn’t used to. Despite this, the task helped us to really think about iteration and uncover how very minor adjustments can impact the overall focal point in a composition. 

Above is my final for the emphasis on text, I focused on boldness, line separation and grid structure, however the word for didn’t seem to pull through when it came to my grids and sticks out like a sore thumb...

This week’s lecture asked the question what's next for design, particularly how communication design is transforming through emerging technologies (artificial intelligence). 

Andy and Karen also touched on how can design help humanity, which is a valueable asset to our practice, looking beyond building a business and just simply doing good for another person/people ! 

Temptone testing the EyeWriter

The EyeWriter by Free Art and Technology (FAT) is a solution to a problem with ALS patients who are unable to perform and express their creative passions. FAT has collaborated with OpenFrameworks, the Graffiti Research Lab, and The Ebeling Group communities to create a low-cost eye-tracking system for those diagnosed with ALS, so that they can draw with their eye movements. 

It was quite sad to see the vimeo short on TEMPTONE (LA graffiti writer, publisher and activist) trialling the EyeWriter, yet it was empowering to see how with such limitations, he can still create. I reflected on the idea that we have no excuses and no more waiting! We shouldn’t let minor inconveniences stop us from completing our creative projects, because if ALS patients can do it with JUST THEIR EYES, then we can too.

I’ve struggled with fulfilling past and current passions due to fear on top of small excuses including lack of time but this product and paired video has inspired me to really engage more with my side work and build a name for myself during the time we have on break! 

Movie Barcodes 

Another aspect of the lecture that I found incredibly interesting was the use of colour, shown in much detail in these Movie barcodes, a composition depicting every frame reduced to its average colour in a film.

The example that Andy and Karen showed us was from Kung Fu Panda 3, showcasing a use of greens and purples, potentially reflective of the architecture in the film? (I haven’t actually seen it) I looked at some more online and found this Entourage movie barcode. This whole concept started to make more sense to me when seeing this code as this film is framed around the idea of lots of people and a group of men trying to take off their careers, more specifically Vince, establishing a film career in Los Angeles, California.

The vast amount of neutral tones in the code evidently represent the frames of the people in the film!

Movie barcode - Entourage (2015) 

SOURCES

http://www.eyewriter.org/

https://moviebarcode.tumblr.com/

IMAGE SOURCES

http://www.eyewriter.org/siteImg/p1060131.JPG

http://eyewriter.org/images/data/P1060726.JPG

In this lecture, Andy and Karen proposed a lot of questions framing around our practice, including why we design and who decides design. Despite this being one of the longest lectures in the series, I feel like I was most engaged with this one. Immediately it made me question the meaning behind my work and if I’m ever creating it for someone beyond my client and/or assessor. Could my work make a difference in the future? 

In regards to who decides design, Karen made a valid point about if it REALLY is us who decides, or the products and softwares we use within our practice. Items such as Apple Macbooks, Adobe Software and more. Do the particular artefacts we use in our own practice impact the decisions we make on OUR OWN work?

This reflection opened up the discussion on conceptual art, as Karen put it 

“The art that I would make, if I were to make an artwork”

Looking beyond the ‘physicals’ and aesthetic of the composition to dig deeper into the idea, the idea that drives the whole process and final outcome. One particular conceptual piece that was acknowledged was the How to Work Better mural. I had seen this mural briefly appropriated before and had my Studio Arts teacher numerously insert it at the back of our booklets throughout VCE, seeing the concept beyond the aesthetics which I believe was Peter Fischli and David Weiss’ vision!

Its aesthetic is quite minimal, purely a gleaming white brick ball to draw attention from a far but also show emphasis on the advice they give.  

Peter Fischli David Weiss, How To Work Better, 1991, on view at Binzmuehlestrasse 14, Zurich-Oerlikon, Switzerland. (Original mural)

Andy and Karen continued on to say that conceptualism could be (and is) the foundation for art and design activism. Becoming more independent from traditional practice, a conceptual turn is happening. 

We were shown many publications that were surprisingly great inspiration for my zine for Ask Me Anything. I was particularly drawn to Adbusters Media Foundation not only for their outrageous and satirical appeal but because they are a non-for-profit collective that highlight issues hiding underneath.

I thought that this 1989 Winter issue below was a bit numerous in visually displaying TV addiction through ‘shoving’ a television box on Edvard Munch’s scream face from The Scream. I can’t help but always chuckle to myself whenever I see the scream’s face despite it’s deeper meaning of Munch’s inner trouble and anxieties. 

The Tibor Kalman for Adbusters Calvin Klein mockery was also a composition I found interesting and also very thought provoking. The idea of objectifying the human body whether it is to sell, promote etc, is still an issue that we are dealing with today, especially with the impact of social media. 

Much like the Adbusters impression, Kalman pokes fun at Calvin Klein’s marketing scheme during that period with the inclusion of meat packaging, phrasing such as ‘great legs, nice breasts’, ‘extra lean’ and chicken with the CK logo. 

It reminds me of a similar campaign I saw on Behance by the Australian Human Rights Commission taking the same approach with a more visual impact of including actuals women’s bodies in the composition.

IMAGE SOURCES:

https://i0.wp.com/www.guggenheim.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/gen-blog-how-to-work-better-mural-2.jpg?w=980

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/bf/07/c6/bf07c67f3874ee66d490e86879346c95.jpg

https://www.litkicks.com/sites/default/files/adbustersmunch.jpg

Poster 01 | Ou's favourite poster from Autotypography

A note that Bailey had for my zine layout was to emphasise the ‘ugly-childish’ aesthetic a bit more, so I researched some contemporary ugly design in practice for some composition inspiration.

Autotypography.

Singaporean graphic designer Darius Ou began his Autotypography project seven years ago whilst bored at design school, and has since produced a collection of 365 posters. They are now showing as part of the Dissolving Margins exhibition at Lasalle’s Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore. Ou has experimented with breaking the principles of “good design” from stretching typefaces to blending amorphous forms adding to contemporary ugly design. 

“I see a lot of graphic design rules very loosely now and I don’t follow them like a bible,” he says. “To me, I’d rather people say I hate your work than to not get any comments at all.” - Darius Ou

Poster 12 | A poster from Autotypography paying homage to a reddit comment on his work

“If we always follow the rules set by designers who lived in the 20th century—but we live in the 21st century—then what are we blindly following?”

Ou began to see his works as questioning the rules that he was taught in design school, rather than seeing it as ugly design, the meaning had changed for him. He realised that pushing boundaries is contextual and comes in many forms, it doesn’t have to be ugly but needs to be different to be able to be remembered. 

He added on to this appeal, stating that design can only progress if we as designers look for unconventional methods to approach a brief and challenge current aesthetics. “If you stay true to always asking ‘Why?’ and ‘Why not?’, you will always stay ahead,” he said. “It is always change that will evoke change.”

Looking into Ou’s work has asked me to question my own design aesthetic. I knew that choosing a subject like Comic Sans for this brief was already going to break me out of my minimalistic style but I never realised how challenging it REALLY would be. Looking at your work and saying ‘this looks ugly’ makes it rather hard to continue working if you don’t know what your true intent is. 

I think I now have a good understanding of ugly design, it’s not just ugly, but it’s breaking design rules and creating conversation. It’s eye catching!

From looking at Ou’s posters, I’m hoping to experiment with blending shapes with a gradient and consider the form of my type, such as stretching it or using type on a path in Adobe Illustrator. There is much to be explored!

Captured images at Dissolving Margins exhibition

SOURCES

https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/schooled-in-the-new-ugly-lessons-from-darius-ous-autotypography/

http://dariusou.work/autotypography.html

IMAGE SOURCES

http://dariusou.work/images/works/autotypography/2.jpg

http://dariusou.work/images/works/autotypography/4.jpg

http://dariusou.work/images/works/autotypography/at3.jpg

Another source for helping me reformat my current zine on topic, Comic Sans, was to find designers that had used the typeface in their practice. I turned to Behance to find some projects and hopefully a description to go along with their design process. 

“I'm Comic Sans, asshole.” August 13th 2018 by Mike Lacher, Paula Cruz

I think this project not only helped me to establish a better composition for pages of my zine, but also to create a voice for ‘Comic Sans’. Not being afraid to adopt a tone and attitude in my responses is something that I want to be apart of the content of my zine, I think it would be fun to read it as if Comic Sans were a real person. I was particularly drawn to these phrases:

“Listen up. I know the sh*t you’ve been saying behind my back”

“People love me. Why? Because I’m fun”

“Enough of this bullsh*t. I’m gonna go get hammered with Papyrus”

This additional research has encourage me to go back and edit my responses to my 5 questions and play around with my subject’s voice and give it some pronouns, adding to the interview effect of this assignment. 

“In Defence of Comic Sans” April 29th 2015 by Julia Ivanszky 

I found that this dissertation’s format on the typeface was most helpful for the layout of my zine. The design collaborates on using neutral tones with vibrant colours such as a fire engine red and a colour wheel cyan blue along with vector graphics such as exploding bubbles and repetition - mirroring a comic aesthetic. I also liked how some pages were focused on minimal text to create art within the booklet, including the quote pages. 

SOURCES

https://www.behance.net/gallery/68973161/Im-Comic-Sans-asshole?tracking_source=for_you_activity

https://www.behance.net/gallery/25771887/In-Defence-of-Comic-Sans?tracking_source=search_projects_recommended%7Ccomic%20sans

IMAGERY

https://mir-s3-cdn-cf.behance.net/project_modules/1400_opt_1/ccef4f68973161.5b70619339664.jpg

https://mir-s3-cdn-cf.behance.net/project_modules/1400_opt_1/76a75468973161.5b7061933a554.jpg

https://mir-s3-cdn-cf.behance.net/project_modules/max_1200/7e44f525771887.5634a7fbaaaa5.JPG

https://mir-s3-cdn-cf.behance.net/project_modules/max_1200/9335e425771887.5634a7fc512bf.JPG