Kira

How do people communicate with design? How does design effectively communicate with its audience? This is, fundamentally, what we study in Communication Design.

Communication Design Studies (GRAP2199) as presented by RMIT focuses on the history and key movements of design that affect, either consciously or subconsciously, contemporary design. In studio-based learning and lectures, we - as students - begin to understand the role that previous art and design movements (such as dadaism and post-modernism) play in how we design. As modern designers, it is important to understand how what we design impacts our audiences and why, to achieve the most effective design.

As designers, it is also important to form connections between each other. The abrupt transition to online learning made this difficult, but not impossible. Through these online journals and class discussions on Collaborate, we were able to connect with each other – albeit at a safe distance. Connecting with classmates weekly in class and through Tumblr made isolation a little less lonely and made these online journals more important than just a collection of our thoughts on design.

For this assessment, I chose Junji Ito. He is a famous horror mangaka and is the author of Tomie, Gyo, and (one of my personal favourites) Uzumaki. Ito has been influenced by other mangaka like Kazuo Umezu, and American horror writer H.P. Lovecraft - and it is clear in his style.

I chose to format this assignment in a traditional manga format with panels of images and speech bubbles. Although I was originally going to present it as a zine in a PDF format, I decided to take the route of a website as it would allow me to easily publish animated GIFs and add a more immersive aspect of design to my zine. For this I used Wix.com, as it is a free website design tool with an easy-to-use interface (meaning that I did not have to spend a majority of my time re-learning HTML & CSS whilst also animating and designing my zine).

The hardest aspect of this task was animating. Even the simplest animations took up to an hour to design, which meant I was spending more time per page than I had initially thought I would. Additionally, I could not find many online resources, so I had to teach myself how to animate a spiral in Photoshop (which was not as difficult as I originally thought just... very tedious.)

The most enjoyable part of creating this zine was, first of all, being able to read dozens of Junji Ito’s works for “research”, but also the simple task of adding text into the speech bubbles. I enjoyed this so much because it was at this point that I could see the final product. Images that seemed separate were now a part of a formatted storyline, and speech bubbles led the eye through the panel.

Finally, I was finished and it turned out better than I could have expected.

Like all other students/workers/people in the world, we were affected by COVID-19. It was a rough start to our first year and first semester at RMIT - we were trapped in a period of uncertainty: we were missing classmates that were either still overseas or unable to attend campus, we did not know when or if campus would be closing down, and we were not sure what would happen if it did. This was Week 1, and by Week 4, everything had transitioned to online learning.

The transition was not an easy one, but our teachers tried to make it as comfortable a change as possible – through adjusting learning plans, assessment criteria, and encouraging us to all interact with each other when it was easier just to hide behind a screen. Yes, there were many difficulties, but I believe they will become a greater learning experience for, if we can successfully make it through a semester during a worldwide pandemic, what is going to stop us from finishing this degree?

(and how I overcame... most of these distractions)

There were a lot of, sometimes surprising, positives to studying from home. Not having to travel to campus and being able to attend classes in pyjamas was stress relieving... though, like almost everything, had its own negative effects.

Not having to travel, though saving on time and money, meant that I was not able to remove myself from my home life and focus academically. There was always a lingering thought in the back of my mind - this almost does not feel real. There are many positives of being able to study face-to-face, and having those taken away from me made me initially feel as if this semester did not matter as much as it should (which is a really bad mindset). This resulted in a lack of motivation, procrastinating from completing assessments until their deadline, and not involving myself in class discussions as much as I should - either because I felt detached from my classes or because I had other distractions keeping me from participation.

Cut to my screen time on TikTok and Snapchat... oops.

My solution to this issue was to completely remove my phone from class either by turning it off or leaving it far out of reach. A simple solution, really, but one I did not consider until I was at least three weeks into studying online. In addition, I followed online advice and readied for class as I usually would if we were studying face-to-face.

Introducing my second largest distraction/s:

Pearl (my mother’s cat)

Shredder (my brother’s cat) - Yes, he is named after TMNT

Returning to Queensland to stay with my family throughout the social isolation period resulted in the distraction of two more cats, alongside my own cat (Rem, pictured below) who I dragged up with me.

It took some time, and they still tend to distract me from time to time, but we all settled into our own kind of routine. Rem can often be found sleeping on my bed while I am in class, happy to receive my attention once I am finished for the day.

Junji Ito (Japanese: 「伊藤 潤二」Itō Junji) is a well-known Japanese horror mangaka. He has created many works including, most popularly, “Gyo”  (ギョ“Fish”), Uzumaki ( うずまき lit. “Spiral”), and Tomie ( 富江). 

Ito employs various literary and artistic techniques in his works to elicit a horrified and disturbed response from his audience¹. Generally, manga artists provide a lot of time into incorporating detail into their characters to make the visual storytelling more realistic, but Junji Ito employs this technique to make his illustrations seem disturbing and eerie. 

“Ito has an uncanny ability to draw human eyes” Will Heath states in his article, ‘Junji Ito: 10 Best Stories from Japan’s Master of Horror². 

Junji Ito also employs techniques from horror movies. He displays the terror/uncertainty/fear of his characters in a manner that the audience will subconsciously reflect, similar to how horror movies use visuals to display the emotions of their on-screen characters. However, where most modern day horror movies abuse loud sounds and “jump scares”, Ito manages to produce horror through the genuine unease of a strange, harrowing situations and body horror³.

A manga about a town’s obsession with “spirals” does not sound terrifying, until you open the first page of Uzumaki and are confronted with the existential dread and unease that the techniques Ito employs produces.

“Eyes” [2020]. Kira Johnstone. Digital Collage - Class Activity.

On Monday of Week 10, we discussed post-modernism and appropriation of art. During this discussion we were asked something along the lines of: “How would you feel if someone ‘destroyed’ your artwork?”

At first, I felt as if I would be distraught. Then, as I thought about it further, would I be so upset? Sure, something I created would be destroyed, and the very materialistic side of me would feel annoyed but in an age where everything is saved digitally, there is a very small chance that something I created would be gone forever.

My thoughts kept returning to the idea that I could simply have a digital reproduction of the artwork, so I forced myself to think in the context of when saving the art digitally was not an easy option. Eventually, I returned to the two thoughts: “What was the intent in the destruction of my artwork?” and, “If I already created it once, am I not able to create it again?”

Woelfel, B. [Photography].

Brandon Woelfel is a professional photographer based in Long Island, New York. He grew to fame by gathering a massive following on the social media platform, Instagram, and is well-known for the manipulation of light and colour in his photography, and an impressive visual eye. In an interview with Andreas Ingeman, Woelfel states that he was always involved in art when he was young and is still, “searching for new mediums that interest me”. Inspired by Instagram photographers, Woelfel decided to try photography and bought his first DSLR at the age of 19, where he stepped on the path to notability.

Woelfel, B. Cailee Rae [Photography].

Woelfel achieves a mixture of fantasy and realism in his edited photography. He reveals that the process of editing his images is a lot more technical than his audience realises as he spends large amounts of time developing his images with many layers, changing hues, and colour correcting. Woelfel finds inspiration anywhere, though was first drawn to light around Christmas time – as most photographers often play with light in the holiday season. However, unlike other photographers, Woelfel never stopped playing with light and continues to explore and challenge himself in every photo.

Woelfel, B. “What Happens When I Don’t Have Any Models on Hand” [Photography].

Neville Brody is a very popular name in the graphic design community. His unique typography and punk rock inspired designs have influenced many contemporary designers. Though criticized for his ‘uncommercial’ aesthetics by his teachers, Brody continued to explore and experiment with his designs.

Brody discovered success from his position as Art Director for The Face magazine and continued to explore the high life of the design world thereafter. He was one of the founding members of Fontworks and the website FontShop, a platform for aspiring typographers and designers alike to share their works and gather their own following.

Sato, K. (2006). UNIQLO Brand Identity [Graphic Design].

“When I design a product package, I always try to grab the essence of the product, express that essence in a clear concept, then design that concept with dynamic impact.”

Kashiwa Sato is an Art Director at SAMURAI, a studio Sato established in 2000. He stands as one of the world’s leading creative directors and is well known in his involvement with directing the brand identity of UNIQLO.

Sato, K. (2006). UNIQLO Brand Identity [Graphic Design].

The typefaces he created for UNIQLO certainly stand out as some of his best work. The simplistic, bold design are a staple for Sato and his studio.