#theadventureseries

THE ADVENTURE SERIES: ZINE MACHINE

What if there was a machine that would create a randomly generated 16 page A6 zine that is completely unique. Hmm

In a previous practical class we got feedback on our spreads, so I decided to work on finalising my zine before sending it off for submission.

I looked back on the slides and saw a comment from a fellow student about my spreads. I was really pleased to see some nice feedback from another student and it really pushed me in the right direction with my zine.

Fig 1. The comment I had received. Thx. Also enjoy my crudly scribble over the name.

I worked on my zine over the weekend so that I had finished it before the due date because I have been burned before with submitting assignments at the last minute and technology simply and logically saying ‘no’.

With all the feedback I was given, I now have a near finished zine. Here it is!

Fig 2. My near finished zine. 

I first took all the feedback I was given and made adjustments as such. I reduced the tint for some of the images, lined up everything to a central line and make the type on pages 8 and 9 more free flowing. That was the feedback section done and dusted.

There’s a story to how this ended up like this.

First, lets talk about page 12 (third row fourth image). Inside the number 4 (yes, that is the number 4), I added some notable images that had used Futura such as Barbara Kruger and Ford. This was a bit of a pain to make at the start but ended up working very well. It cost me though...

Secondly lets talk about the references. I initially was just going to have a single reference page where I could put all of my references down that I used for my research and my images. That’s what I would normally do, but little did I know that I had about 2 references for my research and about 16 REFERENCES FOR IMAGES, HALF OF THEM ON A SINGLE PAGE (page 12). I ended up changing how I was going to do my image references and I just put them at the bottom of each page that had images in it (in footnotes). Some pages, such as 8 and 9, would have their reference on the next pages as I got all the images from the same source. For page 12, I just said to refer to page 15 for reference as half the page would just be the references to the images.

I still need to make some adjustments, but they are not critical and are just decorative choices. The red tint is still strong on some of the images and somethings could be cleaned up.

Also, while looking through the zine after showing it to a group I am a part of and I saw something on page 12.

Fig 3. Page 12 in my zine.

Can you see it?

It struck me as soon as I looked at it.

The rectangle from page 13 erupted out the side of this page. ARGH! That was the first thing I had changed when I saw it because I am a perfectionist and that was interrupting my flow.

To top this post of, I will talk about the final page, or the back cover of the zine.

Fig 4. The back cover of the zine.

I realised that I hadn’t really showcase Paul Renners typeface fully (as in all the characters and symbols). I chose for my back cover, to showcase that by integrating his typeface into the letter F of his typeface. It turned out really well and I like how it looks. The final thing to note is my name. At the end of every publication or thing I make, I have a little signature that I like to add to it. It is made out of my own handwriting and is like a stamp of approval to me. I only add it to stuff I am proud of and I was very proud of this zine. 

This was an absolutely fantastic project as I needed an excuse to make a zine and this was the perfect time to make it. It would have been fantastic to actually print it out (on good, high quality paper) and share it with my peers. It really opened my eyes to what I would need to consider when making a zine and really helped me master InDesign. 

It really makes me miss the trips to Sticky Institute to get zines and talk with my friends about our projects. I miss that. I miss not having the time on the train where I can just listen to my music and read a zine. I miss that too. I miss everything about the Uni experience. I am glad I stuck through this transition and I am happy I got something out of it. I hope things go back to normal soon.

;(

THE ADVENTURE SERIES: LIGHTNING AND SPARKS

In a previous post, I was talking about how I had lost my creative flame for this project and was lost in what I was doing. Here’s my redemption story.

At about 11PM on a Saturday night, I was laying in bed watching a YouTube video about some useless facts when suddenly a thought popped into my head. What if I use the numbers in Futura as part of the question designs? What I would have done was jump out of bed, open my computer and start doing work but I just wrote it down and then circled it so I can work on it in the morning.

The result I got was better than I had expected...

Fig 1. The spread pages for pages 2 and 3. Our good friend Lorem Ipsum on page 2, although Lorem Ipsum is absent from this. :(

Fig 2. The spread pages for pages 4 and 5.

What I changed was that I started to integrate Paul Renners typeface more into the document, including the number for the questions. I also played around with angles as well, especially in Fig 2 where most of the things were offset to 30 degrees (something that most Bauhaus designers would do to indicate the transition to the future). What is great about this is that the pages now look more interesting.

The fact that the text is offset at a consistent angle does change the readability, but to the extent of being unreadable. The black and red bars make the images more visually interesting to look at. The change of typeface to the condensed Futura makes Paul Renner more of a focus in this task. He is on the front cover, so I might as well make him the star of the show.

It also makes sense with my front cover as well, as the cover relates to the book covers of Josef Albers and the design inside is stereotypical Bauhaus designs. I think I’m also pretty sold on the red colour for the zine as it’s powerful and can relate to the works of the Bauhaus, as they also use lots of red as well (don’t quote me on that).

It’s beginning to look like something that I would actually read, and that’s the main thing I would like to create; something that I can enjoy reading but also make the message of my designer clear.

THE ADVENTURE SERIES: I ♥ HELVETICA

Do you know Helvetica? You’ve seen them in the city, you’ve seen them in the streets. You’re looking at them right now.

As homework, we had to watch Gary Hustwit’s documentary on the typeface, Helvetica. Although we were told it was free to watch, it was another documentary that was free and the Helvetica documentary was already show. Although that was a minor setback, the documentary was only $12 to buy so I just bought it.

Fig 1: My receipt for the documentary and an example of Helvetica on the poster.

I finished watching it before and found it quite engaging. A couple of people mentioned that it was like the default designer typeface for anything that you want to be neutral. It’s like a neutral typeface. It has no emotion to it, no political position, no prior history (unless you research it) so you can shape it to be whatever you want to be. I also like how Paula Scher (who I remember from a design documentary on Netfilx called ‘Abstract: The Art of Design’) said something about how it was the typeface of the current war (which was the Iran war). It was something every interesting to compare it to.

I’m probably gonna watch it again later on (what else have I got to do) so I might update this post if I find anything else that intrigued me.

The second task was to look for examples of Helvetica around the house. At first I was oblivious about the typeface and it’s presence but after watching that documentary, I can’t stop seeing it. Here are a few examples of Helvetica.

Fig 2: A local doctors form.

Fig 3: Panasonic's logo on a microwave

Fig 4: Brivis logo on the controller for the air-con

Fig 5: The contents page of the RMIT Catalyst zine

Fig 6: Back of the Superfight card game box

Fig 7: Back of a Cards Against Humanity (CAH) card.

Fig 8: The front of the CAH cards.

Fig 9: A close up to one of the cards from CAH.

Fig 10: Tumblr’s main body text

There are probably more examples around me as well. I just found a packet of Tiny Teddy’s and found Helvetica on the back of the packet. I went to work yesterday and found numerous examples of Helvetica. I even think the Woolworths (which is where I work) uses Helvetica Light for their logo along side their W apple. This proves the point that this typeface is the default ‘neutral’ typeface that can be used everywhere.

Not only am I seeing Helvetica everywhere, I am beginning to see different typefaces being used over and over again. There are some books and objects I have that have a typeface resembling Futura. Whilst browsing YouTube, I found two videos on typefaces. One was about the typeface Trojan and movie posters and the other was about 8 bit arcade game typefaces, both were very interesting (and both were from Vox).

THE ADVENTURE SERIES: THE FINALE V5

Today I took all the feedback from the last Practical class and made adjustments based on that feedback. I started out clueless about what my zine was supposed to look like, leaning back on what I know best rather than testing myself as a designer and using the tools already given to me. Now, here is the final zine (in a gif)

Fig 1. A gif of my zine, which is V5 of the zine.

I am very proud of this final zine. I put a lot of time and effort into making this a great zine. Like I probably said in previous posts, I love zines and I would really like to get into making my own zines and what a better time to start making them than now, when we are stuck in isolation and have nothing better to do then make art.

Here’s a little secret. I uploaded the first version of the GIF and then saw something that annoyed me which was the fact that the black colour was inconsistent. I fixed it and then noticed that I forgot to change one thing so I went back and changed that then uploaded it again. Then I noticed that there were still some page numbers lurking (I was keeping page 15′s page number but 12 was still chilling in the background) around so I had to go back and then delete them.

I have learned through this process that I should make sure everything looks OK before uploading anything. Weird that I am learning that at 18 year old when all my life I have been submitting things without looking over them. Lucky it hasn’t gotten me in that much trouble (yet).

THE ADVENTURE SERIES: PROCEDURAL GENERATION OF ART

During a previous lectures, there was a website called ‘This Person Does Not Exist’, which generates an image of a person that does not exist. I looked into this and found that the same network that has been used to generate people can also generate artwork. The website is called This Artwork Does Not Exist.

Fig 1. This artwork doesn’t have a name, or an artist. It’s not hung up anywhere. It doesn’t exist. I would source it, but I can only source the website SOURCE>

This website now add to the pile of questions when we ask ‘Who creates design’. You could say that design is created by a person deliberately manipulating pixels, values or images to create new bits of design. Now a computer and an AI can generate artwork. Does that mean we, the designers, have to battle against an artificial intelligence that can create millions of artworks in minutes? 

I also stumbled upon a game called ‘ART SQOOL’, which is a game where an AI gives you assignments and you must create an artwork that meets the criteria of the assignment. The AI also grades your work. This is such a bizarre concept and could mean that a computer can determine if you pass or fail an assignment based on the criteria it was given by it’s creator. What does a computer know about design?

Fig 2. A screenshot from the trailer for the game ‘ART SQOOL’ where the AI is judging the artwork. SOURCE>

If would say these things would make me scared for my design career. What if an AI can do my job better than I can? What if an AI is judging my work? What would that mean for the future.

But then I remember this; designers have shaped the world and the tools for communication as we know it, we can work around these factor or even criticise them. When the world gives us tools, we shape them and give them life.

Overall, lets hope that AI doesn’t get to advanced…

THE ADVENTURE SERIES: SAYONARA

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post about a video game called the Witness and how that links to the idea of a language that has to be mutually understood and how perspectives shift. In this post, I will talk about a typeface I found whilst playing another video game. The game in question is called ‘Sayonara Wild Hearts’.

I’ve had this game for a while and only recently I discovered something that was in plain sight. I’ve always had an appreciation for the typeface in ‘Sayonara Wild Hearts’ but little did I know that it’s origins were based on Black-letter.

Fig 1. The title screen for ‘Sayonara Wild Hearts’ by Simogo.

It’s very clean and does relate to the themes within the game which revolve heavily around tarot cards (which Annapurna Interactive actually made and they look stunning). It has Gothic themes in it but has a modern looks, so why not pair it with a modern Gothic typeface.

The typeface is called Trigot and was designed by Michael Hubner. It’s a clean, modern Black-letter typeface that, in my opinion, looks beautiful.

Fig 2. An example of the Trigot typeface <SOURCE>

What this typeface represents is something that I think is as beautiful as the typeface itself. Revive an old and ‘obsolete’ typeface by giving it a modern spin for the modern ages. Although this typeface is unique, I can look at it and see the history of the print press and the evolution in design from then. 

What I’ve learn’t from this discovery is to pay attention to the designs I take for granted and see if there is a history ingrained in it’s design.

Here’s two more photos that show the typeface off more.

Fig 3. Another screenshot of ‘Sayonara Wild Hearts’

THE ADVENTURE SERIES: A BIT BIASED

As mentioned in the Week 10 lecture (named ‘#designisoverparty’) I was talking about the rainbow pride flag and said that I will make a post about it and a couple of other things that I know. This is that post.

Last year I did a lot of research on LGBTQIA+ things for my persuasive speech and for my VISCOMM project. As part of the VISCOMM project, I bought a book called ‘Queer x Design’ which talks about the evolution of LGBTQIA+ history through design. Although it was delivered after the completion of my research, I still was happy to have the book with me throughout the process as a guide. 

Fig 1. The front cover of the ‘Queer x Design’ book by Andy Campbell. All images from this post are from this book.

There are a couple of things I’m gonna talk about that are from the book. The first thing I will talk about is the origins of the iconic rainbow pride flag by Gilbert Baker.

Baker was asked by Harvey Milk to design a new flag for a Gay Freedom Day celebration as current designs utilised the inverted pink triangle, which has an association with Nazi Germany as they used the triangle as a mark of Homosexuality in their concentration camps.

Fig 2. An example of the pink triangle. This design was used during the 1980′s to highlight the relationship between homosexuality and AIDS and the need for then president of America Ronald Reagan to speak up. Design by the Silence = Death Collective.

The original concept for the flag included eight colours, which were all symbolic and were hand-dyed, sewn, and then displayed during that years festivities. Baker wanted to create a symbol of gay rights that was global. He had achieved that goal, but it didn’t come with some troubles. 

Harvey Milk, who helped commission the creation of the flag, was shot by Dan White, which galvanised LGBTQ communities and highlighted the need for LGBTQIA+ rights in America to protect the community. This violence is still present today, especially in the Transgender community.

The flag would be displayed at the next years parade to reinforce that need for LGBTQIA+ rights. The flag did go through some changes however, as Baker was told it was impossible to recreate the pink fabric. To balance the stripes on the flag, he dropped the turquoise colour for symmetry, which resulted in the rainbow pride flag we see today. 

Baker did recreate his original flag design in 2016, after having to relearn how to sew due to a stroke that effected his left side. This is the image of the flag:

Fig 3. The recreation of the Rainbow Pride flag by Gilbert Baker.

The flag has become such a well known symbol in the queer community and is a symbol organisation use either to display their loyalty and acceptance of LGBTQIA+ people or as a way to sell merchandise. I’ve seen the Pride flag around RMIT as well (at RUSU and the Job Shop), making queer people feel welcomed at RMIT.

The second thing I am going to talk about is something that is very close to my heart. This is the Bisexual Flag.

Although the rainbow pride flag is synonymous with the LGBTQIA+ community as a whole, there are major subsections of that community, including Bisexual. The flag, created by Michael Page, is simple yet it has a lot of power and story to it.

Ted Kaye laid out 5 principles of flag design: keep it simple, use meaningful symbolism, limit to two to three basic colour, not lettering or seals, and be distinctive. The bisexual flag does all these things.

The flag was modelled after the already existing symbol of the pink and blue triangles intersecting, which represent the attraction to two genders (the book calls the ‘biangles’). The colours are symbolic, as pink is associated with females and blue associated with males so the magenta represents bisexuality, as it is the blend of the two colours.

Fig 6. The bisexual flag and triangles. 

I modelled my VISCOMM poster of these symbols. What’s great is that only my queer friends discovered the hidden meaning behind the poster and what it represents. It was also a discussion point for others who don’t know what the colours mean.

These flags and symbols came from activism and the idea of creating a symbol for a community that can not only represent them, but be used as a tool for activism. I think these flag are a great example of what can be done when you choose to design something that is not used for selling products, but as something someone can use as an identity marker. I personally fly these flags, I have pins with these colour on them, which makes myself know and makes myself present. This is a symbol of who we are.

Why design? For acceptance. For activism. For liberation.

THE ADVENTURE SERIES: JUDGING A BOOK BY ITS COVER

Today I was trying to figure out what I should do for my front cover for my Paul Renner Zine. I initially went into this thinking that it was gonna be an easy task but I was completely blindsided by how much (or how little) I needed to do to make a nice cover page.

I initally began with the idea of Paul Renner’s portrait but with a tear through it for the title of the zine (which, for the moment, is ‘Paul Renner - The Father of Futura’).

Fig 1: The first concept for the front cover of my zine.

I looked at it and thought it was a good idea. However, after the last practical class, I felt that this kind of detracted from what Paul Renner’s work was. Instead of acknowledging his work, I decided to do something I would do. So this was put aside for the moment to see if I could find a better solution that fit more with the topic.

I remember something that Karen said to me in the practical about how I could look at Josef Albers for inspiration for my zine. I looked into his work and found that his covers were very minimal and modern. It doesn’t have much text and had a simple illustration on the front, often block like. So I tried that.

Fig 2. Another concept cover page for my zine.

The reason I chose those colours was because a lot of his work was influenced by the politics of the time and Nazi Germany (which used red, white and black for their flag). I thought this was nice, but it didn’t convey much information about Renner as I liked so I put that one aside as well.

I then took inspiration from Paul Renners own books and their front covers, but I hit a problem with them.

Fig 3. Another cover for the zine.

It was too bland. Although that was what his front covers were, I felt that it didn’t appeal to me personally and doesn’t convey much information. It just looks like I slapped together something in 2 minutes, which was not what I wanted to do. This was scrapped.

I then looked at another book cover and took inspiration from that.

Fig 5. I think you get the drill now.

Hit another brick wall. What was I supposed to do with the background. In the original image I was looking at, it had lots of lines and shapes. What could I put in the background that would represent Paul Renner? I was thinking his typeface, but I want to keep this minimal and sleek, much like the modernism movement that Renner was a part of.

I scrapped this one and went back to the concept from Fig 3. I added some type to the image and just left it at that. I also darkened the cover a little, which would bring out the image more.

I am still not sold on this idea though. What I have done however was just add this to the document I am working on for my project and leaving it for the moment. I probably will get an idea of what I should do for my cover when I finish my zine, but I think this is good enough for the moment.