ITAP Lecture 9: Production for Visual Communicators

Essential Milestones in the history of production technology for graphic designers

In the history of production technology there are many key points, which had huge effect on not only the world of print but to humanity as a whole. The printed text (and image) is one of the most important developments in the history of society and without which we would be nowhere as evolved sociologically as we are. When looking at a timeline of events dating from 3500 BC to 2008 AD it is clear that there are so many different events of great importance, however it is hard to compare ‘milestones’ from the origin of printing to contemporary advancements in computer aided design as these later improvements tend to be far less dramatic in their effect as many of the earlier ones.

 Firstly I have chosen the invention of paper in China by Ts’ai Lun, this created a format of producing text and images that could successful documentation could begin and just as importantly they could be transported allowing access to these documents anywhere. Secondly, and durable then previous methods, furthermore this led to metal movable type being created and in 1400 which allowed for the development of unified printing and typefaces. Next the invention of Lithography between 1796-9, this allowed for images as well as text to be printed, and was a huge advancement for the production of images that wasn’t one of paintings, but a print that could be repeated.

After this I chose 1822 J.N Niepce first to fix images in a camera obscure on metal and glass plates. This was part of the invention of a whole new type of image making, and this technology has gone on to be one of the most fundamental attributes to designers today. Fifth I would say the invention of the four-colour process. Next is the precursor to the internet, APRnet , established in 1969, this was the first time information could be sent and received not in a physical format, this led to the internet, and meant the sharing of information could be spread world wide. In 1976 IBM announced inkjet printing, these are now the most commonly used printers in the world, noted for their speed reliability and most importantly quality of printing. After this I have placed the founding of Adobe Systems. Adobe are a lifeline to all visual creators not only graphic designers, their products such as Photoshop and Illustrator are used by millions of people world wide, and are software for image making accessible to most people rather then just professionals.  Ninth is the development of the World Wide Web by Tim Berners-Lee in 1992, this led to the creation a whole new medium to some for image makers and changes the face of not only contemporary design but the globe. After this, ten, Internet Explorer released by Microsoft in my opinion this generally defined the Internet for most of its users.

The novice to expert scale is a good way to analyse your skills and determine what level you are at in ‘real world’ terms. To investigate the scale further i'm going to use myself to work out where I would place myself. The first part is ‘knowledge’; this is the extent and depth of your knowledge of your practice as well as practitioners within it. This is an area that I am not very confident in and am working to improve upon. I would most likely put myself at beginner here. The second part of the table is the ‘standard of work’. I am noticing the standard of my work increasing very quickly especially after enrolling at BCU, it definitely lacks refinement and still needs much improvement creatively and skillfully. However there are parts that I am more proud of and are at a higher standard. I would put myself at a mixture between beginner and competent.

The third are is ‘Autonomy’ the level at which you can work independently without guidance. Here I can definitely work using my own judgment and would be able to complete tasks independently, however I think at this point that the standard of work produced would not be as successful or as high a standard without some guidance, also I feel I lack a lot in confidence in my own work and abilities that it is useful to have outside guidance.

When it comes to number four, ‘coping with complexity’ I would most likely put myself in the competent category. As it describes in the table, I would say I could cope with complex situations through deliberate analysis and panning, however of course it depends on how you would define ‘complex’. As for the final section ‘perception of context’ i'm a bit unsure where to place myself, I would say I look at the overall picture as well as the individual actions however probably work more as a series of steps. Overall after looking at this table I would place somewhere between beginner and competent. I think I am mixture between the two in different areas but maybe with more definition of the different levels or better anaylisation of myself I would be able to better to place myself more accurately.

ITAP Lecture 8: How does text change the meaning and emotion of an image.

How test can change the meaning of an image and the emotion of an image.

When you look at an image we each have our own instinctive response to it regarding its meaning and emotion. This is all dependent on each individual and the unique lives we lead. Our lives, memories, interactions and thoughts that all shapes us differently effect the way in which we interoperate things and result in different opinions. When you take an image like the one bellow and asked a selection of people to give a description of it, it is most probable that you will receive a mid range of ideas and thoughts. This is because when looking into the emotions created as a result of this image without anything to guide the audience, it is likely they will look back into their own lives at memories of maybe a similar holiday home they stayed at or a photograph from a newspaper story, or a film they once saw. These different memories could create different feelings within the audience and as a result in interoperating the image for example negatively or positively, create feelings of happiness or regret, absolutely anything, because it is all left down to the individual. The differences in our lives will thus create stark differences in responses to an image. However if you were to add text to this image you could entirely change the emotions stirred amongst the audience as you are directly leading them to think what you think about it. 

This is the same when text can be used to change not only the emotions people feel from an image but also the meaning of what the image is. By adding a headline of ‘murderer’s hide-out’ above this photograph the context is automatically changed from is there was ‘historic landmark laid waste’. 

With the image bellow without any text what do you automatically think the context is? Or more importantly what do you assume of the people within it? The prisoners could they be thieves and murderers, or could they be political prisoners in a fascist regime. Without language accompanying the images we cannot say for certain but are left to make our own opinions. However just the smallest piece of information like a date and location could drastically change what the image is.

It is this that allows for the abuse of power/responsibility whereby an image can be taken out of its actual context and placed within a fabricated one. For example the suns reporting of the Hilsburgh disaster in 1989, where pictures of innocent men women and children being crushed to death were used to create a story about football hooligans abusing police officers and petty theft. 

ITAP Lecture 7: Development of Creative Thought and Structure in Illustration and Graphic Art

Getting rid of assumptions

Approaching a problem with a completely open mind is one of the toughest things to do in my opinion when beginning a project. By approaching a problem with an open mind can help prevent your work becoming stale or predictable and it also causes us to push our boundaries as a visual communicator. Naturally we are constricted by the way we have been brought up through education, restricted through inhibitions and also by our routine way of working. It is all too easy to find a niece and become stuck there rather then broaden out. Using simple techniques when brain storming such as using simile’s, metaphor’s and analogies. These can help come up with different options of solutions, probably things that you may not naturally think of or even put together.

Restating Problems

A key ability to being a successful visual communicator is creating interesting and exciting work often produced in a unpredictable way. It is good to take a problem and look at it from a new angel and the results should be equally as fresh. Furthermore it is important not to simply run with the first idea you come to find but continue to explore ideas and you may find a far more successful creative and original concept.

Looking at things in a different light it can be a good idea to step away from the problem itself and use random triggers, different visual stimulus and maybe looking at an unrational aproach.

 A good method of working is to mind map or list ideas, but to keep pushing your self to find perhaps 50 – 75 ideas. The probability is that the first 30% will be the more obvious or predictable ideas, but as you continue the list and the longer the list gets the more obscure the results will be and quite likely that you will find a concept that would never have been thought of. Another way of doing this technique is one that I used as part of an advertising project aimed at finding the most creative response to the brief. Here instead of just one long list, we created an initial list of different concepts, themes, objects places etc which we then selected four things to explore further creating individual lists of seemingly random ideas. It was from this we then found a strong original idea to follow up.

ITAP Lecture 6: Production & Outcomes

The most vital thing for any artist or visual creative is to be continuously drawing. It is only by putting pen to paper, as it where, that you can truly engage your physical working with your creative brain. It is the most productive form of creating thinking as only by actually ‘doing’, combining thinking with mark making that can you begin to be relay creative and explore and discover new ideas as well as working methods. Furthermore when you remove the idea of  ‘drawing for ideas and not for art’ is the hand and mind completely free to work creatively without over anylising or judging critically. When you work in this way

Some one who work’s really effectively recording playing and freely drawing is the graffiti artist and illustrator Mr Kern. His sketchbook is filed with weird and wonderful character designs, experimenting with objects and shapes and sizes. Sprawled across the pages are quick light line drawings and sketches progressing to more detailed designs to final outcomes. Page one shows the barest and simplest of drawings and wonderfully shows a real insight into the creative mind of the artist as well as the creative process he explores.  

Another way to dramatically improve the way you think creatively in to understand and implement the different uses of the two halves of your brain. The right half of your brain is compared to a child at play, carefree, experimental and inquisitive. The over half, the left side, is far more concerned with clarifying and editing. It is the part of your brain that analyses and judges your creativity. To work creatively and successfully we need to be in tune with using both sides of our brains effectively. The creative process is essentially your brain flicking from one side to the other, the right side playing and the left side analyzing. While it is important to be free and playful, if we use the right side too much and abandon reason our work wouldn’t be able to develop and improve. Equally if we continuously over use our left-brain and are over critical or become too concerned with what we are producing (in the experimental stage) we would suppress our ability to be creative.  By successfully using both sides we play and create but with reason and direction.

An example of the right and left-brain working together in quite a simple way is bellow, a page from the sketchbook of graffiti artist Duncan Jago.  Here he has simple sketches developed into more detailed drawings that still experiment with mark making and design. He has also annotated his work limitedly, and jotted down questions and thoughts about where he could take the work or possible additions. More so, around the images he has began incorporating possible choices of colour. On the left hand page the blocks of colours are more experimental, just trying things out on the page and seeing what happens. Where as on the right you can see a more thought out process has been used, mixing colours to create the different tones.

ITAP Lecture 5: Development of ideas and structure in Moving image

In any form of storytelling, be it literature, film, theatre, there is said to be a 3 act structure at its core, the beginning, middle and end, but not necessarily in that order. To look at this concept further I have chosen to look at the film Pans Labyrinth, written and directed by Guillermo del Toro, to see how the 3 Act Structure exists with in it.  Key to a true 3-act structure is the protagonist, this is the main entity we are following, this could be anything, but here it is a young girl named Ofilia. Through the scenes of the first act the main themes of the film are established, the idea of fantasy, of war and of personal and socio-political struggles, which create the internal story of the world of magic and the secret kingdom, and the external stories, of her mother’s pregnancy and illness, and the guerilla war being fought against the Fascist Franco regime. 

The end of act 1 and the start of act two is when she is visited by a fairy which leads here through the labyrinth to meet a faun who reveals the secret kingdom of which she belongs to, and presents here with a choice to make. It is by accepting his offer to attempt to return to her place in the kingdom, which leads to the main action of the film: acts 2 and 3. Throughout act 2 the protagonist goes through a journey, this often makes up the longest part of the overall time.

Act 3 is culmination of all the events that have occurred, where the equilibrium had been disturbed at the end of the first act, it is through this section that it is restored and the story resolves. In pans labyrinth this is when she attempts to complete her final task and sacrifices her self to save her brother, and the rebels successfully attack the troops and kill the Captain.  As is common in a Three Act Structure, after the crisis is resolved things are altered, the setting has changed and the protagonist is not the same as at the start, here Ofilia in the real world has died but she has also returned to her place in the kingdom.

When designing a character there are a number of factors to think about that will affect the strength and quality of them. From Pans Labyrinth I looked at the primary antagonist Captain Vidal, he was described by the actor who played him, as ‘is the most evil character I've ever played in my career’. We predominantly only see him in full uniform, a symbol of his authority and control over everything, a symbol effectively used, as the times when he has removed parts of it are also times of weakness like at the end of the film when like his uniform he has lost control. From his first introduction we see the true evil and unrelenting heartlessness when he violently grabs Ofillia’s hand. This violence only escalates through his actions in the film with torture of weaker characters and the murder of the protagonist, a child. What further strengthens his ‘evil’ character is his response to his acts of violence, he is cold, completely unaffected by them, at no point in the film does he show any remorse or show any ounce of humanity (a successful metaphor for the fascism he represents).  This is supported by his dialogue with other characters never do we here word of joy and happiness, other then perhaps a sense of achievement after successful military actions. 

ITAP Lecture 4: Reflective Visual Journal

In the world to day there are literally endless possibilities of different platforms and mediums for artists to work in and with. Gone are the days where an illustration would only be seen on paper in a book or a gallery. Everything from the side of a wall to a leaflet through your door could be the platform for an artist displaying their work to the world. Editorial platforms such as magazines and newspapers and publishing platforms as well as advertising and branding are a common place to find commissioned work by artists. More contemporary platforms are that of the online world, bogs and films are used to reach a wider audience. But anything can be used, and the more experimental of artists find yet more creative platforms for their work. Street art is one of my favorite platforms for an illustrator is street art, the fact that it is free and accessible to anyone and everyone is something I really admire. It is also a very pure form of illustrating as there are no publishers or clients to answer to affecting the message or out come of their work. An artist I found that uses this theme is the American political cartoonist Mike Flugennock. Whilst he publishes work newspapers, has it posted online he is also a pastes prints of his work across the world. Furthermore he now has a loyal following of fans that also ‘fly post’ his work. This form of displaying his work is a brilliant way of insuring his work can be seen all over the world and by anyone who passes it. More over, people who follow his work can be involved in the process too. 

When looking at the way artists present an idea or message it is clear, by looking at different interpretations of the same subject matter, that the historical context of the different versions plays an important influence into the outcome of the piece. Many things will affect an artist and their work, where they are from the time they live in and the way of life they live. To explore this idea further I have looked at the different representations of the C.S. Lewis book The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. First published in 1950, the artist chosen to illustrate the book was Pauline Baynes. The image bellow is one illustration taken from a scene in the book and is very typical of its time. In post war Britain there was still a very strong sense of hard ship, people still had very little and there was very little extravagance. This reflected in Baynes work, dull limited colors are used which was typical of the time, and the illustrations are simple rather then unnecessarily lavishly detailed, reflecting the times.

Bellow is a later edition of the book published in 1970 and is a perfect example of how the zeitgeist affects the image produced. This version is heavily stylized to reflect the artistic styles of the time. The image is very symmetrical, and has been heavily designed. There are more colors used, bright pink for the title not being a colour we would necessarily associate with World War 2 Britain (where the story is set).

ITAP Lecture 3: Legibility and Visual Hirearchy

ITAP 3

Legibility and Tone of voice

Legibility
Within visual communication there are a number of factors that have to be considered when producing a piece of work. After research and going through the design process you will have a final concept to be produced, and one of the most important things to think about through out this is that the final outcome is legible. Weather it is a magazine cover, a form or a sign post the most important thing is that the information you are trying to communicate is legible and comes across successfully; When working with text is important to think about the size of the text as large chunks of very large or very small text can be hard to read; The colour’s used need to be thought out as well because certain colour’s are hard to read such as yellow on white; When images are being combined with text this can sometimes obscure the who legible the piece is; and the surface the piece is on can effect its legibility eg: computer screens differ from paper. This book cover (bellow) designed by Jamie Keenan, is in my opinion a good example of good legibility combined with creative design. The title and the authors name are in the largest text size, with the quote in the middle in a much smaller text, meaning that you read the more important information first and are immediately informed about the most important information. He has also incorporated the text with an image successfully without detracting from its legibility, partly because the bright red used for the text contrasts with the pale skin colour. there is also no surplus information that isn’t necessary to detract from the important parts.

Another important thing to bare in mind when designing a piece of visual communication is the concept of visual hierarchy. This is the order of importance of the different parts of information within the product you are designing, and how you make it so the audience read or see them in the order you intended. Size, colour, font, type, layers, weight and contrast all effect the visual hierarchy of a piece. To show this in greater detail I have looked at the advertising poster for the film Pulp Fiction (pictured). Here the title of the film is in the largest size text and in a bright yellow which contrast’s with the red back ground all contributing to making it stand out the most compared to the other information on the page. This means that you look at it first which is what the designer had intended because it is the most important piece of information. The second part that I looked too was the image as it takes up the largest part of the page but being in darker colour’s you don’t tend to see it first. After this I would argue that the list of actors in the film would be third in the hierarchy of this piece. The colour yellow used for the text contrasts well with the image but it is in large block of text which makes it less legible and as a result the audience would tend to look at it after the other parts of the poster.