Adding and vectoring

Working with vectoring my current icons, while adding in a couple new ideas is going! I'm happy with my current ideas, and feel like they are all heading in a good direction within my story.

 

I'm adding in a picnic basket, and some sort of bad weather to show that it was a picnic, and not just any picnic, but a terrible picnic. I'm needing to go around to other people within the studio to answer some questions about my icons, basically to see if they understand what my icons represent, and what kind of story I'm trying to tell. Let's hope that goes well. Here is the picnic basket that I'm working on:

I'll be adding the weather in soon, as well as either one or two more, not quite sure which may be the best to add. I have attacking birds, dog poop, and a swarm of bees. Maybe some opinions on which I should add to make the picnic more relevant?

type experimentation 01

 

 

  

  

I definitely need to start integrating the other synonyms within each composition and also making four of them cohesive so they all look as if they are one idea, but using different materials. 

Image's first project documentation

I didn't document my first project in type so here it is.

The project was about expressing our self through and index, icon, and symbol. I used my cat as an index:

 

Large bowls as my symbol were supposed to represent my organization and anal tendencies:

And finally my icon with my knitting needles:

Poster Clash submission

The change one thing poster  has come to an end, and no offense, but I'm grateful. This being my first poster it was an interesting process to go through. I started with SO many different ideas about different topics, then narrowing down to one idea, then developing different ideas for that one idea. I changed my poster multiple times (majorly). BUT I'm really glad I ended up with what I did. I remember one night I just thought I'd try this one composition out because I was sick of my "dog face" icons, and it worked much better. I think since this "first" poster idea is out of my head, and it has been done I'm really excited to move on and to try more and more. All in all, after a few tweaks that were made on Friday, I'm really happy with my end product. It was fun to add a gradient due to me not being experienced with them, and the type was fun to play with as well. I hope the message comes across powerful and clear. Here's the final product:

 

  

YAYAYAYAYAY!!!!! (excited =D!!)

Finalizing bruce

Working today in class was really nice, I finalized my lettering for his name, and decided the hand rendering type for the quote was illegible, and wasn't working out as well as I'd like. So, I used the movie font, Trajan pro! How appropriate, right? Here are some images with my process.

 

Here's my initial idea, and the first type of lettering I had. 

 

 

Here's my quote and my dragon about to eat Tyler. 

 

final.

fillllllm.

 

I need to use my 35 mm more often.

This was a couple years ago.

Finalizing change one thing

Working on finalizing the change one thing poster. I did most of the recommendations that were giving from the seniors. I made different types of paw prints, between a cat and dog, with scale size and placement. I decided not to add in other animals, just due to the most kinds of pets are cats and dogs that are being euthanized within shelters. I changed around the type by adding in some black words instead of using all white words within my phrase. I think that part of pretty successful.

All in all, I ended up going back to my original simple geometric paw print made of circles and ovals. It was the most direct and it was way less complicated. Here are some screen shots.

 

This was the one with all different types of paw prints, ultimately the numbers get distorted, and it look really sloppy, plus the density is a lot more difficult to render when there are so many different sizes within an are. 

 

This is probably going to be my final one. I still think I like the type bigger, but...it does definitely detract the viewer of the important number at the top.  Working the most important word/s as white worked well, because the viewer can associate all the bold information together.

 

I just liked the arrangement of this text. It doesn't communicate well enough though. 

Type crit.

Going off of the earlier critique today that the seniors sat in on, was helpful, but also confusing. There was a lot of good suggestions made, and I'm definitely going to keep on iterating on those suggestions until I find something I'm confident in. Some of the comments made were of course about how my white type is so loud, and it being the main focus, straying away from the important number. Which I was definitely concerned with, so I agree with them there. Also, it being white doesn't help, so turning it a light beige, or some even possibly black, with the right positioning would be a good idea. Another comment made was integrating more various types of paw prints. Signifying between a cat and dog, would show more depth and be a stronger communication tool. I'm not sure about integrating different kinds of animals though. Such as, birds, hamsters, or bunnies. I feel they would get lost within the main idea of the most animals being euthanized are cats and dogs. BUT, I want to try it. It MAY look really good.

Updated icons

I feel that this set is a lot more confident in how I want to render my icons. I tried to have more fun with it and I did.

 

 

Change one thing, change.

Iterating for this poster has been an adventure, I feel I've gone through 5 different main ideas to finally get to the one I think I'm going to use. It definitely shows me that iterations are key and may or may not lead you in a good direction, it's all at chance really. But, the more you develop an idea the faster it will come across to other people in society. I did a lot of different type iterations for this idea, but what was said in class is true, there is no real sense to the hierarchy of type.

 

So I headed in my final direction:

I'm still not completely confident in this idea, I feel that the first thing I look at is the white type; but black wouldn't  be legible, and gray just doesn't look good. I wonder if reading this poster backwards may be okay. It may intrigue the viewer to understand the numbering better by noticing the white type first. Then again, I could be full of it.

Update on bruce.

 

Here's a pretty good general idea for how my constructed image project is going. 

I'm pretty happy with the idea. I think the movie poster idea came across quite apparently and the hand made feel is fun. There is much to be improved upon though. Such as, the text is obviously too hand rendered to the point where it is almost child like, and the quote text needs to be re-evaluated. Also, I need to use a different cup for the water. Just general piecing it together in a more craft aware manner is what I'm thinking it needs.

ICONS, ICONS, ICONS

Here's some more inspiration for my icons set for the problematic picnic. I'm still feeling a little overwhelmed with this idea of drawing and making these complex forms so simple, because i tend to go to far with how simplistic, or it's just too sketchy. I'll be doing a lot of drawing within the next couple days to try and get my aesthetic down with a lot of other idea's. Working with negative space, and organic forms is really intriguing to me too. Iteration, Iterations, Iterationssss.

 

The color is nice within this one because of the way it's offset, that's something obviously that we're not doing right now, but it's good to keep in mind. I also like how each form is rough, but refined.

 

The repeating patterns within the icons is interested. I'm not sure that I could incorporate a repeating element within all of my objects because of the versatility of them.

 

The general shape of these birds are nice, way too abstract, but I really like the layering technique.

 

Again, the way each of these patterns use the idea of curves, and geometrical shapes at the same time.

 

Again, shape. Simple, but complex.

 

The beetle form in this one is what caught my eye, due to one of my objects being ants.

Reading response for #1&2

Throughout reading each other these articles I found the process to be interesting, especially within the Iconic Lion reading. I enjoyed that the initial ideas were shown because it really emphasized  what we're doing in class now. Doing iterations of different ways of seeing each icon. Concentrating within the Olympic games icons that were developed within Tokyo, I can definitely see how confusion happened throughout the event they are very vague and have no personality within them. I really enjoyed Olt Aicher's icons for the Olympic games. They have personality, but are still geometric, and very informative. Within this project I'd like to experiment beyond what ten main ideas we were given. I've always loved the 50's geometric shapes, and I'd like to see how I could play that exaggerated geometric form within my picnic icons.

 

  

F+S

 

So, MTV changed it's logo to be more simple and not just about how it says to the public, "music television" They mentioned how they wanted it to portray all sorts of identities. For the logo it self, I feel they could have done more with it, to me it just looks like the cropped in the initial image and inverted it. Although, the logo to me, is iconic and definitely will always be associated with that channel, and pop culture for a VERY long time. 

yahoo article

Design Process

While reading this chapter it was interesting to see someone's different view of what he thinks is the right way to design. I feel that process is a personal thing, and that person needs to find what works best with them. Yes, you can be taught, and you can be given ideas and directions to head towards, but even when you do hear that you should design a certain way within the process it seems to never stick, because it's not their way of doing process. While working here at school it's difficult for me to even develop a valuable amount of process. Yes, I'll have iterations, but if I don't get that specific number to do, it's difficult for me to explore more and more. I'm discovering that already, while it being the second semester here at KCAI, no one is going to give me a specific number of iterations to do. Which means, I need to start giving my self a number to shoot for. Obviously a high number is valued, but it doesn't mean that you're going to come up with a thousand different ideas within two research days before the next class. Exploration is key within design. And once I am out in whatever kind of field of design I will be in, no one is going to boss me around and TELL me what to do, so while here I should take advantage of practicing that.

One think I did really enjoy about this chapter was the list of questions he has within there. I felt that they were all valid in they're own way. Referencing this will be a great advantage, and possibly picking a few to focus on more than others would be nice too.

A revised list of objects..

Here is a revised list of my objects for the Problematic picnic.

It was decided that all I use are the bad things for my objects, besides the picnic basket/blanket.

Ants
Birds
Bees
Rotten Food
Dog Poop
Spilt Wine
Rain
Picnic Basket
Smelly trash
First aid
Poison Ivy
and, of course...
broken cookies


We're starting up the whole process of making icons so now it should get interesting with how my style of icon will come out.

The Contructed Image

While researching Bruce Lee and trying to find certain characteristics I'd like to show about him, without showing him as a person is coming along. Symbols are the one thing that I'm having a little bit of trouble on. Yes, I have obvious ideas, but trying to find something deeper is difficult because there isn't a whole lot of personal information out there about him. Yes, I can find quotes and try and read into them some more, but having a symbol and being able to identify that its Bruce Lee without an iconic image seems difficult to portray, which is obviously the point.

Here's a list of Index's and Symbol's that I'm thinking about using:

Symbols:
Ying Yang
Japanese characters
Different forms of water
Some sort of repetition idea, because he believed highly in doing one thing a thousand times.
And that's all I have for now...still thinking.

Index's:
Nunchucks
The color yellow to relate to his iconic jumpsuit that he would wear.
Broken things
Martial arts moves
Movies
Weapons
Pain Killers due to his death of an allergic reaction to them
The silhouette form of his kick, (but i feel that could also be a symbol).
Japanese traditional houses, such as "paper thin" walls, and wood work.
Dragons

Some ideas I'm tossing around right now are the portrayal of Bruce Lee as a comic. I'd take photos and them outline them with black marker on different colors of construction paper and then collage them together. Or also vectoring them on the computer then putting them together.

Another idea is more of 2D mixed with a little 3D. I have taken some photos of a friend with nun chucks and of them "punching" the air to show the action. I wanted to have it coming right out at the audience...so the idea of showing depth perception with construction paper would be interesting as well.

Kung Fu posters are pretty iconic and they look like a blast to construct so I'll be taking some inspiration from them as well.

 

  

 

Drawingsss.

 

Overview

  

Linear progression

  

Intentional

  

Simplified

While drawing and exploring my five objects it was interesting to see how loose and how tight drawings could be rendered differently, and sometimes...in opposite ways. My favorite part of the process was probably the simplification part because it was nice to be able to point out which parts of the object that we all thought was the most important and see how much information you need to give in order to portray the idea. 

Change one thing, update.

Here are some directions I decided to take within the change one thing competition. I'm not sure how to represent the idea on a serious note with my icons. I just look at them as being silly, so associating serious, bold colors with them is difficult. The last one I'm not completely sure of, I wanted to show that spaying and neutering could cause a LARGE family tree within a small amount of time, but that one just isn't translating as well. Also, and good point about my icon ideas was that I wanted to make it seem important, but easy to do.

 

  

  

 

KAPOOOWWWEY!

So, I think this explains my direction pretty well.

I went from a list with Grace Kelly, and Clark Gable, Harvey Milk, and Billie Holiday to Bruce Lee, and figured Bruce Lee was a little out of my comfort zone, and probably more interesting visually. I'm excited to get started and find props/imagery to use. I'm not exactly how I want to present my idea, I'm thinking a diorama would be a good direction with paper mache for my walls to get that Japanese look. We'll see. I'm still a little lost when it comes to how I want to portray the entire photograph.

Text, Image, Message

Thinking about how image works with type is a difficult concept to wrap your head around. Yes, this cleared some ideas up about how to use type with an image, and how it could be successful, but it also was hard to actually imagine it working within the one idea you would pursue. Yes, Iterations are key. And, I DEFINITELY need to explore and experiment more and more, taking risks while doing this as well. The one thing I did really take away from this reading were the visual examples that were expressed. I definitely got more of an idea from what each idea meant after looking at each example.

Once I started working with my posters it seemed harder to actually translate what I had learned from this article. This being the first poster I have EVER done in my life I think is getting to me too much, and I should just relax and not be constrained to just using my little electric box in front of me. Here are some examples that I'm tweaking and working on as we go through this project.

V+C | How to think

Ed Boydon makes a lot of good points throughout his blog post. I specifically enjoyed the idea about writing and drawing while having a conversation with someone. It seems to be a fun, and simple idea to do to remember what was said, and how many people one person can really talk to. I'm sure it also shows evolution on certain ideas talked about and possibly questions being answered two years later. Which relates back to not always having the answer once a question is asked. One of the other good points that Boydon makes is making mistakes quickly. I'm not sure if I completely understand this point, but from what I get is that you should work fluidly without thought, and then edit yourself as soon as possible to knock the bad ideas out so you can get to work on the good ideas. With this I feel that it relates to the project we're doing now because of how quick we chose our topic/story for our project. We edited the bad ideas out as soon as possible so we wouldn't think about it anymore.

V+C Story Ideas

Story one idea:

A Problematic Picnic:

-Picnic blanket
-Picnic basket
-Ants/bees/bugs
-Weather
-Picnic food i.e. sandwiches, fruit, fried chicken, wine, bottled water, etc..SPOILED
-Summer Dress
-Baseball Hat
-Plates, utensils, and napkins
-Sunblock
-Sunglasses
-Broken Cookies
-Grass
-Swingset
-Pond
-Mud
-Birds
-Dog poop


Story two idea:

Across the Country:

-Station Wagon
-Sunglasses
-Keys
-T-shirt and shorts
-Radio/ipod/tape player/head phones
-Gas Dank gage
-Cooler/food/cold drinks
-Atlas/ Map
-Mountains
-Skyscrapers (east coast)
-flat tire
-up/down window button
-Sunflower seeds
-Coffee mug
-rear view mirror
-Weather
-Palm tree (west coast)
-Luggage
- Corn or cows (midwest)
-Semi-truck/s
-Restroom

A new arrival

Here we are again, and it feels like that 6 weeks did not exist at all. Oh, well. Back to work.

Starting off in type we're putting together a poster for the "Change one thing" competition for AIGA. Sounds interesting, but intimidating. For now, I have some broad ideas about what situation or idea I'd like to change one thing in.

1.) Over consumption, or just basically the idea about how everything is "made in China"
2.) Animal Abuse, specifically focusing on puppy mills.
and
3.) The cost of higher education in America, and how private loans build and build.

Still brainstorming, and wondering about what other issues that possibly may be more light-hearted to think about, and possibly not a social issue.

-----The new class that us wonderful sophomores are taking is an image class, focusing on digital photography, and the first assignment consists of semiotics and translating them for our own self, and personality within on project. ICON, INDEX, and SYMBOL...these are all things that we have to find images of ourselves within.