Wikipedia- Type that is most easy to understand and is most important is that which is appealing to the eye.
My four guidelines are the readability, legibility, density of the script and the font chosen
I found it interesting that typography is subject to different cultural norms.
11 tips-
Grids! I never would have thought of grids! I fully intend to use this pattern in order to create sleek lines and straight lines.
Fonts- I've never thought of typeface as a science, but that's what it's seeming like to me as I look at 'counter' and 'x-height' etc etc. (by the by- I now know what was meant when we'd start dreaming of typeface)
8 ways to improve- I know that the mind processes more information when reading from right to left, and it tends to gloss over the bottom right more than it does the bottom left. I hope to incorporate this into my designs.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Design Brief 2
How in the world do you make a form festive and enjoyable...? I suppose I'll be figuring that out soon but I'm still confused.
I guess that's my only question/concern. The brief is pretty straightforward and easy to figure out. I just have to find a design that inspires me and hopefully I can use it with typeface.
I'm familiar with InDesign so I'm happy we'll be able to use that to create these items. I've used it previously to create newspaper layouts, so it'll be different using it for a one-page item.
I guess that's my only question/concern. The brief is pretty straightforward and easy to figure out. I just have to find a design that inspires me and hopefully I can use it with typeface.
I'm familiar with InDesign so I'm happy we'll be able to use that to create these items. I've used it previously to create newspaper layouts, so it'll be different using it for a one-page item.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
A response to Tiles
I am very proud of what I’ve managed to do for my tiles. I was also very happy to see that all three of my tiles wound up where they were supposed to be.
My Light Rail Station tile is my favorite. At first I wanted to evoke some sort of psychedelic feel that would look cool in a large scale, but then I got some feedback about it having the feeling of motion and it made a lot of sense. The font I chose has larger scale stems on each end of the M, and the middle part of the M is thinner, and, when placed one above the other as I did, I found that it looks like tracks, which is very evocative of a train station. When the vision is blurred slightly, the white and black also blend together, which I found interesting and I felt like it would be interesting to someone waiting for a train or even in passing.
The Unisex Bathroom was probably the hardest for me to complete. I tried to evoke the gender-neutral view but also have some interesting quality. I chose Ls in two different sizes and placed them together to form a geometric pattern. By making an even amount of the pattern in the corner and then a larger set in the middle, I feel it keeps everything neutral while also giving the viewer something to look at while they’re doing their business.
The Poets kitchen was also pretty hard for me to do, as I didn’t want it to be the cliché “letter on the tile.” I wanted to make it have a fluidity and grace which would inspire the poet and anyone else who may come into the kitchen. I thought of using a general sans serif type but then realized that the serif type was better for the feelings I wanted to evoke. I used varying sizes of Ms and overlapped and rotated the Ms around so the curl of the letter would come in contact with one or more other Ms. I felt like it looked slightly jumbled but I like how it turned out.
I feel I need to work harder on making a proper decision on my tiles: I must have deleted and retried the patterns about 10 times before settling on a pattern simply because it looked good and I was sick of attempting to make a decision. I found it hard to evoke the proper emotion from the tile and was thus forced to start over or try to figure out how to change it, something I’m not very good at.
I also don’t think I conveyed the right message in my feedback to the other designers in class. I saw a tile that worked well, and tried to make that message clear, it still came across wrong. The same thing happened with what I didn’t feel worked in the context. I think I may have insulted the designer because of what I said and all I was trying to say was that the design may not have been right for the context in which it was chosen. I don’t like giving critiquing feedback unless I know the other person isn’t going to take it the wrong way and I feel that’s what my fellow classmates did.
My Light Rail Station tile is my favorite. At first I wanted to evoke some sort of psychedelic feel that would look cool in a large scale, but then I got some feedback about it having the feeling of motion and it made a lot of sense. The font I chose has larger scale stems on each end of the M, and the middle part of the M is thinner, and, when placed one above the other as I did, I found that it looks like tracks, which is very evocative of a train station. When the vision is blurred slightly, the white and black also blend together, which I found interesting and I felt like it would be interesting to someone waiting for a train or even in passing.
The Unisex Bathroom was probably the hardest for me to complete. I tried to evoke the gender-neutral view but also have some interesting quality. I chose Ls in two different sizes and placed them together to form a geometric pattern. By making an even amount of the pattern in the corner and then a larger set in the middle, I feel it keeps everything neutral while also giving the viewer something to look at while they’re doing their business.
The Poets kitchen was also pretty hard for me to do, as I didn’t want it to be the cliché “letter on the tile.” I wanted to make it have a fluidity and grace which would inspire the poet and anyone else who may come into the kitchen. I thought of using a general sans serif type but then realized that the serif type was better for the feelings I wanted to evoke. I used varying sizes of Ms and overlapped and rotated the Ms around so the curl of the letter would come in contact with one or more other Ms. I felt like it looked slightly jumbled but I like how it turned out.
I feel I need to work harder on making a proper decision on my tiles: I must have deleted and retried the patterns about 10 times before settling on a pattern simply because it looked good and I was sick of attempting to make a decision. I found it hard to evoke the proper emotion from the tile and was thus forced to start over or try to figure out how to change it, something I’m not very good at.
I also don’t think I conveyed the right message in my feedback to the other designers in class. I saw a tile that worked well, and tried to make that message clear, it still came across wrong. The same thing happened with what I didn’t feel worked in the context. I think I may have insulted the designer because of what I said and all I was trying to say was that the design may not have been right for the context in which it was chosen. I don’t like giving critiquing feedback unless I know the other person isn’t going to take it the wrong way and I feel that’s what my fellow classmates did.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Readings for 9.17.09
Every time I try to explain the difference between ambiguous and reversible to a friend, I found myself confusing the person I'm talking to. Either way I'd explain it, I'd be saying the same thing for each ambiguous and reversable. At first I made two tiles that I thought were the two ideas but then, after reading the two readings I figured out that my tiles were the same idea and I realized what the difference was between the two ideas.
So I redid the ambiguous tile. I even made sure that the best of my two created tiles would definitely be reversible.
In my mind, a reversible creation can have the colors inverted and still make a noticeable ground/figure distinction whereas the ambiguous tile represents one where the ground and the figure cannot be completely figured out. As the reading said, an ambiguous pattern challenges the viewer to find a focal point, and I think it's challenging to find a focal point and to find the right letter, font and placement to make something ambiguous.
I suppose it's easier said than done... I'm still working on making it happy and sunshine in my mind.
So I redid the ambiguous tile. I even made sure that the best of my two created tiles would definitely be reversible.
In my mind, a reversible creation can have the colors inverted and still make a noticeable ground/figure distinction whereas the ambiguous tile represents one where the ground and the figure cannot be completely figured out. As the reading said, an ambiguous pattern challenges the viewer to find a focal point, and I think it's challenging to find a focal point and to find the right letter, font and placement to make something ambiguous.
I suppose it's easier said than done... I'm still working on making it happy and sunshine in my mind.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Readings and two more tile ideas
I've always thought of pictures of two or three colors as containing "white space" instead of the background and the image being the figure, mostly because of my journalism background. Now that I know these different terms and how they're used, I'll be able to communicate better with people in the graphic design field.
In notes on figure and background, I found it interesting in that there's a 'waist' in a graphic. It makes it sound like a figure should always have a middle. I've never thought that what I did for my tiles should or does have a middle. I was also interested in the "half and half" concept. I think the eye naturally sees the black more than the white in a tile, so while I'm interested in attempting this, I don't know how I'll be able to make it exactly half the space.
I never thought about the weight an object had. When I put a lot of black in one of my tiles, I just thought there would the opposite use of white as the figure and black as the ground. Thinking of gravity in a tile is something new I'll have to start considering. I've always thought of it as shading, or a shadow... so this is new to me.
While the work we're doing is in 2-D, I think it's very interesting how many graphics are in 3-D. I love watching movies like "Ratatouille" and "Finding Nemo" and the likes. and I know it must take so much more work than putting a letter on a 6X6 tile so my trying to decide which font and how to place is seems to matter less in the grand scheme of things.
Finally- I'm doing my tiles for the light rail station and the co-ed bathroom. I think something almost trippy for the light rail station would let people look at it while waiting for the rail. I wanted something for them to find different designs out of (sort of like clouds). I used Ms and, I think achieved what I was going for.
For the co-ed bathroom, like what's been said before, I wanted something that wouldn't have a gender. A tile that can be easily repeatable and still have something to look at while doing their business. Using Ks, I was able to find a way to mix a little bit of fun with a tile that could easily be re-created and duplicated.
In notes on figure and background, I found it interesting in that there's a 'waist' in a graphic. It makes it sound like a figure should always have a middle. I've never thought that what I did for my tiles should or does have a middle. I was also interested in the "half and half" concept. I think the eye naturally sees the black more than the white in a tile, so while I'm interested in attempting this, I don't know how I'll be able to make it exactly half the space.
I never thought about the weight an object had. When I put a lot of black in one of my tiles, I just thought there would the opposite use of white as the figure and black as the ground. Thinking of gravity in a tile is something new I'll have to start considering. I've always thought of it as shading, or a shadow... so this is new to me.
While the work we're doing is in 2-D, I think it's very interesting how many graphics are in 3-D. I love watching movies like "Ratatouille" and "Finding Nemo" and the likes. and I know it must take so much more work than putting a letter on a 6X6 tile so my trying to decide which font and how to place is seems to matter less in the grand scheme of things.
Finally- I'm doing my tiles for the light rail station and the co-ed bathroom. I think something almost trippy for the light rail station would let people look at it while waiting for the rail. I wanted something for them to find different designs out of (sort of like clouds). I used Ms and, I think achieved what I was going for.
For the co-ed bathroom, like what's been said before, I wanted something that wouldn't have a gender. A tile that can be easily repeatable and still have something to look at while doing their business. Using Ks, I was able to find a way to mix a little bit of fun with a tile that could easily be re-created and duplicated.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Three alpha tiles
So I'm working on Design Brief #1 and found some great designs I'd love to attempt. The pictures were found from http://www.pophamdesign.com/gallery.php and I think these patterns will be easily morphed into an alphabetical feature.
I may be doing this wrong, but these are the three tiles I'd like to achieve for this brief.
Tile 1 is beautiful in itself but I'd love to recreate it in W's. Since it'll be in black and white, I think it'll be great if I made larger W's, maybe in a different design or different shaping, to give the tile the same affect as the floor on the wall. I feel like this would be really neat as a tiled bench in a zoo, in a new part where displays of non-fiction about the animals help visitors think about the animals in different ways. It could be placed near Zebras, since that's the affect I feel it'll give.
Tile 2, while in color, I think it could be great in black and white in O's on the kitchen wall of a poet’s house. I would love to create the chain-affect but make it on a smaller scale. Different shades of gray would also give it more character. This would show off the kitchen, as well as give the affect that the person living there is artistic in all aspects of their lives.
Finally Tile 3 would be great in black and white in use of the walls of a new Milwaukee light transit station, meant to make the large blank wall appealing to quickly passing commuters. I think it'll be slightly trippy when made with L's. I get a Tetris feel from this design and I think, even though it'll be rectangular in L's, it'll be super neat while put together with blacks, whites and shades of gray. This would look cool in a transit station. It would let people have something to look at while waiting for their commute, and it would allow those sitting for a short time to try to find designs in the shapes.
I may be doing this wrong, but these are the three tiles I'd like to achieve for this brief.
Tile 1 is beautiful in itself but I'd love to recreate it in W's. Since it'll be in black and white, I think it'll be great if I made larger W's, maybe in a different design or different shaping, to give the tile the same affect as the floor on the wall. I feel like this would be really neat as a tiled bench in a zoo, in a new part where displays of non-fiction about the animals help visitors think about the animals in different ways. It could be placed near Zebras, since that's the affect I feel it'll give.
Tile 2, while in color, I think it could be great in black and white in O's on the kitchen wall of a poet’s house. I would love to create the chain-affect but make it on a smaller scale. Different shades of gray would also give it more character. This would show off the kitchen, as well as give the affect that the person living there is artistic in all aspects of their lives.
Finally Tile 3 would be great in black and white in use of the walls of a new Milwaukee light transit station, meant to make the large blank wall appealing to quickly passing commuters. I think it'll be slightly trippy when made with L's. I get a Tetris feel from this design and I think, even though it'll be rectangular in L's, it'll be super neat while put together with blacks, whites and shades of gray. This would look cool in a transit station. It would let people have something to look at while waiting for their commute, and it would allow those sitting for a short time to try to find designs in the shapes.
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