OUGD401 - Lecture Notes : Typography

Typography - Richard Miles 

A history of type...

Aims

• History
• 6 Main classifications
• Famous typefaces
• Metalinguistic function
• Kerning and x-heights

Calbri, Gill Sans, Curls MT, Comic Sans

Typography exists at the interception of Visual communication and Verbal communication. 

Typography - Meta-communication, Paralinguistic's, Kinesics

Language is an organised way of communication. Typography is a meta-communication that can change communication. Typography can affect the speed, rhythm and way we read a language.

'Do I look fat in this paragraph?

type is broadly classified into 6 families. 

In the mid 15th century (1450's) the age of print. The guttenburg press was invented. It uses moveable typeform which could be moved into different layouts and mass produced. Before this was invented type was only ever produced by hand. For the first time literature, knowledge and the printed word was available for the masses. 

Marshall Mcluhan - media theorist 'late age of print' 

A lot of our alphabet comes from the Romans. The oldest type record. The reason why we have serifs is because letters were originally chiseled from stone which meant that serifs were added to the end of letters.

Based particularly on medieval script handwriting. Reproved by the Nazi's. 

These were supposed to reflect handwriting though they had a greater kind of elegance. 

Geofroy Tory believed that proportions of the alphabet should reflect the ideal human form. He wrote ' The cross stroke covers the man's organ of generaton'

Humanist typefaces which have been redesigned to suit contemporary tastes. 

15th century - Venice. Explosion of typography. Typography takes hold as a design discipline. Further move away from script and move towards a more rational logic. (slanted ascender has gone horizontal)

A lot of the fonts that are supplied on a computer were based on the old style fonts from Venice. 

England and Europe (France) mid 18th century. Really famous typographer called William Caslon developed a font.

A gradual move through Humanist, Old Style and Transitional typography. 

Modern or Didone typefaces. First one made by Firmin Didot (french typographer) The most well known is called Bodoni. 

No brackets, no attempt to look like handwriting, ultramodern.

Didone fonts get used a lot in fashion. Glamour, style, sophistication. 

It doesn't actually look like the Egyptian type, it is more of a reference to orientational area. Designed to be fonts that can shout at you - not made to get lost. Ugly, brash, designed to grab attention.

Fat face - inflated hyperbole type style. 

Font of mass marketing.

Modernist sans serf type faces. International, design language for all, modern, progressive, not historic.

Nazi's used Fraktur to show their superiority.

Helvetica - can't go wrong with or boring.

Modernist or Post-Modernist

David Carson - Grunge type

Black letter typeface called Bastard - to be used by corporate wankers.

OUGD401 : Creative Advertising Seminar

OUGD405 - Routine

For our first design process brief we have to produce a body of research about a specific subject which we were assigned. My groups subject was Routine.

We started to approach this subject by first looking at the definition of the word routine. 

Routine Source

As a group we developed a list of words and phrases which we thought best fit this topic:

• Daily
• National
• Yearly
• Monthly
• Male
• Female
• Emergency
• Dance
• Inspections
• Work Out/Fitness
• Skin
• Medication
• Work Related
• Education
• Trust
• Preparatory
• Safety
• OCD/Disability

We assigned one of the above list to one person and we will each produce a set of 3 A3 Design Direction boards (Primary, Secondary and Direction) about that sub-characteristic.

I was assigned Safety and Preparatory routines. As a starting point for my research I will look at the following:

• News stories
• Charities
• Health and Safety 
• Emergency Services

OUGD401 - Context of Practice : Harvard Referencing Task

Dawtrey, L. [et al.] (1996) 'Investigating Modern Art'   London, Yale University Press. (709.06)

Levenson, M. (2011) 'Modernism'  New Haven and London, Yale University Press. (709.06)

Wood, P. [et al] (1994) 2nd edition, 'Modernism in dispute. Art since the forties' London, Yale University Press. (709.06)

Wood, P. (2004) 'Varieties of Modernism' London, Yale University Press. (709.06)

Bocola, S. (1999) 'The Art of Modernism' Munich, London, New York, Prestel. (709.06)

OUGD401 : Graffiti and Street Art - Lecture Notes

Graffiti and Street Art (Wall and Street)

Graffiti started with cave painting 

Caves Lascaux, France 

Scratched with animal bones and natural pigments

depicting scenes of everyday life, hunting.

Ancient Roman graffiti 

from Pompeii (Italy)

Crudely drawn images, vulgarity

Graffiti of political nature.

20th century

Kilroy -USA

Chad - UK

appearing in the war with the slogan ‘wot no’

made a joke out of the social and political nation

Paris May 1968

Paris riots

Massive development for graffiti as an artform

the graffiti fuses all of the bodies together which shows a sense of strength and power in numbers.

1970’s American Graffiti scene

Spray can graffiti 

Evolves alongside hip hop culture

Making the language of the street visual

Announcing presence, and saying ‘we will not be ignored’

VOICE ON THE STREET

Asserting their presence

1970’s disco scene the opposite of hip hop scene

superficial, fluffy

Hip hop

Political and outspoken

Jon Naar, Photographer, 1973

Liked to show the graffiti art but kept the identity of the artist anonymous 

Jean - Michel Basquiat (1960-88)

starts as a graffiti artist and moves forward in an art school

Neo expressionist painting

Untitled 1982

1983

dies of a heroin overdose in 1988

Produced phrases which are very famous

SAMO - same old - same old shit

poetic but confusing style

has a deep meaning but it is not easily uncover-able

He built up this character but he also killed the character in 1979

uses a copyright symbol when he signs SAMO’S name 

Warhol and Basquiat

General Electric wait waiter, 1984.

comment about capitalists

Keith Haring, Radiant baby, 1990

most famous symbols

he was a social activist as well as an artist

works in the subway.

He sketches over advertising

1981 he sketched his first chalk drawings on black paper and painted plastic, metal found objects

message about sexuality

Aids and HIV was a huge subject 

Gay artist

PopShop - closed 2005

Selling t-shirts, toys, posters bearing his signature images

Became a celebrity hang out

his work was criticised because of his commercialism - making money out of work that had already been commissioned.

John Feckner, Broken Promises, 1980

Stenciled

Artists use a word in a real place 

very effective

‘broken promises’ showing the misuse of space in the city

Jenny Holzer, Times Square Show, 1980

using digital art people might not realise they are looking at artwork as they so regularly see advertising in those areas.

Graffiti art in a different form?

Video Game Culture

Comment on the lack of availability of brands and technology in the Eastern bloc

From the Berlin Wall

commenting on the desire for goods and to be part of the commercial world

Symbolism of the world coming down - influx of technology

Tats Cru - 1997 for Coca Cola, Mcdonalds, Toyota, MTV

Appealing to a younger audience by using a style which they can identify with

Jet Set Radio (2000-2003)

famous for its soundtrack and self shaded style of animation

Graffiti in video games

exploration into the subculture and expressions

Invader - French Artist 1969

moves graffiti on from making art on a wall

uses pixels in an image

places them in cities

space invader spread firstly in France and can now been seen in most cities around Europe

Can not be removed by the council

Conceptual element : points on a map form a space invader

Attack of the Montpellier

sends people around the city to collect his work - pac man 

Re-emergence of street art

Banksy Kate Moss

Shepard Fairey 2008 working for the Obama campaign

Banksy - inspired by andy warhol

Parisian Photographer JR, Favella

Morro Da Provienda - Rio, 2008

blows up a photograph and places it on the buildings

highlight the social impact of living in the Favela’s

the women look down on the area in a protective way, also a reminder of the human cost of living in the violent area

Blu (italy) and Os Gesmeos (Brazil)

Lisbon, 2010

image covers the whole building, part of the building becomes part of the street art.

social comment with some sort of agreement as he would have had to get permission to produce the art

Corsa Advert - his work was included

Balance between working in a sub cultural field and being taken up by the commerical world

123 KLAN (France) Nike, Addidas

try and maintain their own practice as well

Paul Curtis (moose)

Environmental aspect to street art

uses stencils and a water jet to blast off the dirt from the walls which creates an image

he would rather create something that can be removed naturally

Leeds City Centre

Made sound clash record label (1990’s)

the global picture

Bomb it

2007 as part of the tribecer film festival

shepard fairey was featured

Free art friday

art movement in which artists place free art out in public for people to enjoy and take home.

unlike established street art which will stay where it is, free art friday the idea of it is that it is portable

Sam 3 (Spain) Murcia 2010

uses only black paint

responding to an existing environent and adapting it with an environmental theme.

the city is seen as a stage where the narrative can be played out

no attempt for the artist to explain it to us

VHILS aka Alexandre farto (Portugal) London 2008

plastic is knocked away from the brick which leaves an image

Faith 71

Amsterdam

Red stickers round a natural hole in plaster

bridges the gap between hyperealist art and hyperabstract 

Graffiti art can be a way of escaping gender

Some graffit artists play on the femininity 

Fafi (France)

Miss Van

Swoon - her characters have a historical reference

Art of Resistance

politcal walls

JR also places his work onto a wall in Bethlehem

asking people to pull faces, decorating the wall in a negative place

removes the idea of territory in land

Banksy, 2005

looking at the wall as an invitation for decoration.

Stencils an image of girl with balloons, essentially escaping the wall by flying over it.

Someone adds to Banky’s graffiti (sister you need more)

CTRL + ALT +DELETE

impact of the wall has been most severe on the people living there.

OUGD401 - Critical Analysis : Aesthetics

For our second Context of Practice session with Fred we had to collect 6 images. 

2 of just type

2 of just image

and 2 of type and image

From these images we had to chose one that we liked and one that we disliked.

My choices...

Like

Dislike

Like

Dislike

Like

Dislike

We had to come up with 5 aesthetic reasons why we liked or disliked the image. (purple post-it notes). Afterwards we compiled a group list which is shown below.

As designers it is our job to design for people with different aesthetic responses which means we should understand the different responses. We swapped images with another person and had to write our initial responses to their choices, we then had to look at it for a longer period of time and write another 3 responses. We did this until we had studied the images fully (post-it notes below.)

We were split into pairs and asked to come up with a set of aesthetic rules about design.

After this we had to choose 3 rules which reflected our own individual rules. We added these to post-it notes and put the up onto the board.

My 3 rules were :

All Graphic Design should be legible

Graphic Design should have a purpose

Colours should be appropriate to content.