9/25/09

TYPE1; Words

the letter A


apple
alligator
angry
alphabet
armadillo
alabaster
argentina
angle
air
ascot
alloy
angel
acropolis
antsy
africa
america
anchovies
ABBA
ant
ass
aperture
ampersand
agua
affection
aspen
abuse
alcohol
aqua
athena
adventure
avenue
acorn
anorexic
antarctica
anchorage
anchor
alaska
alabama
arkansas
armour
arrow
arrest
apprenticeship
architect
archeologist
architecture
afro
amber
apron
astronaut
anvil
atom
atrium
arterie
apathy
apology
ant eater
aardvark
artichoke
asteroid
apollo
aphrodisiac




anorexic & apple

alcohol & abuse

armor & arrow

acorn & avenue

acorn & aspen

apron & apple

astronaut & asteroid

artery & atrium

anvil & armor

9/21/09

VISCOM1; Reading Response Transparency

This reading was definitely just another reenforcement of what this entire project was about and the complexities that it can build up to. It also gave us helpful examples as to ways we can employ different strategies to help get across different words, thoughts, or phrases. Overlapping whole images can be just as successful as overlapping textures or colors, sometimes even more successful.

VISCOM1; TYPE1; Final Statement


Tenochtitilan. Fifteenth Century AD.

My book is, essentially, a retailing of the history of the Aztec civilization and the conquest of the civilization by the Conquistadors. The book starts out with the civilization undisturbed, which quickly becomes more disturbed by the attack of the Spaniards, and then eventually downfalls and vanishes.

Type and the dots separately have a hard time communicating a point across to you, but through the conjoining of them, they become much stronger in the message they try to communicate. I focused my dots on colors used back in that time period in their architecture, art, and clothing.

In this book I worked with a few main ideas and objectives to keep constant throughout the book. The first one is the "unit shape" that either appears or is alluded to on every page. The second one is color, I kept my color pallet to blues, greens, and reds. The book starts out mainly blue and greens with very few reds, then transitions into more emphasis on the red with accents of blues and greens, and then eventually fades back out into nothing but blues and greens. Overall with these aspects and keeping the transparency pages to the same sort of feel and consistency, I feel I have been able to create a nicely cohesive piece.

The biggest thing that I have come to find in the course of this project is that imagery can either make your project that much stronger or just rip itself apart. Imagery must be supportive but not overpowering; cohesive, but not too boring and monochromatic. Also, relying too heavily on imagery is the moment I would realize that the concept I was working on at that time was a bad one, and so I would fresh or take that idea in a new direction.

I feel that I have a rather high craft. But craft is always something that I can continue and keep working on and striving for a higher level of. Thinking abstractly is something that I struggled with the entire project long. I am not an abstract thinker in general, so this project has really got my brain working and thinking in new and different ways.










9/4/09

VISCOM1; TYPE1; Final Nine Words

Aztecs
1; Unified
2; Secluded
3; Unexpected
4; Attack
5; Panic
6; Conquer
7; Unstable
8; Downfall
9; Vanish

9/2/09

VISCOM1; Proj1 Reading Response

A Primer of Visual Literacy
This reading built upon what we covered in class last week. It gave me more ideas and ways to get my ideas across. Instead of just the twelve different principles, it gave us 38 different words to work with and it also worked with comparing and contrasting how they are alike and how they are different. This will give me more ways to figure out how to communicate my words better. The following is a list of everything they talked about to help me remember what they were.
; Balance & Instability
; Symmetry & Asymmetry
; Regularity & Irregularity
; Simplicity & Complexity
; Unity & Fragmentation
; Economy & Intricacy
; Understatement & Exaggeration
; Predictability & Spontaneity
; Activeness & Stasis
; Subtlety & Boldness
; Neutrality & Accent
; Transparency & Opacity
; Consistency & Variation
; Accuracy & Distortion
; Flatness & Depth
; Singularity & Juxtaposition
; Sequentiality & Randomness
; Sharpness & Diffusion
; Repetition & Episodicity


Principles of 2D Design
This reading was another reiteration of what we went over in class and what was talked about in the other readings. It was nice to see these same sort of principles used with photography, to show that they do not relate to just one area of work, it relates across the entire world of art essentially. It's also easy to tell how they relate to graphic design even though they were illustrated with photographs.


Type & Image
This reading, like the two before, just helped me understand visual language better, gave me a broader grasp of it. It's opened up more possibilities and paths to take while trying to create a stunning image while at the same time communicating my point across to the viewer.

VISCOM1; Theme & Words

ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS
Incan, Mayan, Aztec Civilizations
01; Seclusion
02; Overgrown(jungle)
03; Misty
04; Steep
05; Dangerous/Danger
06; Violence
07; Quiet
08; Unsettled
09; Mysterious
10; Peaceful
11; Forest(wilderness)
12; Intrude
13; Ancient
14; Adventure
15; Sick/Sickness
16; High Altitude(mountains)
17; Climbing/Hiking/Treking
18; Sacrificing
19; Dark
20; Hunt
21; Massive(mountains)
22; Thrilling
23; Unexpected
24; Cold
25; Humid
26; Deep
27; Crumble

Working with the overall feeling of being up in the mountains. High altitude, the dangers, the gorgeous ruins,  the rich greens and blues. Darker imagery, maps, old feeling. Ancient, crumbling, overgrown, the overwhelming feeling of a deep, dark society. Very animalistic.

other ideas: music&theatre; working with visualizing sound

VISCOM1; F+S


RIIIICE KRIIIIISPIESSSSS

Lovely, lovely, lovely.
Simple, clean, and organized.
There aren't 5000 different gradients with oddly warped text.
Simple color scheme: white, black, red.
Same font used for entire front of box besides the company logo.

Alignment is used here, most definitely. Center aligned, though also justified to the "edges" of the panel.
Symmetrical, veryy symmetrical. Equally balanced across entire front panel of box.

-ian arthur spaeth