viscomtwo. F+S.

I was on FFFFOUND! the other day and was parrousing through the pretty images when I laid my eyes on this gorgeous piece. This is roughly the same sort of idea that I am working with. Drawing the woman figure in as little amount of lines as possible. The inner leg/groin region caught my attention because even up until now I still have not full accomplished my splash and the way this artist handled that area is nice and very well controlled. I will reference this sort of concept while progressing with my splash.

sources: ffffound!, rosenworld.

Image. Constructed Image.

This was the first round. I ended up laying his outfit on the floor and I quickly realized that taking the photos were going to be really hard. The background was an uneven white so I had to end up blowing out white and black to make the background even and in doing so I lost all detail in the clothing. Also, the shoes were hugely distracting. In retaking these photos I addressed these concerns and created this shot.

I ended up pinning up his outfit on the wall(the hat was interesting to get to stay).

The image is slightly creepy, yes. But in doing this I was trying to haze the line between Charlie Chaplin(The Tramp) and Hitler. All of Charlie Chaplin's movies were first and foremost there to make people laugh in a time of great distress. However, most of his work was also politically driven. An alarming amount of people didn't know that about his work so my project I focused my work on trying to bring across that aspect of his work. One of the most political movies he made was called "The Great Dictator" where he essentially played Hitler. He created his own "swastika" for the movie, which is what exists on his arm. The mustache is supposed to be hazy as to whether it is supposed to symbolize The Tramp or Hitler. However, when you read the quote(made to look like it is coming out of his mouth) it is supposed to contradict what his armband is trying to symbolize.

I went about this radically different from everyone else. When I thought about Charlie Chaplin and what he is most famous for, the first thing that I could ever think about was his outfit when he was The Tramp. So the most successful route for me to go, I felt, was recreating his outfit. I worry this is too literal. I ended up stick his quote where his mouth would be, put his mustache in, and his name where his eyes would be. I made it black and white to emphasize the armband, but i wish I had boosted the red more, it's not overly noticeable on the picture. I also left it grayer than what I was planning to also go with the feel of his movies. They are much much older and the quality of the footage is rather gray so I felt keeping the color muted and gray would actually work better for me.

sophomore year.

What's my impression as a sophomore

Life in the design department is actually quite wonderful. The classmates you enter this department with will become some of the closest friends you will have once all is said and done. With the amount of time you (should) spend in studio with your classmates and everything that you go through together it will strengthen your friendships with each other. I guess I can't speak for when you become seniors, but for now, at least, you will still get along with most everyone in your studio. By the time you graduate here you'll (hopefully) have many connections to use.  The classes you take and the teachers you'll have are definitely some of the best you will ever have. The program is grueling, that's definitely for sure, but it is well worth it. Graphic Design is a very demanding department, because Graphic Design is a very demanding field of work. You must have in your head, when you enter Graphic Design, the notion that you are expected to put your all into this program, there is not a whole lot of room for slacking off. The teachers treat this as a professional environment, all in the hopes to prepare us for the real Graphic Design world. From all of the discipline and structure the teachers set in the department, once you graduate here three years later, you'll thank them.
 *this post will be edited

typetwo. change one thing. updatethree.

My poster... it was pretty much stagnant since last update. I tried a couple different ideas for today(even tried bringing back a typeface from before):

But something about them just still isn't there. Michael put it best by saying that he still wouldn't hang it on his wall just yet. The interaction between the type and image still is not meshing cohesively enough. Next on the list? More angles!
more angles comin' at ya tomorrow!

viscomtwo. readingtwo&three.

I made a post a long time ago about a very famous set of pictograms. Yet, when Jamie asked me which post I made had the pictograms, I couldn't have told you to save my life. When I made that post I didn't know the term pictogram(at least I hadn't made that connection, which is something I am trying to work on...). Pictograms are exactly what we are creating right now. We are working our way towards a cohesive set of information graphics that collectively(and possibly singularly) tell a story. We are creating them to try to inform the reader successfully through image alone.

The NYPL Lion article is an example of what we are going through right now, yet for a much large client. It is interesting however to see the process of how the icon was created/updated. Most times you dont get the pleasure of seeing the process, you only get to enjoy the finished, polished product with no inner meat to be seen.