typeONE: poster iterations round two

with this round of iterations, i feel like visually the poster really came together. the inclusion of the pattern in the swirls added texture and interest, as well as conveying more of a stylized magical experience. i think the shape of the ship is way more fun and less generic...  lends a slight retro feel i was hoping to get. type was a bit of a struggle, because the slogan (which i like) is a bit wordy. with so many shifts in scale (to emphasize hierarchy) it was difficult to get the form to...  lock into place.

post-critique, i'm moving forward with the blue poster's color palette, the red poster's general composition, the staggered idea of the red poster's type composition, and the typefaces in the red, purple and blue posters.

typeONE: poster sketches & first round iterations

the early sketches for the reach out and read posters were really difficult, and my results were hit and miss. where i was most successful i think were when i kept things simple or abstracted. i was honestly surprised at the sketches that were chosen for me to move forward with, not because i thought they were bad or that they were the wrong choices, but when i was sketching i thought i had already figured out which ones were going on...  just reiterates my mantra of "keep an open mind" in design.

for this "sketch" i was thinking about creating letterforms that i could construct easily analog that would also be interesting geometrically. i think this is my "less is more" side coming out. it doesn't however scream "kids", so i'm trying to think of materials to use to express childhood, like construction paper, or even felt and glitter...  something to take it away from the flat digital feel

i really like the concept of this poster.  we're living in the future. we're a decade into the new millennia. where are our colonies on mars and our flying cars and jet packs? when i was thinking about it, i had images of looney tunes and old 50's sci-fi posters. i like the opportunity to create something...  wild, though the sketch here isn't there yet. this is another one that if i move forward with i'd like to do analog, cutting shapes out of paper and doing the type by hand

this one is pretty straight forward.  i thought the factoid was a startling one, so it might be an attention grabber. also, there were a lot of opportunities to play with the idea of "one third"

typeONE: element web layouts

-----------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------

the web layouts didn't seem to come as naturally for me as the print spreads.  one issue was the size restrictions of the body copy.  instead of the elegant 8/11, i bumped it up to 12/14.  when constructing the layout, i tried to keep my view as close to true size as possible so that i could maintain the legibility of the body copy on the computer screen.  any smaller, and (at least to my eyes) letters began to blur together.

the page size is also half of what it was in the print spreads, so i have less white space to play with.  especially with the larger body copy.

the vertical layout was also more difficult to work with, because text naturally is such a linear left to right form.  it feels much more free in a landscape format.  in the vertical, i had to stack elements, which just looked boring to me.  i'm interested to see what marty's solutions might be.

also...  photoshop is the worst

typeONE: grid-based design

possibly the most recognizable use of the grid is in newspapers. to cut down on the cost of materials, large amounts of information had to be crammed into tight quarters yet maintain an appearance of order and legibility.  the grid presented an easy way to organize the many blocks of text, as well as accommodating for shifts in column and image size to emphasize priority in a clean, managed way.

as newspapers make the move to the digital realm, where economy of materials is a non-issue, it's interesting to see how papers (like the new york times) keep the tightly packed, grid-based approach of the old formats.

typeONE: final bitmap typeface

my final typeface was based on my third design.  i thought the design felt the most cohesive, complete, and felt the tightest in composition.
i switched the positive and negative because the subtleties needed to use only the negative space to create the font weren't coming through with the crossed toothpick unit.  the unit itself had a lot of white space, so more complex designs were lost in the ambiguity between units.
with some slight tweaking in the design and kerning, this is the final design

i also learned the value of a decent camera and a tripod.  in the end, having clearer shots reduced the hassle cleaning up and importing each letter into the composition.

typeONE: bitmap typefaces

typeONE/VIScom: final word list

when beginning the book process, my initial subject was media personalities and their abuse of power...

more than anything, the subject fulfilled a homework assignment.

over the course of the project, i was unsatisfied with the the subject and couldn't identify with it's themes.  after talking to a junior about the book and his experience with the project last year, his suggestion was to use a theme that excited and interested you or the process could be a long, grueling process.

i knew i wanted my book to be a positive expression, rather than a book of grumbling and whining about the media.

"harmony" came to me through thinking about the visual forms i wanted to create...  sweeping, elegant curves in balanced compositions.  this brought me to:

harmony

balance
cooperation
symphony
congruence
vibration
synergy
order
oneness
tranquility




after review, many of my words were redundant and the theme itself was a little too vague to provide a clear concept.

i shifted my focus to the idea of harmony in the musical setting.  a lot of the terms, though used to describe musical expressions, provided a lot of visual cues.  the crossover interested me and brought me to:

harmony

consonance
balance
unison
resonance
construction
dissonance
symphony
root
simultaneous

typeONE: anatomy and classification

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

futura is classified as a geometric sans based on its lack of serifs and basis of its anatomy in basic geometric shapes (triangles, perfect circles, squares)