Winter Break Project

So I have decided that over the winter break that I have from college I am going to create a deck of playing cards. I am not sure at the moment what the basis of the deck will be but I really want the challenge of creating something unusual. I guess playing cards are not that unusual but they seem to me more of a challenge than something like a poster. Ah well...I'm sure a little of everything will be created at some point over my break, at least I hope so!

Will update again later. The tree is being put up today in my house and I have some presents to wrap. Busy this week but would like to get a start on the project soon!

Lack of Communication

I do feel really behind on this blog as I have not posted in a very long time. I have had so many assignments and have not been able to catch up on adding information here. I hope to do much better in the near future; over winter break.

The things I have learned this semester in Intro to Graphic Design have been very helpful and are things that I will never forget. I have become very familiar with the Adobe suite and I am sure that my knowledge base for the programs will continue to build even more. I feel comfortable working in the programs and enjoy doing so. Over winter break I intend to create some pieces of work entirely off the top of my head simply to better my skills. I purchased a Wacom Bamboo Fun tablet and plan to familiarize myself with it more in the coming months. My classes for next semester are very non-art oriented, which I am assuming will create a rather boring 5 months. However, with the tablet and having the programs on my computer I want to continue creating works even when I am not assigned to do so.

I must go now! Toodles!

Logo-making Machine!

I am pretty sure by the end of this class I will completely understand the in's and out's of logo creation. But, I guess that is the point isn't it? I do not yet have a photo or scan of my first logo for this class that I inked with a brush, however, I will add it to this blog once I have it. I do have a photo of my most recent logo creation that I completed in Adobe Illustrator. There is a preliminary drawing for that logo that I will add to this as well as the finished one.

Visually Communicating Ideas

One of the first assignments in our Intro class that we had was to synthesize drawings down to tight visual communicators. Designers have to get their point across very quickly and I learned early on that I really needed work with this. The images below show something "Socially Significant" to me. The first image is the preliminary idea and the second image is my more developed and synthesized drawing.

I think that I had a definite improvement and had a very good understanding of the idea behind the assignment by the end.

Gestalt psychology...it's about the parts as a whole...

Upon the first look at the image on the left, most people see a silhouette type image of a woman. However, upon closer inspection and a bit of tricking of our eyes we can see that the darker image is a man playing a saxophone. 

The trick that our eyes play on us is part of Gestalt psychology.

 

This psychology consists of several laws:

Law of Closure: Just because an image isn't quite complete, like the one on the left, doesn't mean that our eyes not are able to "close" the image into something recognizable. For example, the facial shape of the woman on the left is created based on the positive and negative shapes that are present.

Law of Similarity: Basically, anything that is similar or that we know to be similar, our brains automatically try to group together. For instance, we know that humans have two eyes and the basic outline of one is created on the left of the above image and the basic shape of one is also created and together, the brain is able to, in a round-a-bout way, piece them together and make recognizable things out of them.

Law of Proximity: A good example of this would be placing dots on a piece of paper and being able to draw a line to connect them with our eyes when a line isn't actually present. Our mind tries to group things together and make sense of things that might randomly be spaced apart. In the case of the dots, a line could be created rather than a jumble of random markings.

Law of Symmetry (or figure ground relationships): The next image is a good example of this. There is obviously a window shade present,  but based on the spacing of the lines and also on the shapes of the lines, we are able to make out the shape of a face profile. 

Law of Continuity: We are able to recognize through the image below that the "line" created from the circles on the left "continues" through both the above grouping and below grouping of circles as well.

Law of Common Fate: When the viewer sees similar objects or images facing/pointing in the same direction, there is a common thing between them all. However, if one of the objects or images is placed differently then tension is created for the viewer and there is no commonality with the images.

Semiotics in relation to my logo creation...

Since starting the process of creating logos, the idea of semiotics has made more sense to me than it previously did. It made sense before but I am beginning to piece all the parts of it together in a better (more complex) and different way.

Through the process that I went through to arrive at a conclusive image for my logo, I used many principles of semiotics. The overall idea of semiotics, which is the study of signs and the production of meaning, was a large piece of the creative idea. I first thought of an idea or object and from that thought of recognizable images that could relate to them. By doing this I was then led to semantics. I had to come up with a relation between the signs that I was coming up with and be sure that they really did signify the idea(s) or object(s) that I was referring to. Once I had done that, I began to notice similar traits in line and shape quality that the images created together, and also how two different ideas or objects could come together to create a recognizable logo without being static or confusing; syntactic. Significance also played a part in that process because I had to then become the “viewer” of the logo rather than the “creator”. I knew what I was creating but would what I was creating get my idea(s) across to the viewer? I also had to consider the logo as being a connotation or denotation. In other words, would it mean, or stand for, something directly (denotation) or just suggest or imply an idea rather than have a literal meaning (connotation). After working through several ideas for my first logo I feel that I successfully observed and applied the many concepts and ideas that make up semiotics.

Art Classes for the next 2.5 years...

I have a four year plan made out for myself and know that it is subject to change, however, I hope that it does not need to be changed and I have not gotten something completely messed up with it. I was not sure exactly what classes to include and not include so I have put in all of the ones that I am required to have for my major, including the electives I have chosen to fill in that are related to my major.

My art classes for the next 2.5 years (along with this fall) include:

Fall 2009:
Art 2335 - Design III
Art 2610 - Introduction to Commercial Art and Illustration
Art 3610 - Typography
Art 1800 - Ideas in The Visual Arts

Spring 2010:
Art 1835 - Survey of Nonwestern Art History
Art 2710 - Introduction to Print Making
This is the semester I intend to finish up my general education classes and also have my sophomore review.

Fall 2010:
Art 3630 - Design for Advertising
Art 2420 - Sculpture I
Art 3510 - Watercolor
Art 4610 - Motion Graphics
Grap 2030 - Desktop Publishing for Printing Applications

Spring 2011:
Art 3620 - Logo/Trademark Design
Art 3640 - Package Design
Art 1825 - Art History Survey II
Comm 2410 - Multimedia I

Fall 2011:
Art 3660 Publication Design
Art 4610 - Motion Design
Mgt 4315 - Entrepreneurship
Comm 3413 - Multimedia II
Comm 3640 - Mass Media Advertising

Spring 2012:
Art 4610 - Interactive Design
Art 4020 - Studio Seminar
Art 4860 Contemporary Art and Design
ICap 4221 - Artists in Contemporary Society (hope to substitute my Honors Project for this by doing one oriented toward Graphic Design)

Semiotics - My feelings on the matter

When Professor Babcock mentioned Semiotics I was very intrigued. I had never really sat down and considered things as being understood in an easier way based on the simpler look and design of them. Once it was explained, I began to realize that the simpler and more recognizable the image, the more easily it is interpreted.

I still have trouble remembering specific words that we learned in class, but over time I am sure that I will begin to remember them when working on designs for things. The main thing that I took away from the lecture was that the more complex images are the more static they become. When lines and textures are added in, the eye is trying to take it all in rather than focusing on the basic outline of something. Sure, in the "basic art world," and to those people who have a view from the outside of that world, the overall thought is, "the prettier and cooler the better." Actually, this is entirely not the case for Graphic Design and Illustration majors. If the communication process is confusing or jumbled then the main point that we as commercial artists are trying to make will not get across at all to the viewer. We have to make our designs, logos, ideas, etc. as easily understood as possible with the least amount of "frilly things" as possible.

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