THEORY INTO PRACTICE// Word Games/ Designers

 The aim of the word games is to include some general designer knowledge into the puzzle book. This way the readers can learn about some famous designers. Some of the questions are quite hard especially with the cross-word, but it will inspire some research.

The word search was one that I generated with some code I found on the internet. I entered the words I wanted to include and It worked out a random word search. The issue I had here is that the code sends back a horrible design so I had to copy it into illustrator to restructure the letters.

This was a long and arduous process but I managed to fix the word search. I have found all of the designers In there so it does work. I will blog the solution at a later date. I also used a font called telegraphico, a nice modernist, square font that means the letters have equal space around them on all sides, resulting in a clearer layout.

The crossword was much more simple, I could just work this out in illustrator but writing out hte names and filling boxes around them.

I added numbers to the boxes for the questions which will come when I add the puzzle into Indesign to finalise the publication.

STUDIO TASK// Myself as an Audience

Here is a list of 11 questions that a researcher could ask to pin me to a specific audience:

 

What is your age?

Where do you live?

What is your occupation?

What sex are you?

Do you affiliate yourself to a particular social group? i.e: Students.

Do you keep in shape?

What do you do in your spare time? Hobbies?

Do you have a a plan for your future?

Do you travel much?

How often do you drink?

Do you smoke? how often?

5 History of Type Designers

1. Adrian Frutiger

 Produced some of the best know typefaces, born in 1928. Designer of typefaces for modernist movement, famous for univers.

Phoebus (1953) Ondine (1954) Méridien (1955) Egyptienne (1956)Univers (1956)Apollo (1962)Serifa (1967)OCR-B (1968)Iridium (1975)Frutiger (1975)Glypha (1979)Icone (1980)Breughel (1982)Versailles (1982)Avenir (1988)Vectora (1990)

http://typophile.com/node/12118

http://www.linotype.com/720/adrianfrutiger.html

http://www.identifont.com/show?110

http://www.myfonts.com/person/Adrian_Frutiger/

 2. Jean François Porchez

 Modern type designer with a catalogue of very popular typefaces. Also worked for major corporations and celebrity publications.

 http://typofonderie.com/search

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Fran%C3%A7ois_Porchez

 http://vimeo.com/7836574

 http://www.fontbureau.com/people/JeanFrancoisPorchez/

 

3. James T Edmondson

Has created several modern scripts. Very popular, but not my favourite typefaces.The instant recognition and overuse of fonts like wisdom script lead to its almost immediate loss of popularity amongst designers. He has however made some other decorative fonts, mostly for headers.

http://jamestedmondson.com/

http://blog.jamestedmondson.com/

http://metafizzy.co/blog/logotype-james-edmondson/

http://designspiration.net/image/67278/

http://typography-daily.com/2012/05/03/lettering-by-james-t-edmondson/

4. Max Miedinger

Designer of what may be the most popular and recognisable typeface of all time; Helvetica. Was a cutting edge Swiss type designer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwIy0enG6uU

http://www.myfonts.com/person/Max_Miedinger/

http://www.identifont.com/show?16O

http://maxmiedinger.com/

http://www.linotype.com/522/maxmiedinger.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Miedinger

 5. Craig Ward

Self proclaimed 'Typographic Illustrator', works with experimental typography mearging image and text as well as photography type. 

http://www.flylyf.com/typography-craig-ward/

http://www.wordsarepictures.co.uk/

http://www.computerarts.co.uk/interviews/craig-ward

THEORY INTO PRACTICE// Contsructivism Pt.2

 Working off of the plans I made earlier for the constructivist maze as a template I worked out the dimensions needed for the maze to work effectively. I kept some of the details like the 'red on white action' text and general layout.

 The design is based entirely on this work by El Lissitzky in 1919. To be honest I have totally stolen the layout. But it is another reference to constructivist design that the readers can learn about.

 I drew out the maze using the dimensions of the test piece. The maze was constructed from scratch with help from an online tutorial I read a while back. Its actually fairly hard I think. The aim of the maze is to be symbolic, allowing the reader to help the red army storm the white palace; in a really nerdy and detached way.

 I placed the maze into the page and realised that the red colour was not strong enough...

 So I inverted the mazes colours. I also added a 'start here' label as well as some more references to the red triangle and white circle. I also added a 'Target' label as a more militaristic way to say 'End Here'. 

 I got rid of the that tiny version of the red and white iconography and replaced it with decoration that was more similar to the Lissitzky work.

 Here I just added more decoration for the same reason described above.

I also switched the 'Target' label to mimic the Lissitzky designs.

5 High or Low Culture Designers

1. High Cult: LaBoca

Although graphic design is considered a 'low culture' pursuit in general by the fine art world I have attempted to apply their rules to a selection of graphic designers for the purposes of this task. 


As a result I would classify this agency as a high-culture because of the subjects they cover and the companies they work for; fashion agencies, arty films ect. 


http://site.laboca.co.uk/Black-Swan
http://www.laboca.co.uk/blog/

2. Low Culture: Millennia Design


This would be considered a low-culture design studio, working for less prestigious organisations and designing with a lack of originality or cultural recognition.


http://millenniadesign.net/webdesign.php

3. Low Culture: Kurt Volk


A different type of low culture to the one displayed above. This is a strong graphic designer who works on film design most notably for the grind-house films Machete, Death Proof and Planet Terror as well as Sin City and Predators. While these are great designs the subject would be described as low culture.


http://www.kurtvolk.com/portfolio.html
http://galleries.austin360.com/gallery/kurt-volk/
https://twitter.com/#!/kurtruk

4. High Culture: PBNL


Design studio on Paris, design for 'Hi-culture' events, art galleries and fashion shows, fashion designers and corporate identity.


http://www.pbnl.fr/en
http://biometriccityparis11.wordpress.com/2011/07/15/pbnl-hosting-biometriccity-in-paris/

 5. Gossip Mags

These are as low-culture as culture can get

THEORY INTO PRACTICE// Mod/ Post-Mod Pt.2

 I didn't really like the previous design for this page so I re-worked it to suit the style of the paper so far. I used more similar fonts but had to distance the design from the red title by making the text here blue to avoid confusion. Saying this the Modernist design wont change because there isn't much to it really. Perhaps I will have to tweak it in Indesign

I really hated how the read banner looked like one of those shit stamps on the front of American teen moves that say 'uncut' or something so I changed it to the trusty Friday 13th.