Jade Navan Caitlin

A year two lecturer, called Jay took out Monday session and we went looked into how designers express themselves through there work. We then were ask to do the same in the lecture. I drew a joker juggling, at the time I felt as if i was juggling a million things and once and not doing well with much hence the joker. I felt as if it was becoming a bit of a joke.  After the session I added watercolours to the drawing. 

In this session we were asked to work in groups and post produce the text and images excerpts provided to us and change them using processes such as deconstruction, intervention, layering, concealing, revealing, repositioning, enhancement, embellishment, destruction and creation. We were to then use out phones to create a short time-lapse film of this process, and of the outcomes.  We decided to create something using the theme 'Standing out from the crowd' Naturally as graphic designers we don't want to be sheep so using this short time-lapse film we had a graphic designer moving out from then sheep.

My essay is going to be based on brand versus anti-brand therefore this lecture was very informative. I loved the way people actual use the same tactics as the brands do to make them look bad. Below are some examples of anti-brands:

During the seminar we where given helvetica in bold, thin in both negative and positive. The were asked to deconstruct them and then create our own letters.This was a follow on from the film, and highlighted how perfectly formed I feel helvetica is due to the way it can be used in so many situations. 

The Helvetica movie is a  documentary about typography, graphic design, and global visual culture.People who were interviewed in the film included :  Erik Spiekermann, Matthew Carter, Massimo Vignelli, Wim Crouwel, Hermann Zapf, Neville Brody, Stefan Sagmeister, Michael Bierut, David Carson, Paula Scher, Jonathan Hoefler, Tobias Frere-Jones, Experimental Jetset, Michael C. Place, Norm, Alfred Hoffmann, Mike Parker, Bruno Steinert, Otmar Hoefer, Leslie Savan, Rick Poynor, and Lars Müller. These are all influence designers which have helped more graphic design forward.  The interview with Massimo Vignelli was  my favourite part when he was showing us the work he did on American Airlines. Really inspired me as I am interested in rebranding, and creating something as timeless as he has. 

Postmodernism is a 20th century concept in art circles which marks the rejection of modernism. It features a lot of earlier style and conventions, in addition to using a different series of media, styles etc. to create something new. The whole purpose is to get people to ask questions, this is something I defiantly like about the movement/concept.  Above is a piece by Wassily Kandinsky, he was a painter who rejected the values which modernism was based on. Joining the  Postmodernism  movement his work is expressionism which follows no real form, has no subject or reference. In this piece the viewer can see collection of unorganised shapes, lines which seem to have no actual relevance or meaning. The painting is actually just  Kandinsky's representation of his  rejection of the modernism movement.  

After the lecture we then did an activity in the seminar. This consisted of taking inspiration from the design lecture and creating piece which would depict what the word read. I did a series of sketch and then after the lecture created the piece below using my Photoshop skills. 

During the lecture we had we Tracey, we looked into the way design actually makes us feel. In  particular the idea of emotion, illusion and perception. She highlighted that sometimes what we want to see something can colour our perception of a piece of work or topic, this is known as the Rosenthal's expectation effect. The video clip below shows a video of this effect in action. We focus on the eyes and face of the character and as we move round our brain processes it as if the head is rotating round to look at you. 

During this lecture we looked in to the Christmas advertisements that where currently coming out and ones from previous years. This was following from the Semiotic lecture which we just had, we where looking for how they used this particular concept to find out how they have invoked reactions form the audience. I looked at the Sainsbury 2016 Christmas advert, this one uses semiotics in a way which the audience can relate to. The busyness of Christmas and how the character feels as if he is pulled in every direction and how stressful that is. The song paired with the animation enforces this message and lets the audience know that the best gift they can give anyone is themselves; because at the end of the day that's all they want at Christmas.  Sainsbury's OFFICIAL Christmas advert 2016 -The Greatest Gift from Malcolm Hadley on Vimeo .

Semiotics is the study of signs and the interpretation of their meaning. We use signs to communicate with our audience, as a graphic designer, this is something that will come to play a lot when I am working. I will need the context and cultural background for what I'm trying to say to come across appropriately. What is happening around the sign is very important as well.  Above is three different situations a thumbs up has been used. Each can be interpreted differently because of the context, the first can be seen as signifying 'good job' I think this because of the suit, it is something that can be  associated  with work and professionals. The second implying the diver is having a good time and that he is okay, although you can't see a facial expression you know he is posing for a photograph which tells me he wants to document he's having a good time. The last photo is of a hitchhiker looking for a lift, he is using he thumb to signify to drivers what he ...

For James' lesson we had someone from the library to come in a teach us about APA 6th Referencing to ensure that anything we use from another source is given its own credit. Other reasons for  referencing include; Showing the research I have done Supporting my point  Enabling follow ups on my work get originals  good mark avoiding plagiarism  What is Plagiarism ? Copying and Pasting other peoples work Use other peoples work  Not referencing properly  There are two parts of APA 6th Referencing the 'in text citations' and the 'referencing list' both need ti correspond for the referencing to have been done correctly.  'In Text Citations' are used for three things summarising , paraphrasing and quotations. The reasons for this is two directly 'quote' someones exact words or explaining someone else theory. The format for this is simple; (Surname of the author, year of publication)  (Kessler, 2003)  (Holme...

During the lecture we looked into the purpose of type, leading on from this we used  shapes, which where all similar, and where asked to create each letter from the alphabet using said shapes. Below is the results of our team work. 

For the essay I have the choice between two options which I could further research: -  How the increase in social media usage has effected brands?  -  How can the use of Anti-Brand destroy a brand's reputation? I have had a brief look into both, after researching I noticed they are both very similar as they both have links into Brand and Anti-Brand therefore I am going to go with the first because it means I can also discuss the positive effects of social media advertisements. 

During the Lecture two lots of work caught my eye, the first from The Bechers and the second from Idris Khan.  Brent and Hilla Becher made photographic typologies as an archive of uniform photograph. The grid structure helps give symmetry, Each object is large and as important as any other. Consistency is key in the photographs of the gas containers, the light, scale and viewpoint all correspond. Their work was often placed in a grid of neutral white frames. Idris Khan was born in England, 1978, he completed his master in 2004 at the Royal College of Art in London.  He works in sculpture, painting and photography.  His ideas are based on a repeating process of creation and deletion, or even adding of new layers while retaining traces of what has gone before. He is well known for his large-scale works in which techniques of layering are used to arrive at what might be considered the essence of an image, and to create something entirely new through repe...

For this project we were asked to created a christmas card which would be sold in the SU and both appeal to students and staff. Other than that we were given free reign over what we wanted to do. I was in a group with four other guys, by crating five tag lines which would colour what we would put on the front of each card. In one packet we aimed to have ten cards, two of each design.

So, everyone knows that’s the Coca-Cola formula is top secret; only two people in the world knowing how to make it. James Sommerville came to the University to do a talk on his work and career beginning from his start-up company at 19. He began the talk with a ‘thank you’ for attending and then lead on to John Lennon quote ‘When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.” Therefore, he went into graphic design due to it being his passion. He went on to telling us every young designer will face challenges, his was the mass unemployment which forced him to begin his own company with partner Simon Needham called Attik. Beginning in Huddersfield 1986 much described by the name their office was a Attik Bedroom in Paddock. He said that as a huge compan...

We started the lecture looking into the definition of  Visual Communication.  Two dimensional images such as advertising, industrial design, typography, graphic design, drawings, illustration, animation and sign are examples of visual communication. It is a way to convey ideas and information which can be digested in a visual form by being viewed or read. The most successful visual communication can be understood, with or without complementary typeface. What is theory and why study it? The google definition of theory is   ‘ a system of ideas intended to explain something, especially one based on general principles independent of the thing to be explained.’ The reason we study theory is due to it providing us an explanatory framework which can be used to explore or support ideas, develop hypotheses, or as a basis/critique. A quote was highlighted by Paul Rand which reads: ‘Intuition is a flash of light conditioned by experience, culture and imagination...