I sewed my last pages of my "? Love is" book together and looked over my sketchbook, through all of the processes. I learned a great deal this term. I definitely had no idea I would design all of the typefaces I did!

 

That was my goal when I started the project; I wanted more experience in working with different styles of typography. Regardless of how many failed attempts at one type to the other I made, I really did enjoy playing with typefaces and sketching out ideas. The research was also fun as I connected with designers in the field and received great advice along the way. I really enjoyed talking with Andy Vella a few weeks ago. I am still spinning from that day.

I was sweating at the end of this project, as I still needed to design one last typeface. I planned to use existing typeface When I started the book project; Helvetica, Bodoni and Old English style. The next thing I know I am designing all of the type for the book myself. How exciting and a little scary.

I found the first two typefaces quickly, but after a week of stumbling around and getting frustrated about the final typeface design, I relaxed and just stepped away from it for a day. The next morning I woke up and within an hour I had my final typeface design.

 

Needless to say I learned the power of relaxing and just taking a break away from my work.

 My three new typefaces: Natka the Great, Gavin Bold and Mary Light

 

I did make other typefaces along the way and will keep them for future projects and experimentation.

 

I still have a great deal to learn about book layouts. I set up the pages in InDesign, organized the pages in order how they will be printed, but still had problems when I took it to the printers.  I have a few pages that overlapped into other pages. I don't know if it is my layouts or the fact that I did not set the bleeds correctly when saving my PDF. It could have been the way the paper was fed into the printer as well.

Because I was printing two-sided pages for my book I was not able to use the large printers on campus for final work. I was forced to use the every day printers on campus or find an outside print shop. I did find a printer that was charging less for each print and much better print quality than the university.  I will research in the next few weeks and find more print companies, as the one I used did not have a selection of paper. 

I think, after designing two books in a row, I am interested in posters or even a website or animation would be lovely.  

I am ready! What's next!?...hhmmmmmm??!! 

Task 8

What did I learn this term?...

Positive People
In his speech AIGA Talk in London in 2001, Milton Glaser talked about creating connections with clients and forming strong relationships through his work. I spent many years working in jobs with people I did not get along with thinking that I had no choice in the matter. I am making conscience decisions to work and surround myself with positive and creative people. This year has been amazing thus far.


Play (have fun with it all!) – Explore (go for quantity) – Build (think with your hands) – Role-play (act it out)


Have fun!!
I am usually pretty easy going and have fun with my work, but I found myself really stressing out this past term and had to really stop and take a step back. I was putting way too much pressure on myself. My break consisted of a cup of tea and I would sit right back down, whilst everyone around me was going out and enjoying themselves.

Note to self: Work hard, play harder!

The Design Process
Traveling the road to get somewhere is just as important as making it to the final destination. I always hear people say they are waiting for the weekend to get here...they miss out on all the time in between that is just as amazing. Live and have fun in the process, there are always lessons to be learned and treasures to be found along the way!

Networking
The connections and relationships I build are key to my success. I learned a great deal from my classmates throughout this past term. We sometimes look far and wide for answers and resources and most of the time they are right in front of us. I also contacted many designers this term that I have admired including Stefan Bucher, Luba Lukova, David Carson and James Victore to name a few. I was really excited to learn from designers that have inspired me and are out in the field.

failing and Mistakes
Being a designer is failing and making mistakes. I loved what Glaser said in his talk about professionalism and failure,

“After all, what is required in our field, more than anything else, is the continuous transgression. Professionalism does not allow for that because transgression has to encompass the possibility of failure and if you are professional your instinct is not to fail.”

“...and then in a very real way, solving any problem is more important than being right”.

Milton Glaser rocks!!!

Humor is a great tool in design
I love making people laugh. I think humor can be used very effectively in design and connecting with other designers and clients.


A.D.D.D. (Attention Deficit Disorder in Design)
If this is an actual condition I will be the first to say I have it! I find that working on most projects, I come up with so many ideas along the way. Instead of tucking them away for other future projects I attempt to pollute my current work with many new ones, like adding more arms to my own body. The idea is nice, but it would never work and I would just get in the way of my own self! . I am putting my ideas on paper and putting them away for a later date. I have a great deal of passion and creativity in design, but need to learn to hone in on projects and not jump around all over the place. FOCUS!



My Own Worst Enemy
A lot of the time I don’t value the finished product to its full splendor or what it could be in the end, which goes back to Glaser’s talk about fear of failure. I tend to be my own worst enemy when it comes to my own work. I can easily critique other designer’s work, but I am not vested in their each and every little detail they have spent weeks, months, and days putting together. I am learning to let go and disconnect myself (go play, chill, relax, read a book, take a nap, have a chat with friends) from time to time and come back. It will come together nicely in the end.

The desire to design
My desire to design is deep. Throughout all the years, the classes, the mistakes and lessons I am more in love with the arts and life in design. I must create and communicate!

Coffee!
I found that I could consume large amounts of coffee all day long, even past 8 p.m. and still sleep like a baby at night.

The Environment and Design
The environment is very important to me. I think if you are not concerned about the environment in any way you should be darn it!! As a society we have made our lives and the way we live overly complicated.

I get headaches when the weather changes or a storm is moving in. Not that everyone does or should get these feelings, but it is being connected to nature and aware of what is going on with our world. Not too many people are anymore and it sadness me. We can live by such simpler means than we are. I think as a designer I feel like I need to, if I do anything in my career, address these issues through my design work. I don’t know how much I can really change the world or people’s ideas about the environment through my design work. If I don’t try I will never know.

I hope to create a campaign on the environment this next term. I am interested in the disconnection humans have with the rest of nature.

the first design of this typeface. There is a bit too 

much contrast in the sizes of the letters in 

relationship to each other.

This is the typeface after I resized them making each letter more similar in size. I am currently placing them in the pages of the book to see how well they will work with the other typefaces. 

The resized typeface

Task 7

Values in Design

When I was young I spent weekends in the park and gathering with friends and family. That was all I needed, I was happy. Today we have become a society of consumers and spend our weekends in stores shopping. We believe that whatever is going to make us happy we will surely find in a store. Advertisements even say so!

As soon as I open my eyes to start my day I am bombarded with advertisements. They are everywhere. Advertising is a communication to persuade a consumer to purchase or consume a particular brand or service. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advertising March 7, 2009) So, as society looks for happiness at the shopping malls we as designers have to question how far we are willing to go to help our clients sell their brands or services people are buying up in those malls.

There is such saturation in advertising today and companies push the limits in their quality and value in designing ad campaigns. I watch advertisements with half-naked women selling cars, razors, books, phones, makeup and even clothing, which is just really odd to me (the whole point of advertising clothing is to actually SHOW the clothing!).

That is where organizations like the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) step in. Their job is to make sure all advertising meets high standards laid down in advertising code. Of course these companies can only do so much. Then what? Who is going to say this is where this stops? Is it the designer who ultimately chooses what he or she is going to design and put out to the public? The consumer is the one putting the money down in the end. What is their responsibility in all of this?  We must have it all! The person with the most toys in the end wins! 

 

There has always been the debate as to values existing or not existing in design, for example the designing and advertising of cigarettes, gun manufactures and alcohol knowing that the products are harmful. Every designer has a choice. Some designers feel that there is a line and it must not be crossed and there are other designers that say at the end of the day you still have to pay your bills and put food on the table.

 

In 1964 Ken Garland wrote First things First’ a manifesto and was backed by over four hundred other designers. He was concerned about where the design field was going and what choices he had to make regarding his values in his work.

“applauding the work of those who have flogged their skill and imagination to sell such things as: Cat food, stomach powders, detergent, hair restorer, striped toothpaste, aftershave lotion, before shave lotion, slimming diets, fattening diets, deodorants, fizzy water, cigarettes, roll-ons, pull-ons, and slip-ons. By far the greatest time and effort of those working in the advertising industry are wasted on these trivial purposes, which contribute little or nothing to our national prosperity.” (Ken Garland, ‘First things First’ 1964)

 

In 2000 Adbusters (a reader-supported activists magazine, devoted to numerous political and social causes, many of which are anti-consumerist in nature) came across Garland’s manifesto in a back issue of Eye Magazine. They decided to reprint a new version of the manifesto, for the 21^st century, feeling that its sentiments are still quite relevant today. The aim of the manifesto is to stimulate discussion in all areas of design communication, education, in practice, organizations as well as outside of design.

 

There are many designers out there that are passionate about their work and communicating issues that need to be addressed, like Luba Lukova’s new poster design,  “foreclosure”. She always takes something of importance in the world and puts in the light for people to see.

What is our role as designers? I want to look back on my career and know that I made a difference and maybe changed a few lives for the better with my work. I want it all to mean something. I want to spend my weekends at the park.

 

Resources: www.adbusters.org

Eye Feature ‘Thirty-three visual communicators renew the 1964 call for a change of priorities’, http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature.php?id=18&fid=99

http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/

Ken Garland's Website

 

bubble type

I am working on this typeface to see what it will look like with the other two typefaces as well...

Toy block type

I found some interlining in my bundle of sewing supplies and thought it just might be perfect for my little toy type blocks. It is just strong enough to stand up quite nice when cut into circles

I haven't built them into any letter shapes as of yet. I have to shop for more batteries from my camera first. In the mean time I thought I would post a few images I was able to capture before my camera died yesterday. 

Ok, I was talking with Natalia today during lunch about different designs for my typeface and we came up with some great ideas. We started talking about toys we played with as children. I got some really good ideas from the toy conversation. There is one I will post later.

We ended up talking about punching out holes in a paper with a hole puncher or taking the dots from making the holes in the paper and creating a typeface with it. She thought having a few different sizes of dots would look good, like several small dots for the lower "i" and one large dot for the dot.

I came home and started punching out holes from paper. I started laying out the dots so I could photograph them.

I went ahead and played on the computer for a bit to see what I could come up with. I think the photographs might be a bit more clustered in design, but I think this is a start to my experimenting....

This is the rough typeface that I started cutting out a few days ago. This one I created by cutting out triangle shapes and rounding the edges. I then started cutting out letter shapes from there. It is not the finished alphabet, but I designed enough to get the feel of how the shapes were going to work as letters. I already received suggestions about cutting down certain letters like the "J", "K" and "L". I will finish this typeface soon and post it again. I just wanted to show it's progress thus far. 

back to the cutting board!

After meeting in class and really discussing my new typeface, the majority were more interested in my cut out typeface I posted on a prior blog entry. 

I finished cutting out the letters last night and will attempt to finalise the design on the computer today.

My cut out typeface I will be designing for my book

 

another typeface

James Victore

After watching a film about James Victor last term I was interested in learning more about him as a designer. I contacted him a few days ago and he responded today. He thanked me for the email and also added a few attachments of some interviews and a link to an upcoming annual gathering taking place in new York in July 2009.

I had to share the web site link for the event. It is simple, yet a very cool idea!

http://www.sahrevictorewilker.com/

that's all I have. The End.

for now...

My book is about a conversation, which three people are involved. I started this book project using two existing typefaces, Bodoni and Helvetic. I then created a new typeface for one of the characters in my conversation. The more I worked on the page layouts and the more feedback I received I started designing yet another typeface. 

The first typeface I designed, (Gavin Bold Typeface)

Second typeface i designed (Mary typeface)

I designed this page with Bodoni typeface

I met with my classmates last week and received some very good information about my book design. Most people felt that I should experiment and go ahead with creating another typeface, so that the entire book is designed by me and my own typefaces. 

I thought it was a great idea and started to create another typeface for my third conversationist, Natalia.

 

I created this quick sketch style and started drawing it out on the computer today....

Task 6

packaging

From the very beginning of time man hunted, gathered food and ate were food was found. There was very little need for packaging and storage. Nature provided some packaging in form of shells, gourds, and leaves. Later containers were made from hallowed logs, woven grasses and animal organs. As ores and chemical compounds were discovered pottery was then created along with many other means of packaging and storing items. ­

 

Today packaging has many roles. It is used for holding goods for storing, transportation, contains colorful designs that make it more appealing to the consumers, protect products from contamination, theft and environmental damage as well as containing information about quantity of the product and specific ingredients.

 

It is one thing to design aesthetically pleasing pieces and put them into society, but as designers today it is our duty, not only to design good packaging, but also design packaging and products that will be least harmful to the environment. There are so many products that are packaged and packed again over and over, packaging inside packaging, like miniature yogurt containers, mini juice boxes and carbonated beverage for those busy people on the go, which are packaged and then packaged into a bunch of four or six. There is no concern by the designer regarding the excess waste he/she is contributing to the environment.

 

Many companies today are designing ‘green packaging’ or environmentally friendly packaging, which are recycled, recyclable or has little packaging that would go into landfills. Some packaging even has a second-use, like glass jars.

Lush Handmade Cosmetics is an environmentally friendly company and states in their campaigns, “ We invent our own products and fragrances, and we make them fresh with little or no preservative or packing...”

Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics is one of my favorite places to shop not only because of all the lovely scented soaps and massage bars, but because they package their products like small mom and pop stores used to years ago, simple.

 

Most of Lush’s products are handmade and kept in large bulk amounts, like their soaps, solid shampoos and deodorants. The consumer chooses just what he/she needs; the amount is cut and placed in either a reusable tin or wrapped in butcher-type paper.

 

Lush also prides themselves in using alternative ingredients when they can, for example reducing their use of palm oil by half after researching the effects of the foresting of palm oil in Indonesia and Malaysia. Lush has now found an alternative palm-free soap base, which cuts back on the use of palm considerably.

 

With today’s concerns about the environment I believe any designer that creates their work with the environment in mind is moving forward and I consider a positive contributor to the design field.

 

Sources: University of Florida, “A brief history of packaging’ Kenneth R. Berger, reviewed by B. Welt the second

www.lush.com

 

 

 

All in stitches