Designer Craig Oldham gave us an opportunity to see him talk about himself and his new book ‘Loving Memory of Work’ which was about the UK mine strike in the 1980’s. He spoke powerfully about his book and talked about the issues concerning the strike in the olden days. His father was also in the mine strikes so he got inspiration and stories from him to include in the book, the book was produced, designed by himself. He created and designed the book in his spare time after going to his daytime job, meaning he stayed up many nights gathering information and thinking what he could put into this book. He spoke for about 2 hours to the first, second and third years in graphic design studio 1. In my opinion, I quite like the guy because he speaks his own opinions and doesn’t care what other people think about him or his work. He inspired me to do whatever I want to do and ignore people that try to change your designs; to stand up and say no this is MY design. For this, he has became very successful in his work.
Category Archives: Lecture notes posts
VISUAL LITERACY NOW
- Facebook revealed in a white paper that its users have uploaded more
than 250 billion photos Photo uploads on Facebook total 300 million per day. - 8,796 photos per second are uploaded onto ‘snapchat’ every second
- 27,800 photos are uploaded to Instagram every minute
- There will be more photographs taken this year than in the entire
history of photographingPost-modernism, key ideas:
A general and wide-ranging term which is applied to literature, art, philosophy,
architecture, fiction, and cultural and literary criticism, among others. Postmodernism
is largely a reaction to the assumed certainty of scientific, or objective, efforts to
explain reality. In essence, it stems from a recognition that reality is not simply mirrored
in human understanding of it, but rather, is constructed as the mind tries to understand
its own particular and personal reality
• Appropriation or Simulation
• Hyperrealism (or realism)
• Questions ideas of originality, authenticity, authorship and skill.
• Pastiche, parody and the art of ‘quotation’
• Understanding that experience will necessarily be fallible and relative, rather than
certain and universalThe Graphic Designer as Author
Traditional definition of graphic design …
“Graphic design is a creative process that combines art and technology to
communicate ideas. The designer works with a variety of communication tools in order
to convey a message from a client to a particular audience. The main tools are image
and typography.” – American Institute of Graphic ArtsVirtual Typography
Breaking a way from typographic traditions, The Studio for Virtual Typography, founded by Matthias
Hillner, develops typefaces that anticipate time based platforms for viewing information – mobile
phones and increasingly smaller computers and tablets.
Virtual Typefaces function within screen based virtual 3D environments. These texts are animated
and kinetic and explore time as a key component as a means of embodying meaning in the
process of reading and experiencing text and typographic form. The process employs a systematic
approach to the development of transitional typography covering areas of multi media and graphic
design.
CONTROVERSIES
The definition of controversies is “a prolonged public dispute, debate, or contention; disputation concerning a matter of opinion. 2. contention, strife, or heated argument.”
definition of controversy (2016) available at: http://www.dictionary.com/browse/controversy
Picasso is a big controversy in the art culture because he adds cubism into surrealism, in this image below called Les Demoiselles d’avignon, there is a lot of controversy from the women in the image whether they are actually prostitutes and the masks being worn.
.
The Dada movement contained many aspects:
Anti-war, anti-culture & anti-bourgeois
“As the years go on, the technology is pushed further” Anonymous
Un Chien Andalou 1919
A film by the famous the Spanish director Luis Buñuel and artist Salvador Dalí containing surrealism and showing the difference between reality and imagination or dreaming throughout the scenes.
What is surrealism?
“A literary and art movement, dedicated to expressing the imagination as revealed in dreams, free of the conscious control of reason and convention. Surrealism inherited its anti-rationalist sensibility from Dada, but was lighter in spirit than that movement. Like Dada, it was shaped by emerging theories on our perception of reality, the most obvious influence being Freud’s model of the subconscious.” Surrealism. (date unknown) Art Movement. Available at: http://www.artmovements.co.uk/
VISUAL JOURNEY IN GRAPHIC DESIGN
The lecture was hosted by our tutor Sarah Joyce who introduced the art and design department on graphic design and how it is so important in the design industry. Her presentation followed with an introduction to the other students who she was and what she did.
Most of her presentation was based around semiotics and the principles of theory Gestalt including negative space,etc. Semiotics has been already covered showing which is what in the image. I.e. Signifier: Rose Signified: Love, Romance, Passion. Also another method which people read images are deconnotation and connotation.
Denotation: the literal or primary meaning of a word.
Connotation: an idea or feeling which a word invokes for a person.
Also introducing how words have meaning through events in the past, for example 9/11, seeing the numbers have an affect due to the unfortunate events in New York and the Twin Towers. However, it could just mean a date for a test? But how people think straight to that event which shows the importance of words and letters.
“ Graphic designers need to be aware of the uses of particular visual signs and symbols, and their common meanings, within a target group.” Ian Noble/Russsell Bestley, 2005, Visual Research
ILLUSTRATION NOW
This lecture was all about images mostly focusing on illustration in the last 50/60 years, the new lecturer decided we didn’t have to write down notes because she was more bothered about people listening and looking at the images. She started from the 60’s and spoke about how illustration was progressing throughout the years.
The key subjects included in the lectures:
Revolver
Roy Lichtenstein
Bob Dylan ’67
Zap Comix
Jan Svankmajer
PERSPECTIVE VANISHING POINT
The definition of perspective is the art of drawing solid objects on a two-dimensional surface so as to give the right impression of their height, width, depth, and position in relation to each other when viewed from a particular point [as adj. ] : a perspective drawing. See also linear perspective and aerial perspective. – a picture drawn in such a way, esp. one appearing to enlarge or extend the actual space, or to give the effect of distance.
William Hogarth in 1754 realized that what we see isn’t actually right, he produced an image which looked right but if you looked closely the proportions weren’t even. The perspective of the picture was wrong because objects in the distance were larger than the objects closer to you. This image was called Perspectival Absurdities.
Looking a perspective, depth is suggested by overlapping forms/images. “When reading images as in the hearing of speech, it is always hard to distinguish what is given to us from what we supplement in the process of projection which is triggered off by recognition. ‘Recognition’, though, is perhaps a misleading term in this connection. It was the ‘guess’ of the radio monitor, it will be remembered, that turned the medley of speech sounds into speech; it is the guess of the beholder that tests the medley of forms and colours for coherent meaning, crystallising it into shape when consistent interpretation has been found.” (taken from power point in lecture because good definition and information)
The first attempt at 3D perspective was Giovanni Di Paolo with the image ‘St. John.’ He created the image in 1454.
Albrecht Durer figured out guids for perspectives, he organised the different types into four categories:
Linear Perspective – Linear perspective conveys depth by reducing the relative size of objects as they regress into space.
Atmospheric Perspective -Atmospheric perspective creates the illusion of depth by increasingly blurring the lines and details of objects or figures as the image regresses into the distance, as it would in nature.
Colour Perspective – Closely related to atmospheric perspective, color perspective conjures depth by adjusting the saturation and hue of colors as space regresses. While the foreground of compositions using this perspective technique would reflect typical colour saturation, as the image travels back into space the colours would transition first to greens and then to blues by the farthest depths of the composition.
MAKING MEANING (READING IMAGES)
To exchange meanings and concepts, we need a shared language within the human species. Term we use for words, sounds or images that carry meaning is signs. Charles Sanders Pierce developed a study of signs in the early 1860’s called Pierce’s Theory of Semiotics.
Stages of reading images:
First element – signifier
Corresponding – signified
Roland Barthes identified the structural relationship in the component of a sign, they have two different levels of signification.
Deco-notation which is what is pictured and connotation which is the proper meaning of the image.
For example:
Deco-notation – a representation of a heart
Connotation – symbol of love & affection
The image below is the famous oil painting by Jan Van Eyck which represents two people on the day of their marriage, this is such a good example of making meaning from images. This is because there are lots of signs within the image that indicates different things in their marriage.
Firstly, you can see that she is pregnant by the way she is standing however, is she really pregnant? No, women in those days liked to stand in that pose and their dresses were way too long to drag along the floor so they had to hold some of the dress to keep it stable.
The oranges in the background in the image are there which symbolizes wealth, it also resembles passion in the newly married couple. In addition to this, it can resemble Adam and Eve with their way of showing the apple (which symbolizes love.) Their lovely clothes were the clothes that they were married in, these clothes were most likely made from silk and materials which were very expensive in those days. This resembles wealth. The posture of the couples hand holding is very suspicious however it probably means the woman is giving herself to him. This is shown by the woman’s hand being more open and saying ‘I am yours now’. The chandelier up above only has one candle in it, when there should be about 5. Having just one candle inside resembles marriage within two people. Lastly, the mirror shows a reflection of the painter painting the couple, the painter is Jan Van Eyck, he wanted to include himself to show that he painting the oil painting. Which can be seen above the image that is Jan Van Eyck’s signature.
Iconography, which is three levels of meaning
First level – hat, male
Second level – lifting their hat (sign of politeness)
Third level – you can tell something about his personality, educational and social backgrounds.
Definition of multivocality: an image that has multiple readings.
KEY HISTORIES
Week two:
In this lecture the topic was originally about key histories in visual literacy, visual literacy refers to a group of vision by seeing and at the same time developing other sensory experiences. (Debes, 1969)
Visual literacy is the ability to:
- interpret
- negotiate
- make meaning from information presented in the image shown.
The Birth of Visual Literacy
5,000 years ago, we started to find letters and shapes which we call Proto-Sinaitic script. These evolved over the next 3,000 years into our western alphabets i.e Greek, Roman, Latin.
Images that are ‘read’Egyptian art was layered and created mostly with symbolism, using 2D illustrations to interpret meaning within images. They presented symbols to present visual grammar.Roman and Greek focused more on realism and their art was narrative as they liked storytelling. This was shown like Egyptian hieroglyphics.
In the Christian religion, they re-emergence hidden symbolism in art. For example, they use gold as a representation of wealth and majesty.
Islam culture rejects figures of idolatry, they do not use symbolism using people or objects. They always use beautiful patterns which can be created infinitely. This means that the pattern is always on going. Their circle grid represents Allah being infinite, having power. “Islamic aniconism is the term used to describe the absence of icons in Islamic art. Islam is centred on Unity, and Unity is not expressible in terms of any image. Thus, Islamic art as a whole aims to create an ambience which helps man to realise his primordial dignity; it therefore avoids everything that could be an ‘idol’ even in a relative and provisional manner – nothing must stand between man and the invisible presence of God – thus eliminating all the turmoil and passionate suggestions of the world and in their stead creating an order that expresses equilibrium, serenity and peace.” Aniconism, 2016. Available from: [http://www.salaam.co.uk/themeofthemonth/march02_index.php?l=9]
Johannes Gutenberg 1439
This man was a German printer who introduced printing to everyone, when this was introduced, everyone said ‘Art is now dead’ because they thought printing would take over.
INTRODUCTION
Week one:
To start the module off, we were introduced to the title of the module which is ‘visual literacy’ this included definitions and examples of what that means. The module will also include a group project with other students called ‘Change of State’ that will take up 70% of the mark, the other 30% will be the blog on WordPress.
What is visual literacy?
“Visual literacy is the ability to interpret, negotiate, and make meaning from information presented in the form of an image, extending the meaning of literacy, which commonly signifies interpretation of a written or printed text.” Wikipedia (2015) Available from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_literacy
“When is a sheep not a sheep?”
“When it is a work of art?”
How do we read photographs?
We read a photograph not as an image but as a text, when we read images we start thinking in a series of multiple readings i.e. the expectations, what is happening and what we bring in the image as to the image itself. (Clarke, G, 1997)
Example
Ceci n’est pas une pipe – René Magritte
People would say this is a this is a pipe, others would say it’s a picture of a pipe.
This example is good because it shows the audience how you look at images. People could also look at it just as a picture, it’s all about going into the image.
Lauren Catherine Procter 
