I have successfully submitted my project into the hand in to be marked, this includes the written summary, a blog link to this WordPress website and my presentation which was presented last week!
Category Archives: Tasks
UPDATE
Just an update to show that I’m still focusing on my blog by writing my summary for Visual literacy.
To add into summary:
A one off lecture hosted by another lecturer about the history of illustration and how it has evolved over the years whether it being motion or graphic. The lecture started from the start at the 1960’s and described the images which were produced at that time. She viewed and spoke about a few images through each decade, talked about how they created the illustrations, what they meant and what reaction occurred when the piece was released. The artist which stuck out to me the most was Jan Švankmajer who has been producing in the art and film industry since 1970’s. His work is so creative and slightly gruesome, how he formed art by drawing animal parts and skeletons to form hybrids. [add image]
FIRST PART OF WRITTEN SUMMARY
1500 words reflecting your thoughts on the theories behind Visual Literacy, what you have learned from the main lectures and topics covered in these sessions. Mention how you have implemented what you have learned in your individual work. And what you have discovered about yourself whilst working in a group.
This is the written summary of what has been taught throughout the second semester; each week consisted of three parts – the lecture, individual tasks and a group session. Each part being approximately 90 minutes long.
The lecture helped the concept of visual literacy, the first lectures were mainly about the introduction of the topic and the key histories which occurred. Some of the key histories that were taught which wa fod most interesting was the different cultured within the art history. How they were We were taught how to view and look further into images to gather more information on what is going on. This comes to the terms ‘denotation’ and ‘connotation’, these terms are found frequently within visual literacy. Denotation being the literal or primary meaning of a word. “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. Connotation being an idea or feeling which a word invokes for a person “The meaning of the image and how we ‘read’ it is not fixed by it’s creator or author but is equally determined by the reader.” Ian Noble/Russsell Bestley, 2005.
Another part of visual literacy is the perspective of images and the vanishing point within the image shown, we were taught the history of perspective and how it has evolved throughout the years. Images shown like the St. John created by Giovanni Di Paolo in 1454, the first ever attempted picture of 3D art. [insert image and referencing] In addition to this, the different types of perspective were discussed and shown how they were diverse from each other. The types being: linear, Atmospheric, Colour and Planar. I was able to research more into this and find clear definitions for each sort, linear brings depth by reducing the relative size of objects as they regress into space, atmospheric creates the illusion of depth by increasingly blurring the lines and details of objects or figures as the image regresses into the distance, colour causes depth by adjusting the saturation and hue of colours as space regresses and lastly, planar is the division of a composition in a series of layered planes to create a sense of depth. Seattlepi. (2016)
A small amount information relating to visual literacy revolved around the term ‘gestalt’, the terminology frequently well known in the other module Principles of Design. There are two meanings when it comes to gestalt but the one which was focused on in the seminars was the art form. The definition according to Art 104: Design and Composition is that it is a “theory is involved with visual perception and the psychology of art among other things. It is concerned with the relationship between the parts and the whole of a composition.” Gestalt includes five main principles: figure ground, closure, similarity, symmetry and anomaly. Each categories were similar to one another but they had their own definition when it came to choosing what a piece of art was. Figure ground is split into parts, the positive and the negative, which is always known as the spaces. The two balance off each other creating an image from the negative space. Figure ground is commonly found in logos because of the simple, interesting layout which grabs attention. [add logos] The best definition for the principle closure is “when parts of a whole picture are missing, our perception fills in the visual gap.” Wikipedia (2016) Symmetry is a very well known term in maths when it comes to letters and shapes, you are able to find whether the shape has symmetry by placing a mirror in the middle and checking if it’s identical. Similarity is a principle which include using identical shapes to form a larger shape and proximity being when shapes are close together i.e. circles to form a bigger image.
Referencing
Ian Noble/Russsell Bestley, 2005, Visual Research, page 68. [from lecture presentation]
Seattlepi. (2016) Four types of perspective. Available from: http://education.seattlepi.com/four-types-perspective-renaissance-art-1418.html
2D Design Notes: Gestalt ( 2000) available at: www.daphne.palomar.edu/design/gestalt
Wikipedia (2016) Gestalt psychology. available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestalt_psychology
SELF PROMOTION
Pulling together Paul Rands ‘vocabulary of aesthetics’, colour theory, expressive type and poster design create an A4 self promotional piece of work that promotes your blog.
You must include;
• Your blog address
You may include;
• The use of colour (which colours reflect your
personality?)
• An image (possible self portrait?)
• Typographic or textured background
(remember the work of Herb Lubalin)
• The three expressive type words that describe your
personality
I went to my idea on the logo which I created for myself which was a silhouette of my hair and colour that it was dyed. 
I decided to add the WordPress logo in my promotion so that people know what type of website it is.
Logo source: https://image.freepik.com/free-icon/wordpress-logo-of-a-letter-in-a-circle_318-49857.png
EXPRESSING TEXT
For this task, we had to think and pick three words to describe myself. I chose sarcastic, weird and blunt because I believe I am them adjectives in my opinion. We had to then swap with someone across the room so that we could use their words to express text. The words I got from I had to express the text were honest, weird and loud.
This is my paper which the person has expressed my words:
We then had to transfer the text onto Illustrator and created them as similar as I could.
COLOUR & PERSONALITY
For this task we have to look at colour and how colour can describe your personality, “Think about colours that reflect your personality, organised, extrovert, shy? Create a quick self expression image using colour and/or shape. Think about Paul Rands, Vocabulary of Aesthetics: Order, variety, contrast, symmetry, tension, balance,
scale, texture, space, shape, light, shade and colour.”
When I think of myself, I think of my hair and how I always seem to have turquoise hair or the ends of my hair are that colour. I went with using my hair because I don’t think I have anything else that is different compared with everyone else. I used space to produce an image of myself representing my hair. I did this on Illustrator using the pen
tool:
I like it because it shows that it is me in the class, I decided to put it as my logo for my WordPress site so that if my tutors go onto this, they know who’s work they’re looking at.
CONNOTATION & DENOTATION
Denotation: the literal or primary meaning of a word. “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, page 68
Connotation: an idea or feeling which a word invokes for a person “The meaning of the image and how we ‘read’ it is not fixed by it’s creator or author but is equally determined by the reader.” Ian Noble/Russsell Bestley, 2005, Visual Research, page 68
This is an example that I found which shows the difference between denotation and connotation. Denotation being ‘a dove’ and the connotation being ‘peace’ or ‘love.
SWISS GRID & FILE MANAGEMENT
File management:
We firstly discussed about file management and how it is important to save your work in multiple places, you also need to organise your files so you don’t lose any. Organising your files and work makes it easier for you to find the file you’re looking for. If you have lots of files and images, it’s a good idea to split each folder up into individual projects and then split the projects up into: research, referencing and pdf’s.
Swiss Grid Design
The swiss grid, also known as the swiss grid system is a different grid compared to the original grid.” A grid system is a set of measurements a graphic designer can use to align and size objects within the given format. Although there are a few different categories of grid systems, there are no strict rules on what can or cannot be a grid. It’s up to you. Any guides that help you shape the final design is okay.” Grid Systems (2015) Printing Code. Available from: http://printingcode.runemadsen.com/lecture-grid/
The Swiss grid system originated in Switzerland where a few graphic designers got tired of using the original grid system, they decided to make their own grid up. The grid included having text being rotated and flipped rather than just plainly placed onto the image. Graphic designers such as Armin Hoffman and Josef Brockmann decided to use the Swiss grid and tried it out while designing their posters.
Swissted is a company created by Mike Joyce in which he looks at band posters and re-creates them using the Swiss Grid system. Here are some of my favourite examples.
I’ve picked these images because they stood out to me the most. This may be due to the posters having a meaning behind the title i.e. The Clash poster – they have added shapes clashing together to get an affect. I like the others because the colours are very bold, some aren’t bright but they have an amazing contrast with their backgrounds.
Images Available from: http://www.swissted.com/
‘BLACK SQUARE’
For this task, we were asked to create images on Illustrator CC using four black squares of varying dimensions, create a graphic image that best expresses the meaning of each of these six words: ORDER, TENSION, INCREASE, CONGESTED, BOLD & PLAYFUL.
They can be rotated, scaled, cropped. Also white outlines are allowed.
These were examples from the moodle page which we could look at if we struggled structuring the black squares to describe the word.
This is my take on the task:
I found this task interesting because it actually made you think about how you could show the words meaning in a box, the hardest part was having to only use 4 squares.
MINDMAP OF VISUAL LITERACY
In the lesson, the task was to get into small groups of 6 and discuss together what they think of when they hear visual literacy. We had to create and develop a mind map about the different categories within the topic, we discussed lots of meaning which visual literacy could interpret however we also thought out of the box thinking of copyright and religion.
This is the mind map which we developed in the lesson, it took us about 20 minutes to achieve.
Lauren Catherine Procter 