Visual Reflective Journal 26/10/10

 ‘Draw. Work by Hand.’

 Visual people think and work visually and the key is drawing. To express ideas they contain development work to sketchbooks. Drawing is about exploring, playing and thinking out loud. A wide a range of media should be experimented with, in order to challenging yourself and create new ideas. Visual Communicators express themes, ideas and development through drawing. Each image doesn’t need to be a work of art; they are just a way of illustrating your thoughts in visual form. Jill Calder takes a sketchbook wherever she goes, drawing everything that inspires her and that could develop her current ideas and project further. Here are some images of her sketchbook work. They are everyday scenes of what she has seen and become a narrative and a journey of her ideas. They are playful but also document the information she needs. The only critic of your development work is yourself, whom you need to manage in order to be able to play and explore to get your ideas out there, on the page, without the feeling that your work isn’t good enough. However, the work can’t be completely random, it is for a purpose, a concept or brief, so evaluating the work, and listening to this ‘critic’ (but only after the playful stage) is necessary to stay on track. Drawing is not limiting and can be created by cutouts, (e.g. Marion Deuchars and Peter Callesen), stitch (e.g. Lizzie Finn) sticking down, biro, paint and so on.

 

‘Cyclic Design Process.’

The Cyclic Design Process is all about iteration. You think, you plan, you do, you evaluate. Then the cycle starts again. Creative people have worked in this way for many years. It is to do with the fact that you don’t stop until you get it right. There is nothing worse that settling with something that is adequate, as in a creative profession you are always competing with others. You need to continuously interrogate your work. Can it look better? Can it be better? Thomas Edison designed over 10,000 prototypes before inventing the light bulb. An important principle is you learn by doing, and this is how the cycle comes in. This structure enables you to play first, but then step back and evaluate the outcome. Pablo Picasso produced more than 60 portraits of his lover Fernande Olivier, between the spring and fall of 1909. He used a variety of media and formats, and through his devotion to one subject the series has been described as ‘unprecedented in the history of portraiture.’ Portrait of Fernande, Horta de Ebro, summer 1909, (oil on canvas) explores cubism and expresses Picasso’s ‘radical reformulation of human physiognomy’. Other media includes watercolours in ‘Standing female nude,’ fall 1909, and black chalk for ‘Study of head of woman (Fernande)’ 1909. Some of the images are unfinished as

 Picasso has allowed himself to play freely, but through evaluation has moved on to others. A valuable quote by Picasso states ‘I never ‘finish’ a piece of work…I merely abandon it.’

Five Ideas (Principles) 12/10/10

Week 3      12/10/10

'Find examples of visual communications that shows Visual Hierarchy (or lack of hierarchy) and explain why.'

Visual Hierarchy is about what the audience sees/reads first and then the order your eyes follow afterwards. There are things that can affect visual hierarchy such as colour, weight, images and typography. These are all devices that designers use to attract their potential audiences, which, here, would mainly be women, aged 17-26. The order may vary for some but will essentially be similar. Magazine covers are good examples of visual hierarchy. This example of Vogue’s October Edition would be aimed at people who had a high interest in fashion. The designers start with an image of one of the biggest names in fashion, Kate Moss, on the front cover. Her face becomes the focal point. All the text is the same colour because the designer wants the image, and most importantly what she is wearing to be seen first. The title is next to catch the audience’s eye. It's the largest type and holds the most weight. It’s bold, and is spre ad across Kate Moss's forehead, so your eyes are drawn in. Then your eyes are drawn down the page, towards the side headings, perhaps to the left side first to the bold type, or towards the bottom where the designer has used the second biggest font and also changed the type-face to something very different. This would probably be because it is an important feature to this edition. Smaller, lighter text is read last. This is used often just to offer descriptions to larger headings. Different topics are grouped. More dense groups will be seen first, but overall the structure of the writing frames the face. A sophisticated, elegant font type is used to reflect the message the magazine needs to express, as Vogue is all about fashion and thus trend setting, and need to maintain this image. The visual hierarchy here has been used well and reflects the magazine accordingly.

  

'Find examples of visual communications that are legible or illegible and explain why.'

What makes visual communications legible?

The type-face (not using all capitals for long sentences) layout, type size, colour (no yellow on white), and so on. This image is an anti-smoking advertisement. It's simplistic, but displays the right message. The text is limited, and so allows the audience to interpret the message alone. Immediately you see the burning cigarettes in the mouth. The lips are perfectly shaped, evenly applied with lipstick; the mouth alone expresses a 'sexy' image and a connection with kissing is made. It is aimed at a young smoking audience, playing with the idea that smoking isn't at all sexy. This audience doesn’t want to be bombarded with information on the dangers of smoking; they’ve heard it all before, so the advert is good at relating to them. The only text available is the web address, and once again the idea of kissing is suggest. As the smoke is rising within the mouth, you can almost taste it, the mouth doesn’t seem that appealing anymore.  It is legible and uses the idea that a 'picture can be worth a thousand words.'

What is Illustration? 05/10/10

Research

‘Through the 'visual practice' of observation, collecting, studying and exploring, illustration can contribute to a deeper understanding of the subject.’

Illustration is the act of clarifying or explaining, which has a particular use. It involves visually communicating a message in a form that the target audience will understand. To do this illustrators have to start from scratch and produce primary research. This may involve collecting anything that inspires them or that they can re-use. Paul Davis flourishes from this method of research. He has been described as a ‘magpie’ and is continuously collecting things through, for example, observational drawing, and reusing items. Davis produced illustrations for the Guardian and so his research would reflect this audience. Obviously, illustrations for the Guardian will be aimed at a different audience than those say for the Sun. Davis's collection of information is crucial for this line of work as he needs to have an understanding of what and who he is illustrating for. Through research, the work of others will be of great inspiration. The basis of this work is to communicate a message or a meaning. Research of other people's work will give illustrators ideas of how to encode these messages and express what the image is trying to say along with how and what they use to create their work. Research has to have a context though. It would be of no use for Paul Davis to research children's book illustrators, or alternatively interviewing people who have never read the Guardian before, for his newspaper illustrations. Similarly to Paul Davis, Jill Calder is an editorial illustrator and continuously collects visual research through producing observational drawings in her sketchbook wherever she goes of things that interest her, playing with text and media to produce her illustrations.

Inspiration 

'The notion of 'inspiration' derives from constant inquiry, based on research, observation, recording and experimentations.'

Research is closely connected with inspiration in the sense that it ‘feeds’ it. 'Collecting things can stimulate the brain. It helps you think of something fresher.' Inspiration drives the work of visual communicators, but its intention must be to build ideas for a particular brief or concept. The inspiration will relate to the context and audience the work is intended for because the research will be specific to it. It is important that the research element in their work comes second hand. Jon Burgerman said, ‘I’m not sure I actually switch into the research way of thinking, it’s more of a continuous on-going process including keeping my eyes peeled at all times.’ In addition to this principle, where the inspiration comes from and how it is used will be different. Personal interpretations and preferences will affect inspiration and thus what and how ideas are expressed and encoded within their work, creating a 'personal journey' of the individual’s thoughts through recording. For example, Rian Hughes states ‘sketching, thinking, reading… I feed as much information from various sources into my brain and then let it filter down into one elegant solution… I hope.’ References for inspiration will vary as well, for instants; Saul Steinberg is influenced by the whole history of art such as 'Egyptian paintings, latrine drawings, primitive and insane art, Seurat, children’s drawings, embroidery, Paul Klee.’

Connectivity 28/09/10

ITAP

Integrating Theory and Practice

 

'Notions of Originality'

The question arises whether originality exists in art and design anymore. Both artists and designers take inspiration from those that have come before them. There is nothing wrong with that…but where do we draw the line when ‘stealing’ someone else's ideas? Diego de Silva Velazquez's  'Las Meninas - (The maids of honour),' 1656, has been subject to replicates. The original is based on a room in the Madrid palace of King Philip IV of Spain where Velazquez portrays himself w orking on a canvas. Individuals are staring out of the frame and interacting with others around them, the mirror behind showing the upper bodies of the King and Queen. The image has been recognized as one of the most important paintings in Western art history, so there is no question to why others would want to ‘steal’ these ideas. Picasso created many versions of this painting, one in 1957. Approaching the image differently to Velazquez due to the differences in, for example, audience and culture, was praised for his work as it constituted to an 'exhaustive study of form, rhythm, colour and movement.'  Then Joel-Peter Witkin created his version in 1987. The compositions are greatly alike but the reconstructions relate to the time and place the images where created, as the meaning of art changes through time unless we know exactly what it was used for and when. Velazquez would have been aiming his work at 'high class' people, people with large amounts of wealth in Spain during the mid 1600s. Picasso would have also aimed at a Spanish culture but expressing the popular art movement during this time, Cubism. Witkin's work, however, uses a more modern type of art, combining media, including photography.

 

'Can recontextualised ideas be contemporary?'

 

The meaning of art changes through time. To understand it’s meaning the time it was made and uses have to be taken into account. Deconstructing the originals and rebuilding them in a form that the current artist can use will change the context of the piece. Elsie Wright's 'Cottingley Fairies' (1917) caused amazement among the public, as the image was believed to be real. It was a form of trickery, and subsequently caused a belief in fairies. This was all based upon the idea that the camera and children never lie. It didn't matter that the fairies were just cutout images, places around the girl. Aiming at an audience of that time who weren’t used to art that was used to deceive, believed in it. Similar images have been produced in recent years, such as Alison Jackson's image of Prince Philip staring at a photograph of a nude Marilyn Monroe  (2003). This was less likely to fool the audience as misleading images were everywhere in the 21st Century. This audience is continuously exposed to manipulated photographs due to the increased levels in technologies, such as Photoshop. Even though it may look more realistic they aren’t fooled as easily and the image is intended more for humour and entertainment, whereas made earlier in history, this could have caused uproar.