Friday 26 October 2012

Seminar 2


Modern- New, improved, automatically better ( assumed )
Modernity- Urbanisation, Industrialisation, social experience
Modernism- Response to the conditions of modernity and its experience

The start of Modernism
Adolf Loos 1908 'Ornament and Crime' - rejection of ornament and extra decoration
Louis Sullivan 1896 ' The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered' - form follows function (how it looks is secondary to communication, function of graphic design)

Both of these pieces are written about architecture but they showed the starting principles of modernism.

Cheret 1884 and Toulouse 1891, not completely 'modern' but shows progression towards it.


Parole in Liberta - Layout and Type
Marinetti, Zang Tumb Tumb - Minimalistic, Type and Colour only, Onomatopoeia therefore Internationalism.
Futurists- The ultimate Modern, apocalyptic views of modernism, technology over humans.



Fortunato Depero 1927
Bolted book, held together with bolts. Truth to material and a representation of the industrial. Aesthetic Self Reflexiveness- questions what the book really is.



Apollinaire 1918
Concrete Poetry
Il Pleut
The way it is laid out represents what its about.
Il Pleut = It's Raining
Image looks like rain.



Jan Tschichold 1927
Typography 
Came up with a set of rules

  • No fonts except groetesk, fit for the modern age ( striped down, sans-serif ) ( then became aksidenz groetesk and then Helvetica.
  • Against Fraktur font ( used by the German Nazi Party for all its publications and propaganda) ( handwritten, historical, germanic greatness, national )
  • Use of strong Grid Systems


Switzerland
post WW2
Helvetica- reference of the style in switzerland
Flush Left, Ragged Right Text
Abandoning of the hand drawn
In favour of photography ( new technology therefore modern ) 

Neue Grafik
(New Graphics)
Front Cover
Internationalism- three different languages ( most commonly used throughout the world at the time; English, French, German)
No Decoration
Aksidenz Grotesk (Helvetica)
Logical 
Form follows Function
Grid System
Name itself is functional and effective



Joseph Muller Brockman
Still experimental
Strong use of grids and aksidenz grotesk only


5 Characteristics

  1. Aesthetic self reflexiveness
  2. Montage
  3. Paradox, Ambiguity and Uncertainty
  4. Loss of the Intergrated individual subject ( alienation)
  5. Optimism


Utopianism
Universal
Typeface designed by Herman Bayer 



Serif- originated from the roman empire, made by the use of the chisel
Different Weights- Brush Strokes

Whereas
Sans-serif - Machines, Technology. 

Herman Bayer said we shouldn't copy text from the past, wanted an international style,  that had no contextual background. It would also be easier for children to read and learn. It would be cheaper and reproducible.


Film Helvetica 
Extras 
Current designers who are both Modern and Post Modern.

Modernism/ Post Modernism in Graphic Design

Modernism

http://www.flickr.com/photos/grainspace/2256808843/in/photostream/ 
 Swiss modern graphic design for the chemical industry, design by max schmid - basel 1956 for geigy from the book publicity and graphic design in the chemical industry. 1967. 
I believe that this is modern as there is a clear grid system, the columns at the top align to the titles at the bottom. The type is very structures and it is in Helvetica, the typeface to use in a modern piece. The colours are very simple and there is a clear logical hierarchy.
            
http://www.almostmodern.com/manifest
I would say that this is also modern clear type and layout have been experimented with yet again you can recognise a grid like system. Again there are only two colours. The typeface again is sans-serif which means it has no extra details which is typically modern. There are no illustrations, its all type, which is a new concept in design.

http://www.almostmodern.com/the-people-united-will-never-be-defeated

http://www.almostmodern.com/the-people-united-will-never-be-defeated
(February 24th - 2010  The People united will never be Defeated We were invited to provide printed matter for the politically slanted exhibition ‘The people united will never be defeated’. Our initial proposal concerned use of characteristics taken from the flag of Chile, as the title of the exhibition was derived from a Chilean freedom song. This was decided to be too dominant, however. The star displayed is a ‘remnant’ of our proposal. La estrella solitaria (‘The lone star’) is the name of the star incorporated in the Chilean flag. A2 poster folded to an A5 invite.Printed by De Nieuwe Grafische, Rotterdam.)
Again there is no imagery except the star. There is also a grid system this is evident in the body copy. One colour only has been used. The typefaces are sans-serif. And there is a clear left to right hierarchy, title,main copy on the left , body copy on the right.


http://plastolux.com/modern-graphic-design-ccrz.html
This piece is modern as the imagery is photographed, and this was a new medium that was adopted by modernists, because it was new and harnessed new technologies. There is a very minimalistic white colour scheme and yet again the type is Helvetica ( sans-serif ). Aswell as this I think a grid has been used to layout the type. Also a hierarchy again is evident as the titles are larger than the name at the bottom right hand corner, which in a western civilisation is the last area on the page your eyes would read.

The Graphic Artist and his Design Problems, 1968, J Muller- Brockman
This is purely typographical there is no imagery, a modern way of designing . A simple minimal colour scheme, the colours are also neutral and they aren't garish. All the type is aligned left and it is evident a grid system has been used. 

  • Sans-Serif Type e.g. aksidenz grotesque now adapted and known as Helvetica.
  • Purely Typographical Pieces
  • Use of a grid system
  • Photography as the imagery
  • Minimal colour schemes
  • Neutral Colours
  • Hierarchy's

Post Modernism


Neville Brody, The Face spread, From 1981 to 1986





Bright colours that clash, colours going over the type making it less readable. Paint has been used in an obvious way to create the background. Neville Brody is known for being a key figure in the post modernism era. His designs always reflected the post modern aesthetic which was anti everything before it.

http://en.etapes.com/niessen-and-de-vries-the-dutch-post-modern-studio, 2006
Again bright colours have been used in an almost garish way. The imagery is hand-drawn illustration. Its unclear of what it is communicating and it looks chaotic and doesn't follow a particular grid system.

Eye, 1962, a self-published broadsheet based on Hollis’s travels in post-revolutionary Cuba.
Again quite chaotic, lots going on, the type is very small and nearly illegible, there is also no clear hierarchy.I think that the photographs themselves aren't full images, some of them are cropped and this was a semi-new technique too.
  

2003 – Massey University (History of Graphic Design)




I would say in this piece there is no clear grid system , type has been laid over other type and so it is unreadable and it has no function, one of the main contrasting points of modernism and post modernism. Also the type has been put in to strange positions e.g sideways, and so it is unconventional and anti-grid. Again no real clear hierarchy or order.   

ID Magazine
This piece is clearly post modern. The colours are bright and clashing, you could say that they are garish. They range chaotically and almost collage like. The strap line type is clearly detailed and hand drawn. The pose of the model is also quite shocking and this is typical of the post modern era, which is known for being punk and therefore anti-establishment.



  • Bright, 'Garish' colours
  • Illustration, hand drawn
  • chaotic layouts, no use of a grid system
  • Type laid over other type - plays with legibility and function
  • A mixture of typefaces.
  • Unclear hierarchy

Wednesday 24 October 2012

Message and Delivery: Research

Create a body of research in response to a story, issue or theme found in the national press , Tuesday 23rd October.

I found a news article in the Metro, (below)
(scan in paper)

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/10/23/whale_speaks_english/


A young Beluga whale spent four years apparently trying to speak English recently, according to scientists in California. The cetacean's enunciation was apparently clear enough that it was actually discovered when the creature ordered a startled diver to get out of the water.

“The whale’s vocalizations often sounded as if two people were conversing in the distance,” says Dr Sam Ridgway, President of the National Marine Mammal Foundation. “These ‘conversations’ were heard several times before the whale was eventually identified as the source. In fact, we discovered it when a diver mistook the whale for a human voice giving him underwater directions.”
The whale in question was a young white beluga named "NOC", resident at the Foundation. According to an NMMF statement:
As soon as the whale was identified as the source, NMMF scientists recorded his speech-like episodes both in air and underwater, studying the physiology behind his ability to mimic. It’s believed that the animals close association with humans played a role in how often he employed his ‘human’ voice, as well as in its quality. Researchers believe NOC’s sonic behavior is an example of vocal learning by a white whale. After about four years, NOC’s speech-like behavior subsided.
“When NOC matured, we no longer heard speech-like sounds, but he did remain quite vocal,” Ridgway says.
The doc and colleagues from California uni and the US Navy's marine-mammal units (which are mainly staffed by dolphins) have published a paper in the journal Current Biology on the amazing speech-like efforts of the while whale, which you can also sample in the vid above.
If you believe in American literary tradition - perhaps based on a real animal - this is not the first white whale to bring a message to humanity: but it would seem that NOC's message is an altogether cheerier one. 


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2221405/Incredible-audio-reveals-white-whale-trying-make-contact-humans.html

The whale who learned to talk to the man-imals: Noc' could imitate a human's voice and used an underwater microphone to make contact with scientists

  • Whale was able to produce distinctly human sounds, fooling divers
  • Researchers now believe the unique animal may have been trying to make contact with humans



By MARK PRIGG
PUBLISHED: 17:00, 22 October 2012 | UPDATED: 08:36, 23 October 2012
A white whale which learnt to imitate the voices of humans may have been trying to make contact, scientists believe.
The male named Noc had a distinctly human-like voice, much to the surprise of scientists who previously thought whales typically produce sounds in a manner that is wholly different from humans.
Noc died five years ago after 30 years of living amongst dolphins and other white whales and being in contact with humans at the National Marine Mammal Foundation based in San Diego in California.
Scroll down to hear the whale
NOC the white whale approaches a diver underwater. The whale may have begun speech-like sounds after hearing divers using underwater communications equipment, researchers believe
NOC with an underwater microphone which the team used to make recordings along with microphones on the surface


However, the incredible recordings of the whale were revealed for the first time as the team published their findings.

Sam Ridgway, who led the study, said: 'Our observations suggest that the whale had to modify its vocal mechanics in order to make the speech-like sounds. 
'Such obvious effort suggests motivation for contact.'
Mr Ridgway and his colleagues first began to notice some unusual sounds in the vicinity of the whale and dolphin enclosure which was described a sounding as though two people were conversing in the distance in 1984.
The sounds were traced back to Noc after a diver surfaced from the whale enclosure to ask his colleagues an odd question 'Who told me to get out?'
Although there has been other anecdotal reports of whales sounding like humans before, in this case Ridgway’s team wanted to capture some real evidence by recording Noc over the years.
The team built a special underwater listening platform to try and hear more 'voices'.
The researchers analysed the vocal passages of a white while to discover how NOC made the unique noises

The researchers constructed a special 'listening post' so they could hear the whales clearly
It revealed a rhythm similar to human speech and fundamental frequencies several octaves lower than typical whale sounds, much closer to that of the human voice.
Mr Ridgway said: 'Whale voice prints were similar to human voice and unlike the whale’s usual sounds. 
'The sounds we heard were clearly an example of vocal learning by the white whale.'
He said it was all the more remarkable because whales make sounds via their nasal tract, not in the larynx as humans do.
To make those human-like sounds, Noc had to vary the pressure in his nasal tract while making other muscular adjustments and inflating the vestibular sac in his blowhole. 
In other words, they say, it wasn’t easy.
The study 'Spontaneous human speech mimicry by a cetacean' are published in the latest issue of Current Biology.
'Our observations of human voice mimicry began in May 1984 when a male white whale about 9 years of age at our facility in San Diego Bay spontaneously began to make such speechlike sounds,' the researchers say.
The whale called 'NOC' was the youngest of three that had been collected at  Churchill, Manitoba, Canada in August of 1977.  
At times, the speech-like sounds were heard from a distance when no humans were nearby, however most episodes were observed when humans were nearby on the surface or underwater.  
NOC the white whale that spontaneously began to imitate human speech. The other whale, an older female, never made such speech like sounds
Speech-like sounds were never observed in the two older whales that lived with him and they were not heard from NOC when he was interacting with other whales.  
Observations of white whales in our care indicate that they are very vocal animals consistent with the many observations of these 'sea canaries' in the wild. 
Sadly, after 30 years at the National Marine Mammal Foundation, NOC passed away five years ago. 

But the sound of his voice lives on.
Noc, the white whale researchers believe developed a human-like voice in order to try and make contact
White whales have previously bonded with humans - here one blows heart-shaped bubbles in the water in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province



Marine Mammals Good Imitators
Why a marine mammal would imitate human voices is unclear, though the creatures' human-mimicking speech may be a side effect of their ability to imitate each other, Tyack suggested. For instance, dolphins sometimes copy each other's signature whistles, and humpback whales learn songs from each other.
It's unlikely, he added, that NOC or Hoover understood the sounds they made.
"The only strong evidence for [understanding words] in any imitating animal wasAlex, the African gray parrot," said Tyack.
By training NOC to accept a small device into his nasal passages—the whale equivalent of the human windpipe—Ridgway and his team discovered that the beluga whale made these unusual sounds by inflating air sacs to a much higher pressure than during normal vocalizations.
This explained why NOC's head visibly bulged when he "talked."
"The human voice," Ridgway said, "appears to be very difficult for a cetacean to mimic."

Speech

I firstly began to look at speech as the article is about contact and language. I wanted to see how people had captured the essence of speech.

http://www.behance.net/gallery/Drawings-About-Talking/2785021

Drawings About Talking

Speech bubbles are graphic convention used most commonly in comics, cartoons or illustrations. Instead of putting words into it to represent speech or thoughts of a character, what if the speech bubble itself has its own expression and characteristic? In this series of illustrations I wanted to explore the possibilities of telling a story/ message by speech bubbles graphically, without words or as least words as possible.
Personal project of Tang Yau Hoong



Hi



Storytelling 


Breakfast Talk 


Food Talk



Music Talk


Talk Trash

Dirty Talk
Boys Talk

Girls Talk


Lie

Long Story Short






http://www.behance.net/gallery/OBAMAS-SPEECH/4319861

Obama's Speech

















http://www.behance.net/gallery/The-Broken-Poetry/4709115

The aim of this project is to bring awareness about the absence of freedom of speech in Iran through the vehicles of poetry and calligraphy. As Iranian youth strive to express themselves freely and boldly, they’ve broken the boundaries of symbolic language and wish to communicate with the world clearly and openly. My project is an expression on this endeavor, through the use of a poem about freedom of expression by Ahmad Shamlu, a beloved Persian poet.










Other


http://www.behance.net/gallery/Toy-Stories/1714465

http://www.behance.net/gallery/Toy-Stories/1714465

http://designspiration.net/image/285508682934/


http://designspiration.net/image/130312548612/  
Contact, 1997,  Might&Wonder

Whales

I then looked into how people had portrayed whales in graphic design, this was to give me an idea on how I could maybe portray Noc the whale from my article. 

http://designspiration.net/image/324307342431/

http://designspiration.net/image/1559444470371/

http://designspiration.net/image/2315702295670/

http://ffffound.com/image/bc766584b38b7f476c80370a74f5b3298d8c76b2

http://www.behance.net/gallery/Business-card/2671349

Human speech rhythms

The articles above also mention human speech rhythms/ frequencies and so I thought I would look at how they capture these patterns on a graph and it would give me an idea of lines.