Back in Lawrence

So I am back in Lawrence, I cannot believe summer went so fast. I loved every minute of it. I am ready to get back into classes and see everyone though. I got a job working with Union Activities as a graphic designer. I think it will be great experience for me and refreshing to work on things outside of our projects sometimes. Just thought I would post and keep this up to date before classes.

Day 5

Wellll I am getting sleepy so this is going to be short. We began the day going to two churches that were very close by. Each had their own personality for sure. First was Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari. It is something you should copy and paste into google to check out. The tombs there were crazy! Tons of sculpture and frescos, it is an early Venetian Franciscan monastery. The entry was the most shocking part because....well just go look and you will know why. I don't want to ruin the surprise. After we ventured like 2 minutes away to Scuola Grande Arciconfraternita di San Rocco. It was primarily filled with paintings by Titian, Tiepolo, Giorgione and Tintoretto. I was really moved by the paintings in one room "Albergo Hall". After these adventures we all got pizza together...again...it is literally everywhere and all people eat! How do they eat enough veggies! Then we relaxed for a bit and I went back to a couple stores we passed...I bought a really cute headband..no surprise there. Jamie, Olivia, Kristin and I took a walk to find a good place to sketch and relax by the water. On our way we went into the Leonardo exhibit. It was displaying all his machines and inventions....realllly mind-blowing. He was a stinking genius! Finally we got to the Academia bridge and sat there with the breeze and dangled our feet. It was really entertaining when people would come up behind us and stare at our sketches...awkward...I felt like I really had to try haha. I drew part of the waterway but didnt finish since I was getting fried but I took a picture. We came back to the hotel and I took a nap then refreshed so I could go meet Melissa Friedman for dinner!!! So crazy! I see my wonderful friend and her mom so far away. We ate a delicious dinner and enjoyed catching up on our trips. I ventured with them to their hotel and tried some strawberry wine that mel got on her trip...interesting but surprisingly good. I felt the need to get back so Luke and Mary Anne didn't get worried. I was kinda proud of myself for getting to them and back on my own with no problems haha it made me feel Italian...not really. Ohhhk i need sleep. Hope you are all doing well! Tomorrow...the BEACH at Lido!

this is Kristin! she matched the Gondola guys today...haha

so much for a short entry...

Day 3

Well today was a nice break because we went at a slower pace and had more flexibility. We started as the group and went to the Peggy Guggenheim Museum. It was amazing to see! It was originally her house and they tried to keep the art as she had it...she had SO MUCH art! The main ones were Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Max Ernst, Kandinsky and Boccioni. I was in awe the majority of the two hours we were there :) I love seeing things that I have studied in real life like the "Unique forms of Continuity in Space by Boccioni and the De Stijl chair by Rietveld. Next we decided it was lunch time, the group split and I went with the people to go to the Italian Photography Exhibition. It was well worth it, 12 of us headed back toward San Marco to see it. The only annoying thing about this was the fact that all the boat-bus drivers were on strike today...meaning to cross the Grand Canal there was the Rialto or the Accemedia bridges that's it so everything was a long walk. Our group made the most of it and stopped in a few really interesting shops one for paper, one candy and another for random objects. I love these shops they all have neat things and it isn't so manufactured and repetitive. From the 12 we split again and I went with a group to the Hard Rock...yes, someone wanted a shirt..not me. Then we made it back to the hotel...thank you mother for my great sense of direction I lead without a map :) really though Venice is really too easy to get around. I cooled off in the room for a little but then grabbed Kristin to go to a coffee bar and sit to sketch. It was a nice surprise to find a T.V. there with the FIRST WORLD CUP GAME! so fun! I wanted South Africa to win but it was 1-1 against Mexico. Now I am back uploading pictures and documenting. Hope I am not too boring!

Until tomorrow..

.

this was from yesterday at the cemetery I am in love with the colors

So I realized I skipped the 10th...Day 3...I was confused. So short note, we went to Murano where they are known for their glass factories. It was really fun, mainly shopping and the glass museum. I bought a ring and earrings :) plus some gifts for you lucky people. I really wanted to buy a realllly cool vase for my momma but it cost more than the vase to ship...fail. On our way back from Murano we stopped at the cemetery...yes since 18--something no one was allowed to be buried in the city of Venice, so they are chillin on their own island. We spent about 2 hours there so I got some cool pictures...and got really creeped out. I forget what we did for dinner this night...see that is why i write it down.

Venice Day 2

Well yesterday (for me), Day 2, was packed full of stuff!

We got up early and went to Basilica San Marco. Thankfully we had a guided tour which got us to the front of the line because it was from the door all the way to the water (at least half a mile). The whole place was stunning! The entire ceiling is mosaic on top of that it was mostly gold leaf! It took 30 years to build but 300 years to decorate...yeah elaborate. The floor had over 60 types of marble which were set into hundreds of patterns. We went to the top and outside where the four horses stand (the real ones were inside to protect them) and watched the clock tower ring 10:00. The bell at the top is hit however many times as the hour by these two statues at the top. It looks kind of freaky...statues moving...? After the tour some of us went back through to go into two branches that cost extra. I went into one that showed behind the altar, wonderful! I then traveled over to a sectioned off prayer area and actually stumbled upon Mass. It was in Italian of course but it was still really cool taking communion there (I was next to several nuns). Eventually we all ventured out, split up and found food. A group of us went off into side streets so it wasn't as expensive but still very delicious.

The next place was Doge's palace. In general it was Very ornate and elaborate! We spent about 2 hours in there and it just kept going and going and going. hundreds of paintings, stucco walls, statues, tapestries...no holding back. I enjoyed going into the dungeon part a lot because the lighting was erie for picture taking :). Next on the agenda was ESPRESSO! :) wonderful.

We then ventured onward down the canal to Basilica della Salute. It has a beautiful facade and ornate marble floors (which I found is a trend). The next and last place we visited was San Giorgio Maggiore. It was another boat-bus ride across from San Marco. Here, we got to go up into the bell tower which gave us a 360 view of the islands. By this point it was about 5:30 and we were starving but we headed back to the hotel...Luke got us on the wrong boat....so it took about 30 minutes opposed to 10..oh well. When we made it back we had some time to relax before dinner. I decided to go walking around our hotel area to a square that is a big hang out for college-age people. I was smart and went ahead and bought a bottle of wine at the grocery store in the square for later :) Luke really wanted to take us to the Rialta so we took a long walk there then split up for dinner. 8 of us found a great place a block away from the canal with a very funny waiter. I had penne and prawns yummy...and wine of course! Finally our group headed back and thankfully remembered the way back....we stopped for gelato on the way too...everyone is already addicted. The day ended with everyone drinking wine in the square talking with tons of people from everywhere the states, Germany, England and of course Italy. Well we are about to meet downstairs to begin day 3! This was a lot of writing...I hope I am not boring people, you don't have to read, it just helps me document too.

Love, LJ

I was trying to upload a picture but it was giving me too much trouble!

Study Abroad Trip!

So I've been debating if I wanted to use this blog for my trip and finally decided why not. SOoo here I go... After being delayed 4 hours in Atlanta the group of 22 boarded to Venice, Italy. The flight was roughly 9 hours and I thankfully slept maybe 5. We got here 12:30 our time, boarded a bus and found our hotel. Lesson number one learned...bring a bag that is easy to carry up and down stairs since there are a TON of bridges in Venice..who would've thought! We checked into the rooms and walked around for a while, got some pizza...SO good, cliche but really we had to. Finally got going and took the taxi-boat thing down San Marco square. The whole scene was wonderful, people watching was great. The group is very bad about staying together...oh well..everyone has their own pace I suppose...mine is unfortunately very quick and to the point. We will see how my attitude is at the end of the trip haha :) So here is a picture from today, I will try to upload one every now and then.

What Inspired me Most this Semester...

This semester I feel I learned A LOT. I grew in multiple ways and am proud of my work this semester. Particularly in typography I was inspired by many of our journal assignments where we looked at great design websites. I also took an interest in reading through the Graphics and type books we bought in down time (not much time there) or as a procrastination device. I really enjoyed during the book cover project when we did a lot of planning and concept development. During this time we looked at a ton of covers and I enjoyed finding concepts behind their ideas. I was also really inspired by TEDtalks. I love the innovative and problem solving minds that share their ideas. Overall, I tried to do more research and discovering so I have a better sort of internal bank to pull from.

I set up for review last night and it was kind of depressing putting all my hard work onto one table and one panel haha. Seems like it should take up a whole room. When I looked at it all together I noticed I need to stop using navy blue....but other than that I felt it was pretty diverse in style and concept. I take ownership of my work and am proud of it although I know a lot of things can be improved each project is a reflection of where I have come from.

Speech In Motion

Monday April 26th

Wednesday April 28th

FINAL VIDEO

Journals 12 and 13

Journal 12

Lawrence Weiner

you are in the stream of life weather you like it or not. detests helvetica, it is telling you this is cultural intelligent and he likes franklin gothic condensed. you have to be who you are no matter how dangerous it is. art and design is of the moment.

David Carson.

He was not trained so his work was more impulsive, he did what he wanted to do.

Self-indulgent work is what worked for him. As design becomes more computerized work needs to become more personal, pull from who you are. Starting point is to interpret something, what have I just read what have I just listened to?

Paula Scher

:ook for some hook in the logo to give back to the idea. Did the first american shakespeare poster, loud and about words. Language merged with image, type was made to look like it was noise. Then it started to become this style. this identity for this small theater, became a style in New York City. She operates very strongly with her instincts, "if I don't get it in the second crack I usually don't get it. I have never been a refiner. problematic because some clients want the process. It can be done in a second. It is done in a second and 34 years, it is done in a second and everything in her life. She does maps that take months, very labor-intensive, it is what is left of craft for her, she makes them on the weekends. She says computers smell like a cars, not art supplies. She lives for the one moment when you figure it out and get it-it's really exciting. As long as she can feel that she feels she can do it.

Journal 13

Larry Lessig: How creativity is being strangled by the law

These are some of the things that stood out to me.

In this world we use digital technology to say things differently. The importance is not the technique. The importance is that the technology has been democratized. Anyone can use these tools. Tools of creativity have become tools of speech. this is how our kids speak, how they think. There is an extremism between the conflict of law and tech. One side, the technology, makes new programs and instigates, the other side, among our kids is a growing copywriting ignorance, it is to be fought in every way possible. Both extremes are wrong. The balance is what I fight for. We need a solution, a private solution, to legalize what it is to be young. As BMI demonstrated competition can achieve some kind of balance. We need two changes 1. artists embrace the idea their work is available more freely. 2. businesses that are building rewrite to enable this expression, the ecology of free content can grow. Both can exist simultaneously. Need to build artists choice. kids know they are living against the law. In a democracy we can do better at least for them.

AE Trials and GD:NB reading

This one is playing with the beginning of my speech. I am trying to figure out how to go at her pace yet make the line-letter drop thing work. Same with the one below.

This one I tried some other transitions and tried to do other parts of the speech.

This is just two examples of how to work with the dropping letter. I found that how I envision it isn't going to work because there is not enough time or else the viewer could get sick.

The reading from Graphic Design: The New Basics was very helpful. It was nice seeing how a storyboard should look and what it should show the viewer. I did not know about having a "style frame" on a storyboard, it was just too obvious I suppose. "A style frame captures many of the graphic elements used throughout the piece. The typography, colors, pattens, illustrations, and photographs chosen for the project are often included" (228).

A helpful quote was "Typography and abstract graphic elements are easily animated via automatic tweening, as compared to facial expressions or complex bodily movements" (222).

Journal 11

Debbie Millman is...

the President of the design division at Sterling Brands, an international design consultancy. She has been there for fourteen years and in that time she has worked on the redesign of global brands for Pepsi, Procter & Gamble, Campbell’s, Colgate, Hershey and Hasbro. Debbie is President of the AIGA, the professional association for design. She is a contributing editor at Print Magazine and the chair of the new Masters in Branding program at the School of Visual Arts. In 2005, she began hosting “Design Matters with Debbie Millman,” the first weekly radio talk show about design on the Internet. She is the author of two books: How To Think Like A Great Graphic Designer (Allworth Press, 2007), and The Essential Principles of Graphic Design (Rotovision, 2008). Her new book, Look Both Ways: Illustrated Essays on the Intersection of Life and Design, will be published by How Books in Fall 2009.

Design Matters is...

In a global environment shifting at rapid pace, a profound paradigm shift is underway which is transforming the way we lead our lives, relate and communicate with others, acquire and communicate knowledge, and engage in the larger world. We are also at a tipping point when global inequalities, unprecedented economic complexities and intractable social problems are demanding multidisciplinary and collective solutions and new entrepreneurial models that can turn obstacles into opportunities.

Through Designmatters at Art Center College of Design, students are invited to apply their talent, creativity and tool-box of skills to address some of the most troubling humanitarian and social challenges of our time with empathy, discipline, and unwavering optimism to effect change.

Designmatters is an educational department that partners with every discipline at Art Center to focus on art and design education with a social impact agenda and “real-world” outcomes that are implemented through a series of unique partnerships and alliances with global development agencies, government groups, academic institutions, local and national non-profits, and leading industry

Their Mission Statement:

Through research, advocacy and action, Designmatters engages, empowers and leads an ongoing exploration of design as a positive force in society.

The common goal of all Designmatters projects is simple: take art and design education as a catalyst and change agent. And imagine and build a better and more humane future for all.

They focus on four themes: Public Policy, Global Healthcare, Sustainable Development, Social Entrepreneurship.

Interview: 3.04.05 with Steve Heller

design is selection, expression, combination of art math science.

manifesto encourages to reconsider opportunities outside commercial place b ut make it meaning fun reevaluate priorities. passion truth reality. there will always be the need to design those commercial things. need to inject passion truth to inform and remind of what is important what is important is honesty. honesty. design can be an inspiration to our culture cause reaching to higher grounds. all need to be approached with honesty and integrity.

with her today is steven heller:

do politics take part in design? plays a role. works in new york times news room. news has to be objective. been at the new york times 30 years.

book education of typographer: "teaching a student graphic design before typography is like teaching a baby to walk before she crawls"

it is important to have a grasp on that particular type of art. we are taking a chinese menu to type. if we teach students to work on the computer as lithographic union people did perhaps we will get a better grade of typographers and if built into the training we will get a better generation of them. It's good to be in contact with the old way.

He was asked about how we as students are apparently lacking knowledge in graphic history...he said...there is more taught in the schools recently about our history. it is good to know what wheels were invented before we do our own. it is how you absorb your knowledge and what you do with it, sitting in class and listening to history doesn't help anyone gain anything if they don't want to. keep it in perspective.

Vanity- this word is key, the designers who produce books of their own to showcase their work. Bombarded with work and it is questionable it we learn anything from it.

His answer to a caller: The variety of styles is the breaking of national and regional barriers or aesthetics.

Do you feel your formal education prepared you: learned on the street, learned from various famous people who were friends. learned about aesthetics he feels hampered about not having a formal education.

I thought this interview was very insightful. The interviews she hosts are very informative and beneficial to listen to. Above is a summary of the points I thought were interesting.

Type II: Printed Speech Variations

These are the beginning stages of my speech put into print. I feel like it is getting there, I need to play with contrast and pacing to emphasize her vocal emphasis.

Wednesday 4/14

Monday 4/12

Wednesday 4/7

Homework Questions

How do you think the audience experience will change based on the media?

I think the pacing and how they are forced to read it will change. Also adding sound will change the tone significantly.

What will the audience exprience in print? In Motion?

They will experience a more concrete solid and defined reading of the speech in print. In motion the speech may read more sporadically and could even be illegible. The motion piece would have control of timing and pacing while the print version puts the audience in control.

What can you do in print that you can't do in motion?

You can make the whole speech work as a whole in terms of a layout while the motion piece works frame by frame can cannot change dimension.

What can you do in motion (in aftereffects) that you can't do in print?

It can give the words life and dimension. The words become multi-layered with more meaning. Motion can provide more focus for the viewer and control for the designer.

type videos

This is a practical video that is similar to something someone could do.

I like the dimensionality of this one. Making the words, or in this case punctuation, 3D it makes it more dynamic.

This one is my favorite because it shows how image/sound/type/pacing all work together. It might be out of our range considering our After Effects skills but to incorporate this many things with clear typography could look really nice.

packaging

I want to try a structured bag type thing similar to this idea.

Journal 10

GOOD is the integrated media platform for people who want to live well and do good. We are a company and community for the people, businesses, and NGOs moving the world forward. GOOD's mission is to provide content, experiences, and utilities to serve this community.

GOOD currently produces a website, videos, live events, and a print magazine. Launched in September 2006, the company has garnered praise for its unique editorial perspective and fresh visual aesthetic and is quickly positioning itself as a significant new voice in our culture.

GOOD is a collaboration of individuals, businesses, and nonprofits pushing the world forward. Since 2006 we've been making a magazine, videos, and events for people who give a damn.

I enjoyed playing around on this website. It has a lot of neat information and provides innovative things to think about. It raises questions about important issues globally done by many contributors. It shows the cutting edge in some technology and provides a wealth of information. The video about the "Hidden costs of War" is really good to look at for type transitions and stacking type. The music worked well with the pacing but the man's voice had no fluctuation which was really dull. I enjoyed this info graphic and others like it because the creative way they explain important and mind blowing information.

Water use

this video has nice transitions and shows how things can be compared.

U2

this video is amazing how it uses different images and type transitions to do a very descriptive brief history.

information

“I can truthfully say to you all,

that we children at home are full of cheerfulness and courage.

We are trying to do all we can to help our galiant sailors soldiers and airmen

and when peace comes remember, it will be for us, the children of today to make the world of tomorrow a better and happier place.

My sister is by my side and were are both going to say goodnight to you.

Come on margaret,

goodnight children, goodnight and good luck to you all.”

–Princess Elizabeth

Questions:

• Speaker: Princess Elizabeth (now Queen Elizabeth II)
• Why Important: because it was addressing children of England and encouraging in the tough times of war to be supportive. It also made a statement to those fighting that the whole country is unified and optimistic for “the world of tomorrow”
• Why interesting: That the princess is speaking to and of other children. often in times of war, children are more unnoticed because they do not seem to play a large part in the war efforts.
• Tone of the speech: At the same time that it is encouraging, it is also sad in the context of war time.
• Stressed words should be: Cheerful, courage, help, children of today make the world of tomorrow, goodnight and good luck.
• I feel that her tone of voice and her pacing is very accurate. She pauses at appropriate times
• There is a little call to action, it is more of encouraging the children and citizens to maintain cheerful and supportive.
• this speech makes me feel sympathetic to the children of this time and the people going through this war because it affected everyone and changed their lives drastically.
• I imagine that the audience felt consoled and a little encouraged.
• another interpretation could be..maybe that Princess Elizabeth was doing this as a political action and not from her own desire.

BIOGRAPHY:

Elizabeth II, born April 21, 1926, is the eldest daughter of George VI and Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon. She married Philip Mountbatten, a distant cousin, in 1947; the pair have four children: Charles, Prince of Wales, Anne, Andrew and Edward. She has reigned for forty-six years, and appears capable of remaining on the throne for quite some time.
Monarchy, as an institution in Europe, all but disappeared during the two World Wars: a scant ten monarchs remain today, seven of which have familial ties to England. Elizabeth is, by far, the best known of these, and is the most widely traveled Head of State in the world. Her ascension was accompanied by constitutional innovation; each independent, self-governing country proclaimed Elizabeth, Queen of their individual state. She approves of the transformation from Empire to Commonwealth, describing the change as a "beneficial and civilized metamorphosis." The indivisibility of the crown was formally abandoned by statute in 1953, and "Head of the Commonwealth" was added to the long list of royal titles which she possesses.
Elizabeth's travels have won the adulation of her subjects; she is greeted with honest enthusiasm and warm regard with each visit abroad. She has been the master link in a chain of unity forged among the various countries within the Commonwealth. Hence, the monarchy, as well as the Empire, has evolved - what once was the image of absolute power is now a symbol of fraternity.
Elizabeth has managed to maintain a division between her public and private life. She is the first monarch to send her children to boarding schools in order to remove them from the ever-probing media. She has a strong sense of duty and diligence and dispatches her queenly business with great candor, efficiency and dignity. Her knowledge of current situations and trends is uncannily up to date, often to the embarrassment of her Prime Ministers. Harold Wilson, upon his retirement, remarked, "I shall certainly advise my successor to do his homework before his audience." Churchill, who had served four monarchs, was impressed and delighted by her knowledge and wit. She possesses a sense of humor rarely exhibited in public where a dignified presence is her goal.
Elizabeth, like her father before her, raised the character of the monarchy through her actions. Unfortunately, the actions of her children have tarnished the royal name. The much publicized divorces of Charles from Diana and Andrew from Sarah Ferguson have been followed by further indiscretions by the princes, causing a heavily-taxed populace to rethink the necessity of a monarchy. Perhaps Elizabeth will not reign as long as Victoria, but her exceptionally long reign has provided a bright spot in the life of her country. The Coronation Ceremony of Queen Elizabeth II
The Order of Service and a transcript of every spoken word of the Coronation ceremony performed in Westminster Abbey on June 2, 1953.

WIKI BIO:

Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; born 21 April 1926) is the queen regnant of sixteen independent sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms, listed here in order of length of possession by the crown: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize, Antigua and Barbuda, and Saint Kitts and Nevis. She holds each crown separately and equally in a shared monarchy, as well as acting as Head of the Commonwealth, and Supreme Governor of the Church of England. As a constitutional monarch, she is politically neutral and by convention her role is largely ceremonial.[1]

When Elizabeth was born, the British Empire was a pre-eminent world power, but its influence declined (particularly after the Second World War) and the empire evolved into the modern Commonwealth of Nations. Her father, George VI, was the last Emperor of India. On his death in 1952, Elizabeth became Head of the Commonwealth, and queen of seven independent Commonwealth countries: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan, and Ceylon, later renamed Sri Lanka. During her reign, which at 58 years is one of the longest for a British monarch, she became queen of 25 other countries within the Commonwealth as they gained independence from Britain. She has been the sovereign of 32 individual nations, half of which are now republics.

Elizabeth married Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, in 1947, and the couple have four children and eight grandchildren. In the 1980s and 1990s, the love lives of their children were subject to great press attention, and contributed to increased discontent with the monarchy, which reached its peak on the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997. Since then, she has recovered public confidence, and her personal popularity remains high.

Reflection

In class on Thursday we cut a 5x5 in square straight through a magazine and used the pieces to construct an accordion book as an example of pacing. I really enjoyed this exercise because it became very clear how to arrange pages so as a whole they are pleasing. Sometimes in books or magazine it is information overload and feels too full. The use of white space around text, image or just a colored page provides a "breather" while flipping through.

Journal 9

Animated Type

The Adobe examples were inspiring.

The videos were much harder to follower without sound and the timing seemed really odd either too fast or too slow. The similarity is that they are all spastic!! They jump around everywhere and lack logical flow. I feel like some videos can work with upside down type and all of that–just not like some of the ones I watched...I literally was dizzy. The experience of the 6 different videos varies but not severely. There seems to be an idea of the "right way" to animate text. The ones I liked better had a solid theme and tone to them. They were consistent and the timing was logical with the speech and reading it on screen. I do not like the extremely jumpy ones that go up down all around then back around and upside down...it is a little much. Transitions used were fading, pushed off screen, zooming in or out, blur and most of all rotation. The sound was typically just the speech/scene etc. but some went too fast, too slow, some added breaks and little sound effects like bouncing or clicking. The type on some was standard helvetica–a typeface that fills a block so it is good for stacking etc. Other typefaces were detailed and make specific for the tone/theme of the speech. I watched a gladiator video that actually used video clips and a couple that used photographs. I like the used of photography if it is secondary to the text and quick so it doesn't become the focus.

30-unforgettable-movie-title-sequence:

The most memorable videos to me are ...

1. Casino Royale

This sequence was the most memorable to me because mainly how they connected the sequence to the movie and played off the casino objects. The visuals of the king and queen of hearts becoming animated was amazing. It is an icon that everyone recognizes and they added life to them. The transitions were varied from jump cuts to following the patterned path. I loved the use of perspective in this one and in the "Catch me if you Can" sequence.

2. Thank You For Smoking

This one was memorable because all the name were put into context. They used the cigarette boxes and the style they were in. I liked how they brought things on screen in layers and kept the transitions to simple ones that reflected that the type is on boxes.

3. Spiderman 2

I always loved this sequence because it takes what was always a comic but turned into a movie, back into a comic. The whole thing transitions on the black web and red and blue color planes. It concentrates the focus and the text simple against the crazy backgrounds.

Journal 7

“Typography may well be the most critical component in the education of a young graphic designer”.

Type Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry

“Futura was important for a number of reasons: arguably the first sans-serif font to be widely distributed, it has since its inception influenced countless other typefaces and remains, to some, the epitome of modern design...Futura remains a typeface of its era: smooth and sleek, round and uncompromising.”

Now having designed with Futura, I understand the appeal of the crisp geometric shapes, how they fit so sweetly together. After reading this article I see there needs to be a reason for each choice. Although liking it is a part of our design process, we need reasons to back up our decisions and if it does not fit – don’t use it. “at a certain point in the evolution of a visual idea, a certain amount of judgment intervenes, and appropriateness is questioned”

“Designers in general (and students in particular) have an overwhelming tendency to consider anything that's been achieved in the past as a kind of "been there, done that" straitjacket, while the opposite is not only true, it's surprisingly actionable“.

An alternative font for Futura could be Gotham, Univers and...I will think/find more.

Designing Under the Influence:

“We've debated imitation, influence, plagiarism, homage and coincidence before, and every time, the question eventually comes up: is it possible for someone to "own" a graphic style? Legally, the answer is (mostly) no”.

“We've arrived at a moment where all that has preceded us provides an enormous mother load of graphic reference points, endlessly tempting, endlessly confusing”.

First I have to say the comments after this article are ridiculous...people are a little too worked up. I think this article presents a valid point that we should be aware of our predecessors. Not for the sake of copying or not copying but to know what it did in the design world. I think even when we are aware of other designers work things can still look similar but not have the intention of wanting it to look-a-like.

Journal 7

All these pictures are from downtown Durango, Colorado...wonderful place and an even better mountain to ski on! You should go!