Message & Delivery Research - OUGD403

For Studio Brief 03, we were set the task to gather a few newspapers from Saturday the 25th October and chose an article we would with to research into.

There are only some restrictions to the research we must gather, such as: Not being restricted to statistical, empirical, and personal views.

The papers I had chosen. The 'i' on Saturday (Left) and The Times (Right).

After much reading and analysing different layouts, I had chosen to go with something that was a little more light hearted compared to most of the articles in these papers. The article's in question are both related to Russell Brand and his appearance on BBC Newsnight.

Here is the article I picked out of the 'i'. Only using up the far left hand corner of the page, it is a secluded story only using no more than 2 columns.

 

Here is the very same story in The Times. Funnily enough, the exact same layout is used, 2 columns in the upper left hand side of the right page.

As you can tell, both newspapers chose to issue the story in exactly the same sort of manor in terms of layout and composition.

But as I looked more deeply into the context of the language used, they completely differ from one another. The 'i' on one hand used the information purely to translate the story clearly and simplistically, The Times on the other hand gives the view of Philip Davies, a conservative MP, which to me doesn't seem entirely relevant to the story in hand.

In terms of layout, I can easily say that 'i' seems to come across the more legible one of the two. With The Times having a break in the text for an image seems to deter the reader away from the content.

As you can see, the layout to the article seems tiny compared to the massive advertisement at the bottom of the page.

Almost identical. Both newspapers show similarities such as page layout and column size/amount.

I decided to show the grids used by dragging the above two images into indesign and using the rulers to show how they match up.

Here are the results:

The 'i' grid.

The Times grid.

These grids I have made clearly show how closely relatable the two papers are in terms of layout and content. The 'i' is a little more complex than The Times but overall they are identical.

In the Graphic Design industry, whether you are designing a leaflet or website, if that piece of design has anything you feel strongly towards, you must stay unbiased throughout the execution, obviously this only applies when it is necessary, kind of like this project.

Throughout my research I have tried to keep my views to a minimum and focus in the task in hand. That is, finding and comparing multiple sources to see how they have displayed their stories.

As a form of secondary research in addition to primary which was covered in my previous post, I have chosen to look at how 2 websites went about showing this story.

The 2 sites in hand (The Independent & The Daily Mail) are known to be newspapers traditionally, but also use the internet as another way of distributing their news.

Grids - OUGD403

Grids are the building blacks of good design, when they are used correctly, things seem to work and flow rather than clash.

A good example of the uses of a grid is below:

A photography magazine clearly using the grid system successfully.

As I have to create my own grid for my typeface, I thought it would come in useful to analyse already existing explanations of grids and what they represent in terms of increasing how the reader perceives the piece of content.

This piece, by Swiss designer Josef Muller-Brockmann show just how effective the grid really can be. Not only does this example cram a hell of a lot of content into one space, it actually looks good. Something which can be hard to active without the use of the grid system.

"The grid system is an aid, not a guarantee. It permits a number of possible uses and each designer can look for a solution appropriate to his personal style. But one must learn how to use the grid; it is an art that requires practice." - Josef Muller-Brockmann

I am going to take this quote with a grain of salt, as I have yet to succeed in creating a grid that fits all 26 letterforms successfully. I have come to the conclusion that using 3 separate grids for certain letters will be the most useful technique. This will be discussed in more detail in a future post about my progress.

Final Designs - Alphabet Soup - OUGD403

After a final crit to the last project, we were set the task to create final idea's to help us begin the next aspect of the project, the digital production of our lettering.

My final idea's were decided in the interim crit we had on Friday 10th October. I had 10 rough sketches that were discussed in detail with my group. This is when I got the feedback I really needed as I had told the group to mark which design they preferred the most, this saved me a lot of time in terms of idea generating as I already had my strongest idea there to develop and refine even further.

First idea that my crit group agreed worked best.

Refined: This was the last of my experimentation, and the one my group said I should expand on.

The feedback I had gathered during the crit was vital for me to realise what I needed to focus on, and more importantly, what I needed to discard.

Here are a few final idea's sketched out as neatly as possible:

Refining idea's; these 10 images show how I have experimented with different sizes of serifs. Additionally I have also added subtle details to the letter forms, such as drips and sharper edges. 

I based the serifs on Baskerville Regular. This helped me realise where they are traditionally positioned to give Futura a classic twist.

These final designs will help me to realise the grid I will need to create to ensure some amount of consistency is kept in the finer details of the letterforms.

Design Principles Task 01 - OUGD404

Prior to my time in this weeks design principles, I had selected 3 different fonts that show different characteristics. I chose: Baskerville, Futura and Rockwell. These were 10x10 printouts of the letters 'ABC' to 'XYZ'.

We were then asked to focus on one typeface and a single letter, so I chose Baskerville, my reasons for this are as follows; Baskerville is my chosen font because it is sophisticated, well established and versatile.

We were then asked to write a lonely hearts advertisement in relation to what type we had chosen.

My ad went along the lines of:

"Hi, I'm the letter 'A' from Baskerville. I stay true to my roots and love to be letter pressed. The rest of me has a great body… Copy… And I'm looking for another letter to add a bit more edginess to make me feel young again. Preferably sans serif."

My poster advertising what my 'type' was.

This was the poster I had picked out of the rest. Not because I though it suited my letter the most, but because it was one of the last few left on the wall. 

I found the person who picked mine, we then discussed how they paired up and what differences they show. We were then asked to create a letter which would represent the two merged together, we chose to execute it as hideously as we possible could, as the two letters did not match at all.

We were then given these words on a piece of A4 paper. We then had to cut it in accordance to the word, not just what it meant, but how it was represented.

Here is the whole wall when it was finished, as you can tell, my partner and myself went for a simplistic approach and kept it straight forward.

Studio Brief 01 - Visual Thinking - Alphabet Soup - OUBG403

We have been briefed to manipulate the typeface that best suits my personality, in my case, this is Futura from Vegnellis 6 basic typefaces. I am then given a word that I must link to all of the (10) letters in some way or another. The word I picked out of the hat was 'Saturated'. I must create a set, series or sequence of 10 letterforms.

As a starter, we were split into groups and given a word to compare/describe what we best thought it represents. I my case, we'd gotten 'Modern'. In order to differentiate the word, we compared the word 'Traditional'.

An image of the comparison my group and I had devised.

The definition of Saturated/Saturate, courtesy of Google.

To begin my research I have decided to look at more of a recent typographer and try linking her outlook and values of type into my own work.

Gemma O'Brien (aka Mrs Eaves) is an Australian typographer and illustrator, she primarily focuses in creative ways of representing type to convey a meaning within the letters she produces.

Here is a short introduction to her and her work:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMQ_9IdGZMk

I have chosen to use her in my research because she is quite different in terms of the way she delivers her work. For example, she did a series of 'doodles' whilst she was on her travels. These were drawings on motion sickness bags that would hold a pun of some sort, they would also be represented in the form of hand drawn lettering.

'You make me sick' - A set of images she would upload to the internet that gradually caught on to become something which is seen in exhibitions. #SpewBagChallenge.

Just a few examples of O'Brien's witty lettering puns.

Summer Brief - OUGD403

Over the summer we were set a task to create a set, series or sequence of letterforms to communicate what defines me as a person. After much idea development I settled on a subject to use a sound spectrum to illustrate each letter, this was achieved by using a clipping mask of Futura (LT Heavy) generated in Adobe After Effects.

To link the artists name to the letter the artist i question must start with the letter that is being illustrated. For example, I used Applebottom for A, Blonde for B etc…

A snapshot of a few letters printed and ready for cutting.

Study Task 01 - OUGD403

As a starter project, we were asked to answer a few straightforward questions and present to the rest of the class. From the answers we give, you'd then be driven to a conclusion of what font best reflects your personality. The fonts we had to chose from were Massimo Vignellis 6 basic typefaces, which consists of:

• Garamond
• Bodoni
• Century Gothic
• Futura
• Times Roman
• Helvetica

The questions we were asked to investigate were as follows:

1. When are you happiest?

That moment when you're in-between mixing songs together and it sounds seamless.

Screenshot of Traktor, a DJ software used alongside a MIDI controller.

2. What is your greatest fear?

Untidiness. I have to be tidy to feel organised, I swear I have some form of OCD.

A snapshot of my worst nightmare.

3. What is your happiest memory?

When I was 11 years old, I built my first computer and nothing could beat the feeling of turning it on first time and it actually working.

Picture of my desk space before moving to Leeds.

4. What is your most embarrassing moment?

Shaking a tomato ketchup bottle, sounds like a pretty standard practice. Not the time I went to meet my ex girlfriends parents it wasn't… I was sat at the dinner table in the dining room with her family, after I was kindly passed the bottle, I started to shake, it became clear to everyone that the lid was not on properly. But, unaware of the huge mistake I'd made, it was too late, I shook again. Ketchup all over the wall, not to mention myself. Moral of the story, check the lid before you shake anything.

The very same kind of ketchup bottle that caused all the mayhem.

5. What makes you unhappy?

Letting people down. There's nothing I can't bare more than when I have to make it up to someone because I never had seen it through in the first place.

Black seemed an appropriate shade that goes perfect with the question.

6. What did you want to be growing up?

I looked up to my father whilst he studied his degree in computer science. So naturally, I wanted to be a software architect/programmer.

A snapshot of a common style of code called Javascript.

7. What is your guiltiest pleasure?

Procrastination. We all do it, right?

Humorous variation of the PlayStation logo. Project by Viktor Hertz aptly named 'Honest Logo's'.

8. What is your favourite hobby?

I have a hell of a lot of hobbies so it is hard to pick just one, but if I have to narrow it down, I'd have to say fish keeping is my outright favourite hobby. 

Picture of some discus I had raised since they were a couple of months old.

9. Where is your favourite place?

Having extended family that come from Hungary you can imagine I've visited it quite a few times. For this reason, my favourite place has to undoubtedly be Budapest, Hungary.

A beautiful snapshot of Budapest's skyline.

Having studied all questions, I have come to my conclusion in finding which type fits me best. But I wanted to look more in depth about what the fonts mean and what they represent. Having looked at all of the appropriate typeface's I can easily say my outright favourite is Futura. It simply appeals to me more than the others, that's not to say the other 5 fonts are irrelevant, it just means when used in the correct context, each font can always be as good as the other. I think Futura reflects my personality more than the other options. Reading about it's links to the Bauhaus made me realise what this type really means and just how far ahead of it's time it was, and of course being a big fan of the Bauhaus movement helped swing my decision.

The front page to the original Futura specimen booklet.