Movie Poster!

I am fairly certain this assignment was one of my favorites. Once I chose a film, I had so many ideas that I wanted to try and flesh out. I chose the 1997 film version of Romeo + Juliet. I chose it because I wanted the ‘+’ to be my main element and also because it is a favorite of mine. The classic Shakespearian tragedy was brought into a contemporary setting by director Baz Luhrmann. He modernized  the play while still keeping the original dialog.

I had a lot of specific visions in mind, but as I moved through the thumbnail stages, I came to realize that Romeo + Juliet was going to prove to be more difficult than I thought. I had to completely break away from any cliche and expected imagery or type that is associated with the classic. I decided to play up the modern elements unique to this version. I also knew I wanted to use a direct pull from a page of the screen play, showing setting, dialog, and direction. I wanted this because it would not only contain the script quality that Romeo + Juliet was originally formatted in but also the modern film screenplay elements and setting details.

I began working with the image of a gun and came to put it together to form the ‘+’. As the composition came together the literal ‘+’ began to become not only text but also image. One may not read it as a symbol, but familiarity with the words Romeo and Juliet together automatically make the association on their own. I bolded some of the words in the screenplay to add some visual hierarchy for emphasis.

The ink splatters were used not only to add aesthetic interest, but also to tie in a grungy or even violent element that the film possesses. Every piece in the composition is arranged in a way that meant to not look precise and clean, but more as if it were something you could find posted on the street. The color is bright but not a happy sort of bright. The story is a tragedy but this film was shot in a beach, summer, downtown type setting. This color incorporates that bright stylized element of the film.

The screenplay selection isn’t dialog, but is the prologue that contains language that does not favor either main character presented in the title, but gives a balanced look at the core of the story. It is a feud between two families in a city that is split down the middle because of it. The two young lovers’ deaths were what it took to bring the families together.

Inspiration…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. Gustav Klutis’s photomontage 

2. “Watch that Child!” done for the Swiss Automobile Club and poster series for Zurich Tonhalle by Josef Muller-Brockmann, 1955-65

3. Poster for the movie, The Man with the Movie Camera, by Dziga Vertov, 1929

 

While looking through some Russian Avant-Garde, I stumbled upon some Constructivism posters. This is a primarily an art movement that was based in Russia in the early 20th century and was linked to the Russian Communist Revolution. “They merged the arts with modern technological rationalism for political and ideological uses.” Basically, it was a form of Soviet-era Russian propaganda. Gustav Klutsis’s work that used photomontage but you can still see the modernist geometric simplifications that the constructivists used. 

I was drawn to photo-type montages that incorporated the texture of the images contrasting with lines and/or geometric shapes or forms. I think that having a strong, evocative image can only enhance-thus my eye fell upon the Rodchenko photo below. even thought it is just a picture, there is stunning geometry in the light areas cast on the figure. Love it. 

 

4. Cover design by Lester Beall for What’s New, a magazine published by Abbot Laboratories 1941. 

5. Rodchenko Photograph

micro + MACRO Modular Grid Broadside

The process of getting to this end result for the Tufte article broadside was a long one! Starting with some really crappy thumbnails, the series of exchanging ideas and compositions with classmates, I feel, was really beneficial. I went through so many different compositions and eventually began hit a wall. The layout within the modular grid was reworked about a thousand times (okay, that’s exaggerated, but it certainly felt that way!) I was having difficulty arranging the images for the most part. Once I decided to crop and group several of them together, I was moving in the  right direction.

I felt that arranging the images in an organized manner makes for a very comfortable composition. Everything seems to have its proper place and fit together nicely within the modular grid. I chose to use some line elements to emphasize the grid and contain elements in the overall broadside.

One of my favorite parts was playing with the header. I chose to use scale and case to make it more engaging. Making the word micro smaller and in all caps and putting the word macro in lowercase and making its scale larger was a play on words of sorts.

Overall, the simplicity and organization of the broadside makes for a pleasing composition that is legible and sleek.

Grid Based Bullshit

The Michael Bierut article, On (Design) Bullshit, was the starting point for designing a columnar grid based foldout consisting of a cover page, center spread, and a back page. I chose to use FF DIN as the typeface for the headline and pullouts and Constantia for the body copy and quotes. I chose the sans serif DIN for its clean architectural quality and its seemingly grid like structure. I searched for images of the Getty Center, mentioned in the article, that were simple and wouldn’t overpower the space. My favorite is the sketch of the Getty used on the cover because of the rawness of the image. Working with the two column grid made placement and organization easy and effective. I chose to stager the the body copy on the inside spread and arrange the individual paragraphs and pullouts in such a way that they form their  own internal grid system adding visual interest to the simple layout. This same idea continued onto the back page as well.

And I Quote….

“We wish peace, but we wish the peace of justice, the peace of righteousness. We wish it because we think it is right and not because we are afraid. “

Theodore Roosevelt March 4, 1905

Presidents of the United States have been some of the prolific and most heard voices around the world. What they say have defined them as leaders and as men. Some of their most defining words can be found in their first address as president. Searching through the inaugural speeches of past American presidents, I stumbled upon the above quote by our 26th president.

The energetic Republican President, Theodore Roosevelt, had taken his first oath of office upon the death of President McKinley, who died of gunshot wounds on September 14, 1901. T.R. had been President himself for three years at the time of election in 1904. He was a man who preached morals and and advocated peace in the world. Choosing a quote that seems to embody Teddy Roosevelt’s dogma of peace, I felt it needed to be as straight forward and clean as the speaker.

I chose to highlight not only ‘peace’, but also the words ‘justice’, ‘righteousness’, ‘right’, and lastly, ‘not afraid’. These are the words that define the core of the message. Peace can be an overused and cliche when it is not given substance and backup. I generally think of Miss America’s famous “world peace” line when I see it. But T.R. defined peace in his own way and I wanted that to show through in the design. It starts out small and grows as I imagine the  inflection in his  voice would have. The message then repeats and reverberates in the small lines of text that add movement to the composition.

The color blue adds a soothing and positive tone to the notion that we are not afraid of what is right. I chose Gotham’s clean lines again to emphasize the quality of the line and speaker.

Letter Spacing Final!

just a little typographic inspiration…

So I spent some time searching through books and websites looking for some kind of inspiration for the upcoming project. I decided to start looking back on some early 20th century designs. I was attracted to the work of Filippo Marinetti and Ilya Zdanevitch. 

 

 Marinetti’s work was generally informing the subject matter of the piece. For example, “Montagne + Vallete + Strade x Joffre” (Mountains + Valleys + Streets x Joffre) shows within the composition his journey including the names of places visited and letterforms suggest landforms and motion. 

 

I also looked at some other more modern compositions on book covers and posters that could have been inspired by both men’s work. Even if they weren’t, I’m intrigued by their designs. I love the complexity and expression from Marinetti’s and Zdanevitch’s work, but these seem to have that same concept in mind while still being quite legible, which at this time I think I want to be. But should I decide to take a more chaotic approach, I’ll know whose designs to turn to. But I do like the idea of having some large text intermingling with smaller, whether it is in the background or part of the words or phrases. 

 

      

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Type Designer Albert Jan-Pool’s DIN

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Love Me Some Ligatures!

 

 

When creating thumbnails for the ligature assignment, two of my combinations stuck out to me. an “A, W” combination using Bodoni in caps, and a “g, f” combo using Univers in lowercase. They were two completely different animals. I loved the sans serif quality of Univers and the flowing quality of the letterforms. But in the end, the seductive serifs and clean lines of Bodoni stole the show. It came to be the most resolved of the two and the capitol letters make it very dynamic even though it is a simple combination. The only changes that were made to the letterforms were  that I removed the serifs from the stroke of the ‘W’ that combined with the edge of the ‘A’. Overall, the form pretty much speaks for itself. The decision to work with the capitols makes it very dominant within the space while the serifs add an elegant touch. 

 

 

 

 

When working with the cropping tool for the second part of the project, I found it difficult to find a variety of interesting crops with this form because of it’s liner nature. Most other combinations had interesting solutions due to the curves in their letterforms. But eventually I found a solution that was interesting and still just as dynamic as the original form itself. I chose to  use a complementary color application for the cropping as well. I love the orange and blue. It kind of makes me think of old retirees on a beach in Florida. I worked with it until the vibrations created by the colors’ close contact didn’t cause anyone who looked at it to get a headache. Overall, I think this has been quite a success.

Type Project One

Love is a word that has an endless list of meanings. Its scope extends from music to poetry, romance to lust, and now, Typography class. Because ‘love’ is such a diverse word, there were many directions that my mind went when considering the task for this project. I could have tried to convey some big deep meaning questioning what love is in some kind of contrasting environment, but I decided to keep it on a simple and more personal level. In my life, there are many people that I love and care about. Many of these people come in and out of my apartment and are in pretty close proximity. I chose to place the word in my apartment, my home. I specifically put it on the main mirror in the apartment. Everyone that comes into our place passes this mirror and it casts his or her reflection back. There is, in my opinion, a lot of love floating around my apartment. It’s between friends, family, boyfriends, girlfriends, and sometimes one’s love of self. The actual, bold, physical presence of the text, ‘LOVE’, on the mirror only makes an obvious emotion seem more tangible. In the picture is one of my roommates and her boyfriend. These are only two of the people who embody the love in room 206 of Johnson Village apartments.