Observing the Observer

Graphic Van

I really enjoyed following the thoughts of Kenneth Fitzgerald's regarding The Chesapeake Van March 2009, an article titled I Believe in Design

I was intrigued at first by this van so bright and colorful displaying its friendly messages spreading the word of Jesus everywhere it goes. I wish the pictures were closer so i could see more of what the posters said.  But that is not the real point of this article as i found out.  The van has a plethora of  handwritten typography and bright neon colors.  It is interesting what Mr. Fitzgerald brings up about faith being influential to many designers work.  Design is everywhere in religion.  think of the great pyramids they were designed to meticulously so the Pharaoh could safely reach his resting place in the heavens.  The secret passages and different passageways form the architectural standpoint is great but also the tombs made of gold and rubies the hieroglyphics set on grids.  One of the best examples of page layouts are in the talmud on the right is the grid and the left is an explanation of the grid, these are well designed if you ask me, i feel i can back this up by saying is is combing so many elements and the layout is understood by Jews and non-Jews alike on the left is an explanation of the different pieces.

 

Back to the article which he ends with something i didn't know and tying the whole thing to a design perspective.  I will let you read and find out and here is pictures to prove it. You may have known it i didn't design in everywhere, believe. I can't believe i didn't know.

Basilica's New dome

National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.  There was a contest to design a a new domor the Trinity dome.  The contest was won by two  freshman.  There presentation can be found here and what do you know it looks like what we have been doing.  I love seeing that and i know when the group goes to Dallas this week they will see similar things too i can't wait to hear all about it.  One of the reasons they are said to be picked as stated by Geaorge Martin is "

"Usually what rises to the top . . . is a punchy idea. In this case, it was their depth," Martin said. Their design "wasn't a one-liner."

not a one liner huh.  I like that i will think about that there is so much to selling your idea, to convince others of its brilliance.  

Final...Finally

so here is my final video.  i am proud of it there are some things that i still can't get to line up, and i have spent what seems like countless hours.  The process book for me this time was the hardest part, and no matter how many times i went through it i still didn't get all the information in for some reason. Including my renders, and come to think of it i probably should have but this paragraph in my project overview.  Oh well here's the vid. 

Aftereffects?

World Builder from Bruce Branit on Vimeo.

"the video"

My vimeo account will notify me by email in approximately 35 minutes when the newest version of my video is added to the site. 

Typography is everywhere here is a collection of typographic images.  

Pretty simple easy to read, but not effective enough considering people are still playing in the fountain.

Hand drawn type, they are similar in the sense that the letters are not consistent with each other but i think this is also one of the aspects that make the sign more interesting to look at.

this is my favorite one.  It is YMCA made from the children forming the letters this as a silhouette was the logo for the YMCA camp we stayed at in Boulder Colorado. 

My first response to Sagmeister and one of the reason he is so popular is his humor the other we would could all agree on is his work.  When you enjoy doing what your doing or if something makes you happy it is more likely to turn out well.  For example the speeches we are working on right now.  As i was listening to the speeches on the server none caught my attention so i did my own research and remembered something that made me happy the Suncreen song. Compared to the GOOD Website i found it to be easier to navigate, this could be because it has a very similar setup to Youtube so i am more familiar with it.  I like the colors and witty feel of GOOD.

TED

-he is a list maker,  i am a list maker 

-He bring

s up trying to do design without sitting  behind a computer all 

day.  I really like that he brings this up  because some of the the coolest designs are not done all digitally. Like the billboards Sagmeist

er designed by photographing words at a site, they are more 

unique and interesting to look at.  

-Just a random 

thing  that this reminded me of is a man named Randy Pausch he is a man with pancre

atic cancer fighting for his life one day at a time.  He gave a lecture at Carnegie Mellon the series was on wha

t you would do if you died tomorrow.  He gave the lecture for his kids but in an academic setting.  This relates to 

Sagmeister using personal experience and his little pieces of advice in his design, like the sunscreen song and like, Randy Pausch using personal experiences lead to success. 

-Ed Ulbrich: How Benjamin Button got his face

A comment on something he says "We basically just put something together to get through the meeting" There are always steps process is very important. Sometimes you have to abandon what you know and step outside your comfort box.  Research all your options like in F.A.C.S. then apply it what you know.  The movie was very long and i had a hard time sitting still in it but this was so cool seeing how it was done.  This movie took a very long time the details really help make it what it was from the design aspect.

-Miru Kim: Making art of N

ew York's urban Ruins

After listening to the first minute f this i almost was not going to watch the rest of it.  But i am actually glad i did. This is a very weird project and to see how someone came up with it is very interesting.   I have a fascination with things like this.  I feel like i could never think of it but really it was a simple curiosity that sparked her interest.  To the left is one of my favorites of the series.

-J.J. Abrams: The Mystery Box

"Hope, mystery is the catalos for imagination."  "Mystery is more important then knowledge." Lost i love lost! He is very funny a common thread in most of the designers who talk. He is refreshing and talks about content and effects. I really want to know what is in the mystery box.  

-How good is good?

He starts it off with lists, a recurring  theme. "a year i had put aside for experiments only, was that i'd like a part of my studio to move from creating cool things to significant things." Significant.  Like using his diary, things he thinks are signifiant, and communicating them.  Working in visuals the designer can communicate his message to a wider audience but sometimes visuals are not as clear, the challenge.   This article mentioned some more big names which i am happy to say i am now able to add to my vocabulary.  This was an all around inspiring article to see how big of an influence designers can have.  You really don't know the impact your design may or may not have until after it is put into place.  I feel he has set up a scale you can compare your work to putting the piece through these questions to see if your work is well...good.

After Effects

this is all my text.  I obviously have some major timing issues and other kinks to work out.  Before making too many perfections though i am going to get some input. Here is the link to my Vimeo site in case it doesn't show well uploading through blogger.

I know i am behind

Here are a couple of posters that i feel are good representations of what was talked about in the Reading Type and Image. 

In this poster the type is working on two levels.  As image in the crown and in the scarf but in the scarf it is seen first as type then as image.  The poster as a whole captures its audience first by the silhouetted image and colored crown.  

this poster is one i think we have seen before and demonstrates type as image then using some of the techniques we read about cuts away part of the type which truly captures the meaning the poster is trying to portray.  

These are i feel are pretty typical when thinking about typographic posters.  Each follow the same path of starting in the upper left corner then leading your eye to to the opposite side of the page down and the "twist" guiding your eye the opposite way it is used to to the lower left hand corner. 

Good Journal

VIDEO

When i first wooked at good i was surprised to find out it was an actual magazine up unitl now we have been looking at things related specifically to a design audience.  I was happy to find these excellent examples of say type in motion.  The intro to the videos is excellent in the first four seconds 4 to five seconds has such an interesting combination of text and image it draws my attention is right from the beginning.  This one is quite complex i would say and every time i see the beginning i see a different graphic, it also goes fast.  This intro definitely has flash in it i feel like given the graphics any of us could have figured it out which makes me very excited. In the GOOD News section of videos the animation is so simple, it is a series of scaled images. The guys mouth could be frame by frame by frame or in flash a movie inside of a movie.  This makes me feel so good about using my abiliies in the real world. The type videos cost of war and the state of the planet were really good examples of using type and image on a minimalist level.  The images could easily be taken away and the text would still have the motion of the object, or for example on the 8 golds medals graphic which has no text the word god could have taken on that drop from the top motion the medals did.   

Information graphics

i found this section to be very interesting it reminded me of a mix between our map project and our last project of making posters from data. This ne imparticular does in excellent job of tellin gmy eye were to go.  It shows a map of where this pill travel and also is putting data into a graphic chart.  Most of the other ones does this same thing although the gas one is just a chart. 

Magazine 

the magazine has some very interesting articles.  I like that all of the articles are something different.  Different in a way i wouldn't think to let's say google it on my own and different in that they are not all on design or only business in the U.S. they are form 

everywhere. Some of the designed graphics along with the articles are usually really interesting.   This graphic on the right "thinking inside the box"  really caught my attention simple but paired with the title thinking inside the box really made it work for me.  the section that intrigued me the most on the site is the section titled Good Guide to Shadowy Organizations. An interesting random topic even for the history channel none the less a magazine, but that is just anther thing to add to the list of likes i have for GOOD, variety. 

Conclusion

all in al my experience on the GOOD website was good enough i have added it to my my favorites.  I really liked how there is such a variety of ways to get the information.  Weather it is in an animated news  video or reading and article or text and image and speech working together to tell the story or in a chart.  The colors of the site are black and this greyish color and in most of there stories as well but the interesting things have a bright color that also help in getting your attention.  

Link

Check it out

Did i get it this time?