Reflecting on 2D design...

Like any new medium which one is presented with, time is an essential requirement, and one which is needed when absorbing  new information. In this instance the medium is 2D design, and the consequences of my education appear far reaching out from the class room and into everyday life.

Considering our capitalist society, built upon the materialistic dream, where everyone has the opportunity  to possess 'meaningful' objects, it comes as no surprise that 2D design metaphases itself into  everyday advertisement. For example, Coca Cola have launched a campaign  utilising typography. 

Admittedly, this is a simplistic example, however one which clearly exemplifies the far reaching influence of 2D deign. Ultimately, I have been inspired on a more personal level; by this I mean how my every day respect has increased. To fully explain this I return to name number five on my six name list...

Sara Fanelli.

The inspiring notion formed from Fanelli is the importance of cover art...  

 

This example is from a Penguin book cover, and meaning no disregard to Fanelli but this is not what interested me. What interests me is the way the cover art interacts with the reader; considering I have not read the book which Franelli is illustrating I have no emotional connection with her work.

Afterwards, however, I looked at my own book shelf bringing out Anthony Burgess A Clockwork Orange. 

The cover is striking, the lines of the glass break the almost merging positive space of the milk and its negative counterpart. The author's name is also noticed through is brightness of the white contrasting the darkness of the novel's name. Overall, this cover encapsulates the emotion and controversy of the word's which it is illustrating.

 Before investigating 2D design it is a fair assumption that I would have never have thought to google veronique rolland, yet I have now learned that this cover artist is a visual artist. The portfolio can be found on http://www.veroniquerolland.com/

Personally, I have a yearning towards typography within 2D design, I don't know if it is he meaning which the combination of illustration and words can achieve; or the atheistically pleasing phonics combined with the beauty of art,  but never the less I feel most at home in this sector of 2D design.

I have a go at combining my own photography with that of Milton's Paradise Lost, aiming to illustrate his poetic beauty, while incorporating our current social problems of terrorism and our own egotistic pride

Reporting on Kugler

Political, passionate and psychological all can be used to describe Kugler's illustrations, speaking of a world which needs illustrating; this is his wider social contribution, a juxtaposition between beauty and disaster, terror and inspiration educating a generation of the world outside of their own materialistic bubble.

Yet, my words merely describe the face value, the obvious attributes of Kugler's illustrations. Taking these three examples it is clear how under represented I have made my brief description to be... 

Instead I can focus on the why.

The how.

The relationship.

This is my reflection in the most simplistic of descriptions; in short, Kugler's use of contrast between that with colour and that with out, is truly remarkable. The last example exemplifies my point; a woman wear's the mark of the western world, that of Arsenal contrasting her otherwise white proportion of her shirt.

Moreover, he has managed to capture almost photographic detail in the subjects faces again contrasting that of imagination of the negative spaces. It this contrast which generates his political meaning's, for this deliberate composition question's many levels of society.

Once again I return to the third example and that of the Arsenal badge; Kugler's  composition is no coincidence, and it his own purposely placed orientation,  which generates the reason why the badge is so prevalent, why it stays in my mind even after I've forgotten every other word from the page.

This is his power, his gift, the ability to compose meaning when every other detail is forgotten, lost within the array of language presented on the majority of his pages. I urge you to go and view  his on-line portfolio....

 http://www.olivierkugler.com  

The  bus begins to move...finally and I'm presented with large formatted lettering;  "Jessica Ennis Sports Hall" printed on the side of the newest college building. They stare as we pull away,  the word's stay as a prevalent reminder of the 2012 'legacy' even after I'm free from their glare, I can't shake or forget, all I can do is reminisce and reconcile to a time where everything, other the success of '|Great Britain,' was forgotten.  A golden period where troubles related to our shock of success, surpassed expectations, dramatised in our prolonged television viewing;  a true  Shakespearean comedy of irony and tragedy.         

I'm sat pondering these indoctrinating thoughts, wondering why? And for what purpose?

I leave these thought's behind as I bring Notes From The Underground out from my bag,  and continue to read Dostoevsky's existentialism. A collection of word's, which for the first section, signify his individualistic endeavour, that of which every artist understands....objectivity. Yet, the very nature of  existentialism is subjective; to be socialised, is to be conditioned to culture through primary and secondary socialisation. With this in mind; Dostoevsky is also pondering the thought's of countless other's. This can go  a long way to explain Notes From The Underground's hook, its ease of read and effect.

Realising that this existentialistic narration, is in fact grounded in the recesses of the reader's mind, brought my attention back to 'legacy,' how this word entering main stream culture has in fact shaped my own understanding.

I turn to page 101, The Underground man is telling a prostitute what happens when her looks go, what happens when no one will pay her, when she is worthless. My own cultural conditioning bears great significance to this number; 101.  Orwell's 1984 is the source, room 101 is the reference,

 "The thing that is in room 101 is the worst thing in the world."

An idea that the worst type of torture is torture of  your own consciousness and unconsciousness, our underlying fears separate from everyone other that our selves. I leave the bus and my journey home comes to an end; my fixation with symbolism and  existentialism continues even after I have entered my front door.

I walk into my house and eye's concentrate on a singular object; a piece of  advertising which speaks far greater than the first materialistic perspective of French Connection. A deeper cultural significance found in it's juxtaposition of sexuality, contrasting that of the ideology of modern day Russia. My mind journeys back to the previous read of the Classic philosophy of Dostoevsky, and I wonder how Putin in our seemingly modern age can contrast our culture so greatly, how after 149 years after it's publication, Notes From The Underground is still relevant in a timeless society.

I decide to create art work, encapsulating and representing my own  existentialistic take, on the culture which I was made aware of on my journey home.  While reading this your reaction is probably one of negativity derived from my own nonsensical approach, creating a very subjective take and an idea which I contradictorily named objective.

Ultimately,  if you understand the symbolism associated with my own ideology, then our shared culture indicates a subjective piece of art.

Set The Twilight Reeling

Stefan Sagmeister, you need to research  Stefan Sagmeister; word's repeating again and again as I sit staring at a brief, a piece of paper containing four other names, but  Stefan Sagmeister is the name I pick. Maybe it's the alliteration or maybe it's the simplicity of my own  laziness, for his name is the first on the page and I choose it as my point of research. Never the less, I find myself at this point in time writing about a "graphic designer and typographer," Googled information providing the foundation for this blog.

Yet, even reading information sourced from a secondary resource, I find myself questioning the reality as  I recall the word's of director Terry Gilliam. In an interview referring to his 1985 film Brazil, he remarked that he had never read Orwell's 1984, arguing that his primary idea could still be understood without being influenced to greatly by the writers word's. Contemplating this, I find myself on Sagmeister's web site: http://www.sagmeisterwalsh.com

 

 The eye's, the never ending and continually staring eye's focus on my own consciousness, as I methodically deconstruct the word's drawn onto the face. The eye's, free from typography provide a level of contrast rarely seen, as they stare free from distraction... free from discourse.

I glance across visioning only three words: Heart, Sex, Cry.

Countless other's are written, yet these three word's particularly stand out. My conclusion arrives from a photograph's perspective; that colour only show's the colour a person's clothes, while black and white shows the colour of their soul and it this which I am viewing. Associating: heart, cry and sex with the staring person, associating the word's with his loss, his depression as I slowly deduct logic from the picture.

It is surrounded by white, a compositional attribute forming  a very  defined image. White being the absence of colour coincides with my own perspective, that this is supposed to generate a personal response separate form anyone else.

Isn't that what art is?

A generating perspective of a time, emotion or form?  

I must confess, that like Gilliam I have not listened to one song of Lou Reed's, but this is not a blog about a "graphic designer and typographer," this is blog about a piece of art and my reaction to it. This is what I see, not a pierce of advertisement or a commission, but a piece of art. 

 Moving  away from this, but still continuing on the subject of typography , I highly recommend Memento,  Christopher Nolan's second feature as it show's the power of word's, resonating more greatly than any other scene in the film.

Organised Chaos

Two minutes counting down...

two minutes to draw, to dramatise, to deconstruct an object which has been put in front of you. Three representations required with a purpose of relationship, of juxtaposition and of imagination, a new construction shaping into a new entity created from your own subconscious. Thirty second's remain and you fail to recount where the first drawing came from, only where the third is going. Ten seconds and your pen is removed from the paper, you look as your fellow students gaze on your own imagination, a smell of fresh felt tip seeps through the air and you feel that self gratifying feeling of accomplishment;

ten seconds remained...not bad.

Yet, even in this existentialistic, blogging form, my subconscious influences in no way on my rambling. This fact is dew to my own creation and that of this particular blog;  using alliteration, a tricolon and over exaggerated semantic field's, I have describing a deeper meaning of a straight forward exercise. The true outcome is therefore one of timing, who can visualise the finished product before producing it. I can write about it after participating in it,  in a greater, more constructed way than I could after the two minutes had finished.   My timing is therefore slower, my own adaptation of the given object and situation acquires a greater length than the two minutes provided. My work simply became rushed, in this simplistic form, all contrast, all meaning became lost in the array of scribbles.

One could argue that this very process of 'letting go' is the primary objective, a piece of art speaking more to the individual interpreting it as they please.

Liberating by the non-restricting elements of a deeper imposed meaning.    

"When I am in my painting, I'm not aware of what I'm doing. It is only after a sort of 'get acquainted' period that I see what I have been about. I have no fear of making changes, destroying the image, etc., because the painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through. It is only when I lose contact with the painting that the result is a mess. Otherwise there is pure harmony, an easy give and take, and the painting comes out well."

—Jackson Pollock, My Painting, 1956

On the surface, Pollock's words speak of a level of freed creativity, "fear" has been removed but in it's place a new entity has arrived, one entirely separate from the artist. Instead of a liberated figure painting freely, Pollock has become the slave of his own creation: " the painting has a life of its own."  This intern brings a level of organisation to his misinterpreted liberation, contemplating this, I decided to create a take on Pollock's ideology; that order prevails from chaos.