"likes originality, humour, surprises, gifts, magic, reduction,fun,colours,intelligent entertainment, emotions,mistakes, humanity"

The piece certainly has the magic vibe with a bubble formed monster in the clouds. There's much emphasis on the brightness of the sky because the shadow of the houses prevents any significant visual focus. The silhouette of the houses allows you to see more of the white illustration leading the eye to the major part of the cloud where the creature is more noticeable. I'd assume it were a dragon creature because although the mouth is large with sharp teeth like that of an alligator, dragons are known to fly and it also has eyes and eyebrows that remind me of a Chinese dragon. Another alligator feature that helps to my dragon idealism is it's smiling. Since Chinese dragons are known for being wise and benevolent, unlike the Western ideas of greed and calamity, we can assume that this dragon is inhabiting a cloud or is in its cloud form. 

Source: Contemporary Graphic Design, pg. 90, by Francois Challet

This is a print done by Buro Fur Form with her quote on the side reading: "Graphic design and its creative message are changing day by day. Designers are responsible for these messages, which are definitely hidden in their work." Whether or not this print has a message is debatable. If I were a flower expert then I might be able to find symbolism in what's coming out of her hair. Her hair is flying in her face as if a gust of wind is coming from behind her to make it sweep out in that monster tentacle way. Her make up is done, with her lips fully filled, eyebrows thinned, and her eye lashes thick. In portraying her feminine features her nose was discluded from the design and a beauty mark was placed. My favorite part has to be the rainbow gradient made to spectacularly display the shape in this design. She's the iconic form of feminine beauty with the flowers on all sides, what message this is trying to convey is beyond me. Tell me if you have a theory!
 
Source: Contemporary Graphic Design, pg. 76, by Buro Fur Form

 This is a print done by Francois Challet and it's very telling of most designs he does. He wrote a quote for what he thinks of graphic design. "For me graphic design is about telling stories in a playful and optimistic way." Francois Challet's works are very playful, vivid and bright in image. Although the illustration of the cat could be seen in a creepy horror genre with it's human like teeth it is shown as more a pop art style by the squiggles and gagged rays behind it. The choice of color greatly effects the viewers perception. Red, white and black emcompass the majority of the cat, very attention grabbing, but then the background embellishments are of a very vivid yellow, pink and blue. With this design I immedietly thought of his last name 'Challet' and the French word for cat 'Chat'.

Source: Contemporary Graphic Design, pg. 89, by Francois Challet

On the side of this piece there is text saying: "Designers are also citizens, and we have a responsibility to use our images in ways that benefit society", as a quote from the designer, Nicholas Blechman. It is debatable on what kind of message he is trying to convey with this particular design. I get WWI vibes from this design. The cords at the end of the mask are iconic for WWI gas masks and the flat top to the helmet is much like what the American and British soldier's used. The word "Empire" overhanging the subjects suggest a totaltarian feel because of it's dark army green color being reflected in expressionless masks. The reflection of color could suggest that that's all they see. The smaller gas masks are linked to the larger mask by their breathing tubes, indicating that the smaller ones need the larger one to survive or that the larger one is feeding off of what the smaller ones have. It's up to interpretation.

Source: Contemporary Graphic Design, pg. 64, By Taschen

Cutting Edge Design

For the cutting edge contemporary design this week I chose a piece by David Carson.
The text is a horizontally rotated Einstein quote reading: "As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality." This beguiling quote is flipped, so it could many different meanings. It could possibly be suggesting the reverse of what Einstein said: "As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality.." They are certain? "...and as far as they are..." not certain, "...they do..."-"refer to reality."
Just as the quote is something for your brain to chew on the picture behind the text is also an example of some tasty eye candy. Only orange was used in the rasterization of this photo but the form of the dolphins can still be seen because of the water and wet skin. The energetic form of the photo paired with the black void of the flat ink, it all makes for an interesting and dynamic picture.

Source: David Carson Trek, intro by: Erick McLuhan, essays by: Drew Kampion and Jamie Brisick, pg. 85

For the design from another country this week I used Ludwig Hohlwein's 1924 poster for advertising the Electricity in the Household Exhibition. Hohlwein was conceded to be one of the best poster artists of the time and had great influence. This poster resembles much of the vibrant colors and gradients used in posters done by A.M. Cassandre, another successful poster artist. By emphasizing the lamp in the mostly dark blue scene it advertises the main point greatly. The man's flat black and white suit also creates a lot of attention, which is important to the individual it's being advertised to. The font color and border also pertain to the few yellow and white portions of the poster while also having some stability of their own.

Source: Graphic Design in Germany 1890-1945, pg.135
Design. Die Elektriczitat im Haushalt (Exhibition, Electricty in the Household) by Ludwig Hohlwein, 1924

Originally it was a piece of artwork on its own, without the sharpie, but it was turned into a conceptual piece. "Love me, suffer for me or turn me into art." It works with the original sculpture because someone could interpret the subject literally saying these words to whoever made this. The part of the sentence "Love me, suffer for me..." also makes love sound like more trouble than it's worth, so it's not surprising that the artist decided to just make the subject saying these words into this sculpture. 
Questionable as to whether it was intended or not, the "N' in 'turn' is stretched down to meet the same base as 'me', making 'me' read almost like 'men'. This could be interpreted with the artist going against what the subject was saying, making a woman into a sculpture instead. Likewise, the 'T' in 'turn' is also stretched down to meet the 'me' but it is much less noticeable and it doesn't translate into any recognizable meaning.

Source: Sharpie Art Workshop by: Timothy Goodman pg. 68

These are some images to a title sequence for the TV show True Blood, worked on by Rama Allen, Ryan Gagnier, Matthew Mulder, and Camm Rowland.. We can see the difference in 'True' and 'blood' in the fonts with 'blood' being much smaller than that of 'true'. This puts much emphasis on the thicker word, especially with the perspective, it being over a bubble, making it closer to the camera. From what I've heard 'True Blood' is about vampires, someone could have made the guess with the imagery, what with snakes being feared for their bite, like the legend of the vampire. the hands on the skin gives it a dramatic feel, dramas often times embellish the story of 'who slept with who' and also stays in line with the vampire feel, as vampires have been seen in a very sexual light in modern media. Even the original vampire story, 'Dracula', by Bram Stoker, has been interpreted as allegory for rape. The close up of the blood is important because in the show they focus on the transferring of blood and how humans become vampires.


Source: Typography 30: The Annual of the Type Directors Club, pg. 149

This psychedelic piece done by Mary Beth Edelson is an expressional piece. By taking a photograph and editing it with ink and paint, Edelson created a piece that went against the material woman stereotype to create a more naturalistic femininity. The white streaks painted on top of her dark hair radiating outwards creates much contrast and naturally brings the focus onto her face in the middle of it all. 

Source: Are You Experienced?: How Psychedelic Consciousness Transformed Modern Art, Pg #180
By: Ken Johnson

This piece done by Ren Takaya is a very good example of creative typography in a design. The geometric shapes are done in highly saturated colors in a never ending stairway pattern to lead your eyes throughout the text. The design reflexes the typography well, foil and emboss work meaning: pressing thin sheets to mold a shape. The use of flashing bright colors is much like the shining crinkled texture you'd find in foil. Though foil isn't colorful it still catches the eye. More and more I seem to find good usage of text pertaining to the subject. If they are not linked then they are not good.

Source: Typography 32: The Annual of the Type Director's Club, pg. 31

This week's blog post was use of good illustration. This picture is very effective at disrupting the viewer's tranquil thoughts, or at least it'll stick in their mind. Like many of Searle's pictures, the line indicating the cats fur is jagged and going in all different directions to create discord. Most of the body is made up of the face, like a children's picture, only taken in a darker tone. The only color that cat be seen in this picture are it's emphasized eyes, that look somewhat like the inside of a jawbreaker. The text on the partner page is also something to take into consideration. The page reads "A rather timid wolf in cat's clothing." In a book full of cats, I find this quote to be quite sinister.


Source: Searle's Cats, By: Ronald Searle, Pg. 4 

We see book and dust covers as a prominent part of typographic design in day to day life. Many Book Jackets have the words planted flatly on the cover or facing the viewer to make it easier to read and more available to understand. Often times if the words are facing in a different direction then that makes the viewer less inclined to notice.
In this approach, however, the colors used in order to create contrast is just as eye catching, if not more, as a title planted flatly on the cover. The bright scarlet red against the black is as startling as the title "The Four Fingers of Death" and help convey the message. The blue shadow being cast by the cactus is a light blue on white words right next to the red, creating even more contrast. In addition to the cactus shadow, the shadow of the title and dark background give the image a floodlight that screams "We caught you!" to the title. The angle and lighting gives the impression that we are looking in on a scene from a movie cast in the lonely desert. This design was done by Keith Hayes and certainly earns the award it got.

Source: Typography 32: The Annual of the Type Director's Club, pg.70

The title of this piece is Though the Flower and it certainly makes you feel the movement with the illusion though it's slightly curved lines in the petals. The white highlights used on the edge of the petals, closest to the center, make it look like light is reflecting off of a glowing middle. To make such gradient coloration the Artist, Judy Chicago, sprayed this design in acrylic paint on canvas. The three colors red, blue, and white are distributed throughout the picture in a radial symmetrical pattern, making it a very design unified.

Source: Are You Experienced?: How Psychedelic Consciousness Transformed Modern Art, Pg #179
By: Ken Johnson

The concept of typography as art has been a new idea for me, but looking between these two pictures I can see the obvious inspiration. Just like many designers, this typographer took a piece of  naturally formed design and used it to their benefit. Good thing mother nature doesn't have a copyright. By using the sharp curving, cutting forms of the branches, the letters and message become very warped. The way the typography forces you to stare at it until it is understood is very much like psychedelic art.
In the ideology of psychedelic artwork, the meaning of the words is understood better through straining to see the actual writing letters of the text.
 Written in such veiny, spiderweb forms, "A Hill To Die Upon" becomes much more earthy and nature bound, reminding me of old time Pagenistic beliefs of nature worship.

This is an Acrylic on canvas painting done by Ed Ruscha, 2003. The masterful usage of color really has an eye snatching effect because of the great amount of contrast. The range of colors, going from bright yellows, blues and bits of green are similar to what one would see in many tropical birds and flowers. The darkest parts of the picture encase it, as the black is on top and bottom with light background and white words centered in the middle. The rhythm of the painting connects with the typography of diagonal, slanting lines leading you to the next part of the picture. Working with it's powerful imagery of snowy mountain tops, this piece is quite large, 60 x 60 inches, makes this piece quite imposing and magnificent.

Source: Are You Experienced?: How Psychedelic Consciousness Transformed Modern Art
By: Ken Johnson