[no. 008] passage of time

In my own work, for some unaccounted unconscious reason, I usually do not show a passage of time. I usually just have an absolute point and time that I am trying to convey to the viewer. This point became more apparent to me as I was looking at some works that do in fact show a progression in the work through time.



Scrolls are a part of traditional Chinese culture which unroll to reveal a story, history, or painting. With the invention of books, scrolls seem to have been phased out for a more practical solution. However, designer Alan Chan used the scroll technique to produce his “retrospective exhibition, ‘Alan Chan: The Art of Living’ at the Hong Kong Heritage Museum.” In his scroll, Chan shows his life works- “a paper brain full of thoughts, art, ideas, and memories.” When we were working on our Haiku books at the end of last semester with Lee, we were told to think about the pacing of our books, allow the narrative to reveal itself throughout the pages. In a project such as this, pacing is a very important design consideration. Since this scroll is 34.5 meters long, there is no way to present all the information at once, Chan had to select the images and type that would flow smoothly as one unrolled the scroll. There is a lovely and gradual process that we see in this scroll. Contemporary design placed in a format that harks back to a traditional art.




Jae-Hyouk Sung and Matthew Normand designed a series of posters for the California Institute of Arts for its Lecture Series. However, the two designers were not given a complete list of the lecturers they were expecting. In order to work around this hurdle, Jae-Hyouk and Matt decided that they would print X-amount of posters and then each new lecturer’s information would be silk screen printed over the poster for the previous one. The designers linked the choice of type and subsequent cross-out elements to each layer of silk screening in order to bring forth all the information pertinent to that layer. For instance, the “series 3” poster has X marks that are used to cross out the information from “series 2.” There is an interesting quality to the density of each subsequent poster, there is obviously more physical ink that is put down, but in addition, it creates a pattern and added complexity to each piece as if each series is building toward a climax. In addition to carefully considering the type, color, and compositional choices, the designers considered the orientation of each as the lecture series progressed. “The posters shift between a vertical and horizontal format in a clockwise direction to indicate time.” I found this to be a thoughtful aspect of the whole series of posters that is just what it needed to be a cohesive set.

[no. 007] Grip Design (www.gripdesign.com)

Everyone has their own types of design elements that they are attracted to, perhaps bright colors, overlapping layers of information, an ethereal feeling, and so on. Of course, depending on what the context of the work is operating in determines certain types of attractiveness as well. For me, I am attracted to clean cut design that is not cluttered with unnecessary elements. When I was going through a HOW magazine from last year, there was a particular website that drew my attention and I have had it in the back of my mind ever since. It is a design company called Grip Design, and their website is www.gripdesign.com




What attracts me to their website is the muted, natural colors that harmonize together on the page. It is not necessary to have so many bright and flashy colors to draw attention and keep it. If one can select the right colors to create a pleasing color palette, then that is what’s really important. Also, I appreciate how the web designer did not just stick to the angular, sharp cornered blocks of color we are so accustomed to seeing in amateur web design. Of course, this page was created in Flash, so that accounts for the freedom of form, but it still reflected in the small elements of the page- such as the customized scroll bars within the page content, the graphic buttons that serve as links, and the sensitivity to type selection, all of which are not your standard web elements. Underlined links, gray form buttons and default web fonts could have functioned just the same, but it just wouldn’t be as pleasing to the eye nor would it appeal to or reflect good design sensibility.

As far as user friendliness, the navigation system is not all organized in one place, like a navigation bar or a single drop down menu, instead the web designer decided to allow the user to use his intuition to follow a button, then a drop-down menu, then different types of buttons. At first one may construe this as confusing, but really, it engages the user to really explore the whole webpage, it exposes the user to all types of links, not just words that are underlined.

Within the page, a user can follow links to view the company’s portfolio which spans a multitude of media from web to identity to packaging and more. All of which reflect the company’s sensitivity to an unobtrusive type of design. It is not all flashy, but takes on a more sophisticated sensibility. All of the design lives harmoniously together, whether it be in print or electronic.

However, I am a little concerned that perhaps this type of design may be too “safe?” Maybe it does not take enough risks? That is what I am always worried about in my own design as well. I try to placate the design but that often results in being boring and too safe—something that works, but that we’ve already seen.

[no. 006] Street Logos

Over the Winter Break I bought a book called Street Logos by Tristan Manco. It is about how traditional graffiti like tagging, has been transformed into an art form with a free-for-all kind of attitude. “Spontaneous doodles have run riot as sketchbooks are swapped for street corners.”

One category of street art is signs. Originally, graffiti artists were making statements by painting over the signs of the city, in an effort to reclaim the city space that has been conquered by consumerist advertising. However, in more recent years, graffiti artists have been using the aesthetics of signage to create their own marks, as such aesthetics “represent order, authority, consumer culture and the way our lives are regulated.”

Iconographics is another category of street art. Manco makes the argument that “people have become immune to tagging, so when an artist starts using an image instead we suddenly take notice. This is very true, we are so accustomed to seeing some name or word tagged on a wall, that it hardly turns our head, but when we see an image of something drawn onto a wall, it grabs our attention, even if just for a second.

There are a few artists’ works which I thought were of particular interest such as Pixel Phil whose style is to mimic the pixilated figures we might see on a computer screen. He uses these figures to make jokes, juxtaposing these digital figures with reality. He considers the location before he creates his characters. I think that we often get caught up in the drama of life, and sometimes don’t have the time or effort to see the brighter side of it. But Pixel Phil creates these visual parodies that are carefully thought out to deliver a humorous message without too much thinking involved. Another iconographic artist that I found to be interesting was Plug. He paints the European standard two-pin plug onto “machines or objects on the street so that they can look unplugged, symbolizing the shutting down of the system.”







All these artists are making statements, whether they be personal or political. Graffiti is a channel that they are using because it is very public and there are so many statements that can be made about our society on the very streets that we see on an everyday basis. Further, these artists are not just taking images from their imagination or otherwise, and plopping them anywhere they please, they have taken consideration into the form of their images and how they can be integrated into their environment, creating some narrative or commentary about existing conditions.

[no. 005] typography 25/ Corporate Identity

I have always been drawn by corporate identity works. I suppose it is because it is the beauty of creating a body of work with various applications while still retaining a single identity that fascinates me. While I was looking in the Typography 25 annual, I came across some corporate identity pieces that I found of interest.

The first one is for a company called Foto Motel Rent Studio that is shown on page 46. The style of the design is like an old-fashioned real estate ad, it gives off a vintage feeling. To me, the aim of this is to evoke memories of a simpler time, a nostalgic time. After the viewer gets an overall feeling and is able to read further into the stationary and postcards, one can see that they have covertly composed photos of their real, modern-looking studio into the rest of the composition. These two settings, one classical, one modern, are juxtaposed into one large composition. Beyond the content of the identity project, I felt that the overall design was well done. The designer, Robert Neumann, used elements from the main photography into the rest of the other pieces. For example, the “Foto Motel” sign that is highly visible on the front of the postcards and business cards is used as a logo on the letterhead, as well as being the largest element on the flip sides of the cards. I think it is interesting how Neumann mixed up the placement of information on the letterhead. Usually, we are accustomed to seeing all the contact information at the very top, however, Neumann drops it down to the very bottom, in the lower right corner.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Another identity project that I found of interest is on page 48, which showcases the company Grand Connect. This is a very simplistic design of two birds that are holding an envelope between them with their beaks. The use of curves in the oblong, irregular shape softens the feeling of this company. The use of a cursive typeface and the childlike birds also help this company come off as non-threatening and nurturing. I am led to believe that this company’s target audience is mainly women. Women are generally more sensitive to these small details and would appreciate a delicate design such as this. Overall, I think this project was articulated well and comes off as a solid, coherent piece of a single identity.