Thursday, May 14, 2009
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Ad Placement Counts!
Billboard companies surely take into consideration the pairing of ads, no?
If we are talking about symbolism, metonymy, and the like, it's important to point out stuff like this.
No one is suggesting the baby is being shot--at least NOT on the Huggies side.
However, the placement and suggestion of the body's movement makes it a particularly twisted when coupled with a movie ad.
Appropriation or Theft?
I adore Paul Rand's 1981 IBM poster (above). It was created during my birth year, after all.
Imagine my surprise (and disgust) upon discovering the following campaign for LensCrafters, on a television commercial.
See bottom of website at this link.
Similarities much?
It seems to be the bastard child of Paul Rand's IBM work, and Milton Glaser's "I *heart* New York" campaign.
Emil Ruder, famous Swiss designer, makes this point in relation to typefaces… “The various cultural centers of Europe began to grow apart and to print to their own national languages, using their various national typefaces. The development of national typefaces is closely bound up with the differences between national languages. Garamond is intimately associated with the French language. Caslon with the English, Bodoni with the Italian. If one of these is used for a foreign language, it may forfeit a great deal of it’s effect.”
Today there are millions of new typefaces and borders are less rigid with the internet. Find an example of a typeface in use (in context), please post it as a jpeg or pdf and iplease state how you think the typeface choice helps create meaning to the image. (this could be informational graphics, poster, logo, or advertisement.)
In response to this journal prompt, I'd first like to bring attention to a video:
FOLLOW THIS LINK
Just a fun diversion, but also a reminder of just how culturally specific fonts/typefaces have become over the years.
_____________
Some of my most memorable experiences with type have been bad ones--instances where type usage was just soooo terrible, that I couldn't forget the place, time, or context.
A common occurrence is the use of Papyrus for restaurant menus. The intent is to associate the text with the particular fare being offered (usually Pan-Asian cuisine). While food gourmandizers are unlikely to care, type gourmandizers are swearing up and down that they will never eat at that particular establishment again. At the top of this blog, is a picture of Papyrus at work.
Another font, widely disliked, is Comic Sans. It is yet another example of a typeface that was intended to be used only by graphic designers, but was "leaked" to the general public. Its purpose is to convey the appearance of comic book text, but it has instead been used everywhere else, on everything else (wine bottles, business signs, etc!).
_______________
Responding to Emil Ruder's claim, I am tempted to say that the nationalization of typefaces is no longer apparent. While this can't be wholly true, I do agree that the internet has served as a site for the deconstruction of these "borders."
While this can be a plus, it is also dangerous in that the typeface "frontier" has become a veritable free-for-all. This scares me a bit...
Monday, May 11, 2009
Saturday, May 9, 2009
"This" means "That"
Objective:
Look for printed matter and find examples of linguistic and visual metaphors and/or metonymies (and/or similes/synecdoches). Post a JPG of the work, and write about it.
The above picture is an advertisement for the game "Scrabble." Familiarity with the game allows the viewer to recognize the letter tiles (located at the upper right) as unique to Scrabble.
"U" "G" and "M," then, refer to something in particular--something more, outside of the fact that they are letters.
Scrabble awards points for making words from letter combos. "UGM" makes the words "mug" and "gum." Speaking in terms of metonymy, the image of the partially "melted" mug doesn't operate as a symbol for anything.
On the other hand, the stickiness in appearance--the fact that the mug has adhered itself to the desk, is a metonymical reference to the action or properties of gum.
In the figure of speech "To gum it up," gum is the word that assumes the meaning. In other words, this statement means "to make a situation or object 'sticky'."
Atop the Scrabble mug/gum image, is yet another Scrabble advertisement.
Herein, the scrambled image of a battleship becomes a metaphor for the Scrabble game tiles.
Obviously, because of the "vagueness" offered up by Scrabble's simple, lettered game tiles, advertisements for it can be constructed in ways that display a rich variety of simile, metonymy, metaphor, and like other functions of rhetoric.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
"Define 'design,' 'culture,' and 'language' separately. Describe how you think they influence each other. Give an example of an intersection, and describe."
It's difficult to define design concisely enough in just a sentence or two. There are two separate facets--theory and the physical application of design principles. As best I can, without the use of a book. . .
Design: The process whereby visual artifacts (meaning every "thing" in any conceivable medium that exists to be viewed) are fashioned in a way that helps in the dissemination of information. Color, form, space between and around shapes (text included) are considered in a way that either ensures ease in comprehension (although this is not always the case), or suggests a particular mood.
Culture, in its broadest sense, refers to a set of like goals, interests, concerns, practices, etc., that are shared by a given population of individuals.
Another meaning refers to the appreciation of arts and humanities, based upon the ability to reason cogently, with respect to societal standards of life and learning. To say that someone is "cultured," means to say that the individual is well versed in the pursuit of the "finer" things in life.
Language refers to the mechanisms behind person-to-person communication, and the systems that enable these exchanges.
Languages refer not only to letters that make up words, but actions (gesticulations) and images that enable communication through symbols.
Language informs the understanding of design, whether through the application of images, colors, and typefaces that communicate more easily in conjunction with one another, or through the creation of imagery that speaks easily symbolically.
Design and Language influence culture in obvious ways. Culture is established, possibly most efficiently, through the establishment of visual artifact.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for ART 358
Welcome, welcome, to Kellie's "Design, Visual Culture, and Language" blog!
I think it's safe to say that this will be the most blogging I've done here at blogspot. I have myspace and facebook pages that take up enough of my time as is. Here's to hoping that it will "stick" this time around!
Enjoy the musings of a would-be designer. Let's examine the theory behind the creation and dissemination of visual artifacts. As if Lacan, Foucault, and Althusser didn't tickle my fancy enough the first couple of years at University!
Really, though, I jest. I am eager to get some book learnin' done again!
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