the eco zoo :: find+share

The EcoZoo. A cute interactive website that utilizes fun 3D graphics to educate viewers about energy conservation. The user is about to view things from all angles, and can sometimes reveal details they hadn't seen previously.

Oh...and a new vinyl toy has been added to my collection:

ia::more revisions

revised the site's title a little - rearranged the revealed infographic compositions.

still need to find better images for my two informational pages.

ia:: more website compositions

ia:: website brainstorming

Still working on titles for my website.

• vinyl core
  
• vinyl vision
  
• vinyl initiative
  
• vinyl mayhem
  
• vinyl clutter
  
• pliant playthings
  
• designer vinyl
  
• master of monster
• plastic menagerie
• limited editions
• eclectic playthings
• plastic playground
• vinyl variants

ia:: website layouts+interactivity

IA: layout revisions+ object renders

99% conference::find+share

The 99% conference from behance. click it.

"99% is a conference that focuses less on inspiration, and more on how idea generation and organization come together to make ideas happen. 99% brings together some of the world's most productive creative visionaries to offer a sneak peek into their processes, and share insights on how they bring their ideas to life."

info arch:: wireframes

Basic layout - user scrolls left/right to view the collection. Fixed top-oriented navigation menu.

Clicking "sort collection" reveals a secondary menu, with options on how the user can sort the aforementioned collection. Clicking one will rearrange the collection appropriately.
Clicking on a specific toy will reveal information about the toy/brand, with photographs, infographs, etc. User can repeat this process on the other items as well.

Left-oriented menu bar, with simple rectangular graphics to denote hierarchy of the navigational items.

type conference :: x-height

"X-HEIGHT"
non-digital typography in a modern era.

In typography, the 'x-height' refers to the distance between the baseline and the mean line in a typeface. The median, if you will. Therefore, our conference is a meeting ground between non-digital typography in a modern digital age.
Our typographic conference will address the topic of non-digital and hand rendered typography. Things such as letterpress, unconventional materials and/or mediums, old type methods and processes. Activities include lectures from prominent designers and studios, demonstrations, exhibitions, and more. Even in today's increasingly digital world, non-digital typography still has a firm place in the field of design.

conference artifacts will include items such as: 

• t-shirts
  
• backpack/laptop cases
  
• armbands (to denote staff, administration, etc)
• schedules (with lanyard)
• website
• exhibition book (a print showcasing all of the gallery work and possibly some event photos. will be published post-conference.)
• convention dvd - an archive of conference highlights, lectures, etc.

Guest speakers at this event include Yee-Haw Industries and artists Eva Bachmann and Jonas Jaegar. Bachmann and Jaegar work in Wuerzburg, Germany. Their recent project, "Typotonic," explored the use of a liquid media (in this case, tonic water) in the rendering of typography. Using a pipette, they applied the tonic water to a flat surface. Afterwards, they digitalized their liquid type and created a truetype font, Aquabembo.

For more information, click here.

t4:: concept map

timeline

type iv:: baskerville liquid video

siphoning off the extra ink.


I began this project considering:

1.) How can hand rendered typography be affected by the surface(s) it exists on?
2.) How can it be controlled via the medium used?
3.) "             " transcend the page?
4.) "             "  reflect the designer's unique process?
5.) "             "  have a limited lifespan?

type iv - explorations

typeiv - hand rendered type objectives

questions:

• how can hand rendered typography be temporary?
• what happens when you apply it to a grid system?
• how can it raise environmental awareness?
  

through the study of different examples of hand-rendered typography, I chose to study in particular liquid typography. I was particularly inspired after looking at works/exhibits such as "Typotonic", from a German studio. Water/liquids are a free-form substance. So what happens when you apply it to a gridded system? But the selected medium here is in itself quite temporary - which addresses one of my aforementioned questions.

secondly, i am interested in the numerous ad campaigns around which seek to raise one's awareness of the situation our environment is in. these are almost always predominantly image-focused. which leads me to my third question: how can it raise environmental awareness? namely, how could hand generated typography be just as impactful as an image?

How can hand rendered typography...

1. bring depth to print?
2. have more legibility than digital typefaces?
3. reflect rhetorical devices?
4. extend the letterform?
5. reflect an artist's unique process?
6. have a limited lifespan?
7. transcend the page?
8. raise awareness of environmental issues?

hand rendered typography

Is handmade the new modern? I sure hope so.

The increasingly digital sphere we inhabit is filled with ever-increasing amounts of computer-generated graphics and typography - but hopefully, there are artists whom still don't mind working a bit harder when it comes to letterforms. After going through various blogs and design websites, I encountered numerous examples of hand rendered typography in today's graphic landscape. There's definitely a certain aesthetic to these handmade artifacts - something that can't always necessarily duplicated through digital means. But that doesn't mean we can't combine the digital with the more tactile qualities of handmade elements. Hand rendered type is fairly ubiquitous, and can be found in numerous places; whether it be posters, cd covers, album art, websites, titles, etc. Some of the artists I have found working in this field include Stefan Sagmeister, Ray Fenwick, Mike Perry (author of "Hand Job: a catalog of type."), Hjarta Smarta (did some works with sewn type), and Peter Blake.

Among Sagmeister's work, I was particularly attracted to his recent environmental "Urban Play" piece, which featured type which was made from thousands of euro pennies. While he could have easily made this on the computer, it puts itself onto a new level by being hand-rendered.

Whether or not the audiences we design for realize it, typography conveys mood, information, style, etc. While much of this can be conveyed through digital works, there are definitely numerous nuances that the handmade keeps in itself. Hand-drawn work is entirely shaped by their artist's unique process - tempered by things such as accidents, line, color or craft.

Wurman - POV reading

question: How did this reading effect your view point on the project readings?

One of the first things that Wurman's reading called to mind was the concept of selective incorporation in my high school politics class. We all have our own set of biases in regards to what we see and understand. Perhaps this is our own way of outlining information in our minds, just as we outline text with bullet points and numbers in a word processor.

That being said, we place emphasis on the points in a story that we feel is important; but that in itself can be a very subjective process.

As far as effecting my point of view on the project readings - I looked over my outlines again, this time analyzing what I thought was important. If Vignelli or McCoy were to make outlines of these, would they have emphasized the same points and quotes?

Essays - MODERNISM

“Long Live Modernism” – Massimo Vignelli

With his essay, Vignelli stands in defense of Modernism, lauding it as something greater than passing trends in art. It is an ideology, a driving force that artists can fight for. Additionally, I saw this essay as a call to arms of sorts for designers. Modernism isn’t dead. There are still many issues within industry and government that require addressing. For myself, I remain still quasi-ambivalent; while there are many aspects of Modernism I admire, I feel that some of the “trivia” and “kitsch” prevalent in society aren’t all that bad.

1.) Modernism seeks to improve the design; into something better
• “To make it better not only from a functional or mechanical point of view, but to design it to reflect cultural and ethical values…”
• “The solutions should reflect the approach taken, and by virtue of its configuration, stimulate cultural reactions in the viewer, rather than emotional titillations.”

2.)Modernism transcends mere artistic style, it is an ideology.
• “…the responsibility to improve the world around us, to make it a better place…to fight and oppose trivia, kitsch, and all forms of subculture which are visually polluting our world.”
• “…the ideology of Modernism, was an ideology of the fight, the ongoing battle to combat all the wrongs developed by industrialization during the last century.”
• “Modernism was and still is the search for truth, the search for integrity, the search for cultural stimulation and enrichment of the mind.”
• “Modernism was never a style, but an attitude.”
• “…the cultural thrust of the Modernism belief is still valid…”

3.) There is still a need for Modernism/Modernists in today’s society.
• “Much still has to be done to convince industry and government that design is an integral part of the production process and not a last-minute embellishment.”
• “…fueling intellects against shallow trends…brought forward by the media, whose very existence depends on the ephemera.”

4.) Post-modernism is not the successor to Modernism, but a temporary fad.
• “The followers of the Post-modernist fad are gone, reduced to caricatures of the recent past.”
• “Post-modernism should be regarded as…a critical evaluation of the issues of Modernism.”
• “…the lack of a profound ideology eventually brought Post-modernism to its terminal stage.”


“The life of a designer is a life of fight. Fight against the ugliness, just like a doctor fights against disease. For us the visual disease is what we have around, and we try to do is to cure it somehow with design.”

“Rethinking Modernism, Revising Functionalism” – Katherine McCoy

McCoy voices her own doubts over the strict rationalism of Swiss Modernism. Instead, she looks towards concerns about the role of design and communication. However, McCoy’s uncertainties over the validity of Modernism doesn’t seem as motivated or as driven when compared to Vignelli’s essay. She ruminates for a while on Modernism, and where the adherence to its ideals got her, and how she has begun to revisit functionalism.

1.) Modernism at the time was an appropriate response to the current trends.
• “To make it better not only from a functional or mechanical point of view, but to design it to reflect cultural and ethical values…”
• “The solutions should reflect the approach taken, and by virtue of its configuration, stimulate cultural reactions in the viewer, rather than emotional titillations.”
• “…Abandoning the ambiguously intuitive territory of fine art.”

2.) Expresses some doubt over the “pure” style of Modernism
• “I came to view this desire for “cleanliness” as not much more than housekeeping.”
• “Functionalism shapes my process.”

considering my collections

While I am not sure exactly why I collect some of the things that I do, there's definitely a sort of inspiration and tangible comfort drawn from amassing them. Some assortments I'm considering for the upcoming semester:

a.) vinyl toys - definitely my largest collection of "stuff." gleaned from numerous trips to booksellers, comic book stores, urban outfitters and online perusal.

(left: 'totem doppleganger' toy from kidrobot.)

b.) keys - with four total, this is still a budding collection of sorts.

(right: metal key made to promote the upcoming Coraline movie. I found them in a small Boston bookstore. The shopkeeper said I could take one, but I took three because I'm shameless like that.)

c.) scarves - at first acquired because of necessity. although now i can't imagine what kind of necessity would require a person to have seven scarves.

(left: a christmas present.)