Sunday, March 27, 2011
Public Type
So at first I took a bunch of pictures of this awesome vintage jukebox and Mrs. Pac-Man machine. They turned out pretty cool, but then I read the assignment and found out that you had to take a walk. I probably would have stuck with the vintage pics, but I was carless for a while this break, so I was walking everywhere. Unfortunately, everywhere was nowhere interesting. But I tried to take interesting pictures of nothing interesting. I think some came out pretty nice! The lot of them seem to have this grungy urban vibe, so I tried to edit them to mimic the color correction in the Matrix. Which is awesome for that... I dunno about pictures of public typography, but whatevs. Enjoy! <-- if anyone reads this...
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Objects and Solutions (journal6)
Out of the conversations I listened to, there was ironically no mention of transportation; which was what I was expecting after watching the introduction. Before commenting on what I thought about the answers I heard, I must say how disappointed I with the footage these designers took of themselves. You would think that people who dealing with visual communication would at least take lighting into consideration, even just a little bit. I mean even for Pete Doctor, a screenwriter for Pixar, who chose to film his movie on the roof on his house, chose for the sun to be behind him. C'mon! you work for Pixar!
Alright no that that is off my chest, I would like to talk a little about the answers from Khoi Vinh, Ken Carbone, and Michael Lebowitz. Vinh said that he thought design should be applied to making things better in general. He specifically said that he thought that design should go into making useful and beautiful products, but people do that already. It may be done better in some cases than in others but no company that is producing a large amount of an object would choose not to hire an industrial designer. What I think he meant to imply was that designers should take a step away from selling things and start physically making a difference. That serves as a nice introduction to Carbone's answer: Education. He rose a very good point that designers, out of everyone, should know how to communicate to the masses and what better thing to make known than knowledge itself. That's a damn good point, I thought. Lebowitz was on a slightly different level, he suggested that the internet would essentially take over the world and designers should add some "humanity" to the coding guru's algorithmic mesh.
I'd agree with all of these in a way, and I really don't think they are that far off from one another. Only I don't really know anything about algorithms. So I suppose if there could be one that would choose the optimal design for any given situation, then I chose the wrong field. Basically, I agree that designers should start inhibiting their ability to communicate and start communicating the things that will make the biggest difference not the biggest paycheck, and I think the web is a great tool (and sure it may take over the world too, but I'll let my kids they need to worry about that one).
Ironically, I too want a decent paycheck, and so do Vinh, Carbone, and Lebowitz. And that's why they're not worrying about it unless they are asked. Carbone, I think it was, said that teachers should be paid more than lawyers. Ethically, sure they would. But that doesn't make sense in our society. Who has more money, big corporations getting sued or middle class undergrads? However, if you take into consideration the internet as a tool that has not yet reached its full potential, then some new opportunities arise.
Alright no that that is off my chest, I would like to talk a little about the answers from Khoi Vinh, Ken Carbone, and Michael Lebowitz. Vinh said that he thought design should be applied to making things better in general. He specifically said that he thought that design should go into making useful and beautiful products, but people do that already. It may be done better in some cases than in others but no company that is producing a large amount of an object would choose not to hire an industrial designer. What I think he meant to imply was that designers should take a step away from selling things and start physically making a difference. That serves as a nice introduction to Carbone's answer: Education. He rose a very good point that designers, out of everyone, should know how to communicate to the masses and what better thing to make known than knowledge itself. That's a damn good point, I thought. Lebowitz was on a slightly different level, he suggested that the internet would essentially take over the world and designers should add some "humanity" to the coding guru's algorithmic mesh.
I'd agree with all of these in a way, and I really don't think they are that far off from one another. Only I don't really know anything about algorithms. So I suppose if there could be one that would choose the optimal design for any given situation, then I chose the wrong field. Basically, I agree that designers should start inhibiting their ability to communicate and start communicating the things that will make the biggest difference not the biggest paycheck, and I think the web is a great tool (and sure it may take over the world too, but I'll let my kids they need to worry about that one).
Ironically, I too want a decent paycheck, and so do Vinh, Carbone, and Lebowitz. And that's why they're not worrying about it unless they are asked. Carbone, I think it was, said that teachers should be paid more than lawyers. Ethically, sure they would. But that doesn't make sense in our society. Who has more money, big corporations getting sued or middle class undergrads? However, if you take into consideration the internet as a tool that has not yet reached its full potential, then some new opportunities arise.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Winners Need Losers
I had never heard of Jonathan Harris, but this will absolutely not be the last time I pay attention to his work. I'm not so sure what will talk about in this post will relate to coding or the course of the web or really what it will do. But I loved his "lecture." It reminded me of a poem I read the other day. In my illustration class, we had a Final Comps deadline last week which basically meant that you better have some shit done or your ass is grass. Class time consisted of poking through everyone else's work and writing ambiguous comments on sheets of sketch paper that were left beside each piece. I was trying to only look through the projects that I knew would be good (the entire semester is dedicated to one project; most people make books). One of my classmates, sure of having good work, was illustrating a children's book of poems. I think a friend of his did the poetry, which was for the most part very good (and his illustrations were steller as always). They were all very cleaver and perfect for a fun and games type of child audience. They dealt with concepts like the babysitting aunt that could seriously be an alien and your parents were once 8! I laughed out loud at several of the poems and I think that it was the only book that actually kept me captivated through out the entire thing.
There was one poem that stood out though. It was about loosing. The speaker of the poem admitted to stinking at everything. He never won. He never even came close. Obviously, in the context of a children's book, I was expecting some sort of turn around ending; an unseen positive that could be generated somehow from the speakers abundance of misery. Instead though, the speaker sais something that can basically be translated to, "Its ok that I'm a looser, because without people like me, who would win?" WHAT?! Seriously? in a children's book? I thought that maybe the author was just having an off day and decided to write some morbid shit. I mean how else do you put something like that in a book for kids? To make matters worse, the illustration was a big glorious ribbon that said looser on it. Jesus.
Regardless, I liked the poem. Just not in a childrens book. The Harris talk reminded me of it because he brought up the point of there being only a hand full of nerdy dudes running the internet's social structure. Imagining those guys, and thinking about what Harris said about programmers not being comfortable with their bodys, made me think of the speaker of the poem. They're the losers that make it possible for everyone else to win. In essence that is what everyone wants.. I think. Contributing to others happiness. I mean, thats what is so awesome about being a movie star or a famous musician.
I remember an interesting study I researched when I was in general psychology about how people react stronger to personal identities rather than groups. Basically, it said that people were more likely to donate to a cause when the cause was paired with a picture of a face rather than a picture of a croup of people. Well, what if that study can be applied to these social-loser-computer-genius'? Ok, so I know I'm rambling a bit here, but hear me out. So: if people always want to contribute to others happiness and people gain the most empathy for individuals rather than groups.. would that mean that people gain the most happiness from contributing to the happiness of individuals rather than groups?
Ok, so down to the nitty gritty with it and then I'm done: Sex is probably one of the highest acclaimed past times of any culture throughout history. What happens during sex? Two people make each other extremely happy. Soooooo, if programmers are generally people that are uncomfortable in their physical bodies, is it possible that their sexual tension and therefore social frustration lead them to reach people in a different way that is programming their digital social interactions? Harris was very proud, and rightfully so, with his mural that his roommates could use as a pickup line. Is that a pre-learning-code way of dealing with the problem?
who knows.
There was one poem that stood out though. It was about loosing. The speaker of the poem admitted to stinking at everything. He never won. He never even came close. Obviously, in the context of a children's book, I was expecting some sort of turn around ending; an unseen positive that could be generated somehow from the speakers abundance of misery. Instead though, the speaker sais something that can basically be translated to, "Its ok that I'm a looser, because without people like me, who would win?" WHAT?! Seriously? in a children's book? I thought that maybe the author was just having an off day and decided to write some morbid shit. I mean how else do you put something like that in a book for kids? To make matters worse, the illustration was a big glorious ribbon that said looser on it. Jesus.
Regardless, I liked the poem. Just not in a childrens book. The Harris talk reminded me of it because he brought up the point of there being only a hand full of nerdy dudes running the internet's social structure. Imagining those guys, and thinking about what Harris said about programmers not being comfortable with their bodys, made me think of the speaker of the poem. They're the losers that make it possible for everyone else to win. In essence that is what everyone wants.. I think. Contributing to others happiness. I mean, thats what is so awesome about being a movie star or a famous musician.
I remember an interesting study I researched when I was in general psychology about how people react stronger to personal identities rather than groups. Basically, it said that people were more likely to donate to a cause when the cause was paired with a picture of a face rather than a picture of a croup of people. Well, what if that study can be applied to these social-loser-computer-genius'? Ok, so I know I'm rambling a bit here, but hear me out. So: if people always want to contribute to others happiness and people gain the most empathy for individuals rather than groups.. would that mean that people gain the most happiness from contributing to the happiness of individuals rather than groups?
Ok, so down to the nitty gritty with it and then I'm done: Sex is probably one of the highest acclaimed past times of any culture throughout history. What happens during sex? Two people make each other extremely happy. Soooooo, if programmers are generally people that are uncomfortable in their physical bodies, is it possible that their sexual tension and therefore social frustration lead them to reach people in a different way that is programming their digital social interactions? Harris was very proud, and rightfully so, with his mural that his roommates could use as a pickup line. Is that a pre-learning-code way of dealing with the problem?
who knows.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Type Questions
Advantages of a multiple column grid-
Using a multiple column grid allows the designer a way to keep everything organized and in proportion. It is a good way to explore interesting layouts that don't feel random.
Optimal words and length per line-
Ideally the a line of text should be about 12 words long at 50-60 characters. This is based off the viewing field of the eye.
The baseline grid-
The baseline grid allows for the base lines of all of the lines of text in a layout to be aligned.
Rivers-
Rivers are created when the spaces between words line up on top of each other in a body of text. This results in a vertical or diagonal line of negative space.
Clothesline-
A line created by multiple text blocks aligned to the same horizontal line.
Incorporating white space-
White space, or negative space, in a layout can be a wonderful thing. However, the space should not be so great that related text is separated. This can be achieved in a spread by positioning the majority of the white space around the text.
Type Color-
Type color refers to the density created by the texture of a text body. This can be effected by kerning, leading, font size and weight, and x-height.
x-height -
The x-height of a font is determined by the height of the x. Fonts with a larger x-height have a darker type color.
Justification: minimum, optimum, maximum-
These measurements refer to the amount of spacing between words. Optimum being ideal.
Paragraph breaks-
There are no rules to paragraph breaks accept that they work. A break can be indicated by increased leading, an indent, a color field change, or a change in a texts alignment or direction.
Hyphenating text-
En dashes are used to indicate amounts of time, like dates. Em dashes are used in dialogue to indicate a long pause in thought or speech.
ligeratures-
A ligerature occurs between certain letters that would seem awkward paired next to each other in certain type faces. f and i is a current ligerature to avoid the dot of the i from interfering with the finial of the f.
CMYK VS RBG-
CMYK stands for cyan, blue, yellow, blak. These are the colors used by printers. RBG stands for red, blue, green, the colors that make up all colors on a screen.
Hanging punctuation-
Hanging punctuation is basically, exactly want it sounds like. It is commonly used in quotations that not a part of a larger body of text.
foot mark & apostrophe-
A foot mark has no indication of direction ( ' ) whereas apostrophes will be curved to the left. This is the same in relation to inch and quote marks.
Using a multiple column grid allows the designer a way to keep everything organized and in proportion. It is a good way to explore interesting layouts that don't feel random.
Optimal words and length per line-
Ideally the a line of text should be about 12 words long at 50-60 characters. This is based off the viewing field of the eye.
The baseline grid-
The baseline grid allows for the base lines of all of the lines of text in a layout to be aligned.
Rivers-
Rivers are created when the spaces between words line up on top of each other in a body of text. This results in a vertical or diagonal line of negative space.
Clothesline-
A line created by multiple text blocks aligned to the same horizontal line.
Incorporating white space-
White space, or negative space, in a layout can be a wonderful thing. However, the space should not be so great that related text is separated. This can be achieved in a spread by positioning the majority of the white space around the text.
Type Color-
Type color refers to the density created by the texture of a text body. This can be effected by kerning, leading, font size and weight, and x-height.
x-height -
The x-height of a font is determined by the height of the x. Fonts with a larger x-height have a darker type color.
Justification: minimum, optimum, maximum-
These measurements refer to the amount of spacing between words. Optimum being ideal.
Paragraph breaks-
There are no rules to paragraph breaks accept that they work. A break can be indicated by increased leading, an indent, a color field change, or a change in a texts alignment or direction.
Hyphenating text-
En dashes are used to indicate amounts of time, like dates. Em dashes are used in dialogue to indicate a long pause in thought or speech.
ligeratures-
A ligerature occurs between certain letters that would seem awkward paired next to each other in certain type faces. f and i is a current ligerature to avoid the dot of the i from interfering with the finial of the f.
CMYK VS RBG-
CMYK stands for cyan, blue, yellow, blak. These are the colors used by printers. RBG stands for red, blue, green, the colors that make up all colors on a screen.
Hanging punctuation-
Hanging punctuation is basically, exactly want it sounds like. It is commonly used in quotations that not a part of a larger body of text.
foot mark & apostrophe-
A foot mark has no indication of direction ( ' ) whereas apostrophes will be curved to the left. This is the same in relation to inch and quote marks.
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