Typographic Research

 Paul Renner - Creator of Futura

Paul's full name is Paul Friedrich August Renner and he was born on the 9th of August, 1878 in Wernigerode, Germany. As a teenager, he studied Greek and Latin for 9 years and then went on to study art at higher education level. He later got involved in design and became concerned with typeface. He was brought up to have a very German sense of leadership, of duty and responsibility. He was suspicious of abstract art and disliked many forms of modern culture, such as jazz, cinema, and dancing. But equally, he admired the functionalist strain in modernism. Thus, Renner can be seen as a bridge between the traditional (19th century) and the modern (20th century). He attempted to fuse the Gothic and the roman typefaces.

He started working on Futura in the summer of 1924 and is his most well-known work. Renner's Futura was a very important font at the time, especially in Germany and has become an inspiration and the foundation for many geometric types to date. He also created two other typefaces called 'Plak' and 'Tasse' which are also commercially available.

Along with the typefaces he created, he also wrote a few books 'Typographie als Kunst' (Typography as Art), 'Die Kunst der Typographie' (The Art of Typography) and 'Colour Order and Harmony'. These are only a few of the books he has written. He died aged 78 on the 25th of April 1956 in Hödigen, Germany.


Futura Experiments:

We were put into three groups, I was grouped with my classmates Jack, Jordan and Dave. The whole class was given the same quote to create from the studio rules list but we were all given different fonts. Ours was Futura and the quote was, "Accept change as inevitable".

There were four words and four members so we divided the words equally, my word was 'change'. We had to find the font in a typography book, in a magazine or from the font box and photocopy it to trace or cut and stick. We created thumbnail sketches to decide how we would like to arrange each of our words and it was trial in error until we founda way that worked. We finally decided to trim the tracing paper and mount it on newspaper.

After we did that we had to create our own quotes in the font we were given. My quote was "Good artists copy, Great artists steal" by Pablo Picasso. I wanted to arrange the fonts so they weren't all straight. I didn't really like how some letters overlapped but some of them worked well. I liked how the 'i' in Picasso has the tittle in the middle of the counter in 'P'. I hatched some of the letters so they weren't black but weren't plain and used a permanent marker for the ones I wanted darker. In all, I am please with my own and my groups achiements today.

Group Experiment with anything but paper:

We were asked to create the quote, "There's no 'I' in team" with objects around the room in two groups as quickly as we could to see which team won. My team did it the fastest but I think that the other groups objects made for a better picture, though I am still proud of our efforts. Here is the final photograph of what we did.

"There's no 'I' in team."

After we had photographed it, we had to put all the pieces back and get briefed in for the day's lesson. We were to create our own design based quotes using anything but paper to see how creating we could be. My quote was, "Good artists copy, Great artists steal." by Pablo Picasso and my idea was to spread red, acrylic paint across glass and write into it with my finger in a made up font to see how the technique works. However, when I had finished and I took a picture, I wasn't happy with the font and how child-like the whole thing looked. So I got something to write with other than my finger (the rubber on the end of a pencil) and borrowed a font out of the font box and copied the existing font. This approach worked a lot better.

Though using a rubber made the lines thinner and therefore a little harder to read from the glare, the image as a whole works so much better when it is from an existing quote... If I were to try and use a quote that doesn't exist, I should either base it on an existing one and alter parts that I want to change to make it my own or I would have to keep the letters consistant. Same height, same width and each letter should match up with other letters of that kind. For example, 'A's should match other 'A's and so on.
In all I am pleased with the work I created on that day. After we made these, we went through to the Mac Suit and printed our favourite version of our own quote and the group quote in A3 to pin out on the display wall in the hallway. We then filled in our sketch book with pretty much the same as I have put on here and then started research for the project.

Typographic Quotes

Today we chose a quote and created it in a traditional media. I chose song lyrics from an Eminem song called 'Lose yourself'. I thought this was a powerful quote because of it's meaning that you only get 'one shot' at everything in life. You may have other opportunities but they will never be your first experience with whatever it is. You will never be able to recreate a first impression so you have to capture it when you can.

Here is my quote collage that I created earlier today with traditional methods by photocopying pages from magazines and typography books and cutting out the relevant letters and words.

The picture quality is not fantastic as I was limited to the camera's that college provided. I hadn't brought my own. Presently, this collage is pinned up with the rest of my classes' work on the wall outside our studio.

 Here is the recreation I made on the computer. Using 'InaiMathi' for the sans serif font and 'Rockwell' for the bold, italic font. I prefer this version of the quote as it is much neater and there is not too much different font as there is on the traditional version. I think that makes it much more difficult to read and, though it is more interesting to look at, it's too complicated.

Here is one we all made the other day. I used too many fonts here too. Unlike the traditional one, it is much easier to read but is still rather messy.

Degree Show Critical Analysis.

Manchester Metropolitan University:

After looking through the show at Manchester School of Art, I realised that the projects of each specialised area where so broad it was difficult to tell where one subject ended and the next began. It was unfortunate that not all the final pieces were displayed with the artists’ sketchbooks so we could look at their progression and initial ideas. The ones that were displayed with the work were very attractive.

 

My favourite piece from the Fine Arts section was an oil painting, entitled ‘Rachel’ by the artist Allanah Claire. While it’s a simple pose, I can’t help but notice how amazingly detailed this piece is. I love the tone she has in her skin and the shades in her hair. I very much like how the background is not block colour you can see the brush strokes on it. I find it effective how her Allanah has made ‘Rachel’s’ eyes the same colour as the background and I think the pale colours in contrast to her dark hair and black top work very well. This piece has influenced me to look at detail and draw what a see as opposed to what I think I should see.

I think her work is similar to an Italian artist named Eugene De Blass. He often had his sitters facing away and the detail is exquisite. Perhaps Allanah had looked at his work and has been inspired by him.

This piece is acrylic and oil on canvas and is entitled ‘Untitled’ by the artist, Katerina Stavrou. I was really drawn to the way the fluid paint really captures the movement of what seem to be dancers. The sitter in the middle of the canvas seems to be playing a base or cello of some kind, which brings a visual interpretation of music. I like how the colours become more vivid around the musician, this could portray that music is the most important part of dance. The colours portray every mood that can be felt while dancing and I like the way the paints have been applied to the canvas. The areas where the paint has dripped and bled across the page is very effective to me. I love the shapes created here and I truly feel that the dancers are indeed dancing across the page.

                This makes me think of the work done by Jenny Saville. Detailed, yet distorted. Katerina may have been influenced by Jenny Saville.

This is oil on paper and is entitled ‘Emily 1’ by the artist, Coco Newbigin. This piece also looks like it could have been influenced by some of Jenny Saville’s other work. She went through a period of using thicker paint and larger brush strokes which are featured here. What I like about this piece is that even though the paint looks thick and clumsy, there is still a lot of detail to be seen. The tones are all there in the skin and the hair, the only thing is it isn’t blended together as most paintings are, but I think that is what I like about this piece.

                I don’t understand the discolouration on her face unless it was an accident or a makeup design that I haven’t a clue about, but the image still works. I hope to be able to create something like this in the future time I have here at college.

                I enjoyed the exhibition at the Manchester University because there was a very large range and variety of work to be seen, most of which I didn’t understand but after being able to read into the idea behind it, I appreciated them a lot more.

Chesterfield College Art Exhibition:

    Unlike the exhibition in Manchester, I think that Chesterfield College had set out the exhibition very well in the way that the sketch books were mostly by the final pieces displayed on the wall. There was also a small name card next to each display with the name of the student, what school they came from, what course they are currently studying and where they plan to move on to after they complete their course here. However this wasn’t true for all the displays. The ones on the outside walls of the dome were unmarked aside from a first name written on the bottom corner in pencil.

    One piece of work I very much liked was unfortunately one of the unmarked. I know it was created by Jo, but the exclusion of her last name means I can’t make a solid reference. So this, as far as I know, is untitled by the artist, Jo, and is a stencil mask in black mounted on white card. I really like the simplicity in design and how, though simple, is very effective in the way that the black contrasts strongly again the white mounting card.

 I came across an artist named Tim Holtz who creates art from stencil masks similar to this. Perhaps Jo had taken influence from his work.

Cherry blossoms are native to China and Japan and so when Danielle uses them on her tapestry, it give it a very traditional feel that makes it unmistakeably Chinese.
    I looked through her sketch book and she was experimenting with different words to translate to Chinese for this piece. She had practised with ‘Hope’, ‘Faith’, ‘Love’, ‘Well Being’ and various other spiritual words and phrases, though it was unclear to me which it was she chose in the end.
    I have come across an artist named Jason Miller who creates traditional Chinese styled tableware such as plates and cups in a similar simplistic way as Danielle has done. This leads me to think that perhaps she has taken influence from him. I am interested in the way that she has used fabrics and paint together. While I have already created a design and applied it to a t-shirt, I would like to experiment in the way that she has too.

    This next piece is by a student name Michael Stead.
 It looks to be paint on black card, but when I looked through his sketchbook he had also created a lot of similar artwork on the computer using Photoshop. So it may be another digital piece. I love the detail and quality of brush stokes throughout the piece and the originality. Many of his pieces that were on display were dark and had a fantasy-like quality to them. Axe-men, bloody lions, dragons and demons where feature on display and throughout his sketchbook.
    I came across an artist named Yoshitaka Amano, who is famous for his character designs and image illustrations for the video game, Final Fantasy. Most of the Final Fantasy series have themes of underlying darkness and so shares some traits with the work that Michael has produced. Yoshitaka had created initial sketches and then work with them on the computer to create a neater finish. Michael has also done this throughout his sketchbook though I think not in this particular piece.
  
    I enjoyed looking at the exhibition in College because it was the work of those in similar years and courses as myself so I could compare my progression so far with theirs. It was also nice to see the work of various second year students so I could still look at what I had to aim for.



Sheffield Hallam University Exhibition:

    After getting over the sheer size of the university and managing to ask for directions to the exhibition, it easy to find our way around. The layout was simple and easy to follow with name cards next to all the pieces of work which included their names, phone numbers, e-mail addresses and sometimes their blog website. Most of the displays provided a sketchbook next to it, but if it wasn’t directly beneath the work, it was probably on the desks in the middle of the room, excluding a few which weren’t to be found any were.

   The first piece of work that caught my eye was by a student named Tom Poynter who had created a linocut of a church and printed it in red ink. His initial sketches are amazingly detailed. He has used very simple lines to produce his initial sketches, which would have made the transfer to lino and the eventual carving to be much easier than if the lines were broken and sketchy. I like how he hasn’t cut out the background to the point that it was blank and didn’t transfer any ink onto the paper. Instead he has left some lines to be seen which gives an interesting effect to the background and, to me, makes it obviously a linocut.
    The amount of detail in this piece made me think of the artist M.C. Escher who created a very intricate piece of himself holding a metal orb and the reflection of him and the room surrounding him. He had created this as a carving into wood and printed it. This may have been the inspiration that Tom used to create this piece.
    I have created linocuts before but never dreamt that so much detail could be included. I would like to explore this media further in my own studies to see the limit of detail one can include without it being too complicated.

    The next piece that I saw was by a student named Kirsty Wilkinson who has created a movie poster for ‘The Clockwork Orange’ using the computer. I like the simplicity behind her design and how, though simple, it still captures the main aspects of the character and makes it undoubtedly a poster for ‘The Clockwork Orange’.
    As soon as I saw this piece I thought of the graphic designer, Olly Moss. He has created similar posters in similar colours of movies such as ‘Rocky’ and ‘Dirty Harry’. I like the simple yet meaningful design she uses and hope to use a similar idea in future.

    The final piece that I was drawn to was by a student named Lai Cheung who has created a stencil mask with very intricate detail. I very much like the colour combination she has used, white and blue are very compatible colours in my opinion. The picture as a whole is beautiful but it has also been beautifully made. So much detail in such a delicate media makes it all the more outstanding.
    There is an artist by the name of Tim Holtz that does stencil mask art in beautiful detail. This artist may have been her inspiration.

    I enjoyed looking around Sheffield Hallam University because it’s a realistic option if I choose to go on to University and I could see what sort of quality I was aiming for. Seeing things at University level that is probably achievable with time, effort and dedication now was truly inspiring. I hope to improve my skills so I can achieve similar results in coming years.

Ben Nicholson

Nicholson was born to a very artistic family. His mother and father were both painters and he had three siblings, one of which was an artist and one was an architect. He was born in 1894 and died in 1982 and in his life time, he married three times.

I like this piece of his work because of how simple it is. It has calm colours and a soft quality to the lines and shapes, altogether giving an air of tranquility about the picture. With this being an image of the countryside, I would imagine that this is the desired reaction to a picture such as this.

I also tried to give my collage today an emotion to portray... I had chosen an image to look at which had a calm blue and smooth lines, so i used these characteristics and created and image of Alison. Because she was naked, I thought blue would work well to put across the message of being cold. Because you couldn't see her face, it was difficult to put forward an emotion; but by letting the ink drip, I thought it captured a certain sadness about the piece.

Life Drawing 3

The first page is of the two ten minute gesture drawings we did at the beginning of the session. We then wanted to do a 30 minute collage, which is the second picture, and draw back into it. The last image is one that we based on an artist called Ben Nicholson who has done many simple collages with muted and calm colours. For this reason, I did soft, smudged lines over the brown paper and screwed up tissue that I glued onto my work. I then watered down blue in and work into the collage, letting the ink run and following the lines round to accentuate the shapes.

This is Ben Nicholson's work which I used as inspiration for the work i did. I like the subtle tones and the sweeping lines... I tried to copy this but found that it was more effective in my piece to have the lines thicker and so I repeatedly went over the lines. I am happy with my final piece, although I have made Alison, the model, look very thin.

Life Drawing 2

Today i used pastels and ink and i think my favourite ones are the ink ones. The techniques i used varied throughout the work i have done... most of the ink work i have done have been drawn on damp paper so the ink would bleed into the paper. I really like splattering the ink over the work too. I liked working with chalk on black paper, the effect was striking and very pleasing to the eye. We did four 5 minute gesture drawings and one 20 minute sketch... my favourite was the 20 minute one as it was most effective. The rest of the drawings were 20 minutes long and personally i think that they get better as they go along.

Phlegm Street Art

I like the mixture that Phlegm has in his work, this one for example has both black and white with shading connected to powerful colours. It has been placed in what looks to be the public toilets... I don't know if that gives it any extra significance or not but I would find it odd to see this in the loo. His work seems completely random with no meaning, yet they are pretty and make you stop and think about whether there is a meaning to it.

Although passers by will fully know that the ground is indeed solid, having a whale half submerged may make them half wonder before remembering it is indeed just a painting that finishes at the ground. The proportions of the whale are out, but it's still obvious what it is meant to be so I don't think it really matters. It looks well placed under the bridge because bridges usually go over water and the whale is beneath the bridge where the water would be.

I like the way this piece makes the shutters look like a stage with the curtains. It leads me to imagine that these bird-like creatures are performing. They are done in so much detail that it seems silly for them to have their legs and feet drawn as such, unless another person draw them on, I don't know why there would be a reason for doing this other than a similar difference in the first picture where parts are black and white and the other is delicately shaded and coloured.

Life Drawing

Third drawing

Second drawing



First drawing



In our life drawing classes today, Sam taught us to measure with the tip of our pencils and said that people will mostly be seven heads high. Meaning that how ever big their head is, the body is about 6 more of them. We also had to try and think of her as a collection of shapes rather than a person and draw what we saw rather than what we would expect to see. My first drawing was in biro and is very cartoon-like whereas the other are in charcoal and are much more sketchy.

Olly Moss

A lot of Olly Moss' posters are in a similar style to this piece and I really like it. The Evil Dead is about zombies and so the hand emerging from the ground captivates this idea. I love how there are two images in this piece, the hand from the ground is one, but in the hand is another. There are silhouetted, naked trees that cut off at the edges of the hand and beneath the trees and a man digging a grave next to the tree trunk. Altogether a very effective piece that captivates the viewer and also sets the scene for the film.

These are actually three individual posters placed together in a set. They are all posters for the Star Wars saga and are in a similar design as the previous poster. Each of the coloured shapes are that of a character from the films. Like Laz Marquez, Moss uses only three colours apart from he uses different tones of the main colour. There is black and white and then the colour apart from the colour of the paper he prints his work onto. Each of these are very powerful and can either be viewed as individuals or as part of their set, yet all will still look great.

Once again, only using three colours, Olly Moss creates the title of a film using what looks to be tooth picks. I know that Rain Man is about an autistic man gambling and most gamblers have some sort of personality that they put across by either wearing sunglasses in every game or chewing tooth picks and so such. I think that may be a relation to the title in this poster. I like the posible idea behind this piece and how it has been put across.

Laz Marquez

Laz Marques is a graphic designer who began studying at the Art Institute of Philadelphia with a focus in Graphic Design. He then moved to study at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, to get better at and build upon his abilities. At the School of Visual Arts, Laz majored in Graphic Design and Fine Arts, which gave him a better understanding of the principals of Art, even garnering him the honors of being a featured artist in the university gallery on numerous occasions.

His focuses on Entertainment Advertisement has given him the immense opportunity to work with some of the leading film studios on some brilliant films like X-Men: The Last Stand, The Grand, Miss Potter, Elvis & Anabelle and Goya's Ghost.

I really like this piece of his work. Although I have never watched the film, I am fully aware that one of the main scenes in Psycho is that of a woman being stabbed in the shower with horrible scratching music screeching in the background. After the attack, the camera focuses on the woman's blood running down the plug. Combining that imagery with the title is a clever and effective idea in my opinion. It's simple and straight to the point which doesn't waste time but still gets the message across in a very powerful way.

Another piece Laz has done for a Hitchcock film is The Birds. Again using simple colours and a simple layout, he still gets out the message. A common saying when describing someone with messy hair is to compare it to a birds nest. I think that Laz has taken a more literal approach to this saying by having birds actually coming out of the woman's hair. I really like how the woman's silhouette has still got texture in it and isn't just block black. I feel that it really adds character to the piece.

As you can now see by looking at all these pieces, Laz uses only three colours. White, black and red. I think this is effective and economicle as it would cost less to print them. I hope to use a similar idea for my T-Shirt design.
I love how the colours have been used to split up this image, it is simetrical apart from the words and the colours. It works really well and you can tell from the colours and the posture of the 'fighters' that they are on very different teams. I think that the contrast in colours represents the vast contrast in the characters in the film.

In his autobiography on his website, Laz says "Above all else, I have remained true to the on thing that I have understood for years, that I cannot live a day with out my passion to create."

A Critical Analysis on the Work of Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon was born in Ireland to English parents in October 1909 and died on the 28^th of April 1992. I have noticed that the majority of his work has a bland or empty background with only the subject. He is described as being a “figurative painter known for his bold, austere, graphic and emotionally raw imagery”. 

http://www.gerard-schurmann.com/media/bacon.jpg

            The first picture I have chosen to critique is one of a man with a twisted face, set on a pink background. The distorted figure looks to be aloof slightly, peering down from where he sits. There appears to be some sort of instrument sticking out of the sitter’s nose. It looks somewhat like a horn and I don’t understand what its function is. The majority of his paintings that I have seen are bizarre and I fail to find a meaning in them, yet can’t turn away because they are interesting and it makes me wonder what it could possibly mean, if anything.

            The white collar and black top suggests he is a business man of some kind and possibly important, which could suggest why he looks aloof. Pink seems an interesting colour to use as the background, while it doesn’t make the sitter stand out incredibly, it still draws attention to him. In my opinion, some of the colours used in his skin clash with this background and so it wouldn’t have been my choice of background. I do, however, find it interesting how he has severely distorted the features yet it still looks like a man. I have already attempted to recreate a piece of his work and wonder why it was he wanted to create this man in the way.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Study_after_Velazquez%27s_Portrait_of_Pope_Innocent_X.jpg

            His painting ‘Portrait of Pope Innocent X’ does have a meaning to me. I know that pope innocent was found to have sent love letters to his brother’s wife and they were supposed to have been meeting in private behind his brother’s back. This, in any walk of life, is unacceptable… but for a pope it was absolutely awful. He was a very powerful man and there was another artist, who I can’t remember the name of, that painted Pope Innocent holding a letter. He had told the pope it was an important document to show his intellect, however its real purpose was to depict the letters he was sending and therefore what an awful man he truly was. I feel that this painting that Francis Bacon has created is related to this. He has painted him in the same position on the same chair as the other painting I have seen and I feel that it shows him being taken, screaming into black hell for his crime.

            The colouring in the painting is dark and, to me, shows evil. His skin is blue and lifeless, which lead me to think of his death and hell, while his open mouth suggests he is screaming. This is how I arrived at my conclusion. This is a very powerful piece and I very much like it. Though the theme is dark, I think it important that the pope has finally been depicted in art outright as a bad person, rather than the sneaky hints that were necessary for the artist’s safety at the time. If it had been discovered that the artist had intended what he had, he would have been executed. There is a splatter of red on his gown which could represent blood.

http://elitechoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/francis-bacon.jpg

            The last painting is of another distorted man on a black background. Unlike the first one, this man looks almost sad rather than aloof with confidence. The dark background really makes the sitter stand out as opposed to the pink of the previous painting, this make me feel that Bacon wanted to draw us to this sitter and look at him more carefully. The man is wearing what looks to be a black top with a leather jacket, deeming him less important than the other sitter, perhaps. Maybe we are meant to compare these men because they have been created in a similar style. If so, it would seem there is a real confidence difference between them. The first, in his shirt and blazer looked to be very confident, perhaps even arrogant because of it. The second, wearing more practical civilian clothes, looks as though he is unhappy and dissatisfied by something. It could possibly be his work he isn’t satisfied with. There seems to be a lot of discolouration in the man’s face. It almost looks bruised, though it could also be a distorted form of shading. This is the painting I attempted to recreate in my lessons, though even after completion, I still didn’t fully understand a meaning behind it. Not until I compared it to the similar piece just now. However, this may not have been Bacon’s intention.

            I enjoy his work and find it interesting how he can create something or someone that is so obviously a human without using typically human shapes. His work reminds me of Picasso in the way that the people are distorted; the difference is that Bacon uses more shading in his work.