The Human Body and Typography

After taking Expressive typography class this semester, I am more aware of how type can be applied and treated in different forms than just text on paper, and how we can interact with it in various ways.

I am interested in combining human body movement / anatomy and type together as one of my thesis ideas. It will focus on the human movement and how it can be incorporated into a dynamic set of typography, transforming text from static to dynamic, animated, and something that's alive and representational of life.

Here are some examples I have found online of works combining the human body and Typography together.

Ariana Page Russel (c), photo taken from: glia.ca

Illustration: Slave to the 80s by Village9991 (c)

Bodytype by Smart Head and Red Keds (c)

Typography Costumes by RBG6 (c)

Typeface in Skin by Thijs Verbeek, photography Arjan Benning (c)

Typography translation exercise by Plai Upathamnaratorn (c)

Vogue cover, August 1940
Taken from Alessandra Amandinea’s Research

Illustration: Devin Schoeffler, taken from designexpanse.com

Mos Def by Chris Wicks (c) taken from Behance

Anatomical Typography by Bjorn Johansson (c)

Letter and Image, Massin, 1968
Taken from Alessandra Amandinea’s Research

Illustration: Reza Abedini (c), taken from PingMag

Illustration: Mehdi Saeedi (c), taken from PingMag

Folha de S. Paulo, Newsletter. Illustrating Life with words for 77 years
Taken from adamwilkinsondesign

hand signs taken from extrafunk.com

Thesis topics & interests

Design related Interests:
- packaging design
- label / tag system to an entire product theme
- Visual identity / branding
- interactive/ website/ animation
- information design

Other interests:
- Astronomy
- Origami
- Fashion
- 2d / 3d animation
- psychology
- wild life & nature / natural environments

Reading #5: "Why Can't designers think" - Michael Bierut

Points

-As structures of the world's communicators, designers partake in many friends of interest as the clients we have
- American DEsign programs fall into 2 broad categories:
Process schools & Portfolio schools

- process schools - "swiss-style", favor a form-driven problem solving approach; largely thrive as reaction against perceived "slickness" of portfolio schools

- Portfolio schools - aim to provide students with polished "books" that will get them good jobs upon graduation.

- the problem-solving mode is conceptual with a bias for appealing, memorable, populist imagery.

What's wrong with graphic Design education?

- Both process schools and portfolio schools have something in common - What's valued is the waygraphic design looks, not what it means.

- educators must find a way to expose their students to a meaningful range of culture, or graduates will continue to speak in languages that only their classmates understand

- designers will end up talking to themselves

This articles title caught my eye. I somewhat agree with what's said about 2 different types of design schools. and i feel that it is true here in OCAD, we are only taught with aesthetics related to design, to back the aesthetics with other interests, as design students i feel that we do not know enough in depth in other fields of study. However design is all reflected upon other fields of knowledge that we may never get to learn at school. Instead we need to discover them on own time outside. It would be ideal if OCAD can offer more courses than just design, so that we are able to expand our knowledge in general and broaden our interests. I do somewhat agree that design aesthetics is just what's appealing on the surface to general public, we are studying this "shallow" knowledge or get get in many interests to apply it to the real world.

Toronto Street Fashion

I am always interested in street fashion, recently I did a self-directed zine project on Fashion for expressive type class.

Here are some pictures i took of people and their fashion on Queen st. West during a Wednesday morning and a Saturday afternoon. I was looking at how different times of the day and different times of the week effects the way people dress on the street.


Wednesday morning street fashion:



Melanie
Profession: Digital Sales
Fashion choice: Preppy, Office lady, depends on
the day!




Pat
Profession: Store salesperson
Fashion choice: Old school punk




Jard
Profession: Store salesperson
Fashion choice: Prep-school drop-out




Angela
Profession: Store manager
Fashion choice: Comfortable, casual




Jon
Profession: Photography student
Fashion choice: Lazy, going to school




Denzel
Profession: Graphic & Web design
Fashion choice: Abstract, think outside of the
box, non-brand names




Haley
Profession: Barista
Fashion choice: Work clothes, funky




Suban & Shanaq
Profession: Student
Fashion choice: Unique




Ricky Kruger
Profession: Artist
Fashion choice: Acryctic, varies



Marisa
Profession: Club promoter
Fashion choice: Fashionable, go with what’s in.

Saturday evening street fashion:

Jesse LaFleur
Profession: Web design, marketing
Fashion choice: Neo-Victorian, Stream-punk




Cat & Kensi
Profession: High school students
Fashion choice: J-Rock, Gothic Lolita inspired / Beatle & 60s retro




Gloria & Celeste
Profession: School Administration & Health care
Fashion choice: Warm coat, stylish,
and dress for the occasion / Boots!




Ari
Profession: Runs music festival / collage student
Fashion choice: Urban Camouflage, Harold Boyard, Self-knitted scarf with personal accessory



Anna
Profession: Student
Fashion Choice: Feminine, pick-up what’s in the morning




Toy, Curtis, Stephen, Dylan, and David
high school students/ skater



Hwagyeong
Profession: Make up artist
Fashion choice: Pretty-style


It seems that people are more expressive and creative of their inner interests on a Saturday. While on a weekday morning people choses their fashion more randomly, it is either what's quickly thrown-on in the morning or required for work, depends on their destination of the day.

ACID TEST: The Global Challenge of Ocean Acidification

ACID TEST: The Global Challenge of Ocean Acidification from EARTHNATIVE on Vimeo.

ACID TEST: This groundbreaking NRDC documentary explores the startling phenomenon of ocean acidification, which may soon challenge marine life on a scale not seen for tens of millions of years. Featuring Sigourney Weaver.

Directed by: Tristan Bayer & Daniel Hinerfeld
Produced by: Erin Kiley & Daniel Hinerfeld
Associated Produced by: Lisa Whiteman, Lisa Suitoni, Tristan Bayer
Edited by: Christopher S. Johnson
Director of Photography: Tristan Bayer
Underwater Cinematography: Howard and Michele Hall
Aerial Cinematography: Nel Boshoff
Music by: Andy Troy, Peter DiStefano and Kevin Haskins
Animations by: Jake Maymudes


Produced for the Natural Resources Defense Council. NRDC.org

Project 1 background research

Our project topic focused on how graffiti is effected through time and space. I looked up the brief history of graffiti, here is how graffiti started and evolved, explain some terminology of the graffiti culture in general.



History of Graffiti

Graffiti has been around for millions of years, since people discovered that they could leave their marks. Ancient Romans were particularly famous for graffiti, they wrote on the walls and buildings they conquered and cave men drew illustration on cave walls.


In our modern time graffiti is everywhere. People from all age groups, races, and socio-economic background have been known to write something on a wall now and then.

Graffiti first became big in New York in late 60s and early 70s. It started as tagging or writing your name on a street sign using spray cans and markers. Then gangs used graffiti as a way to mark territory. The original "tag", a quickly scrawled name, were unattractive and crude. As writer began to evolve their styles and techniques into something calligraphic, using different typefaces and more colors, tags grew larger to "pieces" (masterpieces). Graffiti became a form of art to many.It inspired young artists to use their new art as a form of self-expression.

Graffiti moved from streets to subways, as pieces became more technically advanced it quickly became competitive. Graffiti artists competed for space and it eventually offended property owners. When the New York city declared a "war on graffiti," the entire situation gained international attention. The best of early writers have been idolized like outlaw rock stars, and their styles were spread across the world in newspapers, books, movies and internet. The misunderstanding that all graffiti represented gang activity, led to community pressure on polititions. But graffiti artists still strive to improve their art which is constantly changing.


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Terminology

tag - a stylized signature; the terms tagger and writer refer to a person who "tags"

piece (from "masterpiece") - a large image, often with 3-D effects, arrows giving flow and direction, many colours and colour-transitions and various other effects. A piece needs more time than a throw-up. If placed in a difficult location and well executed it will earn the writer more respect

throw-up - not a piece, but more of a large tag. It often has an outline (like black) and a fill-colour (like silver). Easy-to-paint bubble-shapes often form the letters

bombing (as in the phrases to bomb or to hit) has no connection with terrorism, but describes painting many surfaces. Throw-ups often serve for this, since they don't require much time to execute
crew or cru has become the standard collective noun for a group of writers or graffiti-artists, which can but are not limited to be part of gangs or can be associated with them for funding for materials, and sometimes protection from police and people who might not want graffiti on a certain wall while doing the piece. It is a common misconception that crews are gangs, since they are groups which break the law. However, crews can be founded in order to not be associated with gangs.

to slash somebody's tag (to put a line through, or tag over it) counts as a deep insult.

going over - (go over) if a writer goes over or tags upon another writer's piece, it is the same as declaring war against the opponent writer. Most writers respect others' work, and the basic rules for replacing other creations are in this order: tag - throwup - piece. If someone breaks this order, the person is considered being a toy or generally an annoyance.

toy - an inexperienced or unskilled writer. Graffiti pros use this as a derogatory term for new writers in the scene.

buffing - (to buff) to remove a graffiti-painting with chemicals and other instruments.




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References:
Lexicon. "Graffiti - History of graffiti". Spiritus-Temporis.com. 26 Feb. 2009
<http://www.spiritus-temporis.com/graffiti/history-of-graffiti.html>

Eric. "HISTORY OF GRAFFITI Pt 1".149st. 26 Feb. 2009
<http://www.daveyd.com/historyofgraf.html>

Image: Tag on a wall in Malmö, Sweden, by unknown graffiti artist
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tag_in_Malm%C3%B6.jpg>

"Relax if you can."

image by fedrus

Artists and designers can get inspirations from many things! – even cactus. The picture of the freakily green cactus-sofa above was used for an AXN-ad with the tagline "Relax if you can."
It was spotted on Designboom and has listed a whole range of cactus-inspired designs including furniture, apartment buildings, toys and toilet brushes.

"probably the most famous cactus is the saguaro, with its hard and solid spines
which grow from the stem. generally speaking, a cactus is a symbol of patience,
endurance, persistence and nostalgia. its cultural imaginary is portrayed in the
emphasis of the many design applications."


this armchair and ottoman are moulded in silicon gel in Xiang Yun
via


the twin sisters tineke and marieke willems, who form the dutch design studio tweelink,
have designed the bux chesterfield pouf for the new outdoor furniture company dutch summer.
the bux is an inimitable chesterfield pouf inspired by the box tree.
the top is made from skai leather and the bucket is made from plastic.


urban cactus is a housing project in the vuurplaat section of rotterdam
by UCX architects / ben huygen and jasper jaegers and done
for vestia rotterdam feijenoord/estrade projecten.

and a re-design of the 'merdolino' cactus toilet brush by unknown designer



tokidoki's wildly successful cactus friends line of vinyl figures