20th Century Fox, DAMN YOU, DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL

It is quite typical really, after working on a project for an award competition (YCN), the project being to create a campaign for the new Rise of the Apes movie, with barely any information and no visuals to be inspired by, as soon as the project is finished, printed and sent away for hopefully be awarded (fingers and toes are are crossed), that 20th Century Fox have released an image of part of the face of the new look of the ape. Admittedly I may not have come up with the designs I made if this image was released a few weeks ago but is quite frustrating to say the least. The image of the ape does look impressive and shows that the quality and realism of the films CGI, similar to the visuals graphics used in Avatar.

All I have to say to 20th Century Fox in the kindest and most light hearted way possible, "DAMN YOU, DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL".

The revelation that is the graphics tablet

I have been after a graphic tablet for some time now but have always just been too busy or have not had enough money to go out and buy one. It was this Valentines day that my girlfriend surprised me by giving me one. I was so excited as soon as I got home I plugged the USB into my computer and started a few simple drawings and tutorials just so I could get used to it before attempting bigger, more difficult images.

I have been obsessed with using it ever since I got it, I use it for almost all my university work now. I find it relaxing to just sit down and draw comic book characters.

The drawings above are a few of my best drawings so far.

Peach Channel Videos

Videos for the channel "Peach".

Knife Crime Advert Storyboards

The concept for the team project I did wit Connor for the Roses Awards.

Rise of the Apes Pages

A few pages from the finished pdf explaining the campaign.

The Apes Will Rise

As traditional with our course we are to enter in various competitions throughout the year. The first being the Roses, and this one being the YCN Student Awards. A number of briefs were available for us to choose from and create something unique and fresh. The brief that caught my attention was one titled 20th Century Fox. This brief was to create a campaign advertising the film companies latest release, Rise of the Apes. This is an upcoming prequel to the popular film series of Planet of the Apes. This film is a complete reboot of the series as well as a prequel film.

I wanted to design something that was yes new and could be a stand alone film, but wanted to create something that was inspired by the original five films. I wanted to create a back story to the film, a prequel to the prequel. The plot of the latest installment is that a young scientist is trying to create a cure for Alzheimer's disease and is using apes to experiment various antidotes on, and because of this accidentally creates an intelligent ape named Caesar, who will rise up against mankind.

The campaign I created was inspired from a scene in Conquest of the Planet of the Apes where the main ape has become a slave and is forced to choose a name from the bible, but in my version the ape will choose his own name, this is where the "My Name Is Caesar" campaign comes from. I wanted to show an evolution within the campaign.

It starts off with pop ups appearing around the Internet that contains scribble but over a period of a few weeks will develop into words spelling out the title of the campaign. Clicking on this final pop up will link people to the website I created which contains posters, trailers, audio tapes, brochure and newspaper articles.

More posters would follow this as well as a prequel graphic novel to this film Birth of the Planet of the Apes. I created a basic plot for this and have included on my storyboards. T-shirts and free merchandise would also be available to advertise the movie.

The two trailers seen here are almost identical but with a few major differences. The second trailer is seen at the top, where the first teaser can be viewed just above this paragraph.

I have found that even though this project did drag at times, I still really enjoyed working on my campaign. I felt inspired and self motivated into designing something that I felt others would enjoy and get the excited about the film.

Read, Read, Read.....

The typography video I produced to advertise National Reading Week 2011. My message in the video is that there is only one book to read during the week to make it all worthwhile.

The FayreTrade Market

The FayreTrade Market is the business title that our group came up with for our design studies project. The purpose was to create a business proposal for an ethical company that provides a product or service that will appeal to the Post-consumer. It was after much consideration of what it was we wanted to do. We wanted to create something that would be appealing and get the community to work together as well as help others.

This is what we came up with. The FayreTrade Market. This is a new service that is aimed at the post consumer revolution. This is to encourage people in urban areas to grow their own food (fruit and vegetables) at home. An event would be held four times throughout the year. It would be here that people can book a stall to set up their produce and re able to trade with other stalls or people coming in with a few homegrown produce to trade for a few other things.

Our tag-line "Grow your own, Trade your own" is a very simple and powerful message that is easy for people to follow and understand.

We always took into consideration that this would more than likely be a non profitable service, but we took pride in knowing that what little profit we would make the key outcome is that the community worked together to support a sustainable, healthy, fair trade service. This also shows the importance of buying locally and saves food mileage at an astonishing level. Instead of buying food that has been transported from elsewhere in Europe or further abroad, growing and trading your own food is much better for the planet. Those who are knew to this experience of homegrown can come along and share knowledge with those who already do this..

Our group also came up with an option where those who are committed to FayreTrade and its values can purchase a growers card. This is a membership that is cheaper than paying for a stall every time the event is held. There is however a limited number of grower positions available. The first ten applicants every season will automatically become a grower. They would even be saving £6 and paying only £18 for the entire year. Whereas those who would pay upon entry would need to pay £6.

As a way to further encourage people to grow their own produce we would sell Grower packs that would include a bag of soil, watering can, seeds, gloves, trowel etc. so that they can start their own little area in their garden or on the roof of the flats if available. Seasonal packs would also be available. Another item we would have available is recipe cards. These would include various meal recipes for game, vegetables, fruit etc. if there are any recipes that people would like to add all they would have to do is to get in touch with FayreTrade and let us know so we could include it in the future. the recipe cards will also be seasonal and will change every time the event is held.

As a way to help people understand the best times to begin growing certain food, seasonal charts will be available at each event or can be downloaded on the FayreTrade website. The charts will also change depending on the area where the events are being held, such as the area around Dundee or the area around Edinburgh and Glasgow.

To help alert people of who we are as well as when and where we will be will be advertised on the website but also by Facebook, Twitter, as well as posters and handing out flyer's and even an advert in the local paper.

We also had a one year plan, then a three and five year plan to show how much profit and how popular the service would be depending on the sales made. This would expand every year to bigger communities, as well as heading down into England and Wales. The profit we would end up getting would be from all the packs and recipe cards.

A summary of what we want to provide for people is:

Grow your own

Community spirit

Encourage trading local produce

Be sustainable

Establish a trusted name.

Dissertation Proposal Part 2

Title

How has the use of digital technology changed the way in which designers use type and how this may progress further?

Summary

Typography from the days of the very first print by Guttenberg has, and is still continuing to change in the present day. How we have displayed and applied words in our culture define who we are. Typographers such as Eric Gill, Edward Johnston (Who designed the type and map for the London Underground network), have all played their part in changing the way we look and use type, the font Helvetica was a revolution within the design world, and is still today, such a powerful font.

“If we were to consider the normal, everyday activities that consume our lives, it would quickly become apparent that typography is ubiquitous and inescapable”. (Jury, D).

The techniques used to produce and print type has changed so much over the years. In the early days designers used to use pencils, rulers, French curves and paint brushes. This was considered an art form, type had a personal touch about it, and this made it worth something. The revolution in printing text was bulk printing with big, monstrous printing machines. Letterpress printing became the next big thing, text could be printed in mass production and was much quicker to produce than by hand, this was a much more efficient way of printing.

There is so much to learn about typography, from the font size, leading, serifs and sans serifs even the typeface we use, each and every process in type has to be carefully thought out and planned, basically what is type and what should it do. So much planning has to go into the layout of a font. How straight must a line be? How big a curve is? Time has to be taken when spacing an individual letter.

“In bad lettering, there is a lack of relationship between letters that comes when shapes oppose on another rather than lying in unison, when a few letters disturb the rhythm of the group, rather than acting as accord as blades of grass lean together in response to a gust of wind”. (Haley, A).

In the mid 1980’s the age of digital typography grew and grew. Digital fonts are easier to work with and easily adjusted and manipulated in any way we want. Even today type is changing, the way in which we apply it may already be dying. Books may one day be replaced by the invention of the eBook, no longer may it be printed but simply downloaded, and this could be taken further where the public would be able to downloads magazines and newspapers. Even with the growth in 3D technology, could this be taken further and we see 3D type used for advertising? This is now the new and in thing at the moment. Typography is a learnt expertise, even though it is easily accessible for anyone to go online and create their very own fonts, it is still today a specialized subject.

The Internet has also changed the world of type. Now we can upload our own designs on free font websites such as DaFont, BeauFonts, What the font etc, all for anyone to download and use. And with programs like Illustrator, Fontographer, anyone can easily design and produce their own fonts. It is of little surprise therefore that we may soon even see the creation of apps for creating fonts. One such app is FontStruct by FontShop.

There is now even a radio show where typographers and designers are invited to discuss their techniques of using type, as well as what projects they are currently working on at that moment. They also discuss other designer’s work. This show goes into detail of how the world looks and uses type. It is suiting that this show is called Type Radio, and the pod casts are available on iTunes or on the actual website, TypeRadio.org. Designers that have appeared on this show are Stephan Sagmeister, Veroninika Burian to name but two.

“Type is speech on paper, Typeradio is speech on type. Typeradio, the radio channel on type and design.” (ITunes pod cast description).

The fact that we can now design and talk about type on the net and radio just shows that the days of printing could nearly be over. Printing is becoming more expensive to do. A good example of this is the closure of the publishing company DC Thomson’s & Co. This is only their warehouse that has closed due to the high cost of owning printing equipment, having to repair them and to keep the machines running 24 hours a day. Now they print through another company outside Dundee.

It is also because of the Internet that more and more people are finding out news and information online. This is cheaper. This also shows that printing is becoming irrelevant. There has always been more readers than content makers, but the more people there are the more printers have to produce which costs more, meaning that new, updated techniques of printing are more in demand, such as a digital process.

“Type started out as chunks of metal and wood. Today, it’s anybody’s guess as to whether the computer font we design actually exists at all”. (Cabarga, L).

Already we are seeing touch screen technology being produced such as the iPad, it should not be long now until the availability of touch screen computers in our homes. In cities like Manchester and London, the public can use touch screen on bus stops to find out the schedules etc. and because of this it shouldn’t be too long before this is easily accessible for everyone to use.

Aims

My aim for this is to gain a greater knowledge and understanding of what typography is. I want to know more about the history of type. I believe that knowing more about it will help me in my future career. I enjoy typography and hope to leave university to make this my main area of expertise. To do a dissertation on a subject I feel I can produce a strong piece of work and would enjoy researching.

Objectives

What I hope to finally produce for my dissertation is a brief history of typography, a review of how designers adapted to the use of digital technology. A review of the technology now available for purchase and how these can further develop type beyond what we already know. I aim to contact printing companies and ask a general discussion on how they used to print, compared to how they print today. To carry out experiments comparing various techniques. This will involve painting letters from hand, carving letters from wood and printing them on papers and finally creating a font digitally.

Key Words

Typography, fonts, technology, software, advertising, printing, typographer, publishing.

Bibliography

Aymer, G., 2009. Is This the Golden Age of Typography? Discuss…. Computer Arts, 168, pp. 58-61.

An article that debates the ongoing battle between digital and printed typography, through its history, to the present and where type could eventually be heading. Throughout this article are the opinions expressed by various designers.

Baines, P, and Haslam, A., 2002. Type and Typography, London, Laurence King Publishing Ltd.

Type and Typography looks into the fundamentals of typography, such as structure, layout and meaning behind the design of a font. This also looks into the history of type as well as the process used to produce type.

Barnbrook, J., 2007. Barnbrook Bible: The Graphic Design of Jonathan Barnbrook, United Kingdom, Room for Living Publishing.

A collection of work throughout Barnbrook’s career. This book contains various fonts created by the designer as well as exhibition, and promotional pieces.

Bellantoni, J., 1999. Type in Motion: Innovations in Digital Graphics, London, Thames and Hudson.

Unlike any of the other books I have looked at this one includes various projects in print, digital and interactive design. It looks into how we look and interact with not just words but design in the modern age.

Brody, N.,1988. The Graphic Language of Neville Brody, London, Thames and Hudson.

Neville Brody provides and detailed account to his period in the area of graphic design. This also acts a history of design as well as being an influential piece fro designers today.

Cabarga, L., 2004. Logo Font & Lettering Bible, Cincinnati, HOW Design Books.

Here the author, a designer reminiscing the old fashioned days of creating and producing type. This looks into old techniques of creating and printing fonts as well as today’s more updated digital techniques. This book also looks at various style of type used in logo design.

Carson, P., 1999. Back to the Old School, Creative Review, 19(5), pp. 41-4.

The author of this article discusses the decline in the traditional printing forms of typography such as the letterpress and the rise of computer technology. This goes on to compare the different techniques and how each feels and are experienced.

Drate, S., 1999. Extreme Fonts: Digital faces of the Future, New York, N.Y., Madison Square Press.

Here is a collection of various type designer’s work, each designer goes into detail of how they came up with the design as well as the process they went through in their designs.

Fawcett-Tang, R, and Jury, D., 2007. New Typography Design, London, Laurence King Publishing Ltd.

This is not a book of the history or opinions on type, but is a visual guide of the best work in modern typography throughout the world. This looks into how it is applied as well as trends of the current time.

Gale,N., 2002. Type 1: Digital Typeface Design, London, Laurence King Publishing Ltd.

A book that looks solely into the area of digital typefaces, from applications on computer software to type on the internet, although a bit dated is still relevant into how digital fonts are still important on the computer now just as much as they were first applied to this.

Gill, B., 2009. Words into Pictures, Images Publishing Group.

Bob Gill’s book is about the relationship of words and pictures in how we communicate. He notes down his own thoughts of how words and pictures can be combined together to make strong and powerful statements.

Harvey, M., 2009. Janet the Typeface: From Metal to Digital, Matrix, 28, pp. i-iv.

This article is describing the origins of the Janet font, of how creator designed it, and how years later, his son, with collaboration with Andras Benedik, took this font and made it a digital typeface.

Helvetica., 2007. [DVD] United States: Gary Hustwit.

This video includes various interviews from typographers around the world on the font Helvetica. It includes the history of the font as well as the impact it has had within the design world.

Jury, D., 2006. What is Typography?, Switzerland, RotoVision SA.

Unlike the other books chosen this book includes chapters on what typography is, how it type used to be printed and how it is printed today. It also looks into how type is applied within our culture. This also includes the facts on how to work with type as a designer.

Kinross, R., 1992. The Digital Wave, Eye, 2(7), pp. 26-39.

A review of the way in which digital technology changed the way in which typographer’s design and work with type type. This delves into how much of a revolution the digital era was.

McLean, R., 1980. The Thames and Hudson Manual of Typography, London. Thames and Hudson Ltd.

This looks into the history of typography, looking at past typographers who created groundbreaking fonts, as well as looking into how font works and is created.

Pearson, D., 2010. Special Collections in a Digital Future. Art Liberties, 35(1), pp.12-17.

This is an abstract from a paper at the 2009 ARLIS Conference ‘Tradition and Transformation: Roles in a Changing World”. This looks into the library content and how books could be recorded electronically rather than being printed.

Sagmeister, S. 2008. Things I have Learnt in my Life so Far, Abrams Books.

This is a self-publication of a list of experiences Sagmeister has learnt throughout his life. All the experiences are presented in a number of brochures that he has created using 3D typography, promotional work.

Sassoon, R., 2002. Computers and Typography 2, Bristol, Intellect Books.

This includes a number of essays from designers on the area of typography design on the computer. Each article gives opinions on the use of typography on computers.

Spencer, H., 1969. Pioneers of Modern Typography, London, Lund Humphries Publishers Ltd.

An older book that I still found useful. The author researches the typographers who all left their mark in the typographic world. This looks into how they designers fonts and how they were applied.

Staples, L., 2000. Typography and the Screen: A Technical Chronology of Digital Typography, 1984-1997, Design Issues, 16(3), pp. 19-34.

The author in this article is looking at the technical developments that happened for digital technology and typography during the 1980’s and 90’s. This looks into the impact it had as well as the changes that came with it.

Type Radio, 2011. Jo De Baerdemaeker (January 2011) Part 1 of 2. [podcast] January 2011. Available at:<http://www.typeradio.org/loudblog/index.php?page=0> [Accessed 4 March 2011].

Typeradio.org is a website that allows a user to download and listen podcasts of interviews with various typographers and designers. This particular podcast features the Belgian type designer Jo De Baerdemaeker, where he discusses upcoming designs he is working on as well as expressing his views and passion for type.

Warde, B., 1956. The Crystal Goblet or Printing Should be Invisible. [Online]. Available at <http://gmunch.home.pipeline.com/typo-L/misc/ward.html> [Accessed at 27 February 2011].

This article looks explores the authors views on typography, how type should be something that is carefully planned, and enjoyed. The experience of type is experimented with a goblet of wine, comparing amateurs to professionals.

Willen, B., 1981. Lettering &Type: Creating Letters and Designing Typefaces. New York, Princeton Architectural Press.

Lettering and Type shows examples of various forms of lettering applications on various designs, it also gives examples of how to apply text in a creative process.