Manifesto project part 1

You will create TWO pieces of typography. One will be your interpretation of a manifesto issued between 1880 and 1930. The second requires you to produce your own manifesto. This should reflect the technological and cultural changes that beckon in the 21^stcentury.

Both typographic manifestos should reflect the content. Each should be between 300-400 words in length and as such may require editing. The brief follows a term long lecture series on 'Modernity' with Francis Cartledge. The time period stated above contains many different art movements and subsequent manifestos, and of all of these, I like Futurism the most due its radical typography. I started looking into Futurist pieces including a few by Marinetti and stumbled across the first picture shown below.

I love the composition and I figured what better way of reformatting the futurism manifesto than to recreate Marinetti's "Les Motts". Below, the second picture, is the finished result after assembling the manifesto in InDesign and a lot of trial and error.

After some consideration I went to transform the central text section to say 'Manifesto di futurismo' (Futurist Manifesto) so it could be understood more easily. In terms of reflection, I like the chaotic look and the accurate reconstruction of the composition, but I think it's a little confusing to understand what's going on if you hadn't seen the brief. I never want to use InDesign again. I've written the text for Part 2 of the brief under the title 'China in the 21st century' but I realise I might have taken it slightly too seriously. The trouble is the brief is a bit open ended. Still, my thought was that it gives me the opportunity to try out some great chinese typography! We'll see.

Badges final update

Badges Project (ongoing)

Brief:

To design a number of badges for printing. The only constrains are size (design must fit in a 25mm circumference + any amount of bleed space you like (max. is 5 mm around) and that the 35mm edge perimeter MUST BE VISIBLE (so the design can be accurately put into the badge machine. The badges are printable at 100 for £18.50

I started the project today and spent around 3 hours on the idea making so far, including rough sketches of badges (pictures to come). These are topics I've covered so far:

• Stupid Phrases - "I Love Your Mum", "I Love Offensive Jokes" - Potential humor
  
• Patterns to use - Tartan, Burberry - Strong visual impact, predetermined associations (Scottish, Chav)
  
• Things you might want people to know - "Happy to Talk" badges for use on the underground, Gaypride - Niche audience, likely unoriginal
  
• Plot spoilers of classic films - "They kill the shark", "Bruce Willis is dead all along", "Vader is Luke's father" - Humor through annoyance, original
  
• Actual Hobbies (including jargon so it would appeal more to the niche) - "Love my Radeon x900e", "Love my Wacom" etc. - Appealing to hobbyists
  
• Designer Specific - "Ctrl", "Alt", "Delete", "Apple key" - Appealing to designers
  
• Shortcuts - 'Apple key' and +/-, 'Apple Key' 'Alt' symbol and 'Shift' arrow - Strong visual reference for designers
  
• Geek Sheik - "I Love 120+ GsM paper", "I Love Bad Design"
  
• Ironic Statements - "I love rain" - Potential for humor
  
• Famous Quotes - "Here's looking at you kid", "Do you feel lucky? Well do ya punk?" - Very recognisable
  
• Personality Traits - "I'm so hungry", Lazy (zzz) etc. - Humor, in a self mocking sort of way...
  
• Arrogant Phrases - "I'm HOT", "I'm too sexy for my ____" - Ironic humor
  
• Could be linked to the seven deadly sins? Could make a series of 7 deadly sins badges?
  
• Inverted Purpose - Showing an image of the back of a pin
  
• This is the outside image of the badge. I think I remember someone telling me about this idea so I won't persue it.
  
• Quirky Pictures - Pictures of odd people - Strong visual humor
  
• Famous Song Lyrics - "Can't touch this.", "Peanut butter jelly time"
  
• Ironic Scenes - figure doing something unexpected (not necessarily political) - Potential for humor/emotional impact
  
• Iconic Scenes - Tiananeman square, Agit. Prop. - Strong visual impact
  
• Insults (Bad Ones) - "Yer mum", "So's your face", "F@?K Y+U!!"
  
• Changing the Badge Itself - Giving the badge the appearance of being bitten into with a hole punch - Very original, but will either work or won't.
  
• Disillusions of our Generation - Something like "Santa/Tooth fairy isn't real, but thank god the birds and the bees are", "Heaven is as real as Father Christmas" - Humor
  
• Random Phrases - check facebook groups
  "When I was your age there were only 150 Pokemon"
  "The real reason we invaded iraq was to catch rare Pokemon"
  "Guns don't kill people I do"
  "Dyslexic druggies take F"

More to Come...

3d Workshop + Comic Sans Brief (ongoing)

For my first post I'll bring you up to date on a current brief I am working on, entitled "Comic Sans Destroyed".

The brief is essentially this: We are to make 2 different 3d representations of a letter we are given (in my case, lowercase 'n') in the comic sans font. One is to be made of wood and taken to a photo-shoot, and one is to be made of any material, that we will destroy and have pictures taken of it's destruction.

Both are to be painted brilliant white, and to be a perfect reconstruction of the letter given at a size you choose.

The first wooden 'n' was fairly straight forward, and was more a matter of getting used to the workshop and getting to know the technicians for future projects. Mine came out around A2 in size, and is currently being painted white.

The second 'n' took a lot of thought and exhaustive brainstorming. My original plan was to make a burning letter. This required (in order): making the letter in wood first to get a shape I could cast from; coating the wooden shape in acetone to prepare for making the rubber mould; making the clay base to prepare for hot rubber to be poured onto the shape and therefore make the mould; after the mould is complete, sourcing a wax or gel that would burn but could still set.

In the meantime I experimented with Freezing/Melting:

After numerous discussions with Nigel and peers from my class, I decided not to go with the burning idea, and instead started brainstorming again. I had already made the rubber mould, so I thought around the subject of what you can do with a mould. I strayed away from substances being poured into the mould and looked to what impact a mould could have on something else. Late on in the brainstorm I came across the idea of building a sandcastle with the mould, and I loved the childlike nature the idea had, I couldn't wait to try it out. One problem though, no beaches around for miles.

I discussed the problem with my friends and I heard rumors of there being sand right here in London, on the banks of the Thames. I went to investigate.

After walking around the Thames for a good few hours, found about 2mx2m of useable sand near Vauxhall station. The pictures above show Embankment, Westminster and Vauxhall.

The photos above are some of the various experiments I tried out while there. Since it has to be brilliant white, when I next go out to take photos, I'll spray paint the 'n' while it's set in sand. For the destroy picture, I aim to catch the sea at high tide and get pictures of the sea washing the sand away. That's all for now.