Sunday 15 May 2011

Video Vs everything else

I do think that videos communicate far better than any type of media! print: meh web: meh
videos can keep your attention... I must have a short attention span... anyway... youtube channels can be quite addictive.. I just watched a load of videos by a guy who read the twilight books and talked about them.. and he does songs... and general tom foolery...
why? you ask...
well, it's all because someone posted one on facebook. it got me hooked. i've watched them for a good couple of hours now... got a good link from it though (the guy who paints on chewing gum) from a previous post...
Also i do like ...
what's it called? ellipsis
I LOVE GOOGLE and FACEBOOK and YOUTUBE

Painting on gum; does it pay?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11677462
This guy paints on chewing gum!
He can't be arrested either.
Though one does wonder... does this man have a job?

Sunday 1 May 2011

Thursday 31 March 2011

Willi Kunz

Swiss born designer Willi Kunz adheres to his own methods and aesthetic ideals, avoiding the currents of fashions and style.
Inspired by avant-garde movements of the 1920’s and 30’s, he has a design tradition of mixing modernism, rationalism, functionalism, swiss design, and international style which developed out of constructivism, De Still and Bauhaus.
These modes of design were fuelled by the belief that a ‘universal’ language of geometric grids, systematic typography, simplified drawings and objective photographs can overcome cultural differences and historical change. Modernism became an official corporate and institutional style in the 1950’s and 60’s so as many designers and architects questioned its aesthetic and philosophy, it became seen as elitist, anti-individualistic and overly abstract. Kunz argues the relevance of the swiss aesthetic and ethic while using the key visual principles of space, structure, sequence, contrast and form in today’s computer dominated typography because without fundamental principles, typography could no more communicate visually than could language without grammar and vocabulary communicate verbally.
 In a quest for originality, designers often become preoccupied with typefaces, with the result in ideas being degraded to meaningless decoration.
A general audience, he believes, is more interested in content than the typeface. if the goal of the typographic design is to communicate information, the audience is best served by a classical typeface, like the Univers family, which he has used throughout his career as a staple.
In his opinion, universe is still contemporary, functional, appropriate, and versatile and, with its large programmed family, comprehensive. 
The final choice of a typeface is a question of personal choice, preference and taste and typographic design, he believes, has little to do with typeface selection and that
the typeface should be as unobtrusive as possible. 
Kunz does not spend a large amount of time working on preliminary sketches but instead works on
basic ideas, then sets type then develops final solution from looking at the possible ways of organising the outcome.
He does not construct work on a predetermined grid but instead starts with a visual composition and permits structure and alignments to grow from the design process as he begins with a concern for the essential message, and the structure then unfolds in response to the information being conveyed.
He first isolates the crucial elements corresponding to the clients character and purpose then manipulates it into his own language so that the clients words read with unmistakable clarity.
Grids, typographic rules and restrictions are selection and decision making machines for Kunz’s method. These create an architectural style using rows and columns, a limited palette of design elements and stylistically distinctive images through rational choices.
His crisp designs are tied together with geometric frameworks, boxes and rules and a use of rational, limited design elements and colours, which advertise his approach towards typography. These aspects give a formal visual vocabulary to communicate clearly, directly and efficiently with power. His use of visual hierarchy brings order and clarity in order to control the way the viewer reads the information and he create patterns and connections for effective communication, balanced aesthetics and a sense of a completed whole. Grids allow disciplined structures and applications, as the mathematical, geometrical concept requires precise thought for a classical harmony. The acts of reading and seeing are then combined as one experience through composition and form. 
Kunz uses intuitive visual sensitivity to inform his design and composition choices, as it is a key element is such rationalist design for a selective process that eliminates superfluous and ordinary, leaving only the essential and extraordinary. 
Sometimes this sensitive eye may even over ride the grid, as he is willing to abandon this restriction if it is not useful rather than turn it into a prison for his designs.
He juxtapositions photos with interpretive abstract shapes or patterns which show kudzu’s need to leave a unique personal mark on a potentially anonymous, neutral design which is not determined by an agreed problem or specific demands but by the designer’s taste. He adds a personal ‘geographic commentary’, or ‘functional decoration’ onto the images with flat shapes that are not confined to squares, circles or triangles, but extends these to any shape that can be created by combining, cutting, and distorting. 
The addition of these elements, plus their layering, gives his typography a modern, interesting form. This is because stated problems or given functions cease to provide enough cues for a visually or intellectually engaging object as there are too few demands, so designers go towards an expressionistic flip side of functionalism with the addition of personalized, self expressive images. These organized structures are not for communication value but for sensual effect. They are structural, representations of semantic meanings in geometric elements, which reflect the impact of semiotic theory on design in recent decades. 
Kunz believes that function and form should be fused and that design is a search for balance between legibility and readability, utility and beauty, and if that balance is unattainable, it is more appropriate to use the basic typographic principles that stress function rather than to resort to limitless self expression. 
He believes there are two types of primary visual components:
Macroaesthetics are size, form and colour, which first catch the eye.Microaesthetics are the details; typefaces, letterforms and spacing, words, and graphic elements. He says, “a design which does not work on the microaesthetic level will often fail as an effective means of communication”. 
I think by this he means that it is not enough to grab someone’s attention with a beautiful design. If it does not communicate anything then it does not work. This is what i believe to be functional and rational design as a breath of fresh air in a pollution of ‘pretty’ design without meanings. He believes also that the quantity of information we are subjected to outpaces our capacity to sort filter and select which makes high quality disciplined typography essential in order to communicate most effectively. 
It is Kunz’s approach to communicative design and limited, functional aesthetic that has inspired me as a designer. These ideas have encouraged me to think about every aspect of my designs in how to make me think whether it is clear. v
This piece of information design I created to show the distribution of my clothes in the washing cycle demonstrate my limited choice of key colours, simple shapes and carefully chosen typography using only Helvetica.

(my essay as a double page document)


(my video essay with visual references)

Wednesday 30 March 2011

Integrated Theory and Practice: Disruption




Disruption is the (usually deliberate or intended) interruption of normal work or practice.
Paraty: equality, as in amount, status or value.

When every company or agency jump on the band wagon, the market comes into a state of parity. 
When someone disrupts this with something new, they get noticed, and so become more successful, bringing more business.
Then they all jump on that new band wagon, and so the cycle carries on. 

But how do we stand out from the crowd and use this as a business tool? 
We have to be original. In order to do this, we must first research what the competition is already doing, then ask 'better questions'. Why is the industry how it is? How can we change or challenge the way we look at it? How can we change the consumer's view of it?

We have to make an emotional connection with the audience. This is why funny adverts are memorable, along with sad, moving ones, such as charities. 
They way we use media can also be challenged. For example, the tippex viral ad is very memorable as it is funny, interactive and challenges the way we use viral ads and media. 
The new coding which allows the character to interact with the advert next to it, for tippex, is surprising and clever, as is a progression in the way viral ads are used in advertising. The viewer can then interact with it and type in whatever they like and choose where the story goes.

Another way of challenging conventional methods of advertising is guerilla advertising. This involves using the environment and context to take the consumers by surprise and create a memorable experience. 

in 2005 3M came up with a unique ambient ad campaign in Canada to promote its 3M Scotchshield security glass.



The company modified a Vancouver bus shelter ad and filled the unbreakable postersite with stacks of play money, and 500 real Canadian dollars on top to lure Canadians to take an attempt to lay their hands on it by breaking the glass. The idea clicked and many attempted fruitlessly to get access to the banknotes. However, the glass remained intact.
The remarkable idea, created by Rethink Communications, not only gained the public’s attention, also newspapers, tech- & ad blogs and a local news station covered the stunt. Now three years later The Ladders, marketleader in $100K online recruitment, takes 3M’s unique idea one step further …
TheLadders, a popular site (with 2 million members) for job seekers for executive positions that pay more than $100K a year, conducted a social experiment in July in New York, to target recruiters at Fortune 1,000 companies.
To make a point to employers about the kind of attention $100,000 can attract TheLadders placed a stack of $100,000 cash (unguarded), protected by a clear shatter-proof plexiglass case, in Columbus Park in Brooklyn and 10 hidden cameras to record the public’s reactions.
Some observers did the classic double-take, while others were so mesmerized that they could only stare and comment and a few attempted to knock the case over. The ad closes with: “The conclusion? $100,000 will attract a lot of people. TheLadders.com helps you attract the right people.”
Nobody succeeded to break the 3M security glass, but some people did at TheLadders experiment: “We did see a good amount of violence and vandalism, at one point six guys got together tipped it over and it smashed, and the security guards jumped into action.”
This just shows how some businesses can take a new, effective marketing idea, turn it around to fit their marketing needs but fail or have it be less successful because it was not initially moulded to fit their own brief.