Design Workshop 2

 Focusing more on typography and different ways of presenting this, we worked in a team to create the alphabet. It was challenging getting everyone's opinions together in how to portray some letters.

During the 70's Ana Mendieta's performance/body art became a visual representation for the female movement. In particular her 1976 Earth body 'Siluetas' in Mexico, I found to be her most influential work. The concept behind those works was for the artist to reconnect with her surroundings by using her body language to create a dialogue with the universe and the audience looking at her recorded evidence.

In terms of my group project, using our bodies to create a dialogue echoes a similar idea to Mendieta's work. Working as a team and knowing when to only use one body or when deciding to use a group to create a letter was an interesting part of the process. The way in which Mendieta worked with the negative space to create a shape was referenced in our own shapes as the the negative space around us emphasized the letters are bodies were making.








This was a part of a poster for the Salon DaDa exposition Internationale. By Galerie Montaigne 1921, Looking into typography this week led me to research back into the history of it. This poster is in the style of Dadaism, a group active during the 30s which was all for rejecting the conventional representation of art. In this particular piece of art there is a play with words and composition to relay information.

This kind of thinking is what inspired me when working on the typography task. There is a mismatch of fonts and phrases however due to the weight of the main title and the thickness on the DaDa section the image seems balanced. Even though Dadaist tried to reject the formal artistic techniques of perspective , use of color, composition, some techniques still show through.

 Using typography tried to create a word with a visual impact. I was focusing on natural imagery, showing the natural shape of droplet. The words are the sounds that a water droplet would make, this creates a visual impact. Without focusing too much on colour, the use of black creates a stark contrast with the white background, something which can be seen with the DaDa poster above.
















I wanted to have an arch on the the rainbow to emphasize the shape of the actual object, this gives the typography a sense of authenticity. There is an even weight to the font of the words which carries the arc over easily and seems much more complete to the eye as there seems to be a balance.

'Yellow Field' 1937

On Thursday we looked at the works of well known illustrators, I chose to research the work of Evyind Earle. What initially attracted me were his watercolors of landscapes, during a trip in the late 30's Earle managed to paint over 40 water colours within 45 days. He later went on to paint/design for Walt Disney and was the main background illustrator for the Disney film Sleeping Beauty. His style is quite distinct as it manages to be intricate while still minimalist in style, something I incorporated in my own illustration poster.

In Yellow Field, I was drawn to the way he was able to capture a different atmosphere in each of his paintings. He used basic lines and splashes of colour in the front to create a sense of perspective of depth. The foreground appears heavy and full of colour which fades out the more the viewers eye looks further back in the background.

'Sketch of Barn in Snow'

Trying to understand Earle's thought process I sketched one of his watercolors. The layering in his work I found is key when it comes to his minimalist style. The towering trees lead the upwards while at the same time centering the Barn house in the middle. The contrast between the warm colours of the house with the cool tones of the sky creates a sense of depth, with the house appearing closer.






Using similar techniques, I created page designs for my poster. The theme were old fairy tales, which in the style of Earle's natural landscapes I felt were an appropriate match. The story of Thumbelina was what I focused on, a balance of natural imagery with fantasy characters inspired by nature. Researching into the story itself, I wanted for the poster to market the narrative well. Since the main character was a small fairy like woman, having a woodland landscape showcasing the large size of the trees made it seem more realistic.












  

My final concept was for the natural landscape to be in the visual perspective of the main character. That's why a towering woodland scene worked perfectly. As for the colour scheme, a mixture of warm with cool tones created a balance between the foreground and background. While the yellow leaves still stood out and didn't dominate over the trees in the foreground. In term of Earle's style the minimalist design of the shapes influenced my work, even the intricacy of the bark in the foreground was pulled back to emphasize the shapes not the texture of the object. The background was left quite basic in shape.