The Process Blog Magazine
Process Blog 1 For my snippets I was a bit short on time to come up with all of the ideas so I decided to use some common phrases, and one band. My first snippet was “Stealing my thunder.” I choose this as I thought it would be a fun topic to try and express visually. At first I wasn’t really sure how to properly express this but after a while I came up with an idea. I initially thought of having a burglar with a thundercloud in a sack but I realized there is no way the cloud would either look good or even be understandable. I figure since it was a cloud and it would be floating I could just have someone pull it with a rope. One of the other things I felt like I needed to add was someone mentioning that the cloud was theirs, otherwise I felt that it would have been hard to understand what exactly I was trying to represent. My second snippet is “Red Hot Chili Peppers.” I choose this as my idea since there is a Red Hot Chili Peppers poster hanging above my desk. I thought this would be a fun idea since I would be able to combine a couple different things to represent all of the aspects of the band name. For starters I was able to represent the “hot” aspect of the name by drawing some heat waves that seems to emanate from the chili pepper. The chili pepper obviously represents the chili pepper part of the name but I needed a way to make the name seem plural since it is a plural band name. I decided to just do an apostrophe and S at the end. While not the most creative, I believe it did a good job of expressing the proper meaning of the snippet. For my third snippet, I did “Bite the Bullet.” It is a snippet I find my self saying often, both to friends and to myself when I or they might need to do something that there is little interest in doing. At first I was just planning on drawing some lips and teeth biting a bullet, but I didn’t think that would be all that visually appealing. I decided to add a little motion to the bullet since it was very static. I added the “motion” of the bullet itself being removed from the casing. I also added the powder to show some of the rotational motion of the casing flying away.
Process Blog 2 For my poster I choose to do the quote “At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst.” I found this quote to be very interesting as this makes me think about Animal Farm. I find this quite funny as there is another quote available to choose from that is a quote from George Orwell’s Animal Farm. This quote to me is very interesting because it shows how animal like humans actually are. While most would consider humans to not be animal like in nature, the reality is that humans are still very much animal in nature when rules aren’t applied to everyday life. Humans over time have become more and more controlling of other humans creating a society in which the following of rules is very important. But when the rules are taken away humans return to a more animalistic nature. I tried to express this in my work by representing the benevolent side of man by a meditating figure sitting on a rock surrounded by nature. In the reflection in the water I have a representation of the opposite or flipside of man in a burned and destroyed environment.
separated from law and justice he is the worst. - Aristotle
At his best, man is the noblest of all animals;
Process Blog 3 This project was definitely much more challenging for me than the other projects we have done. One of the things that I found to be the most challenging is well enough representing the characters we were tasked with making a logo for. I found that many of the characters had very little characteristics that were easy to make a logo out of. Because of that I did need to take inspiration from some visual aspects of the characters. One of the characters I choose to create a logo for was Beetlejuice. I wanted to do something incorporating a type of “juice” from the start, but I couldn’t think of a good enough type of container to put in in since a carton would look pretty uninteresting. I found that a snake oil bottle created both a fun shape for the logo and it also created a fun unique bottle shape as well. Juno was a little more complicated as a character since she really does not have any notable characteristics. However, she does smoke so I thought about incorporating a cigarette into her logo. At first I thought about making her logo her name with a cigarette under it. I found that this was a bit less interesting as using the cigarette itself to form the J in her name. At first I had the J with the smoking side on the left but the smoke rising made the J look more like a U so I switched the sides. The filter at the start of the J makes it look more intentionally designed?
Process Blog 4 The syntax project was in fact an intersting project. While not particularly challenging, I was required to thnk much more outseide the box than I feel I normally would for this class. The most challengine part was describing all of the aspects of the objects I choose. Describing cars without actuallt describing them was quite difficult as many deisgn charastics of cars are hard to just describe. Other than the color and maybe is it curvy or angular it was very challenging to distinctly characterize the cars. Now I will admit this is partially due to the cars I chose, however I believe it would have been equally as difficult if I choose other cars. Another aspect of this I found difficult was describing where they might be found. The road, duh. But on a serious note it was hard to differentiate between different areas in which each car could be found without making them all “a parking lot.”
SYNTAX Black body with semi agressive lines both organic and inorganinc. Agressive angling creates many different areas of visual interest. SEMANTICS: DENOTATION Autombiles > Cars > Hatchhack > Hothatch SEMANTICS: EXPRESSION Quick, Fun, Cool SEMANTICS: CONNOTATION Shared: A sporty car, high school or college students car. Specific: The car I got my first speeding ticket in. PRESENCE Little: A high school parking lot. Lots: A millinaires garage.
SYNTAX This object has many organic lines and curves that create smooth and stylish shapes. The lines create no illusions to speed or anything else it is a smooth straightforwards object. SEMANTICS: DENOTATION Autombiles > Cars > Economy Car SEMANTICS: EXPRESSION Unintersting, Bland, Tasteless SEMANTICS: CONNOTATION Shared: A regular economy car, likely a hairdressers? Specific: A reliable car to get me from point A to point B. PRESENCE Little: A daycare parking lot. Lots: A business man’s driveway.
SYNTAX The shape of the object is incredibly organic. Many curves and rounded edges create the visualization of speed and movement. While the lines are organic they create the visual interpretation of agression. SEMANTICS: DENOTATION Automobiles > Cars > Super Car SEMANTICS: EXPRESSION Stylish, Smooth, Sleek SEMANTICS: CONNOTATION Shared: An expencive super car. Specific: One of the last greeat Ferraris. PRESENCE Little: In a show room. Lots: A farm.
SYNTAX The body of the object has a very modern styling. A com bination of organic and inorganic lines give this object its modern shape. The styling of the object appears to also be very coorperate. SEMANTICS: DENOTATION Automobiles > Cars > Sedan > Sports Car SEMANTICS: EXPRESSION Intersting, Cool, Clean SEMANTICS: CONNOTATION Shared: A luxury car a boss would likely own. Specific: The car my dad’s boss used to own. PRESENCE Little: A business man’s house. Lots: A highschool parking lot.
Reading Blog 1 One of the things I really like about Michael Bierut is his long time interest in artistic work. In the first part of the reading Michael relates his artistic work as “entering a private world.” I really like this description as I feel when I am drawing, painting or sculpting I enter a sort of alternate world where my imagination is able to do whatever it pleases. I think this is something that most artists really appreciate as they are able to express their thoughts in a way that other people might be able to properly understand how they are thinking about something. I also appreciate that he is aware that often times clients know what is best. I think one of the crucial aspects of being a good artist is being able to understand why something is better for one use vs. another. This is clearly something Michael understands well and it is evident through his conversation with the interviewer.
Reading Blog 2 Before reading this I actually knew almost nothing about Stefan Stagmeister and who he really was. One of the things that interest me most are the sabbaticals that he takes every 7 years. I think the concept of taking time away from his work gives him an extreme advantage in terms of developing himself and his work/ideas. I think the idea of “stepping back” or changing his every day life is a great way to inspire creativity. I also like that he has a modest studio. I feel like trying to make a studio/workspace that is too nice or perfect distracts you from being able to focus on your work and passions. This, I think, is something Stagmeister also understands. I also really like his answer to “What qualities do you look for when you hire or choose an intern?” I like the fact that his answer was simple and answered
Reading Blog 3 One of the thing I found most interesting in the reading was the process of starting a logo. It is completely useless and tells me nothing about how he actually starts the logos. Other than general questions that anyone would likely ask it offers no new information that someone like a student would find helpful for making a logo. The way Mark answers the question makes it apparent that there is not a starting point you can just use. Every logo needs to be unique and have the proper aspects of design that work with the company name etc. This was actually very helpful for me to read as starting my logo I quite literally had no idea where to start. I think this “realization” is probably going to help me edit my logo in the future and make it more..... streamlined? or refined?
Video Blog 1 In the video one of the things I personally found incredibly interesting was the use of stuff. And the amount of stuff. I appreciate the surroundings that Drapilin has to work with. With as much inspiration around him I am a little envious. When working on my logo project I struggled greatly with finding places to start. I choose Beetlejuice and Juno which might not have been the most... easy? Subjects to choose, this instilled some self doubt as I was unable to really think of something I thought would go far enough in terms of design and longevity. Because of his surroundings, I feel like Draplin has all sorts of interesting things he can use as a start of inspiration for himself when doing his work. Another thing that stands out to me is how quickly he flies through the “prototype” sketch logos on his notepad. Starting from a simple point he is able to quickly create a baseline for where he might want a logo to go from there. This is definitely something I found myself struggling with and seeing him fly through the design of an entire logo was a little bit “annoying.” Although I guess he is a professional, its his job, but I do wish some of the things he did in his video are where I started with my logos. Overall I am impressed with how the logo turned out in the end. Or logos, the way he was able to make a base logo and transform it into all sorts of different styles is impressive, at least to me.