RULES AND RESULTS Process Book Nov 12 – Dec 5, 2018 Lily Greenwald
“Irrational thoughts should be followed absolutely and logically.� -Sol Lewitt
The research for this process was fairly simple. We started with a few readings, a couple on process and one where we had to choose our body text from. I read the summaries of each chapter of Einstein’s Dreams and found the most interest in the one explaining how altitude affects how long one can live. Besides just living up at the tallest mountain top, people tried to build up even higher by placing their homes on stilts. It acknowledged the personalities and ways of life of those on the tippy top and those that were a little closer to Earth. Not ironically, those that were down on Earth, were more down to Earth. With my design, I wanted to reflect that even though there are benefits of living longer, the effect of status could be dooming. A couple of my first designs were a little more literal than that but I ended up chosing the one with the reflexive gradient that created a more abstract message, showing bright white into darkness. My early rule sets were very simplistic. I did not realize, yet, how deep I could go with giving the designer either options or strict guidlines and how every line can be intepreted differently.
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
Create a 16 x 20 inch document Create a cool grey background Place a large white triangle in the center of the page - top point should be at the center of the top of the page and the bottom edge of the triangle should reach edge to edge of the bottom of the page Create 4 point dark brown lines that are paired, 5 pairs - each pair of lines have a different lenth - all pairs placed at the top of the traingle but in different positions - the lines within a pair should be closer together than one pair to an other Put the same size and color box on top of each of the paired lines - the boxes’ width should be wider than the pair of lines and the color is that of brown - boxes should not overlap On top of each of the boexes should be a triable that’s bottom edge is wider than the square - color of triangle should be a little darker than the squre Place the text to fit within the bottom/widest part of the mountain Order the text in a hierachal scale order of title of book, author, date of dream then passage - largest text should be no more than 50 pt - smallest text should be no less than 10 pt - all text is centered
1. Create a 16 x 20 inch document 2. Create 4 thick horizontal bars evenly spread out vertically throughout the page - the bars should span the width of the page and should be more than 3 inches thick - color of bar should be a light blue 3. Create 10 point dark brown lines that are paired, 4 pairs - the lines within a pair should be closer together than one pair to another 4. Put the same size and color box on top of each of the paired lines - the boxes’ width should be wider than the pair of lines and the color is that of brown or grey - boxes should not overlap 5. Place the second bar from the bottom in front of the dark brown lines - opacity of the bar should be set so that the brown lines are still seen but that text could be read clearly if placed within the bar 6. Place the passage and the date of the passage to fit within the second bar from the bottom - scale and position should reflect a hierarchy of sorts (date higher than passage) 7. Text should be a darker brown than the brown of the vertical lines 8. Title of book and author should be placed to fit within the top bar - scale and position should reflect a hierarchy of sorts (title higher than author) - title should be relatively large and author should be 30 points less than that
1. Create a 16 x 20 inch document 2. Create a gradient of 3 cool colors as the background of the document - the darkest color should be on the top of the gradient 3. Place multiple trangles of varying sizes at the bottom of the page, filled in with the lightest color of the gradient at the opacity that equals the age of your dad 4. Use a sans-serif typeface with a little bit of character 5. In the upper right hand corner, place the date of dream at one point size and the passage from the dream at half of that point size - place passage below the date of the dream 6. In the upper left hand corner, place the title and author of the book - author should be the same size as date of the passage and title should be twice that
“The process is mechanical and should not be tampered with. It should run its course.� -Sol Lewitt
As I continued on with the gradient, I discovered that I could do a lot with very little. Because I had such a simple design, my rules could become rather complex. In my second round of iterations, my design changed minimally within each iteration. What changed the most in this part of the process, and throughout the rest of it, was the rules. I would change one small thing on a poster and change ten things on the rules. My rules were the project for me. Reflecting back, I probably could have made larger changes to the poster itself, but I think in this project, it was less about how elaborate the design was and more what the outcome was going to be from all of the input. Later on in the process, discovery was still occuring. As I began looking at my classmates’ rule sets and designing a poster following their rules I realized things that I coulddo differently within my own rule set. Additionally, I learned some new skills along the way. For my own poster, I learned how gradients worked in Illustrator, and for my partner at the end of the project, I taught myself how to edit images in InDesign, something I did not realize was possible.
1. Make a document that is 16x20” 2. Create a gradient that is made of 3 cool colors and white that will serve as the background - 1 dark tone, 1 medium tone and 1 light tone - darkest color should be on the bottom into the light tone, into white, into the medium tone on the top - if you ate breakfast - darkest tone should be a shade of blue - lightest tone should be a shade of purple - if you didn’t have breakfast -darkest tone should be a shade of purple - lightest tone should be a shade of blue - if you slept more than 8 hours: medium tone should be a shade of blue - if you slept less than 8 hours: medium tone should be a shade of purple 3. Place white triangles on the page in front of the gradient - the triangles’ bottom edges should be aligned with and touching the bottom of page - the traingles should overlap and as a group should go from edge to edge of the page - quantity of triangles - if you have perfect vision: 3 mountains - if you are near sighted: 5 mountains - if you are far sighted: 7 mountains - mountains should be varying widths, heights and opacities - tallest mountain: most opaque at the age of your oldest relative - shortest mountain: most transparent at the age of yourself 4. Type should be set in a sans-serif typeface with character, set in bold, in white 5. Place the title of the book, “Einstein’s Dreams,” a half inch from the top and left edges - size of text: twice your age plus 8 6. Place the author of the book, “Alan Lightman,” below the title in the same text box - size of text: half that of the title - space between title and author should be equal to point size of the author 7. Place the date of the chapter, “26 April 1905,” a half inch from the top and right edges - size of text: same as the author 8. Place the body text below the date of the chapter in the same text box - size of text: half the size of the date - text box width: a quarter of the size of your age in inches
1. Make a document that is 16x20” 2. Create a gradient that is made of 3 cool colors and white that will serve as the background - 1 dark tone, 1 medium tone and 1 light tone - darkest color should go into white, white into light tone, light tone into the medium tone - if you have a dog - darkest tone should be a shade of blue - lightest tone should be a shade of purple - if you have a cat - darkest tone should be a shade of purple - lightest tone should be a shade of blue - if you have brown/hazel eyes: medium tone should be a shade of blue - if you have blue/green eyes: medium tone should be a shade of purple 3. Place white triangles on the page in front of the gradient - the triangles’ bottom edges should be aligned with/touching one edge of page - if you like white chocolate: bottom edge - if you like milk chocolate: left edge - if you like semi-sweet chocolate: top edge - if you like dark chocolate: right edge - the traingles should overlap and as a group should go from edge to edge of the page - quantity of triangles - if you are less than 5’ tall: 3 mountains - if you are in-between 5-5’11” tall: 5 mountains - if you are over 5’11” tall: 7 mountains - mountains should be varying widths and heights - tallest mountain should touch the edge - opacity of the mountain should be the same opacity as the age of your dad 4. Gradient should be oriented so that the order the tones are in go from point to edge of the triangles 4. Type should be set in a sans-serif typeface with character, 5. Title of the book, “Einstein’s Dreams,” should be set... - if triangles aligned with right edge: a half inch from the top and left edges - if triangles alighned with the left edge: a half inch from the top and right edges - if triangles alighned with the top edge: a half inch from the bottom and left edges - if triangles alighned with the top edge: a half inch from the bottom and right edges - size of text: twice your age plus 8 - bold - color: white 6. Place the author of the book, “Alan Lightman,” below the title in the same text box - size of text: half that of the title - space between title and author should be equal to point size of the author - bold - color: white 7. Place the date of the chapter, “26 April 1905,” within the largest, tallest triangle - size of text: same as the author - bold - color: darkest tone 8. Place the body text below the date of the chapter in the same text box - size of text: half the size of the date - text box width: a quarter of the size of your age in inches - color: darkest tone
1. Make a document that is 16x20” - if you are a girl: flip the orientation so it’s 20x16” 2. Create a gradient that is made of 3 cool colors and white that will serve as the background - 1 dark tone, 1 medium tone and 1 light tone - darkest color should go into white, white into light tone, light tone into the medium tone - if you eat meat - darkest tone should be a shade of blue - lightest tone should be a shade of purple - if you are a vegetarian or vegan - darkest tone should be a shade of purple - lightest tone should be a shade of blue - if you have brown/hazel eyes: medium tone should be a shade of blue - if you have blue/green eyes: medium tone should be a shade of purple 3. Place white triangles on the page in front of the gradient - the triangles’ bottom edges should be aligned with and touching the bottom of the page - the traingles should overlap and as a group should go from edge to edge of the page - quantity of triangles - if you use pencils: 3 mountains - if you use ball-point pens: 5 mountains - if you use gel pens: 7 mountains - mountains should be varying widths and heights - tallest mountain should touch the edge 4. Gradient should be oriented so that the order the tones are in go from point to edge of the triangles 5. Type should be set within the clump of triangles in a sans-serif typeface with character in the darkest tone 6. Title of the book, “Einstein’s Dreams,” should be set... - if landscape orientaiton: a half inch from the bottom and left edges - if portrait orientaiton: a half inch from the top and left edges - size of text: twice your age plus 8 - bold 7. Place the author of the book, “Alan Lightman,” below the title in the same text box - size of text: half that of the title - space between title and author should be equal to point size of the author - bold 8. Place the date of the chapter, “26 April 1905,” should be set... - if landscape orientation: a half inch from the bottom and right edges - if portrait orientation: a half inch from the top and right edges - size of text: same as the author - bold 9. Place the body text below the date of the chapter in the same text box - size of text: half the size of the date - text box width: a quarter of the size of your age in inches
“The conventions of art are altered by works of art.�
-Sol Lewitt
As mentioned previously, I took focus on my rules set over my poster because the rules are what make the poster able to exist. So, when it came to refinement, it was all about refining the rules. I believe that was true for most people in the class, as well. It is very easy to think someone will understand exactly what you mean, but the reality is that complete clarity is key. You must gives rules that you would want to recieve yourself. I was constantly editing my rules to be as clear as possible to someone other than me. This is where asking other people to try my rule set out helped greatly. Each time I did that, I got constructive feedback that helped me gain perspective on what my words mean to others. Additionally, at this part in the process we began creating a poster for our rules that would go along with our posters without giving too much away. This was a difficult task, especially with the rules I created. I had a long list of rules with different indents and spaces that was hard to place on a larger scale and look like a poster.
a classmate’s results from my rules in the middle of the process
a classmate’s results from my rules at the near-end of the process
“The words of one artist to another may induce an idea chain, if they share the same concept.” -Sol Lewitt
Towards the end of the process, I did change up my poster more, especially with the way text was treated. I integrated the text elements more with the image elements. This, of course, changed my rules. The class before our posters were due, I was asked how if fifty people followed my rule set, how would they all look different. I was proud that I could answer that easily with multiple different local variables that I found promising for a diverse bunch of posters. When I finally handed over my rules to the classmate that would print their results of my rules to scale, I had to trust that I was clear enough for her to produce the result I had hoped for. When her result was handed back to me, I was very surprised. When testing my rules to others, this did not happen. Immediately, I had thought I had done something wrong and that this result was a cause of my rules lacking something. However, looking back at my rules I saw that I was not in the wrong and it was almost as if it was a “computer error” that was out of my control. On the right are my rules and on the next spread you will see the difference between my results and hers. What do you think?
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