My Blogging Experience

“Blog – a personal website or web page on which an individual records opinions, links to other sites, etc. on a regular basis.” (http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/blog)

Basically, blog is interest themed informational website, where the author regularly posts news, articles or images. In most cases blog is informal and private. It repeats or follows newspapers and magazines, sometimes presenting web news as well as TV programmes and films.

Fig. 28, Diary

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-D84Fs5t3Ydg/USQjZxxvUKI/AAAAAAAADOg/4Yocid1ZBCI/s1600/diary+copy.jpg

Blog can be as a diary, where you share your thoughts and experiences, possibly your art work or anything else you are keen on.

Fig. 29, Online Social Networks

http://comerecommended.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/online-social-networking-21.jpg

 

I found it very interesting that most of the social networks obtained blog form. People share information, anything they like or do in their spare time. Places like Twitter, Facebook and Google+ are using live feeds where you scroll down the pages to see what people are looking at and what do they think about particular themes and subjects. In my opinion it is a very good system of information share as your friends can be interested in the same things you do, and upside down.

I am not very active blogger, but I use social networks to keep in touch with my friends and this is where I get all information what they are doing.

I used the my blog to reflect on projects in the college and I found it interesting, because it looks better than sketchbook and is more organized and clean. You can easily access the blog and you will never physically lose it, so this is benefit of the blog.

Fig. 30, Worst Blog Ever

http://womenonthefence.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/worst-blog-ever.jpg

My latest blogging experience I would rate as average, because I enjoyed using reference system, read books and discover new things and themes I could use in my future projects. In fact, I did not like the actual blog on Blackboard. First of all it is boring and basic, you cannot add any themes or designs to it apart typography. The blog itself is bugged and it appearance could be better.

In my opinion, I did alright this time and my blog is formal enough to go on any website or to be publishes, I tried to keep semi-formal style so that people reading it don’t fall asleep. I would like every blog to be interesting and exciting to read, with nice design and good images or videos.

“I think the pleasure of completed work is what makes blogging so popular. You have to believe most bloggers have few if any actual readers. The writers are in it for other reasons. Blogging is like work, but without co-workers thwarting you at every turn. All you get is the pleasure of a completed task.” (Scott Adams)

I totally agree with Scott Adams, you can have none subscribers, but you still write. Write because you like and if it is a pleasure for you, you will do it again and again. On the other hand, if it was me, I would like my work to be seen, you never know if you are so talented that you might become famous blogger like Jenna Marbles, for example.

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References:

Blog Quotes [WWW] Avaliable from: http://www.dailyblogtips.com/blogging-quotes/ [Accessed 15/04/2013]

Oxford Dictionary, Blog Definition [WWW] Avaliable from: http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/blog [Acessed 15/04/2013]

Typographica

Fig. 21, Typographica website header, Screen shot

http://www.typografica.com

Typographica – www.typographica.org

Graphic Design is not only fancy pictures put together in a particular way. You can’t have unexplained images unless they are narrative, telling a story. In a modern world I can’t imagine a design (poster, flyer, book cover or anything else) without typography.

Fig. 22, Typographica website image, Type of 2012

http://typographica.org/

Typography is selection of letter forms ready to be organized into words and sentences and disposed in blocks of type for print. Typographic unit is called “Font”, this means that the style of the letters should be similar.

Fig. 23, Ancient Script

http://plus.maths.org/content/light-attenuation-and-exponential-laws

Typography has been developed since ancients script time as well as cave drawings – they were typographic units too. Over the years there were developed thousands and thousands different fonts. There were so many scripts that they had to be grouped and arranged.

Typographica – the blog I found most interesting for myself. It has great collection of all possible typographic elements. The blog itself reviews typography, talks about development of it as well as where it is being used and how effective or not it is. Another good feature of the blog is that it reviews books related to typography. Some of them I would like to have a look at as the reviews are very interesting and books seem to amazing.

Fig. 24, Typographica website menu

http://typographica.org/

Let’s talk about navigation of the website and its design. The design is very simple, and I don’t really want to focus on it so much. All I can say is that it is easy to use and it is good-looking. Things I found useful were the actual resource arrangement. All typefaces are organized by year, designer, foundry and classification. It means you can easily find stuff you could be interested in. You can either look for a designer or classification if you want to find a font you need to research on or even use.

Fig. 25, Typographica, Screen shot

http://typographica.org/

There is a commentary section, wherepeople discuss typography or anything they were keen on selected topics. You literally can scroll down for ages reading the comments and discussions and you can see there many professional designers speaking up for the type. It is very useful for us, beginner designers to see what they think and what industrial opinion is like.

Fig. 26, Typographica, Screen shot

http://typographica.org/

Fig. 27, Chromeography, Screen Shot

http://chromeography.com/

There is a tiny section at the bottom of the blog which is under “Elsewhere” title. There are four amazing links to the websites about typography, which I found even more interesting than the actual blog. My favourite link is Chromeography which is a huge selection of lettering on vintage cars, appliances and other objects. In my opinion, every good blog should have these useful website links as they help a lot if you a researching, for example.

Overall, I would like to say that Typographica is very interesting and useful website for those interested in type, or it can even be amazing resource or reference material, because the quality of the reviews and resources is very high. I will use this blog as a reference in my future projects and soon I might be on their page. Do you think I can?

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References:

I Love Typography [WWW] Availiable: http://ilovetypography.com/ [Accessed 06/04/2013]

Typografica, Typography blog, [WWW], Availiable from: http://typographica.org/ [Accessed 05/04/2013]

Contos Eroticos

Fig. 15, Juan Carlos Pimenta, Contos eróticos (Erotic Stories), 1979. Courtesy of Gráfica Latinoamericana Siglo 20-21.

http://artdistricts.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/1-pimenta_contos_eroticos.gif

“Attending a show on contemporary Latin American posters is a rather unusual experience. After the mid-sixties and early seventies, posters all over the world lost a great deal of their social role and their cultural and political function, as they became more and more integrated into the advertising industry. In Latin America, the vitality of posters in which Cuban designers, and Leftist movements played a major role – faded away to the extent that the fate this form of creation seems unclear today, and it is barely mentioned as a movement”. (Ernesto Menéndez-Conde, Art Districts Magazine)

Fig. 16, Added by JayTrotter, 2012

http://www.listal.com/list/amazing-underrated-obscure-bizarre-films

One of the great posters of that time is poster for a short film Contos Eroticos which “is about a man who becomes so attracted to a watermelon that he must make sweaty, dirty love to it. There is even a POV shot from INSIDE the watermelon during…it. Based on a prize-winning short story from a Playboy contest.” (Jay Trotter, www.listal.com, 2011)

The story about the love with the vegetable was banned in Brazil as being too sexually irrational.

Original poster design was creates by Juan Carlos Pimenta, also known as Fernando Pimenta. Brazilian native from Rio de Janeiro he studied in National School of Fine arts. Soon he started his career in illustration for architecture, textile, packaging and typography. He worked for various advertising agencies before taking directorship at Embrafilme and creating more than 300 campaigns for Brazilian films.

“Went to the street market and got tem watermelons, chose one, retouched and deflowered the poor thing. It took us one week to find a watermelon with uniform texture, no stains and symmetrical oval shape. Made the ‘vagina’ myself.” (Fernando Pimenta, Contos Eroticos,www.pimentadesign.com)

Fig. 17, Red and Green Complementary

http://www.kathykwylie.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Complementary-Red-Green.jpg

Contos Eroticos poster is made up of single image and text. Large watermelon is definitely dominating on the page and the cut out “vagina” grabs audience’s attention straight forward. Interesting is tonal complimentary with red and green colours, I think it works very well and other background would not work so well if it was white, for example. Centred symmetric oval makes it easy to put the text around it, but, in my opinion, the position and whole layout of the poster is unsuccessful.

I would like to add a bit of critique of this poster, because I think it is not layed out very well and doesn’t meet modern design standards.

Fig. 18, Ilya Nasedkin, Edited Contos Eroticos Header

Top: I don’t really like the header, it takes 3^rd part of the page, but it is very light and this makes it not so visible. I like the font, but I would make it a bit thicker. Sub Header would look better if it was in all capitals, but it is designer’s choice.

Fig. 19, Ilya Nasedkin, Edited Contos Eroticos Footer

Bottom: I don’t see anything attractive in four columns which have centred line justification. The text could be split in four lines, because there is fairly enough space for the whole text to be on one line. This would improve poster’s bottom part.

Fig. 20, Ilya Nasedkin, Contos Eroticos refined poster compared with original

As a beginner designer I think these changes would improve the poster. Refinements are minimal and rought as well as images are done quickly, so quality of them drops. At least you can get the idea what I wa talking about.

Fig. 20, andyharker, The irony of the forbidden fruit, 2012

http://watumishiwaneno.wordpress.com/2012/01/26/the-irony-of-the-forbidden-fruit/

In fact, concept and artwork is very good. It meets the theme and literally follows the story; I think this is successful poster and might be used in any other erotic film advertising. It’s not only the literal thing what you are able to see straight away, but it’s also thought as a forbidden fruit, which is bitten, but that’s more about Apple logo…

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References:

Amazing Underrated Obscure Bizarre Films PART 9 [WWW] Availiable from: http://www.listal.com/list/amazing-underrated-obscure-bizarre-films [Accessed 06/04/2013]

Art Encounters: Visual Art, Cinema and Literature, Art Districts [WWW], Available from: http://artdistricts.com/art-encounters-visual-art-cinema-and-literature/?iframe=true&width=80%&height=80% [Accessed 05/04/2013]

Art in the picture, Beat the whites with the red wedge [WWW], Available from: http://www.artinthepicture.com/paintings/El_Lissitzky/Beat-the-Whites-with-the-Red-Wedge/ [Accessed 19/02/2013]

Felipe Taborda, Julius Wiedemann, Latin American Graphic Design

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London Tube Map

Fig. 9, London Underground Map

http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/travel/downloads/tube_map.html

London is a very busy city with millions people traveling every day. Buses, cars taxis and just can’t handle such a pressure. The most important and essential part of the transport industry becomes Underground. The faster way to get from A to B without spending time on traffic jams, rush and stress. In fact, there is a carefully considered design in almost every pocket of London citizens. It is London tube map.

Fig. 10, London Underground Logo

Metropolitan, the first underground railway company, established its seven station line between Paddington and Farringdon Street in 1863, soon it was joined by other rivals such as District, the City and Southern London Railway. Despite of early underground operation, the first combined tube map was published in 1908 by the Underground Electric Railways Company of London. It was the first map where “Underground” brand has been used.

Fig. 11, Original Diagram Underground Map, Harry Beck, 1931

http://www.flickr.com/photos/steved373/5808706690/

Current tube map design evolution begins with the hand drawn design by Harry Beck in 1931. It had 8 (District, Bakerloo, Piccadilly, Edgware, Highgate Morden, Central London and Metropolitan) lines. Circled station dots joined with thick lines made up very busy map composition, where the text was in capitals, what made it hardly readable.

Fig. 12, Alternative London Tube Map, Harry Beck, 1933

http://focustransport2011.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/alternative-london-tube-map.html

Map evolution has not ended at that point. There was a brand new and improved map released which based on Becks design. Thinner lines, organised layout and station names made the map look fresh and light. This version you can see clear inspiration from Paris tube map where lines were angled by 23 and 67 degrees. This sample was further developed and redeveloped by Harold Hutchinson and Paul Garbutt. They have experimented with line colours, station shapes, layout and many other things before the familiar to us map was published.

Fig. 13, Tube New Logo

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/images/landscape/tup-new-logo-145×265.jpg

Most recent and currently in use map is produced by Mark Noad. It has original circle station shapes, curved lines, is colourful and organised as well as it is split into zones according to what the price of the ticket differs. Tube map is easily accessible in all possible formats such as booklets, posters, e-maps and phone applications.

Fig. 14, London Tube applied to real geographic map

http://www.steveprentice.net/tube/TfLSillyMaps/

“This is fairly amazing – it’s a huge JPG but worth downloading and scrolling about on.

It’s a physical map of London with surface features with the tube lines then shown on top of it. You get to see where the tube lines really run and where the stations really are in relation to each other, and the overlayed map of London.” (http://www.steveprentice.net)

London tube map is a very complex and schematic projection of underground traffic with all possible station transfers and other features. However, it is geographically imprecise and cannot be applied to the real geographic map unless it’s slightly fixed. That’s why Mark Noad, referring to early maps geographic layout created brand new design where he applied the most recent tube map to the real geographic map what made it more precise and easy to follow. In fact it is just a proposal, but hopefully it is going to be confirmed in order to make our lives easier.

249 miles of network, over 270 stations, 426 escalators and 2.7 million daily passengers traveling – this is London Underground. And all this complicated structure can be fitted on a small piece of paper. That is amazing. In my opinion, designing a tube map is equal to proper engineering job as everything should be considered in order to get functionality and comfort of passengers and operation personnel. Tube map was developed over 150 years from now and hopefully will be developed further to get from it as much as possible.

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References:

Creative Review, London Underground 150 special issue, March 2013

Tube Map Variantions [WWW], Available from: http://www.steveprentice.net/tube/TfLSillyMaps/ [Accessed 30/03/2013]

Transport of London, London Underground, Key facts [WWW],  Availiable from: www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/modesoftransport/londonunderground/1608.aspx [Accessed 30/03/2013]

1stContact News, 50 interesting facts about London Underground [WWW], Available from: http://www.1stcontactenews.co.uk/featured-news/50-interesting-facts-london-underground/ [Accessed 25/03/2013]

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Russian Constructivism And Propaganda Posters

Fig. 5, Beat the Whites with the red wedge, El Lissitzky, 1920

http://www.crestock.com/blog/design/propaganda-design-aesthetics-soviet-retro-posters-118.aspx

“Constructivism became an early Soviet youth movement, an artistic outlook that aimed to encompass the whole spiritual, cognitive, and material activity of a man. By declaring themselves for the revolution, Constructivists expected to be able to introduce their own programs for the future.”(Heller S., Chwast S., Graphic Style, pp. 98)

Fig. 6, El Lissitzky, Self Portrait, 1914

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Lissitzky

“El Lissitzky, architect, painter, photographer, propagandist, typographer and theoretician, was the synthetic artist of the constructivism movement”. (Arts Council, 1971, Art In revolution, pp. 25). This poster is one of the thousands political propaganda themed concepts. It represents relationship between two leading parties of that period in Russia. It says “Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge”. Reds were communistic party and they have been led by Lenin, they were the most powerful political force in Russia. Whites were opposition party which had anti-revolutionary ideology. Royalists tried to get to the top by supporting old political regime, but they were not meant to succeed.

Fig. 7, Patrick Star Communist HD Pictures

http://indervilla.com/patrick-star-wallpaper/patrick-star-communist-hd/#sthash.cIsFa6uo.dpbs

Patrick Star Communist HD Pictures

Patrick Star Communist HD Pictures

Patrick Star Communist HD Pictures

The poster itself shows us the aggression of communistic party. They say that others should be destroyed, beaten.

Artwork is split in two parts – black and white. Everyone can say what’s on black is not good and white background is contrasting “the good ones”. It is psychological trick to show people who they should trust and follow.

Fig. 8, A Pill To Cure Your Pathological Rage, George Dvorsky, 2012

http://io9.com/aggression/

It is an aggressive image coming through and you can tell it even without reading the text. Red colour represents aggressiveness, blood and sharp triangle adds to it as it is almost a bloody knife. It forces you to think about your actions and choice. In fact, there were not so much of choices in Soviet Russia, that’s why the poster encourages and forces you to be against whites by joining the red team.

It is amazing how the author uses abstract geometric design to show pass very clear and powerful message to the audience. Aggression was already mentioned and it was based on revolutionary ideas and principles. In my opinion, the corruption did its job and this let communists to succeed. Revolution will always affect what is going to happen next and that’s how the USSR was built, on revolutionary communist’s ideology. Personally I do not support communistic ideas, because it limits personalization and growth of individuality.

Overall, I think this is a very successful and stunning art work, because it is very simple and basic design clearly showing powerful message and meaning. This is a combination of success created by great propaganda artist of avant garde El Lissitzky.

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References:

Arts Council, 1971, Art In revolution, pp. 25 

Art in the picture, Beat the whites with the red wedge [WWW], Available from: http://www.artinthepicture.com/paintings/El_Lissitzky/Beat-the-Whites-with-the-Red-Wedge/ [Accessed 19/02/2013]

Heller S., Chwast S. (1994) Graphic Style, pp. 98

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