Narrative Project Goals

For this project I am addressing the question how can typography be captured and manipulated with live action film? I will answer this question by exploring the creation, use, and form of my Geronimo typefaces in experimental live action typographic explorations. The series of typographic studies will inform and enhance the use of this typeface. This video will be embedded in my .pdf specimen for the Geronimo typeface to support the typeface.

Logo Build Motion and Sound Tests

three different sound and motion tests

near final production

Logo Build Process Storyboards

Storyboards

reference mirage/slowly comes into focus

the oasis logotype in a desert

using Ray's graphic elements to show a path leading to the logotype

beginning in the middle the logotype builds outward to reference inner healing

from the center the logo ripples into focus as if created by a water drop (chosen direction)

alternate version to water drop idea/logotype moves in and out of focus like a mirage being seen

Oasis Logo Build (FINAL)

FINAL VIDEO


FINAL STORYBOARD

In this project, I learned the importance of attributes that can describe the design task. The attributes of the rebranding of Stone Spirit Lodge were established by Ray Alvarez as quality, simplicity, and quirky sophistication. These attributes act as the basis of the design challenge. My logo build was meant to satisfy all of the attributes. I also learned the necessity of a quick and concise build as well as a quicker and more concise sound mark. They had to be integrated and related, but I pushed a little farther to attempt to convey different moods or ideas from both. The visual offers a relief from chaos when the water ripples calm to a still logo. The sound offers an ambience surrounding the drop of the water. Since it is a logo the build has to be concise so that it reads easily and quickly. I also learned that using a tagline in branding can really help establish the brand. I wasn't going to include the tagline, but I found a way to integrate it and it really helped reinforce the ambience of the piece.

Oasis Logo Build Concepting

The attributes of the Oasis rebrand (branding done by Ray Alvarez) are simplicity, quality, and quirky sophistication. The definition of an oasis is a patch of vegetation in a desert. In a very general sense, an oasis is a place of refreshment or comfort amidst harsh conditions. This was the concept used for the rebranding. Oasis is a place of relaxation. A place where one can separate themselves from the hardships of life.

In the logo build, the logo appears on screen as a water drop splashes on screen, causing the logo to ripple into focus. This references a moment of turmoil or hardship followed by a calm and relaxed surface tension.

LOGAN Find & Share

LOGAN 2008 Reel from takmas on Vimeo.

Union Station Timeline (FINAL)

From this project I learned a few things about motion, but dominantly I was schooled in the art of User Experience. Eli and I struggled throughout the project to limit the media and options we were trying to throw at our viewers. We started out wanting to allow the viewer to search through the different media we had to offer, check out a graph of train travel and usage, represent this usage with moving elements on the screen, and other things that just weren't necessary. Really it would have created  a chaotic mess for the viewer to navigate through. So we stripped it down and left it as a swiping timeline that offered two sets of "stories" per decade. Then these stories could be expanded and viewed. Simple and clear. Really easy to navigate, which we needed to be aware of. We didn't want to overwhelm the viewer, we wanted to make their experience more accessible and in doing so (with the media filter, and the graph and such) we would have made the experience more difficult and probably overwhelming.

In animating the tutorial of the timeline, we also had to really think about what needed to be shown in order to show off the function of the timeline. We had to write a script, use the script to base the animation on, and then record the script in a clear and concise and steady way that didn't run together. Basically the timing had to be precise in order to show off the functionality. 

Finally, when it came down to our narrative, we really had to rack our brains and search the Union Station book we had in order to find a story that people were engaged with, could relate to, and would remember. So we picked a testimonial from the book, a real live story that did occur at Union Station and was told from a particular person's point of view. Also with our narrative story we learned (after the first critique) that showcasing one image and revealing aspects of the one image over time, helped move the narration of the testimonial better than having one or two images sit still on the screen. 

Overall, I learned a lot. User experience, understanding the importance of a compelling story when conveying information, planning (when it came down to narration), and learning how to convey clarity in a sequence of information and narration.

Gobstopper Package Redesign (digital look)

With each of the following directions, I was using the logos mode of appeal. I wanted to appeal to children on a logical viewpoint. I emphasize the layers of sugar and flavor in gobstoppers by looking at a solitary piece of gobstopper in a diagram-like motif that uses line work to appeal to kids and highlight the nutritional facts.

Union Station Renovated (first digital look)

 my aesthetic

Eli's aesthetic

Here are two aesthetic ideas for the Union Station interactive timeline. Eli and I worked back and forth but allowed each other to work on each direction by ourselves. With Eli's direction we had looked at the current branding of Union Station and referenced the colors. We also went for a little more classical feel with the type and using the station photo as the background. In my version, I went for a stripped down more modern feeling aesthetic. The simple gridded layout and left to right movement of the timeline is meant to suggest the nature of a train. With mine I hint at the train movement with the the tracks stripped down and abstracted into thin lines. I also use dots in the background to reference people walking around Union Station. These dots will act as a representation of the increasing bustle and burst of train use during the war years. As the viewer scrolls along each narrative on the timeline the amount of dots moving on and off screen increases as the war progresses and then decrease after the war and going toward the 50s.

Modes of Appeal Aesthetic Exercise

Color Palette-
Logos: The color palette for a logos appeal could be any palette that links visual to the literal make-up of the product.

Ethos: Colors belonging to authoritative and pre-established groups or organizations.

Pathos: Color palettes with contrasting colors can suggest anger or energy. Cool or warm muted colors can imply a sense of calm. Reds and deeper warm colors can imply romance or passion. All colors have there own connotations: blue suggests intelligence or water, green can suggest natural qualities.

Type-
Logos: Type that is laid out to express the brand and other information without the aid of expressive alterations or color. If it is laid out in a statistical format it might only suggest qualities or ingredients of the product.

Ethos: In the same way as the color palette, the typeface used may already be associated with a notable/trustworthy group or organization. The typeface used could suggest the age of the brand for added validity, such as Trajan. Careful wording to appeal to the consumer can also add validity.

Pathos: Hand letter type can informality or playfulness. Script could be romantic and formal. Woodblock type can suggest antique or nostalgic qualities. Type can relate to culture and the feelings one associates with that culture.

Stylistic References/Rendering Methods-
Logos: Any stylistic reference and rendering method that is objective enough to not imply meaning beyond what is pertained in the product. Simplistic and straight forward.

Ethos: If the style references the appropriate culture that the product relates to. The style and rendering method could be something that the consumer would relate to and subsequently trust. Ethos can play on nostalgia in a way that implies longevity.

Pathos: The stylistic choices and rendering methods can evoke emotion if they target the appropriate emotion. Nostalgia can be employed as a means to tug on the heartstrings of the consumer.

Product Identification

Pathos: The overall feel of farming and country. Reminiscent of a home cooked meal. The color reinforces these aspects appropriately. The slab serif adds to the authenticity of this appeal.

Pathos: The bright color implies energy. The wings also support that sudden burst of energy.

 Ethos: The design references old style milkman service. As the tag suggests it has a reliable and old fashioned appeal. The color is very strongly associated with the older trustworthy milk service/industry.

Logos: Shows exactly what it contains, which is four cans of each flavor in a box. The type does not assume any other responsibility other than relaying that information. The color only loosely relates to the type of meat in each can. The stylistic rendering of the cat as a silhouette does little to affect the consumer in a emotional or ethical way.

John Wood and Paul Harrison Response

I recently went to check out an exhibit that used some formal elements that might be applied to my Narrative in Sound & Motion class. A few motion pieces and one printed piece stood out to me. I saw some elements of a narrative in one, simultaneity in a few, and anticipation in all that revealed something as time passed. The first piece that drew me in was called "Board". Each artist positioned themselves on each side of a large white board with the broad side of the board facing the camera so it left one man revealed and the other hidden behind the board. This is set up so you see one man in a white room. Then the board falls backward and the other man is revealed and the two performers begin to flip this board around constantly exposing and hiding one another. One man stays on screen at all times while an anticipation is created of where and how the next man will appear.

The next piece I noticed was "Some Words, Some More Words". This piece consisted of about 50 screen prints of short phrases. These phrases exist independently but also as a part of a larger piece. This piece I would directly relate to our Kinetic Typography assignment. The poetry I used for the class had a fragmented narrative of sorts that could be read several ways in which the reader could look at parts of the poetry or the whole and it not matter. Simultaneity and fragmentation were the strong elements correlating between John and Paul's piece and my assignment.

"66.96m" was the next piece to call me in. Mostly because of the noise I heard coming from the television but couldn't see what was causing it. Already my anticipation grew and I was intrigued to learn more. The piece had strings on a pulley system that rotated into a white room where the camera was set up to view the intersection of the two systems of strings and pulleys. Segments of the strings were colored black and at first I believed the purpose of the piece was to test serendipity of the crossing black marks. But after watching long enough the black marks fell into place so that the all intersected and made an image of a chair sitting in the room. I was so surprised. Totally unanticipated and new. A story unfolded before my eyes as the chair came to be.

The final piece I will mention is "Only Other Point". This piece consists of a camera panning through large areas in which balls are dropped on screen, rotated and rolled away. The main part that I found nice was when the camera panned across a ping pong table. Twenty or so ping pong balls fell from above one after another attached to a string that held the ball in a position that showed the movement of a hypothetical ping pong ball bouncing across the table. This piece held the viewers attention with an anticipation of the movement and the unraveling of the narrative that is the balls movement.

Overall, the exhibited had strong elements of anticipation. The anticipation gets the viewer asking questions and looking deeper into the pieces ready for something to happen

Wireframes for Union Station

Two layout ideas for the interactive Union Station timeline.