Layers, Like Onions...

Layers, in a nutshell, are basically a way of fitting more visual elements into an area without expanding the area.  Layers create a dimensionality that allows images to lie on top of each other.  Any images that are covered carry a continuation through the image on top which conceptually allows the entire image underneath and hidden to exist in the viewpoint.
Layers also allow more information in an area by combing two elements into one space.  The graphs, maps, and sheet music examples in Graphic Design: The New Basics by Ellen Lupton are great examples of this ability to not only allow information to conceptually and visually combine to maximize space and so forth, these examples also show how the combination of these layers drastically improves their function and   readability.

Transparency is a major aid to the concept of layering.  It adds dimensionality without entirely obscuring and interrupting images.  Transparent images also suggest different meanings.  A faded image may be used to suggest a weakness or retreat.

 Inourassignment a few things happen with the layering of dot compositions and transparent semantic compositions.  Another meaning isn't created in the layering of our transparent and opaque pages, but instead the meaning of the word is enforced through the combination of the pages.  Our books also allow for the compositions to be viewed with or without the text semantics on the transparent pages.  In my book in particular there are three levels of layering and serendipity occurring.  As in my classmates books, the dot compositions and semantic compositions overlap to express one idea.  In my book a vector grid was printed as a background.  These vectors symbolize the dimensionality, graphing, and movement associated with ideas of physics.  The dot compositions will then be adhered to these pages with these grids in the background twisting in space and creating a dimensionality that spans from page to page.  These grids also suggest a greater sense of movement which is highly necessary in physics.  The flow of some of the grids will seem to carry some dots throughout the composition.  These grids are also on the backside of every page where no imagery occurs until the transparency page is flipped over and lies on top.  The words will then be backward, thus taking away from readability but the forms created in the semantic aspects will possibly interact with the moving grids.  Here are some pics of these grids.

A Beginning to Album Collage

These pictures were like a practice run for my color harmony book soon to come.  All compositions are made using the album and its limited parts.  There are three parts to most of my CDs: the actual disc, the casing to hold the disc, and the booklet that is held in the front panel of the case.  In most cases the front of the booklet acts as the album cover too.  Inside CD booklets can be a variety of things like the band members names and roles on the album, lyrics to some or all songs on the album, notes or comments made by the artists, more album artwork (some booklets just have images and no personnel or lyrics), and much more.  In most instances though, if not all instances, the copyright information is on the back of the booklet.

So far i explored some of the purple, orange, and blue, hues I found in my collection.  They were all done on a solid white surface too.  I'm going to try putting tables and a CD player in some backgrounds and maybe have some hands holding them.  With these hues I did a complimentary contrast with the blue and orange objects, and a monochromatic study with purple and blue.  The images for the red picture all came from one album so it is not really a study.  That is the image I am pulling my palette colors from for Color Form.

Color Experience with J A

J A as in Joseph Albers. Word.  I think the thing I found most appealing was Albers' craft.  In most cases you can't even tell that the images were done with paper.  Many look digital not analog.  I was also amazed by how many solid and clean color fields he found.  The way I took it he collected most colors from scraps.  Maybe I misread on that part, but regardless his palette of colors was numerous.  I'm fairly familiar with a some of the illusions he creates like making one color look like two through contrast and creating after images using contrasting colors.  Although experiencing these series of images in his book helped me understand them a lot more.  Something that I feel like can only be done through repetition of studying color interactions.

I posted the above images from his book because of particular things I noticed in them.  With  the first image Albers suggests looking at both compositions up close and from a distance.  When trying this I noticed that both create an intense pulsating effect when held close to the eyes and moved back and forth while still staying in close proximity to the face.  This works in both compositions but is noticed far more in the orange and blue.  With the second image Albers comments on a ground exchange between the hues however I simply only see the green as the ground and not the red.

Syntactic Aspect Meets Physics

My main two goals behind these compositions was to do the most different ideas I could brainstorm for each word.  Even if they drifted slightly from the basic idea, I wanted to establish two opposite poles, in a way, and see what didn't work with them.  I thought I might be able to then look between the two ideas and find a resolution for a final composition by using what worked the best in the compositions.  Some compositions differ more than others amongst each word and some are fairly similar.

In some I tried to use certain letters to enhance the meaning.  In acceleration I was going with a down hill drag race kind of effect.  The c's were supposed to act as wheels.  In waves a w was repeated to show the motion of waves.  In buoyancy an o was enlarged to show it floating.  The enlarging of the o came from the thought of air bubbles rising in water.

Sorry they're not in a line. I can't figure out an easy way to post the pictures.

Mimic Final Composition

The first image is the final composition I turned in for class and the second is one I altered after critique.  I went back and took out the scale changes of the m and c that laid inside other like letters.  They were simply too much and distracted from the other reflected letters forms which better expressed mimic.  Looking back it was an obvious choice for those letters removed to not have been there in the first place.  The redo is much clearer and not so cramped.  The simpler form truly speaks better.

Solid Red Color Study

I chose this album to do a one solid color study because the red tone used in it is the same for the cover, the booklet, and the cd.  There are other tints and shades of red but the dominant one is primary red.

9 words decided

my final nine words, which have been known for a few days just not posted are:

gravity
magnetism
buoyancy
waves
elasticity
tension
friction
acceleration
rotation

Also my title is Physics: Nature's Factory

The Stones Perfect Logo

Lil' Logo Lesson

The Tongue and Lips logo was the icon of of the world famous English rock and roll band.  The logo spoke volumes for the band and helped make them one of the most recognizable groups ever.  The band formed in 1962 and put their first album out in 1964.  As many know, they formed in the U.K. and shortly after became part of the British Invasion movement in the U.S. alongside their musical rivals the Beatles.  

In 1971 the album Sticky Fingers was released and was the first Rolling Stones album to feature the Tongue and Lips logo.  The logo was designed by a student at the time by the name John Pasche.  Pasche, in my opinion, was lucky to have his design chosen by the band.  Or should I say the Rolling Stones were lucky to stumble upon Pasche at the Royal College of Art.  Needless to say, the collaboration created one of the worlds most popular images.  This largely came from the status of the band itself, but may have been helped by the powerful logo as well.  

The album Sticky Fingers was also designed by Andy Warhol.  The cover was designed by Warhol and the original vinyl covers were made with a real zipper that would open the pants of the person on the cover.  

The concept of the logo is pretty straight forward.  Mick Jagger has a huge mouth.  Pasche even commented on the issue about the logo design.  The tongue also represents the hard rock, gritty, rebellious attitude the Rolling Stones radiated.  The solid bright red color provokes deep emotions.  Passion and excitement are strongly suggested through the color and image combination.  The band strongly focused on the raw emotions people experience in life.  All in all, I really don’t think a better logo could’ve been made for the band.  It represents the frontman, their emotion, their passion, and their attitude perfectly.  Its so raw.

John Pasche Bio

John Pasche, most recognized for the tongue and lips logo for the Rolling Stones, is a British designer that has done work for various music artists, a few event and advertisement posters, and has claimed several awards from his endeavors.

Pasche attended Brighton College of Art from 1963 until 1967 when he received his Bachelor of Arts in graphic design.  He then went on to the Royal College of Art in London and received his Master of Arts in 1970.  While at the Royal College of Art Pasche designed a poster for the film Judex in 1969, and then another poster for the film And God Created Woman in 1970.

After graduating from the Royal College of Art, Pasche began working with the Rolling Stones on poster designs and eventually their iconic logo.  From 1970 to 1974 he created four different tour posters for the Stones.  In 1970 he created the tongue and lip logo and it was first used in 1971 on the album Sticky Fingers.  Mick Jagger had apparently gone to the Royal College in 1969 hoping to find images to represent the band.  Pasche’s image was chosen and history was set.  Referring to the logo, Pasche said that one of the first things one could notice about Jagger was the size of his lips and mouth.

Pasche’s also done other work for musicians like The Who, Paul McCartney, The Stranglers, Dr. Feelgood, Jimi Hendrix (his studios not the actual person) Judas Priest, and David Bowie.  He is also known several projects done for Chrysalis Records.

Throughout his career, Pasche has received several awards.  His first award, and one of the most notable, is IPA award Best Graphic Design Student at the Royal College  of Art.  He’s also won several awards for album sleeves and commercial and sale designs.  He now works as a freelance graphic designer in Surrey, England.

Here's pics of the original design for the logo, the logo now, the album cover of Sticky Fingers designed by Andy Warhol, and an inner slave with the first published Rolling Stones logo.  

synTACTICS

Express the word mimic using syntactics.  Not too difficult if the easy route is chosen by reflecting or repeating the word.  I wanted to do a little more with it though.  I first tried setting up a shape to repeat mimic with.  I tried a circle, a diamond, and something that looks like the symbol for infinity.  However, these shapes were asking more questions than they were answering and although the expressed the idea of mimic too many issues were raised concerning the form.  I decided to express the word by reflecting each letter in different ways.  Each letter mimicked itself instead of the whole word mimicking itself.  I then took the form made by these reflected letters and made a duplicate.  These two identical forms were joined by the i's reflecting off the word.

I had to try a few times to get the dual form within the template but I eventually got it to fit just inside the border.  At this point some of my letters had stacked high from the several trial and errors so some pretty bad shadows were cast when I copied it.  They were a quick fix though with my left over white gouache and another copy being made.The paint is just noticeable in the final image just above the c's.

Thoughts on Color Harmony

I was fairly familiar with color harmonies, but of the basic harmonies there were two I was unaware of.  Split complimentary and double complimentary were new to me.  Complementary colors I've been aware of since I was kid.  My favorite set of complimentary colors are orange and blue mostly because orange is my favorite color.  Analogous, triadic, and monochromatic are simple combinations and probably the least appealing to me.  I'm pretty interested with working with split and double complimentary harmonies.  The concept is new and I'm interested to see what I can learn about these harmonies and see if understanding these harmonies will help me understand all color relations a little better.

Tension in the Field

I found this reading very interesting not only for the information it provided but also for its timing.  In viscom one of my nine words is tension.  Physical tension since the theme for my book is physics.  As I read this article I began to recall my most recent iteration of tension.  I noticed that most, if not all, of the main ways the book said to create tension were employed in my composition of tension.  I have strong diagonals that get larger as they approach the edge of the frame until they are cut off by the border.  These same diagonals then get smaller and drastically veer off in another direction wrapping around another object.  The form then widens again as it approaches the edge of the page and is cut off.  Two diagonal forms do this and appear to hold the forms wrapped within them from reaching each other.  These forms struggle to touch and get close enough to create a tension in the diagonals that hold them.  Compare this iteration (the middle on the bottom set) to my others and it's pretty easy to say that it creates way more tension on the page than the first several did.

Itten Color Star

Here's my Itten color Star.  The activity was simple and helped me establish a better eye for tints and shades.  Working with the yellow orange, orange, red orange, and red was the trickiest part.  Most of the hues were very similar and some trial and error had to take place to get the shades just right (or seemingly right).