Saturday, March 22, 2014

Inspiring Title Sequence

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFAxbI7wlJE

Marlene McCarty also designed this title sequence. It inspires me because even though I'm not really into scary things, I still enjoy watching her work because it is so sweet. She uses type on a perspective which works as a light across various terrifying things in this dark house. The music is slow and creepy which also matches the tone of the type on the perspective slants. It moves slowly and successfully.

Saul Bass & Marlene McCarty Blog

Saul Bass:

  • North By Northwest
  • Psycho
  • Ocean’s Eleven
How does Saul Bass work with type, image/graphics and music in these three title openings to set the tone for the coming film? How do they play off of one another? What is the mood you feel watching them? How are they similar and different?
He uses all these different methods of cutting, sliding, chopping, dissolving, rotating and pushing the type. The music goes along with all of the graphics and the type of graphic goes along with the type of music that we're listening to. The mood is upbeat. They're similar in how he pushes the type on the screen yet he uses line in two perspective in one, and makes the others dissolve.

Marlene McCarty:

  • I Shot Andy Warhol (name: Titles ISAW)
  • Safe
  • American Psycho (name: Titles AP)
How does Marlene McCarty work with type, image/graphics and music in these three title openings to set the tone for the coming film? How do they play off of one another? What is the mood you feel watching them? How are they similar and different?
Her animations rock. She makes the type shake to build intensity, along with cropping and making the type capitalized, huge, and red. The type is a creepy, typewriter font that comes in uneasily and hesitant. It's perfect. She overlaps to create this crowded feeling. She places the type in the center and makes it feel isolated. And then changes the "safe" type from white to glowing and then to red which proves the feeling of unsafety. The music and the isolation matches the creepy music. They all are somewhat creepy. Which is intentional. I like how the American Psycho goes from creepy to pleasant and the type still matches both tones. 

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Expressive Typography

I can not find who the designers are for this work, but I love how each word is so simple, yet perfectly captures the meaning of the word itself. They stretched, rotated, cut and shifted, flipped, scaled, morphed, added weight, messed with placement. 

MALCOLM X SPEECH

End on 29 seconds

MALCOLM X – BLACK POWER

Whites can help us but they can’t join us
There can be no black white unity
Until there is first some black unity
We cannot think of being acceptable to others
Until we have first proven acceptable to ourselves
Concerning non violence…
It is criminal
to teach a man not to defend himself

When he is the constant victim of verbal attacks

Speech choice: Malcolm X on Black Power

_ Who is speaking?
Malcolm X
_ Why was/is the speech important to society?
It was a fight for human rights in the black community in the 1960s.
_ Why do you feel it is important or interesting?
He was a big voice for the African American population.
_ What is the emotion, mood, tone, personality, feeling of the speech?
Intense. Talking about equality of people. Seems helpless. Inspirational. Instructional. Insightful.
_ What is intonation, emphasis, what is loud, stressed, or soft. Where are there pauses?
"Whites"(strong) "Unity (stern)" "Nonviolence... pause" "It is criminal... (strong) *pause* to teach a man not to defend himself" "Attacks *pause*"
_ What do you FEEL should be loud or soft, long pause or rushed?
"White's can help us but they can't join us" - striking beginning. "Brutal attacks" should be said stronger, with more volume and power. To force the audience to picture the ugly truth.
_ Is there a call to action? When listening to it what are key/emphasized words?
"It is criminal to teach a man not to defend himself" - telling them to defend themselves.  Attacks. Unity. Whites. Nonviolence.
_ How does it make you feel?
Disconnected being White, but empathetic considering the context of blacks being attacked.
_ How do imagine that the audience felt?
Convinced. Feeling sorry for the black community and leaving them wanting justice and being proactive about it.
_ Could there be another interpretation of the speech?
Sarcastic. Possibly making fun of Whites, like they don't understand.
_ Write/find a short bio, of the person giving the speech.
Malcolm X: An African-American Muslim minister and human rights activist. Courageous advocate for the rights of blacks. He has been called one of the greatest and most influential African Americans in history.

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Jakob Trollback Video Reflection

Being able to design these kind of videos is that you get to learn something. You are being educated as you design. Which isn't always the case when you're working with something like layouts, for example. This is one of the reasons he enjoys these videos because it's an opportunity to tell a story. He is awesome. He used to be a dj and he's self-taught. And his amazing at it. He explains design as being a new language. A way of communication where you can play on so many levels and we don't always have to worry about what we're saying. Yet sometimes we might wonder, what are we trying to say? How do we make an impact? "It's very hard to change someone's mind," he said. With emotions and participation. "Good creative thinking is what gives you a good personal discoveries." It can't happen without imagination. It happens in your brain and in your heart. Storytelling is all about lighting up your imagination. We have the ability to engage people. To grab their attention and evoke emotion. Power to make them listen and to help them understand and have their own personal discovery.

Monday, February 24, 2014

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Design Observer

For the Design Observer blog entry, I decided to read about the Landscape Forensics Photography by Sasha Bezzubov. I thought landscape photography simply required a beautiful landscape and a camera. I always thought when looking at landscape photography, that I could have done that myself. Easily. So what's so great about it? The photographers have to be able to detect unseen dynamics. Sasha's series Albedo Zone features monotone, horizonless expanses of either dark ocean water or light arctic ice. He captures the beauty of nature by mastering the camera exposure, contrast, and tonality to make a beautiful composed photograph created by precise luminance measurements.

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Incomplete Manifesto Journal Entry

Bruce Mau Design (BMD) is a multidisciplinary design firm specializing in brands and environments. Bruce Mau is a Canadian designer. He was the creative director of BMD and the founder of Institute Without Boundaries. He has received many awards for design. His incomplete manifesto for growth helps and encourages designers think about their creative process. The mantra for this week that I am choosing is, "Begin anywhere." 

When I am starting a project or not inspired by the project, it's very hard for me to start or get creative. My mantra this week is to begin anywhere.

Thinking Form

After looking over these typographic covers, my designer from BDS last year comes to mind. Ray Bradbury. The designer from Kansas who did lots of graphic design work for Washburn University. The designs with the typography on paths and the simplicity of this work parallels Ray's. The enlarged letters, creating shapes and figures rather than reading as a letter, is genius and also something Ray captured in his graphics. The graphics look old, yet still hold to be good design.

Monday, January 27, 2014

Jessica Video Reflection

First off, her sense of humor and amazing design makes the video very easy to watch. I really enjoyed her. She was young and educated about the current design field. She understands us as young and aspiring designers and she understands good graphic design. One thing she said that scared me is that she does everything in Illustrator. Which is definitely my weakest program talent. It makes me realize how I need to set time aside to really learn Illustrator so I can fully explore and achieve my design ideas. She also explained an incredible opportunity that she was presented that if she had not taken it, she wouldn't be as successful. Even if it means uprooting your life, still take the opportunity.