Focusing on “form” and its many derivatives. We started off with various talks from different artists. I found the majority of them interesting but especially Jens (no bias I swear), I found the idea of GAN’s really interesting how a computer can essentially predict form I used Nvidia GauGAN for my hello world project so it was interesting to see how the technology behind it actually works.
I also enjoyed the idea of almost looking to the future with this talk as not many others focused on that the idea that the technology is always improving is a given to be interested in for this course but I did find it so interesting that in such a short space of time there was a huge jump in quality of the GAN’s.
I also listened to some talks independently from various graphic designers, Eric Hu mentions something similar to that mentioned in the discussion group, that he doesn’t necessarily sketch in a traditional sense, rather he uses black boxes in illustrator to get an idea of structure and composition within his artboard. He also mentions something similar to Linda in which designers write instead of draw, here sketching is as if they are taking down ideas and creating designs straight from that.
I also watched a talk by Caterina Bianchini about her poster designs, she focuses on type talking about things can be changed and distorted into something different, she creates a sense of character with her type through small details such as little faces or arms drawn on the type, the idea that it is personified and it being jumbled up or layered to generate the illusion of movement.
My first thoughts for form was instantly typographic form, how can I make this evident, maybe a combination of physical computing and typography where the user can manipulate type etc, projected!
I instantly thought of type because of its structure, at times literally set in stone. Type also has very strict rules as to not distort type as to keep respect to the font designer. However recent trends in anti design and web brutalism have almost encouraged users to do this, as well as leading to the creation of many typefaces to fit this style. There has also been a return to the 90’s / Y2K style of lettering.
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/brutalism-antidesign/
I want to showcase how you can bend the rules of design as much as possible but never break them. I have chosen the idea of projecting onto mannequins / busts as a lot of typographic terms are to do with the body e.g arm, foot, ear and of course body of text.
I found this work by Thomas Mountainborn of interest because it has a similar look to my idea, he projects onto the mannequins using unity to map the projections.
Don’t know why but I thought that mannequins would be somewhat affordable, WRONG. I will continue looking into this however. Maybe just heads or busts.
Exploring form with type, ripping up the paper creating different forms, disrupting the flow of the font etc.
Looking at work by Stefan Sagmeister and his work with type on the face
This work by Zhang Huan recommended to me by Theo also draws on similar things as my research into sagmeister. Named “Family Tree”.
I had a shot
Looking at work by Tarek Mawad, especially work using light onto the body, I want to essentially combine these for my final outcome.
As we need to create a document proposal for this project, I have also looked at various books such as Virgil Abloh.
The book is very well constructed and considered with the book being really well typeset and easy to read. It has good use of large images and page spreads.
I have also toyed with the idea of this being an interactive piece but we shall see what that brings, I am unsure how people would interact with this in its final form but for now I am sticking with arduino as it is what im familiar with and gives a solid and direct form of interaction with a user.
Possibly in the future
I have more recently however, came into possession of an Xbox Kinect which I think would be very interesting to use given that you don’t need any sort of hand held apparatus which, given the spread of omnicron might be a good idea. However, for now the Arduino controller similar to that made for the control project would be best suited.
Stewart Marshall IxD 