Black Sheep

Sometimes it feels like the whole of this course is decided by the resolve of a cardboard box filled with tiny pieces of enscribed paper. And on a regular basis this theory is proved all too correct. The subject of this weeks samplings were 2 of a number of various shapes. My lot was Rectangle and Semi-circle, our task to record examples of said shapes round the college and then to interperate the alphabet using just those 2 shapes.



The next stipulation placed upon us was said alphabet could only be recorded using black ink and with some form of printing device formed from an everyday source.



What suitable materials could these printing devices be made from? Wood? plastic? All out. Ink doesn't take. Cloth? Yup. From dishcloths to clothing. Some other porous, soft, squishy type thing? Sure, why not.



First i dabbled in the basics: sponge, polystyrene (by breaking and cutting into the various small balls within it), a bit of denim (i'd 'grown' out of them) then the big time - horse chestnut foliage.



So from all these possibilities, what did i choose? A leaf. A damn leaf. From a tree no less (it was fresh, still a little wet from the rain). Horse chestnut. However, you can't fault genius when it strikes. It worked a charm, giving a really nice texture but also the veins in the leaf give an interesting pattern.

O Typeface, Where Art Thou?

5 typefaces. Surrounding us in our natural habitat, there are many fonts and typefaces, all clawing at the eyeballs. So here's 5 that caught my attention and why.



From a metal band i used to listen to when i were but a lad. There's something quite angular and sharp about it, yet somehow rather flowing. The lowercase is an interesting style for a metal band - most are bold and capital - but not this one. Very gothic, with most of the fluff removed.



I've always loved this typeface, as much for the way its used as for the actual typeface. It's big, its block, and there's really nothing spectacular about it, but it totally dominates the page, and the small italics on the central bar of the E's make a big difference in transforming the letters into something more than just a plain old bold font. More often than not, as on this issue, the colour makes a massive difference and it's usually gold or something just as striking. it completely hogs the top half of the page, with any other text reduced so small its almost unnoticeable.



Addidas. This is a masterful piece of design (in my humble opinion) due to its grand simplicity. Along with the "Three Stripe" branding, its the sports interpretation of German efficiency. Its just circles, with some lines. Its so simple. It does help that the name has 2 a's and 3 d's, all containing massive counters and stems. It really is just block circles and lines, but thats what makes it so brilliant, its no more than is needed. One thing I've noticed recently, over the past 3 years or so, is how many/most brands/stores who's name was previously in capitals (left over from the nineties "give me attention!" phase) all downgraded to completely lowercase. For example JJB is now jjb, REEBOK became rbk, MITRE to mitre, etc. Presumably to give a more sophisticated, contemporary appearance. Addidas, however, has always been this way. Germans hey. Psh!



One of my favourite bands, who continue to take massive leaps in their music and their logo and band signature change with each record that comes out, this being the latest (style, though the colours and decoration have been added by someone else).
Simple, sharp but enough to stand it out, Linkin Park's fonts have always been designed so the letters interact with each other to make it look like one whole rather than individual letters or words. This particular font is very modern and contemporary, mirroring the style their music has developed.

Two Way Stretch

Oh the trusty Randomiser. There's gotta be a screw loose for someone to name a cardboard box. And then for said box to be name referenced with a capital, now thats something else. However, the power of the Randomiser is not to be underestimated. My first encounter revealed, spluttering and stalling, a single word - Extend. At first i thought to myself, hmmm...interesting. Then i was told to affect letterforms according to the Randomiser's prophesies. No longer intersting.
I soldiered on. After a rough start the juices flowed and "the stuff" came out. And here are some of the results.

Gone In 6 Seconds

From our "Vote O" project. Funnily enough i did see him coming. Don't know why i didn't move though...



Matt, however, had no idea where he was walking....

O: The Final Battle

Our next project was a lesson in the art of persuasion and whether we could swing a vote of our peers. The setting was thus: due to some global disaster (probably volcano) some higher-ups had decided that a certain letter from our regular 26 character alphabet was to get chopped, and following on from the summer brief with our designated vowels, as a group of vowel-associates had to put forward a convincing argument as to why our vowel was so integral to society disposing of it would spell the end of life as we know it.
Our groups vowel was O. Our strategy was to depict how boring and dull a world without O would be, based on the premise that most displays of emotion involve some form of facial expression involving an O shape or an O sound (surprise=OH!, amazement=oh!, etc etc). so we planned to shoot a video first showing the world devestated by loss of O, the second half how awesome O makes life.





So first i drew up storyboards, discussed and revised them with my group, then left Tim to direct/shoot the film. This gave an original perspective on my ideas, and the results were pretty darn good. A few other details were added from the group, such as using cardboard boxes/paper bags to cover the faces (with blank faces for the world without O, happy for with) and speech bubbles expressing the emotions.
Add in a few sound effects and voila, the finished video!!



so here it is...

Pick Of Destiny

And this is just plain awesome. I know, no relation to books. Oh well.