Kismet Arts Tangent

This is my word (and a specific font I’m leaning towards). Already, I have questioned if I spelled it right and I am wondering if I should be more literal and find a font with connected twig silhouettes. (Get it?) Why do I have a word? This assignment:

“Type has it’s own voice and personality. Choose an appropriate typeface for the assigned adjective or noun. Adapt, distress, deconstruct or personalize the typeface chosen to create a visual representation of the assigned word. Incorporation of icons and/or images within the visual representation is permitted but try to limit the use of imagery to a minimum. You can start in pencil, xerox, construction paper cut outs, etc but the finished work must be in black an white on an 9” x 12” sheet of white paper. Work will be due 9 a.m. in the next class for review and group discussion.”

“In class exercise: The theme for today is type and expression. Use your initials to reflect your personality.” I created these. After doing some brainstorming with words (instead of thumbnails) I felt like I had a better grasp of what I wanted to acheive.

Reporting from earlier today: I had put mounting my designs on the black cardboard until it was about thirty minutes before class. If you have ever seen a design reality show, there are always designers (most of them) scrambling around at the last minute, scampering off to the sewing room or the spray-mount room for their final tasks. Everyone in the production lab was really generous with their supplies and distracted congeniality. I got it done, but with some lessons learned about spray adhesive and what it can’t do for you. All in all, though, I enjoyed having a convenient spray than gluesticking an 11×17 by hand.

The presentation and critique section of today’s class was very delightful. Every time there’s an assignment due, it’s like an art show. I get to walk around and admire everyone’s interpretation of the assignment. Some people had beautiful modern compositions with bold splashes of color and futuristic font. We were all very impressed with Johnny who had created two excellent pieces– one a dark deep ocean with black tendrils creeping in from the bottom of the design, and the other, a soft, yet ominous fall of snowflakes. My favorite explanation of the design and word choice came from Scott, who talked about how the pattern conveys an architectural landscape where patterns sort of repeat but never stay the same, and he captioned it “object, object.” He justified that by saying how sometimes with things repeat so much they tend to abstract themselves and become unfamiliar, like you forget out to spell the word or the sounds sound extra funny. A word that always does that to me is “soup.”

A self-portrait entitled “waiting for the bus stop”

Designs for tomorrow. I have made these posters today and I really love them. I think they display of a certain amount of understanding about Gestalt principles.  I might be a little afraid of color, but I think they look mighty sharp. Each one is based off the “stable and dynamic” designs from last week. I like how they retained their respective descriptors, though they are still interesting and the assignment didn’t say that they had to.