Visual Language & Concrete Poetry

Concrete poetry

As our introduction to Visual Type we looked into concrete poetry and how words can communicate the meaning of them by changing the layout, size shape and form. This is similar to the work we did in the module for visual language and creative practice where we edited type so it communicated the word visually as well as literally.

This is a pin from my Pinterest account that i found researching concrete poetry. I found this interesting because the text is about the world and it is the shape of the world map. This is an important aspect of this piece of concrete poetry because it communicates what the text is about visually as opposed to just literally.

https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/392868767469782102/

 This is another world map i have found where the countries and continents have been visually communicated through edited typography. I am going to try my own approach to this design by choosing a continent and filling in the countries with their name. Although this isn't the same kind of Visual poetry as the example above i think this one works more effectively

http://www.mapstudio.co.za/product/art-map-of-the-world-text/

Here i have started using the program Illustrator to make my own Visual Type illustration. I have decided to edit type within the continent to communicate the names of the countries. I am using a map of Africa as a template to edit my type. I have started by using Helvetica as it is a simple sans serif font and will be easier to edit into the countries shapes.

Here i have developed my design and filled in more countries. I came across some difficulties with some countries like Somali as the shape is quite abstract for type.

This is the pan african flag which is refers to two different sets of three colours in a flag Afro-American and Black Liberation flag). These are the colours that i have decided to use in my concrete poetry of the continent Africa.

Here i have covered about 75% of the continent, the next part will be hard (the east coast) as the countries are small and will be hard to fill in with type and make it legible.

This is my final design using font helvetica and the colours of the Pan-African flag. I am pleased with the outcome and think that it is an interesting example of concrete poetry and visual language. If i was to do this again i would try using a more african inspired font as opposed to the simplistic helvetica although i think this works effectively. 

Timelines

Timelines

In todays session we looked at timelines and how we use them as a method of learning a process to something. The advantage of using a timeline is that you can lay out a process of something chronologically so that it is easy to understand. We first looked at existing timelines like th one below which is a history of social media. As you can see it is laid out left to right in chronological order which helps communicate the information of the timeline.

Here we have started to make our own timelines on a process of our choice. I chose to do Still Life Photography because we have learnt the process recently within college. This design is a lot simpler compared with the one above as the process is less information heavy. You can clearly see the process which is communicated in this timeline and i think that i have learnt a useful skill in knowing how to communicate a process through a timeline. This skill will be useful in the future when trying to plan a project or communicating a process through graphics.

It also can be incredibly useful to see the correct process of work for projects as a whole. We did a group exercise where we planned out the different stages of a project (brief, plan, research, ideas, development, recording, evaluation, outcomes) with a start to finish at the top. We then showed at what stage we do these processes.  

Digital & Traditional Collage

Small Numeral Collages

In this mornings session we were asked to make small number collages (1-5) using imagery and type from cutting and sticking magazines. We were given a lot of freedom to do as we wanted to communicate the numbers. I chose quite a basic technique of cutting out shapes to make up the numbers and cutting out letters to make the words. The lettering technique reminds me of the ransom notes that we made which i think works effectively and is relatively simple. The pieces of paper we used were about 2 by 3 inches which made the exercise a little bit tricky. This workshop helped improve my collage skills and i think this would be useful in the future when trying to communicate something as initial sketches or thumbnails.

This simple digital collage below was developed from a random lyric generator online. I found the lyrics, "In jail, in jail, Big Bird and me. We're's in jail, in jail, Big Bird and me" I thought this would be fun to try and communicate through a digital collage. I chose images online of bars (to communicate jail) then big bird (from sesame street) and a picture of an angry man. This was a simple process and i am pleased with the outcome. I thought this exercise was helpful because we had to communicate a complete random message. This was different to what we usually do in collage because it was so random, i think this helped improve our visual communication skills. 

Screen Print

Screen Prints

Screen printing is a print technique which uses a image stencil on a mesh like material. Any kind of image can be made into a screen print stencil by simplifying the image or changing it digitally. The stencil that is put onto the mesh is made of a photo sensitive emulsion that blocks the paint from going throughOnce the screen is ready with the image you can push paint through it onto paper, a t-shirt or anything that is flat and will hold paint. 

This is a screen print that i have found on the internet. This screen print has been done using an effect called Dot Screen. I couldn't find the name of the artist or a suitable reference for the picture but i thought it was appropriate for what we are doing in the workshop for screen prints.

Making a Screen print

We started off our lesson by choosing a large photograph of a designer or artist that we appreciate. The image has to be large as we are printing them in A3. We got rid of the background by using the polygonal lasso tool. This is the image i chose of Graphic Designer, David Carson. I chose i black and white image as we were told we would be turning it to grayscale anyway.

We got rid of the background by using the polygonal lasso tool on Photoshop. This is so we can edit the image so the filters work with screen printing. We were told that we would be using the filter effect Dot Screen. This works for a screen print as it breaks the image into dots instead of one large shape. It also creates a nice effect 

Here i have used the filter Pixelate, i then chose color halftone and changed the width which increased the amount of dots in the picture. I wanted more dots so that the image was still recognizable as David Carson. We then printed the image in A3 so that we could start the next stage of the screen print process which is exposing the image to a screen which was done for us by Celina.

Here we have our screen that has been exposed using the photo sensitive emulsion. It is attached to a wooden frame which keeps the screen in place whilst printing. To prepare the screen we held it up to the light to check for any unwanted areas not blocked by the emulsion. We then used masking tape to block these areas out. We also stuck down pieces of cardboard on each corner, this is so the screen isn't in complete contact with the paper and so when you press down on it the paint kisses the paper. This is called a snap which avoids the paint bleeding.

For the ink we mixed 60% acrylic medium with 40% acrylic coloured paint. I chose a bright magenta. We also used a small amount of Screen retarder. This is to help the paint not stick to the screen permanently. We mixed the solution together in a plastic cup using a spoon.

We placed some A3 paper down onto the printing area and taped it down to avoid it moving around whilst printing. We then put the paint/ink onto the board on top of the paper making sure to line the stencil up with the paper.

This is my first print using the one color magenta. I used the squeegee at a 45 degree angle to push the paint through. I repeated this which is why i think there is too much ink on this print although some of it works and you can pick out David Carsons face quite well.

Here i have got a bit more experimental with colors and decided to add a muddy green to the magenta. As i have screen printed before and experimented with colors on the board i thought it would be interesting to see what would work with this screen.

This is the squeegee that is used to push the ink through the screen. As you can see i used a variety of colors with this screen. I like the effect of the different colors mixing into one and other across the screen and on the prints.

This is the spoon i used to place the ink on the screen print board. You can see the colors on the spoon is a similar to effect to the prints.

This is the result of mixing the inks on the screen. I think that it works effectively with this screen design and i like the line of thick ink down the right hand side of the print.

This is my favorite print from this workshop. We have been asked to pick one to hang up in the School of Art building and this is the one that i chose because i like the colors and the even spread of ink across the print.

This is another one of my favorites from the print exercise. I feel like i have learnt a lot about traditional print techniques and the work that goes into it. In a way you have a lot more control over the colors and the spread of the ink but a lot of it is chance which i like. These two final prints came out of experimentation and a lot of prints. I like that my favorites of the day were down to taking a risk with colors and the amount of ink that i used.