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.