Integrating Words and Visual Space
For this next project we will be designing a multiple page book about the Art & Design Building.
We started the project by walking outside and inside the building, visually exploring and shooting three or four dozen photographs of the experience. We then narrowed the photos down to a selection of 24 images that we deemed most expressive. We composed them into a 6x4 modular picture frame so we could view the images individually as well as collectively. This helps us see their potential as visual communicators - an image alphabet of sorts- that we will use to express the building.
Out of those 24 images, we selected four to six that we felt, when composed together, constituted a visual (retinal) and/or verbal (narrative) expression of the building. We then jotted down three or four words next to each image that verbally expressed what the images visually expressed.
Two types of meaning regrading the building are beginning to emerge, often from of the same image and or word. The first, is the denotative meaning of the word and/or image - the literal meaning, for example - “window” as a clear class rectangle within a wall. The second is the connotative meaning of the word and/or image. This is the symbolic or interpretative meaning - for example: “window” as a means of discovery.
We should now have a pretty good set of words and images that we can begin to use as visual elements to explore and either “unveil” or “create” a message about the building.
We discussed in class the concept of designing in or from the point of view of the “past”, the “present”, or the “future”. It was postulated that designing in the past constituted relying on previous experience to dictate a design. In other words, doing the design the way you have always done it - using your style, doing it your way. Designing in the future constituted thinking about the project and preconceiving a solution - second-guessing what would work. Both of these approaches are usually utilized when the designer is trying to express "their” interpretation of the message.
In this design project the professor is hoping the student will design more in the “present” - which means being “insightful and aware” while shooting (looking, sensing, selecting and composing meaning) the photographs, while selecting and composing (looking, sensing and recognizing meaning) the images, while writing (looking, sensing and listening) the words expressing the images, etc.
Another concept we discussed in class was the designer as “mediator” of the message. Someone who assisted in the communication process between sender and audience. Each student was asked to come up with a word that they associated with this type of designer/client/message relationship.
Designing in the “present” is more a journey of design, where the designer discovers and/or uncovers the message, rather than creates the message with his her own ego. Another way to think about it is, as the designer you are helping the building (sender and/or message) express itself. Either way, by designing in the present, the information begins to determine the solution, rather than the designer imposing it. If thinking about design this way is frustrating and confusing, then don't worry about it… just begin designing as you see fit.
The interaction of a viewer with a designed artifact - whether it be a poser, a billboard, a book, a package, a film, or logo - is experiential. In other words, the act of looking, perceiving, thinking, interpreting, and reacting to a message within a design is a process. The object of design we will be creating will be a 6x6, six panel, accordion page book. We will print it on the large Epson printer in the digital lab and the cost should only be $5.
The objective of this project is to think about this “messaging process” and how you as a designer direct communication via your design. A useful metaphor for some of you might be to think of your images and words as dancers, the art and design building as the theme of the dance, the book as the stage, and you as the choreographer, but most importantly, your design - the layout, the colors, the image manipulations, the typefaces, positive and negative space - all as the dance. Again, if thinking about your design this way is frustrating and confusing, then don't worry about it… just begin designing as you see fit.
The schedule for this final class project will be as follows:
Thursday, November 20th Project Launched
- Explore and shoot at least 36 photographs of the art and design building.
- Select 24 of the image and arrange them in a 4x6 modular grid format.
- Due posted on your blog the beginning of class on Tuesday, November 25th.
Tuesday, November 20th Class Discussion / Work in Class
- Choose six of your images that seem to work together as a message. Layout them out in a sequential order. Look at them see how they are working, and.or not working – both visually and verbally. Determine three words that relate to each of your images and position them next to the image that correspond to.
- Setup your book design in InDesign and/or Illustrator. Use your individual image/word pairings as individual page markers.
- Specifications: Six pages; Flat Size- 6 x 6"; Folded Size- 6 x 6"; Prints One Side, Accordion Fold.
- Investigate two of your six images (without the words) as outlined in the handout above entitled Composition is More than Aesthetics. Visually plot the two images using transparent CMYK notations as shown in the examples as the bottom of the handout – Inherent Image Structure in Yellow, Inherent Message Hierarchy in Blue, and Inherent in Magenta. Compose the three visual points of view together as in the last example.
- Due posted on your blog the beginning of class on Tuesday, December 2nd.
Tuesday, December 2nd Class Discussion / Work in Class
Thursday, December 4th Class Discussion / Work in Class
Tuesday, December 9th Last Day of Class - Final Book Due, 10:000
