El Lissitzky

A Russian born artist, designer, photographer and typographer who has Inspired my work in many different ways. I love the style of his work which was developed from the Bauhaus movement. The use of the space with the abstract geometric shapes to create his images I feel is a unique and interesting technique of working as it intrigues the viewer. 





Influenced by His technique and style of working I did some experiments for my New Visual Language brief.

Experiment 1 - Simple experiment

Starting of with a basic design using the same composition and layout of Lissitzky's work using his main theme colours, red white and black. I however linked the content of this experiment to my brief.

Experiment 2 - Manipulating the structure of type.

Taking this a step further I do another experiment using again the same colours however this time I play with the structure of the type. Using the Bauhaus font I manipulate the structure of the letter 'N'.  

Experiment 3- Adding 3D effects to Geometric Shapes

 Developing my experiments further I use more geometric shapes and try to make it much more complex than the previous experiments building up on layers adding drop shadow effects to create 3D effects.  I also attempt in creating a 3D effect with the red rectangles in the middle by altering the positioning and the opacity of the shape to create a 3D effect. Another way in how I created a 3D effect is with the grey box at the top using darker and lighter shades as side shadows which I drew using the pen-tool.

Experiment 4 - Building up on Layers

My last experimentation I built up the layers to create a much more sophisticated piece. I added a light background colour. I built up layers using different geometric shapes in colour and altered the opacity levels so all layers can be visually seen. I also inversed linear stripes into the shape of a circle which I duplicated and altered the opacity levels using them into the background. Using more shapes than circle, rectangle and a square Here I create a triangles using the pen-tool. Also I use a curve I created by drawing a normal circle and using the circle marquee tool another circle on top and cut of most of the circle leaving behind this sharp curve. This Last experimentation has got to be my favourite one.


El Lissitzky's work not only inspired some design work for the New visual Language brief but inspired my designs for the Typeface brief.

Typeface 1  - Inspired by El Lissitzky

Looking at the Geometric Shapes I was strongly inspired by El Lissitzky's work. The use of his abstract shapes gave me great ideas and influenced my typeface styles. Influenced by the abstract curves and lines I created the first typeface using one shape per letter. Developing from this to create my second typeface I used the composition of his abstract shapes and combined them to all to form one letter, so I used more than one shape for each letter.

Typeface 2 - Inspired by El Lissitzky

Influenced by El Lissitzky's work

Above is my final Typeface I created on Illustrator which I think looks very effective. It's something different from the normal monotony font styles, it's classy constructive and unique.

Brand Yourself

I wanted to attend the Brand yourself workshop but it was fully booked so looking at the people's work who attended I myself went and had attempt of creating a Branding Icon for myself.

Brand Yourself Experiment

Manipulating type adjusting the kerning to merge both letter's together as one letter, I changed colours, added drop shadow, emboss effects onto the type to give it a 3D effect. To experiment different styles I used a gradient square win which I altered the layer styles to create a gradient shadow effect over the type itself. To that I also experimented with the Hue and Saturation levels to see the different effects of the gradient. I also tried using a circle gradient in the background using bright and light colours to contrast with the black and whit of the type. I really like this experiment and will expand on this to create a logo to represent me. 

Character Rigging workshop

To try something new I went to a character rigging workshop normally advised for the animation students. To experiment with something new I went and tries it out anyway which I found was the most confusing and complicated workshop ever yet. Using the software Cinema 4D to create a character from scratch and then to add movements to make it walk. 

Unfortunately all my screenshots that I had taken for this exercise have been deleted from my University folder which I had no back up of.

However we started with creating a basic cylinder in which we rigged using anchor points to create it to bend. This workshop I feel wasn't for me as it was to technical and way to confusing with the amount of technological terms and functions involved however on the positive side I got the experience of how to create a small animation which in fact requires a huge amount of work!


 
character rigging workshop from Itba Kauser on Vimeo.

This was my Final Animation I created that day, which in my opinion is a good attempt for a first try.

Typography

This is one small brief I actually have enjoyed to create our own Font. We was asked to look at different artists work as inspiration and from their work to look at the shapes and patterns which we were then to form the letters A,N,E,S,G. using these. The reason we has to start of with these specific letters was to see if they would work well enough to create the whole alphabet. I started using different mediums, materials and techniques to create my experiments e,g, compass to get a perfect round, rulers for the straight lines, I used fine liners and watercolors to create shadows of light and dark. I used different artist's work to get a mixed outcome with my experimentation's, as I then had a variety of shapes and materials to be working from. 

Experimentation sheet 1

Experimentation sheet 2

After creating an array of experiments of which I was happy enough to work with my next step was to create 3 full alphabets from these experiments. I choose my 3 favorite's 2 inspired by El Lissitzky and one by Wyndom Lewis. 

El Lissitzky Inspired Type Font

El Lissitzky Inspired Type Font

Wyndom Lewis Inspired Type font

Once I had completed all 3 type fonts I had then choose which I felt was the best one and my main favorite which was inspired by El Lissizky's work.

 This image above is what inspired my type font. Using the different shapes and curves I merged them both together within each letter, using the thin lines as well as the thin. I also used the aspects of the curvy lines as well as the straight. Inserting the similar shapes into my font with the use of the circles.
  

Final Type

Once choosing which design I decided to have as my final I once again drew a sketch of the whole alphabet in the same type font but much more precisely using a ruler and going over the final in black fine-liner.Boxing out each letter making them the same size.

Final digital Type

The next step after I finalized my type font I scanned in the sheet and using Adobe Illustrator I drew out each letter using the pen tool and the line tool. To create the perfect circles I also used the ellipse tool. This gave me a smart and neat look to my finished type. Using Illustrator In the process and production classes have helped me a lot in understand and using the software which I now find better and much more easier to use than pen-tooling on Photoshop.

Graphic Design Timeline (Link)

Looking at the timeline within the Art and Design history I Came across a site of the Graphic design timeline, which explains the movements the artists around and the events around on the timeline. I find this useful to gain some background history but also love the layout of the site and how Its explained in simple terms and is't over complicated or over crowded with information.

http://gdh.2rsolutions.cz/

Kinectic Typography

As part of the after effect workshop I missed kinectic typography due to the weather stopping me to travel. So I caught up on this at home in my own time. And I feel I have done quite a good job. I used the help ofYoutube tutorials to enable sound whilst editing. As I had recently watched fast and furious 7 the song It's been a long day was in my head so i decided to do kinectic typography besed on the first line for this. So I downloded the audio track from a copyright free source I had found and imported just the first line into Adobe after effects. Matvhing the words to the exact time sequence was quite hard and very time consuming . Using the different effect to create the words flying in from all over the screen I feel I did pretty well as a final outcome which I am actually pleased with.



Kinetic Typography from Itba Kauser on Vimeo.

Avant Garde

In the first half today's Seminar we was introduced to the historic modern art type face Avant Garde. In the second half of the seminar we were briefly introduced to the art design styles and movement timeline. Below are my Notes from that seminar.

Lecture Notes

Lecture Notes

Inspired by the Avant Garde Typeface I decided to do some research of my own of the type face itself.

Name of the font in the typeface



Different mediums to the font

 Avant Garde was originally created by Herb Lubalim for the cover of a Magazine for his own design firm called Herb Lubalim incorporation. This typeface was originally designed to be a commercial typeface being a logo for a magazine. This was later developed by himself and Tom Carnase to become it's very own Typeface.



"Lubalin’s letterforms with tight-fitting combinations reflected Ginzburg’s desire to capture “the advanced, the innovative, the creative.” The character fit was so perfectly tight that they created a futuristic, instantly recognizable identity for the publication." - http://www.thinkingforaliving.org/archives/147

My experiments inspired by the original typeface

As I was influenced by the style of Avant Garde I experimented with the style using different fonts to which I manipulated the kerning, sizing of the characters low key lettering and adding the Italic to the first letters to get the slanted effect of the Avant Garde.

For the first 3 I used the font Britannic Bold experimenting with how it would look in Low key lettering as well as in Capitals.

The middle 2 I used the font Calibri adjusting the kerning and the sizing of the lettering.

The last My favourite out of them all I used the Font Century Gothic. this I feel has got to be the best experimentation out of them all due to the lettering flow together well even with adjusting the kerning.   



History of Graphic Design Avant Garde from Minji Aye Hong on Vimeo.

Saw this on Vimeo which I find very inspirational and clever of how it's merged the main movements together into a small animation. Interesting way to remember the movements along with it's design style.