Scratching away instead of ripping pages

Scratching away instead of ripping pages 

I would have liked to refine the final outcome further however spent too much time on other areas of the project. I would have like to tested another way of presenting this concept.  Instead of tearing away pages, the poster could have worked by the audience could scratching away different sections of a design to reveal the shapes underneath. This idea had the potential to improve the design as it would use less paper and through placing the shapes all on one page beside one another, it would allow the audience to observe the whole series rather than individuals only reveal one stage each. It would also mean that people who don’t take part can observe the changing structure of shapes. 

Screenprinting

Screen printing 

Using found inks and paper was an initial idea of producing the designs as it prevented buying new materials and therefore linked to the message.

Before screen-printing the text on the back had to be printed, however this difficult as only some of the found paper was able to be put through the printer as some of the textured paper was too thick. 

When screen-printing the designs, it was difficult using the found inks to create block colour as the options of colours were limited and there was not enough of each to produce a clean block colour. It was also difficult to achieve a smooth finish on the different paper types and therefore it was attempted to remove the background colour and just print the shape. This caused the design to look too bare and had a more negative aesthetic. There were also practical issues with leaking emulsion on the screen causing the shapes be faded in some sections. 

Minimalist Music's influence today

Research also involved looking at what minimalist music means to its listeners today. An interview with a French DJ spoke about how characteristics of minimalist music are applied to modern day dance music. 

Video Screenshots

The back of each page :

The front :

Colour

The Cost Of Colour 

Research also involved looking into colours that were less costly than others. 

Before the mid- nineteenth century colour pigments were made form minerals animals and plants. The brightest pigment like ultramarine, gold and vermillion, were only available to the richest of people. Ultramarine in particular was one of the most expensive and desired colours. This bright blue pigment was made from the hard lapis lazuli stone. Therefore owning paintings in these colours was a sign of tremendous wealth.  

Although this was from a different time, as my project is all about not spending money using muted colour rather than brighter ones with this in mind supports the concept. Using subdued or restrained colours compared to bright and brash colours would give the aesthetic a softer tone thats easy on the eye. It also appears less as though its trying to sell you something. Colours used also aimed to be found inks.

Examples of advertisements using bright colours :

Muted colour pallet: 

 

Typography Research -

Katherine McCoy  Experimental Typography

"When one looks for experimental typography today, what one finds is not so much new typography, as new relationships between text and image. In fact, the typography so celebrated over the past ten years of structuralist dissection is disappearing. The look and structure of the letter is underplayed and verbal signification, interacting with imagery and symbols, is instead relied upon. The best new work is often aformal and sometimes decidedly anti-formal, despite the presence of some New Wave elements. Reacting to the technical perfection of mainstream graphic design, refinement and mastery are frequently rejected in favor of the directness of unmannered, hand-drawn or vernacular forms-- after all, technical expertise is hardly a revelation anymore. These designers value expression over style."

 

"Much new typography is very quiet. Some of the most interesting, in fact, is impossible to show here because of its radically modest scale or its subtle development through a sequence of pages. Some is bold in scale but so matter-of-fact that it makes little in the way of a visual statement. (One designer calls these strictly linguistic intentions "nonallusive" typography.) Typefaces now range from the classics to banal, often industrial sans serifs. Copy is often treated as just that-- undifferentiated blocks of words-- without the mannered manipulations of New Wave, where sentences and words are playfully exploded to express their parts. Text is no longer the syntactic playground of Weingart's descendants."

Ambient Century: From Mahler to Moby - The Evolution of Sound in the Electronic Age

The Ambient Century: From Mahler to Trance was an in depth study of the evolution of sound in which minimalist music was mentioned in the chapter ‘the new simplicity.’ This book was useful in describing what minimalist music was about. Minimalist music was described as “music as a gradual process’” as well as “the colour of light and the sound of rain” all these different creative descriptions helped visualize and generate ideas for an object. A particular quote that stood out was, “the very act of creating a piece of minimalistic music was the music itself.” This made me think about how important the process of making the object was rather than the end result.

Shape, Structure & Simplicity

1. Including text

2. Muted colours, making it warmer and more of a positive design 

3. Greyscale colours 

Being Minimal Is Attractive

Typography Experiments.

1. Cluttered Letters Spelling Out the Negative Outcomes of A Materialistic Lifestyle

2. Taking Up As Much Space Using Type - Illustrating the message of 'things take up space'

(The space being taken up symoolizes less time for relationships, our passions, our personal growth.)

3. A simple message using simple typography with the intention of making a big difference.

4. Using quotes found in research to communicate the message 

5. Using Space and colour to communicate what being minimal is about - making space for whats important 

6. Experimenting with interacting objects with text

- This design made the objects look desirable and to some extent advertised and therefore was not suitable.

Other :