Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Wk 9: Howlin' Wolf, Back Cover, and Collection Logo

This week I went back to the first cover, Howlin' Wolf's self-titled album, that I had tried the transparency process on. I applied my technique/process of blind serendipitous overlaying that I developed in weeks 6 & 7. I also concretely defined some rule sets I had been playing with for these albums. The protagonist character must always appear in blue in the same location on each cover. Elements that are shared between songs must use the same image and color for each cover. For example, the words heart, rain, and sun are used in multiple songs. 

I also started to work on the back covers of the albums. I used this space to clarify the album titled since it had been brought up that the text was difficult to read on the front cover on some of the artifacts. I'm also using the back to give information on the artist and their historical significance. To bring this collection together and make them appear like a legitimate set of artifacts put out by a real entity I created I logo to apply to the back. The acronym BRR stand for "Blues Record Revival." BRR also references the feeling of the blues as a cold feeling, which is described as "a low-down shakin' chill" by Robert Johnson in Preaching Blues. 

To add further realism I created a method of creating serial numbers for the albums. The serial for Howlin' Wolf's album is V# HWC2.10325. The equation for this is V# + artist initials + C (for cover) + version.iteration + date as mm/dd.




3/5 albums done 

don't look at the quotation marks.
they have been fixed. :)

digital and with printed dot matrix




Sunday, March 24, 2013

SX: P2 Wk 4?

After starting on a model based on 1/4 scale we have switched to 3/8. We are currently trudging along on that. 




Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Wk 7: Presentation & Refinement

feedback from midterm crit
patrick: photographed on the light table? or scanned? the layering is more obvious maybe on the table. 

matthew: is the type printed? the images and your treatment are really refined, but your type feels a little like an afterthought.

patrick: does the vinyl cover have these layers, or is it reproduced flat?

abby: i'd love to see what happens when you project something.

lillie: is each image at a different opacity? play around with that… maybe not make an entire transparency the same opacity, like maybe the transparency could vary, like the crowd of people could be at different levels.

marty: if it's not in your final ruleset to use all 11 pieces, maybe use fewer.

patrick: have you ever experimented with transparent bases and screenprinting? multiplying ink instead of transparencies. or running it through the konica multiple times. 

marty: i think this is a really interesting process of formmaking. go back to the analog type of the dot book… try out different sizes and collages and changes. 

jw: colors? archetypal objects and colors?

collin: it's already pretty psychedelic, so watch out with the type… keeping it plain might speak to the blues roots more than doing too much, but try to balance for variety.


moving on
Moving on from this I started to look at my treatment of type in the next album cover with the intention of applying any new techniques to last weeks cover. The cover was created in the same way with overlaid transparencies but this week the type was also included. The artist name and album cover were split onto their own transparencies and given hierarchy. The artist name is quickly read but the lighter album name does not appear as suddenly.



process




death letter redone type



Sunday, March 10, 2013

SX: P2 Wk 2

This week we looked at the style guide, the interactive shelving unit that will appear in the front room, and reevaluated what items would appear in our minimalist household rooms. we also looked into what functional screens would be needed to interact with objects.
style guide
interactive shelves with rear screens
first floor
second floor


Friday, March 8, 2013

Self-Assessment

Designing for a spatial experience has brought back to me my old love of designing objects. In the last project this was the signs and miscellaneous objects such as the lightpoles. I find it easier to work on these objects to tell a narrative then it is to work on screened based media.

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

wk 6: process experimentation & printing fun

After picking out concepts last week for how to tell the stories, this week I focused on the process in which I plan to make these album covers. Specifically looking at how the transparencies look when overlaid and how to bring them from being black & white laser prints to colorized layers.

Down in the Bottom
For Down in the Bottom I printed off my elements in a wide variety of sizes and then created the collage by hand and taping the pieces down. After this I scanned the collage as a whole image and as the individual pieces. I colorized these pieces, printed them off on separate transparencies, and scanned them all together again. 






Death Letter Blues
Trying a similar process but with more serendipitous play I printed off my elements and then rescanned them back in at 800 dpi to get the dot matrix print pattern. I once again colorized these layers, but when I created the collage this time instead of knowing exactly where everything touched I placed the image in the frame and moved it till it felt "right" in the frame. After this I turn off the layer so I couldn't see it anymore and then repeated the process ten more times. I printed the layers off one by one and didn't see how the elements interacted until i overlaid the transparencies.







Sunday, March 3, 2013

SX: P2 Wk 1


Concept 1: Mobile Phones

Mobile Phone interfaces have evolved very quickly and drastically. 







concept:
The user interface of these objects sometimes exemplify the design principles of Rams. Others seem to completely ignore them. 

For this exhibit we are proposing to take the visitor on a trip of the 10 principles showing examples of phones that do & the ones that do not. In showcasing them next to each other we are making the visitor aware of the bad design decisions they might not be aware of, convincing them of the importance of Rams's principles.  

Along the trip the visitor will, using their smart phones, design their idea of a perfect phone as they learn the principles. 


story:
Functions of the phone integrated in our life.
Its the journey through the day from the point of view of the cellphones and showcases how designed objects are used to make the user's life easier or not. 
  • which cell phones make it through the day
  • does its bad design become a hinderance to itself?

functions throughout the day:
1. Waking up (alarm clock)
  • useful
  • little design as possible

2. Listening to music while showering
  • aesthetic
  • understandable
  • honest
  • unobtrusive
  • little design as possible

3. Checking emails/socialfeed/gaming/entertainment
  • useful
  • little design as possible
  • thorough down to the last details

4. Build of the cellphone
  • innovative
  • environmentally friendly
  • little design as possible
  • long lasting