SX: PROJECT ONE PROCESS - 02

Majority of the traffic flow to our school for first time visitors comes from Main Street. For our scenario we've chosen to focus on a visitor who is traveling from Main Street, to 43rd, to Warwick and decides to street park their vehicle along the east side of campus on 44th Street.

Concept

Our system focuses on the idea of layers. As a institution in one regard, we're layered in the sense that we're comprised of students, departments, and different schools to make up the Kansas City Art Institute. However, its also about the layering of thoughts and ideas, of people and collaboration that truly embodies the essence of the artist and what our school is about.In our proposal, the bright colors represents the spirit and energy of the school. These colors are juxtaposed against a dark brushed metal to not only allow them to stand out within the surrounding environment, but to also make them the focal point of the system. Additionally, because it's common for art students to work late into the night. We want the layers of the signs to light up and become a visualization of the creative spirit at play.

Interior Program

Exterior Program

Sign Elements

Directional / Accessible Entrance / Site Identifier (front & back)

Light Poles / Street Sign / Traffic Directional / Banners

Over-street directional/site identifier/ traffic

Traffic

 

Building Signs & Bathroom Sign

Other Process

Wayfinding can be dangerous for silhouette folk

Wk 2: Workin' On Degree Project Feedback

First the most adorable thing ever.



1. start looking into formal rules I can play with. this will be a large part of my project. 

• summarize entire songs/albums in one item
• manipulation of a seemingly normal item to become "evil" For example Howlin' Wolf's "Spoon"
• It could fill spoon full of coffeeCould fill spoon full of teaBut a little spoon of your precious loveCould had enough for me
  Men lies about themSome of them dies about themSome of them cries about themBut everything fightin' about the spoonfulThat spoon, that spoon, that
• manipulate type to show song themes. (to show angst, loneliness, love, debt, religion, melancholia)
• collage always using a set number (1-100) of images for each artifact. 
• tell the story of a song in basic shapes, lines, planes of color, or repetition of a modular item
• images that can be seen as two different things
• rhetorical tropes
• overlay of transparencies to create layers to create juxtapositions
• work with sequence of layers and reveals to create narrative

2. how to get the point of sale? (getting this to kids)

• i got to the blues through led zeppelin because i trusted them
• jack white also talks a lot/ influenced by the blues, such as Son House & Reverend Gary Davis.
• promote through a trusted person
• through a timeline of how blues led to modern music
• modern aesthetic revamp
• interesting collectible swag
• get to them really young/ during hormonal everything is horrible puberty
• shown on t.v./ mainstream media

3. artifacts 

• album covers
• posters 
• digital ads
• large urban wall murals
• band swag
• small collectible prints/ art
• downloadable cards
• buttons
• bumper stickers
• flasks/ everyday items with band stuff on them
• hip, ironic t-shirts/ trucker hats/ apparel
• 45s for music enthusiasts that listen to vinyl 

4. locations

• coffee shops 
• music stores
• facebook/ twitter ads
• itunes store
• spotify ads
• bookstores
• bars
• downtown/ westport-like areas

4. why do kids find this music inaccessible?

• not mainstream/ nobody talking about it
• not readily available/ not easy to just jump into
• old people connotations
• not exposed to the different types of blues/ only acquainted with the basic stereotypical guitar line 
• poor aesthetic portrayal
• presentism

5. modern blues album covers (2012-2013)

6. initial timeline

wk 3

m: formal presentation of wk 1-2

w: refine concept, audience, etc based on feedback

wk 4

m: DESIGN (formal explorations)

w: DESIGN (formal explorations)

wk 5

m: presentation wip

w: DESIGN (formal explorations)

wk 6

m: presentation wip

w: DESIGN (formal explorations)

wk 7

m: mid-term presentation

w: refine work based on mid-term presentation (formal explorations)

wk 8

spring break

wk 9

m: refine work based on mid-term presentation (formal explorations)

w: refine work based on mid-term presentation (formal explorations)

wk 10

m: present wip

w: final refinement of work based on mid-term presentation (formal explorations)

start formal presentation

wk 11

m: 1st draft formal presentation

w: refine formal presentation

wk12

m: 2nd draft formal presentation

w: refine formal presentation

wk13

m: final presentation

Howlin' Wolf Explains The Blues

SX: PROJECT ONE PROCESS - 01

After walking around the school and scouting out locations in which directions would be necessary, Smak and I started to think of concepts for our signage. Our first thoughts were of the materials, which would be inspired by the materials used in the different majors. The first concept we came up with deals with the individual artist vs. the school as a whole as shown through layering. 

Concept 1: breaking it down with layers

student -> departments -> school of fine arts/school of design -> kansas city art institute

In my iterations for this concept the bright yellow is used to show the school's self-described essence of energy and activity. Layered on top of this yellow plane is a glass plate, which stands for the theoretical information that is imparted upon the student in their physical studios. These empirical studios are displayed in hard metal on top.

directional signage

site signage and parking info

Concept 2: growth

The second concept comes from the growth in which a student undergoes in their formative years while in school. The use of scale changes is used to show this concept. 

My signage includes the use of knockout type and layers to convey the same concept of individual -> school found in the first concept. Gradual change of physical elevation in the typography further shows the concept of growth. 

First there is a glass layer, then wood with knocked-out type showing
the glass underneath. The department names are inlaid with maple.  

Career Goals & Strategy

Career Goals:
I want to work at a firm that allows for formal exploration, analog work, and printed goods. I don't want to create apps or commercial greeting cards. Another aspect I would like for my eventual career to hold is the ability to use humor on a fairly regular basis. My eventual goal in life is to have my own design studio with a shop and a connected restaurant. The studio would focus on creating handmade objects to be sold in the shop. 

Strategy:
Right now, I'm planning on getting a job after graduation that fulfills my love of analog and humor. Hopefully while at this firm I'll be able to learn enough of the business side of the industry that I will eventually be able to open my dream studio ever so many years down the line. This initial job will get me acclimated to the design working force. I also plan on traveling to learn and work even more from different places. 

DP Wk 1: Question/ Visual Landscape/ Research/ Solutions

Restated Question:
How can abstract, formal, and typographic experimentation help make old blues music accessible and attractive to new listeners?


Visual Landscape:
First off, if you google the blues:

Lots of black, white. and blue

Vintage Album Covers:

Modern album covers:

Vintage Blues posters:

Modern Blues posters and publicity:

Grego has brought the formal qualities to a hip printed illustrative
quality but still relies on the image of the musician

Formal inspiration:

rhetorical trope: women = death?

Cal Arts Inspiration (gracias señor Galloway for the tip): 

On Formalism:

"…is no transcendent meaning to that discipline other than the literal content created by a practitioner. For example, formalists within mathematic claim that mathematics is no more than the symbols written down by the mathematician, which is based on logic and a few elementary rules alone."

"Formalists within a discipline are completely concerned with "the rules of the game," as there is no other external truth that can be achieved beyond those given rules." 

"… formalism can be applied to a set of notations and rules for manipulating them which yield results in agreement with experiment or other techniques of calculation … no mathematical semantics exists, the calculations are often said to be purely formal."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formalism_(philosophy)

"… a work's artistic value is entirely determined by its form—the way it is made, its purely visual aspects, and its medium. Formalism emphasizes compositional elements such as color, line, shape and texture rather than realism, context, and content."

"… comprehending a work of art is contained within the work of art. The context for the work, including the reason for its creation, the historical background, and the life of the artist, is considered to be of secondary importance."

"… that 'eidos' (or shape) of a thing included our perceptions of the thing, as well as those sensory aspects of a thing which the human mind can take in."

"… the mental processes and social preconceptions an individual brings to art are more important than the essential, or 'ideal', nature of the thing. Knowledge is created only through socialization and thought, they said, and a thing can only be known as it is filtered through these mental processes."

"… became used by the Bolsheviks (Soviets) for any kind of art that was for its own sake. It became a dirty word like "art for art's sake,"

"… Platonic definition for Form as a collection of elements which falsely represent the thing itself and which are mediated by art and mental processes. A second view argues that representational elements must be somewhat intelligible, but must still aim to capture the object's 'Form'." 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formalism_(art)

Dieter Rams Good design:

• is innovative
• makes a product useful
• aesthetic
• makes a product understandable
• is unobtrusive
• is honest
• is long-lasting
• is thorough down to the last detail
• is environmentally-friendly
• is as little design as possible

  https://www.vitsoe.com/us/about/good-design

'Form is not the goal but the result of our work.' Fads are governed by the same immutable laws of form as are other visual phenomena. Wishful thinking will not make them go away; and one can no more escape from the exigencies of form than from one's shadow. To poke fun at form or formalism is to poke fun at Roger Fry, Clive Bell, John Dewey, and the philosophy called aesthetics. Ironically, it also pokes fun at trendy design, since the devices which characterize this style of 'decoration' are, primarily, formal. Furthermore, it denies what the great historian, painter, and architect of the Renaissance, Vasari,9 had already stated about design (form): 'It is the animating principle of all creative processes.'
http://www.mkgraphic.com/chaos.html


Possible Solutions and artifacts:

• modernized posters to be hung in music heavy locations
• modernized album covers to compete next to current music
• campaign using modern tech
• illustrative style based on song lyrics
• use of rhetorical tropes to display meaning/ subjects found in songs
• typographic manipulations (to show angst, loneliness, love, debt, religion, melancholia)
• abstraction of subjects (same ones as listed in typographic manipulations)

Feedback From Marty:

• Start looking into formal rules I can play with. This will be a large part of my project. 
• Look into the design of modern blues albums.
• How to get the point of sale? (getting this to kids)
• i got to it through led zeppelin cause i trusted them
• jack white also talk a lot about the blues, such as Son House.
• artifacts (locations, which things will be best poster vs album)
• why do kids find this music inaccessible?
• possibly remove abstract and typographic from question farther down the line.