Week 8 :: Graphic interpretation of Visuals & Text
Our assignment was to use one of the texts from the handout from class, and to reinterpret the visuals the graphics and using Adobe Indesign create a new layout for it, a new representation of the information.
I chose the Gettsyburg address for one main reason: I doubted anyone else in class would do it (and I was right).
I was recently given an Edward Gorey book as a gift, and I've been inspired by his pen illustrations and decided my representation would be a pen illustration, all hand-drawn. My other obession has always been Arabic calligraphy and how the calligraphy itself forms shapes and beautiful creatures and people.
So I used both ideas to create Abe. However, I will revisit this again and do it properly - I didn't realize my vision. I also didn't have access to a scanner at the time, so this assignment was done using digital images of my drawings. So it definately looks a bit weird.
This week we were supposd to sketch creatures using the techniques we learned in class. Then when we drew a creature we liked, we had to scan it, and color it (bring it to life) in photoshop.
I'm obsessed with diving, and I vividly remember one of my night dives near Abu Nahas off a remote island, and I saw 2 ENORMOUS Giant Moray Eels. They were several meters long, and about a meter wide in diamater. HUGE, beautiful animals. Hence, my monster was born....
The assignment was to create a simple animation in Adobe AfterEffects, using our building assignment from last week. This was my first time to use AE, and so the animation isn't too fancy. I will probably revisit it.
The assignment was to create a collage using newspaper clippings, billboards, signs, and create a building. I chose one of the buildings on my way to school: this church on Broadway. I think the architecture is beautiful. I was really inspired by the Dada movement and Dave McKean's work.
I wanted to create a disjointed yet unified image of the churge. So I took pictures of it from different angles, different times of day and different resolutions. Then I made a collage of these images. I wanted to make the church appear handrawn and I wanted to saturate the collage with different splashes of color and textures. For the text, I knew that I didn't want it to be simply cut & pasted into the collage, so I created movement with them: the walking legs of text, and the askew building of text.
I couldn't decided which image is nicer. I personally like the pinks, blues and greys, but it seems most people like the greens, oranges and earthy tones more.
"Since Flash appeared on the scene the rules as to what a Web page should be no longer apply." - Yogu Nakamura
Yugo Nakamura (b1970) is considered one of the pioneers in interactive systems in digital/networked environments, and one of the most interesting/unique interface designers. His background was in civil engineering, which led to a natural interest in the relationship between a user and his/her environment/surroundings. He is not only an engineer, but a designer, director and a coder.
His work is all about creating a new communication environment and getting an emotional response from the user. Yogu is trying to redefine the relationship between users and their interaction with the web environment; to create a “unique communicaton experience”. To acheive this, he has to sacrifice usability for aesthetics. Many of his visitors consider his work very "user unfriendly."
there's usability... but there's also joy ...
there's that simple fun of being able to touch and feel,
that can draw you deeper into a web experience. (Nakamura)
Consequently, his aim is to design the nature of the users' relationship with their environment.
Yogu has been strongly influenced by John Maeda, because Maeda introduced him to a new paradigm; the computer is no longer just a tool, but a "creative catalyst".
...I think I did learn what it might mean to express something
from within the computer's own environment.
that was the basic paradigm I learned from john maeda-san. (Nakamura)
He is interested in the craftsmanship of design and production and believes it is not related to technology but to the spirit. His work is organic and has a feeling of fluidity in the design; his work is mostly done in Flash. Some of his work has been in claymation. His most clever work, in my opion, is the Ecotonoha site. Users from all over the world collaborate together to build a tree. Each user can add leaf nodes to the tree with their name and a message. As the virtual tree grows, NEC will plant a new tree for every leaf created.
“I am developing an alternative approach to visual communication on the web.” - Yogu Nakamura
Assignment
Using either warm grey markers sketches or charcoal drawings create hints of cityskapes and landscapes. Scan the sketches, throw them into photoshop and start creating different evironments.
These are my four charcoal drawings. I followed the exact instructions from class to create the abstract images.
I created 9 different environments, but here I'll only showcase five images. Each one was created by layering the charcoal drawings.
The next step was to choose on of our new environments, and spend time on it, refining it, applying filters, etc.
