poorlydrawn Blog

Type Movements

Mon, 21 Jun 2010 13:45:16 -0400

FontConf happened the other day. I’d been looking forward to it since it had been announced and I was not disappointed by the event. So much is happening right now with type for Type Designers, Graphic Designers, and Web Developers that the I can barely believe I’m around for it.

That sounds a little bizarre doesn’t it?

This is the mentality of a rather cynical Designer and slightly cynical Educator. I have been told and tell my students that everything has been done. We were all born too late to do something new and unique with the rules (or anti-rules), or with tech/tools of Design, or to even join some idealistic movement, so go out there and Design in the hope that you have your own style at the very least.

Here we are looking at a new way of distributing, using, and appreciating typography, and I find myself genuinely excited about this as a paradigm change, as something historic. Now to get my students to be as excited as I am and to be involved and experimenting.

Designer's role what with Flash dying and all...

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:31:54 -0500

This post will probably be filled with generalities. Just putting that out there; though with that disclaimer I do want to make it clear that this isn’t some sort of fanboyish cry about Flash, more a question about designer’s role in web design as Flash becomes further pigeon-holed into video players and the web moves on to HTML 5, the canvas element, Processing, and further with CSS. So when I say generalities, I mean: what does it mean to wear the title of Web Designer from a Graphic Design standpoint.I know there are circles of Designers and Programmers that don’t mind Actionscript and in turn Flash. That said, I know much larger circles of Developers and Programmers who don’t like either and think the platform could -for the benefit of the internet- disappear. What’s worse, is that their arguments are sound: Flash doesn’t index well if at all (still), it can be a resource hog, it rarely is done well, it can be completely obnoxious, etc. To someone who lives in that kind of world, it’s a particular blight. From the Designer’s perspective, Flash has been a boon to creating unusual, dynamic sites. There was the possibility to add animation, unusual layouts, type that wasn’t as limited to ‘web-safe’ fonts, and for the more ambitious, a programming language for even more interaction. From this standpoint it is the perfect tool to do what designers do best: the unusual. Flash becomes an accessible and deep tool for designers to break out of norms and explore in an effort to innovate.

Up until now Flash has been this increasingly unwieldy program, not quite sure if it’s for programming, web design, or animation. Which actually hurts both Developer, Artist, and Designer. So why not divide it? The Flex (now Flash (in beta)) Builder separates the programming side for those who don’t want/need the graphical side (or need a timeline). Catalyst lets Designers animate, layout, and prototype sites quickly and -mostly- cleanly. Somewhere in the middle for those who need both, still sits Flash. What each does right is to speak to the user’s need and ability, which could also be the problem.

Problem? In dividing the Developer and Designer? Oh yes. Design, if anything, is a means to learn whatever necessary to communicate. If that means knowing how to code, or at the very least some of the concepts of it, means they can communicate with Developers and their audience. The obvious aspect is why would they need to code regardless of that belief? That is what the Programmer is for. True enough. The worry -problem- that crops up is ‘what do Designers know?’ Depending on discipline, quite a bit, but in the case of Catalyst, it seems to reenforce that design is just to make things pretty and with it’s capabilities and removal of coding/scripting, a good flash site from a designer is a rarity (and may become more so with this separation of programs).

While that is a general fear, it does seem to reflect oddly on how Adobe views and groups people who design and develop with Flash. I can’t say that separating Flash into these new programs as the tools that allow users to do the things they want to (and quickly), but it seems like it could inadvertently stymie the curious Designer from learning more about designs limits and possibilities.

Design for a friend’s fantasy football team. Random...

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 10:26:53 -0500

Design for a friend’s fantasy football team. Random projects are the best.

Experiment: Hypno

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:58:19 -0500

Experiment: Hypno:

An experiment done with processing.js

Dialects; or how I'm proportionally more Designer than Programmer.

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:53:19 -0500

I firmly believe that as a designer I know no bounds. There is nothing that I cannot research, understand, and use for design. Though I will admit, programming can be a struggle in those terms. I can say that I am no more than a novice at such things, and while I live and talk in a language of visual medium, I can still utter phrases in thick accents of classes, conditionals, and variables.

That said, when I discovered Processing.js, I saw everything I ever did with Flash and Actionscript and immediately started to join in with every developer/programmer I know who avoid Flash like the plague. I had played with Processing, so I figured the js version would be an easy transition. I wrote the following experiment twice. Once in the regular Processing environment (so that I could easily test and make sure it worked), and again in the js environment. I quickly discovered what functioned in one, didn’t always transfer. While the same language, there were differences because of the environments. It meant a rewrite and in the end, a web version that was actually simpler than the regular environment.

Design is by no means any less frustrating, though there isn’t the same strict structure. Everything is arbitrary to some degree or another even with our rules (which I suppose is confounding to those who require a lot of order and structure) that when trying to think and organize in any other manner, becomes limiting -less flexible- than just rearranging a composition. This becomes even more frustrating when the rules we get used to then change. Limitations are ultimately what make design interesting. There were and are limits to printing which governs what can be made visually. In that way, some of the physical rules in design are strict in much the same way that Processing is strict in terms of the processes that govern its function, but it can still be used to create compositions that designers would recognize and appreciate.

I believe I drew this in Lincoln.

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 22:47:44 -0400

I believe I drew this in Lincoln.

Focus. Or lack thereof.

Sat, 06 Jun 2009 13:54:00 -0400

I’ve come to the conclusion that I may be spinning my heels a little bit. With that I should immediatly clarify: this spinning sits outside of teaching. I find teaching to be a considerable challenge and joy. The spinning comes from the subject I teach, and it’s been bothering me more and more as I keep trying to remember what I do in design. The thought has compounded into a simple question a friend (a fellow designer and professor as well) the other night: How did you get into design?

It frustrates me to no end that I cannot pinpoint a clear moment that lead me ito the field of design and ultimately of higher learning. While talking with my friend, I really only could recall that I liked art in high school. I know that (at the time) math and science only confounded me (which in hindsight may have been the teaching approach since I thoroughly enjoy the math/logic involved with Flash. Or it may have been a lack of socifistication on my part for not seeing the value.) This enjoyment of art extended itself into college, where not feeling terribly confident in my artistic skills and wanting to eventually be able to make a living, I chose design. Over time, I built a critical mind and grew terribly fond of being aware of what design does to our daily experience.

So there is justification, but here is the frightening part for me: What do I do besides teach? This is an important question because professional research/work is vital to survive my career as an educator. The problem is: what is my focus? Design and media? Articles? Social change? History? Writer? Freelance? I have everywhere to go but cannot make a step in any one direction. Freelance would be simplest, but seems to elude me at times, or will amount to a lot of work for a project that simply evaporates. Media work is interesting as it allows me to work and learn code, though there has been the question about it being design, or just odd toys. Writing feels like an option, but finding a subject has put me in a similar situation of standing at a million crossroads.

I suspect I will find some means to this end, though I can’t help but wonder how others let go of other interests, or at the very least allow them to become secondary. In retrospect, I am waffling over something that just needs to be done, but it has allowed for some very worthwhile reflection on why I’m here in the first place and has been helpful for moving me forward.

Playing with Context Free. Very interesting to see how easy it...

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 10:32:14 -0400

Playing with Context Free. Very interesting to see how easy it can be to make generative art.

contextfreeart.org

My road-trip mix tape

Sat, 07 Feb 2009 23:59:23 -0500

Always funny, not just disembodied voices, and it can be fun to play along.

Legionnaire’s Lament by Decemberists

Has just enough energy to keep me awake, and I usually start singing along with it.

Advice by the Pillows

While not heavy, after hours of driving, it wakes me up.

Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me. by NPR

My first job: DJ (radio variety)

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 00:39:03 -0500

Snagged a job as a DJ while I was in high school at a local radio station. Was quite possibly the best first job I could have had, though it didn’t really last more than a summer.

How much detail?

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 00:32:22 -0500

I think I have a project. Though I need to actually follow through on this one. I don’t want to say much about it otherwise I may just consider the loosing of it from my fingers to be enough progress on it and call it a day. I will say that it is an extension of the plan to remember at least one thing said in my dreams every night.

Portfolio 1-on-1

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 14:39:29 -0500

I decided towards the end of the last semester I needed to become more involved with the design world in the Cities since it is close-ish to the university. Of course I decide this as I recieved an email from the AIGA asking for volunteers for the annual portfolio 1-on-1 in the spring. The timing is perfect, and I should (thoretically) have more time to spend/contribute to the project. Why not join in?

Afterall, it is an upper midwestern rite of passage for many graphic design students. Granted in my own design education, I passed on the event. My experience with it didn’t come about until I was in graduate school at Iowa State and hearing stories from students in the classes I TA’d. Most of them were excited to have gone, but there was also stories that it was tough. Honestly, this was a good sign to me, since it gave them a good kick as to what firms look for from designers. Not to mention how they can strengthen their own work.

And depending on what year the student goes into the review, they might end up with an internship or job. There is definitely nothing wrong with that.

The flipside that I can use for my own students is to push them to organize their portfolios, enter, and see what happens.

letterDecay: Update

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 22:20:17 -0500

There is a small change in the program. It works more consistently (the focus thing is still annoying), but the file that it asks you to download lacks the .jpg extension. It is still a jpg file, but just doesn’t show the extension. Why? Good question. I’m pretty sure it has something to do with the string I’m passing to php from actionscript, but I can’t quite figure it out. It is suppose to name the file with the day(week and of month)/month/year that the file is created. The one that is downloaded is trucated to the day of the week…

Anyway, still works, give it a try: letterDecay.

letterDecay

Fri, 05 Dec 2008 19:17:00 -0500

Another flash experiment I’ve been calling letterDecay. This time a little less concept and a little more random composition. This project has been a good learning experience with Actionscript 3 and what bitmaps can do (as opposed to using the vector drawing tools).

The project spawned from sketches of a dimensional number 5. A possible sculpture that nature had overtaken. While a building might still be (mostly) recognizeable under a covering of foliage, a letterform may not survive to remain ledgible. This turned into to create a flash program to recreate this idea of vines sprouting from the letterform to deconstruct the form. In the end it mostly does this, though my attempts to get the circles to actually start from the point’s initial origin inside the letterform, it at least no longer starts all three points at the same position around the circle.

I also decided that this would be a good program to keep the results of without having to take a screenshot of it each time. I have to thank the tutorial at HenryJones.us, which is also spurring me to figure out a more php so I can make a copy for the user and a copy to store on the server.

P.S. Flash is wierd; if you try this and nothing happens when you press a key on your keyboard, it is because flash doesn’t have focus in the browser. Just click anywhere inside the browser and then try typing a letter/number.

Possible research project

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 17:21:57 -0500

On a local level, in this case we’ll say the department and it’s students majoring in art and design, which travels faster: word of mouth or text/twitter?

This is a response to the idea of being able to virtually tag a space with information. The initial concept was to be able to allow students to update things that appear in the halls and in the display cases and add comments to them (playing off of Streetview and the possibilities of Android). An interesting form of critique (albeit likely a poor idea considering internet trolling) on a larger scale, using any of the student body that had a response as they passed the cases or posters in the halls.

With that idea pretty much rendered pointless, the concept shifted and evolved into which is more useful to the students as a community. Actual conversation, or facebook updates, or twitter? I still want this to boil back to the idea of critique and something a bit more disjointed than a larger critique in class (without having to rely on a blog).

More if I think about it and how I can even relate this to design.

The bare minimum

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 12:02:52 -0500

Next year (or whenever I have GDII next), I want to tell my students that they only get to use the fonts from this book.

Why? Because even in their second class of graphic design, I’m noticing students using strange and unusual fonts for projects that don’t always need them. While they need to experiment with type and explore possibilities, I notice that when they need a style of font it results in a trip to the nearest free font website to get what they need. Not that that is bad either (in the case of actual free fonts). Where the disconnect happens is trying to tie some of these wild display fonts with something more legible. Or in the case of the group project we’re in the middle of now, not everyone has that particular type.

There are a number of problems with grabbing these typefaces at random because they strike a fancy. Most of them stem from not really taking the time to understand the mechanics of a particular typeface or its true approriateness for a particular project.

I am sure that I would hear no end of grumbling saying no to such usage, but just in the previous project I talked students into creating their own type instead of going for the quick and possibly less powerful route. I saw some great authentic type without the pairing problems or having a font that was the best they could find to fit the project.

This also takes advantage of what they learn in their letterform class. Now I’m at the true heart of the matter. Application. Quickly snagging a font makes it easy to forget that they know the anatomy of type and how to apply that to create something new.

To summarize: I blame the internet. Which is a grumpy old man argument against something I believe is hindering their personal style and understanding of typography. The solution may or may not be telling them what fonts they can use, but in convincing them they have the skills to try to make their own if workhorse fonts don’t cut it.

Information vs Emotion

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 11:46:00 -0400

In my graphic design II classes, I like the idea to incorporate a project that introduces students to information design. Mainly due to my own belief that design is more than making posters with kick-ass graphics to get people’s attention. I can certainly blame graduate school, where an informed designer could make a more effective design as opposed to just going with existing minimal knowledge and a knee-jerk emotion/opinion on the most jarring graphics to get the point across.

While most students don’t have a problem with researching, even when difficult, I run into those who don’t like the subject matter (they are randomly given real topics). Some would rather create these pieces off of random knowledge and information. While that does let them create at their whim, and potentially more enjoyable, I hesitate to just let them run free. If the topic is too shallow, the information will be shallow. This then leads to the argument of: ‘why research anyway?’ Which always makes me die a little inside.

Not that I doubt the intelligence of the students (they have a tendancy to wade through all their research and find just the right nugget of information), but I feel that the point is easily missed about the responsibilities of a designer. There is a need to dig and research for information to use, to legitimize the stands that will be made with any particular design. Any emotional response can eventually be numbed, and rational thought can pick apart any baseless emotional argument.

Changes

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 14:47:00 -0400

So the new design is up, but not everything is in place. Mainly because I am no where near various source files that would make up a lot of the student work I want to update and my own multimedia work. I am definitely taking advantage of twitter, tumblr, and vimeo to make maintaining a site as simple as possible. I think/hope.

I went for minimal, and I’m still debating a background pattern… I’m trying to resist.

In the meantime, click around and see what works.

Where My Mind is Currently

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:49:07 -0400

This fall, I’m leading senior studio. The goals of the class are pretty intense, like the kinds of all-encompassing projects I got used to in grad school. That said, I hope to have time to address design issues over the course of the semester.

Ethics and defining art and design seem to be my direction at the moment. Or how art and design is defined for us; which is frightening at times. This sounds a bit vague and cryptic and it is. Mainly because I’m missing most of my sources at the moment, but one aspect/example would be Thank You for Smoking. Another would be the threshold for what is/isn’t satire.

Some of these things are addressed in the designer’s day to day career. I suppose what I want them to walk away with (and what I need to develop for them) is the understanding that design is a surprising force, and while designers can be a bit idealistic, and this is closer to reality. These represent the polar opposites of design’s effect on society (albeit in t-shirt/poster form), design cannot save the world, it can inspire, inform, incite, and coerce individuals and society.

Best Intentions

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 18:48:55 -0400

In my many attempts to have a blog alongside my portfolio, failure always follows in a consistent way: I never have anything to say about design other than the rants I’ve already spou. This failure is usually followed by the fact that whatever design I’ve created for poorlydrawn never includes an aspect of the blog on the main page. It is always something that has to be navigated to.

So in this iteration, I hope to at least solve the technical problem. Granted I need to brush up on php (apparently) and work on redesigning poorlydrawn with the blog in mind (for once).

*fingers crossed*