Charles and Ray Eames

Charles and Ray Eames

This post is a little research about the Eamess'. They were designers, artists, a married couple, and some super creative people. I'm not going to talk about their past because I think that's a little boring. I'd like to focus on their designs and innovative spirit. One thing I admire about these two people is the range of things they were not only involved in but became very influential including design, architecture, film making, industrial design, and furniture design.

The above chair is the Eames chair, it was made entirely of one piece of plywood with no pieces to put together. This technique involved bending and molding the plywood into the shape of a chair. It must have taken a very persistent and creative mind to finally achieve this end result.

 

Another chair sample

This is a great photo that I feel like sums up the Eames couple, and captures their fun creative attitude.

voice observation/cool building art

I found this great image of building art on AIGA's website this morning. very nice.

Happiness poster Re-do

fun use of scale

This commercial for GIECO creatively plays with scale and the small size of their spokesman.

Sol LeWitt

 

A few weeks ago we went to Mass MOCA to see the Sol LeWitt exhibit. I didn't really know what to expect knowing very little about his work. From class I knew that he plays with scale, creation process and color. Once I arrived at the museum and found the exhibit it was amazing. Some of the pieces would make me feel like I was going to fall over, some hurt my eyes to look at because the colors and contrasting values were so intense and others had amazing detail. It was definitely one thing to learn about his work from a book or computer screen and another to actually experience it for myself.  

This piece above reminded me of my happiness grid project. Staring at this so simple yet so complex set of squares with no two sets alike was so interesting and only the beginning of the experience. (the little girl said she would stand there to show scale)

This piece was a wall of tissue paper rolled into 1/2 inch circles I think it was. It covered 3 ginormous walls. One thing I noticed about almost all of Sol's work is his use of simple repeating colors, lots of primary when possible but used in a very powerful way.

 

 This might have been one of my favorite works, it literally hurt my eyes to look at it but I couldn't stop. Even looking back at this photo my eyes start to hurt.

voice

This building is the Boston Public Library on Boylston St. The corner is always very busy with people going to work, shopping, waiting for the bus or just out for a walk enjoying the area. The human traffic along with car traffic might be one of the highest volume areas in Boston. The building itself is huge, it stretches all the way down the block and is multiple floors. There is a grand entrance that I don't think is in use anymore as well as a plaza complete with steps and sculptures. It is on these steps that you will find my audience, the kids who come down in packs to skate with their friends.

My design provokes emotion from viewers in different ways, some viewers who are not skaters may feel confused in not knowing what here or not here are referring to and may try and make up their own meanings for it. Others who do know (skaters) may feel excited in seeing the huge here sign. A signal that here is a great skate spot, and feel like this is finally becoming a place for them to go/hang out.  Some people still might not even pay any attention as they walk by.

The lack of color wasn't really to much of a factor in my decision making when designing this corner. Because my audience was skaters I would have chosen black for my font color even if we had a choice, this is because it is more rebellious and commands attention whether you approve of it or not. (kind of like skating it's self).

My final typographic treatment is a little different from the assignment. I chose to put my type on the ground instead of on the wall because that is the place skateboarding happens. It also works on the ground to be a little more under cover, despite it's huge size not many people would see it initially or from very far away especially if there is heavy foot traffic and people are standing on top of it. Both of these things made putting the type on the ground a much better decision for me that on the wall. I also chose not to have anything wrap or lead you around the corner because skateboarding is probably illegal in this spot so some secrecy was needed. You need to be observant to discover the signage for yourself, both giving you the joy of discovery and trying not to lead cops right into your spot. This discretion also comes into play (although I admit not my initial intention) with the giant arrows on the building. From a distance they almost appear to be windows and to a busy worker walking by with only a half hour for lunch they would probably never see it. Finally, I have my type spilling down the stairs where you should skate. This shows the spot and also all the elements to skate on. In my future revision of this project I want to have more of the type spilling down the stairs and conform the arrow tops into more of a window look alike.

Craft observation

These cups are super detailed miniature pieces of art. I can only imagine how long it must have taken to finish this after constructing my own box and designing it. This was one of my favorites but they are all amazing. here is a link to view more. Good job not smudging any ink.
http://www.thedieline.com/blog/2010/2/16/cups-as-art.html

outside reading

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/10/pictures/111013-shark-albino-one-eyed-fetus/?source=hp_dl1_news_cyclops20111014

I found this little article on National Geographic's website about a baby cyclops shark that was found in Mexico. The shark hadn't yet been born when it's mother was caught(legally) and cut open, there were also 9 other normal sharks that had yet to be born. Initially I thought the images of the shark were really cool but then after finding out how it had been caught feel like maybe the fisherman or scientists shouldn't have killed 10 sharks in all just for some research on 1 shark...seems like a waist of sharks. To me this story started off with such great potential but then fell flat and made me feel bad for sharks. I think they need to be better protected especially in japan where they are out of control with shark killing for soup. There is so much about sharks that we don't really know and yet we are still killing them off.

This link is for a good cause in saving ocean/marine life. I appreciate their focus on sharks  and ocean trash, now they just need to get some more exposure.
http://www.projectaware.org/

type

 

These are great examples of using type creatively. The designer or artist leverages figure/ground very well and creates  very interesting/attention holding images. 

Grid Observation

I found this grid while google-ing. At first I didn't think of it as happiness (my chosen emotion) but then after looking at if for a while I got the feeling that the orange square is happy, and all the other squares are there to add contrast and magnify that one orange square.

Grid Observation

These two pieces use grid but also break the grid. In the top image, the addition of circles breaks up the square modular feel and adds a bit more complexity to the shapes. The bottom image is almost as though it wants to be a grid but keeps getting twisted and warped.

Craft

The story (below) is of an adventure. The dot out on a path moves quickly in some places and has to slow down in others. There are some obstacles along the way and sometimes the road gets blurry and some paths need to be chosen. When encountering the open white space originally I had imagined that the dot gets lost and turns back to the path, but after class like the idea that the dot goes back for more instead of the freedom of the white space.

I chose points for my story because I didn't want lines to be guiding or setting the path. I liked the idea of huge dots creating a path or a boarder that the smaller dot could not get through and would be forced to follow a path. The story might be different in the other medium by being more rigid and having a distinct path. There also would be a need for many more lines to fill up enough space to avoid having to much white space.

The photography of my cube helped to change the story by adding some blurry photos and shots with the cube not being in the center of the image. Being able to control the viewers eye helped me guide them from the left to right and added to the effect of following a path on a journey.

Craft

I broke the rules with this version of my type poster by repeating words and not using the 140 character limit but I thought it would be worth posting anyway. My intention with this was the recreate some of the grid with smaller happiness type and use color to recreate the same emotion.