Project 3 Reflections

I had heard about “the big letters project” as it was sometimes put from my upper classmen friends who had taken BDS. Honestly,  I was more excited for this project than most people. I just loved the big, graphic element to creating large letters that would serve a purpose on campus. I was even more excited when I found out my group was assigned the word “compress” because I knew there was a lot of potential to put it in a creative, compressed spot on campus. Compress seemed like an easy word to work with. 

Before constructing the larger 3’ models each of my team members constructed 3” models of two of the letters from our word. I constructed “m” and “p.” Both letters seemed easy to construct and were very sturdy. I knew the general idea on how to construct the larger ones, but it proved to be harder than I thought while working in a group. We thought it would be easier and faster to construct the letters with tape instead of glue, but this made the letters very wobbly and fragile. Since the tape would show through if we painted them, I suggested that we cover the letters with paper to make them look neat, unified, and not have the tape show. This was a lot more difficult than I thought. The paper sometimes came up short and did not cover the edges of the letters completely so I had to cover the edges with more paper. This made the paper look like it was just trying to cover something up instead of unifying the whole pieces. Unfortunately the letters did not come out as sturdy and cleanly covered as I wanted, but I think the clever placing of them in the stacks of the Watson Library made up for some of it.

Hand Made Book

Part of the individual project was creating a hand-made book documenting the progress of my group's construction of the 3D letters. I chose to make my book look like hands, and utilize the accordion fold method. I felt like this was perfect for my group's word COMPRESS because it allows the person who is reading my book to engage in the word itself. By opening and closing the book the reader can literally "compress" my book.

Installation of our word

Our group letters were modeled in the font Futura. I felt like this font suited our word, COMPRESS, well because Futura is a thin/narrow font which better conveys the meaning of compression. We also constructed the letters with a 3” depth, so they would not be too thick. This contributes to the meaning as well because the letters can be seen as compressed from all sides when viewed. We were not allowed to manipulate the font, but if we were our group may have considered compressing the letters even more; making them taller, but narrower on the sides. The placement of our letters was one of my favorite parks of the project because I felt like it was the perfect place to convey the meaning of compress. We chose to position the letters in the stacks of the Watson Library between two shelves of books that students would normally walk through. I think the letters were a fun and clever contribution to the stacks because unconsciously someone understands that the stacks are cramped and narrow but not consciously think it. But with the placement of our word that person can actually go into the stacks and consciously realize that the stacks are a small “compressed” space when you read our word.

Work in progress

Here are some photographs of our group working to construct our letters, and a few photographs of the final constructed letters.

The Group Word

Photo OPS

I thought this essay was very interesting because it talks about how photography was first viewed when it was first being used in the art world. Photography is a popular subject nowadays, but in the beginning photographers took on a lot of criticism. Some critics thought that photography could not be artistic like painting and drawing, and that it would be better use photography for certain things in society like advertising, legal documentation, porn, etc. But photographers argued that photography is and should be artistic because there are many aspects and steps to taking a good photograph. Some of the ways as to why photography can be classified as an art is highlighted in an article titled Photo OPS.

- Photography opens your eyes to color, texture, shape, and shadow because it pauses a moment to let you really analyze and appreciate it.

Symmetry & Asymmetry

- Symmetry comforts (easy on the brain, people are interested in symmetry found in everyday life)

- Asymmetry challenges (visual wilderness, perfect asymmetry is a judgment call

Repetition

- Repetition’s purpose is to call attention to a photo

- Repetition can be incorporated into a photo to convey conformity, accord, and harmony

- Makes you ask the question, “What’s going on here”

Framing

- Helps direct the viewer’s eye to center of interest

- Keeps eye from wandering outside photo’s border

Close Up

- Reveals beauty that may have gone unnoticed

Continuous Mode

- Reminder to have fun with photography

- 360 degree view: follow subject as it circles you and take continuous shots to get panoramic view

Movement

- Move, shake, jiggle, and twist the camera to get interesting effects

- Photos can serve as stand alone images, backgrounds, and other design elements

Exploration

- Taking 100+ photos of a simple subject; exploring different effects of light, shadow, focus points, points of view, and unsteady vs steady camera

Serendipity

- Always have camera on hand to capture special, out of the ordinary moments

Parts of the Letter

This slide show discusses how typography has evolved, how typographers and designers can understand the visual harmony of the alphabet, and the actual definitions of the different parts of individual letters. It was interesting to learn that typography had developed from different hand written scripts. I think that knowing the definitions to the different parks of certain letters is very important to a designer like myself because I a can better understand the look or feel the font so I can pair it with a project with the same look or feel. The look and feel of a font change the way a word is understood. For example, if the word “hairy” was written in a very smooth, tamed font, it would not convey the meaning of the word as it would if it were written in a fuzzy, wild-looking font. This is also important to learn for this project because our goal is to communicate the meaning of our words through different design elements.