Visual Communications - Typography Brief.

For my second elective I chose Visual Communications. I knew that Visual Communications covered a broad spectrum from illustration to product design to typography and more, so I wasn't quite sure what the two weeks would entail.

On the first day we were each given a metaphor that we would be working with for the two weeks. My metaphor read 'The days slip by'.

For the first week we were focusing on typography, which meant you could only use text to convey the meaning of your metaphor. I love text and typography so this brief really excited me! I began by separating out the metaphor, focusing on portraying the words 'days' and 'slip'. For the word 'days' I started off looking at the sky at different periods of the day, but quickly abandoned it on the grounds that it was very literal and boring. I was thinking of things/objects on which days were listed/stated on. I started off playing around with the library book stamp, printing the word 'days' made up of stampings of various days (I was able to rotate the stamp to change the day listed). The pictures should explain this better;

Although very typical, I was also cutting up old calender diaries that I found at home to make letters. I then used these letters made up of days of the year to write the word 'days'. I mounted these cuttings onto cardboard painted white to appear as though reels of paper had been cut up to make these letters, thus reels of days listed within the text. Again, I don't think I have explained this too well but the photos should do the trick;

Then I was looking at use-by dates on various foods and drink. I headed to nearby Supervalu, shamelessly creeped around the store photographing the use-by dates on a myriad of food and drink. The images that resulted were a collection of days. I loved the mix of bright colour within the images too, and I hope this will make for a striking piece of typography;

Now taking a more sinister approach I headed to a nearby graveyard to photograph the dates on the headstones. Photographing the day in black text on the stone background, the images resulting we simple but stark. I really liked the images that resulted. However the tonal range wasn't as great as that of the use-by dates, so I wasn't sure if it would be as noticeable a piece of typography.

I also experimented with newspaper dates. I went up to my attic because I knew we'd have things like ornaments wrapped in newspaper which would more than likely be from the nineties/early two thousands. And sure enough I found newspapers as old as 1991, nice and yellowed too. I mixed these with cuttings of dates from present day newspapers. I even managed to get my hands on a chinese newspaper;

Moving onto the word slip, I used various kitchen and bathroom substances to portray the word 'slip' slipping. I also had the text slipping beneath an imagery line and through a hole in the page. I also wrote the word 'slip' on the wall with finger knitted wool to appear as though it was slipping down behind the bed;

At the end of the week we had to present two typography design proposals. For my initial proposed finished pieces, I had the word days written on one piece using a collage of use-by dates and on the other using a collage of the graveyard dates. I wrote the rest of the metaphor using the Helvetica type face, with the word 'slip' appearing as though it was slipping. I chose the Helvetica type face as I believe it is sharp and clear, communicating clearly. I also want to emphasize the word 'days' as it is the most interesting piece of typography within the design. When I presented my ideas to my tutors they advised me to do away with the slipping effect of the word 'slip', opining that it took from the strength of the deliverance of the metaphor. They also advised that I improve the layout of the design as it was at present not clearly legible. Removing the slipping effect did in fact improve the clarity of the metaphor, as did re-arranging the layout of the word 'days'. I also mounted the word days on card board painted black to improve on clarity and define the text. This was my final typography piece;