Al's type and the insanity of its craft!

When it comes to graphic design, one aspect i am the most lost in is typography. The creation, symmetry, function, formality, idealization, structure, measurement, understanding, and more are all evident in just a simple letter. Serifs, san serif, ascenders, descenders, all of this was unknown to me until now.

My admiration lies towards Albrecht Durer. I know of him from my art hostory classes which focused primarily on his painting but it comes to stand that he was a huge driving force in graphic design and typography.

His books on proportions, De Symmetria Partium in Rectis Formis Humanorum Corporum (books on the normal proportions of the parts of the human form) withUnderweysung der Messung (instruction in measurement) cover drawing of human form, perspective – with a dissertation on Roman caps as well as gothics.

he outlined not only how to cunstruct a letter with symmetry in a square form, but he showed great artistic focus on constructing letters in regards to their assimilation with other letters. Playing off eachother to form purely artistic "words"


The following are some of the masters fonts:

Durer Caps 

Hands on Albrecht

Albrecht Durer Gothic

Comic book art nouveau

Just thought i would post this image I found

this is a page from a comic book called Route Des Maisons Rouge i believe.

this piece of art is done by Livia Pastore (lilin1988)

Looks like something no?

i believe the source of inspiration was from the art nouveau style of Alfonse Mula

hmmmm.......looks similar no??

Art Nouveau in England.....f***in Aubrey Beardsley in the house!!

So we learned about art nouveau in my history of Visual Communication class, and we looked at the similarities of art nouveau in different countries, england, france and america to be exact. In each country we learned of various artists and one stuck out at me....

Aubrey Beardsley

this man does exactly the kind of art I like to do. Rich black and white illustrations, with a very heavy and crisp line with undulating curves and quick sharp details.

Here is some of his famous works!!

Notice, the balance between thick and rich linework with his thin and featherlike curves and whisps.

great detail achieved with a few line works!!!

he has such a great "economy of markmaking" as my professor Joseph Adolphe would say!!1

and this guys work, is funny too (im speaking of the picture with the farting woman!! haha LOL)

anyway, Aubrey Beardsley was a pivitol character of Art Nouveau in England, and his focus of tight black and white organic illustrations helped push the movement even further.

and BEARDSLEY!!!!!!!!! what a badass last name right!!

God i wish i was 6 again: the arts and craft movement

remember when you were like 6/7 years old...........and during recess, you and all your classmates would go on the playground to play. How awesome was that!!!

but more specifically, remember how if it was rainy out, the teachers would substitute recess with "arts and crafts" (or playtime for the kids who couldnt sit still)..........well while everyone hated arts and crafts......i fucking loved it!!!

arts and crafts was awesome.....my whole world disappeared and it was just me and my macaroni pictures of spiderman. seriously, i would just immerse myself in whatever piece of work i did. It was so refreshing.

there was a problem though

it only lasted like 30 minutes, then we would go back to learning about math or the different states of the USA.......LIKE THAT STUFFS IMPORTANT!! PFF!!!.........anyway.......so we would go back to learning all this other shit, and it was routine, and boring......no pizzaz!!!  unlike arts and crafts time where i could use my hands, and explore and whatnot.........

it was such a tease!!! 30 minutes was in no way enough time to do my da vinci of a spiderman macaroni picture!!! come on!! i would taste greatness, then go back to my "9 to 5, 7 days a week, desk job"-of-a regular class!!

NOW-heres why i mention all this, because I just learned about the arts and craft movement.

A movement that started in england, in 1880, the Arts and Craft Movement was a movement that advocated the true spirit of handicraft, and the connection between art and the laborers. The movement was a "response" (for lack of a better word) to the industrial revolution. the IR made everything machine based, and routine. No creativity, no Pizzaz. Boring, droll, downtrodden, melancholy lifestyles, where people had a 9-5 job of pushing factory buttons and were like drones pretty much. Conditions became shit!! and the common people and their handicrafts were diminishing tenfold!!!

The A&C movement, sought to bring back the creativity and unify art with laborers. Bring back handicrafts, bring back individuality in people and their work.

John Ruskin (1819-1900) was a foreunner of the A&C movement. His philosophy that a unification of art and labor was needed, and that there needs to be a renewal of "handicrafts" was the backbone of the A&C movement.

Ruskin was a smart fellow, because from this movement, what was needed very much happened. Creativity, art made be people, and by hands, and individuality rose and flourished!!

...my arts and craft time was my movement against my Industrial Revolution of a class!!!!!! but for about 30 minutes!! ha!

Codex!! The WARHORSE of book forms!!!!!!!!

Codex form is a flippin beast!!!!!!!!!

facts as to why its awesome!!

1- codex is latin for "trunk of tree"              

                         a pretty ballsy start right there

2-the codex form dates back to as early as 125 AD in Egypt (which was odd because the majority of documentation from egypt was scrolled papyrus)

                         still ballsy!!!

3-The most expensive book ever sold in the world was codex form!!

                 (sold for 30.8 million dollars to Bill Gates, the Codex Leicester is a collection of scientific writings, and the most famous scientific journals (of the 30 created) by Leonardo Da Vinci!!)

                        thats MEGA BALLSY!!

4- The Gutenberg Bible (all of them) are Codex form!!

5- all comic books and graphic novels are codex form!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (this is the most important fact)

heres some examples!!

A collection of open spine codex books
image courtesy of iowa book works

a pretty jazzy codex book courtesy of leijonstedt

and lastly a codex book that i created (from scratch)

                                                       my "fragile" codex book!!!!!!!!!!!

....scrolls are very cool........accordion fold book form is unique.......post and screw is okay.........but codex book form just seems to be the most.........solid!!..........strong, functional, like it can stand the test of time......

thats my opinion...........what do you think??????

Art Nouveau.....and NATURE??

SO in class we learned about art Nouveau, how it started and how it transformed into various styles.

Now in class, we had to split up into pairs and summerize chapters of our text book, and then explain to the class what we read.

My awesome partner Luz Guillermo!!! and I got the first chapter on art nouveau and its aesthetics.

what i learned was that the linear forms of art nouveau was similar to a natural plant like style. The tendrils of a plant stalk, to the curvature of the line form are very alike.

Now one purpose of art nouveau that i learned, was how designers and artists used art nouveau to connect to the natural world in a more spiritual way. (This is what i read people)

This is where I noticed a paralell in something, art nouveau is sort of like a more refined version of Nature Art, with different mediums.

Look at the Nazca Lines,

or the Spiral Jetty,

Notice the tendrilous nature of the artwork, and notice how the artwork itself IS NATURE!!!!1

....much like art nouveau "style"....or should it be the other way around??

..i leave you with this!!!!!

Have you ever been to Kati Roll????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

so this post is late in terms of when this happened (this being what im about to write)

but i went to the new York public library this past Friday to go see the Gutenberg Bible and visit the Scriptorium!!

                                                     The Scriptorium at the NY Public Library

The Gutenberg bible wasn't as epic as I expected, but it was defnitely one of a kind. And in the show, there are literally hundreds of bibles on display, and you can clearly see how all the bibles before th Gutenberg Bible are composed similarly one way, The the Gutenberg bible which is so radically different, and then all the bibles that followed and how they are all different variations of the Gutenberg bible for th most part!!

But what im here to talk about is the Script pages I got from the scriptorium, and its relation to "everyday life"

So i went to the scriptorium and I got these "write your own name in these letter forms" kind of sheets

hand lettering sheet from scriptorium

As you notice, there are Hebrew, latin, and greek letter forms on the three sheets.!!

NOW.......after ,my trip to the NY Public Library, right across the street from bryant park, is SUNY optometry medical school, which is where my girlfriend goes to school, so i spent the rest of my evening with my little slice of heaven (aka my lady!!!)

Now my girlfriend is indian, gujarati to be specific....and obviously has a hankering for indian food (vegetarian since she is one) so she suggested we go to this new place called Kati Roll......which was a block away from Bryant park, on the other side of the street!!!!! (god everything in my story is so conveniently close!!!....suspiciously close...WHO ARE YOU DAMMIT!!! okay sorry i got carried away)

okay....so we went to Kati Roll, which was delicioso i might say!! (I had 2 chicken and egg rolls in case you wondered) but in this restaurant, which was a cute little hole in the wall place, they had framed posters of old Indian movies on the walls and i noticed something.

The script/typeface used on the posters was similar to the Hebrew Stam alphabet i learned about in the scriptorium.

NOTICE THE SIMILARITIES.





obviously they are not identical, one script being hebrew and the other hindi, but notice how they seem to stem from a common form.



In the hebrew script page, the letters have thin ascenders and descenders for the most part, and the body of each character is very thick/fat. There are fat horizontal forms at the top of each character as well. The letters are very pointed off and sharp.



In the Hindi script, similarly there are thin ascenders and descenders, with thick bodies. There are also fat horizontal shapes at the top of each letters, but these shapes go further in that they then connect all of the letters together...(most of the letters i mean, not ALL!!!). The defference however being that the hindi script is more rounded and curvy, unlike the sharp pointed hebrew script.


you know now that im learning all of these things about art, graphic design etc. etc. i am just noticing things like this everywhere. Instead of seeing a poster for what it is, Im looking at a poster and noticing where the artist used the smudge tool on photoshop when making the poster. And the same goes for type, like how i much stated. I just happened to notice this similarity, and obviously im not as educated in the Graphic design arts as my Graphic designer friends are, since im an illustrator/fine artist, but with this History of Visual Communications class Im getting there.

all in all i had a great evening. went to the ny public library, was educated on type forms and its relation to the modern world, had great food, and had a romantic time with my little "spice box" of a girlfriend!!!

the end!!

all photos where taken by me, and if you like good food, check out Kati Roll (link below)

www.thekatirollcompany.com

Jackie Chan is awesomely informative....even in cartoon form!!!

So for my history of Visual Communications class, i have defined 6 whole chapters worth of words from the book "A History of Graphic Design" volume 4 (meggs).

now last night while trying to beast out my WARHORSE of a 3D design project (the project itself is not actually a warhorse-lets not get confused people!!) i was watching JACKIE CHAN ADVENTURES!!!! yeah you remember that show. well all 5 seasons are on Netflix now and i am up to season 4 (i have watched all the seasons already but that was when i was a child).

GOD DAMN WHAT A GREAT SHOW!!!!!!!!!

anyway, so i realized something last night, into this morning. The majority of the words that I defined for my show, spring up in the Jackie Chan adventures.

in the show, Jackie Chan's character plays an archaeologist, and along with his uncle (aptly named uncle), niece jade, and villain turned good guy tohru!! he goes around the world stopping the forces of evil from obtaining old antiquities, from the ancient world, and releasing their magic for bad purposes.

here is the connection i have found. The majority of the words defined (especially in chapters 3 which deals with the first forms of writing in ancient china) have a place throughout the show.

to explain this clearly i will show the 4 main characters

First is Jackie Chan of course

the main character and star of the show. He goes to ancient places like Mesopotamia, and Egypt, looking for artifacts (coffins, ankhs, obelisks, cartouches, etc..) when he finds them he analyzes their marking (ideographs, petroglyphs, phanograms, hieroglyphics, demotic and heretic script). Once analyzed he brings them back to our next character uncle!!!

Uncle Chan-

the wisest, and LOUDEST of the bunch. he is the equivalent of a "scrittori" (the head of a scriptorium in the ancient times- a very well educated scholar) on steroids!!! uncles knowledge never EVER fails!!!

he is more adapt with ancient Chinese forms of writing (chin-wen, hsiao chuan, chen-shu (the first 3 forms of Chinese script),logograms, etc..)
with this knowledge he uses his good magic (he is a good chi wizard) to make sure the forces of evil never get hold of any artifacts that come into play. he receives help from his apprentice and our next character Tohru.

Tohru

 The biggest and most lovable character in the show. He essentially is a "scribe" to uncle, a "scholar in training" if i may. he is just learning about the ancient forms of writing and script but has his own knowledge as well. In season four, Tohru shows how he has his own knowledge of letter types. more importantly, uncials, majuscules, miniscules, ascenders, descenders, etc.. and he puts this knowledge in good use in season 4 when they have to fight the 9 japanese demons of the ogni masks (rulers of the 9 races of shadow-khan!!!!!!!)

he has the sweetest heart of the bunch, and he deeply cares for our final member jade.

shes the annoying one who always put everyone in trouble, but shes always quick to fight in the action.

UM YEAH! thats it about jade!!!



NOW OF COURSE because this is a TV show for kids, there is action, and the villains comprise of dragons, demons, dark chi wizards, shadow ninjas, cursed relics, ancient script and all that jazz. Jackie Chan himself is a kung-fu ,master, so there's kung-fu fighting in every episode, but its very informational, and to be honest...

instead of using my text book to define these words, i probably could have watched all 5 seasons of  Jackie Chan adventures to define my words. But i digress!!!

it is a very very cool show, for those of you who have watched it KUDOS!!!! and for those of you who haven't....you don't deserve to walk this earth!!!!.......nah just kidding......but seriously!!!


oh yeah- and all the images are courtesy of freecartoonwallpapers.net.......so yeah!!! thanks??

Was Batman Cuneiform inspired??....probably not....but what a cool title right?

okay so im defining all these terms for my History of Visual Communication class

one of the terms is Cuneiform.....the earliest known form of script in terms of writing

    now follow me here in how it relates to batman

cuneiform rhymes with uniform

another word for uniform is costume

who wears costumes? SUPERHEROES!!!

whos a superhero?? BATMAN!!!!!!

haha okay NOW LET ME BE SERIOUS!!!!

I LOVE COMIC BOOKS, SUPERHEROES, all that junk, and what i noticed the other day, was that batmans symbol is along the same principles as cuneiform!!


cuneiform, the primary fundamental are that of lines, that form a small image (alphabetical letter/character-whatever you may call it) representing an object. However the way the lines that form the letter are constructed resemble said thing.

look at this cuneiform letter for the word "head"

above the number one is the first millenia version of the cuneiform word for head

NOTICE HOW THE image for the word "head" is actually a small head. The lines form the shape of the head, complete with eyes, eyebrows, a nose and a chin

now to batman, and more specifically the BATMAN SYMBOL!!

notice the similar principles.......it is series of lines (that end up connecting) , that form an image that is both in the shape of a bat, and represents the word bat. (and by bat i mean the  animal, not the "baseball utensil")

i thought this was a pretty cool connection. todays heroes and there affiliation to the beggining of the written word!!!

...also side note: this can also be applied to spiderman, the green lantern, and hawkman.....but not wonder woman!!!