After a near disastrous day yesterday in which I almost gave up on creating the new background imagery as things started breaking and becoming too fiddly, I was just happy to create a set of finished looking covers for crit. The original plan had been to create the 3D objects related to each book out of spray painted polystyrene, wire, foam board and found objects. The first problem I encountered was the way the paint ate away at the porous material making some objects unusable but working well on others, giving them amazing texture. This and the fiddly nature of the ultra nylon thread I was using to hang the objects delayed production considerably so that there were less pairs of hands around at the end of the day to help. I had planned to use the projector to immerse the hangings in colours related to each book. However the connection was very temperamental and it turned out transporting the objects to the front of the room and coordinating them, two to each hand, was very challenging. It all ended with no projector pictures being taken and broken rubiks cube. I decided to take of pictures on my own with just two objects at a time hanging in front of newsprint for contrast and edit the pictures in photoshop for the desired effect. The end product was a lot better than I could have expected given the circumstances, with an atmospheric aesthetic and synergy between the elements.
Final covers series:
Rationale:
The series contains three books of disparate genre, united by a number of subtleties and the general theme of ponder. Each book is a philosophical look at its field and is made up of a collection of muses. These span from the moral of patience for children to thoughts on the relationship between form and function. The eclectic array allows the reader to gain insight into the minds of three artists that were widely respected as trailblazers within their fields. This is conveyed stylistically by the original typeface, which conforms to a grid based on a Paul Klee painting. Individual letters are adorned in a wide variety of hues as a visual representation of diversity, in stark contrast to the neutrality of the atmospheric background. Objects related to each book hang with some idea of kinetic potential as a reference to Bruno Munari’s useless machines. In their entirety the pieces have a playful nature, which could be attributed to all of the artists featured. The eye is taken on a journey through a variety of textures, visual planes and dimensions that don’t lend themselves to legibility but instead entice the reader to look closer and question.
Peer feedback:
People enjoyed the original typography and take on iconic imagery associated with the books. There was some comment on the legibility and how the typography gets lost in certain places, which is understandable although I have done my best to justify this choice in my rationale. I do think legibility and visual impact of the typography on the front is something I could explore further. In terms of my presentation, I didn't print early enough and had problems with two paper jams and no wifi connection to contend with meaning my covers were mainly on my laptop and the final outcomes design board wasn't quite finished. However the rationale was complimented and I feel the design boards I have completed were of a high standard. People commented on the playful nature of the designs which shows that my objectives have been fulfilled and any other suggestions were mainly just alternative solutions such as using a grid based on the images meaning I am happy with the project as a whole. The way I could improve it would be with more experimentation around the photographing of the objects as I had intended to do and possibly looking again at the interactions of the typography and the images.
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