Strictly Typography

This past week in lecture we watched a few music videos integrated with image and typography. The music videos reminded me of what we were most recently studying: comic books. Especially Check It Out by Will.I.Am featuring Nicki Minaj because of the bright vibrant colors in the costumes and backgrounds. This video was especially interesting because the typography was in Korean and had literal translations to the words in the song. Like the comic books these music videos were juxtaposing word and image. After lecture I stopped thinking about the music videos and word and image and just made my way home. At home I got into my usual routine of playing music off of youtube. While I was listening to Raise Your Glass by Pink I couldn’t help but notice a video that was strictly typography that was made to go with the song. Naturally since I just came out of class I was curious so I clicked on it and watched it. Now I have seen many typography videos but I’m pretty sure this was the best one I have seen so far. The way the font fit in with the words of the song and how the came on the screen was simply put as fabulous. Here just watch it for yourself and comment on what you think about it.

Brian Fies Word and Image

Brian Fies cartoonist of Mom’s Cancer and Whatever Happened to the world of Tomorrow came to our class to lecture on his design process. Fies honesty and deep passion was very inspirational. His story about having to temporarily give up comics to be able to support his family and then coming back to it later represents his true dedication.  Fies came to describe the long process of making his comic book about his mother’s cancer.  Fies sponge like behavior helped him stay true; for instance, he talked about how he use to write down what his mother said, the doctor, his two sisters, and even what he was saying at the moment.  Fies claimed that in order for the comic to be successful he had to tell it how it was.  The words had to match what was going on and so did the images. The one image that had the strongest effect on Fies was the one of his mother in her chair going through chemotherapy. The powerful image shows exactly what was happening in the room. To display this Fies used words to help describe the setting and sets the mood that life continues to go on while his mom slips into a daze.  Another powerful image is the one used for the cover it has a comic style because the panels are present but the way they are split is emotion provoking because it shows how his mother is distant. Fies explained how he wanted the cover of his comic to be the one of his mom in the chair but after hundreds of other cover options the one with the split panels came to be the final choice.  Sometimes things are a hit and miss but this was definitely a hit.

Absorb

Earlier this week in lecture, Housefield made me contemplate his insanity when he stuck a sponge in his coffee cup and slurped up the coffee from the sponge. He then proceeded to say, “Word up, be a sponge”.  From what I took from it the whole point of his presentation was to show that as a designer you are still a student and need to “drink it up” and by drinking it up I think he meant your surroundings. Being a sponge is just one of many creative processes. By being a sponge you find what interests you and you work out of what you know and what you’ve experienced.  Brian Fies is a great example of using this creative process.  When Fies’ mother was fighting cancer he was also fighting cancer. Not only was his mother experiencing cancer but in a way he was too and he absorbed her experiences and as well as his other family members into an idea. This idea consisted of finding his mother’s voice and using the family’s experience as a window for other people to absorb some of the things his family went through.  Fies shows us that absorbing our surroundings as well as other’s surrounding is a learning experience for everyone. Applying the concept of absorbing to your daily life will not only open up your eyes but will inspire you to make steps towards life changing experiences. 

Playing

This may sound crazy but one day this week I woke up and decided I wanted change. Not change in the future but change now. Not change for the world but change for me. This change I decided to take was giving myself a haircut.  I woke up and said, “Hey, I’m going to give myself a haircut,” so I did.  Sometimes you just have to do things in the spur of the moment.  Professor Housefield lectured about the importance of play. I use to play all the time when I was younger and I miss those days. I use to frequently play with Barbie Dolls and I use to pretend that I was a hair stylist and cut their hair and style them. I thought I was pretty good for an 8 year old and even considered it as a when I grow up I want to be a hairdresser. So when I woke up that glorious morning I thought about my Barbie Dolls and I missed those days and so inspired by Housefield’s lecture on play, I gave myself a haircut.  But the best part is that I used my hair to make art.  I felt like I needed to fulfill this radical movement for change with some posters. Forget Obama’s ideas for change we all should cut out hair and make posters. I am totally kidding but seriously I think in order to be successful work should feel like play because I believe in investments and we should invest in experiences through play. 

De Young Museum

I never imagined myself saying that a museum is popping on a Friday night.  On October 22, 2010 I took a trip to San Francisco to hear my current design professor Dr. Housefield lecture on Gauguin. I would like to note that this was my first trip ever to San Francisco and from it I will be making more trips over there.  I was not able to catch the feel of the San Francisco city life because I was so absorbed into the De Young Museum. The museum had live music, dancing, and actors acting as artists. It was bizarre because theses actors were actually legit artists and represented the artists they posed as extremely well.  But best of all, never in my life have I almost had a heart attack but I think that was something I can say I experienced in San Francisco walking through an exhibition. Now this may seem ironic since heart attacks are nothing to joke about but this was a good kind of feeling. Of course I knew the exhibition was going to obtain works by Van Gogh, Seurat, Cézanne, Gauguin, and many others but I had no idea what effects these works would have on me. I was looking at the works and then I looked across the room and  (this may sound cliché) made an instant connection with “Starry Night “ by Van Gogh.  As I approached this painting my heart immediately stopped beating. Maybe it was because I was in the presence of living history or because I was taken aback by its beauty and simplicity but I honestly thought I was going to go into cardiac arrest. It was such an amazing experience!