Project 4 – Exercise 4 – Cutting Edge

The brief for this exercise is to “Explore a range of websites or other forms of new media (games, video, other interactive media, etc.) and identify examples of what you would consider cutting edge or inventive forms of visual communication.”

What I already find interesting is how pervasive the concept that “the media is the message” truly is. And I am fully aware that I am already reflecting before I carry out the brief, but it is that striking to me. Onwards and sideways…

Augmented Reality (AR)

The goals of augmented reality are to enhance interactivity and user experience by overlaying features and images onto the users perception. In reality, this is usually performed using a smartphone or tablet camera, with graphics on top. Most famously, and something of a cultral phenomena for a while, is/was Pokemon Go.

 

Many other examples exist, not just in gaming, but in information and product selection uses. Amikasa helps you style rooms and desired layouts before you ever buy a piece of furniture or household hardware:

Augmented reality is being used in military applications (as a ‘head-up’ display), but also in medicine, where it guides surgeons during operations. Quite literally, the cutting edge of visual communication:

It will be interesting to see what the next iteration of this form of communication is. Perhaps it will combine with VR (Virtual Reality) to give a fully immersive interaction, where the AR and the VR merge to bring a fully 3D experience to the user.

 

The Hamburger

This is the coloquial name for the sign that means ‘menu’

This single ident means that we are seeing less menus, tabs and radio buttons on web pages, with many opting to user a hamburger for navigation (although there are many other methods comin to the fore: scrollovers, popups, popovers and colour effects).

A prooduct of the rise in mobile browsing, this has been adopted as the default for many very recent web presences. It may be thought of as surprising that a single peice of symbology can have become both ubiquetous and also be at the cutting edge of visual communication. This perhaps reinforces just how rapidly social, technological and communication changes are occurring. It makes me wonder if Moore’s Law (applied as a rate of change) is applicable as equally to visual communication as it is to computing power.

Do these examples still conform to messages that persuade, inform, or entertain?

I think that the simple answer is, yes. In fact, that is their whole purpose. The media, form and style may change, but the function remains very much at the core. And perhaps it is this function, that images, or messages, must persuade, inform, or entertain, that is the very core point of visual communication.

Project 4 – Exercise 3 – Visual conventions for time and place

Examples of different visual conventions used to convey time and/or place/space

As part of my everyday life, I often have to track down reference material, data or information that may take many varied forms and sits behind several disparate descriptions and names. Understanding Boolean logic functions enables highly focussed searching (I can search for a specific term or file and even restrict this to a single domain or sub-section of a site). You can often travel ‘down the rabbit hole’ and this (and the attendant adjustment to search terms) brings further results, e.g. moving from describing what something is or does, to finding out the specific name or term for that thing.

Frame by Frame Storytelling:

Often in the form of a comic strip or graphic novel, the examples that follow span one and a half centuries. The way that speech is handled may differ and the content may have become more permissive, but sequential images are used from light hearted fun to current storyboarding for films; a key tool in discussions between technical roles in film making.

Rodolphe Töpffer, Histoire de M. Vieux Bois Created 1827 (published 1837)

Regarding the image above and below, it is possible to also note the change in the way that speech in ‘cartoons’ has been handled. Older cartoons did not make significant use of the type of speech and thought bubble that we are used to today.

Andy Sparrow, BLOODRUNNERS, c.1987

Jeff Errico, Storyboard Snow White and the Huntsman, 2011

 

The Use of Perspective:

Perspective in art conventions has not only varied throughout time, but also has cultural links. What we think of as traditional Western Europoean art has an accepted use of perspective – objects diminish in the distance, lines converge. Traditional Japanese art does not necessarily follow these precepts.

18th Century Japanese print (source: Wikimedia Commons)

The earliest Western Image considered to acknowledge rules of perspective is Lorenzetti’s Annunciation where the floor tiles are diminishing to a single point.

Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Annunciation, 1344 Source: Wikimedia Commons

Burne Hogarth, meanwhile, made heavy use of perspective to increase visual tension and a sense of dynamism in his strip art and drawings.

Perspective may be forced, to create misleading, but interesting and fun viewpoints…

…or perspective can be ignored, or repeated, as in the cubist’s multiple points of view being represented at any one time, as in Gris’ The Guitar. As an occasional musician, I feel that this captures the feeling of an acoustic guitar well.

Juan Gris, The Guitar, 1918 (source: Wikimedia Commons)

 

On reflection:

The evolution of visual conventions does, it appears, remain contemporary with their period and social structures and state. As culture changes, so do visual conventions. As media changes, this too is mirrored in convention change, possibly in response to expectations or perhaps as the catalyst for change itself.

I have discovered that I have an intolerance of slow searches that do not react well to logic statements in searches. I consistently return to Google, as I am able to drive that in a way that generates good initial results and is also easy to refine if needs be. VADS gives acceptable results, but it is painfully slow in comparison to find what I am seeking. I’m sure that this will not always be so, but sometime separating the wheat from the chaff results in my returning to the big G.

Project 4 – Exercise 2 – Knitting patterns

We have been asked to produce a quick mind map of what knitting means to us and what we associate with it. So here, in all its unedited glory is just that – my quick mind map:

It’s honest and unpolished – this is meant to be a learning log, after all…! To give a little in the way of context, I grew up with a mother that could knit, do it well and do it quickly. To the best of my memory, I have always had knitwear round and seen patterns. Some of the associations above may appear odd, but there is always a reason.

How knitting has been represented

Knitting for victory WW1 One million socks…

As a social duty: Creating clothing as part of a cause, in the case aboe, to make and send clothing to troops in the trenches.

 

In traditional Welsh dress

As a cultural heritage. Traditionally dressed Welsh women knitting. Oddly, the women do not often seem to actually wear knitted clothing.

 

Image by Jean Patchett for Knitting Magazine

As aspirational glamour. Kntwear has, at various times, been on-trend in fashion apparently (I’m a jeans and tee person – really underqualified to comment!). Like a lot of trends, this is cyclical. I have no awareness of where we are in the sine wave of fashion right now.

 

Tradition for men. Particularly in the North East of the UK, Northumbria and the North Riding of Yorkshire, men were the knitters. Probably out of necessity, but also perhaps as something that could be done by candelight that didn’t result in babies! This is a tradition that has died out in more recent generations.

 

It may have been fashion, but the 1970s have A LOT to answer for. Both the items and the style are very much of their period.

 

For that Norman invader look. Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.

 

A WTF moment. This looks more like the siblings and the men wanted for their murder than a promotional pattern. If Quentin Tarrentino sees this image, there’ll be a film at the end of it.

Cats on the web are something of a new media phenomenon. it was only a matter of time before they were mixed with knitting (although the rumoured humerous tank top card is largely notable by its lack of visibility).

A new take on knitting with new technology

 

 

Even frisky knits exist and are more visible with modern mass media.

 

Contemporary high fashion knits can be heavily structural in how they are made, but the portrayal is more creative and thought out in a graphic or a high-fashion manner.

 

Yarnbombing can be a way of recapturing sterile or overly clinical public spaces. But somethimes it can be as a commentary on the surroundings in a far more playful way. The final image above reflects the colours of the houses and boats in the background and is nore gentle as a result.

 

Reflection on these images (and the searches).

What is clear from all the viewing of images on the web is how much association with women there is in all knitting images. Is this merely a reflection of society, or does it reinforce stereotypes? In addition, the majority would show the knitters to be older women (though not by the margin that may have been expected). This very definitely fits in with the stereotype of knitting being an older woman’s pasttime.

Contemporary images are finally moving away from this premise, as knitting is welcomed into the arms of textile arts. many images are more playful and see it as an art or high craft, rather than a neccessity for coping with austerity.

How closely this aligns with my associations is a debatable point. Certainly from the craft, the warmth, the tradition PoV, there is some similarity. But, I suspect that my familiarity with knitting being around me (literally so, often) has given me a unique perspective and meant that some of teh most common preconceptons are not shared by me.

Project 4 – Exercise 1 – The next big thing

Not being at the cutting edge of ‘wider contemporary trends’, I found choosing an example of contemporary visual communication… challenging. So I resorted to the British Design and Art Direction website https://www.dandad.org to see what I could find

Alien Advert for Volkswagon.

“Brief:
To promote Volkswagen’s longstanding support of independent cinemas, we created a series of light-hearted cinematic films set in different movie genres. ‘Alien’ shows Volkswagen’s innovative technology take a starring role as its Hands Free Boot Opening comically breaks the intended suspense. Although perfect for real life, it’s not made for Hollywood”

https://www.dandad.org/awards/professional/2017/film-advertising/26108/alien Accessed 24/08/2017

The advert makes use of cutting edge computer generated graphics and references contemporary cinema in both cinematic style and thematically, making it (at the time of release) a very ‘now’ advert. The protagonists run for the safety of their car, through high contrast, stark sets. The monster, the antagonist follows them, only to lose them as they hide in the boot of the car. The car, and its under bumper sensor, joins the monster as an antagonist by repeatedly opening as the creature’s tail swings underneath it. In fact, it follows the hero’s journey to a point, with the humour being imarted by the lack of closure (sic) for the full narrative arc.The connotation being that VWs are safe and secure, reliable, but fun.

Ignoring the subject, the external referencing is the most likely factor to make this ‘last year’s thing’. As cinematic style alters, the overall look will become passé. As horror references change and move, the same effect will be observed. Technology itself will change, making the antagonist as dated as Ray Harryhausen’s stop motion creations (although they will always have a certain charm). Technology will improve, but this type of advert, which waves a flag to show VolksWagen’s support for independant cinema, will follow the media that it is promoting.

It is too easy to look to the visually impressive and forget the everyday examples of visual communication. Such an overlooked article may be the implementation of electronic labelling. This has to carry identification and be able to deliver an unambiguous message to the reader.

This is another case where the media is the message. As the nature of the technology improves and the ability to provide a more complext graphic interface changes, the communication itself will fall into line. e.g. Very shortly (in reference to Point of Purchase design), the black and grey graphics will be superseded by colour, sharper graphics, movement etc.