Critique
Another critique means another horrible time. Dorian took our work and almost exploded. Looking around the room, it does look pretty disgustingly terrible. My biggest problem is the stupid folio. The relationship between the folio and the page are incorrect. It doesnt sit in the grid but rather outside and should relate to the margin better.
-Holy grail = type is image and image is type.
-Make your type dance.
-crop your page.
-your image shouldnt force your type decisions.
Questions
I didnt have the worst work on the wall but my folio definitely needs work still. I am still slightly unsure of what my folio is supposed to look like on the page but looking at other peoples work has helped me figure it out I hope. My biggest question is how to effectively set up a system of type that doesnt change page per page?
Personal Thoughts
Being part of the "Do Not Pass Go" group sucks and for next class I am going to definitely try alot harder to stay at the top of the pack.
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Day 18
Critique
So here we are thinking creating type on grids is going to be easy and apparently its not. All of our work looks terrible. Here are some of the general critique notes.
-Page number should never be larger than your copy size.
-never have any widows.
-The Folio is part of your design and not part of it at the same time.
-Print crop marks silly.
Dorian specifically called my study out and called it clunky and horsey which kind of sucks but considering its the first time ever really using a grid, it's a good start. Make mistakes first.
Dorian compared our typographic status as "Crawling out of the Slime" level.
Questions
I dont really understand the relationship of this folio. Where is it supposed to sit on the page? Is it in the grid or not? I think it is but im not really sure and no one else is either. I guess I will find out later.
Personal Thoughts
Grids are way harder than I thought and I feel like I might be putting a large amount of time and effort into this project.
So here we are thinking creating type on grids is going to be easy and apparently its not. All of our work looks terrible. Here are some of the general critique notes.
-Page number should never be larger than your copy size.
-never have any widows.
-The Folio is part of your design and not part of it at the same time.
-Print crop marks silly.
Dorian specifically called my study out and called it clunky and horsey which kind of sucks but considering its the first time ever really using a grid, it's a good start. Make mistakes first.
Dorian compared our typographic status as "Crawling out of the Slime" level.
Questions
I dont really understand the relationship of this folio. Where is it supposed to sit on the page? Is it in the grid or not? I think it is but im not really sure and no one else is either. I guess I will find out later.
Personal Thoughts
Grids are way harder than I thought and I feel like I might be putting a large amount of time and effort into this project.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Day 17
So for homework all we had to do was watch some Lynda.com tutorials on InDesign which I completely forgot to do but luckily I have used indesign before and know a good majority of the tools.
Dorian gave us a quick tutorial and promptly started to show us some of what we are going to be doing in the upcoming weeks.
Questions
Some questions to keep in mind while working on my type studies are:
how long should a line of type be?
How big should it sit on the page?
Where do you put tabs and how big should they be?
Personal Thoughts
I still fail to see the exact relation of learning how to design a book is going to do for us Motion Designers but I trust dorian knows what he is doing. So for now I will trek on and try my best at making some good typography.
Rules for homework:
No indents on first line.
No text in gutters.
Dont double space after periods.
stay inside units.
no widows.
rag should be random.
the larger the line length the easier to read.
Dorian gave us a quick tutorial and promptly started to show us some of what we are going to be doing in the upcoming weeks.
Questions
Some questions to keep in mind while working on my type studies are:
how long should a line of type be?
How big should it sit on the page?
Where do you put tabs and how big should they be?
Personal Thoughts
I still fail to see the exact relation of learning how to design a book is going to do for us Motion Designers but I trust dorian knows what he is doing. So for now I will trek on and try my best at making some good typography.
Rules for homework:
No indents on first line.
No text in gutters.
Dont double space after periods.
stay inside units.
no widows.
rag should be random.
the larger the line length the easier to read.
Day 15
We reviewed my demo reel in class today. It went alright. It's pretty obvious I finished it early this morning since the last 2 studies were awfully integrated. Anyways, Some of the notes I took where mostly about timing between animations and making sure my animations suited the studies.
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Day 14
Critique Notes
So today in class we turned in our refined type studies and we each got a 1 on 1 review of our demo reel with Dorian. Here are some of my notes and you can follow along if you go to the previous post and watch the first pass of the motion studies reel.
Overall
Some of them feel low on the screen and also appear a little bit fuzzy.
The timing on some of these needs work as some are way too fast and some are way too long.
My type studies should also be finding the thirds but havent been really.
On a couple of my studies, the vertical elements are on the outside. To get a more interesting composition I should figure out how to push them into the inside of the screen.
Animate like an animator.
For some of the Depth of Field type studies, do more with it and make it slower and more cinematic.
Some of my entrances and exits can be more sophisticated.
Personal Thoughts
These type motion studies are a real great way to do some typography while directly relating to our field. I'm glad im not making books again even though it was a great experience to have. Unfortunately what sucks about these motion studies is the time it takes to get them to even move much less move intelligently and make interesting compositions and animations. In a perfect world I would have plenty of time to spend on each study and refine them even further but with 5 other classes and a job, I'm going to have to sacrifice a few of them.
Questions
Somehow we are back at square one with the studies in where I find myself asking the same questions like how long should the typography be on the screen? How should they animate on? Should they always be in movement or should they stop at a resting place where the composition is final? How do we take type studies made on paper and translate them to a large screen?
So today in class we turned in our refined type studies and we each got a 1 on 1 review of our demo reel with Dorian. Here are some of my notes and you can follow along if you go to the previous post and watch the first pass of the motion studies reel.
Overall
Some of them feel low on the screen and also appear a little bit fuzzy.
The timing on some of these needs work as some are way too fast and some are way too long.
My type studies should also be finding the thirds but havent been really.
On a couple of my studies, the vertical elements are on the outside. To get a more interesting composition I should figure out how to push them into the inside of the screen.
Animate like an animator.
For some of the Depth of Field type studies, do more with it and make it slower and more cinematic.
Some of my entrances and exits can be more sophisticated.
Personal Thoughts
These type motion studies are a real great way to do some typography while directly relating to our field. I'm glad im not making books again even though it was a great experience to have. Unfortunately what sucks about these motion studies is the time it takes to get them to even move much less move intelligently and make interesting compositions and animations. In a perfect world I would have plenty of time to spend on each study and refine them even further but with 5 other classes and a job, I'm going to have to sacrifice a few of them.
Questions
Somehow we are back at square one with the studies in where I find myself asking the same questions like how long should the typography be on the screen? How should they animate on? Should they always be in movement or should they stop at a resting place where the composition is final? How do we take type studies made on paper and translate them to a large screen?
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Day 13 Reel
This is my first pass at my demo reel. This is just a huge compilation of the motion studies we've done with some minor revision put in there. I will be taking the critique notes from the class last week and apply them to my studies to help improve them.
Critique Notes
Some of the things I already know I have to change right off the bat is the timing of some of the studies. I really need to play with the idea of leading the eye with the motion of type and think about some basic animation techniques like avoiding having any static elements and to always have something as the focus.
Critique Notes
Some of the things I already know I have to change right off the bat is the timing of some of the studies. I really need to play with the idea of leading the eye with the motion of type and think about some basic animation techniques like avoiding having any static elements and to always have something as the focus.
Right now we are between the print book revisions and the motion type reel, so there wont be as many critique notes to post on the blog here. Bear with us!
Day 12 Critique Notes
Critique notes
Here are the class individual critiques of my work.
Here are the class individual critiques of my work.
If this had been for a grade, your average would be 3.4 / C+
On Feb 21, 2012, at 10:27 PM, dorian angello wrote:
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At this point we are going to take these studies and combine them into a print book and a demo reel.
Day 11 Motion Study
Here is the image and type motion study. We used a new critiquing system where we did a personal critique and emailed them to dorian where he will compile them all and send them back to us. It might be a few days before I get my critique back but as soon as I do, i will post them.
This motion study was quite interesting because we took a more complicated typographic study and tried to animate them in meaningful, interesting and new ways. I dont really think all of my studies are that successful personally. I spent alot of time on them and animating these in a good way is something that needs more time than I can give it right now. Take a look and let me know what you think below.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Day 10 Notes and Research
Critique Notes
Dorian did bring up alot of good points during lecture though. When you are working with type and image, you are effectively trying to wrestle between the two. The best way to handle this is to look at it in 3 steps. First you look at the typography, then you look at the image, finally you look at both and combine them together.
So for class today we had to make more studies using everything we have learned so far but also adding textures and images. This was way more difficult than i thought it was going to be. Integrating the image and the type while also making it interesting and avoiding the pitfalls of typography was very difficult. Below are some of my studies.
Luckily throughout critique, Dorian did not talk about my studies at all. In the type world, this is probably best. I didnt get any good criticism but I didnt get any bad criticism either. Flying under the radar is probably best.
Dorian did bring up alot of good points during lecture though. When you are working with type and image, you are effectively trying to wrestle between the two. The best way to handle this is to look at it in 3 steps. First you look at the typography, then you look at the image, finally you look at both and combine them together.
When you are combining them though, you must identify what you are seeing and identify its role. If the image is the most important thing in the design, then put the type in the supporting role and get it out of the image's way.
Personal Thoughts
A Dorian quote that I think I will never forget is "Will I get fired for making this?" This quote really does strike home when you are working on a design or animation. Sometimes when you are in the thick of things, you forget to step back and take an objective look at what you are making. Unfortunately it is something that happens all the time though. The best designers I feel probably do this all the time. The critique process is a way to do this in a larger group of people.
Working with type and image is very difficult though. Not only do you want to make an interesting type design but you want the image to help that type become something more than just pretty type. If it isn't conveying a message then you, as the artist, are not doing your job. The common problem with image and type is that they feel discontinuous and separated. It's very difficult to effectively combine them.
Questions and Research
How do moving images affect typography? How does someone go about taking a static design and animating them to moving images without designing each frame of the animation? Is designing each frame the way to go?
As I was watching a couple of film titles I noticed that alot of them were several different "studies" put together in a certain order but in between they were no longer designs but more like transitions. Why is this the current trend? Have the masters of title design realized this is the only way to sanely or correctly create typographic designs in motion with imagery?
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Day 9 Motion Study
Critique Notes
We took last class's studies and did some animating to them. this time we had to add Effects and Expressions. My first thought was that they will probably come out terrible. Most effects come out looking pretty cheesy even when done well unless theres more graphics to back them up.
So after I showed them, they really enjoyed most of my studies. I spent a total of 7 hours working and reworking all these studies. Some of the compositions are derivative of the last set of type studies I did but some of them were completely new comps that I really spent time working out the kinks. Overall i think I was very successful with the studies and how they were animated.
Some of the critique notes I got were that my type could be moving into new compositions ie. on the first study, the and getting split could then fall off and fall into one of the thirds on the screen. Also if I am going to make a study feel violent I should go all out and really violate the type. In my second study, the graphic white block behind the word amplify is following the type line above it and tries to act violent but doesnt do so. Dorian suggest that I take it and push it all over the type and really violate it to make it feel truly violent.
In my 7th study, I got compliments on the page turn effect on the block used to reveal some text. The class agreed that it didnt feel cheap at all and felt appropriate and purposeful.
Personal Thoughts
I spent a lot of time working on these type studies, probably too much time since my concept work sort of fell flat but I think it was worth it. I think I finally found my niche when it comes to typography. Before I had a lot of errors and ugly compositions and in this study I really worked it out to where I liked my designs and felt they were real typographic designs. After an entire semester of type in Designing with type 1 I finally feel like I made typography and not text on a page.
In class we also talked about a designer being someone who is transparent and an artist who is obviously felt and seen in their work. Dorian talked about how good design should not be seen as a design and should fully integrate into the world. An artist on the other hand has something to say and when you see a piece of artwork, you see the artist behind it. Personally I think I rather be an artist with some good design in my work. I want people to see my work as art but not notice the design decisions in the art. Some of my favorite show intro's utilize some great design and artistry.
So after I showed them, they really enjoyed most of my studies. I spent a total of 7 hours working and reworking all these studies. Some of the compositions are derivative of the last set of type studies I did but some of them were completely new comps that I really spent time working out the kinks. Overall i think I was very successful with the studies and how they were animated.
Some of the critique notes I got were that my type could be moving into new compositions ie. on the first study, the and getting split could then fall off and fall into one of the thirds on the screen. Also if I am going to make a study feel violent I should go all out and really violate the type. In my second study, the graphic white block behind the word amplify is following the type line above it and tries to act violent but doesnt do so. Dorian suggest that I take it and push it all over the type and really violate it to make it feel truly violent.
In my 7th study, I got compliments on the page turn effect on the block used to reveal some text. The class agreed that it didnt feel cheap at all and felt appropriate and purposeful.
Personal Thoughts
I spent a lot of time working on these type studies, probably too much time since my concept work sort of fell flat but I think it was worth it. I think I finally found my niche when it comes to typography. Before I had a lot of errors and ugly compositions and in this study I really worked it out to where I liked my designs and felt they were real typographic designs. After an entire semester of type in Designing with type 1 I finally feel like I made typography and not text on a page.
In class we also talked about a designer being someone who is transparent and an artist who is obviously felt and seen in their work. Dorian talked about how good design should not be seen as a design and should fully integrate into the world. An artist on the other hand has something to say and when you see a piece of artwork, you see the artist behind it. Personally I think I rather be an artist with some good design in my work. I want people to see my work as art but not notice the design decisions in the art. Some of my favorite show intro's utilize some great design and artistry.
Day 8 Research and Notes
Critique Notes
Most of my critique notes related to some pretty bland use of rules and boxes. I also had a bit of trapped space and stair stepping going on along with Margins safety coming into question. Dorian came around personally and talked to me about some of the problems that were recurring in my type designs. Alot of them could be pushed farther into using the space well and creating compositions as opposed to type blocks or isolated compositions on a page.
Most of my critique notes related to some pretty bland use of rules and boxes. I also had a bit of trapped space and stair stepping going on along with Margins safety coming into question. Dorian came around personally and talked to me about some of the problems that were recurring in my type designs. Alot of them could be pushed farther into using the space well and creating compositions as opposed to type blocks or isolated compositions on a page.
During critique we talked alot about color since a student actually introduced alot of color into their compositions. We talked about how color is very personal. When you introduce color not only do you introduce a whole new set of problems such as contrast, tone, and color palettes but you also introduce the personal emotions and memories of the viewer. For instance, while the studies looked better in color, dorian thinks black and white and the contrast they have is more sexy.
So we discussed when to use colors in our designs. Colors should be used strategically. Using color should be as thought over as when we design where the type is going to be. It changes the entire composition whether it be for a better cause or for worse. So when we use colors we should be asking ourselves whether it is interesting or whether it is distracting?
Personal Thoughts
I am currently taking a Film and Visual Language class at RCAD and we recently had to debate using color versus using black and white to make a film. Alot of people mentioned that colors will distract the viewer from the story at hand or the information the director and Cinematographer is giving the viewer. I think that color is a tool to enhance designs and compostions but only when used correctly. If color is distracting than theres a problem with it. It should be like typography. Great typography is awesome but if you say "Hey, theres some nice..."(or bad) "...Typography" then you have failed. The best typography/ design should not be noticeable at all. Flying under the radar is the best thing you can do with your type or color use.
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