Phil's Super Blog Typographic Double Feature - The Walls of OCAD

Yes, This is actually two, non-stop, end of your seat action, posts, rolled into one.


First i will address the type on the ocad walls. Now i suppose these are there to make us question things, and think about design..blah..blah..etc. But, are they effective design choices.

One - who are these people that these quotes are coming from. I dunno about you, but why would i get my education from a complete stranger. Sure its plausible, but if such education is valid, then why am i bothering to pay the school here to educate me. I could just go around and start talking to random people. It might be more effective too.

Second - why are they even putting down names? They are personifying these gray pieces of text on a wall. Do we feel they are more human now that are all in the same font. Maybe in the person's handwriting or in different colors might they grab a bit of individualism.

3rd - Why are we being programmed to even register this stuff?.. i mean " What if normality was not defined by exterior appearance"... well then we would be out of jobs... or etc... which seems to be the answer to most... but seriously, doesn't that just contradict the actually use of the quote on the wall.


Solution - no quotes/ or put some variety/identifiable icons up. even then, i think its kind of a questionable idea.















Now onto image two. The unnamed gentleman who put this piece of typography up is not part of the miniature type exhibit that is currently going on. However it seems to be much more interesting then some of the exhibits themselves. The piece seems to comment on its own validity. Through a) not being a valid exhibition piece and b)being transfers that are likely now, invalid. All through the construction of the letters using material and through the "^" symbols + alphabet indicated. The symbols help indicate it being directed at itself, and also form what is supposed be the association of "next". Now, i can't recall what next suggests, though i may have once known, but i feel like there is a c) to this analysis. It having been put up and associated with all the other work, and in many cases be identified among it, cant help but indicate some kind of commentary about the validity of the other work against this piece and maybe the other work is indeed less valid. Either through the time differentiation or effectiveness... it is possible that it could be a comment on the exhibit. But, i doubt it.

I had a hard time figuring out what this said. The book is entitled "100,000 Fireflies" which seems so obvious now, but was as dense as a rubix cube before. In any case, the very fact that you have to stop and look and decipher makes it a successfulllll design. This was one of the things that the early modernists were into. It was part of their philosophy that things shouldn't be so obvious and the only way to actually get through to someone was to make something more abstract or difficult to read so that they would be forced to investigate. This Babyteethesque typeface made me do just that. It even harkens back to the Bauhaus days with its strict use of simple geometric shapes - the circle, the square and the triangle, but it has a more 60's mod feel with it's colour choice. The interesting thing about this is that it's not even a real book. This was created by graphic designer Wyeth Hansen as part of a series of fake books which never ended up being realized. Still, though, it remains an intriguing design with a powerful concept.

-Colin

Demon Days

I was excited when I saw this because it's rare to see a truly beautiful flyer for a club event in Toronto. Usually you are bombarded with all caps bold centred text over a background of seemingly random colours and photoshop effects. This one, however, by Belgian illustrator/graphic design Parra, is truly refreshing. Perhaps it's the European touch that we so seldom see on the flyer art in this city that initially grabbed my attention. It's the lack of pretention and hautiness that is inviting. There is something naive about its typography yet at the same time it is carefully atuned to it's intended audience, especially with it's use of colour. Most of all its the humour that shines, probably because it's not something that would normally be associated with electronic music. Using this contrast, the flyer was successful in grabbing my attention out of the numerous stacks of ephemerae which surrounded it.

-Colin

Barber Shop

Caught this photo on flicker, just curious were barber shops adopted this similar typographic style from. Seeing this style throughout my life I have come accustomed to appropriating this style with the barbershop.

Mike K

2pac

Being a rap artist I enjoy, this piece of typography makes me cry. It is completely expressed wrong. From the style, spray paint to where they applied it. There should have been more thought gone into this and more a appropriate design when referencing a icon whiten the rap culture. It makes me sad.

Mike k

Swiss smoking sign.

This image confuses me. Mixed with a visual graphic, and the type being in a different language I do not know if there is a connection between the both. Seeing this image at first glance without the translation of the Swiss word I combine the both and come to conclusion that it means no smoking. I find the collision of type and images interesting, they may or may not have the same subject matter, or the artist may or may not have intended that they were to be interpreted together. The way the image is taken, it suggests that they have a similar commonality but they might not.

Mike k

Mexico Writing

Seeing handwriting script before in our class I thought this would be a nice addition to that. My friend snapped this photo while on vacation in Mexico. I think the surface they used is very interesting, either some kind of plastic or window. Once again, I am unsure of the meaning and even the exact language. This image is a bit more difficult to make out being either graffiti or hand writing script. The way my friend cropped his capture doesn’t give the full perspective of the surroundings but subjects the viewer to realize this is the only subject matter entitled for this piece. I think the image is very clever as well I really enjoy the colors the creator used.

Mike K

Heineken Advertisement

A billboard on queen street, it caught my eye first because of the color, I began to interpret the add and I didn’t really make the connection between the typeface chosen for the message and the actual brand. I think there is a rather large gap between the two and throws the reader off track. Heineken, a very well known beer with a distinctive history played a modern cliché approach in this add, I think it simply dose not work.

Mike K

City Stencil

I found this stencil spray bomb in graffiti ally. I do not know if it is a city stencil or if it was a graffiti artist. It suites the area very well being the type of typography and the medium, but still I cannot figure out exactly what it is intended for. The typography appeals to me very much; it is clean but also has an Unconventional characteristic to it. I would like to find out exactly what this name, logo or slogan means.

Mike K

HTML

I Have been building websites for quite awhile, the end product of a website is comprised of lots and lots of html code. From a UN familiar eye it means nothing, but to a programming it tells a story, its describes a website etc. I find it very interesting the typography produced with the final product, and what it actually means.

Mike k

HTML

I Have been building websites for quite awhile, the end product of a website is comprised of lots and lots of html code. From a UN familiar eye it means nothing, but to a programming it tells a story, its describes a website etc. I find it very interesting the typography produced with the final product, and what it actually means.

Letters of E. Vogler to Her Son

Letters of E. Vogler to Her Son
Francois Caspar


What sets this poster apart from so many others is its ability to be read at a number of distances. Depending on the distance one views it from, some features become more sharp, some blur, some become legible, some illegible. It challenges the viewer to decide which information is meant to be in the foreground and which lays in the back.

The hand-done nature of the poster adds to the disconnect felt while looking at it.

HIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSSsssssss

I don't think anything really needs to be said about this. I could potentially write 100 words about it - but I believe it stands up as is.

Obvious, yes, but nevertheless noteworthy.

Never underestimate the power of the shameless cliché.

Angela

online magazine version
http://www.thefreshmagazine.com/uploads/fileassets/Fresh_Issue_1_March_28.pdf

website
http://www.thefreshmagazine.com/

the above is a link to an online version of a local magazine, its not really a good example of nice typography but more of really horrible type. what's really crazy about it is that they're funded by the government and so have the money to make this magazine look really really nice. on top of that, what surprises me the most, is that they have a graphic designer.

-sarah

383

This is my building number, 383. At night the numbers are brightly laminated through the sheet metal cut out. It is a sans serif typeface; modern, clean yet has a little creative atheistic. Not close enough to be Helvetica or universe but somewhere in between. The only distinction of my building are these 3 numbers, I figured they somehow would relate to the style of the building or something along those lines. Consisting of loft units, the style of typeface chosen, in my opinion does not really convey that. I envision, something unique and highly artistic, something not trendy and so uniform.

- Mike

Working on the Strange Poster and employing the grid, I went out in search of inspirational work and came across a book by Karel Martens. Martens is a Dutch modernist/post-modernist graphic design whose book, Printed Matter, is chock full of eye candy in the form of typography and book design. Not only is his work great, but the book itself is a design feat in itself. The above image is a typographic experiment using stencil numbers in a "magic formation." On first glance the rainbow of colours pop out and draw you in. The overlapping of one grid (the numbers) over another (the newspaper columns) is an interesting contrast of the everyday with the "strange" if you will. Sheer rationalism is employed here, with each number corresponding to a specific colour and in the end it ends up as playful and intriguing as any work of art, and the structuralism dissapears.

-Colin

NO CAMPING

This sign is posted repeatedly outside the church at King and Simcoe. I walk past it many times a week going to and from work and it always brings inquiries to my head. Do people often bring their tents downtown to camp? Has there been a big problemt with this in the past? Yes, it is quite a popular place for the bums the sleep, but why not a simple 'no loitering' sign. 'Camping' is so indirect and a little bit ridiculous. You might as well put up a sign that says 'no icefishing' beside it. Perhaps, with the word camping they are trying to be more polite because camping has postive connotations. But, it's almost tempting to pitch a tent and roast some marshmallows just so they can see how absurd the concept really is. If it is for the purpose of giving a more joyous tune to yet another rule we have to follow, then that idea abolishes itself with the giant 'NO' that can only be read with a strict and forceful tone. 'Camping' looks like its just trying to fit inside the margins. The font appears to be a standard sign font, sans serif, simple and to the point. So, just in case you were wondering, no - you cannot camp there! Give a try at the next block over though. :)

jamop

This sticker has been plastered all over the city. Front St. got it especially bad, where these stickers completely wallpapered multiple public garbage containers, phonebooths, hydro poles, you name it. Naturally, such a bold statement caught my attention. The only information the sticker gives to you is the word 'jamop' with a dove symbol in a target. At first, i thought it was to campaign a band, an anti-peace band actually. The way the dove, a globally recognized symbol of peace, is framed in what looks like a gun target and the fact that the stickers conveyed the idea of vandalism in the way they were posted, gave me a 'kill peace' message. But, i was still unsure of its meaning, so i did what any curious mind would do, i googled it. After viewing the website, www.jamop.com, i found that it is acutally quite an ingenious symbol to represent 'targeting peace' not destroying it as i had first assumed. jamop is an abbreviation for 'just a minute of peace' of 07/07/07 at 11:11pm. This is a worldwide effort to stand up for peace. These stickers are posted in various countries, each country using their flags colours - hence the red and white for canada. The word 'jamop' is created with a very friendly typeface, lowercase letters add to the non-threatening/welcoming message. It's placement is subtle and allows for the image to take hierarchy, while leading you to the word. Now, after many weeks plastered to all things downtown, the stickers have been torn and weathered and even though they were effective in creating awareness, now there is a big mess to be cleaned up that i'm sure will not bring peace to the person who is responsible for scraping them off one by one.

Smelvetica

I come forth with a question!

Does Helvetica express neutrality?

Some say neutrality in type is simply a myth, that type cannot exist without spreading some wave of influence. Does Helvetica's sans-serif form act transparent, conveying the given message without prejudice?

My Take :

Likely not.

Neutrality, Odds-on, doesn't exist. But, Surely we can get damn close to it, and if I were ever to pick a font, I suppose Helvetica would be the choice. Helvetica does pose a common perception, and popularity to a degree of hatred. Do we hate it because it doesn't express any solid bias? It would be rather interesting to know what a neutral font looked like, if such a context could be expressed. It could be apocalyptic. Neutrality in many ways could lead to the decline of prescribed type solutions. Designer freedom (once thought to be vanquished) might return.Who knows!?

Delve into this nonsensical question.

- Phil

Emily Carr @ AGO

I usually come across this big poster that advertises for an Emily Carr exhibition on my way to work and I always sigh over the typographic treatment. It may not be all that innovative or ground breaking but neither is it the usual hideousness that we often are subjected to in various other advertisements. I guess I appreciate it for it’s understated and simple treatment and how the designer relied on the colour selection and fonts to, in a way, describe the exhibit. After years of art history classes, I instantly recognized the name ‘Emily Carr’ as a Canadian artist/painter who often depicted Canadian landscapes and had a long and valuable association with The Group of Seven. The font used for her name is different from the rest of the text, a delicate and almost organic font that I feel reflects her art works that are fluid and natural. The colour schemes of her paintings were similar to those used on the poster. The tracking and the fact that the font is different from the rest of the text allow the viewer to enjoy the display font employed. All the words are in lowercase that emphasizes the rounded letters and relates to the organic shapes in her paintings.

~Teri Yeung

The above is a book cover titled "The Cheese Monkeys: A novel in two semester" written by book designer—Chip Kidd. At closer inspection, some light pencil marks can be seen throughout and around the letterforms suggesting not only an underlying grid structure that holds the typographic elements in place, but also that the letters themselves may have been hand-drawn instead of type-set from an off-the-shelf typeface. This can be further evidenced with the strange linearity of the sans-serif faces that seem to scale disproportionately in height:width ration from the E's for CHEESE versus the E of MONKEYS. The tiny spec of a period at the end of monkeys is also disproportionately smaller than what a period normally would be from an off-the-shelf typeface.

The hand-crafted sans serif against the ornamental script for 'The' and the kraft paper textured background give the book jacket a feeling and previousness of being special, handmade, and non-commercial. The treatment of the cover give the impression of a methodical, yet offbeat feeling which uncoincidentally enough, is directly tied into the elements that are inherent and exist in story of the book itself.

—Brian Gerard Elicierto

Pulp Fiction

This piece is reminiscent of our first project - representing a movie, or a portion of a movie, with typography. Instead of images, the artist animates the text to represent the pacing and action of the scene.

The scrolling of the text at different rates, the varying sizes of the text, and the juxtaposition those various elements gives the audience a good idea of what's happening in the scene of the movie without actually seeing the original images. The close cropping of many of the words, coupled with the speed they spill across the screen communicates the chaos of the scene of the movie, yet the scrong angles of Samuel Jackson's lines show him to be an authority figure in control of his surroundings.

The typeface change part way through is a welcome change to the patterns set up in the first portion of the piece - it makes it more engaging.

Brite-Nite

Quebec Artist/Designer Eric Filion aka vj Nokam showed at the Resistor Gallery on March 24th - you can check out a bit of it at http://www.nokami.com/htm_en/03_8.htm. click on Brite-Nite.

I've never experienced anything quite like this, long sheers were suspended from ceiling to floor while two projectors on either end of the room displayed animated graphics. Because the ceilings and sheers were so high, you became completely immersed in text, patterns and numbers which moved so quickly that you could only catch random words like "CLEAR COMPRESSION" and "CRITICAL PATH" - Naturally, Helvetica was the only logical choice here : )

I think that most people absorb far more information on, say the street, than from this installation, but because the information is total rubbish, our minds are "arrested" in space while we process the novel way in which familiar words, symbols and numbers are being communicated (Making the familiar strange?)

I think that this is a great example of how the method of communication can be intrinsically more commanding than the message itself. Very McCluhan.


Angela