Advertising Lecture

Frame Research

I went to House of Fraser, M&S and Tk Maxx to look at some of the existing frames.

Analysis of Helvetica

Swiss designer Max Mieginger invented Helvetic in 1957. His aim was to create a neutral typeface that had clarity and could be used on a wide variety of signage. At the time the usage of san serif fonts was very rare. Herbert Bayer quotes that “typography is a service font” Helvetica fits in with this statement very well, companies such as American airlines changes their old serif logo to san serif Helvetica, as it gave off more of a simplistic elegant feel, many companies at the time did the same. Helvetica created a movement of simplicity and it is still been successfully used to this day with companies such as American Apparel.  Beatrice Warde states how “type well used is invisible as type” Helvetica is a typeface that was creates for function rather than form, as it is a Swiss modern design it’s minimalism makes it easy on the eyes. Beatrice Warde also quotes how “eyes focus through type not upon it” Helvetica is not a showy in your face font that draws your attention way from what you reading or the subject of its use. I think that the successes of Helvetica has been down to its clean, clear simplicity.

Analysis Of An Image Of My Choice - The Stone Roses Album

John Square, the guitarist in the band, designed the cover. Squires' was largely influenced by Jackson Pollock's action paintings. That particular piece was inspired by the May 1969 riots in Paris. The cover even shows the French flag, through the red, white and blue messy brush strokes. The flag is the wrong way around and has a faded patchy look to it, this could represent the disruption that was brought to France and France's economy from the riots. It was the first nationwide strike attempted in France and the largest general strike.

The lemons have been used because of a Frenchman the band had met, who had been a part of the 1969 Paris student uprisings. He told they about how to overcome to effects of tear gas, the protesters bite down on lemons. 

The background is a form of action painting; which is a spontaneous and free way to paint. Lacking order, planning and structure it gives off a feeling of chaos. Chaos is what would have been happening in Paris 1969 during the riots, the paint expresses the freedom and a lack of control.

Green symbolises nature, growth, a sense of balance and harmony. Green is also used a lot in association with safety. Green represents endurance and stability  From the riots the people of France were able to restore balance in their country, but through the protests France was able to grow away from their past mistakes into a new peaceful future. Green is used to show this fresh start and growth after the chaos. 

Lecture 3

Chronologies 1: Type – Production and Distribution.

Type Timeline

3200BEC (ish) – Mesopotamia. The first cities, villages and towns started to appear all over the globe, due to trading languages and ways to record them started to be used. 

Adapted from the phonetical alphabet, the greeks were the first to create the first true alphabet.

1450 – James Gutenbery invented the printing press. Books and texts such as the bible were now able to copied and written quicker, moving away from the previous timely hand written texts.

However 300 years prior to the press China were using stamps to create the same effect.

1870 – William Foster created the Elementary Education Act; everyone between 5 and 12 by law had to attend school, they were to be taught to read and write, luxuries they were previously only available for the the wealthy. Due to this the reproduction of books was needed.

1919–1933 – Bauhaus; producing the possibility to mass produce and industrialise arts and crafts.

1957 – Max Miedinger designed Helvetica. During this time it was a design break through as its lack of serif was a rare. It was used a lot in advertising and in films. The first font to be dictated by function. 

1990 – Steve Jobs invented the Apple Mac Classic. This was the beginning of the digital print process being available for everyone, not just the rich. This was not the first computer.

1990 – Tim Berners–Lee created the internet and made it free to everyone. 

1995 – Bill Gates adopted internet explorer. Type and language now had to be adapted to suit the web. For example long texts don't wont on the web, twitters having a character count. 

Lecture 2

Semiotics lecture.

Comparative Essay

The two images that I have been given to compare are “The Uncle Sam’s Range” (1876) and “Daddy what did you do in the great war” (1915).

The first poster, the Uncle Sam’s range is an advertisement for an oven; though this is not clear because of the busy page. The basic message in the image is that American will feed the world, shown by Uncle Sam’s Dinner Party that the world is invited to. The illustration portrays a lot of symbolism. The scroll is showing how much better and advanced American is than the rest of the world. One of the countries mentioned on the scroll is china, 1000’s of years old and still eating rats, as shown through the clock American is 100 years from its independence day and so much more superior than the rest of the world. 

The second poster, “Daddy what did you do in the Great War?” is a UK World War I propaganda poster pressuring and quilting young men to join the army. The poster is very positive that we will win the war and they men will return safely to a comfy life. From the man in the image you can see shame in his eyes and that he is a coward, the children represent how it is a man responsibility to protect their family and country.

The fonts in the two posters are very different. The first has a very bold dramatic look to it; the type looks like something off a Wild Weston film. The handwritten style type on the second poster has a much more friendly personal feel to it, as if it were just directed to you.

The colours that have been used in the two posters are the complete opposite of one and other. The first is full of very bold and bright colours, the red white and blue seen within the American flag. The second is made up of more muted simple colours giving the poster a more realistic feel.

Both of the posters have been aimed at men. In the first as it is the men who control the families money the oven advertisement has been aimed towards them. In the second poster men are again the primary audience as it is to do with signing up to war.

Both posters are shown to be very patriotic. The first is made up of red, white and blue; the colours in the American flag, Uncle Sam is sat at the table with an eagle perched on his shoulder; both big American symbols. The second has a very simple British feel as shown though the red rose in the curtains and the fleur de lis pattern in the armchair.

Both posters see to be very big headed of their own countries. In the first poster it shows how in only 100 years after its independence America has is much more advanced and superior than the rest on the world. In the second poster it shows Briton to be very optimistic that we will win the war, in the title they call the war “the great war”. Also they seem to be sure that the men will return home to have a family.  

Constictive Criticism of the LCA 14/15 prospective

1. On the first page the work art is cut out of the lca title. As it is the name of the university I think that it is important that none of it is cut out, or unreadable.

2. The photos are poorly arranged. They look like they have been just randomly paced. Maybe a more structured looking layout would have looked better.

3. The white and cream don't go together. One or the other should have been uses but not both.

4. The red section in the middle is hard to read. A different background colour would be an improvement, as the red hasn't been used before it looks out of place.

5 Artists

Bloom by Anna Schuleit.

Flowers filling the corridoors of a mental home. Schuleit's installations are very inspiring to me, they are very bold and strange.

Jackie Tileston

Her painting remind me of a fantasy world; something that could only exist it your imagination. Her unique painting style is something that I admire.

Stefan Sagmeister

Sagmeisters typography work had a big impact on me. Putting a lot of time and planning into his work allows him to Crete very cleaver pieces .

Dan Hoopert 

Hooperts 3-d typeography work is visually very pleasing, the intercut detailing on the price is very impressive.

Craig Ward

Ward's is my favourite typography artist. He portrays very cleaver concepts into his personal work. He has also created advertising pieces for very big names, his work really connects well with the client and the brand his is working with.