Simple is my Complex

Maybe you've never wondered this, but there is a reason I call this blog white space. I'll get into why more in a bit. But first, this post stems from the AIGA portfolio review I attended over the weekend. It was a great experience and I received a lot of great criticism and comments. One of the ones that stood out the most to me was one about my style. I was showing a series of highly textured and stylized book covers (see archives) along side some of my branding concepts (again see archives) and a reviewer commented that he thought I was trying too hard. He saw more thought and intention in the ideas that were more minimal than the ones of excessive visual flair. This came as a shock to me.

At times I find myself consciously, and subconsciously, running away from my natural design tendencies and ideas of a tight, controlled, and well placed design. And running away from, ironically, white space.

White space is probably my favorite element to use intentionally and manipulate within a design. It creates a much more sophisticated and elegant look (see apple.com, nytimes.com).

It helps focus attention on what you really want the viewer to see and understand. I can't tell you why I avoid it sometimes but it is something I really want to embrace moving forward as a part of how I think and who I am as a designer.

Here are a few examples of work (not mine) that I feel use white space to enhance the design.

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Brewers Season Ticket Poster Campaign

[slideshow] I know this sounds a bit far-fetched, but as a project over the winter break I wanted to design something fun and as if a possible dream opportunity came true. You may have guessed already, designing for the Milwaukee Brewers, or any sports team for that matter. I've been to countless games since the days Bernie Brewer slid down into a giant beer mug at County Stadium and these posters became a fun combination of design and sports.

I used old campaign posters from the 60's and 70's as inspiration. The likes of Kennedy, LBJ, and Nixon advertised with two toned posters featuring black and white head or head and shoulder shots of the candidates. Political campaigns are by no means always the epitome of graphic design at its finest but any campaign manager that underestimates the power of images and design as a form of communication and persuasion is hopelessly lost.

In my posters I use iconic brewer players, newly acquired and former Cub Aramis Ramirez, moustache notable John Axford, and crazy centerfielder Nyjer Morgan. The posters are about loyalty to the team and using these players personalities and quirks as reasons to "Join the (Brew) Crew" and purchase season tickets.

Ramblings on what it means to be a graphic designer...

I've had this thought going through my head lately and if anyone else has gone to school as a graphic design major assuredly you've been asked the same question. It's surprising sometimes what people think I do. "So is it like technical drawing and auto CAD?" they'll ask. I try to explain it pertains more to marketing and advertising using graphics and typography.  But is that really all a graphic designer does? Everyone has tried their hand at that using powerpoint or publisher. What makes a designer different besides doing it as a career? To be most blunt, a designer has ideas.  Not just what image should be used where, but conceptually innovative ideas. Take for instance David Carson. A former eighth-ranked surfer in the world, with less than a few months of design classes to his name, conceptually changed how people view design. He art directed the magazine Ray Gun and used it as an experimentation with typography and design. He dropped page numbers and it was the first time in magazine history that an inside story jumped to continue on the front cover (Bierut). Barcodes were no longer confined to the lower corners of the page but placed within the design. His work was considered by some as anti-commercialism.

It was this bizarre, divergent, and extraordinary design and ideas that made the magazine so appealing, along with an apropos subject matter of cutting-edge social icons in music etc. But Carson was not the person to create something and then sit back and watch it succeed. His goal was to always do something different. He never used the same approach for two openers (Bierut). This is what separates a graphic designer from someone who designs commercially for a living.

Graphic designers are thinkers.Good graphic designers are great thinkers. Great graphic designers are revolutionary thinkers.

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Potential Goldmine??? Fantasy Football Logos

Every great invention or idea generally capitalizes on some human obsession. Pepsi and Coke captured our love of sugar. Facebook captured our love of socializing and self-promotion. I am going to capitalize on the craze of fantasy sports. Over 19 million people play in some form of fantasy football league every year. Thats not counting the three other major sports that attract fans as well. The NFL and other leagues have realized the potential of this new way of following the sport and made millions on advertising and other promotions. This is how I'm going to get a piece of the pie. Every online fantasy team has a team decal. You can upload your own image or choose from the 5 options they provide you. Most people's team names are too creative to be captured by a colored football helmet and an initial. Here's where the designer and business opportunity comes in. The designer provides a logo for the team owner to upload instead. This is the first of many services possible. T-shirts, trophy's, jerseys, and anything else marketable can follow.

The only issues with this business plan is that the designs have to be simple enough so they don't take weeks to create in order to do as many as possible and keep prices low. Another issue is copyrighting. You are basically giving your files to someone else and after that you have no control of where they go. This would have to be dealt with by someone smarter than me.

I have created my own logo and have gotten requests from others in my league. I believe this is a potentially viable way to create a small business or on the side interest. If you are interested in a logo feel free to contact me or if you have any ideas please comment!

Working in Seies

One thing I have learned over a culmination of my few years at Stritch and learning about the art world is the fact that to be respected or "legitmate' or to even be considered a professional artist you have to be able to show your work and the amount of time you put into it. I was overhearing Tim talk to another student about one particular photo they made and he was saying it was great. Now just go take a lot more pictures of the same subject and just like that you have a gallery show. A series is more a culmination of one idea rather than one solo idea executed perfectly, which is not to say that nothing will be perfect. I noticed when Keilan was talking about doing more work that he really emphasized doing more work outside of classwork and working with more and more series. It displays your passion for your creative career and It's a tremendous learning experience. I have experienced this anytime I had to do something multiple times. Its something that I am really going to focus on in the next year of my designs. I want to just do work and get it out there so I can learn from it.

How I think... about design

I'm surprised you're reading this after that title, but I hope you're not expecting some great manifesto. I have been thinking a bit lately about my artist process recently and I'm trying to figure out how I think things through so I can better understand how to solve a problem. For some projects as soon as I hear the brief I have an image in my head of what it is going to look like. I tend to jump into a project following this vague vision only to hit a brick wall later realizing I don't have a fully developed concept. But this habit is usually very helpful down the road because it lets me experiment and brainstorm ideas before solidifying a concept. Sometimes I can box myself in with too many boundaries and I am trapped in a design, sensibility, or concept I don't want. Other times however, I need to plan how everything is going to look and the message that I want to be obvious. I can get detailed and meticulous but I still allow for creative spontaneity. This can be great for planning but it sometimes holds me back. I can spend too much time deliberating about what I'm going to do instead of just letting it flow and follow my own esthetics and design sense.

I also been more aware lately, even though Sarah has tried to engrain it into our heads already, that looking at and researching outside work is extremely helpful and extremely important. Its not a bad thing to look at your experience objectively and say, hey Im just a rookie, I haven't yet developed my own revolutionary style that I should use to permeate everything I do but instead, I need to be soaking in everything I can learn about design, aesthetics, color, techniques, problem-solving, etc. so I can be a better designer. I want to focus more on creating a process that will help me to create successful design.

Got to the museum

So I finally got to the Milwaukee Art Museum for the first time ever and now I’m wishing I had gone sooner. I took advantage of the free admission on Thursday. No one else wanted to go with me but I had an excellent time with myself regardless. Having been to galleries but never actually having been to any art museum, a minor felony for an art student I am sure, I didn’t know what to expect. What I found was that the real thing was ten times better than the internet pictures. My goal was to look for uses of typography in the museum but that got lost, as I was too involved in examining everything else around me. One of the featured shows in the main walkway was the work of Chakaia Booker. She uses old tires, rubber, pipes, scrap material and arranges them in astonishing compositions. They have great energy and movement. From a distance they look soft, smooth, and flowing but up close you can see the rigid texture and reality of the substance. I liked looking at the few old artifacts they had there: the suits of armor, the helmets, and the keys. I especially was attracted to the old key because of their ornate shape. They are almost a work themselves.

I was never interested in paintings from the renaissance and surrounding years but I made myself walk through those exhibits anyway. I must say they are much more beautiful in real life and much richer. I got really close to them and began looking for a visible brush stroke because I could hardly believe the quality of gradient they achieved. They were few and far between. I may have underestimated the skill of those artisans; or perhaps assumed everyone painted like me.

Of course I had to see Monet’s painting, Waterloo Bridge, because he was the biggest name there. When I walked up to it I was not overwhelmed. It was nice, nothing special. I loved the brushstrokes and color. Those were much better in real life. Luckily I didn’t give up on it because, it took me a few minutes, I finally saw the bridge. It was so nondescript that it blended right in with the background. I thought about the times in class when we talked about “eye candy” and rewarding the viewer for being perceptive. I was in no means being perceptive, I had just finally seen what I had supposed to in the first place but it made it that much better.

did find one typographic piece by Christopher Wool that I really liked. I was a large canvas with FO covering the top half and OL covering the bottom, similar to the t-shirts that say love or I “heart” NY. It is in blocky black and white letters. I liked what he said in a description that he likes to keep his work simple and let the viewer bring in the story to it. Standing in front of the piece it’s as if you’re being accused as a fool. You’re left to stand there and wonder why. What have I done? Why would the artist want me to feeling this way? Why is it broken up instead of one full word?

I had a really great experience and now I know where to go if I’m desperate for inspiration.

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I

Nerd

Does it make me a nerd if everytime I walk into my room I notice the handle of the door looks like the beaked serif of the roman capital letter E?

Red, white, blue, and...?

Noticing the political advertisements recently I was pondering why Ron Johnson would use green as his color scheme. I thought it was odd to break away from the traditional patriotic colors of red white and blue. Its an obvious intentional choice but one I am trying to understand why. Green is usually associated with environmental ideas which don't always align with Johnson's political party. He may be trying to reach out to others or portray himself as someone who is concerned with the environment despite his parties views. If this is not the case, however, it is a poor choice of color because the average voter will probably not put any more thought into his posters and advertisements than I did.

_______________ Centered_______________

I have noticed a tendency in my own work. That is, to make my titles and other text centered. It's the default in my brain and its obvious in my music poster design. I struggle breaking away from that but i have a bit in the changes I made to my poster. When I made the "A" in battle really big it automatically "de-centered" the word adrenaline. Consequently I had to move my quote and quote author to fit accordingly and I think the composition is a lot stronger than it would be centered. I think centering things is a great way to keep balance but, for me at least, its good to break away from that sometimes and create an interesting composition with other tools.

identity?

Im one of my classes a project is to create an identity piece. We can use whatever medium we want and everything else is wide open. I wanted to do something digital but i didn't know where to start. I came across a link for a guy who did some pretty cool things with manipulating one image. I'm still trying to figure out how he did it. I think he just took the different patches and messed with sizes to create a new figure. http://phootcampgallery.arloartists.com/portfolios/6731-kevin-meredith.

Learning to be perceptive

I am more aware of text and understand the thought process behind it. One of the places I have noticed it is in the gallery here at Stritch. I love the text of the title "Jim Maston {intersection}. It was a great choice. It is bold, strong, commanding and really sets a mood of importance authenticity for the gallery. It's amazing sometimes how much text can influence your perception of something. I don' t even know who this man is but I have a perception in my head based off the font of the title of his showing.