CoP Seminar: Semiotics

In this session, we split into small groups and focused on seperate parts of a text about semiotics. My group had to focus on 'myths'. I have found it quite difficult to understand, but using an example has made it easier.
We chose an old Coca Cola advert to show that adverts can be misleading. Here it says 'Want something good?' which is already manipulating the viewer into thinking the cola will taste nice. The girl pictured is youthful and healthy looking, while having perfect teeth. This is something that contrasts greatly with Coca Cola, which is very unhealthy and sugary. The viewer is set into false belief that they will be happy and healthy just like this girl if they buy the product, which is obviously false.

Lecture 3 - Type: Production and Distribution

Type is language made visible, and has been traced to exist as early as around 3200 BC in Ancient Sumer. Since then, the way we visually represent languages has changed and developed vastly.
All that is necessary for any language to exist is an agreement amongst a group of people that one thing will stand for another.
According to historical research, Greek was the first alphabet, which was adapted from the Phoenician. Latin is a further development from Greek, which is widely used today. Below is the letter A from the latin alphabet, which was originally a bysons head, which may have meant 'food'.

Alphabets were incredibly simple in the start, only consisting of symbols such as eyes or animals or water (pictograms).

Type was entirely created by hand using tools such as quills and brushes, before the Gutenberg press was invented in 1436. This made it possible for type to be reproduced time and time again using blocks. 

Timeline of typographic classification:

1450 - 1700: Classical/Old style 

1700 - 1790: Transitional

1790 - 1870: Modern

1870 - 1960: Bauhaus/Swiss Modern

1960 - 2000: Contemporary

The Elementary Education Act 1870 made education for all children mandatory, which made type a tool for all classes.
Max Hiedinger invented Helvetica which was formerly called Neue Haas Grotesk. He wanted to create a typeface that would compete with Akzidenz-Grotesk in the swiss market. He wished to create a neutral typeface that had great clarity, no intrinsic meaning in its form, and could be used on a wide variety of signage.
Arial was invented 25 years after Helvetica, and 25 years is the maximum time that a design is protected by intellectual property before it lapses. The similarities are uncanny!

• Vincent Connare worked for Microsoft and designed Comic Sans MS in 1994, a highly unpopular font. 
• Tim Berners-Lee invented the internet in 1990.

Studio Brief 4: Comparing articles

The Telegraph

Reading the article about this story on the Telegraph website, I have found it is much more opinionated than The Times. It goes into more detail about the poem itself and how it is structured and written, for example:

The "Ode to Osama" is absolutely free of humour. Instead there's a sort of alarming naivety to it. That's partly the effect of the childish spelling and punctuation ("Oh sheik Osama no this for true"), as well as the tin ear for rhymes or half-rhymes (my emphasis): "Us we are left to continue what you started. / To see the victory until we are martyred" and "Everything you had you gave for Allah / No surrender will take us all far".

The Times seems to get more to the simple facts and doesn't analyse anything like The Telegraph seems to. It seems like a desperate attempt to squeeze every bit of excitement from this story. It is talking about how it may be "the worst poem ever written", showing it isn't very formal as an article.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/andrewmcfbrown/100242505/the-white-widows-ode-to-osama-is-this-the-worst-poem-ever-written/

Sky News

The article on the Sky website includes quite a few images, which may suggest it is for a different audience. They are trying to keep the reader's attention with pictures.
The title is ''White Widow' Lewthwaite's Ode To Bin Laden', which does not suggest it is a love poem or letter like other news stations have. Overall it seems quite formal.

The British terror suspect sought by police following the Nairobi shopping mall massacre wrote a poem in praise of Osama bin Laden in which she warned that al Qaeda is "stronger and fiercer" than ever, Sky News can reveal.

Samantha Lewthwaite - known as the "White Widow" - pledged to continue the fight to bring terror to the West and suggested she was prepared to be a martyr for the Islamic cause.

In the 34-line Ode To Osama, which was found by police on a computer in her Kenyan home, Lewthwaite said her love for the mastermind of the September 11 attacks "is like no other".

She lamented his death in 2011 at the hands of American special forces and called on Muslims to follow his example.

http://news.sky.com/story/1157854/white-widow-lewthwaites-ode-to-bin-laden

Mirror

The title of the Mirror article is "White Widow Samantha Lewthwaite's love poem to Osama Bin Laden found on computer during police raid". It's like the writer has tried to cram as many effective facts as possible into one sentence.
There are a number of different pictures of the woman, as if her appearance is more important than the actual story, which is sensationalising the whole thing.

The difference between these two images is clear: In one she is wearing a Islamic headscarf. In the next she isn't, and she is also surrounded by her young children. This introduces the question: is one image meant to show her evil side, and the other her maternal, gentle side to make a strong contrast? This would mean that the headscarf was connotated with terrorism (which it already is in our society), which would imply subtle Islamophobia.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/white-widow-samatha-lewthwaites-love-2479295

Studio Brief 4: Online opinions/comments

I looked through comments on articles about the story about the White Widow. I have found a range of opinions, some against Islam strongly and some against the woman's character.

The Telegraph

"The mentally afflicted should not be mocked, only a very deeply disturbed western woman would convert to islam, and develop into a fundamentalist nutjob."

-

"Why does the media give this psychopath publicity? The only time I want to read about her is when she is taken out by a drone strike."

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"I suspect she hasn't fitted in anywhere, whether in England or in some islamic hell hole. Some misfits overcome their 'otherness' by sheer will power - many comedians start out from that point. But nothing excuses involvement in the killing and maiming of innocent people. "

Sky News

"We live in a world where confused, even mentally unstable people are allowed to exercise their twisted beliefs. Here a white woman poses as a white woman when sniffing out targets. Al Qaeda may have found their perfect weapon to use against the west. Of course, if she was a genuine Muslim, she would be on the road to peace, but she is just another disgusting creature who cowers behind a religion to try to make reason of her destructive actions." 

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"Trying to have a logical conversation with people of this mindset, who can't even recognize your right to exist is a no brainer. At any stage in any conversation, if things don't go their 'way', they are likely to revert to their already declared agenda of destroying you. This is fundamentalist Islam. 
When it comes to non-Muslims, anything that doesn't submit to their values is seen as 'oppression' and this inevitably leads into a pejorative characterization of anything Western, Christian or Jewish, amid a set of prejudicial attitudes that have been nourished on the myth of the illegitimacy of non-Muslims, with encouragement to express its loyalties through aggressive hostility. 
Yet the liberal media and apologists would class any factual and truthful assessment as Islamophobic. Hence they are to be given a free pass to behave as they wish with impunity. Or else."

The Mirror 

"A love poem yeh right! Hahahaha media. things they make up"

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"What decent God, religion, parent or even random human being would honestly want to see those sweet little kids, or any innocent person blown up? By their own words and deeds, Islam, Al Queda, Mohammad, Osama et al have repeatedly shown themselves to be nothing more than evil scum doing the bidding of Satan. It boggles my mind how unintelligent, evil and easily manipulated people like this stupid cow must be, to actively avoid facing the blindingly obvious."

-

"Capturing this fat pig and make bacon with her . ​​This woman is just a prostitute ugly, fat and useless." 

I have found Sky News has the most reasonable and level-headed comments on their article about this subject. There is always a mixture of comments, but The Mirror seemed to have more extreme and grotesque comments than any other article. This reflects the target audience of this paper and the website; it is a tabloid newspaper which generally are read by the lower classes of society.

The Telegraph is a broadsheet newspaper. It has more in depth comments that have more thought behind them, however some have ignorant opinions in a very extreme sense. This could be to do with the fact that 64% of readers are Conservative so their views may be more close-minded.

Studio Brief 4: Research paths

These are my possible paths I can take with my research.

Studio Brief 4: Message and Delivery

White Widow's poem of love for Bin Laden

I bought The Times newspaper on Tuesday 22nd October. The Times is a national daily broadsheet paper.

I chose this article because some of the details stood out to me as unusual.

• The title exaggerates the story and makes it seem more about love than anything else.
• It is turned into something that is supposed to be romantic, but it is about power and justice.
• Samantha Lewthwaite converted to Islam when she was 15 years old. This is an unusual thing for a teenager to do.
• She married Germaine Lindsay in 2002, who was one of the 7/7 London bombers.
• It is unusual to read about a woman who is involved, or supporting, terrorism, so it has been sensationalised so people will read it.
• It is also unusual for a white, British person to be involved in these things. The fact that this is unusual to me shows the prejudice in society and how things are portrayed in the media. From this I can look into how some articles can come across as Islamophobic when dealing with terrorism.

CoP Seminar: Semiotics

Semiotics is the study of signs and sign processes in our society that are based on social and cultural ideals. These signs can be fashion, subcultures, objects and colours that are in every day life. They all have deep meaning to us that has been ingrained in us as human beings for decades and often centuries. The meanings can often be ignorant; traces of sexism, racism and general bigotry lay in our society and how things work. However, semiotics are changing all the time as our society grows and expands in more ways than one.
The signifier is the object and the signified is the concepts associated with it. Denotation and connotation are terms that describe the relationship that is between the signifier and the signified. Denotation is a very literal definition of something, whereas connotation is the personal or socio-cultural assocations that come from a number of social factors of the interpreter. Connotations are developed from the society we live in and our attitudes and beliefs.
Connotations are different in every culture; red does not mean danger in some cultures, but in the western world it is used so regularly on road or warning signs. Red symbolises good fortune and joy in China. Fashion is ordered like a language; people who work in offices wear suits and ties, but why? Because this smart way of dressing is a code for convention. A tie is completely useless and serves no purpose except to signify authority or smartness.
Myths are often thought of to mean incorrect of false statements, but in the semiotic sense it means moreso how signifiers develop and create new meanings. Barthes has said that myths serve the ideological function of naturalization - they naturalize the cultural and objective reflections of 'the way things are'; popular beliefs and attitudes are made to seem completely normal by myths. There are layers of meaning to everything.
In graphic design, semiotics is an integral part of how we create things. We are using social and cultural elements to produce work that appeals to a wide group of people, so to be aware of the connotations attached to certain aspects of society is valuable. Being aware of semiotics can help us to change society's connotations with our designs, or take advantage of them.

Studio Brief 4: Newspapers

For Brief 4, we have to pick an article from a newspaper dated 22nd October 2013. We then have to put together research into the story and the way the press have interpreted it.

As an introduction, we got into groups and explored different kinds of newspapers.

We found that 'Online News' was the easiest brainstorm to come up with, as our generation is so exposed to the internet, more so than newspapers, which an older generation would probably find easier.

Context of Practice: Lecture 2 - Language of Design: Visual Literacy

This lecture was about how design is it's own visual language. For a language to work, there has to be an agreement amongst people that one thing will stand for another. The principles, vocabulary and grammar has to be learnt for this to happen. Visual language is the use of graphic design to communicate certain things to the public, and it provides the visual vocabulary needed for ideas, concepts and messages to be effectively communicated.

Everybody knows instantly that these symbols means female and male toilets, yet no words are used. This is visual literacy.

We aren't designing for our own sake, nor are we appealing to our fellow students with our designing. So we have to think globally and contextually with designing and try not to be stuck in our own bubbles of understanding.
Visual communication requires visual literacy. The seven principles of Visual literacy are:

• the ability to interpret, negotiate and make meaning from information presented in the formation of an image.
• it is based on the idea that pictures can be read.
• it is an agreement amongst a group of people that one thing will stand for another.
• the conventions that are a combination of universal and cultural symbols.
• being visually literate requires an awareness of the relationship between visual syntax and visual semantics.
• visual syntax, which is the visual organisation and the pictorial structure of elements, which affect the way we 'read' it.
• visual semantics, the way an image fits into a cultural process of communication. The meaning is created through elements such as cultural references and political or social ideals. 
• semiotics, which is the study of symbolism, signs and sign processes, communication and so on. It is closely related to the field of linguistics which studies the structure and meaning of language.

Visual semantics is the way an image fits into a cultural process of communication. An image of an apple is not actually an apple. It is a photograph or picture of an apple. You can't touch it and it has been edited to look that way, so therefore it is not an apple. Once you put a large apple next to a smaller apple and we ask ourselves what it is, it can be perceived as a "big apple". This then has connotations of New York... 'The Big Apple". This apple is a visual metaphor.

Image and symbols are METAPHORS - Apple and blackberry don't even make you think of fruit anymore, because they have visual literacy.
A visual metonym is a symbolic image that closely relates to something but isn't solely linked to it, for example yellow cabs make you think of New York.

CoP Seminar - Task: Image Analysis Exercise

The Uncle Sam Range, 1876, advertising image by Schumacher & Ettlinger, New York

Poster by Savile Lumley (1915)

Both of these pieces of design are from different eras that are definitely very different to the 21st century. With only 39 years separating them, they ultimately have similarities, however a lot can change in a short space of time. For starters, a new century started (20th century) and World War I came about before the poster by Savile Lumley was created.

Starting with similarities, the aim of both is to promote something. They are both trying to get bold messages across to the viewer, in the hopes that they will be persuaded to the creator's point of view whether that be so that they will buy a product or they will change the way they think. Both campaign's use a strong sense of patriotism to get their point across... The Uncle Sam Range is really in your face with the red white and blue colour scheme; it screams USA before you even know what exactly they are trying to sell to you. Lumley's poster doesn't give off patriotism with it's colour scheme but the caption "Daddy, what did YOU do in the Great War?" is clearly trying to tell the viewer to participate in the World War in some way, or at least rethink their patriotism.

Both designs were made to appeal to men with power and families, as The Uncle Sam Range has a very important looking man seated at the table in the middle of the illustration who is being waited on, while Lumley's poster has a husband and father of two smart children sitting in a dapper suit in an armchair. The man has a glum look on his face, which makes you think that he is feeling very cowardly inside, with guilt that his children won't think of him as heroic or brave. No man in this time would have wanted to seem weak or anything but powerful to anybody, so this is an effective way of affecting the viewer's thoughts. 

The Uncle Sam Range is trying to sell an oven to the viewer. In doing this, there is a large earth sitting at the table, which has a long list of what seems to be food that each country around the world is in need of. This gives off the idea that America is superior to all other countries, and can 'save' them easily with all it's power. It was created 100 years after the year of independence for the USA, so the patriotism is very strong, powerful and obvious. The black slave we can see on the far left shows powerfully what era the advert is from, and makes the idea of superiority even stronger.

The fonts used in both designs reflect the time frames very clearly. The Uncle Sam Range uses very bold and traditional lettering all over the advert to emphasise the westernization and patriotic values. Lumley's poster has handwritten text at the bottom, which has an old-fashioned feel to it. Its handwritten this way presumably because it is trying to make it seem personalised, as if the young girl has written it; you are supposed to read it in her voice for emphasis. The use of the word "Great" just reinforces the idea that Britain was triumphant and proud of their forces in the war.

Both adverts are aimed towards the same group of people of middle to upper class men in the western world, but for different purposes. However they both use a strong sense of patriotism which is what they have in common.

Studio Brief 3 - Matthew's personality

Today we got set our third brief, which was to design a typeface for a full alphabet, and 6 glyphs of our choice including but not limited to punctuation marks.
The letters should represent the personality and character of our partner, and will be manipulated from an appropriate typeface from Adobe Font folio. An A2 tracing paper poster will have all the designs on it and a name badge for my partner will also be made using the type.
My partner is Matthew Brewer, and we were given a set of questions to each answer to learn things about each other.

Matthew said that Karl Pilkington would play him in a film about his life. Karl Pilkington:

• is pessimistic
• is skeptical
• likes very much to stay in his comfort zone
• enjoys simple pleasures
• is very funny in the way he sees the world

all these characteristics of Karl Pilkington's are very similar to what I have learnt so far about Matthew. It helps to have knowledge already about Karl, as this helps me get a clearer idea of Matthew and what he likes.

Matthew has said he is 'happiest when' his grandma is making him a fry up after he is stayed at her house the night before, and he is 'unhappiest when' he is waiting for ages in a fast food restaurant and people getting served after they came in after him. These factors give me the indication that he is of simple likes and dislikes, and is quite lighthearted.

Context of Practice: Lecture programme introduction

Today we had our first lecture on Context of Practice. I learnt some things about history of the three fonts Times New Roman, Herbert Bayer, and Fraktur.
We're immersed in type without even knowing it, and there are politics behind type and all design.

Times New Roman was designed by Stanley Morison in 1932. It was designed for the newspaper The Times. In making the font, the hope was to represent the identity of Britain and equate the greatness of the nation. The feel it has is cultural and national superiority, coming from a nationalist point of view.

Fraktur is alike in this, as it is very nationalist, representing Germany's superiority and dominance of all cultures and people around the world. It was used by Nazis in the early 20th century for all their propaganda etc. It was originally used by goths in the middle ages and is a germanic font. It has a dark and evil feel to it, the detail is exquisite and complex.

Bayer was created by Herbert Bayer in 1935, who was an Austrian designer who was part of the Bauhaus movement. It is a sans serif font and it is very modern looking. It represents modern Europe, and progressive left wing modernists, who were coming up with solutions for the modern world. It has no connotations attached to it, its not national specific. It's a font for all countries - it should be internationalist as modern design; it is very plain and neutral. It represents equality in the world. The upper case letters were removed from the font completely, which was quite controversial around this time; again, this reflects the modernism.

Type Basics

We had our first seminar on typography today. We learnt about the anatomy of letters and the technical terms used.

To put these into practice, in groups we got given a sans serif 'm' and a serif 'A'. We changed them to serif and sans serif by adding or taking away certain features, and changing widths. This helped us to learn the technical terms a bit better.

CoP Seminar - Task: Leeds College of Art Prospectus 2014-15

This is the latest Leeds College of Art prospectus. Overall the design of the booklet has some nice aesthetics but it is rather underwhelming.

The front page has gold foiled letters which are in a type especially created for the college. The foil gives a nice shiny effect, however the 'A' in 'ART' is very displeasing, as the serif on the left stem is wonky. This feature seems to be trying to give a personal and individual feel, however it sticks out like a sore thumb amongst the other lettering.

The pentagon design which covers the front is very bland, as the colours are not vivid enough considering that the main purpose is to attract the attention of young aspiring students.

Inside the booklet, most of the text is too small to read, which can really put the reader off; it's not legible enough. The text is also too light against the white background on some pages.

The colour scheme throughout is inconsistent, it goes from cream and blue to pink and white and cream. They don't work very well together when they are dis attached yet still in the same booklet. The cream colour is really not aesthetically pleasing, it has a dull and sickly feel to it; it isn't going to be appealing to young people as it is so bland.

On the whole the booklet feels very formal, but what appeals to students is informality and friendliness. The photographs used seem very boring and forced, there is nothing special or realistic about them.

Studio Brief 1: ALPHABET SOUP

For the 'Alphabet Soup' brief, I have been given the word "nobility".

• The main meaning of this word is "the quality of being noble in character".
• Noble means "belonging to a hereditary class with high social or political status; aristocratic".
• Aristocracy means "the highest class in certain societies, esp. holding hereditary titles or offices" or "a form of government in which power is held by the nobility".

To further my understanding of the world noble, I've looked up the synonyms of the adjective which are:

• grand - magnificent or imposing in appearance, size, or style.
• gentle - mild in temperament or behaviour; kind or tender.
• sublime - of such excellence, grandeur, or beauty as to inspire great admiration or awe: "ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous".
• high-minded - of high moral or intellectual value; elevated in nature or style.

In groups we passed around eachothers words and each wrote down what they made us think of. The things associated with mine are:

• posh, blue blood
• animals - eg a noble lion
• throne
• rich pattern

Aswell as a word, we were also given a font in which we had to work and manipulate how we like. I recieved Garamond, which I'm not familiar with at all. I'm not particularly fond of the style of it, especially with the letter 'a', however I will take on the challenge and use it appropriately.
As it was passed around my group, these were the associations:

• space
• formality
• delicate
• very planted/flat to the ground

I did some research into the background of Garamond, here is some information I found out:

• The font was invented by Claude Garamond in 1530
• He was a punch-cutter and cut types
• old-style serif
• its been described as almost having it's own category, as there are so many types branching from it
• serif fonts are easier to read than sans serif, as our brains can recognise the letters well as they are distinctive
• sans serif is more likely to be used for headings whereas serif is widely used as a body font
• Garamond is considered among the most legible fonts

I plan on doing further research in wider areas to gain inspiration for creating the typography set.

CoP Seminar - Task: Five pieces of design that influence me in some way

30 years of design at MIT - Jacqueline Casey

Jacqueline Casey's work is mesmirizing. Her work is simplistic yet bold, two of my favourite features of design. Less is more, and this poster really reflects that. The colours are vivid and pop out of the screen against the black background. The white text looks so powerful against the darkness, yet it is still small and doesn't distract from the arty feel of the pinks and blues. Blue and pink really complement each other, as its not too overpowering. Overall, this poster catches the viewer's attention undoubtedly.

La grande vague, Joel Guenoun

This piece is really dramatic and powerful to me. It is the flag of Japan cleverly incorporated into a big ocean wave which is so simplistic and beautiful. As previously stated, bold designs that focus on basic colours such as white and black are really powerful, which together with the deep red make for a really successful piece.

Pull & Bear S/S 013 Press Kit - Ana Mirats

This work is so refreshing and modern. The colour scheme works incredibly well with the images used. The overlapping of different strands of art and design such as photography works well in graphic design.

The black and white imagery with the pink text over it is so unique to what you usually see, the diagonals contrast with the clear cut edges and angles of the booklet. The powerful image of the landscape really catches my attention and is really aesthetically pleasing when paired with the plain black page. Empty space is vital in good design, some would say.

The peach and blue really complement each other and make for classy and sophisticated looking booklets.

The National Apprenticeship Service Campaign - Purpose

These pages really get straight to the point. Its for a serious cause so no bright colours and business needs to be used, The body font is simple and easy to read. The artistic and hand rendered large pieces of type used are brilliant. The white words against the black look like they are glowing and have just been freshly painted on with a paintbrush. This effect adds more depth and creativity to it. It seems personal and down to earth.

Paint on Paint - Phil Yamada

These designs are playful and lighthearted. The use of mixed media makes for really interesting explorations. Newspaper is so dull and straight, while the letters bring a bright and colourful touch to them.