Studio Art: Words as Art

We learned about the basics of typography in class and now it's time to bring a creative approach to what we learned.  The image above of the Holstee Manifesto is a great example of great type design and it was created using the old fashioned letterpress technique shown in the video clip below.



We are going to take this design concept and use digital technology to create something similar.  We are going to use the designer Roberto de Vicq de Cumptich's work for inspiration.  He collaborated with Mucca Design and Adobe on a fantastic project called Words at Play which helped advertise Adobe's program with educational and unique images of authors made with type along with information about them and the font.  They project won some coveted awards and was eventually developed into a print book shown below.

Each student in class will create a word portrait in a similar way of a different author and being that it is National Poetry Month I will create a demo today of one of my favorite poets, Billy Collins.  Before starting the design we will research the writer and read some of their word to match their style with their design.  here's a terrific poem titled Forgetfulness by Billy Collins that was turned into a short film by JWT.



In the TED talk below Billy, who was a two-term U.S. Poet Laureate, explains the project and how his poems were animated for the Sundance Channel.

Artroom 161 on Pintrest

One of the hot new online trends that's developing is pinterest and so far I've found it valuable as a visual bookmark for class so I started a Mr.Needles Pintrest account to post images that we'll discuss in lessons or just use as inspiration that you can take a look at as I continue to compile them.

Update: After reading an article from Business Insider about the copyright issues involved in Pintrest and how users are held personally accountable financially I've chosen to repost the same image via Flikr and delete all my boards on Pintrest just a day after I put them up (it was fun while it lasted). The lesson to be learned from this is valuable though, always be sure to actually read your user agreements with applications and programs and know the rules. Part of the Pintrest agreement reads:

"You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold Cold Brew Labs, its officers, directors, employees and agents, harmless from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses, including, without limitation, reasonable legal and accounting fees, arising out of or in any way connected with (i) your access to or use of the Site, Application, Services or Site Content, (ii) your Member Content, or (iii) your violation of these Terms.”

This means that the company is not liable but you are which is a situation that might be very frightening considering the sheer numbers of pictures and videos pinned and repinned on the site.