final animation storyboard

photo process for animation

original storyboard:original concept inspiration:revised concept map:

t4 type conference criticism

TypeConText, a demonstration of type-image seduction from tammy shell on Vimeo.

This is a poetic-persuasive animation for the MaberryShell imagined type conference about applying type and image in a meaningful and resonating manner.

I believe in type, image and narrative; rather than type, image and superficial flourish. (another potential conference title would be "Formalism Schmormalism.")

(A note for the curious: the boxer, Laura Frank, is paying homage to the beautiful and dangerous German feminist, Hannah Höch. Also, I, Tammy Lynn, did eat the raw meat.)

TYPECONTEXT artifact list

TypeConText artifacts (todo list for MaberryShell):

website with messageboard

advertisements (print, billboard, animation)

flyer, brochure,mailer, postcard

name badge

signage

maps (of RISD campus, surroundings, local hotels)

e-mail reminders

wristbands

welcome package (including business card holder and warm cookie)

conference brainstorm

To facilitate interaction and exploration (and reduce the passive experience):

WORKSHOP (option) – following a demo, groups are arranged, quick brainstorming sessions occur (under guidance) and the groups are unleashed for a time of making. (An opening subject may be: sending attendees out to the streets to find examples of type and image working—a fine embodiment of rhetoric on display. workshops may extend outside the room.)

KEYNOTE – one of the superstars might humble himself to serve as a moderator, rather than creating the traditional passivity-encouraging spectacle. The room would be divided up by topic and all would reconvene to share discoveries. The topic would specifically reference the speaker, who would be dangerously armed with wisdom for the discussion.

MIXERS – casual comfortable atmosphere for attendees to meet. Evening cocktail, Ice cream in the afternoon? music–To decrease the stiffness of a typical conference atmosphere, music will be added to mixer activities. (dance?)

WALKING GROUPS (with purpose) – Morning walking groups could meet at a local park. Since a huge walking/discussion group would be overwhelming, discussion leaders would be chosen upon arrival to park. Groups would break up concerning topic interest and experience meaningful conversation while meeting others with similar interests.

PANEL DISCUSSIONS – Lead by successful designers, professors, experts in the specific topic. Invitation and/or registration necessary for participation with some of these sessions to assure a wide range of disciplines within the discussion.

INTERACTIVE SCHEDULING – Invitation is mailed out with a survey of topics (beneath the postmodern, type and image umbrella) upon registering, the potential attendee would be given the power to partially determine the content of the conference. The practical purpose would be the ability to predict necessary space for specific activities, based on interest.

TYPECONTEXT

Dustin and I have decided upon a title for our conference, TYPECONTEXT, based on our desire to create a conference focusing on concept over formal aesthetics. The advertising material would contain this simplified and persuasive description:

Why bother creating a message if it doesn’t carry a capacity to move the viewer? Seduce the audience by infusing the type & image with semiotics. Create resonating meaning by considering connotation of the surroundings.

type conference title possibilities

textcontext

typecontent

marinate with meaning

usurp your audience

usurp: to possess by force

by the ear

immerse

captivate, hypnotize, intoxicate

captivate intoxicate

create captivate

type seduction

pause receive

make them listen

meaning construct

cohesive collision

Why bother creating a message if it doesn’t carry a capacity to move the viewer? Unveil emotions through type and image. Seduce the audience by infusing with semiotics. Create resonating meaning by considering connotation of the surroundings.

Stefan Sagmeister, My Hero (new & improved)

(with an emphasis on adjectives and occasional glaze of alliteration)

Stefan Sagmeister (b.1962) grew up in a peaceful town surrounded by the snow-frosted Austrian Alps. Following high school, his studies centered around engineering. A swift change in focus occurred upon experiencing the seductive lure of graphic design while composing layouts for a liberal magazine; to create graphics for an anarchy issue, Sagmeister asked fellow students to lie on the playground in the shape of an “A”, while photographing them from a rooftop.

The potential possessed by design, enamored Sagmeister—although his first application to the Vienna University of Applied Arts was returned with a frigid stamp of rejection. Instead of wallowing in the depths, Sagmeister tightened his drawing skills, and received acceptance to the University upon a second attempt. His competence continued to bloom; following undergrad, Sagmeister received a Fulbright scholarship to study at the prestigious Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. While at Pratt, he dreamed of working for Tibor Kalman; peppering Kalman with phone calls proved beneficial as Sagmeister eventually acquired a job at M&Co.

Kalman encouraged Sagmeister to pursue his dreams and open a studio with only the addition of a designer and an intern. A studio of three, gave Sagmeister the freedom to pursue only the jobs he found engaging, including music graphics, AIGA lecture posters and self-indulgent, experimental projects. Even today, in spite of four Grammy nominations, Sagmeister continues to pursue only the jobs he finds engaging.

http://designmuseum.org/design/stefan-sagmeister

revised type conference map

marinating type with meaning

A message maker longs, above all else to be understood. In an age when bombastic type and image surround us, it is not a simple task to entice and engage the viewer.

Often type is applied to image as an afterthought. A message infused with emotion, carries a higher capacity to flag attention. The goal of the message maker may be to inspire significant change or simply to cause the viewer to pause to raise a brow of acknowledgement.

My (more successful) type experiments were driven by a theme of unveiling emotions and opinions within a cohesive or purposefully conflicting context. A type conference possibility, would be one about the many ways to infuse meaning to type and image through the unleashing of narrative. Type and image driven by an emotional message can captivate, hypnotize, intoxicate and most importantly (through redundancy) to grab the unwilling viewer by the ear and make them listen.

timeline & concept map

idea projections

The most powerful discovery I’ve experienced from my type experiments is, a powerful message in the wrong environment loses impact and a message with only surface level meaning, even when placed in a fitting environment, cannot hope to achieve more than a one-liner status.

the projections below, make sense only as a set.

type projections

How can I create type with complex, resonating meaning and house it in an environment with supporting [or blatantly contradicting] connotations? I’ve adapted the human body as my environment.

My diary entry on display theme has progressively evolved to opinions and feelings for all to see. One of the suggestions I received from the last crit-light was "try to create a message that means something to more than just me." My first thought was, why would I do that? (art for the masses is not my purpose in life.)

In the image below, the sadness of the moment has been anchored with contradictory type; poor Lydia should not have taken that call. I wanted to increase the drama by placing the type upside down. Maybe she just collapsed to the ground, maybe she has been sitting in the same place for hours. What if I displayed this photograph with a recording of a phone off the hook?

This photo of my dear non-shy friend Becky was actually just an exposure test. I am including it as process and nice hair documentation. Of course, the text holds true as well.

The shot below (90% post production free) is not doing what I want it to just yet. Hello blackmail. The photo below has extreme potential; my text is a purposefully blatant understatement (as confusing as that sounds). In the calmest voice possible, I am yelling at the top of my lungs that this perspective on love is alright. (Wouldn’t it be amazing to convert this to a billboard to exist in areas where this opinion is not acceptable.)

I tried extremely hard to avoid photographing only myself for these. Sadly, I had to cave in for the (blush) two girls holding hands shot because another friend could not make it—I happen to fit the ultra feminine profile (original plan intact).

About the intentional font choice, Helvetica allows me to project whatever I want to say. . . without a fight—additionally, I have an incurable affinity for the clean and modern Swiss touch.

sagmeister, my hero

When Sagmeister was fifteen years old, he wanted to become a designer. In 1993, Sagmeister worked for Tibor Kalman and shortly after, opened his own firm. As a young designer, he once considered style irrelevant to content; now he believes form and style are a powerful combination for communicating content.

From Sagmeister's perspective, the freedom to create concepts is most gratifying, if the project is without a deadline. The concepting of a project at times happens in a plane, a hotel or anywhere; the execution, however, usually occurs in the office. A resulting hand-made quality is what Sagmeister's studio is best known for.

And most importantly, to keep up to date and sharp on what other designers are doing, Sagmeister meets weekly with a group of friends who run local firms.
information from www.designboom.com

a pretty spot for type

First of all, this diary entry on display was created on Valentine’s Day. (I guess that means I could place type anywhere and easily fulfill my criteria of connotation necessitating significance to the message.) I chose what I would consider to be a romantic location; a trail with stone steps leading up to a scenic view. Surely some giggly couple would hold hands while skipping to the top.

Besides creating a short-lived message with consistent connotations to the environment, I also wanted to test fragmentation. As the unaware individual begins wander up the steps, a new word is visible every few steps; the message begins at the bottom and is completed as the subject nears the top.

note to self...should I really bring my dog along while creating precarious type?

connotation of location

I’ve separated each word of the diary entry in order to consider how choice of environment could support or infuse meaning. My initial idea was to stand on corners where homeless people would, in order to communicate a need. My need just happens to be love. (Just to set you at ease, I am not quite as sad as projected. Surprisingly, I did have a date on Valentine’s Day.)

while he was sleeping...

turning tricks

In the first photo, I chose a somewhat desolate area to communicate the lonely message. Not many cars drove by—I was crying to the lord and the snow flurries.These were taken at the plaza during rush hour. I was much more self-conscious because cars and eyeballs were surrounding me. Since the sun was beginning to set and the weather was so bitterly cold, a new sadness lingered.I am attempting to rescue my friend from being hit by a bus; my photographer (Mikal Shapiro) has recently moved back to Kansas City from the Bronx—she decided the bus could wait.

The moral is, both weather and location affect a message in severe ways. The busy plaza was much more lonely and cold than a literally desolate location in downtown Kansas City.

when love

public art, created February 6th, at around noon at Penn Valley park
I’ve adapted combat boots as my drawing tool—fashion and function. I thought the traction would be enough, but the angle was a little more intense than predicted. Spikes would be helpful for next time.

During the writing process, from my vantage point, I convinced myself that the final product would not be legible. Although, I was absolutely not pursuing perfection. Something meaningful to me was my goal; a sort of diary excerpt for the world was about to be on display. (Maybe God actually listens when it’s written large enough.) I tried to size up each letter in my mind prior to rendering, but my occasional slipping somewhat prevented the intended outcome.
Upon completion, I was thrilled and relieved to find out the type was in fact legible—at least from a few angles.
While taking pictures, a bus stopped near me. A man began walking toward me and asked if this was my creation; he told me he’d been pursuing a lady who was a little shy about their relationship and he would love to send her a picture of this. Another man answered my snow diary entry with a predicted, very soon. I blushed.Just five hours later, the words were mostly illegible. (The 38°F that flashed on a bank sign earlier in the day, unknowingly predicted both sadness and destruction.)