Dec

10* The Computer. Deconstructive typography.

Along with the post modernity, deconstructive approach showed itself within the graphic design as well as its occurrence in architecture by the 1980s. In typography, the destruction and dislocation of some architectural elements reveals itself. For me, even though I didn’t have much experiences in creating deconstructive typography in particular, it seems really exciting, because you break some notions like “you have to create linear compositions if you want a text to be read” or ” everything needs to be proportional” . Also the experimental approach of it would let someone , to designer in this case, to break the boundaries and feel free.

Here I would like to share some examples:

Neville Brody-

an early example from Karl Gerstner (1957)

These ones belong to Wolfgang Weingart, famous typographer and graphic designer also known as “father of the Swiss punk typography”.

and some other examples:

***

158 days ago Short URL Comments

deconstructive typography/postmodernity/swiss punk

Dec

09* The modernists. Movie posters from Saul Bass.

I would like to share some posters from 5o’s and 60′s famous graphic designer Saul Bass. The bold attitude of the visual language, got my attention and I admired the way he could express so much, just with the positive and negative space relationships.

Nine Hours to Rama, 1963.

The Two of Us, 1967.

The Fixer, 1968.

and finally a photograph of him-

165 days ago Short URL Comments

saul bass

Dec

08* The Avantgarde. Photographs from Rodchenko.

“In order to educate man to a new longing, everyday familiar objects must be shown to him with totally unexpected perspectives and in unexpected situations. New objects should be depicted from different sides in order to provide a complete impression of the object.” Rodchenko

One of the most striking artists of the Constructivist movement, Rodchenko’s photographs make us to realize different points of view rather than the ones we tend to see within our daily life.

173 days ago Short URL Comments

constructivism/rodchenko

Nov

07* Breaking the Grid. Camera advertisements of the early 20th century.

Taken its name from its designer Frank Brownell, the Brownie camera was a major develop in photography of 1900s. Its compactness was one of its most important feature compared to the other samples of the period.

There is no doubt that I feel closeness to this camera because of its name! Also the advertisements of that time has a remarkable character, which I personally admire and want to share.

Children were mostly seen as possible target group for the new camera.

Although there were many different models of Brownie were brought out to the market, originally the first Brownie camera looked like this:

If you would like to see more vintage advertisements just click.

186 days ago Short URL Comments

brownie camera/vintage advertisements

Nov

06* Masters of type. Renaissance book bindings.

In the Renaissance era, not only the books contained the elegance of the Greek and Latin classic content, but also they had the spectacular appearance.

This one is from the collection of French book collector Jean Grolier. (1479- 1565) The most striking part of this style is the interlacing shiny pattern that provides it to come forward against the background.

This one is from the 15th century, New Testament. It his highly ornamental and made from calfskin. It is assumed that this binding was made by “MacDurnan Gospels Binder” who was being supported by the wealthy people of the period, like Elisabeth I.

—–

This one is a later example from 18th century, a Lutherian Bible. It was regarded as “peasant binding” in Germany:

Below you see an example of “cameo binding” which was popular in Florence in the beginning of the 16th century. In the middle of the cover there is this circular depiction of Pieta.

Last but not least, a book by Desiderius Erasmus, written in 16th century. The type of the binding belongs to Garret Godfrey, a bookseller from Cambridge.

194 days ago Short URL Comments

binding/Renaissance

Nov

05 *The Printing press. Apocalypsis cum Figuris.

Apocalypsis cum Figuris , Apocalypse with Pictures, are the series that German Albrecht Dürer depicted scenes from the Book of Revelation with the method called woodcut. The series were published in 1498. It is essential to give credit to each of them, but so to say, the most well-known one is “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse”. In this piece war, pestilence and famine were represented by three horse-riding man carrying a sword, bow and a pair of scales. Death was also depicted as a very thin man riding over a bench of people including the King.

On the other hand, on each woodcuts you would see the monogram of the artist, AD.

A stamp including his monogram:

As a person who admires pillows, I couldn’t help but adding this sketch of him, although it does not have to do with the series of Apocalypse.

207 days ago Short URL Comments

dürer/pillows/woodcuts

Oct

04* The art of the book. Music scores of medieval era.

I suddenly realized that although I have a kind of musical education as an amateur, I did not think of musical notations as evolving entities. But in fact they are. What we are confronted mostly is the evolution of the script. It’s kind of reasonable when you think the presence of the script on our daily life, it is much more common rather then the notes. But they have one key thing in common, they are both inscriptive. They become like distant relatives in that sense.

It is said that the preservation of the musical notation goes back to the 9th century. In those days the scores were hand decorated, likewise the script. The notation of the rhythm was to be developed by 12th-13th century.

How beautifully they were decorated by the hand!

Let’s see how the musical notation evolved.

a medieval musical notation example of a Czech folk song.

The notation of rhythm became possible through a system called mensural notation. By late 14th century, scores did look like this.

As we live the postmodern era in the music, artist Paul Chan dealt with musical notations and interpret them through mixed media. His work is called Score for 7th Light.

214 days ago Short URL Comments

hand decorated/medieval music/notation/notes

Oct

03** Far East. Chinese lacquer boxes.

I always admired boxes varied in different sizes, shapes and material. It is impossible not to wonder who carried his/her personal belongings in it in an unknown time in history. Even if the date it was used is known particularly, the belongings that once carried away are to be unknown and leads you to an imaginary world. When I see a valuable box that is exhibited in a lovely corner of a museum, I could not help but imagine that I posses it.

The truth is that boxes carry history within them. Even if they were used to preserve invaluable goods, the fact that they are valuable by themselves doesn’t change. Originally Chinese lacquer boxes were manufactured 2000 years ago. They are very much ornamental and the use of lacquer ensures the preservation of the material, which is wood in this case. The varnish is acquired especially from a tree called lacquer tree or Urushi tree that is shown below. It is said that its leaves are used to stop bleeding as well.

Although originated in South Asia, there are some other examples of the boxes from other parts of the world. These are some lacquer boxes from Burma.

And this is a Russian one:

and this is from Japan:

a watch inspired by lacquer tradition:

In case you might want to learn more about these boxes:

http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/asia/l/lacquered_box.aspx

222 days ago Short URL Comments

Chinese tradition/lacquer boxes/ornamental

Oct

03* The alphabet. Boustrophedon.

The reason that I’m beginning to my post with this pastoral image is that the word “Boustrophedon” refers directly to a plowing ox. But in the history of visual communication it has a different use of field, which is about the ancient Greek alphabet. It is a way of writing which doesn’t flow directly from left to right or right to left. Generally speaking, if one line is written from left to right the other one is written from right to left. I wonder what was the reason they chose this particular type of writing. One of the aims might be to accelerate the speed of reading of the reader. Because the path that is followed by the eye is getting more convenience, the eye might not get tired as much as it gets in the other one.

The civil law of the Greek city state Gortryn (in Crete) was partly inscribed in Boustrophedon 5th century BCE. The law consisted topics like marriage, property, adultery etc. This is the amphitheatre of Gortryn where the law is inscribed.

222 days ago Short URL Comments

Oct

02* Ideograms. Logographic writing systems.

As I was making research and reading some definitions like ideogram, pictogram and logogram, I had the sense of getting more information about ideographic writing systems, especially those that origin from Asia, like Chinese. “Far East” was considered as the term for mostly the East Asian region. But how far is the Far East exactly? I’m not going to go further about the issues like “Orientalism” or Western worldview approach. What I’m trying to say is that we should appreciate the phenomena of cultures. In order to do that, our looks might turn into gazes.

Looking at Chinese Calligraphy, one might get lost in the logograms that brought together in order to convey a meaning. Besides the calligraphy, they might add sumi (ink painting) on the canvas. Here you see an example of them together:

Here you might one to see an example of style called kana, used in Japan. It says: “ Life is a journey of seeking moments of happiness“. This piece also conveys a style called renmentai, in which the script has to flow as one line and logographs merged into one another.

Actually I would like to have one of those sets arranged for the beginners of Chinese calligraphy. I really should think about getting one.

Here are more examples from Chinese calligraphy:

Because of the enormous quantity of the Chinese characters, things especially in the government area might go off the rails. Here you might want to read an article from the New York Times about the Chinese government approach to confusion in the community. 21china.html

As I was writing this post, I was listening to Japanese traditional music. I think you might like it as well:

229 days ago Short URL Comments

chinese calligraphy/east asia/ideogram/Japanese traditional music/logogram

baharva312