Field Journal #5: Ukiyo-e and women

This week's reading was very informative in the development of art nouveau and the origins of the twentieth century design, however what struck me the most was the first two pages introducing ukiyo-e and the women painted in the style of art nouveau.

As I saw the word "ukiyo-e" and the examples of it given in the book, it made me think about my late grandfather's and uncle's house. Although their homes strayed away from the Japanese heritage, these ukiyo-e paintings were the only objects that represented their past history. It was either that, or they were just mere decoration. Philip Meggs states that "This epoch was the final phase of traditional Japanese history; it was a time of economic expansion, internal stability, and flourishing cultural arts," obliterating the fact that the ukiyo-e in their homes weren't just for decoration, but embracing their culture's history even though they've been established in America. This is the painting both homes had hung up, one was hung up in a room the left after entering the home and the other one was hung up in a family room.

http://kiritz.jp/2012/08/maruyama-okyo-great-art-of-drawing-and-simple-painting-style/

Not only is there history behind the art style and colors used in paintings during specific years, but it can help reconnect those that share a similar history, such as myself and ukiyo-e paintings.

In addition to the ukiyo-e paintings, I was intrigued by Jules Cheret's "Palais de Glace, Champs-Elysee," not just for his usage of colors, which is really eye-catching and is still being used today, but more of the concept behind the painting. These women were "not only for the idealized presentation of women in mass media but for a generation of French women who used their dress and apparent lifestyle as inspiration," and "these self-assured, happy women enjoyed life to the fullest..." I'm not sure if this is valid to compare photographs of women today, seeing that everything today is photographed, but in comparison to present day, all the women that I see on advertisements are selling something other than themselves: cars, fitness programs, food, drinks, magazines. It's interesting that the women on images today depict towards something other than themselves, and these French women Cheret painted weren't even super famous or well-known, but lived a happy lifestyle. From being shown because of an inspired lifestyle to being shown not for the person, but for a product or service, is pretty shallow of companies and their advertising.

http://www.1stdibs.com/art/prints-works-on-paper/figurative-prints-works-on-paper/jules-cheret-palais-de-glace/id-a_15581/

The History Behind the Letters

Wow. That is how this week's reading left me after finishing the last page, and no it's not because I finished it all in one day, but because of the content. With Chapter 10 incorporating the arts and crafts movement's origins, I found Chapter 9 really intriguing. The Industrial Revolution played a key role with innovations making printing and typing more efficient, as well as photography first being developed. From hand printing and hand-type setters moving onto steam-powered printing presses and the Linotype/Monotype machines, the Industrial Revolution definitely revolutionized technology at the time.

The one thing that really peaked my interest was the innovations in typography. Utilizing the twenty-six letters of the alphabet and changing their appearances in height, width, thick and thin strokes. Also, the origins of where fonts received their names such as Robert Thorne's Egyptian style, a thinner style of Egyptian called Iconic, another altered version of Egyptian called Clarendon, and many more. In addition, decoration was added to letters such as thin shadings around the letters, making them three-dimensional, shadings in letters, designs, etc.

As soon as I finished this section of the chapter, I started to look around my room and my house for all the labels and the types of fonts and shadings that were used. From various chip bags, cereal boxes, medicines, magazines, video game covers, book covers, all having different logos consisting of different style fonts and sizes. Call me dumb, but I never took into account that the design of letters on logos and labels fell under the category of graphic design. Because of this I look at letters, whether on billboards, company logos, or on my favorite cereal, differently now. It's interesting what started as the regular alphabet expanded to it having unique designs, decorations, shadings, being thin or thick. I have a better understanding of where some of the name of certain fonts came from and that letters even have their own history.

http://www.diywebsitegraphics.com/Killer-Text-V1.html

The incorporation of this type of design is still being used today. If all letters on advertisements, titles, labels, covers were all the same, there would be no unique appeal to the masses. I can only assume the reason why typefounders created different designs and layouts for letters was to stand out from everyone else. To market a service or product, and also following a certain theme. For example, the font design on the title of video game covers seem to correlate with the theme of a game: A game setting in the medieval era would have a font design related to that setting, a horror/survival game would have the font design in relation to it's genre, or a puzzle game having its title reflect the story of the game. Even though people say "don't judge a book by it's cover," some fonts on the covers of books are pretty enticing: shiny letters that bulge out a little further than the cover itself, uniquely designed like the children's book Goosebumps, and blocky-type ones as well. It seems that originality is a key factor from the origins of typography and companies are still recycling old ones, as well as making new ones.

*I'm showing these images that I mentioned for the font design, not for the images.

http://firsthour.net/series/resident-evil

http://www.siliconera.com/2011/04/27/alternate-catherine-cover-art-for-north-america/

http://withfriendship.com/user/sathvi/vagrant-story.php

http://www.overduereview.com/2013/06/10/top-five-bestworst-goosebumps-covers/

Field Journal #3: The evolution of books and illustrations

After diving in the assigned reading, I started to feel like I was in the movie Inception. I was reading a book and inside that book talked about printed books, showing pictures of books. On a serious note, I found these chapters just as interesting as the last assigned chapters, and no I'm not saying that just to kiss butt, but I'm always reading from a book, electronic or physical, and always thought where the idea of books came from.

In short, these chapters consisted of printing in Europe, different techniques of printing, and what printing was used for. As the printing of books became more available and affordable, the demand for them started to skyrocket, as well as the quality and quantity in these books. With woodblock printing to detailed illustrations, colors, layouts, and other ideas gave life to books.

What caught my attention was the first foldout illustrations of Methoni, Greece and the Greek island of Rhodes by Erhard Reuwich. The foldouts were four-page-views of these beautiful places, but what struck me was the fact that this is were foldouts in magazines and other books originated from that are still being used today. However, the foldouts today often seen in magazines isn't utilized the same way as Reuwich used his for. While Reuwich used his panoramic views of beautiful cities for his journal sightings, companies use people (male and/or female) with voluptuous bodies to market a product or they're used just to showcase things such as cars, houses, or a bunch of ideas bundled up into an abstract illustration. 

cityofsound habitus magazine

magazineadsandbooks.com

In addition to foldouts in magazines, there are children books that consist of pop ups and motion tabs that bring the books to life. It may not be a fold out, but maybe it could have derived from it or had been an improvisation of it. Catering to children requires a lot of interaction, especially for learning, and the pop ups and motion tabs help that out a lot.

Ellen K; article written by Nicole Chenoweth; ryanseacrest.com

From Ancient Ages to the Digital Age

http://pics7.this-pic.com/key/ancient%20egyptian%20pictographs

After reading the assigned chapters for this week, I turned all of my electronics off for a few hours to look back and ponder how easy we have it today compared to those living in the prehistoric and ancient Egyptian era. With very little or no formal education knowledge, the prehistoric people carved pictures on caves to get their ideas out. Whether it be a story, event, or an idea, it was innovative without a structured or written language, let alone limited resources in general. They show imagination and creativity in their cave markings, even though the pictures might not be Van Gogh work. Comparing pictographs to the technology and what is shown today through pictures is an astounding accomplishment. With what is offered today, images are very detailed and realistic, such as Pixar movies, video games, anything that has to do with animation. Going back a few years, even picture books (textbooks or children books) portray messages very well from the images represented in them.

In addition to the images, words also contribute to ideas. Without much of a structure, Egyptian scribes were able to come up with a system called the rebus system when they stumbled across difficult words to draw out, using pictures instead for guidance in pronunciation. However, as years passed, learning words, even another language, became easier resulting in what is offered today. Schools are teaching other languages in addition to the native language of the country, as well as programs such as Rosetta stone that helps others with not only reading, but pronouncing words in a different language. So the next time we come across websites that help translate another language or an online dictionary or anything in relation to pictures and words, we owe it all to those in the ancient times with their creativity and innovation in wanting to create a system, or even to just simply tell a story or their day. 

Megg's History of Graphic and Design ex 1-25