OUGD401 COP Module Evaluation

Overall I had found this COP module very hard. This was due to the fact that I am massively  inexperienced with writing essays and so then when it came to the essay writing stage I panicked and everything went wrong initially but this I later found out to a lack of preparation on my end. This meant that when I gave it another go after properly planning and preparing for the essay that actually I found the essay much simpler to write and eventually actually found it much much easier.

This had proved to me that planning is the basis of everything and that is what I would need to improve on with my next essay although the module has got me back into the thought process of writing essay and hopefully I will learn from this module and take on the positive attributes into the next context of practice module.

In contrast I found the practical side of the module very very entertaining as I had a strong basis to build on from the essay and with a few minor decision I was ready for creating my practical work and this went without any major glitches.

I think that I have really enjoyed the practical side as due to the nature of writing an essay on the related subject it really suited the way I like to work with a very big sense of a contextual background to the work making it easy to do, designing with a purpose is much easier than designing for the sake of it.

Overall even though I found parts of the module quite hard I have really enjoyed it due to the fact that it had really got me back in the swings of an area of my education the writing and theoretical side that I have been out of touch with and it has prepared me for any similar module I will face in the future.

OUGD401 COP Practical Project Poster Testing and Question Rationale

Now that I have finished my poster design It is now time to do some testing by form of a crit to see that if I have effectively managed to answer the question that I had originally set out to answer that was could I effectively use not only the aesthetics of the anti-vietnam war posters but also through my contemporary anti war designs have I managed to capture the sense of expressionism and non-conformity found in the anti-vietnam posters I have been looking at.

In doing this I didn't want to influence anyone answers through the wording of the questions so I decided I would put forward to questions in the simplest way that I could;

"Do you think that through my contemporary anti-war posters I have captured well enough the aesthetic and contextual aspects that made the design work linked to the anti-viatnam campaign so successful? and if so or if not so WHY?

The overall response that I got was overwhelming in the way that the vast vast majority of feedback that I got about them was brilliant in the way that everyone thought that I had effectively achieved what I had set out to do.
To summarise the feedback into the overall prominent beliefs I was told that I had effectively achieved what I had set out to do due to the fact that firstly the posters displayed perfectly the prominent sense of an importance of imagery in the posters that was used massively through the anti-vietnam war posters to the viewers mind thinking.
Secondly it was said that the colour choice was brilliant as even thought it doesn't really link to what was used at the time it makes a perfect link between the vintage and the contemporary through contextual side.
Penultimately it was said that due to the fact that I had designed my own font giving me freedom in the designing stage and furthermore that the lack of use of a grid structure when designing the work had coupled together and meant that my work perfectly displayed  both the expressionistic and non-conformist nature I was looking for.
Finally with the addition of thought-provoking informational content and this coupled with the last three things the vast overall impression was that I had through my posters very well displayed the attributes that made the historic anti-war posters so successful.

To rationale the whole process through the designing and testing of my posters I believe that I have achieved what I initially set out to do that was to take inspiration from the very successful anti-war Vietnam posters and then to transfer this inspiration through aspects of the older designs into my contemporary anti-war posters to make them successful in a similar way.

OUGD401 COP Practical Project Poster Development

Now that I had decided what the content of my posters was going to be it was now time to set about with the creation of the posters. I have already outlined the aspects that I want to display through the posters EXPRESSIONISM, REBELLION and MORALITY.

The initial stage was to decided in which way I would display the content. Because of the fact that I wanted to add a high sense of imagery through the posters that can be seen in the vintage design work. To add this sense of imagery to provoke moral thoughts I decided to use a range of three images of which are related to the war of which I believe will be effective in provoking the thoughts of the viewer and here they are below, I wont be using the images directly but as I am doing a purely typographic piece I will be using the images as an outline for the placement of my text.

Due to the nature of the fact that to be in-fitting with the style of the Vietnam anti-war posters meaning I had no sort of grid or structure of layout to follow and this coupled with the fact that the pre-existing work follows no rules with the layout and size of type meant that with a small amount of editing and no restrictions on myself I was very easily able to fit the type into the shape I was going for meaning that It made me able to achieve my purely typographical pieces but still adding a sense of imagery. 

This almost randomised type placement and sizing further re-enforces the nature of non-conformaity and rebellion that I took inspiration from in the Vietnam anti-war posters.

The final step in the creation of my posters was to chose the colour scheme, to be in keeping with the style of expressionistic artwork I was looking for and to add the sense of excitement I was looking for I decided to chose three relatively bright colours and to further link the colour scheme to the contextual side of the project I decided that I would use the three colours of the american flag, and to finish it off have the background in black as I believe that coloured text would stand out best against the black. This colourful aspect both links the contextual side of the project but also is in-fitting with the inspiration that I took when I found that the colours and "inyourfaceness" were crucial to the success of the posters I took inspiration from.

OUGD401 COP Practical Project Poster Content and Statistic Research

Now that i have decided that aesthetic that I want my posters to be designed in it is now time to decided on the content of the posters I am going to design. As I have decided to do a set of three posters I have decided that each one will feature information about a different contemporary war. They will all link together firstly by using the same aesthetics and secondly also all feature the tag line "END THE WAR IN _____" of which will be changed appropriately for each contemporary war location. Along side this tag line there will be an inclusion of two different facts about each war. For the three wars I have decided to feature Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan and here are the facts I will include below;

Syria

"More than 140,000 Fatalities"

"11 Million Refugees Evacuated"

Iraq

"210,000 Dead Civilians and Combatants"

"Estimated $2.2 Billion Dollars Spent By The USA Total"

Afghanistan

"2211 US Lives Lost Since October 2001"

"$700,000,000,000 Spent By The US Total"

OUGD401 COP Practical Project Font Development

Having looked at a number of pre-existing anti Vietnam war posters it had became apparent to me that the most crucial part to the whole practical side of my unit If I was wishing to complete my initial set out plan and recreate the positive attributes of the older posters in my contemporary war posters that I would need a very expressive, cursive but also non-conformist feel from my type that was massively exaggerated in the anti Vietnam posters.

After having thought about it for a while I had come to the conclusion that there wasn't a font that I could use through the computer that would come anyway near to displaying the feelings that I intended and that I would be the best idea for me to create one for myself. I decided this would be the best way as it will allow me to create the font to my liking without restrictions, allow me to create a font that fully displays the feelings and meanings I was looking for and finally the rough hand rendered aesthetic would fit in perfectly with the style I was going for.

I started out by drawing out a full alphabet of my typeface with added extras such as some glyphs and numbers. When I was happy with the finished hand drawn product I then scanned in the typeface and through the use of live tracing on illustrator and then a few minor tweaks using the anchors points the finalised font was now a digitalised vector and was ready for em to use in my posters.

OUGD401 COP Practical Project Poster Research

Due to the fact that at the time of the Vietnam war the posters weren't about the artist themselves but actually about fighting the cause for my research I won't be looking at an artist that inspires me but actually will just be looking at multiple examples of pre-existing anti-vietnam war posters to gain inspiration from and here they are below;

From looking at these posters I gained massive inspiration as from them and thinking about the posters in relation to my essay I had outlined what I believe were the main overwhelming points that made the posters so successful and they all are encompassed by three outlining factors.

The first part of the posters of which I believe was a reason why they were so successful is the fact that they all encompass an overall colourful, exciting and expressionistic style of which was massively in their favour as it makes the work very eye-catching and this is the reason why so many youths of the time were so attracted to the movement and the expressionistic design of the movement attracted them.

The second reason as to why I believe they are so successful comes down to the fact that they all massively work around to process of using imagery in the posters to provoke moral thoughts from the viewer. In such a troubling time such as during a war the use of this morality provoking appealed to the youth of the time making the following grow and grow.

The final aspects of the posters that I would like to also portray through my contemporary anti-war designs is the overwhelming sense of non-structure, non-conformity and rebellion that is apparent in the work through the lack of structure and grid work in the work and the use of ever-changing text with no two letters the same proportion. In a time of war the youth of the age wanted to stand up against what was happening and change it and this non-conformist sense to the work was one that very much attracted the youths who shared the belief.

To summarise to accurately impersonate the aspects of the Vietnam anti-war posters of which made them so successful in my contemporary anti-war posters I would have to display my found three aspects... MORALITY, EXPRESSIONISM and REBELLION. This will be the basis to what I create my whole practical project around.

OUGD401 COP Practical Project Initial Thoughts

It was now time to start with the creation of my practical side to the COP module. To summarise what I will do through the practical side of the project I will be looking at examples of anti-war campaign graphic design for wars during the time of the hippie counter-culture from wars such as Vietnam and through looking at this graphic design I will take aspects of It that I believe made it so influential in the expanding of the following that related to the youthful audience namely the expressionist and colourful side to the work that attracted the many through aesthetics but furthermore also through the non conformist and rebellious side that the work also had which attracted the audience not through aesthetics but through morals and ethos'. Reflection on the aspects that I will take from the pre-existing hippie counter-cultural graphic design I will then take these forward and use the same aspects in the creation of my own contemporary anti war graphic design while still managing to achieve my goal and give the same sense of expressionism, non-conformity, engagingness, rebelliousness, colourfulness and most importantly impact full feelings that the older hippie counter-cultural graphic artwork gave off.

OUGD401 Context Of Practice Study Task 6

For this task we had to go to the library and pick out two dissertations from the previous years and to read these not for the purpose of the content of the essay but instead to see the style in which the essay was written, taking in to context Punctuation, Grammar, Tone Of Voice, Referencing, Vocabulary, Writing Style and Structure and this is what I did.

For the three points I first thought back to my feedback from the initial draft of my essay and look at three things of which I needed help with in order to complete my essay. The three aspect of which needed drastic change were Referencing and how to do it, The structure of my essay, and in which tense and style they write in.

Firstly I chose to look at the referencing as this was a major problem to my essay. I was really unexperienced with how to reference and where to reference, even though we had tutorials on this It didn't really sink in so when it came to the draft I had really struggled and not been able to reference it correctly so having looked at the way the essay is correctly reference and with a little extra work myself I will be able to properly reference my final essay.

Secondly I chose to look at structure of the essay as one of the biggest pieces of feedback I got back from the first draft was that my essay was structured all wrong and due to this lack of structuring through proper paragraphs and etc that my essay became unreadable even though the content was perfect and so therefore I looked at how the dissertation was structure and in which way they would make points and progress with them meaning after doing this when writing my final essay I would be able to structure it correctly.

Finally I decided to look and the style in which they wrote the essay. A big problem that I had was that due to my lack of experience writing university level academic essays I wrote the whole essay in a personal tense of which is wrong for an academic writing it all has to be based on facts not opinions, after looking at the dissertation it made me realise in which was I would have to write.

OUGD401 Context Of Practice Study Task 5

Practice Based Research

This task was set to begin our thought process of how we will take the research on points from the essay we had wrote and then to convert this into thoughts about the practical side of the project, and the research we would conduct from the essay points that could inform our practical work.

The first part of the study task was to take the practical issues/aspects from our essay and then to evaluate these issues on three different basis' the first being Technique, the second being Content and the third being Communication. For the content of my essay I chose to write about how graphic design played a crucial part in the expansion of the 1960's hippie counterculture and further discussing the individual aspects of the graphic design of the movement from the artists doing the graphic design to the individual elements of the mainstream lifestyle that the movement lent itself too such as the magazines and music of the time.

Technique

The graphic design of which was supporting the up and coming counter-culture feature the use of a lot of colour in order to add an element of attraction through interest. It also feature a very postern-modern approach seemingly following no rules or guidelines designed free and in what ever way the artist wanted. Further more there was a large focus on individuality and almost a sense of no need of perfection making the artwork engaging to its audience.

Content

The content of the graphic design was a combination of both typography but also image to accompany it. The content has a large sense of the fact that it was all hand rendered and drawn. Originality and engagement was apparent through the use of extreme typographic and attractive and eye-catching colours and illustrations respectively.

Communication

The whole main ethos and feeling that cam through the supporting graphic design of the time communicates and overall massive sense of expressionism, excitement and non conformity with the designer using whatever style they wanted to give a sense of youthfulness and revolution that the message of the graphic design gave. The whole belief from the counter-culture that the rules and normal guidelines didn't have to be followed and actually them having the freedom through the graphic design to do whatever they want. REBELLION


The next task to complete was to write a comment on three different aspect of the practical-based research. These three aspects are Research/Analysis, Exploration/Evaluation and Testing.

Research/Analysis

For my practical based research I will look at examples of graphic design from the era of which were crucial to the artwork and more specifically the pieces of graphic design of which were created for the purpose of anti war campaigns and this look into the style in which will help me work out what aspect of the graphic design style I could take into my practical.

Exploration/Evaluation

I will take on the inspiration from the aspects of the anti war campaign graphic design and take these into my design work so that mine benefit in the same way that the graphic design of the time did. Using this older style but instead in my work maintaining the expression and non-conformist stye.

Testing

To test my work I will ask for the opinions of my peers that through my practical work have I managed to display both the colourful and exciting style of the movement while also maintaining the expressionist and nonconformist sense to the work meaning that I have perfectly taken on the research and exploration into the research for my practical work.

The final task for this whole exercise was to now write a proposal for my my practical research by answering the following questions;

1.What is your research question?

Can the positive aspects of the graphic design of the time be used in a contemporary context and still be as effective as it was during the Hippie counter-culture?

2.Do you have a hypothesis (an assumed conclusion that you will endeavour to prove)?

By reflecting on the positive aspects of the graphic design linked to the hippie counter-culture I will able to prove that I can through my work that similarly to the design of the hippie counterculture I can reflect on the expressionist, non-conformist and attractive style used to gain the attraction of the youth movements.

3.What are the contexts of your research interests?

To prove that through the use of these techniques in my contemporary anti war design and evoke the same feelings and aspects found in the graphic design of the hippie counter-culture.

4.Sources of primary/secondary research.

Images and examples of work from the hippie counter-culture that features the show the aspects of the work that I am looking to take inspiration from. Then I will use crits to see if I had managed to incorporate the chosen aspects of the hippie counter-culture graphic design.

5.How will your practical work relate to your written work (synthesis)?

In my written work I discussed the aspects of the graphic design of the movement of which massively helped the expansion of the movement and in my practical work I will reflect on the aspects and recreate them in my contemporary anti-war practical work to achieve the same results as the actual graphic deign of the era.

6.What methods will you use to research, develop, create and test your work?

To sum up the whole process I will gain research by looking at pre-existing examples of hippie counterculture graphic design to see aspects of the design of which I believe helped the graphic design support the movement. I will develop the aspects that I look at into crucial elements that my work would definitely have to include to correctly represent the same ethos' displayed in the pre-existing work. I will then create my practical work with these aspects in mind and then finally test my practical work by gaining feedback from peers for if my contemporary anti-war designs incorporating the aspects from the hippie counter-culture design had perfectly displayed the feelings that came from the older anti war designs.

OUGD401 Context Of Practice Study Task 4

Essay Structure

Introduction

Explanation the question and in which topic I will be answering it

Background into society, opinions, youth and movement

How I will answer the Question

First Point

Time in history that the movement started

Second Point

Modernist artform a dying race, new trends needed?

Third Point

Psychedelic Drugs

Fourth Point

Nature of the youth audience

Fifth Point

Its entry into the music industry

Sixth Point

The Album artwork

Seventh Point

Compatable magazies showing similar views joining onto the movement questioning society?

Famous People?

Eighth Point

Connection between the graphic design and the rock music of the time

Conclusion 

Conclude on my points

Do I think I have effectively answered the question?

OUGD401 Context Of Practice Study Task 3

Hypothesis

In my essay I will try to asses the question "Discuss the role that Graphic Design has played in Political and/or social change in a specific period in history". I will do this discussing the effects that the related graphic design had to the massive expansion of the 1960's Hippie Movement from the select few that started it to the masses and masses of followers that ended up following the movement. I will be backing my last point by discussing what aspects of the graphic design were specifically important to the movement and how these reasons massively lent itself to the expansion of the counter-culture.

Reading and Referencing

Graphic Design: Reproduction and Representation Since 1800

"In the summer of 1967 the Ohserver Magazine announced the demise
of the mod movement (’Ready, steady, gone’) and primed its readers
with the key signifiers of a new, surfacing style, that of the ‘flower
children’ or hippies." A distinct and new aesthetic was emaging
in Britain and in the USA which linked disparate phenomena such
as the kaleidoscopic effects developed by the graphic designers
Martin Sharp and Hapshash and th e Coloured Coat; the multi-
layered and electronic forms of experimental rock music pioneered
by The Beatles and bands like The Soft Machine; and the vividly
pattemed, colourful and eclectic fashions of dress then on sale at
boutiques like Granny Takes a Trip on the King's Road in London."

This piece of information from the book could help me in my essay as It would help me to discuss how the fact that the previous youth trend has recently seen its demise meaning the now confused youth were more willing and looking for a new trend to follow, paying a big part of the reason to why the Hippie Movement was so quickly escalating.

 Jobling, P., & Crowley, D. (1996). Graphic design: Reproduction and representation since 1800. Manchester: Manchester University Press :.  

OUGD401 Context Of Practice Study Task 2

For the study task we were given some information to follow and then when finished we were asked to out i ton out blog;

Post ONE example of a work of Modernist Graphic Design and ONE example of a work of Postmodernist Graphic Design to your blogs, accompanied by a short written explanation of why you think each work is Modernist / Postmodernist. Include reference to the designer and the date of the works production.

These two pictures are my examples of modernist and post-modernist graphic design. The first image of which is the modernist example is called Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge (1919) by El Lissitzky and the second of which is a classic example of post-mordernism is the front cover of Wet Magazine designed by April Greiman and Jayme Odgers, 1979.

OUGD401- Context Of Practice Study Task 1

In this exercise we were given two images to analyse. The first of these was an poster used to advertise for The Uncle Sam Range cooker and the second of which was released in the times of world war one. We were asked to look into these picture and look at the contrast and the differences and the relation between them based around these four questions. These questions were...

1.The choice and organisation of the font and style of illustration

2.The purpose and meaning of the image

3.The target/potential audience of the image

4.The social and historical contexts relevant to the production of the image

In this essay I am going to compare two historic posters on the basis of four different aspects/questions about the images. The first image is an a poster advertising for the Uncle Sam Range Cooker on the centennial anniversary of America becoming independent and the second image is a piece of war propaganda released in the midst of the first world war.

Firstly I will discuss the two images on a basis of the choice and organisation of font and style of illustration. It is immediately apparent that the font in the advertising material for the Uncle Sam Range was chosen for a certain purpose. I believe that capitalised slab style font in the image shows a few things. Firstly in relation to the capitalisation this tells me that even though the sentence isn’t a question it alludes to a sense of orders/commandments rather than it being suggestive, saying you will buy this range. Another this of which I take from the type is the actual font used. Firstly the font used in my eyes has almost a militarian sense to it but also is massively reminiscent of the fonts used in western style films alluding to the history of America. On the other hand the font used in the WW1 propaganda is used in a persuasive way like the first poster but not in a way of a commandment but in the way of it is almost used as a form of blackmail. The font in the WW1 poster conveys a more innocent and gentle sense that the block capitals in the Uncle Sam Range poster don’t convey. The script font used portrays a sense of innocence to it as if the little girl is asking the question. The capitalisation of you makes the reader thinking about the man in the poster to the reader feeling directly impacted by the poster as if it is about them.

In the Uncle Sam Range poster it is trying to convey an overall sense of patriotism to America and also masculinity. The poster includes various signs that allude to this notion of patriotism. One of the most apparent references is the overall colour scheme; the colour scheme of the image is bombarded with the colour red white and blue on obvious reference to the American flag. The second thing that is a reference is the clock in the background; if you look closely at the clock it has 1786 and 1886 on it. This is a reference to the centennial anniversary of America gaining independence. The final aspect is a combination of two things the first of these is the fact that the people sat around the table have words written on their chest, these words say Dixie, West and New England. These three words relate to the three areas in America at that point west is in relation to the west coast of America. Dixie refers to all the southern states of American and New England referring to the northeast corner of the country. This is referring to the fact that this cooker that is being sold in the advert is a cooker that everybody should have. This coupled with the fact that the image shows a very upper-class picture of a dinner party of which displays the notion of the American dream comes together to be a great persuasion technique to buy the cooker. On the other hand the WW1 poster has also been designed to persuade but for a different reason. This poster is using a black mail approach to convince men do go to war. It can also be looked at in a way of patriotism too. The first reference coming from the child playing with the toys this firstly displays that war is a playful thing, an easy thing and a thing the man should be doing the toys he is playing with are in the style of the beefeaters of which are a patriotic symbol of England. The poster is designed in a way that its intentions are to make the men that haven’t gone to war feel ashamed of themselves for not going. This picture was designed with another patriotic reference again from the royal symbol of which features on the pound coin on the curtains and on the chair. The advert was released in 1915 and the poster pictures a man from a higher class structure such as the middle class this couples together to give over its main symbolism that its relates to the fact that it was later on in the war when the lower class had already been called to war and they needed to persuade the middle class to go to war as a type of reinforcement. Both images have an overwhelming sense of pride to them.

Finally they both are for as very similar audience. They are both aimed at the middle class of the societies we can come to this conclusion because in the American picture it easily displays the upper-class way of life and the people who were buying this cooker has to have money to be able to buy it and the WW1 poster is also aimed at getting the middle class to go to war. They are both aimed at the same audience and they both use methods of persuasion to their captive audience but for very different reasons.