Type Production and Distribution

"Type is what Language looks like" 
Thinking with type, Ellen Lupton

The first alphabet that we can trace back is to the Greek alphabet, adopted from Phoenician, and is arguably the foundations for todays alphabets in other cultures. We can trace back the start of written communication to Cuneiform which was developed from Mesopotamian.

• Johannes Gutenberg
  Invented the Gutenberg Letter Press which incorporated the use of metal cast type and was printed the first printed body of text, a bible, which was commissioned the Church. This was an revolutionary invention, through the aid of being able to print more than one copy of text, and not having to rewrite documents to create more than one. This was especially needed for monks as most spent their lives creating the bible, adding imagery and using blackletter.
  
• William Foster - 1870
  Brought forward elementary education act, the law to be taught to read and write. It wasn't just a luxury for rich people anymore and became a dramatic change for class. This gave so much more opportunities for the working class, more jobs and to be more creative.
  
• 1919 - Walter Gropius
  Lead to the beginning of Bauhaus (1919 -1933)
  It made artists think about the function of the art and product which would drive the form.
  
• 1957 - Max Miedinger
  Created Helvetica  which is used for advertising and can be said to define modernism.
  The type form is neutral and the purpose of what it was designed for drove the type more than any before. (25 years later Arial was released, which was created by Microsoft and holds similarities to Helvetica).
  
• 1990 - Steve jobs created the Apple mac - October 15th 1990 the 1st apple mac was released to sell for less than $1000 - this wasn't the first computer but it was the 1st time that working class could buy and use these, not inclusive for the rich.
  
  Type describes the theme of a product, it portrays the identity of the design.
  For example, the type Gotham is seen as masculine and powerful as it was the typeface used for Obama's campaign. It is now also used for advertising, companies such as McDonald's and Starbucks have used this for the same reasons as the Obama campaign, to show power.
  
  Type becomes an image in its own right
  
• 1990 - Tim Bernes - Lee created the Internet and first idea for a browser and gave it away for free.
  
• 1994 - Vincent Connare created comic sans and worked for Microsoft.
  
• 1995 - Bill Gates - invented/brought in the search engine, Internet explorer which uses mainly Arial and Comic Sans type. Certain set of type, formats, dictated by a set of people. 
   

 

Typography is Communication

"There is no single approach within typography that applies to everything"
- Shelley Gruendler.

Genre in Animation

Genre is a classification of film that is there for the audience to be aware of what the film is, for example a horror wouldn't be suitable for a five year old. There are many types of genre, such as horror, drama, comedy and action, and these can be merged, a cross genre, such as a dark humour.
Genre is very stereotypical and it needs to be, to be able to label what the film is based on, such as a romance is linked with females whereas action is matched with males.

Animation allows much more stronger violence with less graphic scenes, for example, an Anvil hits someone on the head. In an earlier era, this is portrayed, in animation as a cartoony design, the stronger violence can be tolerated as it is a clear form of fantasy and does not depict reality. (Examples of these cartoons are Tom and Jerry, and Looney Tunes.) However due to changes in society, there is hardly any violence in cartoons for kids, for fear of repetition of the actions portrayed.

The violence portrayed in the Tom and Jerry videos seem not to be shocking through the use of the cartoon style of the animation, however if it had been more realistic with added gore then it would not be suitable for a young audience. The character 'Tom' appears scary, through the use of shadow and expression on the cats face which is done very well as it portrays the mad scientist and the devious intent to catch the mouse, Jerry.
The storyline of Tom and Jerry is easy to notice, Cat verses Mouse, with the mouse always winning. This is done to make the cartoon appeal more to kids, showing a small character win over a towering villain, makes the victory that much more exciting.

Generic Plots - in animation

• Maturation - coming of age/ rite of passage
• Redemption - transition of main character from bad to good
• Punitive - main, ostensibly good character behaves badly and is punished
• Testing - willpower verses temptation
• Education - main character moves from negative to positive perception of the world
• Disillusionment - the reverse of education, from positive to negative perception

Visual Literacy - The Language of Design

Seminar Notes -

Visual Literacy is a communication structure, meaning and context to different target audiences, and a range of different cultures. For example the use of colour alone can completely change the meaning of a piece, such as using a red hue to change an image from a happy atmosphere to one of anger and rage. This communication becomes a message to the audience that is informative and relies on the ability of interpretation of the viewer and the presentation of the image.
Another example of how visual language changes through colour and composition can be seen in the first aid cross, to the European flags through mere manipulation of lines in the cross and the colour of the composition.

England

Sweden

Visual Language is done with a purpose, a purpose to attract a certain age range, to emit a certain atmosphere, to make you think, and is done so based on a level of knowledge and understanding of symbols, gestures and objects. For example well known symbols such as a boy and a girl are used to show which is the male and the female toilets, added with a blue colour for the male and a pink colour for the girl. It becomes a universal knowledge of what these symbols mean, so if you were in a different country and did not know the language, you would still be able to depict which toilet is for which gender.

Visual communication is an unwritten agreement between any language or culture, where one thing will stand for another. This can be seen as far back to the Cuneiform carvings in stone, ( dated back to about 3000 B.C.E )

Visual Literacy can be divided into two parts, syntax and semantics:

• Syntax - The structure of pictorial elements, such as the scale, colour, simplification, any visual aspects of an image.
• Semantics - The contextual and cultural references, social ideals, religious or political ideas, iconic and historical structures.

Semiotics - is a visual metaphor

Semiotics is the study of signs and sign processes, indication, designation, analogy, metaphor, symbolism, signification and communication. This is closely related to the fields of linguistics and studies of structure and meaning.