Entry 12: Zask and her odd artwork

Entry 12: Zask and her odd artwork

I find Catherine Zask to be a pretty odd character in 21t century graphic design. I appreciate her as she embraces  the new technology around her. She is not constrained to traditional media. Also, she is one of the few graphic designers that we talked about that have a facebook for herself and her studio.

The image on the side puzzled me when I first researched her. What was her motive? I then stumbled across this video on her Youtube channel of her drawing the dots and it clicked. It is like connect the dots. It reminded me of pointillism which within the Neo-impressionist movement.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxQowDxVWOU

Entry 11: Barbara Stauffacher and her swooping designs

Entry 11: Barbara Stauffacher and her swooping designs

Parts of her wave series


Stauffacher is one of my favorite modern graphic designers. Her swooping illustrations remind me of what one can do with illustrator. I don't believe she worked with a program since she worked during the 60's and 80's. I often believe that her Wave Series could be placed in a subway as a wall art piece. It shows movement and connection with each other.


I love her artwork because I often use bezier curves in my work. The picture above is my first project in creative coding. It is filled with Bezier and Quadratic curves as well as arcs. Its not very pretty but it is a showcase of modern advances in illustration years after Stauffachers's time as a graphic designer. I don't intend to be a graphic designer but some of the concepts in illustration and composition are needed in my line of work.

Entry 10: Hangul phonetic alphabet and animation

Entry 10: Hangul phonetic alphabet and animation

Chapter 2 Alphabets

Tonight I was rereading the Asian Contribution section of the Meggs History of Graphic design, and I discovered a picture that reminded me of a section of the book, The Animator's Survival Kit by Richard Willams. The first picture is of a table of the Hangul consonants on page 32. This table represents the mouth movements of each consonants. The consonants and different strokes collate to the different sounds in the Korean language. It seems as though when learning a new language, you start out with a diagram.



I know that it might seem like a silly thing to correlate a alphabet to a animation technique but I am here to try it. When doing dialogue for a animation you have to learn the mouth movements in the dialogue. Williams diagrams each movement with the tough and the face. He also has a video version of this in a lecture DVD. Instead of symbols he uses the English alphabet. At the end of the day, all languages can be divided into phonics

Entry 9: comparing paper to electronic magazines

Entry 9: the Bazar magazines

Covers from Henry Wolf-1958 and 1959

I find it fascinating that the Bazaar and Esquire magazines were saved by one man, Henry Wolf. The esquire and Bazaar magazines were about to go under due to the great presence of Playboy magazine. Wolf studied under Brodovich. In 1953 he became the art director of Esquire. It is still going strong and are as popular as Allure and Wired magazine. The picture above is of three of his magazine covers.

Esquire Magazine- May 2018 edition

The next picture is of the cover of the electronic Esquire magazine from the nearby library system. This is the May addition. I wanted to include this picture to show how much magazine have come. The 21st century have traded paper for a user interface. The best part is the ability to save paper. Magazine now a days can be read on computers, tablets and even our phones. Sometimes the library would have a subscription to the electronic magazine provider which makes it free for those that have a library card. Best of both worlds. 

Entry 8- Playing cards and Modern Solitare

Entry 8- Playing cards and Modern Solitaire

Woodblock playing cards- Gillies Savoure-15th century

     I find it interesting that the basis for playing cards have stayed the same throughout history. Woodblock playing cards were only for the rich and the highest in  society. The first picture is of ancient playing cards including the King, Jack, and Queen. They had hearts, diamond, and a four leaf clover. The color scheme was just red. This pack of playing cards were created by Gillies Savoure from Lyon France during the 15th century.

     In modern times, the playing cards have gone through so many rendition in traditional and electronic versions. The next picture is a screen capture of the Microsoft version of Solitaire on windows. I picked this type of game because it is one of my favorite historical card game. The game can have many card covers as well as the style of the playing table. A lot different from the olden playing cards. Also it is free if you have Windows. Not sure if Mac OS has it.

Entry 7: Comparing Western books to Asian books

Entry 7: Comparing Western books to Asian books

     For a while, I have been interested in how different our books compared to our Asian counterparts. In the English language we read from left to right, top to bottom. In Japanese and Chinese languages, the read from right to left, very top to the very bottom. In many Japanese books with advance characters, katakana and or hiragana is used to help readers and also to distinguish between words. Years back I received a volume of the Sailor Moon manga series. Although, it was a English copy, the book is to be read from right to left. It can be a disordinating experience if you are not used to it.

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton, cover by Chip Kidd

     The next picture is of the cover for Jurassic Park design by Chip Kidd. The cover is more basic than the cover for Sailor Moon. The color scheme is  just black and red. The book was written by Michael Crichton. I picked this cover  to present the sharp contrast between the two books. As this is the English version the reader reads left to right. For some reason the Japanese version comes in two volumes according to Amazon.com

Entry 6: Taoism and Ancient Chinese

Entry 6: Taoism and ancient Chinese

     One of my passions is Asian artwork and culture. I was excited when reading the Asian contributions section of Meggs History of Graphic Design. It is amazing how much us Westerner owe to China. They invented paper and calligraphy. The picture on the left is of a page of a small book about Taoism I own. For those who don't know, Taoism is a ancient philosophy in China that is still taught today. You can find some of its influences in Buddhism. This book holds a special place in my art since my dad followed Buddhism.

     On the side of the page it reminds me of early versions of the Chinese characters. In the Chinese script there is a traditional version and a standardized version. Most people today use the Standardized version. The next picture is from Megg History of Graphic Design and was created in the 11th century. According to the description it is a inscription found in a four-handled vessel with chinwen.   

3-3 Chapter 3 The Asian Contribution