Access Issue 02, Magazine //

This was kind of tricky to establish as a magazine. This is a paper style magazine, but paper like that of a newspaper. However, all that aside I am going to class this as a magazine which is to do with PlayStation. Access is published for Sony Computer Entertainment UK Ltd in London.

On the front of this 'magazine', it states at the top 'Let The Games Begin' I believe that for a games magazine, this tagline is perfectly suited to it. Then underneath this, is another statement saying 'Gamers get their first look at the new PlayStation Vita'. The cover photograph on the front of this magazine is of a person playing on the new PlayStation Vita, then it has the PlayStation logo as well as the action/control buttons which are: X, O, ∆ , ❒ . 

Then at the bottom of the page, is the PlayStation logo with PlayStation to the side, followed by PlayStation's FaceBook page. 

On the inside pages, it starts by saying: PRESS START. I really like this simple use of text as it is reminds the audience of PlayStation, it does this by as you associate these simple words with the controller used to play the PlayStation, video games console. To left of this, there is a small section for if you design a cover for Access! You can win a prize! Clearly this is a very interesting competition where you could've won: Your design to be on the front cover of Access magazine, Sony DSLR with lenses, a NEX-7 Camera, and also that of a PS Vita and start up games. The design will also have been made into a poster by Don't Panic. 

On pages 12–13 it shows and talks about 'Inside the PS Vita", and "What exactly is so special about this new machine then? We take a closer look at PlayStation's newest toy."

/ I quite like this double page spread as it goes into in depth detail of everything to do with the PS Vita. From Nuts and Bolts and describing the CPU, Weight, Screen, Cameras etc.

I think that my favourite thing about this magazine is that the contents is at the back. I think that is a very interesting yet unique way, as normally the contents page is inside the cover page. However, I like that Access magazine chose to be different and set themselves apart from other magazines and put it at the back as the very last page. I know that this will definitely be of influence to me, in later works. 

I again, asked my boyfriend of what he thought about this magazine as I wanted his opinion. Here is what he said below:

/ He likes how the front page has a white border and that he also like how the icons are overlapping the edge of the page. He said that he also likes how the writing isn’t taking up much of the front cove and also how the logo is situated at the bottom of the page too.

He said that he likes how the contents page is situated on the back of the actual magazine, and at the bottom of this it has all the relevant information ie: thanks to and all of the staff involved.

He states that he likes how on each of the pages it has differentiating text sizes as well as on the same line, and across the top of the pages. He likes how the magazine resembles more of a newspaper with it's finish rather than a glossy or laminated magazine. He feels that there are some colourful pages that are located on certain pages, which he also likes. Though he feels as though the magazine feels slightly weaker and thus it could break easier. He also likes that how at the beginning of some of the paragraphs they start with a giant colourful letter that will grab your attention and also on some pages it is a different colour.

Cereal Magazine //

Cereal magazine is all for ‘Travel & Lifestyle’, this magazine gets published twice a year and is devised into city-specific chapters. With each chapter, it comprises different features on places, people and products, also this magazines is showcased with beautifully visually striking photography. An interlude section is also included in every volume, this features a selection of style, and culture articles.

Cereal magazine also offers a range of city guides, they provide the reader with a tightly edited selection of their favourite places in a variety of different cities around the world. Each of these guides is published online, and come with an introduction to the city, as-well as alongside essential information, and also features anywhere from 10-20 different locations. This city guide also comes with exclusive photography which is taken by their team, and has been laid out in an editorial style. They also produce printed guide books for select cities.

The select Cities for these guide books, are as follow:

  Austin, Charlestown, Helsinki, Los Angeles, Seoul, Bath, Copenhagen, Hong Kong, New York, Singapore, Bristol, Edinburgh, London, Paris, Vancouver. 

I purchased this magazine on the 02 May, after waiting a week to buy it. I couldn't find this magazine in other WHSmith shop, apart from the one I work in, on weekends. I first noticed this magazine however, on a shift as I was routing through design magazines to help with my work. 

As I was looking I noticed the title ‘ C | E | R | E | A | L’, I quite liked the way that this was laid out and thought I would give it a quick scan through. On the front cover, it is very minimal and basic, something I think what you’d expect from a Travel and Lifestyle magazine. Underneath the title, is clearly states that this is from the travel and lifestyle genre of magazines. Also, is states that this is VOL 8, which clearly says that there is eight volumes within this type of series. 

Underneath is a beautifully clear image of a snow capped-mountain. I think that this photograph is just stunning, I love the way it looks on the paper stock magazine, I love the texture of it when it is placed in your hands. I love that this magazine feels like it’s been made with care and affection towards the readers of this style of genre, or to it’s growing captive audience. The binding on this magazine is also quite minimal and basic stating the title of the magazine, and 08 / stating their volume number of this specific magazine. 

Within its inner pages, they have some promotional work for RIMOWA, here this is showcasing their type of work and this is a luggage company. Then after this page, the title is:

 C | E | R | E | A | L and there is a couple of paragraphs from the editor: Rose Park.

The opposite spread of that page is another ad for a clothing company called TOAST. On the next page is where they say who was involved on creating the magazine from editors, creative directors, contributing and sub editor, advertising manager, illustrator, and also the sales manager. It also states where the company is based: Bristol. It also states their varies social media platforms that they are specialised to, this being FaceBook, Twitter and Instagram. 

Their contents page is rather minimal, and also very clean. I like the way that it looks, it just looks simple, but not too simple. The contents page is also rather different to any other contents page that I have seen in a magazine, it starts by:

1. Yukon 

012. Kluane (National Park and Reserve)

028. Master Carver (First Nations Wood Work)

032. Yukon Wildlife (Portraits of a population)

038. Dempster Highway (The road to the arctic circle)

I like this sort of contents page, as they're just under one sub-heading and it doesn't make it confusing. It simply states that these things are under the whole of Yukon as a whole. Then they also have a section for an Interlude. Then after this short Interlude pages, we go back to things about Yukon. 

050. Curated (Candles for the winter months)

056. Stahl House (Case study home)

066. Esk Cashmere (Luxury knitwear from Scotland)

076. Tuscan Sun (A Photo Essay)

I will be looking through two of these pages from the sub-heading of Yukon. Here, I am going to analyse Yukon Wildlife, and also Esk Cashmere. 

/ Yukon Wildlife, on these pages there is a vast amount of beautiful illustration. It states who wrote up this piece and who was the illustrator and here we have: 

Words – Richard Aslan, Illustration – Lorna Picton. I have read the first, opening paragraph a few times to really get to grips with the overlook of the wildlife found in a place like Yukon, and my favourite sentence is: ‘… The wildlife in Yukon is varied, abundant, playing out the trials and dramas of daily life far from our watchful eyes. Under this opening paragraph however, there is an illustration of a Moose, the typical animal we expect to see over in such a mountainous place. Then it is like a fact sheet / card, they give little facts about Moose's. 

They state its call, and its height which is 2 metres. Its weight which is 500 kg, and their life-span is 10-20 years. Habitat – Forest, Rivers, Lakes and also the wetlands. It explains what their diet is like, ie: Shrubs, leaves and aquatic plants. It says when the best time to seek out a Moose is: around lakes in the spring and summer time, and that their widespread during Autumn.

Then on the opposite page is their illustration of a moose. On the next couple of spreads within this section they talk of more animals these are: Grizzly Bear and the Caribou.

/ The other page I will be looking at is one with a little more written work, this is the Esk Cashmere page.

On this spread, the words were written by – Lucy Brook and the photographs were taken by – Rich Stapleton. This first spread is where it states what sub-heading this is and who has written the work and taken the photos. I like style of work as it indicates to the reader that someone else has done work prior to the previous page. I also like the background colour which this particular spread is on, it’s on a very light grey which looks beautiful in my opinion. The next page, is where you see the multiple paragraphs for this particular setting, all about knitwear. The opposite page has around four images. These are beautiful and really stand out, they're a variety of a foggy road which I presume Scotland. Some towers of thread, a beautiful black and grey jumper, and also a lone sheep in the fog. 

The next spread also uses a double page for photographs, the one on the left, is in middle but has been cropped rather small so the white of the page is still visible, this particular photo is of a sewing machine stitching into a new jumper. The one on the right takes up that entire page and is of a grey-blue sky. The same goes for the next two pages, the one on the left takes up the entire page and this is a telephone pole with the electric wires. The opposite is of a jumper with the white page as a border.

Overall, I clearly think this magazine is beautiful. I love the layouts, I love the photographs. I think it is truly a stunning magazine. The cover is what drove me to this magazine and it serves its purpose for Travel and Lifestyle magazines. I also love the back cover, the back indicates what is in this volume, Yukon, Tuscany, Stahl House, Hong Kong and St. Ives. 

I also really like that the barcode is on the back of the magazine rather than the front. I like that because it doesn’t spoil the way the front cover looks. I believe that, that is something I will be inspired by for my own magazine, depending on what style of cover I choose. 

/ I also asked my boyfriend what he particularly likes about this magazine and this is his detailed opinion:

He likes that the back of the magazine has the places which each volume includes of, he also said that he likes that this is the main focus of the back of the magazine. The material for the magazine is paper stock, which he knows is more expensive to reproduce and for £10 seems a bit steep, also the fact that this magazine is in white also is a negative. He doesn’t like that it could catch fingerprints and dirt onto the white magazine. However, he likes how the back of the magazine with the barcode and places involved, along with the website are centred in the middle. He states that it is nice that it is shaped and build like a book, instead of that of a magazine. He also agreed with me, that the front is very simple and minimalist and he also likes the spine / binding of the magazine. However, he doesn’t like the entire front cover, he likes the photograph he just thinks that he wishes it would blend in to the white border of the magazine. 

Dazed Magazine //

For 20 years, Dazed & Confused Magazine has been at the forefront of youth culture. Defining the times, each issue showcases agenda-setting editorial and pioneering fashion photography. Based in London but created by an international collective of writers, image-makers and stylists, Dazed and its website dazeddigital.com is read in print and online by over 1.7m style leaders. It is quite simply the most influential and successful independent magazine title on the planet.

A couple of weeks ago I purchase VOL IV Spring / Summer 2015; of Dazed Magazine, I purchased this simply because of the design of this beautiful magazine. I also love how fashion magazines are laid out, I think that because of just how simple, yet clean each page looks to me. On the cover of my magazine, is that of Maisie Williams (Arya Stark – Game of Thrones), with the tagline 'Absolutely Flawless'. I really love this cover I think that the main photograph is beautifully shot and how the font and tagline go really well together within this main image. 

Inside the cover pages is a few images of that of designer clothing and watches, with beautiful models to show off the clothes and accessories. After a couple of pages in we see a contents page, this is quite a simple yet clean and crisp page. The top reads 'Contents', then to the left you see 'The Cover' with a simple photograph of Maisie Williams on front same as the main cover photo. Underneath that photograph however, it states what clothing she is wearing in the said picture, and also it states the photographers name and who the styling was done by. 

To the right of all that, it states 'The Front', followed by a long list of page numbers followed by what is being showcased on the pages. After this, on the next page is page dedicated to the hard staff who I believe would've worked of this particular volume. It states: Editorial, Fashion, Design, Advertising and Creative Solutions, Publishing, Contributing Editors, Photography, Digital Design and Production, Production, Video, Text, Marketing Events and PR, International Editors, and also Finance. 

Although this magazine is a fashion magazine, I really love the way that this has been produced and how the pages feels glossy. I remember my brother telling me that if the magazine is glossy that it is a lot cheaper to print. Even though that this is true, I still think that this is a beautifully created magazine.

I asked my boyfriend to give me his opinions on the magazine and this is what he told me:

/ He said that he liked that the numbers on the pages as they were not to the very edge of the page itself, but because it was in the middle of the page underneath text / imagery. 

/ He also stated that he likes that one particular image was quite small, and that it wasn't centred within the page that was sort of, off centre and it was on a double spread.

/ On Page 40 there is an image to do with 'Walk on the Wild Side' here this particular image is set within a circle, i.e. the whole image is spherical. He also stated that this image was aesthetically pleasing. 

/ On Page 113, he described what he saw when he saw this page, here there was an image bang-smack in the centre with text all around but not going all the way across. The text was in small chunks / sections,  around this chosen image. He said that he liked the way that the main focal point of this particular page, was that of the photograph.

/ He also found whilst looking through the magazine that the text varies within certain pages i.e: where it is a full two page spread of text, and also that it is often off centred, and that it isn't fully filling the pages. It's inline, but it's not spread fully. He likes that there's quite a lot of white space as it is clean and easier to read.

/ For the cover he said that he likes that the barcode is to the top and on its side instead of being in the typical position for magazines, being in the bottom left / right. He likes that the cover is clean and that there isn't much writing on it, he said that the fonts stand out cleaner and crisper. He has also found that even though glossy magazines are easier to produce he still likes it, as it fits the magazine better than what a standard paper stock magazine would. Even though the magazine scratches easily, it still feels well produced.

Iconology / Iconography //

Iconology:

/ One of the things that came up when we were looking at semiotics was how metaphor is used in visual communication – which leads nicely into this session on Iconology.

/ Where we were looking last week at different theories which claim to explain how words and images communicate meaning (how we translate words and images into meanings through a shared knowledge of coded systems), today we’re looking at how broader meanings, and different nuances of meaning, can be communicated within these signifying systems. Iconology is about how we use individual – as well as collective – understandings and interpretations to seek a depth of meaning and nuances of meaning beyond that first level of semiotic communication. So, where Semiotics tells us that the phonemes (‘codes’) ‘r’ ‘e’ ‘d’ make up a bigger word (‘code’) ‘red’ which we have learned to associate with the colour we all think of when we hear the word ‘red’, iconology delves into the symbolic, cultural and, at times, idiosyncratic meanings associated with ‘red’. In this session we’ll consider what is being communicated within the context of particular examples of visual communication, and how, as interpreters and creators of graphic design/art/animation, we can play with that ‘gap’ between reading and interpretation (between the page/screen and its audience) to creative effect.


/ The study of meaning contained within in a particular work of art or design, and the branch of art history that addresses the description, analysis and interpretation of images.
Meanings are not always immediately obvious - this can enhance their impact.
Historical and theoretical context - Erwin Panofsky - iconologist - Studies in Iconology (1939).
Using visual evidence to 'unlock' meaning.

Iconology:

/ Iconology is the study of the meaning contained within the symbols in a particular work of art.

/ Culturally specific. It examines the symbol on more than its face value and tries to find meaning by reconciling it with its historical context. To find out about the ORIGINS, purpose and meaning of something.

/ Looking as opposed to just seeing. 

/ Metaphor - where meaning is derived through association, comparison or resemblance.

TV Advertising //

Within TV Adverts around Christmas:

/ Tesco tends to shows different family members and different households in the run up to the christmas period decorating their houses etcetera. This uses a family feel for which a lot of people can relate to as it is viewed as what christmas is about, family.

/ Sales for Tesco during the christmas went down.

/ M&S used Magic fairies this year 2014/2015. The music is fitting for christmas, this shows the magic or christmas and the glamor aspect. Sales did see a 2% fall.

/ Lidl is a value supermarket and everyone knows it they're not denying it. However in this advert they show that you can still receive quality for a low price, which is fitting as now most people are turning to these stores instead of high street ones.

/ Sainsbury's 2014 marks 100 years since world war one started, here they have taken a piece of the war story that captures a part of that war which showed compassion and care. Playing football with the Germans and taking a break from war, even though this was a heartfelt and compassionate advert this did not help there sales either as they too went down by two percent.

Tesco Christmas Light Show (TV Advert 2014) from Immersive on Vimeo.

Revolutionising the Image //

Modern Life is Rubbish?: Revolutionising the Image
/ Style, Cubism & Futurism

What exactly do we mean when we talk about styles and movements in the history of art or design?
/ The Canon – See story of Polykleitos’ bronze sculpture entitled – Doryphoros (The Spear Bearer). A theoretical work which comprises a set of aesthetic principles governing the work’s proportions, meaning ‘rule’. The proportionally ‘perfect’ work of art. A yardstick – a measure of what they believed art ‘should’ be, the quintessential embodiment of ‘good’ art.

/ The Western art historical canon denotes a body of books, music and art that have been traditionally accepted by Western scholars as the most important and influential in shaping Western culture. Idea of the celebrity artist or designer and the masterpiece.

/ Canonised – accepted into the canon. 

/ Survey text – characterised by key individuals who represent styles and movements.

What is ‘style’?:
A definition: Specific rather than simply a methodology. A particular kind, sort, or type, as with reference to form, appearance, or character e.g. the baroque style. Or...
/ A particular, distinctive, or characteristic mode of construction or execution in any work of art/design.

/ A way of doing something, especially one which is typical of a person, group of people, place or period (in the style of...).

/ Used to classify and to describe e.g. when, where or when something was created/developed. Used to group and match works. When we study the style of something we are looking to place it in a relationship of similarity (and difference) with other works.

/ How do we categorise and name works /movements in art and design? – Shared characteristics.
Styles or movements are dialogical – meaning that they come about as part of a dialogue or conversation with previous styles – either embracing or reacting against elements of those styles.
If something is stylised, it is represented with an emphasis on a particular style. Style was described by Meyer Schapiro as ‘a system of forms with a quality, through which the personality of the artist and the outlook of a group are visible’.

/ Art/design ‘movement’, a definition:
A tendency or style in art with a specific common philosophy or goal, followed by a group of artists during a restricted period of time.

Propaganda Poster //

Propaganda:

A form of communication which aims to persuade, influence and change
attitudes. The term is often assumed to have negative connotations, however, arguably,
propaganda has been used throughout history to both enlighten, as well as to mislead, the
public.

/ Wartime posters are one of the most recognisable examples of propaganda.

/ An effective means of conveying messages, propaganda often works by manipulating
information, such as displaying facts selectively, or using loaded text and images, as well
as relying on shared cultural understandings and metaphorical devices. At times
propaganda even falsifies information.

/ Propaganda in the First and Second World Wars was used to recruit volunteers (preconscription
in 1916), to influence financial backers, to rally support and to raise morale,
both on the domestic front and at the battlefield.

/ Wartime propaganda reflects – as well as having promoted – many of the art and design
styles and movements we are now familiar with.

Pinterest //

On my Pinterest account I created a 'Board' titled 'Design', and put plain and simply this is all the work under the topic of design that I find to be of interest to myself. I have a numerous list of pins onto this one board, 361 pins with 20 followers. I believe that this board has a variety of design on it, ranging from Magazine Covers, to other unique bits of design I enjoy or are simply beautiful to look at.

Seen as though this new topic is do with that of magazine design and layout I looked and pinned more of that specific genre of design. I believe that I have some beautiful sets of covers and contents pages to even how people / companies layout their work. I liked to pin these as then I can go back and get more inspiration from this. I believe that having a Pinterest account for this is again, excellent for giving me inspiration and gets my mind into thinking of beautiful covers and also that of layout design. I also have a variety of colours on there too, and even that of colour palettes.

I think that noting down all pieces of design that help will definitely help me in the long run with the Graphic Design course, it will keep all of my little inspirations in one clear place and will be easy for people to look at. I have had some good feedback on my boards on Pinterest, as they get the odd 're-pin' sometimes.

For Magazine covers however, I have a very refined list of all the ones that I do truly find to be stimulating. Below I shall post a few of the ones I like:

Man VS Machine Lecture //

Man Vs Machine Lecture:

/ This lecture was presented from Matt Whitewood where he came to University to talk to us about his work for a company called Man Vs Machine. He is a graduate from the Huddersfield University and he also has a degree in Digital Media.

For one of the projects he showed us, it was for Nike KD7 which he has input towards. This particular project was for Nikes new trainers, I thought that this was a rather beautiful piece of work which he showed during the lecture we had. This advert has a variety of effects and I remember seeing it and thinking that it was a stunning piece. The subtlety of the animation of how smooth it looked and how it flowed onto the next piece was inspiring. 

Nike / KD7 from ManvsMachine on Vimeo.

Guest Lecture: Helvetica //

Gary Hustwit came into our University to talk about his film titled Helvetica, this was dis directorial debut from 2007. This was a documentary about graphic design and also that of typography, clearly titled 'Helvetica' by a typeface. This was a cleverly choice of title, as now everyday we see some form of Helvetica type. This film was marked as a beginning of a film trilogy of design, with Objectified, here this is all about Industrial and also product design. Here this followed in 2009, afterwards out come Urbanized, and this was about the design of cities and this then came out in 2011.

I found this lecture to be really quite inspiring, as I thought that Gary was just a regular guy talking about his love for typography and of graphic design. I thought it was quite refreshing to the other lectures we've had. I think it was somewhat, calmer than the rest. Maybe it was because of Gary's laid-back style of talking I really liked and found that it gave off a certain style, or whether it was intact for the film itself. Either way, I thought that this lecture was very interesting and to hear someones idea of type is interesting to me, as I myself am for typefaces.

Semiotics //

Why do we even need to learn about semiotics??

Semiotics are the tools of the trade, it helps our vocabularly and also the confidence in our own ideas. So, we the professional designers can inform the client(s), viewers / audience about how that the choices that they make, can effect and transform the message that they want to be delivered for that of an intending audience. Also, it is about the ability to explain how visual communication works, how this can be manipulated to the benefit of the message, and of how a professional adds value to a product or a specific key area that separates the professional from the amateur.
It is not just about having the tools and the knowledge to make design that looks good; we need to be able to analyse and explain why our ideas work.

All good designers are semioticians:
/ Semiotics – the theory(ies) which explore how systems of signs work to make meaning.

/ Signs - spoken and written language, codes, symbols, sounds, non-linguistic. Signs can mean different things to different people depending on individual experiences, expectations. Signs can have an emotional impact.

/ As both creators and consumers of visual art and design – and as participants in a culture which functions on the basis of shared meanings and common understandings – we decode meaning from signs and symbols with ease. We are highly sophisticated readers of signs and do this subconsciously.

/ A good idea along with a brilliant aesthetic may fall down in the absence of proper and effective communication of the idea through the aesthetic. This is where semiotics comes in: Understanding semiotics can help us to ensure we're communicating messages effectively.

Semiotics – the basics:
/ Understanding how words and images – together with ideas and interpretations – are used to make sense of the world.

/ How words and images communicate meaning.

/ To understand how design works, we need first to understand how language – visual and verbal – works.

Colour semiotics:

/ Colours as ‘coded’ - how do colours act as vehicles for communicating a specific message or evoking a certain emotion?

/ Culturally conditioned – through habituation, interpretation becomes subconscious. Our actions and thoughts – the things we do automatically – are often governed by a complex set of cultural messages and conventions, and dependent upon our ability to interpret them instinctively and instantly. When we see the different colours of a traffic light, we automatically know how to react to them. This response has been taught – we learn such responses as children. For many signs, an amount of cultural knowledge is required to understand its meaning (or to interpret it in the desired way). Viewing and interpreting (or decoding) signs enable us to navigate the societal landscape.

/ 'Reality is divided up into arbitrary categories by every language and the conceptual world with which each of us is familiar could have been divided up very differently. Indeed, no two languages categorize reality in the same way. As John Passmore puts it, ‘Languages differ by differentiating differently’ (Passmore 1985,24)’. (Daniel Chandler, Semiotics)

/ Two approaches to understanding visual communication have become definitive foundations for examinations of the topic. Ferdinand de Saussure (Swiss linguist) and Charles Sanders Peirce (American philosopher).

/ Saussure’s Course on General Linguistics. Theory of signs and symbols which he called Semiology. Revolutionary in the world of linguistics, put culture at the centre of thought. His ideas were founded on the principle that there are no ideas in the mind before language puts them there: 'In itself, thought is like a swirling cloud, where no shape is intrinsically determinate. No ideas are established in advance, and nothing is distinct, before the introduction of linguistic structure.‘ (Saussure).

/ Phonemes (sounds) form words, which in turn are signifiers: c -a –t / ‘cat’ = ‘signifier’. The thing to which it refers (a cat/idea of a cat) = the ‘signified’. The two brought together = ‘sign’.

/ Peirce – how we make sense of the world (not purely linguistic), tripartite model comprising the sign (or ‘representamen’) which is a ‘sign vehicle‘, the ‘referent’ and their interpretation; the realisation of what together these mean, Peirce calls the 'interpretant'. Together they make Peirce’s 'sign'.

Arbitrariness:
/ ‘Linguistic categories are not simply a consequence of some predefined structure in the world. There are no natural concepts or categories which are simply reflected in language. Language plays a crucial role in constructing reality.’ (Daniel Chandler, Semiotics)

/ Saussure noted that linguistic signs are inherently arbitrary. The fact that a meanings are expressed using different words across different languages demonstrates that neither the sound nor their written form bears any resemblance to the object/meaning to which it refers. In this sense, meaning is purely subjective.

/ Nothing about the 'c', 'a' or 't', or about the full word 'cat' have any inherent 'cat-ness' about them. Associating this word with the mental image of a cat is learned behaviour.

/ The exception – onomatopoeia (where a word sounds like the thing to which it is referring e.g. ‘crash’, ‘splat’. Dictionary definition: ‘the formation of a word, as cuckoo, meow,
honk, or boom, by imitation of a sound made by or associated with its referent.’

Peirce’s three categories of signs:
/ Symbol – no logical connection to referent, arbitrary, relies on habit or rule. E.g. words, flags, alphabet,

/ Icon – resembles the sign, likeness. Representation question – will always entail a degree of convention/agreement about modes of representation. E.g. photograph, onomatopoeic word.

/ Index – direct link between sign and object, factual relationship – causal/physical. E.g smoke is an index of fire.

/ As we learned in the lecture, many signs we read can be interpreted as one or more of these simultaneously! The boundaries are not always clear and are dependent upon context.

Creative semiotics:
/ Understanding semiotics means you can play with how words and images communicate, subvert conventions and question how it all works. 'Where there is choice there is meaning' (David Crow)
Anthony Burrill Oil And Water Do Not Mix-

/ In advertising because semiotics relies on common understandings and culturally shared conventions, even where the signified is absent the sign can still be meaningful in certain contexts.

/ Heinz ‘invisible bottle’ advert- shows that heinz ketchup is so recognisable it can be identified as it is so iconic!

Semiotics and humour:
/ Most of all jokes are rooted in an understanding of semiotics, and an ability to subvert the ways in which meaning is made and communicated

Semiotics and fashion:
/ What assumptions do we make from a semiotic 'reading' of clothing?’

/ Roland Barthes (literary theorist, philosopher, linguist) is widely regarded as one of the most subtle and perceptive critics of the 2oth century. He was particularly fascinated with language and fashion, and the history of clothes.

/ 'Clothing concerns all of the human person, all of the body all the relationships of man to body as well as the relationships of body to society' - Roland Barthes.


Anchorage and relay: (Barthes)
/ Anchorage – text which anchors or ‘pins down' how the image is read. The reader is directed through a ‘floating chain of signifiers’. The text clarifies or ‘anchors’ the meaning, hinted at through visual clues. Where the image is complex, it helps to underline a relationship between text and image. E.g. adverts, maps, narrated documentaries on TV.

/ Relay – the words and images tell a story more ‘equally’ and stand in a complementary relationship. Important in film and comic strips, the text advances the reading of the images and supplies meanings not found in the images alone. Both the words and images are fragments which together create the unity of the message – which is ultimately realised on a higher level.


Martha Rosler The Semiotics of the Kitchen: (1975)

/ Semiotics of the Kitchen is a feminist parody video and performance piece released in 1975 by Martha Rosler. The video is considered a critique of the commodified versions of traditional women's roles in modern society. Featuring Rosler as a generic cooking show host, the camera observes as she presents an array of kitchen hand utensils, many of them out-dated or strange, and, after identifying them, plays out unproductive, sometimes, violent, uses for each. It uses a largely static camera and a plain set, allowing the viewer to focus more on Rosler's performance and adding a primitive quality. Letter by letter, Rosler navigates a culinary lexicon, using a different kitchen implement for each step along the way. She begins with an apron, which she ties around her waist, and, with deadpan humour, journeys through the alphabet. The focus on linguistics and words is important, since Rosler intended the video to challenge 'the familiar system of everyday kitchen meanings - the securely understood signs of domestic industry and food production.

My Manifesto Style of Claes Oldenberg //

"I am for the design....." – in the style of Claes Oldenberg:

//

I am for the design of a bed, which carries the sweet dreams of innocent children,

I am for the design of a toothpaste, to wash away last nights antics,

I am for the design of a cloth, to wipe away the tears,

I am for the design of a bus, to carry people to distant places,

I am for the design of a book, spreading my knowledge with the World,

I am for the design of vast newspaper articles, speaking rumours and lies,

I am for the design of shoes, to travel miles in everyday,

I am for the design of traffic lights, stopping everything in its tracks,

I am for the design of a bailer, crushing everything in its wake,

I am for the design of freshly ground coffee, which enhances the flavour of chocolate,

I am for the design of asphalt, to bring together the earthy smells,

I am for the design of a knife, cutting through butter,

I am for the design of the ocean, battling waves with ships,

I am for the design an aeroplane, bringing loved ones together since 1903,

I am for the design of a phone, carrying around your data like a virus,

I am for the design of the Sagrada Família, for its ever changing design.

Donald Judd //

Donald Judd's work is veering on the Minimalist movement, his work made use of single or repeated geometric forms. His use of the geometric creations have been critiqued for a lack of content; however it is this simplicity that questions the nature of the art movement Minimalism.

My Own Opinions:
I really like Judd's work, I like how minimalist it is. I think that the certain sets of how he creates his work has a certain flow that to me, looks really interesting. I find his sculptures really quirky and that they look very interesting.

Damien Hirst //

His work calls into question about the various ideas that separate desire and fear, life and death, reason and faith, love and hate. Hirst uses the tools and iconography of science and religion, creating sculptures and paintings where there beauty and intensity offer the viewer insight into art that transcends our familiar understanding of those domains.

My Own Opinions:

I remember looking at Damien Hirst's work in High School for art. His work is really fascinating to me, I really like how very creative and how he takes a unique approach to creating artwork and to creating ideas about existence. 

Clet Abraham //

Some of the most successful street art uses the language of signage to create beautiful and also powerful juxtapositions. The french born street artist, has made his interventions in Florence to become a common sight. He turned a simple street sign of a 'no through road' and turned it into a crucifix.

My Own Opinions:

When I first saw this interesting piece of work, I was quite intrigued with the way it was designed. I really liked the way how he used Jesus on the crucifix, to fit really well within this specific sign of a no through road.

Barbara Kruger //

Barbara Kruger is often associated with Feminist art, and also that of Conceptual art. She combines tactics like appropriation with her great wit and also that of her direct commentary in order to communicate with the viewer and encourage the interrogation of contemporary circumstances.

BARBARA KRUGER KEY IDEAS //

- Kruger's use of text and that of images is shown to have a direct communication with the viewer. With a short statement, she has a critique about society, economy, politics, gender and also that of culture.

- Kruger uses the facade of Graphic Design in her work, using the unexpected phrases to catch the viewer's attention and make them focus on what she is wanting to convey. Instead of trying to sell a product, her work sells an idea to the audience. 

- Kruger uses interesting statements // phrases as the solid evidence of her work, she then uses images from magazines and this is her backdrop. She is very consistent in her style of work, she uses a very easy to read font, and also uses her typical colour palette of red, blacks and whites. This is interesting as the end product // design is crucial for how an audience will see the effectiveness, as an artistic expression, and also that of a protest against the facets of a postmodern life.

My Own Opinions:

I first noticed a piece of Kruger's work, in my Religious Studies class in High School. I noticed that this particular piece of artwork was that of the classic "I Shop, Therefore I am" quote. I remembered seeing it and then in College, I was told to look at post modern artworks, and again I stumbled across Barbara Kruger's work in much more detail. I remember looking at all of her various art pieces, and saw that the colour palette was in her typical colours as stated above.

Marina Abramovic //

750,000 spectators crowded the Museum of Modern Art last year to watch Marina Abramović sit in a chair. In her MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) exhibit, from which the movie draws its name, Abramović spent nearly eight hours a day for three months last spring sitting motionless in the wide open room at the entrance to her exhibit. Anyone in attendance -- or at least those willing to wait in an increasingly jammed line -- could stare back at the performer for as long as they saw fit.

Interesting, yet strange things about Marina:

- Marina played Russian Roulette with her mother's pistol when she was 14 years old.

- When she was younger, she tried to break her nose to force her parents to pay for plastic surgery.

- Before she learned about performance art, she pursued painting as a child and used to paint "big socialistic trucks crashed together" and "little innocent socialistic toy trucks."

- In 1997, she performed a piece called Balkan Baroque, where she scrubbed 1,500 cow bones for six hours a day.

- For one of her pieces, she carved the five-point Communist star on her stomach with a razor blade.

            --> In the early '70s Marina Abramovic performed Lips of Thomas, a piece where she carved the five-point Communist star on her stomach with a razor blade, whipped herself, and then layed on a bed of ice (shaped like a cross) on a heater for 30 minutes. Her grandmother once found her passed out while doing the performance, and she had burned off her hair.

My Own Opinions:

I first started to learn about Marina Abramovic in High School, I was really fascinated with her, and towards her work. I first learned about her carving a Communist star on her stomach, I found this really outrageous, but in a way really interesting and completely unique. I like the idea of performance art, I think that it is a really interesting art form and movement in itself.  I believe that all of her other artwork as well, is fascinating. I think that it is really strange to do these kinds of things to your body to be noticed and for people to see it, and also inflict pain on the artist like Marina has done in past experiments. However, I think that this is truly interesting and I like knowing about all the other bits of work that she has done in the past.

Gottfried Helnwein //

Gottfried is a well known artist for photography, painting and also that of installation art, he is associated with many styles of movements which range between: Hyperrealism, Installation Art and also Performance Art. He has worked as a painter, draftsman, photographer, muralist, sculptor, installation and performance artist, using a wide variety of techniques and media. His early work consists mainly of hyper-realistic water-colours, depicting wounded and mistreated children, as well as performances – often with children – in public spaces. 

Quote on Gottfried's Website: "Not all of Gottfried's work is on a canvas. A lot of it is the way he's approached life. And it doesn't take someone knowing him to know that. You take one look at the paintings and you say "this guy has been around." You can't sit in a closet - and create this. This level of work is earned. As an artist my strongest reaction to Helnwein's work is that it challenges me to be better at what I do. There are very few people that achieve utter excellence in what they do. And I think that Gottfried Helnwein is certainly one of those people."
Sean Penn
Source
Actor, Director

My Own Opinions:

I am really fascinated with Gottfried's work. I think that it is truly remarkable and also beautiful, I love the way how each individual painting of the children is very different, and looks real. I am touched by these paintings. I think that they give off a certain vibe that is showing true, raw emotion, and I find that fascinating in itself. 

James Hayward //

Hayward’s paintings are divided into two bodies of work: flat paintings from 1975-1984, and thick paintings from 1984 to the present. He works in series, some of which are ongoing, and include The Annunciations, The Stations of the Cross, the Red Maps, Fire Paintings, Smoke Paintings, Sacred and Profane and Nothing’s Perfect series.

The movements he is associated with are: Abstract paintings, monochrome paintings, process art and that of minimalism. 

My Own Opinions:

I actually really like this work, I find it to remind me of thick acrylic paint on canvas. I like the texture that this art gives off, I think that if you were to touch this in an art gallery or even that of a museum, I think that it would have a rather nice feel towards it.

Frederick Hammersley //

Frederick Hammersley (1919-2009) spent most of his career in the Los Angeles area working as a painter and teacher. He is closely associated with the hard-edge abstraction painting style of the Abstract Classicists of southern California.

Hammersley's reputaton as a painter began in 1948 when one of his small paintings was accepted into an annual exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Then in 1958, several of his works were included in a traveling exhibition called Four Abstract Classicists,organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Hammersley, and his fellow painters Lorser Feitelson, Karl Benjamin, and John McLaughlin, were dubbed the "hard-edged painters," which consisted of flat, coloured geometric shapes that had a sharper contrast to the more popular Abstract Expressionism. The label stuck and in the mid 1970s, Hammersley submitted several works of art for a show calledL.A. Hard Edge - the 50s and 70s in Los Angeles.

My Opinions:

I really quite like Frederick's work. I like the simple and clean elegance of his paintings, I also like that to me this is quite minimalist. I like how gridded this form of work is, I like the sets of squares are in the corners of the work.

Lucien Clergue //

French photographer Lucien Clergue died in Nîmes on November 15, aged 80, after a long illness. Born in Arles in 1934, Clergue was more than an image-maker, best-known for his sultry nudes and striking pictures of dead bulls. He belonged to the handful of people who tore down the barriers separating fine art and photography in France. A real champion of the medium, he founded Les Rencontres d’Arles in 1970, setting a blueprint for photography festivals worldwide. In 2006, he was elected at France’s Académie des Beaux-Arts, the first photographer ever to receive the accolade.

My own opinions:

I really found Lucien's work to be really surprising, when I first saw one image I couldn't really tell what the image was of, until on closer inspection I saw that it was of a naked woman. Until I noticed this I was really intrigued because at first to me, it didn't look like that of a woman's naked body. I believe that the image was perfectly conceived that, it didn't look like the female form. It was tastefully created. At first I just noticed the lines and thought that this was a really beautiful and interesting photograph. 

Frank Lloyd Wright //

Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, interior 

designer, writer, and he was also an educator. He has designed more than 1,000 structures, 532 of which were completed. Wright believed in designing structures that were in harmony with humanity and its environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture. This philosophy was best exemplified by Fallingwater (1935), which has been called “the best all-time work of American architecture”.

In 1915, the Japanese Emperor commissioned Wright to design the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. He spent the next seven years on the project, a beautiful and revolutionary building that Wright claimed was “earthquake proof.” Only one year after its completion, the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 devastated the city and tested the architect’s claim. Wright’s Imperial Hotel was the city’s only large structure to survive the earthquake intact.

My own Opinion:

I think these architectural designs are really interesting, I like the way how modern these two buildings look. I also think that they look visually appealing. The photograph below I believe is to be a really interesting perception of modern architecture. I think that the way this house looks is to be beautiful yet, subtle. I like the way how the roof comes to a straight point and how it hangs over the rest of the house (right side roof). I also like how straight and clean this particular house looks, I think that the style suits the area surrounding the house itself. 

Modernism //

Modernism refers to the broad movement in Western art, architecture and also that of design which self-consciously rejected the past as a model for the art of the present, and then placed an emphasis on the formal qualities within art and the processes and 

materials.

Modern art has also been driven by various social and political agendas. These were often utopian, and modernism was in general association with ideal visions of human life and society and a belief in progression.

Modernism, described by the V&A:

Museum: in design and architecture emerged in the aftermath of the First World War and the Russian Revolution – a period when the artistic avant-garde dreamed of a new world free of conflict, greed and social inequality. It was not a style but a loose collection of ideas. Many different styles can be characterised as Modernist, but they shared certain underlying principles: a rejection of history and applied ornament; a preference for abstraction; and a belief that design and technology could transform society.

Style:

under-furnished, austere spaces

use of tubular steel, plastic, laminated plywood, fibreglass

abstract motifs

bold primary colours

The names:

Frank Lloyd Wright - architect

Mies van der Rohe - designer and director of the Bauhaus art school

Le Corbusier - Swiss architect and designer