ITAP Lecture 6: “Production and Outcomes” influences and reactions (Principle 1: Interpretation)

Most artists while creating piece try to pass through some message to the viewers. Many artists change the meaning of the pieces which were already created, by interpreting it differently, and using their own way and means to apply to the content.

For example I will put here painting of Salvador Dali and Magritte which obviously inspired the designer of Volkswagen’s advert. 

  

This is one of the famous pieces done by Magritte, who aimed typical everyday situations into something surreal, therefore challenging many conventions of the viewers and passing her message through effectively. I understand it as a man who looses his head due to any problems he might off faced during his lifetime.

Here is an advert of Volkswagen car, which has clear influence my Magritte’s work. The man without head and hourglass instead shows that Volkswagen’s cars workers are taking their time to provide great service to the customers. The drawing of the car, with the clouds, which looks like its cut out, is a clear link to other Magritte’s pieces.

This here clearly show the idea of Rene’s work. The idea of the clouds being used to fill the object shows dream like creations. The eye, brings in mind person who is a “day dreamer”. So in the Volkswagen advertisement the car is supposed to make us feel like this is a dream car.

his one here is another advertisement by Volkswagen, this one however is more linked to Salvador Dali’s work. Especially the fuel meter, reminds us of melting clocks which were drawn in a piece by Dali.

We can see now how easily someone idea of a meaning can be interpreted into something completely different with brand new aim and purpose.

ITAP Lecture 5: Research, Tone of voice etc. (Principle 5: Visual Hierarchy)

Visual Hierarchy stands for an order of what human eye sees first and what it sees later. This particular order is created by the visual contrast between forms in the particular image we look at. Human eye recognizes object with highest contrast to their background. Usually graphic desginers study the visual hierarchy as it is a great tool for “controlling” the  mind of the viewer.

I will look here at some examples of visual hierarchy within art and advertisement area. Some might think visual hierarchy will take place in all visual works, however some pieces do not use it and the viewer sees the whole picture/image at once.

There are two examples of Apple’s iTunes gift cards and Music Card. Which one do we look at first? I looked at the one with the man holding his iPod. Higher contrast on this card makes viewers focus on it more than the one below.

The one below it is also high contrasted work however not as much as black and green.

This proves that though through use of colours can change the way we portray things. The card below uses contrast but obviously this one wasn’t as successful at the one on the top. There is also more action on the card above, which has affect on our order of seeing.

ITAP Lecture 5: Research (principle 3: Researching the practice)

I have posted blogs about research before, it is important to research the practice in my chosen area, so I definitely know what I am doing and how to approach it, by looking at other artists work. For my research of the practice I have looked at the current magazines, in order to figure out the layouts and typeface they use. This would give me an overall idea how to professionally approach my own magazine.

The magazine I looked up is called Skin Deep. It is one of the bestselling tattoo magazines. My magazine is based around tattoos, music and skating which are part of Birmingham’s urban culture.

Considering the audience my group and me had to decide on the style, researching other magazines was a helpful tool in order to make those decisions. We could see how the media is aiming its target audience and how can we cope with it as well. The typefaces and colour schemes were carefully thought through and chosen. Obviously the media we have created has to fulfil special laws and be legible.

Looking at other practises gives us an idea of what has been done, what are conventional magazines and what aren’t. Basing knowledge on that information we can decide on how we want readers to portray our magazine. We can also see whether it's worth challenging conventions or just stick to the expectations of the viewers in order to be more "safe".

ITAP Lecture 4: Research and Inspiration (Principle 5: Audience)

Before we start to create something we need to think what our proposed target audience would be.  Target audience is needed for any artist to define what they are doing what their purpose of doing it is. It technically gives an artist the purpose of creating. This should enhance and focus the communication for their art piece. Picking your target audience is probably one of the most important parts during start of the project. Different audiences have different needs, for example creating something for kids in particular age would mean it probably have to be more illustrative and simply put rather than when it is aimed at adults.

For example there are two pages from adult book and children’s book.

Here is also illustrated book for adults, we can tell who it is aimed at when we look at the style of the illustrations. Children’s’ books are more colourful and childishly illustrated. Adults books usually have more writing than images.

Here’s the example of a children book:

So when I planned my magazine I had a look at possible target audiences and which one would I work best towards. Me and my group agreed that 18 to 24 year old and anyone with an interest, would be best, as this is our peer group and we have biggest understanding of it.

It is important to understand your target audience in order to meet their expectations and possibly sell the product well.