The Shape Font

Months have passed since my left post and probably months will pass after I post anything new apart from what I’m about to write and show now.

I’ve been engaging an activity in which I didn’t actually thought I’d paying much attention too: the creation of type.

Let’s start from the beggining: for this semester I intended to create a small book called the Shape Book. It’s a personal project whose aim is to explore the impact that shapes have upon a confined shape, may I quote Jan Tschichold in his book The New Typography:

«Modern engineering and standardized machine manufacture have of necessity led to the use of precise geometric forms. The final and purest  shape of a product is always built up from geometric forms. The new age has created an entirely new visual world, and has guided us to the primary elements of human expression: geometric shape and pure exact form. Our sympathy for the shapes derived from geometry and science is part of our inborn striving for order, both in things and in events, which is redoubled when we are confronted by chaos.»

The idea was exactly this: to explore geometric shapes, positive vs negative, space vs none. So starting with the simplest shapes (circle, triangle, square) and moving on to more complex ones. By having a transparent page with printed shapes on top of an opac page, also with geometric shapes printed, I have two different pages with different shapes that together do a new shape therefore creating interaction with the user, forcing him to ‘connect the dots’ and understand the book purpose. Some images will come with time and then it shall be easier to understand this work. So why the type? I wanted to create a font which related to the whole idea of geometry/shape to emphasise the aim of the book so after some sketches I finally got what I wanted. Not perfect and still with some corrections to do but definitely something that at this stage and after a lot of frustrating moments with this, it became well worth it. It’s never too much to know how different areas of Design work. Typography is just another one, the better insight you have on this matter, whether by studying it or by actually working (with) it the better and more accurate your comments, critics and reflexions of it will be not only for your work but also for the work of others.

Typography has such an important role on communication.The way we perceive information and how we see it. The spirit of the type tells it all. It looks quite a random thing at the beggining as in: why should type actually define the spirit of a work? It’s not until you actually start doing it and paying attention to its form/function you realise what a major factor it is and apart from this proved theory for a long time now, it was not until I started creating a font for this project that I concluded that it embodies the expression of every work, and especially my very own – The Shape Book.

* Third: about packaging and minimal design

I believe packaging should be pure and honest, right from the start, therefore it must start with the exterior to show the client that what they see is a pure, simple and sober product. By showing the essential, using as little decoration as possible, the object is more exposed and has a better stand out. By economising the use of colours, typeface sizes, geometric forms (…) we can achieve amuch more simple and effective design that may have a better result.

Geometric shapes are one of my favourite elements for creating compositions. If applied rationaly the final piece might gain a certain force and impact crucial to its stand out. Still the question remains: how to adapt it to packaging? Because it is a product ment to be sold and therefore bought by different people with different tastes, how to use these elements in order to enhance its potentiality? Maybe it has to do with the product being sold. Having that in consideration new and creative ways may gain some strenght if they are made in accordance to the nature’s product.

In my opinion, saying minimal design doesn’t mean giving up some elements like thick lines and bold icons. For me it means: applying less but crucial. strong elements that strenghtens the composition, adjusting these elements in order to gain a certain harmony, enough to create a positive impact. I don’t support an universal definition of minimalism.

For me, packaging is like a book, and whatever is said, you do judge a book by its cover. Not only this but it’s also true that the crucial informations  are always in the front cover and secondary information always in the back (comments, random info, short version, etc) and the same principals should be applied to packaging to maintain a certain order.

http://www.independentstudio.co.uk/

http://www.farrowdesign.com/

http://www.thisisrealart.com/

some of my favourites.

* Display & Packaging

*for school work, ficticious company*

company story board:
stratford label zero, inc. established in 1964 by james label.
based on stratford upon avon, it makes vases that reflect nature and stratford surroundings with a minimalist touch.
their motto: form follows nature and that is mostly reflected on their vases decoration and packaging visuals.
honour, tradition and manufacture – keywords of the brand.
their pieces are sold between £20-£70.
they aim specially to women.

target market:
women:
that like travelling,
like having lunch with their ‘girl friends’,
executive,
business women,
educated taste,
classy.

* Second: About Design

What can we understand about the design role nowadays?

For people who have been ‘trying’ to put the concept of design in practice is easy to realise that its meaning is somehow so difficult to explain… You know it envolves an idea, you know it envolves a problem and, consequently, a solution to that problem, you know it envolves wasting time around and around the same thing, it envolves banging your head in the wall, sleepless nights and a lot of effort… but for what? The reason why we spend so much time around an idea,  trying to figure out a solution is because we want answers to those so called problems, we want to explore the meanings of communication, the relation it has with who sees our work.

We first of all are communicators, whether through type, through photography, through illustration, through signage, through basically every media we are desperate to communicate. It’s not just a bizarre will, it’s a necessity. What would be of us today if we didn’t communicate? I can continue by saying that after we understand that our work is to communicate I might add that ok, anyone can do that! but what makes us different? It has to do with the fact that we can choose how to do it, when to do it and with what meaning? WE, as future designers, not just talking about the graphic area but also product and interiors and so on, are responsible for an effective and clean communication. It doesn’t simply sums up to writing a fancy thing, it has to do with the way it might work effectively, and in that sense it will cause impact and actually make a difference. Ok, let’s be rational about this, I am not talking about swear words here, what I am saying is that through a variety of mediums we can create simple, pure, honest communication. We have the power to do that, because we have the meanings to it, we are asked to do it and because of this, WE can make a change by shaping people’s lifes by presenting new solutions.

Our work nowadays has such an ethical and social basis, we are asked to think about economy, environment, sustainability, society, politics (…) I can go on and on but in the end the conclusion is that we must be aware of everything! we must adapt ourselves to every situation, we must know what’s going on, we must be creative and innovative with our projects but in the end, we act as a moral consciousness of the society, we are the mothers that say to the child: do this but don’t do that, we have so much power in our hands and the fastest conclusion I can get now is that WE are the bridge between a declining capitalism and a social danger, we are the biggest medium to an end that there could be and it’s all so subjective, you can have a clear mind of what you’re doing and the solution might come out humble and honest or you can choose to twist that conclusion and give it a whole new different and negative meaning and that’s what scares the most.

Fortunately our society is building up somekind of mental resistance to negativism and that way this negative design that is out there will somehow suffer with it and eventually lose the battle. but we can only hope for the best.

In the end, just to sum up, design role today is of an extreme importance. it’s in every designer hands the hability to change mentality and to open minds. there are so many processes that actually help us do that, we just need a moral conscious and a sense of responsability to make it happen.

truth is, we are few but we are strong, let’s keep it simple, direct, pure and honest and let’s just focus our work to a moral responsability and mind awareness.

and that’s good design!

‘Machine for living’

The “Machine for Living”

1923-1924

«Nothing that, “until now, the positive results of the Bauhaus have been extraordinarily minimal“, Walter Gropius steered the school towards functional creation. He led a reform of the workshops of the masters of form, turning them into real production units that were capable of responding to job orders from exterior sources. So, from 1921, the school was much more open to the influence of the European avant-garde movements. Itten’s primitive-style compositions disappeared from the workshops to be replaced by the geometric style that Theo Van Doesburg (1883-1931) introduced into the Bauhaus. His 1921 to 1923 soujurn in Weimar, on the fringes of the Bauhaus, had a decisive influence on the students. At that time, a group of students formed a movement around constructivist slogans.»

Xavier Girard about Bauhaus, Assouline Editors