Kristin Becker's DTC Classes at WSU

According to Graphic Design: The New Basics, a frame creates the conditions to allow the audience to understand the image. Framing changes a picture and focuses an audience’s attention to the work. When framing

Pg. 55 The Near-Sighted Monkey Book Picture This By Lynda Barry

an image you can add so much to the image that enhances and builds more meaning.

In this example from Lynda Barry’s graphic novel, The Near-Sighted Monkey Book Picture This, she is using the outline of an animal which is upside down to frame the head of the dog and different types of bones for a dog. Her margins for the image is the outline of the animal and the images inside bleed out of the outline in order to change the way we see the images inside.

Also on page 55, the images surrounding the outline could be seen as an implied frames because they are separate thoughts and images that connect with the images meaning of learning how to draw and sketch which is what the overall graphic novel is trying to teach you.

Not only that but the whole page presents framing with the outside margins scaling the combined images to be one and using the purple background to focus your attention on the content of the page.  Lynda Barry uses framing in multiple ways throughout her novel, the scaling of her images are defined by the lines that encompass each of the different pieces on the page. The size and the shape of each of the frames are different but not drastically, only enough to keep the page pleasing to the reader.

Using all of the different aspects of framing, the page brings out more details that would not be seen or understood otherwise. The lines and the details that centralize your attention to a certain area enhance the overall layout.  

Page 74 of Tove Jansson’s graphic novel Moomin

For this blog post I decided to use a page from the graphic novel, “Moomin” by Tove Jansson, in order to  analyse various uses of the framing technique. Although there are many types of framing techniques not used in this particular spread, what I liked and wanted to focus on was the idea of framing within a frame. Frames are described as having the ability to effect how we perceive information and creating the conditions for our understanding of a subject. If we take a look at this page you can see that each frame is side by side, creating a very clean, linear flow to the comic. Each frame has a thin black border, defining exactly where each set stops and ends. I think this really helps keep the reader’s eye focused on the comic itself and follow the path of the story. Along with this, there are slightly wider margins between each of the four strips. I think this not only helps with the clean look of the comic but also puts an emphasis on where the eye should be drawn. It makes each of the strips almost pop off the page and away from the white space. If you take a closer look at the images themselves within the main frame you can also seem to notice more framing within the comic itself. For example, in the second strip, the second and third frames seem to have inner framing as well. The arch of the building frames in the characters and allows the reader to understand that they are in a building of some sorts. The next frame over then includes a door, which frames the space as being a room of sorts within the building they entered. This idea of creating frames withing the frames is what allows the reader to understand the context of where the characters are in the story and what they are doing.The idea that framing greatly influences the readers perception of a story and how they might read it is very true, and can be seen here in this comic by Tove Jansson.

Artist | Chris Ware

While reading the new chapter Framing, I realized that a frame is both limiting and limitless. From the collection of graphic novels, I chose to write about Chris Ware’s work. In this particular layout he chose to work with implied frames for the images and for most of the typography he chose to create a border. The page where the content sits serves as the main frame that limits the space. Although the space is limited, by using the concept of frames within frames, we have an abundant amount of choices to create the most aesthetically pleasing and effective layout to display the content. If we were to get into more detail, we could also talk about the many other frames that are being created in the actual illustrations. For instance, the borders around the window create a frame for the glass and the list goes on. Something I noticed and found interesting in this particular image, was that the artist at times uses the alignment of the text to create an implied frame.­ Lastly, I also noticed that with the word “but” the scale changes which helps create the implied frame on that individual piece. Like I mentioned, frames can be limitless and playing around with the scale, position or type of frame can contribute to the overall effectives of the design.

Page from 
Richard McGuire’s graphic novel, Here (Pantheon Books, 2014).

Ellen Lupton and Jennifer Cole Phillips explore the idea of framing in their book, Graphic Design: The New Basics. Generally, frames are often meant to bring special attention to a piece by lifting and separating it from its surroundings. Additionally, frames can also help us better understand an art piece or object.

Frames may fulfill their purpose in many different ways in many different contexts. For example, in comic books, often times frames are created using borders around each piece of the story. This can help readers understand the sequence of the events in the story being told, as well as what should be noticed in each frame.

Richard McGuire’s uses borders like this in his graphic novel, Here. Boxes of the same size are created using thin black borders, in which images that tell the story are drawn.

In addition to more obvious frames, like borders, frames may also be implied. These kinds of frames may be created through a camera lens, margins, or the page size of a book. In Here, McGuire uniquely places frames within frames and uses shifts in scale of the frames to tell multiple stories at once. He simultaneously tells of one story in 1922 using one frame, and tells a story in 1957 using a smaller frame within it, scaling it to look like the woman is sitting on a similar couch. This creates a more dynamic story for readers, and we are able to grasp it thanks to the framing McGuire uses.

The comic Butt To The Future by Taylor Dew is an unique and adventurous fats paced comic about a young women, Mary, who leaves to the bathroom to take a “poop” and ends up flushing into the toilet. She then flushes out into a new bathroom which leads to a new dimension known as the FUTURE!

In this scene, Mary is shown being spouted out by the toilet. There are various sized panels which helps state how significant each panel plays to the point of the scene. Mary is the focal point of the page which is why Mary is visible in every panel expect for the 1st one. Even when Taylor emphasizes Mary’s glasses, she draws out Mary’s hand but with rigged-edges to show the reader how hard it is for Mary to see without her glasses. Taylor Dew uses an assortment of lines and dots to control the space in and out of the planes within the panels. In the center panel, Taylor focuses on Mary’s recovery from the fall by shading in all of the background space that surrounds Mary. Taylor also used many small dots to help express the distraught that Mary was experiencing.

Page 3 of Taylor Dew’s Butt To the Future. Image from Taylor Dew. Tumblr. 2013

Last, Taylor uses a consistent amount of contrast between black and white to express specific details and addresses a sense of reality that may not be common in most comics. A good example of negative spaces relating is in the 5th panel where Mary’s glasses are by the puddle of toilet water drenching from her. The puddle of water and to the glasses look different whether its under the white or black tiles. When the water and glasses lens is on black tiles, the inside of the objects are shaded or drawn in. And when the water is on the white tiles it lacks inner details expect for the single water drops.