Kristin Becker's DTC Classes at WSU

Globe Logo for At&t in 1983

AT&T Logo

The alternative self portrait that I chose was the Globe Logo for AT&T in 1983 by Saul Bass. The reason why I chose this as his alternative portrait and not one of his many film covers was because I feel like this logo in articular is one of his more iconic ones and that embodies who he was as a designer. Saul Bass worked as a film director for about 40 years but he also made some of the more iconic logos for big corporations including AT&T as well as Untied Airlines. I also liked this logo as an alternative self portrait because it is simple in composition and design and that’s what I was trying to accomplish with my alternative design at first. He uses only two colors and he uses the idea of a globe, something that he then reuses when designing the logo for United Airline. I think that as a designer it says that he likes working with shapes instead of interact fancy detail. Looking at some of his work on the opening and closing credits of Catch Me if You Can, we can also see how he utilizes shapes and primary colors for the most part.

Banky. He is well known throughout England and many other parts of the world. Banky can be considered a street performer/artist. In this artwork that I have chosen we can see a city worker cleaning off an art work off the wall. This relates to Banky a lot due to the fact that a lot of his art is destroyed the exact same way. We can see that the art that the man is cleaning off is of an old cave painting. This should bring an emotional response due to the fact that we as humans preserve old wall painting from the past. Its a key part to history that shows a glimpse into humankind. The people of our past would paint on the walls what they saw in there life. Banky does the same thing, yet his art is not taken as seriously. I feel that this painting shows just how he feels. He is expressing him self as he sees fit, yet its just going to get washed off and cease to exist. How Banky paints his art on the wall is with stencils. He has many layers for different colors, and many times he tries to get a small amount of color into his work. In this case he his whole painting is in color. The balance of the painting where the water is cleaning off the wall is well executed. The negative space truly shows the effect of the presser washer and how fast it can erase history. By having the man off to the side it has a sense of balance. As well we can see the whole picture that he is cleaning. Over all I feel that this is a wonderful representation of an alternate self portrait.

 This piece has a bit of a darker side to it and works very well-fitting the alternate self-portrait subject. Although I have never heard of this artist before I belive he or she has done a phenomenal job. Before reading the typography in the portrait we see a shy (eyes closed) human. The facial expressions and outline of the face suggest that he or she is curled up or wrapped up in this sad typography  “blanket”. The artist has done a great job using typography texture to insinuate a blanket or fog. After further investigation into the portrait we start to read more and more self-conscious phrases such as “I don’t know if I want to die” or  “only then does she fear me”. Further insinuating a struggle to break through this “fog” and a “want” to be seen by the world or even noticed by this “she” the artist talks about. Finally I am unsure if the artist meant for this to happen or not but between the two eyes of the human and almost directly in the middle of the portrait it says “Here I am”, a direct representation of this portrait.  Saying to the consumer  “I don’t usually open up like this, I was once hidden in the darkness of this blanket but now here I am for everybody to see”! This portrait tells a really interesting story of somebody who wants to be free from the blanket or fog holding them back.

This poster was made by designer Michael Bierut and team/Pentagram. It was created between 2003 and 2006 through the Yale school of Architecture posters. It was created to apply diverse typographic treatments and hierarchies. The image was pulled out of a website called thinkingwithtype. URL: http://www.thinkingwithtype.com/contents/text/

This poster shows point through the center because it is bolded. This emphasis makes my eyes read the poster from top to bottom. This creates a Vertical scale with the poster’s words as a whole. However, individually with each word there is two (horizontal and vertical) scales. One can tell because some words are thicker or wider and others are just longer than the rest. Even though there is a great amount of text around that bolded section; the bolded words draw my attention from that. There is also a great deal of negative space (white) around the center. Even though the center isn’t proportioned all the way down the page it still creates symmetry down the middle. This arrangement of words flowing down the page is a prime example of line. This also allows three patterns to form throughout the poster. One being words, then negative space, followed by words then negative space and so on. The next pattern that can be seen is through the text because the text as a whole changes scale from normal to bold. This creates a pattern from left to right that goes normal text, bold text, normal text. The last pattern shown is through the text running down the middle. Although, the text in the middle is all bolded the degree of how dark the words are changes through depending on where the artist placed the words. This pattern consists (from top to bottom) two bolded words then two even more bolded words. Followed by two less bolded words then the pattern starts all over again. These patterns create a rhythm through the poster.

Designed by David Drummond, this is the cover for the book Capture The Flag by Arnaldo Testi. http://bookcoverarchive.com/book/capture_the_flag

My eye is immediately drawn to the word “THE”, as it is in the top-left corner of the book cover, and is the largest word/object of the entire image.  The word is first and foremost a point.  It is a single location that the eye is drawn to.  It may be large, and has both plane and line-like qualities, but those are not what is immediately registered.

After noticing the word “THE” however, I see “THE FLAG” and it becomes a plane.  No matter what I look at, after this realization, I assume that more than anything else, the text is about a flag;  the words “THE FLAG” strike out at me due to their sheer scale and color contrast to the rest of the image.  Because those two words share the same color, I look up to the word “CAPTURE” and notice the flag pole almost at the same time.  At this point, you can’t avoid noticing that the words form a US flag, even if you tried.

Finally, the eye must notice the rest of the image.  It is after looking at the red text that all of the words appear to form horizontal lines across the top of the book cover.  Not even the author’s name breaks the aesthetic. There isn’t symmetry in this image, as there isn’t symmetry in the US flag.  The shape of the flag is dynamic, as the blue text looks heavier.  Part of the reason for this is due to the reduced size of the red text.  The red is thinner, and makes the end of the flag shape have a jagged look; it’s as if the flag is ripped.

I would say that visual balance is achieved, because the background forms a plane, that has a smaller plane (the red text) inside it, which has an even smaller plane within that (the blue text).  It looks like the cover is focusing in on the point that is the word “THE” and when you look outward, you see progressively larger planes that have progressively less color.