Helvetica Project Reflective Report
Strategy
My strategy for this project is based on formalism, minimalism,
and play between negative and positive space.
"In art theory, formalism is the concept that a work's artistic value is entirely determined by its form--the way it is made, its purely visual aspects, and its medium. Formalism emphasizes compositional elements such as color, line, shape and texture rather than realism, context, and content. In visual art, formalism is the concept that everything necessary in a work of art is contained within it. The context for the work, including the reason for its creation, the historical background, and the life of the artist, is considered to be of secondary importance. Formalism dominated modern art from the late 1800s throughthe 1960s."1
Concept
The aim of the "Helvetica" is a new design was to create a neutral typeface that had greaclarity, had no intrinsic meaning in its form. I will explore the form to try to bring some sortof emotion from it, by exploring color, contast, and texture.
In this project i will explore the qualities of the helvetica font to make the viewer becomeone one with the font. For the poster, I will concentrate on color, line, shape and texture rather than realism, context, and content.However for the part regarding the A5 pamphlet will stick to context and content so that a person is not distracted by the somewhat vagueness of the work. And so that a person from
a non-art background can relate to the work also.
"Plato argued that eidos included elements of representation and imitation, since the thing itself could not be replicated. Subsequently, Plato believed that eidos inherently was deceptive."
1. Formalism (art). (2008, October 19). http://en.wikipedia.org/w/
index.php?title=Formalism_(art)&oldid=246209365
I tried using the Van de Graaf canon popularized by Jan Tschicold used to divide the
pamphlet into pleasing proportions. But i personally found it a little bit to wierd and waste of space. So didnt'nt use it really. Wierdly the designer himself gave up on it later in his career, which i didnt find surprising, it was too orderly and static.
Execution
I started with sketching out some rough layouts of the poster which i eventually threw away by mistake.Then i made numerous revisions for the work what was most startling was that the type looked very different printed out than it looked on screen. Specially for the handout, i discovered that type 12 was too big and 10 looked way better. Next thing which was important was the kind of paper, i choose a matter paper and inkjet printer, which was giving better contrast then the laser printer.
