Reduction Printmaking: Here comes the sun

                  Describe which print you were most satisfied with?

I was most satisfied with print 7/9 because the colors printed well on top of each other and except for a few spots where the colors overlapped where they are not supposed too, the print still looks clean and finished. I wanted to use bright colors to make the bird contrast with the background and I think the colors came out very well. One thing I am very happy about is the clean sharp shapes that I was able to create, I knew to make it easier on myself I should use sharp lines and shapes. Lastly this print is very eye catching in the sharp lines and shapes, the contrasting colors and it's simplicity.

What was the most difficult part of this assignment?

The two big challenges I faced with this assignment was the variety of colors I used and all the negative space. The subject I chose;the toucan, is a very tropical and colorful bird and I even took out colors to make mine simpler but I still think I had too many colors. I had five colors which made the process long. I also found becuase my print was simply I had a alot of black space with no detail and when it came to carving out the colors more specifically the green it was very time consuming although I will be honest I cheated a bit. Although I faced these challenges with my prints I still think they came out well.

Describe what is strong about your design. Why is it a good design?

My design is very simple and I think that is why it is strong and effective. The shapes, colors and placement create a clear image of the bird. The shapes and colors  make the subject eye catching and yet simple. Also the placement of the bird to the bottom left corner makes the print more intersting than if it was smack dab in the middle. Lastly, although I don't have alot of detail in the background I think it puts more focus on the bird.

Describe how you used the elements and principles of design in your prints?

I used many principles  such as shape, color, design, placement, contrast, balance and unity. The shapes created the clear image of the bird and the bright colors contrasted with eachother. I placed the bird to the bottom left cornor to make the entire print more pleasing. I balanced the colors in the bird to make it look realistic. The colors created unity in the whole design and made it more eye catching because if the print was in one color it wouldn't be very eye catching.

If you could change one thing about your artwork, what would it be and why?

If I could change one thing it would be to have used less colors. I am happy with how the print came out and all the colors work well but having the multiply colors made it very time consumning with printing and carving. If I could also change one other thing it would be to have a design in the background becuase I had a lot of carving to do and although I did cheat a bit and cut out the background it still  made the entire process very time consuming.

Helvetica Movie quotations

"Typeface is your main weapon in modern communication" Neville Brody

    We see typeface everywhere on walls, cars, buildings, in the sky and we don't even realize it and if you started looking around at the different typefaces you will notice that you will constantly see Helvetica. Even now you are reading this blog post in helvetica. In all of our advertising designers are faced with a big choice of what typeface they should use to express the message or feelings of the advertising, company or campaign, etc. Typeface is our main weapon in modern society today. Neville used this example to describe his reasoning, If you had a jeans sale and one advertisement used ragged and rough typeface, and the other used clean and sharp typeface they would both display different messages. The rough and ragged typeface would stand out and advertise that the jeans on sale will make you stand out. The sharp and clean typeface will show that the jeans are nothing  but normal and they are just regular jeans. 

   I agree with Neville because you could use any font to advertise or express something , you just have to choose the right one and sometimes it can be difficult because you don't know what would be the best. In the film many designers agree that you can use helvetica for most things. You can make it bold or give it italics to express the specific feelings.But some designers disagree and some are in the middle.

"It's air, you know. It's just there. There's no choice. You have to breathe, so you have to use Helvetica" Erik Spiekermann

Speikermann is on the opposite side as Neville and believes helvetica is too over used. He compares Helvetica to air and mentions that like air Helvetica is just there and it is now in our world just like we need air to live. It's everywhere and now we can't take it away. Spiekermann uses the example of a person heavy in the middle walking around in a tight shirt, it would look weird. Helvetica is like that in the sense meaning it won't always work for everything but most people just go to helvetica because it's there.For me specifically I need to choose what typeface represents my work that I am creating and make sure I am conveying the message I should be conveying. Spiekermann just wants something different. I don't agree with Spiekermann but I am also not a typography designer and haven't been creating different typefaces for years.Until watching this video I really didn't see that most print I read or saw was in Helvetica but now that I have recognized it everywhere I have noticed that even though most brands and company's use it, they add something or do something to it to show it represents there brand or company. For example American Apparel and American airlines both use helvetica but they both give off different expressions. American Apparel expresses fun and creativity and American airlines expresses professional and reliable.


Typography is everywhere and after reading this blog you will identify helvetica whereever you go.

Personal Inspiration: Friday, February 10. 2012

Here is a another video of the animator vs. animation and this video inspired me to write a blog post about it because it stood out and it is enjoyable to watch over and over. What made the animation stick out to me was how the animator took the animation to different windows of the computer, he didn't stay in the one window as in the previous video I posted. The animations movements and actions were realistic and made sense. For example near the beginning the  links on the internet read "seeking freedom", "slavery exists" and my favorite "stick figure rights" and it shows the stick figure chained to the ball and chain trying to click on the different pages. This video was made by Alan Becker.

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Funny video

 I found this funny video. Many of you may have seen it already but if you have not take a look and enjoy. This animation is showing the animation fighting against the animator.The program is Flash.