visual rhetoric, september 9th, 2013

TODAY

1) Icebreaker (one…more…time!)2) A Re-C.R.A.P.3) The Logo Re-design: some strategies you might

take4) Activity Corner with Max Burnside5) Homework

Icebreaker

Tell us your name and your favorite color (and, briefly, why).

Visual Fun

This doesn’t pulse like the last one, but I wanted to give you another cool visual design trick here today. On the next slide, you’ll see two dots (and a weird image, and a white space). Stare at the dot in the middle of the image for 30 seconds, then shift your gaze to the other dot.

AND A BRIEF RE-C.R.A.P.

Contrast

Basically stated, contrast means that things that are similar look similar but things that are different look clearly different. This keeps your reader from becoming confused and creating relationships that aren’t present.

It comes, of course, from literal contrast, the light-to-dark or black-to-white of an image. In design it often ends up being about color values.

Repetition

Maybe the easiest of these four concepts to define, repetition is, just as you’d guess, repeating something– a color, a logo, a typeface, a type style.

It unifies and organizes.

Alignment

Alignment is about positioning on a page. Nothing should be put on haphazardly. There should be a reason and a measurement that guides where things are placed in relation to each other.

Proximity

Proximity is very similar in theory to alignment, but it’s more about grouping and use of white space.

Basically: similar things are grouped together, different things require space.

And now that logo assignment

As you know, on September 23rd, you will be turning in your first major assignment for class: a new mascot and logo design for the Washington Redskins football team.

I want to give you some time today to think about that assignment, and in a minute Max is going to show you some basics you might use for your reworking. But first… a reminder of what you have to do.

The task

For the final submission, you should send me a completed, colored logo with a written memo of approximately 500 words explaining your choices. You will also submit with this project a shorter, 200 word or less, cover letter to the team “selling” your new logo and mascot.

One element…

…you really want to think about is why the current logo is problematic. So here are a few looks at the main logo, the logo in action, and some of the Redskins secondary logos.

And a reminder…

A consideration…

I am sure some of you might not find the Redskins logo, or the old Miami Redskins logo, all that problematic. What I would urge you to do in this situation is to submerge yourself in the rhetorical nature of the occasion. Some people will not be offended, of course. This is almost universally true of anything you might do; there will be some who don’t think it’s a big deal. But when designing a mascot and logo, it’s important to think about the ENTIRE audience. Why, then, is the Redskin a problem?

A word on methods…

There are a number of ways to make your own logo. Max is going to show you some design work here in a moment. But another thing you might do is collect elements from elsewhere and sort of “kitbash” them, in the DIY sense, or “Voltron” it, so to speak.

And then…

Max

Now Max is going to show you some less-tongue-in-cheek design stuff.

I’ll yield the floor to him until the end of class, wherein I will remind you of your homework.

On Wednesday

In class we will work within In-Design on a flier. I will bring you the source material to class, and we’ll have roughly an hour to work (after some quick discussion).

It’ll be your last chance, so…..

And…

Work on the

In-Design tutorial!

Homework

Read for class on Wednesday: Kimball & Hawkins Chapter 2, Golombisky & Hagen Chapters 1-3, and Missy is Missing

Come ready to In-Design it up. Really, I’m so not kidding. BE PREPARED!