Breaking the Grid

Coca Cola Advertisement






Today when we look at the world Coca Cola is the one beverage that has the hisghest consumption. From all different varieties of wealt and status Coke is consumpted everywhere. In 1886, Coca Cola was founded by John Pemberton but it was lack of has and kind of a wine. It was excepted as medicine for many years in the claim of healing headache etc.In 1890 and on Coca Cola started to form its today shape and ingredients and advertising became very popular.

In 1890s advertising poster showing a woman in fancy clothes (partially vaguely influenced by 16th- and 17th-century styles) drinking Coke. On the right; 1905 black and white ad of Coke.

As we can see there’s a huge difference between todays and early years advertisement in Coke. The American culture was very affected by the advertising of the Coca Cola since its the most consumped place in the world. The company used many elements to get into the people of America; they used Santa Claus, they used stereotyped woman figures, they used very common faces that attracts both men and women etc. They came up with the new versions like ‘diet’, ‘zero’ to attract more and more people.

Breaking the Grid

Instant Cameras





Photography is about capturing a moment unlike paintings or other works of art. In photography the image is more real and sincere. Since I’m interested in photography I wanted to make a research about a specific kind of photography which I don’t know a lot. When I was a small kid I had Polaroid, know I see in many blog and photography sites people are using polaroids.Actually when I was doing this research I learned that “Polaroid” is a type of instant cameras and its a corporation. This is a common mistake everyone does including myself.

The invention of modern instant cameras is generally credited to American scientist Edwin Land, who unveiled the first commercial instant camera, the Land Camera, in 1947, 10 years after founding Polaroid Corporation. The earliest instant camera, which consisted of a camera and portable darkroom in a single compartment, was invented in 1923 by Samuel Shlafrock.

MODERNISTS

SAUL BASS

 

SAUL BASS (1920-1996) was not only one of the great graphic designers of the mid-20th century but the undisputed master of film title design thanks to his collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock, Otto Preminger and Martin Scorsese.

When the reels of film for Otto Preminger’s controversial new drugs movie, The Man with the Golden Arm, arrived at US movie theatres in 1955, a note was stuck on the cans – “Projectionists – pull curtain before titles”.

Until then, the lists of cast and crew members which passed for movie titles were so dull that projectionists only pulled back the curtains to reveal the screen once they’d finished. But Preminger wanted his audience to see The Man with the Golden Arm’s titles as an integral part of the film.

 

 The movie’s theme was the struggle of its hero – a jazz musician played by Frank Sinatra – to overcome his heroin addiction. Designed by the graphic designer Saul Bass the titles featured an animated black paper-cut-out of a heroin addict’s arm. Knowing that the arm was a powerful image of addiction, Bass had chosen it – rather than Frank Sinatra’s famous face – as the symbol of both the movie’s titles and its promotional poster.

That cut-out arm caused a sensation and Saul Bass reinvented the movie title as an art form. By the end of his life, he had created over 50 title sequences for Preminger, Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, John Frankenheimer and Martin Scorsese. Although he later claimed that he found the Man with the Golden Arm sequence “a little disappointing now, because it was so imitated”.

MODERNISTS

ALEXES Brodowich



“If you know yourself, you are doomed.”
- Alexey Brodovitch

 Alexes Brodovitch is known foremost for his work on the american fashion-magazine Harper’s bazaar.

Born in Ogolitchi, Russia in 1898 in an aristocratic and wealthy family, Brodovitch’s youth was marked by the bolshevik revolution. Being a loyal supporter of the tsar, he became first lieutenant in the czar’s White Army.
In 1920 he fled to Paris as an exile from the October Revolution. Like many other emigrés whom had gained wealth in Russia, he ended up being both poor and workless. For the first time in his life he had to work to gain money. Living in Montparnasse, he found himself in a community of russian artists, which lead to his wish to become a painter.

In 1949, Brodovitch collaborated in the production of the revolutionary publication Portfolio. It has been widely acknowledged as perhaps the definitive graphic design magazine of the twentieth century. The idea for the publication came from art director Frank Zachary. He wanted to put out a magazine that focused solely on art and design, but was at the same time an outstanding example of design itself. Brodovitch was intrigued by the concept. Although he enjoyed his work at Harper’s Bazaar, the limitations of space and subject matter often cramped his creative style.

Today Brodovitch’s legacy is remarkably rich. His layouts remain models of graphic intelligence and inspiration, even if seldom imitated, and the artists, photographers and designers whose careers he influenced continue to shape graphic design in the image of his uncompromising ideals.

AVANTGARDE

Cubism

Cubism was a 20th century avantgarde, pioneered by Picasso and Braque that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music and literature.

In cubist artworks, objects are broken up, analyzed, and re-assembled in an abstracted form—instead of depicting objects from one viewpoint, the artist depicts the subject from a multitude of viewpoints to represent the subject in a greater context. Often the surfaces intersect at seemingly random angles, removing a coherent sense of depth. The background and object planes interpenetrate one another to create the shallow ambiguous space, one of cubism’s distinct characteristics.

The masters of type

 Georges Eugene Haussmann

The reneissance brought a new wave to the world and changed a lot mainly in the way of thinking. This renovation reminded me of Eugene Haussmann which I heard a lot since I go to Paris frequently. There are lots of places, streets in the name of this man. I wanted to know more about him and his renovation of Paris which made it one of the most, for my opinion the most, beautiful city in the world.

 The famous Haussmaan was hired by the Napoleon the 3rd on 22 June 1825 for modernizing Paris. He, Napoleon, wanted the city far more friendlier, sanitary and beautiful esthetically.

Haussmann started working by putting the city in to a geometric grid. The new streets were dividing the old Paris in to new sections. The plan and therefore the new city was very symmetrical reverse to the old complex planning. Every inch of the city was touched by Haussmann.

The new streets were very wider; you can see if you go to Paris there’s a relaxation in the streets no crowd. The traffic problem and the public health was a reason of making the streets that much wide. The new city plan was perfect solution of the problems they had including the increase in the population. The uniformity of the buildings are unavoidable; it’s written that to achieve that for example just one treet cost 9 million francs and the buildings on its side cost 50 million. Thats a huge amount of money when we think of the hole city.

There are huge differences between the old and new Paris. The renovation would have happen eventually but not that systematic and esthetically thoughtful. Even people refused his ideas and make him go to prison for stealing money; the beauty he created should be noticed.

the printing press: football press

Football is the most played and the most popular sport in the world. It is also very important in Turkey. Newspapers have special pages for football yet there are private newspapers for just football. So printing press plays a very important part in football which I’ll try to tell by giving examples since I’m a big fan of Besiktas and follow their every news.

Besiktas transfered Quaresma, the previous Chelsea, Barcelona and Inter winger last year. Before the signing, Arda Turan used to be every football fan’s interest in Turkey and everyday you could read news about him and his private life in newspapers but after Quaresma arrived to Istanbul, Arda popped like a baloon and it became usual to see Q7 news on printing press . The reason behind this is Q7′s popularism across the world. People want to see him on the pages and they want to know what he does in Istanbul.


Printing press gives people what they want, not what they need to know. Popularism has taken charges from the beginning of printing press. When Quaresma got injured for a month, he went back to Portugal to get treatment and suddenly nobody cared about him for the whole month. People were now talking about basketball and Allen Iverson’s transfer to besiktas.

the printing press

Albrecht Durer

As I understood Albrecht Durer is a must know person for people studying visual communication design. He is an extremely talented painter, printmaker, graphic designer. He lived between1471 – 1528 yet he still remains one of the important person in a range of areas. He started becoming populer in his twenties and remained still.

Durer is mostly known for his revolution of printing: he made it an independent art form. Another revolutionarydesign is the flying machine of him which is the first in the world. The watercolors make him the first European landscape artists. As we can see he was a typical hence very tallented Reneisssance man.

The Praying Hands (1508), is very famous and important painting of Durer’s. As a viewer the details are seen instantly and the working of hands anatomy is recognized. The first sketch was made in 1508 actually and Durer work on the final version of the painting for 13 motnhs. He wanted to make it so “that it will remain bright and fresh for five hundred years.” ; he succeded it I think.

The art of the books

THE BOOK OF HOURS

The book was very popular in Medieval Ages because of its content. It is illuminated manuscript. Especially in the Gothic period people needed easier books and they came up with Book of Hours which were far less complex than the breviarys they used. The common charasteristic of the Book of Hours is that they start with a calender which marks thespecial days of christianity. Then cames the part that is taken from the four gospels and continues with specific parts endind with various prayers. As it can seen from the name ‘hours’ it is based on a system and it is for people to understand clearly and systematicly.

It is said that majority of the books were made for woman and usually given to them as a wedding gift from the husband. It definitely becomes the family property and it goes through out the years. The illumination amount in the book decided its price. At the time it was not easy to have a book of hours; you had to be very very rich or it had to be given from your family.Hence it was impossible to have any book since 15th century when book became more affordable but the book of hours were very precious. Today its kept in a place dark so that light won’t get to the papers and it’s almost impossible to see them.

As we can see the drawings and the format of the pages are extremely complex and very new. We must look at them reminding us that they are hand made and each of the pages looks like a painting by itself. It is too much for a book of religion and visually very attractive. As the time goes the page structure evaluates but these book are very important step in the evaluation process for my sake.

References:

http://www.bookofhours.org/

http://justonemore.info/2009/11/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_hours

http://www.medievalist.net/hourstxt/hrsintro.htm

Alphabet..

Chinese Alphabet


Since I live in Turkey we use Latin alphabet which is very common through out the world. The chinese alphabet is very different for me. There are shapes and it’s a form of art from my opinion. I wanted to know more about this alphabet since Latin is used worldwide and easier, why do they still use their alphabet?

Chinese alphabet is the longest used alphabet in the world and it has 47,035 characters in it. According to other common alphabets its a lot more characters used. In order to be literate you have to learn three thousand to four thousand characters from those fifty thousand characters; which is still unbelievably many to learn. For just reading the newspapers you need to know at least 3000 characters. Chinese ‘letters’ are representing an idea, a concept or an object where in other alphabets letters by themselves do not mean anything; you have to put together to form a word that means something. Here’s just the very simplified characters of the alphabet;

Actually the earliest know chinese script is the Oracle Bone Scrip and when people started researching it they assumed that every letter symbolized a pictogram. These were found in 1899. Yet theres no clue of how or who have founded this alphabet. There are some theories and myths about the origin but the actual truth is not know.

Also in Chinese alphabet there’s no such things as capital letters. It’s just one size of writing. As I understand from their alphabet they don’t need the increasation of letters to emphasize a word or let the people understand a new sentence is starting; they have so many characters that represent many things and maybe thats why they don’t need capitals.


 There are enormous amount of characters as I said, that made me curious about the computers they use. Actually most of the Western people using Chinese, Korean and Japnese alphabet prefer writing in tablets or pads since it’s easier to write. Other than that they commonly use a specific type of keyboard among many options to choose;

Zen Garden Japan kyoto

I saw a lot of things in these slides about Japan and Chinese culture however the Zen Gardens take my attention very much because they are really interesting and beautiful.

Zen gardens are Japanese rocky gardens. It includes sand ,gravel  ,rock and sometimes grass. According to a common belief it used by Japanese Zen priests to make meditation.

Some examples of Zen Gardens in Japan...

ikebana

 

Flowers are cut not to death...


In western cultures to cut flower means to grow them in a pot. However in Japan cultures it is much more different. Ikebana means to make the flower live. There are lots of schools to live the flowers named ikebana, Sogetsu and Ohara

In 1930's the interest to Ikebana increased a lot and it become very common.

Ideograms

                                                     Some of them are a little bit complex...

some of them are more familier...

                                         

Some become part of our lifes...

some is the fountain of our lives...

Ideogram is a concept which is understood in every language. It is usually mixed with pictogram, however pictogram is used to express concrete things. Ideogram is used to express abstract things. Forexample =) I hope you can smile when you see that sign=) Because smiling is more important than ideograms and pictograms =)

Rocks and caves

People think that the students learn visual communication in the class to learn the art. Actually visual communication is a necessity not the result. Visual communication has begun like 40 000 years ago. Before people learn how to read and write and maybe before people started to talk the same language they started to draw something in the caves and the rocks. The first tool of the communication is the visual communication. And that style of communication never changed and always understood by the people in the earth because it is an universal language and going to last forever. Because there was no paper in the earth the people who lived 40 000 years ago, were drawing in the caves and in the rocks.

This is one of the most amazing example of rock art. This is made in ice age and it has protected itself until now. Rock art seems in the Sahara and in South Africa, Australia, and the America. It is one of the most beautiful thing in the human history, it shows human feelings very well.

This is another example of the rock art. The painting on this is made because of the religious reasons. The paintings on it are totally abstract. However this painting is made less then 1000 years ago so this painting is newer than the upper one.

This is an example of budhist rock art. However as we understand from the colors of this rock painting this is much more newer than the upper paintings and the colors are more alive