50 Years of Helvetica

2007 marks the fiftieth anniversary of Max Miedinger and Edouard Hoffmann's design Helvetica, the most ubiquitous of all typefaces.Widely considered the official typeface of the twentieth century, Helvetica communicates with simple, well-proportioned letterforms that convey an aesthetic clarity that is at once universal, neutral, and undeniably modern.

In honor of the first typeface acquired for MoMA's collection, the installation presents posters, signage, and other graphic material demonstrating the variety of uses and enduring beauty of this design classic.As a special feature in the exhibition, an excerpt of Gary Hustwit's documentary Helvetica reveals the typeface as we experience it in an everyday context.

American Indian art

The world of contemporary American Indian art is vibrant, lively, and ever-changing.Hundreds of artists from diverse communities and educational experiences work in a variety of media, from ceramics to painting.

Breaking the Mold celebrates the extraordinary passion and collecting eye of Virginia Vogel Mattern, who began collecting Pueblo pottery in 1988 while visiting Santa Fe, New Mexico.After that first purchase-a miniature pot by Dolores Curran-Mattern was hooked.A self-described "pot head," she spent the next several years acquiring more than 300 works by some of the best Native American artists in the Southwest.

Mattern's collection, on view in the J. Landis and Sharon Martin and Richard and Mary Pat McCormick Gallery, highlights the vibrance and dynamism of the contemporary American Indian art world.It includes pots, paintings, and textiles by artists from diverse backgrounds.

Helvetica : an Independent Film About Typography

Helvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture.
It looks at the proliferation of one typeface (which will celebrate its 50th birthday in 2007) as part of a larger conversation about the way type affects our lives.The film is an exploration of urban spaces in major cities and the type that inhabits them, and a fluid discussion with renowned designers about their work, the creative process, and the choices and aesthetics behind their use of type.
Helvetica encompasses the worlds of design, advertising, psychology, and communication, and invites us to take a second look at the thousands of words we see every day.The film was shot in high-definition on location in the United States, England, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, France and Belgium.It is currently screening at film festivals and special events worldwide.

FL studio

This is another software that similar to Garage Band. You can play with it to make your own music. Moreover, the advantages of this software is you can export the song that you create in mp3 file or in wav file. These format can easily import into your flash file or in your movie.
You can download the demo :
Download demo

Here are some tutorial step by step about how to use FL studio software with pictures to illustrate:

Basic Tutorial
Tutorial part 2
Tutorial part 3

How to make a tilte sequence

Creating a Title Sequence: A Tutorial in AfterEffects
The link

Kyle Cooper
Movie title-sequence designer
The link


Grand Prix - Title Sequence by Saul Bass

Behind the scence

This clip is interesting things about "300" movie. You can see how they make a movie with a green background. With computer software, they can play with what you gona see on the screen

Some Movie's Intro

These are some movie's intro with different styles such as comedy, action or horror movie. This will give you guy some ideas for the final project.

As you see, introduction of a movie can be present in many ways from simple to complex. Like in the intro of "Gone in 60 seconds", the intro is complex with many details. However, the intro for "The Hounted Theater" is very simple. It just a black back ground with text. The only thing interesting is the color and the font used for the intro.

These are some styles that you can take a look and find out a best way to make your own intro for the final project.

MIKE LEIGH & The strange movie making process

As we studied about movie, I would like to introduce with you guy one of my favorites director: MIKE LEIGH.
He is famous not only because of his movies but also because of the strange process in making movie. As you know, before starting a movie, you must have a scenario or a story board about what will be happen in the movie and the characteristic of each role. However, Mike Leigh does NOT go through that usual process. He started the movie with some sketch ideas of how he thinks things might develop. Even the actors also do not know about the ending of the movie or what will be happen next. The actors discover their fate and act out their responses as their destinies are gradually revealed. Mike Leigh will developed improvisatory his storylines during the filming.

That is so strange. I wonder how he can give the ending for the movie. Anyway, you should take a look at some of his work like: Secret and Lies, All or Nothing ...

Typography in motion

This is a very nice job about typography. The black and white are used as the two main colors in this clip. The white letter is floating and floating in the black background is smooth and it is like the star on the sky. As the clip used the effect zoom in and out letters, that is so great.
The second part of the clip you can see some other color such as blue, yellow, red and pink. This part also has the present of human. It looks like she walks in the wood of letter. She is not clear and some how blur.
This is really a good clip. I wonder that what software they used to make this clip. At first, I think it might make by flash but after that I changed my mind. It may be made by Adobe After Effect.

Gone in 60 seconds

The scene that swaps my heart is the scene in "Gone in 60 seconds”. When the main character was chased after by police. He's really a good driver. He left them behind and then he stuck in the rush hours with many cars. There is no way to get out of that. Therefore, he choose to run fast and jump over to find the way to escape. That is the scene that impresses me. When his car is flying on the sky, it feel like it's me that on the car. It gave me the feeling like I am flying. My heart stops beating at this time. The angle of the camera is very smart. It changes between the under view and the higher view. It makes the audience both get the feeling like wow! look at it as they are standing right there and look up on the car. Besides, the higher view, like the view of the main character on the car give the feeling like they actually drive that car. The angle that shows the behind of the car like the eyes is following the flying car. The scene that swaps my heart is the scene in "Gone in 60 seconds”. When the main character was chased after by police. He's really a good driver. He left them behind and then he stuck in the rush hours with many cars. There is no way to get out of that. Therefore, he choose to run fast and jump over to find the way to escape. That is the scene that impresses me. When his car is flying on the sky, it feel like it's me that on the car. It gave me the feeling like I am flying. My heart stops beating at this time. The angle of the camera is very smart. It changes between the under view and the higher view. It makes the audience both get the feeling like wow! look at it as they are standing right there and look up on the car. Besides, the higher view, like the view of the main character on the car give the feeling like they actually drive that car. The angle that show the behind of the car like the eyes is following the flying car

Palatino Linotype

The digital type foundries Linotype and Adobe Systems sell authentic versions of Palatino; Palatino Linotype is authorized by Zapf as the definitive Palatino

Palatino is an old style serif typeface designed by Hermann Zapf, and released in 1948 by the Linotype foundry. It remains one of the most widely used, and copied, text typefaces. It is one of the ten most used serif typefaces. Palatino is one of several related typefaces by Hermann Zapf, each showing influence of the Italian Renaissance letter forms

Named after 16 th century Italian master of calligraphy Giambattista Palatino, Palatino is based on the humanist fonts of the Italian Renaissance, which mirror the letters formed by a broad nib pen; this gives a calligraphy grace

Bickham Script Pro

It released in 1997, Bickham Script has become a fixture in mainstream typography.In Bickham Script Pro, type designer and calligrapher Richard Lipton has further explored the design possibilities of this 18th century .He based on the 18th centuryEnglish round hand writing , as rendered in the unparalleled engravings of George Bickham.

Smile cat

Yesterday, as I worked with Photoshop for my assignment "Portrait machine". I found out a new tools that kinda interesting. It is in Filter/Liquify. This tools can be used to push the pixels near it. I think it's interesting and I made a picture of smiling cat by this tools. I love this cause it looks very cute.

Text

I choose three different style for the word "Remmerber".

I think that the word "Remmerber" may have other meaning through the way you present it, the font, the size and the color. But for me, I just try to express it the way I feel it.

Position for orchid in card

This is another Orchid card I made on this weekend. In this card, I started to play with the orchid’s position and it was fun. As you can see in the card, the orchid looks strange and you may not recognize what is this at the first time. You may think what the hell is this?

So, you start to guess. It seems like a flower but you not sure about that you are right or wrong. You only know as you read the company name.
My idea is I want people spend more time to look at the card instead of just take a quick look at it and then forget any thing. This little trick can make people involve in the image in the card and then remember it.

Typography

There are some example about typography using in posters and layouts.

Margo Chase

Margo Chase is an American graphic designer. She founded the successful Chase design company almost 18 years ago.
She has designed logos for Buffy, the vampire slayer (a famous TV series), has been involved in the "branding" such as Target stores; her company also designed for such Hollywood notables as Cher and Madonna

Orchid exercise

I try to make the card as simple as possible. The reason for that is if you use too much design on the small card, people will pay attention on the design instead of the information. Moreover, a simple card can make people easy to find out information that is important for them. The background of the card is orchid image and this can make people remember more about the card

GESTALT EXERCISE

I love to take pictures so in this exercise I try to take some about flower for the layout. Do you think it lovely ?

Using Gestalt Theory in Poster

This is the poster of the 144th Exhibition German AGI Graphic Design Perfect Form. I found this poster on Internet and I quite interested in it because it was a good example for what I learn about Gestalt Theory for design.

Gestalt Theory was used efficiently in this poster is “Closure”. It made viewers to be involved into the poster. As they take a look at the poster, their brain immediately fill in the blank space of the letter to make these letters become the letter A and G. The reason for this is these letters are so familiar with them.

Besides, the “Circle” next to the G letter is presented for the letter I. Designer just used a dot to remind viewer about the “I" letter. Three letter AGI are bigger and align in the centre of the poster to attract the attention of audience.Other texts are in small size to give space for text to breath and these text are also alignment in left to make audience easy to read the information.

http://www.dnp.co.jp/gallery/ddd/dki/d144/d144ki_e.html

Twinkle Twinkle

Twinkle Twinkle is the name of an exhibition about light in UK. This event was hold by the best designers about lighting in current in British such as Ron Arad and Tom Dixon, rising stars like Tord Boontje and Paul Cocksedge and newer names Jessica Shaw and Committee.
Their works light me up. It is so wonderful to look at the way designer play with light in many different ways. The light are used not just for lighting things up, Designers used light to communicate with audience and express their feeling. They used light with many color or strange shape to attract attention efficiently.

http://www.dexigner.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=2691

This is my symbol about the sun. In my point of view, the sun is a mystery. No one can say that they know all about the sun. Therefore, I try to present the sun like a door with a clock on it to hide the entire secret inside. The only way to find out the secret or to open the sun's door is the key, which is the sun’s light. Sun’s lights are the only thing that can help us know about the present of the sun and we can feel it on our skin. Sun’s lights are also the key for the secret that the sun hide inside and it also the answer for the questions about the sun.

This idea about the sun is a clocked door and the sun light is the key were influenced by the picture below. This is the picture of Aton that was made by the ancient Egyptian.

These are the symbol of the sun which I used Photoshop to make it look more mystery and attractive

Shigeru Ban's design

All of these furniture are designed by Shigeru Ban, an Japanese designer. He use paper tubes as structural elements and his subsequent experiments using recycled cardboard broke the conventional notion of a building material. This also features his revolutionary approach to building temporary shelters with paper tubes to house the displaced victims in the aftermath of the 1995 kobe earthquake.

http://www.designboom.com/history/aalto.html

Egypt ancient Sun research

Ra, the Egyptian sun-god, one of the most ancient gods, and the guide of worlds, the one of one, or the one one.
Time began with the first rising of Ra. He is said to sail in the morning in a boat called Atet and in the afternoon in a boat called Sektet.
At night he travels through the underworld.
http://www.tigtail.org/TIG/M_View/TVM/E/Ancient/Egypt/Egypt-info/egypt.gods_earth+sky.html


Aten, a symbol of the sun's disk; represents the universal creator of all things in all lands; the source of all life. This was a national religious symbol of Egypt chosen by Amenhotep the Fourth to replace Ra. However it fell from favor after his death, and Ra rose in importance again. Eventually, Osiris and the cult of resurrection subsumed all the nature gods in importance.
http://www.tigtail.org/TIG/S_View/TVM/E/Ancient/Egypt/Egypt-info/egypt.gods_intro.html

This is another legend about the sun in Egypt
Ra, the sun god, was born of primeval waters. He lived in the heart of a lotus-bud, afraid that if he opened his eyes, he would lose his brightness. He evntually emerged to become the Supreme God. It is said that Ra created humanity from his tears. The tears that were left became the Nile, making it a source of fertility for crops. Out of his spit came the God of Air, Shu, and the God of moisture, Tefnut. He cut his hands, and from the blood that flowed, he created the two Gods Sia, God of the mind and Hu, God of Authority. During the day, Ra would visit each of the twelve provinces of his realm. At night, he would descend to the Underworld. So that the world would be bright in his absence, he created the Moon. In his travels in the Underworld, he would battle the Serpent of Chaos, Apophis. Once Apophis devoured the boat that Ra used to cross to the Underworld, causing an eclipse.
Isis gained the power of magic by tricking the God Ra. When the God became old and senile, Isis mixed some of his saliva with mud to create a poisonous snake. The snake bit Ra, and forced him to give the key to his power, his secret name, to Isis in exchange for his healing. Isis thus gained the ultimate power. Ra eventually became so tired of humanity that he left the Earth and stayed permanently in Heaven.
Horus fought his uncle, Set, his father's killer for eighty years to avenge his father's death. he was finally victorious, and won the throne of Egypt. Set was furious, and in his rage, cut out his nephew's eyes. His eyes, however, were restored as the sun and the moon with the saliva of the God of Wisdom, Thoth. This is similar to the Shinto creator god, whose eyes are also the sun and the moon.
http://library.thinkquest.org/12865/mray/legy.htm