Project 4 - T-shirt Graphic Designs

I want to do a short series of T-Shirt Graphic Designs based on some of the Zora Arkus-Duntov concept Corvettes, like the XP-895, the original Sting Ray, the Mako Sharks, and the Grand Sport.  Here are some links to web pages that have some background info and images for the cars:

http://www.welovecorvettes.com/concept.html
http://www.motortrend.com/classic/roadtests/c12_0511_concept_corvettes_comparison/viewall.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Corvette#Concept_cars

A book about Zora that is absolutely phenomenal:

http://books.google.com/books?id=BqZTAAAAMAAJ&q=motor+trend+corvette&dq=motor+trend+corvette&hl=en&sa=X&ei=QDBkUd65GsaA2QWsyYHYBA&ved=0CHQQ6AEwCg

A working image, without background content yet (test vehicle images, not actually choices for the shirts):

Artist Statement

Restyled Resume

Project 3: Panoramic Halos

I've been doing a lot of thinking over the break about my third project, and I've decided I want to do something in regards to panorama.  It's a Greek derivative, from πᾶν "all" + ὅραμα "sight", given way to essentially meaning any wide-angle view or representation of a physical space.  In giving thought to this project, I was brought back to a project from Graphic Design 2 where I dabbled with the panoramic image stitching functions that were found in Photoshop.  The quick and dirty Photomerge function aside, the Auto-Align & Auto-Blend functions are very much contenders with many other stand alone programs out there, but they have their limits: fair exposure seem compensation, poor parallax distortion correction, etc.  However, the one limitation I found almost maddening was that I couldn't make the images stitch full-circle, by force or by trick.  And that is exactly what I intend to do for this project: I want to make several "panoramic halos", prints that are true panoramic images that can be folded into a halo and that can be rotated around the viewer's head to view everything seamlessly.  I've been reading up on several sites about how to avoid the nasties, like exposure matching/correction and mounting adjustments to find the nodal point.  I've also been researching the various photo stitching programs available and weighing the pros and cons of what they are and are not capable of.  As of this moment, I'm leaning towards PTgui (Panoramic Tools graphic user interface), it has the greatest amount of user control over the various functions that go into stitching a panoramic image together, plus it would give me another wonderful program to learn and ad to my technical aptitudes.  As far as the mount adapter is concerned, I opted for the Panosaurus 2.0.  She a beaut to look at, sure, but the best parts about it are the informational website support and the incremental measurements that take the guess work out of the alignment process.  As far as the exposure correction goes, that is an easy fix: shoot in Manual mode (as all good photographers should and do!).  My Nikon D5200 has a variety of exposure metering setting that will enable me to choose my manual settings appropriately with out having to shoot and re-shoot and re-shoot and etc. to find a match.  The halos themselves will be the real trick.  I'm probably going to have to suspend the halos from a pulley system (not everyone is the same height and it would be nice to let the viewer drop it down on them and make it an even more interactive experience) and I will need to shoot my images at a high enough resolution so that the image is at a good resolution, yet not hugging the viewer's face so tightly that they get claustrophobic.

Panorama of London, one of the first "panoramic" paintings, by Robert Barker in 1792.

French print of albumen silver photographs taken in 1875 by Holtermann and Bayliss.

Giza Pyramids digital panoramic, created by Rob Armitage.

This is the Panosaurus armature I will be using

A couple of the do-it-yourself armatures.

 

A couple of the pricier armatures out there.

 

A visual assemblage mock-up and a presentational mock-up.

 

A couple of rendered examples of cylindrical panoramas.

Down and Out and Round About

My initial conception for Project 2 was shot down in its entirety.  Aside from the fact that I was unable to get any actors/performers for my project, the biggest letdown was the fact that none of the companies I approached were willing to let me shoot my project on their property.  Oh well, not crying about spilled milk and whatnot, I resurrected my conception search and came up with the idea of making an instructional web page, the focus of which would be animated .gifs that accompanied the instructions.  Just when I got my new idea concreted, I proceeded to end up bed ridden with a severe sinus infection last week, which kept me from coming to class to get the green light from the professor on my new project idea.  But the only thing I hate more than being incapacitated is having to give a bunch of excuses for something I can definitely do something else about.  I will be presenting the local web page in class, but here is a sampling of my .gif work to tide you over until my personal website is up and running to accommodate it:

 

 

*Note: These .gifs are not the best representation of the ones on my web page.  These are compressed and jerked over by Blogger, so they appear choppy and degraded on this page.

Project 2 - Conception

I've decided to pursue the following idea for my second project:

Create a Series of Cinemagraphs: I made a short series of cinemagraphs least semester based on the concept of Anxiety. I'd like to do a larger series (8 to 10) based on the concept of Choice and some of the various conditions that either affect or are affected by Choice.

As a theme to tie these cinemagraphs together, I've chosen the theme "going to the market."  I'm going to explore the various choices that one might make while engaging in the acting of going to the market.  I'll start with a cinemagraph of making a shopping list and choosing what does or doesn't need to be purchased.  I would like to see if there is a way to photoshop and key 2 stores in proximity to one another to show the choice of where to shop.  The next will be the choice of where to park.  The next will be the choice between the use of shopping cart or hand basket.  The interior cinemagraphs will deal with choice by visual comparison (probably with produce), choice between various styles of the same product (probably the meat counter), choice between a small or a bulk purchase (probably a jar of mayonnaise or a tub), and a comparison of ingredients (probably medicine).  I also would like to include a broad spectrum of choice (standing in front of the wall of magazines or the aisle of cereal).  The last cinemagraph would be choice of express or normal checkout lane.

My two challenges for this assignment will be to secure a location on which to shoot, which may or may not even allow me to complete this project.  My first choice is to shoot at my local Martin's Supermarket.  I'm also considering shooting at the Vitamin Shoppe or FitStop, CVS or Walgreens, or even Walmart.  Most of the shots I've envisioned will allow me to adapt them to the particular store that I am able to secure.  The second is the "green screen adventure" that I am proposing for my second cinemagraph.  I got lucky in my last series of cinemagraphs and was able to composite two videos with a black background and turn that into a single cinemagraph, but a bit more digital trickery/finesse may be required for this one.

Resume - Rough

Modern Phoenician Font and the Pyrgi Tablet

This is a "ready for print" copy of my first project.  My initial concept was to redesign a font set.  I settled on the Phoenician alphabet and decided to display my font by re-envisioning the Pyrgi Tablet.  The original is a gold leaf that is approximately 7 1/2 feet tall by 3 1/2 feet wide.  Due to price and availability, my final printout will not be nearly as grand.  I am currently waiting for an availability estimate for print on a faux gold paper either at either 18" by 24" or 24" by 36".  In addition to the text, I also wanted to conceptually illustrate the Phoenician goddess, Ashtart, and the temple built in her honor.  The text translates as follows:

To lady Ashtarot,
This is the holy place, which was made, and which was given by Tiberius Velianas who reigns over the Caerites. During the month of the sacrifice to the Sun, as a gift in the temple, he built an aedicula. For Ashtarot raised him with Her hand to reign for three years from the month of Churvar, from the day of the burial of the divinity [onward]. And the years of the statue of the divinity in the temple [shall be] as many years as the stars above.

Transcription from Hildegard Temporini, Joseph Vogt, Wolfgang Haase. 1972. Aufsteig und Niedergang der Römischen Welt, vol. 2, part 25. P.201.

Some minor points of clarification:

Phoenician, much like any other ancient language, is riddled with dialectical variations, given that it was major language in most of the known ancient western world during its use.  Much of my personal interpretations are bound by a fairly simple rule: of the letters and texts that I surveyed, any letters which had variation, I felt more at ease in manipulating, and any letters which were more uniform amongst the surveys, I took decidedly less artistic liberties with.

Ashtart is also another point of much conflicted information.  This was due to the fact that her persona was also a widely used and adapted figure amongst the ancient western world.  She is known as ʻṯtrt ("ʻAṯtart" or "ʻAthtart") in Ugaritic, עשתרת (Ashtoret, singular, or Ashtarot, plural) in Hebrew, Ishtar or Ashtart in Etruscan, etc. and as "ʻštrt" (ʻAshtart) in Phoenician.  Astart was connected with fertility, sexuality, and war (or any combination of the three, depending on the region and context). Her symbols were the lion, the horse, the sphinx, the dove, and a star within a circle indicating the planet Venus (but these are subject to region and context, as well). Pictorial representations often show her naked (but not always). She has been known as the deified evening star (the moon, or lunar goddess, if you will, and is also known as the heavenly goddess, dictating all celestial affairs).  So again, I survey many sources and attempted to create a representational image based on the Phoenician incarnation of Ashtart.

Pyrgi Gold Tablet featuring Designed Phoenician Font

Here is my Project in the intermediate phase:

As you can see there is a placeholder box for an image of the goddess Ashtarot's temple / shrine at the bottom, that I am currently developing.  This is an 18 x 24 in. image to be printed in poster format.  The text is from the 3rd Pyrgi Golden Tablet, which is a short passage concerning the aforementioned image.  I'd like to print this on a gold fibre sheet, but for cost's sake, a reasonable faux facsimile will have to do.

Simulated Background Imagery

The Original Pyrgi Golden Tablet

Font Design Process

Here's a brief look at how to turn a hand-sketched image into a compound shape for use in most font design software.

 

Step 1: Draft out and fill in your character image.  Make it as large as you like (bigger isn't always better if your design is simple, but it is recommended to show up any minute inconsistencies).  Keep it nice and clean, so you don't have to erase any smudges or sketch lines later on in the process.

 Step 2: Scan your image.  Get a very high resolution scan to make your character image as accurate as possible.

 Step 3: Bring your scanned image into Photoshop.

 Step 4: Use your magic wand to select your character out of the background.  Keep adjusting the tolerance until you get the desired selection and/or de/select any additional information.

 Step 5: Make a work path from your selection (bottom of the Path panel, middle button).

 Step 6: Copy your work path.

 Step 7: Open Illustrator and paste your work path into place as a Compound Shape.

 Step 8: When selected, your path should show all the various points and anchors, which usually creates a funky copy of what you intended your character image to look like.

 Step 9: Get rid of the unnecessary points and adjust your anchors accordingly.

 Step 10: OPTIONAL - If you created your character image directly in Illustrator, make sure to use the Shape Builder Tool to join multiple shapes (click and drag) and cut out the negative shapes inside the characters (alt-click).

Step 11: Set you character image to black stroke and empty fill and save your character image to a CorrespondingLetter.ai file (i.e. A.ai).

Designing a Font Project: Phoenician Alphabet

I'm pushing forward with my first project: designing a Phoenician font.  Why Phoenician?  For me, Phoenician is one of the last links between the graphic/symbolic embodiment of a letter/character and it's meaning, as found in Heiroglyphics, and the innocuous, meaningless symbols found in modern alphabets.  As a graphic designer, I feel a responsibility to design something with meaning, beyond just simply stylizing the pre-existing.  I want to utilize calligraphy, or beautiful writing, to craft the characters/symbols into a more pictographically representative state.

Here are some links to some standardized Phoenician Alphabet samples:

 

 

 

Here are some links to some original Phoenician Text samples:

 

 

 

My challenge for this project is two-fold: I must create a beautifully crafted font, yes, but I also need to find a meaningful way to utilize this font.  I need to find a way in which to use this font in an expressive text of some sort or in some meaningful way that captures the beauty of their crafting.  I have a feeling that the way in which I will accomplish this will present itself during the creation of the font, but am in no way depending on some sort of "enlightenment" during the process to solely guide my decisions.

 

Here are some links to text and discussion on the Phoenician Alphabet:

http://www.omniglot.com/writing/phoenician.htm

http://phoenicia.org/alphabet.html

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

http://www.ancientscripts.com/phoenician.html

 

Here are a few of my crafting resource texts:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-calligraphers-bible-david-harris/1005762908?ean=9780764156151

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/type-matters-jim-williams/1112426875?ean=9781858945675

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/type-idea-index-jim-krause/1112247002?ean=9781581808063

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Design-Matters/Capsule/e/9781592537389