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e City In FluxVolume 2 - Development

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e City In FluxPhotography and TypeBased around my Public Identity concept I created these two images which incorporates my own photography with some additions of subtle shapes and typography. I did this in InDesign very simply by using type and shape tools with a clever use of arrangement to get the effect of the block going behind the white border.

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e City In FluxPhotography and TypeI liked the CCTV/ database look of the typography so I tried it again with some new photos. However this time I tired an idea I had which was to cut out the person and leave behind the while silhouette. This was to highlight the absence of personal identity and helps visualise the idea that we are seen as carbon copies of each other. I then copied some of the best images in the hope of focusing your eye on the typography rather than the atheistic of the photo.

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e City In FluxPhoto EditingWhilst looking through my pictures I decided to try out some little ideas I had thought of at the beginning of the project. One was to cut out a figure in the image and move it slightly to leave a white silhouette behind to act as a sort of shadow. This was to symbolise the removal of individuality and to show its irrelevance to the modern world. However when I tired this it did not have the effect I originally thought, it looks chunky and clumsy on the image, so I am not going to peruse this idea. My second experiment went a lot better and I got a really grungy image from it. What I did

was play around with the threshold of the image and what I got from that was this fuzzy black and white graphic which reminds me of television noise and bad CCTV. This would work perfectly for my idea as it suggests how people just act as data traffic and noise. It also makes me think of the frustrating feeling of when you can’t tune your TV (back before the digital switchover) or when you can not get a phone signal. So I am defiantly going to take this further to possibly work as a way to communicate a feeling of frustration you find in a city.

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e City In FluxHandmade TypographyI thought to accompany my noise effect image I would create some handmade typography inspired by my research on bleed collective. The style I was looking for was rushed messy type as it would show the frustration of the person writing it in a hurry. I also wanted handmade typography so it looks more personal, so when it is placed next to an image of a person it looks like they have wrote it. It shows their emotion in the rushed strokes left behind by the marker pen. To get

this right I did two pages for each letter so I had a range to choose from, I then scanned these in and cut out each letter in Photoshop using the pen tool. I then grouped the letters together and changed the size of some so it looked even more rushed and also so the letters fit together in a shape to make it readable as one word rather a string of letters. Finally I changed the colour to red as I thought it would be very imposing with the black and white image.

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e City In FluxPhotography and TypeInspired by my research on Nevil Brody I thought I would experiment with laying out typography. In conjunction with my idea of data overload I generated a large amount of randomly generated numbers and get them out in a textbox on Adobe Illustrator. I experimented with the size at first, I wanted a small point size so the text would sit subtly in the background without being too clumsy or imposing, I settled on 32pt on an A2 poster so it would look small in contrast to the large document size. However I need to print a proof to see exactly how the size looks. 10pt is the standard for printed text so I may also try that, I may also go for a middle ground of 18pt, but I need to make a proof of each to be sure. When I developed the idea

I decided to highlight some random numbers to reflect the selection or detection of certain people as they go about their daily business in the city. This symbolises how data is always updating and moving. This overlay of type on the image also makes it look very overcrowded and difficult to see what is going on in the image, this is a perfect representation of how all this data we are producing and seeing constantly is clouding out vision of the physical world around us, it also shows how we are being overcrowded with it and overwhelmed. This ties in well with my earlier idea of frustration in a city, it could be frustration caused by the overwhelming amount of data we see and information we have to process.

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e City In FluxCollage

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e City In FluxCollage

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e City In FluxCollage

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e City In FluxCollage

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e City In FluxCollageSo as part of my Information Overload concept I decided to collage examples of ephemera I had collected over the years. This included magazine clippings, transport tickets, postage labels and bottle tops. I stuck to a small size for each collage as it is easier to get a neat and directional layout, with larger sizes it can easily end up being a jumble of train tickets randomly glued to a page with no clear layout or point of focus. I aimed to show distinctive features that were unique or interesting like a pen mark on a train ticket or the Chinese characters on a stamp, these features I placed at focus points in the collage where their contrast against the other colours made them stand out. I then scanned these collages in and enhanced their colours on Photoshop.

After they were scanned in and edited I thought I would take them one step further and crop them around the focus points like I did with

the typography and photo combinations. This way your eye is focused on the focus point of the collage and its surrounding contrasting colours, rather than looking at the aesthetic of the collage’s layout. I want to make the audience focus on the message the collage is communicating more than the appeal of the layout, although the layout is still important in maintaining the focus on the points of interest and making them look appealing enough to look at in more detail.

Once I created a range of crops I was happy with I thought about how I can present them in a final visual. I started off with a classic poster. I decided on a theme of stress due to the overload of information so to show the effect stress has on the information we see I took one of the crops into Photoshop and experiment with some of the distorting and warping tools. I thought I would show a headache that has been brought on by

Information TrafficThe City is a messYour head tries to make sense of itIt is bombarded with typography and imageryYour mind attempts to organise the chaosBut it always falters

stress so I warped a sort of wrinkle into the crop which looked like the pounding effect of a headache. I then took this crop and the other un-altered ones into Illustrator and started laying them out. I wanted to set the un-altered crops on a modular grid to show the seamless and neat process of digesting information, I then placed the warped crop at the bottom which broke the grids flow. The thought behind this was that as your mind attempts to take in and make sense of all this information it can’t take the strain and you get a headache and the chain of processing breaks and you loose the ability to take in any more information.

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e City In FluxHandwritten and Digital Typography CombinationIn this little crop I decided to pull together my handmade typography with my edited images and the digital modular type. This is to communicate the overwhelming amount of confusing data and how it can make us so stressed out we feel psychotic and unclear like the noisy television signal. I really like the black white and red, they

are a good combination that have the striking contrast of a black and white image and the red gives it that focus point of interest. I am thinking I may use this colour combination for all my crops, however I may use a black, white and different colour combination for each section of my final idea which I will explain later.

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e City In FluxBook MockupTo get a sense of what my final idea will look like (I will explain my idea next) I did a basic mockup of a little book. Inside this book was all the crops I did of my collages and typography work. The idea was to display one crop on a page with a small border around it, no words, just the crop left alone to do the talking. The pages of the book were made out of three different paper types: graph paper, tracing paper and newsprint paper. I wanted this range of paper as I like the vary in texture, I also liked how it reflects the diversity of information you receive on printed paper in a city. The book was fairly easy to make, I cut out the pages at 8cm square and the crops at 7cm square, I ordered the paper in a newsprint, tracing and graph order and stuck the

crops in the middle of each page. I then quickly bound the side with some bulldog clips, this way I could re arrange or deconstruct and show each page individually if I needed to, plus it was non destructive so I had no chance of going wrong and ruining it.

The things I would change would be the size of the book, it was way too small to do the crops justice. The borders were also too thin so the change of paper was not noticeable. And the centre alignment was not working as when bound the crops were being lost in the seam, so I will align them slightly to the right next time to allow room for binding. Other than that I was very pleased with the outcome and I will pursue this concept as my final product.

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e City In FluxBooklet MockupsTo see exactly what size I would like my book I cut out various sizes with sheets of paper and compared them, I also cut out some crops to the size I wanted and placed them on the page to see how big I would like the margins around them to be. I settled on a nice size of 14x20cm which is slightly smaller than A5. This gave enough breathing space around my content and it also felt nice in the hand, it was not too small but not too big that it is difficult to hold. Once I had settled on the size I went about cutting two page spreads out of thin paper ready to staple bind like a booklet. I chose

to have thin paper as I like the feel of newsprint, you are not too precious about it and it gives it a rough and ready to go feel. Plus it will also work well for a booklet bind as it will sit flat on the table when folded out and it can handle large amounts of pages without having what I call open middle syndrome where it always falls open in the middle due to the staple bind. I straightened my pages out and stapled them and so mu mockup was complete. I also did a quick check for margin creep for reference when I start my design and I also wanted to see how well it sits open on a table.

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e City In FluxBook BindingI wanted to see if it would be possible to do a more complex bind at home, such as perfect binding. So I did some googiling and came across some techniques. The methods were the same but the glue used varied. So for my experiments I chose PVA glue and a hot glue gun. First I cut my pages down to size and straightened them, then I placed a clamp on the end. I then wedged the pages in between the pieces of wood and clamped the pieces of wood together, locking the pages in place. The hard part was done, so I then simply painted the PVA and hot glue over each set of pages. The hot glue dried straight

away and did not require another coat, however the PVA glue needed an hour to dry before another coat was painted on. I applied four coats of glue and left it overnight to dry completely. Once I had both sets bound and dry I compared them for durability. I tugged at the pages and opened them, and also saw how much margin creep each had. The hot glue bind was very quick and easy to make, however I could tear the pages away very easily, like a refill pad of paper. The PVA bind however was strong and held well, so well that I had to cut it away from the wood.

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e City In FluxBook BindingI decided from my first experiments that I would carry the PVA glue binding forward and try making an actual book out of it. I did the same binding methods, however I was careful not to get too much glue on the wood as the last bind stuck to it and it ripped most of the pages. I managed to get the book bound and away from the wood safely without any torn pages.

When cutting the pages I had to make sure the lines were in the same position on each page, so I took great care when cutting the pages down from A4 sheets. Once the book was

bound and dried I worked on cutting the cover and folding the spine, I measured the spine before cutting the cover, however I left 5mm of breathing space on either side to ensure it does not run short, and I would trim the excess off later. Once I had the spine folded I glued the spine of the cover and stuck it to the spine of the pages, I then clamped the end to stop it shuffling around and I left it for a few hours. Once it was dry I trimmed the edges and gave it one last check for loose pages and it was then finished, I have made my first book.

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e City In FluxFinal IdeaMy final idea is to create a book in three sections which display images and typography which show the change of emotions in a city from the point of seeing information and processing it seamlessly, to the point where it begins to be too much and you get stressed and then when you reach a psychotic stressed stage where you can’t handle anything, you can’t process information you can’t talk

to people and you can no longer effortlessly move about a city.

The crops in the book will vary from graphic images, to information and then to display typography

Alongside the book there will be three key posters which represent each emotion, and these alongside the book will all fit into a tight fit wooden box.