Final Project - Politics and Colour...cont'd

I chose to further expand upon my journal exercise for Politics and Colour. I continued to address issues in Vancouver again with the posters. This time however, instead of drawing inspiration from WWII posters, I drew inspiration from the posters of the atelier populaire era. An era I did not know anything about before this class but after researching the graphic posters of this time, they are the perfect mixture of bold visuals to go with bold statements. The WWII posters, however effective and ultimately better designed and created. Don’t have the same power as those of atelier populaire. The message is loud, clear and powerful, something I wanted to achieve with my posters and their graphics are just as bold, clear and powerful. They tended to use simple black and whites, strong single colours as well as combinations of the two.

I wanted to silkscreen my pieces by didn’t have the time or the money at the time to do so. So I used simple, bold ink drawings to visualize the messages. I wanted the poster to convey grassroots feeling. Like someone was pissed off, grabbed their sketchbook and started scrawling any message they can with a big black marker. I did the drawings in a sketchpad with a sharpie and brought those into Photoshop to change spot of colour and increase the contrast between the white of the paper and the black of the ink. Somewhat similar to the effects a silk screener can achieve after preparing artwork and then setting up a screen, he has the ability to cut and paste his piece onto the screen and do elements in whatever colour he may wish.

I would want to display these posters in various areas of Vancouver in order to reach as much of the intended audience as possible.

The first poster talks about drug abuse, a larger problem than anyone cares to admit but most people in Vancouver avoid East Hastings to ignore this fact. This poster would be displayed in Yaletown, Shaughnessy etc…the richer areas of Vancouver in an attempt to open their eyes a bit of problems outside the happy bubble. It uses a strong hit of red to attract the viewer and hopefully draw them in enough to actually read it. The semblance of the red to blood is something that may momentarily shock the viewer.

The other poster deals with the 2010 Olympics. With all the homelessness and drug abuse in Vancouver, the province still chose to spend millions and millions of dollars on hosting athletes from around the world for a brief moment in time rather than deal with the issues and throw some money at them to help solve some of the problems. This poster uses the same formula of simple black and white with a hit of colour. This time, the colour is a sky blue. Kind of like the blue used for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic branding. I wanted to draw some sort of visual apparel to that specific year of Olympics since the poster doesn’t incorporate the city. The blue used is very saturated and may not have the same punch as a small hit of red but the blue does pop. Its contrast with the strong black and softer blue is a little bit jarring and almost uneasy, I think would entice me to read a poster a bit further as well.

This poster would be posted around the East Side in and out of skid row in view of the homeless, who the poster is about, and the major roadways to attrac the attention of the drivers that may commute through the East side but don't have nay daily experience with the homeless other than through their car windows.

Colour and Culture

I chose to display my findings for colour and culture on a map. I have drawn out a colour palette for each region that seems to occur in many areas on design not only those represented in the pictures shown. All these examples seem to rely on some stereotypical as well as easily recognizable imagery to set the country or continent the image represents and the colour seems to pinpoint it a bit further. All these images without colour, would specify a region, the colour sets the mood, gives the audience a further visual cue to geography.

The colour palettes seem to draw from many cues such as that culture’s design and/or art history (i.e. China, Native American/Aboriginal), the natural environments around that region (Africa and Mexico to some degree, the Tropics), and from the country’s flags (UK, Russia). It seems the hotter the climate, the brighter the cooler scheme.

Exercise 7 - Colour and Consumer Culture

INSIDE RICHMOND CENTRE......

1. How do these colour choices convey a specific “identity”? How does it “label” the space?

The colour scheme labels the environment as an easy-going, relaxed place to hang out and shop. The textures of marbles, a giant natural skylight, large Roman posts and arches invite the outside light in and give it a open, larger feeling giving a natural feeling to the architecture.

2. How does this palette use the psychological effects of colour to influence consumer behavior?

The light tints and earthy tones hark of open spaces and the outdoors putting the person/customer in the environment at ease. The more at ease and relaxed the customer is, the more they will wander the building and ultimately BUY MORE!

3. How do these colour choices relate to questions of “sampling” cultures or histories?

This colour scheme acknowledges the Aztec/New Mexico way of decorating that was popular around the late 80’s/early 90’s close to when Richmond centre was rebuild from a tiny little craphole to what it is now….I remember shopping there when it was about 8 stores when I was younger. The New Mexico decorating style represented the desert and tipped it’s hat to the Mexican people and their visual culture as well as their adobo architecture. The natural environment of areas in Mexico could be the basis for this colour scheme as well. If you look at photos or paintings of the Aztec era of even of modern day Mayan ruins, you see a lot of red orange stone with bright blue sky. The mall uses a red orange marble that texturally refers to natural stone and clay.

4. What is your personal reaction/relationship to these colour choices? Are there elements that could be improved in the design?

The colour choices inside Richmond centre is a triad colour scheme with the red-orange tints and the sky blue of the skylight and the green from all the plants. However, the mixture of light tints and dark tints of red orange don’t vibe right design wise with the vibrant saturated blues and greens. I would prefer to see colours of the same saturation and “density” to calm the environment a bit more.

Note: HMV wouldn't let me take pictures so all I have are outside pictures and the one I found on the net for interior signage is pretty sufficient to what was in the store at the time I was there.

INSIDE HMV........

1. How do these colour choices convey a specific “identity”? How does it “label” the space?

The bright pink with black for the HMV give it a young, edgy look.That look is a probably a good thing when you're selling music. I think it's safe to say that people 40 and under probably account for a good chunk of CD consumers. The store needs to portray that they know what they're talking about and what they're selling They're trying to portray that their young too and know cool music.

2. How does this palette use the psychological affects of colour to influence consumer behavior?

The greys used inside with black and bits of pink pink calm down the very saturated pink. It still looks young and edgy but the greys/darks along with the slightly blue tinted spot lights are very relaxing and almost enveloping. Which is also the feeling I believe most people would like from their music as well.

3. How do these colour choices relate to questions of “sampling” cultures or histories?

Perhaps it's sampling design culture. I've seen quite a few designs that have been created over the decades, more so in the last 10 years that use the bright CMYK colours. To pair cyan, magenta or yellow with black makes a statement which will ultimately attract people inside.

4. What is your personal reaction/relationship to these colour choices? Are there elements that could be improved in the design?

I personally think the design for HMV is strong. It thinks it's effective for who it's targeting. I like the feeling inside the store.

Exercise 8 - Historical Object and Colour Alterations

I chose to use a piece of technology, the Ipod, as my object associated with a historical moment. The Ipod signifies the new millennium and whole new way of listening to music for this generation. The simple design is world recognized and the colours usually associated with the classic Ipod are a simple white or black. Apple has since incorporated a rainbow of saturated colours into the Ipod colour mix but all Ipods seem to involve a monochromatic colour scheme on the front and a highly reflective silver surface on the back. Making for a very sleek looking little machine. For argument purposes, I will focus on the classic black Ipod. The pure simplicity and modernity of the product design could indicate a time period between the 1930’s and the present. However, the rounded corners and circular center wheel tend towards a trend used widely in the last 10 years, that of straight modern lines with a bit of whimsy by adding a curves in here or there, giving a more friendly feel. Well used commercial fonts of the last 5 years or so have these characteristics as well. Such as........

As far as the Ipod's colour, black has been use on technological products for quite some time but in the past it is usually used along with other elements such as steel or wood veneer. Only since the inception of the Ipod has glossy solid, black, red etc) been the focal colour of a tech product. Sure, there were some exceptions but on the whole, not really. The Ipod has set a new standard for technology products with it’s ease of usability and striking colours scheme.

I started making some changes to the colours by allocating the product to different decades

past.

First, I did the 80’s Ipod. The shape of the design isn’t playing that big of a part anymore, the 80’s colours overpower the design and burn the retinas. Is isn’t a pleasant colour scheme but it does look like something Cyndi Lauper may have carried around back in the day. However with 80’s coming back in fashion, this variation would probably be easy to sell today but still screams 80’s with the neon quad colour scheme.

The next one I did was the 70’s one. A horrid olive green with dark orange

and a nice brushed steel knob. These colours were used in 70’s decorating and consumer culture. Why, I don’t know….. but this colour combination definitely says 70’s.

The next is a simple variation with just a coloured wheel. Nothing too bad

about it but it does date the Ipod a bit. To me, it looks about 10 years old or from the late nineties. This makes me think that simpllier not only is better but the more colour or variation of colour you have on a product, the more dated it could look in a while. It’s mostly colour schemes that go out of date, not usually individual colours.

The next ones I did just for fun. I love the design from the 50’s so I took some inspiration from 50’s futuristic design (ie ray guns and robots) and did a couple variations of a 50’s Ipod. This one keeps the same outside shape but has some added elements. It uses chrome mostly which was a big thing back then. Also it has a futuristic antenna that looks like it may contact aliens and/or hurt the user but give it more of the LOOK TOWARDS THE FUTURE appeal of 50’s futuristic design. The APPLE Ipod is well seen on the front as brand recognition was very important to rebuilding the economy after the war.

The next 50’s Ipod I did used the same elements as the first but with a different shape. I used the well used kidney shape from back then. This variation speaks more of the 50’s than the previous one but it could also be because of more use of the 50’s teal on this one. Soooooo………to see if I was right. I took all the modern day Ipod elements and stuck them on the kidney shape. This one looks futuristic as well but it no longer speaks 50’s. It could be from today and that goes back to the monochromatic sleek colour scheme.

Politics and Colour

I chose to do a poster based on an issue in Vancouver. I chose to portray the homeless situation and the lack of affordable housing in the style of a Russian WWII poster. The colour scheme is the same as many posters of the era which was 2 colour screen prints. Considering that this message needed to reach the masses, 2 colour printing would and is more cost effective than full colour especially when money needs to be saved in an effort to fight war. The fonts used are the fonts very popular in American posters. Futura was probably the most used, as well as slab gothic such as avantgarde and franklin gothics. Because lettering was hand painted, artists tended to use these blocky slab fonts in order to save time and frustration in the actual creation of the design.




The slogan came from this American WWII poster I found that encourages Americans to buy Victory bonds for the future as well as aiding in the war. I thought the same kind of slogan, which was and is still effective in it's clear message would helping in the message of homelessness in Vancouver.

Classic Colour Schemes and The Simpsons

To show how much of a colour geek this class has made me thus far, I give you this post. So I was watching the new episode of The Simpsons tonight, one of my favorite shows, and while watching noticed all the various colour schemes used in it. All the colours are high chromatic and use variations of all the classic colour schemes at once. A lot of cartoon use very primary, very pure colours, I'm assuming which started out in animation in order to keep children's attention but now seems to denote just a cartoon or animation, in and of itself.

The Simpsons Kitchen for example uses a triad colour scheme of purple, orange and green. Marge Simpson and Bart Simpson with their outfits both have the triad colour scheme as well. I've always liked the look of The Simpsons, and I knew the use of bright pure colours was one of the reasons that attracted me but now I'm wondering if the colour schemes have something to do with the visual appeal as well.

Dale Chihuly - Glass Artist using Light and Colour

This artist I had never heard of before until tonight I saw a documentary about him installing a glass installation in San Francisco. His work uses a vast array of highly saturated colours. The medium of glass also allows for even play with colour and form when the light shines through at different angles. Each piece uses a variety of colours or a singular colour to create dfifferent moods. All the piece are just awe inspiring.