Bringing Type To Life

I've been thinking of my forgotten type project, and I thought it would be appropriate to present my work as a way of bringing the forgotten text back to life. I found alot of examples from a simple google image search (good old google).

This is called Tornado. The artist created large swirls of text outdoors in white so it looks like gusts of wind. It is appropriate that this sculpture was displayed outside as it's meant to be a tornado, and obviously they don't happen indoors.
Because it's white and the font is sans-serif it looks very clean and simplistic. I think it's very beautiful and if I was stood in front of it I think I would feel calmed by it


I adore this sculpture. It's very rough and gothic-looking. Its made from steel and it's pained in a rusty dark grey, so it has a cold, metalic feel. The text is bent and twisted and everything ends in points to give you an uncomfortable feel when you look at it.
Something like this would be appropriate to my project because the examples of forgotten type I found are all cold and hidden away. If I was to create a book or structure to display my work then using dark colours would be appropriate.

On the other hand, using bright colours and bold smooth fonts would be a way of rejuvinating type that has been forgotten.



I'm not sure how this one would have been made but I want to learn! It looks so fantastic, like the text is forcing its way through some cloth. It would look good against a wall so it appears to be growing out of the surface.

Ripping My Hair Out!

For one of the units of my degree I had to create a website for a singer or band. I found this the most challenging project of the year so far, as I had no clue where to start. I chose one of my favourite artists, Ne-Yo, and decided to base the theme of the website on his new album Year Of The Gentleman.

With the release of this album, Ne-Yo has re-invented his image and his sound. The album has been reviewed as having a similar feeling to the Rat Pack and has 1950's vibes. Ne-Yo has altered his image and usually wears suits & hats.

Alot of his advertising and imagery is 50's themed. For example see his new television promo for the album here.

My Home Page

The colour scheme for my website is simple: black backgrounds and sepia tones for images. I've gone for soft colours instead of bold ones to give it an old-fashioned look. My research into 1950's advertising helped me greatly. I focused on advertising for media such as televisions and radios because the music industry needs them to advertise and get the artists/music out to their audience.

I've chosen to use sans-serif bold fonts for my site because these are the fonts that were popular in 1950's advertising. Also, most of Ne-Yo's logos and CD covers used fonts similar to the ones I chose for my website because they suit the feel of his music.

My Shop Page
My shop page is slightly different. I've kept the navigation in the same position so that the site is easy to get around. On every page Ne-Yo's logo is in the same position so that there is some coherence within the site. I used a purely black background so that the images of Ne-Yo's CD's stand out more, as they are colourful.

My Tour Page
When you hover the mouse over the televisions to navigate through the site, the screens glow a faded blue colour. This is to give the appearance of static on the screen and to make the link stand out by giving it some colour. I chose blue because it is calming, and the rest of the site is softly coloured.

More on Type

My Neglected Typography has grown! I've been out taking more photos, as you can see;

I'm Back Baby!

I haven't had access to blogger for a while because someone tried to steal my email address (grrr) but I'm back online now & there's lots to catch up on!

ROBERT NAKATA
A project called Irreverence Justified by Robert Nakata has caught my eye. It's a book designed for Nike which has achieved near mythical status, with numerous questions asked about and it yet very few answers known.


The brief: Nike EHQ wanted to acknowledge and thank their various cultural and business partners with the coming of the New Millenium in the form of a gift.

Why it was made: Nike EHQ were re-issuing 12 classic shoes for the New Millenium and they wanted to communicate this in some at-the-time undetermined form. Each re-issue would be released monthly during 2000 and each shoe had to somehow be featured.

Inspiration: Nike’s initial suggestion, given the one re-issued shoe per month, was a calendar. Other ideas included re-running all the Nike television spots made up to that point somewhere in the world 24/7 on New Year’s Eve. Ultimately they needed a gift to hand out and since it was all about the shoes. The photography of the shoes for the book came from a variety of sources. The 12 re-issues, the Michael Johnson Gold Olympic shoes and a few others were shot originally for IJ by Hans Pieterse. Most of the images came from old scans and, with the really old shoes, scans from old catalogues and/or print ads were made as Nike no longer had the original shoes.

These posters are some more of Robert Nakata's work. I love the shapes that he creates with image and text. For example, the fluid shape above with the words "holland festival" sat on the image. He makes the text part of the image. Below you can make out the letters that spell "Holland" anchored within the image. You have to use your imagination a bit but they are there.
I like the use of colour too. The colours are strong but there's only 4 colours: blue, red, green and orange (and black & white of course).

Examples!

When I was doing research for a montage project I discovered a few interesting things......


This is the contents page of the book. I like the unusual use of direction. The main chapter titles being in bold make it work. If they werent bold then it would be too hard to read, but as it is it's easy to follow.

I can't remember who did this, but it really caught my eye. A montage within type is a great idea. It's so simple I don't know why more people don't do it (including myself).

Netted

Forgotten Again

Here are photographs I've taken for my project.