Man of Fire - Film

The film itself is not the object of my analysis, but the interesting and inventive typography used in the subtitles. Much of the film, set in Mexico city, is spoken in Spanish, and therefore subtitles are a necessity for the understanding of the film. I have never seen this in subtitles before and it would be interesting to know if there are any others like this out there.

Typography is used in the film to illustrate emotions, enhance particular words and personal characterisitics:

1> emotions - a jarred, ambiguous type is used to convey the fear and confusion in the womens voice.

2> enhance particular words - the most important words are bigger to illustrate his tone of voice.

3> personal charcteristics - there is a fuzzy halo around the words that i think demonstrate the mind of an old person and also as a conotation to religion and faith.



A variety of typefaces are also used to convey different people and different social situations. The positioning of the words also relate to the pace of the scenes and the words that are being said.

Led Zeppelin III

On rifiling through my brothers CD collection i found this Led Zeppelin album cover. Thought it was random and fantastic' just the sort of thing i like. It was designed by Richard Drew a lecturer in Fine art at Leeds Polytechnic.

Nazca Lines - el Peru

Im not sure if this constitutes as art but the Nazca Lines on the desert pampas of Peru are one of the most awe-inspiring pieces of ancient design that i have come across. In order to see the full extent of the geoglyphs you have to take a plane trip above the arid plateau. There are hundreds of individual figures and lines ranging from the compexity of the monkey and humming bird to simple lines.

As interesting as the designs is the speculation as to how these were created. They were created by the Nazca civilization between 200BC and 700AD. The geoglyphs are huge (the largest being nearly 900 feet long), imposible to navigate from the ground, and they cover the plateau for 53 miles between the towns of Nazca and Palpa. The lines were made by removing the top surface of the gravel which have been coloured by an iron oxide reaction in the stones, revealing a lighter colour beneath.

There are many theroies as to why the Nazca Culture created these lines, the accepted one being that they were religious images that the Gods in the sky could see clearly. Other ideas suggested that they were a way of showing where areas of water could be found in a parched environment, and signals of welcome to otherworldly beings.

I found all this immensly interesting. I love anything where there is still more to discover and an air of mystery around it.

Roberto Matta - Chilean Surrealist

When i lived in Chile for 4 months i went to one of Santiago's art galleries. Roberto Matta's work immediatly appealled to me. This painting i remeber clearly and two years on i can still distinguish it from all the others that he created.

The painting as i remember it is huge and quite dauting. It took a a lot longer than a glance to take in the beautiful details and interesting psychology behind it.

It is only now that i have researched him for this blog that i have realsied quite how famous he was. He met and was influenced by renowned surrealist artists such as Rene Margritte, Salvidor Dali and architect and theorist Le Corbusier.

This is not by any means his most famous piece of work but it is the one that struck me the most. It has an unusual lack of colour for a surrealist/abstract painting, yet managed in my eye to stand out from anything else in the gallery.

Cloud Atlas

I am an avid reader and love to become engrossed in a good book. This postmodern novel consists of a series of stories that interlock and interwine through different eras, lifestyles, and cultures from the 19th century to a post-apocalyptic future. "David Mitchel erases the bounderies of time, genre and language to offer an enthralling vision of humanity's will to power, and where it will lead us."

Although difficult to get into at first it becomes one of those books that you cannot put down, engrossing you yet annoyingly flipping to the next story seemingly unexpectedly. It is not until you get half way and the final story finishes that you realise that each one is completed in the other half of the book. Only then are the stories fully linked with those subtle connections alluded to throughout.

Judge a book by its cover as this one is simple yet perfect for the book.

A must read for anyone who likes a challenge.

Debut Art

Sarah Howell like many of the artists on the debutart website pairs high standard graphic photos with beautifulc computer illustrations. I think that although this style has been slightly over used now, and perhaps not respected by graphic designers who are trying to be more edgy, beutiful pieces of art and design can be created. What do you all think about this type of design that focuses on the beautiful and decorative rather than on a more candid and bleek outlook? Is it perhaps contributing to society issues with image perception?

Have a look at Sarah Howell:

There is also this other artist who's work i find really interesting and quirky:

Chubbs:

This website holds absolutly loads of artists and designers portfolis, all of the highest standard. they are a brilliant reference for inspiration or just to see what we as emerging deigners are up against!!

www.debutart.com

Guerilla/ Ambient Advertising

In a consumer savvy world, Ambient and Guerilla Advertising is the best way for companies to communicate with their potential consumers. Here are some recent campaigns that i think demonstrate that.

This is perhaps a little too over the top and obviously very pricy which doesnt fit well with Guerilla Advertising, however it is definitly something that is going to get noticed. If a company has enough money, why not plough that back into the marketing?

I think this is brilliant because it is appealing to peoples emotions in an extravagant way. Most, it is fair to say, have an idealistic vision in mind when they think of New York; stylish, nocturnal, and to a large extent wealthy. Absolut Vodka have managed to sum all that up in a bottle, as they often do with the advertising of their product.

Finally this idea is ingenious yet so so simple. Whether it would encourage you to buy a motorcycle is another matter but it certainly gets the product noticed. You can imagine bored fathers and husbands dragged along on a shopping trip fantasising about that motorcycle they've always wanted whilst pushing the trolly around.