Bloomberg New Contemporaries: Idea Generation

I now have the intention behind my type and I know what overall 'vibe' I want it to have, but I am still thinking of ways to create the physical letter forms.



Inspired by Renie Masters' piece in this exhibition, an initial idea of mine was to look for letter forms in broken china, however this idea only relates to one art work and isn't representative of the show overall.




I have started by looking for shapes in the artworks themselves, seeing where letter forms naturally appear to me and creating an alphabet from this.





I think this is a good start but it definitely doesn't feel fully realised to me.

I want to keep in mind that the typeface doesn't necessarily have to be made from flat black vectors - type can be made from anything be it toothpaste, shadows or negative spaces in household objects.


One idea is to poll members of the public who visit the gallery and generate a typeface from the feedback they give me, maybe by asking them to draw a shape expressing how the exhibition made them feel. I need to develop this idea further, as my criticism of the exhibition is that it's slightly pretentious and inaccessible to 'non-arts' people, I don't want this method to potentially alienate people further, or for them to feel under any pressure to do something 'profound'.

Another idea is to create a typeface which is so pretentious it is completely inaccessible and unreadable, but I don't have any rules to specifically create this.

I am also thinking about creating a typeface using the traditional artistic processes used in the exhibition such as sculpture, paint, photography etc. and then continuing to process it in different experimental ways to create something contemporary.

My overall themes are 'accessibility' and 'hierarchy'. 

ACCESSIBILITY

the quality of being easily understood or appreciated.

Interview with Jordan Watson in Forbes. Wattson runs an IG page (@love.watts) curating modern art that he likes. 

“Growing up in New York; young, poor, and, black; I did not have the opportunity or exposure as a child to appreciate art, let alone be a part of its community.  With whatever platform I now have, I want to make sure that I am providing that opportunity and exposure to as many kids out there as possible.”

My housemate: “I don’t like going to art galleries because the plaques are so small and I have bad eyesight”

My dear friend Eleanor: (on modern art) “If we explore the function art plays in human society and the reason it’s been vital to our continued survival that’s like as far as you can get from some emotionally distant objects locked in a fancy inaccessible building which fail to resonate with the bulk of humans.”

HIERARCHY

a system in which members of an organisation or society are ranked according to relative status or authority.

also visual hierarchy - this relates to layout, which elements go where on a page, how much space they take up. This usually is decided by the order in which the viewer should look at each element. Look at newspapers for example. They generally have a clear visual hierarchy with the headline taking up the most room and usually in a bold typeface as it is intended to be read first, followed by the strap-line, the paper's name, then article text, images etc.



As I am exploring hierarchy in the fine art world, I will apply the visual hierarchy to my designs as well as breaking it down e.g having the less important information on a poster take up the most room with the exhibition title being small and at the bottom, as this challenges established hierarchy.