Reading Response: 2 statements about the David Kerby ad

The first article discusses Tibor Kalman's obligation to using the power of advertising to sell ideas. His use of David Kerby dying of aids for Benetton was a shocking use of imagery. However, it drives the point that, whether you hate or support its use, the image provokes an emotion and demands attention that, at some point, acknowledges the product/company.

"...you had to really punch people in the face with this incredibly epic and devastating moment and make them aware of it. You would stop and look at it."

The second article reviews Benetton's use of imagery to sell their products. It states that by appealing to the individual (rather than the consumer) based on value--it becomes personal. For example, their ads that include clothing to encompass ideas of tolerance, race and diversity--the "United Colors of Benetton". Their series on difference, celebrates conflict by finding similarities. Some of the imagery shown might seem too real, too personal (to those who have tried, and succeeded, at censoring it)--but maybe that is what it takes.

Univers & Meridien: Initial Layout Idea

This is a rough, beginning layout of my type mailer. I want to tell the story of Univers and Meridien falling in love--in Kansas City. I will narrate the story and use photographs of the structure that I have found in the city to emphasize each typeface.

Kibera TV: Digital Logo Sketches

F + S: Product Packages

***I chose Aunt Sue's Honey as my new example of ethos. At first glance, the viewer reads: "Aunt Sue's Raw-Wild Natural Honey." The other important text includes, "A SueBee Product" "Naturally Fat, Sodium & Cholesterol Free" and "100% Pure Strained Honey." By adding the endearing endorsement of "Aunt" Sue, the brand uses ethos to add credibility to the product as well as personalize it. Although subtle, the background image sets the scene of a wild, countryside to emphasize the fact that it is 100% pure honey.

Speculated Intended Audience:
Reasons to buy honey; specifically used in recipes, as an alternative to sugar, or you just love the way that honey tastes. Aunt Sue's Honey targets an audience that wants genuine, natural honey. They want a naturally fat, sodium & cholesterol free, raw sweetener. Those that are conscious about buying 100% pure honey will choose Aunt Sue's honey over brands that dilute the honey with other ingredients such as high fructose corn syrup.

I chose this jar of pepperoncini as an example of pathos. Pathos appeals to the viewer by creating an emotion that requires the recreation of a scene or event. The package aesthetic gives a Greek feel and uses the image of a window with Tuscan-style houses filling the background. It emphasizes the fact that the pepperoncini was imported. The label also includes descriptive language that sets an inviting mood such as, "These spicy, crunchy peppers are perfect whole as apart of an antipasto platter or sliced as salad toppers They are also great diced into cold rice or pasta dishes. To make them a little less salty or spicy, just rinse before use." Using this as its base, the design uses elegant typography to appeal to the cultured feel of the jar. Despite the calm feel of the design, I think that some of the Tuscan "spice" has been left out of the emotional appeal of the aesthetic, not only what is in the jar, but in the projected culture as well.

Speculated Intended Audience:
Krinos produces food that is directly imported from Europe. It targets an audience that decidedly wants "gourmet" (as used on the website), authentic Greek peppers. Their communication intentions with the jar of pepperoncini is to give the buyer a view into the location where the peppers were grown. The type simply states that the product was imported and is set in vinegar brine.

***Morton's sea salt is an example of ethos. Not only the fact that Morton salt is an extremely recognizable brand, the persuasive language occurs in the statements on the back of the package, "From the blue waters of the Mediterranean sea on Spain's Costa Blanca, Morton has selected a sea salt perfect for creating rubs for cooking meat, poultry and seafood." It uses the reputable character of Morton's salt to inform the viewer that the coarse sea salt in the package is truly from the Mediterranean sea on Costa Blanca. It also appeals to the viewer with directed use in the sentence, "These coarse salt crystals also add a finishing touch to your favorite dish. Just sprinkle on vegetables, fruits and desserts for a burst of flavor." Who does not want to add a burst of flavor to their favorite dish? Although the company started in 1848, Morton's logo uses the original umbrella girl that started in 1914 and continues to use the same, reliable and trusted logo to advertise the same, reliable and trusted product.***

Pine-Sol is an example of logos. It clearly states its objective, that it cleans and disinfects, and gives the viewer facts like, "Safe on Wood." The back of the package gives a detailed and informative overview of the uses and dangers involved with pine-sol and, through inductive logic, shows the viewer why pine-sol is beneficial with phrases such as, "all-purpose cleaner and disinfectant, removes tough grease and dirt, kills germs, deodorizes and has a clean, fresh scent." It also states the facts in an alternative language (Spanish) that appeals to a wider audience. One of the biggest deficiencies in the text is their inclusion of a list of active ingredients. It states that 8.7% is pine oil and 91.3% are 'other' ingredients." This makes me question what the 'other' ingredients are and why they are not stated.

Speculated Intended Audience:
Pine-sol has a wide audience because of its wide range of uses. It is a disinfectant that cleans floors, toilets, stoves, and even laundry. It targets home owners. More specifically, those with woodwork and nonporous surfaces that are dirty. This group includes age 18+.

Karrin Allyson: Final Poster Statement + Process

After listening to Karrin Allyson's music and researching her work, I attempted to communicate this visually through the use of different rhetorical tropes; pun, parody, allegory, antithesis, irony, metaphor, metonymy, senecdoche, hyperbole, and personification. However, after pursuing the direction that used hot air balloons, I realized that the concept was too weak for the viewer to connect with Allyson's music. Since the objective of this poster is to advertise the upcoming show at the Folly Theater, I developed an alternative direction. This proved to be a good choice and I was still able to incorporate many of the rendering methods I had experimented with on the first few rounds of digital iterations. My final poster uses metaphor to compare Karrin Allyson's music to a smooth (and sometimes smokey) flame. Layered on this, I added a musical staff of five vectored lines with notes to make sure the viewer understood this was a musical performance. I added lace to the light red watercolor background to bring out the feminine feel of Allyson's music and kept the flame, almost true to natural color, to show the sultry side of many of her songs. Although I knew the meaning of the bars that begin the musical staff that started the flame, the concept was not clear to many (including the judges) and were taken out of the final design of the poster. The design was put into black and white ads that will appear in the newspaper as well as a billboard to advertise the show on May 7.

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Process:

The project began with the creation of a "moodboard" that gave visual examples of the research I had done over Karrin Allyson.

After this, simple pencil sketches, placed into a matrix, that visually communicated one of the ten rhetorical tropes learned in class; pun, parody, allegory, antithesis, irony, metaphor, metonymy, senecdoche, hyperbole, and personification.

I looked to examples such as this poster to see how others have used rhetorical tropes to visually persuade an audience. This specific one employs personification by making the arrow look like a human hand holding a hand weight and implying action through the circular motion.

In addition to the sketches, I experimented with different types of materials that could be used in adding layers and visual interest to the poster.
From the matrix sketches, I chose four directions that I thought had the best use of the rhetorical tropes as well as in describing Karrin Allyson. Personification (using the muscial staff to simulate her body and music), Pun (using the musical symbols "f" "p" and "m" in different words to describe her), Metaphor (comparing hot air balloons to the style of her music), and Pun (using the staff as the cover to a bed that makes the viewer understand the dream-like style of her music).
After a number of extra sketches, I chose to pursue the "Hot Air Balloon" direction that used metaphor to compare Karrin Allyson's music to a dreamy, floating experience.
From here, digital iterations were made that combined the rendering methods; watercolor, hand-drawn illustrations, vectored lines, etc...
At this point, after a few critiques, I realized that comparing Karrin Allyson's music to hot air balloons may be to abstract of a concept to use when describing a jazz singer. I spent some time going back to my original research and sketches and attempted to more accurately describe Karrin Allyson. After considering more of what had been put onto the moodboard (specifically the candle and smoke), I developed the idea of using metaphor to compare her music to a smokey, sultry flame (that is also dreamy!) as well as further pursuit of the hot air balloon concept.

This concept proved to better communicate Karrin Allyson as jazz artist. Using layered watercolor, vectored lines, and lace, I developed my final direction.

This was the poster I presented to the Folly Theater.
After making my type more readable from a long distance, as well as adjusting the location of the bars that begin the staff (because it was not clear to the viewer without other musical symbols) as well as the orientation of the shadow, my poster is ready to be seen both in the newspaper, on a billboard and at the Folly Theater.

Reading Response: Type + Image, Aristotle's Appeals

Type + Image argues that decoration is not a frivolous element but can be used to heighten the sensory experience. It states that style is not an accident, but a component of its time, and serves as documentation of that period. For example, the modernist-functional style of the 1920s left a major imprint and continues to shape present day design where simplification takes on a primary role. The reading discusses how, in the late twentieth century, design utilizes historicism, eclecticism, and pluralistic reinvention to extract form and expressions from other periods of time and developing graphic resonance. Aristotle's Appeals gives a detailed description of the three modes of appeal in rhetoric as a means of persuasion; ethos (Greek for "character), pathos (Greek for "suffering" or "experience") and logos (Greek for "word"). After the in-depth examples and explanations, I have deducted each mode's purpose. Ethos refers to the credibility or projected character. Utilizing ethos requires good character which can vary depending on time and culture (Ex/ a current form of credibility would be a impressive resume). "This [persuasion] does not come from appearances, but a person's use of language.""Inspire confidence in the rhetor's [speaker's/writer's] own character-the three, namely, that induce us to believe a thing apart from any proof of it: good sense, good moral character, and goodwill." Pathos is described as an emotional appeal to the viewer's self-interest. This includes methods such as advantage and indirect flattery. "...creating an emotion with words usually requires recreating the scene or event that would in 'real' circumstances arouse the emotion." Logos is the argument itself. With seemingly clear objectives, logos gives the audience facts and values. Through methods of inductive logic, showing the viewer similar examples and giving them a general proposition, and deductive enthymeme, which gives your viewer a few propositions and drawing a specific, new truth. 1) Are they arguments based on definition? 2) Does the arguer make analogies or comparisons/parallel cases? 3) Are the appeals to cause and consequences? 4) Does the arguer rely on testimony or authority by citing the received opinions of experts/public opinion to support the position?

NA Project 4: Detailed Narrative 2-Kibera TV: Fold-Out History

After giving my viewers an idea of the community of Kibera through image, I wanted to make sure that they understood how Kibera TV started. (After the "why" I gave a "how"). To do this, I decided the best channel would be text. My initial plan was to manipulate type (kinetic typography) in flash. However, after the Monday process critique, I felt that using printed material in an interesting layout could express the type in a similar way as well as demand viewer participation as they unfold the time line. The information is given in a linear narrative; "It all started in 2000 when the Hot Sun Foundation started working with the youth in Kibera, the largest slum in, Nairobi, which is located in Kenya, Africa. In 2009, the Hot Sun Foundation established the 6-week educational intensive Kibera Film School. Through all of this, the Hot Sun Foundation, along with the youth in the community produced, Kibera Kid in 2006 and Togetherness Supreme in 2010. Finally, in the year 2010, the first graduating class of the Kibera Film School launched a community channel called Kibera TV." To make the amount of information understandable to the viewer, I coded the dates and names with color and format to make them stand out and remain recognizable throughout the process.
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Digital Logo Sketches:

Tender Buttons Final

In the same way
that Gertrude Stein
questions
the arbitrary of the reader
to understand the
English language,
I arranged chosen poems
from the book
tender buttons
to reflect her approach
through the principles of
fragmentation .
The layout encourages
the reader to take in
each piece
in different directions
while maintaining
legibility and meaning.
The most prominent
letter on
each page
corresponds with
the title found on the
contents page.
The type is set in officina.