OUGD404 Accents: Who are you?

For this studio session we are asked to display 11 different accents in the form of type.

the accents we were given were:

• Scouse
• Geordie
• Essex
• Yorkshire
• Welsh
• Irish
• Jamaican
• Austrailian
• Pirate
• Russian

We then got in to groups of 4, we randomly laid our accents out on the table for another group to assort in to the correct accents. I found when doing this task that the easiest way of finding fonts that matched the accents was by employing strong stereotypes on each, e.g. The french is seen as a romantic, traditional and flowing accent, therefore most people tended to use script fonts with lots of detail and design. The task proved more difficult when we had to uncover the accents such as Geordie, Yorkshire, and Scouse. This was because these accents don't have obvious, glaring stereotypes. It was also hard to differentiate between the 3 as they are all very similar and all from northern england. Over all i think i performed well in this task. It was enjoyable and interesting to see how others had interpreted the task.

Here are my interpretations:

i found this task quite hard so looked at the connotations and imagery of each accent to help contextualise the typeface and the accent.

This was my typeface for geordie, the accent is very broad and heavy, much like the typeface i chose to represent in. There is a lot of glottal stops and it is a throaty, thick accent. Its is also not a very flowing accent which is why I have chosen square, block typeface, that is very separate.

This was my chosen typeface for french, i played on the connotations of romance and embellishment. The typography reminds me of the lettering used for an old bakery or dress shop in paris.

Focussing on the connotations of show biz and glamour of essex i chose this typeface.

This is my typeface for the Jamaican accent. It is reminiscent of the hippy and laid back life style of Jamaica. The heavy letters also show the slowness and relaxed pace of the accent when spoken.

This is my interpretation of the Liverpool accent. The accent is very nasally and quite spotty. It is spoken fast and can often be hard for other accents to understand, which is why the typeface is so close together, as the reduced legibility of the words mimics the difficulty it sometimes is to understand.

I found this one hard. This is my interpretation of the pirate accent. I chose to focus on the connotations and pick a typeface that was stylistically reminiscent of Pirates. I them added extra emphasis on to the word 'are' as it echoes the way in which pirates would speak.

This is my russian typeface. it is similar to the typefaces that would have been used in the russian constructivist era. It is also boxy and square, this shows the abrupt sounds of the accent, as it is very sharp and to the point, there is no embellished or emphasised words or sounds.

This is my choice for the yorkshire accent. It is quite a monotonous and smooth accent, hence the level letters and rounded soft edges. It is also seen as a friendly accent which is another reason i chose the round edges. I chose a san serif font as the accent is what it is, it is a widely spoken accent and isn't particularly considered a posh or pompous accent.

This is my choice for the welsh accent it is a rhythmic and poetic accent, when spoken it normally starts and ends high pitched mimicked through the sweeping of the typeface.

I also took away the 5 fundamentals of type:.

• use no more than 3 different typefaces at one time
• Always consider legibility
• Always consider readability
• Gothic or roman only for body copy.
• No more than 3 weights at one time.

Typogateux OUGD405

For the typogateaux brief we got in to groups of 3, we then relayed our research back to each other and brainstormed the most efficient and interesting way of answering the brief.

We used cake mixture and followed the recipe instruction provided on the packet. I invested in a square baking tray so we could get the illustrator logo shape.

We used illustrator to make a large template with the letters 'A & i' for the stencil and cut them out with a scalpel, so that we could use them as guides when cutting the cake in to shape.

I placed the stencil on top of the large square and cut out the letter A from it , it ended up to be more difficult than we first thought and the cake started crumbling once we cut it.

We repeated the process for the letter I which was at lot easier than the A because it was more simple. We covered the large square cake base in marzipan the same as the letters, we should of used icing i think it would of worked better. Although the marzipan worked just as good.

We had to cover the cake twice so it was thick and stayed together well. We use orange food colouring and flavouring to paint the cake orange, making the back darker than the letters to represent the Ai logo.

Over all i think we came up with an interesting approach to the brief. The idea was based on typography and had a further element of graphic design as we made the illustrator adobe logo as inspiration. I think if we were to do this brief again we need to practice our baking skills (thank god it wasn't a taste test) and use coloured icing as apposed to painting orange food dye on to marzipan.

Photoshop Postcards OUGD405

Contact sheets:

For this brief we had to take photos all around the college on our chosen theme. Mine was circle. To start off with i was thinking about the brief to literally, and taking photos of obvious circular shapes around the university. As I took more photos i tried to be more experimental and creative. I took lots of photos so i had a variety to choose from. 

Here are a selection of the strongest images:

Thos photograph denotes the lights in the lift. I really like the perception of this image, i also like the fact that it isn't completely obvious and clear what the photo depicts. The contrast between light and dark is visually interesting. I think i could edit this picture and make it in to an interesting postcard.

One of the ideas i had for my set of postcards was photographing various plug holes around the college, i think this is an interesting and unique way of interpreting the brief.

I was really inspired by light and shadow cast all around the college, rather than focussing on circular shapes i began to look for geometric and bold shapes that i could edit circles in to in order to create a visual juxtaposition. 

I really like these 2 two images, I like the smooth swooping motion of the line in the first image. I think these images would work really well as a set of postcards.

These images are of ink trapped under the glass top tables in the print room. I really like the artistic connotations. I like the abstract stylised appearance of the images. I like the way there almost appear as abstract paintings.

This is a design that I created on photoshop, I desaturated the image and used the elliptical marquee tool to cut out the circular shape, I then rotated the circle to add the high contrast between light and dark and accentuate the circular shape further.

Here is another design that I created by applying the same steps as the image before. I really like the juxtaposition of the way the straight lines contrast with the soft circular lines.

For this design I cut small retangular shapes out of the photograph above, I then stitched them together randomly and created the circle shape by rotating it. 

First i selected the marquee tool

I then used the tool to create a circle cutting mark.

Next i copied the shape and pasted it in to an A5 sized file.

I adjusted the size. I really like the simplistic style of this design, however i think that the background is too harsh.

I really liked the grey, light beige stock that some of the postcards from the research were on. I decided to simulate the colour and add a beige background to the back of my post cards.

I decided that the beige background was still to harsh and not as subtle as i wanted it to look. So i layered the circle on to the same background. I really like the aesthetics of this design. I like that the circle is more obvious and prominent in certain places and almost fades in to the background in others. This is the final design for my postcard.

Final postcards:

Back of postcards:

I kept the back of the postcard simple, I layered the texture of the front of the postcard on top of 'Leeds College Of Art' to make it more subtle. It also ties the design of back and front together.

Over all I am pleased with the outcome of this brief. I think my postcards fit the brief well and are well designed. I tried to utilise my skills in photography, I like the abstract and non literal result of the postcards. I decided to use the ink photographs for my final postcards, as I think the bright bold colours made for more dynamic and eye catching postcards.

Photoshop Workshop 2

1. Automatically align source image, for use if the photographs were taken with out a tripod.

2. The original file is different from the file you are working with in photoshop, allows you to go back and edit original file.

OUGD404 Design Principles: Visual Literacy, The language of graphic design

Semiotics - Sign Symbol Signifier

Visual - Metaphor Metonym Synecdoche

'Work the metaphor every object has the capacity to stand for something other than what is apparent. Work on what it stands for.'

Visual Synecdoche - This term is applied when a part is used to represent the whole, or vice versa. Quite simply , the main subject is substituted for something that is inherently connected to it. This Substitution only works if what the synecdoche represents is universally recognised.

Visual Metaphor - A visual metaphor is used to transfer the meaning from one image to another. Although the images may have no close relationship a metaphor converts an impression about something relatively unfamiliar by drawing a comparison between it and something familiar.

Visual Metonym - A visual metonym is a symbolic image that is used to make reference to something with a more literal meaning. For example a cross might be used to signify the church. By way of association the viewer makes a connection between the image and the intended subject. unlike a visual synecdoche, the two images bear a close relationship, but are not intrinsically linked.

' In trying to separate words from pictures we have to accept that words are 'pictures of letters' ' - David Crow

Think different.

If you're not failing every now and again, it's a sign you're not doing anything very innovative.
Woody Allen

The Anatomy of Type Part 5

"Type is speech made visible"

Legibility&Readability

With a newspaper the first thing you look at it is the name of the paper , the tabloids do this by putting red tops on there text. When text and things are positioned together there harder to read and becoming less visually engaging.

If you can't make it good make it  BIG  if you can't make it big make it red.


To begin the session we used the words from the pharse "who are you?" and placed the separate words and weights into different arrangements.

What we began to realise was the size, weight and style of the font indicated the pitch, volume or emphasis on a word and began to read them out baring in mind these things. We also listened to our partners say the phrase and visually recorded what words they were putting emphasis on indicated using the bold letters and pitch and volume indicated through size.