Month: October 2021

• 

Joaquin Sorolla, better known as the “master of light”, was born in Valencia, Spain in 1863. From an early age, he showed his passion for art. His high school’s director noticed his talent and suggested he enter the School of Craftsmen of Valencia. At the age of thirteen, Sorolla did so, and two years after that, he goes to the Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes de Valencia. When he finished his studies, the painter Ignazio Pinazo introduced him to Impressionism. At that moment, he gained interest in the treatment of light in painting. Because of this, when we look at his artwork, we can tell the light is playing a main role.

• 

One of his most famous works is Otra Margarita. Like many of his first paintings, it portrays a scene as a way to criticize or protest against many situations of the social reality of Spain during that time. For this piece, Sorolla was inspired by a real situation he witnessed, in which a woman with two policemen who were taking her to prison for having murdered her baby.

• 

As the Impressionists used to do, Sorolla also adopted the habit of painting outside a studio. Thus, he used to go to the Valencian beaches to paint, and that is how he achieved many of his most well-known pieces. These were the first Sorolla’s pieces I ever saw, and since then he became one of my favourite artists. Although I also think his other kind of paintings are very well achieved, there is something about the way he paints the sea that amuses me; it gives me the feeling that it is in real movement. Besides, I really admire the way he manages to also capture a specific hour of the day with the way he paints the light. An example of this could be “Sad Inheritance”.

• 

• 

References

Sánchez, M. (2020, September 30). Joaquín Sorolla: biografía, obras y exposiciones. Alejandra de Argos. https://www.alejandradeargos.com/index.php/es/completas/32-artistas/41818-joaquin-sorolla-biografia-obras-y-exposiciones

Gavalda, J. (2019, August 10). Joaquín Sorolla, el pintor de la luz del mediterráneo. Historia National Geographic. https://historia.nationalgeographic.com.es/a/joaquin-sorolla-pintor-luz-mediterraneo_14569/2#slide-1

Wikipedia (2021, October 11). Joaquín Sorolla. https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joaqu%C3%ADn_Sorolla

I wanted my zine to have a coherent design with the topic chosen. Since my topic was The New Typography Movement, some of the elements I used were geometrical shapes, asymmetrical layouts, dynamism, capital letters, and a reduced colour palette. All of those are characteristics of the design pieces of this movement.

I had never designed a zine; indeed, I think I hadn’t even seen one before. I like the fact that after this project, I now know how to create a zine, which is probably something that I’ll use in the future. This is because I personally found it fun to play with the general design and make individual pages that connect and because I think it is a useful tool for communicating information in an entertaining way.

It took me around nine hours to complete this project, but to be honest, I do not love the overall result of the project, and I would give myself a 6/10. One of my mistakes was the size I chose, I noticed too late the size was too small to fit all the information I had, so I had to take a big part of that away. Also, most of the paragraphs do not look organized. I think I also used too much time researching. Another mistake is the fact that I didn’t read the brief carefully enough, and at first, I did all the research and sketches for the wrong topic, so I had to restart. If I hadn’t wasted all that time, I could have spent it on making a better brief (I am not counting the time spent in that first attempt in the 9 hours). Something I do like is the layout design, and I like to see the way it is all connected.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Research references:

https://www.unostiposduros.com/los-principios-de-la-nueva-tipografia-por-jan-tschichold/

https://www.unostiposduros.com/grandes-maestros-de-la-tipografia-jan-tschichold/

https://ericcraps.wordpress.com/2019/01/15/new-typography/

https://graffica.info/la-nueva-tipografia-laszlo-moholy-nagy-1923/

https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/1013

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Tschichold#Typefaces

https://antoinesammut.blogspot.com/2014/01/new-typography-movement.html

https://ericcraps.wordpress.com/2019/01/15/new-typography/

Majestic, bright, and ornate: letters that look like they have come from heaven

During the Middle Ages, the Illuminated Manuscripts became popular among Western European high society. These were made entirely by hand, and included religious content, such as psalms and prayers. The pages of these manuscripts were adorned with illustrations and the so-called “Initials”.

Initials were letters that could be found at the beginning of a sentence, paragraph, or chapter. The letters at the beginning of a chapter were the most elaborate and meticulously detailed of all, while those at the beginning of a sentence were the simplest. However, what is common among all of them is that they are always capital letters.
Initials became of vital importance; it was inconceivable the elaboration of an illustrated manuscript without the inclusion of them. They became so relevant, that kings and great religious leaders of the time implemented them in official documents. This was because they considered that initials gave these documents greater transcendence and beauty.

For the society of the time, the brightness alluded to divinity. As initials used to accompany religious texts, they wanted to achieve a connection with the idea of ​​God. Because of these, we can notice there is a golden-shine effect on these letters. To obtain this effect, a thin gold foil was used. This was positioned on the letter, then sanded and polished, to finally stick it with a wet brush.

From the first time I saw one of these letters, I was completely amazed. I think about all the time and dedication it would take to make them, and it just seems incredible to me. I think the level of detail that they reached in each of the letters is admirable. In particular, I am interested in historical letters, a type of initials that instead of containing a random decorative design, seeks to represent some of the scenes that are being narrated in the text. In my opinion, this is a smart way to not only make the text aesthetic but also to illustrate it at the same time.

I’ve been so interested in initials, that months ago I wanted to try to make one. I took an existing letter “B” as a reference, and I designed one that shows the four steps necessary for the elaboration of the letters. The first is sketching, then drawing, adding the golden effect, and finally adding color.

• 

• 

Initials began to fall into disuse after the invention of the Gutenberg printing press in the mid-15th century, as this caused a detriment in the production of manuscripts. However, it was not immediate. The illuminated letters continued to be used, and when there was a printed text, blank spaces were left so that initials could later be drawn there. Gradually, they began to be less used until they disappeared. The most recent illuminated manuscript with initials dates from the 17th century.

References:

Mark, J. J. (2018, March 06). Illuminated Manuscripts. World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://www.worldhistory.org/Illuminated_Manuscripts/

Historiated Initial. (2021, April 13). Wikipedia. from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historiated_initiaI

Initial. (2021, September 14). Wikipedia. from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initial

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

References

Wethey, H. E. (2021, April 3). El Greco. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/El-Greco

Sobrón, I. (2018, February 9). Explica las características de la pintura de El Greco a través de sus obras más representativas. Slideshare. https://es.slideshare.net/ignaciosobron/explica-las-caractersticasde-la-pintura-de-elgreco-a-travsde-sus-obras-ms-representativas

Lasso, S (2019, November 01). El Greco: Pintor del siglo XVI. About español. https://www.aboutespanol.com/el-greco-3954367

For my moodboard, I decided to talk about religion and spirituality, and how these have a huge impact on everything. I chose this theme because I find it fascinating how the spirituality of different cultures profoundly determines their identity, their customs, their way of acting, and in general in their entire lifestyle.

I liked the fact that with this project I got deeper into three very different cultures: Jewish, Hindu, and Ancient Egypt. Despite knowing a little about all of them, it was thanks to this research that I learned data that I did not know, for example why Jews wear the kippah, or what cultural meaning the colors have for Hindus.

To be honest, this job took me a long time. First, it was not so easy to find all the connections between the events and the topics. On the other hand, when talking about so many topics, this implied a long investigation of each thing separately. And finally, having never used InVision, at first I didn’t understand how it worked

In total, it took me about 7 hours to finish the mood board. I would give myself a rating of 8/10, as I consider that Iachieved the objective of the assignment, however, I would have liked to include more eye-catching titles, and to have made the moodboard look better aesthetically.

This is my favorite fragment of the moodboard, because the theme of the book of the dead is the one that interests me the most, and the one that attracts me the most aesthetically.

Moodboard link: https://facilitation.invisionapp.com/boards/H68033204G79B8A

With the use of knots, this Inca invention shows us that images are not the only thing that communicates.

The Inca Empire was the largest and most powerful empire during pre-Columbian America. They partly inhabited the territories current territories of Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia, and Argentina, but they were mainly settled in Peru in the Cuzco region. Among its main characteristics are a strengthened army, the possession of gold, their sophisticated textile techniques, the cultivation of potatoes and corn, the raising of alpacas, and the creation of a particular communication system based on ropes and knots, which they called “quipu”.

Personally, this last fact caught my attention, since I had never seen anything like it. By not having a written language, but merely oral, the quipu was the method used by them to record information. This was a very practical system for the Incas because it was portable. Moreover, it was also versatile, since with it they kept official and trade records, as well as being used to tell stories. The quipu consisted of a horizontal rope or a wooden bar to which ropes of different colors were tied, and these ropes had knots on them. Every detail about these ropes and knots, such as their colors, position, quantity, size, and type, had a specific meaning. For example, green indicated conquest, red represented a warrior, blue identified water, yellow was for gold, black was for time, and so on.

With the arrival and conquest of the Spaniards, the use of the quipus was abolished and many were destroyed because it was considered that they were “a thing of the devil”. Today there are less than a thousand quipus that have been found and have survived through the centuries. These are in museums all around the world, and some belong to private collections.

It is usual that when studying the subject of communication systems of ancient civilizations we see many that, although they are interesting, are usually similar in the sense that they generally include the representation of an image or idea through drawings. For instance, the Egyptian hieroglyphs. However, the Inca proposal is a drastically different one. This made me thing think about how amazing it is that there are so many ways to solve a problem, but we are so used to the same thing that we let ourselves be guided by the flow without allowing ourselves to consider other alternatives. That was the reflection to which learning about the quipu led me, and I think that nurturing ourselves of different perspectives, cultures, and sources of information, nourishes us as designers and gives us tools to create more authentic pieces, to let ourselves “think outside the box”.

References:

Cartwright, M. (2014, May 08). Quipu [Quipu]. (E. S. Grill, Translator). World History Encyclopedia. from https://www.worldhistory.org/trans/es/1-12797/quipu/  Uriarte, M. (2020, November 02). Incas. Caracteristicas.co. from https://www.caracteristicas.co/incas/#ixzz78GMBnUdZ Quipu. (2021, August 30). Wikipedia. from https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quipu#Localización_actual_de_los_quipus_sobrevivientes