The Bauhaus (1913-1933) was a school of art and design that existed in pre-war Germany before being shut down by the Nazi party in the face of World War II. Founded by Walter Gropius, the primary objective of the Bauhaus was to redefine the relationship between function and design. In other words, as stated by metmuseum.com, the objective was to “reimagine the material world to reflect the unity of all the arts.”
Nesting tables designed by Josef Albers
The Bauhaus housed a multidisciplinary focus. Students learned painting, architecture, sculpture, and design, as well as specialized workshops like cabinet making, among others. Their coursework was intensive and diverse, allowing students to make creations that drew on a large vocabulary of historical and artistic references. Students themselves were diverse as well, bringing their own cultural influences and social-economic lenses to each discipline.
An excellent example is this chair shown below. The extremely basic design is complemented by the unique use of material, contrast, colour and essence of extremist minimalism. In contrast to the arts and crafts/art nouveau movement of the previous decades, the modern qualities of the Bauhaus designs were refreshing to say the least. This had an especially profound effect in its homeland of Germany, notorious for its heavy gothic design style during the early 20th century.
For this assignment, I first started with researching the events I wanted to include in my timeline and then I sketched out all my ideas ahead of time to plan out the text composition and graphics. Unfortunately, I threw out all my sketches so I won’t be able to include them in this blog post. After sketching out all my ideas, I refined them and picked one that would fit the information I had previously researched. I took inspiration from the poster down below and added my own ideas.
I knew I wanted to keep my poster mostly black and white because with the information I have written on it, vibrant colours would not be pleasing to the eyes and the audience would not know where to look. I chose to add red because I think it’s a colour that stands out on its own but also matches well with black and white. With my decision to include the “A” graphic at the top, I made several columns to separate my information and I think it works quite well. Towards the end, I realized that I still had space at the bottom of the poster so I decided to include the well-known typographers under each typeface. It was last-minute research but I’m satisfied with my choice. I would give myself an 8.5/10 on this project because I actually like how my poster turned out and I think I’ve met all the criteria in the project brief but I could have used my time better. Overall, it was a fun assignment and a good review for things we learned in class.
For this project, I originally chose to make a twenty-sided die but I realized that it doesn’t have anything to do with visual communication and I would have a hard time making a connection so instead, I ended up making chopines.
After deciding my choice of artifact, I began to do some research about it and wrote down my paragraph separately in a Word document. I then used clay to make the shoe and it took a while to get the shape right although it still doesn’t look exactly like a real chopine (see photo reference down below). This was actually my first time working with clay which is probably why I struggled to make the artifact. I wrote the paragraph description on a ripped paper and included the velvet and lace fabric in the background to give the photo more texture.
This assignment honestly isn’t one of my favourites and I felt unmotivated to finish it but it was interesting to learn about the history. I definitely should have made better use of my time and planned the photo out more efficiently because I’m not very satisfied with the end product and it even took me way longer than it could have. Therefore, I would give myself a 5/10 on this project.
The women’s suffrage movement was one of the most important global events in not only women’s history but history as a whole. It actually began in 1848, when a women’s rights convention was held in Seneca Falls, New York and 68 women and 32 men signed the Declaration of Sentiments. It basically stated that women wanted equal treatment as men and the same voting rights; the movement continued until 1920. There were many reasons why the movement began and was such a serious matter. Women protested for better wages so they feed their families and wanted the rich to start paying for the poor. Additionally, the factories and warehouses they were working in had poor sanitation and safety. Women wanted to work somewhere safe and clean. Many women did not have many opportunities to get a job. If they had a job then they would get paid very poorly and worked in horrible conditions. They never had a chance to finish their education or pursue a professional career. From 1777 to 1784, women lost their right to vote in many states. Some women and girls couldn’t even go out without the supervision of a man! However, they had no voice in the government so they weren’t able to make important decisions and changes to benefit themselves.
Photographs of women gathering together during protest
During the movement, many posters were designed and shown in magazines, newspapers etc. to further advocate for equal suffrage among men and women. This united women and many felt that they had the power to speak up for once.
Illustrated paper commercial
Women were finally putting their needs as a priority
Through the efforts of many important women, there were also good news and many changes were allowed to be made, including the creation of the 19th amendment to the constitution was signed into law on August 26th, 1920 which gave all women the right to vote. Four years prior on November 7th, 1916 the first female member of Congress, Jeanette Rankin was elected to the House of Representatives. Rankin was a beacon and symbol of what women could achieve with determination and equality. Personally, this is especially relevant to me because the 2020 US election is just around the corner and researching about this significant event has been very inspiring and helped me gain hope for the election outcome which will determine the rights for many Americans.
I’ve always liked the font Cooper Black and when I saw it was designed before 1939, I decided to do my typography zine project on it. I started by finding out as much information as I can and taking notes along the way. Then, I condensed all my notes into simple sentences because we only have eight pages including a title page. I roughly sketched out my layout and did two versions of my sketch. I chose a tan colour paper to use as my background because I knew I wanted to add some text and images using plain white paper and I really like the contrast between the two. Overall, I thought it was a fun and informative project. I learned a lot about how a typeface can stand out better and the details in the font really surprised me because I didn’t notice these elements before. I would give myself a 9/10. I really like how my zine turned out and how clean and organized it is. I did a lot of research and planning before I started working on a sketch and I took off one mark because I think I could have shortened the amount of information on each page and I made a few mistakes while writing my summary so I used whiteout to correct them but it turned out to be pretty noticeable.
Today, photography can be used to capture a memory. This is all thanks to Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, a French inventor who used the process of heliography to create the world’s first permanent photographic image.
portrait of Niépce
first version of Niépce’s photo
Niépce’s View from the Window at Le Gras (1826 or 1827) is the earliest surviving photograph of a view of Niépce’s estate in Burgundy, France. It was made using a camera obscura. As heliography produces one-of-a-kind images, there are no duplicates of the piece. Niépce used a very small camera of his own making and a pinhole acting as the lens. He coated Bitumen of Judea onto a piece of glass or metal; the Bitumen then hardened in proportion to the amount of light that hit it. The exposure took at least eight hours. Eight whole hours! Niépce’s patience and dedication amazes me! Obviously, the photo is very low quality and difficult to see. The grayish-hued plate containing hardened bitumen looks like a blur. During the exposure, different areas of the bitumen had hardened by different amounts, and the chemical wash removed some of the coating more than in other areas, leaving the image behind.
camera that was used
When the picture was taken, he fixed the image with lavender oil and white petroleum. He then created enhanced versions of the photo which is much easier to see. If you look at the photograph carefully, you can observe the results of the very long exposure. Both the building wing on the left and the one on the right were illuminated. The colours are showing up more in the enhanced photo and in the black and white one, the contrast is very obvious so we’re able to clearly see the buildings.
It truly is a revolutionary invention that not many people know about. The first photograph is now sealed in an oxygen-free case at the Harry Ransom Center in Austin. I hope I’ll be able to see it with my own eyes someday.
The Thirty Years’ War was primarily fought in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648. It was a brutal period in history, deadlier than the Black Death and World War II, in terms of the proportion of the population lost. However, I won’t be rambling on about the boring historical facts and dates during this war. No need to thank me. Instead, let’s talk about how the armies dressed and the weapons and strategies they used. Uniforms were rare in at least the Swedish army, although there may have been a few exceptions for officers and some elite troops. Soldiers were however supposed to make or buy their own clothes usually brought from home. Although some things such as hats, feathers, socks and armour were granted by the army to all soldiers. The feather was worn on the hats of Swedish soldiers to make them recognizable to their own. Color was too expensive even for a small part of cloth for every soldier. Undyed cloth was probably often used and brown, grey, off-white coats and breeches would be commonly seen. If they had the materials at hand, the men would try and brighten their array by adding coloured ribbons.
uniform example on a very upset man
Officers might have had more extravagant and colourful clothes though. Blue and red were most used for them. Soldiers used many kinds of weapons primarily pikes in formations called Tercios.
victory using the Tercios!
The arquebus was the main firearm during the 16th century and was used in the 17th century and they were so heavy, a support stand was needed. Crossbows from the earlier period were still in use from the beginning of the war, as well as daggers and buckler and rapiers.
Cupid during war >:0
Gun model sketches
The most recent innovation was the matchlock musket. There were few rifles in use until the mid-18th century primarily because they were slow to load. Swords were still used throughout. Some were curved while others were thin and straight. Some German troops used two-handed great swords.
example of swords used
Battle tactics and strategies also helped many countries win in the war. The most common tactic used was the caracole – a combined cavalry charge assisted by firearms. Eventually, this was replaced by a full-scale cavalry charge. Such tactics needed well trained and disciplined troops.
painting to depict the chaos of the war
The developments of war strategies throughout the Thirty Years’ War influenced the style of warfare in future wars. Although fashion didn’t play a huge role in earning victory during the war, it is still interesting (I hope) to look at the clothing and armour they were provided to fight in this huge battle.
Mood boards organize ideas and convey feelings about a topic. It took me a while to become familiar with Invision as this was my first time using it. I started out by listing possible events I could research about in a notebook page. Then, I eliminated the ones which didn’t connect to each topic groups.
It was quite difficult to think of connections between events and topics, so this took me a long time to plan. I wish I had known we could choose topics outside of the three groups before I finished the mood board. I also had to be mindful of the significance of the events I chose because I couldn’t find too much information on minor events. Which is why I ended up with the three events: Bauhaus, Charles Lindbergh and US Stock Market Crash. They all had a great impact on the world, whether positively or negatively.
I thought the overall experience with Invision was a little confusing but stimulating. Despite the time and effort I took on this assignment, it was still very informative, and I learned a lot about different aspects of history. Finally, I would give myself a 9/10. I misunderstood part of the project criteria and ended up redoing the assignment halfway. But I planned the assignment well and worked very hard on the research and curating the mood board. If I reached out to my classmates or professor sooner, I could have probably avoided the confusion upon the project brief and take less time completing the project.
During my senior year of high school, I took a Comparative Cultures class and I vividly remember a culture that really interested me, Mayan civilization, one of the longest existing and most advanced Pre-Columbian civilizations. Due to the Spanish conquest of the Maya, most historical evidence was destroyed, except for the cities and buildings. The walls of the Mayan buildings were covered in writings about over 4000 years of history. Therefore, their architecture is one of the most significant documents that remain. Mayan city-states built and intricately designed pyramids, temples, palaces, walls etc.
Their pyramids are perhaps the most well-known structures in history. They were utilized not just for religious practices where offerings were made to the divine beings but also as burial chambers for deceased rulers, their partners etc. They are decorated with limestone carving and geometrical patterns. I remember reading a page about how the shapes of pyramids are triangular because by getting closer to the sky, it symbolizes that they are also reaching closer to their god and goddesses. I also found it interesting that many times, new pyramids were built on top of old pyramids. Archeologists have found several more pyramids inside and under existing ones. The Mayan ruins still exist now and can be found in Mexico, Yucatan and Quintana Roo. If possible, I would like to visit them one day and see these remarkable buildings in real life.
The Mayans spent much of their time stargazing and making advanced astronomical calculations. Their calendar system consists of several complex cycles of different lengths that are surprisingly similar to our calendars today. Something I found quite amusing is that on December 21st, 2012, it was said that the world would end. However, one of the calendars used to measure long periods of time, the “Long Count Calendar” made by Mayans proved that it is just a silly theory, and everyone was basically freaking out for nothing! Not only did the calendars help the Mayans keep track of time, they were also used astrological cycles to aid in annual planting and harvesting.
Their achievements are even more impressive considering they only had stone-age tools and didn’t have an available source of iron ore. They mainly used stone tools to complete daily tasks such as building projects, farming and hunting. The main materials used to create these tools were limestone, sandstone and fine-grained volcanic stone. Mayan settlements, temples and palaces were made largely from shaped stone blocks. I can’t imagine how much time and effort were put into building their advanced architecture just by using these simple yet useful instruments.
Despite Maya’s innovative scientific achievements, their culture began to decline toward the beginning of the late 8th century. Some say the downfall of Maya civilization could have been overpopulation, environmental degradation, warfare, or even extended drought. There is no definitive explanation.
However, we know that surely, their culture had a significant impact in our lifestyle today.
For this project, I chose to use fortune telling as my theme because I have recently been interested in spirituality, witchcraft, and astrology. I thought it would be interesting to draw myself as the fortune teller and using second person point of view.
I started out by listing out possible themes and ended up choosing fortune telling because I felt inspired by it and really liked the idea of addressing the audience as if I’m telling their fortune. Then, I made a separate list of the elements I want to include on the page to make sure I have enough space to fit everything.
After planning out my yearbook spread, I began making a sketch of the page (see images attached down below) and you can see that the sketch is different from the final product. That is because after finishing my sketch, I went back and examined the elements to see which ones are unnecessary and how I can make the overall image look more mystical and captivating.
I tried to incorporate as many fortune telling tools as I could think of. For example, I added tarot cards to communicate my other choice of career and secret (of me being Hannah Montana LOL). As for the medium, I used pencil crayon, fine liner and watercolor. With watercolor, I painted smoke and fog purple to make the page seem more mysterious yet peaceful because I didn’t want it to seem gloomy or sinister. Aside from the purple, I tried using mostly warm and rich colors like yellow, orange, brown and burgundy.
I would grade myself an 8/10. Regarding my creative process, I could’ve managed my time better and maybe consider using more design elements. Additionally, I feel like my page is too crowded and could have limited the number of elements to avoid distractions. I realized afterwards that it might have been better if I only added smoke on the bottom page since that the top page is already quite busy. Nevertheless, I like how my theme is obvious and I used a balanced colour palette.
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