three semiotic signifiers

After talking with Erica on Monday, I went with symbols for Health and Food and Race. The other one that we thought was working fairly well was an idea I had for class, which was a picture showing the juxtaposition of poverty on the Plaza, a place in KC that is definitely a wealthier location.

I did some work on my symbol ideas. The health and food one is based on the cross often associated with health - like the Red Cross - and healthy foods that people need to be able to meet their basic needs. I created some iterations of the concept. Looking at the image, I lean toward the top left (the cross with the giant carrot) and the one directly below (the cross with simplified food images in the spaces between the cross)

With the race symbols, I had created a circular 'scale' in an earlier sketch. Erica seemed to like the idea of the scale in circular form more than the scale shown in the bottom picture. My thinking behind the race issue is that there needs to be an equality conveyed - that we are all equal. Within KC, I often think of places like Troost and the Argentine, places where an obvious divide is seen between races. Troost acts as a dividing line between white and black and the Argentine is a predominantly Hispanic driven community, lacking education and resources. At the same time, we see these neighborhoods with a concentration of a single race living in harder conditions, but poverty isn't racist. It affects anyone. It doesn't care what color your skin is. One of the symbols I like most right now is the bottom left one - I have reservations though with how there are different 'levels' coming out of this circle. I like the way it looks but I'm not confident in how it conveys equality. I'm also interested in the top most symbol I drew. I don't think it's quite 'there' yet, but I can see it in my head as being a symbol that does convey what I want it to, with a little more work.

I don't have a larger image of the plaza concept right now. What I would really like to do is go take some pictures on the Plaza. The last few days have not lent themselves to being able to do that yet. 

Erica and I also talked some about the sustainability symbol I drew as being a potential option. I haven't really explored it much yet (I was pretty set on the Plaza/class idea) but I think it would be a good idea to do so and see where it might go.

type in motion>>>>>>

These are the original three storyboards I made for the type in motion project. The first two were created thinking about after effects and how you can do all kinds of crazy stuff. However, that didn't work with the concept of my actual quote. The quote is a list, so I chose to create a list based on that.

This last one is a revised version of the list storyboard.

And, the digital mockups of three frames. Keeping it simple.

more definitions

denotation - a literal definition of a subject

connotation - a secondary definition that a viewer creates for themselves based on past experiences and social conventions

anchorage - text that explains the meaning of an image concretely

relay - text that adds additional meaning to an image that doesn't exist within the image already





Semiotics is confusing. So many terms.

project 1 visual material

Map of KC, based on race. Each pink dot represents 25 people. Pink dots represent White; blue dots represent Black; orange dots represent Hispanic; green dots represent Asian

link to article where this image appears: http://www.pitch.com/FastPitch/archives/2010/09/21/eric-fischers-racial-segregation-map-shows-kansas-citys-true-colors

These symbols popped up on one of Swiss Miss's blogposts from author Rachel Botsman. Botsman co-authored a book call "What's Mine Is Yours" about consumption and sharing. Botsman states one of her goals of the project is to allow local change makers to impact their communities. I thought that these images had a good sense of community.

link to blog post where these graphics were found: http://www.swiss-miss.com/2010/09/guest-post-by-rachel-botsman.html

Simple dolls depicting a family. But what does a typical family look like? I'm curious. When I asked my sister what the first thing she thought of when I said 'family unit,' her response was the 'stick figure families on the back of car windows.' These often show the mom and dad and their two-to-three kids, sometimes a pet. This isn't always the norm though, but it seems to be what is societally agreed upon as being the norm.

http://www.swiss-miss.com/2012/05/timo-handmade.html

Sustainability - this is an animation that I found on Behance. It's about ForeverGreen, and I think it has some really good concepts for how to present the idea of sustainability, visually. I can't post an image, but here is the link. ForeverGreen
This is another one that was made out of the sustainability vein. I like this thought - "When we think of sustainability, it's normal just think of plants, but nature is composed of much more than that. By working on the visual identity of ECOYOU, we decided encompass various types of beings who share the planet with humans."
The identity of this product is then based around this thought, with ECOYOU shown within the other parts of the world that makes up this particular community. The link: EcoYou
Here's another link to a tweet. The image hit me as sustainable imagery. So, I thought I'd post it. Designspiration

type2: research for P1

Print is dead: Print isn't dead. It's evolving.
I came up with this particular way of saying this after reading this article: I'm certain it's probably been said before, but I don't have anyone to attribute as actually saying this.

Importance/living with design: "Design makes our lives more efficient, informed, comfortable, productive, beautiful, enjoyable, sustainable... and possible."
This is pulled directly from this article on AIGAs website. It is speaking of the lack of focus on design in the K12 education curriculum.

Design education: Design can not be ignored. We must educate ourselves to know that design is a vital part of the human experience in so many ways.

Importance of design: The only important thing about design is how it relates to people. - Victor Papanek

Protip: Make sure you sleep. Sleep like your life depends on it.
This is something I've heard a lot of. Many of us don't get enough of it, to the point where we start to suffer because of it. It's said time and again that we need to sleep in order to actually work and create. It's true. Sometimes it just doesn't seem realistic.



Some others that probably aren't legitimate suggestions, but I found them fun/relevant to my current stance.

Ethernet is for the weak. Only the daring rely on shoddy wifi.
Not all designers wear black. Some of us are color fiends.
It's like I asked you for apples and you gave me ham. - Marty Maxwell Lane

LOVE/HATE - Kinetic Motion animation by Rick Thompson from Rick Thompson on Vimeo.

Conan O'Brien Kinetic Typography from Jacob Gilbreath on Vimeo.

Kid President Peptalk Kinetic Typography from Taylor English on Vimeo.

all videos are found on vimeo

topic picking

I chose community revitalization as my topic.  I did some pre-article reading brain storming, researched and read some articles, and then created a second list of words. As follows -

urban, racism, prejudices, wealth and poverty, low-income, poor, economic disasters, neighborhoods, neighbors, neighboring, fellowship, assumptions, health, broken families, schools and failing school systems, education, separation of race, class, and wealth, ghetto, projects, gangs, public health, food access and affordability, food deserts, social justice, money, funding, unity, youth, shelter and housing, homelessness, jobs and joblessness, sustainability

It's a lot of words.

Here are some sites that I used to read about different community related things happening both within Kansas City and in general, how revitalization might look. I'm really interested in how revitalization looks within existing communities and how, from a faith and religious stance, social justice calls people who can help, to help.

http://jacobswelljustice.com/2013/09/12/neighboring-rosedale-ridge-pt-1/
http://wearesuperman-themovie.com/about-we-are-superman-the-transformation-of-31st-and-troost/
http://youthfront.com/missional-journeys/preview/
http://www.dwell.com/great-idea/article/kansas-city-makes-it-right
http://www.whatworksforamerica.org/fresh-ideas-for-building-healthier-communities-revitalizing-a-community-beginning-with-health/#.UuiKN5F6jyV
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_desert
https://www.chicagoideas.com/videos/17

semiotics for the win

semiotics - uses signs and symbols individually and in sign systems to study communication. This also includes how we understand and construct meaning.

sign - something that stands for something else.

signifier - a sound or image referring to something else within a sign.

signified - a concept or object being referred to within a sign.

icon - sign category; this thing bears a physical resemblance to the object or concept being referred to.

index - sign category; there is a direct link between the sign and the object or concept that can be figured out by looking at it.

symbol - sign category; there is a connection between the sign and object or concept that is learned and agreed upon in society.

syntagm - signs that have a sequential order between each other, and can exist in various forms.

paradigm - accepted outline that units are apart of a common set, but each unit is inherently different from another unit.

code - a part of language; a culture decides on a specific set of signs to be used within society.

polysemy - the existence of multiple meanings for a single word or phrase.