Theme and Variation

Thursday, September 24th, 2009
For this assignment we were supposed to create a black-and-white Processing sketch and use two variables, a string and integer, as the inputs. I looked at Sol Lewitt’s work for inspiration: Sol Lewitt inspiration I wanted to do something very similar– tiny bricks merging to form a bigger picture, much like a mosaic– but quickly discovered that this is difficult to do if you don’t know Processing and waited until the day before the assignment is due to learn. So I tried my best, and will definitely hit the books this weekend to learn Processing! Theme and Variation Sketch

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Saul Bass

Thursday, September 24th, 2009
Our assignment was to pick a work from either Saul Bass or Paul Rand that we liked, and explain why. Below is an illustration from a children’s book, Henri’s Walk to Paris, which Saul Bass illustrated in 1962. Henri's Walk to Paris It’s understated, simple, and playful. If I’m remembering correctly, the books I read as a kid were bursting with primary colors, and it was a little overwhelming and borderline tacky. Sometimes there would be so much color and activity that my eyes wouldn’t know where to focus. In this illustration, he only uses a few basic, yet unique, colors– purple, green, yellow, and white. I also liked the amount of detail he put into the typography. I liked how the font is uppercase, but the sentences don’t scream, which I think is difficult to do. He uses a simple, sans-serif font to form the woman’s svelte body, the man’s Pinocchio-esque profile, and bus. The woman’s hat looks like it’s made from X’s and O’s, and it’s bold, so it acts as sort of a starting point for the page. In English, we naturally read from left to right, top to bottom, and I like that his use of white, the most contrasting color on this page, follows this flow as well.

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