Leeds Art Gallery Research

Leeds Art Gallery is based within the city centre next to the town hall, it has a range of works and exhibitions, it is home to both contemporary and historic art pieces. The Gallery opened in 1888, funded by public subscription in honour of Queen Victorias Golden Jubilee. Hubert Von Herkomer, a German born British portrait artist, formally opened the Gallery and gave examples of his work to the collection of art already there. The Gallery is now owned by Leeds City Council and is just one part of the cultural buildings which the council now own.

Currently being Exhibited is The British Art Show, a national touring exhibition which looks at some of the UK's contemporary art scene. The British Art Show has a huge number of artists contributing to this exhibit, artists who have developed new ways of thinking about and approaching materiality. When I visited this exhibition, which took up a huge amount of space within the building, I found some very interesting pieces of art and artists which I was really interested in, such as Stuart Whipps, particularly his piece 'The Kipper and The Corpse' where he has completely stripped down a 1275 GT Mini to its frame, the car frame sits in the gallery on a platform with clearness around it, it is very striking and interesting how he has stripped down this car to its bare minimum, I can incorporate this way of thinking into my own design work.

Leeds Art Gallery Wayfinding

I decided I would redesign the way finding and directions for the Leeds Art Gallery. I took a second visit to really look at the signage around the building and signage used next to displayed work to get a better idea of current signage and fresh ideas on how to change and make it better.

I looked at basic signs which pointed to general places within the Building and some signage for the use of things such as 'Push' and 'Pull' on doors and signs pointing for the actual gallery from the entrance and cafe. I found that they used basic clear arrows to make navigation easy. Yet all these signs were different from one and other and looked out of place at times, I feel that the sign

All throughout the Gallery were these signs which were not useful as they would be placed in odd places and were placed within the exhibition which was useless as it was clear that you were in the exhibition. What would be more useful is if it named some of the Artists within the room, perhaps placing signage on the floor pointing in the direction of the artists work, this is something I will attempt when I begin to design my signage for the gallery.

There was different styles of signage around the building as there were a few different aspects of the building which were hidden such as the music library and a small space within the building with computers and desks for people to work within, these all use different sizes layouts and types, theres not much consistency within the typography, the one thing to take from it is the legibility 

I looked at the gallery library which had a huge collection of books yet the signage for these book shelves were very small and could use the same treatment as the rest of the gallery such as a same style to what I will design for the other sections of the building, using clear signage to highlight sections of the library. 

I looked at the structure of the art being exhibited within the gallery to get an idea of where I would put up my signage such as here beneath this piece by Ciara Phillips, It would be clear and would not interfere with the work displayed but would be clear and help the audience know who the art is produced by simply and effectively.

Whilst I was at the Leeds Art Gallery I looked for blank spaces which weren't being used where I could place signage to make it easier to navigate around the building. Once I produce my way finding signage I will place them in to images to get a feel for how they would look and work in reality.

Wayfinding - Primary research - study task 1

I visited the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds City Museum and the Leeds Art Gallery, I looked at the way finding within these establishments, looking for maps, signage and clear examples of navigation around.


The aesthetic within the Leeds art gallery was very clean and spacious, each piece surrounded by clean white walls which made pieces stand and and be appreciated well. Many sections within the gallery were not well advertised or navigated to, though wall space was not an issue, I understand that putting directions near the pieces or in exhibitions could be confused as a piece of work itself but  there could be more signage than what there was.

I saw a huge range of varying styles of art within the gallery and here a just a few I found really visually pleasing and interesting, I wanted to show some very contrasting styles which are up within the gallery to show that it could be a task to create signage for certain sections, perhaps splitting it into categories was my first thoughts yet I found that the artists would not classify there pieces within the small descriptive text beside the gallery pieces.

Both the Henry Moore Institute and the Leeds Art Gallery had the map of the building on show when first entering the buildings. Both taking very different approaches to showing the layout of the building, with the Henry Moore Institute they have gone for a very simple shape and type style with thick block lines representing each floor and lines to represent stairs which though simple is a clear and well representative idea, this style shows that a full floor plan is not necessary. I want to create a similar style of design to the Moore institute with the map being shape and line with some type rather than having a full floor plan. 

Within Leeds Art Gallery there are some subtle signage pieces which are simple arrows pointing in various directions yet I found the sign 'Exhibition continues' a lot around the gallery which gives little information and I felt that the placing of these signs were not very well thought out as they would be next to pieces of art or in doorways where you can clearly see the exhibition continues, what I thought would be more useful was names of some artists or pieces which were in the room perhaps on the door or door way along with the actual exhibitions names instead of just 'exhibition'. I only found one example of using an artists name in directions to pieces of work and that was for the section with Mikhail Karikis' work within, I felt this should have been employed for different artists work and exhibition pieces.

I looked at general building signage within both Leeds Art Gallery and Leeds City Museum which employ similar styles of signage pointing to basic things such as Lifts, toilets and cafe or food areas. These signs should differ from the signage used for exhibitions but only slightly, they should be able to work as a set, perhaps keeping the type the same but changing the boldness or making a larger pictogram next to the type.

I other methods of putting across information within Leeds Art Gallery, for example on the left are the stairs to the second level of the gallery these are old stone steps with a long thick piece of metal with names of the companies which have donated and funded the gallery I like this idea and it could be changed to names of artists who are upstairs of the gallery or of the exhibition names. On the left is events listing for the gallery, this idea could be changed to show the directions to the event within the building using colour or arrows. I could also use a full wall piece to show whats going on within the gallery at all times listing artists or rooms and using colour directions so that colours can be associated to certain rooms so that they are easy to navigate between.

I found this signage within the Art Gallery directing to the Library, Lift and shop within, yet I did not like the fact that it was a different looking style of sign to the others within the building, it does stick to the same font yet the style of sign differs, I feel that all the signage should have a similar look and style to the others within but be clearer for more important or regular parts of the building, i.e the toilets.

Wayfinding 1

 Way-finding is spatial problem solving, knowing where you are in a building or environment, knowing where your destination is and how to get to a destination from your present location.  Way-finding is directly linked with orientation, using signage and mapping to direct yourself from your present location to a destination. Orientation is the action of orienting someone or something relative to the points of a compass, map or signage, it is the attempt to determine location of yourself or the location of something.

General signage like these examples above are used in everyday life, to a point were we barely realise we are using them, we follow an arrow to get to are desired destination. These styles of signage, I found, are in city centres which are mainly used for directing to toilets and transport stations such as train stations. While a similar style is used in shops, yet it is not for directing to specific product sections but to the check outs or fitting rooms, most retail shops do not point towards clothing and make people look through until they find there desired destination, this seems like common practice in many retail shops which makes people not question it yet certain stores need a more structured style of navigational signage inside. I like the idea of using different colours which represent different locations.

I looked at irregular styles of way finding, sometimes unconventional styles as I thought these were the most exciting and visually pleasing ones. These Style of directions are still legible and though seem complex are easy to use.
Using a routing style where you follow a certain coloured corridor is a very clever method, it looks very visually pleasing, especially with white surroundings which make these coloured directions stand out and look really bold. The colour schemes which are used are usually basic bright colours which contrast each other well so that the colours do not blend and cannot be confused by one and other.

Hospitals have employed this style for some time, yet different hospitals employ different styles depending on location. Hospitals need to be easily understood and be able to be easily navigated around, this method is clever as it will lead you to your desired destination or at least near to.

Having found the idea of colour coordinated signage very clever, I discovered this train station which used a similar method by colouring the platform numbers which is such a simple effective idea, it is clear and instead of looking for numbers on small signage it is locating colours which then will lead to exact places.

I also found this different style of using light and silhouette to create direction signs, Projecting light onto walls to show where to go. Im not sure if this idea would work all the time it depends on natural lighting and the amount of people within the building, yet visually I think this idea is very creative and can be projected in a range of sizes and locations within a building.

Another artistic style of signage I found was these framed pieces, though the numbers are split up by a few different frames these signs are legible and clear. The signs are all unique in the layout of the frames which when together work to show the floor number and what is on that floor. It is a simple idea over complicated for visual effect.

Design Principles - Balance - Study Task 5

Visual Balance
Alignment
grids

Fibonacci & Golden Ratio
Ratio 8:13
Not only design but ratio

1.62
8.13
forms the basis of paper sizes and its principles can be used as a means of achieving balanced designs.

Many ancient cultures from Egyptians to greeks used this thinking to gain beautiful designed proportions.

Canons - principles of page layout design used to measure and describe proportions, margins and print are.

Van De Graaf


Tschichold
- Golden Grid
- Octavo

Colour Half tones
Graphic Porn

studio task 5 Canon -

Canons - A general law, rule, principle or criteria of which something is judged.

In this session we looked at some rules of graphic design and a range of canons, we then grouped up with some peers and discussed rules in graphic design, the do's and don'ts of the discipline, guidelines all designers should follow.

The Rules we got down were;

- Less is more - This point is that you do not have to go to over the top with some designs, the simple routes are often the best, there is no need to be to literal about certain ideas and the simplest ideas are often the most successful.
-Experiment as much as possible - As a designer you should always experiment a wide range of ideas even if the majority are not developed further. These Experiments are very useful and can often help to show the full extent of how you have tackled a brief.
-Research as much as possible and make it influential to designs -  Make sure you research every aspect of the brief and further research, do not be afraid of going over the top with research, it can have a very influential effect on your work, no research is totally useless.
-Use kerning when appropriate- Make sure than when you Kern letterforms you do it correctly and that it is appropriately done, it is easy to kern something into a new form and it be misinterpreted.
 -Don't centralise type, if you do, Justify it - Centralising type is confusing and can look odd, it is much more difficult to interpret compared to left hand and people struggle with it as its legibility is not clear.
-Follow any appropriate grids when necessary - Grids are important to the layout of a piece of work and if you do not follow one, your work could end up being unclear and look scruffy, a grid gives work a feel off class and professionalism.

With these rules, I shall be able to progress further in my discipline as a designer. They are simple, clear guidelines which all designers should follow to keep there work relevant, clean and professional. These are rules I will follow myself, other designers will have other rules and I will pick up new rules and ideologies while I grow as a designer.

Typography Evaluation

When I was first briefed on the task and was given the adjective 'Shy', which my type would be based on I had many ideas of how I could do this, my intention was to create a small subtle type which holds the characteristics which represents 'shy'. I wanted to create a type which could be used on movie posters and also book design, with this in mind I needed the typeface to remain legible and clear in a number of sizes. I used the skills which I had acquired in my studio tasks on kerning, grid systems, and more I was confident when beginning this task. Having the task of using just one of 9 typefaces as a starting point for my own typeface, these 9 are Muller-Brockmanns chosen 9 typefaces which are the most important in his opinion to graphic designers. 

I looked at just a few of these typefaces, narrowing down the 9 to 2, Caslon and Bodoni, I looked deeply into both of these so that I could make an informed decision on which of these to decide to use. I decided on Caslon due to its softer form and the way I felt it could be edited to the form I want to create that keeps to my typeface manifesto which I made at the beginning of the brief. Through my research I found a style of overlapping characters which I attempted in my hand rendered design and then developed digitally, which gave the feel of a hidden element behind a character, this also gave the sense of overshadowing, just like the characteristics of the being shy.

For the form of each type character of my developed typeface I edited each individual aspect of them. I created a thinner softer form from Caslon, I made sure that each letterform I edited it would be keep the same style as each other letter form, for example the editing I did on the 'b' I would do the same styles to 'd', 'p' and 'q' as they hold similar forms as one and other. The feedback sessions I had gave a positive response to this style of idea, I am glad for this reaction to my work as it showed that my work was going in the correct direction and that my current designs and the research I had found were very informed and the research backed up my design decisions, this was recognisable in my work which my peers said within my feedback.

I asked myself 4 questions which to evaluate my work, these were;

- How effectively does my typeface reflect the adjective shy and why?

- What context can my typeface be used in?

- Do you think my typeface is consistent? Does it work as a set?

- Can you see the sense of shying away within the individual characteristics?

I feel the thin strokes or curves, letter dependant, of each letter form is representative of the adjective shy, this is through muting the boldness of what the type was once, not only thinning sections of the letterforms I have kept some parts as thick as to create a juxtaposition and a feel of overshadowing from the thick strokes over the thin small ones.  I feel my typeface would be used as a type for a film or even a band like I saw being used in my research, it could also be used in book or magazine design and even as I have seen used in advertisements. I feel personally that my typeface is consistent as I kept to the same design style for each letter form so that they all worked as a set, I feel that even when used as a singular word they sit nicely with each other, being visually pleasing and also very legible. I feel that the individual characters can stand alone and still be representative of shy.

These are also the questions which I asked my peers in my final feedback and got a successful response which agreed with my own views on my work. The feedback prompted people to say things which I thought of the work without me saying anything. 

Overall I feel that the typeface I formed was an overall success, all my research and my design ideas were well informed and thought out, I feel I have met the brief strongly and followed the criteria to create a flowing project where I have generated ideas which reflect influences which I have found within my research and the study tasks I have completed which directly link to this main project. If I was to change anything within the design I would have created a few more well developed designs to contribute more of an idea of depth than I currently have. 

Typography Final Feed Back

For this final critique I prepared 4 questions to ask my peers which would be placed next to my work so that people can write down responses for my work. The questions were;

- How effectively does my typeface reflect my adjective shy? And Why?
-What context can my typeface be used in?
-Do you think my typeface is consistent? Does it work as a set?
-Can you see the sense of shying away within the individual characters?

And the response I got -

• 'Thin stoke widths, in comparison to thick creates a juxtaposition.'

• '1. Thin strokes, but presentation not appropriate'
• '2. Book titles, preferably display type, but could be used for body text in a large size.'
• '4. yes, due to the weight difference.'

• '1. Its almost as if certain strokes are shying away which is effective.'
• '3. Yes it works well as a set because the adjustments to each letterforms are consistent.'
• '4. yes certain parts of the letters appear as though they are shying away due to how thin the strokes are.'

• '1. I think the shading works well and helps portray 'shy'.'
• '2. I think it would work well as a display font.'
• '3. Very consistent.'
• '4. Yes because of the contrast in thickness.'

• '1. Yes because of the differentiating stem width which reflects the "Hiding Behind" idea. By having the contrast rather than all of it thin, it shows the typeface being scared. Like it is in on itself because of its shyness.'
• '2. Book covers. Children Books.
• '3. Yes theres a clear decision to thin them out certain parts of the letter forms.
• '4. Yes due to the contrast.'

• '1. Yes because parts are hidden, its thinner.'
• '2. Books'
• '3. Yeah but maybe look at the optical view of the 'P & Q'.'
• '4. Yes definitely.'

• '1. It does due to contrasting stems like it is unsure.'
• '2. Posters, movies or bands.'
• '3. Yes the same idea is portrayed throughout.'

This feedback has been very positive towards my typeface which is very good, I feel very happy that my work has been a success, I have tried to create something which is easily recognisable and is also easily relatable to the adjective. This feedback will be used to help with the evaluation for the entire brief.

Type Specimen (Grid Systems)

 I created a couple of type specimens to show case my typeface, I created a very simple grid layout influenced by the ones Muller-Brockman would use, I experimented with these and the way my type would be shown.  I wanted to keep the grid just showing enough for example purposes, I would get rid of it once the type is in a layout. I included the typeface name, my alphabet including numbers and punctuation, a quote based on the adjective and a small description of my type face.

Designs

This design above is a developed type where I have edited each individual character making specific parts of these thinner and sharper than the Caslon type which I started on. This type is sleek and subtle, it represents shy as the thin parts or subtle lines are held back such like a shy person feels in everyday life. I have left thick strokes on the type to represent the overshadowing that a shy person faces through there personality trait, it shadows over them. I continued with creating a typeface only of lowercase letters to make them small and quiet unlike an uppercase which would be seen as loud. I have made sure this type is flowing and works as a set and that similar letters share the same characteristics, keeping to my ideas of subtlety and thin.

Having looked at a few different styles in my hand rendered development work, and getting some positive feedback in the interim crit I decided to look further into the idea of a hidden style type, with a type hidden behind another or aspects of one type hidden behind itself. The type on the left is my first type at the top of the post hidden behind Caslon type, this was a start off to get a feel of what it would look like, and I like the effect it makes it have a feel of a hiding type behind the a main focus, with the type that is hidden I have changed the transparency of to 50%. On the right I have done the exact same yet instead of having Caslon as the main type I have used the type I made and behind that is the same type again in 50% transparency. 

I found out through feedback that this type on the right is quite uneasy to look at its obscure in a way and I feel that does fit into my adjective as a shy person would feel uneasy in certain situations. This idea would would well as a display type in context of a movie poster or book cover, I need to test the legibility out more if I want to develop this idea further.

I attempted to make a simple typeface specimen to see how my design would look in this context, I want to look more into type specimen design especially the Muller-Brockman grid system style which I researched and experimented with, I want to put this type into a Brockman style grid system because the it makes the work look neater and gives it a stylish feel.

Shy Related Research

Quotes -

I wanted to get a quote on my adjective I looked at some well known ones which were actually quotes from famous songs such as;

- "Shyness is nice, and shyness can stop you from doing all the things you'd like to"
which is a quote from The Smiths song 'Ask', this lyric from the song is heavily quoted and shared through blogs and I think it is a nice quote which tells some characteristics of being shy that it is a drawback within a personality.

- "There are many things that I would like to say to you but I don't know how"
A lyric from 'Wonderwall' by Oasis, again another popular blogged quote which I came across, it is interpreted to be related with shy and the drawback of being shy to not be able to say things to people.

I also found some good quotes from literature;

-"Clearly she was expected to say something, but the panic at having to speak stole the thoughts from her head." - Shannon Hale, 'The Goose Girl'

-"One is always half mad when one is shy of people." - Robert Walser 'Jakob von Gunten

Both these quotes again say a lot about the characteristics of the adjective shy. Hopefully when these quotes are written using my type the feeling can be put through not only the quote but the look and style of the characters.


Colours - 

I found these colour palettes which were related to shy, they all consist of glum muted colours including greys whites and even autumnal colours like a muted orange and brown. I intend to use one of these colours or one palette when creating my type specimen. These colours will also be considered if I create a piece of work to show off my work.

Type research

Type -

Having looked at the origins of my adjective, shy, I decided to look more at its origins and see what else there is to find. I looked at Germanic type which is also known as 'Fractur' or 'Gothic' which is the term applied to blackletter typefaces or broken script, these types are normally calligraphy style, these letter forms are very artistic and were used a lot in old literature, being a commonly used type within German speaking countries and soon this type spread in popularity over europe for some time until most of the continent switched to Antiqua, a similar but much simpler clearer type, yet German speakers kept to the Fraktur style for the centuries time.

Having looked at a number of variations of Fractur I realised that only some aspects of these styles could be incorporated into a typeface based on 'shy'. These styles are very bold and brash, the purpose of them are mainly decorative, especially in modern standards they represent old languages and cultures, they have very little relevance in todays life.


My type-

For my type I have decided to use a serif font because it has more constraints than a san serif font, and a shy person would usually feel like they are constrained and held back, serif fonts give less freedom and I feel that by using serif it can be an element to put across for shy. I also want to use serif to try out some elements of the Fractur style on a typeface.

I have decided to look into Caslon and Bodoni as start off fonts, firstly looking at there uses and design qualities in further depth.


Caslon -

I looked at Caslon and really liked its simplistic design and form and its legibility in a range of sizes, it can be altered and still understood. Its sleek design makes it a very nice looking type, I feel it could be an interesting type to use for shy as its bold sharp serifs make it constrained like my adjectives characteristics.

I looked at the structure of the lettering looking at the thickness of the vertical parts of the type and the way the curves go very thin. The serifs are quite thick on the type but that can add to my idea of constraining the text. I feel that I could work well using this type, the design in each character is precise and attractive.









I looked at the different uses of Caslon and found these already slightly edited versions of the type face in use, both for magazines, I like the way the type has had sections of it thinned, I could look more into this by experimenting with the width of line in the type, this can represent my type through parts shying away sections of the type hidden or kept small, it could also represent shrinking feeling that a shy person would feel in a situation they are uncomfortable with. 

I found this piece of art which used all the characters of the alphabet in Caslon, the different coloured overlapping piece is really vibrant and interesting, I would like to attempt something like this to showcase my work. I shall look more into colours which can be related to my adjective.

Bodoni - 

Bodoni has a bold striking design which is widely used in magazines, and in advertisements. This serif font is thick and clear with some aspects of singular characters being thin which makes it clearer and visually pleasing. This characteristic of Bodoni is something I can relate to my adjective, similar to Caslon I can do aspects of each letter hiding away or very thin to give the the feel of shy next to bold, overshadowing aspects of the type yet remaining legible.

I looked at Bodoni being used and found many print media forms using the type. Above I found this advert in a magazine which is advertising Russian vodka, the Bodoni type gives this advert a simple feel of class and a clear legible look that does not take any focus away from the image or main topic of the advert. This type works well in this context especially with the slightly tighter kerning within this advert I feel that this is a sucessful use of kerning, keeping legibility and keeping class.

I feel this type is classy and legible but possibly too bold for the adjective shy, I want to use aspects of this type such as thinning certain strokes, curves and bridges as I have explained to create a shying effect on singular characters, I want to mute it in a sense yet also keep it legible and visually pleasing.