SHORE INSPO

A handful of my favorite photos by Shore and some inspiration for possible design aesthetic of my font and print materials...

Notes on Stephen Shore:

~ screen shots of his field of vision

~ really observes what he is seeing and how he sees it

~ takes inspiration from Bill Eggleston and Walker Evans

~ low key spectacle

~ common place becoming splendid

~ color was not seen/used in fine art photography in 1970s

~ his photos change the way people look at ordinary things

~ large format photos

~ explores medium, perception, psychological levels

~ sense of time being compressed

~ what world looks like in state of heightened awareness

~ looks at world with clear and focused attention

~ a lot of art is decision making

~ spends a lot of time exploring structure and space of picture

~ growing structural complexity

~ reinvents himself over time to raise new questions

~ interest in postcards, snapshots, visual diary

~ analyzes experience of travel and what he discovers in America

~ looks at repeated events: 

(what he is eating, who he is meeting, what beds he is sleeping in)

~ shows what was on his mind at the time

~ interest in taking photos that strip away artifice of visual convention

~ wants a more immediate experience

~ highest complement - "your pictures are so clear"

~ "the apparent is the bridge to the real"

~ not sentimental, but natural and unaffected

~ has no style - his style is the result of his own exploration

~ responds more to the mundane than the dramatic

~ naturalness is just another posture; visual casualness is just another style

~ produces images that are generated by conceptual framework

~ allows for visual articulateness

~ visual poetry

~ work stems from intentionality

~ searches/documents not just the main streets across America, but the quintessential main street

~ how does the world he wants to photograph translate into an image?

~ one point perspective - vanishing point in center

~ dense information to organize

~ common, typical subjects

~ takes screen shot of field of vision

~ work is not framed, not matted, and posted on wall on grid of 3 rows

~ color raises all types of issues

~ every culture and age has a palette of color

~ color can communicate elements of taste of specific time period and culture of that time period

~ he takes ordinary desk objects and if in right state of mind, can make them look vivid, tactile, and alive

Project Redo

OVERVIEW:

I have decided to redo and combine 2 of my past projects. The first is a magazine layout showing the work and capturing the essence of renowned photographer, Stephen Shore. The second is a typeface called Extant that I designed from the inspirations and research of my brother, John. I chose to redesign these projects because I don't have a solid typeface that I can really say that I am proud of in my portfolio and I think I can apply this new typeface to broader and more useful applications. I would like to design my typeface off of Shore, himself, and use this typeface throughout the new layout, for example, in the title, pull quotes, and possibly text. I will also display this in the form of font specs and posters incorporating Shore's photography. Ultimately, I will be developing and creating a successful 'brand' of Stephen Shore through this new typeface that will encompass the overall themes of his photographic style.


CREATIVE BRIEF:

Client
Stephen Shore is an American photographer born in 1947, who is most known for his banal scenes and objects in the United States and for his innovating use of color. He worked closely with Andy Warhol in his Factory throughout the 1960s and 1970s, and at age 24, had a solo exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In his 1982 book Uncommon Places, Shore documents his travels across American and Canadian landscapes. Many artists have acknowledged Shores influence on their work, especially for his ability to make the colored photograph a work of art.

Product/Idea
Shore promotes and sells his photography. At this point in his success, he is very well known and a solid brand for him is established. His strength is in his work. People are familiar with it and are confident in its uniqueness and beauty. There are always opportunities for growth and greater recognition, especially as new, younger photographers are entering and establishing themselves in the art scene.

Purpose
The goal for this project is to create a typeface that is inspired by Stephen Shore as a person, as a photographer, and as an artist. It mimics his style and it accompanies his work nicely. From this typeface, a logo for the photographer will be created. These elements will then be applied to print materials including a feature story in a published magazine, posters displaying Shores photography, and an expanded book cover for Uncommon Places.

Audience
Males and females, ages 30-50, interested in photographic culture

Insights
The audience is already familiar with Stephen Shore and are fans of his work. They have preconceived expectations of what this typeface will look like as a result of having seen Shore's photography. This typeface will only solidify Shores work and establish a sense of firmness in him as a photographer who is still able to let this work be known.

Single Most Important Thing
A typeface inspired by Stephen Shore and representing Stephen Shore in order to commemorate his past and bring about a new familiarity with the present.

Must Haves
Must be clean. Must be mature. Must be subtle. Must be informative. Must be familiar. Must enlighten. Must revisit the past works of Shore and must tell a new story simultaneously.

Avoid
Too much photography - this is more about the whole picture than about the work itself.
Bright colors - but, color IS IMPORTANT, because that is what Shore is known for. VIVIDNESS NOT OVER-SATURATION
Playfulness - this doesn't mean it has to be too serious, but Shore is a subtle guy.

Where I Wanna Work

 Ill (Paris, France)

People

Léonard Vernhet

Thomas Subreville

Nicolas Malinowsky

Thierry Audurand

Pierre Dixsault

Sebastien Michelini

Clients

Nike

Supreme NYC

The New York Times Magazine

LVMH

GQ Magazine

Orange

Adidas

L’Officiel Magazine

Domus Magazine

Stylistic Approach

Ill evolves in creative areas such as art-direction, graphic design, typography, photography, motion design for both personal and commissioned works

Why I Wanna Work Here

I would love to work in Paris. I think their aesthetic is very clean and beautiful. Their clients are interesting. They have internship opportunities, which is good, because I think I want an internship post graduation.

Cover illustration for Domus magazine's

macro / micro landscape issue. 2010

Stencil and spray paint on paper. Edition of 5. Lazy Dog anniversary group show. 2009

Branch (Portland, Oregon)


People
Shauna Haider

Clients

Adidas

American Eagle

Forever 21

HP

Monster

NBA All-Star

Virgin Records

The Wall Street Journal

Stylistic Approach

Branch balances timeless, modern designs with real world insights so that the solutions feel intentional and seamless.

Why I Wanna Work Here

The founder and creative director, Shauna, just launched this company in September 2013. She also runs a blog titled The Nubby Twiglet, which fuses design, marketing, and style. Her work is a wonderful inspiration and I would love to work with and learn from a rising woman designer.

Branding for Semiospectacle is a literary event that features performance artists and lectures at the famed PS122 performance space in New York City.





TOKY (St. Louis, Missosuri)


People
Eric Thoelke - president, executive creative director
Mary Thoelke - principal, operations director

Clients

Panera Bread
John Burroughs School
The Chase Park Plaza
Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis
Opera Theatere of St. Louis

Stylistic Approach

Crucial insights, brilliant design, and compelling content for intelligent, discerning brands.

Why I Wanna Work Here

It is located in my hometown, so there is a greater chance for networking opportunities. This company seems just the right size for my taste (27 people).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Range, a brand identity designed for a burger joint in downtown St. Louis.

 

 

Face (Monterrey, Mexico)




People

Rik Bracho

Ricardo Tejada

Clients

Pastilla Digital

Chic Magazine

Kinetica

Folio

Smashbox Studios

MySpace

Nuff’ Said Records

Art&Art

Uncovet

Stylistic Approach

A supermodernist design studio with work that is intended to brave the test of time. They believe that simplicity works. Face strives to have a deep understanding of client’s needs through a fool-proof creative method: approach, checklist, quote, brief, concept, design, produce.

Why I Wanna Work Here

From the looks of their website, Face looks like the ultimate agency to work at. I love how they find simplistic solutions to their work. It looks extremely professional and interesting. 

 

 

Identity & Editorial Design for a quarterly design journal and a bimonthly magazine, Folio, based in Monterrey & Mexico City.

Expansion Progress

Here is an idea of how my progress is going on my expansion project. Mainly, I've added texture to it and made the border a bit more engaging with the rest of the content. I also increased the size of the band names in the vines so it's more legible. I went into the letterpress room today and printed some woodblock letters for "Folk Festival" that I will scan in over the weekend, so that the typography is a bit more rough and follows with the feel of the rest of the poster.

Expanding

This poster series displays information for two summer music festivals. One is a jazz festival, and one is a folk festival. When separate, each poster characterizes the feel for the music that it is portraying. When together, the posters present a cohesive feel of unified colors, type treatment, and design aesthetic. These posters aim to catch the eye of interested music fans who are either thinking about attending these festivals or who are looking for an eye catching poster for their bedroom wall.

This project should be expanded because I believe it has the potential to reach a broader audience and display more information. Music is a very large genre, so there are a lot of directions I could take this project. Initially, I only wanted to portray the truest meaning of each genre through simple graphics and typography, but I decided it would make for a more interesting project if I added more information and therefore, chose specific music festivals to design posters for. I designed these posters while studying abroad in Trier, Germany, and would have liked to include 2 or 3 more music festivals to the series, however lack time didn't allow me to achieve this.   

For this expansion, I would like to design 2 or 3 new
posters — most likely rock, hip hop, or reggae. I would also like to design websites for each music festival. Ideally, I would like to develop a small "brand" for each genre of music and the festival that goes along with it. I also would like to add to my design aesthetic and possibly incorporate more textured design by using illustrations.

Book Cover Redesign

I am redesigning three memiors - The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, Running With Scissors by Augusten Burroughs, and The Memory Palace by Mira Bartók. All three books describe a childhood filled with neglect, longing, and odd family lifestyles, all while portraying the experiences in a somewhat positive light. My concept statement is the inevitable connections of family.



Here are some photos of inspiration
 

Initial book designs...

Refinements and direction

Project 4 Questions

Define font hinting. Why is necessary?
a technique for avoiding disturbing rounding errors in low-resolution digital type; the type designer pre-determines the position of points or dimensions of certain features, such as thickness of stems or of counters.

What is letterspacing/tracking? How do you track in Illustrator or InDesign
the distance between letters; increasing or decreasing the distance between the letters for an entire passage of text rather than between specific pairs; you can edit the tracking in the character palette

Define Kerning? Name 8 kerning pairs. How do you kern in InDesign or Illustrator?
the placement of characters in a typeface in relation to each other; this is different for each typeface and the designer must define the optimal distance between pairs of letters; can greatly influence the quality of a typeface; you can edit the kerning in the character palette

What is wordspacing?
the space between two words; a designer incorporates the default word space in a typeface; about a fourth to a third of an em-space

Explain DIN
fixed formats used for paper size; normalized DIN A sizes are usually the starting point for paper sizes for printed matter; the sizes of the sheets of paper that are supplied by paper manufacturers are based on DIN A sizes, with a bit added for trimming, the gripper margin of the printing press and the finish; DIN B ad C sizes are also used

What is a baseline grid? 
an imaginary grid upon which type sits; the baseline of a piece of type can be forced to 'snap' to this grid to maintain continuity across the pages of design

How many characters per line is optimal? Is there a range?
optimal words per line is 40-80

Define aesthetic text alignment (optically hanging punctuation).

hanging punctuation controls the alignment of the punctuation marks for a specific paragraph; paragraph alignment determines the margin from which the punctuation hangs

What is a typographic river?
typically occur in justified text blocks when the separation of the words leaves gaps of white space in several lines

What is a widow?
a lone word at the end of a paragraph

What is an orphan?
the final one or two lines of a paragraph separated from the main paragraph to form a new column, and should be avoided at all costs