In order to expand my knowledge of Swiss Style even further i have researched ten separate and varying known examples of Swiss Style posters and re drawn their layouts within my sketchbook, labelling the key elements of each poster. for instance the colours used, where body copy has been used as well as trying to identify what grid system has been used if i can detect it. i decided to redraw some of the very well known posters in combination other, much lesser known works in order to get a wider understanding and gather as much inspiration as possible within my movement by sourcing greater variance. some designs used  large number of differently sized shapes to fill the page and lead the eye in complex ways, whereas others used much more simple designs and relied on the natural hierarchy of the page to guide the eye downwards. i like both ways of designing, while using a complex grid system and large numbers of shapes shows extreme skill and understanding of the different elements that go into creating a Swiss Style poster. i also took equal inspiration from the more simple designs, as they how how to still fill the space effectively however not to overcrowd areas with too much information or other content. these designs also tended to use the least amount of colours, making them more relevant to my project as i can only use a maximum of two colours alongside the colour of the paper stock. i also found a correlation between the complexity of a design and the amount of columns used, while this was not true all the time it seemed to be occurring the majority of  the time. What i particularly enjoyed about this exercise was even though i only redrew ten layouts i was able to look at several dozens of examples, and i am now confident that i am adequately inspired to continue on further into the project.

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I decided to Brainstorm further ideas in my sketchbook so that i could enhance my current knowledge of the Swiss Style movement, first of all by creating a large spider diagram to lay out my thoughts on Swiss Style, to see how i could improve my already created posters and potentially, create new examples. my spider diagram started with four factors of Swiss Style. From those four factors many different smaller elements came off, which then split into speculation of how i could implement them into my posters, for instance, one of the main four factors was the use of bold and contrasting colours, some ideas coming from this were noted down that included: use contrasting or complementary colours?. i then proceeded to link the different colour combinations that i have not used before that could potentially create a stronger outcome than the ones i have already created. i found this this useful as i now have all my basic concepts for my posters written down so if i do need to call back to my spider diagram and brainstorm future ideas i can. also the fact that i can continue to add to this diagram throughout the remainder of the project if needed.

After presenting my posters to the class i have been given and responded to appropriate feedback about my posters, after much contemplation i decided to move forward and present two posters since i felt they both represent different types of Swiss Style posters. Some of the feedback i got confirmed that, the Yellow and black poster is a much more traditionally styled Swiss Style poster, with strong use of the grid system as well as large, bold shapes and colours. However criticism included, the need for a more space to be filled as well as comments about it perhaps being too traditional, since the project is does mention the re invention of the design history. i responded to this feedback by filling more space as well as including a self made image within the Style Style. Ensuring it overlapped with the shape in order to achieve consistency throughout. my second poster was confirmed to be a much more innovative design, slightly breaking the rules of Swiss Style however still having enough key characteristics for it to still be classified within Swiss Style. Advice i was given included; to open up the space on the poster a small amount more as it seemed too crowded, i also needed to reduce the amount of colours within the poster down to two, not included the colour of the paper stock. i responded to this feedback  by inverting the colours of the back ground, body copy and the headings. increasing the amount of white space on the page, giving the illusion of more space. the self made image was also edited so that it contains only shades of green and elements of black, and it now fits the brief appropriately. i found this feedback useful due to the fact that i most likely would not have noticed the problems with these posters simply by myself, this exercise was also useful since other people were presenting their posters, i got the opportunity to see how everyone else minds processed the brief and responded.

Below are my initial ideas for my International (Swiss) typography style poster. for this poster there needed to be only two colours present (not accounting for the colour of the background). at least one self made image present somewhere (This image can be typographic in nature). and finally it has to contain three paragraphs of text, one paragraph detailing the key elements and characteristics of my art movement, a second paragraph that went into more detail about one influential designer within the movement, talking about his career and how he was influential within the movement. and one final paragraph of text that described what the role of typography was within your specific art movement. i began by sketching some very initial ideas into my sketchbook of what kind of objects and imagery would be within my poster. as well as where everything would be placed, once i had an adequate concept of what i wanted my poster to look like i began experimenting using digital mediums. for some of these ideas i kept to traditional looks, such as the one with the Yellow and black colour scheme. and some that break the rules of Swiss Style somewhat. creating a new and innovative style of art that uses the basic rules as only a guideline and not to be followed like an accepted law, for instance the heavy use of the grid is extremely evident in some of my examples however particularly in the example that utilises a grey and white colour scheme the grid system is somewhat broken, yet elements still remain that still make that particular example within the Swiss Style art movement. since the title of this project is “Re-Imagining Design Histories” i think this example works the most effectively. i will present the two left hand side examples to go in for initial critique to see where improvements can be made.

During a Introduction session into the techniques and processes involved within Letterpress I learnt how to use the different letterpress’s as well as recorded my outcomes of the session. Letterpress is an older method of printing letter forms onto paper, by physically constructing the sentence using small metallic blocks with the letter form on the end, this takes the majority of the time, it requires a collection of items to be able to complete successfully. as well as the letterpress itself and the letter forms, appropriate ink is required alongside the metal braces to hold the letter forms in. there was a large array of typefaces available, as well as because the process is manual the words and sentences created have individuality, the fact that the press physically imprints the letter forms onto the paper, indents are created as well as small imperfections that yield personality within the sentence. There were many options available in terms of colour, however in this particular workshop the two presses were utilising a red and a black coloured ink. I enjoyed this exercise and found that the use of the letterpress would be best utilised when printing physical media such as book covers, Where a handmade finish is more advantageous. If I were to do this workshop again I would like to attempt to use separate typefaces within the same sentence as well as generally attempt more complex techniques and processes within letterpress

After completing a Screen-printing introduction exercise i am now aware of the processes involved and am competent enough in the subject to complete the processes myself. for this particular exercise, in the run up to it i first designed a simple self made image using two colours on Adobe Illustrator, this image would then be printed, made into two stencils and then screen printed using the processes that will follow. my self made image was in the style of my art movement, as there is minimal imagery in my art movement i used a simple combination of shapes to form an image. this allowed me more freedom when it came to actually printing the design through the stencil onto paper. The fact that the actual “printing” process is not using a conventional printer but instead printed manually means that you tend to get small imperfections within the work, perhaps lines will not quite line up exactly, or small areas of the design will be slightly faded. i found this to be advantageous as it gave my design a more hand-made finish, giving the colours a certain gravity and texture to them. this is not normally done when using conventional printing and so I liked the way that it looked. if i were to do this again i would like to create a more complex design, possibly using more than two colours, this would increase the chance of errors occurring however i feel it would be the next logical step in learning the techniques and processes within screen-printing

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In an exercise in combination with the Illustration Tutors, i spent a day creating abstract art to do with the art movement that i have been selected for the “Re Imagining Design Histories” three week project. because my art movement is International Typographic Style it focuses on cleanliness and legibility. i used this opportunity to strip the movement back to its bare bones characteristics and chose to display those characteristics through the card stuck onto the paper. Characteristics such as; layering of text, Implementing and relying heavily on grid systems, minimal imagery, large amounts of open space and flush left blocks of text as well as the use of sans serif fonts. i feel this exercise was very useful in allowing me to further understand my art selected art movement as well as brainstorm many more ideas in terms of my layout for my final outcome. below are some of the outcomes i made to represent my movement. if i were to do this exercise again i would simply create a larger amount of outcomes as i feel that would be the most effective way to improve upon what i have already done and allow me to grasp a deeper understanding of International Typographic Style.

In preparation for my three week project “re imaging Design Histories” I participated in a one hour workshop introduction into a new programme to me, Adobe InDesign. Within the workshop session i designed a one page layout, utilising the grid system as well as understanding settings such as bleed, slug and margins, using an example picture and paragraph, the one page layout i designed was about the Mona Lisa. this session was useful in order to learn about PPI, to ensure that all the images i use are of appropriate quality as well as making sure that all images inserted are CMYK colour spectrum, so that they print higher quality in correspondence to the printer i would use. i found this exercise to be useful as a short, guided introduction to the InDesign programme. I will now need to practice these techniques so that i can competently operate Adobe InDesign. i will find out if within the next three weeks if i can use this programme when creating my “Re imagining Design Histories” project, however there are further InDesign workshops to follow before that will occur.