Poem Choices

1. A Box. (medium)
2. Careless Water. (medium)
3. A Piece of Coffee. (long)
4. Nothing Elegant. (short)
5. A Red Stamp (short)
6. A Time to Eat. (short)
7. A Little Called Pauline. (long)
8. Book. (long)
9. Rhubarb. (short)
10. Single Fish. (medium)
11. Potatoes. (very short)
12. Butter. (medium)
13. Eating. (long)

Dimensions - something smaller. After messing around with some different paper sizes, I really like the dimensions 6.5"x8" I like the wider paper, but keeping it portrait, instead of landscape.

Also, after scoping out the paper selections at Cold Snow, I chose a nice, thick, ivory-colored paper with lots of texture to it.

The Folly and The Bad Plus

First, a lovely visit to the Folly Theater. It's got a lot of history, but needs money to have a bright future! Hopefully our poster will help create some more revenue for them. Some good questions were answered during our visit. We also got to see where our posters could be going.

Here's the street corner that The Folly sits on. Gotta keep in mind that our posters need to be readable from that street! And for people walking by, too.
The mood board helped a lot when coming up with the rhetoric tropes. Here's a close up and a full view, photos courtesy of the lovely Karen.

Some brain-storming for the rhetoric tropes too. It's been a while since I did a mind-map; I had to do a second one once I started working on the tropes! I'm still not satisfied with what I've got, so I'll probably be doing at least one more.

And here's some of the rhetoric matrix. Some of the symbols that I used were piano keys, thebands instruments, storms/lighting, dynamite, the bands actual name, sheet music/music lines, etc.

F+S Narrative #1

Last Day Dream [HD] from Chris Milk on Vimeo.

Very fast.

Visual/Verbal Rhetoric - Bonsiepe

Rhetoric - the art of persuasion.

• Originally, rhetoric was used by the greeks for mostly political, legal, or religious reasons
• It was used to obtain a definite decision, implant an opinion, evoke a mood
• it was a "war of words," and was broken into either being persuasive or description/analysis.

In this reading, the author Bonsiepe goes in depth into the breakdown of different rhetorical devices, covering things that were not mentioned in class including transportive figures, privative figures (omission of words)

"Pure information exists for the designer only in the arid abstraction. As soon as he begins to give it concrete shape, the process of rhetorical infiltration begins."

Visual/verbal comparison - a comparison that starts with verbal sign and is continued with visual signs

visual/verbal analogy - a relatum expressed verbally is paralleled by a similar relatum expressed visually.

Visual/verbal metonymy - a relatum indicated by verbal signs is visualized by signs in a real relationship to the verbal relatum; e.g. cause instead of effect, tool instead of activity, producer instead of product.

Visual/verbal chain - a topic begun in words and continued and completed visually.

Visual/verbal negation - verbal signs negate what is shown visually.

Visual synocdoche - a relatum expressed verbally is visualized by a part representing the whole, or vice-versa.

Verbal specification - verbal specification - a visual sign accompanied by only as much text as is necessary for its comprehension.

Visual substitution - one visual sign replaced by another because of its formal characteristics

Syntactic climax and anticlimax - a purely visual figure

Type and Image - Meggs Reading

Graphic design is a form of communication that uses pictures, words, signs, and colors as it's language. So, while it might be difficult to imagine all literary terms applying to design as well as what we traditionally perceive as English, it's not impossible when we remember to view it as just another communication form.

Rhetoric is in many of the images we see, even if we aren't aware of it. And sometimes, it's even just a matter of illustrating things that we might already recognize. As an example, in the Type and Image reading, they mention use of similes, among other rhetoric devices.

"His heart is as hard as a rock."

This is a sentence written in paper, but at the same time it's also something we can visualize. If anything, graphic rhetoric might have even more impact than written rhetoric, since seeing an image convey that message can be more immediate and emotional than just reading it on paper. I don't want to start an argument with some English buff, but it's just a thought.

Rhetoric F+S

Source: Designer - Jason Munn / The Small Stakes

This Poster is an example of the rhetoric term hyperbole. The leaves, symbolizing the season of Death Cab for Cutie's tour, are huge in comparison to the cityscape. Or perhaps it's the cityscape that is tiny in comparison to the leaves. Eitherway, it's a cute example of a visual element being exaggerated to help convey their message.

Source: Design Army

This image is worth making bigger, because there are several visual rhetorics going on in it. It's a set of coasters made by Design army, with strange holidays illustrated on them. But the one that I would like to point out is this banana coaster. It's an image relay, where with no text, this would not make much sense. But But adding the words "Nude Day" underneath, we associate this banana with undressing. It's personified and takes on human qualities as it takes its clothing (peel) off.

Typography 3 Warm-up

Notes:

Things to think about while working with the poems-

• 13 poems total, how are they divided on the pages?
• Bleed, bleed, bleed! (off the page)
• Variety of poem lengths
• Stop reading left to right. Or don't.
• looking through art history book might help (this is for me)
• explore paper types, as well as dimensions, (transparencies?) who knows. YET.

Taxonomy of Rap Names

Larger View

Old Spice Parody

School has started! Keep up the hard work everyone! Don't forget to eat your breakfasts and study for your tests! :)

Narrative in sound + motion, beginnings

So, after making a list of things that I am interested in, and then being told to choose, I decided to immediately mark off cooking/baking. There will be none of that this semester. I still don't think I'm ready to see another picture of Julia Child. Anyway, a few things that I came up with on a longer, more thoughtful list were:

• vintage furniture
• children's stuff (toys, games)
• outer space
• craft sites
• botany
• gardening
• nutrition

I did some mind mapping, starting with the children's fun stuff. Instead of becoming more narrow of a topic though, I somehow reached to a rather different subject, branching from some mention of the big brother/big sister organization. So, still working out the kinks, but here it goes.

"Play-Date" Finder

These children are happy. Why are they happy, you ask? because they have made new friends. (Also, on a very important side note, this is an image from google. I do not know these children, I do not have pictures of these strangers, it just showed up in a google search.)

These days, many parents have very busy schedules, and can find it hard to balance their heavy workloads with their small, high-maintenance children. Setting aside the fact that this is very sad, we come to the problem that these parents are stressed, and these children have limited social interaction. SO. To solve a couple problems at once, we need a community play-date finder!

This would be an imaginary, brand-based narrative about an online service that connects parents and their children to similar families. The way it works is that parents can sign up, and find families in their community with young children. They can then contact, and schedule play dates to be hosted by one family or another. This would be an opportunity that both the parents and the children would benefit from, since the children would make new friends, and the parents would get some down-time (hypothetically). Parent of different families can understand the stress involved with everyday life, and this would be an opportunity to help another parent, while entertaining your own kid.

It's a pretty long-winded explanation, but that's what's I'll be working on refining from here on out. It seems like it has a definite narrative, right?

The audience would the busy parents, and by association, their kids. But the appeal would definitely be to busy but caring parents, trying to free some time for themselves while acquainting their children with some new friends. In a country where neighbors and communities seem to be turning inward, and becoming less involved, this would be a way to try to bring back the friendly-factor some people seem to have forgotten comes with meeting new people. I'm still not totally clear on points like the visual symbolic codes, unless a minivan counts as a symbol for the families. But some things I have worked out are:

• preferred method of communication would probably be internet, for young, computer-savvy parents, and perhaps some sort of mailing list? Even then though, an e-mailing list seems more appropriate, to communicate between members of the group, and for the organization to contact the members as well.
• Jargon/Slang - family appropriate vernacular, "po-po," "tinkle," "fiddle sticks," and other vocab appropriate to say around young children. Ok this is just a joke. Unless it counts, and then I'm totally serious.

In class, my goal is to be able to work out the visual symbols and communication styles; perhaps I'm being to broad with the audience right now?

Preliminary Research

THE BAD PLUS

Put it on the internet, and I can access it from anywhere! After reading through these, I've extracted bits of info that might come in handy while learning about the group The Bad Plus. I'm also starting to form some questions that I might need to ask when we visit the Folly Theater, if I can't find the answers through more research.

As I read more, I'll continue to listen to their music, too.

NOTES

band's range as well as its three distinct personalities. From gentle and melodic to fierce and abstract, from swing to 80's techno, NEVER STOP is tied together by a group sound that embraces diversity as strength.

The Bad Plus Reid Anderson, Ethan Iverson and David King have broken down the walls of jazz convention and created an uncompromising body of work. Few jazz groups in recent memory have amassed such acclaim, and few have inspired such controversy. Their belief in the band ethos and their personal brand of avant-garde populism have put them at the forefront of a new instrumental music movement, drawing audiences both traditional and mainstream. While the bulk of their output has been original music, they have deconstructed songs in the pop, rock as well as the country and classical music idioms.

http://www.thebadplus.com/

Iverson, Anderson and King first played together in 1989 but established The Bad Plus in 2000.

The trio's music combines elements of modern Avant-garde jazz with rock and pop influences. The band have recorded versions of songs by Nirvana, Aphex Twin, Blondie, Ornette Coleman, Pixies, Rush,Tears for Fears, Neil Young, David Bowie, Yes, Interpol, and Black Sabbath.

The band has said that they changed their sound a little bit for their sixth album, For All I Care.

The Bad Plus announced their next album, Never Stop, for release on September 14, 2010.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bad_Plus

They have spent the last decade being known as one of the country's brightest lights in modern jazz.

"We approached the recording of this album more like a jazz record from the '50s or '60s," says King. "... It created a really free atmosphere, as if we were playing a show."

http://blogs.citypages.com/gimmenoise/2010/07/the_bad_plus_an.php

eccentric, freeform jazz, (covers) uses these songs as more of a jumping off point than something to actually cover

http://malleusincus.com/2010/07/14/jazzing-up-the-indie-smoothing-out-the-rock/

“The Bad Plus are the Coen Brothers of jazz: Midwesterners, both ironic and dead earnest, technically brilliant, beyond versatile, a little chilly sometimes, but funny, surprising, and pretty hard to pin down.” (The New Yorker)

distinctive, eclectic, and formidable.

The Bad Plus has expelled all notions of what a jazz piano trio should sound like, proudly recognizing and respecting the rules while ripping them to shreds. “It’s about as badass as highbrow gets,” says Rolling Stone.

http://www.ums.org/s_current_season/artist.asp?pageid=550

Since then, each of the trio's records has further explored the group's self-styled universe, while also demonstrating its commitment to the art of the trio.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100643996

The Bad Plus are a trio toying with mass appeal in a genre gone unfortunately highbrow. They consist of pianist Ethan Iverson, bassist Reid Anderson, and drummer Dave King. And though they make notable forays into unlikely secular material, they all compose originals that form the lion’s share of the album. One reason they could be mistaken for a band lies in the free exchange within the group. No one player really dominates the proceedings, and each is a refreshingly talented and original craftsman. The aforementioned dynamics are wonderfully balanced, loud and soft nimbly alternating in a manner akin to the groups’ ‘90s heroes such as the Pixies.

the group might toy with avant-garde or free playing and intense shifts of mood and volume, but at their core, they bloody well swing, an unfairly devalued currency in these trying times.

well-produced tunes that present themselves to a potential mass audience with hectic grace, sober whimsy, fluent navigation of chaos and without the slightest shred of pomposity. Which, in the end, might just be exactly what jazz needs right now.

http://www.stylusmagazine.com/reviews/the-bad-plus/prog.htm

After performing "Lithium," King explained that it's the tradition of jazz to "have a dialog with contemporary popular music."

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103324094&ps=rs

engaged popular music masterworks as vessels for 21st century jazz improvisation. But that was only a limited part of the trio's oeuvre, with clever originals comprising the bulk of its material.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111690750

"We have a pretty large repertoire at this point, and the band has been together for ten years strong now, so we just kind of decide about five minutes before we go on stage what we're going to play," says bassist Reid Anderson.

"The basis of it is that there's a lot of trust between us. We have such a long relationship, and we sort of speak the same language in many senses," he says. "The reason the Bad Plus sounds like it does is because it's a situation where all three of us can truly be who we are. It's not a situation where anyone is trying to support a leader of a band, or someone's specific concept. There's a certain energy to that that's been important to us from the beginning, to really define ourselves that way."

http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/atoz/2010/01/bad_plus_jazz_bistro_reid_anderson_interview_st_louis_january_6_2010.php

MUSIC SAMPLES

http://www.last.fm/music/The+Bad+Plus


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