PROJECT DESCRIPTION
My chosen typeface was Rockwell and it’s many variations. The reason for choosing this was the fact that Rockwell can take on many faces. In its extended bold form, it appears playful and forced, however in it’s light form it is elegant and feels almost mysterious. This is why I chose to stay on the lighter side of the Rockwell spectrum. In Search of Time is about memory and time, so a certain elegance and cryptic nature to this font worked well.
My color scheme is meant to evoke feelings of past and present. It is meant to be bold. But is also meant to have no affiliations with certain countries or groups. In Search of Time is meant to represent many cultures with its international art. So, I chose the colors I did because they fit well with these goals, while also being quite uncommon and eye-catching.
Finally, my images focus very heavily on the theme of time. I chose to utilize the image of many stills of a woman dancing by Muybridge. This is because it shows time in the most simple of forms. The movement of the image, and innate repetition, express time and the past very well. This image was also the main image used due to the fact that when tiled on my collateral, they almost blend together and form a unique background. An optical illusion of motion can be seen if you state at it long enough.
So with these three elements combined, how did I use them in my collateral? The poster is a large and somewhat complicated structure. With a combination of Muybridge’s image, my aged color scheme, and a light but elegant typeface, I am able to logically lead a viewer’s eye through the piece. The overarching idea behind this “campaign” is that time can be hidden, and memories can be obscured. For example, in the poster you see the moss colored structures covering many stills, while also revealing stills below them. I chose to do this to show how time and memories interact. We may not remember every moment, every still, and we may also lose track of time or memories to make room for others.
The invitation uses many of the same themes. When first looking at the invitation, you see “time” cut off. But once you open the first flap, searching for information, you find the wordmark of the exhibit and other text. The red on the outside is meant to attract the eye, and then once opened, the viewer sees the deep purple. Time is once again obscured by the purple structure and text, while still leading the viewer’s eye through the text. The shape of the invitation, when unfolded, is meant to represent the Broad Museum. It is not a blatant replication, but the oblong shape and suggested angle of the one side helps to give a subtle homage to the architecture.
Finally comes the website. I have decided to take full advantage of the interactivity of web. Once again using Muybridge’s image, I placed structural blocks over many stills of my representation of “time.” Except now inside of those structures is the links to other pages of the website. When the user rolls over a particular structure, that row of stills will begin to “roll” and create an image of the woman dancing. This is a salute to the first forms of “film” used around the world, stop motion. When the links are clicked, the structure will slide to the right and open up a textbox/gallery box. Then once the user wants to return to a page to access all exhibits, they can click the back link in the upper left corner.
REFLECTION:
Throughout the last few weeks I have learned a great deal about what a "kinetic system" really is. It is not simply an assembling of design elements in a way that looks nice. Instead, a kinetic system is a complex mechanism of design elements that all work together with no arbitrary decisions. It involves preciseness and the ability to look across all collateral and see a strong continuation of theme and purpose behind the design. I quickly learned that this is no easy task and that it takes a strong concept before you can even begin to work on the computer.
Something that I really liked in this project was the ability to choose from such a large bank of elements to help our designs. We could choose our own images, typeface, colors, size, etc. The less limitations allowed our minds to really run free with our concepts and executions.
Something that I did not like in this project was the lack of direction and hard facts. I understand that that is not how this project was meant to work. We were supposed to devise our own concept and theme and then be confident that it would work well for the Broad. However, that is not how I prefer to work. I like working with preset ideas/color schemes/logos/appearances/etc. But, in the end I am still very happy with how my kinetic system and its collateral turned out.
