holy shit!

I completely abandoned my blog. Get ready. I have a mass of process work ready to explode.

More lavender bush inspiration

Lavender bush inspiration

These are the words I generated after re-reading the lavender bush story:
Curves, watercolour, dynamic type, rough illustration, organic, natural, honest, fluid, feminine, loss, repetition.

And here are some of my research images:

Ready, Set, Go!

I've had this written down for ages, but if I'm going to make a fresh start I should probably post it.

My thesis focused on narratives in relation to design and the elements of an effective narrative. For the project element I want to create an ‘artists book’ that features 6 interweaving stories. The narratives will be disbursed throughout the book and represented by their own individual style or format. This will give the book an element of discovery and interaction and encourage the reader to become involved in the stories. I want to connect with my audience and to do that I want to focus on everyday life. In essence the two elements that will make this book engaging are the rawness of the stories and the sense of discovery and interaction in the format.

The stories themselves will springboard from information I collect in 'informal discussions'. The premise of these discussions is to get a group of people to answer the same set of questions at the same time, basically describing what they are doing at that moment. This will be carried out between 2-3pm on Saturday 6th September. I will craft the stories from the responses.

I've already written a story about a lavender bush that falls in love with a girl named Sarah, and am crafting the imagery as we speak.

Proppian tale generator

I stumbled across this story generator. You chose the actions for a story as outlined by Vladamir Propp in his book 'Morphology of the Folk Tale' and it generates a story. Great idea.

http://www.brown.edu/Courses/FR0133/Fairytale_Generator/gen.html

Maus

I stumbled upon an essay about this book/series when I was researching for my written thesis. I bought the book and it is amazing. It's a graphic novel detailing the life of Art Spiegelman's father (Vladek) as a Jew in Poland during ww2. What is so engaging about this story is not only Vladek's experience, but the relationship that is detailed throughout the book between Art and his farther. I know this is yet another inspiration... I'll nail own my project plan and post it soon.

My Early Muir Owl

I was reminded of this when talking to someone about elaborate formats. It was a marriage proposal made from type; arranged in a way that it would only be seen from one perspective.
You'll have to excuse the way this is documented - it's a bit daggy.

I made tea

I stumbled upon this very cute website toy by Joe Davis on itsnicethat. It's a story that just keeps expanding (well.. as much as it can..) and employs a fun and intriguing style of interactivity.

www.telescopictext.com

A bit of Muybridge

A little nonlinear

I love the idea of an nonlinear story. In reality stories don't happen in a linear way until with hindsight when we extract the story. There are always smaller plot-lines that feed the story and the character(s).

New Multistorey

I just had to post this new promotional work from Multistorey. It's a competition entry for the identity for NY based fashion designer Victor Glemaud. Such a fantastic format!

Army Of Me

Family Trees & Timelines 2

Family Trees & Timelines 1

Just a small collection of nice family trees and timelines.

Some definition

I thought it was probably time I put a definition up here. I've come across a lot of definitions of narratives but this one seemed the most appropriate.

A narrative can be defined as a sequence of events deliberately arranged to reveal their dramatic, thematic, and emotional significance*. Academic Marie-Laure Ryan has proposed that there are three main elements that qualify a text as a narrative:

'A narrative text must create a world and populate it with characters and objects.... The world referred to by the text must undergo changes of state that are caused by non-habitual physical events ...The text must allow the reconstruction of an interpretative network of goals, plans, casual relations, and psychological motivations around the narrated events."

The 'pregnant moment'

In discussing pictorial narratives there is one big question — and that is whether you can tell a story in one picture. One technique is as German writer Gotthold Ephraim-Lessing described it, 'a pregnant moment'. The pregnant moment technique is when one image encompasses a variety of situations and events seemingly happening at the same time. Often this moment in time is representing the climax of a well known story, and the technique is most commonly used in painting. Academic Emma Kafalenos states that Lessing's 'pregnant moment' is as valid as a sequential narrative because "we ask ourselves what has happened, what is about to occur, and where we are in the sequence of a narrative." 'When thinking of Kafelenos' description, I can't help but think of James Jean's sketchbooks. Although they aren't a traditional moment in a well-known myth or story, I see a moment in time and can't help but be curious of the full story.

2D motion

I got a bit excited when I saw this book. I remember being enthralled with them as a kid and I've loved seeing the card version floating around lately. This is a great example of how motion can feature in a '2D' form (and therefore graphic surfaces can feature a moving narrative).

Triptych

"[In the past] narrative pictures had an essential cultural function to perform: they inscribed stories permanently for those who could not read.'
M.L.Ryan

Temporal sequence?

Opening 'paragraph'

Opening sequence of Gone Baby Gone

"The opening paragraph of a story is its second strongest statement (the final paragraph is the strongest) and sets the tone for all that follows." Janet Burroway and Elizabeth Stuckey-French in Writing Fiction: A guide to narrative craft.

The fable game

A favorite book of mine (The fable game by Enzo Mari) perfectly illustrates an unfortunate point about pictorial narratives.

As Maire- Laure Ryan argues-"It seems clear that of all the semiotic codes language is the best suited to story telling. Every narrative can be summarised in language, but very few can be retold through pictures exclusively."

This weakness may be true but there are two ways in which visual mediums can match the power of language mediums. One way is to reinterpret a known story using pictures. A familiar language dependant story can hold the same power when retold visually, because the verbal summary of the story is within us (as illustrated in the mix and match fable game above).

The second is to use written language in partneship with pictures. A graphic novel would be the best example of this. Marrying pictures with words allows the visuals to express concepts on a deeper level.

Detail

Just a few quotes on detail in fiction, from 'Writing Fiction: A guide to narrative craft' by Janet Burroway and Elizabeth Stuckey-French.

"The points to be made are two, and they are both important. The first is that the writer must deal in sense detail. The second is that these must be details that matter"
Burroway and Stuckey-French

"If those who have studied the art of writing are in accord on any one point, it is on this: the surest way to arouse and hold the attention of the reader is by being specific, definite and concrete. The greatest writers...are effectively largely because they deal in particulars and report details that matter."
'The elements of style' William Strunk Jr.

"Good writers may "tell" about almost anything in fiction except the characters feelings. One may tell the reader that the character went to a private school...or one may tell the reader that the character hates spagetti; but with rare exceptions the charcters' feelings must be demonstrated: fear, love, excitement, doubt, embarrassment, despair become real only when they take the form of events— action (or gesture), dialogue, or physical reaction to setting. Detail is the lifeblood of fiction.
John Gardner

Lister

This may be a going off on a tangent. I saw Brisbane born artist Anthony Lister speak at Semi-Permanent last month. When pressed he made an interesting observation about his work. Lister said the reason he paints so many characters from popular culture is because to him these characters form a moral guidance similar to religious stories. His family were not overly religious, so these stories guided him through childhood. I find it interesting that these have resurfaced into his work.

A Hero with a Thousand Faces

In my travels, I've read Joseph Campbell's A Hero with a Thousand Faces. I came upon it because it's a book that George Lucas has accredited with helping him write Star Wars. In the book, Joseph Campbell dissects myths to outline what he sees as a common structure.It was really interesting reading through and seeing how elements of this structure are present in modern epic stories. Below is a summary I borrowed from Wikipedia.

Chapter I: Departure

1. The Call to Adventure
The adventure begins with the hero receiving a call to action, such as a threat to the peace of the community, or the hero simply falls into or blunders into it. The call is often announced to the hero by another character who acts as a "herald". The herald, often represented as dark or terrifying and judged evil by the world, may call the character to adventure simply by the crisis of his appearance.

2. Refusal of the Call
In some stories, the hero initially refuses the call to adventure. When this happens, the hero may suffer somehow, and may eventually choose to answer, or may continue to decline the call.

3. Supernatural Aid
After the hero has accepted the call, he encounters a protective figure (often elderly) who provides special tools and advice for the adventure ahead, such as an amulet or a weapon.

4. The Crossing of the First Threshold
The hero must cross the threshold between the world he is familiar with and that which he is not. Often this involves facing a "threshold guardian", an entity that works to keep all within the protective confines of the world but must be encountered in order to enter the new zone of experience.

5. The Belly of the Whale
The hero, rather than passing a threshold, passes into the new zone by means of rebirth. Appearing to have died by being swallowed or having their flesh scattered, the hero is transformed and becomes ready for the adventure ahead.

Chapter II: Initiation

1. The Road of Trials
Once past the threshold, the hero encounters a dream landscape of ambiguous and fluid forms. The hero is challenged to survive a succession of obstacles and, in so doing, amplifies his consciousness. The hero is helped covertly by the supernatural helper or may discover a benign power supporting him in his passage.

2. The Meeting with the Goddess
The ultimate trial is often represented as a marriage between the hero and a queenlike, or mother-like figure. This represents the hero's mastery of life (represented by the feminine) as well as the totality of what can be known. When the hero is female, this becomes a male figure.

3. Woman as the Temptress
His awareness expanded, the hero may fixate on the disunity between truth and his subjective outlook, inherently tainted by the flesh. This is often represented with revulsion or rejection of a female figure.

4. Atonement with the Father
The hero reconciles the tyrant and merciful aspects of the father-like authority figure to understand himself as well as this figure.

5. Apotheosis
The hero's ego is disintegrated in a breakthrough expansion of consciousness. Quite frequently the hero's idea of reality is changed; the hero may find an ability to do new things or to see a larger point of view, allowing the hero to sacrifice himself.

6. The Ultimate Boon
The hero is now ready to obtain that which he has set out, an item or new awareness that, once he returns, will benefit the society that he has left.

Chapter III: Return

1. Refusal of the Return
Having found bliss and enlightenment in the other world, the hero may not want to return to the ordinary world to bestow the boon onto his fellow man.

2. The Magic Flight
When the boon's acquisition (or the hero's return to the world) comes against opposition, a chase or pursuit may ensue before the hero returns.

3. Rescue from Without
The hero may need to be rescued by forces from the ordinary world. This may be because the hero has refused to return or because he is successfully blocked from returning with the boon. The hero loses his ego.

4. The Crossing of the Return Threshold
The hero returns to the world of common day and must accept it as real.

5. Master of the Two Worlds
Because of the boon or due to his experience, the hero may now perceive both the divine and human worlds.

6. Freedom to Live
The hero bestows the boon to his fellow man.

Standing ovations

This blog has been a little lonely lately because I've been consumed by all this reading. I just wanted to write a quick note about AGIdeas. I learnt quite a few things from the event, but the most important thing I observed was the difference between good and bad speakers. I found the speakers that engaged me personally were the ones that told a story. It is the process or the journey of any project that is the most interesting. Richard Seymour connected with the audience in such a way that he got a standing ovation. A part of this was because he gave every point or project relevance using a story and gave it life. The speakers that simply clicked through their folio and talked about the what instead of the how simply didn't resonate.

The Dot and the Line

Empty shells

An interesting excerpt from 'Understanding Comics' by Scott McCloud.

Character V Characterisation

Lonely John

This is such a funny concept - shows how a story can change when you erase a character. http://garfieldminusgarfield.tumblr.com/

Poor Sailor

The little book that started it all. I found it in a lovely book shop in Barcelona. The story is heartbreaking, the kind that is almost cliche but still stays with you. I really appreciate the craft of this narrative- the 'shots' are planned in a way that truly enhances the storytelling.

Abstract

As Visual Communicators we deal in enhancing information every day. We are there to grab, to inform, to express, to persuade - yet in design it is rare to truly connect and leave an impression.

Enter the narrative.

Information and storytelling have been interlaced throughout history. A story can enter a person’s life and touch them in a way no other method of communication can. It forms a link and creates a memory. Stories become a vessel we project ourselves into, to experience something we may never experience. Our imagination ignites something from within.

To be able to create this connection is a powerful thing. Communication design is constantly creating superficial connections. We are barraged with visual information every day and a majority of it recedes into the background. As designers we are often told that the trick is to distill the idea to say one direct thing. This way we may grab attention or even instill our message, but it doesn’t penetrate the memory in a meaningful way. By creating a narrative and involving the audience, we have a chance of creating a message and making it a part of them.

The starting point of my research is to define what a narrative is. A dictionary definition may be adequate, but it doesn’t explain the precise link between the narrative and visual communication. To create a greater level of understanding there needs to be a set of boundaries or defining elements. There are two examples of ambiguity I wish to discuss. In the visual world it is implied that a narrative is a sequence of images or symbols, but is time really a defining factor? And does a collection of images need a common thread to be considered a narrative? These two questions show that in order to become a useful tool in communication design, a set of defining elements and boundaries need to be uncovered.

The focus of my research is to find the most effective techniques in storytelling. We see the narrative in so many fundamental cultural practices, from novels to film, theatre to music, and artworks to architecture. I plan to study the methods used in these areas and transpose them into a graphic context. The most interesting and successful ideas will be noted and I will discuss how different methods create different outcomes.

The findings will not only create a useful set of knowledge, but a form a forward step in the value of our communication. By discovering the way to connect and involve an audience I can become a designer that makes cultural contributions to society. I will be able to make an impression and create a dialogue with the world, and it will resonate.