The Collection Project

When we were given the brief to head out of campus and collect objects I was intrigued.

We were told that we are going to be brought on a walking tour around Elephant and Castle. However, the weather took a turn for the worst and it was raining.

The tour still went on as normal.

As we were walking around, I started taking pictures of random sceneries and objects. Not much thought was put into it. However, as we progressed on I started to find interest in the typography around London. The signages and billboards were kind of interesting to me.

Coming from Singapore, there are definite differences between the typography design compared to London. In Singapore, most of our signage typography has a standard font and everything almost looks the same. However, here in London, there are various styles. I started to notice that during the walking tour.

The images that I have collected over the course of the whole tour seemed a little meaningless at first, but after reading How to be an explorer of the world by Keri Smith, there is actually a lot of things in common around us that we tend to forget about. In the book, she talks about how everything is interesting. We just need to take the time to observe and analyse.

Personally, I like collecting unique toys, stickers, prints, and pins. I never had an interest in collecting only until 2 years ago when I started buying pins online. I was in awe of having little pin buttons and pinning it onto my denim jacket. I wore them loud and proud like a badge of honour. However, after about a year or so, purchasing pins broke a hole in my wallet because most of the pins that I purchase are made by independent artists and they tend to be more expensive. That was then I slowly drifted to collecting stickers, prints, and small toys. If I ever saw an interesting knick-knack in a shop or on the streets, I would either pick it up/purchase it.

Looking at the images of typography that I have collected, it had similar traits. It was interesting to see how the shops used typography. Some used Sans Serif, Serif or decorative type of fonts.



Combine groups of objects for visual or emotional contrast. (Smith, 2008, p. 77)




Images by author

I categorised my collection according to Colour, Font and Alphabets. Each set of the collection was carefully curated according to their appearance. I cropped out interesting typography that stood out to me and used that part of my collection because the main focus of my collection was typography.

• • • • •

Artists

A few designers that have inspired me are Kenya Hara (designer), Christoph Niemann (designer & illustrator), and a Singaporean photographer, Nguan.

Kenya Hara (designer)

Kenya Hara is a Japanese designer, known as MUJI’s current art director, he emphasises the design of both objects and experiences.


Hara, 2017, p. 22-23

The Re-Design project is one of the very few projects that caught my eye by Kenya Hara.

The project was about making the known unknown. He created an exhibition based on this project by gathering various artists to recreate simple everyday objects into something different, adding a fresh new perspective to it.

"Re-design is a means by which to correct and renew our feelings about the essence of design, hidden within the fascinating environment of an object that is overly familiar to us that we can no longer see it." (Hara, 2017, p. 22)

 
Hara, 2017, p. 31-32

One of the artists that were featured in Hara's exhibition was Masahiko Sato.

The subject that Hara asked Sato to work on was the exit and entry stamps at airports. What was interesting about this re-design was that Sato referenced back to human psychology.

There was a scene in a film called KINO, where three men were standing side by side at a bus stop facing the right side when a fourth man comes along and faces the opposite direction. He then realises that the three men were facing the right side and decides to turn around face the same way as them. In the book, he said it was an interesting portrayal of human psychology of how there are seeds of communication within our minds and just using visual cues, it could affect the way we see meaning in things.

Based on this, he re-designed the stamp by making use of these visual cues. A simple tweak to the stamp by adding planes that were facing two different directions. The departure stamp would be facing left and the arrival stamp would be facing right.

When I first read this section of the book, I was absolutely amazed by how simple the re-design was yet it was so effective. I do agree that it is hard to distinguish between the departure and arrival stamps but just simply adding a plane facing different directions made a huge difference. It was so simple yet so provoking. Sometimes the simplest changes make the biggest differences.

Connecting it back to my collection, though it may seem like random photos of texts, I think after making simple changes to it, it could add a fresh new perspective on typography.

Christoph Niemann (designer/illustrator)

Christoph Niemann is an illustrator, graphic designer, and children's book author. He is most known for his series called Sunday Sketches which are his reiterations using everyday objects and recreating them into whimsical and clever illustrations.


From his book, Abstract City. (Niemann, 2012, p. 79)

This book was really interesting to me because it was Niemann's perspective towards New York. His way of visualising New York through random objects.

In a chapter called My Life with Cables, he used a red cable and reiterated it into different illustrations.

 
 
More illustrations by Christopher Niemann using a red cable (Niemann, 2012)

I was greatly inspired by the way he used cables and made them into these quirky illustrations. It is a very creative way of using something that not a lot of people bat an eye to.

Nguan (photographer)

Nguan is a Singaporean photographer who has greatly inspired me when it comes to colour. His photographs have this pastel-like feel to it and it makes you feel like you are in a dream.

 
 
 
From his photo book, Singapore. (Nguan, 2017)

I had the pleasure of meeting Nguan in real life at the Singapore International Photography Festival last year, 2018. He talked about the making of this photo book and the thought behind his selection of photos for his book.

What fascinated me was his meticulous thought process for this project. The sequence of the photographs in his book goes according to the colour palette of his photos and it greatly inspired me as to how he organised them.

"The photographer’s aim for the book was to propose “a new iconography for the city,” mostly due to the fact that he “was tired of the conventional ones,” Nguans says." Bourton (2017) provided information for the visit.

This book greatly resonates with me as it reminds me of my hometown. The way he photographed Singapore inspired the way I photographed for The Collection Project.

Reflection

Looking at all these artists and designers, they have influenced the way I think towards life. Their perspective towards the mundane has brought even more life into it. The way they create new connections to co-existing objects is what I think has inspired me to become a designer in the future. Creating works that will bless people like how these artists have is what I aspire to be. To be able to make that connection that brings people together in a new way. Ultimately, bless them.

Converging Cultures (Japanese Calligraphy)

After relooking at my collection, I thought of focusing more on graffiti. I honestly felt pretty ambiguous about how I categorised my collection. Other than categorising my collection according to such mundane topics, I wanted to find more meaning in these images.

A couple of days ago I bought a book from a book sale that was happening at LCC called "Letterwork, Creative Letterforms in Graphic Design". I was inspired by Chris Bigg's work in this book and thought of how I could merge the two cultures between Japanese calligraphy and graffiti.


Letterwork Creative Letterforms in Graphic Design, 1993, p.32


Letterwork Creative Letterforms in Graphic Design, 1993, p.36-37


Rethinking my collection (Image by author)

After reading the book I was further inspired by how I could merge these two cultures together as a different type of categorisation for my collection. As written above, my thought process for this other way of categorising was to change the stigma of how we view graffiti.

I researched more on Japanese calligraphy and its writing styles; Reisho, Kaisho and Gyosho are the 3 main calligraphy styles based on the book "Shodo: The Quiet Art of Japanese Zen Calligraphy, Learn the Wisdom of Zen Through Traditional Brush Painting":




The Art of Kanji and their writing styles. (Sato, 2013)


Analysing each writing style (Image by author)

Based on these writing styles, I categorised my graffiti collection based on appearance and how they look compared to Japanese calligraphy. The characteristics of Japanese calligraphy are somewhat similar to the appearance of graffiti. It may seem very sporadic at first glance, however, when analysed at its strokes it could be paired up to how Japanese calligraphy is written.

Showcasing the collection

 
 
 
 
Mini booklet mock-up

I decided to create a mini booklet to showcase the graffiti based on the Japanese calligraphy writing styles. I used some news paper that I collected from the letterpress room and printed out the graffiti photos. It was a very rough design, as I used a pen and scribbled lines that were similar to the graffiti.

However, I realised that the scribbles were very messy and decided to design a proper booklet in InDesign. The photos that were pasted in the booklet were very messy. Some pages had 4 photos while others only 1 which felt very out of place.

 
 
 
 

Final booklet for The Collection Project

Connection to my future specialist

Since I want to eventually practitioner in graphic design, I decided to approach my collection that is according to the means of graphic design. Such as typography, font, colour, etc. Creating a catalogue booklet for this project was my end goal, to showcase the different typography and graffiti around London.

Designing and curating my collection thought me to observe my surroundings. Before I was not really paying attention to my surroundings, however, because my collection is based on the streets around London, I now take the time to look around. I think that is a very important and crucial key element in any creative practitioner, which is to observe.

Thanks to this project, I have become more observant and appreciative of the things and people around me.

Bibliography

Bourton, L. (2017) A rare interview with enigmatic and cherished photographer, Nguan. Available at: https://www.itsnicethat.com/features/nguan-singapore-interview-photography-221117 (Accessed: 7 October 2019).

Hara, K. (2017) Designing Design. 5th edn. Baden, Switzerland: Lars Müller Publishers.

Letterwork Creative Letterforms in Graphic Design (1993) London: Phaidon Press Limited.

Niemann, C. (2012) Abstract City. New York: Abrams.

Nguan. (2017) Singapore. Singapore: Maybe Hotel.

Sato, S. (2013) Shodo: The Quiet Art of Japanese Zen Calligraphy, Learn the Wisdom of Zen Through Traditional Brush Painting. Hong Kong: Tuttle Publishing.

Smith, K. (2008) How to be an explorer of the world: portable life museum. New York: Penguin Books, p. 77.