I watched Helvetica for my blog extra credit. The identity of Helvetica is very simple but has been constructed in a very detail oriented way. There were a few great conversations through this documentary that really highlight the true identity of Helvetica. Helvetica became popular in 1957 and was constructed by Alfred Hoffmann from Switzerland.  Hoffmann explains in this documentary how his father and him self created the Helvetica typeface and were very critical of other text designs. They wanted to create a text that played with negative space, making the background important to hold the letters in place. Wim Crouwel describes Helvetica as being clear, “… it should be clear it should be readable, it should be straight forward.” “… a real step from the 19^th century typeface”  He says that “neutralism” (Wim Crouwel, Helvetica) is important that the text itself should not have a meaning within the typeface because the meaning is in the context of the text. Helvetica is an awesome type face that can be used for anything, the context of what it is being used for becomes important but when something is used so often it does begin to lack impact thus on the other side of things Erik Spiekermann had a lot to say about why Helvetica should not be used as much and how it has become a “default”. “… real type face comes from rhythm and contrast, it comes from handwriting.” type face should be individual “ telling the audience, ‘this is you!’” (Erik Spiekerman, Helvetica) I understand both sides of the story and I think this documentary also does a great job of showing them evenly. But I also notice that Helvetica is being used everywhere still today and it must be used for a reason… it just works!

Work Sited

• Helvetica. Dir. Gary Hustwit. Perf. Michael Bierut, Wim Crouwel, Erik Spiekermann,Paula Scher, Otmar Hoefer, Neville Brody. 2007. Netflixs. Web. 4 Dec. 2013.

Le Jetee by Chris Marker, is the movie I picked for my second extra credit blog post. I have seen this movie several times in a few different art classes. Every time I see it I notice something new and as a photographer my self I absolutely love how this video incorporates/ is mainly composed of still images. This film is absolutely beautiful and inspires me even more every time I see it.

This films travels through the identity of a man “marked by an image of his childhood” throughout the film he is trying to understand the meaning of an incident he witness, which was a man who died at the airport. I think the intro to this film is absolutely beautiful and truly expresses the man’s identity and sets the viewer up with the narrative of the film.  “Nothing tells memories from ordinary moments, only afterwards do they claim remembrance, on account of their scars.” The next scene portrays the films narrative perfectly. Photographs of scientist underground in basements performing tests on prisoners These images are truly amazing, one after the other you hear the whispers of scientists and see images of prisoners being tested. You can feel the un-ease, the tension, the pain, and the solitude of these experiences. These portraits inspire my photography, the close zoomed in frame, the grainy images which show how dark the setting truly is, and the deep contrast all put together to create a stop motion like film, the emotions captured in each and every single image is incredible.  The narrator begins to explain what kind of experiments the scientist want to perform, “… to throw emissaries in time, to call past and future to the rescue of present “ focusing on “ …men with strong mental images… “ After the narrator talks the viewer is then filled with sounds of a heart beat and the static of a camera. The eeriness of the sounds along with the dark images of scientist filling needles, the man with bandages/ a cover over his eyes, as he lays in a hammock. The soft whisper start to be heard and the viewers are filled with anticipation of what is to come next and what the outcome of this experiment will be.  The journeys through the experiments incorporate a love interest with the man and a woman that he had seen at the airport. These images are also incredibly beautiful and really allow the viewer to enter the scene himself or herself and feel the love, passion, and curiosity.

I think the scenes with the scientist are truly the best part of this film and a key part to the narrative of the film as a whole but also give great insight to the mans identity, although the viewer discovers more about the male characters identity through his journeys through time and sleep, I think the first intro scene really provides what you need to know about this man through out the film. That he is taking journeys through time, re visiting a memories of his past and discovering more from it.

Work Site

• Le Jetee. Dir. Chris Marker. Argos Films, 1962. DVD.

For my final project I wanted to use screen printing as my analog process and photography as my digital. I took an image of trees at night and then in Photoshop manipulated the images to look like optical illusions. I then hand drew a sphere optical illusion and burned these drawings onto screen printing screens. I then printed these images in layered patters on canvas. My main goal was to create multiple optical illusions within one.

There are a few things I would do differently the next time aground; I would like to rotate the canvas 90 degrees so that the tree patterns direction is horizontally with the earth rather than vertically. I also would like to print a bigger sphere optical illusion  directly in the middle and continue the lines out further on the canvas and have a few that continue to the ends. I have learned a lot from this project, especially when it comes to screen printing and photo editing and I am excited to continue working with these mediums.

I got a new fish! His name is Winston!