Illustrating a sentence, I have no idea
The first typography project Sam set the class was to illustrate a sentence without using images, strictly text. We did this in graphics the first quarter in letterpress and I hated it then... just as much as I did in that moment. Last time we had to choose from Rumi, this time was more Rumi but also Wilde and a children’s poetry author that I can’t remember.
The statement I chose reflected the bewildered temperament I had in the instant. I chose a sentence from a Rumi poem, it was, ‘”I have no idea.”
The next thing we did was go around and room and tell the rest of the class our sentence then everyone had two minutes to write down their suggestions of how to approach the brief.
The brain storming session was not as useful as I wanted it to be to help come up with a direction for my project. I told the class I didn’t want to use light bulbs straight off the bat, let’s get rid of the clichés. I wanted to do something on thought process, illustrating something big and blurry and complex and ending with small and simple, something kind of honest. I wanted to try hand drawing the text.
We had to present two or three options the following week, this is what I was trying to narrow down from:
1. On crumpled paper, “I have no” on the edges “idea” in the middle
2. Lots of crumpled paper in a bin with the text “I have no idea” scattered throughout and visible through the rubbish bin basket wire.
3. Written in a fingerprint on an exhalation from a bus window
4. On scraps of paper
5. A maze coming out with “idea” at the end
6. blank canvas
7. some kind of mechanical machine, an idea machine
8. drawing of elaborate “idea” and “i have no” printed on an eraser
9. print on toilet paper and each square has a different letter of “i have no idea”
10. post it notes, hand drawn “i d e a” printed on an eraser “i have no”
11. printed on a pencil
The problem I was facing was I kept coming to the conclusion that to illustrate “I have no idea” was to display a white piece of paper, a blank one. I didn’t want to use the letterpress because of my hatred for its finicky application and if I was going to have to use text, which is the whole point, I wanted to hand draw it.
I considered writing the words “I have no idea” and blacking them out. Then I wanted to try smashing a light bulb onto the paper around it. In the end I wrote I have no idea on the light bulb and smashed it, this was my starting point.
My second approach was to hand draw the word idea, a letter each on a post it note, rub them out, and carve “I have no” into an eraser. Three attempts it took me to do this, as much as I enjoyed cutting into rubber, it was a painfully slow process.
I also tried “i have no idea” on pencils, I thought this would work well if I painted each pencil to look like a light bulb... four hours later I was asking myself, “what the hell was I thinking this looks ridiculous” the cliché had got me! I tried with simply the text and it was more successful and took only 15 minutes instead of a few hours.
The majority of the class agreed that the smashed light bulb was the strongest and to work from this, Sam at the time did not. He wanted me to “push it back” for it to be able to be reproduced. Of course I went against this and wanted it to remain sculptural, so decided to make an installation! The next project was to illustrate a paragraph of text, this we needed to source ourselves and had to tie in somehow with the sentence.
The statement I chose reflected the bewildered temperament I had in the instant. I chose a sentence from a Rumi poem, it was, ‘”I have no idea.”
The next thing we did was go around and room and tell the rest of the class our sentence then everyone had two minutes to write down their suggestions of how to approach the brief.
The brain storming session was not as useful as I wanted it to be to help come up with a direction for my project. I told the class I didn’t want to use light bulbs straight off the bat, let’s get rid of the clichés. I wanted to do something on thought process, illustrating something big and blurry and complex and ending with small and simple, something kind of honest. I wanted to try hand drawing the text.
We had to present two or three options the following week, this is what I was trying to narrow down from:
1. On crumpled paper, “I have no” on the edges “idea” in the middle
2. Lots of crumpled paper in a bin with the text “I have no idea” scattered throughout and visible through the rubbish bin basket wire.
3. Written in a fingerprint on an exhalation from a bus window
4. On scraps of paper
5. A maze coming out with “idea” at the end
6. blank canvas
7. some kind of mechanical machine, an idea machine
8. drawing of elaborate “idea” and “i have no” printed on an eraser
9. print on toilet paper and each square has a different letter of “i have no idea”
10. post it notes, hand drawn “i d e a” printed on an eraser “i have no”
11. printed on a pencil
The problem I was facing was I kept coming to the conclusion that to illustrate “I have no idea” was to display a white piece of paper, a blank one. I didn’t want to use the letterpress because of my hatred for its finicky application and if I was going to have to use text, which is the whole point, I wanted to hand draw it.
I considered writing the words “I have no idea” and blacking them out. Then I wanted to try smashing a light bulb onto the paper around it. In the end I wrote I have no idea on the light bulb and smashed it, this was my starting point.
My second approach was to hand draw the word idea, a letter each on a post it note, rub them out, and carve “I have no” into an eraser. Three attempts it took me to do this, as much as I enjoyed cutting into rubber, it was a painfully slow process.
I also tried “i have no idea” on pencils, I thought this would work well if I painted each pencil to look like a light bulb... four hours later I was asking myself, “what the hell was I thinking this looks ridiculous” the cliché had got me! I tried with simply the text and it was more successful and took only 15 minutes instead of a few hours.
The majority of the class agreed that the smashed light bulb was the strongest and to work from this, Sam at the time did not. He wanted me to “push it back” for it to be able to be reproduced. Of course I went against this and wanted it to remain sculptural, so decided to make an installation! The next project was to illustrate a paragraph of text, this we needed to source ourselves and had to tie in somehow with the sentence.
posted by erin at 5:01 pm
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