AAS GD Type Meet up

Throughout the month of November and into the first week of December, I attended two out of the six AAS GD Type Meet up Peer Led Sessions. I met the lovely Lauren Peters-Collaer who is a third semester AAS GD student that will be graduating later this month. Since I was usually the only person there, the sessions were based around what I wanted to learn and work on. Lauren would always have some sort of activity/workshop planned and we would start from there. She is a great mentor that introduced me to many different resources such as: Fonts in Use, Type Wolf, and Typographic Posters.

Check out this animated video called Word As Image by Ji Lee and try creating your own!

She also introduced me to two typography based summer courses that would be worth checking out from SVA. If you are looking for something to do over the summer, you may want to check these out: Typography as Language and Masters Workshop. Typography as Language is a one month program that is based in New York. Masters Workshop is a two-week program that is in Italy. These sessions are taught by different guest lecturers.

For those that are interested in typography should definitely attend these sessions! Hopefully more will be scheduled soon.

Bottles

For my Bottles project, I was initially stumped on what I could do. I wasn’t crazy about my sketches and none of the ideas I had really stuck to me. I was also in the process of finishing up my Photo Essay since I decided to redo the essay the week before it was due so I really wasn’t giving this project my full attention.

My first bottle idea that I really liked but never executed came to me when I was walking my dog. As I was walking him, I noticed heaps of garbage bags occupying the sidewalk and obstructing our way to walk. Then I thought about the assignment and the fact that we’re using plastic bottles and adding even more to the waste we produce and adding to landfills. I wanted to do a time lapse video of all the garage I produce in a week and document that and in an alternative week, I would reduce my footprint and restrict myself to only producing waste that would be able to fit into the bottle. This first idea lead to me explore beyond the obvious. I started to think about my past and what influences have impacted my life. I initially started with my geography background and then moved to my healthcare background. Listing out words that were important concepts in both of those worlds, I landed on creating a set of binoculars that would reflect visually impaired and perfect vision.

I cut out the bottom of both the bottles and started to think about creating filter lenses to show different visual impairments. At some point during my brainstorming, kaleidoscope popped into my head as well. I started with a list of eight that I narrowed down to five after coming across some technical difficulties with implementing three. My original list consisted of: myopia, hyperopia, presbyopia, cataracts, floats, retinal detachment, peripheral vision loss and age-related macular degeneration. Since, I wanted the binoculars to be reflective of real life objects in that given point in time the person is looking into it, I had a hard time demonstrating myopia, hyperopia and presbyopia. With the aforementioned, it seemed like the only way to be able to show this properly was to actually place a static picture on the filter. This would change my original idea of having the binoculars be interactive and reflect what is being seen at that point in time so I decided to give those three up and worked with the others.

My process then led me to research and get some images of what vision would be like for the remaining five impairments. I knew right away that I wanted to use plastic sheets to create my filters so I went down to Canal Plastics and picked up a few pieces. I also knew that for many of the filters, I would use spray paint to create the filters. At one point, I did get stuck on the floaters filter because I wanted it to be as realistic as possible so I wanted the black dots/floating lines to actually be able to move in the filter. This wasn’t as easy as I thought it was going to be. In the end, I settled for piercing holes through the plastic and using tread to create the floaters.

I also wanted the filters to be educational so I used the vinyl sticker printer in the AMT lab to print labels for the tops of each filter. At first, I wanted to sticker cutout the names of the filters and have the letters punched out. After the stickers were cutout and the letters were removed, it became apparent that this would not work because of the small counters in some of the letters so I opted to have the entire label printed on clear vinyl instead to still give the same look.

As for the actual bottles, the bottoms were cut out and a small slit was cut for the filter to sit in, but I still had another problem. The bottles needed to be attached together somehow and still allow for angle adjustment for different pupil distances. At that point, I decided to use elastic bands to hold the filters together and the cap of the bottom became a wedge in the middle to create the perfect angle. This solution actually also automatically solved another problem I had with the filter always falling out when people moved around to look at different things in their surroundings.

Photo Essay

My photo essay initial idea was to take photos of different perspectives that are different from our usual view. I wanted to play with bird’s eye view and also low angle perspectives, like what my dog would see. During my first few rounds of taking pictures, I brought my dog with my and included him in various shots.

Knowing that the photo essay would be later placed in a book; I decided to pay the Center for Book Arts a visit to get some inspiration on possible book layout and ideas. The visit was fun and I was able to see letterpress in action, but I still did not know what kind of binding I would use for my book. I was certain I wanted to bind and not fold an instant book though.

I kept exploring the internet to see what I could do and I came across a scrapbook idea that I really liked. By this point of reviewing and choosing pictures, the photo essay was shaping into a photo essay around Bentley, my bichon frise and poodle mix dog. It was becoming like “A day in the life of Bentley.” Although I love my dog to bits and pieces, reviewing my pictures again the week before it was due, I realized I wasn’t completely happy with what I had. I felt like I was beefing up the book with a lot of craft and that the story and pictures itself were not all that strong. I spoke to Carmile and showed her some of the shots that I really liked and she told me to take the week to go back to taking pictures.

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At this point, I knew I had to work fast and work hard so I wouldn’t fall behind. I narrowed down 600+ pictures to 24 and sent contacts sheets to Carmile for feedback. Coincidentally, in my Typography class that week, we were starting our new project, a fun facts book so our professor actually brought in a bunch of samples of book mockups that she created and I saw the perfect layout for my subject! Remember how I said I really wanted to bind? Guess what, that changed. I opted for a folded instant book instead. I also created a sleeve for it and made the book reversible and can be folded both ways.

I’m actually quite happy with the final product, even though I didn’t get to bind. Production was painful though. It took approximately four 2-hour sessions at the AMT Lab plotter to be able to print the two documents the way I wanted it.

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Prestone Printing Company Tour

A few weeks back, I was given the opportunity to visit Prestone Printing Company. This impressive print production facility is location in Long Island City. Glenn Baken, Parsons Graphic Design Continuing Education Professor for Print Production in a Digital World provided use with the tour of the facility.

Glenn began the tour with giving us tips on production and working with a printer:

1. It is the printer’s job to worry about the turn around time frame, not the designer’s.
2. The best way to produce a project is to discuss budget and time frame from the get-go with your client and the printer.
3. It is important to talk to production BEFORE starting any project and the more you know about production, the more choices you have to solve your design problem. Sit down with printer/production representative and talk about what you want. Always aim high, put in all the things you want and get a quote. If it exceeds your budget, pull things out and downgrade. A five-minute face-to-face meeting will save days of emailing. Bring and show samples to your printer.
4. ALWAYS check proofs provided by the printer. This will minimize reprints and incurring extra costs if something is not right. Check the colors and the have someone else proofread the copy to ensure that there are no typos, errors or mistakes!

Glenn then went on to explain that Prestone Printing Company has a lot of different equipment in order to stay competitive. He explained offset printing and showed us Pantone Matching System (PMS) books along with a print done in CMYK process and another using two pantone colors. A PMS book is like a recipe book. It is the licensed formula for mixing ink. The formula to mix color ink is always the same but the paper will change what the color looks like so there are two major types of books. One comes on uncoated paper and starts with the letter U and the other is on coated paper, which can include gloss, satin or dull. A common mistake they experience is that people will specify a coated number and ask for uncoated paper, but this doesn’t work. The color will not be right even though it is the exact same formula to mix the ink. The only way to get around this is to look at the uncoated paper book and find a color that best match the intended color required.

2 Color Pantone

PMS Books

CMYK Process

Here are some pictures of the equipment they have for offset printing:

Magenta plate

Cyan plate

Platemaker

Indigo Press

CMYK process printing is when cyan, magenta, yellow and black ink are separated onto four individual plates and put back together by application on the paper. Offset printing plates are super smooth. They get wrapped around a cylinder, picks up the ink and The plates are created after the job has been approved. The blue edge on the plates are photo sensitive.

Indigo press can print 1000 sheets per hour. This large press have 6 towers  that can house the for process color and a coater. This printer prints only one side at a time so double sided jobs needs to be fed back in to do the second side. The prints come out wet so also require drying time. There is a limited range of paper for this printer. It mostly only handles coated paper within a specific weight range.

Finishing

Digital die cutter

Digital Press

Sign created by digital press

The digital press can do texture printing on materials similar to foam core. The prints comes out dry and also allow for manual double side printing. The digital die cutter can handle large sheets that can fit 28 pages on an 8×10 board.

Saddle Stitch

Folder

Duratran

Die cutter

Die cutter

Foil Cutter

Automatic Folder

The saddle stitch machine allows books to be stapled together and packaged as well. Each hanger can hold 16 pages depending on the paper weight, it can score a crease on the cover, saddle stitch the pages together, cut off the excess on the other three sides to make everything even and shrink wrap packages of the books together that are ready to be boxed and shipped off.

There is a special room for Duratan printing, they are the most expensive to produce, but also the most beautiful. These types of prints are mostly used for signage in department store cosmetic counters.

Being about to foil and die cut in house saves a lot of time. The die cutter won’t care what color the foil it, but the foil colors have a much smaller palette than Pantone so it is always advisable to pick review the foil book and pick that color first. Foil does not always have to be shiny on uncoated paper.

As seen in the image above, the die cutters have pink foam around the razor blade that protects it. When the machine runs, the foam gets pushed back and the blades are revealed. The die cutters are usually not keep for more than a year and if the client requests it, they can keep their die cut after the bill has been settled.

This tour was very insightful and provided me with a lot more knowledge on print production and has made me realize how important this is to know for any graphic designer.

 

Relief Printing Info Session

The Printmaking Lab on the fourth floor of 2 W 13th St invited Paul Roden of Tugboat Printshop into the lab to answer questions regarding relief printing and the work that he does. Tugboat is based in Pittsburgh, PA. Paul brought it a variety of their work and a few examples of the woodcut blocks they use to produce their prints. He talked to us about the process of producing hand-crafted woodcut art. His wife and him are artists, printmakers and business partners. He mentioned that they do split the work pretty evenly between the two of them. His wife does more of the actual printing and he does more of the carving and they split the rest of the work evenly between then. Since he does more of the carving of the wood blocks, the talked more about the details of that.

Ideally, for their work a piece of 5-7 birch plywood is used (too many plies would not work). They would draw directly onto the woodblock with a pencil, then fill it in with a black marker. This allows them to see if the design would be feasible. A design could be scraped in either the pencil drawing or marker drawing stage. Once they have verified the design would work, then carving would begin. Depending on the number of colors required for the print, duplicates of the woodblocks would have to be made. In order to make a duplicate, black ink would be applied to the original and a stamped on to a piece of paper. With the paper still wet, that would then be stamped onto another wood block (to keep them in the same direction) then that would be drawn on and carved. When printing, the lightest color is applied to the paper first and layer the rest from lightest to darkest.

The wood they use is just from a lumber in their neighborhood and no treatments are necessary to prep the woodblocks. Sanding is the only thing they do occasionally. He has tried shellac treatments before but it isn’t necessary. They prefer woodblock printing over linoleum because linoleum stretches. He keeps all the blocks he’s carved and drawn (but never used) and generally do not reuse carved versions with different colors to create a second edition of the same one.

Some more examples of their work:

If you are interested in purchasing their work, you can check out Tugboat Printshop or their Etsy page.

AAS Graphic Design Presents Ryan McGinness: Studio Process

Some of you may have seen the emails and posters floating around campus for this event. I decided to swing by to check it out. I wasn’t sure what to expect as this was my first time attending an AMT, Parsons event.

The event started off with Julia Gorton, Director for Graphic Design and Printmaking, giving a brief introduction of the guest panel: Ryan McGinness, Jess Dang and Pierre Tardif. After the introduction, we watched two short films. One can be seen on Jess’s reel. The second was the short film directed and produced by Jess Dang on Ryan McGinness’s process in solving his design problems in the studio. Then, the panel was welcomed to the stage where it took off with Pierre sharing images of his typeface called “Ryan McGinness.” This typeface was based on Ryan McGinness’s unique handwriting. Pierre saved the notes and to-do lists Ryan gave him (when Pierre was working for Ryan) and later developed this typeface.

The panel then shared with the audience what they do, how they all connected with each other and their process and challenges in their own work. The story of how they are all connected is quite intriguing. It all began with Pierre noticing Ryan’s work and falling in love with it. At the time, Pierre worked in a toy store and Ryan designed a ball that the toy store carried. One day, someone came in wanting to know how many they have left in stock and Pierre was really excited that others knew about Ryan as well. A few weeks later Pierre received a package in the mail with a note from Ryan thanking him for checking on the stock of the balls and a signed book. Pierre then decided he wanted to personally thank Ryan so he went to his studio and pretended to be delivering a package and met Ryan. Later, Pierre was given the opportunity to work for Ryan. Pierre and Maria Wan knew each other from Parsons. That is also how they know Julia. Maria also worked for Ryan. Jess discovered Ryan’s work through a book she purchased and later gave away to a friend. Jess was a MFA Film student at USC and knew that Maria worked for Ryan and asked Maria to connect them post graduation. Jess and Ryan connected and met in person and it launched into this short film project which we were given the opportunity to see. This really shows that the people to you know and the connections you make matters!

 

The panel discussion and the followup Q&A portion of the evening was definitely the highlight for me. Both Ryan and Pierre studied Graphic Design in school and have expanded their work to other mediums. Pierre said that Graphic Design provides the visual training to allow us to do so many other things, which I never really thought of. To be honest, I didn’t and still don’t know what aspect of graphic design I would like to explore in-depth. For now, I just want to focus on obtaining all the skills and soaking as much in as possible. I have learned to realize that life will work itself out and opportunities will present itself at the right time.

Ryan talked a bit more about his process and how particular he is with keeping everything the same format. He has a lot of sketch books that are all the same size. He emphasized that keeping everything in the same format is crucial. His sketch book is his idea book and encouraged everyone to just keep sketching. He puts everything and anything on the pages with ink. He also keeps all of his sketch books and archives them every year. He also loves to-do lists and calendars. He is very particular about the sizing and formatting for that as well. He used to create his own to-do pads and calendars by cutting 8.5″x11″ sheets in half lengthwise and gluing them together in a pad. Later, he found a printer (Ginko Press) that would print these pads for him. You can buy it from Ginko Press or from his online store RM Store.

Another thing that he loves doing is to create books. These books are compilations of his works and allows him to compartmentalize his life. For him, the books literally symbolize the end of a chapter for him. He used to do this annually with all the projects he completed that year. He described this process to be very fluid. He would collect materials, take pictures of process and how things are made. Again, he would follow his format and keep the books at 8.5″x11″.

The process he takes to approach a new design problem is always start with sketching. It is very important to sketch before moving to the computer or other technological mediums. Ryan loves to sketch and again, it is always the same format, India ink on paper, chiseled tip pen in three different sizes. He always starts with thumbnails in his sketch books and then move to 22×30″ paper leaving a 2″ border. He moves in a linear progression as he always ends up with a sketch of a sketch. The sketches then turns into a drawing leading to the final solution. The solution then goes to the technical stage which then translates into a digital image.

All three panelists agree that routine in their work is important to them as it sets down the parameters of what needs to get done and make decisions in a timely manner. There are also systems to allow for creativity and craziness to happen. Flexibility in the projects themselves will give them change and variety.

Time management is key in design. Ryan explains that he isn’t good at prioritizing as everything has the same level of importance to him. As mentioned previously, Ryan is big on to-do lists and will keep them all over the place in the studio. The things that makes it on the list is what is important for him to complete. He mentioned that sometimes he will procrastinate by doing other smaller projects that he knows he can complete faster first. He also used to make time sheets to keep track of where all his time goes. He would log the number of hours he spends on a project and also administrative time to see what is sucking up time. For Jess, learning to walk away from her work and take breaks was pivotal. By doing this, it makes it more manageable and realistic not only for herself, but the client as well. Julia shared that for her, it’s the 30-minute train ride that she finds herself to be the most efficient. As a designer, you will need to find you own method to control this madness. It is also very important to make time for yourself in your creative practice or you won’t have a creative practice.

Sometimes, as designers, we get stuck. Ryan said he doesn’t really get stuck because he has so much to do and not enough hours in a day to complete everything. Don’t we all wish we could be like him and not ever have to worry about getting stuck? Pierre said that when that happens to him, he will walk away from it. If there is time, he would sleep on it. For Jess, to get unstuck she would get on a plane and travel to stimulate her mind. Letting go for a bit and enjoy a nice meal or catch up with a friend also helps.

My key takeaways from the session:

1. Sketch, sketch and sketch! Just keep sketching and don’t treat my sketchbook as a precious thing, put any and all ideas that come to mind into the sketch book. It can be chicken scratch. Sketchbooks do not need to be perfect!
2. Track my work hours to determine where I’m spending most of my time and adjust my process. This will help me figure out where all my time went when a deadline is approaching and I’m not close to where I want to be.
3. Get unstuck by leaving the work for a bit, sleep on it, go out and explore more, try new things and travel.

It is nice to know that I am doing something right already. I went out and had some fun this week…

Bookbinding Workshop with Mary Ellen Buxton

In our most recent Process & Skills class, Mary Ellen Buxton provided us with a Bookbinding Workshop. I was super excited to participate in this workshop.

First, Mary Ellen showed us some intricate examples of bookbinding that she has done and her process in solving a bookbinding problem. She creates many drafts of the book and keeps a “cheat sheet” of how she got there inside the draft with a smaller mock up. She also showed us examples of other books such as the accordion fold books, and tunnel books.

How to Determine Grain

She then explained how to determine long grain and short grain and that the spine should always run along the long grain. To determine the grain, roll up a small part of the edge and gently press down to fell the bounce in the paper. The lighter bounce side is the longer grain. Since we want the spine to be along the long grain, we folded and cut the paper against the grain. When this occurs, you will notice buckling/cracking in thicker paper. She also showed us how to use a bone folder to fold and crease the paper. The trick to using a bone folder is to start in the middle and go outwards.

We used a color sheet for the cover and three white sheets for the inside. Each sheet is approximately 4″ in width and 20″ in length. The color sheet is then folded in half along the long grain. The white sheets for the inside are then folded into threes and one panel is then cut off and then folded in half. With the bigger folded sheets, we used the French fold and stitched the open sides into the spine. The smaller folded sheets were then added in to the first larger sheet with pamphlet stitching.

Pamphlet Stitching

In order to do the pamphlet stitch, use a bulldog clip to hold the smaller pages to the large page, leaving half and inch of space from the folded large sheet. Open the small book to the middle and draw three points; one in the middle of the crease and the other two between the middle of the point and the top and bottom edge of the sheet. Now, taking the awl, poke holes through the three points. Number the middle hole #1 and either of the other two #2 and #3. We need to prepare our thread for stitching, measure three to four times of the spine length worth of thread. Take the thread and run it through the beeswax so that it doesn’t rip the paper and to wax it together so it is easier to thread into the needle. Taking the needle and thread, start from the inside and pull the thread through #1 hole to the outside then from the outside, leaving approximately 3″ at the end. Then, pull the thread through hole #2 from the outside to inside then to hole #3 going from the inside to the outside this time. Finally, bring the thread through hole #1 from the outside back to the inside and tie a knot (right over left, then left over right). Cut the thread leaving 1″ of the ends.

Japanese Stitching

Finally, we bind the french fold pages to the cover sheet using a simple Japanese stitch. Use two bulldog clips to hold down the pages and cover in place. Prepare two pieces of threads that are four times the length of the spine. Create two holes half an inch from the two corners. Working with one hole at a time, take one of the threads from the front of the book to the back, leaving 3″ at the end, bring that thread around the top and through the hole again from the front then around the side and through the hole again from the front. Tie a knot here when you are done. Repeat on the other side. Now that both sides are down, tie a knot in the middle of the two loose from the spine and then again approximately 1″ away. This now creates a hook for the book to be hung from. Cut off the excess, leaving approximately 1″ at the ends.

This was my first time participating in a bookbinding workshop and I’m hooked! I would love to explore other methods and come up with my own solutions to my bookbinding problems. I think I will check out the workshops at the Center for Book Arts next. I also found a YouTube tutorial I would like to attempt for my next DIY sketch book using a Coptic Stitch.