HELP ME!

I have to pick between these two books to redesign... its a toughy!

My first idea was a book called Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keys.  It was my favorite novel from my late elementary years.  I really appreciate the story because it is such an unusual plot about a man with an unusually low IQ who begins an experiment on a rat.  The rat, Algernon, ends up teaching the man alot about life and even relationships between humans and animals.  I eventually decided to avoid this book due to the lack of interest compared to other books.

so! here is where you come in, please give me some feedback!!!!

option 1:

Crank by Ellen Hopkins. She began writing nonfiction books for younger ages until the unfortunate turn of events when her teenage daughter began a struggle with drug addiction.  This is the first of her series of books involving serious issues among young adults like books titled Glass and Burned.

The novel is a story depicting the difficulties in growing up with divorced parents and the issues that may arise from the situation.  The reader follows the initially innocent life of Kristina, a gifted high school student who seemingly had it all together.  Throughout the book we see the unraveling of her life as she is consumed by addiction and insecurity.

this novel is written in a unique prose... almost poetry.  Each page is a puzzle or play on words.  The pages are arranged in ways that force the reader to jump from paragraph to paragraph or even word to word in strange ways.  I feel this was a way of creating a feeling of anxiety and confusion to further incorporate  the reader into the plot.

jumpy, driven, frantic, painful, stiff, powerful, unrefined, belligerent, meaningful yet emotionless, complicated, battle of self

this story conveys a message of the incredibly difficult theme of human connection and relationship along with the huge theme of addiction and bondage

protagonist... Kristina painfully approaches rejection, addiction, illness and even death and eventually the glimmer of life in her newborn child.

antagonist... the isnt necessarily one antagonist. But if i had to point one out it would be the unmistakable desire for human connections like love, appreciation and approval, which in turn forces the protagonist into a spiral of sex, drugs and alcohol.

-"the monster" (crank)
-"Bree is back" Kristina's alternate personality, the one who does drugs

the important part! I chose to redesign this novel not because it is one of my favorite books or even because i liked it, but more because I feel like the subject matter is so foreign to me that designing a cover would involve a challenge.  It would push me to design based on something i am not comfortable with (drugs, insecurity, bad relationships, death)


option 2:

The Buddah of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi


It is said that this is an autobiography where Kureishi is the main character, Karim.  Karim is a mixed-race teenager growing up in London.  The story unravels as you watch him grow up in a broken family as they search for identity. Kureishi also wrote a similar story of identity struggle called The Black Album.


Throughout the novel, Karim tries to escape his lowly life as an indian boy by traveling and making new friends in the slums of London.  He eventually gets a job as an extra in a derogatory play which leads to more opportunities in the theater.  He meets important people and finds a way to move to america.

music, identity struggle, sex and love, family values, drugs, experimentation, race, adulthood, sibling rivalry

The message is one of self discovery and the making of your own path.

protagonist, Karim, evolves from a teenage boy to a young adult

antagonist, all of the family members and adults who treated karim with disrespect because of his race and situation

-"My name is Karim Amir, and I am an Englishman born and bred, almost"
-"There were kids in velvet cloaks who lived free lives."

I chose this book for the sole reason that i liked reading it.  Because i feel comfortable with the subject matter and the amount of back story going on in the whole novel, there would be plenty of ways to show the cover.

VISC 202 Final Project

The assignment. create a drop cap/illuminated letter.  Get inspiration from historical figures by mimicking their style in the design of a drop cap.  

Roy Lichtenstein

Gustave Caillebotte

Robert Smithson

Project Overview: Of all of the projects this semester, I am going to say this one was probably my favorite.  I really appreciated the amount of time and energy spent focusing in the final product. I feel that each example was a successful version of a modern drop cap letter.  But my favorite part, what I thought was the most affective was the freedom we had.

The Final Three

Gustave Caillebotte was born into an upper-class Parisian family in the 1848.  At the age of 12 his family moved to the country where he began drawing and painting.  After intently studying the arts, he joined the impressionist movement and entered his work in the second Impressionist Exhibition of 1876.

*Gustave Caillebotte and the fashioning of identity in impressionist Paris


The one painting that really inspired me to use Gustave was his masterful attempt at rendering every day scenes in such an emotionally appealing way.  He captures a specific moment in each painting, whether it is the moment before the two on the sidewalk collide or the next raindrop will fall on the rippling creek.  As a response to his involvement in the impressionist movement, Gustave dabbled in the school of Realism.  This is where he found himself and his talent.  I don't even need to explain. Just look at these photos of some of his most impressive realist paintings....

Hopefully you saw the common theme of water and its beauty that is reflected upon in every day life.  For this artist I plan on creating an illuminated letter that also uses this precise rendering of the wetness of an object or water itself. 

Roy Lichtenstein was a prominent american pop artist of the late 1900's who worked with artists like Warhol, and Jasper Johns.  He was not taught much about art and design as a young boy but he truly loved jazz and often found himself at the Apollo Theater in Harlem.  Then he went to art school and studied but was interrupted by WWII.  When he got back  he studied more in Ohio then moved back to New York. 

*Roy Lichtenstein: pop-paintings, 1961-1969, Roy Lichtenstein : drawing and prints / with an introduction by Diane Waldman

During his lifetime, he studied within many schools of art... from cubism and expressionism to abstraction to pop art and surrealism.  His interest in cartoon and comic strips show in his late pop art paintings.  These images show his interest in bold colors and thick outlines.  

Robert Smithson was born in 1938.  He is famous for his American land art exhibits.  He began his career in the minimalist movement.  The he wandered outside of the two dimensional and practiced with glass sheets and tubing to explore visual refraction and mirroring of light. 

*Robert Smithson and the American landscape




His mature works bloomed from an odd interest in dump trucks and their ability to move earth (rocks, concrete, dirt and more).  He often combined his natural elements in galleries with mirrors and glass.  One of his other noticeable characteristics was the need for temporary, or ever changing art.  This theme brings out the stage of his earthworks.  

The Illuminated Letter

An Illumination is an embellishment, or additional decoration that enhances the pges of a written, or manuscript page.  The term, illumination comes from the term illuminate, or to fill with light.  This effect is achieved with the applications of gold leaf to the letters and images, which reflect light and appear to glow.  An illuminated letter was usually the first letter of a page or paragraph.  It was always enlarged and in color iwth gold applied in areas, while the rest of the text remained black.  The images used to enhance the letters include animals, plants and mythological creatures.  These images were modified to fit into or around the letter, or in some cases took on the shape of the letter itself.  

The modern counterpart to the illuminated letter is known as a drop cap.  The first letter of a paragraph that is enlarged to "drop" down two or more lines, as in the next paragraph. Drop caps are often seen at the beginning of novels, where the top of the first letter of the first word lines up with the top of the first sentence and drops down to the four or fifth sentence.

So this next project involves creating an illuminated letter/drop cap that represents a person who has a recognizable artistic influence.  The following are 6 artists that I have chosen to study in order to recreate a drop cap with their initials.

Fillipo Brunelleschi: Italian architect of the early 15th century.  Dome of the Florence Cathedral, sacristy of the church of San Lorenzo in Florence

Gustave Caillebotte: french painter late 1800's, Paris Rainy Day

Roy Lichtenstein: american pop artist 1960's.  Oh Jeff!

Bradbury Thompson: american graphic design of the early 21st: washburn bible

Robert Smithson: american land artist of the mid 1900's.  spiral jetty

Georgia O'Keeffe: 20th century american painter: red canna

oohhh yeah!

those freshmen in design 1... GOOD JOB!

These guys did an awesome job of building and placing their super cool letters around campus.  sorry if you didnt get a chance to see them. they were great!

hmmmm fall :)

just a quick lil thing i needed to make because i really love leaves! I adore this time of year and especially today since we just TURNED IN OUR VISCON POSTERS!!!!

vacation from page layouts and paragraph breaks

my first go at motion graphics... from Noel Rivard on Vimeo.