Lecture Stuart Tolley & Colophon Foundry

(Story told: Reforming and projecting a new future in a type design)

• Colophon Foundry designed typeface for welsh government:
  • – Respect the heritage of a font and overall vernacular -> but bring it into a new light
  • – main part research: distill it down to what made it welsh looking
  • – research into language itself & certain features/appearance -> refining and simplifying the “harp”
  • – worked with wide range of people
  • – readability and identity of a place
  • – good collaborators
  • – testing it (stakeholders etc.)

Designing identity for brands or organizations with national heritage needs to appeal to global audience while reflecting national one

• Example 68 Mexico Olympics design by Lance Wyman:
  • – didn’t want the stereotypical “mexican”
  • – no computers at that time
  • – falling in love with mexican folk art & pre Hispanic designers
  • – op art influence during that time (historical) -> optical art = style of visual art that uses visual illusions
  • – generating energy (black vs white lines) -> bring it into country
  • – after creating logo local craftspeople came in to do it with wool -> be expressive with color
  • – reusable logo & can be used with different color combos on different products (e.g. T-shirts)
  • – icons for different sports types based on mayan glyphs (concept established in Mexico beforehand)
  • – other elements from Olympic history: silhouettes / running men (greek) -> became important because they wanted a simple communication form instead of using several languages to translate
  • – letter stamps -> adjusted to the printing at that time which was limited -> used solid background color
  • – design of tickets: icons, clear signage
  • – designer conscience: during that time students demonstrated against mexican government -> were killed -> The designers didn’t feel good about it -> but there designs were used by students protesters

Resources

Dan Rhatigan on Ryman Eco Font (youtube)

• best typefaces are very functional and also very beautiful
• printing and ink produces a lot of plastic
• designed a font which uses less ink

Creative Review (2018) The CR podcast episode 14: Making, changing and documenting places

• step away from clique and so something different, maybe fun and quirky (make even stereotypes work for you)
• move away from traditional campaigns -> support artists or locals
• not just invent something about the city but find something special/authentic about the city
• create things that makes people want to go there -> open to public
• bring in diverse community (culture and also professions/creatives)

Preserve character of a place and create new opportunities

• example: Canary Wharf London? -> make sure local community part of it (talk to people, make them feel it’s for them…) (<-> “gentrification” “alienation of pre-existing communities”)
• services that are easy to use for everybody
• doing things in a more thoughtful way not necessarily about budget

Research and thinking about the brief

What makes this city special, what story do I want to unfold? What hasn’t been told yet, but deserves to be told?

Digging into the history revealed a city different from today. During the 19th century art nouveau movement brought a lot of creatives to the city -> can be seen in architecture

In the 1960’s and 70’s: International and hotspot for creatives, party city (https://muenchen.mitvergnuegen.com/2022/schickeria-serie-amazon-muenchen/; documentary)

“it is almost difficult to explain how this being at the forefront and the constant presence of world stars could go together with the cosy, provincial, always the same Munich-as-a-village feeling that existed and of course still exists” (translated from german, https://www.sueddeutsche.de/medien/muenchen-dokuserie-schickeria-rezension-1.5643779)

Leads:

• Kunstlabor2 (found broke.today -> no open exhibits atm)

• Documentary (see above: Als München noch sexy war)

• Google maps – looking for cultural & art related venues and communities -> Association “Mehrplatz zum leben”
• Galerie der Künstler ?

• Association: – Mehrplatz zum leben:https://mehrplatzzumleben.wordpress.com/
  • – report in Bayerischer Rundfunk
  • It’s about community (reminds me of Gracia in Barcelona where I lived for 2 years. All the cultural activities and efforts of the community: e.g. Festas da Gracia, a festival in the neighborhood where some streets compete against each other in transforming the neighborhood surroundings based on a chosen topic) vs. the area I live which is basically soulless. It takes time (Melanie Kieweg took some time to get things rolling; needs a lot of determination and effort)
  • – Again checked my own immediate suroundings: https://www.pro-fuerstenried.de/

• Art Nouveau:
  • – went to Kunsthalle exhibit: https://www.kunsthalle-muc.de/jugendstil/
  • – Munich map of Jugendstil architecture: https://municharttogo.zikg.eu/tours/show/15
  • – Art Nouveau: Back then, it was an escape into another world, away from industrialism and science. Towards nature. Current topic? (AI critics, technology advancements, more people/families move to the countryside?) (see audio tour of the exhibit)
  • – Story of Elvira Atelier: Woman power; Uncommon architecture of their studio

– https://www.unseen-women.design/designerinnen/anna-simons (found it on instagram)

• My general approach was to explore as much as possible the culture and art in the city, as art can be a mirror of society and current issues. (research?)
• create connections between past/present/future?
• Art Nouveau is again relevant, as in the past (Just like back then, it is more important than ever to view and design the city as a ‘city as living space’ (August Endell and ‘The beauty of the big city’ transl. from german)

Better to have a story that is actual with the needs of the city or something that is deeply rooted historical? or how to combine the historical with the present?

Ideas/themes

• Suffrage Jewelry (googling mainly leads me to jewellery ads or shops who would like to sell -> go to google scholar) -> women rights today
• touch/warm
• human vs. animal
• brushes
• leonardo da vinci -> Salvator mundi
• shells formation

Research task

Thoughts after the webinar with Frauke (30.1)

I was looking all the time for something that would really define this city and be a great example of solving a problem that this city has. I was also trying to see the big picture and think about what story I could tell that would be meaningful to the people in my immediate neighbourhood.

But I realised that I had been trying too hard to find a purpose and options for the collaboration already, so I wasn’t open to the story within the story within the story. The layering of a story, so to speak. Maybe in a different situation, with a less strict time frame and a less institutional framework, I wouldn’t have thought so much about finding a purpose yet.

It can be something very small that people are not aware of. I think I better understand the task of the letter now. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a very conscious issue of our time, such as immigration or women’s rights. It can be a story that doesn’t yet grab society’s attention. But I think the perfect situation would be if it eventually finds its way back to issues or relevance in the present.

I think I have to go back to understanding what Kenya Hara is trying to tell us with “Noticing the Ignored”.

Notes from the webinar