Objective
Cascading Soundwaves is a three-poster series that uses experimental typography to create a dynamic visual design system. The series highlights the artistry of poets Patti Smith, Jjjjjerome Ellis, and Charmaine Lee while promoting fictional poetry reading events.
Research
Concept Sketches
1. Perceptual Paths: Explores how each poet implements improv into their performances. Uses a multitude of pathways to show how they welcome the present's opportunities
2. Cascading Soundwaves: The three poets each incorporate sound and live performance into their poetry. The type would be distorted by soundwaves
3. Tearing Boarders: Each artist incorporates multiple art forms by disregarding conventional borders of art. The tearing emphasizes how they deconstruct and interweave multiple art forms.
Free Play Workshop
Ideation Phase
Printouts of words associated with the poets were used during workshops to create different compositions. After experimenting with collage, layering text, use of light, scanner party, and a glass bowl, it was discovered that positioning the glass bowl above the printouts was the most effective method for conveying sound waves.
Iteration Phase
Across the following workshops, the glass bowl effect concept was fine-tuned. It was concluded that each poster should incorporate the glass bowl overtop circular text, but include one element in the distortion of the text that varied.
Text Integration
Key takeaways from this round were that there is a need for greater consistency in the delivery system across the series. There was insufficient thoughtful integration between text and image. The experimental typography needed to shout louder than the text as opposed to taking the backseat.
Color Exploration
Style Guide: Color & Type
Saturated, bright color palettes are featured in the series to demonstrate how each poet refuses to be limited to one clean-cut arm form and pushes against the tide in the poetry scene to stand out. The sans serif, Azo Sans, was selected because it would maximize legibility, despite distortions resulting from the experimental typography.
Final
Patti Smith: Smith’s sound has a greater emphasis on the power and strength of her voice, instead of the manipulation of her voice, so only the glass bowl was used to manipulate the composition.
Jjjjjerome Ellis: The glass bowl filled with water was used for Ellis’s composition to elongate the type and resemble the embrace of their stutter in their art.
Charmaine Lee: Lee’s composition was created using a clear plastic bag and a glass bowl filled with water. Lee’s poster incorporated the most variables to convey the chaotic, dramatic textures of her sound, as her work is the most unconventional of the three.
