Extra Credit

The GOLDEN RATIO

There was a brief mention of the Golden Ratio mentioned in our Meggs’book. This brought me back to when I was about 10 years old and my mom coming home excited about something that she learned at a dental seminar about the Golden Ratio or Phi (aka. Golden Proportion).  She showed me pictures of teeth and how the most beautiful teeth and smiles followed a ratio that was 1:1.618. Then dad piped in, he’s was a senior technical illustrator at the time for Silicon Graphics and explained further and showed me various famous faces, art works and architecture (the Parthenon) following the same proportions. They were excited. I was little and thought, kinda cool, but “meh!”

            I am excited about this now. I decided to research this further on my own. The Golden Ratio is approximately 1.618033989.  There are other names as well: the Devine Ratio, the Golden Mean, the Golden Number, the Golden Proportion and the Golden Section. It has a long history of being the formula for the most pleasing to the eye. It can be found in humans, in art, in architecture and in nature.

I did start with the some dental proportions. Where the nicest looking teeth have the proportions ratios of 1:1.618 using two front teeth where “1” is the measurement from the top of the central incisors to the biting edge of the teeth and “1.618” is the measurement of the two central incisors width. It forms a rectangle.

http://jwilson.coe.uga.edu/EMAT6680/Parveen/GR_Dentistry.htm  (both pictures)

Dr. Levin invented a caliper type gauge called the “Golden Mean Gauge,” which can automatically see if the proportions are 1:1.618. The picture below on the left has a nice looking woman with the distance from the tip of her nose to the edge of her front teeth at “1” and the distance from the edge of her front teeth to her chin at “1.618.” 

http://www.goldenmeangauge.co.uk/dental4.htm

The most “beautiful” faces (though beauty is skin deep and “beauty is in the eyes of the beholder”) have the golden ratio.

http://library.thinkquest.org/trio/TTQ05063/phihistory.htm

      In art, the Egyptians used the Golden Ratio or they called it Phi as a formula while using it as a basis to get the most visually pleasing affect to the eye.  In art it would be broken down as in the paintings below. Notice that the painting is balanced and pleasing to the eye. The Mona Lisa is one of the most famous paintings and the Golden ratio applies to Mona’s face.

In architecture, the Parthenon represents a structure that has many golden ratio proportions present.

http://britton.disted.camosun.bc.ca/goldslide/jbgoldslide.htm

In nature, another name is used related to the Golden ratio and it is termed Fabonnaci numbers.

http://jwilson.coe.uga.edu/emt668/emt668.student.folders/meredith/meredith/goldenratio/introgoldenratio.html.

The nautiluses shell in cross section is an example of the above calculations.

http://bookbuilder.cast.org/view.php?op=preview&book=12332&page=11

I can apply these ratios to my artistic creations. I think I will buy one of Dr. Levin’s Golden Mean Gauges. But in reality, haven’t you ever seen a poster or a painting that is a little “off” or maybe really just not pleasing or frankly ugly? It most likely means that the Golden Ratio is off.  On the other hand, take Angelina Jolie and Megan Fox’s faces, I am sure that they both meet all of the rules of the Golden Ratio.

Hope you enjoyed my information about the Golden Ratio.

Final

Final

          The following is a final summation of my class, GID 01, “History of Graphic Design” for the Fall Quarter at Foothill College. As a brief background: each week following my readings of lectures and the book, “Meggs’ History of Graphic Design,” I published a field journal demonstrating critical thinking and divulging what struck my interest in my assigned readings. There were 10 field journals that I published. My fellow classmates submitted field journals about their reflections and I was able to read, learn and comment on them as well. Here is my final field journal for the class. Hope you enjoy my prior field journals and something strikes your interest as well.

            My reflections about the “History of Graphic Design” take me to a funny analogy on how a human develops. We crawl, using pictures to communicate on cave dwellings and we develop alphabets.  We cruise, by developing paper and ways to make print. We walk, using better paper and using graphic artists to create beautiful manuscripts. We are finding ways to reach larger audiences. Alas, we are still slow. We run, using movable print and artists feel like their jobs are becoming not so desired, obsolete. We sprint, using faster methods of mass printing, the world is communicating more and more, typography innovations and photography are becoming increasingly advanced.  We fly, with technology; we are no longer on the ground. We are air-bound and in cyberspace, using every invented medium, computer age/digital age is boundless. We find excitement about new developments, yet we can fear change and fear that we might be obsolete with our skills set. Yet, we want more and more inventions. We want attention from certain people and find ways to get the most attention. We fight for audiences. With so much different ways to communicate, how do we find and keep our audiences? How do we get our messages across and be understood when there is so much competition? Does the one with the most money get the audiences (probably and unfortunately)? We want to make an impact and to be remembered and graphic design is the way.

After really analyzing and thinking about the gestalt of this course, which I have a difficult time doing generally anyways. I’ve discovered that I’ve learned a tremendous amount, but barely scratched the surface. There is so much more to know that I do not know. I think that if we just had a course on the subject of Peter Max that it would have taken the entire quarter or year.

My future aspiration is to be involved in animation. I would like to eventually animate in the field of Japanese Anime with my high shooting goals as to be in the animation house of Studio Gainax (see link below) or somewhere similar.

An example of poster art from Studio Gainax

http://axolotlburg.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/evangelion.jpg

 This class helped me to gain insights as to various methods to visually communicate by using everything from simple symbolic representations, abstract depictions, to very detailed pictorial artistic pieces. This will be of great help to my future in animation by being exposed to this valuable overview. Graphic design enabled history to be recorded and had a huge impact on history as people or groups relayed information to the masses (global communication) for example, as in wartime communications depiciting how our troups needed food, the tragedy of the holocaust, or the other extreme, as in the joy of the recent news of Prince William and Dutchess Kate expecting their first baby. By knowing the past, I may understand the future better in knowing how the world interacts with each other.

The future of Graphic Design will be consumed digitally, more and more digital and less and less paper. It is a shame. I love books. I love rendering things on paper. In my future field, I may be rendering less and less on paper and eventually drawing solely on a tablet. Just thinking of the art of handwriting, I know that people in general do not write very much in cursive anymore. My mom told me that in a “back-in-her-day” type of story that in third grade they were painstakingly drilled and drilled in cursive letter writing. It had to be neat and well executed. I know today, at times, I can barely read someone’s cursive writing and barely write quickly using cursive. It seems to be a dying art. Though, maybe one day it will come full circle and people will greatly admire a person that has impeccable, stylish penmanship. Fine art will at be spared as it is rendered on canvas, and paper. Graphic Design will continue to flourish and record our history. It will always be our way to communicate and be understood.

Hope you enjoyed my summation for the course.

 Here are some of my favorite anime posters.

http://otakustreamers.com

http://www.iphonewallpaperhi.com/10774-christmas-gainax-iphone-4-    wallpaper.html

Merry Christmas to all……

Take good care,

                       Kevin Young

Field Journal 10

Field Journal 10

          I love anime and manga (Japanese Comics). The stories, the visuals, they're wonderful. Which is what attracted me to the works of Tadanori Yokoo. Influenced by Dada, popular art and comic books, his style again, kind of reminds me of Peter max's work as I mentioned in my journal entry from last week. His style, with all the bright colors and hard lines shown in picture 23-25 in Megs History of Graphic Design really inspired me to learn more about him as an artist. He often collaged photographs within his designs. 

http://superfuture.com/sf/image/asset/00021617/image/502914af1c32b.jpg

Born in Nishiwaki, Japan in 1936, Tadanori Yokoo started out replicating paintings, drawing posters and designing store wrapping paper for the Chamber of Commerce. His first notable work was produced around  1965 when he depicted a self-titled poster featuring a hanged man with the Japanese rising sun's red rays and blue sky in the background. His name was at the top and at the bottom he had some childhood photos with a statement, "having reached a climax at the age of 29, I was dead." The rising sun appears in many of his pieces and became his (kind of) trademark or "Yokoo style" and an international symbol of Japanese pop art. Peter Max used this often as well. 

http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/3969/operafromtheworks6fq7.jpg

During the 1970's he was injured in a car accident and his close friend Yukio Mishima committed suicide by hara kiri. He quit work for a while to reflect on the the events that occurred. Soon he became very fearful of death and increasingly interested in Buddhism, Indian culture, extraterrestrial civilizations and UFOs. He became friends with rock and roll musicians and was asked to do their album covers and poster. He became friends with Carlos Santana and his cover for the album "Lotus" was awarded a prize.

http://www.progarchives.com/progressive_rock_discography_covers/2667/cover_1518161632010.jpg

In the early 1990s, Yokoo introduced computer design to his repertoire and his style changed again. He reassembled some of his old works digitally and once again he had an exhibition of his posters in 1998. He was able to expose a new generation to his works.

His work combines so many different things that I find dear to my own heart as in Ukiyo-e influences, comic art, spiritualism, and Japanese cultural themes. I will refer to his work again and again for motivation and to get my creative mind flowing.

http://www.jazjaz.net/2008/09/the-mesmerizing-music-film-posters-of-tadanori-yokoo.html

I end with one of my mom's favorite R & B groups of all time, Earth Wind and Fire. Tadamori made a spectacular poster.

http://www.adcglobal.org/archive/hof/2000/?id=205