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Information Design for Advocacy: How Deforestation Affects Animals in the Americas

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Information Design for Advocacy: How Deforestation Affects Animals in the Americas

The topic that I chose for my Information Design for Advocacy poster is the effects of deforestation on animals in the Americas. I think that this topic is important because not only in the Americas but all over the globe as well, we are losing biodiversity to extinction at an alarming rate. The biggest cause to this is deforestation. Deforestation is the purposeful clearing of forest land for residential, commercial, and/or industrial purposes. Keeping forests intact and stopping deforestation is important because forests play a key role in the water, carbon, and energy cycles of a climate. Forests are extremely important not only to the survival of ecosystems and animals, but it’s important to the survival of humans as well. Trees produce oxygen and clean carbon dioxide out of the air we breathe. Losing these species not only affects future generations, but the people that are alive today. We lose animals that we possible could, and may have in the past, consumed.

           I believe that my info graphic successfully advocates for this issue and explains and shows to the viewer just how important this issue is. I chose to advocate to the younger ages, more specifically middle school aged people. The overall type and graphics that I used and included are made just for that age group to understand. The graphics are simple enough to draw their eye and intrigue them enough to read what is being said. Because of the pop of colors that I used for the animals I included against the forestry color scheme of browns and greens; I think that it really does grab the viewers’ attention if they were to walk past it. Although at first glance my poster does have a few small paragraphs of words, the paragraphs aren’t too long in which the viewer would not want to stand around and read what I included. The fonts that I used are also not too calligraphic, but instead simple san-serif type which middle schoolers can easily read and comprehend.

           Overall, I enjoyed making this poster. While the illustrations I made of the four animals are simple, they still took a bit of time trying to make them clear as to what specific animals they were portrayed to be. All the other graphics I included were simple and did not take up too much time. I made the graphics as simple as I could so the viewer would focus more on what I was trying to say. The critique genuinely helped me to make improvements on my poster. Originally the boxes for the text and the graphic of the woodchipper were taking up a lot of space, and it was suggested that I make them smaller to balance the amount of positive and negative space. Changing the sizes of these elements really made the poster come together and improve the overall look of it. I have used Adobe Illustrator before, but what I did not know about it was that I could rasterize text boxes into smart objects. This helped me to edit my text without doing more steps.

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Guerilla Advocacy Campaign: Bee Genocide Reflection

For my Guerilla Advocacy Campaign, I chose bee genocide. Bees are currently endangered and have been going extinct since the 1990s. Bees are endangered by many different things, situations, etc. The biggest threat to their survival is climate change, habitat loss, pesticides, parasites, pathogens, and many other things, but combine all of those and the decline of their survival can be severe. By changing our habits such as eating, spending, and others, we can change the rate of decline and possibly even build the bee population all together. Through Adobe Illustrator, InDesign, and Photoshop I implemented my design in different forms; a t-shirt, mug, brochure, poster, and tote-bag. I designed a logo in Photoshop in which I placed on all the forms used to implement my design. My topic needs advocacy because without bees we would live in a completely different world. A world without bees would see a decline in our health, economics, and environmental health. While the poster is more simplified, the brochure contains the most information. The poster is meant to be more simplified so people that are ‘on-the-go’ can walk past and see where they can find other useful information that they can take more time to get into at a different time. The brochure has more information, not only that, but more graphics as well. The brochure explains to whomever reads it why my topic is important, what is happening to bees, ways to help, and where they can look up more information. The graphics that I used in the brochure are simplified, similar to the poster. The graphics draw the reader/viewer through the brochure so they can easily understand what is going on. It offers simple and easy ways to get involved in the campaign. Visually I created design/graphics that are universally understood and identifiable as to what they are supposed to be. I think that I kept the words in the brochure as simple as possible so that all people in most age groups (that can read) can understand what I am advocating for. The color scheme and graphics are all united throughout each form that my design was implemented on.

           Before I started my process, I thought it would be relatively simple, but I was wrong. I originally did not like any of the sketches or wireframes that I made. I had to combine parts of each one to get the look that I wanted and what I thought was possible with the time frame that we were given. All the graphics that I rendered took the most time, and ultimately what I decided to get done first. I made a simple template of each graphic that I could easily edit the small details of each. I then went through each graphic to figure out and decide which one was cohesive and unified with them all. For each graphic, whether that be the bee, honey pot, dollar bill, etc., I traced each one with a realistic image to make it as close to the original as I could.

Ultimately the process was very stressful and difficult in my opinion. There were certain designs that weren’t working with what I wanted to do, and I would end up using a different Adobe platform. I am a very picky person and coming to a design that I liked and what I thought others would like and be drawn to was not easy. Most of my designs this one included, are more simplified and minimalistic. It’s what appeals to me and in my opinion, others as well. I do think that I succeeded in what I was trying to convey. I am most proud of the brochure. It implements all the design pieces and conveyed all the information that I wanted to include. I think that redoing the graphics and designing them with small edits really helped me to narrow down what I wanted this campaign to look like. Before this project I had never used InDesign and I think that learning to use it was the most difficult part for me. I don’t like change and learning to use a new platform made me more uncomfortable and nervous about how the project would ultimately turn out. Overall, I think that if more time was allotted, I think that some of the other designs (the t-shirt, mug, tote bag, poster) could be more refined but for now I am happy with them.  

Works Cited

Appenfeller, Logan R., et al. “Citizen Science Improves Our Understanding of the Impact of Soil Management on Wild Pollinator Abundance in Agroecosystems.” PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0230007.

Boriana Slabakova Boriana is a lifelong pet lover with many years of experience working with a variety of domestic and exotic animals. Petpedia became her outlet to share her love for animals and what she has learned over the years. , et al. “43 Frightening Bee Statistics & Facts for 2021.” Petpedia, 18 May 2021, petpedia.co/bee-statistics/.

“Endangered Bees.” Importance, depts.washington.edu/triolive/quest/2007/TTQ07077/importance.html.

“Est. 2009 in Response to the Bee Crisis.” The Bee Conservancy, 31 Aug. 2021, thebeeconservancy.org/.

“Fact Sheet: The Economic Challenge Posed by Declining Pollinator Populations.” National Archives and Records Administration, National Archives and Records Administration, obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2014/06/20/fact-sheet-economic-challenge-posed-declining-pollinator-populations.

Foundation, Help Save the Bees. “Help Save the Bees.” Help Save the Bees, helpsavethebeesfoundation.org/.

“Home.” BeesCause, 1 Oct. 2019, beescause.com/.

“Issues: Pollinators & Pesticides.” Center for Food Safety, www.centerforfoodsafety.org/issues/304/pollinators-and-pesticides/bee-decline-and-pesticide-use-248.

Main, Douglas. “Bumblebees Are Going Extinct in a Time of 'Climate Chaos'.” Animals, National Geographic, 4 May 2021, www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/bumblebees-going-extinct-climate-change-pesticides.

Medicine, Center for Veterinary. “Helping Agriculture's Helpful Honey Bees.” U.S. Food and Drug Administration, FDA, www.fda.gov/animal-veterinary/animal-health-literacy/helping-agricultures-helpful-honey-bees.

Mooney, Chris. “Bumblebees Are Dying across North America and Europe as the Climate Warms, Scientists Say.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 6 Feb. 2020, www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/02/06/bumblebees-are-vanishing-scientists-blame-climate-change/.

Schwartz, Jason, et al. “Save the Bees.” Greenpeace USA, 18 June 2014, www.greenpeace.org/usa/sustainable-agriculture/save-the-bees/.

“Why Bees Are so Important to Human Life and Health.” Medical News Today, MediLexicon International, www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/why-are-bees-important-to-humans.

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Guerilla Advocacy Campaign: Bee Genocide

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Effects of Deforestation on the Extinction of Animals

Sketches:

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Effects of Deforestation on the Extinction of Animals

Design Brief/Rationale:

Deforestation in the Americas: Effects on Extinction

The topic that I chose to advocate for is the effects of deforestation on extinction. My target audience will be high schoolers. Deforestation refers to the decrease in forest areas all over the world, accelerated by human activities since 1960. It has been negatively affecting natural ecosystems, biodiversity, and the climate, but mainly wildlife that live in those forested areas. It is becoming an increasingly severe issue in the Americas (South America, Central America, and North America) but all over the word as well. For my infographic I will focus on the Americas. I will be going into detail about deforestation and its negative effects, and also use language that should be in a high school student’s vocabulary: words like arid, hypothesized, dwindling, and many others. I am going to communicate what impacts deforestation has on wildlife; effects on the animals’ food source, habitation (where they sleep, hunt, etc.), and what happens when their habitat is gone (whether they just move to a different area or not). I plan to use fonts that are easily legible from a distance, colors that would stand out against the plain colors of high school walls, and graphics that you can see clearly from a distance. I plan to use organic colors that you would typically see in nature such as browns, greens, and blues. The title will be large, in a bold font, if there is semi bold style for the font, I will use it for the headers, and for the body text, the type style will remain regular (not bold or italicized). All the type will either be in black or white. I plan to use some pie charts/graphs if I can find some that go with the theme of my design and if I’m not able to find any, I will use the information from the charts to that I do find to create my own charts, graphs, and/or pie charts. I will also be including a section on the poster dedicated to social media platforms like Instagram, twitter, and YouTube if they would want to seek more information about this topic.

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Effects of Deforestation on the Extinction of Animals

Moodboard & Style Tile:

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Effects of Deforestation on the Extinction of Animals

Research:

·      The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has declared 665 species either completely extinct or extinct in the wild

·      Four forest-dependent species that have vanished due to habitat loss in the last 20 years

o   Formosan Clouded Leopard (Neofelis Nebulosa Brachyura) – Last official sighting of the leopard was in 1983 – Illegal logging – declared extinct in 2013

§  Island of Taiwan

o   Spix’s Macaw (Cyanopsitta Spixii) – Inspired the movie “Rio” – They were declared extinct in 2018, but estimated that between 60 and 80 individuals are still alive in captivity

§  Native to the arid lowland forests in the interior and northeast of Brazil

o   Mount Glorious Torrent Frog (Taudactylus Diurnus) – Declared extinct in 2004 (Logging in the watershed and upstream is hypothesized to have had an impact)

§  Native to 3 mountain ranges on the eastern coast of Australia (rainforest streams)

o   Cryptic Treehunter (Cichlocolaptes Mazarbarnetti) – By 2019 the IUCN declared them extinct – due to tree cover loss (deforestation)

§  Atlantic forest in Brazil

·      “As it currently stands, there are more than 26,000 species on the verge of extinction. Half of the birds that recently went extinct were native to Brazil.”

·      Spix’s Macaw was last sighted in the wild in 2000 (being raised in captivity)

·      “The Alagoas Foliage-gleaner, the Cryptic Treehunter and the Poo-uli, for example, will never be seen again.”

·      There are 51 other birds that are ‘critically endangered’

·      “New Animal Endangerment Map shows global distribution of threatened animal species”

·      2.4 billion people depend on forest and wood for energy

·      “Forest landscape restoration (FLR) is the ongoing process of regaining ecological functionality and enhancing human well-being across deforested or degraded forest landscapes.”

·      The planet is losing an estimated 137 species of plants, animals and insects every day due to deforestation” (World Animal Foundation)

·      Harpy eagle, the Amazon rainforest

o   One of the largest species in the world (currently dwindling as tree canopies disappear)

o   Their specific prey lived in the canopies as well (as that food supply decreased, the eagles did not switch to alternative prey)

o   “The eagles would then deliver prey to their hatchlings less frequently, and when they did, the animals tended to have a smaller estimated weight in landscapes with 50% to 70% deforestation, according to the study.”

o   Reseachers observed multiple eagle deaths from starvation and did not locate any nests in areas with more than 70% deforestation

·      Jaguar, the Americas

o   Found in the western hemisphere

o   They tend to live in habitat with dense tree canopy cover, such as the Amazon rainforest in Brazil

o   Accelerated deforestation continue to threaten the jaguar habitat, specially when it occurs in corridors that connect conservation areas… Without corridors to travel through, the populations can become isolated and lose genetic diversity, which could then affect the short and long-term survival of the species.

“4 Species That Went Extinct This Century Because of Forest Loss: Data and Research: Global Forest Watch Blog.” Global Forest Watch Content, 5 Jan. 2021, www.globalforestwatch.org/blog/data-and-research/four-species-that-went-extinct-this-century-because-of-forest-loss/.

“Deforestation in South America Causes Extinction of 8 Bird Species.” Inhabitat Green Design Innovation Architecture Green Building, inhabitat.com/deforestation-in-south-america-causes-extinction-of-8-bird-species/.

“International Union for Conservation of Nature.” IUCN, www.iucn.org/.

“COP26: This Is How Mass Deforestation Is Wiping out Species around the World.” ABC News, ABC News Network, abcnews.go.com/US/mass-deforestation-wiping-species-world/story?id=78564880.

McCoy, Marina. “9 Species Going Extinct Due to Habitat Destruction & Deforestation.” Vermont Woods Studios, 27 Sept. 2021, vermontwoodsstudios.com/blog/species-going-extinct-habitat-destruction-deforestation/.

“Deforestation: Clearing the Path for Wildlife Extinctions.” Wild Earth News & Facts by World Animal Foundation, www.worldanimalfoundation.org/advocate/wild-earth/params/post/1278141/deforestation-clearing-the-path-for-wildlife-extinctions.

Citizen Action Guide, www.saveamericasforests.org/pages/educationrtfacts.htm.

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Save the Bees!

Research & Works Cited:

·      Honeybees do not only produce honey, they are significant to the pollination of fruits and vegetables that both humans and livestock eat

·      They are responsible for one-third of the United State’s commercial pollination for produce.

·      Cornell University study determined that bees pollinate 14 billion dollars’ worth of seeds in crops in the United States

·      Also important for their beeswax, which produces candles, polishes, ointments, crayons, gum, inks, and lipstick.

·      The venom from a bee is used for medical purposes such as treatment for a number of diseases of the muscle, connective tissue and immune system.

·      They are becoming extinct

·      3 main reasons for the bees’ extinction and they are parasites, habitat loss, and cell phones

o  Parasites:

§  Two main types of parasites that harm honeybees and they are tracheal and varroa mites

§  Tracheal mites live inside the bee and kill them.

§  Varroa mites live externally in a beehive and affect the young bees that are being raised.

·      parasites can cause harmful diseases. One disease causes the bees’ wings to be damaged

1) A reduction of pollination will cause farmers and beekeepers to go out of business. 2) The decline of food supplies relying on pollination will cause an increase in cost for fruits, vegetables, and nuts. 3) Health will become a big issue because consumers will not be able to afford fruits and vegetables due to high prices, therefore they will eat more junk food. 4) The dairy and beef cattle cannot bare the alternative because the food that is very important will be affected as well. 5) The cost of food would rise as agricultural ingredients grow scarce, and in the end people will develop malnutrition and  starvation. Do you see the chain reaction?

The chain reaction (in-depth of the consequences) 1) Without honeybees, beekeepers that nurse the bees will go out of business therefore farmers will lose there crops because the fruits and vegetables need the pollen and eventually the farmers will lose their farm. 2) Pollination is a big source when it comes to fruits, vegetable, and nuts. But without pollination, fruits, vegetables and nuts will start to die. When that starts to happen, the products such as almonds, peaches, soybeans, apples, pears, pumpkins, cucumbers, cherries, raspberries, blackberries and strawberries will increase in prices. 3) One-Third of the total U.S diet comes from insect pollinated plants. When the product of food such as vegetables starts to increase in prices, people will not afford the products. So they will begin to eat junk food.     4) For cows to eat their nutrients, the bees need to pollinate their food in order for them to survive. 5) The cost of produce will gradually increase in time as the agricultural products will grow scarce. In time, people will die from starvation and malnutrition because there will not be any food to eat.

·      In 2006, David Hackenberg — a bee keeper for 42 years — reported a 90 percent die-off among his 3,000 hives. U.S. National Agricultural Statistics show a honey bee decline from about 6 million hives in 1947 to 2.4 million hives in 2008, a 60 percent reduction.

·      Solutions that save the bees;  ban the seven most dangerous pesticides, protect pollinator health by preserving wild habitat, restore ecological habitat

3. The Importance of Bees in Nature. www.fao.org/3/i0842e/i0842e04.pdf.

Appenfeller, Logan R., et al. “Citizen Science Improves Our Understanding of the Impact of Soil Management on Wild Pollinator Abundance in Agroecosystems.” PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0230007.

Boriana Slabakova Boriana is a lifelong pet lover with many years of experience working with a variety of domestic and exotic animals. Petpedia became her outlet to share her love for animals and what she has learned over the years. , et al. “43 Frightening Bee Statistics & Facts for 2021.” Petpedia, 18 May 2021, petpedia.co/bee-statistics/.

“Endangered Bees.” Importance, depts.washington.edu/triolive/quest/2007/TTQ07077/importance.html.

“Est. 2009 in Response to the Bee Crisis.” The Bee Conservancy, 31 Aug. 2021, thebeeconservancy.org/.

“Fact Sheet: The Economic Challenge Posed by Declining Pollinator Populations.” National Archives and Records Administration, National Archives and Records Administration, obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2014/06/20/fact-sheet-economic-challenge-posed-declining-pollinator-populations.

Foundation, Help Save the Bees. “Help Save the Bees.” Help Save the Bees, helpsavethebeesfoundation.org/.

“Home.” BeesCause, 1 Oct. 2019, beescause.com/.

“Issues: Pollinators & Pesticides.” Center for Food Safety, www.centerforfoodsafety.org/issues/304/pollinators-and-pesticides/bee-decline-and-pesticide-use-248.

Main, Douglas. “Bumblebees Are Going Extinct in a Time of 'Climate Chaos'.” Animals, National Geographic, 4 May 2021, www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/bumblebees-going-extinct-climate-change-pesticides.

Medicine, Center for Veterinary. “Helping Agriculture's Helpful Honey Bees.” U.S. Food and Drug Administration, FDA, www.fda.gov/animal-veterinary/animal-health-literacy/helping-agricultures-helpful-honey-bees.

Mooney, Chris. “Bumblebees Are Dying across North America and Europe as the Climate Warms, Scientists Say.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 6 Feb. 2020, www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/02/06/bumblebees-are-vanishing-scientists-blame-climate-change/.

Schwartz, Jason, et al. “Save the Bees.” Greenpeace USA, 18 June 2014, www.greenpeace.org/usa/sustainable-agriculture/save-the-bees/.

“Why Bees Are so Important to Human Life and Health.” Medical News Today, MediLexicon International, www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/why-are-bees-important-to-humans.

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Save the Bees!

Project Proposal:

For my Guerilla Advocacy Final Project, I chose to advocate for bees. Bees are currently endangered and have been going extinct in recent years. Bees are endangered by many different things, situations, etc. The biggest threats to bee survival are climate change, habitat loss, pesticides, parasites, pathogens, low genetic diversity, and many other reasons. Any one of these reasons cause a decline in bee population, but all together they can be severe. If, in the possibly near future, bees do become extinct everyone will be affected. If bees go extinct there will be a decline of food supplies that rely on pollination, and with that decline there will be an increase in cost on fruits, vegetables, etc. Health will also become an issue because with the rise of prices on fruits, vegetables, etc., people will start to eat less balanced diets that lack essential nutrients.  Therefore, bees play an important and vital role in our society today.

While most people are afraid of bees, or allergic, they run away or swat at them, get rid of the beehives, or try to kill them, they do a lot more for us. Honeybees not only produce honey, but they are also important to the pollination of fruits and vegetable that we and animals eat. They are also important for beeswax, which we use for candles, polishes, ointments, crayons, gum, ink, and lipstick. A bee’s venom is used for medicinal purposes as well. Not only that, but bees keep people employed, for example beekeepers, farmers, gardeners, scientists, and many others.

A few solutions that could help and/or save the bees could be; get rid of pesticides, preserving natural beehives/habitats, buy more organic produce, and donate to corporations that help keep bees safe. I found a bunch of information and statistics that easily convey the severity of the situation (bar graphs, line graphs, and pie charts that show this). Information and statistics that tell us what the core bee killer is, how many are left, and the rate of decline over the past couple years.

I am going to create a campaign that draws in the viewers eye, that looks visually/aesthetically pleasing to get them to read more. I will execute this by creating designs that are unified in color, images/graphics that are somewhat simple, or that don’t draw your eye too much away from the information. I will create designs that are easily identifiable/associated with bees, such as beehives, honeycombs, honeypot, and yellow, brown, orange, and black shades of color. I want the information I put in my design to figuratively ‘open the viewers eyes’ to the importance of bees. In my design I will include a donation option which will presented as a button, a hotline to a known beekeeper (most likely local to the Brockport/Rochester area), other save the bee campaigns (such as The Bee Conservancy), and an Instagram username for this issue (such as “beescause”). I will also include the organizations’ logos most likely in the brochure. Within the 5 different methods of advocation I plan to make them similar in color and iconography such as bees/ beehives/ honeycombs, but I want to make them available in different colors. Not only that but I want to use bee related puns to make the viewers smile and laugh about bees.

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Save the Bees!

 Iconography & Sketches:

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Save the Bees!

Moodboard & Style Tile:

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Firmin Didot Post Card

I think the part about this piece that I'm most proud of is getting everything to flow properly, whether that be the color scheme, the positive and negative space, the typeface, and the layout.

The amount of positive and negative space is what helped me the most in creating this. The front of the post card has a lot of negative space, meanwhile the there is less negative space on the back of the post card. The sizing of the fonts really and the color really draws your eye to the important parts of it.

The artboard tool on Adobe Photoshop really helped me, because I made several different designs based off of this particular layout. It helped me to pick out what aspects of each I wanted to include in the final design.

Although I don't feel like I grew as a designer, I definitely feel like I know more about type and about who Firmin Didot was and what he contributed to typography.

Technically, I learned how to separate and make things stand out more without changing big things. Conceptually, I learned how to make a piece flow and draw a persons eye through a piece.

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Cross Out Slums Reproduction

At first, I did find it challenging to recreate this piece because the plan that I had originally made for constructing it, was tedious and time consuming. I had found very quickly that I wouldn’t have had enough time to follow through with my original plan, so I decided to scratch that plan and come up with a completely new one. The medium that was used for the original piece was a lithography print (poster). The medium I used to create this piece was digital (Adobe Photoshop). Because of the difference in mediums, both pieces do differ in appearance. Other than that, I do think that they convey the same message. The part of the original work that I found most interesting was the child that was in the “slums.” Although I don’t think Beall meant for the child to be there, I think that it really speaks to the time period he was living in.  I would’ve wanted to my recreation to be more identical to the original image, and if I had more time, I would’ve gone through with my original plan to trace to original piece with the pen tool on Photoshop.

Sources:

“Cross out Slums. Usha / Beall.” The Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/93509009/

Flask, Dominic. “Lester Beall.” Lester Beall : Design Is History, Art Directors Club Hall of Fame, http://designishistory.com/1940/lester-beall/.

“Lester Beall- Cross out Slums Poster.” GD 203, https://go.distance.ncsu.edu/gd203/?p=56378.

“Lester Beall. Cross out Slums. 1941: Moma.” The Museum of Modern Art, https://www.moma.org/collection/works/5014.

“Pioneer: Lester Beall.” Communication Arts, 29 Sept. 2010, https://www.commarts.com/features/pioneer-lester-beall.

“Poster, Cross out Slums, 1941.” Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/2318796661/.

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Found Objects!!!

“Pelo,” translates, from Spanish to English, to “hair,” and this was the topic of my project. My constructions process was mainly figuring out how I wanted to shape the objects I used. The bobby pins that I used for the “P” was the most difficult to shape. Because the bobby pins shape was fixed, I had to figure out ways to make the letter “e” look curved. The “P” that was made from my hair was probably the second most difficult to shape. Although hair is free flowing and easily shapeable, it was still difficult to figure out how I wanted the “P” to look; whether I wanted it to look like it was cursive or just like it was fixed like the bobby pins. I know that the background is plain, but the objects I used were so detailed, I wanted them to stand out. I wanted the style of the writing to incorporate multiple styles of typeface. Such as the “P,” in my opinion, looks as though it’s organic but the “e” looks as though it’s from a modern typeface, and I tried to continue this pattern with the other objects. Personally, I had a lot of fun with this project. Using things I found around my house challenged me to make creative decisions about what I was going to make or say.

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Found Objects

Sketches:

Sketch 1 “GROW” - For my first sketch, I wanted to make something I’m passionate about; nature. Originally I considered writing “nature” but I though that would be too obvious, so I started thinking about what I loved most about nature; Plants. I decided to use different parts about nature that I could possibly morph into the word grow. Although, I’m still not sure what the background will be, because most of the colors I want incorporate the background will blend into, its a little difficult. 

Sketch 2 “yum” - my second sketch is very clearly more simple so I could use a more detailed background. I love ice cream a lot, and there are many different ingredients that I could use for the letters. Although its not in the drawing because I have many ideas for the background, I had the idea to incorporate a bowl and spoon. 

Sketch 3 “HAIR” - One thing about my appearance that I take pride in/I care about a lot is my hair. I pay a lot of money to have it look this way, so I thought it would be something cool to use. For the “H” I could use actual hair that has come out in my brush. The “A” I was thinking of using bobby pins. The “I” I want to use rubber bands/scrunchies, but I'm not sure if I want to make it capitalized or not. For the “R” I wanted to use hair product of some sort, since there are a lot of different hair products, I’m not sure which kind I want to use yet. Although the words do spell out hair, I think that's too obvious and thought about spelling out the word “pelo” which in English (from Spanish) translates to hair. I thought about using “polo” because Spanish directly connects to my ancestry as well. For the background I plan to incorporate a brush and hair tool (curling iron, straightener, etc.). 

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Firmin Didot

Firmin Didot was born on April 14th, 1764 in Paris, France to a family of printers. The Didot family were among the first to setup a printing press in the newly independent Greece. He was the grandson of François Didot, who founded the Imprimerie Didot in 1713, one of the most famous print and typefounding houses in France that had lasted through four generations and over the course of 2 centuries.

        Firmin Didot designed his first font in 1784. He was credited with establishing the use of the Didone or “Modern” (also known as the Didot family of fonts) style of serif typefaces, the family’s most lasting legacy. He invented the word “stereotyping,” which in printing refers to the metal printing plate for the actual printing of pages and lead to him printing books more cheaply. One of his typefaces was called Anglaise; a sloped script typeface that he designed in 1809. His most famous typefaces were designed in the period 1784-1811. He would cut the letters and cast them as type in Paris, which his brother, Pierre, would then use in printing.

        Firmin Didot was described as neoclassical, and evocative of the Age of Enlightenment and was said to have been inspired by Baskerville’s typeface. He became well-known for his type-founding and font designs. In 1814 he became Imprimeur du Roi, translating to “King’s printer.” Many fonts today are available based on his typefaces and many typographers have created designs inspired by the Didot type family. He eventually died on April 24th, 1836 in Mesnil-sur-l’Estrée, Frnace at the age of 72 years old.

Sources:

Devroye, Luc. Firmin Didot, McGill University: School of Computer Science, http://luc.devroye.org/fonts-25179.html.

“Didot, Firmin (1764-1836).” The Theater That Was Rome - Biography, https://library.brown.edu/projects/rome/people/0144/.

Monotype GmbH, info@linotype.com. “Font Designer – Firmin Didot.” Firmin Didot - Font Designer of Linotype Didot, https://www.linotype.com/370/firmin-didot.html.

“Pioneer: Lester Beall.” Communication Arts, 29 Sept. 2010, https://www.commarts.com/features/pioneer-lester-beall.

TypeRoom. “Firmin Didot: 10 Things to Know About.” TypeRoom, https://www.typeroom.eu/firmin-didot-10-things-to-know-about.