3. ITAP Lecture, 12 Oct 2010.

Clarity is important when it comes to visual communication. In the lecture I was taught that it is very important when looking for legibility in text. Typeface, size, colour and layout are all things to keep in consideration. Legible text is something the viewer can casually read without over concentrating or straining their eyes. Cases of illegible text can vary from many things, but all have one thing in common, lack of clarity. A good example of this is having yellow text on a white background, as said in the lecture; yellow on white is never legible.
Yellow text on white is hard to see without putting unnecessary concentration into reading it, to avoid this always choose colours that make your text more conspicuous. This picture of an old copy of the times was in the presentation, and is a classic case of illegible text as it's far to small and cramped together to read casually.

The same applies for font size and layout; prominent text is a must, but avoid the use of over the top fonts or big font sizes because even though big text is legible for headers, too big can be just as illegible as too small when it comes to presentation, always think about your layout and composition.

The lecture also taught me about visual hierarchy, which was about what your eyes are drawn to first; this comes into effect mostly on advertising, if that be on the front of newspaper or on a billboard. Designers use bolder letters or complementary colours to grab the viewer’s attention to one specific thing. This is in action on the front of every newspaper in the shops today, bolder letters for the front page story followed by a picture to coincide it.

The first thing the viewer is drawn to whether it is the newspaper title or the front story; has the boldest typeface as the editor thinks these two things are the strongest selling points. The main things to think about when using visual hierarchy is big and bold headers, complementary colours and striking images, because these are what the eyes are drawn to first.

2. Research Language

In this lecture I learnt about many different Research techniques. Research itself is a way to further investigate a selected subject, to find more about your subject and to understand it enough to make your own legitimate contributions towards it. To do a piece of art work without research may result in it not being as strong as it could be. There are different forms of research, primary research and secondary research. Primary research is information that the researcher has found themselves, this could range between study drawings of a specific subject (visual research), to data the researcher went out and found themselves. In the presentation, I learned that illustrator Paul Davis gathers information from around him by taking photographs, drawing and scanning, this is because he hates missing potentially good ideas. I also work in this way as you gather the information yourself and you witness it at first hand.

Secondary research is information found on the internet, in books or even on television, as long as it’s been found out before. As a illustrator, I find that my preferred way to find information is through visual research, drawing what’s around me and taking in the world around me, I also find that I often take photographs on my phone for future reference, I have many photos of things most people would think is useless.

I also learned that if you’re thinking about making living off being an illustrator, then one of the main things you’d need to think about is target audience, who is the artwork for? An understanding of the audience in which the artwork is for will help a great deal when it comes to design. For instance if you’re working on a children’s book, you might want the look of the artwork to be playful and vibrant. A good example of this is the Mr Men books by Roger Hargreaves.

It would be a waste of time putting high detail monochromatic pieces of artwork in the book as it wouldn’t be as appreciated by children. This is why keeping the target audience in mind will vastly improve the outcome. All this can be done by simply researching before you design anything, looking before you leap so to speak.

1. Connectivity

I have been shown that one can grab an idea from earlier artists work, as long as it isn’t copied exactly and originality still shows through it somehow. For example, during the lecture Picasso’s Las Meninas was shown, it was a study of an earlier piece by Diego de Silva Velazquez, When seen together it is noticeable that both of them are very similar, yet Picasso had put his study into his own style and context.

This process is similar to when a musician samples a section of another person’s piece of music and uses it in a completely new song; it is out of its original context and had been changed to the point that it has a new meaning. However to grab too much of an artist’s style or to completely copy a piece of work is a sign of unoriginality.


It is possible to take an earlier piece of work and change it in a way that makes it more current, this is sometimes done in advertising. There is one advertisement I saw in the lecture for a Japanese style beer called Asahi Beer that referenced Hokusai’s great Wave of Kanagawa. This connection was made because the artwork fit into the Japanese theme.

This time round the connectivity is quite obvious; the seller is connecting the product to the culture it’s based around, emphasizing the fact that the beer is Japanese. If the advert was subtle not many people would recognise the reference and wouldn’t be as rememberable to those such as the target audience; those who like Japanese culture or Japanese beer. This taught me that creating something that references earlier work while keeping your own style and concept is done frequently in modern day media. Its intention can vary to what the artist wants to portray, it’s sometimes done for controversial purposes, or even for comedic and humorous purposes for entertainment or for advertising.