Ram Dass: Teaching Through More Than Type

I discovered the work of mystic Ram Dass when I was recommended his seminal spiritual text, "Be Here Now". While originally only interested in what he had to say about Hindu-influenced spirituality and psychadelics, I quickly found that the Stanford-educated author's words were not in paragraph form, but rather accompanied by rich illustrations of his abstract concepts. The book is a trip through Dass' strange mind and teachings about metaphysics, but communicates through artwork. The intricate, geometric, fractal patterns on the cover of the book demonstrate the interconnectivity of the world and the delicacy of it's balance, and this theme characterizes most of the illustrations throughout the work. His "Ice Cream Cone" in the sky is one of his most famous concepts, and one of the ones I remember best. The ways he couples typography with drawings make his teachings more memorable for visually-geared learners, and are good examples of purposeful design.

MOCA Exhibition

I couldn't find the Sagmeister exhibit, so I enjoyed the Urs Fischer one instead.
The Urs Fischer exhibit is on display from April 21st to August 19th. I found these three exhibits particularly interesting.

Bread House                          Portrait of a Single Raindrop

The Untitled piece with a house made of bread has the appearance of a cabin constructed of bread. The long baguette pieces act as structural timbers, while the sliced pieces look like the running bond of masonry bricks. Upon a closer look, the piece is actually constructed of wood and merely covered and filled with bread. I think the piece would have been much more interesting if it were solely constructed of bread, but there are probably structural limitations to how well stale bread can hold itself up.

The Portrait of a Single Raindrop is a huge 'hole in the wall.' I love how the negative piece is resting against the wall in the back, supporting the idea that 'nothing' is wasted. The rough cut of the wall really reveals the massing and draws attention to the structural light gauge steel.

The juxtaposition of these two pieces becomes an interesting way of drawing attention to the architectural structure of construction. The bread shows the concept of connections made by tectonic pieces, while the Portrait of a Single Raindrop becomes a cutaway expression with the lack of structure. 

 
Suspended Line of Fruit

This Untitled piece contains a line of fruit that is elegantly suspended only inches from the ground. Each of the six pieces of fruit hangs from a thin, clear string that is attached to the ceiling. Although the fruits are in sequential order by size, the grape at the end (or beginning) of the line is barely noticeable. As the fruits age and rot, it's clever how the fruits are suspended so that ants won't crawl on them; however, this is in a museum, so they probably make sure there are no insects to disrupt these art pieces.

"Aha!" Moment: Finding the Golden Mean

One of my pictures I chose for the golden mean exercise was Irving Penn's "Ballet Society." I decided to pick one of his photographs because he positions his subjects in very interesting ways! I traced the grid, and found that the dancer, Tanaquil LeClerq, was placed so that the top horizontal line crossed straight through her arms, emphasizing her demanding presence. The top horizontal line and the right vertical line intersects at her elbow, and the crossed diagonals intersect at her thigh. Major intersections were found on her body, as they should, because she dominates the picture. More geometry comes with  an graceful arch that flows through the men's heads, with the woman at the peak of the arch. It connects the composition despite the protrusion of the dancer above the rest of the subjects. I thought this was very cool--the golden mean added to the excellent composition of Penn's photograph.

I highly highly recommend checking out Irving Penn's works, if you haven't!

Golden Ratio

Here are my Golden Ratio tracings. You can definitely notice how each image follows the rule. The face and text in the Vogue cover fit almost perfectly within the lines. The nylon advertisement fits with many of the diagonals of the ratio, even though the primary subject isn't centred on the page. The image also creates a clear s-shape curve that works within the Golden Ratio. The final image surprised me as I didn't think such a chaotic picture with so many objects would fit the rule, however, I was proved wrong.

Golden Mean

I really enjoyed this assignment! The last two images, especially, follow many of the lines of the Golden Mean. It was fun for me to see one of the ways in which basic design principles can be broken down into something mathematical.

Golden Ratio Exercise

Here are the magazine pages I chose for this exercise. I put red dots where the lines intersect - where the eye naturally looks. For the Chevy Volt/Fisker Karma picture, the proportions are quite nice, with the cars being in the lower third of the photograph, the buildings being in the middle third, and the sky being in the upper third. For the Dolce and Gabbana advertisement, the focal points on the left are right at the center of the man and his bag, while the right side focal points are on the group of people and the steps beneath them. I am actually quite excited to make more of these.

Golden Ratio Exercise

Golden Mean Activity

These were my three tracings from class today. It was a very enlightening experience for me especially when I did the 2-page Louis Vuitton spread because one of the focal points was right where the Louis Vuitton bag was and the other lines just fell into the right places.