Iconic Logos

         As I observed what makes a logo powerful as well as made to out last the competition I noticed the psychology used by the Nike brand to pull consumers in. This company used three big ideas to entice the public senses. The first idea Nike employs on the minds of people is, Nike represents the Greek Goddess of Victory, giving buyers the notion that  they will be victorious if they purchase and use the product. The second is the Logo, because Nike's "Swoosh" with its winged shape draws the eye into the style of the shoe, making it aesthetically integrated into the design of the product. Lastly, the slogan, "Just Do It", makes use of the fact that if you just do it you will be victorious  in whatever you do because of the Goddess Athena Nike being the guiding factor in the product. With the success of the Nike brand fresh in my head I was curious to understand the tricks of the trade when it comes to the clothing company Guess. 

        In 1977 four French brothers moved to California and started the line Guess. Sponsored by Jordache denim empire Georges, Armand, Paul, and Maurice Marciano gradually gained fame in the fashion industry. Popular for their three-zipper style "Marilyn" jeans, the company created an iconic design to match. The first black and white logo that consist of a black triangle enclosing a black question mark symbol was the first design. The Guess logo became great because of its all American denim look. The look and feeling the jeans gave to the public made the brand a house hold name which allowed the company to expand its name further. The Brand stretched into baby clothing, a watch collection, and also a home collection for bedding. Even with all its early success the brand was victim to the ever changing fashion fades and as a result filed for bankruptcy. In the 2000's the Guess brand was rejuvenated by promoting a sexier more youthful looking line to the new generation of consumers. With a new logo, spelling out the word guess, and using sexy ad campaigns Guess found its way back into the fashion superpower category while still pushing the envelope in denim fashion jeans.

I took Guess iconic symbol that trademarked the company into a fashion powerhouse and manipulated its now obvious context, selling sex to the younger generation, and made the brands intentions clear. Although Guess is not the only clothing company to peddle sex to its consumers, I thought it was ironic that the company's name is in fact Guess which means to make a hypothesis to a question but now leaves nothing to the imagination. I Guess sex really does sell clothing that is....

Dery and Culture Jamming

In Marc Dery’s article "Culture Jamming," he explains that we are living in an age where our lives are lived through television. He explains "Our lives are bond up in the TV experience. Dery is precisely correct that the American public runs home after a long day to watch their favorite evening shows, so much so that the lustiest episode is the topic of discussion for the next day. We are so bombarded by Television and the information distributed by means of television air ways that it is no wonder that it could be used to enhance or distort the truth. As it is explained, culture jamming takes a look at what the media has feed us as being socially acceptable and changes its meaning to educate the public without public censorship.

          Postmodern  groups such as General Idea’s appropriation of Robert Indiana's "Love" poster promoted aids awareness in the 90's when the disease was taboo. Another postmodern group by the name of Gran Fury's bus aids which ran in New York took the action of publicizing aids. The aids not only forced the public but  also the government to domore research towards understanding the aids epidemic. Culture jamming has become an avenue for the public to organize and speak out.

                                                                     General Idea

                                                       
                                                                      Gran Fury

Culture Jammer

Guerrilla Girls are an anonymous group of artist who used Ads and Billboards style message boards to educate people about discrimination against women. In 1985 the New York based group used humor to empower and reclaim the feminist word as something uplifting because feminism is seen as a movement that radically advocates for women's rights. However, the group has been criticized for only speaking on behalf of a privileged group of women, and yet the most notable Ad from the Guerrilla Girls is the billboard "Do women have to be naked to get into Met. Museum?". Overlooking freeways and busy intersection, the Guerilla Girls Ad was designed to be plastered on billboards across New York and yet its message opens peoples eyes to the fact that not many Gallery artist are women, while pointing out how history has subjected women in paintings as nudes with the only intention to create sexual delight. In doing this Ad their message was and inescapable, so funding was rejected clamming the ad was to suggestive.

John Cage

When I think of the I Ching, the age old Chinese method of a arriving at an answer to a question, I think of the magic 8 ball that we have all played with as kids. As I think of the 8 ball I remember my questions being complex; For example, "Should I ditch school and go over a friends house?" The 8 ball would respond saying, "Ask me later." I always seen the random consultation of the magic 8 ball as meaningless and I would disregard its answers, whether the answer is favorable or not, as rubbish. As I watch John Gage's work I could not help but feel like his reasoning for using the I Ching was to force spontaneity into an otherwise normal composition of music and art. However, the documentation through video, as well as the disorganized system created by using the I Ching gives his work more substance. In the piece where Gage and Marcel Duchamp's widower play chess was more interesting because it had the distraction of a person going up and down a later. More importantly, in the finished product there was a huge amount of random imperfect shots produced by using the old Chinese method of chance that it grabbed and kept my attention because I wanted to see what random frame would be next.

In the same way John Cage used chance to compose music and art Yvonne Rainer used the same random movements in her "Trio A" choreography. As a anti-art aesthetic Rainer seek to create movements in her dancing  that anyone can reproduce. Although her movements appear uncalculated, the fluidity and tempo of her movements gives the dance she performs grace and clarity.

Chance Project

Zach's Chance Project

Inspired by Zach Sesar

Chance Project "How I See The Bay Area"

Nature and Industry

 This assignment is to create a digital works piece from the chance of organic/geometric shapes will mix on a surface. The creator will take ten pictures of what they depict as Nature or Industrial.

Materials

paper, pen, and coin

digital camera

access to the adobe program photoshop

Microsoft Word

Taking ten photos

stand in location desired for photo and document where it is

flip coin 

heads: hold the camera at 90% (angle axis arm/leg)

tails: hold camera at 135% (angle axis arm/leg)

take picture and title

When titling the work artist needs to think in random and do not erase any marking put; listen to what is in your surrounding at this certain point and time.

Remember what images go with location and title

Repeat process for all 10

Translating photos through Photoshop

create a folder called “chance” on a desktop

then create two folders inside that folder called, “start” and finish”

download 10 images into the start folder

Automate batch Process all images to 10’’ by 10’’ at 300 ppi

Remove constrain proportions lock

For assistance use  this URL address

 HYPERLINK "http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~telarts/Art410/tutorials/PHOTOSHOP%20/AUTOMATING%20TASKS/PHOTOSHOP-Batch.htm" http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~telarts/Art410/tutorials/PHOTOSHOP%20/AUTOMATING%20TASKS/PHOTOSHOP-Batch.htm

start with the first image taken and copy this complete image

create a new project (titled defined by creator and save into “chance” folder 

then paste image upon “new document”

open next image that was taken into photoshop and copy/paste upon “new document”

layer that was pasted drop the fill and opacity to 90%

REPEAT step 8. for next eight images moving the opacity/fill 10% on each layer.

Once finished flatten image and save into “chance” folder

PRINT

On Microsoft world

document each picture from, angle, place, title, Opacity/Fill percentage

save in “Chance” folder

PRINT

Place works together on a wall

Inspired by Rosler, The Bowery in two inadequate descriptive systems, 1975

Thank you for playing

I took pictures as I traveled around the bay area

90%  Standing in the sand at Ocean Beach San Francisco (the watering hole)

135% Outside standing next to the construction site for the library (hiding sun)

90%   Standing on the walk way of the Holloway entrance to San Francisco State (crowds of ants)

90%   Inside the San Francisco State cafeteria (tons of fun)

135% last day at my old apartment near Ocean Beach (town n country)

135% Tree next to the outside stage at San Francisco State (fog city)

135% On the San Francisco State shuttle near Daly City bart station (homes)

90%   Crossing the street outside of Stonestown mall (ripe future)

90%  Hill at the Holloway entrance of San Francisco State (green entrance)

135% On bart going down the Pittsburg hill (Blue sky green grass) 

The Chance Game

Objective:

Using the I Ching how many random photos can be taken in 1 day in the middle of the day.

Materials:

Watch/ with a alarm clock

Coin

Die

Pen

Paper

Camera/ Phone/ Laptop

Photoshop

Documentation is Key to understanding this Chance Project.

Process:

As you go about your daily routine, between the hours of 1pm and 6pm flip a coin.

    If the coin lands on heads, roll a die as many times as the hour number you've chosen and take as many pictures as the corresponding number rolled.

Hold arms out at 90 degrees and snap photo. The purpose is not to be able to see the image that will be captured with the attempt to turn your body 360 degrees.

However,

If the coin lands on tails do nothing for an hour.

At the top of the next hour roll the die as many as the corresponding hour

       If the ratio between the number of rolls is even flip a coin. 

       If coin is heads roll the die 2 more times

       If coin is tails roll the die 1 time. 

       If the ratio is still even do nothing for an hour.

After capturing the photographs use photoshop to create a photo collage.

After playing the chance game, roll the die once. Out of the 6 numbers whatever number you rolled import those many pictures into photoshop. If you roll a 1 disregard steps 2 and 3 of the instructions below.

1. Open new background (White seems to help the images blend better)

2. Copy all imported images onto background. (Drag each file onto the white background creating a new layer.)

3. Arrange photo's on background as desired. (Making sure that the pictures overlap and all the images cover the entire background)

4. Play round with the opacity of each layer of pictures until you produce a blur effect in the pictures.

5. If your using Adobe Photoshop CS5 Use the Rectangular Marque tool to highlight each layer individually then use the eraser tool (2500pixel soft brush) to blend the images

6. After blending the pictures to your desired outcome save and your done. 

On February 26th I was invited out to the park by my boyfriend. I brought my camera because my boyfriend rarely spends time with his little brother so I wanted to capture the moment. As we spent the day playing, at around 2pm I thought about the class project. Setting my alarm clock to 3pm, at the top of 3pm I started the project. I flipped a coin and it came up heads, so as the in instructions I rolled a die 3 times.  The first time the die read 2, the second time  the die read 4, and the third time the die read 1. In all I took a total of  7 pictures. I held the camera at a 90 degree angle, so as not to be able to see the image of the picture to be taken. I took 7 pictures which turned me in a full 360 degree circle and back around 180 degrees. When I was finish taking the pictures I rolled a die one last time and it landed on 4. I imported four randomly placed photographs into photoshop and proceeded through steps 1 through 6 of the collage making process for creating a collage in photoshop.