Form and Content 5

Katie Wrobel

Typography II

Section 001

The piece I chose is from How Magazine’s 2009 International Design Annual. It received an “Outstanding” rating in the poster section of the magazine.  This poster, done by Somewhat Awesome Design artists Ronald J. Cala II and Katie Hatz, was designed as a self-promotion poster for their Somewhat Awesome Design firm. The content of this piece includes a written introduction to this design firm and definitions of the words “somewhat,” “awesome,” and “design.”  This content relates to the form as the form consists of silhouetted portraits of the two designers of the firm. The forms represent the people that the content talks about. A specific example of form relating to content is that Katie Hatz was the one to write the typographic content of the piece and there are pens incorporated into the form of her portrait to show that she was the writer.  The piece is visually interesting because of the way the portraits are formed. The top halves of the bodies are in red and filled in with the text.  As the viewer’s eye follows the form toward the bottom, there is no continuation past the mid-section of the person.  Instead, all four figures blend into the bottom of the piece and continue to be filled in with text. In the negative space of those figures, however, are the remainders of the figures from the mid-section and below.  These figures are filled in with solid black with no text inside, and continue to the top of the page to form the negative space around the red figures. This effect also represents the collaboration between two artists with very different styles; they each work differently but their works morph together to create great designs, just as the red and black figures morph together to create the full image. The contrast between the red and black with the continuation of the black in the text over the red space is another part that makes this piece visually interesting. An element of design that is prominent in this piece is that of repetition; the shape of the human figure is repeated several times and there is also a feeling of repetition within the body of text. Unity is observed in the text throughout the piece; it brings all of the red space together and brings a relationship between the figures. The alternating of the black and red and the way it is equally distributed gives balance to the piece as well. The amount of contrast between the two colors almost makes the forms look like they’re coming off of the page. The type relates to the image because the image is all about different ideas working together to make one good idea and the type explains that idea through words rather than through visual elements. The type is also handwritten, making it a more personal message from the artists themselves to the viewer as the artists are talking about the design firm. Overall the piece is successful and visually interesting and does a good job in making me interested in finding out more about this design firm.