STUDIO: DISAPPOINTMENT ZINE BRIEF/INITIAL IDEAS

After spending an large long time on studio brief 1 the external collaboration with all the fashion designers and photographers, I bumped into a lot of issues along the way. I definitely didn't expect the collaboration to go too smoothly. Throughout the entire process, I had up to 9 and counting people drop out of the collaboration. Their way of dropping out usually involved a long paragraph of funny reasons to why they couldn't d it anymore leaving me in a tricky situation 9 times of having to replace them. It left me very disappointed.

After been handed all of this content I felt like I wanted to use it for a project and somehow publish these apologies.

One idea I had was to create an umbrella of doubt and screen print all of the text onto it. This means it would look like a regular umbrella at first and then afterwards it would be opened and the surprise of a poor apology would be found.

Another idea I had was to create a simple zine titled the disappointment zine and typeset the text carefully in response to the type of apology. This would create a humorous reading experience that give the apologies more narrative and character without including the collaborators names.

One idea I had was to create an artist book with the idea of disappointment travelling through it. Perhaps you could believe you were getting something great when reading it however at the end you were given something distasteful and bitter.

STUDIO: NO EVIL MAGAZINE COVER DEVELOPEMENT

After the further research into the Koshin scrolls, I took some of the elements from it to incorporate within the cover to give it a more decorative element and express some of my design skills as well as the artists within. The hand rendered calligraphy within some of them reference the typography composition I had already created so it tied in quite nicely. We examined how every variation of the scroll has a moon and a sun placed in exactly the same at the top and perhaps we could include this on our cover too. 

During a crit we were informed to be more playful and experiment with the cover. The typography was really nice but people wanted to see it bigger and more elaborate. They wanted us to be more decorative and go wild on the cover so we began to experiment with this idea. We also got our friend Hollie to collaborate further on the design to help is illustrate the sun and moon sitting on the clouds. We made sure she illustrated the clouds in the style of the typography so that they paired well together. 

Once we had an idea of our content we experimented with a bunch of variations in the style of the scrolls.

I really like this last idea of having the monkeys name at the bottom (same position as it is on the scroll) as it revolves around three dimensions of the book referencing the three monkeys, front, back and the spine. Having the type divided across these three spaces gives them their own separate entities resembling three separate monkeys. After this, we placed a sun on the front and the moon on the back resembling the placement of them on the scroll, from left to right on of the document. 

We finally sourced three colours from the scrolls, a red green and a blue but we did not like how the spines matched up together due to the colours so this is something we'd have to experiments with further. 

STUDIO: KOSHIN SCROLL MONKEYS RESEARCH

Origins:

The source that popularized this pictorial maxim is a 17th-century carving over a door of the famous Tōshō-gū shrine in Nikkō, Japan. The carvings at Tōshō-gū Shrine were carved by Hidari Jingoro, and believed to have incorporated Confucius’s Code of Conduct, using the monkey as a way to depict man’s life cycle. There are a total of eight panels, and the iconic three wise monkeys picture comes from panel 2. The philosophy, however, probably originally came to Japan with a Tendai-Buddhist legend, from China in the 8th century (Nara Period). It has been suggested that the figures represent the three dogmas of the so-called middle school of the sect.

In Chinese, a similar phrase exists in the late Analects of Confucius from 2nd to 4th century B.C.: "Look not at what is contrary to propriety; listen not to what is contrary to propriety; speak not what is contrary to propriety; make no movement which is contrary to propriety" (非禮勿視，非禮勿聽，非禮勿言，非禮勿動). It may be this phrase that inspired the pictorial maxim after it was brought into Japan.

It is through the Kōshin rite of folk religion that the most significant examples are presented. The Kōshin belief or practice is a Japanese folk religion with Chinese Taoism origins and ancient Shinto influence. It was founded by Tendai Buddhist monks in the late 10th century. A considerable number of stone monuments can be found all over the eastern part of Japan around Tokyo. During the later part of the Muromachi period, it was customary to display stone pillars depicting the three monkeys during the observance of Kōshin.

Though the teaching had nothing to do with monkeys, the concept of the three monkeys originated from a simple play on words. The saying in Japanese is mizaru, kikazaru, iwazaru (見ざる, 聞かざる, 言わざる) "see not, hear not, speak not", where the -zaru is a negative conjugation on the three verbs, matching zaru, the modified form of saru (猿) "monkey" used in compounds. Thus the saying (which does not include any specific reference to "evil") can also be interpreted as referring to three monkeys.

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Koshin Scroll:

Kōshin (庚申) or Kōshin-shinkō (庚申信仰) is a folk faith in Japan with Taoist origins, influenced by Shinto, Buddhism and other local beliefs. A typical event related to the faith is called Kōshin-kō (庚申講), held on the Kōshin days that occur every 60 days in accordance with the Chinese sexagenary cycle.

On this day some believers stay awake to prevent Sanshi (三尸), entities believed to live inside the body of believers, from leaving it during that night in order to report the good and especially the bad deeds of the believer to the god Ten-Tei.

Three monkeys covering eyes, mouth and ears with their hands are the best known symbols of Kōshin faith. They are Mizaru (not see), Iwazaru (not say) and Kikazaru (not hear). It is not very clear why the three monkeys became part of Kōshin belief, but is assumed that it is because like the monkeys, the Sanshis and Ten-Tei are not to see, hear, or tell the bad deeds of a person.
Statues of Shōmen-Kongō with the three monkeys have existed in temples and shrines since the Edo era. Sometimes carved stones called Kōshin-tō were placed around a dwelling for protection. Such stones can present diverse forms, from having only Chinese characters (kanji) to including a depiction of Shōmen- Kongō with one, two or three monkeys.

Sexagenary Cycle:

The sexagenary cycle, also known as the Stems-and-Branches or ganzhi, is a cycle of sixty terms, each corresponding to one year, thus a total of sixty years for one cycle, historically used for reckoning time in China and the rest of the East Asian cultural sphere. It appears as a means of recording days in the first Chinese written texts, the Shang oracle bones of the late second millennium BC. Its use to record years began around the middle of the 3rd century BC. The cycle and its variations have been an important part of the traditional calendrical systems in Chinese-influenced Asian states and territories, particularly those of Japan, Korea, and Vietnam, with the old Chinese system still in use in Taiwan, and to a lesser extent, in Mainland China.

There are ten heavenly stems, and Ko, Shin are number 7/8 which lays in the metal category, so maybe our designs can be informed by the use of metal?

STUDIO: BOOK COVER IDEAS

After selecting our relevant type, we began arranging the type on the potential cover of each book to see what worked best.

STUDIO: NO EVIL TYPE EXPERIMENTS

Here is a few examples of type that me and Zak played with to include on the cover of our look book.

PPP: FICTIONAL PRESS

I created some fictional press for my course mate in the style of an It's Nice That article and he did the same for me to help up understand how we could or would like to be seen in the press.

Jamie Gleave's contemporary design informs audience on fan loyalty in the branding, ownership of football clubs and racism within modern British football.

Gleave hails from a small town Warrington and moved to Leeds to study Graphic Design at Leeds Arts university, taking his passion of football and sport with him. He has managed to express his love for football within his contemporary design practice and links his love for the sport and strong cultural references throughout all of his work. Alongside this, he takes his skills and regularly produces artwork for music produces and local businesses.

Jamie's multi-disciplinary skills revolve heavily around digital design with a contrast in editorial print and poster design. These skills cross aid him in informing his audience within clear campaigns to make the culture surrounding British football a positive thing and destroying any negative connotations related to the sport. One project explores how club fans react to the way they rebrand themselves and how important Graphic Design is to that club. This would deal with the clubs logo, owners etc, which would then persuade its fans to react differently and support them in a more positive light. Gleave has documented this in a really unique way, playing with FA branding guidelines to spark an interest with his initial audience and distributing in a clear yet concise manner. 

Gleave's pinnacle project within his current portfolio is his rebrand of the football racism reporting app titled 'Kick it Out'. His rebrand has been made to work and clean and minimal as possible, prompting it's users to report any racism within the football grounds during a match. The simplicity of the app avoids any confusion or specific labelling of any culture, meaning its 100% inclusive for all fans to use. Alongside this, a strong solid statement piece of printed matter, a flag to be modelled at a match boldly translating 'In Solidarity Against Racism', an excellent use of understanding the culture and taking advantage of its potential downfall.

Ruben Buffery contemporary design informs his audience on events, and rebranding music gigs and tours and gaining exposure

Ruben Buffery is a multidisciplinary graphic designer based in Leeds and attends Leeds Arts University. He also goes by the name @ _rgb_designs which describes his colour digital work. With a passion for music and editorial design, Rubens work is highly noticeable and coherent across his design account. 

Ruben's design skills revolve heavily around digital design with a contrast in editorial print and poster design. These skills cross aid him in informing his audience about fictional music events which allowed him to gain actual commissions and exposure from the record labels.  He also experiments with a range of textures and colours across his work and also is a keen typographic designer making his own working typeface 'Kedda Grotesk'. 

His latest project was based upon a bringing back print from an online source. Ruben redesigned E-Flux making it a sustainable editorial magazine.