Information for Double Spreads.

I have been looking at information to use for my double page spreads I had come across this article about the ‘History of the Skinhead movement’. I feel like this article is relevant to my designs and would give the reader an insight about the subculture itself. I will be using most of the information however due to my design layout I may use parts rather than all of it.

I got this information from: http://onepeoplesproject.com/index.php/arts-culture/history/336-history-of-the-skinhead-movement

No Pasaran

Skinheads are not racists nor fascists. In this article one can see how the root of the movement started to grow with immigrants and the rest of the working class youth. Boneheads, the fascist/racist intruders, appeared afterwards trying to take over the movement.

The Beginning. 1960’s

The Skinheads movement began in Great Britain during the 1960’s. It was began by two movements of their own, both part of the proleteriat.
The first one was called the “Hard Mods”. They belonged to the Mods movement. This was strongly influenced by the hippies. The main members of the Mods belonged to the ruling/middle class youth and were mainly concerned with spiritual matters. They talked about mystical experiences and peace but they did not pay attention to the problems of the country and those of the poorest of the poor. Therefore the Hard Mods separated. The other founder of the Skinheads Movement were the Rudeboys who were Jamaican immigrants that met them because they both lived in the working class’ areas.

This encounter created the movement. So it was from the beginning with anti-racist ideas and a movement of the proleterian youth. There is no racist, nazi or fascist here. One of the main problem was that they were not political. Those with any feeling of class struggle were a minority. Among one of the main features was the dress code. What they wore was an intent to make of fun of the ruling class’ youth. They also started wearing boots like Doc Martens to show that they belong to the “lower class”.

The Punk and Skin Movements. 1977

In 1977 the Skinhead scene became more important because of Punk music. The Punk musical style hit the charts and the British youth started listening to it. But, like Hip Hop, the Punk culture was created by the poor youth and once it became too influential Capitalism used it to earn dollars. This type of commercial punk is famous for its nickname “MTV punk”. This style remplaced the idea of revolt and class struggle with the appearance of a “rebel without a cause”. Still there are a few bands that quit being so fake and became more political in defense of the proleterian movements. Also, around this time started the music”Oi!” which represents the expression “Hey You!”.

Fascists/racists. 1978

As we saw around this period the Skinheads and the Punk culture began to become famous and popular. As well as this, we know the former was not too political, they just knew they were exploited and that made them rebelious. These two aspects allowed the extreme right, especially the “National Front” (political party), to influence the youth that wanted to fight the system of exploitation but didn’t know how. This tactic is always used by the far right. They always intent to take the working class’s associations, bands, minds… to better control and used them.

The Antira/Antifa Fight Back. end 1970’s till start 1980’s

The invasion of the extremists woke many skins up and they ,thus, decided to fight back. A new sub-movement starts with the return to Ska music endorsed by the 2-TONE trend. As a symbol they used the word “SKA” in black and white as a symbol of “racial” unity.
With this type of music appeared new anarchist, communist, anti-racist and anti-fascist Skinhead groups among the youth. Examples of this are “SHARP” -Skinheads Against Racial Prejudices- and “RASH” -Red Anarchsit Skinheads-. These groups want to fight for the end of Capitalism, a system founded on the exploitation of those that own nothing, but remplacing it with a fair and equalitarian system. Unfortunately the journalists prefer to focus only on boneheads in order to “scare” more the public and make tabloid-style articles, thus earn more money.

Illustrating my Front Cover.

I decided to sketch the boots in a black pen to give it more depth and go for a more illustrative look to go with the idea of ‘creativity’ of the magazine creative review. After doing this I decided it would work very well relating to the subculture subtly yet an obvious item worn by the skinheads.

I had also tried to interpret the rolled up bottoms of the jeans and socks to also represent the skinhead culture however I think that I might add a small tattoo on the leg to also add recognition to the subculture itself.

Development of Ideas.

I have decided to experiment with one idea before sticking with it as the final idea. I thought two of the designs had potential so I have decided to try out the design with the boots first to see if it worked how I’d planned.

Firstly I have been experimenting with the Doc Marten boots. I decided to try out two different techniques with this design, photography and a more illustrative style. Firstly I took photographs of the boots choosing a brick wall background and then sketching the image in black pen in a more illustrative way.

From these images I am going to be illustrating a front cover I will maybe add small details relating to my chosen skinhead subculture and seeing if I can manipulate the imagery to see what that could look like for the front cover of the Creative Review magazine.

Semiotics.

Understanding the basic outline of Semiotics.

Semiotic from the greek meaning ‘observant of signs’

Today we have been looking about the meaning of semiotics and how it is much easier to  understand semiotics through language rather than visual commuication.

Ferdinand Saussure was the discoverer of semiotics but we began with the idea of ‘The Sign’

When an act of communication happens a sign is created. This consisted of a signified and a signifier. If these were both registered in the act of communication whats called a ‘sign’ is formed.

The signified is how the signifier has been registered in the mind of the person receiving the message.

The signifier is the word/object/thing that signals something such as a spoke or written word.

A signifier for example could be a ‘mouse’ although it is a computer mouse I am talking bout it could be interpreted in different ways for example the animal.

A sign doesn’t have to be intentional and it doesn’t have to be correct. It is very easy to misinterpret a signifier however there is many different ways we can make our signifiers easier to interpret in the right way.

‘Signified’ – The problem arises when there is no garantee how the signified is interpreted/thought of.

Looking at words to use to describe semiotics.

Denotation and Connotation.

D- is the simplest way level of what is seen for example heard smelt and so on.

C- is what that means to you for example the things it makes you thing of.

When trying to make my design work in this project and in the future I will need to have limited connotations to try to make the audience do/react in the way I have planned.

Next we looked at Polysemic images. Polysemic images are images that have a lot of connotations; most of the time these images would have what is called an ‘anchor’ which is just a headline to make the imagery easily understood by the audience.

We did a task looking a different polysemic images and divergently thinking giving them labels on what signified ideas we came up with when looking at the images. Here slow are the images we looked at and the labels I came up with.

Horror film DVD cover.

Murder House.

Wizard of Oz.

Drug House

Back of a book.

Th amityville horror DVD cover.

House for sale.

Healthcare advert.

Equality in the workplace.

Virus charity advert.

NHS pay cuts.

Fear.

We also briefly looked at whats called ‘Arbitrariness’. This is where the idea that languages is symbolic and has to be learned and is important to do so. It promotes the idea that language is also evolved.

Skinhead Uproar (Newspaper Articles).

 

 

Whilst researching skinheads I came across these interesting newspaper articles about the skinheads. I thought this could be good to interpret into my design as it is showing how the media perceived the skinhead culture and peoples views on the style of the subculture itself.

Here as the skinhead subculture was changing they are describing the skinheads as being ‘neo-nazis’ an ‘anti-fascists’.

Van de Graaf Canon.

 

 

I have decided to look further into depth at different layout designs. I decided to look at the Van de Graaf Canon most oftenly known as used by Jan Tschichold.

The Van de Graaf Canon is a historical rebuilt method that may have been used in  design to divide a page in pleasing proportions mostly in books. This layout is also known as the “Secret Canon” used in many medieval manuscripts.

The geometrical solution of the construction of Van de Graaf’s Canon, which works for any page width-height ratio, enables the book designer to position the text body in a specific area of the page. Using the Canon, the proportions are maintained while creating suitable and practical margins of size (1/9 and 2/9 of the page size).  This method was discovered by ‘Van de Graaf’, and used by well known designer Jan Tschichold and other contemporary designers.

The page proportions vary, but most commonly used is the 2:3 proportion. In this Canon the text area and page size have the same proportions, and the height of the text area equals the page width. This canon was popularized by the designer Jan Tschichold.

Tschichold wrote ‘For purposes of better comparison I have based his figure on a page proportion of 2:3, which Van de Graaf does not use.’

After looking at these design layouts I realised that I would use a similar style however the Fibonacci sequence worked the best for my layout design.

Interview With a Skinhead 1984.

Here I decided to look at different interviews with skinheads to look at what was happening at the time and there views. This video here is an interview with 18 year old Steve Nicolls. A skinhead in 1984 giving his views when questioned by interviewer. He explains the fear from others towards the skinhead culture and how he felt in this era.

After watching this video it has inspired me to include in my piece how the skinheads were portrayed and maybe also to include the tattoos in my designs.

The Design Sequnces.

I have decided to look in to different design sequences to decide on a layout for my design for my double page spread inside the magazine.

The Rule of Thirds.

The Fibonacci Sequence.

The Golden Ratio.

There is a common mathematical ratio found in nature that can be used to create eyecatching, natural looking compositions in design work. Its called the Golden Ratio, although it’s also known as the ‘Golden Mean’, ‘The Golden Section’, or the ‘Greek letter Phi’. It relates to the Fibonacci Seqence shown above. The rule of thirds is another good method of layout in design.

Use of the Golden Ratio is well used in art and design throughout history, and can be seen in lots of design work from architecture to the grand masters. By applying a similar working methodology I can bring the same design sensibilities to my designs.

Steps of Creating a Golden Ratio.

– It starts with a basic square.

– Divide your square in half with a vertical line, leaving you with two rectangles.

– In one rectangle, draw a line from one corner to the opposite corner.

– Rotate this line so that it appears horizontally adjacent to the first rectangle.

– Create a rectangle using the new horizontal line and original rectangle as guides.

‘If you’ve ever come across the ‘Rule of Thirds’ you’ll be familiar with the idea that by dividing an area into equal thirds both vertically and horizontally, the intersection of the lines will provide a natural focal point for the shape.

Photographers are taught to position their key subject on one of these intersecting lines to achieve a pleasing composition, and the same principle can be used in your page layouts, web mockups, and poster designs.

Although the rule of thirds can be applied to any shape, if you apply it to a rectangle with proportions approximately 1:1.6, you get very close to a Golden Rectangle, which makes the composition all the more pleasing to the eye.’ – CreativeBlog.com

I have decided to look at this sequences as I want to make sure my layout designs work proportionatly in the magazine so that its not jumbled and works well as a layout.

Initial Front Cover Thumbnails.

Here are my initial sketch ideas. From looking at the iconic styles of the skinhead culture and the creative review magazine I was inspired by the simple imagery of a particular item from the subculture and the Creative Review boot front cover I previously looked at. I was also inspired by the simplicity of the front cover layouts so I have gone for this effect.

Here I looked at the iconic Doc Marten boots worn by the skinheads I initially wanted the boot to be much bigger as if it was stepping on the page. Although I dont feel like this design is effective I felt like the clothing and the boots could be developed further as the iconic look is very recognisable to the subculture.

Here I went for the typical skinhead look profile. I decided to add the shoulders to bring in the clothing like the shirt and the braces as aswell as the shaved head these related more to the subcultures fashion more. I felt like this design wasnt eyecatching enough and there is too much information being given I wanted it to be a subtle hint to the subculture rather than just a full image of a skinhead so I decided to look more into parts of the skinhead like the clothing, shoes and the head.

Here I looked at the typical shirt, jeans and braces without the head. I felt like the torso is a very recognisable part the the subculture and I was also influenced by the Creative Review cover looked at previously. I think this design could be effective however would ned to b e developed.

Here I tried to interepret the boots, jeans and the skinhead. I felt like this design was too jumbled and would need a few things taken out of it before it could be taken any further however I feel like the pose shows the subcultures percieved personality and is recognisable with the items that I have used.

Here is my favoured design out of them all. I feel like this design really shouts skinhead culture. Again it is showing the way the skinheads were percieved in the way they were quite scary and created a moral panic in that era. And what better of a way to describe the skinhead culture than with a skinhead. I was inspired by the Creative Review cover and after illustrating this inital idea I have decied to go down more of an Illustrative route relating to the creative magazine I am designing for. This piece will need to be developed and I will be trying to add a background showing a scene in the skinhead era. I feel like this piece is most striking and will catch the readers eye; giving away hints to the subculture rather than making the piece too simple. I want to intregue the reader in the way the creative review designers have.

Creative Review.

As I am creating a spread and front cover of the Creative Review magazine I have decided to look into what the magazine is about and the general style of the magazine. I feel that this will help me with my designs and how it will fit in with the magazine so it does not look out of place and fits the brief.

The Creative Review magazine was launched in 1980, Creative Review has been created to inspire, inform and stimulate debate across the different fields of advertising, design and visual culture worldwide.

Creative Review aims to ‘celebrate and encourage creativity, commercial success, talent and professional development.’

Although the magazine is based in the UK, they now have subscribers to the print magazine in over 80 countries and over 50% are web visitors, and 72% of their iPad App readers, are from outside the UK.

I have decided to look into the magazine as well as the front covers as I need to see the inside design spreads and would be interesting to see how the articles are presented aswell as the image layout design.

Here I have found a double page spread in the magazine. The layout design is very simple yet effective I think the way that the page is layed out it draws the reader to the imagery first and the to the text. the design layout here looks to me like the golden section style of layout which here I believe works very well I could interpret this style of layout in my design however I feel that looking into different layouts could be helpful.

After looking inside the book I have found some interesting front covers of the magazine that have given me inspiration for my initial ideas for my front cover designs.

These front covers have inspired me to use the iconic clothing and style of the skinhead subculture to create some intial ideas of my front cover design.