Crits and Response

My crits were mostly focused on ideas for my logotype in context/production as my typeface was fully complete/developed and everyone in the crit group collectively agreed that the selected logotype was the most successful.

Feedback about my logotype was positive:

• Very experimental which represents her
• The three dots and lowercase is really playful 
• The way in which the letters fit together/are arranged together is really interesting and works well

The crit that was most important is how to approach my logotype in context. I have already placed it in images of the previously existing MoMA exhibition on Björk.

The actual exhibition had different rooms that were about each element of her career such as visual art and instruments and used the latest M/M Paris typeface created for her archives (this typeface was to represent her and not just an album). 

I went into the crit with the main question of how to approach my idea of Björk tarot cards or a tarot inspired poster to advertise her work without overcomplicating it too much? 

My main feedback after talking about my ideas were: 

• Need to simplify - my ideas are giving myself a whole new project and concept when I just need to put my typeface and logotype to the test.
• Tarot card merch would need alot of illustrative work and is also too complicated.
• Instead just create a poster or a design that could go in the exhibition or any other places that I would brand.

Initially I designed a timeline of her discography that could be used as posters or in her archives.

I chose a colour scheme that I commonly saw in tarot cards or colours that encompassed both Björk and the tarots by looking at the tarot cards that most relate to her. I used symbols from the High Priestess and the Sun and colours that related to that and jewels. I wanted them to be unconventional for posters as Björk is often unconventional and in response to my logotype developments, I had alot of feedback stating my weird colour combinations were the most interesting. However when printing these posters out, I found that they weren't as effective and also didn't showcase/use much of the typeface as much as I had intended. They needed to be put at a larger scale so that the text can be legible however if those posters are to be easily distributed and put in her archives/books then it had to be kept at a small size. 

In response to this, I chose use the designs as basis for walls in galleries such as creating large vinyls to be used as a timeline/discography of her work. 

In my imagined exhibition for Björk, the walls would be based on those same strange but tarot inspired colours and would have her discography and timeline in large text across the walls and floor and possibly ceiling so that it could suggest entering her mind - representing the personal aspect of this branding and typeface. To explore this in more depth, I printed vinyls out and stuck them on the wall as another exploration into displaying her discography and making elements of my idea real.

I wanted the vinyls to be bigger however it is still a good experimentation and exploration into putting my logotype in physical context.

Typeface Design Rationale

This typeface’s purpose is to serve as branding for Björk and therefore is representative of not only her music but her art and her personality. It’s a very personal typeface that has been heavily influenced by factors such as her heritage, interests and her inspiration. 

To encompass a vast musician and visual artist such as Björk into a singular typeface, the main concept was to represent her visual work and characters through their links to tarots and her interest in mythology, natural metamorphosis and poetry. To represent this, the typeface’s initial starting point is Lucida Blackletter as looking at the history of when poetry and tarots became popularised during the 15th century, Blackletter was the calligraphic font used. Lucida Blackletter was then distorted and warped to not follow strict gridlines and in the process, lost its sharp edges to convey an organic and soft nature that Björk heavily conveys through her work. The typeface was distorted in a way in which the glyphs can be arranged without a strict grid structure to convey the fluidity and emotional nature of poetry and her music, while also being able to fit together so that they appear as though they can be merged together and metamorphose. 

The use of circles and general roundness to the font is not only conveying a more organic connotation but also related to musical notes to represent her classical music training and her love for music notation which is a common theme throughout many typefaces designed for her.

Björk’s professional life and music career is about the idea of traditional merging with modernisation whether that’s through her physical movement from a rural town in Iceland to London, or through her mergence of classical instruments with electronic music and technology. The digital distortion of a font that is otherwise traditional represents that aspect of her as even the process of this typeface is meant to have a personal connotation. 

The logotype keeps the typeface as it is however is experimental with sizing, kerning and arrangement to represent her experimental approach to everything in her career. The only change that is not shown anywhere else in the typeface is the three accents above the ö as the umlaut is very iconic as branding for Björk as it’s representative of her Icelandic origin. The inclusion of there being three dots instead of two as a conventional umlaut has is to enforce the symbolic and visual representation of her heritage through not only making it the focus but also conveying historical ideas such as the decorative elements of Icelandic rune-marks and mythological symbols, and also the idea of atoms making up nature that is part of the Icelandic culture. 

Final Logotype

• Lowercase
• Difference in sizes and arrangement - doesn't follow a strict grid structure. 
• Only her name as that's iconic in itself and any other word wouldn't be able to directly link to her/encompass her whole lifework. This way it can be used for anything to do with her career and life - merch, exhibitions, posters, documentaries etc.
• 3 dots represent the umlaut in her name and the idea of atoms (protons and neutrons). 
• 3 dots also very decorative/ appear symbolic - runemarks. 
• The 'b' is very bold and eye catching - works better than the uppercase B or the two o's as a B.
• lowercase is similar to her own branding as seen on her website: 
  

Bjork Tarot Research

Idea: Make tarot cards as advertisements/merch to be bought at exhibitions?

• Not from scratch - found imagery. - use symbols from tarot. no need to recreate a whole thing. - include research. 

lyrics, list of album names , greatest hits, iconic moments. 

idea of curating lyrics - exhibitions about curating. does the tarot card provide a grid ? then take it away - working out of fixed arrangement structures as she does with her music. 

https://www.reddit.com/r/tarot/comments/7u7hfx/bjork_major_arcana_playlist/

1. The Fool - Immature
2. High Priestess - Hidden Place VESPERTINE
3. Empress - Oceania mEDULLA
4. Emperor -Who is it? (Carry My Pain On the Joy on the Right) Medulla
5. Hierophant - Pagan Poetry Vespertine
6. Lovers - All is Full of Love homogenic
7. Chariot - Modern Things post
8. Strength - Triumph of the Heart medulla
9. Justice - Where is the Line? medulla
10. Hanged Man - Its Not Up to Youvespertine
11. Death - Play Dead debut
12. Temperance - Isobel post
13. Devil - Venus as a Boy debut
14. Tower - Unravel homogenic
15. Star - One Day debut
16. Moon (Reversed) - You've been Flirting Again
17. Sun - Hyperballad post
18. Judgement - Show Me Forgiveness medulla
19. World - Pleasure Is All Mine 

(Tarots and what Björk songs they relate to) 

Twitter - Tarots

Major Arcana Tarot Cards

• Original Tarot cards
• 22 characters/symbols 
• Colours are based on luxury/royalties - jewel tones and gold and nature

Response to Crits Development

In response to the crits, I changed the two circles that were meant to represent the B (reference to symbolism in early Icelandic runemarks) as I was unhappy with them and the feedback did mention that they didn't look like part of the logotype - too distracting and neat. There was mention to use the "o" shape more as it adds alot of character so I decided to use it instead of the circles and it translates more like a B and also is more fitting with the logotype. 

• Using the lowercase "o" just for the B. 
• Translates well and is more effective than the circles.

•  Using it to replace all circles.
• I think the circles worked well with the other letters and the whole typeface doesn't need to change to include it - just include it in the logotype. 

 I continued to explore odd colour schemes to as it was mentioned that they are very effective and I find that they can be very eyecatching however I possibly need to explore colour schemes that are more related to Björk and whatever context they will be in as this was more an exploration of oddness rather than effectiveness.

Crit Feedback

• Should continue exploring weird colour combinations as they compliment the typeface.
• need to find a way to make the circles less neat and more related to the typeface.
• Should continue exploring jumbled arrangements of letters and not conform to a specific baseline as it works with the font.
• The "metamorphosis" is too hard to read and maybe experiment with kerning to make it more legible however the point of it was to explore letters transforming into each other. Maybe slightly space them out. 

• The personal aspects of my typeface are coming through and work really well together.
• Should experiment with red as it suits the medieval and tarot card theme.
• Use the lowercase "o" shape more as it adds character. 
• Develop ideas onto tarot cards 
• Record the changing/inverting of colours as an animation. 

• Create a poster based on tarot cards.
• Create a ligature to have a central image within the poster - much like a tarot card.
• Merge all the letters to make a ligature and possibly layer ontop of "Björk in white? (contrasting layering.) 

Brief 2 Research Part 2.

Inside Björk, the Documentary

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbJCqnITC7s&t=1831s
The typeface for the documentary itself is quite representative of Björk as it conveys a sense of natural and organic through it's handwritten visual effect. The curves and inspiration from art deco may be related to her visual art being very symbolically decorative. The font itself also looks quite musical as it has the circular shapes taken from music notes and the art deco reference relates to classical music - she is classically trained and uses classical compositions such as orchestras.

• "Biggest influence Iceland has had on my music is the organic. This thing with 22 hour light in the summer and darkness in the winter is absolutely normal and icebergs and eruptions and no trees at all is the way it should be. I have spent alot of time in nature as a kid was definitely the influence." 
• She grew up in a rural landscape but its rapidly accepting modernity. 
• She started writing about bodily desires with a mix of searching for emotional highs . her world is v much a girl’s word. serious avant garde art is her background.
• When the music scene in Iceland was developing she had to remembeer what it was to be Icelandic. "It is not forgetting about nature. It was not forgetting about the mythology in the culture which is very strong." 
• Said about her - "unearthly. excessive. wild. She goes against the grain of the music." "Her voice isn't quite human." "It's out of control but still in control."
• Her music is soulful ("rooted in folk") with electronic elements (MODERN.)
• Childlike, love, magic
• Many of her songs were reflecting her experience in the big city (london) but were written as modern fairytales. 

Things to explore: Icelandic scenery, Icelandic mythology, childlike/magical/imaginative typefaces, idea of rural meats modernity.

Icelandic/Norse Mythology and Fonts

"The Vikings believed their alphabet and lettering, was not only a tool for communication but was charged with a kind of magic. 

Runes can be recognized by their angular, linear, and diagonal qualities. Runes have few horizontal and curved lines, simply because it was difficult to carve these shapes into materials like stone and metal." 

• Mostly angular and made up of straight lines as they were originally carved - not written.
• Used to represent their beliefs and bring faith/magic to objects and culture - not for direct communication. 

https://www.sessions.edu/notes-on-design/type-in-history-runes/

Siggi Odd

 A famous Icelandic graphic designer who has designed many of the Icelandic brands logotypes. 

http://www.typeroom.eu/article/siggi-odds-typographic-magic-spelled-runes

• He looks at using Futhark runes alphabet to design his typographic projects (exploring original Icelandic type before Christianity was established and the Roman alphabet became the norm). 
• This typeface - ‘Rúnamerki’ which means runemarks - "The idea for the project came when I was researching runes and experimenting with creating some of my own with letterforms from existing typefaces” “Futhark runes were used in Iceland from the first century AD until Christianity took over in Scandinavia, and with it came the Roman alphabet. Runes lingered in some small form until the 19th century—ornamental mainly—but after that they fell almost entirely out of use.”
• “Runes are the letters in a set of related alphabets known as runic alphabets, which were used to write various Germanic languages before the adoption of the Latin alphabet and for specialised purposes thereafter. The Scandinavian variants are also known as futhark or fuþark (derived from their first six letters of the alphabet: F, U, Þ, A, R, and K); the Anglo-Saxon variant is futhorc or fuþorc (due to sound changes undergone in Old English by the names of those six letters).” 

Odd's typeface compared to original viking runemarks.

• Angular lines - not many curves. Idea that this can be carved.
• Symbolic - meant to represent their beliefs and magic.
• Almost direct similarities such as between the "B" and "M" however with more of a bevel join.
• Some letters are sounds and not actual letters. - "ng" looks more like an O and the "O" is more of a symbol - keeping the cultural significance. 

The typefaces aren't true representations of the actual alphabet. Made more modern through warps and made more for a logotype through making it bold.
Moving forward: need to experiment with runemarks as the main inspiration however making it more modern by actually representing the english alphabet instead of sounds. Or take elements of symbolism within runemarks to develop current chosen typeface.


M/M Paris

The typefaces designed for Björk were made with direct influence from the album that it was being designed for whereas my typeface is to be used as branding that encompasses what she's about - her inspiration, her heritage, etc.

• They are very rounded - connoting her organic approach, her childlike imagination, very representative of movement and poetic music. 
• experimental - none follow many conventions of type such as modernist typefaces would and one even disregards being completely legible. 
• all very symbolic. Biophilia is representative of music notes. Medulla is representative of atoms. Volta is representative of following a system but having fun (how she approached this album). Vespertine encompasses her focus on femininity and personal approach through the effect of handwritten cursive. This typeface actually doesn't directly relate to her album as much as the others do as the album is more experimental and aggressive in comparison to others however represents the sybaritic imagery she associates with it. 

More Developments on Initial Ideas

Initial Ideas Experimentations

To continue with my experimentations as I'm not happy with my previous ideas, I began to use Lucida Blackletter as a starting point as I want to focus on her interests in tarots and mythology and I find Lucida Blackletter to be a very true representation of gothic and medieval, 15th century 

calligraphy. 

The first two are the original typeface. The next I free enlarged to fit within different square grid sizes - cap height would reach 2 boxes high and 2 boxes across and the lowercases would all fit within 1 box and would keep the ascenders and descenders at x-height. The next - I increased the ascender and descender's heights to the same as the cap height then placed them so that they would expand past x-height however the inconsistency was too messy to be representative of the idea of disorderly order.

• I explored warping tools so that the distortions could follow rules set by Illustrator. I warped the typeface I created from Blackletter by curving all the sharp lines within the letters. I found this quite interesting and successful and need to explore it more. 

• I then explored the previous idea of atoms and dots which is also iconic because of the accent in her name ( ö ) which I thought was quite interesting as it's expressive, symbolic and following a rule however I feel as though it's not a new typeface but just a decorative version of Lucida Blackletter.
• To counteract this I rounded all the points of the Blackletter typeface then merged circles into wherever a harsh point initially was and this is successful in being more of a new typeface and also represents the idea of poetry and organic-ness as it resembles handwritten calligraphy however I still don't feel I've pushed the experimentation far enough as it's still very symbol and very representative of the original typeface.

Initial Ideas and Crit Feedback

Initial Ideas
From my research, I decided to start experimenting with typefaces that convey a sense of experimentation and mostly focused on the idea of transformations in response to Björk's interest in metamorphosis which she explores more commonly in her recent works. I did this by selecting existing typefaces then experimenting with them to convey small elements that relate to Björk's interests and themes in her work.

Initially I chose Futura as a starting point as I felt the roundedness of it in comparison to all the other Vignelli typefaces was more suited for a Björk typeface as its roundedness seems more organic which relates to her work revolving around nature. I then began experimenting with ways to transform Futura by changing curves and extending ascenders and then explored the idea of atoms which relates to Björk as atoms are nature and Björk has used the word "atoms" a lot when expressing her ideas. This is shown through the curves in the "p" as it's inspired by cells and shapes of atoms and the 3 dots above the "i" is inspired by protons and neutrons. To continue with this idea of protons and neutrons, I moved on to exploring putting these circles that represent protons and neutrons around the alphabet however I didn't figure out a way to approach this methodically however this approach may be more true to the idea of not following rules that Björk is true to.

I then played around with a serif font such as Times New Roman to explore the idea of being disorderly but with order. I chose Times New Roman as it's a very strong, corporate font which is very different to Björk's work and then began to transform it through adding curves and removing serifs. I followed the rule of keeping one or two elements of the original font there so it's still recognisable however I didn't focus on which of those elements I kept besides keeping 2 serifs.
I liked the ideas of curves and organic-ness and explored just adding curves to Futura and then extended ascenders and descenders to relate to playfulness and music notes however this is too similar to a typeface already designed for Björk by M/M Paris and I want to approach my typeface completely differently to what she's already had done as her work is always different and she is known to always challenge herself.

Crit Feedback

• Third experimentation was really elegant and overall the typefaces are all strong.
• Idea of exploring her interest in tarots through typefaces interesting - the serif experimentation already reflects that. 
• Need to add a rule to my typeface so that it's consistent.
• Form more words to understand and reflect on how the typeface works together.
• Explore distorting it to the point where its unrecognisable.

Moving Forward

• Need to add rules to my typefaces.
• Need to distort and experiment more and with different typefaces.
• Need to find focuses from research to create typefaces from. 

Studio Brief 2 - Research

https://www.reddit.com/r/Music/comments/518ws9/ama_im_singer_and_songwriter_bjork_and_im_here_to/

Bjork's Own Answers to a Q&A

On this reddit post, Bjork herself answered questions from the audience and looking into this will give me direct and personal understanding of her interests and what she is about. 

"4/4 human bipedal" - her songs atom dance and moon are rying to tap into the atoms rotating and celebrational element of sufi or the icelandic/northern equivalent of this. 

moon was trying to also incluse eternal spaceious space of space - celebrating irregularity n tapping into meanings from tarots. “which is kinda possessed and water like , absolutely no grid at all !! sometimes borderline hysteria but overall the liquid shape of our feelings being prime here , def ignoring all boxes and squares of the four corners of 4/4 ha ha ha ha”

“very interesting question ... i feel w most of my albums and concerts i will strip down to a sparse place w an acoustic instrument and in free time to try to make sure this connection and this simplicity is respected at least once ..... or even in songs like "history of touches" or " desired constellation" that are electronic but perhaps try for a poetic simplicity versus complex arrangement structures ..... ?”

“i prob was lucky because as a teenager in reykjavik nothing was going on . so we kinda had to make it up ourselves and release it ourselves . so when i have been introduced to restricting claustrophobic routes ive kinda just ignored them . because knew they werent true . and selling 3 copies dont scare me , more important to stay true to my nature .... ? also coming from punk background corporate companies where the enemy . it is really very clear . and more simple really”

• not fixed to grids
• not corporate
• poetic rather than having a fixed arrangement structure.

play with irregularity, and different kerning. 

interested in: tarots, mythology, rhythm, poetry, irregular forms, icelandic nature, mythology

M/M Paris 

http://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/23875/1/m-m-paris-on-15-years-with-bjork

"I look at Biophilia and I’m kind of frightened. It’s like vertigo... or a black hole! There is no musician we could have gone so far with. Each time, because it’s so creatively demanding, you ask, ‘how am I going to come up with something as daring?’ It needs to be revolutionary. The answer is because she always challenges herself.”

“She is a curator of her own archive. She knows how to reactivate that archive so that she doesn’t sleep on a dead body of work. The main subject of the exhibition is not so much her but more what she produced. She produced music; she’s a true musician. The core of her artistic production is music and the core of music is music notation. This is why eventually on the cover [of the book] it’s a music partition. That’s a strong image to remember the artist as, just like John Cage, where the material of his art was music.

Behind the music partition, she displayed a set of seven characters and the seven characters were invented by Björk to promote the core of an artistic production that is music and music as a language. Each character was speaking the language of music she invented. It has been very complicated to articulate all these crucial points. You are dealing with a multi-dimensional image, but our collaboration has been successful because there is a true respect of the artistic integrity on both sides.”

• Revolutionary - she challenges herself with her music so explore how challenging the type can be - experimental.
• Her core focus is on her music production and the core of that is "music notation" - Definition :"  is any system used to visually represent aurally perceived music played with instruments or sung by the human voice through the use of written, printed, or otherwise-produced symbols. " - Symbols, visual representation of aura / perception. 
• How to encompass her multi dimensional image? 

MoMA

https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/1458?locale=en

“In the Museum lobby, instruments used on Biophilia (2011)—a gameleste, pipe organ, gravity harp, and Tesla coil—play songs from the album at different points throughout the day.” 

The physical representation is very organic  - using man made and nature. 

“On the third floor, Songlines presents an interactive, location-based audio experience through Björk’s albums, with a biographical narrative that is both personal and poetic, written by the acclaimed Icelandic writer Sjón, along with many visuals, objects, and costumes, including the robots designed by Chris Cunningham for the “All Is Full of Love” music video, Marjan Pejoski’s Swan Dress (2001), and Iris van Herpen’s Biophilia tour dress (2013), among many others.” 

Interactive, personal, poetic. 

Others Who Have Collaborated with Bjork

• Sjón : founder of neo-surrealist group ‘Medúsa’ . Focuses on creating “a world of metamorphosis” http://www.thewhitereview.org/feature/interview-with-sjon/ Aesthetic to due with transformations, natural forms, mutations, reconstruction
• Chris Cunningham http://www.somewhere-magazine.com/bjork-all-is-full-of-love-directed-by-chris-cunningham-throwback/ science fiction, discordant imagery
  “When Cunningham first heard the track, he wrote down the words « milk », « sexual », « surgery », and « white porcelain »; they outline what would become the music video. Concerning this, Cunningham added that it was like Kama Sutra meeting Industrial Robotics and that because of the surreal nature of the images, they could be « sexually suggestive » as they liked. Initially, it was planned that during the visual’s ending, the robots would unfold like a flower as they mated, revealing an abstract life form made from the two artificial forms.”
  Focusing on nature, pushing boundaries, surrealism.
  Process of designed for Bjork is to start by writing words when listening/looking at her work.

Response to Crits - Altering Typeface

In my feedback there was mention that my counters and crossbars on my uppercase letters were at different heights which defeats the purpose of my typeface being consistent therefore I changed that. I lowered the crossbars on my A, B and H as every other letter has their crossbar at the same height therefore making these fewer changes more sensible.

In response to my letters being different widths and how that counteracts my rule of consistency, I experimented with enlarging the letters' widths so that they all were 5 boxes wide however when considering whether this makes it easier to knit I decided against widening them as I wanted to make it less complicated by letting them have to knit less and additionally the curves in which the line are jagged have the rule of being only 1 box wide and 1 box down and by widening the letter I completely affect and change this rule making it less consistent.

 When experimenting with this I however found a more simplistic approach to some letters such as the uppercase Q and X which I always thought were over complicated and i believe these would both be easier to stitch as they no longer have different thicknesses which would be more complicated to knit.