Monday, 18 October 2010
The Significance of Numbers
The first project given to us upon our return to Vis Comm was one with a very short turn around time. We were given one week in which to produce a piece of work which answered this brief:
Using any media, design a piece of work that demonstrates the significance of numbers... your final outcome must be engaging and allow the viewer to engage and understand the information you present. You will present this work as an A2 printed poster.
Given the short deadline I felt this was not the kind of brief in which I should explore an array of varying concepts but simply focus on one strong idea and see it through to the end. I have found in the past that I have held my own ideas back by merely looking into other answers to the brief. But when limited by time I needed to go with my instinct and push my initial idea.
What first sprung to mind and what in fact was brought in to fruition was the evolution of number characters. I found it fascinating researching into the origin of what we now know in the western world as our characters
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
I found how aesthetically the characters have developed over time from their origins in scripture and carvings. Character forms from Runic, Greek, Latin, Brahmi, Hindu, Arabic, and Roman Numerals can be noted as influencing modern day character forms. I therefore decided to suggest the significance of numbers by showing how their evolution through these monumental civilizations was so integral. The character developments suggest how over the course of human existence how they have progressed to form a semi-universal language that forms the backbone to mathematics.
I decided to layer all 9 of the stages of the character forms over one another at 30% opacity so each would layer up and culminate and a 60% opacity of the Helvetica character of that number. The significance of the typeface choice comes down to a piece of work paying homage to Helvetica:
I feel my project answers the brief in that it shows how something so integral to our lives' has as much a evolutionary history as basic letter forms, language, communication and technology. One of the most significant factors of all being that without a structured numbering system we would be without the latter in the list. Technology owes its existence to the relationship between numbers. This post would not be possible were it not for binary. The evolution of everything is significant, for it would not exist were it not for its origin.
"Change is not merely necessary to life - it is life"
Alvin Toffler
Using any media, design a piece of work that demonstrates the significance of numbers... your final outcome must be engaging and allow the viewer to engage and understand the information you present. You will present this work as an A2 printed poster.
Given the short deadline I felt this was not the kind of brief in which I should explore an array of varying concepts but simply focus on one strong idea and see it through to the end. I have found in the past that I have held my own ideas back by merely looking into other answers to the brief. But when limited by time I needed to go with my instinct and push my initial idea.
What first sprung to mind and what in fact was brought in to fruition was the evolution of number characters. I found it fascinating researching into the origin of what we now know in the western world as our characters
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
I found how aesthetically the characters have developed over time from their origins in scripture and carvings. Character forms from Runic, Greek, Latin, Brahmi, Hindu, Arabic, and Roman Numerals can be noted as influencing modern day character forms. I therefore decided to suggest the significance of numbers by showing how their evolution through these monumental civilizations was so integral. The character developments suggest how over the course of human existence how they have progressed to form a semi-universal language that forms the backbone to mathematics.
I decided to layer all 9 of the stages of the character forms over one another at 30% opacity so each would layer up and culminate and a 60% opacity of the Helvetica character of that number. The significance of the typeface choice comes down to a piece of work paying homage to Helvetica:
I feel my project answers the brief in that it shows how something so integral to our lives' has as much a evolutionary history as basic letter forms, language, communication and technology. One of the most significant factors of all being that without a structured numbering system we would be without the latter in the list. Technology owes its existence to the relationship between numbers. This post would not be possible were it not for binary. The evolution of everything is significant, for it would not exist were it not for its origin.
"Change is not merely necessary to life - it is life"
Alvin Toffler
Monday, 8 February 2010
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