selective perception

I'm just happy that I'm not doing Murat's project in Turkey(moustache land). But he can be happy too, for not living in 1980-90's.

混乱*

My visit to Tahtakale was a surreal experience with huge plush animal toys, illegal tobacco benches, vigorously dancing Santas, real meat smells, some shops which can be dated around 1960's. My eyes got so tired at some point from this over-exposed, exaggerated world with such different, sometimes weird components. You may hear that your heart beats but it was like I was in my heart or I had to eat my heart. (Ok, sorry) After I got used to the situation, my senses got so sharp that afterwards, when I got out of the labyrinthic market, I felt somehow desaturated with less vibrant colors with less action and with less components to see. Now, I may be exaggerating of course but this is the result of Tahtakale, the world of overness. (Tahtakaleye giren bir tahta vermeden çıkamaz, Sorry again!)

It is now quite hard to resolve a such a degree complexity. Think of it in this way, you read the word complexity letter by letter to word make a sense. What if the word complexity is in Chinese? (By the way I'm still looking for a Chinese reader: remember my post on  22th of October; Minor Crises)  Could you resolve the word without knowing the language which is in this case, Chinese?

Tahtakale is a place where the word is not only written in Chinese but also in other languages and perhaps this over composition is for now, over-over too difficult to break into letters;pieces.

I definetely need to make more visits to Tahtakale. I liked the place a lot.

a true name for a shop, reminded me of 'etme bulma dünyası' or 'kurtlar sofrası'

a gateway for timetravelling

sorry for the crappy photos, I took them with iphone because I didn't want to be the tourist-looking guy in this intimate place. 

*confusion in Chinese.

a phase

I don't want to make a comment about the video regarding the typography or style but here are some words for the content:

I felt somewhat relaxed after seeing this, I think most of us, vcd students, consider the taste we have as at least "above the average." I know that many of us are not satisfied with the work we've done, after seeing so many good pieces. A few of us think that it is something temporal, therefore I dedicate this (can I dedicate something even though the work doesn't belong to me?) video to my classmates who have constant insecurity for their work-including myself. 

something similar to Marko Paşa (I hope)

I found this while I was looking at Penguin Book covers. I would like to do something similar for my Marko Paşa Psikolojik Danışmanlık Hizmetleri branding project. I am also thinking of a bright red among various grey tones and black. 

Placement of the glasses is a nice reference to the title of the book since it is cropped as if the right corner has just left. It reminded me also the end of a line, glasses works as dash symbol. 

It is such a classy design.

making designs on a very exciting topic

Editorial design for the topic of synesthesia carries the danger of being lost in the content itself. Cross-sensation, intermingled perceptions and dense feeling of every sensory experience may confuse the designer therefore it is a very very exciting subject. What I liked about the following designs is that the designer was able to control him/herself so that the design is not over the content.

One could initially imagine a design with vivid or even perhaps psychedelic colours and interrelations such as a sudden irrelevant image in the work. (For instance a pink rabbit staring from the corner of the cover or so) Such emotional designs could be attractive but they would probably overshadow the content by leaving no room for the words.

That is why I liked this project a lot. It didn't fall into trap of over-design. Selected colours are more than enough; yellowish red, black and the off-white are very pleasing to the eye. The Æ detail is smart and refers to the cross sensory of synesthesia in a very neat way. Two layered cover is also a very incisive decision for the topic. It contributes the content but does not overshadow it. This project for me is about knowing where to stop in design process.

For the information about synesthesia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia

lettertalk

An advertisement series for Penguin Books captured my attention for several reasons. First, I liked the idea of the letters expressing themselves. The letter-talks have (self)references since the short texts are taken from some of the published books although I couldn't find which books they are. Secondly, they are funny, but not in a way "It's funny, so better you laugh!"(here could come two more !'s but it's irritating for me to see three !'s side by side) They are funny in a very subtle way.(hello Mr. Aksel)
The designs also carry a great consistency with the slogan on the top right, next to the logo of Penguin Books, saying "There is life in a book." I understood from this: If only two letters can talk this much, imagine a whole book.  That is why I find this advertisements witty, subtle and complete, exactly like a book which I would like to read.

organ-ic, geo-metric

After I saw this quote, and after our table discussion with family members on what organic is, I decided to look up the meanings and word roots of 'organic' and 'geometric' in dictionary. (It is a killing process to decide whether it's worth to look up or not thanks to my 'explorer' soul.) Anyway, what I've found is interesting

geometric-geo means earth, ground in Ancient Greek. Metric means measurement. Geometric derives from the mother nature itself: the measurement of earth. So, it is not as we (or perhaps only me and Donald Judo) have understood that geometry is not related to pure natural forms and is more abstract and perfect but geometry and 'geometric' are indeed about the earth itself.

organic- organ means device, means, tool. Up to now, I had an image of chubby dirty hens and amorph cucumbers when someone says 'organic'. But this definition changed my mind. That is why Donald my friend,
although I find following designs refreshing and nice, integrating organic and geometric is not a discovery since they are already fused to one another.







(I think it's a postbox)

Last words: will you be amazed as well with the following words?
earth- die Erde- Arzın merkezine yolculuk- Ardında bırak
eng    -   german - sanskrit                          -arabic

Minor crises: Drawing tree branches and plant scape

Drawing tree branches has always been an issue for me. I remember when I was a kiddo it was one of the most difficult part of the drawing. Today, whenever I want to draw a nice tree branch, I get horrified. What is problematic cannot be easily translated into language. Something doesn’t go well. Something is very disturbing with drawing tree branches. This would not be a problem if I only found my branch drawings in that way- somehow deficient, but it goes so most of the time with other’s works too.

Lately I've encountered a catalogue of Chinese drawings by a nameless (for Chinese alphabet non-readers) artist. What I find interesting in these drawings is that none of the tree branches seemed flawed, amiss or awkward to me. Somehow they don’t disturb me at all and they even give a great visual pleasure. When I was taking the Major Works of Eastern Art class, the professor had mentioned that in Chinese art, the artist goes on long spiritual journeys in which he(perhaps she too?) observes the nature for years but does not directly reflect the things seen on paper. Rather he waits for years until the nature becomes a part of him so that he can draw or paint the things he saw for years with an-so to say- internal eye.

I would like to think of these following works in that way too.

Also, there are Chinese letters on page and also stamp looking signatures indicating different owners of the work.  The placements of the text as well as the signatures compose a very beautiful interacting designed work together. I wonder the moment when the first owner is about to put the red signature: ‘where should I sign?’ Or is he putting them around without thinking a lot?

If anyone knows how to read Chinese and would like to help me, I'll put his name as well.

rectangular sheep

We have been told to question our taste all the time and to re-re-reconsider our thoughts on a project.Also not to leave the first glance alone however isn't it that first look which gives the feeling of like or dislike most of the time? When I saw the following branding project, I immediately liked it:  there are harmonized (this word scares me as if I am on the edge of a lame poetry) colors, beautiful typography, tasty papers etc. But are they the first/main reasons why I liked it? Certainly not, the rectangular sheep, you caught my eye! I'm kind of worried these days; whether my taste focuses more on the content(the subject) than the device(design)

company names

This week we talked about different company names which could be kind of funny. Not haha funny but like smiling inside ones. So, here are my suggestions:

Karambol Hukuk Müşavirliği

Demir Leblebi Danışmanlık

Baldırıçıplak Genç Giyim

Cadı Kazanı Medya Takip

Marko Paşa Psikolojik Destek Hizmetleri

Efendime Söyliyeyim Gazetesi- I think I'll make one for my own anyway.

Bi' tur Ulaşım Hizmetleri (car renting but this reminds me of gnctrkcll's slimy advertisement language)

Med-Cezir Sağlık 

Anasının Gözü Çocuk Yuvası. (and that was again for me)

simplistic corporate identity

Hello,

I've never had a blog of my own. ( I had a shared blog for two months) It is a little bit scary to announce what you like or don't, because when you remain silent, you always have the chance to say, "Ooov, if you knew what I have in mind..." But now, it is a total decipher for me.

So, here we go:

Something simple, decent-a word which we used a lot last year-, and classy. Ok, it is also a little boring.