"We must not be afraid of ideas..." Richard Nixon

PLEASE PROCEED TO THE END OF THE BLOG POST FOR THE SHORT VERSION

So I've been approaching this blog in a completely different way then I have been approaching the class. I think about the blog and I think I don't know what to post but I think about the installation and think I know what I want to do. Then eventually I realize that that is what I should post about.

When we landed on translation as our topic and the film Helvetica came up it started the ball rolling. Around the same time I heard about Helvetica in 2008 I heard about the Cold War Modern exhibit at the V & A Museum in London where I was going to be spending the fall and I was stoked. So probably because of this time line the two are linked in my mind. At the exhibit they showed the plans for Stalin's memorial to himself which unfortunately I can't find an image of. What's important though is that it's extremely grandiose with tons of flourishes. They also looked at the architecture in the Soviet state which was concrete and impenetrable (See below).

The exhibit then compared these buildings that in a way seemed to hide what was inside with the American

sky scrapers built during the same time- for example the World Trade Center in New York which was finished in the 70s which was steel and glass.

Essentially what's being said is that in America we're transparent and not hiding anything while in the Soviet Union we're secretive hide behind flourishes and impenetrable. Was the exhibit biased? Yea probably the English were after all on our side of the Iron Curtain but these are the design thoughts that stuck in my head from the exhibit.

Now, I still have yet to really watch Helvetica, it was only on in the background once when I was trying to figure out how to register for an absentee ballot, but one of the things I remember about it, or really what I can deduce about it just from observing the font, is that it's clean, simple and easy to read. It doesn't mask anything with flourishes or imply anything with italics. For me in observing it there is a boldness in it's simplicity that is somehow capable of being authoritative and - this may be a leap - in a way calming. It may seem weird that these two things can exist in the same font but here's what I mean.

This is a font called Arial that was derived from Helvetica and is not really too different and since Blogger doesn't have Helvetica will work for this demonstration. I tried to find some of the images I saw in the Helvetica trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkoX0pEwSCw) but couldn't find exactly what I needed which was the gap sign that simply said:

love.

This stuck out to me because, well because I'm a hopeless romantic? maybe, but also because it took a concept that is jumbled and complicated and thought to be so hard and simplified it. It makes it sound easy. And not in a relationship kind of way but just in a global sense. It makes it seem simple.

Compare that with what I found when trying to google search for the gap love sign.

LOVE.

Maybe it's just me but it seems like an order. and it doesn't sound loving at all.

So now I've introduced some other things- capitalization and color.

SIMPLE VERSION STARTS HERE

which leads me to my idea.

How does the way we present our thoughts and ideas- how does font and color and maybe even spacing affect how we perceive ideas?

Here's my plan. Using the fabric we got from Goodwill I want to print in different fonts and mediums (spray paint, etc..)the same phrase over and over again. Kind of in the vein of the famous sign:

(note the font choice ;)

Except the translations aren't languages they're fonts and colors and they're not all presented on one thing but rather scattered about. What will it say you ask? Not sure yet. I either want it to be something emotionally charged because that emotion will read differently in different presentations or some quote or saying that everyone can already recognize like, "To be or not to be that is the question..." except with most of the speech- not just the first lines.

So that's that more to come! Let me know what you think.