Poetry

I found it very hard to make just one choice when it came to choosing a poem, as am I’m such a great fan of poetry… some international Poets that we don not hear a lot of but I find interesting are Kabīr and Rabindranath Tagore .

Rabindranath Tagore
(7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941), was a Bengali poet, Brahmo Samaj philosopher, visual artist, playwright, novelist, and composer whose works reshaped Bengali literature and music in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He became Asia's first Nobel laureate when he won the 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Kabīr (1440—1518) was one of the poet sants of India
His greatest work is the Bijak. This collection of poems demonstrates Kabir's own universal view of spirituality. His verses, which being illiterate he never expressed in writing, often began with some strongly worded insult to get the attention of passers-by.

The Poem I choose to do my project on is called “Concert at the end of the world” by Concordia professor Jason E. Lewis:


People were going by, black mud on their pants
The orange-turning sky was disappearing fast
Jackie, Robbie and me sat at a tumbling down table
smoking jackfruit and eating cigarettes
watching the unending line of clowns, dictators and friends
we had brought billy jean's big bad boat but it proved too hard to handle
so we had ditched it way back in the dukes black moat and went on with only a candle

I know I'm supposed to meet somebody but everybody else is here instead
And nobody else can hear this dream calling to me in my head
I know I'm supposed to meet somebody but everybody else is here instead
And nobody else can know of this dream walking 'round inside my head

we got up from the table as well as we were able
and followed five ballet dancers down into the valley of the lost
we weren't really concerned with the dead because we'd already paid the cost
Jackie, he was an airman, lost his plane and crew off the coast
Robbie, he was a beggar, had lived with the dying more often than most
And me, I'm just a poet trying to sell my muddied skin
For a little bit of jackfruit and some advice on where to begin.

I know I'm supposed to meet somebody but everybody else is here instead
And nobody else can hear this dream calling to me in my head
I know I'm supposed to meet somebody but everybody else is here instead
And nobody else can know of this dream walking 'round inside my head

there was music down in the valley, thumping hard and fast
we tried to hurry along, sure that it wouldn't last
but we got held up at the quarry by the screams of Mary
who'd been tied up deep under the water
we dove down for her and she disappeared like the Pharaoh's daughter
when we came up again the music was getting louder
and we began walking again, colder, older and sadder

I know I'm supposed to meet somebody but everybody else is here instead
And nobody else can hear this dream calling to me in my head
I know I'm supposed to meet somebody but everybody else is here instead
And nobody else can know of this dream walking 'round inside my head

We didn't want to be here, and yet we did.
We'd all crawled out from under rocks where monsters lived.
We didn't know how to handle the bright reality of it all
And we didn't know how to handle the beauty of the music's call.
Jackie, he was a lover, but hadn't known a woman in a long, long time
Robbie, he was a family man, but spent most of his life in line
And me, I'm just waiting, waiting for somebody to tell me
it will all be fine.

I know I'm supposed to meet somebody but everybody else is here instead
And nobody else can hear this dream calling to me in my head
I know I'm supposed to meet somebody but everybody else is here instead
And nobody else can know of this dream walking 'round inside my head

Nobody else can know of this dream walking around inside my head.

Nomad

The next step in our process was to create a word. As a class we converted our letters into black and white or grayscale then printed them out. The task in the workshop part of the class was to go around the class and exchange letters with others that caught your interests in order to form a word. Initially the word I had chosen to spell was “door” but as I went on further my word kept on changing because of certain letters that I wanted to incorporate in my work. As I progressed the word I finally decided to work with is “Nomad”.

According to the dictionary definition the word Nomad means; an individual, often a member of a group, who migrates from place to place. In its simplest form I interpret or associate the word with movement, hence the reason I tried to incorporate movement in my design of the word “Nomad”.

I took each letter out of its original context and cut around the actual shape then tried to integrate each letter into the other by hooking them into one another. The two key letters that hold the word together are the O and the A, not because they are the largest but because they hold the word together. I placed the arm of the N and M hook into the O, and the M and D hook into the A. This is what the end result turned out to look like:

Inverted image:

The second part of this assignment we had to invert the image/ word we created to create a logo. I am not to sure if this was a complete success as a legible image, but it does make a unique logo.

The use of Letters

The letters I have chosen for this assignment are "O"," E" & “M".

I haven chosen O, due to the fact that it is very recognizable shape in environments, a circle. its is also a universal form that many companies and advertisers choose to play with when manipulating the shape of words. It is the form of stop lights, the wheels that we drive on and the door knobs that we open, we she the shape and letter everywhere. The letters E and M involve the use of strong lines and are often emphasized to suggest the notion of power. When the letter M is often emphasized by an increase in size, color or thickness it comes across as one of the stronger characters hence one of the reasons i chose to explore the character. The exercise was to find the letters in different forms.

These are some of the images I found interesting of the chosen letters. The "green E" reminds me of an older typeface something that would be used in a decorative context, such as on a label or a wine bottle. The "Pink M" attracts attention and for some reason makes me associate it with the m, from. MTV. The "Middle M" has a very corporate modern feel to it, with its sleek finish. And finally although the "red O" is not embellished or distorted in anyway, the color and thickness of the line gives it a sense of power and strength.

Background

My name is Sabreena Aneesa Mohamed; I am currently a third year student at Concordia University and in my second year of the specialization in Computational Arts program. In my studies as a CART student I would also like to balance out the design aspect of the program and pursue more design classes to better my skills as a graphic designer.

Before Concordia I did a three year program at John Abbott College in the field of Publication design and Hypermedia Technologies(PDHT). This is a program designed to combine print and web based media work. After my completion of the program I worked with the head designer of Alio tours, (a Montréal based travel tour company) to produce the seasonal catalogues and constantly update the company’s catalogue on the web site.The greater part of my work has been print based. After working with the company for about a year I decided to go back to school…and here I am.

I was introduced to the world of typography in my studies as a PDHT student. The program gave us a brief background into typefaces, but never really went into too much depth on the subject. As I entered into more design classes at Concordia, I realized how important the subject was in relation to the appearance of a final design project, hence the reason for my interest in taking this class.