(B3) Concrete Poetry: Designing Poems - When Love Arrives, A Letter to the Apocalypse

When Love Arrives Development:

Thinking about how to showcase the two speakers within the design, not separating them as they speak as a unit but defining a difference between them.
- Look "at" and "through" language.

• Tested with separation, aligning to different sides of the page (previous blog)
  - This made it difficult to follow the text since there is a lot of it. 
  - Created a difference that perhaps was too obvious between the two voices.
• Could use colour to show the difference between the voices

Using different colours to make it easier to design when there's a difference visually between the speakers

Having the text as one would allow for visual alterations based on tone and pace to be made.

Could think about the choice of colour, what this demonstrates, here had red and blue and then purple (primary colours making secondary colour).

Should try and add in alterations to the appearance of the text and placement on the page, directing a sense of pace.

- The text is often spoken in very quick succession, it's hard to define the speech in particular ways like with Myles' poem. 

- There are gaps and pauses, emphasised words and softer ones. These can be represented simply but the arrangement doesn't work.

Feel as though the letters are too large, the timing of this poem is different, much faster and involves more text. 

- Make letters smaller and see how the page can be arranged differently with this change.

Visual Inspiration:

Poem from, Mindplay: An anthology of British concrete poetry by Thomas Clark 

Spacing the text out, creating separation and divide.

Read in a particular way, the sections can make sense alone or within the context of the others.

Poem from, Mindplay: An anthology of British concrete poetry by John Sharkey 

Find the arrangement and overlapping here to be interesting, they seems to be in parts but as a whole.

Piano sheet music 

- Thinking how piano music works with bass clef and treble clef how they sit apart but work together.

- An arrangement similar to this could be used.

Here using colour, smaller type and alignment to develop a difference between while it's read as a whole. 

- Find there could be too much space here, the poem is face paced and this layout makes it seem more leisurely.

Here the text is placed closer together, helps them be read as one and gives more space.
- Feel the leading could be changed for when the sentences are spoken close together or further apart. 

This spacing added a sense of overlap or closeness between the words.

- Feel as though this works really well for the piece, helps with the pacing. 

- This spacing between one speaker and another also helps present this idea of two being used to voice as one, but retains the different between them. 

How to represent different ways of speaking visually:

Adding space and closeness to show where speech almost overlapped (or did a little bit).

On 'guitar' the poets pitch increased at the end. Making these letters move up to represent this. 

Here the words were said together but in a clumsy manner more slow that the rest of the poem.

- This was a really interesting section of the poem, it felt different to the rest so making the visual stand out was a way of presenting this visually. 

The poet puts on a different voice, one of a stern middle aged man, changing the typeface to indicate this was successful.

- Does stand out as different, works nicely. 

This section of the poem was spoken in very quick succession, almost as though they were going to talk over one another. 

- Spoken almost as if it was one voice, by moving the placement to the centre of the page this helps to push this idea further. 

Reflecting:

• Colour:
  Is the current colour scheme working?
  - Feel the colour pushes the idea of two different people talking creates a visual difference between the two.
  - Are red and blue appropriate? Why these colours? Why any colours?
• Typeface:
  - The current typeface I chose as it appears more traditional.
  - The poem is spoken with soft loving tone running throughout, it seems appropriate to use a typeface that may be viewed as more traditional.
  - When the "character" changes and typeface follows this works well. 
  - Maybe experiment with different typefaces, see how it changes the tone of the poem. 
• Arrangement:
  - I think the alignment of left, right and central works well. It presents these different paths but allows them to be seen as one.
  - The spacing between lines is also effective, it allows the pace to be easily understood and showcases the slight overlap between speakers well.
  - Other alterations to exaggerate words or sounds (similar to 'A Thing About Arms') is also effective, used less in this poem but works when used. I don't think anything needs to be used in excess as the focus in this poem is on the arrangement of how the two speaking as one comes across. 
• When animating on the website there could be potential room for hover movements.
  - Could have words change as the mouse scrolls over that line?
  - See if this is possible with current skill level. 

Taking Poem and animating website interactions into it:

- The alterations add something interesting to the design, highlighting specific sections and making it understood that it's being spoken.
- Feel it presents a really interesting way to experience the poem, adds a little sense of dynamic performance to it. 

Thought about bringing it into the text, have all text black and then when mouse hovers over it comes the two different colours?

- The application of this diminished the effectiveness of the text alterations, it a little too much for the eye to take in.
- Good idea but didn't work when applied. 

Looking at the typeface used:
Feel like IvyPresto Text Regular, what I've used thus far, is effective. But wanting to see the impact of other typefaces.

IvyPresto Text

- Soft serifs have a romantic connotation, feels like a love letter to someone.
- Has personality, the serifs make any visual alterations to text stand out more. 

Helvetica Neue

- Feel this looks very cold, rather distant. 
- Doesn't fit the intimate nature of the poem when used for the whole thing.

Basis Pro

- Again cold but also childish because of the rounded anatomy of this typeface.
- Sans serif typefaces don't communicate the same sense of affection that serif typefaces (especially those with soft serifs) do.

A Letter to the Apocalypse:

Poem by Rudy Francisco.

The pace is very slow at the start, leaves room for laughs. Then it picks up quickly and explodes, very passionate, very intense. Then slows down towards the end. 

- Serious tone

- Important message

- Bold, punchy middle
- Soft start and end (little bits of humour)

Initial Ideas:

Want to demonstrate the space and then the fast paced section in dramatically different ways:

A: Just using paragraphic alone and having no new paragraphs in the middle section to communicate the pace.

- Is very simple, isn't adding much but does communicate a large chunk of text.

B: Larger text and the big paragraph is justified to take up more room.

- Looks better with large text as when on the website it will take up the whole screen, very dominating and intense.

- Like the justified text, feels very simple however.

C: Justified the whole thing 

- Feel this presents a long list which I like, would have a good impact when on web.

- Again looks like a email, nothing concrete poetry about it yet.

D: Same as C but with leading reduced.

- This creates a really intense section of text but does look like a regular load of writing, would need to develop other elements as well or try a new idea. 

E: Fully justified, closer leading.

- The text becomes this big block, I like the way it look but think there could be more experimentation into the way it's laid out.

Think back to visual research at the start of blog, Thomas Clark's poem, separated into sections.

- Each of these sections of text is said in quick succession but are each bold statements on their own. How could you represent this? 

Dividing the text into sections, each sits in their own box.

- Could take up the whole screen, large, justified, powerful text.

- In this section the text can be read in any order, so the arrangement above allows the audience to have more control.

- Doesn't communicate as intensely as previous experiments, this could be changed with adding colour, could be an effect from the web design. 

- Could turn to this when mouse moves over this section.

- Something about this layout is overwhelming, scrolling through a wealth of negatives would feel very alarming. 

Really like the effect, feel it could be enhanced more with the type alterations and changes to the other elements but it's a good start. 

What to do next?

• Finalise 'A Letter to the Apocalypse' poem
• Add to web design
• Film final website working with examples
• Crit: Tomorrow morning, make any changes from that to poem designs.