Unit 1 – Kismat's blog

Draft 1

Blender favours an output made in three dimensions. It provides the tools to reproduce one’s extensive imaginations and capture it in spatial reality. Objects exist in a three-dimensional continuum dictated by positions and directions. Anything can be modelled in physical space and into reality.

To use the tools of Blender appropriately requires a knowledge of mathematical space in which three values (x, y, z) is required to establish the positions of points which make up an object. This realises the object in three dimensions giving it shape and its width, height, and breadth.

Draft 2

I found Raymond Queneau’s seminal work, Exercises in Style, quite fitting as a lens to view this project (1947). Queneau’s experimental collection of 99 retellings of the same story but in different methods whether it be a sonnet or a haiku exemplifies the project brief’s objective of iteration. Therefore, I wanted to present my written response visually in different dimensional planes, x, y, and z. Each plane introduces a new further enquiry into Blender as a tool.

X = The rules and tools of thinking

Y = How to follow the rules

Z = How to break the rules

Draft 3

Text: Blender favours an output made in three dimensions. Objects exist in a three-dimensional continuum dictated by positions and directions. It provides the tools to reproduce one’s extensive imaginations and capture it in spatial reality. Within the context of graphic communication design, Blender has allowed practitioners to incorporate 3D modelling within their designs. This is reflected in recent trends of 3D elements including both illustrative and textual being utilised within graphic design. From low-poly avatars to molten chrome custom typography, there has been a definitive uptick in the use of 3D modelling software within graphic communication design in recent years.

With print and digital media design traditionally taking a two-dimensional flat form, grappling the rules of three-dimensional design provides a novel challenge to graphic designers. No longer are designers creatively bound to a 2D printed poster for example. This poster now takes the form of a digital flyer complete with motion and 3D graphics. To use the tools of Blender appropriately however requires a knowledge of mathematical space in which three values (x, y, z) is required to establish the positions of points which make up an object. This realises the object in three dimensions giving it shape and its width, height, and breadth. Therefore, much consideration is required to understand how a design is being communicated and received by the audience in all angles. If it is the case of communicating realism, a designer must reconcile the capabilities and limitations of Blender and their own ability with the capturing of true proportion, texture, and physics of the object being replicated.

However, as much as Blender allows the world to be truthfully simulated it also allows any other fantastical imagined world to be realised. A balloon with the texture of animal fur or a feather with the weight and physics of a car. To hijack the rules of Blender requires breaking the rules of reality. Whether it be altering its appearance, the physics of an object, or changing the dimensions, subverting the intended use of Blender means simulating an alternative reality. Accordingly, many graphic designers are subverting the use of Blender to not produce the high-fidelity realism the tool is capable of but simulating the glitched-out low-poly alternative realities in which their childhood may have lived in. With a recent cultural shift in reminiscing a nineties/noughties nostalgia across all media, trends in graphic design have identified Blender as an effective tool for visually communicating a gamified hijacked reality. A reality which renders all the imperfections across all dimensional planes.

References

Queneau, R. and Wright, B. (2009) Exercises in style. Richmond: Oneworld Classics.

For this project brief we were tasked with choosing a tool or technique that we were not entirely familiar with before. I was debating choosing something digital or analogue. With the brief requiring multiple iterations over the following weeks, I needed an easily accessible tool simply for the logistics of the project but also something that was not overly technical.

Identifying a tool

After much thinking, I decided on Blender as my tool for this project. I had used the software before very briefly so I felt less apprehensive using it but as it is still new to me it presented a useful opportunity to learn a new set of skills within 3D design and modelling. Another reason for my decision is that I find the recent trend of 3D techniques being used in graphic design particularly interesting. I love the 2000s nostalgia being depicted in low-poly designs from artists such as