OUGD404 STUDIO BRIEF 2 - STUDY TASK 3

For this study task we were given the poem "A Mouse's Tale" by Lewis Carroll, and had to design a page in a book with the poem on in a modernist style and also in a post modernist style. We were split into groups of 4 to do this in, and given an hour and a half to complete the task, without using books or the internet to help us.

Original layout of the second verse:

`Fury said to a mouse,
That he met in the house,
"Let us both go to law: I will prosecute YOU.
--Come, I'll take no denial; 
We must have a trial:
For really this morning I've nothing to do."
Said the mouse to the cur, 
"Such a trial, dear Sir,
With no jury or judge, would be wasting our breath."
"I'll be judge, I'll be jury,"
Said cunning old Fury:
"I'll try the whole cause, and condemn you to death."'

This is what me and my group created:

Modernist page layout. For this layout we chose the typeface Helvetica for all of the text, as this is a well known modernist typeface, designed for being minimal and neutral. Modernist design is all about grid systems and clean lines, everything in the right order and it's own place. To follow this we placed the title and author in the top left corer, flush left, as this is the first thing that the eye goes to. The text we also made flush left, but placed on the right hand side of the page in one column. We also decided to group all the text in the second verse together to create a more appealing block of text, rather than one with a ragged right edge. This we felt would be the more modernist method, form over function, as the way normal text would be wrote, it wouldn't be wrote in the way that the original poem is wrote in, with lines finishing short randomly, without the sentence finishing. However later we realised that if it was form over function in the poem way, the function of the poem is to be read the way a poem is read, in the original layout, and by putting it all together this is resulting in the poem not being read in the way it was intended, and also form is over function, because the look of the text on the page is taking president over the way the poem is supposed to be read, as a poem, rather than a block of text. For the heading we used Helvetica Bold, as the heading is supposed to stand out the most. We also made the heading the largest point size on the page, so that it is obvious it's the heading. For the authors name we used Helvetica light at a slightly smaller point size than the title, but not as small as the body text. This is so that it doesn't appear to be the heading, as it is directly below it, also so that it stands out as being an important aspect of the page, separate to the body text as well. For the body text we used Helvetica regular, as we felt this was the middle ground for the page, not too bold and not too vague, but still readable as well. This was a smaller point size than the authors name as well, so that it appears less prominent than it.

Post Modernist page layout. For this layout we wanted to create something that was the complete opposite of the modernist page layout. We decided to produce the title in a serif typeface, to make it look more traditional and old fashioned. We also made the heading and authors name on a wavy line, one that was supposed to represent a mouses tail, however due to the lack of time we didn't quite get round to perfecting this. We used the typeface Helvetica for most of the body text, and the same format as in the modernist layout, purely because we didn't get round to changing it into a more post modernist style, and definitely using a different typeface, perhaps courier, or a typewriter style typeface anyway. For some of the more powerful words, such as death, fury, long and puzzled we changed the font of these words to better suit the meaning of the words themselves. For example for death and fury we used a bolder, sans serif typeface that appeared quite aggressive, and increased the point size of the words as well to make them stand out. We made the point sizes different for all of the highlighted words however so that the page didn't appear too organised and planned. For long we increased the tracking on that word to make the letter spaced further apart, to make the word longer, reflecting the meaning of the word. For puzzled we used a symbols typeface that replaced letters with symbols, as this makes the word look confusing, and would make people puzzled, again the meaning of the word. 

After we produced our own page layouts in the two styles, our tutor showed us the original design of the poem within the book Alice in Wonderland, which is shown below.

The whole poem is in the shape of a mouses tail, reflecting the content of the poem itself. For some of our post modernist ideas we were heading along the same lines as the original design, without us having any prior knowledge of the layout of the poem.

This has been a very interesting and productive exercise, where we have had to apply our knowledge of modernist and post modernist design to a poem which has nothing to do with either of these styles. We also had to work as a team with people we may not of chosen to work with, and all cooperate and take on different roles within the group, all striving for the same goal, and communicating effectively.