EGNM6002|Ashvin Goolab

// Final MajorProject

// Final Major Project:Research

// Final Major Project:Proposal

EGNM6001|Ashvin GoolabEGNM6001|Ashvin Goolab

I wanted to look into the subject of language for the final major project. Reason being as i think it’s important to consider what language is when it comes to our growing technologies and how it’s changing and transforming. The internet has become the biggest technology to us as it’s always available and always containing language. The ageing of social networking are beginning to develop languages of their own. Twitter, facebook and other social network all have online languages.

I first wanted to look into the origins of lnanguage. I listened to the BBC Radio 4 archive talk on the the alphabet where they go all the way back to the origins and the first discoveries of the alphabet.

Title of Project

The Growth of Online Language

Field Of StudyThe project will be centered around the subject of language. Without language we would not be able to communicate to one another the way we do on a normal everyday basis. Language itself is such a broad area to cover so looking into one particular type or form of language will be done. The type of language that will be looked at will have to be interesting enough and be informative as well.

Design Question/ Problem/ PropositionTo look at one particular aspect of language and present it in a way that’s informative and shows a clear understanding of it’s importance to us.

ContextLanguage as whole is used in many different forms in society. An adult aged 30-40 can speak and use language differently to a young adult around 20-30. It is interesting to see why language is used in many different ways. Yes, culturally language is used in forms of cultures, but even languages from different countries have their own interpretation and understanding of pronouncing and/or spelling a sentence or a word. Babylonian cuneiform and Egyptian heiroglyphs were the first origins of language presented in pictorial representations. The way they were drawn and shown was their own interpretation and understanding. Eric Spiekermann from the video Putting back the face into typeface quotes ‘we are developing separate languages [...] there is a twitter language, there is an internet language’ (Spiekermann, 2011). With this being said, are we developing new languages all the time? Is language beginning to become versions of slang?

Rationale

Language in graphic design new media plays a big part in the subject because weather it be visual or verbal, a communicative process is made to get something across. I also think it’s important to look at language and how it’s changing in our world of ever growing technology.

Methods

• Through researching language as a whole and seeing where it has come too• Research existing projects that may have been done on the topic• Surveys• Interviews• Representing something informative

Skills Evidence

• Planning and development• Researching and evaluating• Appropriate software skills

Predicted Resolutions

• An interactive piece• A printed publication

// Final Major Project:Research & Development

EGNM6001|Ashvin Goolab

Slang

When formulating my research findings, I narrowed the language I was looking in to which was slang. The language itself is used in many ways. A young person could use it differently to an adult in terms of communicating it through speech or digitally such as texts and online messages. Internet slang, particularly on social networking sites is used very often. How one word spelt originally on paper can be spelt totally different online. If we take the word donut, in normal terms it refers to food but in slang terms it could mean someone is silly or clumsy. I found this quite interesting to look in to as

As I also wanted my outcome to be Informative, producing a book in the structure of a dictionary to collectively gather slang words from every letter of the alphabet was an initial idea.

Source- http://esedesign.co.uk/BEAST-celebration-of-scouse-slang-typography

I Began looking at examples of how I could layout the publication. I came across this piece by grapic designer Emily Salinas who produced this mini publication based on scouse dialects and slang from Liverpool. This influenced my to come up with my own way of structuring my publication. I also began looking at dictionary layouts, seeing as I wanted to lay out the publication in a dictionary format.

// Final Major Project:Research

EGNM6001|Ashvin Goolab

In the book I was researching from (type and typography) there was a section called spoken language in which it discussed how we say certain words. As I want my outcome to involve typography, spoken language is what typography notates by explaining how our physiological make-up enables us to communicate through the two principles of speech and writing. The different ways in which we read and write, speak and hear all determine by the nature of the two systems.

The Speech system is called phonetics which is a branch of linguistics that can be divided into three principles. Articulatory phonetics which is the way we create sound, acoustic phonetics, the physical properties of sound and auditory phonetics which is our perception of sound. Phonemes have mo meaning in them, however they are combined to represent an object or a set of ideas. When we take a simple word like c/a/k/e each letter has no meaning but collectively they present a unit of speech. Speech presents language as a continuum all in one go, it is our brain that separates the words in to individual words.

Spoken Language

// Final Major Project:Final Outcome

EGNM6001|Ashvin Goolab

This is my final outcome I produced. The idea is based on the language of slang both from online and normal. The book size is in a5 as I felt this size was best suited for the amount of information put I had to put in it. The title is called ‘the dictionary of modern day slang (which most Britons never use)’. I wanted to add some humour to the piece as I wanted the viewer to enjoy what they are reading. The typefaces I used for this were liberatioin sans, lane- upper and poly. I found that these three fonts worked well togetherin making the texted readable and clear as possible. The book contains the most common used slang words that we say and write for each letter of the alphabet. The introduction page

expresses how language has changed since the first discovery and how language is constantly being reproduced by using shortened terms to write and say a word. The book is a collection and celebration of slang, I want it to make readers aware of the changes slang has made.

The Publication

// Final Major Project: Development

EGNM6001|Ashvin Goolab

These are three different refinements I done while experimenting with layout and type. For this one I wanted to use a typeface that would reflect the slang look so I chose a typeeface called levibrush. At first it worked when the entire publication was coming together, then after given feedback from peers I decided that it would be better for me to stick to a more formal typeface as it’s similar of a dictionary layout.

When refining again I looked more closely at the typefaces that were used for the text definitions. When given feedback on this refinement I was told everything looked default so I experimented with sentence sizing and how many words should go into each line. I also changed the typeface of the title to a more formal one called poly.

This is my final refinement, I’ve added a title heading which is the name of the publication. I’ve also added touches to sentence such as replacing the dash character with a bullet character as makes the page overall look professional. I’ve used the typeface liberation sans for the main chunk of the text as it worked best for me when I was experimenting with other fonts such as aller and brawler.

// Final Major Project: Bibliography

EGNM6001|Ashvin Goolab

Sources which inspired my final piece• Baines & Phil. (2005) Type and Typography, London, Laurence King

• Lupton, E. (2010) Thinking with Type, New York, Princeton Architectual Press

• Erik Spiekermann - Putting Back the Face into Typeface :http://vimeo.com/gestalten/erik-spiekermann

• BBC Readio 4, In Our Time- The Alphabet :http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0054950

• LONDON - Live the Slanguage : http://vimeo.com/46356407

• Steven Pinker: What our language habits reveal : http://www.ted.com/talks/steven_pinker_on_language_and_thought.html

• BEAST (celebration of scouse slang + typography) : http://esedesign.co.uk/BEAST-celebration-of-scouse-slang-typography

• Sam Gibbs- Australian Slang Dictionary (That very few Australians use) : http://samgibbsdesign.com/Australian-Slang-Dictionary