Memeing

As stated in the readings, memes are aspects of culture/pieces on information/ideas etc. passed from one person to the next. Without the writing, most memes would just be photos of random things that don’t have any real meaning and don’t really pass information on to the next person. The writing in memes is generally very compact but is explicit in their messages. This is why, as mentioned by Duong, memes can easily become propaganda, as they are accessible to wide audiences and the true meaning sneaks up on you. As mentioned by Huntington, “subversive communication responds to dominant communication structures in unexpected ways,” meaning our current culture responds to the dominant structures fixed in place by using memes to subvert reigning ideologies. Without the writing aspect of memes, this would be lost, as they appropriate and transform cultural texts according to Huntington. 

Visual rhetoric is also a key factor in meme making, considering memes are visual texts that construct meaning through both their words and visuals. As said in the article by Duong, if one merely sees the meme, the work is done. This is because the visual nature of memes makes it to where viewers are impacted upon first sight. Huntington talks about how rhetoric relies on devices like metaphors, and he discusses the way in which iconic images can become a type of metaphor themselves, meaning the images themselves, once they’ve become instantly recognizable, become metaphors, and consequently rhetorical by themselves. This means both the text and visuals of memes function as rhetorical devices, which helps explain why they are so popular in spreading beliefs and information, as well as uniting certain groups of people.

In my opinion, memes unite people, bring solidarity and comfort, sometimes spread information (or misinformation), and in general, they just reflect both the dominant culture and subculture, as there are memes for every possible type of person out there. They are definitely far more complicated than just a photo with text overlaying it. Without a doubt, they reflect culture and are often used as propaganda. 

What meme subculture are you in? Favorite types of memes?

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Shoot the Serif

By Maggie Thornton

I played the game ‘I shot the serif,’ which focused on being able to identify whether a letter was a serif or sans-serif font. The game had me “shoot” the serif font, and as I continued up through the levels, I had less and less time to complete the game. As the game progressed and  the time you had decreased, I did worse and worse. However, it did help me see the different styles serifs could come in. I felt like this game wasn’t super helpful in developing your design skills because you are literally just identifying the serif font and while the time decreased, the game did not progress in its content. I think it taught me a better understanding of what a serif font looks like and being able to quickly identify it but that was it. 

I think they definitely could have a place in the classroom since they are more engaging than reading a 20 page article or so but I don’t know if I think they are totally necessary. I might feel different if I had played a different game but with this one, it was like okay serif fonts have the feetsies and that was pretty much the only conclusion I left with. However, I did briefly play some of the other games like “Can’t Unsee,” and I could see how that one would be more beneficial since it has more content than just serif vs sans-serif.  

Tactical Type

By Maggie Thornton

I found this reading to be extremely interesting and it pointed out things about design and typeface I would have never considered. For example, the section earlier on about white space and the way that it is a conscious decision to value aesthetic over environmental responsibility was very interesting and I would have never even thought about that but it does waste paper and it is a cultural value marker. Also when he talks about how describing typefaces in certain ways like “manly” is not easily separated from broader cultural values of “chauvinism and heterosexual-partriarchy (like with typeface nuclear families). I have never considered what type face means so heavily but I understand what he means when he says “the character of typeface is culture.” (42)

When he discusses tactical type, he means that the use of “bad type” may be a conscious, rhetorical decision to convey a deeper meaning. He used the example of Derrick Rose wearing his “I can’t breathe” T-Shirt on court that used a comic sans font. He said the use of that typeface and the backlash it received signified Eric Garner’s utter helplessness, and he mentioned Ben Denzer’s reflection that this forced a confrontation of the way society dismisses the real issues (54). He says the purposeful uses of these “bad typefaces” are manipulations of language intended to “seduce, captivate, or invert the linguistic position of the addressee.” (53) He is not saying there is no such thing as bad uses of typeface, however, he is asking that people see type choices as potentially purposeful and he asks we recognize there is no “neutral” or “professional” type without defining who would constitute those audiences. He says these decisions could be made to make a business seem more friendly or with his opening example of the M.D. Global website, he said though at first it seemed ridiculous, upon reflection he thinks it could be an attempt “to balance the somber formality of grief with the optimistic potential for one’s life to make a positive difference.” (55)

I don’t know how much this fits my approach, as usually if I am trying to make some type of rhetorical appeal I will do so with the words themselves, but I do think it is an interesting way to view it. I will now be more intentional in deconstructing things when I see an unconventionally acceptable typeface used for something. I do see how this would be useful and could import an extra special meaning in something, so I am going to fully consider the use of this type of rhetorical appeal in future designs.

Did you find yourself taking the article less seriously at first when you saw the comic sans font? I had to deconstruct that because at first glance, the typeface made me skeptical as to how academic this article might be.

An apathy toward Times New Romans

By Maggie Thornton

I have never actually thought how I feel about Times New Roman. Really, I associate it with trauma because I have spent many late nights staring at pages and pages of that font. I think it’s easy and convenient so in that way I guess it’s fine, and most of the writing I do is academic writing so I am never really too concerned with the way the font looks, but I kind of understand what the writer was saying when he said it’s like gazing into the void. I think there is something nice about regularity and knowing what to expect, but I also think that it is boring, and I imagine it probably doesn’t look great off screen so I understand what he is saying (also about it being overexposed). I could see how TNR in an advertisement could connate apathy, but I personally would not think that if I saw it in a book or document. Personally, the only things I really rejoice in involve food or coffee, so no, I don’t rejoice in the use or the lack of serifs. The main thing I personally look at is whether something is readable or not so to TNR or not to TNR does not matter much to me.

I used Book Antiqua for my mini analysis and proposal. Book Antiqua is a regular roman typeface that was made as an alternative to Palatino, and it is based on pen-drawn letters of the Italian Renaissance. I liked this font because it is very neat and clean due to the medium sized letter width and more rounded letters. I think it’s very readable, and I think it has more personality than Times New Roman, while also looking prettier.

Do you think it’s appropriate to use fonts with more distinct style in academic writing? Why or why not?

Copying, Stealing, and Learning: Nothing comes from nowhere

By Maggie Thornton

The authors make it clear that good stealing is when you internalize your heroes way of looking at the world and use their work to stimulate your own creativity. This is when the stealing is productive and conducive to a new authentic work. In order to find your own creative flow in whatever discipline, you have to study others who are successful in those areas and reverse-engineer that work into something new, but not original. Bad stealing, however, is when it is not many other works you consult, but instead maybe one or a few. The authors say this is when you imitate or rip off, rather than transforming and remixing the work into something made by you. Bad stealing is when you try to pass off someone else’s work as your own, while good stealing is when you take the structural foundation and create a new work.

I think some signs of crossing the sign is when the work is a watered down version of something else, or when you take someone’s intellectual property and claim it as your own. Crossing the line is when the work is inauthentic and not really made by you. When you are far away from crossing the line is when you consult many works and use them to activate your creative thinking and draw influence from them. Crossing the line is when you consult a work or two a little too in-depth, and your work ends up looking like a Walmart version.

I think good stealing is clearer and easier in design, since there are templates or established things like alignment, contrast, etc. While there are established things like literary techniques, etc., it feels like it’s easier to become inauthentic with your voice when writing a story than with design.

I think it’s easier to steal well. It becomes natural if you are passionate about something. The more of a taste for something you acquire, and the more you throw yourself into that, whether it be reading all of the Romantic era novels you can find or finding a design style you really like and looking through lots of Pinterest boards, you start to emulate things when you are immersed in them. I think it’s harder to steal in a bad way because you often have to make the conscious decision to copy and paste or look at something and copy the design, so it’s much less natural.

I think bad stealing is probably more acceptable or easier to get away with in design, but good stealing is probably more accepted in design. I think it’s harder to find an author’s voice and try to let it inspire you and draw from it without it becoming inauthentic. I also think it’s less regulated than writing, as far as services to check for similar phrasing, etc. I think if you put your mind to it and are passionate, you can steal well from either, but in general I see it being easier to steal a template style or way of contrasting or alignment choices than it is tone, diction, style, etc.

Chaotic Poster but Fun to Make

By: Maggie Thornton

I love and live in chaos so this assignment was really fun for me. The problems with my poster are definitely more perceptual than cultural. This entire thing is honestly a sinful atrocity but the design sins I focused on were No. 1 Centering Everything, No. 3 Too Many Fonts, and No. 9 Busy Backgrounds. I think centering everything and center aligning it makes it really unpleasant and as the book says a “visual yawn.” Left-aligned layouts give the viewer an easy path to follow but this center alignment doesn’t allow for an entry line so it’s hard to know where to focus. I used a different font and color for each layer of information, which A. leaves the design principle of repetition behind and B. (as the book says) it gives a visual overload and looks cluttered. The varying colors on top of the background also make it very unreadable because it lacks proper contrast, which gets into the next sin also which is the distracting background. The cluttered positive space that the photo behind the text makes interferes with the readability of the text, making it impossible to even understand what the flier is for or what anything says. If there was a sin I think might become more acceptable it might be No. 9 the busy background because I’ve seen some recent posters with busy backgrounds but the way they overlaid the text and the color and border around it somehow made it work and it still was very readable and looked good.

Discussion Question: Do you think there’s a good way to break the rules that can be considered modern or cutting-edge? Do you have examples maybe?

Adventures in Evangelicalism

For my memoir cover, I used pages to create it and a photo that a photographer friend of mine took a little while back. Obviously I think the photo is the focal point just because it is so bright and since it’s a memoir about me, I think that would be appropriate. I used the color picker to pick from the photo for the pink text because I thought it would help create unity with the visual elements. I put the lighter color text on the darker background for contrast so the words would stand out and each layer of text is smaller than the above to create a hierarchy of information with the title being most important and then the byline and authorship. This also I think helps the reader’s eye movement so it sees the title and what the book is about and then it falls down to the picture so they know who I am. I chose a different color for the byline to make it really obvious that that’s what it is. I chose left alignment because I thought that looked the least awkward and since in the photo it’s busiest on the right side, I put the text to the left also to help create some balance with there being negative space. I wanted to make sure there was still some negative space so it didn’t look overwhelming with the photo being pretty colorful. I am a pretty spunky person and I think the title kind of insinuates that so I wanted the color scheme to reflect that.

If you also used pages did you find it easy to use or frustrating? Did you just watch the videos posted on blackboard or did you find another useful video? If you didn’t use pages, what did you use and what did you like or dislike about it?

The necessity of structure for design and writing by Maggie Thornton

“The key ideas are “plan” and “organize” for the purpose of “communication.” “In graphic design, you organize all your elements from copy (text) to visuals (pictures) in a logical and effective order.” (Hagan and Golombisky 6)

Just as the author explains that graphic designs must be well organized to communicate the desired message, writing also has to have structure and a good flow in order for it to be coherent and effective. Whether it’s a document for practical purposes or a news article or just a chapter in a book, if the information is not structured in a way that is logical, it won’t make sense and whatever the goal of the writing was will not be accomplished. Especially with news writing or writing on the internet in general, there has to be a hierarchical structure where the most pertinent information is at the top because that is often all readers have the attention span for, so if there is a message you want communicated with readers, there has to be a logical structure. I have done some news writing for the Herald and with this type of writing there has to be a plan for what you want communicated and then you have to organize the writing in a way that gets the message across. Also, just with writing essays for classes, I come up with a plan for the order and flow of the essay and then follow that in order to best communicate what I am trying to say. Without a plan, writing often just becomes the ramblings of a madman. 

I don’t think it was necessarily just computers themselves that democratized graphic design but I think the introduction of easy-to-use software programs (for example Canva) was really what allowed everyone to become a graphic designer for whatever their purpose may be. Just as iPhones democratized photography, as now you can have high quality photos with the simple click on your phone, computers have allowed anyone who owns one to access software programs that allow them to create designs easily. While everyone may not know the rules, that can also easily be solved with a quick google search. I think to an extent it’s true with writing. Anyone can be a journalist now if they just post their work online, or now we have instagram poets or fan-fiction websites where writers often publish their work. The computer has allowed anyone who wants to publish their writing to do so easily with WordPress or any of the other numerous website making services. However, if we’re talking about actual novels, those are still more popular printed and the most successful books are still published on print so in that way the computer did not make that medium THAT much more accessible. 

My question is do you see writers having to keep up with writing style trends to stay relevant just as the book mentioned designers having to keep up with design trends changing pretty rapidly? Why or why not, and if so, what type of writing do you see this most? 

My cat Rosie