In the last week’s post I talked about making videos for the activities.
So how did it go?
Rather disastrously. Over this course, I have got used to hearing myself talk, particularly when doing the Studio & Entrepreneurship module, but video is still profoundly uncomfortable. I tried to do everything to make myself be comfortable: smart clothes, nice makeup, sitting on the floor, a script, a flexible arm for my phone for optimal angles etc but still I think this comes across as stiff and stilted:
I honestly understand why Susannah suggested I do one, but I think this will put people off more than it attracts them. I’m going to just put them to one side, and if I have to redo them ask a friend to help film and edit them.
Over the past weeks, I have tried to follow the advice given to me in the halfway feedback: to make videos to introduce my activities. This is great feedback, and I appreciate how much the videos presented throughout this course have enabled me to engage with the content and the activities. Some people don’t like reading, or like reading for extensive periods, and by making videos I have the chance to present myself and my project and give people a sense of me. By seeing my face and me taking about my project, it gives me a big opportunity to grab people and encourage them to be involved.
I want the videos to be really slick and for me to come across like I know what I’m talking about, so I wrote scripts. I know the activities, I know the context but sometimes I babble. I don’t want this babble to put people off or confuse people. I want my videos to be as clear as possible. This is what I want to say:
Video 1: Brief Introduction
[SF logo and introduction]
[Video of me]: Hi, my name is AnnaI live in E17 and I am studying for a Masters in Graphic Design. I want to ask the Walthamstow community, to ask you, about your views about the typography and lettering in the area.
[Slide saying typography]So what is typography?
Lettering, basically, is letters of our alphabet and how they are formed. Typography can also be called lettering, and I will use the term lettering from now on.
[Speech bubbles drawing conversation] Lettering is how communicate visually with each other and share information without speaking.
Lettering can be simple, or decorative and anywhere in between. [Simple and decorative]
Everyday we see hundreds of examples of lettering in the world around us. We see door numbers, road signs, advertisements, street art, timetables. If it has letters or numbers, it is lettering.
We don’t usually pay attention to this lettering unless we need to, but every piece forms a part of or community. It tells us a story of who we are and our history.
For example, walking down Walthamstow High Street, there are lots of shop signs in English, in Polish, in Bulgarian, in Tamil. This is because Walthamstow is one of the most multi-cultural boroughs in the country, and people coming to the area are welcomed to the community. The lettering we see on the high street is reflective who we are.
Lettering goes beyond this: it is not just the language, it how they are displayed. Are the letterings big and bold? Are they in bright colours? Do the letters have loops and flourishes? What are they made out of – metal, wood, vinyl?
[Video of me]In this project, I would like you to take notice of the lettering in Walthamstow, E17, and tell me what you think of it. You don’t need to be an artist, or a designer, or know anything about lettering – you only need to think about what the lettering in Walthamstow means to you. Maybe some lettering feels welcoming, and others imposing. Some lettering might brighten your day, and some might annoy you.
If you’ve lived in the area for some time, what are your memories of the place and what you got up to in your free time? I’d love to here your
I am creating some workshop activities that you can do in a Covid-safe manner and on your daily exercise walks. To find out more, click on the Workshops link at the top of the website.
Thank you, and I look forward to seeing what you create!
[End with links to Instagram and website]
Video 2: Treasure Hunt
[SF logo and introduction]
[Video of me]: Hi, my name is AnnaI live in E17 and I am studying for a Masters in Graphic Design. I want to ask the Walthamstow community, to ask you, about your views about the typography and lettering in the area.
This is a video explaining the Type Treasure Hunt workshop. I’ve made a video explaining about the project and you can see it on the Homepage of my website.
[Slide saying Type Treasure Hunt]
The Type Treasure Hunt is an activity of exploration and looking around you in E17! What I would like you to do is to take some time to look at your environment on your daily walk and spot examples of lettering. I have some prompts for you, so I would like you to find examples of lettering that fit that prompt.
You’ll need a camera or a camera on a phone and the worksheet that you can download below and take out with you.
Prompt Number one is “a handwritten piece of lettering”. Maybe you go out and see a notice in a newsagent, or on a chalk board. Take a photo on your camera and mark it as done. Then move onto the next one. You can do them in any order your please, and take photos in one go or many goes.
Some lettering that you see might fit more than one example. For example, this lettering is handwritten and in all capital letters. Take the photo for one prompt, say hand-written, and take another photo for CAPITAL Letters.
The first fifteen prompts ask you to look for lettering that has certain characteristics and the next five ask you to find lettering that makes you feel something. Walthamstow is said to be a very welcoming place, so is there a piece of lettering that makes you feel welcomed.
As an example, for me, this lettering makes me feel joyful because it is bright colours and makes me laugh.
I have a few tips for you! When taking your photo, try to go into the lettering as close as possible, like this, rather than far off. Look up at the sky and down at the ground to appreciate things you might not have paid attention to before. Also, don’t include people In your photos if at all possible!
When you’re done, please send me the photos! Rename them to the prompt they describe, like 03.jpg and send them to me by email at hello@stoweframework.co.uk or upload them to the website at stoweframework.co.uk/submit-treasurehunt
Thank you, and I look forward to seeing what you find!
[SF logo and introduction]
[Video of me]: Hi, my name is AnnaI live in E17 and I am studying for a Masters in Graphic Design. I want to ask the Walthamstow community, to ask you, about your views about the typography and lettering in the area.
This is a video explaining the Letter Drawing workshop. I’ve made a video explaining about the project and you can see it on the Homepage of my website.
[Slide saying Letter Drawing]
The Type Treasure Hunt is a creative activity of exploration and looking around you in E17! What I would like you to do is to take some time to look at your environment on your daily walk and spot examples of lettering. I have some prompts for you, so I would like you to find examples of lettering that fit that prompt.
As I said in my introduction video, Lettering can be very simple, or very decorative. [Simple and decorative]
Lettering can be very ornate and include drawings of people, plants and objects inside or around them. You often see illuminated letters in religious texts, for example (Bible and Koran)
Illuminated letters aren’t only used in religious texts. William Morris, who grew up in Walthamstow, used illuminated letters in his books by his publishing press and the often included floral and leaf motifs.
Louis John Pouchay lived in London and also decorated letters with things that were important to him, like fruit and agricultural motifs.
These all look old-fashioned, so what would they look like if we decorated letters now? What I would like you to do is to decorate a letter with images of Walthamstow that are special to you. You can pick any letter of the alphabet and download a template below. Here is a letter that I drew earlier, in classic Blue Petter style.
For this letter, I am going to add some patterns from Walthamstow. We have lots of sawtooth roofs In the industrial parks and the pattern is repeated in the new housing developments too. In the shadow of the letter I have included famous William Morris patterns.
Here there is the Walthamstow tube sign, and the town hall clock surrounded by hearts. I’ve drawn a picture of the Saturday market. On the left I have birds and fish from the nearby Wetlands and a beautiful sunset that we’re lucky to have so many of. At the top I’ve drawn a rainbow because I’ve seen on my daily walks to thank essential workers for this year.
This letter has the sights of Walthamstow to show you all the types of things you can include, and feel free to draw what ever this area means to you!
I’ve started to colour it in a bit, with bright colours! I’m not much of a sketcher, I’ll be honest, so I’ve used pictures that I’ve drawn on my computer! You can draw in your letter, paint, collage, or a combination.
When you’re done, please send me your letter! Scan it in or take a photo and send them to me by email at hello@stoweframework.co.uk.
Thank you, and I look forward to seeing what you find!
I think this is all rather neat and well put. Next week I’ll show you what I’ve got!
And at the end of January, Week 13 begins! I wasn’t idle with the course and used the time to do research and have an experiment. In all:
This week we had a webinar, and here is my presentation for it:
There are some links that people recommended to me:
Stuart put me onto a Studio that used to be in Walthamstow and thought they might have an interesting perspective. I haven’t heard back yet!
Daire’s interviews for his final output where listed as a good resource for me to look at.
Alice suggested I get on TikTok, which pains me, but I know is good to do.
Previous post/Next post. Walthamstow has a lot of industrial spaces that have roofs like this:
The sawtooth roof, with its glass panels facing away from the equator on the steeper side, blocks the light and heat of direct sun exposure and provides uniform, natural light over a large area. It was particularly useful in design factories and manufacturing buildings and can be seen in designs as early as the 1830’s (thanks Wikipedia).
The name reminds me of the angles used in half-tone printing The smoothness of the edges of the box changes as its angle relative to the halftone screen angle changes. The ragged appearance of edge of the last box is referred to as “sawtoothing”.
And I like the idea of incorporating the design into my final outcome. I’ll use the shape and position text around it:
I like both examples. One uses the outside of the shape and highlights the outline and feels lighter, whilst the right one forms the shape itself and feels blocky. I’m not sure which one feels appropriate yet, but I will experiment with this further.
My project will have people getting involved, and so to promote the project I have an Instagram account. I’ve had it set up for a while, to nab the hashtag before anyone else, but haven’t posted because it felt too soon. Now, I have an idea where my project is going and I have spoken to local people about it, and thus it is time to establish myself. I might not be calling for volunteers yet, but a base of a couple of months and posts will instil a sense of trust from the community and maybe potential funders. It’ll be a way to promote to people and the design industry outside the area too.
Currently, my social media strategy has three types of post:
The language of us and our is intended to warm and draw people in. The three types of post give me a theme and structure rather than an random mix of posts and has given me interesting opportunities.
Social media tires me out when I do it constantly, so I am using later.com to set up the automatic posting for a few weeks. I can create posts in a bulk when I feel like it and then have them post, so I don’t have to be constantly thinking of new things, and I think it creates a sense of consistency in tone of voice and posting schedule too.
Going back to the interesting opportunities, when I’ve started writing posts under each of the three headings I’ve been able to link to a practitioner or part of the community to really champion them. For instance, I’ve included my recent letterpress workshop and included the studio, Paekakariki Press, a letter in a London Plane tree which was annotated my Rachel Summers in her tree chalk facts project. It’s grown in a few hours to be much more than here’s a pretty picture of typography in Walthamstow.
Excitingly, by using the right hashtags, the local archive Vestry House Museum featured me in their stories without me asking for it, so I hopefully will get more traffic from their followers. Building a solid base will give me more engagement in the community.
Of course, social media will only reach a certain portion of the community, and I need to look outside it, but I feel it’s a good start to promoting Stowe Framework. Maybe this week will be Marketing Week for me!
A short one this week!
Anna Robinette 