Study Task 02

Symbol

Yesterday, Wednesday 14th October, we attended Yorkshire Sculpture Park to carry out first hand research to inform our practice in carrying out study task 02. Our second study task required us design and develop a range of symbols to act as a secondary/complimentary brand mark for park, considering shapes, angles, silhouettes and abstraction of representational forms. 

Yorkshire Sculpture Park, an "open-air gallery" located in West Bretton, Wakefield, is just one of 4 comprising galleries that make "The Yorkshire Sculpture Triangle." This triangle covers a 20 mile radius, in which The Hepworth Gallery (Wakefield), Leeds Art Gallery and The Henry Moore Institute are also located. 

Whilst at the Park, I used both photography and quick sketches as means of documenting potential representational sculptures that could be translated into an alternative visual language to communicate the identity of the park through symbol. The photographs and sketches are exhibited below. To view the images at larger scale in sequence, click the first image:

During my time at the sculpture park, I tried to not only take inspiration from the works featured across the location, but tried also to consider ideas that would capture the essence of the unusual gallery itself - how I could communicate its outdoor aspect as well as its sector of artistry? I attempted to take in all I could from my surroundings in hopes that it would supply me with an enhanced opportunity to produce a successful symbol that works both alone and as a secondary mark.

From here, I selected three ideas from those illustrated above that I felt had the most potential to function as the complimentary visual to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park type. Those which had depth, possibility to adapt and that had a relevant aesthetic that would be identifiable as sculptural in a sense.

I firstly explored the use of the iconic, signature shaping of one of Henry Moore's reclining figures. Once silhouetted, this provided me with an amount of space that enabled me to explore negative space without affecting the interpretation of the shape over-all. Once I had produced the silhouette shape in illustrator, I proceeded to add the Yorkshire Sculpture Park acronym: YSP. With the Gestalt Theories of Visual perception in mind, I adorned the silhouette with the acronym via negative space - ensuring the kerning was achieved primarily. This treatment has potential due to the fame of Henry Moore and his sculptural works, as his distinguishable works make the symbol easily identifiable to the park sector. The acronym YSP, sitting bottom-right in the shape, is visually suggested as a result of closure - the minds perceptual ability to fill in gaps within images in order to simplify them into a more easily understood visual. The kerning allows for each letter to be identified individually, important within an already complex setting of negative space. I delivered the acronym through futura for its sans-serif characteristic, ease of legibility and cohesion with the existing YSP visual language.

Below is the original silhouette before and after application of suggested type:

Next, I took to another idea - this time using what I have now found to be another of Henry Moore's works, "Upright Motives." Moore made 12 of these in the 1950's, however these three are regularly shown together. My initial idea after seeing them was each upright sculpture would "stand" for one letter of the Yorkshire Sculpture Park acronym: YSP. Similarly to before, I created silhouettes from the shapes of the works in illustrator, utilising the block shapes at the bottom of each upright - again exploiting negative space. I explored various settings of the letters in each block to identify the arrangement that would successfully use negative space to communicate the letters through  an abstract visual whilst maintaining a required level of legibility. 

This experimentation is evidenced below:

I believe the bottom-right treatment of the silhouettes is the most successful in communicating the YSP acronym across the three upright motives as they bear enough of the characters to still legibly identify due to their distinct character properties, yet little enough to evoke a sense of ambiguity and illustrate whole shapes. It is down to familiarity of these letters that the brain is able to identify them using the gestalt theory of closure. Still in-keeping with the Yorkshire Sculpture Park's existing typographic identity and for purposes of legibility, I have used futura to deliver the type. Although I favour this treatment over my first exploration, I question the success this resolution would have in terms of being a stand alone symbol as not all people may be able to easily identify the YSP as others.

Below is the treatment in question:

For my third and final symbol exploration, before selection and application of colour to the most successful, I wanted to carry out a more conceptually driven idea that focused on Yorkshire Sculpture Park as a location and "open-air" gallery context - rather than another sculpture-specific inspired result. Whilst at the park, I was intrigued by the interconnecting paths and routes that extended across the entire "gallery." It was these, in conjunction with YSP's inclusion within the Yorkshire Sculpture Triangle, that elicited the following design. 

Many of the dividing paths at the park to me suggested the letter "Y." This led me to consider shape and form, and how I could use these formal elements to suggest the letter. Upon initial exploration I discovered I could suggest the letter "Y" through three triangles. Not only did this produce an abstract, angular aesthetic appropriate to sculpture practice, but also enhanced the symbol through its direct link to YSP being a part of the Yorkshire Sculpture Triangle. This symbol uses negative space within a triangle to suggest a "Y," an in turn create a visual of three triangles - which due to proximity and similarity are perceptually grouped by the mind to communicate one whole symbol, understood through closure (gestalt theory). This is the only one of the three symbols I have extended and developed to rely solely on symbolic visual, which alongside its effectiveness in simplicity make for a potentially successful resolution. 

Below is the initial design produced:

Despite my being happy with the above design conceptually and contextually, I felt visually it was overall too sharp. I proceeded to make slight alterations to the symbol in rounding the harsh points to make a softer, more rounded design that better reflected the park as a gallery that exhibited a range of differentiating works within the subject of sculpture. I also began to think about colour application to the symbol, considering what colour(s) would be most appropriate in communicating YSP's identity (symbolically). After a short while of deliberation, I decided green would be the most relevant colour to visually deliver the symbol, due to its connotations to the outdoors - relevant in that Yorkshire Sculpture park is an "open-air" gallery. Green best reflects the settings in which the sculptures are seen and examined, set in large expanses of grass, trees and foliage. Green is also featured on the Yorkshire Rose and also the YSP web page. I believed the application would enhance the already conceptually-strong contexts of the symbol, and in doing so elevate its level of success.

See below for colour exploration and alterations:

Having tonally explored the colour green, I believe that a range of tones featured on the symbol may be the most appropriate design decision in order to reflect the diverse range of artists/sculptures/designers featured at Yorkshire Sculpture Park. 

Final resolution with accompanying type:

Overall, I believe the above final design treatment is the most successful, contextually appropriate and aesthetically relevant solution, symbolically. The design is conceptually informed, considered and simple. The visual works alone, and also when accompanying type - as seen above where the shape of the design itself acts as a visual pointer directing the gaze to the gallery name. It is because of this and reinforcing design decisions that I believe this symbol is successful.