Then, make sure you've read yesterday's post on the Life & Times.
OK? Good.
Having looked at the last itteration ("Symbol #4") in yesterday's post, Fingerstothebone suggested:
You can try closing the bottom so that the 2 pointy ends meet up, and then extending a downward gentle curve to reference, but not copy, the two curls at the top.
So when I did that -- and oh yeah, pared down the upper left "arm" of the figure -- it ended up looking like this (Symbol #5):
And that got me thinking that it might look lighter, and more alphabetic, if I made the upper-left arm and the bottom curl into two separate elements. When I did that, and flipped the whole thing on its vertical axis, it looked like so (Symbol #6):
Then I flipped it vertically (Symbol #7)...
And finally rotated that puppy twenty degrees to the left (Symbol #8).
Out of all of the options presented here and in earlier posts, are there any that particularly appeal to you? Please feel free to jump into this democracy-assisted design process!
15 comments:
Wow, that's a really amazing transformation. I like how much more animated and calligraphic the sign is than when you started. Definitely more of an animacule once you flipped it onto its "legs." Too much so? I'm not sure. I like it both before and after The Big Flip. I was going to suggest you make a pair of quilts, then I thought, hey, you could make one, but with hanging strips top and bottom--so you could orient it according to mood, occasion or prevailing winds, and the sign would start to signify.
I hate to date myself with allusions to classic rock, but the next-to-last version reminds me a little of Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull, and the last version reminds me a little of Ian Anderson about to tip over backwards with his exuberant fluteplaying. There, I said it.
Also, to my eye the little fishhook flourish wants to be just a bit fatter and more sure of itself.
The bottom 2 flipped over versions look so much more dynamic, like break dancers. Although I think the first flipped over version looks like a fetus. (I wasn't sure I was going to say that before, but what the heck.)
I was also thinking that I would make the little extra curl a bit fatter, but had decided to check myself...but since the Mrs. had set the precedence, I decided to chime in as well.
So it's all her fault.
i like #6... but I do think you're getting a little more into the alphabet now... not sure if that's what you wanted to be doing.
These are fun! I think that most shapes that look like they have meaning but don't are likely to be easily "read" as something else, what with the human's persistence in attempting to construct meaning. And, to my mind, that could be a big chunk of the fun of this project.
If it were my project, then, I'd be looking for something that made people really want to guess what it was "supposed" to be but the guesses were very diverse. I don't know if that's what you are looking for, of course, but I was just thinking that the fact that people keep seeing shapes and connections and references might be a good thing?
Following that line of thinking, I have the strongest sense of identification with #7, which reminded me first of the letter h (although your narrative may have prompted me to think this way) and then of Kokopelli. Once I got to the alphabet idea, though, #5 looks enormously like a caligraphic Y to me, and, because ideas are infectious, I then thought of Dr. Seuss's On Beyond Zebra letters (http://www.evertype.com/standards/csur/seuss.html). (There aren't any Seuss letters that look like yours; that's just a random connection.)
This is an interesting project to follow--I'm glad you're giving us these updates (and it's fun to see what everybody else thinks, too).
I hate to say but it looks a lot like the letter Y or the letter "h" to me. Probably more than you intend for a "non-signifying symbol"
The more I look at all of them, the harder it is to choose one. If this were a test and I had to go with my initial reaction, I'd say #5 is the correct answer.
It looks like you have quite a list of projects to work on. It's fun to watch your quilts as they progress and I'm looking forward to this season of the State of the Craft.
I like them all, but they all look like letters from an eastern language. They all have an Asian or mid-eastern feel to them. Beautiful, graceful, lovely. Don't know that I think of it as a symbol. If I do, I think it's a letter. If I don't, it looks like border art.
quilts on boingboing - check it out: http://www.boingboing.net/2008/09/06/genome-quilts.html
I have to agree it's getting a little letter-like, yeah? The last one looks like a happy little dancing h man, which I love...
Possibly not what you're going for, though.
The first one speaks to me. The fetus aspect never came to mind, but I'm a mother, so maybe it's a subtle message.
My two cents....
Ok, so I'm liking #6 and #7, almost wanting them to connect somehow . . . and yes, the hook needs to be "fatter and more confident." (says the aging plumpalicious blogger)
Good Afternoon! Happened to be blog-hopping and came across your work. I love watching the creative process and reading the input others offer. Quite stimulating. I'll be keeping track of the progress on this project. Thanks for sharing!
I think I like symbol # 4 the best, and I wonder what it would look like if the right leg were to come together not with the left leg, but with the left side of the spiral, and then perhaps curve back to the right. These new ones seem to have become a kokopelli font - simultaneously too letter-like and not letter-like enough. If you keep one of them, though, I hope you'll beef up the anemic little fishhook, because as it is I just don't understand it.
I am enjoying the evolution of this process.
I agree that 6,7 & 8 look like letters. I quite like the strength of #5 but not the little curl on the bottom.
I wonder how #8 would look if you flip the top spiral to the left, and again lose the little curl at the bottom or make it stronger.
Have fun with your creation!
I like number 8 and also the idea of putting the sleeve top and bottom to change the look according to moods.
very cool!
a lurker from MA
Dawn
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