This is a reel of recent video experiments on the visual qualities and activities of water. These are completely literal, non-conceptual investigations seeking to understand water’s variety of movements, yet they lead toward consideration of water’s many metaphorical meanings.

These studies were produced in conjunction with my thesis project in the graphic design MFA program at University of Illinois at Chicago.

Music by Two Headed Dog. Video by Studio Junglecat.

All footage shot by Matt Wizinsky / Studio Junglecat in various locations throughout Chicago, the Chicago Transit Authority, and from the Amtrak window passing through Gary, Indiana. Still photos provided by NASA, taxpaying citizens of the United States, and viewers like you.

WARNING: This video contains intense visual material. If you are sensitive to flashing, flickering, or fast-paced visual stimulus, you may want to look away.

Historic Specimens: Slimbach's Garamond (detail), 2011

Historic Specimens: From Garamond to Centaur (detail), poster, 2011

These type specimen posters serve to display the type faces Garamond and Centaur while simultaneously introducing key facets of their histories. Some stories are sharply focused on specific moments of the history of a face, such as the efforts by Adobe and Robert Slimbach to digitize classical type faces resulting in Adobe Garamond. Others take a broader view, such as the personal connections binding the stories of Garamond and Centaur. Through both approaches, these posters investigate the evolution of typography and type design as an unfolding continuum of cultural acts, both historical and individual.

Historic Specimens: From Garamond to Centaur, poster, 2011

Historic Specimens: From Garamond to Centaur (detail), poster, 2011

Historic Specimens: Slimbach's Garamond, poster, 2011

Historic Specimens: Object to Field in Garamond Berthold (detail), poster, 2011

Historic Specimens: Object to Field in Garamond Berthold (detail), poster, 2011

Behind the Type, book, 2011

Behind the Type: A Centaur, Two Doves, and Some Mysterious Frenchmen covers over 400 years to bring together the cultural and historical stories behind the creation of two typefaces: Garamond and Centaur. The first question is, “Who really cares about the history of typography?” The answer is that the design of typefaces, like all complicated and collaborative endeavors, is ripe with all the personal ambitions, achievements, failures, dramatic breakthroughs, romances, and betrayals so common to the human condition. Stories behind the type are often every bit as interesting as those smeared across the pages in tabloids and celebrity gossip rags. What they reveal is that typography and the evolution of type design is shaped both by the trajectory of history and the individual acts of unique personalities. Surprisingly, my research lead to a unifying character across these two disparate stories in the person of (spoiler alert!) Beatrice Warde, best known for her metaphor typography as a crystal goblet.

Behind the Type, book, 2011

Behind the Type, book, 2011

The book’s design furthers the story through the layering, distorting, revealing, hiding, or otherwise playing with elements of the written text. Over the course of the book’s three sections, the typography and colors continually shift while moments of narrative framing are met with graphic framing devices. The book aims to demonstrate that, unlike the crystal goblet metaphor, the content and form of a story are ultimately inseparable; the purpose is manifest in the material.

Behind the Type, book, 2011

Behind the Type, book, 2011

Behind the Type, book, 2011

Behind the Type, book, 2011

Behind the Type, book, 2011

Behind the Type, book, 2011

Behind the Type, book, 2011

Behind the Type, book, 2011

Behind the Type, book, 2011

Metaphor, Memory, and Story, book, 2011

Metaphor, Memory, and Story, book, 2011

Metaphor, Memory, and Story, book, 2011

“Every word, image, and action is laden with innumerable potential for meaning. To understand the world we inhabit—and ourselves—we translate our living experiences through both physical and cognitive acts of metaphor, memory, and narrative. This research investigates processes involved in the perception and understanding of visual communications; to discover what happens in those learning experiences at the intersection of image and language. The purpose is to identify the potential for evocative communication to convert visual information into meaningful
and memorable learning experiences.”

Researched, written, and designed in partial fulfillment of the Master of Fine Arts Degree in Graphic Design at the University of Illinois at Chicago, this book represents the completion of my thesis research. The ideas within were wrangled into this book over the course of about one year during studies in Chicago, Basel, Switzerland, and many points between. This research sets a theoretical framework for new practical possibilities between the realms of visual communications and studies in metaphor.

Metaphor, Memory, and Story is now available for purchase online. Click here to order.

Metaphor, Memory, and Story, book, 2011

Metaphor, Memory, and Story, book, 2011

Metaphor, Memory, and Story, book, 2011

Metaphor, Memory, and Story, book, 2011

Metaphor, Memory, and Story, book, 2011

Metaphor, Memory, and Story, book, 2011

Metaphor, Memory, and Story, book, 2011

Metaphor, Memory, and Story, book, 2011

Metaphor, Memory, and Story, book, 2011

Metaphor, Memory, and Story, book, 2011

Metaphor, Memory, and Story, book, 2011

Metaphor, Memory, and Story, book, 2011

Metaphor, Memory, and Story, book, 2011

Metaphor, Memory, and Story, book, 2011

JD Experiments: Brand New World with Jack and Coke, 2011

JD Experiments: Whiskey and Women, 2011

I always thought that Jack Daniels and I should collaborate in the design process, but the opportunity had not presented itself until now. In this series of investigations, the vernacular typography found on a bottle of Jack Daniels is employed—either directly or through a variety of image, texture, and other formal translations—to create compositions telling new or updated stories about the fine Tennessee whiskey.

JD Experiments: Barrel to Bottle to Glass, 2011

JD Experiments: Drop by Drop, 2011

JD Experiments: Smoke, 2011

JD Experiments: Sharing the Bottle, 2011

Chicago unDensity is an interactive tool for the dimensional visualization, manipulation, and exploration of several spatial boundaries in Chicago. By focusing on boundary definitions of the unbuilt environment (rather than the buildings, which get plenty enough attention), the project looks at the city-defined functions of open and shared public spaces; these boundaries are conceptual rather than physical, so they may not be visible on the actual terrain.

While this tool intends to provide new pragmatic possibilities— such as visualizing densities of conservation areas and historic districts or plotting a bike ride through an industrial zone—the true spirit of the project lies in its speculative potential. From citywide to neighborhood-specific vistas, the viewer can juxtapose, isolate, or spatially untangle boundary options, then manipulate both the view and the dimensional space of selected layers. This project is an invitation to manipulate and explore imaginary topographies based on real geographic data.

Chicago unDensity was built using Processing, an open source programming language and environment. All data was obtained from the City of Chicago Data Portal. I am still at work on a web-based version of this mapping tool; hopefully, that will be available soon!

Music by: NEU!

Chicago unDensity, interactive mapping tool, 2011

Chicago unDensity, interactive mapping tool, 2011

Chicago unDensity, interactive mapping tool, 2011

Chicago unDensity, interactive mapping tool, 2011

Chicago unDensity, interactive mapping tool, 2011

Ticker Type, clock application, 2011

Ticker Type is a typographic display clock for a screen-saver or similar peripheral application. Every second brings a new typographic composition spelling out the number of the second at that time. Each letter is placed almost entirely randomly, with just a few parameters to aid legibility.

With only a second to read the word, Ticker Type presents time as brief and fleeting. Meanwhile, the background color shifts gradually as a metaphor for the changing light of day. The multiple levels of visualization in this clock reflect the ephemeral nature of every moment: each second is entirely unique and may be gone before you even notice it (or can read the clock).

Click to see a video demonstration of Ticker Type on vimeo.

Ticker Type was built with Processing, an open source programming language and environment.

Ticker Type, clock application, 2011

Ticker Type, clock application, 2011

Ticker Type, clock application, 2011

Ticker Type, clock application, 2011

Ticker Type, clock application, 2011

Ticker Type, clock application, 2011

Spiro-Calligrapher Drawing XVI, 2011

Are you frustrated with the inevitable mess that results from running your broad-tipped calligraphy pens through the spirograph? Yes, me too! Well, my friend, your troubles are solved. Introducing the Spiro-Calligrapher.

The Spiro-Calligrapher is a drawing tool designed for experimentation with calligraphic and mechanical drawing methods. The objective of this digital drawing machine is to capture the essence of gestures in a manner which capitalizes on rapid, fluid movements that can result in infinite possibilities (see a few of them here). Mouse movements are followed and duplicated in multiple colors. Clicking and dragging the mouse results in the mechanical drawing mode, which traces previous and current drawing points. Don’t dawdle. If you stay put too long, the “ink” will accumulate and saturate your page.

Now, you can even make your own drawings with the Spiro-Calligrapher online tool (clicky clicky to try it yourself!). Of course, if you make something good, be sure to send a copy to share your work.

More drawings … the possibilities are endless!

Spiro-Calligrapher Drawing III, 2011

Spiro-Calligrapher Drawing XXI, 2011

Spiro-Calligrapher Drawing XLVI, 2011

Spiro-Calligrapher Drawing XLIV, 2011

Spiro-Calligrapher Drawing XXVII, 2011

This project was built using Processing.

Without metaphor, we would have precious little means to understand or discuss one of the most fundamental human experiences: the passage of time. In dreams, our typical experience of time—normalized by metaphorically slicing it up into measured pieces—is subverted by the subconscious, and we experience dream events free from typical temporal constraints.

This short film is an investigation into images and language that metaphorically translate time into a substance to be experienced in and through space. These spatial-verbal visualizations themselves are experiments in analog and digital techniques in manipulating video, still images, and text. The audio design binds together these disparate events while also further distinguishing their affective atmospheres to create a dreamy episodic journey experienced via language, image, motion, and sound.

Stills from the film:

still from TIME/OUT, digital film, 2011

still from TIME/OUT, digital film, 2011

still from TIME/OUT, digital film, 2011

still from TIME/OUT, digital film, 2011

still from TIME/OUT, digital film, 2011

still from TIME/OUT, digital film, 2011

still from TIME/OUT, digital film, 2011

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Matthew Wizinsky
MFA Graduate Student

University of Illinois at Chicago
AD 374 Motion Graphics, Fall 2011
Professor Jesse McLean
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