graffik

=graphic design±research

janhenning.raff@gmail.com
@j__________r___ <— instagram
prof. for visual communication~~hmkw.de
¬ Berlin, Germany

Dear reader~viewer, currently, I am doing basic research about spatial arrangements (layout, compositions) for graphic design. I am experimenting with the automation of this task using the computer. I am also checking out machine learning techniques. Here is one recent result:

Müller-Rockmann: Grid Rhythms, explained.
Müller-Rockmann: Grid Rhythms 2x3, based on data from a “trained” machine.

Müller-Rockmann: Grid Rhythms is a tool to generate layouts as/with rhythms. This is also a playful way to obtain data to train an artificial neural networks (it is a pattern in data finder) that would re-generate new, preferred layouts.


Layout of three elements depending on just one coordinate. Try it out, it follows your mouse’s/finger’s position.

This simple example clearly shows that layout is about relations. Shouldn’t our design tools take this into account? Think of a layout tool like this:


Since long, artists and designers are preoccupied with the expressiveness of compositions. In Point and Line to Plane (Kandinsky 1947 [1926]) writes: “The ‘above’ gives the impression of a great looseness, a feeling of lightness, of emancipation and, finally, of freedom. […] The effect of ‘below’ is completely contrary: condensation, heaviness, constraint.” He even provides an algorithm – here is my computational interpretation:

Interact with it and see the code here: https://codepen.io/j-raff/full/LYzPWBK.

(This will be the opener for an article about the generation of layouts with a “spatial feeling”.)

Departing from a very specific question: Do our eyes wander along a swoosh, like the one from the Nike logo and do we therefore find this “dynamic”? – I conducted a small eye tracking study:

Read the research report: Shapes and eye movements

And …

Web design and art direction for the literary travel guide take me to _____.

I created and performed a slide show with Lisa Andergassen in and about Eisenhüttenstadt (August 2021), here is the online version.

Corona winter walks (2020–2021) = https://graffik.de/psst/reisen-ans-ende-der-welt/

Good news in bad times about our work at HMKW: Hochschulen im Lockdown @ page-online, 05.08.2020


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