DADA

Carl Chamberlain
Urban decay
Adobe Photoshop
march 25th 2009
The first few Dada pieces I saw attracted me because of their eclectic,randomn, and totally unconventional design. I tried to take that style and use it in this stamp project, the theme of which is the Endicott Johnson shoe factory. In my design I used brown paper,with white crumpled paper and also newspaper which were different elements I found in a lot of other DaDa designs. I had also seen alot of of old shoes in the Dada pieces, which in my design would clearly be an effective incorporation given the stamps theme. I tried to keep the colors somewhat bland, and most of the images black and white, another characteristic of dadaism.

COMMENT PLEASE

there are still a couple little things I want to do ( add more shoes coming from the factory smoke stack, also I need to put some dates on the stamp.)

First + second Round Thumbnails

endicott johnson stamp project

.... home of tHe square deal

3 examples of the design style my stamp project will be based on

STAMP #3

Stamp 1

denomination: The stamp appears to be worth 50 cents

country of origin: this stamp is from the U S of A

reference to subject/theme: Carry On Cleo is the tenth film in the Carry On film series and was released in 1964. It is considered by some to be the best in the series

date: I couldn't read a specific date but it was popular in the mid 60's as stated above so I am going with the mid to late 60's.

color: there are a few colors in this design, Yellow, Red, Black, Gray, and Pink?

Line detailing: It has black borders
typographical layout: It looks as if this stamp was designed straight from a movie poster perhaps, It has all of the actors names across the top and a very interesting sphinx with the movie titled in the center.
Higherarchical Arrangement: I believe the focal point is the bright red sphinx decorated with beautiful pink women and containing within it the movie title.... then you are brought around the stamp to the images on the bottom and the actors names on top.
compositional devices: This design has used scale to emphasize different elements in the image. Proximity of the main visual elements ie the sphinx and pink women have been grouped together to creat unity, which also has created the rhythm by connecting the top portion of the stamp to the bottom flowing from the pink lady riding the sphinx to the other women standing infront of the sphinx which connects to the bottom of the stamp.
Balance: This is an assymetrical design.

stamp #2
- denomination: 5 cents
- country of origin: USA
- reference- just an abstract design
- date of subject:---
- date of design:----
- signifigance/other: To me it just seemed like a simple abstract design with great color.
-shape: this stamp is horizontal
-color: in this design there are red,black,blue and white.
-type of central image: a really abstract design with text saying to the fine arts.
- line detailing:It has black borders
- typographical layout: the only type on the design is " to the fine arts" which is split by two colors "to the" in blue and "fine arts" in red with a white background, which matches the abstract design to its immediate left.
-Hierarchical: The focal point would be the abstract design and then the text mentioned above.
-proximity: the informational elements are to the right of the abstract image.
-Balance: is asymmetrical


stamp #3 (see above)
- Denomination: 80....Deutsche marks? ughh whhh
-country of origin: Germany
-reference to subject: It has the name Kurt Schwitters on the stamp ,Kurt Hermann Eduard Karl Julius Schwitters (20 June 1887 - 8 January 1948) was a German painter who was born in Hanover, Germany.

Schwitters worked in several genres and media, including Dada, Constructivism, Surrealism, poetry, sound, painting, sculpture, graphic design, typography and what came to be known as installation art. He is most famous for his collages, called Merz Pictures.
-Date of subject/theme: 1887-1948
-Date of design: the year 1967
- signifigance: It is a stamp commemorating an artist who started a unique form of art.
-shape: vertical
-four color: black,sepia, tan, gray, white.
- type of central image: The different strips of color make up a majority of the image and shape along with a older picture placed in the design aswell.
-line detailing: the borders of this stamp are white.
-type: the type in this design is placed around the borders allowing more room for the abstract image in the center.... on the left running vertically is the artists name KURT SCHWITTER and then his birth and death date, there is something in smaller font in the bottom left corner that I can't quite make out.
- Higherarchical arrangement: the focal point is his name in large bold font running vertically up the left side of the stamp leading to his bday and dday, that flows down to the picture of a head. The head belongs to the clump of different colors and shapes that bring your eye down to the bottom of the stamp and then to the right.
-position: The informational elements in this design are asymmetrical.
- compositional devices: The head image is placed around the upper third intersection, and all of the other colored shapes are clumped together to creat unity.
-type of balance: the entire design is asymetrical.