Shantell Powell

Sylexiad. A typeface for the adult dyslexic reader: "The investigation concerns a series of typeface legibility and readability studies which have resulted in the creation of a number of new typefaces including Sylexiad. Sylexiad is grounded and informed from a dyslexic viewpoint and is a typeface for the adult dyslexic reader."

Good fonts for dyslexia: "In this paper, we present the first experiment that uses eye-tracking to measure the effect of font type on reading speed. Using a within-subject design, 48 subjects with dyslexia read 12 texts with 12 different fonts. Sans serif, monospaced and roman font styles significantly improved the reading performance over serif, proportional and italic fonts. On the basis of our results, we present a set of more accessible fonts for people with dyslexia."

Special Font For Dyslexia?: "Reading errors like switching letters is a persistent characteristic of errors for
dyslectics (Braams, 2001). This type of error can be explained by the magnocellular theory
(Stein, 2001; Stein, Talcott, & Walsh, 2000). The font “Dyslexie” is developed to increase the
reading accuracy and readability of texts for dyslectics, so that the errors by switching letters
are reduced."

A short introduction to font characteristics: "Serifs make individual characters more distinct. In their sans serif variant many characters look remarkably, if not exactly, like mirror images of each other. During the reading process they are easily confused, especially by persons suffering from dyslexia. The advantage of serifed typefaces over their non serif counter parts, in this respect, is easily seen from the following example:
b d
p q
b d
p q"

Dyslexia, Reading and the Brain: A Sourcebook of Psychological and Biological Research: p. 3: "These were followed in 1900 by a report of “congenital word-blindness” in two boys aged 10 and 11 years (Hinshelwood, 1900) and a further report of four cases from the same family (Hinshelwood, 1907).

In his papers, Hinshelwood referred to previous work by Kussmaul (1877), who apparently coined the term “word-blindness” (wortblindheit) to describe the reading difficulties of previously literate brain-damaged patients. No less a person than the president of the Neurological Society, Sir W.H.(Henry) Broadbent, pointed out (Broadbent, 1896), however, that the condition of word-blindness was not first described by Kussmaul, as might have been inferred from Hinshelwood’s (1895) report. Broadbent (1872) himself had described patients who were unable to read following brain injury, albeit that they also showed some evidence of “verbal aphasia” (p. 150). On the other hand, Broadbent (1896) conceded that it might have been Kussmaul who first described difficulty with reading as “an isolated condition”—that is, as occurring in the context of intact speech (see also Dejerine, 1891, 1892). The word dyslexia was first used (see Hinshelwood, 1896) by a German ophthalmologist, R.Berlin, when referring to reading difficulties caused by cerebral disease or injury (Berlin, 1887).

Inspired by Hinshelwood’s (1895) report, a general practioner in Sussex, W.P.Morgan, wrote to The Lancet giving an account of the reading problems experienced by an apparently normal boy who had suffered no brain damage. Thus it is to Morgan (1896) that we owe the first description in the medical literature of what is now referred to as developmental dyslexia or specific reading disability. His account of what he called “congenital word-blindness” ran as follows:

Percy F.—a well-grown lad, aged 14—is the eldest son of intelligent parents... He has always been a bright and intelligent boy, quick at games, and in no way inferior to others of his age. His greatest difficulty has been—and is now—his inability to learn to read. This inability is so remarkable, and so pronounced, that I have no doubt it is due to some congenital defect...the greatest efforts have been made to teach him to read, but, in spite of this laborious and persistent training, he can only with difficulty spell out words of one syllable... The schoolmaster who has taught him for some years says that he would be the smartest lad in the school if the instruction were entirely oral... His father informs me that the greatest difficulty was found in teaching the boy his letters, and they thought he never would learn them. (Morgan, 1896, p. 1378)

I'm doing an infographic project for my visual design class, and I've decided to make an infographic based upon the Wilhelm Scream.

I've used several sources to compile my information:

• Disney Wikia: Wilhelm Scream: lists Disney/Pixar films which use the scream. Gives a total of 23, not counting Star Wars films.
  
• Reading The Scream in Berberian Sound Studio and the films of Peter Strickland by Matthew Melia. Notes there are six variants of the scream. "Among the dense layers of sound effects, music and dialogue of the films is a stock sound affect that has transcended its status as a relic of old Hollywood to become a fixture of contemporary cinema…the Wilhelm scream."
  
• Mario, Sonic, the Eds, and Friends Ride: The Wilhelm Scream: Contains large list of films using the sound and describes the scenes it is used in.
  
• Letterboxd: The Wilhelm Scream: large list of films using the sound. I primarily compiled my list from here.
  
• Filmsound: The Wilhelm Scream: Describes scenes where the sound appears. Explains where the sound got its name (named for character who screams in 1953's "Charge at Feather River"), and who first named it (Ben Burtt).
  
• Hollywood Lost and Found: The Wilhelm Scream. Lists movies and scenes, but stopped being updated in 2010.
  
• The Wilhelm Scream: Discusses the history of the sound effect. Theorizes it is the voice of Sheb Wooley.
  
• wilhelm.wav: Has a good copy of the sound and also has spectral analysis.
  

I also installed the Movie Filmstrip font from DaFont.com.



And, in order to create my own data set, I made a very short poll: The Wilhelm Scream Survey with the following question:

Do you notice the Wilhelm Scream in movies?
1. Yes.
2. No.
3. I don't know what that is.

After collecting my data from my various sources, I figured out some statistics and interesting points.

Next, I looked up different sorts of infographics. I went to a blog post called 8 Types of Infographics: Which Is Right For You?. It lists the following infographic types:

1. Visualized Article
   
2. Flowchart
   
3. The Timeline
   
4. Useful Bait
   
5. Versus Inforgraphic
   
6. Number Crunch
   
7. Photo Infographic
   
8. Data Vis
   

My information could be represented well through Visualized Article, The Timeline, Number Crunch, or Data Vis. I decided to go with Visualized Article as it allows for some writing, and some of the points I wish to share are not numeric.

I found a good article on creating visualized articles at The Do's And Don'ts Of Infographic Design.

My next photography assignment is to do reflective photography. I found what looks like a good tutorial at Photographing Highly-Reflective Products: How to Control Reflections.

Here's a visual excerpt:



I also found a tutorial on how to use light painting with reflective surfaces, so this appeals to me. How To Take Psychedelic Photos of CDs

Here's one of the CDs photographed using light painting.




Here are some other examples of reflective photography that I found interesting.

Light Painting:



Here's a demonstration of how he made the light-painted skeletons.




This light-painted stop motion animation has less focus on the light and more upon what it illuminates.

Ctenophora (Stop Motion Light Painting) from Alex McLaren on Vimeo.

I also love the work being done by Amanda Palmer (and Edward KaSpel).





And I can't talk about stop motion animation without referencing Ray Harryhausen, of course!



And here's a first-person view of diving, which might translate well into stop motion animation.

My next major project has been announced, and I already have ideas on what I want to do.

I was inspired a couple of weeks ago by this video of a snowy owl chilling out on a frozen lake:



I want to do something based upon this idea. I'm tentatively calling it "Ookpik," and would like to have throat singing as background sound, mixed in with the sounds of wind and water. I'd like to incorporate elements of old-timey puppet show/operetta effects. Something along this line:



But instead of water, I'm thinking of doing water-colour painted blocks of ice, which will be moved up and down.

I'm looking into whether there are owl songs in tradition Inuit throat singing.

My next unit in photography class is based upon product photography, so I went searching for tutorials and some images I find interesting.



Several useful-looking tutorials are available at Sale as Seen: 44 Tutorials on How to Shoot Perfect Product Photos for Your Online Shop, so I'll be checking these out in greater depth.



When I was a student at the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design some fifteen years ago, I did a brief unit on photographing jewellery, but I don't remember a whole lot about it other than it was ridiculously difficult to photograph highly-polished silver. I used some sort of little light cube. And before that, I'd been hired by a jewellery shop to inventory all their merchandise for an online store. There was a light box there, but ironically enough, the highest-quality photos came from me scanning the jewellery with a Kleenex background.

Another idea is to go with light painting, a technique I adore. A tutorial for light-painted product photography is available at Using Light Painting (Lighting Brush) Technique in Product Photography.

This product photo was done with light painting.

There is little history to be found online of Leading Tickles, but that does not mean it does not exist. One needs but look at the history of the region to discover some of what happened there. Leading Tickles is nestled in Notre Dame Bay, which was once one of the main areas inhabited by the Beothuk. It seems possible that the Beothuk were the first indigenous North Americans to be encountered by Europeans, well before Christopher Columbus made his murdering way west. When the Vikings sailed west, they encountered folks they called Skraelings. Although it is possible these people may have been Innu or Mi’kmaq, the major Viking settlement, L'Anse Aux Meadows, is in Beothuk territory (Beothuk Language (Beothuck, Skraeling, Red Indian)).

Later on, when other Europeans encountered the migratory Beothuk, they referred to them as “red Indians” because the Beothuk wore furs, hairy side in, with red ochre adorning the outward side (Sketches of Savage Life. No. II.
Shaa-naan-dithit, or the Last of the Boëothics). They were also said to have worn red ochre or iron-rich soil mixed with fat ( Personal Appearance and Items of Clothing ) on their own skin for springtime celebrations (Beothuk). This may also have been used to repel mosquitos (or “nippers,” as they’re referred to in Newfinese).

This is the 1819 portrait of a Beothuk woman named Demasduit.



Newfoundland was considered a British colony until 1949, and colonial sentiment was still found there when I visited and lived there in the 1970s to early 1980s. I recall seeing homes proudly flying the Union Jack. Indeed, the flag of Newfoundland intentionally incorporates elements of the Union Jack. Compare and contrast the Newfie flag with the British one to see for yourself.





Leading Tickles is situated along “Iceberg Alley” and is known for its magnificent views of icebergs in the springtime. It also boasts a lovely walking trail at Ocean View Park.

From my research, I gleaned elements to be represented in the flag to be:

• Beothuk history
  
• British colonialism
  
• Springtime
  
• Icebergs
  
• Hiking
  

The colours for the flag I designed incorporate each of these elements. The red, white, and blue are the same basic colours used in the Union Jack, showing the colonial history, however, the strong horizontal line of red demarcates the break with Great Britain. It also memorializes the Beothuk, for whom the colour red was so important. The iceberg motif is edged in red, symbolizing the Oceanside Trail, and also the ancestral migratory routes of the Beothuk. The blue also has the obvious connotation of sky and sea, and the white the colour of ice.

The iceberg motif is situated on the leftmost side of the flag. This is so the elements are still visible, even if the flag is hanging down on a windless day.

Dave McKean is a British illustrator, designer, photographer, filmmaker, comic book artist, and more. He lives in Maidenhead, Berkshire, England. His work is often experimental, and he has used unorthodox methods to create art. As an example, he experimented with colour copying machines, shining lights on them, and scanning his own beard to achieve different visual effects. He originally wanted to illustrate record covers, but entered the field as CDs were taking over as the main music medium. He also wanted to be a comic book illustrator, and this dream came true in a big way.

When he was in his final year of art school and still unknown, he met up with writer Neil Gaiman and in 1987, they created a graphic novel called Violent Cases.



It was the beginning of a long and productive relationship. Gaiman and McKean enjoyed working together very much, and they were given the opportunity to collaborate further. McKean’s distinct illustration style, drawing upon such elements as painting, collage, photography, drawing, set construction, and more, became the face of the award-winning Sandman series written by Gaiman. Sandman ran regularly from 1989 to 1996 and reappeared as Sandman Overture in 2016.



McKean and Gaiman have collaborated many times since they first met on a variety of projects. This is one of McKean’s illustrations for Gaiman’s Signal to Noise graphic novel.



Text is incorporated as much as an illustrative technique as it is for a storytelling technique.
Another example of his incorporation of text into illustration is seen on this Sandman cover illustration:



Another example of this use of words for visual impact is seen in this portrait of Gaiman.



McKean has collaborated with other creators over the years, and has also done solo projects. His most recent book is Black Dog: The Dreams of Paul Nash. He wrote and illustrated this tale of WWI surrealist artist Paul Nash.



He is sought after for his album cover art, editorial illustrations, and more. McKean has also worked with chef Heston Blumenthal, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, and authors Ray Bradbury and Stephen King.

Here is an editorial illustration about Surveillance for Security Management Magazine in 1996:



He has created album covers for Tori Amos, Skinny Puppy, Frontline Assembly, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Machinehead, Fear Factory, Alice Cooper, and many more.

Here is the cover for Skinny Puppy’s BRAP album:



His biggest achievement to date has been the monumental project Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, a Batman graphic novel. For this book, he produced 120 pages of paintings which reinterpret the classic characters of DC’s Batman universe. Almost 200,000 copies of the hardcover have been sold, and almost 100,000 of the trade paperback.
Here is a page from this book:



He illustrated Gaiman’s children’s book The Wolves in the Walls which went on to win the NY Times Illustrated Book of the Year award.



McKean’s illustrations cross over into film, as well. In 2005, he collaborated with Gaiman and the Jim Henson Company to create Mirrormask. This is a still from the movie:



In addition, he has done concept illustration for the Harry Potter series and collaborated with Lars von Trier’s interactive House of Zoon project in Copenhagen.

As an illustrator, he is successful because his illustrations are evocative and full of story while also being revolutionary because of his eagerness to experiment.

Bibliography:

https://arinagablog.wordpress.com/2016/03/09/dave-mckean/
http://thequietus.com/articles/17626-dave-mckean-interview
http://neilgaiman.com/Cool_Stuff/Essays/Essays_By_Neil/Neil_Gaiman_on_Dave_McKean
http://www.gaimanmckeanbooks.co.uk/
http://www.davemckean.com/

Here is my own illustration for Alice in Wonderland inspired by his illustration work. It is a mixed media piece done with collage, acrylic, gesso, ink, and soft pastels on pastel paper.

I'm to design a flag for a Canadian municipality. Springhill, NS, comes to mind. It's my mother's hometown, and I spent a fair amount of time there in my childhood. It's an inland town known for its once thriving coal-mining industry, and for three coal mining disasters. Nowadays, it hosts a penitentiary.

.... aaaaand I just found out it stopped being a municipality three years ago and no longer qualifies for my project. Back to the drawing board....

Next up is Nackawic, NB, which is a municipality (I checked). I went to high school there. The town came to be when surrounding areas were flooded because of construction of the Mactaquac Dam. People resettled at what became Nackawic (previously named Otis). Sadly, its crowning attraction is that it is home to the world's biggest axe. The axe is in recognition of the forestry industry. Alas, but the pulp and paper mill went bankrupt and hundreds of residents lost their job, so the big axe took on a whole new meaning, going from noun to verb.

Important elements for Nackawic are the river and the forest, so the colours green and blue immediately come to mind, along with an axe motif.

I looked up Dildo, NL (because hahahah, and also because I used to swim there when I was little), but it is not a municipality.

Then I found Leading Tickles in a list of Newfoundland municipalities. I love the name of the place, although I don't think I ever went there despite living in the general vicinity and probably having lots of distant relatives there. The Facebook page for the community has a delightful bit of Newfinese in the about page: "This page be about events that's taken place and many photos of Leading Tickles." Leading Tickles is a rocky forested harbour village on the northern coast of Newfoundland. It has a park and hiking trails, and its claim to fame is the plethora of springtime icebergs. The federal government is represented in the town with the Harbour Authority of Leading Tickles.

Blue and white are representative of the icebergs and harbour.

I sent a message to the folks at the FB page requesting more information. Here's hoping they get back to me!



Leading Tickles is on Notre Dame Bay, which was once the home of the Beothuk people. Red ochre was used by the Beothuk in their spring celebrations. Including an ochre red would memorialize these people wiped out through genocide.

I think a flag representing Leading Tickles would best be represented by blue, white, and red. Red, white, and blue are also the colours of the Union Jack. Newfoundland was a British colony until 1949, so these colours hearken back to this part of its history. Since the symbolism of the Beothuk red and the iceberg blue and white are both representative of springtime, they also become colours of springtime rebirth and regeneration.

Here's some additional information on flag placement policies in Canada: Flying Rules