by Jan White
Preposterous posture, thin body, long hands, silly grin…
Overdoing the activity
He is thinking of other ways to illustrate ideas besides drawings:
sculpture…
embroidery…
skywriting…
pottery…
feathers…
graffiti…
clothing…
bread carving…
building blocks…
photos of hands…
fried eggs…
cakes…
whatever makes sense in the context of the message.
Incongruity
Start with the realistic object and turn it in an unlikely direction, or twist it in an unlikely or impossible way, so that it becomes an incongruous version of its original self. Not only is it startling, but it is likely to be imbued with a new and different meaning.
Incompatibility
Whether it is mixing species like legendary centaurs and sphinxes, or just overlapping graphic elements, such as the hand poking into the lion’s eye, any combination of elements that normally don’t go together can be startling and compelling.
Changing a familiar object’s environment: bananas belong in baskets, not rooms.
Irrationality
The surreal or impossible dream or nightmare images of normal things carried to impossible lengths, creating a feeling of absurdity. Think of Salvador Dali’s melting watches.
Ideas in mime
Gestures
Body language
Expressions
Mugshots
Architectural drawings (from Ramsey and Sleeper’s classic Architectural Graphics Standards) describe the technical and mechanical aspects of a helical staircase, but…in conversation, how does a non-architect describe a spiral staircase?
Fists
Fists (printers’ term for pointing hands) are universally accepted directional signs. We know what they expect of us and follow them out of curiosity, obedience, or fear of the law. They are graphically so potent and useful, that they even became a typographic “sort” in the early nineteenth century, when this big woodcut was made. Yet in those Victorian times, pointing was considered ill-mannered for ladies. (“’Tis manners out of joint to point.” Is that why there are so few female fists?) Then the human genius for variation and elaboration went to work:
Fists vary from stylized to naturalistic, yet their authoritarian power is inescapable. The majority of printers’ fists are masculine and point left to right. One wonders why.
A directional alphabet to be used only when it really makes sense.
Hands doing things depict specific actions or objects, like the delightful nineteenth century engravings. There are any number in the public domain to scan from clip-art books or CDs.
Or they can be used to unify a group of disparate elements like these silly things. They are all framed and held.
Hands are as expressive as faces
Look at the flabby swipe at far left…the wimpy touch in the second one…the decisive agreement in the third…and the overweight shake in the fourth (you can see they just had a huge lunch starting with oysters).
Cheiromancy: prognosticating the future by the lines and bumps on the hand
Everybody knows what Michelangelo meant.
Skeletons may be a bit spooky, but they do pack a more powerful punch.
International signalling system used by ground personnel to guide pilots to and from the gate.
Hand signs
Some are universally understood, some are specialized. The rude ones are fun. The champion hand-talkers are Neapolitan, and their hand language (a few examples below) has an ancient and proud tradition.
Gestures
Hands are packed with meaning when they are seen to be holding something. For instance: the hand with the tiny car is an unexpected juxtaposition of scale, and therefore startling. The adult hand holding the baby’s is not as unexpected, but carries emotional implications. Even when hands are the center of attention, seldom can they alone express the full thought or situation. The message is clearer and more incisive if faces can be added. Even words are often needed. The variety of arrangements and their meanings is endless. Obviously, interpretations vary with context.
Saluting and where saluting came from: raising the visor to identify person inside the helmet.
Words may well be needed to help interpret the gestures.
Body language
Think of the capacity of the human body to communicate. The French mime, Marcel Marceau, uses only gestures to tell whole histories without words. So does ballet. So do cartoons. Pick the telling subject, edit out the superfluous, exaggerate a bit—and there is the idea, Einned down. It does not ave to be funny. It just has to be clear.
Heads
Think of the metaphors that the word head brings to mind: bubble-head, lightheaded, headless, head-strong, hydra-headed, hard-headed, headline… then illustrate the concept as literally as possible. Result: a visual pun likely to be understood in its context. If it is misunderstood, it’ll have drawn attention anyway. Can’t lose your head over that.
The technique of drawing (by Victoria Skomal) makes some skulls scarier than others.
Brain functions in three ventricles. Albertus Magnus (German, 15th century).
Phrenology: a 19th century pseudo-science of bumps on the head purported to link areas of the brain with personality traits.
Wells, New Physiognomy or Signs of Character, New York, 1871.
Hat and shoe-men, 19th-century advertising symbols.
Anything inside or coming out of the open head symbolizes a thought, idea.
Expressions
Muscles in the face contract when emotion or reaction stimulates them. The resultant grimaces are interpreted and universally understood. These are the dominant ones; there are dozens of minor subtle ones.
Proportions change with age. (Height is shown constant here, to make comparison easier.)
Or significantly meaningful, as in cards or the traditional Greek masks of comedy and tragedy.
Hearing
“What are they saying?” is the immediate reaction. Curiosity: the irresistible temptation to pull the potential reader in with.
Speaking
What fun to show both speaker and speech in print. See also page 166.
The graphic representation of “speech balloons” can look like the normal cartoon-strip version, or it can be drawn to conform stylisticaly to the feeling of the illustration to which it is attached, as most of these are. For instance, the romantic poet speaks in images in layered balloons.
Seeing
People are interested in people. What we see them doing arouses curiosity, especially if it is an unusual action. We follow their gaze, especially when they are staring in an unexpected direction.
Looking up and down
Relative position on the page reflects understanding of position in real space. Like everything else, it goes back to Mother, who was up there and you were down below and you were small and helpless when she was angry—or Dad, the disciplinarian, who towered even taller.
Aligned eye level is comfortably normal and represents equality, balance, peace. Change the eye levels and meanings change even if the expressions remain identical.
Authority shown by positioning the throne up above others…emphasized by the red carpet leading up to it…or by a much taller platform with more steps.
Looking down at a corpse sprawled on the ground.
Looking down on the boss is not good for company morale, even if it is just a lifeless likeness of the boss standing on a marble column.
Bernini’s bust of Louis XIV on a pedestal, seen from below, while His Majesty looks up towards his prerogative, heaven.
Mugshots
Unless they are pictures of interesting people, mugshots are a bore. But people are interested in people, so we run them, because readers love them. Too often, the mugshot of the author or the personality
who is the subject of the piece are the only visuals we have. Wherever possible, we should go beyond reproducing a miniature passport picture. There is nothing sacred about portrait shots.
1) Use the unexpected, unusual image, shot from an abnormal angle.
2) Use the image that reveals something of the character, not just the physical shape of the subject. If they get mad, you probably chose the right one. They won’t sue.
3) Use people pictures showing them in their natural environment, at work, at home, getting there.
4) If you can avoid it, never crop the hands, which are often more expressive than the face.
5) Use graphic ingenuity and technology to vary the look of the image in texture, roughness, color.
6) Standardize the backgrounds or frames to pull small separate units together for a combined big effect.
Just because a mugshot starts out as a rectangle doesn’t mean that it must be used that way.
Courageous cropping affects not only the way the mugshot looks but—more importantly how the personality is interpreted.
The same mugshot repeated at increasing size (i.e., cropping) creates the illusion of coming closer and closer to the person.
Silhouetting the original, then enclosing it in a box of some kind lends visual variety, while helping explain the subject in some way.
Mugshots superimposed on backgrounds of color, texture, dimensionality, symbolic framing, or whatever makes sense.
Mugshots pretending to be pictures-of-pictures: with photo corners, film frames, postage stamps, floating with shadow behind.
Mugshots combined in some way with meaningful images or other significant elements in the story: initials, numbers, words.
The name, affiliation, etc., should be designed and incorporated into the mugshot presentation.
Grouping mugshots
It can range from an unimaginative parade of aligned faces to geometrical arrangements, cutouts, boxing, overlaps, and even overlaying of images over significant backgrounds. Interest grows when one personage becomes dominant (assuming that worthy is worthy of the honor).
Sizing mugshots
Varying the sizes welds the combined mugshots into a “gathering” the illusion of a party, even if they may not like each other very much.
Scales of headshots in neighboring pictures need to match because they are perceived as a related group (even if they are unconnected individuals). Align the eye level, so that some people aren’t standing in holes or on boxes.
If you are forced to place mugshots in a row, crop them all to the same scale, align the eyes, and string them together in necklaces in some interesting pattern.
Imagine the mugshots printed on an object. In a photo frame, mirror, billboard, a cutout…
Hats are integral with mugshots, and telegraph character, nationality, history. Add uniforms, sports… endless.
Ideas in time
Time symbols
Developments
Chang
Enticement
Sequencing over time:
Then/now…
Before/after…
Shrinkage/growth…
Promise of the future…
“Come-up-and-see-me-some-time”
Time
There are no symbols for the abstract concept of time. Even the depressing figure of Father Time (who is meant to be funny, but isn’t) and that awful bell are metaphors.
“Ask not for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”
The metaphors describe time in some way: what it does, what its effects are, what happens. Even calendar pages, secret diaries, and the clichés from the movies like the waving curtain or the slow fade-out and fade-in are not really pictures of time itself. The ancient (funny) typewriter implies improvement over time. The in-and-out box implies that time is fleeting—better get on with it.
Someone else’s diary?
Father Time, or the Old Year
Mark Twain bought this typewriter in Boston in 1874 for $125 because the salesman proved the typist had produced 57 words a minute. Later he discovered he had typed the same practiced text over and over. He managed 12 words a minute, and said he wrote Tom Sawyer on it: claiming it to be the first typewritten book manuscript.
Clocks
Indicate the passage of time, whether as clocks of various kinds or developments over time, such as thermometer, speedometer, fuel gauge, etc.
Zodiac
The signs of the Zodiac probably originated among the Babylonians around 2000 BC. It serves as a convenient means of indicating positions of heavenly bodies. The names refer to constellations. It is not the only system organizing time in relation to the stars.
Signs of the Zodiac by Leopold of Austria, De Astrorum Scientia, Augsburg, 1489.
Glyphs for the twenty Aztec days. (The year had thirteen months.)
Names
Names for the days and months derive from both Norse and Latin.
Sunday
SUNNAN DÆG
Solis dies Sun’s day
French: Dimanche
German: Sonntag
Monday
MONAN DÆG
Lunæ dies Moon’s day
French: Lundi
German: Montag
Tuesday
TIWES DÆG
Tiu: son of Odin
Martis dies Mars’ day
French: Mardi
German: Dienstag
Wednesday
WODNES DÆG
Woden (Odin): god of war
Mercuri dies Mercury’s day
French: Mercredi
German: Mittwoch (midweek)
Thursday
THUERES DÆG
Thor: god of thunder
Jovis dies Jove’s day
French: Jeudi
German: Donnerstag
Friday
FRIGES DÆG
Frigg or Freya: goddess of love
Veneris dies, Venus’ day
French: Vendredi
German: Freitag
Saturday
SÆTERNES DAG
Saturni dies, Saturn’s day
French: Samedi
German: Samstag
January
Januarius
Janus: god of entryways Looking both backward and forward
March
Martius
Month set aside for honoring Mars, god of war
May
Maius
Month set aside for honoring goddess Maia.
Roman zodiac with Mercury, Jupiter, Venus (Greek names: Hermes, Zeus, Aphrodite)
July
Julius named for Julius Cæsar
February
Februarius
Februa: Purification festival held Feb 15th
September VII
Septem
Seventh month of Roman year
October VIII
Octo
Eighth month of Roman year
August
Augustus
Named for emperor Augustus
April
Aprilis
Aperire, to open as in flowers and leaves
November IX
Novem
Ninth month of Roman year
December X
Decem
Tenth month of Roman year
June
Junius
Month set aside for honoring the goddess Juno.
Seasons
More than just the obvious four divisions of the year…rainy/dry… festivities… time assigned to some activity…fashion…
The seven ages of man
…………………………All the world’s a stage And all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant, Mewling and puking in his nurse’s arms; And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel And shining morning face, creeping like snail Unwilling to school. And then, the lover; Sighing like fur
nace, with a woful ballad Made to his mistress’ eye-brow. Then, a soldier; Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard, fealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel, Seeking the bubble reputation Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then, the justice; In fair round belly, with good capon lin’d, With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut, Full of wise saws and modern instances; And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts Into the lean and slipper’d pantaloon; With spectacles on nose, and pouch on side; His youthful hose well sav’d a world too wide For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice, Turning again toward childish treble, pipes And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all, That ends this strange eventful history, Is second childishness, and mere oblivion, Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans every thing.
