Kitsch causes two tears to flow in quick succession. The first tear says: How nice to see children running on the grass! The second tear says: How nice to be moved, together with all mankind, by children running on the grass! It is the second tear that makes kitsch kitsch.

-Milan Kundera

I was assigned to go into a NYC neighborhood and document what I noticed about the type. What I found, in Chelsea and Hell's Kitchen, was a lot of kitsch, in Kundera's sense of the word. So much of the type in the newest presentations refers back to old industrial or distressed type, but in a way that is knowing and safe. It simultaneously induces a frisson from the decayed and supposedly dangerous in a New York working-class neighborhood, while letting the observer in on the joke.

To reformulate the quote above, the two tears are how nice to be in a tough NYC neighborhood and then how nice to know, together with all mankind, that we are in a tough NYC neighborhood.

More of a pattern than a composition at this point. Andi suggested using masks to go through it and pick out interesting compositions that are hidden inside of it, then blowing up the masked area to full size. I'll do this with a few differently sized masks and see what I come up with.

The stronger composition. One comment suggested that it looked Soviet, which I agree with. I might make some small changes at the bottom of this one, but not too much else.

Probably the weakest of my three compositions, this one lacked any kind of focus, not really drawing the viewer to any point in any really meaningful way. The next step will be to unclutter the image and focus on two of the strongest elements, which are probably the bolt and the foil piece at the bottom.

The process of designing visually.