Blog 6 -- Nadine Bauthamy and Andrew McGinley

"The Bag Lady"


We are going to interview a "bag lady" that carries her belongings in a shopping cart or in a collection of bags, and we will be using her story to create this garment. The words that she says to us, the images she might show us, or the images that we create in our own minds from what she tells us. She might have a sign on the cardboard we can use, or maybe she writes something for us to use in this project. Most likely it will be something handwritten using a material she would use to write (marker, chalk...), our type choices may also be inspired by street graffiti because this is part of her street environment.

We will combine all of these types, and prints into the form of a collage/patchwork, that is intended to represent her life out of a shopping cart. As far as a silhouette is concerned, it will be baggy, might be stiff if she complains about the cold, it maybe dark if her personality is dark, or include lighter colors, for example pink, if she dreams of being a little princess, we let her tell us her story. We expect patchwork from this design.

"Missing Generation"


The Dirty War was a period of state-sponsored violence in Argentina from 1976 until 1983. According to different sources, between 9,000 to 30,000 people were killed or "disappeared” in Argentina during this period under Videla's dictatorship. This is the inspiration behind our design.

Our print/type might just be limited to graphic representations as opposed to actual fonts or images. We want to find a visual way to represent that missing generation (those 9,000-30,000 missing people). The silhouette will be inspired by the Argentine Tango and the military uniform as the tango revolution (Tango Nuevo) lead by Astor Piazzolla was taking place during those years. If we were to use actual words we will use a "revolutionary font" examples: Stencilia, Boston Traffic, Disparador Stencil, and a brushstroke-like font with a red shadowing.

We will limit our color palette to black and white as well as some red highlights (to represent the blood of the victims and the ties to the tango theme). There will also be a light blue symbolizing the colors of Argentina thus the government in place, which was a military dictatorship.