Based on feedback gained during group crits I've looked back at my initial research to gain inspiration in order to see if theres anything I can draw inspiration from. This lead me to look at The Political Economy of Music by Attali Jacques, in which football chants mainly live within the sacrifice section meaning they are mainly based on oral sound and are used to invoke memory and tell a story. These are key aspect when looking at the reason chants where invented as they act as a form of communication between the players/club and supporters. Whilst developing ideas on how to visualise the sacrifice stage of music I started to look at how fans perform chants to see if I could capture the facial expressions of fans (see figure 1). I focused on facial expressions as this both showcases the oral power of chants as they start with one person and then fill the whole stadium. Furthermore facial expressions showcase the passion supported have who are the creators of chants showcasing how much they mean to them. However upon reflection of the initial experiments (see figures 1) I felt I couldn't accurately capture the facial expressions as the illustrations didn't really resemble the photos I was using. This lead me to conduct more research mainly focusing on who the loudest supporters where, leading to an article which ranked the current premier league teams based on atmosphere (see figures 2-7). This was interesting as having spoken to many football fans who regularly attend matches they say chants make the atmosphere which makes the game more enjoyable. The lead to some typographic experiments looking to how to visualise which grounds have the best atmosphere.
Initially I looked at size/scale so the grounds with the least atmosphere where smaller and size increases as atmosphere increases (see figure 3). From this I started to consider incorporating songs commonly used by each club within their chants as this refers to another section within the Economy of Music, repeating. I found it very difficult to incorporate each song and the club name in an aesthetically pleasing way (see figures 3-5). Throughout this process I experimented with different systems to layout the information such as the quieter the ground the smaller and closer together the name and song was which then increased as the atmosphere/noise increased (see figure 5). However this wasn't very visually effective leading to experiments staggering the information more as I was working to material measurements identified during research, which where also not very visually effective. This lead to experiments just focusing on size in order to force fans to hunt within the flag for their team if it wasn't obvious (see figure 5). This was more visually effective as the design filled the space and also made it more difficult for the audience to read the quieter grounds, replicating the lack of atmosphere/noise through size. However it also makes it difficult to determine which song goes with which team as they where still spread out based on atmosphere (see figure 5). Furthermore I've experimented with placing the team names from quietest to loudest running across the flag so the louder the team the larger the name (see figure 6). I've also looked at placing the names on circles to see if it would recreate sound spreading, however this didn't work as you can't tell the placement is based on circles (see figure 7).
Upon reflection of these initial experiments I decided to focus on the use of the team names without the songs in order to create a more abstract representation of the atmosphere and noise created by fans who are the sole performers of football chantsThis lead to the organisation of the clubs based on their position within the Premier League to see if there was any correlation between position an atmosphere (see figure 8-9). Interestingly many of the teams in the relegation zone and at the bottom of the league make more noise/have a better atmosphere than those at the top end. I found this interesting as based on the fans I've spoken to many would rather have a better atmosphere and chant at games than go to a game where they knew there team would win each match. Therefor the position of the names comments on this in order to encourage fans to chant by comparing them to their rivals within the Premier League. Furthermore whilst aligning the text I discovered the distributing space tool (see figure 10) which created a more abstract layout whilst keeping the team names in order (see figures 9-10, 12-13). Although this placement isn't informed I feel the layout is as visually effective as having the names in order as it makes it difficult to read the teams with less of an atmosphere further enhancing the comparison as it makes it harder for fans to navigate. Throughout these experiments I have taken visual cues from football in order to comment on fan culture associated with football chants, such as shortening the names of teams and using the colours of the Premier League. Throughout this brief it has been difficult to visually represent football chants as a whole as they are so team specific however taking visual cue such as type and colour allows every team to be represented. GT Eesti Pro Display Trial, bold has been used as its the closest match to the typeface used by the Premier League (see figure 11), which wasn't available to download. Furthermore I've experimented with pink and purple colour picked from the Premier League logo and website (see figures 12-13).
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| Figure 1 |
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