Aboriginal Motifs

Aboriginal Motifs

Functions and Philosofies
Responsible use of Indigenous cultural knowledge and expression ensures that Indigenous cultures are maintained and protected so they can be passed on to future generations. Here are two ways in which this can be done;

1. Respect

The rights of Indigenous people to own and control their heritage, including Indigenous images, designs, stories and other cultural expressions, should be respected. Customs and protocols for respect vary widely across the many and diverse communities of Indigenous Australian people. Respecting Indigenous rights to cultural heritage includes the following protocols: - Acknowledgment of country
- Public art
– acknowledging land
- Accepting diversity

9. Recognition and protection

The Indigenous visual artist owns copyright in his or her artwork. This means that he or she can control the reproduction and dissemination of the artwork. Such rights apply to all artists and are granted under the Copyright Act.99

It is important to understand these laws and how cultural material might be protected under them. However, there are currently no special copyright laws dealing with Indigenous cultural material.

The Copyright Act has been criticised for not recognising the communal ownership of heritage material and the continuing right of heritage custodians to control use of this material. In 2004, the Attorney General drafted a proposal to amend the Copyright Act and introduce Indigenous communal moral rights. However, this is not yet law. It is recommended that Indigenous custodians give express and clear notice of their interest to third parties.

Moral rights and issues 
The Moral Rights Amendments to the Copyright Act were introduced in December 2000 and provide some new ways to challenge inappropriate treatment of Indigenous artworks. These new laws provide the following rights to artists:

1. The right to be attributed as the artist – Artists can require their names be clearly and prominently reproduced alongside all reproductions of their works.

2. The right not to have work falsely attributed to another artist – Artists can take action against parties who falsely attribute others as the creators of their works.

3. The right of integrity – Artists can take action against parties who subject their works to inappropriate treatment. Inappropriate treatment includes:
- Doing anything that results in the material distortion of, the destruction or mutilation of, or material alteration to, the work that causes harm to the artist’s reputation.
- Exhibition of the work in public in a manner or place that causes harm to the artist’s reputation.


Some Indigenous art comprises certain ceremonial styles like rarrk/cross-hatching, and depicts particular creation figures like the Wandjina from the Kimberley Aboriginal language group. Unless copying from a particular copyright protected artwork, it is not an infringement of copyright to paint in these styles or to paint creation figures. However, it should be emphasised that it is against traditional Aboriginal law to paint ceremonial styles and creation beings without permission from relevant people in the communities where these styles and figures originate.

In the past, Indigenous people’s art images and language group motifs have been copied in artworks, dress fabric, souvenirs and on T-shirts, without the proper permission being sought. This type of copying is one area where the copyright laws do not recognise Indigenous rights to control cultural material.

Internationally, the United Nations Principles and guidelines for the protection of Indigenous people’s heritage recommends, Artists, writers and performers should refrain from incorporating elements derived from Indigenous heritage into their works without the informed consent of the Indigenous owner.

Native American Motifs

THE ATLANTA BRAVES

1967 - 1975

1972 - 1989

1987 - 1989

1988 -Present

The current logo

The Atlanta Braves logo comprises of an axe underneath the company’s name. The whole logo slants towards the right. The axe basically represents the strength of the team and its continuous efforts to improve its performance.
Keeping aside the shape and the font style, the colors (red with a navy blue outline) in the Atlanta Braves logo have been used to indicate the team’s strength to recover from the lows with a bang.

The logos used for the braves include a cartoon image of a Native American, as a war prone cartoon character locked in the past.  These elements are sacred such as eagle feathers, ceremonial paint, music, and dance. Often they are mocked by multitudes in orchestrated cheers during sports games. Native Americans consider these practices a disrespectful infringement on their cultural, spiritual and intellectual property rights.

Every major National organization representing Native Americans has asked for these uses of Native peoples and cultures to be stopped. The time was right for sports teams to consider this form of racism perpetrated under their auspices against Native peoples.  This lead to sports teams including the Braves to change their logo and create a new identity, which was culturally accepted. in 1988 the original Braves logo, changed from the cartoon native American to the Braves title with the axe underneath. 

Not many Native American motifs are recognizable in the Braves new logo, however there is the same illustration style, of bold outlines, which is seen in a lot of Native American paintings. Also the use of leather or twine, which is wrapped around the end of the axe, to me also represents the Native Americans.

I think the re-design of the logo has achieved its intentions dramatically, however personally I don’t think I like the logo. I think the title is fine, but there is something about the axe that I don’t think works quite right.

Melbourne Sports Museum Critique

HAWTHRON FOOTBALL CLUB

Designed by Cato Purnell Partners, 2007

Vector Image

The hawthorn logo uses strong dominant shapes. The dominant figure of the hawk in the foreground is the focal point. The large scale of the hawk enhances the strength of the hawk. The negative space behind the hawk has been carefully constructed to create shapes in itself. The negative space creates the eye, beak and the feathers. The asymmetrical design uses the brown colour to guide the eye around the logo, from the hawk, up to the title and back down and around the outside.

Strong basic shape and colour used make this a very effective logo. The simple but clever two shapes overlap and create this image of the hawk. Adding black and white lines to create tone and form around the beak and the eye. The design is a symmetrical design but nicely balanced with nearly a 50 – 50 percent ratio of negative and positive space. The large scale of the hawk enhances the strong and dertermined image of the club, the scale also adds to a good focal point. The rhythm in line has been crafted to give the idea of feathers on the hawk, but really this is just negative space from the brown shape. This negative space creates an implied line around the edge of the logo.

The hawthorn logo could be classified in the Supermatism style. This style originated in 1915.  It uses fundamental geometric forms in particular square and circles. You can see the similar resemblence in the logo. However it also crosses beween a modernist era as the shapes used are curved and modern.

The concept and theme behind the logo was creating a new direction for the Hawks, Cato Purnell Partners, felt they needed to reflect the focus and determination he had observed within the club so as to communicate that effectively to its members. The new shield portrays a sense of determination, pride, and focus. The Hawthorn Football Club is a club on the move. In the design we have hoped to capture the steely resolve it takes to win a premiership.

I think the concept of the logo has been successfully achieved. The strong focal point of the eye of the hawk resembles determination. The scale of the bird looks as if it is standing over tall, proud and on the hunt. The diagonal line above the eye gives expression and strengthens the determined look.

www.hawthornfootballclub.com.au

Melbourne Vixens Poster 2010

Vector and Photo

The advertisement uses a lot of ground, fore, middle and background, within a dynamic composition. The assymetrical design uses a strong focal point of a netball cartoon character, this character is the hirachy of the poster and it draws the eye down towards the vixens logo. The alternating rhythm of bold lines make this a dynamic composition, a lot of movement has been achieved within this poster, maybe to resemble netball, fast paced-moving.

The main element use is line. Line features heavily in the logo, so it has been taken from here and repeated throughout. The curved lines are bold but vary in stroke. The white stroke around the vixen logo has been also use in the bold heading, again this draws the eye from the secondary focal point back to the logo. Line also features frequently on the cartoon illustration, the use of curved, fine and bold weights create tone and form.

The three colours of red, green and white are used heavily through out the poster as these are their corporate colours. The navy blue comes from the uniforms, the blue sits nicely as the background, with a slight hue applied to the photos aswell. The scale of the illustration works effectively, had the illustration been smaller it would not have lead our eye down towards the logo.

The name Vixens, is a play on the word Victoria. The concept behind the colours of green and crimson were chosen to reflect that of a female, youthful and dynamic team. The colour of black conveys a sense of sophistication, authority and power. The colour of navy blue represents Victoria’s rich history of success at the elite sports level, a State with proud and active communities that will continue to support netball as we pursue our future triumphs.

The poster design is from a modernist era, it uses a lot of elements, including vector and photo imagery and has a sleek modern style too it. The main heading font is youthful and a little edgy.

I’m not too sure if I like the poster design, I think it is a little over done and busy. I think the elements on the page could have been arranged in a better format and still give a dynamic composition. The logo is ok, unlike the hawks logo, the vixens logo lacks character or emotion.

www.wikipedia.com.au

www.melbournevixens.com.au

Critiquing Tools

PRINCIPLES AND ELEMENTS OF DESIGN LIST

Line Line can be considered in two ways. The linear marks made with a pen or brush or the edge
created when two shapes meet.

Colour Also called Hue

Texture Texture is the surface quality of a shape - rough, smooth, soft hard glossy etc. 
Texture can be physical (tactile) or visual.

Shape A shape is a self contained defined area of geometric or organic form. A positive
shape in a painting automatically creates a negative shape.

Form Form is any three dimensional object. Form is also defined by light and dark. Form
may be created by the combining of two or more shapes

Stability The arrangments of elements, in a stable composition within a grid. Where all
elements sit vertically, horizontally or diagonally on the grid

Dynamics Dynamics is the arrangement of visual elements in a composition to suggest
the illusion of movement or direction. The effective use of dynamics in a design can add
an emotive characteristic to your design making it appear restful and calming or active
and energetic.

Rhythm Rhythm is the repetition or alternation of elements, often with defined intervals
between them. Rhythm can create a sense of movement, and can establish pattern and texture. 

Scale The principle where elements have been enlarged or reduced dramatically to contrast
against other elements.

ART VOCABULARY LIST

Negative Space is the space around and between the subject of an image. Negative space
may be most evident when the space around a subject, and not the subject itself, forms an
interesting or artistically relevant shape

Hirachy A hierarchy is an arrangement of items in which the items are represented as 
being "above," "below," or "at the same level as" one another. Abstractly, a hierarchy is
simply an ordered set or an acyclic directed graph.

Dominant path of movement: Sometimes a work has a dominant path of movement that
adds to a mood.  The sense of movement may come from a tall, vertical form reaching
upward.  Sometimes there is a path of motion leading to a center of interest.  Even the
absence of motion can be expressed.  For example, a quiet, still, calm feeling may come 
from the use of many horizontal lines or forms.

Emphasis by dominance Dominance describes a situation where something dominates
(is more important or more noticeable than its surroundings). Information is rarely of 
uniform interest in art (except in wallpaper). Most art is used to communicate 
-- to tell a story or present a point of view. There is usually a focal point, a place where
 the action begins.

Construction Lines Usually the first lines that you will use on your artwork, they may 
show definition of shape, form or texture. These lines are not visible once artwork is finished.

ADJECTIVE LIST

Pigment is a material that changes the color of reflected or transmitted light as the result
of wavelength-selective absorption Pigments appear the colors they are because they
selectively reflect and absorb certain wavelengths of visible light.

Shade is where black has been added to darken.

Tint is where white has been added to a colour to create a lighter colour.

Caricature the lines on a portrait or face which suggest characteristics of that person.

Curved lines are generally used to create a sense of flow within an image. They are also
generally more aesthetically pleasing, as we associate them with soft things