Design is about Doing, Development.

To bring this idea back to the brief I started looking into different forms that type can come in.  For example, brail.  Soundwaves can be a form off communication- words.  I am arguing that by saying these words, recording them, then designing them visually, means that this works as a concept in the sense that visual soundwaves can essentially be type.

After thoroughly researching into possible programs that would record sound visually I decided the best one for the job was 'Audacity'.  I decided this because it is simple enough for me to use whilst still challenging me- keeping me interested.  Once downloaded I then used the microphone within my Laptop to record myself saying the phrases below: 

See the sound:

Listen to the silence:

Look at the noise:

Once the sounds above were recorded I placed them into Illustrator and 'live traced' them to begin manipulation.  Below are a few quick designs working with the phrase in both formats.

Above are a few versions of one of the phrases using different typefaces- the aim of this was to guage what works with the words.  Unfortunately it isn't totally clear to me what will work and what won't at this stage, the plan now is to carry on with designs and experiment further with the typeface and layout of the posters.

Out of the three phrases I feel that 'Listen to the silence' is the most relative to the brief as it is a contradiction within itself- an opposite.  However, my concept for this specific poster is that when you actually do listen to the silence in quiet areas you realise how much noise is going on around you.

Listen to the silence:

The program enables you to zoom in on the sound recordings, so here I have zoomed in closely on the 'Listen to the silence' recording.  For this recording I have gone to quiet areas and recorded with audacity through my internal microphone, picking up whatever sound there is around me-  forcing the question that no where is ever really silent- the phrase is used very loosely within society.

Below are the soundwaves in illustrator: