Postmodernism in Graphic Design - Module 10

I really enjoyed this week's module and reading, as it is current about the state of design today.  As I was reading about the different designers, the one that popped out to me right away was Michael Graves. The reason is that I knew his name already, from his product line at Target. So I thought I'd do a little extra investigation.

Michael Graves

Michael Graves is a renowned architect and designer.  He also was a professor of architecture at Princeton for over 30 years. He has both an architecture, planning and interior design group, Michael Graves & Associates, as well as Michael Graves Design Group, for both product design and graphic design.  He has won over 180 prestigious awards for architecture, interiors and product design.  

Michael Graves


Since I knew his name from the Target line, I went on their website to look at his products.  This is what the Target website had to say about him:

"The Michael Graves Design Collection for Target is comprised of 200 kitchen, cleaning, storage and home décor products designed to meet your needs and enhance your lifestyle. Each piece is an inspired balance of form and function created to infuse our daily lives with great design and joy." (from the Target.com website)

 Mr. Graves himself said, "good design should be accessible to all."

 Just a couple of products in the line:

Potato Ricer

Plunger

Now I will be adding that potato ricer to my Christmas List, but I don't think I need a designer plunger. (After all the times I get on my daughter's case because she wastes money on designer handbags, I don't think a designer toilet plunger would go over well.)

"Graves has dubbed himself  'a general practitioner,' designing not only the interiors for the majority of his projects, but also a wide range of furnishings and artifacts, from furniture to lighting fixtures to jewelry and dinnerware, for companies such as Alessi, Steuben, Disney, Philips Electronics and Black & Decker, as well as many European companies." (from the Michael Graves website)

Before taking this course, I always thought of architects as architects, graphic designers as graphic designers, etc.  It is interesting to learn how good designers can apply their talents to many different types of design and projects. 


Quote and picture credits: Target Website; Michael Graves Website

The Age of Information: Graphic Design in the Global Village, Part 2

Having grown up in the San Francisco Bay Area during the late 60s, (even though I was a very young child) I was somewhat aware of the psychedelic movement at the time.  I didn't understand it at all, but I loved the artwork and I even have a few memories of drawing and lettering in that style. I had a small pen set in psychedelic colors and used those. At the time, I didn't understand the drug culture associated with it, but I was just beginning to get into popular music, so I made those connections. I had heard about The Fillmore but didn't know anything about the artists who created the posters.

So it was with great interest that I did some further research on the psychedelic movement and Wes Wilson in particular. Wilson was widely considered "the father" of the psychedelic art movement. Design was more important than legibility. The artists assumed that if people were interested enough, they'd figure it out.

"Wilson is also reported to have been inspired by Alphonse Mucha, Van Gogh, Gustav Klimt, and Egon Schiele. Somewhere around this time, a friend showed him a copy of a 1908 poster done by the Viennese Secessionist artist, Alfred Roller. It contained an alphabet and lettering style quite similar to what Wilson had been doing and marked a direction toward which he aspired. It was not long before Wilson absorbed the Roller style, altering it to his own needs. What followed was an explosion of lettering creativity that changed the poster scene permanently." (http://www.wes-wilson.com/?page_id=488)


Here's a few more of Wilson's posters that weren't in the book:

Picture Credits: http://www.wes-wilson.com/?page_id=592

Wilson's lettering style was based on the following typeface designed by Alfred Roller in 1903:

Picture Credit: fausthaus.blogspot.com


For Fun:

Make Your Own Psychedelic Poster

Happy Thanksgiving All!

The Age of Information: Graphic Design in the Global Village, Part 1

Muriel Cooper

There was so much I found interesting in this week's reading, but I did notice that women don't quite get the recognition they deserve. (What else is new?)

I was particularly interested in Muriel Cooper who, among MANY other things,  founded the Visible Language Workshop at MIT.  I was surprised that she was so important to the computer graphics that we use now, as I've never heard her name.  When I searched for information about her, most things I found were articles written after her death, saying how important she was. The Wikipedia page about her only had two short paragraphs.

The Art Directors Club's website has this to say:


"Perhaps no one has had a greater affect on the way information—printed and electronic—is presented today than Muriel Cooper. As founder and co-director of MIT’s Visual Language Workshop, her explorations into the interactions between technology and design broke new ground in both graphic design and computer interface development. She designed covers for more than five hundred books, over one hundred of which have won design awards, and she was the second recipient of the American Institute of Graphic Design leadership award."

 
(Above pictures and quote credited to the Art Directors Club, @ http://www.adcglobal.org/archive/hof/2004/?id=5)


It seems that someone so lauded would be worth a little more than a brief mention in our textbook and two short paragraphs in Wikipedia. 

Another important point to know about Cooper is that in addition to her own work, she was a prolific teacher. She taught at the Museum School of Fine Arts, Simmons College, the Massachusetts College of Art, Boston University, and the University of Maryland, and lectured at other college campuses across the country, as well as her tenure at MIT.  Another article, written years after her death, had this to say:

"Unlike conventional design heroes, Cooper isn't just important because of her own work, but for her influence on other designers. By encouraging them through teaching and research to make the images on our computers as clear and appealing as the best-designed printed graphics, she helped to make all of our lives easier. But because digital design seems so esoteric, and is usually discussed in geek-speak, Cooper is barely known outside that circle. That's why she's the design heroine you've probably never heard of." (Alice Rawsthorn, "Muriel Cooper: The unsung heroine of on-screen style," New York Times Style section, Sunday, September 30, 2007)




(Above New York Times quote found at: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/28/style/28iht-design1.1.7670693.html)

The Modernist Era: Graphic Design in the First Half of the 20th Century, Part 2

In doing this week's reading, the artwork that resonated with me was one of the posters from the GREAT IDEAS OF WESTERN MAN campaign. The GREAT IDEAS campaign was the brainchild of Walter P. Paepcke, founder of the Container Corporation of America (CCA).  Artists were chosen to create art that would visually portray great ideas of western culture, with the artist having freedom to convey his/her vision of that idea. The ideas chosen to be interpreted visually included themes of liberty, justice and human rights. 

The piece of art that interested me was by Herbert Bayer, in 1954. 

This quote, by Alexander Hamilton in the late 1700s, reads: "It is of great importance in a republic not only to guard against the oppression of its rulers, but to guard one part of society against the injustice of the other part."

About the artwork, our textbook states that "Protection from injustice and oppression is asserted by hands warding off arrows penetrating into the page." (Meggs, Chapter 17, Figure 17-35, p. 347)


Seeing Bayer's work inspired me to research other pieces of art from the GREAT IDEAS campaign.  I found several, but the next one that I was drawn to turned out to be another piece by Herbert Bayer, on the same topic. 

This quote, by Thomas Paine, again in the late 1700s, reads: "Rights are not gifts from one man to another, nor from one class of men to another...It is impossible to discover any origin of rights otherwise than in the origin of man; it consequently follows that rights appertain to man in the right of his existence, and must therefore be equal to every man.  The principle of an equality of rights is clear and simple. Every man can understand it, and it is by understanding his rights that he learns his duties; for where the rights of men are equal, every man must finally see the necessity of protecting the rights of others as the most effectual security for his own."

The artwork for this, with Bayer's use of photography, different planes of color and interesting layout, highlights the main points of Paine's ideas.

I found one other piece of art by Herbert Bayer; this time a sculpture.

This sculpture, made in 1961, was inspired by Thomas Carlyle's lecture in London, on May 8, 1840, entitled "Heroes and Hero Worship II," where he stated simply, "Every new opinion, at its starting, is precisely in a minority of one."  Acccording to the Luce Foundation Center for American Art, "Thomas Carlyle's idea is reflected in the composition of the piece. One rod in the center of the chaotic constructions stands out from the others, representing the "minority of one" whose ideas change our lives."

I was inspired by all of these pieces.  Each piece evokes ideas of freedom, equality, justice and human rights, the ideals upon which this country is supposed to be founded. It seems that we as citizens of this country and the world need to be reminded of these things over and over, as the same themes keep coming up, even after hundreds of years. 

I was drawn to these pieces because, even though the quotes are from the 18th and 19th centuries, these are again important concepts in the 21st century.  With the issues of gay marriage and equality for gay Americans, I see that we are once again needing to "guard one part of our society from the injustice of the other part."  "Rights are not gifts from one man to another, nor from one class of men to another...rights appertain to man in the right of his existence, and must therefore be equal to every man." 

These pieces truly show how art can influence people.  How one man, with one opinion, can begin to change our world.  The following quote, widely attributed to poet and philosopher George Santayana, has been oft repeated and unfortunately, oft needed to be: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."  We as a people seem to be unable to learn this very simple concept.  We keep making the same mistakes over and over.  With this latest civil rights issue, I hope for once, and soon, we can learn something from our past and finally prove the continual repetition of Santayana's quote unnecessary.

Picture Credits: 

Posters - https://wikis.otis.edu/graphicdesigna/index.php/GREAT_IDEAS_OF_WESTERN_MAN 

 Sculpture - Smithsonian American Art Museum, http://americanart.si.edu/luce

The Modernist Era: Graphic Design in the First Half of the 20th Century, Part 1 - Module 6

I really enjoyed the readings this week, and was interested in the distinctions among the different "isms" that were discussed.  However, I think I was most intrigued by the propaganda posters.  So many of the American posters are iconic: Rosie the Riveter, Uncle Sam's I WANT YOU, Victory Gardens. Even though I wasn't around then, I've seen them enough times and the images are used enough times that they become common knowledge.

That led me to thinking about propaganda in today's world.  Today we have so many avenues for propaganda to be disseminated, with television and the internet added to newspapers and radio, that you think it would be easy to think of some examples that everyone would have seen and would know.  However, I've found that there is just so MUCH information out there, that not everything becomes "common knowledge".  Each generation has it's way of gathering information and consuming that information that I think there are many things out there that not everyone is seeing or hearing. 

I get most of my news from the internet or the newspaper.  I don't watch television news on a regular basis.  I do read the newspaper everyday, and when I sign in to my e-mail I read the news feed that is there, such as it is.  So I believe I get a general idea of what's going on in the world.  I assume that most people use these sources for their news first, but I could be wrong about that, and it may be a generational thing.

My further sources of news are the blogs and websites I read regularly.  There are others I visit when something else has linked me to them.  I read about topics I am interested in and further my knowledge that way.  This is the area where our differences in age, gender, areas of interest, etc. will cause our "common knowledge" to diverge.  We each use the resources that we're drawn to.  I often think that people at work will know what I'm talking about when I say, "Did you hear about the ...? or Did you see that video on YouTube?"  Much of the time they haven't, because we frequent different sources.

So, you think with the wonders of Google or Bing I could find millions of examples of today's version of the propaganda poster.  Suprisingly, I could only find a few with that general search. There are political posters and parody posters.  It being Election Day I could have talked about political ads, I suppose, but I despise attack ads, no matter what side they're on, that I just can't go there.

Although some are amusing and some are funny because they're true, that still wasn't what I was looking for.  My avatar is something I'd seen and liked so I co-opted it for myself to use when I need such a thing. I know I have seen other things repeatedly while surfing of the 'net, so where were they? Since I had seen them repeatedly I thought they would be "out there" to easily find. However, I found that I had to search for certain things or topics to get what I wanted and even then I wasn't really satisfied with the results. 

I did find things that were inflammatory, so I opted not to post them here, lest we start up a debate that has no place in this course.  But what I did take away from all of this is that one common denominator to all the propaganda out there, both then and now, is that it plays on the fears or the emotions of the audience.  They can make you feel sad, or afraid, or angry. Whether that's a good or a bad thing depends on how much is based on actual truth or on which side of an issue you stand. If it stirs you to action, I think that's a good thing (as long as you agree with me, of course...I kid....sort of).

Picture Credits:  All images were obtained from a Google Images search.

Art Noveau and The Advent of 20th Century Design - Module 5

Peter Behrens (1868-1940), German architect, artist and designer whose work for the Allgemeine Elektriztats-Gesellschaft, or AEG, is considered the first comprehensive visual identification program, believed that "after architecture, typography provided the most characteristic picture of a period."  I find this to be very true.  Just as I can usually tell from what period a house or building comes, I can usually tell around what time period a certain font was developed or used  just because that style has become so associated with that period. 

As I read the lecture, when I saw Wes Wilson's poster for The Byrds concert at the Fillmore in San Francisco, I immediately thought, 1960's, rock poster, before I even read or realized that it was, in fact, a rock poster.  I don't know what that font is called formally, but I call it "60's psychedelic font."

But, just as certain typographies/fonts are associated with a certain time period, and some have become "classics", some can just look dated when you look back on them now.

In a similar vein, I found it interesting that the logo for General Electric Company is the same one that has been used since around 1890.  This would be considered a classic, and GE would probably cause an uproar if they decided to update or change it, as just happened recently when The Gap changed their logo.  People were not amused.

But some logos need updating, as times change. And as I have World Series Fever right now, I thought I'd look back on the different logos used in each of the World Series that the Giants have played in since they moved to San Francisco. 

I couldn't find an official logo from Major League Baseball for the 1962 series, but I did find this poster:

As you can see, it's very dated, both the artwork and the font. Even in a fit of nostalgia, I wouldn't want to see this on today's posters.

The logo from the 1989 Series:

Now this is a classic.  The logos for a few years previous to this, and for a few years after are very similar.  This one was different because it was two hometown teams, The Oakland A's and the San Francisco Giants in the series, hence the bridge in the photo and the slogan "Battle of the Bay".  This was also the year that the Loma Prieta Earthquake disrupted the Series.  I really like this logo; the font and the placement on an angle of World Series just screams baseball to me.

From the 2002 Series:

I suppose this is updated, but I don't like it as much as the one from 1989.  There's nothing special about it.

From the 2010 Series:

Okay, now this one really departs from the usual. There is Giants' orange, which I choose to look at as a good omen, but it doesn't have the classic red, white and blue, which are the colors of Major League Baseball.  The font is fine, and I like the little leaves for the "Fall Classic" but it just doesn't look quite right to me.

Unlike GE or The Gap, I don't mind that these are updated and change with the times, but I definitely think that the 1989 one is the best, and if they stayed with this basic logo, I would be okay with that. 

Now, if they will just win this one! Go Giants!

Picture Credits: MLB. All photos were obtained from Google Images.

Graphic Design and the Industrial Revolution/Arts and Crafts Movement - Module 4

Doing the reading this week, the thing that struck me right away was that one, change is inevitable, and two, history repeats itself.


Ch-ch-ch-changes...As each new technological advance comes along, something is gained, but something is lost.  As printing became more mechanized and faster, the artists and designers lost their hold on the process.  As soon as one type of printing process became dominant, and new businesses were formed to perform that process, the next innovation came along, and left those businesses scrambling to keep up. 

Two examples from this century are both related to advent of personal computers.  First, the technology is changing so fast, that as soon as you buy some new technology, it's obsolete in months.  It's hard, and expensive, to keep up.  But he who does, gets a jump on everyone else.  Second, with the availability of software like PRINT SHOP and the ADOBE Design packages, everyone with a computer, at home or at work, has the ability to be their own pseudo-graphic designer.  Now, this doesn't make necessarily make them any good at it, but it does bite into some of the work that would have formerly gone to a graphic designer.  The printing industry has definitely felt the effects of this.  I have a friend who has worked in printing for many years, and he has gone from job to job, as each small company he works for has folded.  They of course still have the big jobs from big companies, but the smaller jobs are fewer and farther between.  My sister-in-law is a graphic designer and she says that even though people can do a lot for themselves on a small scale and for personal use, that companies, even small ones, need a designer who knows what they need and can provide an entire package for them. 


What goes around, comes around...Styles and fashions swing like a pendulum.  Eventually what was popular will come back in style again.  After the industrial revolution ran roughshod over art for art's sake, or beauty for beauty's sake, the Arts and Crafts Movement was formed and art and beauty became important again.  The same thing has happened in my lifetime. 

Okay, I wasn't around in the 50s, but from what I remember, all the new technology, like washing machines and dryers, and other innovations that made housework much easier were all the rage.  TV dinners, in little metal trays, kids, not the pretty plastic ones they have now (although I think they still taste the same) made it easy to just put them from the freezer, to the oven to the table. No muss, no fuss.  TV trays so everyone could eat while watching television.

These conveniences continued to grow through the following decades. But in the last decade or so, we've seen a reaction to all that pre-made, store-bought life.  The reaction has a name, and it's name is Martha Stewart. Martha, and all those like her, have thrived as we yearn to go back to those days when things were handmade, homemade and lovingly crafted by our own two hands. Just look at the proliferation of television channels dedicated to food and cooking, home improvement and the like. The pendulum has swung back.  And that's a good thing.

But what else is good is that as you don't lose the new technology or improvements along the way.  Everything old is new again.

And just as an aside, as I read and recognize names that have stayed with me...I'm dating myself here, but when I was in elementary school, every year we would get a new box of crayons and a new set of Prang watercolors. 

Aside #2 - noticing some of the posters or handbills that would have a lot of small print...back in the day I guess people would take the time to read all that...but we live in the world of the "sound bite" or the "news item"...short little bits of information that we can read quickly and move on...I don't know if many would take the time to read those now.

Advancements in Visual Communication in the Modern Era Module 3

Why do we write?
To communicate.
To transmit information, ideas, a point of view. 


As the invention of the printing press and typography in the 15th century made it possible to print multiple copies of documents, information could be disseminated to more people. Average citizens could be educated and become more involved members of their community and of society in general.  People could hear ideas from someone other than the church.  (In today’s internet-society, anyone with a computer can put their ideas or viewpoints out there for the masses to see and read..sometimes to disastrous or hilarious effect.)

To communicate effectively, everyone in the community must agree on meaning; there must be a collective understanding of what is being communicated. As that pertains to typography, there must be some sort of standardization of letters and letterforms.  Timothy Samara, in his book DESIGN ELEMENTS: A GRAPHIC STYLE MANUAL, states that “Rules exist...as guidelines.  As such, rules always come with exceptions and can be broken at any time, but not without consequence.” (2:9)  He states later in his book, “make it legible, readable, or whatever you want to call it. It should go without saying that type that can’t be read has no purpose.” (2:19).  Today, there are hundreds of examples of creative font design that bend the rules, but don’t quite break them.  Examples of these, from my computer’s font book, include Beyond Wonderland, Ghouly Caps, and Patterns & Dots.

As an aside, although in American schools we’re all taught how to print the same way, as we get older we all become creative with our handwriting, and most people follow Samara’s caveat to bend the rules, but not quite break them.  Most people’s handwriting is different from another’s, but as they don’t break the rules, most can be read by everyone. (Unless it’s in cursive; then my 21-year-old daughter and her friends can’t read it as they only had one year of instruction in the third grade.)   In a real world example, in my work as a nurse, I work with many doctors and their indecipherable handwriting.  They’re rebel rule breakers!  The purpose of doctors writing their orders or a prescription is so that they can communicate to a nurse or pharmacist what they want done for the patient.  Their horrible writing has a very real chance of being misread and this can have catastrophic results.  There have been many cases of patients getting the wrong drug, or the wrong dose of a medication.
I find this the height of arrogance, as if they are too busy and too lofty to take the time to write clearly.  That’s one reason why many hospitals are trying to convert to paperless, or computer, charting.

Legibility is only one issue relating to typography and its purpose of communication. Another issue is design.  Samara, in his book TYPOGRAPHY WORKBOOK, states “typography as a communicative form holds the potential for deeply meaningful and emotional expression.” (3:6)  The choice of both type and layout can affect how well something is communicated to the reader.  It must be pleasing to the eye. If something is too closely spaced or laid out in an unappealing manner, you run the risk of people not bothering to look at it or read it, and you’ve lost the opportunity to communicate your message.  One example of that are the timelines in our textbook, MEGGS’ HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN, I find they are laid out in such a way that they are difficult to read, so I don’t read them. (1: 2-3, 62-63,132-133, 246-247, and 354-355)

Certain type or design can convey a mood or an emotion.  Things can be perceived as cold, stark, inviting, interesting, eye-catching, or romantic. Personally, I can have a visceral reaction to certain type or layout.  If I don’t like it, again, I won’t take the time to read it.  Or, in the case of a product, I won’t buy it.  If the type or design is pleasing, I’ll take the time to read, observe or purchase.  Such is the power of typography and graphic design!

Sources cited:
1. Meggs, Philip B. and Alston W. Purvis. “Meggs’ History of Graphic Design, Fourth Edition.” Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2006:   pp. 2-3, 62-63,132-133, 246-247, and 354-355.
2. Samara, Timothy. “Design Elements: A Graphic Style Manual.” Beverly, MA: Rockport Publishers, 2007: pp. 9, 19. 
3. Samara, Timothy. “Typography Workbook.” Beverly, MA: Rockport Publishers, 2004: p. 6.