by victoria | Sep 24, 2012 | design methodologies
Much to be considered when it comes to design education. There seems to be a divide in what is important in early design education, perhaps that found in a one or two-year program. Industry wants people who have skills. Government agencies want students to graduate with the ability to pay back student loans. Jobs posted have a myriad of demands and qualifications. Clearly the learning never ends and the skills add as time goes by. Because of the economies down turn designers do a multitude of tasks that may have been done by several. As a lead instructor of a design department at community college level the task of revising curriculum is not easy. How do we prepare the student who is heading off to a four-year college and at the same time prepare a student for a job in the industry. Some community colleges get the students right onto the computer and therefore more software experience in two years. Others have a foundation in the arts which promotes an understanding of form and function, yet may not be heavy enough on time to learn complex software programs. The tip of the iceberg we always say, while trying to pack perhaps too much into 15 weeks. The next few months in class and beyond these are issues I will be researching. Looking for holes in programs and expanding my knowledge of the field, with a focus on education. The questions are bouncing around interrupting sleep. The next few days we begin organizing research and mapping out ideas. This promises to rein in thoughts which scatter like horses when the field gate opens....
by victoria | Sep 24, 2012 | design methodologies
First came across Jessica Helfand in an earlier design class which focused on design thinking and theory. Her essay, Dematerialization of Screen Space really got me thinking about in the internet and media. Helfand states in reference to the amazing capabilities of the internet, “But we are also prisoners: trapped in a medium in which visual expression must filter through a protocol of uncompromising programming scripts…” [1] As someone who always professed to not understand anything related to math (misguided self thinking), and pre-computer-in-every-classroom designer, the web terrified me. In the essay from 2007 Helfand speaks to the dichotomy of instant authorship that goes out to an infinite number of people. She is curious about the quality of information and design on the web. Does the experience leave us with lasting impressions. Are we using the web to its fullest capabilities. Helfand is convinced that now is the time for a new Avant-Garde in New Media. Yet we are help back by a two-dimensional approach to the web. She states, “…the illusion that Internet space is made up of pages, of words, of flat screens. Why is it that design thinking remains so brainwashed by this notion.” She continues by adding that internet space is its own galaxy, emphatically that this galaxy is “by no means flat.” [1] This particular essay found in Graphic Design Theory, Reading from the Field, was my introduction to Helfand, a pioneer in the field of design for the internet. Excited about the possibilities Helfand is encouraging in the design world, I began reading up about her work. Her studio Winterhouse, is home base...
by victoria | Sep 15, 2012 | design methodologies
Hugh Dubberly talks about the shift in design that is occurring at this time in history. In a similar fashion to the entry of the industrial age we have now shifted into the information age. What does this mean to the designer? Dubberly begins the article by discussing the shift from mechanical ethos to that of an organic ethos. In the technical mechanical ethos age – we become reliant on machinery and technology. Perhaps too much so. Technology keeps changing the way we live, communicate, how we perform our work and how we design. We have placed a great deal of emphasis on the tools of design. Trying to place graduates has led to the act of beefing up tangible workplace skills – predominantly software that gives voice to the design. Couple the emphasis on software as design with the availability of anyone to have and use software the field has found itself in need of rejuvenation. An infusion of purpose beyond the artifact. Technology remains necessary. Dubberly states this, “But computer-as-production-tool is only half the story; the other half is computer-plus-network-as-media.” [1] He goes on to say that the output of design is changing the way that we view the practice of design. Dubberly’s description of networking, process flow and information processing brings to mind the blood system of humans. Dubberly draws this contrast, “The eras are framed as stark dichotomies to characterize the nature of changes. But experience is typically more fluid, lying along a continuum somewhere between extremes.” [1] He even talks about how we refer to instances of computer malfunctions as bugs, attacks as viruses, and so forth. Notice a trend in the language? What is this...
by victoria | Sep 13, 2012 | design methodologies
Once upon a time I wrote an essay on my interpretation of graphic design. Who knew at the time that the essay would take me down some pretty dark paths in the weeks that followed, learning much about myself and facing some hard truths along the way. One thing gleaned was that if there is a less complex route, you won’t find me taking it. In the months that follow I will aim for clarity and less complication in my thinking and methodology. This is a simplified version of my thoughts on graphic design. Graphic design is a term for a much larger field of jobs and skill sets. These jobs and skill sets depend on the outcome desired or the talent of the individual. This leads me to the statement that graphic design is a field in which a variety of creative types visually communicate a message. Designers provide a service. Many factors plague and bless the field today which is causing great change. We are emerging and colliding through technology and a shared global voice. The field of graphic design is evolving in exciting new ways which include a return to traditional methods, embracing new technologies, clear communication and design ethos. As an educator, this conversation has great meaning and depth. As someone also learning and growing in the field I am in the thick of design. It is more than a job, it is a passion that most of us share. We get off on creating. Graphic designers might build web pages, create and animate characters, speed paint scenery for a movie, render a 3D walk through, edit and create videos, write...
by vshepherd | Aug 19, 2012 | typography
Last year the student AIGA group from Specs Howard School of Media Arts, and I took a field trip to the Russell Industrial Center in Detroit. We had the privilege of meeting Mark Arminski. Arminski a local Detroit artist who bridged the gap between the psychedelic 60’s and grudge of the 90’s. Arminski is an artist who works traditionally, painting or screening concert posters and whatever commissions he receives. He has done advertising work for large corporations, including liquor and cigarettes yet the concert poster is what he is most known for. Mark was very inspiring and warm, he welcomed the group in and said come back any time. The students were thrilled to here him talk about his design concept of painting and hand lettering, which he felt gave him the most freedom to shape the communication. In an interview Arminski talks about the ability for many people to create art because of the internet, and the ability to reach a far greater audience. As well as the open ability to sell art, that without the internet artists would be creating with a limited market. [1] While Arminski recognizes some of the merits of working with the computer, his work is done by hand. He exudes creation in whatever form grabs his attention. The first image is a poster, and the second a snippet of an oil painting he was working on the day we visited. http://insidetherockposter.highwire.com/product/black-crowes-1996-mark-arminski-uncut-poster-sheet-handbills-signed http://www.arminski.com/shop/my-dream/ Another Motown designer who later transplanted to teach at Cal Arts is Ed Fella. Fella is well-known for his explosion of self-expression in the 1980s when much of the design...
by vshepherd | Aug 11, 2012 | typography
As a kid growing up my boundaries were outlined by four streets, Newburg, Cherry Hill, Wayne and Palmer. Many streets dead ended at the woods, Wayne road held Norman’s market, were one dollar meant a weeks candy stash. As a teen a walk around the block meant a four hike, each intersection located a mile apart on the country road. Directions were easy because each road was one mile in all directions. Never gave this much thought until stumbling upon Holly Holzschlag, Thinking Outside The Grid article. Holzschlag recounts flying over cities and looking down on the city footprints. She tells us that Tucson was a planned city built on an orderly grid system. Whereas London, the city she compares Tucson with, is built in a spontaneous fashion. [1] It is also a much older city, growing organically through the centuries. Looking at these maps one can see how the structure of the orderly gird system is easy to navigate, even dependable. However, the trip can become a little monotonous. Driving around Detroit, built with a central district and circling out into the grid can be exciting as roads wrap and wind around the cities top attractions and business district. However it is also easy to get lost. Successful print and web designs are based on a grid system. The grid is an invisible foundation that helps the designer align the elements on the page/spread. Common grid systems are the Fibonacci Systems, the rule of thirds and a modular system. The modular is often thought to be the most flexible. Ellen Lupton, Thinking With Type, says this about the...
by vshepherd | Jul 23, 2012 | typography
Neville Brody, a London-based designer, began to breaking rules and informing design trends in the 1980s. Brody felt that art had lost its human-ess. While an art student, this consideration played on his deciding whether to do design or art. He wondered “why can’t you take a painterly approach within the printed medium.” (Meggs, 479-80) It was an expression of emotive art which Brody was aiming – the ability to not hold back in design. This was in response to the International style that had been in vogue. The International Style was based on the grid and clean communicative message where the authorship of the designer was reduced in favor of a universal message. http://megsmcg.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/va12cvwe.jpg Because Brody never learned proper typographic techniques, his designs were developed through his own experimentation. (Meggs, 481) Early on with his work for FACE magazine (English) his ability to demonstrate deeper meaning in his layouts. The use of repeated elements, contrast and the use of glyphs as graphic elements all work to create a hierarchy of interest and meaning. http://lisathatcher.wordpress.com/2012/01/14/neville-brody-a-type-of-art/ Nike ad Brody has a fearless approach to design. He states in an interview for The Architectural Review, “For there are, he says – in typography as in other things – no real rules; what we habitually regard as rules are really just assumptions too often unexamined.” (Farrelly 11 March 2011) In 2010 Brody attempted to unlock “unlock creative fires and ideas” by holding an Anti Design Festival. This was in response to what he deemed as “25 years of cultural deep freeze.” In addition to his independent works and lectures, he works with...
by vshepherd | Jul 14, 2012 | typography
Craig Mod, in his lecture Designing for the Future Book talks of his love of the own-able tactile qualities of the book. He begins is talk of an experience while traveling, of both he and his companion, both opening back packs and pulling out the same book in a romantic and completely random coincidence. Pulling out Kindles he contends would not have the same romanticism. He feels that books are bounded and digital books boundless. That the bounded tangible book feels familiar to us. Largely his talk is about the in between time in technology where books begin to look like books on digital readers. He also shows us the DynaBook sketched by Alan Kay in 1968 which looks very similar to hand held readers today. The one in the image is a cardboard prototype. For more on Craig Mod http://craigmod.com/ One of the concerns of the digital book is the lose of, or marginalized, the cover. Another is the typography. Joe Clark, in his post for A List Apart, declares “The internet did not replace television, which did not replace cinema, which did not replace books. E-books aren’t going to replace books either. E-books are books, merely with a different form.” This I find encouraging because while we must embrace the future – I still want to hold my book, have it fall on my face as I drift into sleep, aline my book shelves. Yet we can only carry so many books with us, and so with technology I will move forward. Eventually. Joe Clark offers that many of the fine details of typesetting will be handled...
by vshepherd | Jul 1, 2012 | typography
Much of the feedback received pertained to the use of negative space to surround the word ONE and the ability to flip the black and white for a variety of uses. Most felt that the negative space made the logo stand out as well as the use of a simple typeface and color scheme which made the typography emotionally appropriate. This example shows a clever use of negative space in a logo for a guitar store. Visually the “T” first stood out. Looking closer I realized it was actually two guitar necks and a shape that formed the “T.” Certainly a guitar player, the target audience, would have discerned the guitar shape immediately. Mark Boulton in A List Apart, discusses the use of micro and macro white space. He references Erik Spiekermann’s redesign of The Economist, allowing for better readability through the use of whitespace. Boulton states this, “adding more whitespace to the individual characters. He then set the type slightly smaller and with more leading. All these changes added micro white space to the design. The overall result was subtle…” Macro whitespace would be space between major elements and micro whitespace – the space between characters or words. Boulton suggests that whitespace which leads the reader from element to element is considered active whitespace. Passive whitespace then is the space that allows for compositional harmony. In Typographic Design: Form and Communication, Amos Chang regarding space to define form states, “. . . it is the existence of intangible elements, the negative, in architectonic forms which makes them come alive, become human, naturally harmonize with each one another, and...
by vshepherd | Jun 25, 2012 | typography
. ONE International Organization Rally sign, welcome page for website and t-shirt for ONE International organization. A diverse grassroots organization that began when several groups found a common goal, merged together to eradicate poverty and aids around the world. [1] Bono is perhaps the most well-known spokesperson for ONE, he is also a founder. ONE first caught my attention through another form of communication – design, with its (red) campaign. Selling t-shirts, bracelets, jewelry as well as special edition Converse shoes. ONE concerns itself with advocacy and works closely with policy leaders around the world, predominantly Africa. With 3,000,000 members around the world major accomplishments have been realized. A partial list of accomplishments: •Additional 450 million for debt relief for Haiti following a devastating earthquake •provide life saving medicines to roughly 4 million Africans •create 300,000 jobs and promote exportation out of Africa [3] Issues ONE is working on: •AIDS/HIV and diseases •poverty •agriculture •debt cancellation •climate •water and sanitation •education •development assistance •trade [4] Reflection of the typography used in the organization, particularly the logo. The logo itself often reversed in a black circle is very strong. ONE is set in a bold, simple typeface. It appears to be condensed with a very narrow counter. The negative space doesn’t intrude deeply into the letterform which helps the logo standout against the black. When done in red with the parenthesis surrounding the word (one) the typography becomes a message of inclusion – we are all one nestled into the brackets. The website is very clean often one in black, white and shades of gray. The current page is...
