4/14 Post Modern

high culture vs the low culture
media controls
civil unrest
fighting against the idea of
racial unrest
cultural influences
music style
Victor Moscoso
Wes Wilson
postmodernism
fashion
music
push pin studios
are you experienced
New waver typography
Wolfgang Weinhart
counter culture
layering information
playfulness
diagonal type
paint boxes
illusion of depth
End of originality
Art can be repetitious
reversal of imagery
see text_ read image
David Carson


A whole bunch of craziness is going on.Visual communication was being plastered all over the place. Foundations of individualism and consumerism. Looked at models of music and design for direction. During this period alternate publications came out many of which including cartoons. A whole range of communities came together around certain magazines. Clear opposition to Swiss design. Breaking hold of international style that originated in Basel where it was first established. Found it kinda funny that European where looking over to America for social trends.

Wolfgang Weingart rejected the right angle and was breaking away from traditional means. Furniture and architecture was receiving the playful and intuitive approach. He was also the first to use the first MAC in 1984.
I kinda think that the idea of end of originality is sad. We've reached a point where there is no more creative process. Given up and use this "pool' to create imagery.
David Carson likes to rile things up a bit a bit in the design community. He had a complete disregard for functionality and goes against everything. Takes this I'm not trained view creating the question what as graphic designers do we do. We are living during this time and its sorta of crazy. There has to be originality somewhere, I don't believe in this pool and the like. Lets see what happens

Discourse

Already wrote two of them
Previous date:3/3
Name of article: The New Activism
Alfredo rivera

Swiss 4/7

poster still viable medium
josef muller brockman
objective symbol
swiss
shifting of line
paul rand
IBM logo
saul bass production broadcast designers.
branding comes into fashion
Vignelli
visual communicator
Wit, surrealism, modern european design
george lois
conceptual ideas
its what you see
beware of your culture
overlapping elements

changed the editorial content of the magazine
graphic design gets huge boost and a culture is built around it. rebranding across major companies.

This lecture touch base on a couple of things starting with swiss design. Its the 60's and Brockman is at the forefront of this international movement of swiss design. Math,grids, ratios and the like where being used to create pieces of art. The book grid systems is an example of this. Josef Muller Brockman starts to deal with image as an objective symbol and his Der Film posters showcase this very well. With regards to the his music posters its is this very conceptual idea with the shifting of lines to create structural harmony of music. I liked this part a lot because one of the areas that i want to excel in as a graphic designer is being able to work with music well. Interpreting and creating my own vision when i hear music. The approach taken by Brockman is exciting. Swiss design continues to be a constant influence on american design.
Another great idea that I liked from this lecture was that in the 50's everything was starting to get rebranded. "good design is good business" Companies starting realizing the power of a brand and identity which gave graphic designers jobs. I'm excited to jump into industry as it seems to be constantly evolving. Corporate design and the like grew during this time period.

consistency of placement
double page spread
visual unit
Herbert bayer
capitalistic attitudes values
lester beal self taught
playful puns
paul rand
alexey brodovitch
lower light
editorial deisgn
age of information
isotype
emblematic elements
Anton stankowski illustration swish practice
Hass Grotesk

Ah so the information age is upon us. We begin to see a pictorial language begin to emerge that
is used for communicating information. This type of style drew from early Plakastil and engineering techniques implementing the use of rational and systematic ways. Around this time we see Ladislav Sutnar develop a philosophy towards structuring text. We begin to see the double page spread become a visual unit. This is very exciting, graphic design is constantly evolving into this amazing beast. Sutnar brings talks about certain principles that designers should be aware of such as visual continuity, simplicity, and optical interest. I recently have begun messing around with info graphics and seeing how they are made, its stunning to see how see how it all came together.

Four laws of media

Almost everyone these days has a digital SLR camera of some sort or knows where they can at least borrow one. It can be used to read
light and capture moments in time. The camera enhances the human eye and allows us to zoom in and pick up great detail
that our eyes just cant see. We can stop time and be able to examine that one point and everything that was going on in that picture.
This new type of camera replaces old film cameras that need various different chemicals and environments to produce a picture.
Digital SLR cameras replaced film cameras that needed to be loaded and wound. The beginnings of the camera came from a box set up
to project images on a screen. It was called camera obscura. The use of film in cameras is dying with each passing day. Digital SLRs have
have completely taken over the photo world. This creates a small pocket of people that still cherish the use of film and hold it close to there hearts
as they are reluctant to let go. Its a dying art form which is sad because so much can be done with film and its alternate processes.
Digital SLRs enhances film by making it easy to use and produce photographs. It helps document scenes and environments for others to see.
This actually ties into writing and painting. In order to tell stories or create imagery people would write stories or paint to convey the message that
they believed in. Now with cameras you can instantly capture a moment of any given time with very little effort. Story telling has just been enhanced
greatly through the use of SLRs
With the easy access and learning curve of cameras anyone can use them. Which can be dangerous and used to spy on people. With cameras
being so instant you can snap a picture and keep it forever. If makes it easy for some one to creep on unsuspecting people. The fact that it is also
digital means that the picture that was just taken can be distributed to the entire world in under 5 minutes. Someone can upload the photo and send it
and once it is online its gone. This happens all the time when photos are published without the consent of the person in the photos or family members
associated with the photos. In 2007 a young girl was driving her fathers car and ended up crashing and dying on impact. The photos from the crash
quickly spread through out the internet without the consent of the family. They had to be reminded of the horrible day they lost a family member and
up till this day are still dealing with getting the pictures removed.
In conclusion the camera is a very powerful device. Its easy to learn how to use and even easier to distribute what you have created. The positives
are that it allows us to stop time and capture moments that we would miss. It provides a way to record time and further examine a specific point in time.
Being digital also allows us to easily share the photos and send them across the world if we wanted to. These laws are important because it breaks up the
object to its simplest form and allows us to see the impact that it has on humanity. The negative effects of SLRs is what I was talking about before. It destroys
privacy and allows people to easily breach that trust. The camera is a powerful device that will only continue to evolve.

dutch modernism
Futura = modernist typeface
mobility and leisure
posters became larger
war efforts
Paul Shometema
overprinting
Zwart means Black
Art deco inspired by Futurist
Herbert Matter
AM Cassandre

Why must designers be so indecisive. Everyone is trying follow a a certain movement or be part of something bigger. We see some work during the WW2 era which i enjoyed because you can see how the use the propoganda to influence people.Destruction of national symbols was a a huge way to get messages across. We as designers should be aware that our work is going to be seen by all and that it will get some brain waves moving. Art during war is awesome. Its cool to see how each side dealt with its own agenda through art.

Discourse 3/3

The New Activism
We are not cool
Cool used to mean "unique" until marketers grabbed a hold of it and reversed its meaning
Growing band of people who have given up on the American dream.
We do all the right things with the environment. But still in decline.
Instead of resisting this kind of fundamental change, lets embrace it.
Unmistakable stamp of america. Hair by Paul Mtchell. Khakis by the gap. Car by BMW. attitude by Nike.
Its cool to rebel but alot of people are bsing it
We think we're buying anarchy when we are actaully just buying corporate crafted conformity.

This was a great read. I felt right at home at agreed with everything that was said. The pictures that I choose go hand in hand with this read. People these days are obsessed with fitting in and being part of a crowd where they let it cloud what actually is going on. The new image of cool is about being a rebel but its all marketed. We fall for these false pretenses and don't do anything about it. Back in the day is when things got done now a days its about social networking sites and talking the talk but not walking the walk. We talk about change that we want to happen but nothing gets done. Dressing fancy and having gelled hair and being a pretty person is what is in now. There is no more unique its all a blur. Its all fake and something needs to change.

Rage
rage drives revolutions.
when it springs from from personal frustration.
It get shits fixed.
Complicit to whats going on around you.
psycho rage spikes when you realize you're trapped in a carnival of staged event.
Why are we so docile and obedient.
Once in a while rage comes up and and you feel like there needs to be a change but the moment will pass and you'll be in the same.

This was also a great read. Us humans tend to not embrace change. We like routine and are content with the way things are. If something is bothering you chances are it will be like that for a while till you do something about it. We let this rage build inside us and do nothing about it.











Routine keeps us from evolving and being actual people. Nothing will get done if you sit in front of screens for hours on end. You may think about changing the oil in the car or calling the plumber but ehh whatever you can always do it later. Break routine change some stuff and the revolution that needs to occur will eventually come.

2/24 Bauhaus

Abstract forms

Polar axis

Fundamental opposites shaping the world

New typography

horizontal/Vertical lines

asymmetrical equilibrium

same philosophy used in 2d was translated to 3d

art could be used to changed society

apprentice master

Functional needs

Red closest to black in regards to dominance

strongly influenced by expressionism

rejected rationalism

Today we went touched a couple of topics which included the De Stijl, Bauhaus school, and Moholy Nagy. De stijl was started in the same year as the Russian revolution. This movement focused on the spiritual and intellectual of their work. The De Stijl movement shared the same goals as malevich and the suprematists.
The Bauhaus was a school that was way ahed of time. Very few people understood it and this caused some controversy to occur. It was the the model for most art schools in the 20th century. It had two locations in weimar and dessau. The prelimenary course was run by itten. moholoy nagy is considered a bauhaus master. Heavily influenced by Lisstizky. Photoplastics also came into play around this time. It expanded the role of photography in design context. Moholy nagy crated a workshop in 1925 called typophoto. New materials such as kinecic motion and light we're starting to be used. The Bauhaus did a bunch of different things that usually did not occur. They had 150 students half of which where girls which was not seen before. They where limited to textiles, book binding, and ceramics. One of the main focuses at one point was acrhitecture where they used horizontal and vertical lines to create buildlings. They focused on removing clutter and making space. The Bauhaus played a huge role in graphic design. We saw a lot of different things come out of this school. The teaching style is tha of master and apprentice which was also rarely seen. This paved the way for future art and design schools. I think its interesting to see where some of these teaching methods occured

Feb 17th, Suprematism/Constructivism

Suprematism
Constructivism
atmospheric
strength
force
corporate communication
grand communication
bold letterform
mechanized
collage
point of view
industrial fabrication
diagonals
film in the context of a book



Here we see the beginning of two movements Russian suprematism and constructivism. Suprematism was centered around pure form and color and was meant to be metaphysical in nature. This new movement with modern graphic design helps establish geometric structure and where the art experience was obtained by abstraction. The constructivist began to emerge around 1917 and where focused with the role of art in a revolution. The use of montage and collage where used for grand communication. Around the 1920's is where things get interesting where we see an ideological split with Malevich and Kandinsky insisting that art must remain spiritual where, Rodchenko and others that swore by perfection through control. Photographs play a large role her to keep pushing the idea of grand communication. The whole process was mechanized. Flipped text to show strength and force. Photos at this point where also used to create myth through point of view, macro/micro, and collage. This is where photos start to get really pushed. They create this sort of atmosphere that illustrations just couldn't achieve. Images where used in repetition to make a certain point. This is a pivotal point in graphic design.

Reduction
Formal structure
juxtaposition
trademark association
building a brand
WW2
futurism
typographic materiality
movement
motion
propaganda art
automatism

This is what i've been waiting to learn about. Poster art comes around, that creates this whole sort of movement. One of the main ways to help communicate ideas. We see Lucian Bernhard an early pioneer who focused on reduction of iconicity. We as designers tend to want to over design, we have to learn to step back from our work and stop from over working it. More is not always better. Bernhard applies synthetic cubism/ symbolic naturalism to create this work made up of shape and sign.
We also see the modern poster evolve into a whole new level. They begin to be used as propoganda during the World Wars. Through this they where able to create fear and uncertainty in the audience which helped persuade for the war.This helped boost morale, recruit, and even hepled raise money This brings up an idea that we must be aware that the work we create will be read by people. The messages that we convey will hopefully persuade people and make them think. This can affect people greatly and to what extent will our message be good? Can it also be used for evil? I also liked the futurists they helped create a whole slew of things that helped change the way we use type today.

Every part of type being manufactured
Emphemera
Drawn by hand
Birth of editorial design
Bigger,better, ornate
Huge machines
Mass produced
Sufferage

I enjoyed this section because it began to move more into the 19th century as graphic design started to pick up. With the invention of new technology comes new ways to produce type. Mass production comes around and we see the birth of editorial design. Everyone was having to adapt to the new technology and learn how to design with it. This brings up a key issue in our times today. Technology is constantly changing and as we study in school the programs and techniques we learn today will be a thing of the past when graduate. It is up to us to keep up with the current technology and learn to adapt so we can design more effectively today.

Unit 1 HistryGic

Key points
-Chinese dominated and had great contributions to the west
- Pictures used first to communicate
- Cuneiform helped with the idea of writing
- Writing based on pictographs "hieroglyphs"
-Chinese movable type
-J and V got no love till the 17th century
-Rustic and square capitals
- 15th century movable type is in
-With alphabets information can be spread easily
- Psalter in latin was the first to be in color.

Its interesting to see the development and beginnings of type. Our words evolved from pictures or "ideographs" which
where used to represent concepts. Through this early cultures were able to start a way to communicate with each other.
This also helped bring about human speech. 5000 BC Egyptian writing appears. Writing caused all sorts of changes.
Laws where written, which helped balance out society at the time. The Egyptians started it with the words and the Romans
rolled with it. The fact that the chinese where the first to invent relief printing, movable type, and the formula for creating paper
is just funny. The West always has to flaunt its accomplishments, and be the first to do everything. In this case the chinese
had been dealing with these sorts of things way before Gutenburg was around. The Greeks as always came in took
something and turned it into their own. Turned the phoenician alphabet into a more geometric and structured system. This first
unit showed me that the evolution of type was ideas bouncing of each other and adding or taking away to systems that where in place.
This goes to show that maybe we must work together to keep art evolving. Or just do it by yourself and make it better