more stuff to talk about: you have it all there, on our blog's right hand side (of published posts, from your turn #7, up to "what's in a logo" post).
go ahead. & please, make your comment meaningful.
15 comments:
Anonymous
said...
I became interested in the overall Swiss design ethos. I was primarily interested in how intentional Swiss design looks, despite designers stripping a lot of their work of their own creative sensibilities. The point of Swiss design is to allow the content to shine: the photography, the information, the colors. I find this beautiful. Swiss design and typography has a remarkable structure about it, while simultaneously allowing movement to flow throughout a piece. Allowing content to shine, space to breathe (using negative space to a design’s advantage), and maintaining an overall visual balance are key to the Swiss style. It is a simple recipe that is also effective and classic, yielding strong design and typographic treatments. In this case, form follows function and I appreciate it greatly.
I found the Surrealism movement to be very interesting how the artists wanted to use their work to represent the subconscious. I was very intrigued by how the artists create dreamlike work and how the art is not bound to the confines of reality. I also was interested in how artists took consciousness-altering drugs in order to get in the proper headspace to create their work. I wonder if this was looked down upon at the time and if the artists who used drugs to create work were viewed as less authentic or if their work was seen as even more impressive due to its nature. It's fascinating to me that the artists but in deeper meanings of their repressed trauma and other aspects of the subconscious into their works and how each artists work likely had meaning that was extremely deep to them and cannot be interpreted by most people viewing the art.
After discussing surrealism last week I took some time to learn a little bit more about it impact in early 1900's art. Surrealism is all about allowing the unconscious mind to express itself. Its goal was to "resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality into an absolute reality, a super-reality". In the early 1900's it was utilized as a tool to speak out against communism and anarchism. Not only did this movement impact the visual arts, but it also impacted the literature, film, and music of many countries during that time.
I believe that the power that logos have on the public is really interesting. I find it greatly impressive when a brand is able to have the consumer associate their logo/brand with the product. This helps customer loyalty by drawing in the customer due to the appearance of the logo and packaging. For example, the ketchup brand Heinz did a national survey where they asked participants to simply draw a ketchup bottle. Almost all of the responses were ketchup bottles drawn with the Heinz logo. This shows that to the public, Heinz is immediately associated with ketchup making it the most popular brand. Making sure that a company has an impactful and relevant logo to their brand is one of the key aspects of increasing customer acquisition and as I mentioned earlier customer loyalty.
Some of Norman Rockwell’s works that were portrayed in the Saturday Evening Post covers were definitely a more optimistic and lighthearted view of life in America, which I could see how it would lead critics to not take his work seriously as many works come off as whimsical. However, because he lived through such a tumultuous yet formative generation of America, he also worked on oil paintings on the topics of the great depression, civil rights movement, and multiple wars. This other side of Normal Rockwell could be well demonstrated by a series of four oil paintings he did called “The Four Freedoms”. These paintings were inspired by Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s postwar vision of a world with freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from fear, and freedom from want. The identically named paintings while still retaining his style depicted these visions in a manner that spoke to many people. They were so popular that posters of the paintings were included in an exhibition to sell war bonds and stamps which made 133 million dollars.
I was very intrigued by Leonora Carrington after our discussion last class, and felt very compelled to do further research into her work and life. While Carrington was a major contributor to the surrealist movement at the time, I believe that the content and nature of her work differentiates her from other artists of the time. Much of Carrington’s work focuses on the lines that divide human, animal, and the otherworldly creatures in between. She uses these themes of self perception to metamorphosize her view of female sexuality and female anatomy. She differs from many male artists of the time in this perception, who derived female sexuality from the harsh distortion, seemingly abuse of female figures. Women were the object of paintings and desire, but could not embody this art through self actualization. Carrington expressed female sexuality as she experienced it, entwining it with her sense of self and the reality of life as a woman in the 1930s. While her work may seem fantastical and completely absurd, I think there is raw truth and loyalty to her feelings beneath the surface that resonates with me heavily.
What caught my attention from the lecture and the blog were the importance of logos and their prevalence in our everyday life. I am a graphic design major and have designed a fair number of logos within the past few years. The four key elements of veracity, worth, management, novelty, and permanence are all hit words for logos and their design. I think the most important words out of these are management and permanence. The logo must be widely used across the brands' products and style, so if it cannot be flexible or adaptable then it will fail. Also, it must be remembered within its own setting and habitat and outside of its own setting. One logo that comes to mind is the Gucci logo. People creating a logo will always refer to the Gucci logo as inspiration because of how successfully it has fulfilled each of those elements. Simple, flexible, and stands out no matter the location or setting it is used within.
Something I found interesting last class was the artist, Alvin Lustig. He did all types of work such as graphic design, architecture, and interior design but he is mainly known for being a graphic designer. He started his own business for printing and graphic design in Los Angeles. His work combined technology and creativity to make all kinds of different pieces. His use of geometric designs is something that caught the eyes of the public and inspired other artists to use his ideas in their own art. His advertising and brand drew ideas from modernist influences. When working with Lustig he believed he needed to be part of the entire design process from small details such as the business card to the whole building itself.
The booming production of propaganda during World War 2 really captured my eye as many of the posters from every country has such a specific way of getting the intended message out to the public. Some propaganda came as posters while others took the form of cartoons and movies. A large majority of the German propaganda during WW2 was created with the infamous Joseph Goebbels leading the efforts. He aimed to light a fire in the hearts of Germans over their loss in WW1 and played a large hand in creating a suitable environment for many of the horrid atrocities to occur to the persecuted people of Germany. Along with posters came radio broadcasts led by Winston Churchill to break down the enemy’s spirit. This also included the use of subversive messages through “black propaganda” or postcards and leaflets dropped behind enemy lines.
An aspect of the last lecture that was interesting to me was when the idea that logos came from ideograms was mentioned. The most successful logos have notably been very simple for centuries. For example, the McDonald's and Amazon.com logos. Logos do have to be simple in order to get a direct message out to a multitude of populations so that everyone will be able to see it and understand the company behind the design itself. Designing a logo is a process that can either result in less amounts of commerce or make a company flourish even more. The person who is designing the logo has to know how to represent the company in the most simple but effective way and this takes a lot of knowledge, creativity, and skill. A lot goes into creating logos but these factors are essential in creating something that can stand out from the rest.
After researching logos a bit, I have a better grasp at what goes into designing one. A logo is more than just an image. A logo says something about a company's history, values, or personality. When designing one, the colors, font, and type of design you use all have a psychological impact on your potential/existing customers. For example, I looked into a study by Harvard Business Review about symmetry in logos. People tend to perceive symmetrical shapes as more attractive in comparison to asymmetrical one. The researchers conducted an analysis on 423 major brands and 95% of them had logos that were perceived as symmetrical. The study later on went to investigate whether symmetry in logos could backfire and harm brand equity because may be less stimulating and arousing (both visually and mentally) than asymmetrical ones. So, with this mindset, symmetrical logos would be associated with brands or companies that were less “exciting” which could harm their image and degrade the equity of brand. Think Mountain Dew or Burger King with their “exciting” logos versus the symmetrical ones of Target, McDonalds, or Chanel. Personally, I found that I was more familiar with the symmetrical logos because they are easier on the eye and more iconic. I also realized the more established brands tend to go for symmetrical logos which made my mind wander off to this weird place.
Burger King versus McDonalds. Burger King has been declining in revenue over the years and since its founding in 1953, lagged behind one main competitor in terms of revenue, McDonalds. I realized that Burger King’s logo changed drastically in 1999. It wasn’t symmetrical anymore. The colors were brighter, a bold blue was introduced, as well as warped text etc. It was exciting now. They rebranded, it was fresh and new. I think they wanted people to view them as more exciting, more innovative, and newer than McDonalds. Because I don’t think I see McDonalds changing their logo anytime soon and Burger King probably knew that too. I mean why would McDonalds possibly change its logo? They make bank and their yellow huge M logo is so iconic and recognized EVERYWHERE that it would probably backfire if they tried changing it.(Which they kind of did last year and it did backfire) Anyway, I think Burger King was tweaking out a bit about their revenue which is why they resorted to a new logo. After all, they knew McDonalds wouldn’t be able to change its own. Even though the McDonalds logo might not be as exciting as the new Burger King logo, it is still iconic. It’s symmetrical and boring but they still make bank and they are still number one so who cares.
Props for trying tho Burger King. (Btw i could get more into it. Wendy’s and this TikTok trend about logos also play parts in it)
One topic from the last lecture that I thought was interesting was Graphic design could be used to help associate designs with a music genre like Jazz. During the 1950s and 1960s, Jazz took on a much different form than Jazz that gets played today. However the core principles of Jazz remain almost unchanged and as such, many graphic designers still use certain design choices even today. Jazz albums from Graphic design perspectives can be identified by bold colors, candid photography or abstracted art, and perfectly placed typography. These elements blend to create a sense of the fluidity that is associated with Jazz. I found that specifically, many modern graphic designers look to the works of a single record label company for inspiration. The company was Blue Note and most Jazz albums for the past 60 years have borrowed elements of their design choices. Behind the Blue Note styles iconic look was the work of Reid Miles who was a graphic designer who became an art director. He is credited with over 500 album covers from 1950-1960 and his work lives on today such as portraits of President Obama and a recent Wu-Tang clan album. -Michael Wexler
One thing I found interesting about the last lecture was the importance of logos for a brand. A brand logo acts as a symbol pf identification and is essentially the building block for customers to recognize your brand. It establishes a bond between the customer and the brand by bringing a meaning without actually putting any words into it. A logo must gain relevance and credibility while aligning with your business model. One logo that sticks out to us and has definitely established itself through the years is the Mcdonald’s logo. From the colors to the typeface, this logo is recognizable around the world and is now known as the “golden arches.” Although it was proper branding that made Mcdonald’s so well known and such a large franchise, they definitely put thought into what went into their logo. For example, the color red is stimulating and is associated with being active. It also seems to increase heart rate which can potentially make someone hungry. The color yellow is associated with happiness and is also most visible in the daylight which captures peoples attention.
I was very interested in the public interest & public information designs we looked at a little warning about fires, syphilis, broadcast receivers, and more. Information design is defined as "defining, planning, and shaping of the contents of a message and the environments it is presented in with the intention of achieving particular objectives in relation to the needs of users," something we see not only in posters like we saw in class, but through many other mediums as well.
One of the most interesting examples of this is wayfinding in public places which can include the visual, audible, and tactile cues that lead us through unfamiliar cities and build our paths and experiences. As we navigate the world around us we are prompted and informed by graphic, architectural, and interior design on our journeys. A city planner spends painstaking hours laying out a community and we, in turn, see this art in the experience we have in that city and in the street maps, subway maps, or guides we use to navigate it. The Museum of Modern art had an exhibition in 1994 called "Mapping" which explored how maps and map imagery serve as sources and inspiration for contemporary artists. The curator of this exhibition, Robert Storr, said: "though a painter or sculptor may also enjoy that feeling of universal mastery, the particular opportunities maps provide visual artists—and their special appeal to modern sensibilities—result from their being the ultimate pictorial coincidence of exacting representation and total abstraction." This exhibition illuminated the beauty of informational art and created a bridge between plain maps to paintings and abstractions of those maps that could still be used to inform people. This is just one niche of informational art!
Dorothea Tanning’s work really caught my attention because of the dream and fantasy-like style she portrays in her work. I found her website to see more of her work and did not expect to see how much art (she was also a writer and sculptor) she completed during her six-decade career. Max Ernst took an interest in her after seeing her painting, Birthday, which he helped her finish and title. For the next few decades, they influenced each other, and if you look at both their work, you can see each of their styles combined to create eyecatching and weird pieces. When Ernst died in 1976, her work changed and developed a sad or mourning theme. Even after Ernst's death, he still influenced Tanning for nearly three more decades.
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15 comments:
I became interested in the overall Swiss design ethos. I was primarily interested in how intentional Swiss design looks, despite designers stripping a lot of their work of their own creative sensibilities. The point of Swiss design is to allow the content to shine: the photography, the information, the colors. I find this beautiful. Swiss design and typography has a remarkable structure about it, while simultaneously allowing movement to flow throughout a piece. Allowing content to shine, space to breathe (using negative space to a design’s advantage), and maintaining an overall visual balance are key to the Swiss style. It is a simple recipe that is also effective and classic, yielding strong design and typographic treatments. In this case, form follows function and I appreciate it greatly.
Melody Macias
I found the Surrealism movement to be very interesting how the artists wanted to use their work to represent the subconscious. I was very intrigued by how the artists create dreamlike work and how the art is not bound to the confines of reality. I also was interested in how artists took consciousness-altering drugs in order to get in the proper headspace to create their work. I wonder if this was looked down upon at the time and if the artists who used drugs to create work were viewed as less authentic or if their work was seen as even more impressive due to its nature. It's fascinating to me that the artists but in deeper meanings of their repressed trauma and other aspects of the subconscious into their works and how each artists work likely had meaning that was extremely deep to them and cannot be interpreted by most people viewing the art.
- AJ Christian
After discussing surrealism last week I took some time to learn a little bit more about it impact in early 1900's art. Surrealism is all about allowing the unconscious mind to express itself. Its goal was to "resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality into an absolute reality, a super-reality". In the early 1900's it was utilized as a tool to speak out against communism and anarchism. Not only did this movement impact the visual arts, but it also impacted the literature, film, and music of many countries during that time.
-Luke Shea
I believe that the power that logos have on the public is really interesting. I find it greatly impressive when a brand is able to have the consumer associate their logo/brand with the product. This helps customer loyalty by drawing in the customer due to the appearance of the logo and packaging. For example, the ketchup brand Heinz did a national survey where they asked participants to simply draw a ketchup bottle. Almost all of the responses were ketchup bottles drawn with the Heinz logo. This shows that to the public, Heinz is immediately associated with ketchup making it the most popular brand. Making sure that a company has an impactful and relevant logo to their brand is one of the key aspects of increasing customer acquisition and as I mentioned earlier customer loyalty.
Maggie Nusim
Some of Norman Rockwell’s works that were portrayed in the Saturday Evening Post covers were definitely a more optimistic and lighthearted view of life in America, which I could see how it would lead critics to not take his work seriously as many works come off as whimsical. However, because he lived through such a tumultuous yet formative generation of America, he also worked on oil paintings on the topics of the great depression, civil rights movement, and multiple wars. This other side of Normal Rockwell could be well demonstrated by a series of four oil paintings he did called “The Four Freedoms”. These paintings were inspired by Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s postwar vision of a world with freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from fear, and freedom from want. The identically named paintings while still retaining his style depicted these visions in a manner that spoke to many people. They were so popular that posters of the paintings were included in an exhibition to sell war bonds and stamps which made 133 million dollars.
Will Neugebauer
I was very intrigued by Leonora Carrington after our discussion last class, and felt very compelled to do further research into her work and life. While Carrington was a major contributor to the surrealist movement at the time, I believe that the content and nature of her work differentiates her from other artists of the time. Much of Carrington’s work focuses on the lines that divide human, animal, and the otherworldly creatures in between. She uses these themes of self perception to metamorphosize her view of female sexuality and female anatomy. She differs from many male artists of the time in this perception, who derived female sexuality from the harsh distortion, seemingly abuse of female figures. Women were the object of paintings and desire, but could not embody this art through self actualization. Carrington expressed female sexuality as she experienced it, entwining it with her sense of self and the reality of life as a woman in the 1930s. While her work may seem fantastical and completely absurd, I think there is raw truth and loyalty to her feelings beneath the surface that resonates with me heavily.
Sophie Amador
What caught my attention from the lecture and the blog were the importance of logos and their prevalence in our everyday life. I am a graphic design major and have designed a fair number of logos within the past few years. The four key elements of veracity, worth, management, novelty, and permanence are all hit words for logos and their design. I think the most important words out of these are management and permanence. The logo must be widely used across the brands' products and style, so if it cannot be flexible or adaptable then it will fail. Also, it must be remembered within its own setting and habitat and outside of its own setting. One logo that comes to mind is the Gucci logo. People creating a logo will always refer to the Gucci logo as inspiration because of how successfully it has fulfilled each of those elements. Simple, flexible, and stands out no matter the location or setting it is used within.
Marley Rubin
Something I found interesting last class was the artist, Alvin Lustig. He did all types of work such as graphic design, architecture, and interior design but he is mainly known for being a graphic designer. He started his own business for printing and graphic design in Los Angeles. His work combined technology and creativity to make all kinds of different pieces. His use of geometric designs is something that caught the eyes of the public and inspired other artists to use his ideas in their own art. His advertising and brand drew ideas from modernist influences. When working with Lustig he believed he needed to be part of the entire design process from small details such as the business card to the whole building itself.
Megan Alexander
The booming production of propaganda during World War 2 really captured my eye as many of the posters from every country has such a specific way of getting the intended message out to the public. Some propaganda came as posters while others took the form of cartoons and movies. A large majority of the German propaganda during WW2 was created with the infamous Joseph Goebbels leading the efforts. He aimed to light a fire in the hearts of Germans over their loss in WW1 and played a large hand in creating a suitable environment for many of the horrid atrocities to occur to the persecuted people of Germany. Along with posters came radio broadcasts led by Winston Churchill to break down the enemy’s spirit. This also included the use of subversive messages through “black propaganda” or postcards and leaflets dropped behind enemy lines.
Adeeb Ahmed
An aspect of the last lecture that was interesting to me was when the idea that logos came from ideograms was mentioned. The most successful logos have notably been very simple for centuries. For example, the McDonald's and Amazon.com logos. Logos do have to be simple in order to get a direct message out to a multitude of populations so that everyone will be able to see it and understand the company behind the design itself. Designing a logo is a process that can either result in less amounts of commerce or make a company flourish even more. The person who is designing the logo has to know how to represent the company in the most simple but effective way and this takes a lot of knowledge, creativity, and skill. A lot goes into creating logos but these factors are essential in creating something that can stand out from the rest.
Melanie Bergunker
After researching logos a bit, I have a better grasp at what goes into designing one. A logo is more than just an image. A logo says something about a company's history, values, or personality. When designing one, the colors, font, and type of design you use all have a psychological impact on your potential/existing customers. For example, I looked into a study by Harvard Business Review about symmetry in logos. People tend to perceive symmetrical shapes as more attractive in comparison to asymmetrical one. The researchers conducted an analysis on 423 major brands and 95% of them had logos that were perceived as symmetrical. The study later on went to investigate whether symmetry in logos could backfire and harm brand equity because may be less stimulating and arousing (both visually and mentally) than asymmetrical ones. So, with this mindset, symmetrical logos would be associated with brands or companies that were less “exciting” which could harm their image and degrade the equity of brand. Think Mountain Dew or Burger King with their “exciting” logos versus the symmetrical ones of Target, McDonalds, or Chanel. Personally, I found that I was more familiar with the symmetrical logos because they are easier on the eye and more iconic. I also realized the more established brands tend to go for symmetrical logos which made my mind wander off to this weird place.
Burger King versus McDonalds. Burger King has been declining in revenue over the years and since its founding in 1953, lagged behind one main competitor in terms of revenue, McDonalds. I realized that Burger King’s logo changed drastically in 1999. It wasn’t symmetrical anymore. The colors were brighter, a bold blue was introduced, as well as warped text etc. It was exciting now. They rebranded, it was fresh and new. I think they wanted people to view them as more exciting, more innovative, and newer than McDonalds. Because I don’t think I see McDonalds changing their logo anytime soon and Burger King probably knew that too. I mean why would McDonalds possibly change its logo? They make bank and their yellow huge M logo is so iconic and recognized EVERYWHERE that it would probably backfire if they tried changing it.(Which they kind of did last year and it did backfire) Anyway, I think Burger King was tweaking out a bit about their revenue which is why they resorted to a new logo. After all, they knew McDonalds wouldn’t be able to change its own. Even though the McDonalds logo might not be as exciting as the new Burger King logo, it is still iconic. It’s symmetrical and boring but they still make bank and they are still number one so who cares.
Props for trying tho Burger King. (Btw i could get more into it. Wendy’s and this TikTok trend about logos also play parts in it)
-naz usman
One topic from the last lecture that I thought was interesting was Graphic design could be used to help associate designs with a music genre like Jazz. During the 1950s and 1960s, Jazz took on a much different form than Jazz that gets played today. However the core principles of Jazz remain almost unchanged and as such, many graphic designers still use certain design choices even today. Jazz albums from Graphic design perspectives can be identified by bold colors, candid photography or abstracted art, and perfectly placed typography. These elements blend to create a sense of the fluidity that is associated with Jazz. I found that specifically, many modern graphic designers look to the works of a single record label company for inspiration. The company was Blue Note and most Jazz albums for the past 60 years have borrowed elements of their design choices. Behind the Blue Note styles iconic look was the work of Reid Miles who was a graphic designer who became an art director. He is credited with over 500 album covers from 1950-1960 and his work lives on today such as portraits of President Obama and a recent Wu-Tang clan album.
-Michael Wexler
One thing I found interesting about the last lecture was the importance of logos for a brand. A brand logo acts as a symbol pf identification and is essentially the building block for customers to recognize your brand. It establishes a bond between the customer and the brand by bringing a meaning without actually putting any words into it. A logo must gain relevance and credibility while aligning with your business model. One logo that sticks out to us and has definitely established itself through the years is the Mcdonald’s logo. From the colors to the typeface, this logo is recognizable around the world and is now known as the “golden arches.” Although it was proper branding that made Mcdonald’s so well known and such a large franchise, they definitely put thought into what went into their logo. For example, the color red is stimulating and is associated with being active. It also seems to increase heart rate which can potentially make someone hungry. The color yellow is associated with happiness and is also most visible in the daylight which captures peoples attention.
- Gianna de Landaburu
I was very interested in the public interest & public information designs we looked at a little warning about fires, syphilis, broadcast receivers, and more. Information design is defined as "defining, planning, and shaping of the contents of a message and the environments it is presented in with the intention of achieving particular objectives in relation to the needs of users," something we see not only in posters like we saw in class, but through many other mediums as well.
One of the most interesting examples of this is wayfinding in public places which can include the visual, audible, and tactile cues that lead us through unfamiliar cities and build our paths and experiences. As we navigate the world around us we are prompted and informed by graphic, architectural, and interior design on our journeys. A city planner spends painstaking hours laying out a community and we, in turn, see this art in the experience we have in that city and in the street maps, subway maps, or guides we use to navigate it. The Museum of Modern art had an exhibition in 1994 called "Mapping" which explored how maps and map imagery serve as sources and inspiration for contemporary artists. The curator of this exhibition, Robert Storr, said: "though a painter or sculptor may also enjoy that feeling of universal mastery, the particular opportunities maps provide visual artists—and their special appeal to modern sensibilities—result from their being the ultimate pictorial coincidence of exacting representation and total abstraction." This exhibition illuminated the beauty of informational art and created a bridge between plain maps to paintings and abstractions of those maps that could still be used to inform people. This is just one niche of informational art!
Julie Erhardt
Dorothea Tanning’s work really caught my attention because of the dream and fantasy-like style she portrays in her work. I found her website to see more of her work and did not expect to see how much art (she was also a writer and sculptor) she completed during her six-decade career. Max Ernst took an interest in her after seeing her painting, Birthday, which he helped her finish and title. For the next few decades, they influenced each other, and if you look at both their work, you can see each of their styles combined to create eyecatching and weird pieces. When Ernst died in 1976, her work changed and developed a sad or mourning theme. Even after Ernst's death, he still influenced Tanning for nearly three more decades.
Clarke Weddington
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