hi class, sorry, I'm posting this on Sunday. I won't close the comment box.
Neurath, Helvetica, Fukuda, Propaganda, Advertising, Saul Bass, the amazing Polish School, Punk, New Wave (April Greiman), Sussman, the 80s: Dunbar aesthetics, 80s' trends,
go ahead, plenty to talk about,
20 comments:
One of the themes from last week's lecture that I enjoyed was the power of simplicity. Shigeo Fukuda implements this in his designs, which convey "emotion, intuition, and illusion." The designs include mostly unmodulated color and some line work, but viewers can quickly and easily discern what they are looking at. I think that this is a good approach, especially with logo design and symbol design like that of Roger Cook and Don Shanosky's Symbol Signs. You want to send a message and communicate your brand or idea with the most simple, yet understandable and memorable design possible. I think this is why brands like Apple or McDonald's have great logos; they have beauty in their simplicity, and people remember them. Of course, this is also heavily dependent on the performance of the company, but having a simple, effective logo is a good start.
Andrew Dubinett
I thought it was interesting how we discussed artists having their windows of opportunity. There’s only so long that someone can be unconventional, pushing boundaries, or controversial. When we talked about sexy, you only get a small window to provoke people until it becomes expected and consumers become acclimated to it and your “low” “cheap” work loses its shine. The great artists continue to redefine what their art is and what makes it unique while still recognizable as their own style.
Mallory Harrington-Fei
The works by Norman Rockwell really caught my attention. To start off I’ve always loved Norman Rockwell’s art and style of art, but what I find incredibly interesting about his pieces are the kinds of emotions that are felt by his viewers. His art gives a sense of nostalgia that a lot of people tend to gravitate towards because it may remind them of a very happy or sad time of their life. Additionally, I really appreciate the way Rockwell incorporates social/political issues that might’ve not been talked about amongst the art community. Norman Rockwell was able to create scenes that are seemingly happy and positive, but once the viewer takes a closer look, the details will reveal aspects of daily life that people usually try to sweep under the rug and ignore.
Maggie Nusim
From the lecture, I wanted to talk further about Punk Design from the 70s. Jobs that I am extremely interested in and passionate about are working with music artists. I love seeing the album covers, the merch designs, the website designs for the music artists that I follow. Paula Scher is a very well known artist who worked a lot with record covers at the start of her career. These punk designs from the 70s remind me a lot of her work with music and type and composition. As well, the type reminds me of Barbara Kruger’s use of Helvetica and Futura within her own prints. I feel like all of these designs are timeless, and will constantly be reimagined and repurposed for many more years. As designers fluctuate from more modern designs to more maximalism designs, this style of typography over images to create a flow will remain at the forefront of music and art design.
Marley Rubin
One thing that I thought was cool about last class was the Polish graphic design. I really liked the movie posters specifically I found it really interesting how posters for popular United States movies looked nothing like what we're used to seeing. I also noticed how the posters usually followed the same color scheme of mainly black and dark red. I wonder if this has anything to do with the red of the Polish flag and if the artists were trying to show that unity of all being from the same place. I also found it cool how all the posters had dark undertones and even the light-hearted movies seemed menacing from the poster. I saw a poster of the Muppets movie that looked like a horror movie.
- AJ Christian
I enjoyed hearing your guided steps for when someone asks designers what they see here. The first step was to not look at the surface. I liked this because it emphasizes the importance of looking deeper into what you see. You also emphasized the importance of being unique in the sense that you do not parrot what everyone says. Something that you always say that sticks with me is “wearing the right glasses”. This allows the viewer to look at different perspectives and ideals at a given time/scenario. Lastly I liked the perspective that is something seems preposterous it's your preposterous.
-Luke Shea
What fascinated me from last class was the increase in Polish posters during World War II. The explosion of posters stemmed from the oppression they faced from the Russian government and their elimination of the freedom of expression. To get around this, the Polish people decided to use symbols and posters as a means of expression. This led to the increase of symbols and metaphors for surrealism, which is my favorite art form. The increase in these posters led to the rise of many famous Polish artists. My favorite of the bunch was Franciszek Starowieyski. His style was based on surreal monsters and consisted of graphic design and painting. His style seemed to be full of female figures, skulls, and calligraphy. His “Theater of Drawing” drawing was fascinating and very odd. His overall demonic style and lack of color drew my attention. He also heavily influenced architecture, which is fascinating to me given his art style and how different it was. He seems to be the most surreal of the bunch when it comes to fear-inducing paintings compared to the surrealism and usage of colors of the other artists of this time period.
John Wagner Dudzik
Something I found interesting from last class was the artist named April Greiman. She is an American designer who uses computer technology as a design tool. She is known for being one of the first designers to embrace this new computer technology. Some artists were quite skeptical about this new type of art, and some were completely opposed to it. But she saw the computer technology in a new light and realized its potential to become a design tool. She quickly took charge and made all types of different art pieces using this new medium. This inspired a new wave aesthetic design that artists began to use. This aesthetic introduced new way to typography that defied the strict based arrangement. The pieces could have varied type weights and inconsistent letterspacing. This inspired the artist community to be more creative with their work and use other methods.
Megan Alexander
One topic from the previous lecture I thought was cool was Neurath's contribution to graphic design through pictorial statistics. There is a school of thought that runs through most people who study statistics, which is that stats can be boring to read. Hence the use of many different visual graphs to display a variety of statistics now. In the beginning, Neurath started with basic representation of social statistics and information about populations. This evolved throughout the years to the point that any research paper presented today will include up to twenty different visual data representations. Data visualization is now a quintessential component of any design or project because so much information can be quickly conveyed with proper data display formats. The improvements to data visualizations has helped increase the scope of projects humans have been able to tackle.
-Michael Wexler
This week’s class was very fascinating to me as it correlated so well with an advertisement marketing class I had once taken in the past. The segment of last week’s lecture regarding the importance of logos and the amazing company designs that are a part of our everyday life brought to us by the creators at Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv. I was mainly fascinated by how they were able to replicate so many amazing logos for such vastly different brands and have them be so effective in carrying the company’s intended image or feelings to the consumer. Sagi Haviv mentioned he is able to create such great branding because he “boils things down to their absolute essence” which includes incorporating simplicity and distinctiveness, resulting in something that is unique and memorable but once again simple enough to be an appropriate identifier. Incorporating these factors as well as a plethora of others can set the difference for branding to not be labeled as editorial or information design.
Adeeb Ahmed
An aspect of the last lecture that was interesting to me was when the graphic design trends of the 1980s was mentioned. There was a series of movie posters that were relevant in those times. I noticed the trends used in these images were pictures of the movie actors playing their roles. This led me to recall the posters of years before the 1980s and how they used to be more abstract, simple, and or straightforward. In the images shown on the slide, however, it is more detailed with the background, composition, colors, and photography. It is not at all abstract in the slightest, which I believe is what made people decide to want to watch these films than rather having a poster of a solid color with words plastered on it. It seemed that companies really were aiming to promote their products in a bolder and unique way to get people to purchase their products.
Melanie Bergunker
During the last lecture, nothing was as eye-catching as the Lisa Frank unicorn design from when we discussed 1980s trends in graphic design. When one considers (more legit) famous artists like Van Gogh, Monet, Andy Warhol, or Georgia O'Keefe, thinking of their art conjures thoughts of a variety of works - while thinking of Lisa Frank makes you consider an incredibly specific aesthetic. While the consistency of her art and brand is admirable, looking deeper into the backstories of the characters she creates, there's a deeper element to the unicorns, teddy bears, and puppies. Lisa Frank names every character after people in her life and incorporates elements of their personality into the animal; she has two animals based on and named after her two sons Hunter and Forrest, and there is even a Unicorn named Markie based on her friend who passed from a heart attack.
That being said, does learning that there is ~more~ meaning behind Lisa Frank's extravagant designs make them more legit? Should it make them ~more~ art? Looking at Lisa Frank's incredible reach and designs and still not considering her a legit artist (which is what Urban Outfitters called her in their interview with her in 2017 - a "less legit artist"), it becomes clear that perhaps this is a feminist issue. Women, and especially young women, are taken less seriously than men (says Forbes btw), which has translated into art that is appealing to girls being considered as ~less legit~ than art by the likes of Rockwell or Warhol.
- Julie Erhardt
“Does It Make Sense?,”is a five foot, four inch visual timeline of creativity and creation, starting with the Big Bang and ending with April Greiman, the designer herself. Situated among the images of supernovas, ancient symbols, and lunar landings is a life-size portrait of Greiman, two-headed and completely nude. It’s the kind of image that might have broken the internet if the internet was a thing in 1986. Instead, the giant fold-out poster arrived to Design Quarterly subscribers by mail and proceeded to crack the graphic design community wide open. Some critics found it to be thoughtless, self-indulgent, and lewd. Others hailed it as a radical advancement in the then-nascent field of digital design. Greiman used an early Macintosh computer to compose her opus, way before the Mac was the default design tool, and was instead considered by many as a potential assault on the fine craft of graphic design.
-Jordyn Simon
One thing that interested me when looking at Saul Bass’s logos was the long lifespan of his logos. His logos have an average lifespan of 34 years, compared to the typical couple of years to 10 year lifespan of most other logos. The logos of companies change over time because they want to show the public that they are up to date and constantly innovating. The world is constantly changing, which requires companies to change with it. However, Saul Bass has designed many logos that have a lifespan greater than even 50 years. The longevity of a logo shows how powerful of an image it was when it was created. This also shows how Saul Bass was able to create the future of designs, making an image that resonates with multiple generations. Even the designs that are changed still retain the essence of the previous logo. When you produce a design strong enough to connect with people in a way that transcends the fluctuations of perspectives in time, that is the pinnacle of a successful logo.
Will Neugebauer
Brand image and positioning are very important in Public Relations and learning about Paul Rand’s approach really opened my eyes to how important a logo is. It is the first thing that most people see when it comes to a brand, so it has to represent the brand well but also be simple enough for easy recognition and likeability. Paul Rand was a master at logo design, and his work is still recognizable today. His simplicity and use of type in his work made logo recognition easy for the companies he worked with. He also brought modern styles to the US and that influence is still seen today in new logo construction. His peers praised him for understanding both the creative and business side of branding, which came from his ideologies of integrity and clarity. He changed the trajectory of graphic design so much that he is often referred to as ‘the Father of Graphic Design.’
Clarke Weddington
I enjoyed the video about Helvetica, and wanted to hone in more on some of the famous film auteurs who are known for using Helvetica and Helvetica-inspired fonts. Among the most prominent is Wes Anderson, who commonly uses Helvetica and Futura for many of his title cards, such as The Royal Tenenbaums, and Fantastic Mr. Fox. Another lover of Futura is Stanley Kubrick, who utilized the font for many of his films, including 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Eyes Wide Shut. David Fincher is also known for his love of Futura, and for his style of texturing fonts like Helvetica to fit the mood of his film, as seen with the logo for Seven. I also loved the video on Saul Bass, as I am an animation and film student and have been lucky to study his work extensively in my classes. Saul Bass was also a big fan of sans serif fonts for his animations, through he focused on a more unique and asymmetrical style of typeface, rather than the stark and straightforward fonts utilized by Anderson
Sophie Amador
One thing that caught eye from last lecture was the work of Lisa Frank. Her work is something I grew up adoring and buying and I never thought or considered it do be real art, just something fun and playful. For this reason, I was shocked to see it in last class’ lecture. Her artwork consists of rainbows and neon colors and depictions of animals. She was influenced by her father who was an art collector and even in college colorful things seemed to be her thing. This comes to no shock to me as I am very familiar with the brand and its products. However, what most surprised me is that the animals in all of her products are actually named after people in her life and have some sort of meaning to her. As a child and even now, I would have never thought looking at these colorful designs that there was anything more to it than what was in front of me. But, she actually placed stories behind each character and because of this it makes me think that perhaps all art has some sort of story no matter how playful or its target audience. This can go hand in hand with tv shows as well. When we are little we watch these shows for entertainment with little to no thought behind it. However looking back at many of these show now, there are many lessons and meanings in them that I probably learned and benefited from without even knowing.
- Gianna de Landaburu
Something that really resonated with me from our lecture last week was how Saul Bass was all about the substance behind the work. He was keen on producing quality work across disciplines such as design, film, writing. Sometimes it can be easy to get caught up in the rush of gaining traction and recognition in your career. However, one must never lose sight of how that traction began in the first place: your heart was set on a goal. Bass has also discussed the value of making money as opposed to quality work. Although the two are not mutually exclusive, a lot of artists can find themselves in the predicament of making low quality work in order to make some cash.
Melody Macias
I decided to do some research on Fukuda Shigeo. A lot of Japanese culture revolves around simplistic styles. Fukuda had gotten interested in those minimalist styles following the end of WW2. His most famous piece, "Victory 1945" (The photo with the bullet entering the cannon), won him the Grand prize at the 1975 Warsaw Poster Competition. In 1987 he was inducted into the Art Director's Club's Hall of Fame. He also had quite the affinity for optical illusions. A good amount of his works were optical illusions but he didn't stop there. The door to his house was one as well. It appeared farther away the closer you go to it. He had a good amount of pieces that held onto that simplistic style while also being optical illusions. Specifically his Keio department store poster. While there were plenty of other minimalist/optical illusion pieces in his repertoire, that one stuck out the most to me. I found the very concept of those types of pieces to be ironic. As you would expect something simple to have very little depth. Yet Fukuda was a master and could make that contrast a centerpiece. Unfortunately he passed away in 2009 at the age of 76.
Joshua Biggins
I watch a show on Netflix called Ink Master which is basically a show where ten of the best tattoo artists in the world compete in a bunch of challenges to win the title of Ink Master. Every season, one of the challenges is to design a Pin-Up tattoo and the competitors go through a very similar design process that Vargas went through designing his Pin-Up girls. This process is very important because the judges are VERY harsh with the proportions and the features of the girls. When I compare Vargas’s girls with the girls on the show, a few things stand out and it is very interesting to see how Pin-Up Girls have evolved over time.
To begin, Vargas’s designs feature idealized women who are skinny but have big breasts and a backside at the same time. However, beauty standards have evolved since the 1900s. On the show, the artists exaggerate the curves of the girls way more because in the 21st century, body types of women like Kim Kardashian or Kylie Jenner are idealized.
Another way I see that Pin-Up girls have evolved over time other than their physique is what they are wearing/ doing. The designs on the show include girls playing sports and wearing eccentric clothing like role-play lingerie (nerd costume, firefighter, etc.) because that is what is considered sexy in our century.
Prior to Vargas, Pin-Up girls were praised for their beauty rather than their sexuality. It is also very interesting to see how Pin-Up Girls have evolved from being focused on beauty at first, followed by Vargas and his classy lingerie wearing skinny girls, and to now, very crazy outfit wearing voluptuous girls.
If you want to take a look at the tattoos I’m talking about and how they are judged on the show, here are some links.
https://youtu.be/xDfkVoPsLMw
https://youtu.be/upcBXYKddl8
Naz Usman
Post a Comment