forgot to address this... uppercase vs. lowercase (my preference)

 half uncials or lower case

we know the aesthetics of hanlf-uncials (minuscules) hark back to stroke & surface: quick reed pen ink trace over parchment.

parchment are pieces of papyrus "cut"  in oblogn pieces and put together. this act of cutting and piecing together are the proto-books of today (people actually carried a bunch of pieces, since sheets may slip from the bunch the next step was to saw them together in a loose bind).
 
lower case is a mark of brevity & legibility. 

here is the family:

french lower case (merovingian)

 

iberic lower case (visigothic)

italian lower case (the beneventan in southern italy)

late roman cursive

irish "insular" lowercase 

brevity means vernacular, merchant, petit-burgeois (not a bad word yet), secular, science, young. 

see how grammar is influenced by aesthetics. capital letters are places in a syntactic paragraph. later, they become codified "marks" for proper noun, proper adjective, first person pronouns and interjections. usage determines differentiation.

it was a pleasure to have you in my class!

photo: kiripi katembo

trends of graphic design for 2021

 click here for more information, 

DESIGN MANIFESTO

alFredoTriFf

Within the last ten years the phenomenon of design has exploded¹. First, there is “the Bilbao effect” and its conspicuous byproduct, the “starchitect” (with brand names, such as Gehry, Koolhaas, de Meuron, Hadid, Libeskind et. al.). They are a galvanizing force behind de$$ign’s vicious cycle of manufacture, distribution and consumption. Articles like Newsweek’s “The Design Dozen” and Time Magazine’s “Design 100” with a list of “virtuosos,” have further legitimized de$$ign’s new stars.

De$ign is presented as business news in Design Week, or as avant-garde cultural activity in Wallpaper. Magazines like Casabella, Dwell, Interior Design and Experimenta, display hundreds of color-saturated photos of the most-up-to-date artifacts and gadgets positioned in sumptuous settings. There is a plethora of TV home-improvement shows representing design as a process of decision-making and implementation. To boot, there are design fairs and car and boat shows, advertising the technological miracles of global post-capitalism.

Few professions in the post-industrialized world have grown in terms of economic presence and cultural import as de$$ign has in the past decade. 

De$$ign has moved into academia, with scholastic journals and conference circuits, and has shaped interdisciplinary areas where art, anthropology, ethnography and technology converge.²

For a moment, let’s put aside de$$ign’s undeniable clout and global mystique. Let’s forget the extraordinary seduction of its cultural rituals and its libidinal enchantment. Is it possible that this explosion of de$$ign represents, as Barry Bergdoll, Chief Curator of Design at MoMA puts it, “a sophisticated technique of marketing more than the horizons of new knowledge? 

Why not see de$$ign as a corporate strategy to plan and execute urban environments, profitable use of technologies and the proliferation of communication information?

CONTRA DE$$IGN

* De$$ign has become surface, its products immaterial, informational and entertaining; a spectacle, which is key to post-capitalist consumption.³

* You thought de$$ign was unbiased? De$$ign expresses more desire than real needs.⁴

* We’re living through a de$$ign impasse.⁵

* Though de$$ign keeps morphing from “metaphysical” to “symbolic” to “artistic” to “functional” to “spectacle,” it cannot keep up with the ideology of capitalism.⁶

* De$$ign’s policy of “planned obsolescence” is obsolete.⁷ 

* De$$ign's shortermism pollutes the mind.⁸

* De$$ign discourse -and practice- is viciously circular. That is, we de$$ign not for living, but for entertainment. ⁹

* De$$ign dwells in a state of aesthetic fetishism.¹⁰

* De$$ign keeps promising what cannot deliver.¹¹

* Can de$$ign confront its self-deception and fix itself? ¹²

FOR DESIGN

* De$$ign can transform itself, not by a revolution from within, but by piecemeal increments.¹³

* De$$ign becomes design when it manufactures cleaner, energy-efficient, quieter, smart, safe, lasting, and aesthetically-appealing products.¹⁴

* Design should apply more lessons from natural systems to the design of environments for the people.¹⁵

* The design profession needs more women designers.¹⁶

* Designers should be proactive and urbanenvironmentally committed.¹⁷

* Design needs to become emotional, diverse and enhancing.¹⁸

* Designers can, and should, explore traditional materials intelligently.¹⁹

___________________________________
¹ “De$$ign,” as opposed to “design,” the former a loaded term, which betrays the very principles on which it was founded by the pioneers of the Arts and Crafts Movement.
² Only in Europe by the end of the 1990’s there were around 62,000 design students specializing in universities where over 900 courses were available. Netherland Design Institute, Design Across Europe (1998). China has seen a 23% increase in enrollment in art and design between 2001-2003.
³To consume: To make and render obsolescence; to waste or squander; to use up. 
⁴Advertising (i.e. graphic de$$ign) plays a crucial role in consumerism by mediating between manufacturers, retailers and the public. Advertisements provide goods with a context (usually mythical). Richard Bolton explains: “We’re inundated with a parade of spectacles (…) these do not merely distract us from crisis and conflict: they absorb the conflict.” Richard Bolton, “Architecture and Cognac” in Design After Modernism, 1989.
⁵In this sense (post) post-modernism differs from its predecessor only in that our present stage is (according to critic Jean Baudrillard) “more obscene.” Italian philosopher Antonio Gramsci has a similar point: “The crisis consists in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.” Perry Anderson’s “Modernity and Revolution,” New Left Review, 144, London, 1984.
⁶According to Marshall Berman in All That is Solid Melts into Air, the problem with futuristic modernism is that brilliant machines and mechanical systems play all the leading roles so, there is little left to human agency.
⁷Designer George Nelson pronounced the principle in 1956: “What we need is more obsolescence.” Industrial Design, No. 6 (1956). Harley Earl, father of the “dream car” agreed. His motto: “Our job is to hasten obsolescence.”
⁸Professor Alisdair Fuad-Luke proposes that de$$ign should temporarily put economic factors to one side while reconsidering the contemporary role of design in meeting the real needs of people and the environment. Fuad-Luke defends “slow design” as a means to refocus on anthropocentric (individual + socio-cultural community) and environmental welfare. Alastair Fuad-Luke, ecoDesign: The Sourcebook (Chronicle Books, 2006).
⁹De$$ign has gotten so entangled with advertising that it advertises itself. What can be expected of the design practice when after a De$$ign show at MoMA, one can buy the same relic being exhibited at the museum’s de$$ign store? In addition, much of the history of modern design has been written and disseminated to support De$$ign. The heroes (mostly men) create products for a largely uninformed public. Nikolaus Pevsner’s Pioneers of the Modern Movement (1936) established the canon of the discipline. The superstar designers’ profiles we read about in magazines follow this sort of pevsnerist heroic rhetoric.
¹⁰ In his Critique of Commodity Aesthetics (University of Minnesota, 1986), Wolfgang Fritz Haug argues that artifacts in the market “promise a use-value once they are sold,” i.e., they have to appear useful before they actually are. There is a deeper aesthetic anesthetization when use-value becomes beautiful. Take Philippe Stark’s Juicy Salif, a lemon squeezer, which sells for almost $80, which according to its designer, “is not such a good lemon squeezer, but that’s not its only function.” Juicy Salif’s other -and most important function- is aesthetic fetishism.
¹¹“At present, most Asians see First World technology and consumerism as handmaidens of design and harbingers of modernity: They hope to implement this combination of their soils and achieve comparable results.” This is the impending problem of China’s development and the danger it poses (given its size) for the rest of the world. “Design, Development and Cultural Legacies,” Rajeshwari Ghose, in The Idea of Design, by Victor Margolin and Richard Buchanan, MIT, 1995.
¹² The major deception of de$$ign lies in the constant deferral of a serious social, ecological investigation of its practice.
¹³ This manifesto sets a midway course between self-indulgence and radicalism. It follows professor Hilary Putnam’s idea of “social engineering,” i.e., the gradual changing our socio-political landscape by trial-and-error. It seems a better method than Modernism’s grandiose sweeping measures.
¹⁴ This is the general premise behind books such as E.F. Schumacher’s Small is Beautiful, Victor Papanek’s Design for the Real World and Citizen Designer: Perspectives on Design Responsibility by Steven Heller and Veronique Vienne.
¹⁵ Design (which can be applied to any structure) should bring building design, energy efficiency, indoor environmental quality, material selection; site planning, resource efficiency, and water use to boost energy savings. See Chapter 2 of Nigel Whiteley’s Design For Society (Reaktion Books, 1993).
¹⁶ When women design products, they are sometimes radically different from those made by men. For instance, research done on women’s criteria for car design reveals emphasis on function, ergonomics and safety (this is at odds with the advertised status of the male ego). “The Forgotten Dimension: Women, Design and Manufacture,” Margaret Bruce, Feminist Art News, (December, 1985).
¹⁷ We face the crime in urban neighborhoods and communities, the loss of biological diversity, the damage to fragile landscapes, urban sprawl, polluted air, acid rain, noise pollution, global warming, the destruction of an extensive national railway system.
¹⁸ Design is seen here an opportunity to enhance the human spirit. Team ZOO/ Atelier ZÖ: Theories and Manifestos of Contemporary Architecture, edited by Carl Jencks and Karl Kropf (Academy Editions, 1999).
¹⁹ Here are some examples: The LifeStraw, designed to turn any surface water into drinking water, used in Ghana, Nigeria, Pakistan and Uganda. 2- The Pot-in-Pot Cooler, a small earthenware pot nestling inside a larger one with wet sand filling the space in between, used in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Eritrea and Ethiopia. 3- One Laptop Per Child, a not-profit initiative led by Nicholas Negroponte of MIT Media Lab. Now being tested in Nigeria and Brazil, costing $150. 4- The Global Village Shelter, prefabricated in biodegradable material, shipped flat and requiring no tools to assemble. It has already provided emergency shelter for disaster victims in Afghanistan, Grenada, Pakistan, and for those of Hurricane Katrina in the US.

dear arh 346 class, i've been informed that student evaluations will be open soon,

this is important for the school, for you and for me. 

don't forget to rate my performance. 

List of images for final exam, spring 2024

 click here for list of images,

032c, magazine design for a contemporary culture

032c is a contemporary culture magazine that fiercely believes in the intelligence of its readers, and rises to the challenge of surprising them. Published twice a year, it is both timely and timeless—a celebration of and for the most cutting-edge in art, culture, and fashion.

 The quote, above, taken from the wonderful 032c Website.

032c is a bi-annual contemporary culture magazine at the intersections of fashion, art and politics. The magazine has been considered to be "dedicated to the celebration of ideas" by i-D, "revue ultra-pointue" by French Vogue, or simply as "the Berlin magazine that propogates an aesthetic of brutal elegance" by Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. "The magazine fuses art and architecture, literature, urban studies and fashion in ways", states New York Times, "that can make one forget how depressing a visit to a newsstand has become."

Your turn #10

 Plexus, front cover, Felix Labisse, January 1970 (via 50 watts)

this is a heavy duty list: Memphis School, April Greiman, Deborah Sussman, Dumbar aesthetics, Ed Fella, Stephan Seigmeister, Dan Friedman, Oliviero Toscani, Lucas de Groot, David Carson, Jonathan Ellery, Chris Ware, Branbrook. 

what do you think? 

your turn #9

Franciszek Starowieyski, Stacks, 1974

Again, plenty of stuff to discuss: LOGO and its pioneers: Bass, Lois, Chermayeff & Geismar, Rand; Jazz Albums covers; Swiss Typographic Style (and its heroes); Stankowski's metadesign, & the amazing Polish School of Posters (1950s-1970s). 

Pick your favorite while doing a bit of research. 

Your turn #8

Giovanni Pintori, Olivetti, 1952

dear class, we have Dada (and its various graphic techniques), Surrealism (poster, interior, furniture, installation), the phenomenon of BAUHAUS, Neoplasticism, Magritte, German Propaganda, Varo, roaring 20s in America, the inimitable Vargas, Alvin Lustig, Cipe Pineles, wow.

Your turn #7

rene magritte, the philosopher's lamp, 1936

this is 20th century, folks! 

a lot is -simultaneously- going on: juan gris' futurism, malevich, constructivism, new typography, new objectivity in vienna, plakatstil, war posters, dada collage, leonora carrington + european graphic design influences begin to appear in the US.  

do what you do every week (only better 😊). 👏👏👏

14. igor nivinsky's constructivist theater design

 Preconstructivist production of Turandot at the MAT (Studio), designed by Igor Nivinsky, 1921

your turn #6

juan gris, harlequin with guitar, 1917

dear class: 

there's plenty to talk about: gesamtkunstwerk, symbolism, bildroman, adolf loos, two different schools of expressionism (blaue reiter & die brücke), expressionism in cinema, two moments in cubism (analytic, synthetic), the importance of still life/nature mort/vanitas for art, and everything in between. pick any topic, spin it with a bit of research & keep it novel and original.

your turn #5

paul burch for die fläche magazine,  

dear arh 346 class: we covered an intense fin de siècle. the movements: arts and crafts, art nouveau, the vienna secession. the stars: dudovich, mucha, pissarro, toorop, van de velde, selwyn image, the beggarstaffs. the architecture: hoffman's stoclet palace, rennie mackintosh's hill house. 

be mindful of your comments. no echo chamber (we did better last week).👏👏👏

American Art Nouveau: William Henry Bradley

William Henry Bradley was largely self-taught as an artist. He began working in a printer's shop at the age of twelve in Ishpeming, Michigan, where his mother had moved in 1874 after the death of his father. This work experience would be important in introducing the young man to the many issues of typesetting, advertisements, and layout that would occupy him in the years to come. Bradley executed a number of designs to promote The Chap-Book, a short-lived but important publication based in Chicago. His 1894 design for Chap-Book, titled The Twins, has been called the first American Art Nouveau poster; this and other posters for the magazine brought him widespread recognition and popularity. (Above, Bradley's poster for The Chap Book, 1895).

Your turn #4

john williams water house, cleopatra, 1887 (a pre raphaelite)

let's go back to the 2/25 lecture. 

there's plenty to talk about: chromolitography, yellow journalism, the presentation of fashion in magazines, photojournalism, natural science illustration, pictorialism, victorian design, the pre raphaelites and their aesthetics, star designers like william morris, dana gibson, privat livemont, thomas nast, randolph caldecott, etc.

an observation: in your comment try to dig deeper, i.e., be less casual and more deliberate. use wikipedia if needed to amplify your ideas. there is plenty in here to write 150 words.

your turn #3

Incunabula (spread around two pages, moveable discs) Petrus Apian, Astronomicus Cesareus, 1530

last class we discussed specific moments in the development of graphic design from late middle ages to renaissance and humanism. we covered incunabula, newspapers, maps, moveable type and specific book masterpieces: the nuremberg chronicle, plantin's biblia poliglota, geoffroy tory's champsfleury, edhard ratdolt's works, manutius' hypnerotomachia polyphili (and bembo), tyndale's bible, albert dürer's four horseman, william blake, vesalius' de humanis corpora fabrica and the best book ever produced: the gutenberg's bible!

go ahead. 

your turn #2

                                book IV of the codex calixtinus (santiago de compostela cathedral)

we covered plenty of middle-ages marks: life in the country, in the city; cheese, dung, feces; our fabricated myth of "organic"; scribes, scriptorium serendipities, piment!; we contrasted the slow evolution of typefaces from trajan to beneventan to similar developments in architecture; codexes, old book parts; illumined manuscripts; frontispiece, etc., colophon, secretary hand; decretals; minuscule vs. majuscule; book of hours; ars moriendi; dance macabre,    

wow.    

pick a subject and spin it like you did last time. as usual, I close the comment option next wednesday 10pm.

BANKSY

Banksy is a household name in England—the Evening Standard has mentioned him thirty-eight times in the past six months—but his identity is a subject of febrile speculation. This much is certain: around 1993, 

his graffiti began appearing on trains and walls around Bristol; by 2001, his blocky spray-painted signature had cropped up all over the United Kingdom, eliciting both civic hand-wringing and comparisons to Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring. 

Vienna, San Francisco, Barcelona, and Paris followed, along with forays into pranksterism and more traditional painting, but Banksy has never shed the graffitist’s habit of operating under a handle. His anonymity is said to be born of a desire—understandable enough for a “quality vandal,” as he likes to be called—to elude the police. 

BANKSY aesthetics:
1- be subversive,
2- be invisible,
3- be omniscient,
4- be accessible,
5- be humorous.

your turn #8 (last post for comment)

elliot earls, three cream rabbits fuorescent, 2000s

dear class: this is your last post for comment for this course. say whatever you want about this or any class, anything whatsoever related to graphic design. 
go ahead!

list of images & concepts for our final exam (spring 2020)

list of images for the final exam.

list of concepts for the final exam.

your turn #7

eric nitsche, history of flight

we covered a wide terrain of graphic styles from the 1940s and 1950s the vargas pinup girl, constructive graphics, jenny on the job, german propaganda, norman rockwell, advertising, cipe pineles, alvin lustig, the international typographic style, fortune magazine.

go for it.

Bass' Scorsese's ,Cape Fear

political design comes of age

Political poster, National Association of Manufacturers, 1930's

your turn #6

new york's world fair 1939, joseph binder. 

hi class, we're back to posting and making comments. our last class covered 51 moments in the history of graphic design. what is your opinion? say  it here.

12. Mieczysław Szczuka (the influence of neue typographie)

 Mieczysław Szczuka (1989-1927) is one of the top representatives of the Polish avant-garde of the 1920s, for whom functional art was key. He did very fine photomontages. He designed posters and campaign materials for the Polish Communist party.

Along with his life partner and co-worker, Teresa Żarnower, they produced Blok magazine (initially with the assistance of Władysław Strzemiński and Henryk Stażewski), which initiated the era of functional printing (the idea came from Strzemiński – he proclaimed that the concept of a graphic layout should be equivalent to a literary construction, a visualisation of an idea).

Their most acclaimed work, executed in the spirit of their new typography, was the graphic design for Anatol Stern’s poem Europa (1929).

how is woodcut done?

click here for more information,

your turn #5

Christophe Karel Henri de Nerée tot Babberich (decadent 19th century illustrator, influenced by bearsdley and toorop)

class: we've covered art nouveau, harper's, the glasgow style of charles rennie and margaret mckintosh, women photographers, jan toorop, l'art pour l'art, muscha, the beggarstaffs, dudovich, beherens, van de velde.

go ahead!

your turn #4

Dante Gabriel Rosetti's Day Dream, 1880. 

hi class: we talked about chromolithography, comics, pictorialism, some of the protagonists: Charles Gibson, Thomas Nast, Arts and Crafts, Morris, preraphaelites, and some more I couldn't cover but you'll read on your own. go ahead!

your turn #3

Guéricault, anatomical studies, 1818. 

thanks for your calligraphic studies!
we've talked about political satire, newspapers, romanticism, camera obscura, early photo, photojournalism, prerraphaelite design, etc. pick your favorite.
go ahead.

welcome to yellow journalism (end of 19th century)

New York Journal's sensationalism responded to a need that was part and parcel of the mood of the times. 

The term "tabloid", like gutter press or the British term rag, also refer to a newspaper that tends to emphasize topics such as sensational crime stories, astrology, gossip columns about the personal lives of celebrities and sports stars, and junk food news. Often, tabloid newspaper allegations about the sexual practices, drug use, or private conduct of celebrities is borderline defamatory; in many cases, celebrities have successfully sued for libel, demonstrating that tabloid stories have defamed them.

... an interesting excerpt from Hearst's The Examiner:

HUNGRY, FRANTIC FLAMES. They Leap Madly Upon the Splendid Pleasure Palace by the Bay of Monterey, Encircling Del Monte in Their Ravenous Embrace From Pinnacle to Foundation. Leaping Higher, Higher, Higher, With Desperate Desire. Running Madly Riotous Through Cornice, Archway and Facade. Rushing in Upon the Trembling Guests with Savage Fury. Appalled and Panic-Striken the Breathless Fugitives Gaze Upon the Scene of Terror. The Magnificent Hotel and Its Rich Adornments Now a Smoldering heap of Ashes. The Examiner Sends a Special Train to Monterey to Gather Full Details of the Terrible Disaster. Arrival of the Unfortunate Victims on the Morning's Train — A History of Hotel del Monte — The Plans for Rebuilding the Celebrated Hostelry — Particulars and Supposed Origin of the Fire.

Calligraphic project for next week (it could be fun)

Here is our calligraphic assignment:

1- One SMALL paragraph of text (think of 2 sentences). What the text says is not important, you can get an excerpt from a magazine, a novel you love, etc).

2- The paragraph should occupy the center of the page. Pay attention to the following:

3- Leave space for a Rustic Capital, like the one you see above or below (it doesn't have to be as ornate). This rustic capital drives the energy of your page. Think of it first, design it & rehearse it in a different sheet of paper. The rustic capital takes a good part of the left hand-side of your page. It's part illustration part lettering.

REMEMBER YOU LEAVE THIS FOR LAST (after you have finished the paragraph).  

4-  For the paragraph. Use a blank 8x11 inch sheet. Determine how many lines your paragraph will have. In pencil, draw very, very thin lines to guide your lettering. Don't write ON the blank paper without a line matrix to guide your script. Only then, you may write your paragraph.

5- The style of your lettering will be calligraphic (meaning cursive with ligatures) and symmetric, meaning do not change the letter's "type" once you adopt them. This is a chance to explore ascenders and descenders. REMEMBER: DON'T CHANGE A LETTER ONCE ADOPTED!
 
6- Pay attention to your ligatures (the serifs connecting the lettering). Rehearse your ligatures before doing them on a project sheet. Practice how to connect your different letters.

For example,

7- See that each capital after the first rustica is smaller. DO NOT IMPROVISE! Better to achieve uniformity. LESS IS MORE!

8- No smudges, no mistakes. DON'T GO FAST. LET YOUR HAND PULSE BE SLOW AND DELIBERATE.

9- LEAVE MARGINALIA ON LEFT AND RIGHT.

GO AHEAD!