Designing (cyber) dependence

I find this interesting article in the New York Times by Pamela Paul entitled "Don't Tell Me, I Don't Want to Know" addressing informational overload:   

The entire world has become this Dickensian series in which you are not visited by three ghosts but by eight million ghosts,” said Sloane Crosley, author of “How Did You Get This Number.” “I feel as if I see things about people that I don’t necessarily want to see, and then it’s lodged like a piece of corn in my subconscious.” Whether it’s via Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, LinkedIn, e-mail or some other form of Internet connectedness, the latest headlines from your super-successful frenemy from high school, the boss who fired you and the awful 14-year-old boy your daughter is in love with are now in your face. Sometimes you don’t want to know about these people at all. Other times, you don’t want to know quite so much.

So, do we want it or not? Paul reluctantly acknowledges that our choice is caught in vicious cycle:

Let’s be straight: it’s not just that other people’s minutiae bombard us regularly. Sometimes, we seek it out despite ourselves. Whether you call it low-buzz stalking, cyberstalking or the unsettling new term “creeping,” people can now browse around the edges of former intimates’ lives, learning much too much about them:

In other words, the bombardment works!, which is why we're bombarded in the first place. In case anyone ever thinks of personal (cyber)fulfillment, Paul cites that,

A study published last month in the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking found that the more time people spent on Facebook, the happier they perceived their friends to be and the sadder they felt as a consequence.

In the end one feels Paul's title could be revised: "Don't Tell Me, I Don't Want to Know."

Your turn #4

 Auguste Belloc & Félix Jacques Antoine Moulin, Femme sur un lit, 1856

Plenty to discuss: photo as reportage, as art. Illustration as fashion, as natural science, as social mores, as war reportage, as the exotic. Harper's cultural contribution. Victorian design and Pre-Raphaelite design. And the emerging Arts and Crafts.

Next week I'll talk about a huge market for 19th century erotica illustrations, daguerreotypes and early photography: EROTICA!

Your turn #3

Koo-koo, "the bird girl"

Great class. There is plenty to talk about: communities of belief, early newspapers, charts, Blake, Romanticism, daguerreotype, political satire, photo-portraiture.

Pick your favorite topic!

Linotype Machine

Your turn #2

Incunabula by William Morris (1834-1896)

Hi. This class consisted of a more detailed survey of the history of graphic design right after Gutenberg and into the Counter-Reformation. We examined the impact of the new technology for 1- standardization, 2- new forms of reading, 2- a new market, 3- division  of labor, etc.

Simultaneously, one can see a stylistic development in typeface as such, which has two aspects: the inherent technological advance makes possible a different production of typeface styles as well as the proliferation of regional differences (for example, why is it that Gothic becomes so popular in Germany shortly after Gutenberg where as Rotunda, a similar sharp-cornered yet slightly more rounded script is created in Bologna?).        

(as we saw, some designers, such as Ratdolt, who worked in Venice, are good at both) .

We also talked about the book as a kind of architecture. Once we have printers and regional styles, we get a sort of "made in" constant. So we get, incipit, rubrication, border, frame, column, marginalia & illustrations, all aspects of standardization of the profession:

example of illustration inside the page using metal engraving, copper plates, an intaglio method

so-called column, they are explanatory notes around the text of the laws, in fact the type is set so that notes are arranged to surround the text in incunabula

Pick any of these themes or any variation of it. 

Beliefs were (and still are) formed by exposure to graphic representations

Emblematum liber, circa 1500's

Spicy Adventure, 1935

DC Comics, late 1950's

Your turn #1

Illustration by Ricardo Leite

Again, welcome to my class. Nice first meeting. There is plenty to talk about:

1- Design as individual mark, as communication, as expression, as lebeswelt. The importance -and effect- of technology, the good and the bad of it  (forgot to mention global warming, an obvious effect of human -involuntary- design).
2- Style as form, personal stamp, as methodology, as performance, etc.
3- The relativity of epoch and the idea of obsolescence (i.e., purposeful decay built into the design).
4- How design is relative to materials, i.e., language, alphabet gets inscribed in stone, papyrus, vellum, paper, or digitalized ( i-pad, kindle, etc). The idea of books as objects, media, memorabilia, etc (I made a case for a future Kindle that is 3-D, and feels like a analog book). I find a peek into the immediate future of tablets here (in fact we commented this possibility):

McIntyre also predicts that tablets, and not just smart phones, will become more like digital wallets, replacing the need to carry physical currency or identification. She suggests that identity will be vouched by “voiceprint” (speech verification) or software that can analyze an individual’s keystroke patterns.

 5- If there is anything else worth saying, go ahead!

I am closing this post next Thursday at 4pm.

15,000 used phones per day!

Waste Management Design

Bioplastics

Take a look at this link, Fecal Face.com, it has plenty of information. You'll meet a couple of the artists we talked about yesterday).

Your turn #9 (your last)

 drawing by KRSN

Hi. Remember I'll close this post next Tuesday at 4pm. Please, have your all your comments by then. I'd like to read from them next -our last- class.

Nagi Noda's peculiar aesthetics

Born in Tokyo, director, art director Nagi Noda has established herself as one of Japan's most prominent young designers. She rose to prominence as an art director designing print advertising, book designs and CD sleeves before turning to larger clients such as Nike and the famed Laforet Harajuku. Her commercials have won a host of prizes in Japan. Nagi has also shot several highly acclaimed and inventive films, including her short film "FITNESS VIDEO for being appraised as an EX-FAT GIRL" featuring exercising poodles, and music videos: her stunning and much-loved promo for Yuki entitled "Sentimental Journey" exemplifies her work's inventive left-field visual sensibility and poignant emotional colorings.

Res Sapiens' interactivity

The Res Sapiens project merges the digital world with the physical. It connects them seamlessly, treating both entities equally. It asks questions not only to us, but also to itself.

Res Sapiens refers to thinking physical objects, from products to architecture, that surpass their visual representation and display their meaning, role and status in society. The continuous stream of (public) digital data and information form the energy on which the Res Sapiens can live. It builds the oil fields of the future, where an ever growing digital heritage increases our understanding and knowledge and, most importantly, creates a stronger collective consciousness.

List of topics and movements for Final Exam

Bauhaus: School of design, architecture, and applied arts that existed in Germany from 1919 to 1933. It was based in Weimar until 1925, Dessau through 1932, and Berlin in its final months. Founded by the architect Walter Gropius. The curriculum trained students equally in art and in technically expert craftsmanship, so it sought to end the schism between the arts and the applied arts. Graphic artists: Lázló Moholy-Nagy, Herbet Bayer, Johannes Itten.

De Stijl: (Dutch: "The Style"), group of Dutch artists in Amsterdam in 1917, including the painters Piet Mondrian, Theo van Doesburg and the architect Jacobus Johannes, Pieter Oud among others. Its members, worked in an abstract style, seeking laws of equilibrium and harmony applicable both to art and to life. As a movement, De Stijl influenced painting, decorative arts (including furniture design), typography, and architecture, but it was principally architecture that realized both. Graphic artists: Theo van Doesburg, Piet Mondrian and Gerrit Rietveld.

Swiss School of Graphic Design: developed in Switzerland in the 1950s. It emphasizes cleanliness, readability and objectivity. Hallmarks of the style are asymmetric layouts, use of a grid, sans-serif typefaces.The style used photography instead of illustration. The idea was to improve communication, learning the principles of space and proportions. Graphic artists: Jan Tschichold, formulator of The New Typography and Josef Müller-Brockman, Anton Stankowski, Armin Hoffman.

The Polish School of Design: After years of Social Realism being all-pervasive in art, Polish artistic life suddenly exploded in the 1960s with a new syle based on avantgarde contributions such as Surrealism, dada, collage etc. The Polish Poster style swept through Europe in the 1960s and the 1970s. Graphic artists: Roman Cieslewicz, Wiesław Wałkuski, Waldemar Swierzy, Jan Lenica and Franciszek Starowieyski.

"The New York School": The first wave of modern design in America, imported by talented immigrants from Europe. It introduces Americans to European avant-garde. While borrowing freely from the work of European designers, Americans added new forms and concepts to the tradition of graphic design. Graphic artists: Paul Rand, Alvin Lustig, Saul Bass, Cipe Pineles, Alexey Brodovich, George Lois, Ivan Chermayeff, Alexander Liberman, Herb Lubalin.

Grunge typography (1990s):  David Carson, the acclaimed graphic designer who created Ray Gun magazine, is the so-called Godfather of Grunge. His method was simple: you don’t have to know the rules before breaking them, and never mistake legibility for communication. Carson’s technique of ripping, shredding, and remaking letters touched a nerve (THE AWL)

Maximalism: (1990-today) as a genre in the arts said to emphasize work-intensive practices and concentrates on the process of creation itself. Works from this genre are generally bright, sensual, and visually rich. Maximalism is generally figurative, politically aware, socially inclined, usually erotic, ironic and humorous, both in concept and form.

Sorry about the canceling the class, but

I lost my wallet this afternoon right before class. I barely had time to go to LC 180 and let you know what had happened. Luckily, it occurred to me to go back to Student Union's "lost and found" and there it was. A nice soul had returned it, including a $100 bill. It was already 5:20pm.

Please, finish posting your comments and I'll see you next week. Thanks for your understanding.

Your turn #8

Logo trends for 2009

These are (according to logoorange) some of the latest trends in logo design (for 2009). The consensus is that more is the new less. They group them into psychedelic pop, origami, tactile logos, arabesque, classic modernism, pictograms, etc. 

Here are the trends for 2008.

Your turn #7

I'm leaving this post open for comments for next week (also, if you have any question regarding next week's midterm exam).

the arousal of abstract meaning

The world we perceive is a dream we learn to have from a script we have not written, @ miami bourbaki.

A recent medalist with certain influences

Jennifer Morla, AIGA's 2010 medalist is president and creative director of Morla Design in San Francisco. She founded Morla Design in 1984 as a multidisciplinary design firm encompassing print, motion graphics and environmental design.

I find Morla's aesthetics akin to that of the International Typographic Style. Don't you?

Piet Zwart as a bridge between Dada and De Stijl

I feel I didn't express enough how important Piet Zwart is for the graphic design of the second half of the Twentieth-Century. What's important is that Zwart is a designer from the Netherlands who bridges the tradition between Dada's playful vitality and De Stijl's functionalism and formal beauty. What is interesting about Zwart is that he had no previous training in typography or printing.

I'd like to discuss this more in detail. Here is a cool site with Zwart's work.

Your turn #6

Expressionist vs. Surreal Lynch

This is the Expressionist Lynch, whereas this is the Surrealist Lynch. 

Your turn #5

By the way, who the hell is Banksy? 
Post your comment here.

Your turn #4

Robert Longo, Untitled, from the series Men in the Cities (1979)

Good class. At some point I'd like to come back to the social idea of decadence, i.e., how this aesthetic pursuit of the 1880's can be compared to the so-called "me decade" of the 1970's; that unstable balance between refined gratification and raw glut. In this regard, I recommend Social Disease by Paul Rudnick, a novel which restores the luster to decadent style by offering no apologies for the unabashed hedonism of its cast of totally self-indulgent characters. As Thomas Reed Whissen writes in his The Devil's Advocate: Decadence in Modern Literature,

They  devote every moment of the day and night, sleeping and waking, to the pursuit of sensory gratification. The only thing that gives them a moment's pause is the fear that they may not be burning brightly enough, not maintaining a maximum level of ecstasy.

Pick any theme you'd like from the series. Next Thursday we'll go at it. Go ahead!

(This post closes Friday, February 25@ 11pm).
_______________
By the way, click here for some of Beardsley's erotica!

Your turn #3

It was nice to hear your comments! We'll keep that comment/discussion section as part of the regular lectures. Go ahead!

I'm closing this post Friday, February 18 @ 11pm.

Your turn #2

What's on your mind? We've covered more than 200 years since Gutenberg!

Your turn #1

So, for this initial post, I'd prefer you to pick a theme from all the different topics we talked about in class last night. Take advantage of this comment to ponder and briefly research a particular topic.

How to build your 150-word comment: Whether general or particular, try to be informative. Think through your point. Try to produce an argument. Please, avoid slang, capital letters, exclamation signs. Don't merely agree with an existing comment. Add something meaningful.

I'd recommend you start with Word. Open a file, elaborate your comment, spell-check it, polish it a bit and then cut and paste it onto the comment box. It's better to have it saved in case you loose it in the publishing process (accidents happen). Remember add your identity and become a friend of our blog!

I'll close the comment box next Thursday, Jan. 27 at 11pm. 

Miniature of Beatus of Fernando I & Sancha

Shortly after the Arab conquest, on the eve of the Carolingian era, a monk from Santo Toribio Monastery by the name of Beatus wrote certain Commentaries on the Apocalypse that deeply affected all of Europe.

The copies (made over the centuries and illustrated with expressive miniatures), are known today as “Beatus”. The magnificent Facundus Beatus, completed in the year 1047, is perhaps the finest example of the millenarian sentiment of this period. Commissioned by royalty, no expense was spared in its manufacture. Its lavish images marked the start of one of the most prodigious iconographic traditions of the entire history of western art.

Lascaux Caves

In terms of design, what do we learn from the Lascaux Caves? These early paintings point to early rituals of sympathetic magic. For the purpose of our course, they represent a process of abstraction from the real world ---> realm of ideas. The execution of these abstractions as symbols whether isolated ideograms or so-called petroglyphs exhibit an remarkable simplicity and economy.

La Villa Savoye de Corbusier

Luis: consulta este link excelente, para fotos de la Villa Savoye.

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