Class 4.14

Key points from tonight's lecture:

• Postmodernism is not a style, but a group of approaches motivated by some common understandings
• it is not a theory but a set of theoretical positions
• Roots of Postmodernism- The 60’s
• Individualism was the guiding theme of 1960’s consumerism
• Graphic design had never been a pure art or dominated by the international style the way architecture was
• Wolfgang Weingart- Rejected the right angle--intuitive design
• New Wave Typography - European approach to design updated for post-modernism
• Willi Kuntz- One of the first new wave spreads
• The inventory from New Wave
• Postmodernism: appropriation, to copying styles, was no longer naive nostalgia but calculated because the past itself was considered invented
• History of Art and Design become a vast archive to be quoted appropriated and reused
• Neville Brody and his knack for creating typefaces that resembled glyphs
• Ed Fella distinctly unsystematized... inspires “Grunge”
• David Carson Disruptive and disturbed... attacking the “grand narratives” of type and design
• 80’s “Émigré”- digital type foundry type explosion- through electronic means
• Deconstruction- Structures in the mass media can be reshuffled and re-inhabited

Tonight's lecture was mainly about the world of graphic design in the 60, 70's, 80's, and 90's. We talked about postmodernism and deconstruction and how these terms influenced the work of graphic designers during this time period. Some big names mentioned were David Carson, Neville Brody, Ed Fella, and others.

It was cool to learn about Neville Brody briefly because I had to do a project on him and his design style last semester. I also really enjoyed seeing more recent graphic design work, especially the poster and advertisement work and how it incorporated a deeper meaning.

Finally, we watched a video about Barbara Kreuger that discussed how she used rhetoric in design.

Class 4.7

Key points from tonight's lecture:

• Basel School of Design-Books published by leading figures
• Armin Hoffmann explored the role of contrast in creating a dynamic harmony of opposing forces
• Josef Muller Brockman at the time, considered the leading theorist and practitioner of the Swiss movement
• Josef Muller Brockman -1960- Public Awareness Posters Photography gained impact through scale and camera angle
• The Swiss Movement had a major impact on American Graphic Design and the emerging field of corporate graphics (the two ultimately merged)
• Saul Bass - NY design sensibility to LA and film industry
• Bradbury Thompson- Expanded the range of design possibilities through a thorough knowledge of printing and typesetting and an adventurous experimental spirit
• Chermayeff and Geismar Associates “Early Design office” with strong aesthetic background through educational diversity of the partners
• Unigrid system, developed in 1977 for the United States National Park Service by Vignelli Associates
• The New Advertising
• Photo-typography- had a profound impact on the direction and look of design
• Lubalin almost single-handedly defined the aesthetic potential of “photo- typography”

In tonight's lecture we discussed some of the designers whose designs and logos still exist today. This included Paul Rand and Saul Bass among others. It was really cool to see how the UPS logo and Shell logo (among many many others) were designed years and years ago and yet they still exist today. They have been changed and modified of course, but it was really interesting to see where they came from, who designed them, and how they have changed or been modified over the years.

We also watched a short film about post-modernism that was also interesting. It explained how the idea first came up and how it was then transferred to other areas such as the arts, philosophy, etc.

DISCOURSE 2

Kayla Pfrommer
History of GIC
Discourse 2
4/7/10

PREVIOUSLY POSTED on Sunday, February 28, 2010 at 6:00 PM

ARTICLE 2:
Texts on Type Critical Writings on Typography “Typographic Heresies: Some Notes on Experimenting With Type” (p. 182) – Eugene M. Ettenberg

Class 3.31

Key points from tonight's lecture:

• Design for Information 1930’s and 1940’s..... The ISOTYPE Movement- A pictorial language to help pubic understanding of social issues related to housing, health, and economics after WWI
• Otto Neurath- founder introduced in 1936 continued into the 1940’s
• Pictorial languages– or“lexicons “for communicating information are engineered rather than illustrated.
• The ISOTYPE Movement- Led to the extensive use of pictographs in signage, identities and information graphics later in the century.
• Rudolph Modley, the most distinguished of the pupils of Otto Neurath, is know for his large and comprehensive dictionaries/handbooks of symbols.
• Designers align with the notion of engineering- objective, rational, systematic, and programmatic.
• Visual “unit” becomes the double page spread defined for function, flow, and form.
• Design for Information: data integration from multiple sources
• Watched Helvetica the movie

In tonight's lecture, we began the third unit of the course. We began by learning about the isotype, where it came from, how it came to be, and what it is. The isotype is a visual language that led to the use of pictographs in signage, identities, and information graphics that came later in the century. The lecture tonight also touched upon how designers became more like engineers in that they used rational and systematic thinking to design for function, flow, and form.

During the second half of the lecture, we watched the movie Helvetica. I have never seen this documentary, but I have always wanted to, so it was interesting to watch. I learned a lot about why it is one of the best, if not the best, designed typeface. It was really interesting to see how one would go about designing a typeface as well, as one of the people in the movie talked about. He said that he would start with an "h" because it has a straight line and a curve and then follow that with an "o". After that, he said he would design a "p" because it has a straight line, curve, and a descender. Then, from that, a kind of DNA is produced and you can get the letters "u, n, d, q, etc."

Class 3.17

McLuhan's Four Laws of Media applied to: modern cell phone

1. The cell phone enhances the human ear and voice by making the voice audible to someone far away and in return, someone else's voice can be heard from a far distance. It also enhances face to face conversations by making it possible to call or text someone who is in a different location. It also enhances the instantaneous informational era in which we live by making contact with another person instantaneous and possible at any time.
2. The modern cell phone makes pay phones obsolescent. There is no longer a need to pay money to use a pay phone because everyone has their own personal cell phone on their body at all times. Pay phones are no longer on the side of every road and less and less frequently seen. The cell phone also short-cuts or bypasses the need to have face to face conversations with people. Instead, they can just send a text or make a quick phone call.
3. The modern cell phone retrieves old fashioned letter writing and postcard sending. It makes it possible, in a more time efficient manner, to reach people who are far away and contact them at any time.
4. The cell phone reverses into personal isolation due to lack of face to face conversation with other people. Because of this, people can become technologically dependent on their cell phones and may develop societal crutches because they have become so used to a technological buffer in their communication with people.

The creator or inventor of the cell phone probably assumed that it was the first step to an instantaneous informational society. Perhaps they did not, however, anticipate the use of text messaging for cheating on tests or image messaging for exploitation. Both of these events would probably still have taken place in some way, but cell phones make it much easier.

These laws apply to the way and reasoning behind the creation of anything. The most important parts of these laws are laws one and two. Whenever something is created or designed, it is made to enhance some part of people's traits or functions. Also, it always renders something obsolete and it is important to take this into consideration when exposing some new feature or designed object to the world.

Class 3.3

Key points from tonight's lecture:

• Tschichold: By the late 40’s he was credited with leading an international revival of traditional typography
• The New Typography
  
• Designers in Holland demonstrated the implications of the New Typography as playful expressive forms
• A synthesis between playful DADA, Constructivism tectonic strategies, and de Stijl’s structured organization for clear communication
• Paul Shoetema - Typography and photography was integrated in a total structure using
  overprinting
• Hendrick N Werkman- Exploratory techniques- small presses to produce one of a kind compositions he called “druksels”
• Hendrick N Werkman- Represented a new look at methods inspired by Modernism and
  “art of construction”
• Werkman was executed by the Nazi's for being too modern with his work and his type
• Piet Zwart- DADA inspired, masterful control
• Piet Zwart- Found balance between the playful and the functional
• Designers applied reductive compositional principles of Plakatstil with synthetic Cubism inventions and the purity of De Stijl
• Art Deco Moderne - Expressed the desires of a modern era and a passion for geometric decoration for a machine age
• Art Deco Moderne - mastered the graphic representation of industry and commerce
• Their work prefigured branding in advertising
• Joseph Binder - A uniquely Viennese approach to Art Deco- “Moderne”
• Olympic games become propaganda event for Nazi Germany

Much of tonight's lecture focused on the New Typography, especially in Germany. We discussed many different designers and artists such as Paul Shoetema, Hendrick N Werkman, Piet Zwart, Joseph Binder and more. We also talked about the Nazi propaganda for the Olympics and the whole war effort. Destruction of national symbols or flags was a strong propaganda device. We ended our lecture with Herbert Matter who made some of the milestones of 20th century Graphic Design through Swiss travel magazines. He pioneered the integration of black and white phogography with signs and color areas which became a model for later practitioners of the International Typographic Style.

Discourse 1

Kayla Pfrommer
History of Graphic Design
Discourse 1
2/28/10

ARTICLE 1:
Texts on Type Critical Writings on Typography “Designing Hate: Is There a Graphic Language of Vile Emotion?” (pp.42-44) – Steven Heller

Main Points:
• Adolf Hitler influenced the design of the Nazi party emblem, the swastika
• Giant sized buildings dwarfed the individual omnipotence of the state in Germany
• The Nazis developed graphics that dehumanized its enemy and promoted hatred
• Most of the design was racist propaganda
• Characterized Jews as vermin
• Nazis masterminded the aesthetics of hatred
• Certain typefaces, such as German Fraktur type, still evokes authority and looks frightening no matter what word is being spelled
• Certain American icons, such as the white hooded robe of the KKK is a living logo that denotes hate
• WAR, the tabloid of the White Aryan Resistance, has a default typeface and column width, but the graphics used in their adds denote hatred
• Burning swastikas, heroic mounted klansmen, and bloody daggers can be understood by any onlooker and the message of hatred is clear
• The design of hate must be painfully obvious so that the message is clear and unmistaken by anyone




The three images that I chose are the Nazi swastika, an example of a German newspaper articles from 1941 that features the typeface Fraktur, and the white hooded robe worn by the Ku Klux Klan. In the article, Heller explains that the display of hatred through graphic design must be completely obvious and unmistaken. In these three visuals that I have chosen, hatred can be denoted easily. The swastika is mentioned throughout the article because of its simplistic and easily recognizable display that denotes hate. The symbol, which is a sign for the SS, is geometric, bold, and is the sign of fear and hate that was especially used in Germany in the 1940’s. Even today this symbol is still one of the most recognizable visual and graphic displays of hatred. The German typeface Fraktur was the typeface used on Nazi signs and newspapers in the 1940’s and the font itself is menacing. Heller mentions that “even the most harmless words and phrases, takes on a decidedly ominous look,” (43) when set in Fraktur. Finally, the white hooded robe worn by the KKK is a symbol in itself. It is a threatening visual and symbolic of the hatred that is cast upon people by the Ku Klux Klan. The robe is easily recognizable by anyone, which makes it a successful denotation of hate through visual terms. All three of these images are examples of designed hate that shows the graphic language of vile emotion.

ARTICLE 2:
Texts on Type Critical Writings on Typography “Typographic Heresies: Some Notes on Experimenting With Type” (p. 182) – Eugene M. Ettenberg

Main Points:
• Typographic experimentation began with the movements of “Dada” and “Surrealism”
• The Dada painter-designers displayed the same vicious, mock-humor in their visual publications and posters as could be characterized by their pictures, sculpture, poetry, and music
• Dadaists protested against the mediocre, static, devitalized typography stemming from 1916-1922
• Surrealists pictured incongruities, fantasies and distorted perspective to images or collages
• Some Surrealists, such as Kurt Schwitters and Raoul Hausmann made use of typographic fragments
• The teachings of the Bauhaus from 1919-1928 also experimented with typography
• The Bauhaus experimented with new sans serif types such as Futura and insisted on sharp contrast between bold and extra bold faced types combined with text which went against the traditional polite gray pages of the 20’s
• All of these experiments in type have influenced the way typography exists today




The three images that I chose are a poster designed by Dadaists in the 1920’s, a collage by Surrealist Kurt Schwitters, and a poster designed by Jan Tschichold. These three examples show the experimentation with type design and graphic design in the 1920’s. The first image of a Dada collage shows how they scattered type and image on a page in a humorous way. There is no clear message in the poster, which is how the Dadaists worked. The point of their collages was to break the rules for the sake of breaking them. This is clearly embodied in their poster. The collage by Surrealist Kurt Schwitters is an example of how Surrealists worked in the 1920’s. They often used snips of newspapers, railway tickets, photographs, or even trash in their collages. In the article, Ettenberg mentions how certain Surrealists, such as Kurt Schwitters, used typographic fragments in their work. This can be seen in Schwitters’ collage. Finally, the poster designed by Jan Tschichold is a clear example of what the author mentions in the article about the ideas of the Bauhaus. According to Ettenberg, Tschichold was especially known for his use of “asymmetric design, radical use of white space, bold silhouetting of photographs, and substitution of color bands and rules for useless ornament,” (182). These elements can be seen in his poster, especially in the bold silhouettes of photographs he cut out. The color bands and rules used in his poster visually show the guides used in the design. All three of these pieces of art were revolutionary in their time because they broke the rules and because of their bold explorations and experimentations, graphic design has evolved into what it is today.