Wednesday, April 14, 2010

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.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

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