Auvie's ARTG 210 Manifesto

[auviesignsm]

TWEAKED - ...GRANT ACCESS FOR ALL

ARTG 210 Manifesto #6: Handlettering

Major shift from the original. Added a brick texture in place of the illustrative streak to better ground the piece and its message. Repositioned the text element and added a transparent to black gradient overlay.

[auviesignsm]

...GRANT ACCESS FOR ALL

ARTG 210 Manifesto #6: Handlettering

Access to services of all kinds be not be a considered element, compromise, or feature. We must grant access for all, to all. Inspiration driven from the legendary 1988 metal album "...And Justice For All” by Metallica.

[auviesignsm]

ARTG 210 November 29th Content Summary & Take-a-way Statements #6

Auvie Meyer

83-year-old Don Norman’s “ I Wrote The Book On User-Friendly Design. What I See Horrifies Me” speaks about his view on today’s worldwide design against the elderly. He highlights the decrease of an elder’s vision, making small instructions on booklets or packaging illegible. The deterioration of a senior’s hearing, which arise problems related to closed-captioning and high frequencies. Today’s technology appears to be designing products for the younger generations while mitigating or entirely ignoring the seniors of the world’s population. Accessibility should be implemented for all in any design, including the elderly.

Design Issues: The State of the Ballot, written by JP Williams, talks about an example of problematic, misdirected design. Sun-Sentinel Graphic were commissioned with creating a ballot design meant to better communicate where to tick your vote for who you wanted to vote for. The ballot ended up heavily over-designed, mis-formatted, and too confusing for many who went to vote. A messy use of arrows were used to point to the central dots from each available candidate. While the intent was strong, the mark was missed, confusing the elderly or those who are visually impaired. Jeff Jansen’s redesign was barely any more effective, simply adding triangles to funnel the viewer’s eyes towards each candidate. A complete redesign would have been best effective.

The RGD’s Access Ability 2 Handbook displays and communicates a plethora of tactics designers of all experience levels may utilize in order to consider and include all audiences when creating their design. The fact that designers are still cutting corners against accessibility, or instead calling accessibility a “feature,” is disgusting. It’s a staple on the collective mindset of higher corporations. A product is designed for now and for a narrow-viewed audience. Not considering the future, those who will live it, or those who paved the way.

• 1.) Let us all see.

• 2.) Be that extra step.

• 3.) Detect neglect.

 • 4.) Try again.

 • 5.) Pave the way.

 • 6.) And Justice For All

[auviesignsm]

TWEAKED - 

DESIGN 

APPLY 

UNIFY

ARTG 210 Manifesto #5: 3D Type Only

Little changes were made to the design. The class enjoyed it enough to vote on it for the instagram feature! Each text block was given a minor increase in brighter hues, lightening the text to decrease the risk of illegibility. 

[auviesignsm]

DESIGN APPLY UNIFY

ARTG 210 Manifesto #5: 3D Type Only

Design - Ideate. Brainstorm. Conceptualize. Start turning the gears. How can this help everyone around us?

Apply - Prototype. Revise. Enhance. Meld the concept into its place. Identify what needs to be fixed to provide a service accessible to all.

Unify - Propel. Innovate. Sustain. Together. We all benefit from the design. No one left in the dirt.

[auviesignsm]

ARTG 210 November 2nd Content Summary & Take-a-way Statements #5

Auvie Meyer

Joyce Lee’s “What Do Dinosaurs and Good Healthcare Design Have In Common?” talks about the sad modern state of American healthcare, its design choices, and an example of a now-extinct advancement in accessible packaging design. Modern pill bottles are littered with horribly placed elements, unnecessary information, and jarring word choices which can hinder or even endanger a user. One excellent example of accessible pill bottle design was the former ClearRx bottles. These bottles were designed with clarity for the user in mind, providing them with important safety and dosage information clearly without any chance of confusion or incorrect usage. The design was discontinued in favour of the more cost-efficient messes seen today holding pills. Burn CVS.

The first eight pages to the RGD’s “Access Ability 2: A Practical Handbook on Accessible Graphic Design” shed light on the backseat that accessibility has taken regarding design of all forms. An impactful statement to best summarize the message of the reading is that “Accessibility should not be considered an add-on or feature. It works best and is the most cost effective when it is a core consideration from the beginning of project planning.” The mindset that accessibility is a marketable feature plays heavily into biased, disrespectful ableism rather than an act of design implemented with mere common sense. Accessible design should be the norm, not a feeble extension.

“Visual Accessibility in Graphic Design: A Client - Designer Communication Error,” written by Katie Cornish et al, communicates the high density of inaccessible design right up to today’s work. Unfortunately, inaccessible design truly is commonplace anywhere one looks, which is usually a result of tone-deaf executives making the calls on what “features” should be added to their products, disregarding their potential grasp at a wider global audience. It is choices like these made by those who have no competition to tell them to act otherwise that slowly destroy not only the design world, but our only home.

The RGD has created an article showing off a few of their members’ projects toward accessible design, titled “Accessibility Projects by RGD Members.” These projects include works aimed toward clear colour schemes, transparent masking that would otherwise hide a mouth when speaking, safety platforms for vulnerable groups, and more.

• 1.) For All.

• 2.) Open your eyes!

• 3.) Look around you.

 • 4.) Give it your all in the name of all.

 • 5.) Together.

 • 6.) Design. Apply. Unify.

[auviesignsm]

TWEAKED - SAVE

ARTG 210 Manifesto #4: Type + Image

Simple yet effective changes were made to SAVE to produce a stronger message and more visually appealing composition. The entire combined element has been aligned and enlarged to take center stage proportionate to the artboard and remaining white space. The image was swapped from the boats on a coastline to the rocky beachside, promoting a grounded focus on our natural environment which desperately must be saved.

[auviesignsm]

SAVE 

ARTG 210 Manifesto #4: Type + Image

Utilizing the constraint recipe Type + Image, SAVE depicts the ocean we must desperately save. Originally starting out with the takeaway statement “PRESERVE,” the single word save better suited the framing of the masked image, the overall tone of the piece, and the central placement required of the text, allowing the element to use up more space to enhance legibility without taking away from the negative space. Subtle stroke lines were added to clearly define the individual letters within the amalgamated frame made of text.

[auviesignsm]

ARTG 210 October 19th Content Summary & Take-a-way Statements #4

Auvie Meyer

The readings had the class tackle multiple articles and videos related to sustainability and how one must conscientiously apply certain guidelines to their work if they hope to produce a type of content or product in its most sustainable state achievable. The articles from David Berman, The RGD, and Sofia Hadjiosif each describe their own take on a greater whole message: We need to design with sustainability not only in mind, but in action. 

A key set of philosophies we were tasked to read about in Design Technology’s Eco-Design article were the “Cradle-to-Cradle” and “Cradle-to-Grave” production models. The Cradle to Grave model is what designers should stay away from; the process of utilizing new materials to create a product meant to serve its function before being thrown away to be replaced. This model is considered a linear cycle. Most medium-large scale companies, whether intentional or as a result of ignorance, apply into their production method daily, monthly, yearly, for too long. The Cradle to Cradle model is what all design, production, and recycling efforts should incorporate as mandatory into their creation processes. This circular model depicts repurposing of existing materials to recycle them into new products meant to last longer/indefinitely, reducing the negative environmental impacts the linear Cradle to Grave model outputs. Cradle to Cradle should not be a consideration. It should not even be the norm for production. Cradle to Cradle production should be lawfully enforced if we hope to achieve true environmental sustainability.

It’s not “we should.” It’s “we must.”

Bend the line.

Preserve.

Sustain.

It’s all we got!

Rise above.

[auviesignsm]

REVISED - THE CHOICE IS (Y)OURS

ARTG 210 Manifesto #3: B&W + Texture

Feedback suggested that I rework the placement of the text elements to provide the background’s white space a chance to add extra gravity to the message. “The Choice Is” had its typeface changed to a more suitable one while still remaining a sans-serif font, working as a nice contrast between it and the “Yours” element.

[auviesignsm]

THE CHOICE IS (Y)OURS

ARTG 210 Manifesto #3: B&W + Texture

"We only have so long. We. Not just you. Not just me. We.”

Not one single person’s choices can fix years of destructive production. Everyone has a responsibility to put the environment first, but unfortunately circumstance pushes the majority of our population to indulge on wasteful, harmful consumerism in the name of their own wellbeing. A unified choice to preserve our planet is what we need if we hope to make any impact.

[auviesignsm]

ARTG 210 October 5th Content Summary & Take-a-way Statements #3

Auvie Meyer

Chapter two of Design to Renourish talks about the concept of thinking in systems, or Systems Thinking. The Systems Thinking model is broken down into four key stages identified through an inverted pyramid design process diagram: Research & Brainstorming, Ideation, Refinement, and Delivery. The topic is taken into an interesting turn with the ideology of The Hawk, The Squirrel, and The Oak Tree, showing the interconnected cycle of these “elements” interconnecting to fuel the ecosystem in which they all reside. This can be applied to graphic design regarding how a simple, more sustainable choice can snowball into greater outcomes for not just those directly affected, but others across the globe. Sustainable choices interconnect with the positive or negative outcome of those responsible for the creation of the design, those receiving or utilizing the design, and even those who bystand the effects yet still reside within the same environment, an environment we should all be trying to sustain.

Dieter Ram’s 10 Principles for Good Design list Ram’s view on design defined into a list. The almost manifesto-like principles provide a good understanding on how Dieter views what is considered good design and how each principle can be achieved and executed. The goal of the principles are to act as guidelines to more effectively create successful, sustainable, and “better” designs. Number six of the ten principles stood out the most for me, both for the blunt nature of the statement as well as the gravity behind the guideline. “Good Design is Honest.” These principles should be followed by all designers worldwide who wish to make a long lasting, positive impact on the world we live and design on.

Gary Huswit’s Objectified, released in 2009, addresses the worst of realities all designers have no choice but to face: All design contributes to pollution. Be it air pollution, noise pollution, light pollution, water pollutants, or landfills, all design unfortunately bleeds into some, if not all of these negative impacts. The documentary also talks about the beautiful evolution of mass production and where it is today - how easily a simple object like a toothbrush can be so perfectly created to function at full capacity as intended. Through all beauty there is also disgust. The world cannot continue to ignore the ever-looming repercussions that await the future generations through a neglect to change how mass production is practiced. 

• 1.) Everything has a purpose.

• 2.) To stand by is to abide.

• 3.) Break the ringing.

• 4.) Consider the destination.

• 5.) Guide the world.

• 6.) The choice is yours.

[auviesignsm]

TWEAKED - THE TIME IS NOW

ARTG 210 Manifesto #2: Reverse Type Only

The red overtone mixed the rotation of the enlarged background text and the white highlighted words combine to produce a more aggressive, immediate visual punch to convey the piece’s message.

[auviesignsm]

THE TIME IS NOW

ARTG 210 Manifesto #2: Reverse Type Only

“What are the unintended consequences of design work overtime?”

The question regards all human design over our species’ history and the consequences that have followed the unsupervised creation of unethical, deceptive, and destructive design. Too long has humanity failed by allowing large companies to produce whatever they see fit without the enforced restraint of “designing with good intent and action prioritized. THE TIME IS NOW to end the allowance of destructive greedy design. The time is not tomorrow. The time is not next year. THE TIME IS NOW.

[auviesignsm]

ARTG 210 September 21st Content Summary & Take-a-way Statements #2

Auvie Meyer

Chapter one of Re-Nourish Ethics claims that the book overall is about the negative effects of unsupervised design turned harmful production, and what designers today can do to prevent them. Light is shed on a specific question relevant to all modern designers: “What are the unintended consequences of design work over time?” The book talks about the goods and bads that have already been delivered by designers both past and present, claiming that these should be taken as warning signs for where future design should embark, such as destroying the linear Nature to Waste consumerist cycle. As the world has evolved, so too has design, granting designers access to far more tools of communication today than past designers had a mere 10 years ago. Greater visual communication allows concerned or ethically inclined designers to further push their more positive outlooks onto the public and other designers alike, giving them a greater chance to resist the barrage of shushing from greedy corporations. 

In Chapter 6 and 7 of DO GOOD DESIGN, Berman talks about the sexual, disrespectful, and negatively provocative exploitation of women and the human body regarding design both in past media and in today’s advertising. Near the beginning, an interesting question is asked right off the bat that summarizes the topic of the chapters well: “However, to what degree were such full page ads responsible for encouraging American men in 1952 that it was okay, even laudable, to beat their wives? And what currently acceptable advertising running in our magazines today will an increasingly media-literate society look back upon as reprehensible 50 years from now?” The objectification of women is one of many unethical methods many companies of the past and today still use to sell their products. Even with the more subtle means of utilizing such methods, these “Corporations and marketing campaigns are changing the way we all think of the world,” and for the worst. Little can be expected to change for the better of all, be it regarding equality, health, or quality of life, if the world continues to feed into the heinous means that large scale use to hypnotize the lesser’s wallets.

The words of James Cartwright in Should Designers Take Responsibility for the Ethics of Their Clients make noise about his experience and the answer to the title question from other designers. His verdict, through a survey about ethical client choice, is that “The creatives surveyed only seem to want to produce work for tried-and-tested companies who guarantee big budgets and a tidy pay packet.” James believes that while yes, designers should take responsibility for their own ethical choices and for the client as best as they can, he claims that the mindset to create for good before greed has slowly died as the world has grown tougher to work in. Even still, the drive to design for the longtime benefit of all creative minds great and small is not dead, and can still flourish with consistent, impactful action. Unfortunately said impactful action can largely only be taken by the biggest of mega corporations, who instead choose to pump out more plastic and pills for the lesser-off to worry about.

Good ol’ Takeaways:

• 1.) How much is too much?

• 2.) Break the cycle.

• 3.) Think twice.

• 4.) Rise above.

• 5.) The time is now. Not tomorrow.

• 6.) Good before Greed.

[auviesignsm]

TWEAKED - ETHICS OVER ENTERPRISE

ARTG 210 Manifesto #1: Rebus + Type

This is the revised version of the Ethics Over Enterprise Manifesto. A large overhaul in colour and shaping was applied both in the tree and the building. The text matches the building’s twisted, ever-watching, towering presence, while the tree remains true and strong.

[auviesignsm]

ETHICS OVER ENTERPRISE

ARTG 210 Manifesto #1: Rebus + Type

“The pursuit for equal, ethical design is one that all designers, big and small, should follow no matter the needs of scummy, corporate overlords.”

Above is an excerpt from my reading summary. The meaning behind this Rebus + Type relates to the once towering trees of earth now being squandered by humanity and its hulking skyscrapers and condos. The rebus tree represents both itself and ethics as a whole, while the looming shadow represents humanity and said skyscrapers. The various gradients represent the continual battle between the lush, beautiful greens of Earth and the dull concrete of humanity. The text is faintly obstructed by the slow-growing tree, depicting a hope that one day nature can revive our dying Earth and overtake the enterprises who willingly poison our only home in the name of “progress.”