Critical Currents in Contemporary Graphic Design

Parsons The New School for Design, Fall 2013

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JIVE MODERNISM

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GRAPHICS INCOGNITO

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Re-thinking 'Modernism'

Re-thinking ‘Modernism’

One of the essential points of Modernism was its faith in the power of the present and the potential of the future; unlike Jive Modernism, which is fixed on appropriating styles from the past. Modernists used design in an attempt to change the world. Jive Modernism steals the aesthetic of Modernism, minus the content, so the design styles are the focus and the content is abstracted and extracted from the work. Style has become a detachable attribute, a veneer rather than an expression of content. Appropriating out of context, nostalgic imagery is jive because it steals a style that offers instant legitimacy simply for commercial success. Jive Modernism lacks the radical ideas behind Modernism. It cashes in on history without reinterpreting it. Using a historical reference is good if it re-contextualizes; if it inspires an idea that leads to the creation of something new. Otherwise, it’s a bad reference, a knock-off, Jive Modernism.

In “Graphics Incognito”, Mark Owens argues that certain modernist design tactics were adopted by suburban kids raised during the Reagan era in the early 1980s that were in the post-punk, aggressive hardcore, underground music scene. Graphic abstraction in particular, shaped the visual language of underground music and culture. He notes the Germ’s album cover which features “stark black background with a large process-cyan blue circle in the lower right corner flanked on top and bottom by two white rules and simple all caps Helvetica reading GERMS (GI) along the top”. The blue ‘circle one’ was frequently reproduced on flyers and armbands worn by the band members. The use of primary colors and abstract forms is a hallmark of modernist graphic abstraction, extending back to the Bauhaus. “Like the Bauhaus triangle square circle, the blue circle from the (GI) cover has become a kind of shorthand for American hardcore”. Owens cited the punk band, Black Flag, as evidence of what he calls Graphics Incognito. The Black Flag bars are an example of hardcore abstraction “par excellence”. The four black rectangles were originally meant to be a stylized representation of a waving flag. The bars were spray-painted by the band throughout LA and reproduced on countless flyers, t-shirts, records and more. The bars were instantly recognizable and easy to reproduce. Black Flag, like early graphic modernists, “ruptured the surface of bourgeois normality” using strategic anonymity, pseudonym, and graphic abstraction, to disseminate their radical message by any means necessary. The “return of the repressed” demonstrated with early American hardcore unknowingly made good use of early modernism.

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MODERNISM, CRAFT & TECHNOLOGY

Ebook:

 http://www.scribd.com/doc/193400051/Modernism-Craft-Technology

SOURCES: 

Metahaven vs. Experimental Jetset

  “Graphics Incognito”, Dot Dot Dot #12, 2006, by Mark Owens

  Tibor Kalman vs Joe Duffy Revisited, Print Magazine

  “The Troubled Craftsman”, Richard Sennet

  “Unraveling”, Lorraine Wild, from Graphic Design: Now in Print

  “Reading and Writing”, Ellen Lupton, from Graphic Design: Now in Print

  “Good History/Bad History”, Print Magazine, March/April 1991 – Tibor Kalman, J. Abbott Miller & Karrie Jacobs

  “Tool (Or, Postproduction for the Graphic Designer)”, Andrew Blauvelt, from Graphic Design: Now in Print

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E-Book

http://www.scribd.com/doc/192129142/E-Book

Link to my final E-Book

Thank you! 

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Judging Covers: An Album Cover Alphabet Book

Here's the dropbox link to view/download my e-book (lemme know if it gives ya any trouble).  Thank you Andrew and everyone for an awesome awesome semester!!  Learned so much from each of you and was a major major treat for me to get to take a class at Parsons!!  Can't wait to read your e-books :)

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Bethany's Final PDF - How Graphic Designers Define "Good"

Scribd link of full PDF for larger images (All pages appear below as well)

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Digital Design & Craft

Hi all,

Here is the link to my e-book: Digital Design & Craft.

It has been a great class! Great communicating with all of you. Happy Holidays and enjoy your time off!

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Book Cover Design ebook

Hey everyone,

Here's my final ebook. This was a fun class and I enjoyed seeing everyone's examples. Hope your winter holiday is restful.

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Final eBook

Hi everyone!

First, what a great semester this was – Andrew, this was such a great and unique class. I'm so glad I chose to take it, not another class has been this unique and fun before (that required reading anyway lol). I hope you all have a wonderful holiday!

Best,

Brendina

E-book

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Brendina and Thea—

Freakin’ love these two (totally different from one another) Great Gatsby covers: I’ve seen so many that were kinda (the ’12 Worth Press Ltd. ed., e.g.)/more-than-kinda (the ’03 Penguin Critical Studies expanded ed., e.g.) meh.  Personal opinion: these two kill the competition; they’re strong & strange enough to be memorable visually in and of themselves. 

  Bethany—

Love the uncomfortable tension between these two quotes:

“The job of graphic design is generally to persuade – so do we have a responsibility to be mindful of what we are persuading people to do or does this role as censor sit uncomfortably alongside tolerance and openmindedness?”

&

“Even if you don’t personally agree with your client’s message, if the message is a legitimate one, do you take a stand based on your own personal morality or do you act as a professional and continue to provide a service?”

  Kira—

Wow: Steven Heller and Lita Talarico's Typography Sketchbooks looks pretty freakin' amazing; definitely gotta check that out over the Dec. break.

  Roxana—

Somehow, to me, the most interesting thing about the below ad's the way the henna’s vaguely echoed by the blue design on the crock pot behind her forearm. 

  Arielle—

Crazy to realize how many logo re-designs TOTALLY passed me by; thank you for opening my eyes :)

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ebook

First, have an awesome awesome Thanksgiving everyone!!  Sooo stoked to read all your ebooks at the end of the semester!!! :)

  My working title’s Judging Covers: an Album Art Alphabet Book.  I’m using Blurb (initially I’d planned on using the Blurb ebook-for-ipads plug-in for InDesign, but at the moment am just working with a simple Standard Portrait BookSmart format).  Over the course of the last two weeks, my layout’s changed MANY times and has a long way yet to go (all suggestions more than welcome), but it’s thankfully at least simplified significantly since the chaos of draft 1.

  Drawing inspiration from the record stores experience of digging through many a record by a number of artists/bands in any given genre with names beginning with the same letter until (on a lucky day) striking gold, each double-page spread will highlight one album, one artist.

  LEFT-HAND PAGES:

  Each letter of the alphabet being used will be generated in the Ableton Live 9 MIDI editor (i.e. built out of percussion instruments)…

  …and then edited in Photoshop to look more like this:

  Obviously, since there are 26 letters in the English alphabet, had to pick a few to leave out: C, D—these first two since I wanted to disrupt the expectation of seeing every letter right away—O, U, V, and Y.  As a “bookmark” behind the above “old-school-video-game-meets-slightly-open- pamphlet”-esque letter image will be a short section of the waveform of the featured audio track named and linked on the right-hand page.   The below waveform (from the infamous Amen Break from The Winstons “Amen Brother”) is not of one of the tracks I’m using; it’s just here included to illustrate page design.  On either side of the letter/waveform image will be a black-background/white font tag cloud generated using IBM Many Eyes Data Visualizations programming (http://www-958.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/manyeyes/; http://www-958.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/manyeyes/page/Tag_Cloud.html).  Here again, the tag cloud sections that follow are not of my own project content, but are taken from a tag cloud from http://www.anthrocode.com/2008_11_01_archive.html and included simply to illustrate layout; the text in my tag clouds will be MUCH smaller.

  The content of the tag cloud left of each letter/waveform image will be a list of other artists whose names begin with the same letter as/a letter adjacent to that of the artist featured on the right-hand page.  To give my project a more curated vibe (i.e. a small record store whose stock represents the idiosyncratic taste of the owners), all artist/band names will be drawn from the below list of personal faves:

  2 Chainz, 9th Wonder, Aceyalone, Active Child, Aesop Rock, Alicia Keyes, Aloe Blacc, Andy Stott, Angel Haze, Anstam, Antony and the Johnsons, Apocalyptica, Apollo Brown, Asamov, At The Drive-In, Atoms for Peace, A-Trak, BADBADNOTGOOD, Bad Rabbits, Bad Religion, Bassnectar, Battles, Beats Antique, Beggars Opera, Benga, Big Boi, Big K.R.I.T., Bilal, Bill Callahan, Bill Withers, Billy Woods, Björk, Black Breath, Black Moon, Blu & Exile, B.O.B., Bobby Womack, Bon Iver, Bonfire Madigan, Bonobo, The Breeders, Burial, BYRELL the GREAT, Calexico, Cedaa, Chapterhouse, Charmingly Ghetto, Chief Keef, Childish Gambino, Chin Injeti, The CLAW, Coin Locker Kid, Common, Cunninlynguists, Deftones, DJ Craze, Danny Brown, Daphni, Darkstar, Das Racist, David Bowie, David Byrne, Dead Prez, Dean Blunt, Death Cab for Cutie, Death Grips, Deathspell Omega, Deft Aphid, Deftones, Del the Funky Homosapien, DeVotchKa, Dieselboy, Digable Planets, J. Dilla, THE DiSCiPLiNES, Disclosure, Divoli S’vere, Dom McLennon, Dope Body, The-Drum, Duck Sauce, DVA, Echo & The Bunnymen, Edwyn Collins, Eleventh Dream Day, Elliot Smith, El-P, Elzhi, Envy on the Coast, Erykah Badu, Esperanza Spalding, Evian Christ, Fatima Al Qadiri, Fela Kuti, Figure, Flying Lotus, For Against, Four Tet, FowL, Foxy Brown, Frank Ocean, The Game, Gangrene, The Gaslamp Killer, Gatekeeper, Gavin Castleton, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Girls Against Boys, Glasser, Goldie, Gremino, Gretchen Parlato, Guilty Simpson, Haiku D’Etat, DJ Hatcha, Heems, Hindi Zahra, Holden, Holograms, Hot Chip, H-SIK, Hudson Mohawke, iamamiwhoami, Idaho, Ikonika, Inc., Inga Copeland, Interpol, James Blake, Jay-Z, Jazzanova, Jean Grae, Jeff Buckley, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Jill Scott, Joe Goddard, John Legend, John Talabot, Jose James, Joy Division, The Joy Formidable, Kanye West, Kate Bush, Kelela, Kendrick Lamar, DJ Khaled, Kid Cudi, Kid Koala, Killer Mike, Kindness, Kingdom, The Knife, Kompreshun, Lauryn Hill, Le1f, Lil’ Kim, Livin Proof, Logic, Loma Prieta, Lone, Lushlife, M-1, M83, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Madlib, Madvillain, Major Laze, Massacooramaan, Massive Attack, Mastodon, Mayday, MC5, Medusa, Meek Mill, Meshell Ndegeocello, METZ, Mew, MF Doom, Mhz, Michael Jackson, Mikal, Mikeflo, MikeQ, Moodyman, MORRI$, Mos Def, Motor City Drum Ensemble, Mount Kimbie, Muse, My Bloody Valentine, Myka 9, Mykki Blanco, NA Nguzu, Nas, N.A.S.A., New Model Army, Nguzunguzu, Nina B, Nina Simone, Nosaj Thing, Notepad, The Notorious B.I.G., OC, Odd Future, Oddisee, DJ Olive Oil, One Day As a Lion, DJ Onra, The Other Guys, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Pale Saints, Patti Smith, Perfume Genius, Pete Rock, Peter Gabriel, Peter Jackson, Pink Turns Blue, Portico Quartet, Portishead, P.O.S., Premiere, Pretty Lights, Prince, Prince William, Pro Era, DJ Q-bert, Quakers, Quasimoto, Queen, Queens of the Stone Age, Radiohead, Rage Against the Machine, The Raveonettes, Refused, R.E.M., Reprazent, Rhye, Rick Ross, Ride, Rjd2, Rizzla, Robert Scott, Roni Size, The Roots, Royal Headache, DJ Rupture, Sad Lovers & Giants, Savages, SBTRKT, Schoolboy Q, Shabazz Palaces, Sean Price, Secret Shine, Self Defense Family, The Sex Pistols, Shad, DJ Shadow, Kelvin Sholar, DJ Shortee, Sigur Rós, Siouxsie & the Banshees, Sivil, Sizzla, Ski Beatz, Skream, Skrillex, Skyzoo, Slaughterhouse, Sloan, Slowdive, Slum Village, Sly the Family Stone, Smog, Snoop Lion, Soap & Skin, Social Distortion, DJ Spooky, Stereolab, St. Joe Louis, DJ Storm, St. Vincent, Sufjan Stevens, Sweatshop Union, Swervedriver, Talib Kweli, Talking Heads, Team Sleep, Tere$▲jenee, Terror Danjah, THEESatisfaction, Theo Parrish, Three Loco, T.I., Tito Lopez, TNGHT, Tool, Torche, Tori Amos, Toro Y Moi, DJ Total Freedom (that crazy new album), A Tribe Called Quest, TTxBC, Tupac Shakur, TV on the Radio, Two Door Cinema, Tyler the Creator, Ty Segall Band, Visqueen, Vybz Kartel, Wale, We Came as Romans, Wendy & Lisa, The White Stripes, Whiz Khalifa, The Wipers, Wire, Wordsworth, The X-Ecutioners, XTC, Yesterdays New Quintet, Young Fathers, Zammuto, Zero Star, Zomby

  The content of the tag cloud right of each letter/waveform image will be a brief quote from one of the below:

  You guys’ kick-ass blog comments!!

  Class readings sources:

“Another Open Letter” by Stuart Bailey

“Complicated Pleasure” by Anthony Dunne & Fiona Raby

“We’re Here to be Bad” by Tibor Kalman

“Designer as Producer” by Ellen Lupton

“Fuck Content” by Michael Rock

  Independent research sources:

Nineteenth-Century Rhyming Alphabets in English from the Library of Ruth M. Baldwin by Ruth M. Baldwin

I Mix What I Like: A Mixtape Manifesto by Jared A. Ball

The Energy of Hebrew Letters by Rav P.S. Berg

Adult Alphabets: Examples of English Press Alphabet Books from the Last Hundred Years by David Blamires

Angel, Angler and Acrobat by David Blamires

Typology of Writing Systems edited by Susan R. Borgwaldt and Terry Joyce

Book of Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip Hop by Adam Bradley

Total Chaos: The Art and Aesthetics of Hip-Hop edited by Jeff Chang

The Alphabet Abecedarium: Some Notes on Letters by Richard A. Firmage

Groove Music: The Art and Culture of the Hip Hop DJ by Mark Katz

Creative License: The Law and Culture of Digital Sampling by Kembrew McLeod and Peter DiCola

The Wisdom in the Hebrew Alphabet by Michael L. Munk

Remix Theory: The Aesthetics of Sampling by Eduardo Navas

The Boombox Project: the Machines, the Music, and the Urban Underground by Lyle Owerko

Alphabet Books as a Key to Language Patterns: An Annotated Action Bibliography by Patricia L. Roberts

Multiple Signatures: On Designers, Authors, Readers and Users by Michael Rock

Digital Methods by Richard Rogers

Kana Pict-o-Graphix: Mnemonics for Japanese Hiragana and Katakana by Michael Rowley

Letter Perfect: The Marvelous History of Our Alphabet from A to Z by David Sacks

Making Beats: The Art of Sample-Based Hip-Hop and Foundation: B-boys, B-girls and Hip Hop Culture in New York by Joseph G. Schloss

Back in the Days Remix by Jamel Shabazz

Rhythm Science and Sound Unbound by Paul D. Miller AKA DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid

Uncorporate Identity by Daniel van der Velden and Vinca Kruk

Design Transition: Inspiring Stories, Global Viewpoints; How Design is Changing by Joyce Yee, Emma Jefferies, Lauren Tan, and Tim Brown

  RIGHT-HAND PAGES:

  In addition to the following album cover images (one album, one artist/band per letter, selections made based on particular relevance to those readings we’ve done thus far which I'll be referencing and on usefulness for contextualizing the cover design), each right-hand page will include

A)   the artist’s name, the album title, and the title of (and a link to) the representative track selection above the cover image

B)   1-2 brief paragraphs connecting the quotation on the left-hand page to the featured artist and/or cover design below the cover image.  In cases wherein it makes sense to do so, background information on the design of the featured cover and/or clips of reviews of the album/of interviews with the artist will be incorporated here as well.

At the moment, all my own text is in Neue Helvetica 35 Thin. 

   Featured artists, albums, cover art, and representative tracks:

  A

Angel Haze

Classick mixape

“Cleaning Out My Closet”  https://soundcloud.com/angelhazeym/angel-haze-cleaning-out-my

B

Benga

Hitman

“Hitman” https://soundcloud.com/iambenga/benga-hitman-1

E

Erik B. & Rakim

Follow the Leader

“Follow the Leader”

https://soundcloud.com/alex-haller-1/rakim-follow-the-leader

F

Fatima Al Qadiri

Desert Strike EP

“Ghost Raid” https://soundcloud.com/fadetomind/fatima-al-qadiri-ghost-raid

G

Gangrene

Vodka and Ayahuasca

“Gladiator Music” ft. Kool G Rap https://soundcloud.com/e_i2oc_1/09-gangrene-gladiator-music-ft

H

Sonic Rage

“Sonic Rage” https://soundcloud.com/black-acre-records/h-sik-sonic-rage

Inc.

No World

“Black Wings” http://youtu.be/zmVdK_PM3dc

J

Jean Grae

Cookies or Comas

“Assassins” ft. Pharoahe Monch & Royce Da 5’9” https://soundcloud.com/dj-ccbster/jean-grae-assassins-ft

K

Kingdom

Vertical XL

“Corpse” https://soundcloud.com/fadetomind/kingdom-corpse

L

Le1f

Liquid EP

“Sweet Tea” Cedaa Remix https://soundcloud.com/cedaa/boody-le1f-sweet-tea-cedaa

M

Mykki Blanco

Cosmic Angel: The Illuminati Prince/ss mixtape

"Wavvy"

https://soundcloud.com/fadermedia/mykki-blanco-wavvy

N

Nguzunguzu

Timesup EP

“Wake Sleep” Total Freedom Winter Park Homicide edition https://soundcloud.com/fadetomind/nguzunguzu-wake-sleep-total-freedom

P

P.O.S.

We Don’t Even Live Here

“Bumper” https://soundcloud.com/rhymesayers/p-o-s-bumper

Q

Quasimoto

Yessir Whatever

“Planned Attack” https://soundcloud.com/stonesthrow/quasimoto-planned-attack

R

Rjd2

“Her Majesty’s Socialist Request” Figure remix https://soundcloud.com/figure/rjd2-her-majestys-socialist

S

DJ Shadow

Reconstructed: The Best of DJ Shadow (Deluxe)

https://soundcloud.com/djshadow/sets/reconstructed-deluxe

T

DJ Total Freedom

Blasting Voice double LP

“Beat to Death”

https://soundcloud.com/totalfreedom/beat-to-death-alternate

W

Wiz Khalifa

O.N.I.F.C. http://youtu.be/NvgxQ0TsauU

X

The X-Ecutioners

Murder the Classix  https://soundcloud.com/ed612313/x-ecutioners-murder-the

Z

Zomby

With Love double album

“With Love” http://youtu.be/E5fccx15b2k

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Ebook

My eBook will focus in the relationship between Design and Advertising. It is interesting how good effective advertising cannot exist without good design, and how they go hand in hand. Design is an essential took for an advertiser to communicate the masses effectively and get business growing. It is important not to forget that art is to convey the images to the public that were important to the author, and advertising encourages to acquire goods. Advertising is designed to generate consumer awareness, educate, describe and assess the goods. 

Advertising convinces that the entire universe is focused on delivering pleasure. All companies aim to make each person happy, they work every day for this great purpose, they endow everyone with all necessary feelings just for the fact that people would become happy. The main force of advertising is caring about people. Mere things acquire a whole different meaning with the help of advertising and propaganda, they are personalized and therefore appealing to people, they set the mood and evoke a sense of satisfaction and gratification. This fact is the most important one, because buying things ceases to have meaning, it becomes more important than the experience of sensations coming from a certain product, the effect of acquisition. 

It turns out that earlier experiences of high sincerity and openness offered only art, now these functions are executed by advertising. In this sense, advertising can not replace the art, it can adopt it and connect to it. If art fundamentally delivers important aesthetic experiences, which are not pragmatic, then advertising is designed to stimulate consumption.

Nowadays, the relationship between the two is inevitable. Society learns to differentiate good products from the bad ones, that is why it has to be fed with new ideas, thus new advertisings. Have you ever wondered, why the ads from the 50's-60's, for example, seem so ridiculous to us now? Because society educates itself all the time, therefore companies need to make smarter and more innovatively designed advertising from year to year in order to keep business growing and audiences interested. 

I will be making the Ebook in the form of the collage, integrating text with images in an effective communicative and artsy way.

Texts:

1) Design for Experience: Interactive Component for an Advertising Campaign

https://uxmag.com/articles/design-for-experience-interactive-component-of-an-advertising-campaign

2) We’re Here to Be Bad, Tibor Kalman

3) Design is Advertising

http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/design-is-advertising-1-the-whispering-intruder

4) George Prest: Advertising is Dying

http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/media-network-blog/2012/oct/26/george-prest-advertising-long-live-design

5) Print Advertising

http://www.creativebloq.com/inspiration/print-ads-1233780

6) The Misunderstood Intersection Between Design and Advertising

http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/opinion-the-misunderstood-intersection-between-advertising-and-design

7) Making Advertising Work in a Responsive World

http://mobile.smashingmagazine.com/2012/11/29/making-advertising-work-in-a-responsive-world/

8) Design vs Advertising

http://kudesign.co.nz/design-vs-advertising/

9) Nine Steps to Create Effective Print Advertising

http://www.2nextlevel.net/resources/advertising-articles/nine-steps-to-create-effective-print-advertising

10) Graphic Design Inspiration

http://www.graphicdesignbasics.com/2011/graphic-design-inspiration-packaging-part-1.html

11) Advertising Meets Interactive Design 

http://www.printmag.com/design-inspiration/advertising-meets-interactive-design/

12) How Graphic Design is Related to Marketing and Advertising

http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/how-graphic-design-is-related-to-marketing-and-advertising

13) Importance of Advertising

http://www.1choice4yourstore.com/imofadbyaksi.html

14) Importance of Graphic Design and Advertising

http://www.articlesalley.com/article.detail.php/247156/205/Web_Design/Internet/36/Importance_of_Graphic_Design_in_Advertising

15) Creativity in Advertising Design Education

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11251-010-9157-y#page-1

16) Bettering The Advertising-Packaging Connection

http://www.packworld.com/package-design/graphic/bettering-packaging-advertising-connection

17) The Evolution of Apple Ads

http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/09/the-evolution-of-apple-ads/

18) Graphic Design: Now in Production

Brand New Worlds, Andrew Blauvelt p.190

19) The Importance of Authentic Marketing

http://headfirstcreative.com/the-importance-of-authentic-marketing/

20) Graphic Design and Marketing: Wearing Both Hats

http://biznik.com/articles/graphic-design-and-marketing-wearing-both-hats

Images:

#roxana #ebook #assignment #images #text 

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EBook Concept & Materials

My Ebook theme will be called: The Marriage of Craft and Digital Design. There is no doubt that digital design has completely changed the craftsmanship of the practice. However, many great designers rely heavily on craft before moving their work digitally or even throughout the digital process. I will explore the pros and cons of the craft of graphic design in a solely digital world, and how important it is to stay a craftsman, whether it be sketching a project beforehand or working solely on the computer. I want the book to be modular grid-based. I am going to use several typefaces and only use clean, digital type. As for images, as a nice contrast that applies to my thesis, I would like them to have a collage style to them. I am planning on physically altering them myself (cutting, collaging, photocopying, etc), and bringing them back into my ebook. I am picturing full-bleed, images, but I will see where the project takes me! Texts : 1. Designer as Producer, Ellen Lupton. Page 13 2. Unraveling by Lorraine Wild. Page 21 3-6. Tool (Or, Post-Production for the graphic designer), Andrew Blauvelt. 7. We’re Here to Be Bad, Tibor Kalman (excerpt regarding vernacular design) 8. Reading & Writing, Ellen Lupton (excerpt page 67) 9-10. The Troubled Craftsman, Sennet (excerpt from page 27 and 39) 11. The Making of a Typographic Man, Ellen Lupton (excerpt from pg 113) 12. Experimental Typography, Whatever that means. by Peter Bil’ak (excerpt page 132) 13-14. Principles of Great Graphic Design, Craftsmanship http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/01/13/principles-of-great-design-craftsmanship/ 15. John Kolko, Craftmanship http://www.jonkolko.com/writingCraftsmanship.php 16. A Look inside the Sketchbooks of 12 Top Designers http://www.fastcodesign.com/1662565/a-look-inside-the-sketchbooks-of-12-top-designers-slideshow#1 17. Marketing Craftsmanship http://marketingcraftsmanship.com/2012/12/19/marketing-ink-on-paper-collateral/ 18. Magic Box: Craft and the Computer by David Crow http://eyemagazine.com/feature/article/magic-box-craft-and-the-computer 19. Inside the Sketchbooks of the World’s Greatest Type Designers http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2011/12/05/typography-sketchbooks/ 20. Sketching Out of My Comfort Zone: A Type Design Experiment http://typographica.org/on-typography/sketching-out-of-my-comfort-zone-a-type-design-experiment/

Sorry, photos may be out of order:

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Ebook Idea and Materials

For my ebook, I'm going to explore how a graphic designer defines the word "good." I'll touch on a few different areas such as aesthetics, the message to society, the intrinsic good in earning a living, and persuasion, i.e. selling things and capitalism.

Quotes I've collected:

By far the greatest effort of those working in the advertising industry are wasted on these trivial purposes, which contribute little or nothing to our national prosperity.

The high pitched scream of consumer selling is no more than sheer noise

We hope that our society will tire of gimmick merchants, status salesmen and hidden persuaders

Today, we live and breathe design.

The product may be little different in real terms from its rivals. What seduces us is its "image."

At root, it's about democracy. The escalating commercial take-over of everyday life makes democratic resistance more vital than ever.

[We] have been raised in a world in which the techniques and apparatus of advertising have persistently been presented to us as the most lucrative, effective and desirable use of our talents.

Encouraged in this direction, designers then apply their skill and imagination to sell dog biscuits, designer coffee, diamonds, detergents, hair gel, cigarettes, credit cards, sneakers, butt toners, light beer and heavy-duty recreational vehicles.

Time and energy is used up manufacturing demand for things that are inessential at best

A mental environment so saturated with commercial messages that it is changing the very way citizen-consumers speak, think, feel, respond and interact

Consumerism is running uncontested

Designers, stay away from corporations that want you to lie for them

The job of graphic design is generally to persuade – so do we have a responsibility to be mindful of what we are persuading people to do or does this role as censor sit uncomfortably alongside tolerance and openmindedness?

For many designers the property of goodness lies primarily in aesthetics.

Is our work good if it engenders happiness, for example – if it adds to someone’s quality of life by making the world a more delightful or pleasurable place?

'Even if you don’t personally agree with your client’s message, if the message is a legitimate one, do you take a stand based on your own personal morality or do you act as a professional and continue to provide a service? 

'When it comes to graphic design, isn’t it better not to walk away from jobs on ethical grounds, but to ask if there’s some way that you can have influence, something you can bring? 

The market is a glorious thing, but it is also a monster that devours its children.

Many of us, designers included, have to admit to being prostitutes in that sense – selling a talent on behalf of this great monster, the most terrifyingly powerful thing on the globe

There’s nothing wrong with making money, and there’s nothing wrong with exploiting your talent, but I think you probably need a philosophy that says in addition to that.

I can’t simply be the hand that draws or the eye behind the lens; I also need to be committed and engaged in other areas.'

If one sought to be altruistic at the expense of one’s own interest all the time, the risk is that it would eventually undermine even one’s ability to be good to others.

Ethics is an inclusive notion. It’s about the whole quality of life. The aesthetic becomes really vital to that because to live in a social and political setting which is pleasing, enticing and attractive, and which is full of interest, detail, colour and movement increases the quality of life [. . .] Every aspect of our lives is touched constantly by considerations of the quality of our experience. So there is a deep connection between the aesthetic and the ethical.'

An inconclusive debate raged throughout the twentieth century on whether advertising manipulated buyers by implanting fake needs and false expectations or whether consumers used their purchasing power to get the market to give them what they wanted.

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Images (in no particular order):

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Ebook on Book Cover Design

My ebook focuses on the evolution of book cover design and what it means to us. I want to compare early 20th century covers to those of today and how we reuse old style to make things look "literary." I also explore how publishers feel the need to brand books or make them look modern through font. To compete with the luxury that book ownership was in the past, I'm looking at how certain books can become a luxury item themselves.

Writings

(1)(2)Tibor Kalman, J. Abbott Miller, Karrie Jacobs - “Good History/ Bad History" 

(3)(4) Mark Owens - “Graphics Incognito”

(5)(6)(7) Metahaven - “Autoreply: Modernism”

(8) Stuart Bailey - “Another Open Letter”

(9) Michael Rock - “Fuck Content”

(10)(11) Ellen Lupton - “Reading and Writing”

(12)(13) Tibor Kalman - “We’re here to be bad”

(14)“Tibor Kalman vs Joe Duffy Revisited”

(15)(16) Richard Sennett - “The Troubled Craftsman”

(17)(18) Daniel van der Velden - "Research & Destroy: Graphic Design as Investigation"

(19) Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby - "Critical Design" 

(20) Ellen Lupton - "The Designer as Producer"

Images