Collaborative Laboratory for Dimensional Narrative

In this course, students will dive deep into time, map the landscape, and stake out a territory for working. This laboratory is an inquisitive environment for exploring ways to frame information and weave stories with graphic design.

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http://www.fluxus.org/

Are you looking for an ART HISTORY perspective on Fluxus? If so, click here.

You may think that Fluxus is "dead." Not true. It is alive and kicking. If you're looking for information about how Fluxus-as-art has evolved and what it is up to these days, click here.

You may think that Fluxus is only a type of art. Not true. If you are more interested in FLUXUS as a CREATIVE FORCE than Fluxus as a type of art, click here.

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Anette Lenz

http://a-g-i.org/member-work/work/281

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Nancy Skolos

http://a-g-i.org/member-work/work/444

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Makoto Saito

About/Contact

Works

Publications

Sunrise Sunset Yusaku Kamekura, 1999. Client : Toppan printing Co., Ltd. Makoto Saito Design Office Inc. Year : 1999 Size :1427×1030 Offset Printing

http://a-g-i.org/member-work/work/418

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http://www.posterpage.ch/winners/hang_07/hang_07.htm

Great examples of dimensional posters displaying fusion and fragmentation of type.

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ART 21

About this video

How do artists make the invisible visible? What hidden elements persist in their work? Is it the artist's role to reveal them, or not? In this episode, artists share some of the secrets that are intrinsic to their work.

Featured in this video

Arlene Shechet, Elliott Hundley, Trevor Paglen

http://www.pbs.org/art21/watch-now/episode-secrets

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http://architizer.com/blog/see-how-ikea-3d-models-the-rooms-in-their-catalogs/

See How IKEA 3D Models the Rooms in Their Catalogs by Matt Shaw "IKEA has been very interested in the interface of digital culture and production with the traditional methods of making and selling furniture. Their "bookbook" video introduces their catalog as a world-changing app, in book form."

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A Tiny Radio Show About Design with Roman Mars

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APA (American Psychological Association) style is most commonly used to cite sources within the social sciences. This resource, revised according to the 6th edition, second printing of the APA manual, offers examples for the general format of APA research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the reference page. For more information, please consult the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, (6th ed., 2nd printing).

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Chicago-Style Citation Quick Guide. Tools for writers and editors from the Web site for The Chicago Manual of Style.

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The history of typography is a rich area of study. There are many ways to classify type, including the ones listed here. Please use this site and its many sections as you explore the history of type in our upcoming assignments.

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Get Inside The Word with Philippe Apeloig

Through these pages you learn that Philippe was equally opportunistic as he was fortunate at an early age, taking a bold step to leave Paris for a great learning opportunity as an intern with Total Design Amsterdam. Exposed to an international design scene, Philippe was particularly enamored with the graphic culture in Holland, a blend of modernity and tradition. This design felt very sophisticated and pure to Philippe, who returned to Total Design for a second training period two years later. His early influences during this time included Russian Constructivists El Lissitsky and Malevitch, Piet Mondrian, Rietveld, Van Doesburg and Piet Zwart, Swiss Design, and Paul Rand. Philippe’s first design position after school was with the newly established Musee d’Orsay where he claims to have had a sense of freedom on the job he only achieved a few other times again over his career.

The interview then turns to Philippe’s opinions on a range of topics such as his inspirations, his feelings on commissioned work, how design fits into the arts, and what he sees for the future of graphic design. It is at this point in time that the book enters a 33 page portfolio of Philippe’s work, beginning with his designs for the Musee d’Orsay. In one particularly stunning poster his process involved printed out the type “Chicago”, folding along the “g”, and photographing it. He layered the photograph over a Chicago intersection to give the text the effect of motion in conjunction with the last two letters “go”. I found this to be a great example of a visual narrative that only became present with experimentation of the physical print. Throughout the remaining pages of the book his work continues to impress but the interview is still a quality accompaniment to the visuals, and I often revisit his insight after viewing the work.

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Thinking with Paul Rand's work

by Shangning Wang

I read a book named Paul Rand: His work from 1946 to1958. It is a good book and of a great inspiration to me. As a Functionalist and Pragmatists, Paul Rand was one of the greatest designer in the world. He is not only famous for his outstanding design works but also be known as an educator who has inspired many designers. His works are full of aesthetics character which like Picaso’s pantings. When I searched his informations on Internet, I also found that he enjoyed Cross-disciplinary learning and working. So he got the chance to analyze and interpret commercial graphic design at different angles with different knowledge. Just Like another designer Hans Schleger judged him:” He knows a lot of things.”

One thing which is equally important to the above mentioned is that his works are simple but powerful. I think this character is an unquestionably vital one for modern designers to follow especially for designers like us. In the graphic design circles of today many designers work side by side with some latest technology and spare no effort to make some complicated design. But some designers’ works really make people confused. Why can Paul Rand do that? I think it is because he was the designer who combined rational design, emotional design, and clarity in his design thinking system. He would like put his design far enough so that it can reveal a way of flexibility and relevance to the subjects. When I analyzed his work, I guessed that rational design must played a critical role at the begin of his design, then it made places for perceptual thinking. In my point of view, Paul Rand always could find a reasonable and better way to express his idea. Throughout his poster designs he used many simple forms and contrast of colors to make some beautiful graphic pictures which like a great artist. 

On the other hand, I also found some issues when I read this book.  After all this book was published 56 years ago, some of his work has gone out. It just because technology is developed in tremendous speed nowadays, including the designer’s tools and the market. With the latest design tools, designers can make some charming design easier. Also, people’s vision changed. They more like try new things than classical masterpieces. But for designers, I always can learn new things from reading this book.

Overall, I benefit a lot from reading and analyzing his work.

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Aleksandr Rodchenko

Authors: Magdalena Dabrowski, Leah Dickerman, Peter Galassi

Publisher: Museum of Modern Art, 1998

Review by Arina Anoschenko

This book is about Aleksandr Rodchenko, an avant-garde artist and designer, who was one of the most important members of the Constructivist movement in post-revolutionary Russia. It is a comprehensive overview of his work from abstract paintings to his experiments in photography, photocollage, and design work, such as posters, magazines, books, and advertising. In June of 1998, The Museum of Modern Art in New York had an exhibition devoted to his work.

Analysis

One of the strenghs of this catalog is the rich collection of high quality images that immediately grabbed my attention. The book not only follows Rodchenko’s life and work, but also narrates the historical events that influenced the art and design scene in post-revolutionary Russia. It begins with Magdalena Dabrowski’s introduction to Rodchenko’s Innovation and Experiment and shows the early exploration in design projects inspired by the work of Tatlin and Malevich. The black and white photographs give the first impression of radical steps taken by Rodchenko in his early works – spatial constructions made of cardboard and wood.  

The introduction is followed by Aleksanr Lavrentyev’s chapter On Priorities and Patents, where we can find Rodchenko’s thoughts on design elements (color and line). However, this chapter doesn’t have any supporting visual material. The next chapter The Propagandizing of Things written by Leah Dickerman introduces Rodchenko’s point of no return to painting: “I affirmed: it’s all over. Basic colors.”  In this chapter we find that the loss of painting is the reconfiguration of art as a modern, politically aware practice. Rodchenko pursues advertising, history posters, and photo-stories. Peter Gallasi, the author of book section titled Rodchenko and Photography’s Revolution, talks about photography, which came into play in Rodchenko’s work, charged by politics and a group of artists and intellectuals of early Soviet Russia. 

The Plates section of the book is 155 pages long; it covers Rodchenko’s work from 1915 to 1939 including oil paintings, drawings, photographs, poster designs, advertising designs, book covers, and magazines. The Chronology section, compiled by Anne-Laure Oberson, is composed of detailed entries which complete Rodchenko’s biography.

Overall, this book is a comprehensive look at Rodchenko as an artist as well as a designer. The authors present information full of details about his life and the society he was living in.

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A Little Thinking About The Design 

By Lizhou Zhang

I review the book Tanaka Ikko Graphic Master these days, written by Gian Carlo Calza, publishing in 1997 by PHAIDON. As the name of the book, the content is talking about the designer Tanaka Ikko and his work.  I know this designer when I back to China, but just the work Nihon Buyo. By reading this book about Tanaka Ikko I know him more, and have my own thinking about the design.

First of all, I learned the traditional stuff is important to the work of a designer. According to this book, I have learned some experience of his growth, I realized there are great influence caused by the life experience. His is living in the city Nara, which is one of the most oldest and traditional city in Japan. At the beginning, around 1970’s, his color focus on obverse contraction like white and black, white and red or black with other, and his strokes and the practices of performance have some signs of the Ukiyoe. For example, the picture here using the black background and using traditional Japan painting Ukiyoe to fill the words, to make people focus on the color stuff. And around 1990’s, his work is more abstract, simple and succinct. He is good at using simple geometry images to perform some complex, retro, figurative, traditional and realistic characters. From his work, I realize the importance of the traditional images or elements. When I am trying to do some design, I rashly intent to imitate the western artists, which image works is more focus on abstract visual process. Therefor, as the result, I often ignore the tradition stuff from the long time period of Chinese history. I am not saying to regard adding the traditional stuff is the purpose of the design, but from Tanaka’s work I realize the importance of that, combine the tradition and the geometry can produce unexpected results, and maybe I will pay more attention on the traditional aspect.

Second, I see a very obvious personal style from Tanaka Ikko. I first know this great artist is his work Nikon Buyo, which is the first image of this book. This poster has a very distinctive image of Japanese geisha. I know the geisha, and I know all the geometry image, but I still fell amazing to see the poster combined traditional image with abstract images so well and there is no sense of violation. From this Nikon Buyo, I begin to learn more about Tanaka, and I see lots of other poster having the same features, which is his own style. It is very normal to have his or her own style for a great artist, but for us who are learning design right now, most of us do not have our own style, and maybe we do very different stuff when we do different design project. To do better indesign, students as me maybe need to try to do the poster and design in some patten, that what I am understanding of our project about the tool box, to have our own style. As I said before,  Tanaka Ikko created a style of graphic design that fused modernism principles with the Japanese tradition. Nikon Buyo is just a example, actually as a style, he do have other poster to recognize like a series with that feature.

At last, I realized it’s important to have more experience. From the book, I learned Tanaka Ikko studied art when he was a child, and when he was a young adult, he was involved in modern drama and theatrical study groups, and during that process, he live from Nara to Tokyo to other different city in Japan. I realized to rich ourselves is a pretty good to do the poster in better way. That’s maybe why I choose to go abroad to study, like now. In addition there are some other way to experience more, like traveling and reading. Experiencing more to find our own interesting and the area we are good at, that maybe the first step to be a good design.

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A Wonderful Learning Experience

by Valerie Skorpion

This review focuses on, “Jan Tschichold: Master Typographer His Life, Work & Legacy”. It was edited by Cees W. De Jong and first published by Thames & Hudson Ltd in 2008. The whole book is well written and chock-full of details about the life of Jan Tschichold. I read the majority of this book. However, for the purposes of this review, I am focusing on the essay, “Tschichold and Poster Design” written by Martign F. Le Coultre.

The background information given about what Jan was doing and the manner in which it was put in context is incredible. Even the fact that Jan is not his birth name and the reasons for his name changes are included in the text. This book is clearly very well researched. In fact, Cees and each of the four people he asked to write essays for this book knew Jan Tschichold to some degree. In areas they felt themselves to be lacking, it is clear that they reached out to still others. This outreach is the can be attributed to the fullness or thoroughness of this book.

Surprisingly, in the 102 pages focusing on poster design, there are relatively few examples of Jan’s actual poster design. A fair number of the posters shown are actually attributed to friends and colleagues of his. This is due to two things, first Jan did not sign his work. Second, much of his work was destroyed by the Gestapo as it was deemed improper and not German.

The book does include enough posters for Jan’s style to become clear. Of Jan’s posters depicted in the book, many of them are printed on colored paper. He also tends to use black and one additional color of ink when printing. Although, a third ink color is used on some posters. In all of his posters, including the ones above, Jan’s use of sans serif fonts and a clean, organized design style stand out.

The format of the book relies quite heavily on images, which is well suited to the purpose of teaching the reader about a graphic designer. The number of photos Cees W. De Long managed to find of Jan, his wife, and his son impressed me. I did not expect so many photos from that era.

In conclusion, I would recommend this book to anyone who loves graphic design or wants to know more about the life and works of Jan Tschichold.