VCUDesignTheory

These articles on the current issues of design and culture are published by students in the Graphic Design program at Virginia Commonwealth University.

[vcudesigntheory]

The Affects of Social Media on Design

Trey, Holly, and I’s topic was to analyze how much we use social media, and how, and in what ways it is affecting our design. After we divvied up topics, we decided that we would each address different social medias. Trey was tackling Facebook and Myspace, Holly was investigating Snapchat, and I was analyzing Twitter and Instagram. I began with research, and quickly realized that, surprisingly, there wasn’t a lot out there that analyzed exactly what the effect of social media, and our constant involvement in it, was doing to design. Instead I first researched statistics, facts, and the fundamentals of what I needed to know for each social application. Here were my initial findings:

Twitter:

Social micro blogging network that allows people to send “tweets” to their followers, i.e., everyone’s personal stream of conscious

Founded: March 2006, San Francisco, CA

In 2009 Twitter increased drastically in popularity. Right now, 72.5% of all users joined during the first five months of 2009. This was their “take off” year.

Today, people send “hundreds of millions of tweets” from their smart phones, computers, and tablets. It’s becoming the most popular social media used among celebrities, TV shows, programs, and businesses around the world.

Instagram:

 “Instagram is an online photo-sharing, video-sharing and social networking service that allows its users to take pictures and videos, apply digital filters to them, and share them on a variety of social networking services.”

Instagram began development in San Francisco and was launched in October 2010

The service rapidly gained popularity, with over 100 million active users as of April 2012 (this is Instagram’s “take off” year).

 In 2013, Instagram grew by 23%.

Right now, it is the fastest growing social media in the world.

Now that we have down the fundamental facts about each social media, here are the subtopics that I wanted to address and discuss: 

  How do the programs cater to the user?

Twitter:

Easily recognized logo and application theme. 

Simple layouts to create easy and controlled user ability.  4 or 5 buttons allow you to do everything.

Clean, sleek design, the use of two or three colors.

Instagram:

Unified style and aesthetic theme. 

Filters catering to the comeback of the “vintage style.”

This idea of “editing” your images, when in reality your options are very limited. You have very little to do with the end result.

Similarly, a select few buttons allows you to do everything on the app. It is simplified and user friendly. 

How time are we spending online using these social media applications?

“The United States spent 121 billion minutes on social media sites in July 2012 alone, according to Nielsen's annual Social Media report. That's 388 minutes — or 6-1/2 hours — per person (if every person in the U.S. used social media). All together, that's 230,060 years we spent staring into the glaring screen of so-called sharing (Popkin, 1).”

“Overall, we here in the U.S. spend roughly 20 percent of our time on personal computers liking, tweeting, pinning, whatever it is we do on Tumblr and other stuff on social media, and 30 percent of our time on our mobile devices doing the same (Popkin, 1).”

“Since 2006, the amount of time that the average person spent on social-networking sites has more than doubled, from 2.7 hours to 6.9 hours per month. More people are using social media, as well. While only 24% of Americans had a single social-media profile in 2008, 56% of Americans do now (Fox, 1).”

  How social media is affecting design?

Lauren Thorson: “Think about it, we spend hours and hours a day on our phones tweeting, instagraming, facebooking, if we took that time and instead went and sat in the middle of a field for 6 hours, you’d have a totally different outcome.”

Where, with who, and how you’re spending your leisure time nearly directly correlates to what you are inspired by, like aesthetically, and incorporate in your design.

Simplicity is becoming synonymous with design, the hand is often lacking.

We are influenced by technology in a serious way, think about it, when you tell someone you’re a graphic designer, what is generally the first thing they say, “oh, you do that on computers, right?”

Things are created so quickly now, with a post to Instagram, a blog, or any other social media taking only seconds, there is pressure to create art more rapidly, while maintaining a “perfect” look. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Is this an art movement we’ll study years from now? Where is design heading? Will it reverberate back to the hand? While we don’t know the answer to these questions, we should also consider that as designers we are the molders of what is to come. Where we spend our time, and what we spend it doing is going to inevitably shape the work we create. So, ask yourself, what will the world say about the art you are creating a hundred years from now?

Will the hand make a come back? 

  Citations:

Craig, Smith. "By the Numbers: 143 Amazing Twitter Statistics." Last modified 23 2, 2014. Accessed February 17, 2014. http://expandedramblings.com/.

Britney, Fitzgerald. Huffington Post, "Twitter Use is on the Rise." Last modified 1 6, 2013. Accessed February 25, 2014. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/01/twitter-use-stats-growth_n_1559716.html.

Craig , Smith. "By the Numbers: 70 Interesting Instagram Statistics." Last modified 6 2, 2014. Accessed February 19, 2014. http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/important-instagram-stats/

Helen, Popkin. CNBC, "We Spent 230,060 Years on Social Media in One Month." Last modified 4 12, 2012. Accessed February 25, 2014. http://www.cnbc.com/id/100275798.

Zoe, Fox. "This Is How Much Time You Spend on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr." Last modified 11 28, 2012. Accessed February 23, 2014. http://mashable.com/2012/11/28/social-media-time/.

[vcudesigntheory]

Iconography: What it is and the definition

Mark Caasi

My group is doing a presentation on Iconography. It’s a daunting task to take on trying to teach Iconography and Semiotics. In any case my portion of the presentation is about the history and identification of iconography. I’m starting the presentation by showing examples of icons. The reason for this is to address that not only are the icons themselves part of iconography but also the fact of identifying icons is also part of iconography. I will also be defining Iconography by webster’s standard. Which is pictorial material relating to or illustrating a subject and the traditional or conventional images. For the history portion of the presentation I will be starting with art history itself. I’m starting with origin of iconography in the context of art history, starting with Giorgio Vasari and his Ragionamenti.

I will then transition into the nineteenth century and cover the scholars Adolphe Mapolean Didron, Anton Heinrich Springer, and Emile Male. All of who specialized in the study of religious Christian art. For the last portion of the history section I am going to cover some new material. Media Studies which is a discipline that deals with content, history, and mass media which draws on social sciences, humanities and semiotics.While there are a lot of people to have worked in the study of semiology, for the purpose of this presentation I will be focusing on one person. Ferdinand de Saussure, a swiss linguist and semiotician who’s made the core of many important developments in semiology in the 20th century.

Saussure thought that there isn’t really a necessary inheritance within the relationship or rather that a meaning can pretty much be derived by a random grouping of words, letters, or images. During this time I will be showing a video of a Taco Bell advertisement of which I will analyze for the class.

Showing the signifier and signified for what made the commercial. After all his combination of things will and can produce more meaning. So in a sense a lot of what we do as graphic designers and as people is affected by iconography and semiotics. Afterwards I will talk about Rene Magrite and her painting.

Using the context within the painting “This is not a pipe” I will convince and explain the importance and relevance of that specific painting. After establishing a foundation for this kind of thought I will show them examples of how our minds work in real time.

Reason being that we learned about symbols and we know that they pull from our experiences of what we know is real. These images should be comical but relevant to the cognitive process that takes place. There is a cognitive process that happens in our minds. Using our past experiences we develop an understanding for foreign shapes and even sounds to get to some point of closure. This is something that helps develop icons and understanding this cognitive process makes for more ideal iconography or rather something more iconic. This point of my presentation I will act out the interview we had with John Malinoski, to the best of my ability.

Ultimately I hope my portion will be mind provoking and entertaining.

Citation:

Last name, First name. “Article Title.” Website Title. Publisher of Website, Day Month Year article was published. Web. Day Month Year article was accessed. <URL>.

Popova, Maria, “The Visual Legacy of 400 Symbols.” Brainpickings.org. 29 April 2014. <http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2011/03/09/gerd-artnz-graphic-designer/>

Cohn, Maria, “The 50 most brand logos of all time.” Complex.com. 29 April 2014. <http://www.complex.com/art-design/2013/03/the-50-most-iconic-brand-logos-of-all-time/mastercard>

Simcik, Cameron, “ The transformation of iconic food logos from Mc Donalads to M&Ms.” 29 April 2014.<http://www.foodbeast.com/2013/11/12/how-major-food-logos-have-transformed-from-mcdonalds-to-mms/>

  Tart, Nicholas, “17 Evolutions of your Favorite Logos.” Retireat21.com. . 29 April 2014.<http://www.retireat21.com/entrepreneurship/17-evolutions-of-logos>

Poh, Michael, “Logo Evolution Of 25 Famous Brands” 29 April 2013. <http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/logo-evolution/ >

[vcudesigntheory]

Design in A Capital Society

Design in A Capitalist Society

Leah Brave

The topic my group chose was Capitalism and Design.  We ( Joseph, Taryn, and I) wanted to research and explore how exactly design worked in a capitalist society. The word capitalism is now quite commonly used to describe the social system in which we now live. It is also often assumed that it has existed, if not forever, then for most of human history. In fact, capitalism is a relatively new social system.

Capitalism is the social system which now exists in all countries of the world. Under this system, the means for producing and distributing goods (the land, factories, technology, transport system etc) are owned by a small minority of people. We refer to this group of people as the capitalist class. The majority of people must sell their ability to work in return for a wage or salary (who we refer to as the working class.)

The working class are paid to produce goods and services which are then sold for a profit. The profit is gained by the capitalist class because they can make more money selling what we have produced than we cost to buy on the labour market. In this sense, the working class are exploited by the capitalist class. The capitalists live off the profits they obtain from exploiting the working class whilst reinvesting some of their profits for the further accumulation of wealth.

I feel as though my biggest contribution to the presentation was giving specific examples of brands effected by capitalism.

Urban Outfitters

Urban outfitters lures in trendy teens and early twenties with their every changing yet simplistic logos. Urban outfitters claims that by having a kinetic logo they are creating a lifestyle concept for their customers by instilling that the idea of change is necessary, positive, and constant. Around every six months, the company completely refreshes itself from logos, to bags, to the environment of the store so it always seems new and exciting. This concept keeps up with the prevailing need for the generation of millenniums to receive the newest products are soon as they hit the market. This marketing strategy of idolizing “the next big thing” creates the allusion that the consumer shopping at Urban outfitters will be the first to have the newest styles that no one else is bold enough yet to wear. Could this potentially enhance consumers lives and provide a more desirable social image? Urban outfitters kinetic branding make it seem less over the top to pay twice as much as many other clothing companies for the targeted audience because of its unspoken promise of being socially elite.

Starbucks

Starbucks was founded in 1971 and in the past fifteen years has become debatable the most famous coffee company in the entire world. Despite the fact that Starbuck’s logo visually has absolutely nothing to do with coffee, everyone in America who has ever left their house could immediately recognize the sign. Every where we look from magazine covers to soccer moms walking through the grocery stores the simplistic, circular logo is constantly being thrown in our face. In 2011, Starbucks made the decision to take all typography out of their logo and change it to purely form. The current Starbucks logo that the world knows today now focuses on the warm and inviting face of the mermaid, luring customers into drinking the coffee just as effectively as sirens were said to lure men off their ships. The iconic cigar band outline remains, framing one of the most famous corporate identities in the world. Starbuck’s website insists that the company is full of integrity and crucial to a healthy society and environment. Starbucks sells it’s pitch so well that it makes millions of americans a day think its completely logical to pay five dollars for a flavored cups of milk. If good branding can do this, anything is possible with design.

Louboutins

Aside from strictly logo and add design, there are images that have become icons on our society. Think of red bottom heels, its just a color on the bottom of a shoe but practically everyone knows what they are because of the hype they get in pop culture Historically, Red shoes, if not always red soles, have long been associated with issues of power and identity. During the reign of Louis XIV, only aristocratic men had the right to wear shoes with red heels—they were strictly reserved for the court.In the last decade, Louboutin's red soles have become a sort of visual shorthand that signals a woman's high economic status and power. Popular rap songs are constantly alluding to the infamous red bottom Louboutin’s and pop culture icons like Nicki Minaj have given these heels their reputation by sporting custom pairs costing up to ten thousand dollars at some of the worlds most followed events.  In this way, the red bottom heel icon of Louboutin's shoes have become a modern-day fairy tale. 

Sources:

  -Covert, Adrian. “ 8 Beautiful Products of Bauhaus: The Single Most Influential School of Design.” Gizmodo (blog). June 3, 2012.http://gizmodo.com/5918142/8-beautiful-things-from-bauhaus-the-single-most-influential-school-of-design

  -Bauhaus Interiors. “The Bauhaus Movement’, Last modified December 2012.http://bauhausinteriors.com/blog/the-bauhaus-movement/

  -Keedy, Jeffery. “ Greasing the Wheels of Capitalism with Style and Taste, or, The ‘Professionalism’ of American Graphic Design.” Looking Closer 4: Critical Writings on Graphic Design. (1997): 199. Accessed April 10, 2014.

-Walsh, Vivien. “ Design, Innovation, and the boundaries of the firm.” Research Policy (1996); 509-529. Accessed April 12, 2014.

-Schultz, Majken, and Mary Jo Hatch. Taking Brand Initiative. New Jersey: Wiley, 2008.

[vcudesigntheory]

Design in A Capitalist Society

Taryn Annis

The topic my group chose was Capitalism and Design.  We ( Joseph, Leah, and I) wanted to research and explore how exactly design worked in a capitalist society. In America, our market is known for being driven by capitalism.  As designers, our art must be applicable, and therefore we found it important to understand how design functions in our capitalist market and society so we can one day apply our craft and make a living.

  The presentation was broken up into 9 different speaking sections, so we all took turns speaking about 3 of those topics. We opened the presentation by explaining a deeper understanding of capitalism. We then explained how design and industry first came together, which dates back to the Modernist period and the Bauhaus.

    I began my first section of the presentation talking about how exactly capitalism and design worked together.

Capitalism & Design

 Capitalism and design thrive off each other to gain a profit. A graphic designer relies on an owner of a product or company to pay them for their work, while the owner of a product relies off their work to help gain a profit for their product or service. You help us make money we’ll help you make money.

 Using type and images, graphic designers can convey information, not just information but information with things attached: messages, meaning. 

 A good example of design and industry working together is Expedia.com. Joe Megibow, who's the travel site's VP of global analytics and optimization, described a confusing problem. Customers were filling out the forms in order to buy Expedia services, but at the very last minute, many of them weren't going through with the transaction. It was baffling. So Megibow team looked through the analytics and noted that one particular box on the page was regularly confusing would-be shoppers, meaning that their purchases didn't go through. So they deleted the field. The result? An additional $12 million a year

  A topic big in graphic design is the idea of consumerism, an epidemic fueling our dear friend capitalism

 Because Capitalism is a worldwide competition and graphic designers are needed to help differentiate specific products and services from the competition. The question becomes what is making my product identifiable, or different, or hopefully better than the rest. We are seen as tools of capitalism that make happen; creating brands, and packaging for companies in a way that tries to connect the company with the consumers.

  Starbucks packaging

Urban Outfitters Brand

 Designers use their ability to create effects through images to convince people to consume products. That acquiring a certain product will enhance one’s life or satisfy their needs. And more specifically do it better than the next guy.

 Without capitalism, there is less variety of design, but at the same token, maybe less concentration on “buy buy buy” and more concentrated on issues besides just making money. While graphic design has existed before our consumer ideals, the need to compare products through visual appeal did not. Or at least not on the scale that our current market has created

 Graphic designers are an integral part of the free market system by contributing to the creation of wealth and society.We support companies by designing for them, but the part that makes design become revolutionary or a cultural force is the business behind it. The idea of mass production.

 We interviewed Natalia Ilyin about her thoughts on design and how it worked within a consumer society. Natalia Ilyin is a design critic, professor at Cornish College of the Arts, and a graphic designer from Seattle. She has written books about design such as “Chasing the Perfect”. She’s taught at RISD and Yale. She is also the co-director of a refugee relief program of WORLDAID Inc.

   We also interviewed Xenia Demo about her experience as a freelance designer in a consumer society. Xenia Demo is a graphic designer and art director from Chicago. She’s a freelance designer and has done work for commercial brands as well as nonprofit organizations. Some of her clients include Cleveland Food Bank, The William J Clinton Foundation, Oberlin College and Taprell Loomis.

  She explained to us the importance of branding for companies, especially in a highly consumer based world we live in. She used the example of Wal-Mart vs. Target. Target and Wal-Mart sell pretty much all the same products, but because of design and branding, each store has a different demographic of customers.

Walmart vs. Target

Ad designer vs. Graphic Designer

An issue that comes up when speaking of capitalism and design is whether or not graphic designers are any different than advertising designers. And if they are what are their differences?

 Advertising design and graphic design are very different in some ways. Advertising is mainly a tool for profit that works a form of communication that persuades and entices a consumer to consume. Graphic Design by contrast is an aesthetic and philosophical pursuit that communicates ideas. Unlike advertising, design can be looked at as a cultural force that incorporates parallel world views.

Graphic Design and Advertising are two different things, however the job of a graphic designer is similar in some ways to that of an advertising designer.

 Ad designers design ads and there are also instances where graphic designers design ads too. Graphic design consists of a broader spectrum of design (like logos, packaging, websites, apps, interfaces, magazine covers, info graphics, etc.) On the other hand, ad design is specific to ads. Thus it can be said that graphic designers have a broader range of skills. Therefore we can conclude that all graphic designers are essentially ad designers but not all advertising designers are graphic designers.

   Coke Ad (made by a graphic designer)

  Poster made by graphic designer, Ryuichi Yamashiro (uniting Western and Eastern culture)

   Xenia Demo and Natalia Ilyin gave their thoughts on ad design vs. graphic design. They spoke plainly that there is little difference, but that the small difference lies in the experience and background of either type of designer.

  Ethics

 In a capitalist, consumer-driven society there is the question of ethics, designers must consider.  One of these ideas to consider is ultra consumerism. Like we had talked about in class, “ the average American consumes more than his or her weight in products each day, fueling a global culture of excess that is emerging as the biggest threat to the planet.” As designers that work for commercial companies, are we fueling that fire?

 Consumerism is continuing to grow and there will be a demand for designers to design and advertise for these companies that promote consumer ideals. Do we want to continue to take part in this global consumption or are we going to design for social change? Is this ethical, for us to continue a job that promotes this culture? Is designing for non-profits more ethical than designing for commercial industries and companies.

 In our interview, Natalia Iliyn explains that non-profit isn’t the “angel”, but corporate companies aren’t the “devil” either. She explains that ethically its up to us. We take our knowledge and values, and as designers work for someone who we trust with our talents.

      Sources:

  -Covert, Adrian. “ 8 Beautiful Products of Bauhaus: The Single Most Influential School of Design.” Gizmodo (blog). June 3, 2012. http://gizmodo.com/5918142/8-beautiful-things-from-bauhaus-the-single-most-influential-school-of-design

    -Bauhaus Interiors. “The Bauhaus Movement’, Last modified December 2012. http://bauhausinteriors.com/blog/the-bauhaus-movement/

    -Keedy, Jeffery. “ Greasing the Wheels of Capitalism with Style and Taste, or, The ‘Professionalism’ of American Graphic Design.” Looking Closer 4: Critical Writings on Graphic Design. (1997): 199. Accessed April 10, 2014.

  -Walsh, Vivien. “ Design, Innovation, and the boundaries of the firm.” Research Policy (1996); 509-529. Accessed April 12, 2014.

  -Schultz, Majken, and Mary Jo Hatch. Taking Brand Initiative. New Jersey: Wiley, 2008.

[vcudesigntheory]

Iconography and Pictographic Imagery

Hunter Zachwieja

My group, including Jackson, Mark, and myself did our presentation on iconography, its history, theory, and contemporary trends. Some topics that my partners talked about were iconography's origins, semiotics and how iconography relates, Ryan McGinness and his studio practice, as well as current trends relating to operating systems and the internet.

For my section of the presentation, I covered the Olympic games and the revolutionary uses of iconography in the past 50 years.

In the 1960s, design systems were beginning to become a reality for corporations. That is to say that companies were using design to create a universal identity for themselves, taking what Peter Behrens had done years before for AEG. Masaru Katzumie and Yusaku Kamekura brought this idea of a comprehensive identity program and brought it to the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo for the first time. 

When designing for the Olympics, they were confronted with the visual problem of needing to create signage for an international audience. After exploring various solutions, the two designers decided that pictographs are the most efficient and effective method for communicating to this multilingual group. By using icons that visually represent what it is communicating, Katzumie and Kamekura were able to bridge the language gap through iconography. Once this approach was established, they used a square field and a grid to create geometric pictograms for each of the 20 sports as well as 39 separate ones for general information such as bathrooms, first aid, and more. Because of the large success this design system had in communicating, it set the standard for every subsequent Olympic games.

  The 1968 Olympics in Mexico City provided Lance Wyman with all the same problems but compounded it due to the location of the games. Mexico City, being one of the largest cities in the world, forced Wyman to consider traffic controls and urban logistics in his design. While his icons were derived in a similar fashion to those of the Tokyo games, it was the iconic logo that he developed that set his design apart from anything to date. We learned last semester how he arrived at the logotype and display type for the games—a serendipitous overlaying of the 68 and the Olympic rings resulted in a radiating line pattern that he used throughout the identity that he created. This pattern also related back to textile prints that dated back to the roots of their culture in Aztec civilization, creating another layer to the concept.

  Then came the second half of his visual dilemma: creating an easily navigable system amongst the chaos of the city the games were located in. He accomplished this through a color-coding system. As you can see in the image here, a color was associated with the icon for each sport and that color was then used to help the audience locate the path towards the location that the event would take place. The colors created a navigation system within themselves in addition to the icons, making navigation through the city to be accessible to anyone, regardless of their nationality and language they spoke. This method proved to be so effective that the New York Times proclaimed that, “You can be illiterate in all languages and still navigate the surroundings successfully, so long as you are not color-blind.”

  Following Wyman’s tremendous design for the Olympics’ international audience, Otl Aicher made the next revolutionary step in Olympic design systems when he worked on the 1972 Munich games. While the previous design systems did use a grid to keep design similar across the whole identity, Aicher went beyond this, creating an identification manual to establish the standards for use of the event’s symbol, the radiant sunburst, as well as the other design elements. Through his use of a modular grid, Aicher created a more formal and systemized design than previously employed for the Olympics. You can see the consistency throughout the geometric icons here and how they were derived from his grid.

  Similar to Otl Aicher, Deborah Sussman assembled what she called a ‘parts kit’ to provide a uniform idiom for designing components and the environments they were placed into for the 1984 Los Angeles games. She then took her design a step past the Munich games by using the logo and the American flag it was based off of and deriving all the graphic forms from those stars and stripes into an infinitely adaptable program. Combining this with a vibrant color palette, hot magenta being the main color, she gave each sports arena its own unique visual motif through color combinations from the design guidelines in the parts kit.

  To bring this into perspective of a modern event, I wanted to also share the design for the 2016 Olympic games that will take place in Rio de Janiero, Brasil. Beth Lula is the branding director for the 2016 games and has developed an intensely personal look to the type and icons used, with regards to the city they take place in. Similar to the standards set by Mexico City games, the Rio Olympic design system takes the culture of the area and implements it in the design of the type, logo, and pictograms.

  Icons have become a massive part of communication in modern culture. The Olympic games are a small part of this field of design, but they represent some of the biggest advances in modern design, specifically relating to pictographic imagery.

[vcudesigntheory]

Iconography and Pictographic Imagery

Jackson Cantor

My group presented on the history and trends of Iconography and Pictographic Imagery. We began our presentation talking about the history and how semiotics is important in the process for the viewer to identify what an icon is and means.

After the talk on semiotics we then introduced how iconography has played a huge role in the Olympic games, due to the fact that it is a multi-cultural event. After hitting these main topics, I then began my section of the presentation.

I began by talking about the artist Ryan McGinness and his use of iconography in his artwork. Ryan was born in 1972 in Virginia Beach, Virginia. There he was influenced at a young age by the surf and skate culture. Never being that good at skateboarding or surfing, Ryan did find something he was good at through this lifestyle.  He began designing shirts, skateboards, stickers and many other things for his friends. This led him to apply to art school at Carnegie Mellon where he majored in graphic design. After graduation Ryan worked at Pentagram for two years before coming to the realization that he wanted to become a fine artist.

Ryan’s artwork consists of intuitively placed screen-printed icons on a panel.

These icons are individually rendered through a sketch process in which the final outcome is a vector file.

These vector files are what Ryan calls, “drawings.”  He has a library of every individual icon that he has made. He pulls from this ever-growing source from project to project. Given that Ryan can recreate these icons at any scale or on nearly anything, gives him the flexibility to produce not only paintings but also sculptures and environments.

After emailing Ryan and his assistant, Gina, nearly twenty times, I was not able to receive an in-person or Skype interview, but was able to ask Ryan a couple questions over email. His responses did lack in content, but the attachments he sent me where extremely helpful. These attachments consisted of multiple files showing his process and even a couple spread of his sketchbook.

Here are a few questions from the email interview:

How does your process differ between making an icon for a client versus a personal project?

When I first moved to Manhattan, I did design work for clients as a way to make money, but I haven't done that kind of work in over 17 years. I remember offering many different solutions to a prescribed problem. Now I just make a couple drawings per referent.

Is there a difference between art and design and would you consider yourself a designer or artist?

Yes, they are two completely different and separate industries premised on service (design) and commodities (art).

I haven't participated in the design industry in quite some time.

How has technology affected your process and development of icons?

I learned how to draw using Plaka, ruling pen, and illustration board.

I still prefer india ink and a dip pen.

When I have figured out the underlying geometry for a drawing,

I make a more precise technical drawing in Adobe Illustrator.

What advice would you give a room of design students?

Learn how to learn.

On Febuary 27th, Ryan gave a lecture at the Virginia Museum of Fine Art. I was lucky enough to meet him, and talk to him regarding the lecture he had just given.

Ryan was there to promote the opening of his exhibition; Ryan McGinness: Studio Vist. This exhibition is a wonderful display of his past works and his process regarding making his paintings. Ryan’s work, Art History is Not Liner, is in the permanent collection at the VMFA. This work consists of sixteen individual panels placed in a long rectangle in the lobby of the museum. On these panels are 200 intuitively placed icons that he individually rendered.

After completing my talk on Ryan McGinness, I then changed topics and briefly hit on the subject, Iconography in Technology.

The 1984 Xerox 8010 Star was the first ever computer to have icons displayed on a screen. The black and white text based icons where simple and easy to navigate.

In 1984, Apple developed its first mass produced personal computer. This computer was more complex that that of Xerox 8010 Star and required more icons. Susan Kare was hired by Apple to design the interface graphics and pixel based typefaces for this operating system. The Icons she designed where revolutionary for technology and paved the road for future designs.

  The main typeface she developed for the mac 1.0 was Chicago. This simple pixel based type was used by apple for over a decade and was used in the first four generations of the Ipod.

In 1992, Susan Kare was hired by Microsoft to help develop their first 16 bit color icons for the Windows 3 operating system. These Icons are very simple and showed off the color that was new for the time. She also designed the first computer solitaire game called, Hearts, which came standard on the windows 3 operating system.

Almost a decade later apple came out with its OS X operating system for their new line of “jelly” computers. These Icons used an Aqua color scheme and where used in the first Apple interface to feature the “dock.”

  The same year that apple came out with the jelly computers, Microsoft developed their new operating system Windows XP. This system was the debut of the new start button and used a very saturated color scheme.

Apple eventually moved past the “jelly” computer and developed a new operating system called OS X leopard. Leopard used a skeuomorphic design that gave the icons on the dock a floating, three-dimensional, feeling. There has only been minor change from leopard to maverick, which is the current operating system.

Apple has more recently been moving away from this skeuomorphic design and has moved to a flat design with the IOS 7 operation system for the Iphone. This is the first “flat “ operating system that Apple has developed. The new Icons are more abstracted and are all derived from the same grid.

After talking about the history and evolution of icons in technology, I then briefly hit on the new trend of emoji’s.

Emojis are a great invention due to the fact that we can communicate purely using these characters. The first emojis where developed in Japan in the early 2000’s but didn’t come to the fore front of the Internet and texting world, until recently with the Iphone.

I then wrapped up the presentation by introducing the class to Anne Horel. She is a French multimedia artist that uses emojis in her gifs and pictures that she makes for her tumblr at, annehorel.tumblr.com.

  Works Cited:

"Selected Artworks." Ryan McGinness. http://www.ryanmcginness.com (accessed April 10, 2014).

Loungekat. "A Brief History of Computer Icons." Design & Illustration. http://design.tutsplus.com/articles/know-your-icons-part-1-a-brief-history-of-computer-icons--psd-9805 (accessed April 10, 2014).

"Ryan McGinness ." Big Think. http://bigthink.com/users/ryanmcginness (accessed April 10, 2014). 

 Horel, Anne. "I'M A FLOATING TUMBLR." I'M A FLOATING TUMBLR. http://annehorel.tumblr.com/ (accessed April 10, 2014).

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Digital culture in physical form—exhibition, interactive, and product design

Catherine Cozzi Presentation introduction

We began our presentation with a brief discussion of the initial rise of digital during the 70s and 80s, with New Wave designers like April Greiman. Print designers were alarmed by these new and obtrusive digital media, thinking it would be the end of their careers. Today, digital motifs are an enormous trend in various physical media, including print, exhibition, and textile design, and are often what differentiates designers.

Dutch design because has had an edge over the design of various other cultures. This is due largely to the fact that dutch designers are given a higher cultural value than those in the United States, so they have more freedom to experiment. With this freedom, they embrace digital culture with its constantly evolving motifs and utilize them in explorative research.

Metahaven is a prime example of this. It is graphic design collective based in Amsterdam, run by Daniel van der Velden and Vinca Kruk. They work mostly on political and social projects.

Metahaven created a variety of products for Wikileaks based on the transparent nature of the website, in that the documents are classified, but accessible to the public of any country. They do not fall under any one country's jurisdiction.

Metahaven utilizes digital culture and motifs on multiple levels— Wikileaks is innately digital; the motifs are digitally-based; and they're for the purpose of communicating the digital nature of the data. With these products, they’re trying to display both the secretive nature of Wikileaks contributors and the legal need for secrecy.

These scarves are a prime example of this concept, because the pattern acts as camouflage, but the fabric itself is semi-transparent. They created a variety of 2D and 3D products, including t-shirts, buttons, and mugs. The materials culminated in a variety of exhibitions, featured in the Netherlands, Milan, New York, and Korea, which further drives home the global impact of Wikileaks.

Exhibition, interactive, and product design

Guus ter Beek and Tayfun Sarier: Street eraser

I think this is a simple, concise example of digital culture making its way back into the physical world. These two artists work in advertising, and this is a London street art project they’ve done. They spot a particular visual feature that they want to draw attention to, in hopes to get people to pay more attention to design.

Lust: Posterwall 2.0

Posterwall video

Lust is a multidisciplinary graphic design practice based in the Netherlands. they utilize various media, from traditional to more contemporary, often focusing on data-visualization, new media, and interactive installations. Poster wall 2.0 is an exhibition developed for the graphic design museum in Breda as part of “100 years of graphic design in the Netherlands.” 600 unique posters are automatically generated daily using internet-gathered content. The generation of new posters directly interacts with physical events that occur in the space—when visitors enter, approach the wall, touch the wall Posterwall 2.0 mimicks the buildup of actual posters on city streets, which is very characteristic of Dutch cities like Amsterdam, where posters are physically wheatpasted on top of one another. Yet Posterwall features the buildup of digital culture, which is symbolic of the nature of the web itself.

Moniker: Marching ants

Marching ants video

Moniker is an Amsterdam-based design studio that uses various media to explore the social effects of technology—how it influences our daily lives. Their projects often involve interactive design, physical installations, or public participation. Moniker hosts workshop sessions called Thursday Afternoons, where they experiment with new media, materials, and technologies, as well as instructions, participation, and interaction. Marching ants is an interplay between a Photoshop user and someone drawing on paper. The person on using the computer/Photoshop defines white areas using the Rectangular Marquee Tool. The person drawing on the paper has to make lines that stay within the white area and bounces of its walls. Marching ants is a type of generative process which uses digital culture and technology as a means of creating rules that can enable new physical outcomes. Much like a grid, both are a process. Moniker demonstrates how digital culture becomes an avenue for side-projects and explorations that further informs applied projects.

Nicky Carvell: Dream arena

Nicky Carvell is an artist, she creates sculptures and installation pieces whose visual language references airbrush art and early 90s digital graphics. Although she’s an artist, I chose to include her because of the applied nature of this project. Carvell, among other well-known artists and designers like Jeff Koons and Diane von Furstenberg, designed a customized egg for the Fabergé Big Egg Hunt, which raises money for charities.

Unlike Lust and Moniker, whose use of digital culture and motifs are more applied—often as a way to visual data—Carvell’s use of these motifs is more of a fun, youthful reference to popular culture, similar to Bond’s approach to the Helsinki designs.

Hort: Zune

Hort is a Berlin-based graphic design studio. Hort means means “play-room," thus they pride themselves on being a creative playground.

  For Zune mp3 players, Hort developed a library of imagery, patterns, shapes, and forms that Zune worlds can be built and collaged from. Their system had to work both in physical and digital realms, and has a clear digital influence, especially since Zunes are a digital technology. They created a variety of 2- and 3-dimensional media.

The system they developed allows for the brand to constantly evolve and reinvent itself. Digital culture symbolizes constant evolution, innovation, and reinvention, but it also it demonstrates how the digital culture can be a means to appeal to a specific audience. Just as Erik Brandt’s work completed the physical to digital cycle, so did these pieces, which were then created into various gifs published on their website.

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Digital Culture in Physical Form (Textiles & Fashion)

Anna Shcherbakova.

In our presentation, I focused on how digital culture has manifested itself into textiles and clothes.

One of the main artists who has taken glitches as an opportunity for a new research platform is Brooklyn based artist, Phillip Stearns. Phillip creates woven and knit wall hangings and blankets from corrupted binary data, known as glitches. A glitch refers to “damage to data or machinery, or the condition of data that is damaged but still useable.”

Phillip creates abstract compositions using images taken with cameras he short-circuits himself. Through his weavings, glitches in the cold, hard logic of data are transformed into soft, warm textiles and blankets that transcend this foreign binary code into a physical woven object. The result is art that bridges the digital/virtual divide and reconnects the histories of woven image making and computer technologies.

The "Glitch Textiles" project was started in 2011 with the goal of exploring these intersections of textiles and digital art. It’s aim was to make visible the hidden data structures that make up everyday life. What’s the very first thing we do when we wake up? We reach for our phones to check facebook, tumblr, email…etc. But we know very well that each of these applications have their own technical malfunctions and quirks. Phillip utilizes digital error by turning it into a sofa cover or a throw blanket you’d find at your grandma’s house, generally creating a comforting object.

As an alternative to the screen, Binary Blankets allow you experience the fabric of this otherwise invisible and intangible side of our cold, hard, digital world. Stearns has the idea of completing this interaction by bringing these everyday glitches home in physical form. He explains his work by saying “It’s about being at home with the domesticated technologies, with all of their faults and failures.” If you’re interested in seeing his work in person, Phillip’s weavings are on display in Richmond until the 25th of April at Black Iris gallery on Broad St.

Another artist that employs glitches as a communication tool is Tokyo-based fashion designer Nukeme. His pieces include distorted internet related logos that are created using a “glitch” embroidery technique by hacking into sewing machines and knitting machines and re-writing the data that moves the needle. So, instead of corrupting the image like our previous artist, Nukeme hacks into the machine creating the physical object itself.

Nukeme uses commercial logos such as google, internet explorer and chrome as common language because they’re something everyone sees in their daily life. He says that to express and tell the action of the "glitch," there is a need of understanding "what it used to be before it was glitched." Although, using art glitches as a basis for fashion design is unpredictable, Nukeme believes it will lead to new design ideas and evolve along with our changing technology. He puts it best himself when he says “computers have different ideas than we do” meaning that we can utilize these machines in processes to yield results we would otherwise not think of or would be capable of producing.

Nukeme realized found glitch was simply not enough and began the collaborative project "Glitch Knit" as he became more interested in “making glitch data physical.” He stresses the misapplication and unexpected spontaneous designs that evolve from the machines is the end result he aims for, whether they be beautiful or not.

For their spring/summer 2014 collections, Nukeme and Tokyo artist UCNV came together to create a glitched labcoat covered in melting pixels. It has been called the “Glitch Pioneer” in the world of fashion and has even made it’s way onto international catwalks.

The two collaborated to create these unique pieces that harmoniously bring together craftsmanship and technology. This is a perfect example of the digital world in its raw, natural form making it’s way into the world of fashion.

Sarah Richards is a 23-year-old native New Yorker and recent RISD grad who has recently launched her own label, RICHARDS. Richards uses digital print technology and Google’s "Image Search" to instantly find and categorize inspirational visuals which then help her design each collection. The way she consumes masses of images all at once seem to play out in her work as she interweaves abstract, earthly, surreal digital prints on progressive forms.

We asked Richards a few questions over email—

She began working with digital prints for her thesis project at RISD and was captivated by its limitless possibilities. Its capabilities to produce crisp and detailed imagery meshes well with the aesthetics of "digital" imagery on the web. Richards says the organic imagery of her collection meshes cohesively with the clearly digitally-based motifs as the opposing moods create an interesting juxtaposition. She believes that ”The more technology becomes an integral part of our lives, the more relevant the exploration of these themes will become.”

[vcudesigntheory]

~*-PUNK LYFE-*~ (Matthew Oltmann)

My group was originally going to present about the design aesthetic associated with punk music. However, after researching punk culture and the underpinning ideas from which punk music gets its fire, the richness of punk culture as a whole was revealed to us. We decided instead to tackle the aesthetic of punk culture as a whole. My portion of the presentation focused on gathering ideological, social, and historical data about punk culture. I had been thumbing through a friend's copy of Emma Goldman's "Anarchism and Other Essays", and finally began to understand the idea of anarchy within punk culture as meaning something far more noble than chaos and disorder. My social networks consist of people with many anarchist ideals, or people who identify entirely as anarchists, so the values within punk culture were very familiar to me.

(Full online text can be found here: http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/emma-goldman-anarchism-and-other-essays )

I learned more about Emma Goldman and Anarchism through thumbing through her book and investigating internet resources, specifically those found on the anarchist media organization website, Submedia.tv.

I think the single most important piece of data I collected for the presentation was thid Crass statement:

This image summarizes punk: punk culture is aggressive, militant, and angry because punks perceive oppression and injustice being perpetrated by those in power. The anger is directed at the oppressors and those who would support them, and thereby perpetuate oppression. Much of the punk aesthetic is characterized by militaristic imagery and lettering, a visual depiction of the class war the punks feel they must fight against those in power. Political figures are disgraced through various means, be it distortion or through juxtaposing political figures or their associated mechanisms of control (police, soldiers, etc) with scenes of an atrocity. Sometimes the atrocity is a fictional representation, and sometimes the atrocities depicted are real. These images and associations are generated to support dissent and disobedience of prominent political structures.

Punk will always be associated with militancy. In the modern day, much of the militancy on display is simply a stylistic choice. Take for example the retail clothing company "Hot-Topic". They use the punk aesthetic to do a very, very, non-punk thing: make loads of money! The idea of a poser is often associated with punk culture because the punk aesthetic represents a complicated, extreme political philosophy (or a number of philosophies combined to form punk), and conforming to the aesthetic without understanding its purpose is heavily frowned upon. There is punk music, and then there is punk culture. Enjoying punk music doesn't make you a punk.

This "Punk" jacket was being sold by Urban Outfitters for $375.00. It uses a superficial DIY aesthetic to grab the attention of consumers, as well as name-dropping a bunch of historical punk bands.

Appropriations of the aesthetic without understanding the purpose of the aesthetic are considered disrespectful to the culture. It is very similar to a person wearing a crucifix, but having no idea who the person on the crucifix is, and in fact living a lifestyle which Jesus spoke heavily against. If you live by the punk ideals, you will begin to have the punk aesthetic. It is a slow, natural process comes with a rejection and resistance of mainstream social norms, consumerism, capitalism, and the participation in resistance of systems of political oppression. When posers simply throw the punk aesthetic around like a stylistic choice or trend, they begin to nullify and negate it's intended meaning and actual power. But there are still many, many politically-oriented punk bands playing and forming around the globe. Possibly now more than ever, punk is seeing a resurgence as political dissent becomes more and more inevitable. Posters with controversial, assertive, militant statements in bold lettering nod heavily in the direction of the punk movement. It seems even people who do not identify as punks are learning the power of the shocking punk aesthetic: PETA is a great example.

Now, just as in the late, late 1960s and throughout the 1970s, the masses are losing their faith in the systems of power which dictate their lives, especially because of the massive (and growing) schism between rich and poor. Those on the lower end of the economic spectrum are beginning to understand how oppression works through informational tools such as the internet, film, and literature. While many of these people do not identify as punks, punk culture is transforming into something larger than itself, and the aesthetic is changing. Once, punk design was almost always intentionally ugly, rough, and distorted. Now, it is not uncommon to see a punk-associated item (album, sine, website), with clean lines and an obvious use of the grid. The statement about punk being dead is silly. Punk isn't dead, it's just grown up and become more handsome and multifaceted.

Sources:

Goldman, Emma. "Anarchism and Other Essays", The Anarchist Library.

April 22, 2014. http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/emma-goldman-anarchism-and-other-essays.

Ensminger, David. "Visual Vitriol: The Street Art and Subcultures of the Punk and Hardcore Generation". Jackson, MS, USA:University Press of Mississippi. 07/2011. Print.

Eriksen, Neil. "Popular Culture and Revolutionary Theory: Understanding Punk Rock". April 22, 2014. https://www.marxists.org/history/erol/periodicals/theoretical-review/19801802.htm.

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Digital Culture in Physical Form

Kerrie Harlow

  I’ve always been amused by the presence of digital motifs in physical media, especially posters, books, magazines, etc. Things that are clearly no longer digital but continue to include these motifs—gradients, retro eclecticism, glitches, pixilation, interfacing inclusions, and manipulation of forms through scanning. Upon researching though, I found that a variety of design projects are also conceptually "internet," or digitally based. Some works include information layering, internet-based process, and reentry to the web after physical printing. I felt it would be best to show this current theme in contemporary design by providing examples of current studios that are creating designs including digital motifs right now.

I chose to begin my topic with Erik Brandt, a professor and the chair of graphic design at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. His curation, Ficciones Typografika, is a prime example of physical work that is derived from digital/internet concepts. The curation completes a full circle of digital and analog methods because the contributions to this curation are often digitally rendered, then digitally submitted. These submissions are then physically printed and wheatpasted into a physical, public space. The posters are then digitally photographed, and reentered into the web. The submissions themselves often also include digital motifs, such as emojis, interfacing messages, etc.

Next, I moved onto Alain Vonck, a French art director and graphic designer. He created the book Ruins, an archive of outdated websites which immortalized previously successful digital developments, similarly to the way the postings on the web are extremely temporary in nature, but will remain somewhere in the depths of the web forever. Much of the digital imagery in the book was derived from digital gifs and other moving imagery, which was then recontextualized into book form.

Norm is a Swiss graphic design team whose work often tries to subvert the previously established Swiss style. They created the book Norm: The Things, which discusses and visualizes the simplification of shapes and fonts. These forms are broken down into their most essential elements. A portion of the book is dedicated to Sign Generator, which uses a system of nine dots, by which a user creates a number of lines, which are then combined in an infinite number of ways to create a graphic language. The book visualizes data in a way that acknowledges its innate digital quality through use of bitmap fonts, modular type and interfacing inclusions. Their approach to typography is also visibly digital in nature, despite the fact that the book is physically printed. The book visualizes digital data in physical form, using digital motifs to communicate the digital nature of the data.

(images are scans of actual book)

Next I spoke about California Institute of the Arts, which held a print fair on April 19. The promotional material created for the event had an extreme emphasis on digital motifs, like moving imagery, emojis, interfacing components (like crop marks, icons representing paper, and color bars, etc), rather than traditional print themes. The also chose to promote the fair in places central to digital culture, like Tumblr, Facebook, and other sites. This is becoming a common trend: promoting physical events with physical materials in digital spaces.

Lastly, I covered the Finnish branding agency, Bond, who designed the new identity for the University of the Arts: Helsinki, in Finland. They created a moving identity that could exist on the web but also be translated into printed media, such as magazines, leaflets, brochures, etc. When asked about the origin of their design, Bond stated that they used motion for the purpose of being unique and setting their design apart, which is becoming a major trend in graphic design. Various studios are including digital motifs in commercial work for the purpose of being set apart from the rest by being more "now."

Digital motifs have become a major theme in contemporary print design.

      Bibliography

Bond.  "Projects: University of the Arts: Helsinki."  Bond.  April 21, 2014.      http://www.bond.fi/university-of-the-arts-helsinki-4

Brandt, Erik.  Ficciones Typografika (blog).  April 21, 2014.       http://ficciones-typografika.tumblr.com

Buni, Dimitri, and Manuel Krebs.  Norm: The Things.       Switzerland: Gestalten Verlag, 2002.

California Institute of the Arts.  CalArts Print Fair 2014 (blog).       April 21, 2014. http://calartsprintfair.tumblr.com

Maeda, John, Jakob Nielsen, Matt Pyke, and Jannuzzi Smith.       "Love the Internet."  Eye Magazine, 2005, accessed April 21, 2014.       http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/love-the-internet

Poynor, Rick.  "The Fall and Rise of Dutch Design."  Creative Bloq.        April 21, 2014.        http://www.creativebloq.com/graphic-design/fall-and-rise-dutch-      design-21410643

Vonck, Alain.  Alain Vonck. April 21, 2014.       http://www.alainvonck.com/index.html

[vcudesigntheory]

Trends: Magazine Cover Designs

By Mary Villafuerte

By using Magazine Covers, I hope to emphasize the way trends affect the graphic design system, and how it affects working for an audience.

Publishing for a magazine company is the same for publishing books, musical works, softwares or any type of literary works. They all include developmental stages in acquisition, copy edition, graphic design and production printing.

For Magazines specifically, artists or stylists, are usually commissioned to design a cover for the publication. Stylists at other magazines are not usually on staff, but in other publications like Martha Stewart Weddings they are.

There are many different types of periodicals– many of which tend to overlap. However, for the sake of this presentation, we have decided to focus entirely on Popular Publications– such as VOGUE, TIME, ELLE, etc., ones that you are most familiar with.

With this in mind, I will also introduce lesser known magazine publications to the same degree that use similar styles on their covers.

"Vogue Covers." Vogue Covers. Web. 22 Apr. 2014. http://www.coverbrowser.com/covers/vogue

VOGUE has been in publication for many many decades. These were the first few covers, starting from 1918. Notice the use of illustration, and the traditional manners of print publication during its early years. It is a clear reflection of a new, inexperienced way of printing.

It’s interesting to note the way illustration and hand type were incorporated into these covers, and how drastic the changes were when photographs were developed. The subjects on the covers are also very distinct; a clear reflection of society as it were back then, and how it is now.

"No Cigar Magazine." Julies Juice. Web. 22 Apr. 2014. http://juliesjuice.wordpress.com/2012/07/31/no-cigar-magazine/

"PREVIEW: THE QUARTERLY ISSUE 2 COVER." The Quarterly. Web. 22 Apr. 2014. http://thequarterly.co.uk/preview-the-quarterly-issue-2-cover/

BLACK AND WHITE MASTHEADS

A current trend that’s being practiced on magazine publications are black and white mastheads. 

A black or white masthead provides a nice contrast to a, in this case, full-bleed photograph. The title is visible from far away and can be recognized easily due to the contrasting colors. The typography and mute color use provide a faster and concise way of communication to the audience. There is a nice balance between the text and the content with the text being not too fancy, but instead completes the whole cover.

GRIDS

Print and web are not completely different from each other. There is a constant back and forth, borrowing system that may not always be that clear. Grids are an example.

Social Networking sites and news sites are transforming their layouts so content is organized in a grid. It provides a more convenient user friendly browsing experience. Websites like Pinterest have done this, and Tumblr recently updated their search page so it’s also on a grid.

For Print, grids have always been incorporated into magazines. Headlines are placed on a grid surrounding the model or photograph on a cover. Unfortunately, they are usually handled poorly, making the cover look more cluttered.

Nevertheless, Grids are important. Grids drive the way content is organized. With mass amount of content, grids are necessary. Newer covers are taking grids and using them to clean their composition. Adding headlines to a magazine cover is not a bad thing, it’s a nice way to inform the audience what the content of the issue is, however it also needs to be done in a clean, and precise way.

"— Iainclaridge.net." Paper Magazine. Web. 22 Apr. 2014. http://www.iainclaridge.co.uk/blog/34083

Both of these examples are using grids in a way that provides a good balance between the title, the headlines and the photograph.

FRAMED PHOTOGRAPHS

Framed photographs are becoming more and more popular as a way of trying to minimize and clean covers. This style is a nice way of bringing attention to the masthead and photograph on the cover. A nice balance is made.

"Transworld Surf Redesign." Behance. Web. 22 Apr. 2014. http://www.behance.net/gallery/Transworld-Surf-Redesign/13052023

The TransWorld Surf Magazine was redesigned by Wedge & Lever, an independent design studio based in San Diego, California consisting of three Art Directors. With the objective of "shifting the creative direction to support a photo-driven editorial model while breathing new life into the magazine format", they were hired to re-design the magazine in 2011. "Sophistication that doesn’t take itself seriously" was their intended result. With this new design, sales increased which proved that the re-design worked.

How Wedge & Lever took the publication and transformed it is by taking the full bleed photos and framing it in the middle of the page, providing a cleaner and minimalistic feel to the cover. The headlines are a lot less cluttered on the page. They managed to use a grid that organizes the page without overwhelming the composition. A nice balance was introduced.

CELEBRITIES VS MODELS

A controversial practice in the magazine world that have increased rapidly is the use of celebrities over models, for fashion magazines such as VOGUE and ELLE. Many publications are using the faces of celebrities over models to capture the attention of newer, albeit younger, audiences. This practice is heavily controversial in that many find it a betrayal to the world of fashion, but others, of course, find it a great opportunity to expand on.

"I-D (magazine)." Gagapedia. Web. 22 Apr. 2014. http://ladygaga.wikia.com/wiki/I-D_(magazine)

For example on the far left BRITISH MODEL Jourdan Dunn is sporting the iconic wink/eye cover for BRITISH publication i-D magazine. Likewise, CHINESE MODEL Meng Lu is doing the same for i-D’s visually stunning Chinese New Year covers.

There is a drastic change in subjects when LADY GAGA is suddenly featured on the cover for the 312th Issue of the Magazine. Bottom right, Selena Gomez is shown as well, for a 2013 Issue.

Publication companies have taken a step in trying to enlarge their demographics by featuring familiar faces for both younger and older readers. How else will you get them to purchase if it doesn’t have someone they like on it, right? Business.

"Kim & Kanye’s Vogue Cover Is Selling Just Fine — & It’s No Surprise."Refinery29. Web. 22 Apr. 2014. http://www.refinery29.com/2014/04/65998/kim-kardashian-kanye-vogue-sales

Another example is KANYE WEST and KIM KARDASHIAN for VOGUE’s April 2014, a cover that received a lot of complaints and disapprovals from many fans of the publication alike, including other celebrities themselves. The reason being: they believed that their favorite magazine was being tainted by featuring two celebrities that, they felt, had little to do with fashion.

But why did VOGUE decide to feature them? It says so right on the cover– they are the world’s most talked about couple. The media has played such a huge role on what goes on both the inside and outside of a magazine issue that having grammy-award winner rapper Kanye West and personality Kim Kardashian on the cover isn’t even really a surprise anymore. Celebrities are on a lot more platforms than models, the trend of having them on magazine covers is an efficient, and clever move to increase profit in business.

We had the pleasure of interviewing Lauren O’Neill, the art director for the magazine publication Martha Stewart Weddings through a Skype call. She was kind enough to give us insight on the world of publications through an art director’s perspective, the trends in magazine designs, and the struggle between designing for the masses versus designing for aesthetic pleasure.

I highly recommend the documentary The September Issue if you’re planning on working in a magazine publication, or simply working for a publication of some sort. It really touches upon the struggle a designer has while working in a design firm with deadlines to catch, and audiences to please.

Citations

"Vogue Covers." Vogue Covers. Web. 22 Apr. 2014. http://www.coverbrowser.com/covers/vogue

"PREVIEW: THE QUARTERLY ISSUE 2 COVER." The Quarterly. Web. 22 Apr. 2014. http://thequarterly.co.uk/preview-the-quarterly-issue-2-cover/ "No Cigar Magazine." Julies Juice. Web. 22 Apr. 2014. http://juliesjuice.wordpress.com/2012/07/31/no-cigar-magazine/

"— Iainclaridge.net." Paper Magazine. Web. 22 Apr. 2014. http://www.iainclaridge.co.uk/blog/34083 "Transworld Surf Redesign." Behance. Web. 22 Apr. 2014. http://www.behance.net/gallery/Transworld-Surf-Redesign/13052023 "Kim & Kanye's Vogue Cover Is Selling Just Fine — & It's No Surprise."Refinery29. Web. 22 Apr. 2014. http://www.refinery29.com/2014/04/65998/kim-kardashian-kanye-vogue-sales "I-D (magazine)." Gagapedia. Web. 22 Apr. 2014. http://ladygaga.wikia.com/wiki/I-D_(magazine)

[vcudesigntheory]

Zijin Wang：How Should Designers React To Trends

How should we react to trends?

To talk about this question, let me show you some examples first.

These typographic posters we found on Tumblr, were designed in a similar way, following a similar trend, as they are all black type on white background, saying a slogan that would rather be funny or touching. The one on the bottom left corner, received only 37 likes, and the other ones all received about 200 likes. Do these posters really have that much difference? 

This set of posters, were also found on Tumblr, are done in a more thoughtful manner, and through a more complex process, but they received no comments.

If you only see the ones that have hundreds of likes, and they are in that similar simple style, following the same trend, would you chose to design in the easier way, too?

With so many different trends in the design world, we observe them everyday and everywhere. We tend to easily get influenced by what we see. For example, we go online to websites like Tumblr, to see others’ work, if you see someone’s work is praised or someone’s work is criticized, you might become influenced, it may stop you from exploring and answering questions by yourself, and just do what people would like.

In our interview with David Rudnick, he told us how he think we should react to trend.

Clip 1

Is setting ego aside important while designing?

The designer should decide what is the appropriate answer, they should be passion about that, if the audiences don’t agree, the designer should be willing to argue why they think it is correct. You should not trying to make what the audiences would want, you should use your training and skills to say this what you think is right.

Clip 2

What do you think about making works following trends?

  Look at the famous Keep calm and carry on poster, which was also designed in a similar composition to the posters I showed, and black and white in this version. It was designed during the WW2, it kept unknown for sixty years, and suddenly became so popular around the year 2000 until today.

Here is what the designer Eric Hu said about how he think we should react to trends, I’d like to share it with you.

"I would encourage you at the program now to recognize good work from your peers, even if it challenges your own predispositions, and to share yours with others.

Trend is not a bad thing because it is a reflection of a public sentiment and predisposition towards certain decisions. If you are someone who blindly follows trends—that’s one thing and it’s called insincerity. If you are someone who designs things so as to purposely not conform to trends—that’s being reactionary and that’s also insincere. There is no structural difference because both give credence to the idea of trends. It’s fine if you find yourself drawn to something that happens to be popular in the moment. Try to see how it fits in with your own experiences and perceptions. Worry more about communicating the attitude of your work than whether or not it overlaps with what others are doing. Design is a reflection of culture and we have at our disposals a toolkit of language, imagery, music, etc., from which we build a reference point towards common understanding between author and audience."

Thank you!

Eric Hu, “Interesting Answer, …,” e-r-h, Tumblr, April 3, 2014. http://e-r-h.tumblr.com/post/66334858570/interesting-answer-i-guess-there-is-no-easy-way-of

[vcudesigntheory]

Lizhu Huang: Cultural Affects and Influences on the Design Process

Our group presentation topic is cultural affects and influences on the design process. We mainly compare eastern culture to western culture, and I am focus on Chinese culture influences on design, and how it changes design solution.

Symbols and signs in different cultural backgrounds have different meanings, Take the swastika for example. Western people associate it with the history of the Holocaust and the anti-Semitism of the Nazi party in Germany. In China this sign is restricted because this is the symbol for Falun Gong which is restricted religion in China.

In China, black color represents darkness and glory, white color is bad luck and mourning because when someone in their family dies, they wear white clothes during funeral. And green vitality and dependability. Chinese never wear green hat because it means that your lover betrayed you. Red is very important in Chinese culture, wearing all red during new years day because they believe red bring lucks for entire year.

In 220 BC, the emperor Qin Shi Huang, the first to conquer all of China, imposed Li Si's character uniformisation, a set of 3300 standardized Xiǎozhuàn characters. Chinese characters are logograms, but some of them are based on pictogram which is image-form characters. A classification showing there are totally 37 strokes including 8 basic strokes, and 29 complex strokes to form all the Chinese characters.

How historically significant events affect on Chinese graphic design? I start with the cultural revolution in China and the use of propaganda posters. The Cultural Revolution is a series of campaigns, initiated by Mao. The campaigns result effectively in a civil war. The country is in chaos, but the posters only show enthusiasm. The poster “Scatter the old world, build a new world” encourages Chinese people to break old traditions and common wisdom. And “Calling Chinese people to follow the great leader Mao ze dong!” is overseeing the immeasurable crowds of his faithful supporters.   

Modernization and economic success lead to increased mobility and wellbeing for all in China. The poster “The people are industrious, spring is early” is showing men’s motor cycle and the women’s fashionable watch which emphasize the idea of if you work harder, the spring(better life) will come earlier. In the 1980s, the One Child Policy is enforced, it suggest Chinese “Less births, better births, to develop China vigorously”: On posters like this it is usually girls that are shown, to indicate that they are worth as much as boys.

                                   In current Chinese designs, the poster designs become digital and westernized. The design always combines Chinese language and English. The poster “Safety zone” illustrates the baby wear breathing mask inside of womb to emphasize the series environmental pollution problems in China, and warning people to protect environment and to provide good environment for next generation. The other poster “immortality”, the upper part of the Chinese character illustrates as water drop and the bottom part of this character means water, which is getting blurry. When the viewers read it as the whole, it is showing nothing last without water.

                     In order to better understand design process affects by Chinese culture, I introduce two graphic designers during presentation, they are influenced by Chinese and western cultures. He jian Ping’s “Chinese Fashion, Chinese Culture“: Although there is no face in this design, but everyone can tell is the face of Mao, he uses a respectful humor, characteristics of Chinese culture. And Lok Ng is a self-taught designer who gracefully merges typography and calligraphy with illustration in order to evoke traditional Chinese spirit via a contemporary visual language.

                I also research a lot of Chinese packaging and product design, but we mainly focus on candy packaging design. The traditional Chinese lucky candy signifies good luck and fortune. It is using red and gold color for the entire candy wrap, and the design of the wrap is inspired by lucky money packet. White Rabbit Creamy Candy was form in Shanghai in 1943, The candies accompanied the growth of a generation. Each candy is wrapped in a printed waxed paper wrapper, the sticky candies are again wrapped in sticky rice paper, and you can actually eat the rice paper! White Rabbit have been advertised with the slogan, "Seven White Rabbit candies is equivalent to one cup of milk".

                      To conclude on how is packing design affected by culture, I interview Alan

 Colvin, he is the director of the company CUE, based in Minneapolis. He works internationally, designing packaging to be distributed within many different cultures.

  “Chineseposter.net” University of Amsterdam, Leiden University, last modified April 18, 2014, http://chineseposters.net/index.php

Mellinghoff Frieder, “Moving images” artnet.org April 2,2014, http://artnews.org/jianpinghe/?s=3

Zara Arshad, “creative blog” last modified April 18, 2014, http://www.creativebloq.com/industry-insight/chinas-10-most-inspiring-designers-4132418

“Sina sports” “Nothing last without water”, last modified June 5, 2012, http://sports.sina.com.cn/o/2012-06-05/11466087601.shtml

“Wikipedia” Stroke CJKV characters last modified June 21, 2013, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stroke_(CJKV_character)

Lok Ng, “Sense Visual Exhibition”, last modified April 15, 2014, http://lokngs.tumblr.com/

[vcudesigntheory]

HOW CULTURE AFFECTS THE DESIGN PROCESS: Cultural Specificity

Brittany Justice

 When we consider what actually defines the term “culture”, we commonly refer to collective values or patterns of thinking that are closely tied to our nationality or heritage. However, certain aspects of culture can be derived from any social connection or relationship between people, all the way down to an intimate one-on-one relationship. Even lovers develop their own history, rituals, and patterns of response – a sort of “lovemark” which distinguishes their bond from others. Through examples like these, we are able to see how communication and culture have a very mutual influence on each other. Culture is a direct by-product of communication, and patterns of communication are largely shaped and widely transmitted through culture. 

 This relationship is particularly pertinent to visual communication because visual signs and symbols are often specific to culture, and may hold a multitude of meanings. The way in which a sign or symbol is interpreted is determined by the viewer. We see the importance of the relationship between the writer and reader of texts, or designer and receiver, in Roland Barthes’ Death of The Author, when he states that the reader is more important to a work because “it is the reader who actively interprets the text”. Language is an anamorphic beast that ceases to be tamed as a whole. Instead, it serves each of us as we stumble to learn its suggestiveness across cultures. We are urged to adopt a jack-of-all-trades approach to learning culturally specific codes, aware that no cross-cultural master key exists. Culture makes communication stunningly dynamic and vice versa. Ellen & Julia Lupton illustrate this dynamism within design by iterating that “design is a visual language whose endless permutations result from the particularities of individuals, institutions, and locales that are increasingly connected to one another by acts of communication and exchange.”

 Culture is widely subjective, demanding a large dose of sensitivity when you are the encoder of messages. Because certain symbols are translated differently by different denominations of people, we must be alert and aware of cultural context as designers. As active participants in perpetuating and practicing our own cultural norms, there is a tendency to lose awareness of culture’s subjectivity. We begin to react presumptuously to different language, rituals, and norms, debating their validity at the first sign of comparison and in contrast with our own. This mistranslation can be bridged if we remain open and aware to how our communication may be perceived by others operating in concurrence with different cultural practices.

Levesque, Tylene. "The 人 REN Building Takes the Form of a Sloping Chinese Character." Inhabitat. http://inhabitat.com/the-%E4%BA%BA-ren-building/ (accessed April 22, 2014).

Through research, I was introduced to a Danish architecture firm called BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group). This firm works internationally, producing designs specific to their surrounding culture, crafted with a touch of playfulness inherent of the firm, itself. In 2010, BIG went to the Shanghai Expo in China with a phenomenal vision. BIG’s first undertaking began with a building plan originally proposed for a Swedish hotel. This first iteration was not chosen for the original project, so it found a home within their archives. They kept their model and scheme on the shelf for a few years until creating a proposal for The People’s Building, when they realized the shape of the original scheme visually suggested the Chinese alphabetic character for “people”. The REN building is a proposal for a hotel, sports and conference center for the World Expo. The building is conceived as two buildings merging into one. The section of the building emerging from the water was developed to conceptualize the physicality of the body, housing the sports and water culture center. The second section, which emerges from solid ground, was made to speak to the spirit and enlightenment. This section houses the conference center and meeting facilities. The two buildings meet in a 1000 room hotel, designed for living.

Basulto, David. "Denmark Pavillion for Shanghai Expo 2010 / BIG." ArchDaily. http://www.archdaily.com/6465/denmark-pavillion-for-shangai-expo-2010-big/ (accessed April 22, 2014).

The second display by BIG at the Expo included a Danish Pavilion designed to give Expo patrons a guided experience of daily Danish life. The pavilion was materialized as a large loop in which visitors ride around on one of the 1,500 bikes available at the entrance. This offers visitors a chance to experience the Danish urban way. At the center of the pavilion is a large pool with fresh water, directly from Copenhagen’s harbor, in which visitors can even swim. At the center of the pool you will find The Little Mermaid, a statue that has become symbolic of Denmark. The statue was moved temporarily to China while a live-circuit video installation by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei took its place in Denmark, broadcasting the statue’s activity at the Expo.

BIG Designer, Brian Rome explains that the first thing the firm considers when designing exhibitions or cultural experiences like the Danish Pavilion is who their audience is. In the case of the 2010 Expo, the audience was the world. BIG took this opportunity to create a unique experience, expressive of Danish culture. This type of opportunity is distinctive to global events such as the World Expo and the Olympic Games, and provides a platform for cultures to design and perform specifically and representationally for a global audience. Clearly, we can see that successful design for a global audience does not develop from a characterless universality of communication, but rather an extensive understanding of the distinctions between and intersecting of many different cultures.

Citations

Armstrong, Helen. "Univers Strikes Back by Ellen & Julia Lupton." In Graphic Design Theory: Readings from the Field. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2009. .

Baan, Iwan. "Denmark Pavilion, Shanghai Expo 2010 / BIG." ArchDaily. http://www.archdaily.com/57922/denmark-pavilion-shanghai-expo-2010-big/ (accessed April 22, 2014).

Barthes, Roland. "The Death of The Author." In Image-Music-Text. New York: Hill & Wang, 1977. .

Basulto, David. "Denmark Pavillion for Shanghai Expo 2010 / BIG." ArchDaily. http://www.archdaily.com/6465/denmark-pavillion-for-shangai-expo-2010-big/ (accessed April 22, 2014).

Levesque, Tylene. "The 人 REN Building Takes the Form of a Sloping Chinese Character." Inhabitat. http://inhabitat.com/the-%E4%BA%BA-ren-building/ (accessed April 22, 2014).

[vcudesigntheory]

How Culture Affects the Design Process

Korean language, Hangeul has created by King Sejong the Great, the 4th king of Josun dynasty which is ancient Korea country. In ancient time, Korea used Chinese to write, but since it was too hard to learn and write, most of people were analphabetic and it was hard to make the relationship between way of Korean speaking and Chinese writing since they are different languages. There King Sejong created Hangul in 1443. Unlike Chinese, Korean is based on 14 consonants and 10 vowels, you combine consonant and vowel form a word. Since learning Hangeul require you to couple hours to learn, Hangeul spread through Korea very quickly and it dropped the percentage of analphabetic population a lot since women and lower leveled people could learn Hangeul very easily. Since Korean alphabet is unique to the spoken idiom and, in doing so, break away from its foundation in Chinese ideograph, Hangul symbolically realizes Korea’s cultural independence. When King Sejong created Hangul, he also used Chinese box as a reference. This Chinese box is the guide for forming a word out of letters. The order of writing Korean is consonant-vowel-consonant format and the second consonant goes bottom part of the consonant and vowel as you see in the diagram. Therefore, all Korean type does not go out of the square-box shapes.

Korea is located between China and Japan; therefore Korea has shared culture differences with these two countries very long time, and Korea got influence from America since Korean War. Through historical and geographical fact, Korea adapts to all three different cultures with Korean traditional culture itself and this character of Korea can be found in graphic design.

Sang-Soo Ahn (1952- ) is the godfather of Korean typography. His inimitable legacy imprinted on the scriptural revolution of Hangul, the Korean alphabet, places him at the forefront of East Asian design and beyond. Much more than a typographer and graphic designer, he is a multi-faceted cultural producer who transmits his philosophy through various mediums from visual design to poetry, photography, and installation. With about 40 years of innovative contributions under his pen, this designer has reinvented and championed the field of linguistic illustration. Sang-Soo Ahn fosters and transmits the history of his native language through unparalleled idiosyncrasy. He was the first to “step out of the box,” so to speak, exploiting the graphic flexibility of Hangul and removing it from its incommodious square-framed structure.

When Korean make a poster, they sometimes use Chinese figure next to certain Korean words to make sure the readers interpret the meaning of the words as the creator meant because Korean is phonetic language and 90% of Korean words are Chinese words, Korean just write the word in Korean as way it sounded through this reason, there are lack of Korea originated words.

In Korean packaging design, they usually advertise what is good for buyers’ health and sometimes use cultural norm. For example, the plum candy advertised with explaining how to behave well so they can receive the candy. This is an unusual contrast against Western society, because a candy reward becomes part of the advertisement, also enticing parents to buy so they can expect polite behavior from their children.

  citation_

_http://www.creativebloq.com/design/10-most-inspiring-designers-korea-today-8133940

_http://www.ag.co.kr/

_http://www.coroflot.com/zarengurl/chap-book-on-sang-soo-ahn

_http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com/blog/original-creators-sang-soo-ahn

_https://www.inkling.com/read/history-of-graphic-design-philip-meggs-5th/chapter-23/south-korea

_http://www.ynkim.com/stitch/?source=keyword&source_value=font

_http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hangul

_http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=883457

_http://rigvedawiki.net/r1/wiki.php/%ED%95%9C%EA%B8%80

_https://www.behance.net/joonghyuncho

[vcudesigntheory]

The Effect of Technology on Contemporary Graphic Design

Currently the different jobs that people have require an array of specializations such as experience in digital media and constant interaction with ever-changing contemporary styles through all mediums of communication in order to view, understand, and appropriate what is working well. In the future an even deeper symbiosis between design, web, and marketing is sure to develop.

            Varies modes of production have participated in the massive transition from physical to digital. In some cases this has become an example of how everything does not cleanly transfer to the computer. Some textures, effects, or images can only be acquired through interaction with a physical space. However, at the same time, methods and materials that use to be impossible are now easy. The availability of almost any tool now requires a need and a demand for even greater variety with a designer's work. As new modes of production move on, a balancing act will begin as synthesis further develops between digital and analog modes of production. There may also be shifts in the methods of production based on the availability of and access to both old and new materials.

            The skills of a designer are also shifting. They have moved from hand-drawn, optical skills to also accompany computer-based skills with websites and software. The capacity to create an entire environment through digital means offers up a lot of new skills to be utilized by the designer. These skills can potentially contribute to the creation of virtual realities and beyond as technology persists.

With the growing access to design tools it has become relatively simple to create work that has the air of a professional. This state of affairs requires that designers know how to use various methods and process' to make sure their work stands out for the quality it is. This increase in demand for more advanced understanding and knowledge will be pivotal to design's future success. Global communication will also increasingly become important as we move towards a world community and homogenized culture. As things become more similar between cultures it will be even more important to understand the nuances of the group for which you are designing. The relevance of seamless communication between designer and employer will be incredibly important to developing effective design in the future. This will allow for both the most potent and pertinent forms of visual communication to send messages.

In order to better understand the state of contemporary design we also talked to Blake McCreary who works both as a freelance designer/blogger and at PERQ a promotion and direct marketing company. We asked him about the absorption of other jobs into the designer's, such as typesetting, and how it has changed the way the contemporary designer thinks. Blake went on to explain that "by absorbing the typesetters’ job, a contemporary designer has the ability to accomplish a lot more in the realm of publication with great speed." Specifically he noted the capacity to choose from hundreds of typefaces at will as a plus. We went on to talk about the shift in the perception of design, with it mainly being focused on technology. Specifically with a focus on the perception of Graphic Design from fine art inspirations to technology based learning? Blake explained his idea that art and science do not need to be pitted against one another.

Finally, we asked him about how today everyone has something to say, and now they have a means to communicate that idea, what he thought allowed some ideas to be communicated "louder" than others. To this he responded by emphasizing the importance of utilizing your chosen medium to its full potential and knowing how to craft a message. He ended by saying "It’s all about creating clarity."

Richard Buchanan. "Good Design in the Digital Age". AIGA Journal of Design for the Network Economy. last viewed April 7, 2014 http://www.aiga.org/uploadedFiles/AIGA/Content/Tools_and_Resources/Gain_journal/good_design_in_the_digital_age.pdf

"What New Technologies Do Graphic Designers Need to Know?" Snapily Blog. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2014. http://www.snapily.com/blog/what-new-technologies-do-graphic-designers-need-to-know/

"A Look at the Future of Graphic Design." A Look at the Future of Graphic Design. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2014. http://www.aionline.edu/blog/post/A-Look-at-the-Future-of-Graphic-Design.aspx

[vcudesigntheory]

The Affect of Technology on Contemporary Graphic Design

Kyra Felton

Our presentation covered how the influx of technology affected graphic design. For my portion of the presentation, I gave context to the specific technologies that revolutionized and morphed graphic design into what it is today. I believed the change in graphic design heavily relied on printing process and typography, and only noted the inventions and changes in these processes.

Going back long before the press, the books were sparse because of the lack of ease in their creation. Books were copied one page at a time by scribes in monasteries throughout the world. This made books a rarity and most were religious. Printing did exist, however. Throughout this period woodblock printing, which is a relief print, was one of the earliest forms of printing possible before the press. Eventually, the Chinese invented the first movable type system around 1040 AD. Long after this, Johannes Gutenberg in 1450 invented an improved movable type system, which incited the spread of the press throughout Europe. Gutenberg’s wide success with the method the Chinese first came up with was possible because of the limited alphabet of the European languages. The Chinese alphabet was extremely large, making it very difficult to caste all of the metal type. Movable type was amazing because it was reusable and more efficient than the scribes in monasteries. But, casting was type was a slow and difficult process that required many people to be involved. Print shops at the time were not run by only one person and required many people. These people included metal smiths, typographers, designers, editors, proofreaders and publishers to create the final product. Furthermore, the required paper for their shops were scarce and highly difficult to get. Parchment, which is made out of sheep hide, and vellum, which is calf skin, were the original materials. One book made from parchment could be costly and require around 300 sheep per book. Because of the need for cheaper and more accessible material, wood pulp became popular and thus allowing for books to become more affordable. The level of literacy in Europe raised.

Throughout this period, more printing developed in ways beyond the press. Gravure printing, in which art is carved into copper plates and the ink is pushed into the carvings and then pressed to paper, and lithography, where printers draw on absorbent stone with grease pencils, are examples of some of the other developments. Lithography heavily relied on the concept that ink and water do not mix, as the printer is only abel to ink on the greasy area on the stone. Each different color added to the composition had to be inked onto separate stones. Gravure printing is still often used today in the makings of our currency.

Technology reached a new high during the Industrial Revolution. Because of the plethora of mass produced products during this time, businesses needed a means of advertisement to make the public aware of these new inventions and commodities. Thus, posters became a popular form of communication because of the cheapness of paper and the developing ease at mass producing the posters themselves. Rotary presses (where paper is rolled around a cylinder) revolutionized the printing of newspaper, and eventually steam aided in the process making them faster and more powerful. The typewriter was to be invented in 1864, and following which was the Linotype Composer, which made setting type for the press and automated and quicker process.

Photography was invented and quickly matured, and was eventually used in the process of setting typography. Phototypsetting, in which typographers drew letters using pen and ink at large sizes and then reduced them photographically, revolutionized the ability to experiment with type beyond the stagnant metal type. Photographic type had a master, which could create a number of sizes that were not possible because of the specificity of metal. Sadly, phototypesetting machines were limited by their storage capacity, with some machines only having 32 characters in uppercase. They also lacked a spellcheck, so proofreaders and editors were still high up on the requirements.

Around this time, education with art was in a state of metamorphosis. Bauhaus, started in 1919 in Weimar Germany by Walter Gropius, is widely regarded as one of the first schools to restructure this education. Gropius’ objective was to reimagine the world to reflect a unity within all of the arts. Gropius had a high emphasis on the craft of work, and thus curriculum began with a starting course that had students study the basics of design such as materials, formal relationships and color theory, to prepare them to tackle a more specialized skill set. After noticing the promises of mass production, Gropius changed his emphasis after a couple of years to design with mass production at the forefront of the mind. By 1933, Bauhaus was forced to close because of ongoing pressure from the Nazi regime. The world took another life-changing step during the technological revolution. The computer was invented and was quickly used to set typography. Varitype, a typesetting program that could edit and make correction before being finalized in the computer, was a precursor to word processing programs, like Microsoft Word, that we use today. The machine limited designers to only four fonts per job. During their process, designers would order type from a typesetter and glue them to a board to see their designs. After, they were rephotographed using a process film camera and developed. This process, which was called a mechanical, became less popular with the spread of home computers. Printing presses started to print with halftone dots consisting of cyan, magenta, yellow and black. Dry ink printing, during which toner is fused onto the paper using heat, was quickly added to the tools in which designers could print. In 1983, Steve Jobs invented the first personal computer that offered a graphical user interface (consisting of icons and other visual queues) that users could interact with. This invention widened the access of the computer and made it easier for designers to do jobs themselves, no longer needing to rely on typesetters and printers.

Soon, all type can be produced digitally as vector making it so it can be scaled to any size without losing quality, bringing us to how we set our type today.

Bibliography

Davis, Ben. "The Bauhaus and the Contradictions of Artistic Utopia - Artnet Magazine." The Bauhaus and the Contradictions of Artistic Utopia - Artnet Magazine. Accessed April 18, 2014.  http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/reviews/davis/bauhaus1-28-10.asp. Meggs, Philip B., Alston W. Purvis, and Philip B. Meggs. Meggs' History of Graphic Design. 5th ed. Hoboken, NJ: J. Wiley & Sons, 2012. "Graphic Design History | Graphic Arts Techniques." Graphic Design History | Graphic Arts Techniques. Accessed April 18, 2014. http://gds.parkland.edu/gds/%21lectures/history/0020_graphicarts/graphicarts.html. Images Orr, N. Hoe’s Six Cylinder Printing Press. History of Processes Manufacture. 1864. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/03/Hoe%27s_six-cylinder_press.png/800px-Hoe%27s_six-cylinder_press.png Hamilton, Tim. “Remington Typewriter Composite.” June 3, 2008. https://flic.kr/p/bFixoe Alexander, John W. Manuscript Book Mural. 1896. Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/71/Manuscript-Alexander-Highsmith.jpeg/800px-Manuscript-Alexander-Highsmith.jpeg. Unruh, Tony. Type. March 8, 2006.  https://flic.kr/p/aKp1c.