unit 3 lecture 1

The ISOTYPE Movement- Origins of the pictographic models used in 20th century graphic design.
Pictorial languages- lexicons for communication
"International System of Typographic Picture Education"
Otto Neurath
Rudolph Modley- Ottos most distinguished pupil
Ladislav Sutnar- defined information design for a generation of designers at mid-century
Design systems become a pervasive metaphor for design
Visual "unit" becomes the double page spread- defined for function, flow and form.
Herbert Bayer- World Geo-Graphic Atlas - Milestone in making the complex accessible
The NY School- Beginning of WWII modernist flee Europe.
Lester Beal - posters for rural electrification Administration- used elemental Constructivist forms
Paul Rand- initiated an unique American approach to graphic design
Alexy Brodovish- Harper's art director from 1934 - 1958 - Also taught night classes at SVA to some of the great art directors
Brodovish introduced full bleed, photography, sans serif type, white space and asymmetrical layouts
The Age of Information - economic shift
The International Style - Need for universal communication
Origins of the SWISS grid- the need to set multiple languages in a document or book
School at ULM- Developed a curriculum that addresses new needs of this age. - study of semiotics - a philosophical theory of signs and symbols
Early Swiss Design- Set guiding principles for the movement: 1. designer is a conduit or facilitator 2. clarity of means and form 3. solutions emerge from close examination of its content
Theo Ballmer and Max Bill - established its early formal vocabulary based on a rationalist model
Anton Stankowski- major contribution- creation of visual forms to communicate invisible processes and physical forces.
Emil Ruder
Armin Hoffmann

Tonight we started into the more modern design periods. We started with the ISOTYPE movement and went through the 60s and Swiss style. I have had 2 classes where we have dealt with ISOTYPES and i had never heard that it was an acronym, not really sure how that one slipped through the cracks. I think ISOTYPEs are pretty interesting. Their ability to communicate ubiquitously is pretty amazing. Making them is a challenging experience. I thought the World Geo-Graphic Atlas was really cool. I'm going to look into that further outside of class. It seems like it would be an pretty interesting thing to study. We briefly covered the beginnings of the information age which is always interesting to talk about, i think the early days of the computer age is pretty crazy. We finished the class off with watching the move Helvetica which i love. I've seen it a few times before but it is still always a good watch. Great movie.

McLuhan's Wake

SATELLITE

1. Satellites have enhanced many human traits. The main traits they have enhanced are the eyes and ears. It extends these systems for the society as a whole. They have allowed us to see the earth as a whole and nearly any point on the planet at any time we need it. They have also enabled people to communicate with and from nearly any point on earth. Even in the most out of the way places a satellite connection can usually be made. Bill Gates was recently in Antarctica and was still Tweeting and updating his blog. Satellites were originally developed for military applications but are now used for everything from TV broadcasting to cellphones.

2. Satellites obsolesce all sorts of older technologies. Everything from maps to boredom. It doesn't completely banish many of them, it just has given much simpler ways to deal with them. They have allowed people to beam TV into their car and get directions to anywhere on the fly. Maps obviously haven't disappeared but if you have a gps navigation unit, you don't need one anymore. They haven't gotten rid of books that someone may have used to occupy themselves in an RV but they have made it so less people have to use them.

3. I can't think of anything that the satellite has revived. I may be being ignorant towards something, but i am somewhat lost on this one.

4. Satellites have made anonymity nearly impossible. Someone with the right technology can track down nearly anyone. They allow for people to be located by the gps in their phone or watched by the "eye in the sky". They have given us a birds eye view of the environment, allowing us to see what we are doing, or have already done to it in real time. They also allow us to track temperatures and observe ice caps and wild fires.

I feel like these ideas are amazingly relevant to today. I felt like i was listening to someone speak about the present and the idea that these ideas were coming out of the 1960s is astounding. I am amazed that i had never heard of him before. I guess he was just much to ahead of his time. The quote "life can only looked at backwards, but only lived forwards" i think is one of the most true things i have heard in a long time. This is very important to us today, thank you for showing it to us.

Tonights lecture.

-Tschichold: - turns away from his new typography- only appropriate for industrial products and the arts but not for much else.
-Dutch New Typography: moved seamless from de Stijl into new typography
-Paul Shoetema: make the new process of graphic design effective, begin to look at the products he was designing and tried to simplify them into basic forms
-overprinting allows tension to be built up with photography and typography
-Hendrick N Werkman: made druksels - abstract compositions using letterforms, was executed by the Nazis
-Piet Zwart- Zwart means black, most well known New Typographer
-diagonal has a magic ability that can unify an entire design system regardless of subject matter
-Dutch modernism partners with German Plankastil to define a modernist playbook for designing commerce and advertising
-The idea of adding things just because they look good and are fun
-style starts taking the forefront
-The rise of the middle class brings around graphic design
- Abraham Games, Jean Carlu, Herbert Bayer - 1942 -Post Cubist pictorial space and forms; Commonplace images elevated and combined to inspire the audience for war.
-The Art Deco Quality - streamlinning, zigxag, moderne and decorative geometry.
-Futura
- AM Cassandre: Russian - considered one of the great illustrators of the 20th century who also had great typographic skills - almost single handily revitalized french advertising art using surrealist metaphor from 1923 - 1936
-Cassandre combined elements from cubism to create amazing pieces of work
-E. McKnight Kauffer: born in Montana, moved to England - an application of synthetic cubist ideas - edited complex images into interlocking planar shapes - hailed for elevating advertising to high art
-Kauffer best known for his work for the London Underground - posters in the 30s
-Joseph Binder: unique Viennese approach to Art Deco "Moderne" - highly refined and styled naturalism
-Ludwig Hohlwien: Munich - a leading Plakastil master - propaganda master
- evolution of his work coincided closely with Hitler's concept of effective propaganda
-The propaganda poster size grew greatly
-Jean Carlu: another propaganda artist
-Propaganda: distortion of national symbols, fear, uncertainty, and doubt.
-Mythical Realism - promoted patriotism at all levels of society thru national symbols full of realism
-Herbert Matter - Swiss - fullest expression of type and image during the 30s - understood montage and collage, pioneered the interation of B&W photography with signs and color areas

This lecture was about the New Typography movement and the Moderne/Art Deco movement. I feel like there is, or will be a band that is called The New Typographers. Its just too perfect. In this lecture you talked mainly about the people that developed these design movements and what they did. It seems like the transition from modernism to new typography was one of the most seamless we have studied. It almost seemed like it was just an extension of it, less a new movement in itself. I really liked the posters that Kauffer did for the London Underground. His work was my favorite of this lecture. I personally really like Futura also and feel like a lot of design i do kind of fits into these styles. I always think its interesting when you see things that have subconsciously influenced you, or just fit into the esthetic you favor.

Design Discourse #1 article 2

Art in Type Design
By Frederic W. Goudy

-Don't add too much and make type ugly
-The classic type is classic because it is beautiful and was crafted without trying to be different
-They are not the end all be all of type but they shouldn't be disgraced
-Tradition should be renewed and advanced, not thrown out the window
-Mechanical means limit some typography
-These limitations are not a reason to fail
-Type can still be designed beautifully even if you are being constrained
-As long as you still apply fine craftsmanship, anything can be mad beautiful
-Always remember where the type came from and honor that

This article was about the type design and how it should and should not be done. The author discussed the problems people have been seeming to have with over decorating their fonts. He also talk about how to deal with the classic type faces. He says that you don't have to solely use them, or use fonts based on them, but that it is good to remember why they are so classic and not to forget that. The author also talks about the limitations of modern printing. He speaks about his time working with Mono-type and how even though it was highly limiting, sometimes limitations can breed beauty. Similar to the way poetry limits an author, machines limit designers. The images i used give examples of some overly decorated type and some type that is classic and well done.

Design Discourse #1 article 1

The Modern Type Family
By Charles Brodie

-Many many modern type faces, some good, many are blah.
-The best is Caslon Old Style.
-Then Bookman, plain but solid.
-Bodoni is next, European.
-Then Garamond Old Style, feminine and delicate.
-Goudy Old Style is also feminine, more conservative than Garamond.
-Garamond Bold is strong and masculine.
-Goudy Bold is similar to Garamond yet a big stronger.
-Copper Black is also a bold strong face.
-Cheltenham Bold is dated, still strong and effective though.
-Kennerly is similar to Goudy.
-Scotch Roman also good
-Century and Cloister are efficient but nothing too special

This article was about the Modern Family of type. It did a very interesting job of presenting and describing the fonts the author felt were the most notable from the family. He used personification to give the fonts more meaning and depth than they would normally be awarded. It was an effective way of getting his point across and illustrating the ideas to me. The pictures i chose gave type faces a face. I felt like it was an interesting way to illustrate this article.