Pioneering Modernism

"Pioneering Modernism" by Paul Greenhalgh was an article which discussed both the modernism movement itself, and its origins and evolution. The modernist movement, as discussed in the article, began with a rough start. The essential “rules” of modernism were unclear, and various schools practiced their own different forms and executions of what modernism was. This lead to a really disjointed and not comprehensive, even, clean start for the modernist movement. Because of this, many different styles and efforts eventually all fell under the category of “modernism.” Greenhalgh talks about how the followers of modernism wanted to change the world through their design. These designers believed that by creating clean, sleek, simple pieces, people would feel the same way—clean, effective, new, ect. This clean, sleek feeling that accompanies modernism was what tied modernism in with mass-production of products. For example, instead of someone hand-making a wooden chair and hand-carving details and designs into in, a modernist chair would eliminate any carved designs, and strip that chair down to the sleekest, simplest design which was easily manufactured. The art and design pieces which I was able to see at the Bauhaus exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art all fall into this category of modernist art and design, and the Bauhaus’s pieces were arguably some of the most successful of any school at the time.

We're Here To Be Bad

I loved "We're Here To Be Bad", because it seemed to shed light on a different side of the graphic design world that we haven’t discussed in great detail in class. “We’re Here To Be Bad” talked about how “bad” graphic designers are the most effective because they, essentially, push the envelope. These designers make their consumers uncomfortable because they push the envelope when it comes to their designs. By being different and unexpected, these “bad” designers are able to really catch a consumer’s eye. Breaking the “rules” of graphic design is very interesting to me, because I feel like a lot of designers today follow the rules too closely. Many designs look so similar to each other because they all stick to a very clean and simple motif that I, frankly, am sick of. By being “bad” and bending or breaking the rules, designers find all new ways to represent things or express a message, and this can lead to more eye-catching designs. If no one ever broke the rules when it comes to design, we’d never see anything new, different, or exciting in the design world—everything would continue to look exactly the same. I think that the “bad” designers discussed in this article really have their own sense of style and are more creative than the designers who never stray from the traditional, standard graphic design style.

Media, Gender And Identity

In “Media, Gender and Identity”, written by David Gauntlett, the author discusses the connections between media and consumers/the general public. This reading develops more on the idea of advertising and branding, and the importance of both of these aspects in the world of buying and selling products. I agree that advertising is extremely important because it is a consumer’s first impression of a product. Advertising is key because it introduces a consumer to a product that they may or may not have discovered on their own. After being introduced to a product by advertising and becoming interested in it, it is then up to the consumer to research or further become familiar with a product before they decide whether or not to purchase it.

Advertising is crucial to selling products, but it also creates cultural changes and trends in the world. As I discussed in my last post, certain products and brands inevitably become more desireable than others based on their advertising and branding, rather than the quality of the products, or the integrity of the brand. I feel as though this is unavoidable, and while some consumers may buy into advertising and branding, it is ultimately the consumer’s responsibility to keep a clear head and to do research and know what they are buying when they make a purchase. Any consumer who bases all of their knowledge of a product based off of the product’s advertising or the company’s branding is ill-informed and will ultimately suffer the consequences.

Branding The Individual

“Branding The Individual” was a reading we were assigned in class which was written by Jane Pavitt. The article was really interesting to me because it discussed brands and how the identities of certain brands affect that brand’s relationship with consumers. The whole idea of branding, and how just a logo, or a “lifestyle” represented in a brand’s advertising can sell a product to consumers is fascinating to me. Before the television and internet of the modern world, consumers didn’t have access to as much advertising, so branding wasn’t as important. In our modernist society, however, companies spend more money on branding and advertising their products than they do on the manufacturing of the products themselves. This essentially means that we, as consumers, often find ourselves choosing to buy one product over another simply because of the branding and advertising which surrounds that product, rather than buying based on the actual quality or design of the piece. In the article, Pavitt gives examples of branding affecting consumerism in the real world when she highlights a young girl named Nicole, who talks about how branding has affected her relationships in school. Nicole discusses how important it is in her school to wear clothing with actual brand names stamped out on it—such as t-shirts that say ABERCROMBIE AND FITCH. These t-shirts aren’t at all different from regular t-shirts from any other store, except for the fact that the Abercrombie brand name is stamped out across them. This idea of branding is somewhat frightening when I really think about the fact that even I am guilty of purchasing items more so for the brand name than what I actually know about the quality of the item I’m buying.

First Things First Manifesto

The “First Things First Manifesto” was one which was published by Adbusters magazine first in 1964 and again, in a revised version, in 1999. The manifesto is one which debates graphic design in the sense of morality. The manifesto talks about the consequences of working for and creating designs for causes that create a negative output. Designing for causes like gun manufacturers or the tobacco industry would be examples of causes that aren’t exactly morally correct. I really agreed with First Things First because I personally wouldn’t choose to design or work for something or someone that went against my personal beliefs. If I felt that my designs would contribute to something negative, I wouldn’t take the job.

In my last post, I talked about the “Impotence Of Being Earnest” article and how it’s unfair to expect designers to only design for “good causes”. The issue posed in “First Things First” is different though, because it is simply a matter of staying away from “bad causes.” This is something that all designers can do with a lot more ease than only designing for “good causes”, and it stops companies and corporations who have a negative message or affect on the world from prevailing through the use of graphic design and advertising.

The Impotence Of Being Earnest

Today in the design world, many designers are forced to choose between creating designs for consumers or designs for causes. In “The Impotence of Being Earnest,” Matt Soar addresses the relationships between these designers and the audience and purpose which they design for. Some designers choose to use their talent and focus it on designing for environmental causes, or educational purposes. I personally was wondering how these designers could financially afford to design for causes rather than for high-paying consumers, but quickly realized that the designers didn’t need the consumers to survive. These designers are often the ones who are already well-established, have money in the bank, and do not necessarily need to design for consumers anymore to put food on their table. Other designers, however, are not given such a luxury, and need to try to make a living off of their design work. Designing “for a good cause” isn’t very lucrative and most designers simply can’t live by doing work of this nature. The ability of the upper-class designers to design for worthy causes is something I can definitely appreciate, but I also understand the need to create more commercial designs for companies and consumers in order to make a living, and I certainly can’t hold that fact against designers who don’t make a ton of money. I personally feel that if I had to design for a living, I wouldn’t be concerned with designing for a cause or discriminating against certain clients because the jobs they required of me were not moral-based ones. Design is needed for all types of situations, be they charitable or commercial.

Buckminster Fuller

The “Speculative Prehistory of Humanity” Buckminster Fuller piece was one which discussed the connections between design and money, math, and science. The connections between design and science and math weren’t completely clear to me prior to “Speculative Prehistory of Humanity”, but have now become clearer. Buckminster fuller feels that nature is important to design, so this piece certainly ties in with the later reading, “The Sincerest Form Of Flattery.” I personally am not a design major, but many of the articles we read on design really interest me and seem to apply to other aspects of visual arts as well. This piece wasn’t quite as interesting to me because I’m not a huge fan of neither math nor science, and it’s hard for me to enjoy their contributions to design being that I really don’t enjoy either topic.

Ethical Design Education

"Ethical Design Education" was an article about the classes offered by Susan S. Szenasy focusing on more enviromentally-responsible aspects of design. Susan Szenasy takes a stand against the environmentally unconscious and fights for the rights of nature and our earth. Through her lessons, Szenasy teaches students that, as designers, they play a major role, and have a major impact and influence over how the resources in our world are used, wasted, or not wasted. Enviromentally conscious design stretches across so many different realms, and I think that if all designers became more intentional in their approach towards saving our world and it’s natural resources, we could greatly reduce the amount of waste that occurs. Enviromentally conscious design can involve simple acts such as using recycled materials to make product packaging, or using recycled paper for brochures and flyers. To go even further, the design community has the unique capability of creating designs for flyers, posters, and advertisements which simply promote the act of going green, influencing those outside of the design world to be more conscious of their waste and consumption as well.

A Question Of Design

“A Question Of Design” by William McDonough and Michael Braungart was another reading which focused on the connection between sustainability and the design world. This article went back in history to explain how and why our society today views sustainable design the way it does. One of the most thought-provoking moments in the article comes when the authors discuss the idea of what they call a “cradle to grave” system. The “cradle to grave” idea is that companies take resources from the earth and the land, create a product with them, sell the product, and then eventually that product is disposed of into a “grave”, which usually means a landfill. In these landfills, products sit, unable to break down or decompose. The authors discuss how consumers don’t think about where the items that they throw away end up- once they’re gone, they’re out of our minds. Ontop of that fact, the items themselves which we throw away in the garbage contain an average of only five percent of the raw materials involved in manufacturing it. When you really think about how many quickly-disposable products we use in our everyday lives that end up in landfills, its horrifying, and this article really sheds light on that atrocity.

10 Ways In Which Designers Can Save Paper:

#1.) Using recycled paper instead of new, tree-based manufactured paper.
#2.) Print on both sides of the paper when possible; i.e. when printing prototypes, test prints, etc.
#3.) Instead of printing a draft to proof-read it, change the font and size of the text so your eyes are unfamiliar with what's written and therefore can more easily catch errors.
#4.) Sign up for "paperless billing" and eliminate mailed bills and receipts by conducting commerce via the internet.
#5.) Use recycled ink jet cartridges instead of buying once which are newly manufactured.
#6.) Use e-mail to send tests or prototypes whenever possible instead of printing them to show to someone else.
#7.) Use natural, hand-made papers when possible to avoid the cost and waste of manufactured papers.
#8.) Challenge yourself to create more simple, consolidated designs which fit on less paper for company brochures, leaflets, etc.
#9.) Design objects which use biodegradable materials for the packaging. Instead of the waste sitting in a landfill, consumers can rest easy knowing the packaging will return to the earth.
#10.) Encourage and influence consumers, clients, and fellow designers to follow your lead in reducing waste of paper.

The Sincerest Form of Flattery

The “Sincerest Form Of Flattery” reading, by David Kupfer, was an interview with Janine Benyus about her views and opinions on the idea of design that imitates nature. The “design” of things and systems in nature are obviously naturally occurring, but these designs are true phenomenons and studying them in a genius way of creating and designing new products. I found Benyus’s example of a company wanting to design a new glue and looking to the way geckos adhere themselves to rocks underwater as inspiration in creating a non-toxic adhesive particularly interesting. Nature’s influence in designing and developing new products can create non-toxic, more earth-friendly alternatives in design. “Biomimicry” was a word I was not familiar with before reading this article, but after reading the definition, I realized I was familiar with examples of biomimicry in our world today. As we discussed one day in class, the new Sun Chips bags are now created from compostable, entirely plant based materials so that the bag itself can decompose instead of existing as plastic sitting in a landfill. The use of biodegarable materials to replace those which don’t naturally break down is undoubtedly an example of biomimicry because in nature, all waste is biodegradable.

A Critique of American Apparel

American Apparel's advertising strategy and subsequent campaigns definitely have both positive and negative aspects to them. As explained in this reading, Innovation and Exploitation - A Critique of American Apparel by Anna Kealey, American Apparel puts a heavy importance on being environmentally friendly, and ethically sound. The environmentally friendly and employee aspect of American Apparel is one which is integrated in almost all of their marketing and advertising, and definitely serves to glamorize both. I completely agree with the way American Apparel chooses to make being mindful of nature and of factory workers trendy and cool, but have to disagree with the way they portray women in their advertisements. The essay explains how the American Apparel advertisements are designed to look like amateur pornography, with young looking girls in very provocative pictures, which isn't a particularly glamorous or politically correct advertising strategy in my eyes.

Byker Wall

The Byker wall video was an (unintentionally) humorous one which I found really funny due to the host, Beatrix's, extremely dated 80's and hair cut. Beatrix took viewers to the Byker Wall in the UK, to view and comment on its design. The Byker Wall is a housing development project located in Newcastle, and was designed by architect Ralph Erskine. The video shows that the project contains a lot of public green space for the people who live there, which is something I can really appreciate and I can imagine it must give the residents a real sense of community. The way the video was shot made it difficult for me to really get a sense of the structure as a whole, and whether or not I liked it, or more specifically, its design. After researching the Byker Wall online, and looking at some better images of it, I've really grown to appreciate the appearance of it. The bright primary colored plastic pieces used on the Byker sound like they would look cheap and flimsy, but actually appear cheerful, different, and enticing, in my eyes.

Helvetica

Although I had seen the movie Helvetica three different times prior to our viewing in class, I still enjoyed watching it a fourth time. As someone who isn't a graphic design major, and doesn't have a ton of knowledge about things such as graphic design and fonts and typefaces, I'm still really able to appreciate the movie and it's concepts. Before I ever watched the movie, I wasn't terribly aware of the fonts used in the everyday objects I am surrounded by, especially Helvetica. Every time I watch this movie, I find myself looking around at the world and at signs, books, products, and logos, looking carefully at the usage of fonts in all of these outlets.

The movie presents different viewpoints on Helvetica and its usage in the world. While many designers swear by, love, and completely embrace Helvetica, others are completely turned off to it. Much of the distaste for Helvetica seems to come from those who feel the font is over-used and therefore un-original. Just looking at the desk in my bedroom right now, I see 3 different bottles of juice with Helvetica used for the brand names. However, I feel that Helvetica is used to frequently because it really is a perfect, clean, easy-to-read, familiar font.

No Logo - Naomi Klein

In the reading, “No Logo” by Naomi Klein, the branding, marketing, and production strategies of modern day clothing companies and corporations are discussed in an unfavorable manner. Klein sheds light on the sudden and drastic changes in the way these corporations have decided to produce and brand their goods. The reading brings up the names of several companies with very “all-American” images and connotations, such as; Nike, Adidas, Disney, Levi Strauss, Vans, Sara Lee, Champion, Wal-Mart, Reebok, the Gap, IBM, and General Motors. In the minds of consumers, these brand names are as purely American as apple pie or baseball. However, as detailed by the Naomi Klein, in the modern day, these brands are hardly American at all. In fact, the idea in our minds that these companies are so wholesome and American are all a part of what these companies set aside a vast majority of their budgeting on: marketing.

Naomi Klein sheds light on the growing shift in company focus from production and manufacturing of goods, to the marketing and branding of the company name. Instead of the traditional practice of owning (usually US-based) factories, major corporations across America are outsourcing their labor needs to contractors based in other countries, with the goal of manufacturing their goods for a much cheaper cost. Because of the money and focused saved by outsourcing labor, and putting the responsibility for the creation of sneakers, clothing, and other items, companies like Nike can then shift their entire focus on developing their brand name in the minds of consumers through extremely costly advertising.

The lack of corporate responsibility for the labor and creation of their products is pretty disturbing. Klein Makes an example of this lack of corporate responsibility through the Disney Corporation, who outsources the production of their clothing to an outside contractor running factories based in Haiti. When Disney was held responsible for the poor treatment of workers in the Haitian factory, Ken Green, a spokesman for the company, was quoted as saying to a newspaper; “We don’t employ anyone in Haiti. With the newsprint you use, do you have any idea of the labour conditions involved to produce it?”

When we, as consumers, buy a product from one of these mega-brands, we are not really buying just a product based on it’s quality, integrity, or the purpose served. Instead, due to the major shift from production to advertising, we are often buying a product because we were buying into a brand and an image. I know from personal experience that often times I buy products based not on the quality or reputation of the item, but more on the quality and reputation of the brand name. Because of this, when I buy something because of the brand name, I could potentially be buying into an item that isn’t actually what I need. The mentality that “products are made in the factory, but brands are made in the mind,” (Walter Landor) is one that is both true for me, and also somewhat frightening when I really think about it.

Bauhaus & William Morris

Catherine Irwin

Seminar in Design

The Bauhaus exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art was an extremely varied one which featured works that employed many different types of medias, styles, and designs. The work displayed in the Bauhaus show were colorful and diverse, and included furniture, paintings, architecture, ceramics, photography, graphic design and more. The Bauhaus school’s broad range of mediums and focus seems to have lead the students to create works which were new, diverse, and set trends for the time in their respective fields. The complete diversity of the pieces from the Bauhaus exhibit causes them to conflict with many of William Morris’s ideals. The bright colors of many of the Bauhaus pieces certainly went against Morris’s discussed black and white color preference (“...the white should be white and the black black.”). Morris’s personal rules for book-making are very regimented, and he seems to have a particular formula that books all must follow. The works produced by the students and teachers of the Bauhaus, however, did not seem to follow rules or fit into a specific, pre-determined mold.

Amongst the works in the Bauhaus show were several font designs. These designs were of type which was curved and rounded, and the letters were very different and striking. These fonts, however, would almost certainly not be used by William Morris in one of his books. Though the fonts weren’t particularly difficult to read at a large size and in small sections, they would definitely not be easy on the eye when reading page after page of type. This font is, however, designed by someone Morris would approve of. In The Ideal Book, Morris explains this; “To be short, the letters should be designed by an artist, and not an engineer.” Also, these fonts were designed with one uniform, solid width. This is an aspect that Morris would certainly agree with, unlike the “…sweltering hideousness of the Bodoni letter, the most illegible type that was ever cut, with its preposterous thicks and thins…”

Also following Morris’s preferences for the use and design of letters and type were the graphic design pieces of the Bauhaus exhibit. Although it is a poster and not a book, Joist Schmidt’s poster design for the 1923 Bauhaus exhibition is one example of one of these pieces. Fritz Schliefer’s poster for the 1923 Bauhaus exhibition also followed suit and used text cleanly, in black and white. The twenty postcards from the 1923 Bauhaus exhibition were also pieces which used text in a way which was clean, legible, and definitely followed Morris’s guidelines for text.

Though William Morris’s The Ideal Book is discussing rules and practices which pertain to book-making and book design, I can imagine that he would approve of the cleanly designed furniture produced by Bauhaus students. Pieces such as Marcel Bauer’s “Chair” recall the design regiments of Morris. The chair’s black and metal color palette fall back into Morris’s desire for “black black” in books, and the clean lines and no unnecessary space used for the chair would certainly appeal to Morris as well.