by Davy

Lecture Week 4 – The Legacy Of Swiss/International Style

Swiss Style

This particular lecture discussed the Swiss AKA international style, which emerged in Russia, Germany and the Netherlands. This style focused on functionality overall, with the influence of a clear grid and rationality. One of the more famous creations to represent this style was the font Helvetica, which had a large x-height and shorter ascenders and descenders for easy reading.

ArialvsHelvetica.jpg

https://www.fonts.com/content/learning/fyti/typefaces/arial-vs-helvetica

Josef Müller-Brockmann

Brockmann was a graphic designer in the mid 1900’s who by the 1950’s was the leading practitioner and theorist of the Swiss Style. He created the founder of the “Neue Grafik” (New Graphic Design), a magazine about graphic design created in this Swiss Style.

ng_1.jpg

http://ingallery.ie/

As seen above, the magazine utilised design features, such as a clear grid system, simplistic colour scheme and a definitive hierarchy of text. This style also showed a distinct use of negative space which was also a key aspect of Swiss Style. Armin Hofmann released a similar publication which also illustrated the Swiss Style called “Graphic Design Manual : Principles and Practice” as seen below.

9783721200065.jpg

https://www.bookdepository.com/Graphic-Design-Manual-Armin-Hofmann/9783721200065

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Mies was a key contributor to the International Style in architecture, after being the director for Bauhaus. His buildings were modernistic, representing the era of their creation, like that of Gothic and Victorian architecture, using industrial steel and plate glass. Many of his creations would feature large windowed areas, allowing them to be on display for the public to see. This worked well for office style buildings, but did not fair well for his residential creations, with his most famous being Farnsworth House, which replaced all exterior walls with glass, allowing any voyeuristic prowler to see inside.

farnsworth-house-movie-news-architecture-mies-van-der-rohe_credit-flickr-user-david-wilson_dezeen_hero.jpg

https://www.dezeen.com/2017/02/08/mies-van-der-rohe-farnsworth-house-hollywood-movie-jeff-bridges-maggie-gyllenhaal-residential-architecture-usa/

 

 

 

by Davy

Week 4 Reading – Isotype

I found this week’s reading to actually be quite interesting and informative, although I did already know of Isotype, I had never looked into the history of it.

Isotypes are a form of displaying statistical information with the repetition of an con that is representative of a specific value. Otto Neurath, the creator of isotype “intended it (isotypes) to be signs that spoke for themselves and bypassed verbal language”, although without the context, there would be no way to determine the value of the statistics, so instead it compliments the information by showing an accurate visual representation of the data. Using this example below I will show how these charts differ with and without verbal or written information.

Without Writing

isotype-weaving Example

With Writing

isotype-weaving

https://eagereyes.org/techniques/isotype

As you can see, the first one you can understand is showing a quantity of people and something to do with some being involved with a factory, but the point is not conveyed unless you see the information or know background of the image.

Neurath did make a valid point on how his method is greater than the alternate style of pictogram graphing, which involves expanding the size of the image/symbol used in a relative scale to the others being used, as he shows through these two examples below.

Pictogram

Burke - Isotype Week 4.pdf - Adobe Acrobat Pro DC 21_9_2018 2_29_53 PM (2)

Isotype

Burke - Isotype Week 4.pdf - Adobe Acrobat Pro DC 21_9_2018 2_29_53 PM (3)

These isotypes were used commonly throughout the 30’s and 40’s to display a range of important information, such as infant mortality rates and population density. They are still used today, just in my personal research I found them more commonly referred to as pictographs, although majority of these examples appear to be from early education books to help children with learning graphs and counting.

 

 

 

 

by Davy

Tutorial Week 3 – Semiotics, Modernism, Propaganda

Note: This post is late for the sole purpose that one of my lovely neighbours decided to renovate and upon digging found a curious little wire, which happened to be the phone line for my street. Although the internet was only out for 5 days, this caused a chain reaction of trying to catch up with work that can only be done online.

Within this weeks tutorial, we discussed the use of semiotics in design. We started by discussing Ferdinand de Saussure a Swiss linguist who created the theory of a sign being made up of both the signifier and the signified. The signifier is the word, whilst the signified is the what associations the audience has with the word (a picture of a dog in their heads).  Secondly, we discussed Charles Sanders Peirce, who also had s definition of what a sign was. Pierce put forward the idea that a sign is made of three subcategories:

  • Representamen – The form which makes the sign (such as the word)
  • Object – The object to which the sign refers.
  • Idea – Interpretation in the mind.

After this, we then defined the different signifiers. There are three categories:

  • Icon – Icons are symbolism that anyone from any background could understand, examples of this are male and female toilet signs, arrows, red cross.
  • Symbol – symbols need cultural context to understand, examples of this are question marks and religious symbolism like the cross and star of David.
  • Index – Index is where a sign is a literal image or depiction of the object. This can be seen with traffic light signs and stroller parking.

The class was split into groups of two and we were all given an image of propaganda from WWII and asked to identify all examples of signifiers within the image.

My group’s image was “She’s a WOW” by Adolph Treidler.

Shes a wow

The Rockwell Center for American Visual Studies. (2011). “She’s a WOW” – The Rockwell Center for American Visual Studies. [online] Available at: https://www.rockwell-center.org/essays-illustration/shes-a-wow/ [Accessed 25 Aug. 2018].

Our discussion of this image found a few examples of these signifiers, such as the clenched fist and straight stance being an iconic symbol of power and independence, while the red used in the bandana. For symbols, the bandana is a cultural icon of J. Howard Miller’s “We can do it!”, which depicts the fictional character Rosie the Riveter. I also believe another symbol is the use of script font for “she’s a”. This gives a delicate female touch which I believe is only conveyed in Latin character languages. Index was pretty simple, the hats on the right are pretty literal of their job and the shell could have the meaning of war, but I believe it just conveys the meaning that she makes ammunition.

I did raise the question with my partner of, could bold lettering be an icon, since it stands out across all language barriers, and this is where I find some troubles with the definitions.

Overall I found this topic intriguing none the less, but also hard to follow since there were so many subcategories of semiotics. I did, however, understand the signifier and the three categories that it encompasses fairly well.

 

 

 

by Davy

Lecture Week 3 – WW1 and the Rise of Graphic Design

This weeks lecture discussed the rise of graphic design through the use of propaganda. This propaganda used a combination of images and text to inspire young men to join the war. From the examples that were being shown during the lecture I found there were three main categories of propaganda used:

Fear of invasion

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https://study.com/academy/lesson/wwi-propaganda-posters-and-other-techniques.html

Call for patriotism

3g10987u-71

http://www.ww1propaganda.com/

Guilt for those fighting

3g12183u-1410

http://www.ww1propaganda.com/

The Propaganda imagery worked by telling a story created by the imagery and characters, through through the use of symbolism and body language. As men were the main audience of these posters, the metaphorical countries the men were fighting for were depicted as women. Britain was represented as an angel or angelic figure wearing a white dress leading their men to battle. America depicted their country as a more muscular woman who wears an American flag print dress. Women were similarly depicted as an encouraging force to get men to fight in the war and also encourage other women to join the war effort through supporting roles.

3g04824u-1605

http://www.ww1propaganda.com/

Aside, from propaganda, the war also utilised graphic design through the creation of public warning posters. This poster was used to inform the public of what aircraft are safe. This poster further used typographical techniques, such as using bold font on the important information and even using a primitive style of a grid system with the layout of their page.

5-BritishvsGermanAirships

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Public-Warning-Aircraft-Identification-Poster/dp/B00B5DLOE2

At this time Russia was developing the constructivism style of design. This style was not far off of geometric vector works we see in contemporary graphic design. It was mainly created with most aspects being on a diagonal line, and with all features being perfectly straight. Colour wise these works would only use three colours, with most using black, white and red, with the exception of some opting out the white for a pale yellow.  Constructovism personally is a favourite of mine after looking more into it, as it is a style similar to works I have created in the past.

leninvoce.jpg

http://cometastudio.eu/week-end-di-studio/week-end-di-luglio-voce-il-7-e-l8-luglio/

Bauhaus

Bauhaus art school was opened 1919 in Germany and became one of the most influential facilities in design. They developed in the use of minimalist colour use in graphic design. Bauhaus also had a large role in the creation of the functionalism movement which involved breaking down an object to its most basic state of being functional and focusing on a minimalist aesthetic.

Bauhaus also created new design choices for the sans serif font, such as open tailed “g” and simplified “a”. Advancements like this led to the blurring between art and design.

g-comparison.png

https://qz.com/1244871/why-does-the-letter-g-look-different-in-print-than-in-handwriting/ (not actual example of their font, could not find original source from lecture)

Art Deco

Art Deco was also developed after WW1, due to the lack of materials. This involves the use of layered stencil style design that refined with flattened colours, usually simplistic and geometric. Moderne, followed art deco, focusing heavily on layout, using a machinery aesthetic. This design focused on movement and transportation, using imagery such as boats and trains as the focus of the artwork.

usx25573z

https://www.internationalposter.com/style-primers/art-deco-posters/
by Davy

Week 3 Reading – Design and Modernism

This reading produced an interesting perspective of design within the early 1900’s (roughly between 1910-1935) focusing mainly on modernism. Not only did it explain modernism as a whole, but it also went through a list of countries that were designing a modernistic style and the achievements and place within the design industry. One of the most eye-opening parts of the reading to me personally was Gerrit Rietveld’s Schröder House (depicted above (interior) and below (exterior) and is still available to be viewed by the public to this day) which was designed and created in 1924, yet rivals modern stylistic housing used today. Overall, I found this reading to be quite informative in the history of design, and well-paced, through the use of dividing up the countries into individual topics.

Het_Rietveld_Schroderhuis_foto_Ernst_Moritz

https://centraalmuseum.nl/media/medialibrary/2012/05/Het_Rietveld_Schroderhuis_foto_Ernst_Moritz.jpg
by Davy

Tutorial Week 2 and Further Reading Discussion

Within this weeks tutorial, we discussed Pecha Kucha’s and the contents of the reading. The reading (typographica) I now understand was mainly about design and its technological developments, and how this affected major world events. The majority of the reading focused on visual communication design like that of newspapers and advertising posters. One interesting point that brought up, was the fact that Abraham Lincoln was perceived as more trustworthy and credible in the eyes of the public due to a photograph of him being widespread. Before this most people would not be able to see who they were voting for.

After the discussion, we made a timeline and had to guess in what order each communication invention was created.

IMAG0377

Although my group only got 2 wrong, this was quite interesting (eg: how old sans serif is).

After the tutorial, I have followed up with studying Pecha Kucha’s and found some interesting examples. My favourite Pecha Kucha was this discussion about a fun social media page that became famous from an action figure and an idea:  https://www.pechakucha.org/presentations/make-it-so

by Davy

Week 2 Lecture – Following on from Gutenberg

At the beginning of this lecture, we discussed the how the Gutenberg revolutionised the spreading of information and the affordability of books. In the year of 1456 alone the press printed 180 bibles. This further in turn, allowed for literacy rates to increase, due to this mass production books.

banner-1544x500.jpg

https://wordpress.org/plugins/gutenberg/

Unlike what most people believe, Gutenberg was not the first person to create press dtyle printing. The Chinese used a wooden characters in the same way 600 years earlier, with the oldest intact book being found originating 868 AD. This method was less successful as the wooden casts would wear out easily, unlike Gutenberg’s later metal type.

Alois Senefelder invented lithography in 1796, this allowed for the recreation of images and artwork through the use of mid-tones. This added a shading effect that could not be achieved before with just black and white print. Although this was not considered graphic design as it was the mere recreation of an image.

Our lecturer mentioned a weird thought, that around this time there would be no images when you are walking down the street. Most signage would be lettering.

The Work of Art and the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, written in 1934 has a discussion about why people don’t just look at an image of a place rather than go there. This brought up a discussion what is the difference between images and the real thing. The discussion led to what people though when visiting the Mona Lisa, which according to input from other students, wasn’t really worth it for the physical viewing, and more just as a feeling of seeing one of the worlds most famous paintings. In reality it was apparently much smaller and less colourful than the images online.

B9714598521Z.1_20180131105130_000+GGUAJSO0A.1-0

http://www.lavoixdunord.fr/308321/article/2018-01-31/le-maire-de-lens-ecrit-au-president-pour-inviter-la-joconde-au-louvre

by Davy

Week 2 Reading – Typographica

The week 2 reading “Graphic Design A History (Typographica)” was quite informative in retrospect to the history throughout the 19th century of typography, and in turn, leading to the development of graphic design, although, I felt the reading struggled from the beginning to explain whether it was re-accounting typographic events from the 1800’s or whether it was discussing its flaws. Since the reading was so drawn out, I found myself focusing more on the description and history of the examples rather than the argument the author was trying to put forward during the introduction. I feel that this could be improved with a clearer argument.

Although this description is harsh, it is still my personal opinion and can be proven wrong with further insight.

*This has been written before the tutorial.*