A History of Type

Type makes the presentation of words as important as what is actually being said. For example, Gill Sans is an old English type (can be used to reflect a sentence/era)

Typography alters the way a message is received by the reader and allows the writer to put appropriate emphasis where they deem in necessary.

Type classifications:

- Humanist

- Old Style

- Transitional

- Modern

- Slab Serif

- Sans Serif

The first letterforms come from 113AD in the Roman Empire and Gutenberg Gothic type was the first moveable typeface, previously type was only printed by hand. This first printed word was very widely available.

In earlier typefaces the crossbar on the 'e' is tilted at an angle.

Nicolas Jenson 1475 = an early type face.

Geofrey Tory believed that type faces should reflect the form of humans.

Old Style:

15th century - explosion of typography in Venice which refined versions of more Humanist typefaces.

Centaur was humanist but became Garamond which was old style.

Old style typefaces include palatino, garamond, and perpetua, and use of these types expressed tradition and legacy.

Humanist were the early typographic attempts, Old Style was the development and Transitional was the latest.

1970s Modern type:

Didone was used a lot in fashion as it exuded glamour and elegance (Firmin Didone 1784)

Types became synonymous with particular styles.

Slab Serif came about in the Victorian times (1800s) and was designed for 'an era of industralisation'. It was used for marketing because it was a very 'loud' typeface, was used on billboards etc.

Times New Roman designed by Stanley Morison

Cooper Black 1927  designed by Oswald Bruce Cooper

Helvetica - the modernist type 

Post Modern Era

David Carson would use type and layout as the communication as oppose to the content of a piece of graphic design (grunge typography)

Graffiti and Street Art

Goes back to cave paintings and drawings as Ancient Roman graffiti is similar to contemporary graffti.

Killroy US/Chad UK - a figure that makes a joke out of a social or political situation.

Paris riots 1968 - big day for graffiti

We are the Power - Illustrations of workers all fused together.

Urban Graffiti

1970s New York - graffiti exploded, made language of the street visible by having a cultural and political voice on the street.

See John Naar 1973 - preserves anonymity of graffiti art

Was an attempt at making graffiti considered art by the erection of walls specifically for graffiti.

Jean-Michael Basquiat street artist - used written messages and images and used a SAMO tag (stood for 'same old shit'). He has a poetic but at times confusing style which grew into a cult.

Keith Haring - 1990 Subway Art. He did sketches of existing advertising in the Subway, was commissioned to make big wall murals.

He has been criticised for the commercialisation of his work - was making money out of something which was originally meant to exhibit a particular message on the street.

John Feckner Broken promises 1980 - political statements through word art

Jenny Holzer Times Square Show 1980 - digital display of work which mimics the overload of written information on the streets - authoritative statements

Berlin Wall - comments on the lack of availability of technology and brands in East Berlin

Graffiti has been used in advertising in an attempt to communicate with a younger audience (videogame culture).

Invader - French artist deliberately made his street art difficult to remove.

Street art re-emergence

Banksy - Kate Moss made as iconic as Marilyn Monroe

Shephard Fairey - Obama poster

JR - parisian photographer blew up photographic portraits and placed them on the sides of buildings, associated it with locals.

Free Art Friday - group of people that work worldwide putting labels on pieces of work that can be taken away.

Studio Task 1 - Critical Analysis

Identify and explain 5 reasons why critical analysis is an important part of education, learning, and developing your understanding.

1. Critical analysis allows us to see our own work in a different light to how we may previously have viewed it, allowing you to see it from the audience's point of view and look past the technicalities.

2. It helps us to determine when and how we should progress with this design feeling more informed, and if there is a specific direction in which we should take it.

3. It draws attention to the mistakes or things that need changing in the design, parts of the design that we may not have realised previously.

4. Similarly, giving critical analysis may sometimes be applicable to your own work, and you may notice some things that need altered in someone else's design more than in your own.

5. Critical analysis is as much about the design and aesthetics as it is about personal interpretation, and there may be some ways in which your design is interpreted that you didn't know.

Identify and explain why the group critique is useful in the development of your work, skills and opinions.

Group crits are ideal in identifying how other people have interpreted the same brief you received, and how your concepts differ. In some cases it may highlight the need to do more work, similarly, identifying other designers processes and developments may aid your own work. Receiving feedback in the group crit gives a varied interpretation of your work and helps identify themes or patterns in the audience's view of it, allowing you to exaggerate or stifle these themes accordingly. It brings to light some factors or problems with your design that your eye cannot see.

Choose 5 criteria from the list generated in the session. For each, briefly summarise what will generally effect how you judge what you like and dislike when analysing examples of work.

1. Concept:

A weak concept often translates to a weak design but a stronger one can often make design more effective. A good concept requires the designer to consider every way in which the design could be interpreted, and aid each interpretation. It is often a case with areas of design (like branding) in which the designer only focusses on aesthetics and doesn't look at the bigger picture.

Examples of concept-less logo designs.

2. Layout

I need layout to be clear, concise and followable without being overwhelmed by text, image or composition. The layout should both be in accordance with the concept and should be considered heavily when determining the context in which the design will be placed. There should always be a balance of text and image and of colour.

3. Colour

Colour is the main factor that will determine how your design is interpreted. It is supposed to embody the concept, and colour is there to aid the designer in setting the appropriate tone of voice, not to try and grab attention. It should remain consistent throughout different designs if they are all part of the same concept.

4. Media/Production

Execution of a design should strive to be outside of the box, but ultimately should embody the theme and concept of the whole design. The context in which it is being placed must be considered to ensure it has maximum effect. Stock makes a really huge difference to printed designs and should be experimented with.

5. Legibility

Without a legible type, the design loses it's functionality and is deemed unsuccessful. Type doesn't have to be simple to be legible and it can be altered (although perhaps only for headings). There should be a balance with the type which creates something that doesn't overwhelm the eye.

A History of Creative Advertising

William Hesketh Lever marked a starting point for creative advertising who founded Sunlight Vision with James Darcy in 1885 and today Unilever advertise for over 900 brands including Ben and Jerry's and Bertie.

Packaging technology was invented in 1860 when Kelloggs figured out how to print and fill their cardboard boxes mechanically.

Lever was the first to advertise pre-packaged bars of soap.

- Brand value was added to a product through advertising and packaging - 

Advertising Boom

Advertising was aided by tax cuts on newspapers as tax relief.

1880- printing boom when colour images, colour printing and pictorial ads in magazines began.

1885 - co-founder of the Lever Bros.

1890 - technology - contemporary painting could be reproduced

Lever Bros. became the first multinational in the world and in 1930 it became Unilever, the largest corporation in Britain.

What was so much better about Unilever advertising?

- Started to use contemporary paintings in advertising

- Used paintings depicting women, white men and children which created an instant morality high as children are a popular subject (signify joy, purity, innocence)

Lever used George Dunlop's 1879 Alice In Wonderland painting and Albert Chevallier Taylor's "A Dress Rehearsal" painting in 1889 "As Good As New"ad posters which was used to sell washing soap for clothing.

Use of contemporary art expressed a more powerful, interesting and innovative message and encourages people to get a copy of the prints to hang in their own homes.

Lever was one of the first to use product placement in image which encouraged loyalty to brands through generations.

Innovative events:

- Lever Bros. Switzerland - organised a washing event when new offices were opening

- Royal endorsement from 1892 by Queen

- Wrapper promos targeted mothers through children - receive a voucher or gift when buying soap

1899 Lever Bros purchased Philadelphia soap firm and the owner, Sidney Gross became director - was an expert at picking appropriate art for an advert.

Lever was seen as first worldwide executive creative director for his collaborative creativity, overseeing of advertising and constant research.

He like using ambience - use of space, choosing location

-Advocating truth in advertising is an asset, falsehood in advertising is a liability-

Tell the truth but keep it interesting.

Many ads possessed messages that the use of the product would make women's lives easier - emotive strategy (promised happiness).

Lever managed to convince the world that not only do people want these products but they need them by convincing them of things such as hygiene problems that they need to attend to.

Modernism

Examples of Modernist Graphic Design

Kandinsky's 60th birthday poster by Herbert Bayer

Recognised as Modernist in the tilted nature of the typography, and it's clear legibility exhibits a key feature of Modernism, where it's only aim is to convey a message. The bold and minimalist nature of the colour scheme and layout of the poster, is enough to attract a viewer to read the smaller text. The majority of the text is in uppercase and so is in keeping with the grid-like layout.
"From the beginning, Modernism had the urgency of utopianism: to make a better world by design"- Massimo Vignelli

Bauhaus poster

There is an obvious current of structure and symmetry in this poster, fitting with the reputation the Bauhaus has for creating functional designs. While the colour scheme falls into the modernist bracket, I do think that a lot more thought has gone into layout than content which in my opinion takes away from the modernity of it.

"Modernism was never a style, but an attitude. This is often misunderstood by those designers who dwell on revivals of the form rather than on the content of Modernism" - Vignelli

This example seems to have exaggerating the concept of Modernist graphic design. There is an obvious structure to the layout of it, kept simple and efficient. Form clearly follows function in this design, with the page split into three sections to accomodate each language (German, English and French)

"Modernism was and still is the search for truth, the search for integrity, the search for cultural stimulation and enrichment of the mind" - Vignelli

COBETOB

Clearly created in the Communist revolution, this example is simple in it's typographic content and effective in it's repetitive imagery. It has an experimental quality with the hand montage and the tilted typography making the whole thing knocked on it's side, unlike much else that would have been seen at the time. The experimental aspect is very in keeping with modernist works and fits the criteria well.

"The revision of many of the Modernist issues have enriched our perception and have contributed to improving the quality of work" - Vignelli

The London Underground Map is an ideal example of Modernist Graphic Design. While the map isn't an accurate representation of the Underground system it is very close and has been laid out in a way which is much easier to follow than the original version. The colour code makes the whole map universally understandable.

"I value, endorse and promote the continued relevance of the Modern movement as the cultural mainstream of our century" - Vignelli

Examples of Post-Modern Graphic Design

Neville Brody's The Face magazine

The design is a burst of colour compared to any Modernist works, the whole spread exhibiting a collage and doodling effect. Brody's very distinct habit of including variation in typefaces and the mixture of structured content with the sharp edges show the design to be overpowering the content, perhaps taking away from it. While it is in-keeping with elements of Post-Modernism, it seems very exaggerated.

"The lack of profound ideology eventually brought Post-Modernism to it's terminal stage" - Vignelli

Beethoven poster by Michael Cronin

This poster has a minimalist but decorative approach, the odd combination of colours making it quite playful and post-modernist. The lines on the manuscript paper are inconsistent and cut off in the middle of the page, consistent with the pop art nature of the blue image. However, the image seems quite fickle and upon looking at other designs of posters for Beethoven performances, it has little consistency with them, this image could easily have been following the trend.

"Modernism's inherent notion of timeless values as opposed to transient values still greatly appeals to my intellectual being" - Vignelli

Barbara Kruger's book cover

The overlapping and 'broken apart nature of the typography in this design is typical of post-modernism in design. However the colour schemes fairly neutral and reminiscent of pro-Communism designs, it appears as though this cover looks more post-modern than each feature actually is. In spite of this, the image looks all together quite random with the placement of the type and gives no background or explanation with it.

"Much still has to be done to convince industry and government that design is an intergral part of the production process and not last-minute embellishment" - Vignelli

Barney Bubbles trademark BLOCKHEAD

This design breaks traditional typography rules and has a humorous approach, using the letters to convey the word. Although this is a simple monochromatic design, the layout and typography are typically post-modern, altering the size and natural structure of a word.

This design lacks "truth, integrity, cultural stimulation or enrichment of the mind" in the same way that Vignelli describes Modernism.

Message and Delivery - Research

I tried to look into how theft and burglary awareness is already being broadcasted and found limited options, some exaples of which are below:

Most of the results were for things other than security within the home, and more looking after your car and possessions while you're out of the house. Nothing I found was very helpful at informing people of the facts or of precautions that they should be taking, and some were just trying to advise presumable pre-existing burglars to stop stealing.

Graphic Design - A Medium For The Masses