The blog will only occasionally be updated during the summer. Thanks to all 2008-2009 students for their contributions and comments.
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New York Lights
Thursday, April 30, 2009
I recently went to New York for pleasure with friends, and we were all sitting in Times Square. Looking around, I noticed the many billboards with lights. The different billboards with designs, and I came across a big screen with the advertisement for Coca-Cola. The Coca-Cola ad, caught my attention, because it had three lines in the middle, flowing like a river, and the Coca-Cola was just flowing. It was really amazing, especially since it had was under the night sky and surrounded by so many billboard lights. I feel that although, the billboard was not a traditional method of design, it still made an impact on the viewer, and I consider it as modern art. Modern art nowadays, use a lot of technology, such as lights, cameras, etc. I felt that it was very nice to walk through Times Square, and it was also like walking through a muesuem. The only thing was that it was a muesuem of advertisements, rather than just art pieces.
2012 Olympic logo and issues of design
Thursday, April 30, 2009
The 2012 Olympic logo has been creating a storm of comments and many that are quite negative. ABC news ran an article here that highlights the designers intention and some of the responses. This article set off a bunch of red flags, first regarding the following quote about how a competition would have been better. “The criticism ranged wide. Many called the expensive price tag a waste of money, claiming that a national competition would have been more appropriate than using an expensive professional agency. Others balked at the design because it failed to capture the British spirit, saying the design was a source of collective embarrassment rather than pride.” This type of competition sounds an awful lot like speculative work, a big no-no in the graphic design field, so who is really suggesting it?
Second, You can’t please everyone all the time. Just like with political elections, while 46% of votes go to one and 49% to the other, that leave 46%of people not happy. With the design of the Olympic logo, it certainly is liked by the Olympic committee, or at least the majority of it.
Finally, that difficult art is not limited to the fine arts community. Difficult art is art that is requires more than a glance to appreciate or understand. It may take more time and thought than most people are willing to offer it. This logo at first may turn people off by it’s abstract nature and bright colors, but if given the chance there may be traits worthy of mention. It’s throw back styling is reminisant of grafiti or 80’s design cues. I see that appropriate for reaching the younger culture, as what is old is now new again. The skinny jean, converse, and punk rock t-shirts are all brought to mind when thinking ogf this logo and London. I say job well done, I may even get a hat with the logo on it.
All about Helmut Krone
Thursday, April 30, 2009
While looking for information for writing the final research paper I found that a book was released about the life and design of Helmut Krone. It’s entitled “Helmut Krone. The book.” and is now out for sale. I have read that it’s about “what advertising could be if we were all geniuses”. Do we really have to be geniuses to have a good design? Can’t good design come from a fresh perspective of something? I’m not attacking or downplaying Krone’s abilities especially now that I’m still learning about him and his work. However trying to force yourself to be a genius in design just makes the design and design process less meaningful and fun. I’d say that the person has a good ability or knowledge of the field, I don’t know if I could call someone a genius. If designers were all geniuses, then simple but effective designs wouldn’t be appreciated. Sometimes simple is better, without all of the genius flare or hype. Just the ramblings of a non-genius.
Writing for Designers
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Before taking the Writing for Designers course I suppose I had some amount of awareness of how important writing is to the fields of design and art. But little did I know just how important having a deep understanding and skill in writing is to being a successful designer. Artists and designers alike must be able to communicate their ideas to whatever audience they are aiming at. I have always thought that it is an amazing thing when an artist can explain his or her theory in an effective way when their work is a blank canvas, or other such minimal or conceptual art.
The core of any art work or design lies within the theory and ideas behind it. Otherwise it is just shapes and color on a screen or canvas. Being able to articulate those ideas and transmit them to your viewer in written form is a key skill for every designer. I am beginning to see just how prevalent writing is in the design field. From preparing design proposals to writing design content to justifying your own work or critiquing others; writing appears again and again in any designer’s experience.
Graphic design is surely a jack of all trades profession, and writing is another of the many skills necessary to becoming a great designer. I encourage anyone who wants to become a graphic designer to explore the many ways in which writing is used in the field. A graphic designer’s primary tool is communication and the written word is the most direct and, and sometimes the most effective way to communicate any idea.
Color Theory 101
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Tints, tones, shades, what does it all mean? Often misused in describing a color, a tint is adding white to a hue, resulting in a lighter color, a tone results from adding gray and shading is adding black.
The color wheel can be divided into three major categories, the primary and secondary colors we are all familiar with, and tertiary colors. Primary colors mixed together create secondary colors, and one primary and one secondary color create tertiary colors. Complementary colors are opposite on the wheel, while they work well together in most applications, they do not do well in the text/background situation. Split-Complementary color scheme is a color and the two colors lying on either side of its complement color, such as blue/yellow orange/red orange; this has less strain on the eye then the complementary colors do. Analogous color scheme is three colors the lie next to each other, yellow green/green/blue green; these colors together are harmonious to the eye. Triadic color scheme is three colors equally spaces on the color wheel, Purple/orange/green; this color scheme can be successfully used by making one of the colors dominant and the other two accent colors.
When mixing colors in paint you often have to fudge the ratios to get the proper results, fifty percent red mixed with fifty percent blue turns a mucky hue that is almost black, instead of purple. Knowing the basics of color theory helps with any design, whether it is working with pigments for printing a poster or the light spectrum on a web page.
Visit http://www.poynterextra.org/cp/colorproject/color.html for an “interactive color experience”
(I had pics but Wordpress will not let me upload them)
Jacob Cass - The “Mates Forum” logo design
Sunday, April 26, 2009
While reading some design articles on the Internet, I came across a website designed by Jacob Cass, a young graphic designer from Australia. As I continued to browse his website, I found out that despite his young age(21), he has already accomplished much. Jacob Cass is recognized as a great designer in Australia and received the ‘Best of Australia’ 2008 Wolda Logo Design award. Not only that, but he is actively running a graphic design company called ‘Just Creative Design’ while studying for his design degree at Newcastle University. Needless to say, I was impressed by his achievements, and was eager to see the kind of logo work he has done. Going through his portfolio, it was obvious that he deserves the recognition of being a great graphic designer.
One of his logos was designed for “Mates Forum”, an online Australian forum for students to talk about everyday situations and to keep in touch. This design really attracted my attention with the typeface and 
color choice that Cass decided to use for the logo. The simple pen-stroke font gives a friendly feel to the logo, making it perfect to advertise an online student forum. By keeping the feel of the logo “friendly” and “free” the logo will keep a relaxed atmosphere in the forum. Also, by using the phrase “keeping you in touch” at the bottom of the logo, it states the purpose of the site right in the logo; which supports the logo’s simple and straightforward message. Through his use of color, Cass also contributes relaxed atmosphere that the forum is supposed to provide. The colored background almost looks as if it resembles the sky, with its baby blue color and soft brush strokes. All of these components make the logo seem very effective, and look professional.
After observing the “Mates” logo, I decided to read Cass’ personal description of it. Looking at Jacob Cass’ description I realized that the logo’s appearance was meant to resemble the logo from the television show “Friends”. Though I can see why re-creating a logo that depicted the word “Friends” would work for a logo that depicted the word “Mates”, I was disappointed in Cass’ lack of originality. It makes sense that if you use the format of a successful pre-existing logo that your logo would also be effective, I also believe that it takes credibility away from your own creativeness. Observing the rest of Cass’ portfolio, it’s easy to see that he does have the creative talent to create his own original logos. An example of some of his “more original” logos can be seen below:
“Enviro”, a logo for an environmental awareness campaign
An “Asian Cuisine” logo design.
Both of these logos by Cass seem very professionally done and do not rely on other logos to promote them. If Cass decided to take a more original approach for the “Mates Forum” logo, I’m sure that he could have made a more successful logo than his current design. Even though I wish this logo had more originality to it, I still think it’s very successful in portraying the message it was intended for.
Now I can deal with the face…for now.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
While learning how to draw, I never liked to draw the face. I always was facinated with the body and it’s movement. I was even scared to take a Figure Drawing class here because I was scared that the teacher would focus more on the details rather than what the whole body was saying. During my earlier drawing classes, I never could get the whole detail thing. My mind couldn’t take it. I prefered the stroke and the movement more than anything else. Some projects I didn’t do well on, others I did. Then when I finally got to the figure drawing class I was relieved to see that it’s not all about the details all of the time. I learned to take my time with drawings because I stared to care a whole lot more. Sure I got to do more figure drawings and I was able to and focus on the gesture, but I was able to finally get to the face. For my senior show I drew three faces based on three jazz poems. I was pretty happy this time, finally I like the faces.
Who said you need to draw to design a logo?
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Logos are designed to grab the attention of a possible consumer/client, so a pleasing icon or symbol will usually do the job. However, some businesses have chosen much simpler tactics by using logotypes. What makes a logotype unique is that it is a mark created using just a treatment of a typeface. We have seen this in many cases such as the logos for IBM, Disney and of course who could forget the brilliantly designed FedEx logo.
Lindon Leader used a custom typeface which was inspired by Univers 67 (Bold Condensed) and Futura Bold, as well as two colors to create a unique logo that is easily recognizable. The tight tracking creates an arrow between the letters ‘E’ and ‘x’, which usually goes unnoticed, however the logo itself is not. The simple yet efficient designs prove that being a good designer is not always about who has the most drawing skills, but more about combining design elements and using what is appropriate, no matter how simple it may be.
Relevance
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Saturday on a trip to New York I stopped by Time Square for the first time and was blown away by all the billboards. They blocked out the sun, well, not really but the did hide the buildings. Some of the billboards have even been built into the structure of the building, and they are no longer limited to static images and neon, but now include flat panel displays that show looping videos. This experience brought to mind a final paper being done in AVT395about billboards.
The first draft I saw read more like a manifesto against billboard, but it included some ethical and social questions. While Time Square may be an appropriate space for such commercialization it remains to be seen if other city areas would function with the same amount of signage.
