Week 15 Agenda

This Week’s Topics

Wrap Up

Congratulations on your accomplishments this semester!

Take a moment to look back at all the work you’ve completed this semester in this course (and others). Even if there were things you wish you could have changed or improved upon, I hope you will feel good about your accomplishments and learn from your disappointments.

In this course, we looked at the formative theories that help us better understand the “how” of visual communication and explored the critical theories that may explain the “why” within historical, cultural, and social contexts. When we look at philosophical, ethical, political, and aesthetic questions in the field of design, our ability to think creatively and critically expands.

Through this critical practice, my goal for you by the end of this course was to start to include the question “why” within your own design practice and begin to see how your own aesthetic influences connect to historical lineages in the field of design. And also to see how important your voice is to the future of the communication design field.

I hope you will be able to apply some of the practices we covered in this course in your design projects here at City Tech and in your future creative career.

Best wishes for a safe, relaxing break, and a productive Spring semester. Please stay in touch!

Activities

Below find the information covered in this session.

1. Knowing Your Design History is Crucial to Aesthetic Innovation

Here is one last optional reading which underscores one of the aims of this course: to be an innovative designer, learn how your own aesthetic influences connect to historical lineages in the field of design.

Cerulean blue pigment is an expensive pure blue pigment. It is opaque and bright due to its highly refractive particles. It was quickly adopted by artists, including the Impressionists, because of its hue, permanence and opaqueness. It was particularly useful for skyscapes and can be found in the sky of Monet’s 1877 La Gare Saint-Lazare, the pointillism of Paul Signac, and in Édouard Manet’s 1878 Corner of a Café-Concert.

The color has earned widespread popularity. In 1999 it was nominated by Pantone as the color of the millennium. According to Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute, “Psychologically, gazing at a blue sky brings a sense of peace and tranquillity to the human spirit.

Surrounding yourself with cerulean blue could bring a certain peace because it reminds you of time spent outdoors, on a beach, near the water – associations with restful, peaceful, relaxing times.”

The Devil Wears Prada- The Blue Sweater Scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vL-KQij0I8I

In this essay, Kristen Coogan examines how “Knowing Your Design History is Crucial to Aesthetic Innovation.”

It’s a helpful reminder for designers and design students today: if you borrow from a certain style, it’s important to know where that style came from, as well as the social and cultural contexts that gave that style its rise.

KRISTEN COOGAN, EYE ON DESIGN, JUNE 22ND, 2020