Modernism is the rejection of the Victorian era. Modernism rejects the past and experiments new ways of art. Modernism peaked in the 1960’s. Modernism experimented with form, technique and processes. Modernist believed they could find a way of reflecting the modern world. Shortly after came what is known as post-modernism which contraty to modernism, was sceptical and a suspicion of reason. Something these eras share is the ability to push boundaries. Modernism rejected the past and post-modernism pushed it further to say anything goes.
Conceptual art was important during postmodernism, it proposed that the meaning or purpose behind the making of the art was more important than the art itself. Conceptual artists also believed that anyone could make art and anything that has been created is considered art. They rejected the idea of high and low art and believed art was simply art.
We are still in the era of post-modernism as their beliefs and ideologies are still widely accepted. Post-modern art is considered to be more liberal than modernist art. Post-modern art expanded with the technological growth in America. Artists had endless boundaries and less restrictions. The creation of art was so tangible that nearly anyone could create. I believe that is still and even more true today.
Category: Reading Response (Page 1 of 8)
There has been a consistent, overarching critique of overcommercialization in the design field throughout the development of the “First Things First” (FTF) manifesto. There has been a shift in focus towards environmentalism in later renditions, it is clear that there is still an issue of balancing the marketability of an artist, their artwork and their personal visions. Office workers dominate the creative field, coercing young designers into selling dispensable or destructive products. Basically, each version of the manifesto rejects the appropriation of skilled artists for trivial purposes in the design field.
The most recent version is unique in that the consequences of this system include non-artists. As profitable as these capitalists have made the marketing field out to be, FTF 2020 points out that the lion’s share of profits only continue to increase, causing harm to anyone who was not a part of the elite. Additionally, later versions note the role technology has played in shaping the world of design. It is no secret that movements such as modernism are a reflection of art and technology progressing together. As technology has progressed, the demand from consumers has also greatly increased.
The idea of rejecting either the past or current trends would be the elements of modernism that continued within the postmodern era. Modernism and postmodernism are both concepts that are a reaction to the current standing of the design world, just like any other art era. Art nouveau was a rejection of the industrial age and the fillmore posters were a rejection of swiss modernism in favor of a more organic experience. The only difference between those is that modernism and postmodernism are epochs which do not have a specific art period or style that defines them very well. They are both styles that are a rejection of the old and traditional ways and what makes them different are the execution and beliefs behind the design. These would be elements that continue in postmodernism today. I believe we are still in a postmodern era because there are so many artists nowadays that are constantly rejecting the norm. One example of this would come from a streetwear designer by the name “KITH”. In Kith’s design work we can see him rejecting the norms and creating interesting yet unique clothing.
KITH X Russell Athletic Collaboration.
Is the concept of mainstream vs underground relevant in advertising of the 1950’s/1960’s and is it relevant today?
What is culture jamming?
Provide a visual example and description of early avant-garde culture jamming.
Provide a visual example and description of culture jamming today.
The concept of mainstream vs underground in advertising is definitely relevant still to this day. I especially believe that because of the internet it has not only been happening at a much faster rate, but because everyone is now connected there are more groups of people advertisers can appeal to. For example, we live in a society where a large group of people will consume content from what are now called “Influencers”. Brands of all sizes collaborate with influencers to promote their products to their fan bases and platforms.
Culture jamming is when the underground satirically draws inspiration from mainstream to influence their design.
There’s No Way Like The American Way
Louisville, Kentucky
1937
This would be an example of early Avant garde culture jamming.
/adbusters_escape_barcode-58b8863c3df78c353cbe478e.jpg)
This would be an example of culture jamming today.
How do we change the commercial design field to include a diversity of voices and visions?
What will the commercial design field and the study of design history look like in 20 years?
The way we change the commercial design field is to actually teach people that this diversity of voices and visions actually exists. For example, my knowledge on the black artists I know now such as H.O. Tanner is only because I learned about the history of African American art in a class I took at city tech. If I was asked in highschool to name 3 black artists off the top of my head, I wouldn’t have been able to give one. The only ones that we are really taught in society are Leonardo Davinci and Micheal Angelo. So I believe there needs to be more of an emphasis on exploring these diversities in art curriculums.
I believe the commercial design field and the study of design history in the next 20 years will focus on artwork and art trends from under-represented groups of people. This will especially include movements such as the LGBTQ+, minorities and maybe people from non dominant religions. I also believe that because of the efforts now to give voices to the under-represented in our society there will be new history uncovered that describes how those groups of people influence mainstream design. This in turn would challenge even more ideas in design and inspire more designers.
Beatrice Warde describes the function of printing and how it is similar yet different from fine arts. She believes that printing’s function is to convey thoughts, ideas and images from one mind to another. Printing is meant to convey specific and coherent ideas. This concept to her is what she believes to be the basis for all typography. One design after 1971 that I would like to take a look at that would help consider this theory is the typography for The Shining which was done by Saul Bass. It was made for a movie about a homicidal maniac that begins to terrorize his family.
The typography in this is not cleanly drawn. The typography scatters along the edges almost as if to simulate pencil strokes, also the spacing between the letters are not evenly distributed which gives off tension and an unsettling vibe. In addition, there is a giant face in the word “The”. This face also adds to the unsettling vibe of the letters because of the stippling effect used to create. If we are using Beatrice’s definition then this would be a good use of typography because it is conveying the idea and images of the movie to the consumer.
Marshall McLuhan was born in 1911 and passed away in 1980. He didn’t get to experience the web that exists today. However, he has still been a huge influence on it.
In The Medium is the Massage McLuhan says, “Societies have always been shaped more by the nature of the media by which men communicate than by the content of the communication”. “The medium is the message” is a communication theory that the medium plays a crucial role and is possibly more valuable than the message itself. A certain message can be displayed across different mediums and each delivers a whole different experience and feeling. The medium of a message largely influences its place in society. For example, events today can claim they will “change the world” but 100 years ago without the tool of the internet, reaching the rest of the world was impossible.
Artists and designers today are able to create tools, experiences, services, and communities because of the internet. The Internet has a more powerful reach than any other medium in history. However, that doesn’t mean designers shouldn’t implement aesthetics. Designers should always consider how a design decision shapes the message. Colors, shapes, and other elements also play a role in the way the message is received.
Its solution was to focus efforts of design on education and public service tasks that promoted the betterment of society. The designers propose a reversal of priorities in favor of more useful, lasting, and democratic forms of communication – a mind-shift away from product marketing and toward the exploration and production of a new meaning. They feel that their talents and skills should be towards helping society progress as we grow. It is also our responsibility as members of our industry to create positive changes within it. We must work to improve our stances on diversity, inclusion, working conditions, and employees’ mental health. Any party should deem failing to address these issues acceptable. We have a responsibility to bring awareness of the product and social issues that are affecting society.
They are rejecting prizes venture capital, profit, and scale over usefulness and resonance, demand a debilitating work-life imbalance of its workers; lack critical diversity in gender, race, and age; claim to solve problems but favor those of a superficial nature; treat consumers’ personal information as objects to be monetized instead of as personal property to be supported and protected, and refuse to address the need to reform policies affecting the jurisdiction and ownership of data. They are rejecting corporate goals for society’s needs.
Reading response #10
Designers’ in occupation or absent mind made a rejoinder admirably by getting back to the essentials of their craft. Learning can be beneficial from an essential approach to design and the manifesto ‘‘First Things First 2020 (FTF2020)” is only the most recent example of the “ethical design” ideologues’ anti-design impulse. The manifestos are a condensed version of a deeply entrenched, pernicious, and elitist ideology.
Fast forward to the 1900s when posters became expression. During the 1940s, graphic design appeared in propaganda posters of the era. “We Can Do It” poster with Rosie the Riveter. Slogans were short, to the point, and added to a graphic that set the tone.
In about ten years, graphic design will become more immersive as the paper will become obsolete. All designs will be digital and have a website feel. Note that the designs will need layers to allow users to click deeper into designs, allowing people to sell products without pitching.
The consumerist culture that was purely concerned with buying and selling things and tried to highlight a Humanist dimension to graphic design theory. It was later updated and republished with a new group of signatories as the First Things First 2000 manifesto.
Ken Garland’s First Things First manifesto was written on the spur of the moment in 1963. Fourth version of the text is most urgent and powerful to date. Calls for a “reversal of priorities” among graphic designers, argues that less design effort should go into advertising.
It attracted and succeeded, but the alleged hypocrisy of a few signatories angered some readers. The second version was written by Adbusters with input from other interested parties. The response was unprecedented. Pentagram’s Michael Bierut crafted an elaborate visual riposte for I.D. Magazine. Many other magazines reprinted and debated FTF 2000, and translations reached legions of new readers.
In 1964, 22 visual communicators signed manifesto, calling for their skills to be put to worthwhile use and renew their manifesto in expectation that no more decades will pass before it is taken to heart. They propose a mind shift away from product marketing and toward the exploration and production of a new meaning.
In 2014, FTF’s 50th anniversary, Cole Peters launched a third version focused on design in the digital realm. First Things First has escaped and outgrown its creator and will continue to mutate. Its progeny, FTFT 2020, the first American version, blasts the reader with a checklist of urgent design goals. It covers the histories and ethics of design, as well as community-based initiatives and non-exploitative social relations.
The manifesto for FTF 2020 has a social justice component. Climate change vulnerability falls on the backs of racially and ethnically marginalized populations. “There can be no solution to climate change without social justice,” says Namita Dharia, one of FTF’s organizers. First Things First’s manifesto, FTF 2020, has attracted over 1,700 supporters. Designers who want a platform for action can follow a link to climatedesigners.org. The organizers present FTF as a “living document,” and supporters are adding their thoughts in a Google doc.
Design is the only universal way that we as designers can express the message we are trying to get across. communicate to people the information they need in the right way. It is also used to entertain and create cultural movements etc, and this is why it is so important that it is carefully carried out. Design should always be innovative and should be always evolving to adapt to the modern ways we are living in. The manifestos Ken Garland from 1964-2020 refer to similar ideas about using design to help the world be a better place and to further inform and create ways to communicate messages to the public. They also talk about how design should not be used for personal gain and is against the moral code of design. it should be to benefit the world not to gain profit from it by using the design capability to design harmful things for others for self-gain.
The manifesto that caught my attention the most was the 2020 one because it talks about the ways design has evolved and how it is affecting the field and what a big impact it is having on the world. We see how they talk about the way designers have been so wrapped up in this world of fast and speed design for commercial companies that we are forgetting the core values of what design should be. This is similar to one of the manifestos we read in class about how speed was the ultimate goal in order to become a new world. Because of this, we are harming the world and our society. The way we are designing is not being taken into consideration and this is dangerous for our future as a society and as a whole world.
Joval Davis 5/9/22
Reading Response 10
Design is something that can benefit many people in different ways. Whether it is through the messages of the design or what the design is being used to promote. It is all-important and helps to get people to view things like race or pollution in new ways than they did before. It can open the eyes of the audience to new ideas. This is why the manifestos Ken Garland from 1964-2020 all talked about the same idea of designers using their designs to help benefit the people and the environment. It can be through creating designs to educate or creating designs to bring awareness to people about problems in the world. It also talked about rejecting the idea of design being used simply for the selfish gain of the designer or other people who want to use it to benefit their selfish desires. Like companies who use designers for self-products that are dangerous to people simply to get a profit.
Of all the manifestos and their ideas of what design should be and what it should not be the 2020 manifesto stood out to me. What stood out to me is the talk in the manifesto about all the bigger things that design can be used for. How it talked about how we should use design to support those in need and to help bring people closer together. This stood out to me because it is something that many designers due not think about. When you design sometimes you become focused simply on how you can benefit yourself and the person you’re creating for. We never really think about how we can use design to help the environment or bring attention to things that may ruin the lives of people and animals either now or in the future. This is something we never really think about but is something we needed to consider more when designing.
Technology change had a major effect on how the manifestos changed over time. The author of each manifesto experienced different types of technology of the year they were creating the manifesto. Such as the creation of the computer which did not exist in, 1964. They also expected too disasters and problems that came about before the creation of each manifesto. Such as the increase in the effects of climate change and the amount of effort being put to stop it. This affected how the authors believed design should be used too and what benefits it could bring to that year due to the changes in technology and problems that are going on during that year.
link to jouernal
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ufiRlU6jqmV9-IoPXMyjYdsT9chQzoahpioB3i9wAlw/edit
1. Research Project Presentation Planning
Research Project & Presentation,
Research Project and Presentation Example
Details Research Project and Presentation
Review the following milestones.
-
- May 3: Complete presentation outline and script
- May 10: Revised outline, bibliography, and graphics.
- May 16: Share in-progress slideshow presentation with voiceoever, get feedback from peers and professor
- May 23: Submit Presentation to OpenLab site
Presentation Tips & Tools
Review the project guidelines to make sure you are clear about what the expectations are for the Research Project & Presentation. Specifically, take note of the requirements for Your Annotated Bibliography and Your Presentation Format.
Below find some helpful links for tips and tools you can use to assemble and record your Research Presentation.
-
-
- Review ‘TED’s Secret to a Great Public Speaking‘ (8-min video)
- Use Powerpoint, Google Slides, Preview PDF slideshow, Prezi or any other method to assemble your slidedeck.
- Use Zoom, Vimeo Record, Prezi, Screencast-o-matic, or any screencapture app to record your slidedeck presentation with voiceover. Remember to save your recording to your desktop to edit or upload direclty to YouTube or Vimeo (depending on the which app you are using.)
- Make sure your image or slide deck is set to FULL SCREEN when your record.
- Follow these guidelines to upload your finished Research Presentation video to YouTube. Set your video as Unlisted and copy the Video Link to paste into your OpenLab Post.
-
Presentation examples:
Examples with different criteria:
For next week
In your Research Journal, create one document with your detailed outline. (see example below)
Make sure that your journal allows edits
Submit a link to your Research Journal to OpenLab
Please be sure to add the following title, category, and tags to your posts. For help with adding Categories and Tags, see OpenLab Help.
-
-
-
- TITLE: Research Journal – Your Initials
- CATEGORY: Research Journal
- TAG: Research Journal
- TAG: Your Name
-
-
Research Project Outline example
1. Introduction
Explain in detail the topic you are examining and why it is significant.
Diversity (gender, LGBT.etc) in Korean video game design impacts the people who play them without stereotyping the designs.
2. Background/Review of the Literature
Include a summary of the basic background information on the topic gleaned from your literature and sources review (you can include information from the readings and class, but the bulk should be outside sources).
-
-
- Creating diverse design that is based on past experiences creates a more authentic experience
- Using Roland Barthes’ essay “Rhetoric of the Image” to define what an image represents
- Using Alice Rawsthorn’s, 2011 NYTimes, Design Gets More Diverse to define how to create diversity
-
3. Bibliography
Include a list of all your sources
4. Images
Include images and captions
2. Evaluating Online Sources
When searching for sources for your Research Project, it’s important not to take all sources at face value. Think critically about the sources your find online, the context in which the sources are created, and the context in which you are using the source.
Watch this interactive 5-minute video tutorial created by the City Tech Library which goes over how to evaluate online sources.
When evaluating sources, ask the following questions:
-
- What kind of source is this? Be as specific as possible.
- Is it a reliable source? How can you tell?
- What is the purpose of the source?
- Is the source biased?Do you think the author was paid to write this source? Why or why not?
- Do you think you’d have to pay to read the full text of this source? Why or why not?
- If a text is free to read, but an author is paid to write, where does the money to pay the author come from?
3. The Digital Revolution – 1980s-1990s Design History (3 min)
In 1984, Apple released the Macintosh computer. It would revolutionize the entire industry. I was in art school in the early 1990s and we used the first release of Photoshop 1.0. It was slow, clunky, and honestly painful to use (we would run a filter and go out for coffee!) but the results were nothing like we had ever seen before.
Let’s watch this video from Graphic Design History on LinkedIn Learning to gain an overview of the time period, the advent of the personal computer, and its effects on the design industry. Watch from 1:57:58 – 2:01:49 on LinkedIn Learning via your Library Card or the YouTube video below.
Activity: As you watch, take note of the dates and designers who experimented with these new tools. Also, note how once again changes in technology radically altered the field of design and the role of a designer.
4. Reading Report 10: Authorship & the Social Responsibility Movement of the New Millennium
…Designers who devote their efforts primarily to advertising, marketing and brand development are supporting, and implicitly endorsing, a mental environment so saturated with commercial messages that it is changing the very way citizen-consumers speak, think, feel, respond and interact. To some extent we are all helping draft a reductive and immeasurably harmful code of public discourse.
There are pursuits more worthy of our problem-solving skills. Unprecedented environmental, social and cultural crises demand our attention. Many cultural interventions, social marketing campaigns, books, magazines, exhibitions, educational tools, television programmes, films, charitable causes and other information design projects urgently require our expertise and help…
FIRST THINGS FIRST MANIFESTO 2000
In a 1994 essay in Eye magazine, Andrew Howard reminded designers about the 1964 manifesto entitled ‘First Things First’ signed by British designer Ken Garland and a group of 21 colleagues. The manifesto’s aim was to “reject the ‘high pitched scream of consumer selling’ and omnipotent lure of the advertising industry in favour of what was defined as socially useful graphic design work.”
Several years later, thirty-three designers renewed the original call for a change of priorities and published ‘First Things First Manifesto 2000‘ in Adbusters, Emigre, Eye, Blueprint, Items in the Netherlands, and Form in Germany.
In 2014 – on the 50th anniversary of the manifesto – over 1600 designers across the world renewed their commitment to the manifesto.
In 2020 an updated version, FTF 2020, was published online and included a focus on the climate crisis and racial justice. “Our time and energy are increasingly used to manufacture demand, to exploit populations, to extract resources, to fill landfills, to pollute the air, to promote colonization, and to propel our planet’s sixth mass extinction.”
Check out this short 2:30 min video of David Berman, author of Do Good Design. Berman’s main thesis is: “Rather than sharing our cycles of style, consumption, and chemical addictions, designers can use their professional power, persuasive skills, and wisdom to help distribute ideas that the world really needs: health information, conflict resolution, tolerance, technology, freedom of the press, freedom of speech, human rights, democracy …”
Let’s take a look at Rick Poynor’s 2021 Eye on Design essay The Evolving Legacy of Ken Garland’s First Things First Manifesto, examine the later versions in 2000, 2014, and 2020, and consider how technology and graphic authorship have influenced social responsibility in design.
Instructions
Following the instructions below, read and annotate the text with your classmates in our Hypothesis group.
We will not be writing reading responses this week, but rather adding comments and peer feedback to this post.
1. Open the readings
In a new tab open the essay The Evolving Legacy of Ken Garland’s First Things First Manifesto. For reference, open the original ‘First Things First’ from 1964 and the later versions in 2000, 2014, and 2020.
2. Enable Hypothesis
The reading links above will automatically open Hypothesis. Login to your account and select our group. IMPORTANT!)
3. Consider these questions.
Here are the questions to which you should respond in this reading discussion:
-
-
- When you compare the original version of FTF from 1964 with the later versions in 2000, 2014 and 2020, is there a central message/call to designers that hasn’t changed? What are the authors of the manifesto rejecting in the design field?
- What stood out to you in the newest version of the First Things First manifesto, FTF 2020?
- How did technology affect the authorship of the ‘First Things First’ manifesto over the decades?
-
4. Read & Annotate.
Consider the questions/prompts listed above. Start to formulate the answers to these prompts while you practice close reading of the essay with annotations. This will be part of your grade. Share at least 3 annotations in the Hypothesis group, including your questions, definitions, and ideas with your classmates. Add the tags: Social Responsibility and Reading Report 10 to your annotations.
When you annotate be sure to define or break down any words or concepts that you do not understand.
5. Draft your Comments.
In your Research Journal, add the links to The Evolving Legacy of Ken Garland’s First Things First Manifesto by Rick Poynor in Eye on Design, the original ‘First Things First’ from 1964 by Ken Garland, and the later versions in 2000, 2014, and 2020.
Compose your thoughts about the questions/prompts above.
6. Submit a link to your Research Journal to OpenLab
Please be sure to add the following title, category, and tags to your posts. For help with adding Categories and Tags, see OpenLab Help.
-
-
- TITLE: Research Journal – Your Initials
- CATEGORY: Research Journal
- TAG: Research Journal
- TAG: Your Name
-
Due Date(s)
Your comments and follow-up feedback on the reading discussion are due the day before the next session Monday, May 9th, at 6:00 pm.
Texts
- The Evolving Legacy of Ken Garland’s First Things First Manifesto by Rick Poynor
- ‘First Things First’ from 1964
- Later versions in 2000, 2014, and 2020.
Modernism showed the wonderful time when simple geometric shapes are the basic of design and mostly focus on technology. Interesting fact to be noted from here is technology adds to beauty where using space in architecture where light air can pass for ventilation and in print design the blind spots, color psychology and shapes, the use of typography and simplicity are the key factors.
Mostly, Modernism is characterised by dazzling experimentation, perplexing narrative and poetic form and often contradictory aesthetic and ideological tendencies. The desire to ‘Make it new!
Simply can be identified by the era of art where new ways of experiment and collective approaches can be seen more than any other time. The result was obvious, coming up with bright, simple ideas like Bauhaus school and alumni student and more practical thought introduced with aesthetic.
Postmodernism is a society net which formed its own life forms. The period when west civilization entered a dark period since 1875 is called a postmodern period. Postmodern societies do not foresee the freedom of mind, they defend local culture; they are formed of civil societies. Postmodernism is a reaction against being modernism global in knowledge, mind and values. It internalizes the aim approach in the realist ideal and has been the aim of society’s values. Postmodern societies corrupts all rules by third learning, they leave all their behaviours.
There are some basic of postmodernism that still make an impact in today’s society, like photography, body art, graffiti art, and video art. Art is everything and everywhere. With our prior attention, it can be detected what? why? and how is persuaded and what is the reflection of the art.
After the postmodernism era, artists started taking art differently. Technology was growing, and so was how we were making art. During the cold war, there were a lot of new music bands that started creating album covers for their discs. Graphic design artists started creating the design for the covers. These artists felt free to do art in a way that wasn’t done before. They felt free to do art however they wanted instead of following any ideology like the Bauhaus. They could do any art they wanted and, since it was new and innovative, people would like it. However, nowadays this is not the case because artists have to be very careful with the art that they make, because if they make a mistake their careers would be over. Because of this, I believe that the postmodern era died when social media became a thing.
Recent Comments