Author: Guen Fung (Page 2 of 2)

Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, written by Marshall McLuhan was the one that caught my eyes. The mentioning of picking one end of the other in my words, or in his perspective the splitting and dividing of all things is what I found interesting. In the society we are now, we are never more divided in terms of logical thinking. We are given so much freedom to pick a side and we are encouraged to have a stand on every option. As technology is growing, we are shifting from people working to automatic jobs according to the reading. Although the decision has a pro and con, what is affected is what we are learning from this trial and error. However the trends we are seeing today, mainly come from the media. 

McLuhan describes this as the medium, a method of describing and explaining things through perspectives. Although this is somewhat confusing, the meaning we get behind things we see and hear is all subjective. This is where it comes in terms of perspective. Technology and media is very exponential in growth, we are not sure what will change in a year, or five years. Progression on technology based on McLuhan is an extension of man. To me that just means that we are more connected but also more disconnected in other aspects. We get to share more information in the media, but the drawback is that we are more disconnected in that the “social norm”outweighs the problems we should fix. This quote from the article is what it sums it up to be. “Today when we want to get our bearings in our own culture, and have need to stand aside from the bias and pressure exerted by any technical form of human expression, we have only to visit a society where that particular form has not been felt, or a historical period in which it was unknown.”

Looking through his work on the other reading, I could see the methods he uses. It’s more of a perspective you get. You coming from a different background or looking at it on a different day or finding it somewhere different can all change your perspective. For example, the ones with the extensions of the _____. They are vague and if you put this in a clothing store for “Clothing is the Extensions of the skin”, gives a different meaning than putting this on a homeless shelter.

Overall, I like his meaning and methods of describing the importance of medium, in terms of creating and adapting to the middle ground is better than what other works we looked at in the beginning of the semester, which is teaching us that sometimes targeting one audience is the correct method too. 

For this week’s reading, the first up is Jan Tschichold, The New Typography (1928), the main points I got from the reading is that people cared for aesthetics before, but the ability to read something that is printed out is more valuable than looking beautiful. Beauty is important, but being able to follow along is the most important of the options to typography. Jan Tschichold believes that clarity is the key to success, and the styles artists / designers before him used are lacking in clarity. 

Josef Müller-Brockmann, Grid and Design Philosophy (1981), the next reading is something more remarkable to me when I first began COMD. The importance of the grid is something I wasn’t fond of. It seemed complicated. I thought placing things in the right spot with the eye is fine. However this is wrong, and the fact that grids help me stay in focus. Being able to balance the canvas with spacing and design elements is the main point of Josef Müller-Brockmann’s reading. Strongly believes that grids help to stay organized as well. 

Lastly Karl Gerstner, Designing Programmes (1964), is about how computing design will change the future. Computing design in terms of combining mathematically correct portions to a design. Things factoring from kerning, color usage, tints are all the importance of typography. There is always a preference people want to see. The usage of grid is also mentioned in his reading, making the importance of the 2nd reading even more important in terms of following a grid. Without this grid it would be too hard to follow a good baseline to success. 

From the reading Walter Gropius; The Theory and Organization of the Bauhaus (1923), it is said that education cannot bring creativeness and new ideas. That is a concept that is more suited for science and other forms of education that involves facts checking. I agree with this kind of concept that education cannot bring creativity. But I feel that education brings the community together. There are pros and cons to both such as being able to have similar thoughts and ideas, but that comes at the price that it can become stale. This in return is what the readings talk about in terms of printing.

Printing stuff gets stale at times as before the usage of printers, it was the usage of pressing letterings and photos together. László Moholy-Nagy; Typophoto (1925) talks about how ideas were incorporated into daily lives with the typography and pictures that made messages to the public. At its core, it is what Adobe programs are. Making design without the usage of the computer at all. This is a great method to produce media, but as technology grows we have easier access and we get to see memes templates all over the media nowadays.

Lastly for Herbert Bayer; On Typography (1967), his methods of using the san-serif typeface that dominated the era of the time is something I agree on. Even today there is a preferred typeface used and this is normally Helvetica and other variations of san-serifs. On top of that, it seems to be preferred on white colors over other colors from what I noticed on design. Especially the ads you find on the subways they stand out in white most of the time with typography.

In conclusion of all the three readings. It is safe to assume that the change is inevitable. Although it may seem like change is slow, it is often going to override the past. Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism (1909) is an Italian literature. The purpose is to break free from the past that held Italy for generations and although it’s scary to break from tradition, it is important to move forward as methods are outdated and being out of the comfort zone into the new era is more important to adapt. The biggest symbolism is how the youth, who is the target audience of the reading and the character in the story, shouldn’t be worried about the past and carve out their futures.

Aleksandr Rodchenko, Varvara Stepanova, Aleksei Gan, Who We Are: Manifesto of the Constructivist Group (c. 1922). Is also very similar in the sense that we should be able to convert the current era to what we want to the fullest. As technology continues to grow, instead of fearing that we are not getting the proper jobs or the proper skills to continue. We should hone on that new technology that is able to provide even more assets into the world. Rejecting the purpose of art is just art, to art that provides meaning. That meaning is something we all value today and it is why art can connect to people who don’t speak the same language.  

Lastly is El Lissitzky, Our Book (1926). The purpose of his work is also similar to Rodchenko who is also Russian. Believing that art is more than just art, but has layers of meaning underneath. Challenging the view of the government of the time that wants to unite all artists to work for the government, instead of having their own freedom and ideas. Obviously being able to work for one self is more important to these artists and they are in charge of avant-garde. 

Overall, I believe we as a student and as a society today are lacking individualism. Although we are the most connected as ever with technology, the link that is severed is none other than the one that connects them. Medias could be controlled by one company or government. Being able to pick and cherish what is important is something a lot of people lack. Being consumed by the luxury we have received.

After the reading of both articles, one from Helen Armstrong in Graphic Design Theory : Readings From the Field and from Bruno Munari’s Design as Art (1966):. As designing and creation for design is often overlooked. It is important that we don’t lose our idealism and creative aspect in terms of design on the digital world as we live in today. Especially with the pandemic, where the changes in graphic design took a toll on a bigger impact on the digital world. The importance of remembering the roots of where design comes from, the creative mind.

With technology becoming the standards, we are seein more standardized formats in the digital world. From layouts on buses to layouts in a fast food menu screen. We are approaching a universal system of connection, according to Armstrong. “At the same time that technology is empowering a new collectivity, it is also redefining universality. To understand how this crucial design concept is
evolving, we need to take a look at how it initially emerged” This to me means that although there is standardized layouts and designs, we as a designer still have unlimited approaches to making a design or developing a past design.

Although it as seen as art and design doesn’t need to be taught in schools, the standardized method is through school. The way it is approached is what keeps the community unique in terms that we don’t have to learn a different language to appericate or understand the meanings behind each piece. This was the birth of the schools such as Bauhuas in 1919, founder Walter Gropius. According to Munari, the specialized teaching is the most effective. Although a birth of an artist isn’t needed from this training, but the understanding of terms and the precise method of learning from the school would put a better understanding in the industry.

I agree with both of the niches and details both article gives. In terms of unity, the methods of using school is very important in my eyes. We are able to understand another designer from the common knowledge we learnt from the specialized learning we obtain through years and efficiency.

Even when the times are different from one another, the methods of using techniques and uniformally is something we all have to look back and keep in touch with. This allows future designers to expand their knowledge and idealism in the creative aspects.