On March 18^th, 2013 my colleagues and I visited the AIGA National Design Center. We saw several different art pieces and got to examine some older pieces that were in the AIGA archive. Out of all the pieces I saw there were some specific ones that immediately stood out from the rest. The three works that caught my attention were the two flags that hung from the ceiling, Black and White and Red All over collage by Pamela Hovland, and The Uncanny Valley by Daniel Jasper.

The first piece that caught my attention was The Uncanny Valley by Daniel Jasper, a half tone print over what appeared to be newspaper. Despite the work being relatively close to the entrance the reason this piece was the first I saw was because the image printed over the newspaper was made up of a bunch of black dots. This was like something uncommon or I wasn’t used to seeing. The black dots acted as the positive space and the paper was the negative which allowed for shade and depth to be placed within the design. Also the type on the design was an extended western slab serif font. This was beneficial to the design because the type was very bold and dark compared to the overall design. Ultimately, the piece was very effective and designed beautifully.

Another art piece that I enjoyed viewing was Black and White and Red All over by Pamela Hovland. This piece was a collage of targets and animals on a grid system attached with an electronic sign. The designer choose to use a paper and digital medium. The piece was for the second amendment and was very effective in my opinion. The use of targets and animals demonstrated that guns are used as a sport in most states for target practice or even hunting. The colors uses in the piece showed large amounts of contrast. Many of the pictures used in the collage were black and white with some pop of orange which worked extremely well together. Overall this piece was very effective in illustrating the word violence.

Lastly, was the final piece I noticed hanging from the ceiling. I didn’t get to find the name of the piece or who designed it but it was a rather interesting piece. There were two flags hanging, one flag had the blue box with the fifty-one stars with no white or red stripes and the second flag consisted of only the red and white stripes. My first reaction to this piece was “what is the hidden message?” So I did some Google research to find out what the colors meant and came across a couple different words to explain what each individual color means. The Red means valor, the White means purity, and the blue means justice. My interpretation of this piece was that they are taking away from each flag. Meaning in the first flag they are removing the valor and purity so you only get justice and in the second one they are removing the justice. This means if these colors are not together you don’t get a true sense of what America consist of. This piece did not use type only the American flags which were incomplete. This work was my favorite cause I thought deeply about what the designer/artist was trying to tell the people.

It is evident that AIGA has some very unique and interesting pieces of work. However, to each person some designs are more effective and spark a different interest in a person. For me the three designs that caught my attention were the two flags that hung from the ceiling, Black and White and Red All over collage by Pamela Hovland, and The Uncanny Valley by Daniel Jasper. Ultimately the experience was great and being able to view these works was an honor.

All images from Northeastern University Website