Author: Jeremyeisner3180

Comd Theory Bibliogrophy (1)

Paul Rand Final poster

Comd Theory Bibliography (1)

Jeremy Eisner November 25th

OCT 28TH:

Humans and technology are thought to have a symbiotic relationship with each other. Technology and media are meant to help humans do things that they cannot normally do. The media is meant to deliver a message to the people using technology that can spread the same message across the world. If you are sending a letter, the letter is just a piece of paper, but what is written is an extension of your personality. If you are writing a book, the book is just a collection of paper put together, but it is your voice that is found throughout the book. However, not everything that we create will benefit us in the long term.

Technology and media work for us, but one day it may be possible that it will replace us in describing the messages we want to convey without us. Since technology does what we cannot do as well as a machine or at all, we use it as a form of progress. Despite this, technology does not some developing after we have enough help from them. It is meant to solve one question, “How do we make the task more efficient?” . After a while, the only way for technology to keep solving that question is to do the task entirely on its own. We can see this today with the developments of self checkout in places like grocery stores that aim to make the user experience quicker and easier, but they take jobs away from regular cashiers who cannot keep up. Another example may be the advanced testing of drones that aim to eventually replace mailmen and women in bringing your mail to your door.

Overall, the development of electric age technology has more of a negative impact in my opinion because of the long term effects of developing machines as smart as we are. As people, and even more so as designers, technology should be something that we tell what to do. As media is an extension of our voice, technology should not do anything to change that.

NOV 4TH:

Here we see a target ad that seems to be a sale for back to school products. We see four children, and we can see that two of them are white. This ad is trying to convey that it does not matter who you are, there are back to school stuff for all kids alike. (https://frequent-ads.com/target/target-weekly-ad-L9OtbIrojN-0)

Here we see an old navy add that is very similar to the target ad. We have a group of four people collecting gifts for black friday. What makes this one somewhat controversial is the use of pairing black and white people as couples.Especially since it seems the couple, or seemingly close friends, on the right are still teenagers. (https://9to5toys.com/2018/11/05/old-navy-black-friday-ad-50-off-sitewide-cardholder-benefits-1-socks-more/)

Our last ad is a billboard created by verizon to advertise their brand. We see a large group of diverse workers of many races of both men and women, working together to help bring you quality cell phone experience. If that is actually true is another story entirely, but for the purposes of the ad, it has shown that you can rely on all of these people to have a strong network. (https://flic.kr/p/5iHYmU)

According to these designers, the majority of good design seems to be based upon a formula that is created through the use of mathematics and numerical values. Gerstner talks about have every design has a mental checklist that we may or may not consciously make that creates the structure behind it. He then goes on to say that he uses his own version of a grid in his designs that are created through a seemingly complex group of equations. He claims that if you understand the grid presented by him, that you only make the most effective ads you could possibly make. Brockman agrees with Gerstner in that grids are extremely important when making any good design. He believes that grids define all the major and complex features in the design while keeping it clean and organized.
Now in a sense, Tschichold feels differently in that he thinks design should be much more asymmetrical and far more creative than a more simpler design. However, his designs may not be symmetrical, but they are still structured with the help of his own grid system. Overall, a good design to these designers is all about the underlying structure that creates a clean and cut design through math and detailed measurements.

There are many things that artists have thought the past lacked and what the future holds. In olden times, the artists and designers did the vast majority of their work by hand. As many of these authors discuss, the invention of mechanical machinery aided them in their day which was not done before. Herbert Bayer felt that this trend of newfound machinery will consume the future of design and the vast majority of designers would be using it in mass supply. He figured that most books would become microfilm, and we would form a much simpler communication electronically that made reading less important. In a sense, he was right as today we have the digital age where we talk through electronic devices using simplistic emojis and short hand to speak to each other.
Laslo Baggy also felt the same way about technology of the future, that the majority of designers will rely on a trend of technological advancements. In this case, that advancement is typo photography which he believed would be that the future would utilize without end.

As for what an academy should teach designers, Walter Gropius felt that these schools were too conventional and never let the designer experience true design. He felt that schools were taught to be about boring paper work, and something like design requires an inner touch and expression that can only come out if inspired rather than as an assignment. To this extent, I agree that something as visual and creative as design should not be seen as boring, mundane work. Today, we still have some assignments here and there that are more straightforward I’ll say, but we do have a lot more freedom in our assignments than perhaps the designers of the past.

All three of these authors, living around the early 1900’s found new technologies that gave them assumptions about the future of design. At the time, things like automobiles were just invented, which completely shock the world as up until that point, they were getting around with horses and carriages. Inventions like this and the radio gave these author’s an idea that the future will be even more awe inducing with the invention of futuristic technology overtime.

El Lissitzky thought that after many years, books will be made out of plastic and can be molded to look as any shape. This potentially would have given him a new way to express his art as he could mold the book his art is within without destroying the structure of the book. Marinetti found museums to be like prisons and offensive to the average artist as the art lays in competition for each other for views. Rodchenko saw the future behind using a line point grid in design, but later saw Communism as a potential threat the future of artistic expression. While all of these artists have different views of the future about different topics, they all seemed to think the future was not going to be very successful for modern art. As books were not moldable which prevented new forms of art, museums would potentially continue to constrain artists and felt communism would not allow the fullest expression of art.

Semiology is the study of making signals and signs, yet some people confuse it with linguistics. Linguistics is the is the study of language and speaking itself, but a good sign does not need a language to be effective.

When you are on the road, you see certain signs that signal what to do. Maybe you will see a red sign that says stop, or a yellow sign that says yield, or another sign for making a turn. Despite these signs all having language on them, the signs themselves have become a landmark themselves. This means that the color, shape and icons on these signs have become almost universal in communicating the same message to those who see them. If something is red, you know to stop, if yellow, slow down and a bent arrow is turn. The words almost become a second thought since we already know what to do from the signals made from the sign. The idea of semiology is to create this effect, a symbol so iconic, yet easy enough for people all around the world to understand without language barriers in the way.

Linguistics find less of a place on signs, but more of a place on graphic design and poster making. Being the study of language, it’s important to know the language of the audience you want to market to. You could have a signal that lures the person in, but most of your ads will be most effective based on the way they are written. If your ad looks interesting, but is poorly written, the consumer has just wasted their time and becomes a distraction. This is similar to signs as a bad sign distracts people and confuses people into doing misinterpreted responses from the sign. Overall, it is important to know that making a good sign is one that is devoid of the forces that bound us by the common language, that have the ability to invoke an action from a mere glance.

To be rudimentary is to be the bare basics of a principle that structures the more advanced levels of said principle. On a general level, it is almost always important to understand the basics of something or you can never master that skill. It is impossible how to do BMX bike tricks if you can’t learn to keep your balance. You cannot program the next big video game without learning how coding works. However, Designers have a possibility of actually skipping over the rudimentary level design and still succeeding. This is because most design, nowadays, is subjective and while the structures and styles of the past can help, they are not required to make a solid design.

But that just brings up the question once again, if we don’t need the rudimentary level, why do we still need to understand it and the history behind it? As the texts discuss, design had morphed from idea to idea as time went on. When art was first conceived as an form of expression, it was considered just to be a way of the rich and wealthy to immortalize themselves forever. The idea that design was based around egocentric greed and commoners were not welcome into the more closed off and high class society. As time passes on, design took a more commercial approach and reached the major population rather than just the rich upper class. However, the text notes that while designers had the ability to be designers, they did not really think like designers. In the 50’s, designers seemingly made designs that lacked emotion, self expression, and a form of identity. In the late 60’s-70’s, the more corporate aspects of design were fading out for a more creative direction, one that gave the designer a ‘voice’ in their designs. The progression of design afterwards toward today expanded on this approach to design, adding more of a free, limitless ability to design of their choosing.

Even after all of that history lesson, the question has still not been answered. Rudimentary design and design methods of the past are important because they teach the basic foundation of design back when design was in a much simpler state. Now that we live in a society that has access to a software that makes designs on many of our devices, it becomes much more complicated to make a proper design without understanding what has structured and defined a design throughout our history. As common as the idea that everything has been done before is, it is one that is true in almost every aspect of the phrase. It is important to understand the history of design to understand what you made in relation to past styles of design. Going on the idea that no design today is completely original in principle, it is important to know the inspirations that formed your design and if your design is too similar to those inspirations. Overall, rudimentary design is important in every aspect because it is holds all the principles we learn as modern designers and structures the foundations for designs to delve into more complex structures in the future.