Month: September 2020 (Page 2 of 6)

The 20th century was meaningful for the art and design industry. Artist such as Marinetti, Rodchenko and El Lissitzky wrote what they thought about technology and the evolution of design. In “Our Book”, El Lissitzky stated that language is vulnerable to change and with that the visual aspect of the book changes. According to him, the only thing that will not change are hieroglyphics because they are the same in every country, it is an international language. 

Technology has been ruling our lives since its invention. As Marinetti said in his Manifesto, “the world has been enriched by a new beauty: the beauty of speed.” I totally agree with that because with the introduction of technology, everything speeds up. 

On the other hand, Aleksander Rodchenko talks about technology and mass production, he states that graphic design has the power and ability to influence society. “We didn’t create technology. We didn’t create man. but we, Artists yesterday constructors today”, he says. This is one of my favorite passages from the readings because in one way or another this is true. We, artists and designers, have the power to influence people. 

Most of what they said at the time is true. Technology has changed our lives, design can influence how people think and interact work each other and speed, speed is something that is always present. 

During the 20 century, artists envisioned that the future will be advanced in so many different ways. The possibilities that technology will change drastically in which it did, technology today became an important and easy solution in our everyday lives. In the readings that we read “ The founding and manifesto of futurism” which I think Filippo Tommaso Marinetti talks about leaving the past are and celebrating the the future, the transformation in society and culture. 

Artists envisioned that our world, the future would be worked much faster. El Lissitzky’s “Our Book” discusses the ways and forms of book designs during his time period and foretelling the new forms of book designing as Lissitzky put it…” Dematerialization”. 

In Aleksandr Rodchenko’s “Who we are” reading where he was an artist and became a constructer, more towards the engineer side. He grasped the new belief of “utility and industry”. I think what he believes to be the future is to build construction and machines that’s how the new era should look like and not some where you can keep imagining and not really do anything in a physical matter. What our future looks like today is technology most definitely advanced in a good and bad way even in the design world where there’s so much dynamics. 

The 3 documents that we read, the el Lissitzky’s document is the more clarifying. I use “the futuristic manifesto” and “Manifesto of the Constructivist Group” as support for the ideas expressed in the “our book”. In the beginning of the 20^th century the authors envision that the future will bring a fastest-pace way of work, increasing the amplitude of colors and the infer the possibilities of newest technologies that were starting new waves of design at that time.

The technology will have a key role in the application of these new techniques shaping the world into a more digital, compact, and easy one. They imagine the world will be shape in a similar way as the printed book with solely works did in the past.

All of them anticipate a world where human society will be attached. Somehow, dominated by the presence of machines. Two of them express a pessimistic and darker vision of that future, And El lissitzky delivered a more positive point of view. They were amazingly accurate with their vision, we are in a world with a faster-pace of work and live, we are surrounded by the machines that catch almost every aspect of our life, the imaginary and sound have the impact that Guttenberg achieved centuries ago with his printing press, and finally, the pessimistic point of view of the manifestos is out here with some negative effects that technology has over human society.

After readings these articles, language is complexed because language itself is always changing but to put it in simpler terms, language is a way human communicate with one another, either speaking or written. On the other hand, language is different from communication, we communicate with language and without language we cannot communicate. “Language is speech less speaking”. Language varies from person to person and with that the way we communicate we each other also varies, its how reply to each other, it a way of exchanging messages, with either speaking, writing or drawing it is all language. Even Design is a type of language. Designs is a unique type of language that can communicate a composition/concept by using colors, shapes, fonts, pattern, material, texture and even the layout. Just like regular language, a combination of certain word creates meaning and substance, that same idea applies to design. For example, everyone knows skull and cross bones is a designed icon that communicates poison, without even saying the exact words “poisonous” or “danger”, we see it we know it. Even the use of color, different colors mean different things and also the way you use warm color and/or cool colors also gives a different meaning, as a designer you have to know how to use this language to communicate to the public. Design also bring a psychological aspect of language that I thought about while reading the text, “…..the psychological imprint of the sound, impression that it makes on our senses” and that’s exactly how design plays a part of our language. It adds a foundation behind the decision that are made in designing.

Language is always modified and changing over time, and over that period our language creates a type of language using symbols and icon to communicates with the world. Symbols and icon are used in our everyday lives, to give directions, warnings, signals, movement, etc. Bottomline we use symbols and icon so much in our lives it a language we know by just constantly seeing, sometimes without having someone tell us what it means. We use these icons as a universal language to communicate with everyone no matter what language you speak, its used because our brains process figures and symbols faster then words. We don’t have to stop think and read, we can see and keep going. We automatically apply sign, signifier and signified concept to all icons and symbols we see, we automatically know its association. Like the example I used earlier with the skull and cross bones, the skull and cross bones is the signified aka the concepts and sound-image aka signified is danger or poisonous, for the most part its automatically built in our psyche.

After reading these passages, it makes me realize how much thought and effort goes into design as a whole just like language. Not only do you have to think of the social forces of language but the historical aspect of language because that plays a part on how language and the way use it to speak today. We use all these aspect of language in design to communicate. I think we should use more historical aspect in design and use more of historical background to bring more meaning to design. I think the more design grows and the more technology is created we use less and less historical backgrounds.

Language is a form of communication used in everyday life but also a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication of articulated sounds. According to the reading, the linguistic sign is arbitrary. It is powerless to defend itself against forces from one moment to the next when shifting relationships between the signified and the signifier. It plays a form of communication using patterns, conventions, and techniques that is used to give a line of designs. This can also contain color schemes, textures, layouts, etc.

A symbol is a sign linked to its object by virtue of conventions, agreements, or rules. Symbols are arbitrary and the meaning of symbols needs to be acquired. The orthography of languages or the writing system of languages is also symbols. Individually, symbols like alphabets and letters carry minimal or no meaning. It is a combination of a concept and a sound but it can generally designate only a sound-image. This is where the signifiers and signified take place. The bond between both is arbitrary, meaning that sign is to designate the whole and to replace concept and sound-image. The signifier being auditory is unfolded which represents a span and the span is measurable in a single dimension.

It was very interesting reading the 3 essays of signs and symbols because it went into depth on how it all started but not only in the real world but in the design world. How writing and numbers had been used in different techniques to communicate whether it was using sticks, beads, or the human body. Lastly, the archaic numbering systems show that it can give a better representation in many ways in the design process. Through different forms of language, there is a sign or symbol to indicate its meaning just like the 3 short essays where it’s explaining the background of symbols using the symbol or sign beside it.

The readings for this week were all about linguistics and the factors that dictate language. Language is a form of communication that humans use to express themselves. Humans have had a history of different forms of communication from visual, vocalizing, and writing. In design, it is all about communicating with other people usually trying to sell an item or product. To sell or communicate an idea you have to express the main message and attract your consumer as well. If you’re unable to get your point across, the design is not effective and can cost you sales. The “Counting Sheep” reading, discusses signs or iconography and the written and verbal language. We have discovered that using icons as a form of language is effective and a fast way to understand. One line I found interesting in the reading was “Non-phonetic signs…do not aim to reproduce the spoken word.” This was interesting to read because the spoken word has its own rules and strategies while the icons draw on imagery from the spoken word. Both readings focused on the theory and philosophy on language as a whole and we can learn from the basics such as using and even manipulating language to personalize it to our generation and needs.

This weeks reading assignment I learned a lot the originals of language sound and symbols and the roles they play and it evolution to present day. I also learned the about the relationship between language, sound, and communication and how they differ form each other. Language is a very complex system, a system of signs that evolve from the activity of speech. It is the link between thought and sound.

Language plays a role in design because it directly linked to symbols, without symbols there would be no language without language it would be difficult to communicate. As designers we use the connection between symbols and language to portray a message to the viewer. Design is another form of communication similar to the numbering symbols used in the past used to count and show transactions. Symbols or iconography are directly related to language, they both are derived from one another, they both were essential to the form of spoken communication, as they both came from primitive beginnings then once thoughts and the need for communication evolved so did language.

Signs, signifiers, and the signified are employed in general communication because a sign is a combination of a concept and a sound-image. The concept is what is signified, and the sound-image is the signifier according to Saussure. The text provokes new ideas in design because it show the direct link of symbols sounds and language, so as these change so too will design.

Language is a structured system of communication that can be described as having a word associated with an object or something that is being done. Language is different from communication in multiple different aspects. Language relies on verbal and non-verbal codes to transfer information whilst communication is an exchange of messages between two or more individuals. Language plays a predominant role in design. In design, visual forms of language are used to communicate in the form of colors, shapes, typefaces, icons, illustrations, and more. 

Symbols and iconography directly correlate to language in a multitude of aspects. Symbols and iconography relate to language in the sense that many visualizations during early forms of human cultures used symbols and iconography to communicate and articulate thoughts. One of the most important symbols throughout history are symbols that represent numbers. Referring to the Lupton-Miller reading, it states that many early representations of numbers show that the structure behind a culture’s verbal number sequence is directly correlated with their choice of symbols.

Signs are not something that combines just a name and a thing. Signs are a concept of something paired with a symbol that projects that concept in your brain whenever you think or write that symbol. According to the Saussure reading, these symbols are “ sound-images” which are not purely physical but leave a psychological imprint, leaving an impression on our senses. In the Saussure reading, signs are explained to have two key components: the signifier and the signified. Broken down, the signifier is basically the “sound-image” mentioned earlier, and the signified is the concept behind the sign. These three components are employed in general communication and graphic communication in the sense that we understand certain signs mean certain things and portray certain concepts only because the relationship between the two components (signifier and signified) in which make up a sign are agreed upon.

Both the Saussure reading and the Lupton-Miller reading are eye-opening especially when it comes to signs and the human psyche. These texts really provoke ideas for new design strategies; especially the Saussure reading. After reading both the texts, one can infer that we can manipulate signs or symbols to leave a certain kind of psychological imprint or impression on the viewer. Having the ability to do this is immensely beneficial to a designer as they can essentially lead their audience in whichever direction they want.