How is the concept of mainstream vs underground relevant in contemporary design? The concept of mainstream vs underground explores how designs and designers take ideas, alter them and reissue them as new products. It’s taking underground ideas as a foundation to either rebuild or remake a product by “borrowing” another idea. Steven Heller states that “In the 1920s Earnest Elmo Calkins, a progressive American advertising executive, argued that quotidian products and advertising campaigns must borrow characteristics from avant-garde European Modern art. Despite the avant-garde’s anti establishment symbolism, cubistic, futuristic, and expressionistic veneers, he argued, would capture the consumer’s attention better than a hundred slogans.” This concept is relevant in contemporary design since contemporary design showcases multiple areas of design, influenced from ideas of all kinds, mainstream or underground. It is also relevant because it has become almost a strategy of marketing, advertising, and more to build off one idea underground or not, and make it your own. In Reflecting Contemporary Design Research, the author Ida Engholm  states that “Aside from noticing a shoe for its comfort or elegance, contemporaries rarely take interest in this necessary object of daily life. However, the shoe is considerable in the history of civilization and art. … In recapturing this contact, in particular through sports, we begin its rediscovery.”Where do the designs or the designers fit into the dichotomy? (Jordan 1s)For my final project, I addressed how Jordan 1’s can be a source of media. The Jordan 1’s would fit under mainstream design rather than underground. The components of the shoe were pulled from other Nike designs that were already popular. The only difference the designer chose to do was to break the color barrier in footwear. Back then you would only find colorful shoes if they were running shoes or women’s aerobic sneakers. This idea goes back to Steven Heller’s concept of how “rebellion of any kind breeds followers, and many followers become a demographic.” Also, In Alternative and Mainstream Media: The Converging Spectrum, the author Linda Jean Kenix also states that “…it is important to remember that alternative media generally, although not exclusively, remain less commercially minded and more ideologically driven than the mainstream media. They continue to operate in ways that are often distinct from mainstream media.” The Jordan 1s are more commercially minded rather than less, making it more mainstream. 
What sorts of underground work influenced the work in question?Since the Jordan 1’s shoe components were built off previous popular Nike shoes such as the Air Force 1’s, the shoe itself wasn’t really influenced from underground designs or ideas but rather from a previous shoe design Nike already had. In the Art of Shoemaking by William Brown he states that the “Sneakers  that were once designed for athletic purposes are now more commonly used for fashion.” Which relates to the design of the Jordan 1s which were built off a popular sneaker for fashion, which would mean that the shoe was influenced by mainstream instead of underground work. 

In what ways has the work in question shaped the mainstream? Will it do so in the future? Jordan 1’s created a cultural phenomenon and brought sports apparel and basketball shoes into the mainstream due to its popularity from Michael Jordan and basketball. From being only seen on the basketball court, it was almost seen worn everywhere. Heller states how “Outsiders may choose to join the mainstream on their own terms, but join they must be able to make an impact larger than their circumscribed circles.”  The shoe has a strong identity and one so unique it couldn’t be replaced, leading it to make an impact larger than other shoes especially once it evolved its identity throughout the years and throughout society. It has shaped the mainstream by its evolution and following. Heller states that “All it takes is the followers of followers to cut a clear path to the mainstream.” The way the Jordan 1s have affected the mainstream should stay consistent in the future due to its strategic design and the marketing methods implemented for the shoe. It’s designed to always have a value due to its limit, and is designed for identities of all types allowing its demand to be relevant. 

Engholm, Ida. Positions in Contemporary Design Research. Inderscience, 2011.

In modern day design should help bring balance to us. The design should have a purpose to help our surroundings, to help us, and to give the function priority. Design has an aesthetic aspect that it’s deemed as not essential and biased, it does not have it’s own purpose and many artists want to remove the expected look of a new creation. Design is different because it can impact how we see things, how we interpret media, It’s a way that bauhaus tried to unite the world through function beyond a particular community. Bauhaus saw that design plays a role in more than just functionality, but also the future communication and its potential for better understanding regardless of language and location. People need a reason to strive, a drive to achieve something, maybe people want to know why am I building this project. Designers want to show their talent, they may want to help, to be a part of history, make a living, enhance their respective field, could be that they were inspired by some sort of event good or bad. Technology has created many new jobs and also replaced others. Designers work together with technology to create new tools and to enhance a user’s productivity, there are other technologies that have made new discovery possible. Technology can help a designer test and see how effective their work is, does it bring a function or balance into society, or does it push us forward. Many technology can help those with disability and also connect us from anywhere. Designers can enhance previous technology to fit new changing trends. Designers face many problems and sometime backlash for creations which are not well thought out and do not benefit all. Some creations are not optimized or lack flexibility. Some are biased and don’t include certain populations. Designers have to set an example and be responsible for what happens with creation, its influence, and how it may positively or negatively affect society.

Gropius believes that the academies provided practical training that never advanced enough. He thought the academy or education should show manual dexterity and thorough knowledge of necessary foundation. Gropius said that’s art depends on the talent of the creator and talent cannot be taught or learned. Art of the 19^th century were detached from life, art of the future could be expressed physically, intellectually and spiritually simultaneously.

According to Moholy-Nagy, the typophoto is the new strategy of the future. It incorporates the best of typography and photography into one design. Typographic designs are too linear according to Moholy-Nagy making typophoto optically different. Typophoto is a makeshift link between the content being communicated and the person who receives it. It is able to give more information in a single design than typography or photography alone. He also mentions the future having the invention of the photographic typesetting machine, which one can say can be a smart phone that has emojis in the keyboard. Today people use emojis regularly in their text conversations with friends which can sometimes give a better understanding of the message.

Herbert Bayer believed that typography is conditioned by the message it visualizes and that it is not a form of self-expression. He believed that type couldn’t be part of a trend because it can’t be created and changed easily and frequently like fashion can change. He mentions redesigning the alphabet, using a “square span” way of writing and changing page layouts in books by changing the colors of the page and text. While some of these seem like good ideas, they aren’t all as practical as he thought they would be.

Bayer says “the more we read the less we see” which is true, making his work all written in lower case letters hard to follow when it all looks the same. While the square span seems like a logical way to keep short thoughts together, it doesn’t work in practice because there’s no telling which square of text goes next. Recently we’ve all seen the memes of square span text being misread and its proof that is doesn’t work as intended. His ideas overall worked well in theory but many failed in practice. One of his theories was that communication would change drastically in the future and it’s the one theory I believe he had that was spot on.