Communication Design Theory

Media and technology have been an extension for humans since the beginning of humanity itself cave men used spears as tools for hunting food and ancient wall painting were probably used to try and immortalize what they saw during that day or as a story telling tool. this is no different then us using a gun to hunt for food or for one of us to post on social media to talk about our recent vacation. The major difference between then and now is the scope of reach that technology now gives. Technology was only good for this that had it near them, a cave painting could be seen by maybe a handful of people but a photo taken to day and uploaded could be seen not only by hundreds if not thousands of people but now anyone on the planet could also see it. Technology has evolved to be able to spread and improve without borders.

This is however a double edged sword the main issue with technology that can work without laws and borders is that it works without law and borders. Not everything that gets shared should be shared, people have become accustom to having any information in the world in the palm of their hand that many have developed a sense of entitlement or lack of social awareness and lack of empathy online this also isn’t help by the fact its really easy to be anonymous and be able to simply avoid any consequences for actions.

Thankfully I feel the ones who can best use technology are those who can get attention and inspire those who look at their work artists are always putting up their work and that work is influenced  by older artists, so its basically a cycle that’s infinitely repeating but an issue with this is that it’s easy to lose track of who inspired who and have someone steal work and try to get profit and attention from someone else’s success so it comes to the community to keep itself in check and watch out for itself.

 

The article “Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man”, Marshall McLuhan describes technology and media as “extensions of man;” meaning that techonology and media are beneficial to a human’s life. Well, to an extend I do agree. Technology and media have made human life so much easier that certain tasks people do such as mowing the law, communicating with people from far away places and many more are smooth sailing. When McLuhan mentions the word “medium”, he refers to as “any extension of ourselves” in which shapes our associations and actions.

While technology and media do help improve the everday lives of people to an extend it can also be a detriment. They both can be addicting and can hurt our communication skills. Technology and media can hurt our physical health such as eyestrain and it can take away certain jobs like, highway tolls, DVD rent stores and etc. Back then when I went out in public I saw more social interaction with people than today. Almost everywhere you go you see people glued onto some sort of technology. Some people have gotten lazy due to techonology as some people would rather buy majority of things online than to buy them at a store.

McLuhan mentions in his book, “The medium is the message.” I think he means that whatever form of media we use, it would always be the people in these media who would bring the message. Some people may not have the intellect to send the message properly or when using the medium may not have any sort of knowledge. The thing is that McLuhan wants us to control technology, not the other way around. He wants us to continue gaining information and spread our knowledge to the world by any means necessary.

In Understanding Media, Marshall McLuhan describes technology and media as “extensions of man” which means that media is a helpful tool in man’s life. Media and technology had made huge impacts in humans and the world. McLuhan says that the way we acquire information affect us more than the information itself. Medium insert itself in the message, creating a symbiotic relationship in which the medium influences how the message is perceived. He says that the extension of ourselves, or the medium, shapes our associations and our actions. We create technologies to construct new media that improve and reshape our lives, and in turn we are then able to create even more sophisticated technology. He argues that we need to be able to create content so we may continue to hone our digital literacy. For example, books and articles communicate messages much differently than radio or television as well as emails or letters communicate messages much differently than if that message was communicated orally. McLuhan also recognized that not only does the medium shape the message but in turn that medium also shapes us as human beings. He describes technology and media as extensions of some physical, social, psychological, or intellectual function of humans.

Technological progress brings individuals and society to the electric age. This age create hazards in which people may get affected badl The automation of technology could turn human jobs downwards, fragmentations are the elements which are essential for machine technologies, and how it would influence our life. Technology is an impact, to blindly that accepting these technologies without awareness, opens the door for them to control us or even oppress us. The forms of receiving and communicating messages to one another has evolved and it is not to say that technology itself is the problem because it is fine to use it, if we have control on it. It’s more on how we use it and for what purposes we use it. 

Marshall McLuhan on his book said “The medium is the message” which talks about the meaning of the content which is defined as a medium. The way we acquire information affect us more than the information itself. Medium is the “message” refers to the message or treatment of our senses. He urges us to take control of the medium and not let it control us and to implement our ability to produce content through the increase intake by media ( television, print advertisements, newspapers) which throughout the years has been growing. He also states that “Nothing follows from following, except change.” Which means that, change is always going to happen. This is especially true in our culture today, due to that fact that following is now the norm. He also says that there are no original thoughts or principles. Instead, there are simply pieces from the original as designers we mainly recreate designs but others want to go beyond than that and create something new that will impact the industry. As designers we work with technological software that help us design and we act as the ones that technology is controlling but there are also the ones who decide to take a piece of paper and a pencil and start to create with their own hands as what MacLuhan is trying to say that we have to control technology and not let technology control us. The aim is on us to be lifelong learners, for our own enrichment as well as to be competitive in today’s digital workforce.

   McLuhan states the subject of any medium, when it comes to referring to an electric light and its amount forms of usage. There is a conspicuous duty but a number of entailed usages with the electric light.  The content of writing is speech, just as the written word is the content of print, and print is the content of the telegraph. If it is asked, “What is the content of speech?,” it is necessary to say, “It is an actual process of thought, which is in itself nonverbal.” However, an abstract painting represents direct manifestation of creative thought processes as they might appear in computer designs.  

   It has strong points in the process of technology. It is not without its faults and entailed hazards to those individuals in the “electric age” or even the current age. When McLuhan mentions a quote made by Sarnoff, he refutes it heavily, with the fact that it bears underlying hypocrisy and narcissism. When IBM discovered that it was not in the business of making office equipment or business machines, but that it was in the business of processing information, then it began to navigate with clear vision.  

   If medium was the message, it was a form of a message such as print, visual, musical, and technology etc. Also, it determines the ways in which that message will be perceived. As an early educator and pioneer of the study of communication and its evolution over time, McLuhan introduced a lot of observations about the impact of new forms of expression and media. In addition, it was addressed throughout the reading, many people ignore the multiple aspects, and only take something for that appears.

Regarding the reading, McLuhan states the “content” of any medium is always another medium, when referring to an electric light and its varying forms of usage. There is a conspicuous duty but a number of entailed usages with the electric light. McLuhan points out “The content of writing is speech, just as the written word is the content of print, and print is the content of the telegraph.” and “it is the medium that shapes and controls the scale and form of human association and action.” No matter what its use is, the medium is the message. Using the electric light as an example, whether its used for lighting the street or to light a sign, the ‘use’ is the purpose of seeing much more clearly.

Technological progress most certainly has its strong points, but it is not without its faults and entailed hazards to those individuals in the “electric age” or even the current age.  McLuhan points out a quote made by Sarnoff, and refutes it heavily, with the fact that it bears hypocrisy.”General David Sarnoff made this statement: “We are too prone to make technological instruments the scapegoats for the sins of those who wield them. The products of modern science are not in themselves good or bad; it is the way they are used to determine their value.”” McLuhan refuted this by bringing up disease and gun laws in the format of Sarnoff’s bombastic quote, showing it’s degree of untruth. It doesn’t matter how it’s used, if it’s harmful it’s just harmful. A hazard of today’s society would be to remain ignorant to the aforementioned point. 

“The medium is the message” is an enduring phrase nonetheless, more specifically in how it pertains to artists and designers alike. McLuhan sees Cubism as an art movement that conforms to the idea of the medium being the message. Additionally to address the point of missing the actual media at hand, McLuhan scrutinized the issue heavily stating “Is it not evident that the moment that sequence yields to the simultaneous, one is in the world of the structure and configuration?” Essentially suggesting one perspective of a design is the physical appearance, while the other lies in the idea behind it. However, as addressed throughout the reading, many people ignore the multiple aspects, only taking something for what it appears as.

From the reading, I learn that Karl Gerstner created a methodical approach to designing. He was a pioneer of Swiss typography. According to his method, designers should use programs to find solutions and not solutions to problems. This involves making creative decisions based on intellectual principles. When the intellectual principles are precise, the more creative the design becomes.  Gerstner advocated for using the Fritz Zwicky method in designing. He developed the morphological box of typogram that designers should use in designing. This morphological box of typography contains criteria that can be changed as the design continues depending on the needs of the designer. He states that the typographic grid should be used in regulating the proportions of the composition.

Jan Tschichold developed the new typography. According to this approach, designers should design to achieve clarity and not beauty. Fonts should not be arranged as if there were some pivotal points in the middle of the line, which would call for such arrangements. Designers should not use axial arrangements because they are deemed illogical due to the stretched distance from the central point. The new typography encourages designers to use color, photography, and line arrangement to express the relationship between each part of the design. This approach is dominated by asymmetry and logic.

Josef Muller-Brockman designed using a grid of the swiss typography. Designers using this method should carefully control the use of subjective, irrational, and disorganized design elements. They use a grid to order these elements. This helps in making the work look intelligible and objective. When using this approach, designers should show their objectivity other than subjectivity. Such designs show the type of person the designer is in terms of their mentality, knowledge, and ability.

According to Jan Tschichold, the way we should design should be from a logical approach. To design for clarity and function rather than just beauty. Jan Tschichold stated that the essence of the New Typography is clarity, as opposed to the old typography that prioritized beauty. Jan also talks about designing logically, and had a distaste for “central-axis type”. He felt that this way of setting type was illogical because of the “…stressed central parts from the beginning and end of the word sequences is not usually equal but constantly varies from line to line.” Jan also emphasized asymmetry as a better approach than symmetry because it allows more variety and expression. Overall I agree with Jan to this approach on good design. It is the job of the designer to translate the message through design as effectively as possible and that means editing out anything that isn’t relevant to the message to achieve a clear message.

Karl Gerstner emphasized that to solve a problem, you must be able to describe it. You must approach creative decisions intellectually as opposed to approaching it with feelings. Similar to Tschichold, he prefers to approach solutions with logic. He created the”the morphological box of the typogram”. It is basically a list of all the possible design elements to use. I could see myself using it in the future because I feel like it really helps to see the categories of design and the possible elements to use.

Josef Muller Brockmann is also very similar to Jan Tschichold and Karl Gerstner in that he favored a rational and ordered approach to design. He was a huge fan of the grid, believing that this was the form to achieve effective universal communication. He believes that an a professional level a designer’s work should be clearly intelligible, objective, functional and aesthetic quality that reflects mathematical thinking. Overall, I think that approaching design with logic and a system results in the most cohesive result especially in the field of communications, we must be objective in how we design and not approach it with feelings.

In comparing Jan Tschichold, Karl Gerstner and Josef Muller- Brockmann, we realize that all have a different way of believing the way one should design. Jan Tschichold compares in his writing, The New Technology, old typography to new typography. He touches upon how new typography has a need to be clear because of the amount of print being put out to communicate to others. He says in his writing that they believe it is wrong to arrange a text as if there were some focal point in the center of a line. For example, justified arrangement, of a block of text or short paragraph, each line would have different tracking depending on the amount of words on the line. He also goes on to say that Form must be created out of the function. We must have a reason to make something come to life for the people.

Karl Gerstner expressed something called Designing Programmes in his writing. This is a way of problem solving which is what us as designers do. We are problem solvers no matter what field within graphic design we decide to embrace. “The creative process is to be reduced to an act of selection”, he states and I agree. I relate it to my copywriting class, where we begin with strategy which determines our problem, then to find out the best solution to then come up with headlines and taglines to combine together and create a solution in disguise. The initial point of the program is to make the bad difficult and the good easy.

Josef Muller-Brockmann talks about grids and how grids show an expression of order at which the designer composes work in terms that are constructive. Grids are an excellent tool to use when trying to be precise. Grids are another way of designing in a matter that allows you to think of what is aesthetically pleasing for the viewer.

 ”not to make creative decisions as prompted by feeling but by intellectual criteria.“ as Karl Gerstner stated. Design with feelings is really a designer’s taboo, we should design to solve the practical problems of specific groups by presenting meaningful concepts and ideas. These ideas and concepts should be based on research, to understand what people really care about, we need to really understand their situation.

Design is the perfect control of the internal details, which can withstand the test of time. What do we value the most when choosing a suit?  It is the size of the fabric of the suit; when choosing a CD player, in addition to its appearance, we are more concerned about the function of the CD player. Any kind of design cannot be separated from its basic functional attributes.

When designing, designers need to grasp the essence of the product and the core demands of users. This is not only reflected in visual design, but also in product interaction and user experience. For example, when you choose a mobile phone, will you pay more attention to the appearance of the mobile phone or the smooth experience of using its functionalities? Design is not only about the surface level visual comfort,  in the era of the mobile Internet, we need to focus on the experience of deep interaction. If Apple only pays attention to the exquisite appearance of their phone but ignores the experience and product interaction, architectural design only pays attention to the appearance of the surface but does not consider the comfort of the occupants, then graphic design only creates the illusion of “good-looking” but cannot convey the message of the product. All these are undermining the essence of design.