Communication Design Theory

With any new advancement, too much of it can be dangerous especially in the wrong hands. Technology is one of those advancements. We can see today in our world that technology is everywhere and has become a main structure in society. It not only makes our lives easier but also adds an experience to simple things. For example looking at a motion ad playing on the screens in the train stations. With all the fun that comes with technology there also comes bad things. Many harmful weapons can be made now and are almost accessible to anyone to use. Reading “Filippo Tommaso Marinetti,The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism (1909)”, Marinetti talks about the advancement of technology and how he would like to use it for war. You can see in some of the descriptions in the text he sounds almost aggressive and strongly believes that weapons and war is the best use of this new technology. For example, “We want to glorify -war the only cure for the world- militarism, patriotism, the destructive gesture of the anarchists, the beautiful ideas which kill, and contempt for woman.” I can see how Marinetti glorifies the idea of war and the use of weapons and how technology can help with that. Although I may not agree with him, I can however see how such an advancement to come out during his time period could be exciting and hold so many opportunities for the future. 

Reading, “Aleksandr Rodchenko, Varvara Stepanova, Aleksei Gan, Who We Are: Manifesto of the Constructivist Group (c. 1922)”, Rodchenko shows how constructivism emerged from technological advancements. He transformed himself from an artist to an engineer to a designer. He is all three of those things and it shows through his style of work. In the reading it states, “He embraced, redefined, and elevated graphic design as an essential force in society.” He believed that technology could benefit society and that design especially can make technology more convenient. One line in the poem that I found particularly interesting is, “Now-Artists relax with technology” I think this definitely relates to our world today since most art is now digital. A lot of art including design is done on the computer and is much easier to work with. 

Technology necessary isn’t a alway a mechanical or technological item, it can be something as simple as a pencil. It is a tool that helps a person do a certain thing. Reading “El Lissitzky, Our Book (1926)” he mentions how an invention is something that has a different variation over time but pretty much is still the same thing. We can see this in our world today with many different things like the invention of the cell phone. There’s many different phone types like Apple and Samsung with many different advanced functions as a new phone comes out every year, but the main point is that it’s a cell phone and does the same thing as the previous phones have which is helping you communicate with someone else. Even though when a new invention was just made it doesn’t always mean that they were the poorest quality. Photography is one example where this applies because even when it was just developed, early photographs were high quality. You can see this in a daguerreotype because the images are made on a metal sheet but are sharp and high in detail. The only advancement that happened over time was transferring the camera into the digital world. 

Reading the passages I love how each of the authors predicted the benefits technology can bring to the world to make our everyday lives easier. As the decades went by technology has gotten advanced that it inspired potential artists. Some people use technology for the world while others would use technology for the wrong doings. In “Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism (1909)” the author wanted to use technology for war and violence.

The reading “Aleksandr Rodchenko, Varvara Stepanova, Aleksei Gan, Who We Are: Manifesto of the Constructivist Group (c. 1922)”, was interesting. I think what the author was trying to do is to show the readers that graphic design can be used in the real world to bring service for society. Example, we have train stations for trains to stop into the stations to drop off/pick up passengers. Each station has a different design so the people that designed the station used graphic design to their disposal to create something magnificent. It always baffled me how those stations were created.

This reading “El Lissitzky, Our Book (1926)”, takes me back into my freshman days of high school when my art teacher was telling us about this book. What my art teacher was telling me and my classmates was that technology has come a long way to help us all. Back in El Lissitzky’s time he didn’t had much of these luxuries we have now. She also explained how Lissitzky predicted technology would become easier to gain information quicker without having to rely on books. This reading also brings me back to a “Boy Meets World” episode where Mr. Feeny was upset how everyone has the technology to their benefit but abuse it. He made a comparison on how the student’s time period it takes seconds to release a website while in Gutenberg’s time period it took months to release a book. Lissitzky would be pleased that technology is having people gain information quicker but disappointed to how it puts books to shame and how some people abuse it.

Based on the readings, I could see how  the rapid development of technology in the first couple of decades of the 20th century inspired so many ideas and movements. In all of the readings I could tell It was a time full of excitement towards the future where technology is emphasized and celebrated. Some possibilities I think that the authors of these texts envisioned are a world of efficiency, progress, speed and functionality that is available and economical for everyone.

In all of the readings I could see how artists either predicted or anticipated the art and design that would follow ahead of their time. For example,  In the Futurist Manifesto by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, his ideals emphasized speed, technology, industrialism and modernity as well as war. In the aspects of speed, technology and industrialism I agree with his enthusiasm, however he was speaking on these aspects in a way where he wanted to take advantage of the technological advancements for violence and war, which he viewed as purifying. In that aspect we can connect how men such as Filippo Tommaso in todays age can take technological achievements for greed, power, and violence which is seen in America with all the advanced military weapons at our disposal and how we can have our way because of that.

In regards to the Constructivist Manifesto by Aleksandr Rodchenko he also emphasized industrialization as well as functionality and economy. He emphasized these things because he wanted to use graphic design as a force that serves society. He cared a lot about social issues and encouraged the use of technology, design and industrialism to change society for the better. He viewed himself as an engineer and inventor as well as a designer. I think his ideal on what it means to be a designer is relevant today because we have all the tools at our disposal to be the inventors as well as the designers. We have the tools to implement change in society and be the communicators for our generation.

In  El Lissitzky, Our Book,  he too emphasized technological advancements. He actually predicted the continuing of the dematerialization of society. He noted as correspondence grew, the telephone came to be invented. As communication networks developed, the radio helped ease the burden. Dematerialization couldn’t be more relevant in todays society with the invention of the television, computer and internet. He also mentioned being disappointed with the development of the book, how it stays the same as other fields develop with more inventions. I think he would be pleased to know how far we’ve come from books and how much more accessible they are with the internet.

Linguistics is the scientific study of language and its structure. a common fallacy holds that language is above all else for everyone including the linguist but the task of a linguist is to dispel absurd notions, mirages, prejudice, mirage and fictions that arise. Both Semiology and Linguistics have a variance in qualities, which permits for an observable contrast between the two.

Semiology is a science that studies the life of signs within society. It is a part of social psychology and consequently of general psychology. Deemed “The most important of all these systems”. Semiology would show what constitutes signs, what laws govern them. Linguistics is only a part of the general science of semiology. To determine the exact place of semiology is the task of the psychologist. The task of the linguist is to find out what makes language a special system within the mass of semiological data. This is the distinction between the two studies. We use signs in everyday life to understand directions, and communicate without words via colors, arrows etc.

There are both related aspects and distinct qualities between language, graphic communication and visual arts. To start, graphic communication and visual arts are very much alike being that, both fields would entail the creative at task to convey a sort of message through their ideas. Which is in itself, a form of language.

Their distinct qualities lie in the understanding of interpretation. Language is founded on the assumed abstract of words and their meaning, whereas one sentence in one language may mean something else. Visual arts are showing you what the artist is intending for the viewer to see. Graphic communication is more refined and tailored to be specifically what someone or the artist is wanting to show.

Semiology is the study of sign systems that explores how words and other signs make meaning. Semiology defines a sign as anything that stands in for something other than itself. Semiotics focuses on both linguistic and nonlinguistic signs, on the other hand, linguistics refers to the scientific study of languages and their structures.

                        Signs and symbols present a quick way of communicating our feelings. They are also used to reinforce the message conveyed through speech. One uses signs to easily strike resonance with whoever they are talking to thereby building communication and thought. Symbols can be used to identify different individuals, the groups and the organizations they subscribe to.

                        The signified is seen as the mental imagery that one gets from a sign while the signifier represents the tangible part meaning something that can be accessed by the human senses. We apply this component in developing speech communities where certain signs are related to specific words in the system from which we derive meaning. An example is a red light in the traffic lights which signifies danger.

                        Language is the use of structured words in communication by people. Visual language emanates from art forms that bear a message to the viewer. Graphic communication uses graphic elements to bear a message to the viewer. These graphic elements are varied and may include symbols and images. The similarity between this component is they all are aimed at delivering a message which is communication. The difference arises in the senses that are applied in interpreting the information with graphic and visual communication achieved through the eyes while language is mainly through the mouth and ear.

We know that language is the research object of linguistics, but as a language of semiotic phenomena, it is the research object of semiotics. So what is the relationship between linguistics and semiotics? Scholars and experts have different opinions on this issue. Some people see semiology as a study that includes linguistics, while others see it contrarily. They argue that the meaning of the signs is omnipresent, and the scope of semiotics is all-encompassing. Since language is one of many sign phenomena, linguistics that specializes in this phenomenon is certainly a branch of semiology study. It was the Swiss linguist Saussure who first raised this point. In his book “Course in General Linguistics” he clearly states: “Language is a system of signs that express ideas, and is therefore comparable to a system of writing, the alphabet of deaf-mutes,

S5Tnbolic rites, polite formulas, military signals, etc. But it is the most important of all these systems. A science that studies the life of signs within society is conceivable; it would be a part of social psychology and consequently of general psychology; I shall call it semiology”.

Saussure believes that any language sign is composed of “signifier” and “signified“, “signifier” refers to the sound image of language, and “signified” refers to the concept of things reflected in language. For example, the word “tree” in English, its pronunciation is “signifier”, and the concept of “tree” is “signified“. Signifier and signified are indivisible, like two sides of a coin; However, Saussure believes that the connection between a particular signifier and a particular signifier is not inevitable, but a convention. For example, in the word “tree”, the concept of tree and the specific pronunciation of “tree” are not necessarily combined. The pronunciation of “tree” in English is obviously different from that in French and Latin, but the meaning of “tree” can be expressed. This is the principle of signs’ arbitrariness. The arbitrariness of signs is an important principle of Saussure’s linguistics. It governs the entire linguistic system of Saussure’s language and is of paramount importance.

Although, language, graphic communication, and visual arts use different methods to achieve their purpose, but the goal of these are essentially identical: to convey a message.  language, graphic communication, and visual arts also evolve with human activities, with the development of science and technology and the use of new media, language, graphic communication, and visual arts will present a more exciting picture in the future development of communication. 

Reading this article I was yet again stuck wondering what it had to do with Communication Design, but yet again, was surprised at how well it fit, the writer first going into what linguistics was and how it differed from other scientific ventures, defined language and then moved onto the main topic which was the abstraction and nature of language.
The writer makes clear, spoken language is only one small part of a wider whole that is language, where we take certain things, assign meanings, and then communicate them, a physical process by someone takes note of a physical phenomenon and attaches meaning. The writer makes clear, the relationship between the physical sounds and the meaning that the receiving party pulls from them is completely arbitrary, the idea of a car, and the signs and sounds associated that we use to communicate the idea of a car, are not the same.
How does this relate to design? In the recommended class book “Graphic Design Theory” as designers we collectively, through the universality and remixability of design, play an integral role in what signs and symbols are associated with such and such a meaning, part of our responsibility might be to safeguard language, as it is produced on a massive scale, cheaply, though we often claim no authorship, still play an active role in creating the environment that the author states will be inherited by the next generation to then pass on and build upon themselves.
A clear question arises from this of course, how can one without authorship truly be a steward over their career? Is the lack of an individual mark jeopardizing our language, since we can remain anonymous, and not own up to the work we do and are a part of? I don’t mean to be over-the-top, would the “detached neutrality of the International Style” promote disregard for social responsibility?

Signs and symbols now have multiple uses in our everyday language one that a lot of people are familiar with are emojis. Today in modern context emojis are used to express the emotion a text is meant to be read and some people can see a text without emojis as upsetting or malicious depending on the context.  They’ve become an extension of expression for the younger generation but its not the only way we use signs in everyday life symbols are also shown everywhere for driving we use them as non verbal instructions and warning for people to know of any up coming dangers or instructions on how to get to destinations.

Signs/Signifiers are used in general communication to assist in how people can read and understand information. In this reading Course in General Linguistics Ferdinand uses diagrams to visually show some of the concepts that readers might not understand by simply reading them.

language,graphic,communication and visual arts share a lot of similarities to one another in that they are all forms of expressing ideas.These could be for social reasons like to communication to one another or it could also be for commercial reasons like ads. some of the main differences  among these is how they are supposed to capture our attention for example language is all based on our sense of hearing and so have a more direct impact on us because its more personal in the way we are exposed to it. The others instead are more visual so they have to work to convince us to feel the way they want us to with the use of images colors and fonts.

In the reading given, “Course in General Linguistics” by Ferdinand de Saussure, I have learned the the many categories that the study of linguistics holds. Its a term that not only defines speech but all other forms of expression as well. Semiology is a science that students signs within society that is a part of social psychology. Language relates to semiology in the sense that it is a certain special system within semiological data.

I found the reading interesting because it really contemplates the meaning of language and specifies it down. I’ve learned that language is a system of signs which essentially is the union of meanings, sound and images. In comparison, linguistic signs are not abstractions, however they are socially and collectively approved. With that being said, symbols can communicate to larger audiences in that it goes beyond speech. A symbol must be able to communicate a simple meaning across various kinds of peoples, cultures, etc though it is impossible for a symbol to be completely universal. In America, we use a variety of symbols including emojis, bathroom signs, social media icons, and transportation to name a few.

Language, graphic communication and visual arts relate to each other in the fact that they are all systems of communication. These forms of communication have to adhere to the “correct” way of communicating according to the period that it is in so it makes sense and effectively communicates to that culture/ time period.