Communication Design Theory

Based on the reading , I have gained an ever better perspective about how the history of graphic design plays a huge role in the evolution of it and how various design movements shaped the current era of emerging designers. From what I’ve gathered, the reason why rudimentary communication systems are relevant for contemporary information systems is because it is crucial as designers world wide to be reflective and critical of ourselves because it is the only way to move forward and continue the evolution of design. For that to happen, we must understand that every era had its issues which influenced that eras design movement. With each design movement come different ideas, issues to address, and technological advancements.

I find it interesting how now as designers we have kind of went back to the International Style movement, which are influenced by ideals of anonymity and is very programmatic system as well. This is due to the advancement of technology that makes it accessible for individuals designers or not, to produce content on various platforms. Now there are so many shared tools and resources out there that can hinder our creativity as designers. I also agree with the comparison of the International Style and what Dmitri Siegel’s term for where graphic designers fall now “Prosumerism” (simultaneous production and consumption). Because as designers we have a vast network of us and living in an era where we are connected more than ever , we are redefining universality which is an ideal that relates with the International Style- being able to detach emotionally from their work for a rational universal approach. At the same time designers of today do not adhere to strict design rules. The mass of work emerging from this new universality is a combination of many different styles, blurring a singular vision for what universality is.

The comparison between the International Style and Prosumerism also relates in that there is a restrictive element in our approach to design. For Designers today it is more about how we design- we all use the same software, tools, and technologies. This relates to why it is important as designers to concern ourselves with the history, writings and techniques of designers of the past because with the vast amount of people all creating with the same tools, programs and technology, content is bound to look the same and get boring. We always have to look for new ways to approach design and looking to the past is one way to do that.

 

 

According to the readings, Rudimentary communication systems are very important for contemporary information systems. Their importance can be understood mainly from two perspectives. Developments over many epochs, and in different societies, such as the use of symbols and signs in denoting countable objects, or numbers,  formed the basis of the numbering system as is today, which is the basis for the counting system used in computer programming, base two, the ones and zeros. On the other hand, the development of writing styles over the years, such as the Carolingian writing scripts, paragraphing, use of periods and other punctuation marks and styles, such as italics, bolding, and underlining, has been integral to the development of programs, such as word processing software programs.
Design is a visual language. Ultimately, the design is about the person’s object interface and how people see and perceive objects. Important to note, as evidenced by the transitions from counting using objects, such as fingers, stones, tokens, and the abacus, to the development of numbering, writing styles, and other systems, such as pictograms, hieroglyphics, and isotypes demonstrate an ever-evolving field. Contemporary designers, therefore, should concern themselves with archaic or medieval counting, writing, and printing techniques because they contextualize modern day design. Modern day designers can only become better if they have a better understanding of developments and changes over the years that have influenced the development and formation of the field as is today.
Evidently, from the foregoing, design, termed as the language of vision, is continuously evolving as evidenced by the changes and developments experienced over different eras in different societies and cultures. Key tenets of these developments that form the basis for modern day design is that they have their roots in the general environment and interactions between different societies and cultures. The process of the development of hieroglyphics and isotype, as well as other pictograms, provokes ideas for new design strategies. A look at the environment, society, interactions, and everyday living is a key source of inspiration for the design. For example, emoticons or emojis are continuously being developed for use on the growing social media and other information technology communication platforms, and it is evident that they leverage these same ideologies and principles of design strategies and initiatives; photography, even with the absence of words, achieves and delivers meaning.

 

Day to day I never really spend time thinking about the alphabetic system that we use all day, the way the words look, the history of the glyph and so on, especially in different cultures, the relationship of that with numbers is another history that I never bothered to look into. The article “Counting Sheep” goes over in great detail not only a short history of both, but also the psychology of both, moving from how tally systems relate to how we think of values in relation to objects, to the psychology surrounding image association with Freud.

One part of this large document that really had me thinking was where it made the statement that depending on the times, many civilizations had made a shift from seeing the quantity of an object as central to the object’s character, to those two being separated, the author even goes so far to say that this would make the value abstract. It’s the kind of stuff that only someone specializing in these fields would think of.

The idea of a number, a value, separate from an object, making values abstract, seems something very interesting to me, and upon thinking back on how that might effect design it brought about something new in my mind, really, that system is designed, sure it’s not graphic but it showcases a manner of communication, this one of values and amounts, designed in icons and style in a numerical system. As a graphic designer, my first thought is to wonder “What about color? What about shape?” but the first thought here, at least from the outside looking in, is how does this make me think of it, what are the underlying assumptions, how would I live my life only knowing this particular expression of a universal fact?

It reminds me a bit of how some language, I can’t think of it on the top of my head, has two words for blue, some languages, older ones, don’t have words for colors we do, some divided the spectrum differently, so it calls to mind, what role to designers have in affecting how people think? As a graphic designer my end usually comes in making some text larger or a color brighter, to change how the tone of a poster comes out, or changing the font, maybe make it round to seem fun or a sans-serif to keep it neutral. This article then kind of just brings to the extreme what I already do on a smaller basis, and brings new meaning to it, a new reverence.

While reading Helen Armstrong, Graphic Design Theory. I really got inspired by the definition of “Theory “which is questioning “why”. I believe as a designer we basically ask ourselves why it works. Why is this design attractive and by asking out selves why?  We learn from our mistakes and we basically start looking for inspiration. I also remember in one of my typography design we were required to design a book cover, after doing the first draft we had to stop and look and ask why?. I also liked how she expressed the process of being a designer is on focusing on the “How”. It’s true after we know “why” we usually think about the “How”. Like for example how to use to this certain design or how to use the software. When we know the “How” by that it impacts use as designer to become better and more inspiring.

Another thing that inspired me while reading Graphic design theory, I Liked the quote that “In the early 1900” As graphic design took shape as a profession, the ideal of objectivity replaced that of subjectivity”. I think this quote is a lesson for contemporary designer. It teaches that not because it feels good that it has to be right. And I think that that’s how designers are being taught. I remember in one of my communication design class I was so determined to use a script font because I thought that it was nice. However, after doing the project it was not nice. Then I learned that not because it subjective doesn’t mean its objective.

In the reading Ellen Lupton & J. Abbott Miller, Counting Sheep, Period Styles, Language of Dreams and Language of Vision from Design Writing Research: Writing on Graphic Design. We as contemporary designer we learn from books from ancient history. Like for example Period style, Greek history. We designers learned from them. We learned that a group of horizontal lines equal to a paragraph. we also learned all basic principles of typography from ancient Greek.

Without the old writing and printing techniques, Graphic design wouldn’t have become modern and contemporary designers became inspiring.

After having read both of the texts I was able to gain insight on inspirations old designers had and how they incorporated old ideas into their modern works.  Before I get into that I have to say when I was reading Helen Armstrong, Introduction: Revisiting the Avant-Garde from Graphic Design Theory: Readings from the Field, all I could think was wow this is pretentious after reading it over 2-4 times I was able to understand it. An example of this is during this quote:

“Out of this recent push toward authorship, new collective voices hearken
ing back to the avant-garde are emerging. As a result of technology, content generation by individuals has never been easier. (Consider the popularity of
the diy and the “Free Culture” movements.) As more and more designers,along with the rest of the general population, become initiators and producers of content, a leveling is occurring. A new kind of collective voice, more anonymous than individual, is beginning to emerge.”

This is a lot just to say technology makes it easy for anyone to easily and anonymously create content I know that authors probably have to be very articulate to please their publishers but I feel like the overcompliacation of the writing would turn off a more casual reader who might be interested in the topics being discussed  , alright rant over.

To answer one of the questions given contemporary designers should always keep a close eye to archaic techniques because nothing in design in original everything is stolen unless you were the one to create it. All design finds its roots in not just inspiration but taking what’s inspired you and expanding on it and making it your own. We can look at the font styling of Counting Sheep in the text, images are put as a visual for the reader to better understand their use as a numerical value which i’m sure the original designers of the symbols or tallies did not plan for them to be used this way but that’s what happens when we incorporated whats already been made into our modern works.

The visuals in Counting Sheep are not only aesthetically interesting from a designs stand point but also just as eye candy while reading the passage itself. When I was reading both the passages Counting Sheep was much easier to read despite being longer because it has those symbols as little distractions to break the long blocks of text. They served not only as an aesthetic distraction but a functional one this is an advantage of using archaic techniques they can always be reworked and reused to solve modern problems, not all problems need new answers to resolve them some are just hidden in plain sight.

 

In the readings, “Graphic Design Theory” by Helen Armstrong and “Counting Sheep, Period Styles, Language of Dreams and Language of Vision” by Ellen Lupton & J. Abbott Miller, I learned by communicating your art to the world, it leaves an impact on how one perceives and interprets things thus putting it into our own work.  I also learned that without the basic infrastructure of archaic writing, we would not have our own version of writing since we were influenced by archaic writing. Before reading “Graphic Design Theory,” by Helen Armstrong, I knew that art was a communication device and we use it to communicate to others by making posters, ads, etc.  After this reading, I learned that we as designers have a large impact on audiences, due to the fact that we are putting visual content out there. Designers who have this platform are creating content to send awareness to show what is happening in the world, thus making a new collective voice which then creates a new level that occurs. 

In “Counting Sheep, Period Styles, Language of Dreams and Language of Vision” by Ellen Lupton & J. Abbott Miller, they talk about the origins of archaic writing and how it then develops into something that we use to this day, in design and in writing.  One thing I found interesting was that in 260 BC, there was a librarian, Aristophanes, who designed a greek punctuation system. This system consisted of the comma, colon, and periodos, which back then was used to be used for cues for reading out loud.  Today the function of this system is used differently, for example we use it for structure and not for the spoken sound. Another thing that I found interesting was that the scripts are what we use today. For example, the carolingian minuscule was the gothic font.  In different countries, many fonts were changing due to what was in demand at the time for display advertising. This has happened to the bold face fonts, “when advertising created a demand for big, black types.”

 Once in awhile, we can look back at the origins of design and see how far design has come.  As designers, we must adapt to the changes that occur in modern design. It is very important to adapt, because ideas are constantly changing as well as styles.  As time goes by we continue to change designs as new ideas and theories are made.

 

By reading both texts, one made by Armstrong and the other by Ellen Lupton & J. Abbott Miller, I was able to comprehend more about communication design and what comes before that, which is theory. Theory is based on why this or that? And the process of becoming a designer is based on how? Since the process is bigger and it is required to learn new things such as technological software, methods and more in order to really understand what is communication design and how to become a designer. Reading theory helps designers to grow and change their own work.

Rudimentary communication methods are relevant for contemporary information systems because they are the basis of communication with its principles and without it, communication would not be able to be understandable. They are the foundation of communication that comes from years ago when many artists started to implement it on their artworks. That’s why in this time, in this moment, in 2020, there are still traces from the past artists and past methods which make design today not completely original. Without knowing the theory from old times to create what’s today communication design, designers would not be able to comprehend what they are actually doing. Each one of the designers have a different idea of how to design their work which eventually goes back and takes a minimal piece of an older artwork and makes it different as how different is the movement of modernism and the bauhaus school time or how different is the work of Paul Rand and Lissitzky.

Contemporary designers should concern themselves with archaic writing, counting, or printing techniques because they are the guidance of the modern time of how communication design should be handled. They are the builders and fundamentals of what communication design is. With all these theories and designs which are models for designers, they will be able to implement new techniques on their works and evolutionate the future of communication design. Interpretation and perception should be on any design made because there will always be a meaning on why the designer did this or that, the artwork should tell what’s behind and capture the senses used to put information together and create a social impact. There is also what is behind the typography used to make artworks such as what the book by Lupton & Miller says about counting Sheep, Period Styles, Language of Dreams and Language of Vision from Design Writing. This reading talks about the past languages such as roman, greek which are in capital letters and therefore hard to read, and more languages, this book gives a description of many languages and different ways to communicate. It also talks about how primitive icons were used in order to communicate with others. This makes people think about the linguistics and type used in design. I also learn that the whole body can become a set of symbols for representing numbers. Abacus was used for counting and computing in ancient Greece and Rome and more.

New ideas come from objectivity and subjectivity and it also comes from the little small creation to the more expressive one. The subjectivity of design decisions are based on the customer needs, own ideas, concerns with social realities that are driven by human preference. With this, viewers are able to perceive the artwork and express themselves inside it. Objectivity describes art’s role and what’s behind it. It represents the physical aspect of the piece of artwork. New ideas come when you see other designers artworks, then you start to think what can you do to make a change? What can you do to make it different? What is the meaning of it?. In the text, “Artists had to detach emotionally from their work in favor of a more rational and universal approach” this quote enhances designers to progress more and more to get away from their emotions and go away to gain the universe.

Rudimentary communication methods are relevant for contemporary information systems because After reading the text I learned a lot about the designers and the way they explained how the technology is becaming the part of designers’ lives. As Helen Armstrong talks in her text “ Introduction: Revisiting the Avant-Garde from Graphic Design Theory: Readings from the Field: ArmstrongIntro” about “Technology is fundamentally altering our culture” and she talks about the issues that graphic designers will face and 1 of them is social responsiblities. I get intrest in reading the Social Responsibility part because now days I think most designers try to design their works using the global awareness and giving messages. In reading, Armstrong talks about social responsibilty as “As the field shifted towards a more subjective design approach, a social responsibility movement emerged in the 1990s and 2000s. Graphic designers joined meadia activists to revolt against the dangers of consumer culture.” Graphic designers not only using their designs to show it to public but also having a big responsibilty convey what message they are giving to public that shape the society. The positive message like global awareness can help shape the society and culture in a positive way. Contemporary designers should concerns themselves with archaic writing, counting, or printing techniques because In the reading “Ellen Lupton & J. Abbott Miller, Counting Sheep, Period Styles, Language of Dreams and Language of Vision from Design Writing Research: Writing on Graphic Design: LuptonMillerDesignWritingResearch”. Lupton and Miller talk about the “Many historians view phonetic scripts as the most advanced stage in the development of writing.” When I read Phonetic, I remember that in my typography class I learned about the Phoenicians Alphabet came around 1200 B.C.E and that was the time when written communication evolved by not using the objects however using signs or image that represents the sound of speech. As I was reading this text by lupton and Miller, I get to understand in details that communication is evolving over the time. I also get to know about the Archaic writing where it is similar to know we use D “D is half of the symbol, an ancient form of the sign for one thousand.” As for the natural counting part I really like that part of reading where Ancient use the human body to Count and Calculating. “The whole body can become a set of symbols for representing numbers.” This techniques was used by the Papuan natives. As I read the Period style, It was hard for me to read because the Greek and Roman had no small letters and the Alphabets were all capitals. They also had the same heights that they measure and set the block. “A HIGH DOT SET OFF THE LONGEST UNIT.” . In first line there was no space between letters until in 19th century the space came with dots between them. and then it started to evolve. Now, the technology made it easier for us to use. We can set the height, wieght of letter and the style on technolgy as we want. The facts from texts provoke ideas for developing new design strategies. I believe this facts provoke that “Delving into theoretical discussion that engage both our past and our present is good start.” because as Lupton and Miller talk about the history of writing and communication methods evolve and technologies came. Armstrong talks about the issues that can give new ideas strategies to designers.

Throughout history design has had one main function which is communicating a message. How this message is communicated has changed over the years and is also dependent on the culture it is made for.  From reading Graphic Design Theory by Helen Armstrong, design is more than just creating something that is aesthetically pleasing, but it is something that helps shape our society. Before reading this chapter what I knew about design was that I had to solve a problem and know how to organize information and create something out of it. To my surprise that isn’t the case. From what Armstrong taught me, as designers we have a social responsibility since we are actively engaging with the public through our work. Advertisements, posters, and logos are just a few of the things we design that interact with people. According to Armstrong, “ Designers are actively engaging their societies politically and culturally, increasingly thinking globally inside a tightly networked world.” This specific part started making me think about how design not only changes over time but changes based on what is currently happening in society. Especially today in our society we are facing many issues such as climate change and politics. It is events like these that impact how we design and the messages that we send out into the world. You also see this happening in the past as well like many art movements for example, Abstract expressionism which emerged after World War two. This is how new design strategies are made, by looking at the past and seeing what has been already done we can create something new as society continues to evolve. 

 Counting Sheep, Period Styles, Language of Dreams and Language of Vision by Ellen Lupton & J. Abbott Miller also explores the idea of communication in design and how it has evolved over time. From the number of art history classes that I have taken I have  never come across the idea of archaic writing. From reading Counting Sheep design has played a huge role in how people used to count back then. For example, according to the reading “Groups on a tally stick might be indicated with larger or smaller cuts, or straight lines and diagonals.” The simple design of a few lines and diagonals show how there is a relationship between a symbol and the meaning behind it. The symbol sometimes isn’t the exact representation of the item but we know what item it represents. We see this pattern evolving throughout many different civilizations and eventually creating a language based on symbols. Even today in our modern society we still see this. For example, emojis are symbols that we use while texting and the meaning behind them is universally known. This reading made me consider how this translates to other things in design and the first thing I thought of was logos. We design logos to represent a brand but broken down a logo is just a symbol. One of the most popular logos that everyone knows is Target. It’s simply two red circles that represent a target and this symbol is something that everyone knows the meaning of but most importantly is associated with the brand Target. As a designer knowing what archaic writing and counting principles are you get a better understanding of what symbols are and how they are a part of language. 

As a designer, understanding the history of design is important and especially when it comes to the style of how people wrote back then. While reading Period Styles I came across many interesting things, such as how early Greek and Latin were written with no space in between and in all caps. This brought me back to my typography class where the first thing I learned was to never use all caps for body copy. I was shocked and surprised to see how far writing has evolved over time with the introduction to paragraphs, commas, colons, and even periods. All of these small things that we now take for granted not knowing how these did not exist at one point. It definitely made me appreciate them more because it not only makes reading and writing easier but, it makes me wonder if there might be more change to language in the future or maybe there already has been a change and we just aren’t aware of it.