Author: Yan (Page 1 of 2)
In this reading, Hellen argues the importance of knowing how relevant and irrelevant can underground design culture be in dependence on the mainstream. Corporates often use visionaries’ ideas and reshape them for their own benefit without crediting or recognizing such underground sources. Through the reading, we learn that in different stages of history. First through the Psycodellic culture that had as a purpose to incentivize sexual practices and drug usage. This indeed would be offensive as mass media production, but mainstream makes it look acceptable creating a whole new trend from the underground. These served as album covers that represented the Youth in general and had great success. These are called “alternative cultures” as they serve as a second option for their design purposes when they lack original ideas. Another example was pornography, which later began to be used in advertising in different and subliminally manners. The underground struggle for the fact that they either keep themself unrecognized or join the mainstream with original ideas that depend on the judgment of the mainstream and the impact that they can produce.
This is relevant for contemporary design as many talented and skillful designers are more often seen due to social media and communication mediums, but hardly reach the mainstream as it has stayed as it states from the reading. The designer that I’m going to use for the project was once from this underground concept. Although he has worked for recognized mainstream companies such as Apple and Google, it doesn’t mean that he’s completely part of the mainstream since he still lacks proper social recognition and his work depends on the perception of the mainstream. His imperative graffiti design has shaped mainstream into a broader view along with a different culture.
Terminology that I didn’t know and used in my essay from the reading:
Dennotational: Refers to the literal meaning of a word.
Connotational: Word that suggest a different association to its literal meaning.
Quasi-Tautological: Having some but not all the features of repetition without adding information.
Linguistic Message: A denoted description that answer the question” What is it?”
Anchorage: The trait to catch the consumer
Relay: Interpretation of an image separated fromt he meaning of the text.
Semantic: When one thing can be expressed differently and conserve the same meaning.
Pseduo- Truth: An event that can be percieved differently from what it is.
Utterance: A spoken word, statement or vocal sound.
Polysemy: The coexistence of many possible meaning for a word or phrase.
In this text, McLuhan focuses on the transition of human interaction with the technological world and the alteration of perception that it brings with it. He describes technology and media as an extension of man for the evolving aspect of society that it provokes and its behavioral changes. He calls it the “age of anxiety” because the transition has been continuously fast that people still try to do today’s task with yesterday tools and concepts refusing adaptation or not considering the need for a new perspective, leading to an overwhelming feeling of why things are going in this direction. That happened with the printing technology as well, where people had to switch totally the behavior as media was used and adapt to a faster pace of data circulation.
This is also a generational issue because the youth understood or had an easier transition to such mediums, but for the older generation, it has always been a problem which means that they would have fewer opportunities available in society for not having the capacity to handle the technology required. In the education aspect, McLuhan remarks that the youth wasn’t or should not be allowed to be exposed to old methods and behaviors in order to have the right perception of the actual mediums being used at the time.
The switch of the medium is the message regardless of its negative aspects toward a generation has a great influence on designers and the distribution of information. It has allowed designers to persuade and influence society’s behavior by spreading information through the right medium. This means that the message is the essence of the medium, has a faster response and result than it was before where a letter could take a year to arrive or even get lost in the process. Having that in mind we can come to the conclusion that technology-enhanced information has influenced and changed behaviors in the whole world for the effectiveness of its design and message, leading to faster development of electronic data consumption and information process.
As technology keeps evolving over time so are mindsets and new ideas give birth to concepts and methods that simplify the function and design of things. In this reading Jan Tschichold expresses his idea of “The New Typography” enhancing the point that the essence of typography is communication and legibility compared to the old typography based in the ornamental type trend. His effort to make typography understandable focusing on clarity and asymmetry made the old typography that used symmetry and the central axis to arrange the composition be really unviable. The new typography allowed more flexibility remarking the functions of the text which were communication, emphasis, and logical sequence. Tschichold expresses that the old ideas must be discarded and new ones must be created to keep evolving and get rid of what is not really useful or functional.
Karl Gerstner’s ideas were logical instead of emotional leading to functional results that connect with Thschichold’s typographic innovation. He created programs for solutions to solve design-related problems instead of just looking for solutions. These worked best under certain conditions by describing the problem first. in fact, these solutions were found under intellectual critereas and not by feelings as some artists get incomprable with desginers for the lack of functionality on their pieces. This means that one depends on the other because using such parameters leads to successful and more creative results. In the logical sense, he called of one these programmes “The morphological box of the typogram” which is a sequence of parameters useful for design in relation to different elements such as color, words, shades, size, and between others. A variant of a programme was also As Grid. It consisted in a system and regulator for excellence of design that made the execution clearer. The contradiction of this was to find a balance between design and space which is why this served as a programme to accommodate items.
Joseph Muller-Brockmann enhances the gid system with his design philosophy. He remarks that grid design must be clear, objective, functional, and aesthetic quality based on mathematical thinking. It’s easy to be misguided by the idea that design doesn’t have to be mathematical, but in fact, many parameters or even software that we use for design are mathematical and complements the logistic side of design. Without it, it would be complete chaos and points that Gerstner, Thchihold, and Brockmann state couldn’t even be valid. Brockmann also expresses that design must be constructivist and objective which is a quality performed under the grid inventing the artist to be submitted to laws of universal validity. In other words, once you start using the grid there’s a set of values and rules that must be attained in order to create a successful design.
After reading these articles I realized that the point of view of each artist had similarities when it comes to evolution and fundamentals of design. Moholy-Nagy, Walter Gropius, and Hebert Bayer were founders of theories that at some point could have been impactful but seemed to be more wishful thinking defying the logic of design. Moholy-Nagy at its current time concerns about what was missing from the past in art was the connection of human intuition and drive while interacting with technology and machinery. He also based his idea on the Typophoto, which consisted of the combination of typography and photography to deliver or explain a message like the magazines. However, he defines it as a visually most exact rendering of communication, having the idea that someday it could make photography could make typography obsolete. This can’t be possible because typography or text itself has been used for so long even before the printing press and it’s a language medium that complements others. This resonates with Herbert Bayer’s theory of redesigning the alphabet and the ways we read and write to make it simpler and easier to digest. The attempt of this simplistic but at the same time complex idea leads to different outcomes where eliminating capital letters and serif could lead to confusion for the sake of a new style. This doesn’t change the appreciation that he had for typography as he defines it as “a message conditioned by its visualization” and the fact that in the US it’s considered a minor art and is generally ignored.
Along with typography or design skills, Walter Gropius enhance the idea that visionaries artist needs to learn and need to be taught the concept of giving form to space. This can only be done by the knowledge and mastery of creative endeavors concepts that can be achieved collectively. His theory was that only talented people could make it as artists without even having to go to school. Only for the foundation and design theories can be useful for shaping the mind of the artist in the right way for its purposes. In the 21 century, these ideas can be controversial and might need to get updated as society has become extremely competitive, and being talented doesn’t always guarantee a successful pass to glory. However, with all the social media and technology that we have today, the chances to be a successful freelancer are higher than in that era. What changes is the type of designer or artist do you want to be. If the person is aspiring to be in a corporate environment then definitely schooling and having a career is the right way. Even if the talent and skills are there, a solid foundation is needed to become a successful artist executing the right language and communication for current society.
Reading the articles I noticed that each artist had a similar point of view regarding technology and the era they were living in. Rodchenko expressed that technology was the mortal enemy of art in a proud manner. El Lissitky rejoiced at media and technology and Marinetti wanted a technological reform for Italy. They envisioned how great design was going to be with the evolution of technology and tools that could open countless possibilities. Technology was a must in order to achieve these visions that the hands of man alone couldn’t. El Lissitky analyses different aspects remarking the fact that technology didn’t evolve much from the printing press until the invention of photography for designers. They completely disagree on technology not evolving since time keeps changing and what meant something for them is not what is going to mean for the next generation. This is something relevant to the present because time keeps changing rapidly and new mediums of communications and technological tools keep getting invented. Along with visual communication and design, not adapting to the current wave could be problematic as it wouldn’t make communication and creativity easier. That’s what technology is for.
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