Nhi Vuong 

Nov 28th, 2018 

Reflection 8 

What is the different between solemn and serious in design? As Paula said “ solemn design is often important and very effective design. It is also socially correct and accepted by the appropriate audience”. I think solemn design happened when the society accepted the idea, concept or the style of the design. It is a well-known design that made an effect on the social. The solemn design comes from the design identity mixed with the society needs. 

The serious design is “ achieved through human behavior. It is imperfect”. The obvious difference between serious design and solemn design is the solemn design is more popular than serious design. The serious design is something comes from personality. Something that you are seriously into it and start to play with the design like a kid. For me, when you are at your serious state you are trying to find your own identity through it. And, when it became popular, people started to accept it then, it goes to the state of solemn. You start to work as an adult, fulfilling the expectations. 

The map painting is an example. She started to paint for herself, try to seek for a new her. Many of the paintings are playing with types and information. Paula said she didn’t put the information in the right place where it supposed to be in the map. But what made them stunning is how she played with type, color, and graphics. The map painting is at a serious state until they on the show and on sale. The painting got popular many people to buy them and she actually has to make a lot of them more and faster. It got through the serious state and now it is her new identity. It becomes solemn, she has to fulfill the expectation of her audience. Her map painting stories tell us that we always start the design with the serious state and then when it success to identify yourself which accepted by the society that when you step to solemn state.

Paula’s talk made me look back and I realized all of my work right now is in a serious state. I try to find my identity through them. I tried different things: from animation to illustration, book cover illustration, information illustration to graphic design, logo, brand identity. I believe one day one of my work will become solemn. I want to show more and more my perspective, how I view the world through images through my design that why I start to create a new Instagram account for them.