COMD 3503 – Topics in Graphic Design

The article “Define the difference: Design vs Advertising” gives a brief and one’s personal definition of graphic design and advertising and I do agree with the article. In my opinion, graphic designers create the work that informs the public and the advertising company sells the product/service (convince the public to buy the product/service). Graphic designers have to be creative in many ways to convey the message and the advertising company sells to make a profit, so one depends on the other, in my opinion.

The interview with Stefan Sagmeister, I can relate to some of his answers. He’s a very simple guy and goes about his day like any other person. As a graphic designer, sometimes when I do a project I get stressed out but Stefan seems like he’s cool and calm when doing his brand identity because he goes running and he does meditation.

In the article “why should we take advertisement seriously”, I don’t understand what is going on there because it has allot of subtopics with pictures and short run videos. I like number eight piece “bodies and wonders: Art, Truth, History” because it has two pictures of human, one from centuries ago and the other human is what man looks like today. It opens your mind to how far the history of human has come and its culture it came with. Also It shows the history of art what it was way back then and what it is now, it has a similar pattern with its strokes.

I also like number nine piece “storytelling through google maps because it shows a map of a part of Paris in July 1918 to what it looks like in the 21st century. It tells a history and it gives a historical meaning to someone who’s into the whole historical artifacts. It also represents how the world is changing with its technology.

As I read through the articles I now understand the article “why should we take advertisement seriously”, advertise it’s not just a poster, flyer or some other advertisement. It is there to communication to the public and tells a story so in twenty or thirty years it can tell a history of what advertisement is now and what it would be in the future. The future generation can learn from it as we did with the past story tellers (advertisement).

As I have mention earlier about advertising company, I’ll elaborate a little more. Advertising agency/company has various departments which each one is responsible for a specific purpose to complete its task of selling a product/service. For example, Public relations is responsible for creating awareness of the product/service and by doing that it also helps the company to create an image for itself. The PR department also responsible for all the social media outlet relevant to their client. Marketing and Research will handle all the product development and market research. From how to promote the product/service, who is the target audience and developing a campaign to sell. Creative Services, in this department is where all the creativeness starts from developing a concept to the final product/service. This department consists of other sub-department which will house the creative directors, graphic designers, copywriters, illustrators, photographers, event managers and digital service providers. In this department, the idea is being started to reach the final output.

The “Experiments in the laboratory of consumerism 1959-67” I don’t understand the article, I even try to picture the scenes and I couldn’t. I never saw the Mad Man series and this is the first time I’m hearing of it. I’m not sure if this is how the series started but there are a few parts missing from this article because when I started reading, it ends at one part and starts at another and I have no idea what’s going on.