Tasks Due Today

This Week’s Topics

At the end of this session, students should have an understanding of the following:

  • How the Avant-Garde movements of rebellion and rejection of the past (Futurism, Constructivism, De Stijl, etc), culminated in the Bauhaus and further refined in Swiss Typography/International Style. And then found the mainstream in capitalist Modernism / American corporate identity design.
  • How advertising has influenced society and culture.
  • Guidelines and Milestones for Research Project Presentation
  • Prompt and due date for Discussion: Week 8
  • Prompt and due date for Reading Response 7

Check-In & Share

Do you have anything to share from your Research Journal? Add a comment to this post with something you’ve added to your Research Journal recently.

Or suggest a track for the playlist on the COMD3504 playlist post.

Reflections from  Assignment: Reading Response 6

Celebrating the African-American Practitioners Absent From Way Too Many Classroom Lectures by Madeleine Morley, Eye on Design, 2018, Typography as a Radical Act in an Industry Ever-dominated by White Men by Silas Munro, Eye on Design, 2019 and Design Gets More Diverse by Alice Rawsthorn, NYTimes, 2011

  • What stood out to you the most in this week’s readings?
  • How do we change the commercial design field to include a diversity of voices and visions?
  • What will the commercial design field and the study of design history look like in 20 years?

Resources

Where Are The Black Designers? presented by Maurice Cherry

Midterm Assessment

If you didn’t schedule a meeting last week to go over your Midterm Assessment and your Research Project Outline, please make sure you do this week.

Prior to the meeting, create a post called Midterm Assessment – Your Initials. Include the following:

  • a brief evaluation of your progress so far (what you’ve accomplished and what you want to improve)
  • your Learning Plan (revised, if needed)
  • links to your completed classwork, including your Research Journal

At this point in the semester, you should have completed the following work:

  • Reading Response #1
  • Reading Response#2
  • Reading Response #3
  • Reading Response #4
  • Reading #5 Annotations
  • Reading Response #6
  • Research Paper #1
  • Research Project outline
  • Research Journal (In Progress)

Use the tags: Midterm Assessment, Your Name/Screenname

Activities

Below find the information covered in this session. Complete all of the following activities, videos, and assignments.

1. Research Project Outline Presentations (30 min)

Please present your Research Project Outline post to the class.

2. Mainstream Modernism + American Corporate Identity (approx. 60 min)

Last class, we saw the evolution of influences from the Constructivists, De Stijl, New Typography, and the Bauhaus that led to the mainstream adoption of the modernist International Typographic Style/Swiss Style in the mid-20th Century. This week we look at the American version of Modernism as corporate advertising in the 1950s-1960s began to take shape.

Modernism in the United States showed a commitment to “less is more” and a strong reliance on images and geometric forms. The approach was impartial and direct. Corporate identity design came into being during this time and favored a simplification in visual approach. Simple, sharp, and clean, designers developed cohesive brand identities. Commonplace today, designers like Paul Rand, started to use acronyms for logos and corporate brand identity. The identity manuals used today for fully branded company identities came into being.

Below are a series of videos that take you through the history of advertising, corporate identity design, and mainstream designers that influenced the field.

The New York School

Watch the Graphic Design History section on The New York School on LinkedIn Learning (this is the best option to view the work clearly!).

Or, if you must, watch the YouTube video below. NOTE: In the following video, watch from 1:18:14 to 1:18:55

The New York School – Graphic Design History (Watch from 1:18:14 to 1:18:55 )

American Corporate Identity

Watch the Graphic Design History section on American Corporate Identity on LinkedIn Learning (this is the best option to view the work clearly!).

Or, if you must, watch the YouTube video below. NOTE: In the following video, watch from 1:25:45 to 1:30:32

American Corporate Identity – Graphic Design History (Watch from 1:25:45 to 1:30:32 )

Paul Rand

Paul Rand – The Futur Academy

Branding and Belonging

“Branding turned into belonging: belonging to a tribe, to a religion, to a family. Branding demonstrated that sense of belonging both for people that were part of the same group and also for those who did not belong.”

“The most powerful brands we are creating today are not created by corporations, they are movements created by people for people.”

DEBBIE MILLMAN | THE COMPLETE HISTORY OF BRANDING IN 20 MINUTES
Debbie Millman | The Complete History of Branding in 20 Minutes

3. Discussion: Week 8 (30 min)

For our Discussion post this week, review Debbie Millman’s AIGA Lecture about the history of branding and respond to the following prompt. Let’s also consider in our readings from last week.

  • If branding is how we designate meaning through language, symbols, and words, how do the brands (in the broadest sense) that you affiliate with connect you to others?
  • What is the meaning/ideology behind your brands?

Add your ideas in a comment in this Discussion post by Wednesday 6pm before the next class to allow time for responses. Add at least 1 follow-up response to your classmates’ comments.

4. Assignment: Reading Response 7 (2+ Hours)

Follow the assignment guidelines and prompts for Reading Response 7  – – DUE Wednesday before the next class.

You will be reading and annotating essays written by Paul Rand “Good Design Is Good Will” 1987 in our main text Graphic Design Theory: Readings From the Field by Helen Armstrong and “Underground Mainstream” by Steven Heller, Design Observer, 2008.

Refer to Assignment: Reading Response 7 for prompts.

Resources

Week 8 Agenda Checklist

Below are all of the tasks, big and small, for this week. The due date is Wednesday, 11:59 pm before our next Thursday class. Timely completion of these tasks will contribute to your success in this course.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out.

Tasks from the Week 8 Agenda
Name

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