Week 7 Agenda

Tasks Due Today

• Research Paper (Final)
• Research Project & Presentation Outline (draft)
• Reading #5 for Discussion
• Week 6 Agenda Checklist

This Week’s Topics

• Checkin & Share
• Discussion: Diversifying Design
• Research Project Outline
• Mainstream Modernism + American Corporate Identity
• Reading Response #6
• Best & Worst Commercials?
• Week 7 Agenda Checklist

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.

Discussion: Reflections from  Reading Response 5

Typography as a Radical Act in an Industry Ever-dominated by White Men by Silas Munro, Eye on Design, 2019

• What stood out to you the most in this week’s reading?
• 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?

African-American Designers (often) Absent from Classroom Lectures:

• Sylvia Abernathy
• Dorothy Hayes
• Cheryl Miller
• Leroy Winbush
• Emmett McBain
• Barbara Gardner Proctor
• Tom Burrell
• Clarence Matthew Baker
• Gail Anderson
• Thomas Miller
• Steve A. Jones
• Slyvia Harris
• Alex Walker
• Bill Howell
• Dorothy Akubuiro
• Archie Boston
• Art Sims
• Reginald Gammon
• Grafton Tyler Brown
• Buddy Esquire
• Phase 2
• Cey Adams
• W.E.B. DuBois

Resources

• Celebrating the African-American Practitioners Absent From Way Too Many Classroom Lectures by Madeleine Morley, Eye on Design, 2018
• The Lasting Mark of Black Creatives, Emotive Brand 2021
• Where are the Black Designers 2021: Designing and Organizing for Black Liberation 2021 Conference Day 1
• Where are the Black Designers? a volunteer-run, nonprofit design advocacy organization.
• The Black Experience in Graphic Design (1968/2020) Dorothy Jackson (Print – original)
• Black Designers: Missing in Action Dr. Cheryl D. Holmes-Miller 1987 
• Why is Graphic Design 93% White? Dr. Cheryl D. Holmes-Miller 1991
• Black Designers: Still Missing in Action? Dr. Cheryl D. Holmes-Miller 2016
• Design Gets More Diverse by Alice Rawsthorn, NYTimes, 2011
• BIPOC in Design, OpenLab OER by Prof. George Larkins
• Where Are The Black Designers? Video presented by Maurice Cherry 2015
• Revision Path Podcast highlighting black creatives
• Recognize a design anthology featuring Indigenous people and people of color
• Inclusion & Exclusion resources from COMDTheory OER

Activities

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

1. Research Project Outline Due Next Week

Create a post with your Research Project Outline either as a link to a google doc or pasted into the body of the post. Come prepared to share it with the group. Use the Category: Research Project Outline in your post.

• Research Project Outline posts

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

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 emerged 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. NOTE: 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. NOTE: watch from 1:25:45 to 1:30:32

Paul Rand

Paul Rand was one of the most influential American graphic designers of the 20th century, known for the clear aesthetics that he adopted from European Modernism. Rand was prompted to write “Good Design Is Good Will” 1987 in response to what he considered poor design decisions from major corporations.

• The relationship between designer and client should be a reciprocal one, at the highest level of management.
• Neither the field of design nor that of marketing requires any accreditation, which can lead to the proliferation of poor design that does not work well.
• Design is “a calling” rooted in the “creative impulse of an individual” and “self-realization.” Thus designers must dedicate themselves to uncovering good ideas based on instinct, aesthetics, and taste.
• Contributions of good design build the reputation and integrity of a company, which in turn has a “cultural responsibility” to “help shape its environment” and to develop goodwill toward consumers.

Let’s read this Paul Rand interview by Steven Heller, 1989 together.

For more on Paul Rand

4. Assignment: Reading Response 6 (2+ Hours)

Follow the assignment guidelines and prompts for Reading Response 6  – – DUE Wednesday before the next class.

You will be reading and annotating essay an written by “Underground Mainstream” by Steven Heller, Design Observer, 2008.

Refer to Assignment: Reading Response 6 for prompts.

5. Discussion Post: Best & Worst Commercials

Add a comment with links to the Best & Worst Commercials in this post.

Resources

• Assignment: Reading Response 6
• Using Hypothesis
• Research Journal
• Grammarly
• Reading Response (Example) post

Week 7 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.

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