Tasks Due Today from Week 11
- Work toward the next Research Project Presentation milestone
- Completed the Art of Noticing task
Check-in (5 min)
Some things to note:
- Assignments List is here.
- Schedule updated for reference.
- Here’s a fun open call for poems inspired by or written totally in emoji. Send your submissions to sschmerler@citytech.cuny.edu. The accepted poems (visual or written) will be displayed in the Library showcase.
Freewrite – The Art of Noticing (15 min)
Prompt: In your language of choice, write continuously in your notebook for 10 minutes about what you noticed this week when completing the task. Don’t edit, or correct, don’t stop, just write. Feel free to share or not.
This week’s task brought to you by Jonathan:
WRITE A LETTER TO A STRANGER
Spend some time thinking about the strangers you encounter. To whom might you write a letter, and what might you say? “Stranger” can include people you’ve encountered regularly without really knowing: a friendly cashier, a memorable waiter, a guard at your bank… Actually delivering the letter isn’t important. But writing it is important. Be alert to the stranger who might accidentally inspire you.
ART OF NOTICING
Next Week’s Prompt by Faariah :
APPLY THE SLANT METHOD
Develop a “sustained attention muscle” by applying the SLANT method. This handy mental checklist can be used when in converstation or in a class to stay focused, foster deeper engagment, and improve mental processing. It’s also demonstrates kindness and respect.
Sit up
Lean forward
Ask/answer questions
Nod your head
Track the speaker
ART OF NOTICING
Activities
Below, find the information covered in this session. Complete all of the following activities, videos, and assignments.
1. Research Project Feedback (10 min)
Add a comment to this post with a draft of your research project presentation. Find a partner and arrange to give feedback on each other’s work over the break.
Review the following milestones:
- Week 8: Define your research topic/question and submit your Research Project Outline
- Week 9: Finalize your topic and start collecting supporting media and sources in an annotated bibliography
- Week 10: Complete your Slideshow/Presentation outline and script based on your research
- Week 11/12:Â Finalize your research, supporting media and sources. Assemble all graphics and text in a slideshow, record first draft of presentation
- Week 13: Share in-progress slideshow presentation with voiceover, get feedback from peers and professor, finalize annotated bibliography
- Week 14: Post Presentation to OpenLab site – follow the guidelines
- Week 14/15: Review Research Project Presentations in class.
- Week 15: Submit one comment on each of your classmates’ presentations
2. Influences + Lineages: JoaquĂn Torres GarcĂa’s Constructive Universalism (10 min)
Latin American geometric abstraction united international principles of modernist abstraction with local cultural traditions… It also served as an ideological tool for both Latin American artists and nation-states to signal a break with traditional art styles—associated with their colonial past—and to assert a new, modern, and often utopian industrialized future.
JoaquĂn Torres-GarcĂa was inspired by De Stijl’s emphasis on the grid and Constructivism’s geometry, as well as what he believed to be the “universalism” of nonobjective art—in other words, he believed that geometric abstraction, which does not depict recognizable figurative imagery, could be visually understood across all cultures.
GEOMETRIC ABSTRACTION IN SOUTH AMERICA, AN INTRODUCTION
BY DR. GILLIAN SNEED
3. Influences + Lineages: The Bauhaus & New Typography (10 min)
The Bauhaus assimilated many of the ideas from the Dutch De Stijl Movement and Russian Constructivism, such as the utopian idea that design will make the world a better place; that it will transform society for a better way of life for all citizens; and that artists and craftspeople will work together through the use of technology and industrialization. The goals of universal design, rejection of authorship, and focus on social responsibility are present in this movement.
Key ideas/concepts
Some of the main tenets of the Bauhaus are still followed today in the field and in design schools across the globe.
- A designer should strive for the highest quality and craftmanship modeled by order, geometry, and clear, refined typography.
- Less is more. Excess ornament or information is unnecessary to communicate a message or to function.
- Form follows function. Design should be functional. It should be organized and follow a clear hierarchy for clear communication.
- The use of technology and mass production of good design supports equality. If something is designed with simple forms can be accessible to everyone.
Jan Tschichold, a German typographer, was influenced by the Bauhaus and wrote his seminal book The New Typography, which brought his ideas to the printing industry. His theories became many of the rules and guidelines for simple, reproducible systems that we still use today.
For a quick review, let’s watch Graphic Design History sections Bauhaus 1 , Bauhaus 2, New Typography on LinkedIn Learning or in the YouTube video to refresh your knowledge of the Bauhaus and New Typography.
3. Influences + Lineages: Universal Typography & Swiss / Typographic Style (10 min)
“The Swiss Style created a sea change in design, and helped earn designers a kind of professional status separate from artists.”
Margaret Rhodes The Swiss Designers Breaking Tradition
An evolution of influences from the Constructivists, De Stijl, New Typography, and the Bauhaus led to the mainstream adoption of the modernist International Typographic Style or Swiss Style in the mid-20th Century and beyond.
These designers and movements changed the way typography is used. Today we may use typography, not just to communicate information or data, but as a compositional element to communicate a tone, feeling, or idea.
The pioneers of the Swiss/International Style, spread their systematic approach to design across Europe and America. Their work aimed to achieve a universal method for visual communication.
The typographic tools for layout and typography that we use today in Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, etc. grew out of the structured grid and typographic methods of the Swiss Style. Web and interface design also rely on the grid for clear communication.
Watch the Graphic Design History section on Swiss Typography on LinkedIn Learning or in the YouTube video (1:21:57 to 1:25:45) to refresh your knowledge of this movement.
Header text
4. Moderism Design Legacy (10 min)
The Swiss Style / International Typographic Style (and the modernist aesthetic in general) reaches its height in the 1950s and 1960s. In America, it transforms corporate advertising.
The ultimate Swiss Style typeface “Helvetica” was designed in 1957. It became a hallmark of the International Typographic Style and one of the most popular typefaces of the mid-20th century. It’s legacy is still felt in many of the brands and everyday signage we see all around us.
Confoederatio Helvetica = Switzerland (in Latin)
Today we have multiple modes and methods of instant, mass “universal” communication. Consider the thousands of short, concise messages, images, or videos we send via social media; what about the lack of subtlety and tone in email, text, or emojis?
Do our new technologies and universal methods of visual communication improve our ability to communicate truthfully, accurately, and effectively?
5. Designer’s Cookbook: Influences + Lineages (30 min)
The graphic styles and visual vocabulary from Bauhaus, New Typography, and Swiss/International Style had significant influence on the field of design and design education. These influences still linger in the work we see today.
Take Notice: As we explore the next steps in our design lineage, let’s take a look at some of your influences in your Design Cookbook posts. See if you can find the influences from the Bauhaus, New Typography and Swiss International Style.
When examining your influences, do any of the following apply?
- Technological Change
- Authorship vs Anonymity
- Universal vs Personal/Cultural/Political
- Social Responsibility vs Social Detachment
The goal here is for you to discover your own aesthetic lineages. Why are you drawn to one visual aesthetic over another? What are the ingredients (influences) that make up your visual style?
6. Assignment: Designer’s Cookbook Week 12
Together let’s make a Designer’s Cookbook. Each week write a post about an artist, designer, musician, scientist, philosopher, or movement. And with example images, demonstrate how they are part of your design lineage and see if you can connect them to other art/design lineages!
Were you inspired by any of the designers or movements we discussed this week?
If yes, dive a little deeper and identify which and why. Write about them in relation to your own work, design aesthetic, or creative ideology . See if you can locate visual lineages or connections in your own work.
If no, introduce us to a designer, artist, musician, scientist, philosopher, writer, or movement (etc) that has influenced your work, design aesthetic, or creative ideology. Include images of your work and theirs for comparison and demonstrate how they are part of your design lineage.
Create a post called Designer’s Cookbook Week 12 – YourInitials (or whatever title works for you)
Add the category Designer’s Cookbook.
Week 12 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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