"You can be anywhere when your life begins."
Millman has been in the design business for 25 years. She is a Partner and President of the Design division at Sterling Brands, one of the leading brand identity firms in the country. Debbie is a board member of the National AIGA, and teaches at the School of Visual Arts and Fashion Institute of Technology. She is also an author on the design blog Speak Up, a regular contributor to Print Magazine and she hosts a weekly internet radio talk show on the Voice America Business network titled Design Matters. Her first book, "How To Think Like A Great Graphic Designer," was published by Allworth Press in 2007; her second, "Essential Principles of Graphic Design," was published by Rotovision in 2008, and a book of illustrated essays titled "Look Both Ways" will be published in the Fall.
Design Matters was nominated as BEST PODCAST in the 2009 Blogger's Choice Awards! According to the site, the Blogger's Choice Awards are the most popular user-generated blog voting site on the planet! Design Matters airs live weekly on the Voice America Business Network, now the industry leader in Internet talk radio. The show was voted a "favorite podcast" on PSFK's Marketing Podcast survey and it was voted 9th out of over 300 entries for the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum’s People’s Choice Award in 2007. The show is also available as Podcasts on iTunes, where over 100,000 people download the show every month.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Sunday, April 12, 2009
TED
I found all of the videos I watched very informative. I first watched Paula Scher: Great Design is Serious (not solemn). In this, she talked about how we should be serious, not solemn, with our work. Being serious happens when we are at play and accidents happen that may form an imperfect and flawed product. However, solemn design occurs when something is socially acceptable and 'perfect.' Scher found that the times she has been happiest are when she is creating serious design, for example when she had projects that she was completely unqualified for and was experimenting.
I thought this was a great talk because she really explains how great experimentation is, especially when we are young.
The next video I viewed was by David Carson on Design, Discover, and Humor. His main focus was on looking at the message behind the text or the image, the expression that is felt before you analyze the material. Because design is not a life threatening career, we can experiment, have fun, and put ourselves into the work. Some of my favorite examples were;
1. Cigarette campaign posters: "Cigarettes shrink dicks" if cigarette companies can lie so can we.
2. Restroom symbols
3. Placed an article in dingbats because it was boring
The final video I watched was Don Norman: Three ways that good design makes you happy.
There were three principles that he followed: visceral, behavioral, and reflective. Viewers will subconsciously buy products because for visceral and behavioral reasons. For example, they will buy it for the packaging, not the products itself, or because it makes them feel like they have control. Norman described the reflective category as that little voice inside your head, and people often purchase things for the image it gives off, not because they actually like it.
He also talked about how when you are happy, it is much easier to do out of the box brainstorming and work comes easily. However, because work must be completed, deadlines are set. This deadline acts as fear, affecting how the brain works by making you focus.
His direct example of this was when we have large brainstorming sessions in class and we 'love' everything in the beginning. After that stage however, we start to apply the 'fear.'
I thought this was a great talk because she really explains how great experimentation is, especially when we are young.
The next video I viewed was by David Carson on Design, Discover, and Humor. His main focus was on looking at the message behind the text or the image, the expression that is felt before you analyze the material. Because design is not a life threatening career, we can experiment, have fun, and put ourselves into the work. Some of my favorite examples were;
1. Cigarette campaign posters: "Cigarettes shrink dicks" if cigarette companies can lie so can we.
2. Restroom symbols
3. Placed an article in dingbats because it was boring
The final video I watched was Don Norman: Three ways that good design makes you happy.
There were three principles that he followed: visceral, behavioral, and reflective. Viewers will subconsciously buy products because for visceral and behavioral reasons. For example, they will buy it for the packaging, not the products itself, or because it makes them feel like they have control. Norman described the reflective category as that little voice inside your head, and people often purchase things for the image it gives off, not because they actually like it.
He also talked about how when you are happy, it is much easier to do out of the box brainstorming and work comes easily. However, because work must be completed, deadlines are set. This deadline acts as fear, affecting how the brain works by making you focus.
His direct example of this was when we have large brainstorming sessions in class and we 'love' everything in the beginning. After that stage however, we start to apply the 'fear.'
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Arne Jacobsen
Arne Jacobsen (1902-1971) Jacobsen was a Danish architect most famous for is number seven chair created in 1955. In fact, this one chair has become the most important success in Danish furniture history - manufactured in more than 5 million copies. Jacobsen studied architecture at the Royal Danish Academy of Arts. After graduating, he worked at an architecture firm for Paul Holsoe. He later started his own firm, which he ran until his death in 1971. However, he did not focus solely on architecture, he worked independently as an architect, interior, furniture, textile and ceramics designer.
Jacobsen designed first on paper, moved to plaster or cardboard models, and then to the final product. His work reflects his architecture background, focusing on organic forms and the use of the circle, cylinder, triangle, and cubus. His best known projects are St. Catherine´s College, Oxford, and the SAS Hotel, Copenhagen.
In 1928 he received the Academy's gold medal, but prior to this, when only 23, he was awarded a silver medal at the 1925 Paris World Exhibition - the first of numerous honours that became a natural accompaniment to his artistic activities, his untiring search and his brilliant conceptions, made manifest by many successes in competitions at home and abroad.
I was drawn to Arne because of his unique chair designs. I love the organic nature of these simple forms. He also designs architecture and all of the interior elements. I found this to be quite interesting, for it makes it feel more unified. Within his buildings he designs not only the chairs, but items like lamps and even silverware.
I know online images are banned, but I just wanted to show a quick sampling of his work
1. Long Live Modernism by Massimo Vignelli
-Improve design of everything to make it better, designing its integrity of purpose, materials, and the manufacturing process.
-Sifting through a range of solutions to find the perfect one that fits this specific problem
-Modernism is the search for truth, the search for an enrichment of the mind and the movement away from commercialization and exploitation. The ideal of a Utopian world is what originally back this movement, and though unrealistic, the idea of having a timeless value is what influences individuals.
I thought this article reflected a value that the next two articles seem to have overlooked. Having a timeless quality to work is always important, no matter what the current design fab may be. Also, really focusing on a perfect solution that solves the problem is something that everyone can understand.
2. RETHINKING MODERNISM, REVISING FUNCTIONALISM
-During her undergraduate she worked toward and Industrial Design degree and was inspired by form follows function. Conceptualizing design solutions until you had an 'ah ha' moment was the focus. After graduation, her job lead her to Swiss design and the discipline of the clean, clear grid. She embraced this style and ran with it using it over and over for a few years. However, this style was eventually replaced by a more modern look, the New Wave. No matter what her style, functionalism was the base of every process, including the analysis of the audience and the message.
This concept of functionalism being the bass of every project is instilled in us from day one of freshmen year. No matter what the style or project, it is meeting the needs of the client and the functionality of the product are the greatest concerns. Once idenified, the creative process, or form, begins.
3. On Overcoming Modernism by Lorraine Wild
-As we move away and experiment outside of the principles of Modernism, there is a struggle to identify the basic principles and rules that graphic design stands on. Describing what 'good' design is becomes a difficult question.
-"'Design is communication'. 'Design is problem solving'. One hears these clichés repeated endlessly, the mantra of the graphic designers stuck in the denial and anger phases of mourning for a time when we thought that the values by which we lived and defined ourselves made sense in the larger world."
-We need to detach the notion of functionalism from Modernism, for it is solved by a series of actions, not by a movement.
-The current technology has disrupted the basic identity of graphic design because all the process, type, layout, form, and print, are merged into one.
-Availability of products has allowed anyone to practice graphic design, creating a shift in curriculum. This makes designers nervous because clients may not have the need to hire a designer if they can find a suitable solution with stock images or a team member who is familiar with design programs. Furthermore, the public criticism of design is always a point of dispute
This was my favorite article because it talked about a lot of issues that we have addressed. First, it became evident in Type I during our presentations on different time periods and their influences, that our current era did not have a defined 'look'. This could be due to several reasons, many of which were mentioned in this article. With the availability of design programs reaching almost everyone, there are now more designers than there have been in history. With this and the shift from Modernism comes the confusion of what 'good' design is. With these issues, especially the availability, continuing in the future, I thought the following quote put a bright outlook on the future and makes it less scary to work in this changing time.
"The inability to describe a set of universal formal guidelines for 'good' graphic design should not be seen as a handicap (even if it often feels like one). This condition offers us a 'window of opportunity' in which we may be able to address some of those other issues."
-Improve design of everything to make it better, designing its integrity of purpose, materials, and the manufacturing process.
-Sifting through a range of solutions to find the perfect one that fits this specific problem
-Modernism is the search for truth, the search for an enrichment of the mind and the movement away from commercialization and exploitation. The ideal of a Utopian world is what originally back this movement, and though unrealistic, the idea of having a timeless value is what influences individuals.
I thought this article reflected a value that the next two articles seem to have overlooked. Having a timeless quality to work is always important, no matter what the current design fab may be. Also, really focusing on a perfect solution that solves the problem is something that everyone can understand.
2. RETHINKING MODERNISM, REVISING FUNCTIONALISM
-During her undergraduate she worked toward and Industrial Design degree and was inspired by form follows function. Conceptualizing design solutions until you had an 'ah ha' moment was the focus. After graduation, her job lead her to Swiss design and the discipline of the clean, clear grid. She embraced this style and ran with it using it over and over for a few years. However, this style was eventually replaced by a more modern look, the New Wave. No matter what her style, functionalism was the base of every process, including the analysis of the audience and the message.
This concept of functionalism being the bass of every project is instilled in us from day one of freshmen year. No matter what the style or project, it is meeting the needs of the client and the functionality of the product are the greatest concerns. Once idenified, the creative process, or form, begins.
3. On Overcoming Modernism by Lorraine Wild
-As we move away and experiment outside of the principles of Modernism, there is a struggle to identify the basic principles and rules that graphic design stands on. Describing what 'good' design is becomes a difficult question.
-"'Design is communication'. 'Design is problem solving'. One hears these clichés repeated endlessly, the mantra of the graphic designers stuck in the denial and anger phases of mourning for a time when we thought that the values by which we lived and defined ourselves made sense in the larger world."
-We need to detach the notion of functionalism from Modernism, for it is solved by a series of actions, not by a movement.
-The current technology has disrupted the basic identity of graphic design because all the process, type, layout, form, and print, are merged into one.
-Availability of products has allowed anyone to practice graphic design, creating a shift in curriculum. This makes designers nervous because clients may not have the need to hire a designer if they can find a suitable solution with stock images or a team member who is familiar with design programs. Furthermore, the public criticism of design is always a point of dispute
This was my favorite article because it talked about a lot of issues that we have addressed. First, it became evident in Type I during our presentations on different time periods and their influences, that our current era did not have a defined 'look'. This could be due to several reasons, many of which were mentioned in this article. With the availability of design programs reaching almost everyone, there are now more designers than there have been in history. With this and the shift from Modernism comes the confusion of what 'good' design is. With these issues, especially the availability, continuing in the future, I thought the following quote put a bright outlook on the future and makes it less scary to work in this changing time.
"The inability to describe a set of universal formal guidelines for 'good' graphic design should not be seen as a handicap (even if it often feels like one). This condition offers us a 'window of opportunity' in which we may be able to address some of those other issues."
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