Cooper Hewitt Educational Program

HELVETICA GARAMOND FRUTIGER FUTURA TIMES NEW ROMAN FAGO

TYPOGRAPHY:

OUR VISUAL LANGUAGE UNIVERS FRANKLIN GOTHIC BASE AMPLITUDE TRIXIE TRINITÉ DIN LUCIDA MYRIAD EUROSTILE BLUR SYNTAX PALATINO BODONI SANS

MS 310: INTRO TO MUSEUM EDUCATION METHODS AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

DIDOT CASLON QUAY TRADE SANS GOTHIC AVENIR FLETCHER META MODERN MONOSPACE INDUSTRIA CLARENDON MILLER JUSTIN YEE ERAS ARIAL FRAKTUR FALL 2019 BODONI BANK GOTHIC ROTIS OCR

DESIGNER’S NOTE Title and Subhead: Cooper Hewitt (designed by Chester Jenkins) Body: Garamond Premier Pro SFSU Museum Studies Designed by Justin Yee 2019

TYPOGRAPHY: OUR VISUAL LANGUAGE MS 310: INTRO TO MUSEUM EDUCATION METHODS AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

JUSTIN YEE

0 TABLE OF CONTENTS

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0612 INTRODUCTION

LESSON PLANS

EVALUATION

WORKS CITED

■ Background ■ Program Objectives

■ Part One (Pre-Lesson) ■ Part Two (Museum Visit) ■ Part Three (Activity)

■ Post Program Survey Questions

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INTRO DUC TION Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum (https://www.cntraveler.com/activities/new-york/cooper-hewitt) MS 310

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s part of the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum’s mission to “educate, inspire, and empower people through design”1, the proposal for an educational program partnering with local school groups will serve to expand the museum’s mission to youth and school groups beyond the confines of the museum.

The proposed educational program will focus on the historical development and applications of typography as our modern visual language. The program will be in three parts where the students will first be introduced to typography and their design fieldtrip in their classrooms by a Design Educator from the Cooper Hewitt (Design educators are included in the program at no additional cost (https://www.cooperhewitt.org/education/ school-group-faqs/). Then, the students will head

to the Cooper Hewitt to look at selected works led by a museum educator. Finally, students will complete the program by participating in an in-class activity. This program is targeted for 8th grade school groups but can be adapted to early high schoolers interested in type and graphic design. Cooper Hewitt is the only museum in the United States dedicated to historical and contemporary design. The collections at Cooper Hewitt contains a wide collection of printed graphic arts material where much of it is accessible through the digital collection (https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/).

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The program revolves around a few key works from the Cooper Hewitt collection but can be altered so that the museum visit is not mandatory.

Because exposure to typography should not be limited to accessibility to the museum, the works chosen can also be viewed online through the museum’s digital collection. The aim of this program is to demonstrate the differences in typefaces and how they are used. The activities in this program will encourage the student’s ability to observe, discuss, and analyze elements of typography and design. All activities are designed to align with New York educational standards for the 8th grade.

The program is intended for classes containing 20 – 30 people and would take place during one weekday per week over a three-week period. If it is the teacher’s desire to plan the program over a three consecutive day period, then that can be arranged with the Design Educator and museum.

According to school group policies at Cooper Hewitt, one chaperone must accompany every ten children. The museum educator will be accompanied by a volunteer at the time of the museum visit. The timing of the tour at Cooper Hewitt can be arranged in consideration with the availability of both museum staff and chaperones.

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The program, titled 9 Typography: Our Visual Language, will consist of three major parts. The goal of which is to understand the development of typography through history and appreciate how it is used in graphic design.

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Part one involves the Design Educator visiting the classroom. The class will hear a brief introduction to how language is displayed on cuneiform tablets, the Gutenberg printing press, to billboards and posters. The presentation will have illustrated examples of each type application. Additionally, the class will break into small groups and analyze different typefaces. This pre-museum visit lesson will allow students to familiarize themselves with specific terminology as well as ask questions before seeing more typographic works in the next visit. It is important that the Design Educator breaks the class into small groups at some point in the lesson and hand each group a typographic example so that each group can get the chance to discuss and break down the elements of each design. The presentation is intended for 60 minutes including group discussions. It will utilize different New York State Educational Content Standards for English Language Arts and Visual Arts. To justify this three-part program, careful consideration is placed in making these activities align with educational standards.

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Part Two of this program involves students taking a field trip to the Cooper Hewitt. At the museum, students will be led by a museum educator that will tour and present a few typographic works (For those not able to make it to Cooper Hewitt, links to the selected works will be attached to the program). The museum educator will go over three works; one WWII propaganda poster, a poster using Helvetica, and a poster from the Summer of Love. While the tour is planned for 60 minutes, school groups can use the museum outdoor space to eat their lunch after the tour.

While on the tour, the museum educator should incoorporate questions into the presentation so that students can still remain active participants.

To plan for this program, a designated museum educator will be the lead point person where school groups can contact and arrange day-by-day details. If the program were to expand where the single museum educator could not be on site for the indicated day, other docents will need to be trained to lead the program tour.

For the success of educational programs at the Cooper Hewitt, evaluation is an important part of assessing program strengths and weaknesses.

An email evaluation form sent to the teacher including rich discussion throughout the tour can be indicators of success of the presentation.

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Part three of the program involves and in-class activity (90 minutes) where students will apply all that they have learned to create a typographic poster in the style of graphic artist, Albert Exergian. While this part of the program can be completed without a Design Educator, the class instructor should still begin this part of the program with a refresher about topics discussed at the museum and a short introduction to Exergian’s graphic style. Students will first think about what object and typeface they want to use for their posters. Then, they will sketch out a few ideas on how to illustrate their object. Once the student is confident with their final composition, they will use any word processing program like Google Docs or Microsoft Word to type out their words in the chosen typeface. Finally, using colored construction paper, the student will print the word on the page before using other pieces of colored paper to paste on their final poster.

Cooper Hewitt Sign (https://blog.masterdynamic.com/article/cooper-hewitt-design-museum-redesigned/) FALL 2019

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LESSON PLA NS MS 310

13 PART ONE: INTRO TO TYPOGRAPHY

GRADE LEVEL: 8 grade th

SUBJECT AREAS:

Visual Arts, English Language Arts

DURATION: 60 minutes

EDUCATION STANDARDS:

Visual Arts VA:Re7.2.8 Compare and contrast texts and media which viewers encounter images that influence ideas, emotions, and actions.

English Language Arts RST9 (6-8) Compare and contrast the information gained from two or more experiments, simulations, videos, multimedia sources, readings from texts, graphs, charts, etc. on the same topic.

OBJECTIVES: Students will be introduced to the development of typography from the printing press to how it is now used on signs, magazines, and the web.

While many students may be familiar with typefaces like Times New Roman or Helvetica, they will understand the typographic elements that dictate their personality and usage. Students will develop an appreciation of typography that will allow them to be inquisitive in thinking about what a certain typeface may be trying to convey or evoke.

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14 SCHEDULE:

Welcome and introduction (10 min) ■ Explain the three-part program as well as the topic that will be covered today ■ Ask if anyone knows what typography is and what are some typefaces that they are familiar with Presentation (25 min) Small Group Discussion (20 min) ■ Divide class into four groups and hand each group a printout of a type group (attatched in program) Closing (5 min) ■ Remind students of the museum visit and what to expect

KEY WORDS: Typography- The ability to express words and ideas visually Serif- A slight decoration finishing off a stroke of a letter in certain typefaces Sans Serif- A letterform that does not have extending features called “serifs” at the end of strokes Movable Type- Movable type is the system of printing and typography that uses movable components to reproduce the elements of a document usually on paper

3100 BC

1455 AD

1540

1725

1750

1791

Weight- The weight of a particular font is the thickness of the character relative to their height. A typeface may come in many weights, from ultra-light to extra-bold or black

Picturegraphs

Movable type

Garamond

Caslon

Baskerville

Bodoni

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15 BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

B

efore the printing of books and the use of printing press, scribes were individuals that recorded a large amount of texts, market transactions, recipes, rituals, and other histories by hand.

One of the earliest records of a writing system dates back to the Sumerians of ancient Babylonian. These clay tablets were recorded by wedged marks created from blunt reeds.2

WHAT IS TYPOGRAPHY? TYPE IS THE ABILITY TO EXPRESS WORDS AND IDEAS VISUALLY. Further-on in the 12th century, books were still scribed by hand by monks and scribes in monasteries. This process was tedious and labor-intensive as these hand calligraphed books often came as illuminated manuscripts with detailed illustrations and drawings. This process thus made volumes of books many years to complete.3

In the industrial revolution, advertising created a need for different typefaces. While these serif fonts were legible in smaller type sizes, another typeface was needed for larger print. This led to the invention of san serifs were letters were rid of their decorative edges on lines and curves.7 Letters were made taller and wider. In the 20th century, Paul Renner created a typeface called Futura that was based on simple shapes classified as geometric sans and Max Miedinger created Helvetica with many different weights.8 Weights are fonts in the same typeface but are manipulated in their thickness or width. For example, Helvetica comes in many different weights such as hairline, thin, regular, italic, bold, condensed, and extra-bold.

1930

1957

1961

Today, typography can be seen on ads, billboards, packaging, as well as the web and mobile devices.

The ability to create typefaces on the computer opens the doors for many designers to choose which font would work best for their projects.

1928

This remained a reality until Johannes Guttenberg invented the movable type on the printing press. Each letter was cut onto metal blocks and put in a matrix where it was then inked in pressed onto.4 This typeface was called Blackletter and was modeled after scripted writing. This typeface had thick verticals and thin horizontals that was modeled after how people wrote. However, it was difficult to read.

In the 18th century, inventions of old-style (Caslon), transitional (Baskerville), and modern (Didot and Bodoni) serif fonts were invented.5 These letters were inspired by lettering found on ancient Roman buildings and had straight lines and regular curves. These were very popular in Europe due to their legibility compared to the dense dark blackletter.6

Gill Sans

Futura

Helvetica

Univers

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16 LESSON QUESTIONS: What are typefaces and how did they originate?

What is the difference between a serif and sans serif font?

What brought the shift from the popular use of serifs to sans serif fonts?

EXTENSIONS: History of Type (Video) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOgIkxAfJsk History of Typefaces- Ellen Lupton http://thinkingwithtype.com/misc/type_lecture/Type_Lecture.pdf Type Classification- Ellen Lupton http://thinkingwithtype.com/letter/#type-classification

Thomas Phinney, “A Brief History of Typography,” A BRIEF HISTORY OF TYPOGRAPHY, accessed December 3, 2019, http://www.graphic-design.com/Type/history/index.html) 2-3.

Ben Barrett-Forrest, “The History of Typography - Animated Short,” YouTube (YouTube, April 28, 2013), http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOgIkxAfJsk)

4-8.

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PART ONE: SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION

Divide class into four groups. Assign each group a type classification.

Ask each group to look at the logos and analyze the colors and typefaces.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: ■ What are some unifying features of each typeface?

■ What do think the logo/ brand is trying to convey?

■ What challenges do you image this typeface would bring?

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18 GROUP 1: SLAB SERIF

GROUP 2: SANS SERIF

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19 GROUP 3: SCRIPT

GROUP 4: SERIF

Finding your “type”: Font psychology and typography inspiration in logo design (https://fabrikbrands.com/font-psychology-and-typography-inspiration-in-logo-design/)

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Slab serifs look like serifs, but have a slab decoration on the strokes. They envoke confidence, solidity, and boldness. Generally, they are used by companies that want to make a big statement with either a new innovative product or idea. Slab serifs are generally very legible and are able to grab the reader’s attention.

Some common slab serifs include Courier, Rockwell, and Museo.

02

Slab serifs are clean, modern and commonly used in advertising. They are used by brands that want a clean minimal brand messaging. There are no decroative elements that distract the message.

Often, you would find these brands on forward thinking technology and clothing companies.

Some common sans serifts include Arial, Helvetica, Century Gothic, Futura, Avenir, and Univers.

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Scripts are fancier than serif fonts. They are intended to feel fancy and envoke the sense of a hand-written nature. They are best used when companies want to have a more personalble feel and trust with their customers. Because of this, they are useful for brands that want to show off their history and creativity. While they can look fancy, one challenge of script fonts is that they may be hard to read.

Some common scripts are Lobster, Lucida Script, and Zapfino.

04

As being the most traditional font, serifs promote feelings of heritage and history. It makes a brand feel “established�. Due to this history, serif fonts carry feelings of rust and respectability. They are best used in sitautions of formality and companies that want to demonstrate their trustworthy nature. Businesses that use serifs fonts include financial, academic, and museums.

Some common serifs are Times New Roman, Georgia, and Garamond.

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22 PART TWO: COOPER HEWITT VISIT

GRADE LEVEL: 8 grade th

SUBJECT AREAS: Visual Arts

DURATION: 60 minutes

EDUCATION STANDARDS:

Visual Arts 8th VA: Cn11.1.8 a.

Through observation, infer information about the time, place, and culture in which a work of art or design was created.

Visual Arts 8th VA:Re9.1.8 a.

Create a convincing and logical argument to support an evaluation of art.

OBJECTIVES: Students will get the chance to visit the Cooper Hewitt Museum and see actual works of typographic arts. Students will leave with the ability to connect concepts learned in the classroom to real examples of typography used in the world.

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23 SCHEDULE: Arrive at Cooper Hewitt (10 min) ■ Check-in with museum educator lead ■ Put bags in carts provided at the museum Rules (5min) ■ Go over rules: no running, food or drink, raise your hand if you have a question, and discussion is encouraged Ask students what they remember from the previous lesson (5 min) ■ Review certain terms like typography, sans serif, and serif First Object (10 min) ■ Docent gives background information and integrates questions throughout Second Object (10 min) ■ Docent gives background information and integrates questions throughout Third Object (10 min) ■ Docent gives background information and integrates questions throughout Closing (10 min) ■ Ask students what some of their takeaways are and let a few students answer ■ Thank the students and teacher for visiting and mention groups can have their lunch in the outdoor space and continue looking at the rest of the exhibits for the remainder of the day

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FIRST OBJECT

Poster, UNITED; USA; Gift of Unknown Donor; 1987-24-27 https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18622275/

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BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

T

his is the first poster we will be looking at today. On the top is the word “United” and on the bottom is the word “The United Nations Stand for Freedom”. In the middle depicts ships and planes moving from the left to the right with flags flying above them.

This is an American propaganda poster created by the U.S Office of War Information. During World War II, the Americans used many different types of media such as books, magazines, posters, leaflets, comic books, movies, and newspapers.

What do we notice about the word “United”?

The aim of which was to drive the war effort and Give time for students to answer? encourage moral during war times.9 The word united is tucked behind the American flag and is almost floating in the air watching over the ships and planes from above. The type is a san serif typeface commonly used in advertising because it is clear and straightforward. The type is set in black or extra-bold as a way to show the stability of the United Nations. Masculine strength was a common theme in these posters as the military at that time was overwhelmingly dominated by men. The typeface reinforces the sterotypical masculine strength as a viewer can image the allies pushing into Nazi-occupied territories. If a thinner typeface were to be used, this could imply a weaker feeling; not the motive the United States is trying to expel.

Do you think these posters were viewed as artworks that were meant to be kept during WWII? Many of these posters were treated like advertisements and were mass-produced and distributed. They were posted on walls or government buildings. And just like advertisements, they were meant to be taken down and not viewed in the light of the art we know of today.

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SECOND OBJECT

Poster, I Pledge Allegiance to Helvetica (Typography), 1980; Designed by Nathan Felde; USA; H x W: 62.6 × 91.7 cm (24 5/8 × 36 1/8 in.); Gift of Various Donors; 1981-29-158 https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18617383/

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BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

T

his poster is designed by Nathan Felde, a Professor of Design in the Art + Design Department in the College of Arts, Media and Design at Northeastern University. The poster is predominantly black with white text that reads “I pledge allegiance to Helvetica and to the aesthetic for which it stands, one typography, sans serif, with sizes and weights for all?”.

Helvetica, designed in 1957 by Swiss designers Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann at the Haas type foundry was originally called Die Neue Haas Grotesk.10 It was created originally to have no meaning and present itself with a neutral impression. This was a reaction to pre-war Europe where advertisements were more decorative, script-like, and fancy.11 The sleek lines and sense of new modernity attracted many companies. Today, Helvetica is used in many brands that we are familiar with like American Apparel, American Airlines, Target, Crate & Barrel, Panasonic, and many more.

Lars Müller, a Norwegian designer who wrote a book about the font, has called Helvetica “the perfume of the city”. He writes that it has the versatility that,

What is Felde trying to communicate through this poster?

The typeface Helvetica is indicative of what many graphic designers associate as the most influential typeface. It works well at any size and any weight.

However, Felde questions this assumption by making the word “all” in a different typeface (serif). By simply changing the word “all” and using a question mark, he seems to suggest that Helvetica may not be the versatile and well-loved typeface that so many people love.

“WITH HELVETICA EXTRA LIGHT IF What typographic weights can you identify in YOU WANT TO BE REALLY FANCY … the poster?

WITH THE EXTRA BOLD IF IT’S REALLY INTENSIVE AND PASSIONATE”.11 Felde uses regular, bold, thin, italic, and extra This versatility was praised by many as being a typeface for the people, while others criticized it for the lack of personality as companies everywhere started using Helvetica for their personal logos and branding.

bold in different parts of the sentence.

Why is legibility important for typography?

Typefaces are still letters at the end of the day.

Ultimately, designers want to use effective typefaces so that they can clearly communicate their message to the audience they want to reach.

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THIRD OBJECT

Poster, Otis Rush & His Chicago Blues Band, Grateful Dead, The Canned Heat Blues Band at The Fillmore, 1967; Printed by West Coast Lithograph Co. ; offset lithograph on white wove paper; 57 × 34.9 cm (22 7/16 × 13 3/4 in.); Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Leslie J. Schreyer; 197934-28 https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18498001/

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BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

B

etween 1966 and 1968 Wes Wilson designed no less than 56 posters for the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco, commissioned by Bill Graham. 12 It may be hard to read but the text is advertising a few bands (Otis Rush & His Chicago Blues Band, Grateful Dead, The Canned Heat Bles) that are playing at the Fillmore in 1967. This poster design was common during the Summer of Love/hippie subculture in San Francisco at the time. This was a time when people came from all over the world to San Francisco in order to reject conservative social values as well as explore the sense of togetherness through community.13Art, music, dance, and fashion boomed in its recognizable uniqueness today.

What are your first impressions about this poster? What are some differences that you notice compared to the last two posters we saw?

The last two posters were much clearer in what they were trying to allude to. This one takes a while to figure out, let alone read the letters.

What do we notice about the typography in this poster?

The text is much harder to read; it looks more like part of the visual design and not letters. Compared to the WWII and Helvetica poster, there is a lot more movement and curves. The letters are wavy and almost fluid-like. The traditional requirements of legibility are thrown out as this alludes to the overall dissatisfaction with the establishment and social norms. This poster reinforces the term “psychedelic� that was first coined to describe this visual effect of hallucination and optical illusion. 13

How have concert advertising different today compared to when this poster was made?

Bands today while may still use posters, they are drastically different in design. Additionally, bands may advertise more on social media platforms like Facebook or Instagram instead of traditional print media.

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EXTENSIONS: WWII posters https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/171661 Power of Persuasion https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/powers-of-persuasion History of Helvetica https://imagine-express.com/the-history-of-helvetica/ Summer of Love Poster Design https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/celebrating-the-50th-anniversary-of-the-summer-of-love-with-seminal-psychedelic-posters/ Summer of Love https://theweek.com/captured/712354/secret-messages-san-franciscos-summer-love

Connor Foley, “An Analysis of American Propaganda in World War II and the Vietnam War.” (Bridgewater State University, 2015), pp. 9-11)

9.

WDD Staff, “The Simplicity of Helvetica,” Webdesigner Depot, February 7, 2018, http:// www.webdesignerdepot.com/2010/01/the-simplicity-of-helvetica/) 10.

Co.Design Staff, “How Helvetica Conquered The World With Its Cool, Comforting Logic,” Fast Company (Fast Company, July 9, 2018), http://www.fastcompany.com/1665881/ how-helvetica-conquered-the-world-with-its-cool-comforting-logic) 11.

“Poster, Otis Rush & His Chicago Blues Band, Grateful Dead, The Canned Heat Blues Band at The Fillmore, 1967,” Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, accessed December 5, 2019, https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18498001/)

12.

“What Was the Summer of Love?,” The Guardian (Guardian News and Media, May 26, 2007), http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2007/may/27/escape) 13.

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Reception Desk (http://fieldcondition.com/blog/2014/12/18/cooper-hewitt)

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32 PART THREE: IN THE STYLE OF ALBERT EXERGIAN

GRADE LEVEL: 8 grade th

SUBJECT AREAS: Visual Arts

DURATION: 90 minutes

EDUCATION STANDARDS:

Visual Arts 8th.VA:Cr2.1 Demonstrate willingness to experiment, innovate, and take risks to pursue ideas, forms, and meanings that emerge in the process of artmaking or designing.

Visual Arts 8th VA:Cr2.3.8a.

Select, organize, and design images and text to make visually clear and compelling artistic work.

OBJECTIVES: Having had the chance to see different types of typographic posters, students will create a poster of a word of their choice and illustrate the object of the word in the style of graphic artist Albert Exergian’s Iconic TV poster series. Through the project, students will explore the design process as well as understand how type can be a tool to help convey the object’s idea or personality.

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33 LESSON QUESTIONS: â– Why is the design process important for graphic designers and artists? â– How can typography help evoke a certain mood or feeling? â– What are the elements of minimal graphic design?

MATERIALS: Colored paper $17 for 200 sheets Glue $10 for 30 Sketching paper or white printer paper $12 for 500 sheets Pencils $7 for 36 Scissors $19 for 20 pack Total $65

KEY WORDS: Composition- Simple how things/elements are arranged on a page, composition can create movement, tension, stillness, or order.

Minimalism- Minimalist graphic design is a visual principle that reduces elements down to the most essential. Think about what is really important in your design and if it could achieve the same message if shapes, color, and composition could be simplified. Often working with less is more powerful.

Design Process- Graphic designers rarely finalize their idea on their first try.

They go through many iterations of sketching, prototyping, and refining. The important part about the process is that it allows you to quickly put down your ideas and see which works the best.

Color- Color plays an important part in graphic design. Think about how colors complement each other such as complementary colors like red and green and what they make you feel.

Contrast/scale- In graphic design, scale, and contrast are used to exaggerate a certain element of the design. Putting large text next to an image could make the text look larger than life as putting a small word by an image could make the text feel subtle or shy.

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SCHEDULE: -Selecting a typeface ■ Once students have a final idea/composition.

They will go on a computer and open a word processing program like Google Docs or Microsoft Word. Students will go through the typefaces provided in these programs and choose a word that reflects the feeling of their object.

Brief Review of Museum Trip (10 min)

■ Remind students of the three works they saw at the museum

Overview of Project (10 min)

■ Review examples of Albert Exergian’s Iconic

TV poster series. Ask them what they see and a common element through the works. Explain that these posters are of TV shows and have a humorous twist that is illustrated by the image. Explain that these images are abstracted through shape and color and are not detailed in shading or small shapes.

■ Explain that students will be creating a poster

that is based on this style. They will choose an object and corresponding word to illustrate and type out in their choosen typeface.

Studio Time (60 min) -Sketching ■ Have students first think about what object they want to use for this poster. Ask them to think about the simple shapes that that object is composed of. Encourage them to think about the simplified/minimal elements of the object focusing on the outline and form.

■ Once students have a few working ideas, ask

them to do some sketches on paper. These sketches are not finals and are used to flush out any ideas or compositions. Make sure students do not get too detailed in their drawings.

■ Students can play with the placement of the

word by having it flush left, flush right, centered, bottom of page, middle of page, or top of the page. They can also play with font size as well as different parts of the type family such as roman, bold, italic, thin, or extra-bold.

■ With the assistance of the teacher, students will choose a colored paper of their choice and load it in the printer and print their word.

■ On a small piece of white printer paper, have the students record the name of the typeface that they choose. (This will be displayed in conjunction to the final poster at the end of the activity)

-Cut shapes to create illustration ■ Once the word is printed onto the paper, students can start to collect pieces of colored paper and begin cutting pasting them on the word printed paper to create their illustration.

■ As students progress from the sketch, remind

them they do not need to stick to the sketch exactly. The sketch is only a guidepost, but they are encouraged to explore different compositions while in the process of designing.

-Clean up

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35 Gallery Walk/Discussion (10 min) -Gallery Walk ■ Have students place their final compositions and the small piece of white paper indicating the name of the typeface they used on the table and have them walk around the room observing what their classmates made. While this is happening, ask students to notice what words other students choose and what typefaces they used. If two people used the same typeface, ask them if there are any similarities or differencees in how the typeface is used.

-Class Discussion Questions ■ What are some common elements you notice in some of the posters?

■ How and why did you choose the particular typeface for your poster?

■ What particular part of the design process was particularly frustrating?

■ If you could do this again, what would you do differently?

Design in the Classroom (https://www.dezeen.com/2015/10/20/design-in-the-classroom-programme-crowdfunding-cooper-hewittsmithsonian-design-museum-new-york-city-usa/) FALL 2019

36 BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

G

raphic Designer Albert Exergian, known for his minimal graphic style of the Iconic TV poster series, uses simple shapes, clean icons, and block colors to create the well-known iconographic work.

These posters illustrate an image from the TV series that is often elusive to those who may not have watched the show.

well as the clean style of Swiss graphic designers like Armin Hofmann, Josef MĂźller-Brockmann and Emil Ruder.14 Shapes are reduced to a simple outline and take up a large portion of the composition. The type (sans serif) is much smaller and is placed in the top left corner.

Exergian fuses punk style with Swiss Modernism by using the cut and paste method of punk gig flyers as

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Exergian Iconic TV poster series (https://www.exergian.com/iconic-tv.html)

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SAMPLE OF ACTIVITY SKETCHES:

CHOOSING A TYPEFACE:

YOLK

yolk

Basic Gothic Pro

Futura PT

YOLK

YOLK Hoosier Daddy

Poleno

yolk

YOLK

Gopher

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FINAL POSTER:

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EXTENSIONS: Albert Exergian’s Website https://www.exergian.com/ Iconic TV Posters Series https://www.exergian.com/iconic-tv.html Exergian Background Information and Interview https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/moving-images-the-art-of-alternative-posters-is-now-showing-everywhere-8504068.html

Holly Williams, “Moving Images: The Art of Alternative Posters Is Now Showing,” The Independent (Independent Digital News and Media, February 23, 2013), http:// www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/moving-images-the-art-of-alternative-posters-is-now-showing-everywhere-8504068.html) 14.

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EVAL UA TION FALL 2019

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As the Cooper Hewitt’s mission is to inspire people through design, evaluating school programs is important to see if the institution meets its mission.

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eedback from teachers and students are always welcomed to improve the program for future classes. At the end of the program, teachers will be mailed an evaluation form for the whole three-part program. The teacher will evaluate the programs on three areas: lesson structure, design, and overall experience. If possible, the teachers can also ask the class for their overall opinions in the questions indicated on the next page.

This three-part program could easily be applied to any topic related to the museum’s collections. It is important to have an introductory presentation given in the classroom so students are prepared on the topic at hand.

If the museum has available classroom space on the day of the class visit, then the museum educator can make the decision with the teacher to finish the last part of the program in the space. One limitation of this program is that this museum visit would only be assessable to those near and close to the museum.

With more time and a greater budget, this program can be expanded so that students can create their own personalized business cards and typeface. Sensitives on school budgets are a concern so that this project can be accomplished with materials either found already in the classroom or could be easily purchased for little cost.

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44 POST PROGRAM SURVEY QUESTIONS What is Design Thinking (https://designthinkingformuseums.net/what-is-design-thinking/)

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45 LESSON STRUCTURE ■ Does each program reflect the learning and educational goals?

■ Are the program instructions clear to follow?

■ Did the students participate throughout the discussions in both the classroom and in the museum? If not, were the questions clear enough to follow?

■ Is there adequate background information provided to the teacher to be comfortable with leading the lessons?

DESIGN

■ Are the activities interesting and challenging enough for the indicated age group? If not, what could be improved?

■ What were some difficulties with the activities?

■ Were the works seen at the Cooper Hewitt appropriate in helping

students create their own posters from the third part of the program?

OVERALL EXPERIENCE ■ Was the museum education coordinator helpful throughout the program planning process?

■ Were the design educators helpful and knowledgeable when giving their presentations?

■ Does the trip to the Cooper Hewitt and the works seen provide the needed framing to contextualize the project?

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WORKS CITED MS 310

47 “About Cooper Hewitt.” Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum. Smithsonian Design Museum, September 20, 2018. https://www.cooperhewitt.org/about-cooper-hewitt/.

Barrett-Forrest, Ben. “The History of Typography - Animated Short.” YouTube. YouTube, April 28, 2013. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOgIkxAfJsk. Foley, Connor. Bridgewater State University, 2015.

Phinney, Thomas. “A Brief History of Typography.” A BRIEF HISTORY OF TYPOGRAPHY. Accessed December 3, 2019. http://www.graphic-design.com/Type/history/index.html.

“Poster, Otis Rush & His Chicago Blues Band, Grateful Dead, The Canned Heat Blues Band at The Fillmore, 1967.” Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Accessed December 5, 2019. https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18498001/.

Staff, Co.Design. “How Helvetica Conquered The World With Its Cool, Comforting Logic.” Fast Company. Fast Company, July 9, 2018. http://www.fastcompany.com/1665881/how-helvetica-conquered-the-world-with-its-cool-comforting-logic.

Staff, WDD. “The Simplicity of Helvetica.” Webdesigner Depot, February 7, 2018. http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2010/01/the-simplicity-of-helvetica/.

“What Was the Summer of Love?” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, May 26, 2007. http:// www.theguardian.com/travel/2007/may/27/escape.

Williams, Holly. “Moving Images: The Art of Alternative Posters Is Now Showing.” The Independent. Independent Digital News and Media, February 23, 2013. http://www.independent.co.uk/ arts-entertainment/art/features/moving-images-the-art-of-alternative-posters-is-now-showing-everywhere-8504068.html.

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