TABLE OF CONTENTS Doyald Young 1-2
REPONDEZ!
Helvetica 3-4 Artist series 5-6 Marian Bantjes 7-8
Jayeon Choi Art & Copy 9-10 Margo chase 11-12 Kit Hinrichs 13-14
1 Doyald Young is first and foremost an attentive and elegant man. His attentiveness shows in his voice, the way he talks slowly, considering the undulations and nuances in each word. At one point, I closed my eyes and and felt that his voice was that of a narrator in some potential and quicky romantic comedy movie, where the main female character makes mistakes as a hobby, and this voice - his voice - is a guide. This sensibility can be directly seen in his hands, carving out the form and skin of each letter.
DOYALD YOUNG
I saw myself relating to him in many ways, and also noticed myself watching and listening in awe at how someone can be so creative while maintaining that calm and collected composure. Like him, I have an obsession with words and writing. Drawing out emotions in people by stringing words together is something I love experimenting with and workin gon in my spare time. (But I am not nearly as articulate as him when it comes to speaking.) Writing and communicating requires time and an astute attention and I saw exactly that in his craft with how he treats his letters. Although I just recently started my journey in typography, I have already heard a number of times that typography is all about the small, detailed changes, and that each change should introduce another set of changes or tweaks. Listening and getting a glimpse at Young and his process, I could tell how one project in the area of typography field can be justifyingly described as an endless and continual process.
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This documentary had many voices. In a way, this is why I felt a little bit overwhelmed by this movie. It had so much to offer that was both historical and opinion-based information. It was a constant firing of all kinds of information. Again, like the Doyald Young video, this documentary reminded me of how tedious and detail-oriented typography is. The tedious aspect is actually what draws me in. I was always the type to do a lot of detailed work. Whether I’m cleaning or editing my own work, I always make sure I have everything done the way I think is correct and attractive to me. It’s satisfying to know what I’ve done is a product of time well spent.
It was also interesting to see how a single type face could stir up so much passionate support and just as much, dissent. The more “Helvetica” appeard on the screen, the more I realized just how diverse it is in its use.
I get kicks out of looking at type. It’s a little worrying, I admit, but it’s a very nerdish thing to do.
There was a point in the video where I asked myself “Is Helvetica really an unbiased type face, or did the mass use of this type face make it the go-to type face to use?” I picked a favorite among all the typographers and designers that were shown in this video: Erik Spiekermann. Spiekermann just had such an animated and convincing way of workding his sentences. His expressions were very quirky.
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Milton Glaser was especially calm and subtly inspiring in his outlook on design.
Artist Series Series Series
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This compilation of artist views was interesting to watch, mainly because all of the designers had such infectious personalities. Here are the two I felt most drawn to.
He viewed design in a family-like view of creating work so that it can be shared. By sharing work, it decreased the “likelihood of killing eachother”. It was such a poetic way of looking at the world of design, almost as if creating another subculture of people that anyone can be a part of. He went even further to inspire me with his belief that being able to sustain an interest in what you do makes you a special person. I am not naive to think that this passion I have now for design will have the same allure for me later on. I know that there will be times when I wonder why I chose to do something that requires all my energy all the time. I just hope I can always find my way back to it whenever I lose my grasp. Another designer’s view that I found refreshing was James Victore’s. When I first saw the hang man and distressed brush strokes introducing his segment, I was thinking, “here’s a sensitive one.” But when he started talking about graphic design and how it is most powerful when the subject is social-political and has its source grounded in something personal, I realized how true that could be. People can spend, and do spend long
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Marian Bantjes is heartfelt. Personal. Sincere.
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So if you asked me what’s different about her from other designers, I’d ask you to read the first three statements again. Bantjes spoke to me quite deeply because I am personally someone who tries to evoke any kind of feeling out of my audience. I have a blog that I keep up. I always write from the heart, and because of that, my writing can bring out emotions in my audience. Some hate what I make them realize, some judge me for being too in-sync with my own feelings and opinions. I guess it’s acceptable considering the generation that I live in. Most people have lost the ability to feel. When Marian Bantjes said she wants to evoke wonder, she’s achieved it without a doubt. She leaves her personal footprint in her works whether it’s the actual text she writes, or the illustrations she creates in her work. She’s essentially showing who she is in her work, something that is generally unorthodox in the graphic design field. Many people think that graphic design is a detachment of one’s personal self in order to communicate to a wide and general audience. The fact that Marian Bantjes can fuse personal instances and experiences with good communication. It is very apparent that she is heartfelt with her work, and quite honestly, a genius to be so articulate and warm with her delivery.
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ART & COPY COPY
Probably one of the more interesting documentaries I’ve seen, Art & Copy is a quirky movie that follows the careers of people in the advertising industry. The director of the movie definitely picked and chose the more quirky companies and people to follow. It showed an ecclectic group of people, where I got to see the bombastic and wild personality of George Lois who wants everything done with an extreme sort of design aesthetic; and then there’s the reflective calm composure of Lee Clow among others represented.
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It’s always interesting to see work done by other people, but it’s inspiring to see how they work and how they get inspiration. One of the scenes that I remember is the segment showing the Wieden and Kennedy Portland Office. The space was similar to that of a playground with large open spaces and even a nice touch with the basketball court. I think a working space like that would inspire a lot more ideas because you’re not restricted to a certain setting. This reminded me a lot of my experience in Korea this past summer when I worked in a fashion studio as their graphic designer and translator. The studio called their place the Playground with a capital P. Interestingly enough, I always felt like I was rushed and spitting out ideas that were picked based on which one was the ‘least worst’. That is another thing that I realized design was. It’s about coming up with solutions while acknolwedging the reality of time chasing after you.
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MARGO CHASE
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As a designer who’s worked for big name companies like Starbucks and Target, Margo Chase is fluent in her design language. Her earlier works were described as “gothic” by the public, to which she found slightly surprising. She responded to this saying that she believes design is all about taking raw materials and transforming them into something beautiful. When I see her work, I see a variety of styles, really showing her ability to be flexible, and naturally, creative. She uses a very disciplined approach to all her projects. In a specific arena of design, branding, she follows a step-by-step process that is as imperative as the actual result. She first delves into the client in order to understand him or her on all applicable levels. She tries to get an idea of the consumers’ wants and needs. An interesting aspect of this personalization is the act of creating a persona in this process. She creates one person that will
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ideally represent the entire population of interest. This process combines the emotional and visual expression in the interest of the consumer. Another technique that she uses is the style guide, in the instance a developed company needs a pool of directional ideas in order to create consumer products. In this case, the designer is not directly involved in the application of the ideas. Chase essentially desconstructs logos in order to re-express them in different styles. As expected, it is vital that these ideas are versatile as they can be applied to anything from cups to larger scale objects. Chase is also adept at using materials that are more of a traditional way of approaching design. Even though she is aware of the technology available to her, Chase knows that some traditional methods are not reconstructable in the newer technology. Organic designs are something she appreciate and enjoys delving in.
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A sensitive designer is always creating meaningful work, and Kit Hinrichs is a representative of such a figure. As a storyteller, Kit Hinrichs is sincere in his process and goal of communicating information. Just as his beard is iconic of him, so is his work. Typography is very much a big part of his work because he sees it as art, not just an element of art. His inspiration really came from his time in Europe and the various ways he saw it being utilized. He even directly translated this into a well-known poster, where his face is reconstructed through the use of typography to create a cohesive and illustrated image. Perhaps this is where Hinrichs’ interest in faces came about. He works with images of people’s faces a lot, and came to a realization that the interpretation and the stylization of that face is what makes it different and fresh. It is the starting point of a story. Hinrich is a storyteller with a set goal in mind. This goal is to effectively communicate with people who are and are not familiar with the design aesthetic. He finds that this is a creative way to transfer information. I actually do believe it is a creative and smart way of conveying information because that’s how all stories are passed down from generation to generation; it’s a natural and world-wide understandable ‘medium’ of sharing information. This sensibility can also be seen in his almost border-line obsession with objects that he is actually quite proud to admit. His collection of American flags represents his wisdom and appreciation of the history and classical foundation of this country. His collection isn’t just a mindless accumulation of similar objects, but is essentially the accumulation of the quality of expression and how differently people can interpret the same
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