TYPOGRAPHY 2208 READING RESPONSES
GRA 2208 FALL 2012
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DECIDE WHO YOU ARE, DECIDE WHAT YOU WANT TO DO , AND THEN DO IT, BECAUSE IT'S SURELY POSSIBLE. -DOYALD YOUNG
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Doyald Young LOGOTYPE DESIGNER
Before taking this class I had never asked myself what it was about typography that I was par-ticularly drawn to. Listening to Doyald Young speak about his love for the concrete nature of typography filled me with inspiration..Watching the detailed shots of Young carefully carving out the curves of letters reminded me of the potential that typography has to be absolutely beautiful. One thing about Doyald Young that was amazing to me was his extreme attention to detail. The miniscule changes that he made to the Prudential logo opened my eyes to how even the smallest adjustments to text can make such a large difference. I also realized the infinite adjustments you can make to the details of the letters to make a difference.
Unfortunately in this day in age, everything is fast and gratificationis expected in an instant. Because of this I feel that I have lost a little bit of my patience for tiny details. Watching Young discuss how he had noticed that a page in his dictionary was missing was really amazing to me because I know that I would have personally never noticed. Initially, I thought that Young was a little too old fashioned and structured for my taste, but after showing his appreciation for other more experimental designers I found much more respect for him. As a designer, I think that you have to be informed about what all other designers around you are doing.
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The meaning is in the content of the text and not in the typeface, and that is why we loved Helvetica very much.
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-WIM CROWELL
HELVETICA DOCUMENTARY Helvetica cleverly investigates the real identity of the typeface that we all know so well…but hardly realize. The film traces Helvetica all the way back to its roots in a small type factory in Switzerland. We watch as Helvetica is born and sky rockets as a new typeface in the modern design era. I had always known that Helvetica was extremely popular and used in so many of our street signs, advertisements and storefronts. However, I had never actually bothered to look and spot Helvetica in action. The most interesting part of the documentary, in my opinion, was the several different interviews with well-known designers. I was very interested in hearing their feelings towards Helvetica. Paula Scher’s complete disdain towards the typeface was to me, the strongest and most powerful reaction of the all the designers.
I respect Helvetica, and although it has been over used to the point of exhaustion, I still think that it contributes a lot to the design world. I am more drawn to a unique and quirky aesthetic, much more like Paula Scher’s work. I appreciate things that are different than the norm and tend to stray away from conformity. In this regard, Helvetica would not be my go-to choice for a typeface.
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…design isn’t about making something look better, it’s about moving someone to action.
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-HILLMAN CURTIS
HILLMAN CURTIS ARTIST SERIES
Some of the most inspiring designers to me are Paula Scher, Milton Glaser and Stefan Sagmeister. I really enjoyed listening to each designer talk about their own experiences and opionions on the world of design. Milton Glaser commented that you are truly lucky if you still enjoy what you do in your later years.This comment really struck me and made me think about how my career choices are going to effect my future happiness. A piece of design that has always struck me is Sagmeitser’s poster in which he has the typography literally carved into his skin. You can clearly see the process of his work in the final piece and really hits me as someone who is completely dedicated to their work. I hope to one day become this passionate about my design.
Hillman Curtis’s videos are short and simple but relay great messages from important designers. From James Victore to the collaborative team called Pentagram that works together from different countries.These designers serve as inspirations and role models to me and listening to their stories is always eye-opening.
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My aim is juxtaposition and surprise, but also, while I have an affinity for the organic form, I can’t help the way my brain works, which is logically and in a very structured manner. I’m a sort of free-flowing control freak.
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-MARIAN BANTJES
MARIAN BANTJES GRAPHIC ARTIST Before watching this video, I had never heard of Marian Bantjes. Her style is very decorative, diverse and overall extremely detailed. Her work seems to me to differ greatly from the work of other well-known designers. Most of her work seems to be personal projects that she finds interest in. Bantjes worked for a design company and eventually left and spent a year away from the city to do her work. I enjoyed getting a personal look into Bantje’s working space and hearing about her creative process. In a lot of Bantjes work she uses very detailed patterns. Her work can almost be called obsessive with great attention to det ail. I have a great appreciation for people who meticulously perfect their design work or artwork. Bantjes creates typography out of her patterns and out of objects that are at times hard to read, but when you find this “hidden” message, you truly get a sense of wonder when thinking about her work and her process.
Lately, I have had the mindset that in the graphic design world your own personal tastes and styles will probably have to be put aside for the demands of the client. Bantjes has made me realize that this is not necessarily true. Her work fully embodies her own personal style and feelings about what she is working on. Her interest in illuminated manuscripts obviously shows in her detailed pattern work. She has shown that your own personal tastes can be explored throughout the world of graphic design through different mediums and forms.
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“The frightening and most difficult thing about being what somebody calls a creative person is that you have absolutely no idea where any of your thoughts come from. really. And especially, you don't have any idea about where they're going to come from tomorrow. “ -Hal RIney
ART & COPY Creativity can solve anything
Art & Copy is a film that explores the advertising world by interviewing many key players as well as some unknown faces. Some of the big names that appear in the movie are Lee Clow, Dan Wieden, Hal Riney and George Lois. The film also interviews a billboard poster as a new perspective of the advertising world. At first I thought this movie was going to exploit the negative side of advertising, but instead, it celebrated the history of the advertising world and told the stories of some of the most famous ad campaigns such as Got Milk? andWhere's the Beef. It was interesting to see how the advertisers came up with these well known slogans and their process work. I especially liked seeing the development of the iPod advertisements, I personally loved these ads when they came out and seeing the work behind them made them even more intriguing. One critique I would have of this film would be that it seemed to only concentrate on past stories of these advertisers. I wish that it gave a more contemporary look inside the current world of advertising and what it is like to work in the industry.
Most of the movie were older, experienced designers retelling stories of the past. Although interesting and important stories, some of these advertisers, namely George Lois seemed very narcissistic, which it seems you have to be in the design/advertising world.
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Margo Chase: Creative Inspiration Margo Chase is a graphic designer who utilizes gothic influences in her broad spectrum of design work. She has been wor king in the field for over 10 year s, moving through the music industr y to branding and logo design for her own design fir m. This look into the wor k processes of Chase's career was so extremely infor mative and insightful. Chase described step by step processes in specific projects, infor med viewer s about calligraphic pens and even talked about her exper iences competing in various airplane flying competitions. In one section of Margo Chase: Creative Inspiration, Chase takes us on a tour of her workspace and office. I could picture myself wor king in an environment similar to it, with colleagues sharing ideas in an open, creative space . My favorite aspect of the design firm was the lar ge mur al on the wall depicting the scene outside . I loved the whimsical, car toonish characters and simple black and white line drawing. Chase discusses what she looks for in a por tfolio in one section of the video. She explains that a person with a wide variety of interests and talents will stand out among other applicants. I think that Chase demonstrates this ver y well with her own life balancing her love for design with her love for flying planes. I found her passion for both of these areas truly inspiring and allowed me to realize that I shouldn't pigeon hole myself into one area of interest.
Another ver y insightful section of Margo Chase: Creative Inspiration video was the discussion session about packaging with the president of Chase Design. Chase and her par tner discussed the impor tance of knowing the printing processes for each packaging and knowing that what you have designed can actually be physically created. On top of these restrictions, the budget of clients is vital in creating a packaging design. Designer s must be able to creatively work within their client’s budget such as the three color screen pr int of the liquor bottle that Mar go Chase showed. Overall, I found Margo Chase to be an extremely inspirational contemporar y designer. Her work encompasses a lar ge var iety of mediums and physical forms. Her words have inspired me to be less timid with my design and take risks even though I may be apprehensive at first.
At Chase Design Group, we believe that questions can liberate great ideas from the chains of assumption.
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The most important things that I have ever done, and I always do it innately, is tell stories. -kit hinrichs
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KIT HINRICHS creative inspirations
Kit Hinrichs is an award winning graphic designer with a passion for storytelling. Starting his career in New York and eventually moving to San Francisco, Hinrichs has been in the business for a very long time. Hinrichs has been involved in the design group Pentagram, one of it’s oldest members and has his own studio called Studio Hinrichs. I think that Kit Hinrichs would be an amazing mentor in graphic design. Listening to his interview with Lynda really gave me an insight to the way he runs his studio and his business practices. For example, Hinrichs talks about the way that one of his employees or interns may have the habit of jumping into a project without building the right concept first, which needs to be changed.
Hinrichs also talks a lot about attitude and your own mindset in design. When looking at portfolios Hinrich wants to see the technical things, but also wants to see that you have the right attitude and personality for the job. Character is very important to Hinrich and I really value that in his deisions when hiring new designers.
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