Wednesday, January 27, 2010

InfoArc: Summation of two readings

Vignelli:

-Everything can be redesigned to make it better
-Everything can be designed to reflect cultural and ethical values, ethical integrity. Integrity of purpose, materials, and the manufacturing process
-Redesign can come from analyzing a problem and then solving it based on all aspects of the analysis
-Question all assumptions
-Fight the wrongs of industrialization
-Modern movement = good (fight intellectual and material trash, anti greed, vulgarity and cheapness)
-"design is an integral part of the production process and not a last-minute embellishment."

McCoy

-individual experience
-problems of daily life, not all problems
-ethic "was one of discipline, clarity and cleanliness"
-all about minimalism
-possibly more 2-dimensionally focused
-text can be animated, images can be read
-

Both
-idealistic views about design and design as a means of changing society (problem solving)
-believe in analyzing the message and the audience
-functionality is a place to start
-"Graphic design can be a contribution to our audiences. It can enrich as it informs and communicates." Kathy
-necessity for advancement

Change represents and facilitates growth (as an individual and as a society)

Second Semester, Jr. Year begins now.

Tyler's reading assignment(s) response. Typo 4

what did you think of these readings? The Triggs reading was very long, yet I found a few moments of inspiration thrown into the mix (I listed them below). does their definition of "experimental" match what you previously thought of the term? They both kind of speak to the point that experimentation should have an academic purpose behind the process. I don't know if I fully agree with that or not. Experimenting should not just be a cop-out for doing bad work, but if I just start messing around with no real purpose and something cool comes from that, it doesn't mean I had a purpose to start with. Just kind of means that I got lucky. That being said- having no motive or end result in mind, if I "mess around" and come up with nothing worth while, it doesn't mean that I didn't experiment or that the experiment failed. I still will probably walk away with something under my belt. is it really useful to experiment if it doesn't have real application? See above lol. Everything is a learning experience but experimenting should not be a cop-out/excuse for bad work. Cool points in the Triggs reading: I like the idea of challenging the fundamental notions of aesthetics. That to me sums up experimental quite nicely. The Triggs reading breaks experimenting into two categories- type design "with the design or production of typefaces" and typography which "investigates the use of type in layouts" It is interesting to think of the two as being separate. I generally think of letters making up words making up sentences making up paragraphs but the reading is encouraging us to look at the form of each individual letter as a completely different entity than how that form looks on a page. We must take our audience and design right down to individual letter forms for them and for use for projects/products for them. I was very interested in the idea of using typography in order to visually illustrate how a play might be performed. They were not illustrated pages, "rather they demonstrated a symbiotic relationship between word and image. The narrative was seen as well as read." I avidly read and I'm constantly making up voices for characters in the stories I come across. To visually represent their speeches on a page could further my understanding of a character. I enjoyed that the reading brought time constraints into the pool of experimental quality. However I don't know if a time limit would strictly hamper development. If given ten years to develop something great, I might slack off or be slow in my methods. Given ten days I would be forced into working hard and earnestly. Different results would occur, maybe for the better or maybe for the worse but it is interesting to think of how I work under which time sets.