Before Class, Second Paper Thesis & Supporting Paragraph

Over multiple decades, Paula Scher is a graphic designer that is smart, iconic, and has held down her spot at the forefront of graphic design.

Since the 1970's, Paula Scher has been highly influential to the design world. Her achievements and contributions to graphic design are outstanding and is recognized by numerous people all over the world. She isn't just a graphic designer, but a principal and artist as well. Since she began her career, she developed multiple identities, designed different packaging for many clients, won numerous awards for innovation of design, and was even presented the AIGA medal. Being a woman in the graphic design world, she held her ground and proved the world that she has what it takes to be one of the best, most recognizable graphic designers today.

Website Sources:

http://stendhalgallery.com/?page_id=2985

http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/medalist-paulascher

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/paula_scher_gets_serious.html (this source also includes an informative video of Paula Scher)

Before Class, Second Paper Thesis

Over multiple decades, Paula Scher is a graphic designer that is smart, iconic, and has held down her spot at the forefront of graphic design.

After Class, Chapter 19: Corporate Identity

Today in class we learned how important corporate identity is. CBS started it all by designing a logo that everyone knows CBS by. Many other corporations followed their lead and made their own, such as MTV and IBM. Some of the influences of this new corporate identity trend were art deco, hieroglyphs, NY school, consturctivism, and swiss style. With all these new logos and designs made for big companies, it improved visual communication to citizens tremendously. Business cards were also developed to help corporations as well.

One question that I have is I don't really understand what a unigrid is. I understand it unified hundreds of informational folders but what was it?

Before Class, Chapter 20: Corporate Identity and Visual Systems

Visual identity became very important at the close of the 20th century. Graphic designers were forced to design complex design systems because of the information age the world entered. With new companies and firms on the rise, corporations obviously wanted to have their own logo and design to represent themselves. I must say, one of the most recognizable logos made (at least in my opinion) is the MTV logo. There has been many different versions of the original design of this logo but all of them have something in common: to achieve the goal of giving MTV its own visual identity. The olympics as well got their own design system too.

CBS was another company that really produced the whole idea of a corporate identity design. William Golden was the CBS art director who designed "one of the most successful trademarks of the 20th century." His logo, which aired and was shown to the public in 1951, was made to look like an eye in the sky. With what CBS and William Golden did was show other corporations and prove to them that visual identity is the way to go to advertise. "A contemporary graphic mark could complete successfully with more traditional illustrative or alphabetic trademarks." This is what CBS did.

Not only did corporations come up with their own visual identity but transportation systems did too. Many airports and other transportation systems use "pictographic signage programs to communicate important information and directions quickly and simply." All of these pictographic images were created by graphic designers. Many of the symbols we see today, such as a red cross which means first aid or a fork and a knife which means restaurants or food joints, are used to help guide people and communicate to them without using words but using symbols instead.

Before Class, Chapter 19: The NY School

Modern design in America was booming and more talent was being brought to the table due to European designers coming to our country. New York City played a huge roll during the 20th century that brought forth new ideas and images. At this time in America, the U.S. society was based on capitalistic values and was becoming much more competitive. In the design world, "novelty of technique and originality of concept were prized." This thought process was carried on to the 21st century by American graphic designers.

There were many important people that contributed to the New York School. Paul Rand is one of them. He manipulated shapes, color, space, line and value in his compositions. He was the designer for many magazines, Ken and Coronet to name a few. Rand also knew how to communicate and send his message to his audience through visual communications. Alvin Lustig was another key component in the design world because he in fact help develop a graphic design program at Yale University. As for his design, he liked to "search for symbols to capture the essence of the contents and treating form and content as one." Unfortunately for the talented Lustig, his life ended rather shortly but he did have the ability to teach design right before he died. The New York School eventually moved forward and was brought to Los Angeles by Saul Bass. There, he opened a studio and his design was remarkable. I personally like his work because I like the contrasts he used in his compositions with texture, shape and color.

In the 1940's, few magazines were designed in America. The three famous ones were Vogue, Fortune and Harper's Bazaar. Many people sought the death of magazines but in 1960, there was a rebirth. Specialized audiences were becoming more and more interested. "The new editorial climate with more emphasis on content, longer text, and less opportunity for lavish visual treatment, necessitated a new approach to editorial design."

New advertising emerged during this time alone with figurative typography. Words and images were fused together in advertisements to express products made by companies. Figurative typography involved letterforms becoming objects and vice versa. Another typographic style that came back during this time was the decorative typefaces that hadn't been around for a while due to the modern movement.

After Class, Chapter 18: International Typographic Style

In class today, we learned about the "Swiss Style." This movement began in 1918 when the Zurich School of Applied Art opened. The Swiss Style was influenced by Bauhaus, De Stijl and Constructivism. The designers of this style used objective photography to clearly present the message to their audience. Along with objective photography, sans-serif font was very popular and the most popular typeface during this style was Univers.

One question that I have after learning about the Swiss Style is why didn't this specific style not become popular until 1960's and 1970's? What changes were made in the design to make Swiss Style become more popular later?

Before Class, Chapter 18: The International Typographic Style

The 1950's was a time of innovation. Swiss design (aka The International Typographic Style) consisted of asymmetrical organization. Grids were used to start composing design elements and sans-serif type "set in flush-left and ragged right margin configuration." Expressions and solutions were denied by many artists of this time because they embraced a universal and scientific approach instead.

There were many important pioneers of this movement such as Ernst Keller, Theo Ballmer and Max Bill's just to name a few but the main basis of international typographic style came from the School of Design in Basel. This curriculum had an important design program that many designers enrolled in to learn the basis of geometric exercises. The School of Design in Basel were the true roots of the international typographic style movement.

Now this chapter talks about design in Basel, Zurich, Canada, Switzerland and other parts of the world but the international typographic style in America grabbed my attention the most (call me patriotic). The international typographic style impacted America hard after postwar years. Rudolph DeHarak was a graphic designer who began his career in America. In DeHarak's eyes, "communicative clarity and visual order are qualities vital to effective graphic design." As you look at his compositions, you can see that they are organized and have abstract geometric elements. I personally like his designs because I believe visual order is very necessary and it makes it easier for the audience to understand the message trying to be conveyed. The international typographic style was embracing many artists and their audiences. The style was used in corporate and institutional graphics used by designers all over the country.

After Class, American Kitsch

Today in class we learned about American Kitsch and how it meant bad taste. This movement was referred as an outsider act and many people rejected American Kitsch. Futuristic styles influenced this movement which then produced dramatic curves and lines. We can see American Kitsch today in stores such as Urban Outfitters, commercials such as Target, movies such as Juno, and we can see American Kitsch in flea markets and thrift stores. The McDonald's golden arches show American Kitsch design in architecture with the curvy rooflines.

One question that I is why do so many people reject this form of art? I personally like it just because it looks so cool and is very appealing to my eye.

Before Class, American Kitsch

American Kitsch, I must say, is one of my favorite art movements in history because I've always wanted to grow up during the 50's when a lot of this specific art and design were produced. Since American Kitsch took place in the 1950's, the Industrial Revolution brought mass consumption and objects that could be mass produced for all social classes to enjoy. All Americans could enjoy in this outrageous art movement.

Many critics think that American Kitsch brought about a "trash culture" but in my eyes, I think the design was very appealing. The organic, exaggerated curves that were used by designers can be seen on signs and even on Barbie (which was produced during this time)! Playful and unusual shapes were used to form colorful chairs and tables used in both restaurants and in homes. Posters that were produced during this time were made with over exaggerated facial expressions and very dramatic poses. As for the type used during this time, casual, hand-written typefaces were very popular. They can be seen on posters and in comic books.

Whenever I drive in my downtown, I see some signs that resemble this movement. The hot dog stand I live by still has an old 1950's feel to it. In front, it has a sign with dramatic cruves. In fact, it looks rather gaudy but I still like it =) Inside, the chairs are curved with unusual shapes and the interior design is very colorful. Plus, it has really good hot dogs!

Below are some examples of American Kitsch design:


This is a poster you would typically see. Notice the over exaggerated curves used.


This is furniture used in the 1950's. Notice the unusual shapes and colors used.

After Class, What is Art Deco?

Art Deco was a very important design movement in the early 20th century. In fact, art deco is still around today! What influenced this style was the Arts and Crafts movement along with Art Nouveau. Other movements that had a huge influence of the art deco style is Fauvism, Cubism, de Stijl, Constructivism, Expressionism and Dadaism. When we see art deco design in the early 1900's, we see geometric and linear forms, distortion of reality and sans-serif type. When we see art deco design today, we see the unordinary, simple shapes, solid geometric styles and pastel colors. It's basically the same art deco today than it was back then. It's amazing how far this movement has come and how we still see it today!

One question that I have is what does art deco fashion look like? We didn't really see many examples so I would like to know what a typical art deco fashion runway would look like!