_The future of graphic design or the present? intresting points learnt from being a graphic designer.
1. Find inspiration in everything.
Graphic designers can't operate in a vacuum any more. Gone are the days when you could sit in your room creating beautiful layouts in wonderful isolation. So collaborate; meet illustrators, ad agencies and film makers. Make friends with a copy writer. Visit an architect. Listen to product designers. The more interesting people you meet, the more interesting you'll become. Hopefully.
2. Present passion not perfection.
20 years of Mac means we've lost a lot of energy from graphic design, so let's try and get it back. Turn the computer off, get up from the desk, draw, sketch, make roughs, present your roughs. Always remember a sketch sells an idea better than a finished visual, because the client uses their imagination to buy into the idea. We recently did a whole presentation on post it notes. Present passion not perfection.
3. Create and understand content.
Everyone is talking about content these days, from ad agencies to brands. In fact they've been talking about it for ages and it's starting to filter down to graphic designers. Communication is getting more complex and more varied and looking less like sales pitches and more like stories, so you're going to have to understand great content. Or at least know where to find it.
4. Understand your clients and their clients.
Read lots and read everything. Understand your audience and how society consumes media and design. Never forget that not everyone likes Big Brother or the World Cup. Think about the end user, which leads me nicely into...
5. Understand usability.
Great usability is the ultimate in good design. This is so obvious, but we're only just starting to talk about it. There are so many examples around us everyday, the Underground map, the BBC News website, almost all Apple products. As David Ogilvy said, "You can't save souls in an empty church".
6. Realise that design is the new management consultancy.
An odd one this, but it's an idea that's starting to get a lot of airtime. Who better have an impact on a business than the problem solvers? The ones who can generate ideas from a blank sheet of paper? The ones who create new ideas all day, every day. The designers. You will hear a lot more about this, trust me.
7. Remember that ideas will always transcend stuff.
The world of communication is changing as I write this. Who know what it will look like in 10 years time? Maybe one day you'll be designing an animation for a 1 pixel square screen? Maybe you'll be putting a logo on the roof of a building so it's visible on Google Earth. Whatever happens you'll still need ideas.
as written by Ben Terrett.
_VisComm(two) - Syntactic Theory of Visual Communication - There can be no words without images.
'Words are repressive while pictures are fascinating, easily understood within a particular culture and can be made personal mediums of expression'
'Visual messages, with their own rules of syntax, are being read, but this language means nothing to those who can only read words.'
'Educational psychologist Jerome Bruner of New York University cites studies that show persons only remember ten percent of what they hear, 30 percent of what they read, but about 80 percent of what they see and do.'
'Fernande Saint-Martin - Semiotics of Visual Language'
'a difficulty in finding an alphabet for images indicates the richness of communication possibilities of pictures over words.'
'photography philosopher John Berger admits that "photographs supply information without having a language of their own. Photographs quote rather than translate from reality."'
'The semiotic approach to visual communication stresses the idea that images are a collection of signs that are linked together in some way by the viewer... Semantics is an area of semiotics in which the researchers attempt to determine the significance of signs within and throughout various cultures. Syntactics is the study of the ways signs are combined with each other to form complex messages.'
'"One picture is worth a thousand words. Yes, but only if you look at the picture and say or think the thousand words." - William Saroyan
'Suzanne Langer writes that because language names relationships rather than illustrating them, "one word can take care of a situation that would require a whole sheet of drawings to depict it." For her, one word is often worth a thousand pictures.'
'Newspaper reading research has found that readers look at a photograph first, scan the caption, read the headline and if they are still interested, read the story.'
'John Berger also celebrates the word and picture collaboration:
In the relation between a photograph and words, the photograph begs for an interpretation, and the words usually supply it. The photograph, irrefutable as evidence but weak in meaning, is given meaning by the words. And the words, which by themselves remain at the level of generalization, are given specific authenticity by the irrefutability of the photograph. Together the two then become very powerful; an open question appears to have been fully answered.'
'Roland Barthes asserts that "lines satisfy the eyes while symbols satisfy the mind." But when the lines, shapes and colors have meaning, the mind is satisfied by both.''Abstract painters were the first to recognize the link between lines and symbols. The eye and the mind are one. Understanding symbols is what separates humans from other animals. It is the fundamental necessity for rational thought. For Langer, "dogs scorn our paintings because they see colored canvases, not pictures." '
Paper by Paul Martin Lester, Ph.D.
_Project 4 - Shakespeares Hamlet act.3 scene.1 Toby Stephens
Toby Stephens in Hamlet from 2004, Royal Shakespeare Company production of Hamlet Toby Stephens has created a new angle on the Hamlet and the emotions and thought process in which is he going through. He brings anger to the forefront of Hamlets thoughts. This is by far the most identifiable performance of Shakespeare to me.
_Project 4 - Shakespeares Hamlet act.3 scene.1 Kenneth Branagh
Kenneth Branagh in Hamlet from 1996, the most recognizes of the Hamlet performances from the modern age.
_Project 4 - Shakespeares Hamlet act.3 scene.1 Derek Jacobi
Derek Jacobi in Hamlet from 1980, it seems he is addressing the audience directly through the camera it has lost the element of us "hearing his thoughts".
_Project 4 - Shakespeares Hamlet act.3 scene.1 Laurence Oliver
Laurence Olivier in Hamlet from 1948, regarded as the most classical and "true" to Shakespeare. i see only 1 level of emotion in this performance i find it very stale.
_Project 3 - Transistions
http://sonyclassics.com/capote
I like the use of full images on this website it creates a panoramic feeling and hopefully is more engaging for the user. Also the page transitions the blur and fade to white is reminiscence of the white flash of the atomic bomb.
_Project 3 - Atomosphere
A website i found had a great deal of atmosphere well suited to my subject matter is http://lostbagslostsouls.com through its use of sound and imagery. the decisions they have made with the slow pacing and gentile fades of the text adds to the feeling of the experience. The sound adds a whole other layer to the website it has the ability to tell a story or give a feeling either adding or conflicting with the content of the page.
_project 3 - Emotion
In order for my website to have the right emotion and feeling that i beleave people should have when thinking of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima i was looking for websites that had a erie feel and look as well as websites that had a instantly hard hitting subject matter that forces you to confront an idea. http://remembersegregation.org i find dose this very instead of having a "enter" page it asks a now hard hitting and controversial question "White visitor or Black visitor" it pulled me in right away. Also the way the information and style of the website is well suited to the era and subject matter.
_Project 3 - Jonathan Yuen
http://jonathanyuen.com/
This is one of the websites which has totally changed my ideas of how to navigate around a website along with dontclick.it. the idea of moving fluidly through a website with out any pauses or obnoxiously navigation and button effects. I like the idea of having a linear narrative through out my website were the content flows to the user needs. I think this creates a better viewing expsearnce for a user who is not just there purely for information but for an expserance.
_project 2 - Hiroshmia Imagery
One thing i found during my research of the use of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. There are very little images from after the event every image i came across had been used time after time and was to most people "boring" old imagery i felt no picture of an atomic blast could per sway the true meaning and feeling of its power and deadly destructiveness. So i limited my self to a purely typographic response and tried to creative an interactive and emotional element for the reader. i wanted to use a combination of the shocking figures of how many people died and how much destructive forced was created by "Little boy". With hopefully the emotional response giving by the narrative and the visuals of the type and page elements. As they went through the stages of an atomic attack to give a deeper understanding of what happened that day.
_Project 2 - Survival Under Atomic Attack
One Publication from the US government in the 1050's during the cold war. greatly inspired me. it was given out to the public of America 5 years after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki amoks fear of an atomic war with the Soviet Union. It there was an accompanying video which had an air of false reassurance. People didn't understand the true destructive powers of an atomic bomb. It has a classic and straight forward typesetting using Trade Gothic and Times New Roman. i used the elements in this booklet through out my magazine. Content of the booklet
_Project 1 - Roger Black
http://rogerblack.com
Roger Black comments and insight on redesigning and designing of magazines and websites i found very useful. Mainly that a magazine should be understandable and and simple content driven design. One major theme of his design work is how print and web work together.
_Project 2 - Claracollins
http://www.claracollins.com/
A web site i found last year while researching for a project. although i do not believe these are printed books it works in the same way. i loved how the used sequence and animation on there pages how things move and stay in the same place from page to page creating a flick book effect. It also has the ability to tell a story on another level other than the textual context or the images, it has the ability to take the reader on a journey with the advantage of the reader not knowing what is on the next page making them disappearance something unexpected. On the spring summer - 2005 book on the website (far right book) it shows a of a dress close up, and each time you turn the page it gradually moves out to reveal all of the clothing items you have views through out the book.
_Project 2 - 032c redesign
MagCulture.com is a blog with alot of examples of "good" magazine design and layout. one i found to be most interesting was the layout of 032c. i tried out a couple of there layouts in indesign getting a good idea of font sizes for heading and discriptions and for the body text and how these 3 elements work together and each one is relative to the other. There is not a "perfect" text size as the text size sits right dependent on the other elements on the page. Also how white space is the controlling element on the page it guides your eyes to were in which the designer wants you to look and makes it easier to read text when the designer has thought about the white space around it. Magculture on 032c 032c website creative review on 032c
_Project 1 - David Carson
Interview with David Carson. VIDEO
in this interview by Hillman Curtis, has images of some of his nice work, but also gives a brilliant insight into Carson's attitude towards work, talking about how its important to pull from who you are as a person and put that into the work. H0w he interprets the article and tries to bring attention to the content of the article through design , people said what he did was disrespectful to the writing but i feel it was quite the opposite as he gave meaning to the content of the writing through his layouts and brought and levels of understanding to them other than just intellectual understanding.