I chose to do question #3 on the Essay assignment, “Music and graphic design can be seen to have a symbiotic relationship. Discuss with reference to key designers and performers in a particular genre or era. How have online music services like spotify and itunes changed this relationship?”
The feedback I got from
everyone was that my topics were way too broad, and that I needed to talk about
a more specific subject. Also, I forgot that we needed a minimum of six
peer-reviewed sources as references for the essay. Our group worked together
for a bit to find some we could use, and it was really helpful so thanks guys!
I also realised a few
things while about the question while looking at everyone’s ideas. I can do
more than one designer, I also don’t have to look at a specific relationship
between an artist and a designer, but I can look more at the relation on a
general term, between many artists and designers. I also realised that I was
focusing too much on specifically album art; I didn’t even consider the
relationship to typography in lyric videos, animated music videos or even
holographic performances and virtual bands/singers. Or maybe I’m looking at this
from the wrong angle entirely, and I could look more into how music supports a
design medium- like movie soundtracks or musical theatre.
So I have a lot more to
think about, and I might even change my choice of question, because im not sure
how hard it will be to find 6 peer-reviewed articles that relate to my subject.
The first thing I noticed when I started my presentation was that the slides seemed to move a lot quicker than they did when I practiced, so I started falling behind and stuttering- which led me to focusing on the script in my hands, hardly looking up at the audience. The feedback of my Pecha Kucha was that the visual examples were good, if sometimes overwhelming and I could’ve related the visuals more to my content. If I left out a few gaps for people to just watch the gifs it would’ve made the presentation more easily understood, as the large amount of information as well as moving images was a lot to focus on at once. So if I was to go back and do it again, I would leave some empty spaces in the script and physically pointed out the aspects of the examples I was talking about. I’m overall pretty happy with the final product, and glad that I was able to learn new things about a big passion of mine. For more information on the progress behind the Pecha Kucha, check out the “Assignment Progress” tab at the top of the site!
The Pecha Kucha I reviewed this week was “The Sydney Opera House” by James Horris. I enjoyed this Pecha Kucha, I never thought to look into the history of such an Australian Icon, especially architecturally. The visual presentation was informative and had good choices of images, and the black background made the presentation feel sophisticated, which I thinks suits the subject. The verbal presentation was loud and clear, although there were a few hesitations and it would’ve been good if he looked up more. The topics discussed were relevant, like vivid, Badu Gali and the Opera Houses affect on tourism and culture, but it wasn’t really clear what values were re-assessed. There was evidence of research in the reference page. Overall, I liked it and I think it was a good presentation!
The Pecha Kucha I reviewed this week was Sustainable Fashion by Kaitlyn Cooper
The visual style for this presentation was appealing and consistent and the argument was topical and relevant. She provided los of examples in her points as well as named specific companies and programs that were striving toward being more sustainable. The verbal presentation was clear and confident aside from a few stutters and hesitations. I really liked the tips on how to be more sustainable in a cost-effective way. If I had any critiques it would be to look up at the audience more, but other than that it was a good presentation!
Next week, I’m going to take more notes that reference specific parts of the presentation, as I feel like this review was too vague.
This week in the lecture
we talked about post-digital. Post-digital is the movement where some people
are specifically going backwards in technology for a particular aesthetic, function
or preference despite there being an obviously more advanced, more “digital”
version. For example, using filters on social media apps that make photos look
grainy and worn, as if they were taken by an older camera. Or how some people
prefer to use typewriters instead of a modern computer. The return to print in
design is another example of post-digital media, more and more people are purposefully
going backwards in the tech timeline in order to achieve an authentic aesthetic.
Some specific examples I can
think of are movies that still use film instead of digital cameras, and how
polaroid cameras are popular once again. Lincon Spector runs the Bayflicks
Blog, which covers films and movies in the San Francisco Bay area ran a short
survey on the films shown and how many used film, digital or both in 2017. Out
of the 26 films he could find information on, 3 of them (Call Me By Your Name,
Phantom Thread and The Other Side of Hope) were shot entirely on film. 5 used
both, 8 he couldn’t find solid information on and the remaining 15 were shot
digitally. There are some technical
reasons for movies to be shot on film, but f the entire movie is done on film
it is because the creators were going for a unique aesthetic that only film
could provide.
Polaroid cameras are another example of the post-digital movement. This can be explained very easily with the nostalgia wave, which also explains the return of synthesizers in music, the rising popularity of vinyl records and the huge popularity of Stranger Things. Polaroid cameras have an instant, nostalgic aesthetic due to the type of film and technology inside them. Re-creating old photos is a trend that emphasises this aesthetic choice and sums up the reason for why there is a post-digital movement at all.
The picture on the left
was taken 50 years before the one on the right, and you can see it in its ware,
the folds and the small burn mark. The one on the right is objectively better
quality, its clearer, the colours are more accurate to the real world and its
less blurry. However the polaroid has a charm and a vibe of sorts that make it
a much more interesting and pleasing image to look at.
Another example of people tending to like old-looking pictures is a YouTube video of someone who bought a 100 year old lens from the internet, attached it to a modern day camera and filmed just a normal day at a zoo. Uploaded on the 23rd of July 2019 by Mathieu Stern, the video, even though its less than five minutes long has (to this day, the 20th of October 2019) over 1,550,000 views on YouTube. The video is really beautiful and is astoundingly clear and smooth. Some comments left on the video highlight the feeling of it as well as the post-digital movement.
mrodddrums– “Wow, it feels so… Nostalgic? Cause it kinda soften the light brightness, so cool”
OwenStew 02– “I’m not a camera guy, but there’s something about this lens that makes everything look and feel old and “fluffy” “
Chris– “hd is overrated. everything seems more relatable in this lens”
J.Barry– “How to achieve this look in adobe premiere? The bloom and contrast are very appealing..”
It’s really worth watching the video, because it demonstrates the point of the post-digital movement, im looking forward to seeing if maybe the highest quality of cameras and camera lenses will be saved for things like documentation, whereas people may start to choose “lower quality” to preserve personal memories and art projects.
This week in lectures we
looked at traditional design techniques and how they were changed when the Mac
II had designing software where users could make their own pages and documents.
So this week I want to look more into traditional graphic design techniques
before computers had the software to help us do it all.
X-acto knives: were small, precise knives that were extremely sharp, designers used these to make cuts and pastes of their work, drafts and final products alike. As everything had to be millimetre precise these knives were thin and had a long handle for small, precise movements.
Drawing Tables: These tables here angled upwards like modern Wacom tablets that we use today. They sometimes had adjustable “T-Squares” that acted as manoeuvrable rulers. They’re still used today, though rarely and more for early drafts and mockups.
Rubber Cement: Like a stronger glue, when mixed with a solvent rubber cement was a common way of gluing that was easier to make the designs flat and smooth. It had a really strong smell and designers would sometimes get light-headed from spending so much time around it.
This week in the lecture
we talked about visual identity, and how companies changed from simply just
their name printed on boxes to having an entire public image with specific
colours, values and aesthetics each individual to their product or market. We
also had a brief look into how advertising can influence our culture and our
values, which I think is insane, scary yet kind of impressive a the same time.
For example, how Coca Cola depicted Santa Claus in a red suit, made it the norm
across a lot of western cultures, and then how it got out of their hands and
just became the way Santa is depicted in a modern culture with minimal
relationship to the company at all. It became its own thing and buried itself
heavily into what is expected around Christmas time, something which is pretty
difficult to do.
The creation and the history behind red Santa becoming main-stream is something that I find fascinating, so I want to do some more research on it. I even found that the official Coca-Cola website (also realised it’s not spelt with a K) has a page dedicated to their history with Santa Claus’ image, so they are still very much claiming credit for it, even if the majority of people do not see them as related today.
Before red-suited Santa was the norm, he could be depicted as anything depending on the context and the culture. He was sometimes thin, elfish and stern and could be dressed in a multitude of colours such as grey, brown or green. There were depictions of Santa in a red outfit before it was normalised, however the complete overtake occurred in the early to mid-1900s. The first Coke Santa was depicted in red after influence by artist Thomas Nast, and then proceeded to use the red suit as it fitted with the brands visual identity and the aesthetic of Santa being a jolly, warm old man. The artist who drew the now popularised version of Santa Claus was Haddon Sundblom, who used his neighbour Lou Prentiss as a reference and the poem “’Twas the Night Before Christmas.” As inspiration in 1931.
He continued to paint and illustrate these advertisements until 1964, where the originals are prized pieces that have made it to distinguished art collections, such as the Louvre, which I find pretty funny.
This week in the lecture we discussed the cultural and artistic impact photography has had since it was invented. We looked at the fear of painting becoming obsolete and how photography changed into an art form as well as a medium of documentation simultaneously. In the tutorials we were split into groups and given different approaches to photography throughout history and how it was affected by the culture at the time, as well as how we perceive it today. The group I was in got Victorian post-mortem photography, how in the Victorian era when a close family member died (especially children), their bodies were dressed up and posed in order to have their photo taken. It was a way back then of permanently preserving the likeness of a deceased loved one- as death was much more common. The attitudes toward these images were extremely respectful, as seen by the sombre faces, nice clothing and occasionally some symbolism in religion and death. Our group discussed what changed in our culture that made doing something like this today seems taboo and disrespectful. We found a few points that we thought summed up this cultural shift.
As medicine advanced, people and children started dying less frequently and diseases were much more preventable, so the general public has become less and less sensitised to death, and by extension dead bodies. When someone dies today it is seen usually as a preventable tragedy, and more focus is on the grieving process for friends and families.
The child on the left had his eyes painted on after the picture was taken in order to give him a more life-like affect. On the right the girl has been posed as if she fell asleep in a chair.
As an extension of this
point, people today (in most western cultures) do not like the idea of their
bodies being propped up, dressed and moved into poses. Personally I don’t like
the idea of my body being moved around too much once I die, but I’m not too
sure why. I don’t know if it’s for the sake of the people around me, because I wouldn’t
want to touch a dead body if I could avoid it, or if I just don’t like the idea
of my body moving without me in it, as if I had some kind of spiritual
connection to it. This brings me to the next point we made.
200 years ago was a much
more religious time, people were less connected to their physical bodies because
they viewed themselves mostly in spirit. So it could’ve been possible that once
someone died, because the culture at the time believed that their spirit went
up to heaven to live on, the body didn’t represent the person so much as it did
when they were alive. However now, more and more people are connecting to their
physical body instead of their spiritual nature (depending on what their
beliefs are).
Also, with modern
technology photography is much more commonplace and people tend to take photos
of family and friends in order to preserve happy memories. The only instance of
it being appropriate to take a picture of a deceased person would be
documentation. If someone took a photo of a dead body and posted it to social
media, people would find that extremely disrespectful because it can be seen as
the person who posted it using another person’s death as a way of attracting
attention to them, even if they are a grieving family member.
Discussing this brought up some interesting questions on how we used deceased peoples images today, such as videos of Freddie Mercury played at live concerts or passed peoples twitter accounts posting political messages and ads. Does it all depend on a person’s wishes before they pass, if they consent to their image being used should we use it? What if they died before they knew how it could be used, again with Freddie Mercury? Are there exceptions when it comes to documentation and education, even if the person said they did not want their image to be used in any way? It’s a lot to think about for a morbid and real subject.
This week in lectures, we discussed the swiss/international style
that is used by designers and artists all around the world today. It primarily
focused on small, minimalist layouts with simple geometric shapes and few
colours. “Form follow function” was starting to emerge more and more in advertisements,
book covers, product packaging etc as designers began to play around with typographical
elements. The international style highlights how effectively minimal
information can convey a huge range of ideas, if used in the right colours,
tones and hierarchy.
One of the designers from this time, playing around with simplistic isotypes was Marie Neurath. I wanted to do more research on her life and career as she is one of the few female names I’ve heard in the design industry in this era.
Neurath (as pictured above) with her husband Otto Neurath coined
the acronym ISOTYPE, standing for International System Of TYpographic
Picture Education. After her husbands death, Neurath carried on
their work with a team of illustrators to produce 80 children’s books, each
detailing complicated processes in simple, easy to understand illustrations.
Things like how a flower grows ever year, how bread is made or how islands are
formed.
Leaving out the “why” behind complex ideas, Neurath focused on the “what”, for example this segment on how tulips grow.
With its somehow captivating style and attention seeking colours, not only is an infographic like this educational, but interesting for children and adults alike.
This week we looked at modernism and its effect of design and visual communication. We looked a lot at propaganda posters and early info-graphics, mostly detailing what to do in war-related tragedies. In tutorials we analysed some WWI and II propaganda posters, looking at colours, shapes, faces and composition and how they would’ve conveyed a particular message to their audiences.
So, this week in my blog I wanted to look more into the history of The Bauhaus, as its design in type and imagery are really interesting and were extremely influential at the time and today. Their primary focus was on combing art and manufacturing together, out of fear of art becoming obsolete in the growing industry of mass-produced items.
Started in 1919 by German Architect Walter Gropius, it was initially focused at the Arts and Crafts movement, trying to create unique things specifically against mass-manufactured products. However, this was costing the school a lot of money, so instead they focused on making mass-produced items that were also pieces of art. The phrase “Art Into Industry” was adopted by them in 1923. The Bauhaus had a selection of specialised workshops including cabinet making, textiles, typography and wall painting.
They were the first school to teach what modern design is considered today, as for their time art school and technical collages were different institutions all together. Art schools taught purely fine art and technical collages taught architecture and engineering.
“ An object is defined by its nature, in order to design it to function properly, one must first of all study its nature. For it to serve its purpose perfectly, it must fulfil its function in a practical way. ”
Design Doodles 