The Final Project

The collection of ten field journals have been inspired by readings done while taking the class GID 1: History of Graphic Design at Foothill College. Each week I would further investigate on a person or topic that appeared in a chapter and documented my results in the form of a blog.  

I had never been into art and didn’t know much about it before taking this class. To me art was just something of beauty to be admired, never considering that what was created had a meaning behind it that the artist was trying to convey. Through this class I have learned that art is much more expressive. By using different symbols, images and even words you can portray a simple idea, thought or message without having to write it all out in words. Now every time I see a piece of art, whether it’s a painting, furniture or even a magazine cover I think to myself, what font is being used? Was the artist inspired from a certain time period of art? Why straight lines versus flowing curving lines? All sorts of different questions pop into my head now whereas before I never had any question.

Looking back on all the information that I learned, it is amazing to see how each piece of art created is reflective of the time period that it was created. It clearly demonstrates how an artist is influenced by their surroundings. I enjoyed how eye opening it was to see that the creation of the alphabet was an art form and how incorporated into our everyday lives it has become. After the alphabet was created, literature books became an art form that lead to the education of citizens. Every time I open a book I notice the type of font that is being used and the layout of the page since each element goes into the design aspect of the book.

Initially, I thought that this class was going to focus more on modern day graphic design and less on how it evolved. I had a hard time with the format of an online class, since this is my first, but also struggled when trying to take interest in the ancient art, especially when it wasn’t involving America. I did though become more interested in the more recent and modern information and wish that there had been more focus on the recent information since that is what we interact with today.

I remember when the first cell phone came out and it started to evolve from black and white, to color, to having a camera and now the internet. Once the cell phones had a camera on it I thought to myself what are they going to come up with next? The cell phone evolution is similar to the graphic design evolution, it just takes one new idea to continue pushing it into a new direction. What direction will graphic design head in next? The next thing may come from someone exploring a completely new concept or taking an old idea and reinventing it with a new twist. My best prediction is that an older concept with be reinvented through the use of the most recent technology available. Our lives are consumed by technology that it only makes sense that technology will be a part of the future of graphic design. 

Overall I have learned that art is all around us. From the jagged lines on a key, to the billboards you see on the road, to furniture and appliances seen in stores to brand logos, art surrounds us in all aspects of our life. 

Field Journal 1

**I started my blog around field journal 3 so am just now adding my first field journal**

Looking through all of the pictures of the book has really changed my perspective on what is art and what is graphic design. I always thought of graphic design as computer generated art, yet this book has already changed that for me. It is most interesting to see how design began mostly in the form of typography or the designers work with words. It seems as though art was more a form of communication to inform a person or people of something and not quite meant as a piece of art. From the beginning of the book to the end, words are consistently used and seem to be a common thread throughout all of the time periods. 
When looking at the pictures form the modernism period, those pieces of work are what I associate graphic design to look like; more creative, less words, and colorful. I enjoy when the piece of work can send a message to you without needing little to no words accompanying it. It was interesting to me to see the progression of art through time and I can’t wait to learn even more about it.

Field Journal 10: Stefan Sagmeister

CI was so intrigued by Stefan Sagmeister's Lou Reed poster that I wanted to  found out a little more about him and the other pieces of art that he has done.

Sagmeister has been quite the traveler. He was born in Australia, studied graphic design in Vienna, Italy, and later studied in New York. He moved to Hong Kong for tow years to do some work and then moved back to New York to form Sagmesiter Inc. Since he has had such clients as Rolling Stones, HBO, and Time Warner. He is also the author of the design monograph "Made You Look." He teaches in the graduate department for the School of Visual Arts in New York.

His motto is "Design that needed guts from the creator and still carries the ghost of these guts in the final execution."


He has won two Grammy Awards, one for directing "Once in a Lifetime" and the other for the design of the album cover "Everything That Happens Will Happen Today."(seen right). 


He designed a handful of album covers and the one that I liked the most of the cover that he did for the band okgo. I enjoy how he uses soft, curvy lines in the flowers with the contrast of the stiff, straight lines of the lettering of okgo. It is interesting how the predominate object in the picture is white and almost seems unfinished. 


 Sagmesiter's book "Things I Have Learned in My Life So Far" is comprised of 15 unbound signatures in a laser-cut case. The book grew from a list that he wrote in his diary while taking a year off. He turned these things that he learned into art. Here are some of my favorites. 

His art is just so unique and different that it is like a breath of fresh air. I really enjoy it! 


Credits:
http://www.google.com/images?q=Stefan+Sagmeister&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=ugT2TOLWKIGusAOV1LHICw&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=5&ved=0CFcQsAQwBA&biw=1680&bih=935
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stefan_Sagmeister
http://downloadbookz.com/things-i-have-learned-in-my-life-so-far.html

Field Journal 9: Walder Swierzy

I was so intrigued by the poster of Jimi Hendrix by Walder Swierzy that I decided to look up some of Swierzy's  other pieces of work and found out a little more about him.

Walder Swierzy, a Poland native, had produced more than 1,500 posters in a wide variety of media. He has been recognized internationally for his work and has won 15 awards in his lifetime. He has focused mainly on creating posters of theatre, film, circus and  music. America's influence on Swierzy is "most notably American jazz performers and their instruments, shines through in his art with sparkling energy and bubbling good humor." (http://www.jazzartcollection.com/waldemar-swierzy-biography) .  

When looking up information on Swierzy, I was most attracted to his paintings of jazz musicians. The way he paints them makes you feel the movement and sound that is going on around the musician as he plays.  It is almost as if he is bringing his pictures to life.

Some hallmarks of Swierzy's style are the powerful color combinations, expressive color spots, sensuousness, vitality, dynamics and virtuosity of form. What also sets him  apart is the "multi-colored mish-mash of abstract items such as pasta-like lines, splashes, smudges, spots, dots and streaks giving the impression of randomness."

This picture of a drummer is my favorite poster I found of Swierzy's. I love the contrast between the bright colors and the black in the drummers cloths. the randomness of the lines and colors gives me the feeling of movement, it is almost as if the random lines are the sounds waves that people usually can't see yet Swierzy brings them to life. This is such an energetic poster that I really enjoy!






Credit :
http://www.jazzartcollection.com/waldemar-swierzy-biography
http://www.poster.com.pl/swierzy-6.htm

Field Journal 8: Corporate Identification - NBC

A major design activity around the 1950s and 1960s was giving visual identity to Corporate America. One of my favorite corporate logo is the colorful peacock of NBC.
NBC's very first official logo was created in 1942 based off of the logo that they had established for their radio station. The jagged waves on the left represent the radio station and the waves on the right represent television. This logo known as the microphone logo was their way of keeping their radio and tv networks connected.

In 1954, the Xylophone logo was introduced and was followed by the three-tone NBC chime, the same chin that is heard still today on NBC.

Color television became a big deal. With television now being in color, it allowed the NBC logo to be in color as well. In 1959 Fred Knapp created the first colorful and animated peacock logo. At this point, NBC was on the for front of having a  colorful logo which helped to promote color television.



A few years later in 1959, a new logo was released featuring the NBC letters simply together in black. This logo could be seen by itself or along with the colorful peacock and is known as the snake logo.


Three years later in 1962, the colorful peacock was redesigned to have smooth round edges and different colors.


The simple NBC logos were no longer in 1975 when they introduced a completely new  logo of a stylized "N". Unfortunately they logo did not last long since NBC was sued by Nebraska Educational TV who had been using the logo for 2 years before NBC introduced theirs.

In 1979, the abstract N had not completely left. A new logo was created with the return of the peacock. The logo combined the abstract N with the peacock on top of it, known as the "Proud N" logo.  The peacock symbol was originally made to advertise that NBC was broadcasting in color yet the peacock soon became NBC's primary logo.


In 1986, the Peacock logo which was introduced and redesigned by Chermayeff & Geismar, is still the current logo for NBC.  The current logo's peacock is made up of six feathers, reducing the number down from eleven feathers in the previous logos. The six feathers represent the six devisions of NBC; News, Sports, Entertainment, Stations, Networks and Production. This logo is one of the worlds more recognizable logos.

Fred Knapp sure knew what he was doing when he created the first colored peacock logo for NBC, and now look how far it has come.

Credits:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBC_logos
http://www.etiziano.com/I_love_logo_design/history_of_the_nbc_logo.html

Field Journal 7: Harper's Bazaar Legendary Designer Alexey Brodovitch

In 1934, Alexey Brodovitch was quickly offered the job of Art Director of Harper's Bazaar after meeting Carmel Snow at an Art Directors Club in New York. Snow described his work as "pages that bled beautifully, cropped photographs, typography and design that were bold and arresting" ( harpersbazzar.com). As a Russian immigrant from Paris, Brodovitch became a revolutionary figure in magazine design.  On of Brodovitch's signatures is his use of white space as seen in his  October 1947  and July 1956 covers.

October 1947

1956: The July cover makes a colorful
nod to modernism.

Brodovitch was never afraid to experiment with anything and everything. Here is a photo from 1945 depicting how he thought to use lipstick as paint. 

Another trait of Brodovitch was how he saw a musical type of flow with pictures and text. "The rhythmic environment of  open space and balancing text was [energizing]" (Magg p. 340). This concept of "a musical feeling" can be seen in one of his earlier covers that he did back in 1935.

The covers done under Alexey Brodovitch and a few years after him are so creative and interesting compared to the covers we see today. Its unfortunate to see that the covers of People Magazine look similar to the cover of Seventeen and Cosmo, just one celebrity posed on the front, nothing too original or creative about that. Although one of Brodovitch's last covers from 1958 was one of a women on the front, it seems much more interesting and artistic than the standard cover shot done today. 

November 2010

July 1958

Credit

http://www.harpersbazaar.com/magazine/140-years/bazaar-140-lookbook

http://www.harpersbazaar.com/magazine/140-years/bazaar-140-0607 

Photos courtesy of images.google.com

Field Journal 6: War Posters Now and Then

From the famous 1917 military recruitment poster with “Uncle Sam” on the front ( it is actually self portrait of the artist himself James Montgomery Flagg) to the current war posters of today, we have seen a shift in how the posters are being used. Initially when posters first started being used in association with the war, they were all positive recruitment posters. Most were colorful, looking very patriotic with the American flag or using the colors red white and blue, and having some sort of person on it. During the year and a half that America was involved in the war, James Montgomery Flagg produced forty-six war posters including the most famous military recruitment poster which is one of the most widely reproduced posters in history. Here are a few of his other posters. 

I would describe Flagg’s posters simple, classic and patriotic. The posters now a days about the current wars do not seem patriotic at all, instead they seem to mock what our current political leader is doing. 

I feel as though back around 1917 there was more of a sense of unity and pride for the people in the posters. Now the posters are a way for the American people to voice how they feel about the war and they don't rallying around our troops to support what they are doing. This posters become such an influence to the American  people that it can make it hard to understand and actually know what the president is actually doing about the situation. These current posters have much more power than people realize. Here are some of the more current war posters.

    

Field Journal 5: Women in Advertising

Jules Cheret, a French graphi artist, changed the way women are view and the role they play in advertisements. I feel as though someone was on the right track about Cheret when they dubbed him “the father of women’s liberation. Before, women were seen as either the traditional homemaker who took care of the children and kept the house running. Cheret featured women in a very positive light. He featured “self-assured, happy women who enjoyed life to the fullest,” which was a very approachable and relatable image that most women could identify with. Without even realizing it, this gave women a way of expressing themselves without saying anything. They were able to express themselves through the cloths they chose to wear, the way they positioned their bodies in the photos and the expression presented on their faces. This allowed women to be appreciated for not only the stereotypical roles they fell into, but for the natural beauty they possessed.

Cheret's

From 1952

Being the Jules Cheret is from France, I decided to take one of his posters, a Moulin Rouge poster that he did and see how his original has evolved to a poster created in 1952 and a recent one from 2001. Cheret’s initial intention to use women who are happy and enjoying life is still seen throughout all three posters.The one from 1952 seems resemble Cheret’s ideas about the women he puts on his posters, happy, confident in low cut dresses dancing.  The 2001 version seems to be a more modern way that shows how women are happy when they have a man to call their own.

 

From 2001

It is sad to say, that what Jules Cheret started in the Nineteenth century has now turned into a competitive industry that does not always portray women who are self- assured and happy. Most of the models we see now a days on the front of magazines are airbrushed to “perfection”, portraying an unrealistic image for others striving to be their best. But what is exciting is that recently different people are trying to bring things back to the way Cheret saw things. The Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty is a nationwide ad that is trying to reinstall the idea to be comfortable in your own skin.  

Another example popped up in the news this week. Texas teenagers are starting their own campaign called “Redefining Beauty.” The girls have decided to go make up free each Tuesday because they are sick and tired of the way the media portrays women and instead want to celebrate natural beauty. People are starting to become fed up with the recent way women are  being shown in the media and hopefully we can go back to the way Cheret did it, portraying self-assured happy women. 

Photo Credit:

http://www.accents-n-art.com/canvas-prints/jules-cheret/baldumoulinrouge-M00612.html

http://www.posters.ws/20157/moulin_rouge_1952

http://annebowman.wordpress.com/2008/10/29/diy-save-the-dates-b-movie-posters/

http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/brandnewday/archives/2008/05/surprise_doves.html

http://www.tekbuz.com/texas-high-schoolers-go-makeup-free-for-redefining-beautiful-club-412th-edition/18141/

Field Journal 4: Kodak “You press the button…we do the rest”

I had no idea that Kodak was the first company to create a camera that was accessible to anyone, so I decided to find out a little more about the progression of the Kodak camera. As the book mentions, the first Kodak camera was introduced to the public in 1888 by a man named George Eastman. Kodak’s slogan became “You can press the button… we do the rest,” simply captivating people to see how quick and easy using a camera could be.

A year later, in 1889,  Eastman introduced transparent roll film that soon lead to the development of Thomas Edison’s motion picture camera in 1891.  

Pocket Kodak

In 1895, seven years after the Kodak camera was introduced, a smaller version of it, known as the Pocket Kodak camera was introduced and quickly became popular. It was the first camera that had a viewing window in the back where you could see what you were taking.

Brownie

In 1900, the Brownie (shown to the right) was next to be put on the market.  It introduced  the snapshot and became extremely popular all the way until about the 1960s.

Retina

Around 1940 the Retina was produced in Germany and introduced to the market. This new model  was neat and compact yet had sort of a chunkier look to it that was the look back then. A new feature presented on this model was the lever-wind for rolling the film up when done as well as a shutter release for more control. In high school I took a black and white  photography class and had to use cameras similar to this model, and although the features on it seemed unusual at first, once you got the hang of it is was simple to use and produced quality black and white photographs. 

Kodak continued to improve from there. They then created cameras that could take colored photographs with better rolls of film, to the single-use or disposable cameras to the most recent digital cameras that can do everything from take video to because to post  picture and videos straight from your camera to the internet within seconds. It is amazing to see how far we have come since 1888 until now and can’t wait to see where the latest technology will take us in the future. 

Credits:

http://thedigitalstory.com/2010/01/a_look_back_at_georg.html

http://blog.seniorennet.be/retrocameras/archief.php?ID=316

http://antiques.lovetoknow.com/Antique_Kodak_Cameras

http://kodak.3106.net/index.php?p=216

http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jhtml?pq-path=2/6868&pq-locale=en_US&_requestid=25241

Field Journal 3: The Sparks of Reformation

Martin Luther (1483-1546)

Who would have thought that the Bible, the first book created, would allow someone to find their voice in society? After writing his own book, Martin Luther a German professor of theology and priest, nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the doors of Castle Church in Wittenberg. This sparked the Protestant Reformation and the first time that someone have ever written out their beliefs; beliefs that were different than what was written in the Bible and practiced by the Catholics. This reformation “shattered Christianity into hundreds of sects” states our textbook, Meggs' History of Graphic Design. To me, when thoughts and beliefs are written out for all to see, it is stronger than someone just saying what they believe. When it is in print, it can last forever.

Not only did the ability to print books and manuscripts enable people to become educated as well as to document important information, it was the start of freedom of speech. Martin Luther negatively wrote about the Catholic Church and did not feel guilty about it or the need to apologize to the Pope and others. Although radios where not invented at that time, Luther’s views and beliefs were heard all around Europe simply because he was able to write out his thoughts in a book  which can easily  be passed around from one person to the next.  This just shows how being able to write and publish whatever you want gave people more of a sense of freedom that they may not have been able to have before. This new way of communicating your ideas allows more people to have a voice in their respective communities.  It doesn’t matter where you come from, the ability to write your thoughts out and mass produce it means that your thoughts can be shared not only with your community but with the surrounding communities as well. I am sure that most people in Europe had no idea who Martin Luther was before he wrote his Ninety-Five Theses, yet the freedom and ability to express himself through his writing got him well known throughout Europe quickly! I feel as though Martin Luther not only sparked a reformation in the world of religion, he also sparked a reformation in the way people learn to freely express themselves. 

Credit: 

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther#The_start_of_the_Reformation

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Martin-Luther-1532.jpg (photo)

Field Journal 2: Alphabet

I guess you could say I had a full circle moment when I was reading chapter one. While reading about how the Egyptians use the rebus principle to communicate what they wanted to say, reminded me of an art class I took. One of our assignments was to take a song and turn it into a rebus, replacing any words that we could with a symbol for them instead. It is exciting to learn more about where the rebus concept from my art class came from and learning about it more from a visual communication aspect.

I find it extremely interesting how most visual communication is a way for the symbols to represent the sounds of the spoken language, yet China’s alphabet does not correlate in the same way. I feel as though it would be difficult to learn a language where the symbols and sounds were different from each other, it would be as if you are learning two completely different languages. To think that after all of these years, a country’s prime way of communicating is through symbols and not letters.

When thinking about how the American language has taken most of its words from the majority of Latin words, it was fun to read about the progression of the Latin alphabet. To think that there were only 21 letters in the initial alphabet and that they eventually added letters like J and U completing the alphabet to have 26 letters as it does today. What would we have done without those letters? Would we still have all the words we have today? Or would we still have the same words we have now but have them be spelled differently? It is fascinating to think about how our written language would be if we didn’t have all the letters of the alphabet. Maybe without all the letters we would have to still use symbols to communicate? These chapters got me thinking that symbols may be more effective in communicating something than trying to communicate through words. Like with logos, take the Pepsi logo for instance, when you see it you instantly know that that is the logo for Pepsi which is a soft drink that is very popular among Americans. Who knows, maybe symbols could start to become more prominently used sometime in the future.

This shows the original Latin alphabet compared to Hebrew letters.

http://ohlundonline.blogspot.com/2008/10/oldest-hebrew-text-discovered-at-king.html