Design History Report Selections

Contemporary Influential Designers
—
Louise Fili
Paula Sher
Carin Goldberg
April Greiman
Katherine McCoy
Luba Lukova
Stefan Sagmeister
Milton Glaser
Ivan Chermayeff and Thomas Geismar
Woody Pirtle
David Carson
Art Chantry
Massimo and Lella Vignelli
Michael Bierut
Bruce Mau
Uwe Loesch
Neville Brody
Armin Hoffman
Edward Tufte
Erik Spiekermann
Matthew Carter
Chip Kidd
Jonathan Hoefler and Tobias Frere-Jones
Jonathan Barnbrook
Eddie Opara

 

Past and Historic Designers

—
Saul Bass
Seymour Chwast
Charles and Ray Eames
Steve Frykholm
Paul Rand
Lou Dorfsman (CBS)
Herb Lubalin
Paul Davis
Lester Beall
Tibor Kalman
Herbert Matter
Wolfgang Weingart
Josef Müller-Brockmann
Herbert Bayer
Jan Tschichold
Lucian Bernhard
Elaine Lustig Cohen
Margaret Armstrong
Muriel Cooper
Cipe Pineles
F.T. Marinetti
Piet Zwart
Alexander Rodchenko
El Lissitzky
Tadeusz Gronowski
Stefan Norblin
Shigeo Fukuda
Tanaka Ikko
Yusaku Kamekura

Movements
—
Art Nouveau
Art Deco
Vienna Seccession
Bauhaus / Swiss Design
Futurism
Dadaism
Constructivism
Japonism
20′s & 30′s Japanese Design
1950s American Design (Pop Art)
1970s American Design (Psychedelic, Blaxploitation/Exploitation Films)

Design History Project

OBJECTIVE

As your design education is building, moving you toward a professional career, you need to continue your efforts to increase your knowledge about influential designers that have shaped the industry, both historical and contemporary. Your grasp of the past will help ground your knowledge so you can recognize trends and new emerging directions in the design world.

The Design History Project is a semester long project with several sequential phases and multiple deliverables. This includes a written report, poster design, book design utilizing content from your written report, and a final oral presentation. To begin, we’ll be focusing on the written report.

Step 1: Choose a Designer. Choosing from the pre-determined list of designers supplied in class, choose three designers you are interested in researching and number them in order of preference. Be sure and do initial exploratory research on each of them to assure you can find enough content for your report. Each student in class is required to have a different research area so as to cover the widest spectrum of topics. I will hold individual meetings to approve a selection in class. Deadline: September 6. 

Step 2: Research: After your designer is approved, you may begin research. Read from at least four different sources which may include -books, publications and websites. Please keep in mind that this is a formal research project and as such you will be expected to provide complete and comprehensive bibliographical notations. You are required to use research from at least two printed sources (this can include articles and excerpts published on the web). Keep notes so you can outline your research on pertinent points. Don’t forget to collect hi-res examples of work as you go that could be used when you are designing your book later. 

Step 3: Written Report: Decide on the approach to your writing. For example, a report about a designer could be organized chronologically, by category of work, by influential projects, etc. A design movement could be divided among the major designers in the movement or contrasting the various disciplines within (ie., architecture, advertising, textiles, furniture design, & product design). You will be required to have your report checked by the writing center at least twice. This report will include a minimum of ten pages of text at 1.5 line spacing. The ten pages does not include your bibliography page. Deadline: October 18.

Step 4: Poster Design: Design a poster that appropriately represents the messages, style, feel, and typestyles of your designer. The poster will be designed as if it is advertising a feature exhibition at the Nelson Atkins Museum of art, and needs to include address and dates. Content details to come later. 

Step 5: Book Design: Design a book in a format utilizing the grid and sequential formatting that suits the design subject. This book will include: your written report, a complete bibliography, and visual examples of the subject of your research. It will also include a dust jacket cover that complements, but does not replicate exactly, your poster design. Be creative and at the same time effective in your communication. Book will be published via Blurb.com. More details to come. 

Step 6: Oral Report: Drawing upon the key points from your written report, and utilizing imagery from your research, book and poster, complete a visual/verbal presentation to the class. Use visual slides to show examples of work. 

Project One: Exploring Letterform

OBJECTIVES
> Begin to identify typographic characteristics & connotations
> Illustrate an understanding of typographic characteristics & connotations
> Appropriately diagram typographic terminology
> Explain (verbally) your understanding of typographic characteristics during a critique

PART ONE: CLASSIFICATION SKETCHES
Due: 8/30.
Sketching on the 11×17 worksheet  I provided in class, replicate capital and lowercase letterform “a’s” of six different classifications of typefaces. As you draw, note the different personalities of each typeface as you see them. This is not a tracing exercise. Look. Observe the letterform’s characteristics. Sketch. Look. Sketch. Sign your name to the sheet. We will discuss in class.

PART TWO: TYPE HAS FORM
To be completed in class on 8/30.
Choose one letter of the alphabet and typeset it in 3 of the assigned typefaces.You should choose letter and typeface combos that you find visually intriguing. Print each out large enough that you can see the details on a 8.5×11 size sheet of paper. Create a series of (three) large letterform drawings using the letters supplied as a visual reference. Work at a large scale using either white or brown butcher paper (I will work to make this available in class). You can work directly on a wall or angle your desk up high. Loosen up and engage your arm and body to sketch out your letter. You should not attempt an exact replica with tightly drawn outlines, but try to translate the formal qualities of your letter in a new and beautiful drawing composition. You may turn, replicate, exaggerate, etc the letterform. Look closely at your letter’s stroke weights, counterforms (the negative white spaces within the letter) and overall shape. Pick a drawing tool appropriate for quick expressive sketches. Go for it and loosen up!

Typefaces: Futura, Helvetica, Optima, Garamond, Bodoni, and Clarendon. (choose three)

PART THREE: DRAWING WITH ANATOMY
Due: Present finals at beginning of class on 9/6.
 Refine one of your rough compositions drawn during class into a final composition. Medium is up to you. Pencil, pen, charcoal, marker or paint (or any mark making tool you’d like to explore) are all allowed (no color!).  To add a new informational layer to this phase of the project, incorporate labels to indicate the parts (anatomy) of your letterforms. Labels can be drawn directly on your paper, be applied to a separate material and stuck on to your composition, be tied, stapled or taped to your composition. Do whatever you want! (don’t forget composition, meaning and craft!) The labels should be legible when standing at around 6 feet away and should fit harmoniously into your composition. Be aware of how your label points to its respective area and how that area is defined visually.

Incorporate or add at least 5 labels from the list of words below:
• baseline • x-height • median • cap height • spine • stroke
• stem • serif • shoulder • arm • leg • ear • tail • spur • cross bar
• cross stroke • counter • bowl • finial • terminal • apex
• vertex • crotch • ascender • descender • bracket • stress • link

Deadline Reminder for Tomorrow

Due: Reading Assignments 1 & 2.

Due: Letterform Exploration Part 1: Complete hand drawing exercise
(11×17 sheets I distributed in class)

Reading Assignments 1 & 2

reading assignment 1: History of Type

The Evolution of Typography / PDF Handout (see resources section)

Thinking with Type / Lupton / pgs 12–35

 

reading assignment 2: Anatomy and Terminology

Thinking with Type / Lupton / pgs 36–45

A Type Primer / Kane / PDF Handout (see resources section)

TYPE / PDF Handout (see resources section)

Good/Bad Type Selections

STEP 1

Using old magazine articles, advertisements, or examples elsewhere, select one example of typographic design that you think is “good” and one that you think is “bad.” Magazines provided in class. 

STEP 2

Critique these pieces in writing. Try to stay away from phrases that use “I like.” Rather, be specific and use phrases such as: “This is good typography because the type style effectively communicates the subject,” or “This is an effective use of negative space to balance the typography, thus providing a visual rest or pause in the layout.”

STEP 3

Pin up your selections on the wall and be prepared to verbally present and discuss your critiques.

Classroom Manifesto

Addendum to the official course syllabus

Show work every day.

In order to create an atmosphere in which your work is constantly improving and evolving, we must create tight feedback loops. I will work to create daily feedback opportunities for you. It’s your job to make sure you are providing significant evolutions in your work each class to keep the process fed. The students that show advances in work each day are the ones that get the most learning out of my class. Although you will have designated class times to work on projects, you are also required to work on projects outside of class time. If you feel like you are stuck or spinning your wheels, please come to me asap or shoot me an email.

Participation is Attendance. 

You are only counted as present when you have participated for that day. Participation is interaction via individual meetings, small group discussions and group crits. Different students feel comfortable in different modes of interaction, so a variety of critiquing methods will be used in class to enable everyone to give feedback. Class time is studio time, and you are expected to be in class working  for the full time unless otherwise instructed.

Let the Process be your Guide.

With each project, you will be required to produce a set number of thumbnails, then revised sketches, by hand. Only then can you move on to comps. Sketches are rough, quick hand drawings. Comps are computer generated roughs. Don’t say that you can’t draw. Sketching is not about creating nice drawings, its about ideation. Work rapidly. Don’t spend too much time on any one thumbnail. When developing comps, you will still be required to produce a set number of concepts (aka ideas or directions). Two of the same layout with the type in slightly different places are not different concepts, they are versions.

Document everything. Keep it all.

At the end of every project you will turn in a process PDF to me with all inspiration sketches, comps, etc. Don’t forget to keep and document these as you go. Record anything that is pertinent to the process such as research or mockups. Also, I may ask at any time for you to revisit previous versions of your designs. Do not throw away or save over any files during the process.

Thinking vs Doing. 

A designer’s job is equal parts thinking and doing. Design is about communicating and problem solving. Don’t get too caught up in the doing up front—that is, the graphic part of graphic design. Doing consists of the manifestation of how we do things, like kerning or photoshopping. When we are doing, we are too close to the work to see the big picture. That’s why the process calls for a healthy dose of thinking before we even sit down at the computer. Thinking can take form of researching, sketching, discussions or even wildly slapping post-its on a wall. The product of thinking is often more verbs, like getting people to care about an issue or to buy a product.

Course Evaluation Criteria. 

After each project has been completed, I will provide an evaluation sheet that averages a grade for the project (on a 100 point scale) and provides final feedback on the overall process. Keep in mind that grades are not graded only on aesthetics. Participation and following the design process correctly are weighed just as equally. Items that will be evaluated for grade include:

OBJECTIVES
Ability to meet objectives outlined in the project. Exhibits learning through risk taking and considered decision making. Ability to creatively solve problems within parameters.

PRESENTATION
Attention to detail and sense of craft. Level of quality achieved in final presentation design, and clarity of project presentation in final critiques and reviews.

PARTICIPATION
Ability to articulate ideas in group settings, with the instructor and in writing. Contribution to a positive and critical atmosphere. Maintains a professional and respectful demeanor.

PROCESS
Consistent level of effort. Demonstrates lateral thinking and ability to use the process from research and concept to refinement and completion. Process is divided by daily progress (evidence of progress made between classes) and project documentation.

 

Welcome to Typography!

Hey Class!

I’ve set up this blog to help organize and keep students updated while working on projects for all sections of GDES 132, Typography. During the course of the semester, you can check this blog for project descriptions and timelines, updates, deadline reminders, inspiration and additional info. This blog is an effort to replace paper handouts for project sheets and mass emails for project updates. It is your responsibility to check regularly for important updates, new assignments and topical references.

In the left footer, you will see tabs for sub-pages of the blog. The Resources page will include links and downloads to resources for the class, such as handouts and links to design blogs.

The blog is intended to function as an ongoing dialog and extension of the classroom. I would love for you to post comments or questions on the blog and engage in discussion about the project here, especially if you feel it is info that will be useful to your fellow classmates.

Looking forward to working with you all!

Ryan Jones