What
skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think
you have applied them?
This module has been very different to the
rest, in the fact that we were using the theory we had already learnt
throughout the year and then using this information as content for the product
we produce.
On the theory side of this module I have
learnt a lot of new things, this has really been a learning curve for me
because I have learnt so much about the theory side of Graphic Design, which I
have never looked at before. The lectures were interesting, some of them I
found really interesting and useful and others I thought didn’t help me within
my studies. The seminars and workshops with the tutors, were where I learnt the
most. I found these really easy to connect with and found all the information
and things taught to us very useful. I think this was better because it was a
smaller group and the interaction within the group and tutors, what a lot
better and made discussions, which we could delve into more and more.
The practical side of the module was really
interesting and fun. To start with I found it hard to get one solid idea, which
I think that was one of the main things I learnt on this, the idea is the main
thing about it and that needs to be solid before starting on any sort of design
work.
With this module it was again in my favor
because it was about an editorial, which I enjoy to do, and like doing this.
For this module I wanted to try something different and try to push my
abilities within the editorial sector. So I decided to make a publication which
had fold out pages. This was a challenge in itself because I had to make the
publication over two software programs, again something which I have learnt a
lot about. Getting the design of the publication to work over the different
softwares was hard to start with but once I got the hang of it I think I have
done a good job and managed to line everything up etc.
What
approaches to/methods of design production have you developed and how have they
informed your design development process?
From previous modules I have said that the
section of the design process I needed to focus on the most was the design
sheets and initial ideas of a brief. So for this brief I have worked on design
sheets to start with, making them to a decent standard and trying to develop my
ideas on these first before starting to work digitally. I found that this
worked really well and when it came to doing the digital design work, it was
easy because I had the idea there and new what I wanted to achieve.
The other thing I have learnt which I have
mentioned above was using two softwares for the publication. This was the
hardest part of the brief for me because I had to get the style and layout the
same over both the programs. As the pages ran on from each other, lining these
up was tricky and took some time to get them right.
I also decided on the format because of the
content that I had and what I wanted to produce from this, which involved
designing information cards and double sided printing. Double-sided printing
was a lot harder than what I thought, setting up the document was really hard
for me to get the idea of and get it right for it to print correct. I think
from this, I should try to not make things so complicated in the final
production of the products. Maybe trying to think of alternative ideas/ more
creative would have been a better thought.
The other main thing I learnt to the
approach of my work was researching. Researching was a big part of this module,
for both the practical element and the theory side of the module. I have found
that making a good in depth attempt at the research before I started any sort
of work, was the best way to work. Especially for the essay this was present
and the publication it helped a lot too.
What
strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on
these?
I think the strengths of my work was the A4
publication, I found this the most interesting part of the brief to design and
make. I think the result of the publication was the best. Even though there was
a lot of information which I had to portray and communicate to the audience, I
wanted to keep it simple and straight to the point; to do this I had to
condense the information and make it more straight to the point. The tone of
the publication was kept neutral, as I was aiming it to graphic design
students, I didn’t want it to be too factual or too wordy, so I think this
worked well also. The overall publication looked good, with the strict
structure and grid all the page layouts were kept simple, neat and clean. The
style throughout the publication was kept the same. With the information cards
I wanted to keep this similar to that of the publication, making them relate to
each other, because they did actually relate to each other and were meant to be
used as a pair, to gain a greater understanding of the subject.
I feel that with this publication I have
worked on what I already know about editorial design and have tried to push it
by experimenting with the format. I have worked upon my content and the
sourcing the right information for this. Developing the style and structure to
the publication was also a strength which I think came through strong. From the
feedback I got in the final crit I do believe that I produced a good informed
publication, which could be used by designers to learn about the subject of
Typography.
My main strength for the theory side of the
module, being the lectures and seminars was gaining confidence to participate within
a group to talk about what I felt/thought about the subject we were talking
about. I am not one for talking in front of people and in the past have always
kept my thoughts to myself, but I felt as though I did come out in these
sessions and put across valid opinions which contributed to the sessions.
What
weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the
future?
I think the weaknesses of my work, was the
information cards. I don’t think that they are a failure or a bad piece of
design, but compared to the publication I don’t think they work as well. Also
the packaging that I did for the cards could have been worked up better.
The aspect of the cards I think I could of
designed better was the layout and the structure. The way, in which I designed
them, was to keep them simple because I wanted the main element; the actual
typeface to come across the most and be the thing that you see the most. This
did work on them as they are now, but I think I could have been a bit more
creative with them. The format of the cards were quite small, which was hard to
fit all the information at a legible point size, but the way that I design them
worked for this and made the most of the space available. I just think that
looking at them once they were printed, that they do look good and the idea and
concept of them was clear, you could easily read them, but they weren’t a
design/structure that pushed the boundaries and every time that I did look back
at them I thought of different ways to improve them.
In future I will try to experiment with the
layout and structure of product more and develop these ideas more. Doing more
research into the visual aspects of this would help develop the design.
My weakness on the theory side of the
module was defiantly the essay. I found writing the essay a challenge and
something, which I do need to improve on myself. My writing skills are good for
everyday use, but when it comes to writing a critical analysis on a given
subject I find it tough. The researching and sourcing of the information was
fine and I feel that I did this well, it was just writing the essay and
structuring it, to communicate my argument.
Identify
five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to
gain from doing these?
-Time management – Even though I have
been improving this throughout the modules as the year has gone on. I didn’t
leave that much time to actually design the products for the brief. I got the
work done, but I feel if I had managed it better and left longer to design it,
I may have produced better work.
-Ideas/concept – I need to decide on a
solid idea/concept from the start, something that I find interesting and know I
can produce work for. On this brief, I had an idea from the start but them changed
it part way through, which meant I had to do all the research again, this took
up more time from the design stage and wasn’t as well informed as it good have
been.
-Format – Experimenting with the format
of the information cards could have been better and I could have developed the
design for these. As once I had finished them and printed them I wasn’t happy
with them. Experimenting and developing ideas will stop this from happening in
the future.
-Lecture Notes – Find a good, effective
way to take down notes. When in lectures I did find it difficult sometimes to
get all the relevant and important information down on paper whilst being
spoken to. I often found myself having to look back over the presentations
after the lecture to get these down. Coming up with a better way for me to take
notes would help solve this and save me time, I could be using on other things.
-Essay – When it comes to writing a
essay, I know myself that this is my weakest point and I always put it off
because I know this. In future I wont put this off and will have the confidence
to get on and do it, I can always go back and make it better, but getting the
initial ideas down will help. In future I will probably get help with this
aspect and try to improve this skill myself over time.
1. Leslie Cabarga Leslie Cabargahails from New Jersey, USA, and is credited as having helped Betty Boop resurface by creating some ceramics and cards in her image (the first commercial products since the 1930s). He’s an illustrator, furniture designer, spirit channel, and collector of memorabilia. You might recognize his work from the Disney / Pixar movie Cars, where his Magneto font was used.
Information off website:
In 1970, Leslie Cabarga, a 15 year old cartoonist living in (ugh! gasp!) New Jersey, who had been inspired by the black and white Betty Boop cartoons shown on TV that he’d loved as a youth, set out on a quest to find the answer to a question which by that time was on everybody’s lips. And that question was: Who was Betty Boop?
His search led him from New Jersey to New York, to Brooklyn, to San Francisco, to Hollywood California, and also to Hollywood, Florida. The result of his four-year search for answers was the publication of “The Fleischer Story” in 1976. That original hard cover book may now be found in used book stores (and on the internet) for as much as $300. (Order an autographed copy of the soft-cover 2nd edition direct from the author in the Books section—only a few copies left!).
In addition to simply writing and designing The Fleischer Story which resurrected the memory of Max Fleischer and his talented brothers, Leslie Cabarga resurrected Betty herself. In the 1970s he designed the first lines of Boop ceramics for Vandor Imports. In the 1980s he did Boop stickers and products for Lisa Frank and began a series of Boop greeting cards for Paper Moon and Pop Shots. There were eventually 44 Paper Moon cards and 4 for Pop Shots. These were the first Boop products to hit the modern market since the 1930s and they re-established Betty as the queen of the cartoon screen..
Website: http://www.lesliecabarga.com/
2. Identikal http://www.identikal.com/index.html This is a little of an anomaly, as Identikal is two people. Twins, Adam and Nick Hayes, formed Identikal in 1998. Based in London, UK their success led them to expand and the journey landed them in Brooklyn, NYC. They’ve worked with some pretty big names, including the likes of Sony and Dazed & Confused as well as on campaigns for Nintendo and PS2. They have also been known to work with a number of musicians, predominantly DJs, but Shakira is also on their list of clients.
3. Anthony Burrill
Anthony Burrill’s persuasive, up-beat illustration and design has been commissioned by cultural, social and commercial clients
around the world from New York, to London to Tokyo. He has also gained a following in the design world for his innovative
collaborations with friends and fellow artists, designers, print-makers and film-makers.
Burrill works across a range of media, including posters, moving image and three-dimensional work. He combines an instinctive handling
of colour and composition with a witty approach to words. He has worked on advertising campaigns and posters for clients such as
The Economist, the British Library and London Underground. He regularly collaborates with musicians and animators to make films, music
promos and animations, using his distinctive visual vocabulary and passion for fusing sound and image. His installations and 3-D work
have been commissioned by Colette in Paris and The Design Museum in London among others.
Printmaking is an important part of Burrill’s practice and he creates limited edition prints with slogans including “Work Hard and Be
Nice to People” that have become mantras for the design community and beyond. Burrill has also taken part in group and solo exhibitions
around the world – from London’s Kemistry Gallery to the Graphic Design Museum at Breda - and lectured and led workshops at numerous
design events and educational institutions.
Burrill was born in Littleborough, Lancashire. After studying Graphic Design at Leeds Polytechnic he completed an MA in Graphic Design
at the Royal College of Art, London. He now lives and works on the Isle of Oxney, Kent.
Bio:
Born and raised in Norfolk, Andy Smith studied illustration at the University of Brighton and the Royal College of Art, London. Graduating in 1998 he quickly established a client list of advertising, publishing and editorial clients including Orange, Mercedes, McDonalds, The Guardian, Expedia, Sony, Vodafone, Random House and Penguin Books, directing Run London a commercial for Nike in 2000. His work combines illustration and typography to create images that have humour, energy and optimism and all are executed with a handmade, hand-printed, tactile feel. Quirky characters find themselves in absurd situations, often with a large piece of lettering nearby. When not producing commercial work for clients Andy can be found in the studio screen printing books and posters about Fatty, the Target People and the Hot Dog. He has exhibited in the UK, USA, France and Australia. He lives and pretends to work by the sea in Hastings, East Sussex. His favourite colour is blue.
Selected Clients:
Nike, Orange, Sony PSP, Expedia, Mercedes, Virgin, Vauxhall, London Transport, Nicolas, Oddbins, Shell, McDonalds, The Sunday Telegraph, The Guardian, The Independent, The Mail on Sunday, Time Out, The Sunday Times, Conde Naste, Random House, Penguin Books, John Brown Publishing, Nickelodeon, Howies, Gingham 2K.
Awards:
2011 AOI Images 35 silver design category
2009 AOI Images 33 gold editorial category
2007 AOI Images 31 silver design category
2006 D&AD nominated (The Big Bang/Tequila)
2005 AOI Images 29 silver advertising category. London Transport/SAA Illustration Awards commended.
2004 AOI Images 28 gold unpublished category. London Transport/SAA Illustration Awards commended.
2003 AOI Images 27 silver advertising category
2002 D&AD nominated (Run London/Nike)
2001 D&AD silver award (Press ads/Oddbins). Creative Circle silver.
1998 Quentin Blake award (Royal College of Art)
5. Si Scott
Si Scott is a full-time artist, designer and creative consultant based in the UK.
He’s renowned for his unique style, blending hand-crafted and hand-drawn artwork that has gained him numerous awards and a prestigious client list. So far in his career he has completed projects for Matthew Williamson, Vogue, Nike, Tiffany & Co and Sony to name a few. As well as contributing to advertising campaigns for Guinness, Absolut and American Express.
Si has recently taken time out to develop his skills further. Challenging the 2D perspective of his work by rendering his hand drawn creations in 3D form.
A visiting lecturer at Leeds College of Art & Design on the 3rd year BA Hons degree in Visual Communications, Si has given talks and exhibited his work at institutions in cities around the world including Tokyo, New York, Brazil and Sydney.
He has also been involved in judging for the D&AD and Scottish Design Awards among others.
Beyond design and lecturing Si is available in a consulting role. His experience, skills and knowledge mean he is able to give guidance and contribute to a wide range of projects.
1. Interactive design - Magnetic North http://mnatwork.com/
Based in the UK, magneticNorth (mN to our friends) is a design company.
We are digital thinkers, designers and makers creating commissioned client work for some of the world’s most interesting companies and brands.
We do all things digital from websites and apps to installations and love prototyping, exploring new platforms and creating innovative social media campaigns.
mNatwork.com is our online home.
Their website is an interactive website, to see the work they have done you draw a shape on the screen and it reveals the work, you then click on it to reveal all.
2. Screenprinting - Muro Buro
Muro Buro is the random non agency portfolio of typographer / graphic designer Paul Robson.
Commissions only on a selective basis for design work outside of daily agency work.
This the portfolio of graphic designer, illustrator and typographer, Paul robson (aka Muro). I'm a London college of printing gradute with a passion for typography and print. Muro Buro is a fictional name set up to showcase my personal design projects which are produced outside of my daily agency work. Starting out as a graffiti artist in 1990, Muro is the pseudonym I have used for all my creative outputs throughout my career. Muro translates as WALL in Spanish, which translates to myself as blank canvas. Hope you like my work...
QusQus is a graphic design studio founded by Dima Kuzmichev. We love magazines and books, presentation booklets and annual reports, typography and high-quality paper. We develop trademarks design and visual identity.
The studio works for a wide range of clients from various areas, regardless of their scale. Our works achieve success also due to our clients, who share our approach to design and who appreciate individuality and quality even in details.
Currently we are working with clients from Saint-Petersburg as well as from other cities. We are always glad to see you and are open for cooperation! Call +7 (921) 325 0959 or write to us hello@qus-qus.com.
4. Packaging - JKR
We strip away the baggage to leave only what matters: design which gets noticed and chosen.
Proudly independent since 1990, we are answerable to our clients and their brands, not a corporate group or their shareholders. We focus on doing one thing well – branded packaging. If a brand has visual equity we unlock it. If it hasn't, we create it.
Effektive® Studio was founded in 2009 by Creative Director Greig Anderson after 7 years experience at agencies in both Scotland and Australia. Our extensive international experience has seen us work with clients such as Virgin Mobile Australia, Australia Radio Network, Dell, Ricoh, Ivanhoe Cambridge, STV and the WRC World Rally Championship. The studio is actively involved in the design community regularly being featured in a variety of industry publications and books, contributing to leading design resource FormFiftyFive, innovative product design partnershipGifted.Co and online design/art shop Editions of 100 as well as being active members of Designers Against Human Rights Abuse (DAHRA). If you would like to receive a copy of our latest studio credentials document or discuss a potential project please email us; studio@effektivedesign.co.uk
Clients:
Chisholm Hunter Ltd / Barclays Diamonds / Davidson Chalmers LLP / Architecture + Design Scotland / National Theatre of Scotland / JOQ® Media / WRC (World Rally Championship) / Poole Brothers London / Airlink Property Management / The Top Project / Briggs&Cole / Employour GmbH / Gifted Co. / Render Studio / STV / YOMO® / Steve Poole Photography / Fraher Architecture / Boost Agents Inc
We were approached by leading London based photographer Steve Poole to design a new personal site focusing on his work across weddings, editorial and commercial projects. The site uses a colour coded typographic navigation and a horizontal scrolling system to allow Steve to showcase a lot of work sequentially and in various arrangements using the custom built CMS system. Site Build by JOQ.
Advertising
1. Si Scott
Si Scott is a full-time artist, designer and
creative consultant based in the UK.
He’s renowned for his unique style, blending hand-crafted and hand-drawn artwork that has gained him numerous awards and a prestigious client list. So far in his career he has completed projects for Matthew Williamson, Vogue, Nike, Tiffany & Co and Sony to name a few. As well as contributing to advertising campaigns for Guinness, Absolut and American Express.
Si has recently taken time out to develop his skills further. Challenging the 2D perspective of his work by rendering his hand drawn creations in 3D form.
A visiting lecturer at Leeds College of Art & Design on the 3rd year BA Hons degree in Visual Communications, Si has given talks and exhibited his work at institutions in cities around the world including Tokyo, New York, Brazil and Sydney.
He has also been involved in judging for the D&AD and Scottish Design Awards among others.
Beyond design and lecturing Si is available in a consulting role. His experience, skills and knowledge mean he is able to give guidance and contribute to a wide range of projects.
Marrs lives in hastings, east sussex with partner shelley by the sea in a big blue Victorian house with sea views. When not working he loves to play footie, do karate and darts with the lads while downing a few cheeky pints.
Living so close to the sea gives marrs time to indulge in his passion for eating. Mainly fish and chips and do-nuts!
Life is sweet!
Career bio:
With an illustration career spanning over 10 years, Marrs is a BA graduate of Humberside University and Master of Arts ( MA) post grad of Central Saint Martins, London. His work has continued to evolve, develop and inspire. Producing a frenzied Mix of drawings, photography, screen printing and photoshop techniques, his work sports a hand made and dynamic look, but yet considered and has a mix of influences from American pop culture, pulp fiction novels, pop art to polish film posters.
Marrs's broad and flexible style has also attracted a wide variety of commissions in advertising, publishing and Graphic design with worldwide clients including, Nike, Brand Jordan, Asics NYC marathon, Reebok, kswiss, Ogilvy and Mather, Saatchi and Saatchi, Geffen records, Publicis & Hal Riney and orion publishing to name but few. His technique is one of the most influential styles in modern illustration and is now starting to get the recognition it deserves.
3. WKD advertising campaign
I haven't got any information on this because it is about different campaigns that WKD have done, including print and tv ads. But i chose this brand specifically because i love the way in which they advertise, its humous and very light hearted, i think its a good way to put across the brand especially because it is targeted to the audience and they defiantly be engaged by the advertising. I wouldn't say that this advertising would make me go out and buy/drink the alcohol but its an interesting way to advertise and makes me laugh/lightens up my day whenever i see them!
4. HP - Invent - students from kingston university
D&AD live brief set by HP to present an idea which promotes HP Workstations ability to bring to life anything the creative mind can conceive.
There are many old spice advertising campaigns, the majority being tv ads. We got shown this is our latest lecture on social media and communication and this is one of the things that stuck in my head. Their ads are very memorable, its the language and the play on the role the actor has in the ads that does it. They are light hearted and humorous, which is also good as it makes everyone smile and smirk! These are defiantly some of the best TV adverts to me. This one below is one of my favourite ads they have done.
We're not saying this body wash will make your man smell into a romantic millionaire jet fighter pilot, but we are insinuating it.
The marketing agency behind these ads is Wieden + Kennedy
Welcome to Wieden+Kennedy. We are an independent, creatively driven advertising agency that creates strong and provocative relationships between good companies and their customers. We believe that it doesn't matter where, how or in what medium an idea is expressed, you still have to start with a good one.
Our independence is reflected through the work and culture of each of our offices. You'll find examples of this on our site through the creative, headlines aggregated from each of our blogs and our radio and entertainment group WKE. And most importantly, you'll find our people—not just their names and titles, but what they do, what they're into and how they've contributed to making this agency great. We hope you comment on the work, learn about our people and visit often.
1.Bauhaus
The Bauhaus school was founded by Walter Gropius in Weimar. In spite of its name, and the fact that its founder was an architect, the Bauhaus did not have an architecture department during the first years of its existence. Nonetheless it was founded with the idea of creating a 'total' work of art in which all arts, including architecture would eventually be brought together. The Bauhaus style became one of the most influential currents in Modernist architecture and modern design. The Bauhaus had a profound influence upon subsequent developments in art, architecture, graphic design, interior design, industrial design, and typography.
The school existed in three German cities (Weimar from 1919 to 1925, Dessau from 1925 to 1932 and Berlin from 1932 to 1933), under three different architect-directors:Walter Gropius from 1919 to 1928, Hannes Meyer from 1928 to 1930 and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe from 1930 until 1933, when the school was closed by its own leadership under pressure from the Nazi regime.
The changes of venue and leadership resulted in a constant shifting of focus, technique, instructors, and politics. For instance: the pottery shop was discontinued when the school moved from Weimar to Dessau, even though it had been an important revenue source; when Mies van der Rohe took over the school in 1930, he transformed it into a private school, and would not allow any supporters of Hannes Meyer to attend it.
Film Theory
1. Saul Bass
Saul Bass born on May 8, 1920 in Bronx, New York was one of the greatest graphic designers of the 20th century. He became known for designing brilliant animated sequences for motion pictures. In his 40+ year career he did work for the best Hollywood movie makers including Otto Preminger, Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese just to name a few.
He did work for numerous movies, including classics such as Psycho, Casino, West Side Story, Anatomy of a Murder and dozens of others. He won numerous awards, including an oscar in 1969 for best documentary for "Why Men Creates." In 1965 won Lion of San Marco award for Best Film about Adolescence for the film "The Searching Eye". In 1994 won Time-Machine Honorary Award and in 1984 won Special Award for the movie "Quest." He is also well known in the publishing/advertising industry, for example, he designed the corporate identity of United Airlines as well as poster for the Los Angeles Olympic games in 1984. He had a very successful career working on some of the best movies of the 20th century, he died on april 25h, 1996 in Los Angeles.
Olly moss is a young british designer / illustrator - his self initiated work includes these bold
poster designs for well known movie titles such as 'the deer hunter' and 'the great dictator'.
moss has also produced work for clients including the new york times, computer arts magazine
and urban outfitters.
Clients:
Sony Entertainment
Lucasfilm
Nike
Apple
Paramount
CBS Films Penguin Books
Threadless
Urban Outfitters
Levis
The New York Times
Time Magazine
3. Richard Morrison
www.richard-morrison.co.uk
Richard Morrison is one of the world’s leading designers of film title sequences. In a career spanning three decades, he has created over 150 title sequences - from blockbuster movies to cult classics - for many of the industry’s most respected film directors and producers.
Richard began his career with Maurice Binder on the Bond series. Over the course of 30 years, he has become the most prolific British films titles’ designer.
His credits span Hollywood blockbusters such as Batman, Enemy at the Gates, A Fish called Wanda and A Passage to India to cult classics like Brazil, Sweeney Todd and Quadrophenia for directors as varied as Sir David Lean, Kenneth Branagh and Stephen Frears to Jean-Jacques Annaud, Ridley Scott and Tim Burton.
Morrison is a highly respected author, graphic designer and lecturer. In 2001, he published CUT to critical acclaim. Since 2002, he has been chairman of Europe’s leading film and animation conference “Pencil to Pixel” and in 2009 he was appointed Honorary Professor of Digital Film School of Media Arts and Imaging at the University of Dundee, Scotland.
In recent years, Richard has branched into movie production. He is currently producing the big screen adaptation of The Dragon Conspiracy, based on a trilogy of books by P. R. Moredun. He is also in development with the writer/director Tania Hoser on her independent film Perfect Order.
I am a freelance designer/director based in London. My recent work has included projects for clients such as Channel 4, E4, Trouble, Sky One, DDB London, VW, Alfa Romeo, Tesco, and the BBC.
I won a Design Week Award for designing, directing and animating 20 idents for Kerrang! TV featuring an animated rock band causing havock in various locations and I have been nominated for a CAD for my Beastie Boys commercial. I have also designed and directed 30 titles and idents for the rebrand of E4 Music set in a weird world inhabited by animal-headed members of barber shop quartets.
In various sections of the website you will find animations, illustrations and objects that form part of an ongoing project called 'Little Old Men'. More bits can be seen on their website and myspace page including an Electro Band, a Tate Modern adventure and a few canvas'.
Kuntzel+Deygas are a duo of visual artists who live and work in Paris.
They have created characters such as "The Beauty & Her Beast", "Caperino & Peperone", "Winney & Loosey", and recently "MiCha" pet lamp.
Their narrative and graphic universe meets high end design, fashion, and also cinema.
Projects with: Ahkah, American Express, Azzaro Couture, Baccarat, Colette, Comme des Garçons, Diptyque, Goyard, Isetan, Jaeger-Lecoultre, Joyce, Lacoste, Le Bon Marché, Nokia, Veuve Clicquot…
Cinema: Agathe Cléry, Catch Me If You Can, Le petit Nicolas, On Otto, The Pink Panther...
Since the late 1980’s, Hirst has used a varied practise of installation, sculpture, painting and drawing to explore the complex relationship between art, life and death. Explaining: “Art’s about life and it can’t really be about anything else … there isn’t anything else,” Hirst’s work investigates and challenges contemporary belief systems, and dissects the tensions and uncertainties at the heart of human experience.
Hirst developed his interest in exploring the “unacceptable idea” of death as a teenager in Leeds. From the age of sixteen, he made regular visits to the anatomy department of Leeds Medical School in order to make life drawings (‘With Dead Head’ (1991)). The experiences served to establish the difficulties he perceived in reconciling the idea of death in life. Of the prominence of death in his work (‘A Thousand Years’ (1990)) he has explained: “You can frighten people with death or an idea of their own mortality, or it can actually give them vigour.”
At Goldsmiths, Hirst’s understanding of the distinction between painting and sculpture changed significantly, and he began work on some of his most important series. The ‘Medicine Cabinets’ created in his second year combined the aesthetics of minimalism with Hirst’s observation that, “science is the new religion for many people. It’s as simple and as complicated as that really.”This is one of his most enduring themes, and was most powerfully manifested in the installation work, ‘Pharmacy’ (1992).
Whilst in his second year, Hirst conceived and curated ‘Freeze’ – a group exhibition in three phases. The exhibition of Goldsmiths students is commonly acknowledged to have been the launching point not only for Hirst, but for a generation of British artists. For its final phase he painted two series of coloured spots on to the warehouse walls. Hirst describes thespot paintings as a means of “pinning down the joy of colour”, and explains they provided a solution to all problems he’d previously had with colour. It has become one of the artist’s most prolific and recognisable series, and in January 2012 the works were exhibited in a show of unprecedented scale across eleven Gagosian Gallery locations worldwide.
In 1991 Hirst began work on ‘Natural History’, arguably his most famous series. Through preserving creatures in minimalist steel and glass tanks filled with formaldehyde solution, he intended to create a “zoo of dead animals”. In 1992, the shark piece, ‘The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living’ (1991) was unveiled at the Saatchi Gallery’s ‘Young British Artists I’ exhibition. The shark, described by the artist as a “thing to describe a feeling”, remains one of the most iconic symbols of modern British art and popular culture in the 90’s. The series typifies Hirst’s interest in display mechanisms. The glass boxes he employs both in ‘Natural History’ works and in vitrines, such as ‘The Acquired Inability to Escape’ (1991), act to define the artwork’s space, whilst simultaneously commenting on the “fragility of existence”.
Since his involvement in ‘Freeze’ in 1988, curatorial projects have remained important to the artist. In 1994 he organised the international group exhibition ‘Some Went Mad, Some Ran Away’ at the Serpentine Gallery. Over a decade later, and explaining that he considers collections to constitute a “map of a man’s life”, he curated an award-winning exhibition of work from his ‘Murderme’ collection: ‘In the darkest hour there may be light’ (2006, Serpentine Gallery).
Stating: “I am absolutely not interested in tying things down”, Hirst has continued over the last decade to explore the “big issues” of “death, life, religion, beauty, science.” In 2007, he unveiled the spectacular, ‘For the Love of God’ (2007): a platinum cast of a skull set with 8,601 flawless pavé-set diamonds, at the White Cube exhibition ‘Beyond Belief’. The following year, he took the unprecedented step of bypassing gallery involvement in selling 244 new works at Sotheby’s auction house in London. Describing the sale as a means of democratising the art market, the ‘Beautiful Inside My Head Forever’ auction followed Hirst’s Sotheby’s event in 2004, in which the entire contents of the artist’s restaurant venture, Pharmacy, were sold.
Since 1987, over 80 solo Damien Hirst exhibitions have taken place worldwide and his work has been included in over 250 group shows. Hirst’s first major retrospective ‘The Agony and the Ecstasy’ was held in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Naples in 2004. His contribution to British art over the last two and a half decades is recognised this year in a major retrospective of his work staged at Tate Modern.
Hirst lives in Devon with his wife Maia and their three children Connor, Cassius and Cyrus. He has studios in Gloucester, Devon and London.
Andy Warhol (August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American artist who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationship between artistic expression, celebrity culture and advertisement that flourished by the 1960s. After a successful career as a commercial illustrator, Warhol became a renowned and sometimes controversial artist. The Andy Warhol Museum in his native city, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, holds an extensive permanent collection of art and archives. It is the largest museum in the United States of America dedicated to a single artist.
Andy Warhol's artwork ranged in multi forms of media that include hand drawing, painting, printmaking, photography, silk screening, sculpture, film, and music. He was a pioneer in computer-generated art using Amiga computers that were introduced in 1985, just before his death in 1987. He founded Interview Magazine and was the author of numerous books, including The Philosophy of Andy Warhol and Popism: The Warhol Sixties. Andy Warhol is also notable as a gay man who lived openly as such before the gay liberation movement. His studio, The Factory, was a famous gathering place that brought together distinguished intellectuals, drag queens, playwrights, Bohemian street people, Hollywood celebrities, and wealthy patrons. Warhol has been the subject of numerous retrospective exhibitions, books, and feature and documentary films. He coined the widely used expression "15 minutes of fame". Much of his creations are very collectable and highly valuble. The highest price ever paid for a Warhol painting is US$100 million for a 1963 canvas titled Eight Elvises. The private transaction was reported in a 2009 article in The Economist, which described Warhol as the "bellwether of the art market". Warhol's works include some of the most expensive paintings ever sold.
Quotes:
"An artist is somebody who produces things that people don't need to have."
"Being born is like being kidnapped. And then sold into slavery."
"Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art. Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art."
Aleksander Mikhailovich Rodchenko was a Russian artist,sculptor, photographer and graphic designer. He was one of the founders of constructivism and Russian design; he was married to the artist Varvara Stepanova.
Rodchenko was one of the most versatile Constructivist and Productivist artists to emerge after the Russian Revolution. He worked as a painter and graphic designer before turning to photomontage and photography. His photography was socially engaged, formally innovative, and opposed to a painterly aesthetic. Concerned with the need for analytical-documentary photo series, he often shot his subjects from odd angles—usually high above or below—to shock the viewer and to postpone recognition. He wrote: "One has to take several different shots of a subject, from different points of view and in different situations, as if one examined it in the round rather than looked through the same key-hole again and again."
Quotes
“In order to educate man to a new longing, everyday familiar objects must be shown to him with totally unexpected perspectives and in unexpected situations. New objects should be depicted from different sides in order to provide a complete impression of the object.”
"Art has no place in modern life. It will continue to exist as long as there is a mania for the romantic and as long as there are people who love beautiful lies and deception. Every moderncultured man must wage war against art as against opium."
Sagmeister studied graphic design at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. He later received a Fulbright scholarship to study at the Pratt Institute in New York. He began his design career at the age of 15 at "Alphorn", an Austrian Youth magazine, which is named after the traditional Alpine musical instrument.
In 1991, he moved to Hong Kong to work with Leo Burnett's Hong Kong Design Group. In 1993, he returned to New York to work with Tibor Kalman's M&Co design company. His tenure there was short lived, as Kalman soon decided to retire from the design business to edit Colors magazine for the Benetton Group in Rome.
Stefan Sagmeister proceeded to form the New York based Sagmeister Inc. in 1993 and has since designed branding, graphics, and packaging for clients as diverse as the Rolling Stones, HBO, the Guggenheim Museum and Time Warner. Sagmeister Inc. has employed designers including Martin Woodtli, and Hjalti Karlsson and Jan Wilker, who later formed Karlssonwilker.
Stefan Sagmeister is a long-standing artistic collaborator with musicians David Byrne and Lou Reed. He is the author of the design monograph "Made You Look" which was published by Booth-Clibborn editions.
Solo shows on Sagmeister, Inc.'s work have been mounted in Zurich, Vienna, New York, Berlin, Japan, Osaka, Prague, Cologne, and Seoul. He teaches in the graduate department of the School of Visual Arts in New York and has been appointed as the Frank Stanton Chair at the Cooper Union School of Art, New York.
His motto is "Design that needed guts from the creator and still carries the ghost of these guts in the final execution."
Sagmeister goes on a year-long sabbatical around every seven years, where he does not take work from clients. Currently on one in Bali, Indonesia, he is resolute about this, even if the work is tempting, and has displayed this by declining an offer to design a poster for Barack Obama's presidential campaign. Sagmeister spends the year experimenting with personal work and refreshing himself as a designer.
Quotes:
"You can have an art experience in front of a Rembrandt… or in front of a piece of graphic design."
"I’m sure there are fine artists out there who keep the audience in mind when they work. But it’s not the accepted trajectory of the profession. Conversely, it’s very clear in design that what we do needs to be seen an understood by an audience."
Born: 15 February 1970
Birthplace: Charleston, South Carolina
Best known as: The graphic designer who did the Obama Hope poster
Name at birth: Frank Shepard Fairey
Shepard Fairey shot to national fame as the graphic artist behind a 2008 iconic poster of Barack Obama, a portrait labeled simply "HOPE" and in a style that could be described as Andy Warhol meets Socialist Realism. Fairey, who graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1992, was already well known among graffiti artists and fans, thanks to one of Fairey's early works of "guerilla" art, an impromptu stencil design based on an ad for Andre the Giant, a professional wrestler. Fairey made stickers of the image in the late '80s, along with the scrawl "Andre the Giant has a posse," and the image went viral, spreading far and wide through urban America, on street signs, billboards and walls. He later adapted the image and added the word "obey." Mixing left-wing politics with "appropriated" images and bold graphic design, Fairey now works as a fine artist and advertising designer, with a gallery in Los Angeles and business ventures that dip into publishing, fashion and urban sports (skateboarding). Supporters call what he does appropriation art, but detractors call it plagiarism, and Fairey's success has put him in the middle of a legal and artistic debate about who owns what when it comes to images in the public. With permission from the staff of Obama's presidential campaign, Fairey began distributing the "HOPE" image in January of 2008. A year later, with Obama in the White House, Fairey's poster was officially displayed in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. Around the same time the Associated Press declared Shepard's poster was based on a 2006 photo taken by the AP's Manny Garcia and they should get credit and compensation. Fairey filed a pre-emptive lawsuit against the AP, arguing he didn't owe them. Fairey has appeared in the documentary films Andre the Giant Has a Posse (by Helen Stickler, first distributed in 1997) and Bomb It! (2007), and his work has been documented in the book Supply and Demand.
Extra credit: Just before the opening of his first solo exhibit, at Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art in February of 2009, Fairey was arrested on an outstanding warrant for vandalism (tagging).
Carson was born on September 8, 1954 in Corpus Christi, Texas. Since then he has lived in and traveled extensively throughout the U.S. and Europe and lectured frequently around the world. Carson's first actual contact with graphic design was made in 1980 at the University of Arizona on a two week graphics course, taught by Jackson Boelts. He attended San Diego State University as well as Oregon College of Commercial Art. Later on in 1983, Carson was teaching high school Sociology in del mar California when he went to Switzerland, where he attended a three-week workshop in graphic design as part of his degree. This is where he met his first great influence, who also happened to be the teacher of this course, Hans-Rudolf Lutz. Carson has a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology.
He became renowned for his inventive graphics in the 1990s. Having worked as a sociology teacher and professional surfer in the late 1970s, he art directed various music, skateboarding, and surfing magazines through the 1980/90s, including twSkateboarding, twSnowboarding, Surfer, Beach Culture and the music magazine Ray Gun. As art director of Ray Gun (1992-5), Carson came to worldwide attention. In a feature story, NEWSWEEK magazine said he "changed the public face of graphic design".
His layouts featured distortions or mixes of 'vernacular' typefaces and fractured imagery, rendering them almost illegible. Indeed, his maxim of the 'end of print' questioned the role of type in the emergent age of digital design, following on from California New Wave and coinciding with experiments at the Cranbrook Academy of Art. In the later 1990s he added corporate clients to his list of clients, including Microsoft, Armani, Nike, Levis, British Airways, Quiksilver, Sony, Pepsi, Citibank, Yale University, Toyota and many others. When Graphic Design USA Magazine (NYC) listed the “most influential graphic designers of the era” David was listed as one of the all time 5 most influential designers, with Milton Glaser, Paul Rand, Saul Bass and Massimo Vignelli.
QUOTES:
"It’s not about knowing all the gimmicks and photo tricks. If you haven’t got the eye, no program will give it to you."
"Graphic design will save the world right after rock and roll does."
End of print
End of print 2
An interview with david carson, taken from the helvetica movie
Today, in addition to lecturing and contributing to a variety of cultural and educational initiatives, Brody works both independently and alongside our designers on commercial and private projects – guiding Research Studios, our clients’ and inspiring the wider design community.
Quotes:
"An electrician isn’t an opinion former, but a graphic designer is. My argument is that all graphic designers hold high levels of responsibility in society. We take invisible ideas and make them tangible. That’s our job."
"Design is more than just a few tricks to the eye. It’s a few tricks to the brain."
Research studios:
Research Studios is a multi-disciplinary creative network with offices in London, Paris, Berlin, Barcelona and network representation in New York and Tokyo. From one-off commissions to comprehensive visual communication strategies, we provide a deep and diverse skill set to a client roster that ranges from global corporations to local businesses.
Our approach is naturally inquisitive and collaborative. As our name implies, exploration through design is at the heart of all we do.
A small team infrastructure allows us to build strong and enduring relationships, with projects delivered through a streamlined and candid creative process. The result is visual communication that employs evolutionary and groundbreaking design to meet our clients’ needs.
To discuss your project or commission with us, please contact your nearest or shared language speaking studio on the links for London, Paris, Berlin and Barcelona. For other countries not listed here, or commissions directly for Neville Brody please contact London where we will help or connect you with our network.
Although Reid is known primarily for the deployment of Situationist strategies in his iconic work for the Sex Pistols and Suburban Press, the manifold strands of his art both continue that work whilst showing us other ways in which we can mobilise our energy and spirituality. It is this dialectic between gnosticism and dissent that lies at the heart of Reid's practice and makes him one of the great English iconoclastic artists.
Jamie Reid's unique vision articulates and gives form to some of the key issues of our times. He responds to the ever-increasing attacks on our civil liberties and shared common spaces with passionate anger and savage humour, and shows us ways in which we might re-organise our political and spiritual resources. This is the role of the shaman and Reid's art acts like a lightning rod, returning us to the earth so that we might share the work of healing.
In his early years he developed a style of painting in which he used abstract geometric shapes, which he referred to as "prouns", to define the spatial relationships of his compositions. The shapes were developed in a 3-dimensional space, that often contained varying perspectives, which was a direct contrast to the ideas of suprematist theories which stressed the simplification of shapes and the use of 2D space only.
He moved around in the 1920s and spent time in both Germany as a cultural representative of Russia and, after he was diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis, Switzerland in a Swiss sanatorium. But this never stopped him from working as he continued to produce propaganda posters, books, buildings and exhibitions for the Soviet Union. in 1932 Stalin demanded that artists conform to much stricter guidelines or be blacklisted, Lissitzky managed to retain his position as head of exhibitions. In 1941 his tuberculosis overcame him and caused his death.
"The sun as the expression of old world energy is torn down from the heavens by modern man, who by virtue of his technological superiority creates his own energy source."
great explanation of his work and how it influenced later movements.
5. Roy Litchenstein http://www.notablebiographies.com/Ki-Lo/Lichtenstein-Roy.html#b http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Lichtenstein http://www.lichtensteinfoundation.org
Roy Lichtenstein was born in New York City on October 27, 1923, the son of Milton and Beatrice Werner Lichtenstein. His father owned a real estate firm. Lichtenstein studied with artist Reginald Marsh (1898–1954) at the Art Students League in 1939. After graduating from Benjamin Franklin High School in New York City, he entered Ohio State University. However, in 1943 his education was interrupted by three years of army service, during which he drew up maps for planned troop movements across Germany during World War II (1939–45; a war in which Great Britain, France, the Soviet Union, and the United States fought against Germany, Japan, and Italy). Lichtenstein received his bachelor of fine arts degree from Ohio State University in 1946 and a master of fine arts degree in 1949. He taught at Ohio State until 1951, then went to Cleveland, Ohio, to work. In 1957 he started teaching at Oswego State College in New York; in 1960 he moved to Rutgers University in New Jersey. Three years later he gave up teaching to paint full-time.
From 1951 to about 1957 Lichtenstein's paintings dealt with themes of the American West—cowboys, Native Americans, and the like—in a style similar to that of modern European painters. Next he began hiding images of comic strip figures (such as Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Bugs Bunny) in his paintings. By 1961 he had created the images for which he became known. These included advertisement illustrations—common objects such as string, golf balls, kitchen curtains, slices of pie, or a hot dogs. He also used other artists' works to create new pieces, such as Woman with Flowered Hat (1963), based on a reproduction of a work by Pablo Picasso (1881–1973). He also created versions of paintings by Piet Mondrian (1872–1944), Gilbert Stuart's (1755–1828) portrait of George Washington (1732–1799), and Claude Monet's (1840–1926) haystacks.
Lichtenstein was best known for his paintings based on comic strips, with their themes of passion, romance, science fiction, violence, and war. In these paintings, Lichtenstein uses the commercial art methods: projectors magnify spray-gun stencils, creating dots to make the pictures look like newspaper cartoons seen through a magnifying glass. In the late 1960s he turned to design elements and the commercial art of the 1930s, as if to explore the history of pop art (a twentieth-century art movement that uses everyday items). In 1966 his work was included in the Venice (Italy) Biennale art show. In 1969 New York's Guggenheim Museum gave a large exhibition of his work.
Josef Müller-Brockmann, (May 9, 1914, in Rapperswil – August 30, 1996), was a Swiss graphic designer and teacher. He studied architecture, design and history of art at both the University and Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich. In 1936 he opened his Zurich studio specialising in graphic design, exhibition design and photography. From 1951 he produced concert posters for the Tonhalle in Zurich. In 1958 he became a founding editor of New Graphic Design along with R.P. Lohse, C. Vivarelli, and H. Neuburg. In 1966 he was appointed European design consultant to IBM. Müller-Brockman was author of the 1961 publications The Graphic Artist and his Design Problems, Grid Systems in Graphic Design where he advocates use of the grid for page structure, and the 1971 publications History of the Poster and A History of Visual Communication.
He is recognised for his simple designs and his clean use of typography, notably Akzidenz-Grotesk, shapes and colours which inspires many graphic designers in the 21st century.
"The grid system is an aid, not a guarantee. It permits a number of possible uses and each designer can look for a solution appropriate to his personal style. But one must learn how to use the grid; it is an art that requires practice."
Max Miedinger began working in typography at the age of sixteen as an apprentice typesetter in Zurich Switzerland under Jacques Bollman, who was a Swiss book printer. While apprenticing Max attended evening classes at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich.
From 1936 to 1946 he was a typographer at Globus a department store in their advertising studio in Zurich. Then in the ten years following Globus, Max was a customer counsel of and typeface sales representative for the Haas'sche Schriftgiesserei in Münchenstein. It was in 1956 that Eduard Hoffman commissioned Max Miedinger to develop a new sans-serif typeface. "Prior to the twentieth century sans serif typefaces were seldom used." ("Craig, James" 25-52) In 1957 they introduced the Neue Haas-Grotesk. It was the 1896 typeface Akzidenz Grotesk that inspired the typeface
Neue Haas-Grotesk with its asymmetrical surface harmony ("Müller, Lars" 14-15) Over the next three years they releasedhe roman, or normal, version if the typeface Neue Haas-Grotesk, then they released the bold. Finally in 1960 they changed the name from Neue Hass-Grotesk to Helvetica. The thoughtful insight to call the typeface Helvetica was a marketing move that helped sell the typeface internationally without the difficult name of Neue Hass-Grotesk or the geographic name of "Switzerland" which was thought to be a deterring factor for companies in other countries from purchasing the typeface in a post second World War II society.
Since the launch of Helvetica in 1957 it has become one of the most widely used typefaces on the planet. Several large corporations use the font as their corporate logos.
Helvetica
Helvetica was developed in 1957 by Max Miedinger with Eduard Hoffmann at the Haas'sche Schriftgiesserei (Haas type foundry) of Münchenstein, Switzerland. Haas set out to design a new sans-serif typeface that could compete with the successful Akzidenz-Grotesk in the Swiss market. Originally called Neue Haas Grotesk, its design was based on Schelter-Grotesk and Haas’ Normal Grotesk. The aim of the new design was to create a neutral typeface that had great clarity, no intrinsic meaning in its form, and could be used on a wide variety of signage.
When Linotype adopted Neue Haas Grotesk (which was never planned to be a full range of mechanical and hot-metal typefaces) its design was reworked. After the success of Univers, Arthur Ritzel of Stempel redesigned Neue Haas Grotesk into a larger family.
In 1960, the typeface's name was changed by Haas' German parent company Stempel to Helvetica in order to make it more marketable internationally. It was initially suggested that the type be called 'Helvetia' which is the original Latin name for Switzerland. This was ignored by Eduard Hoffmann as he decided it wouldn't be appropriate to name a type after a country. He then decided on 'Helvetica' as this meant 'Swiss' as opposed to 'Switzerland'.
He was also an influential educator, retiring in 1987. In 1965 he wrote the Graphic Design Manual, a popular textbook in the field.
“There should be no separation between spontaneous work with an emotional tone and work directed by the intellect. Both are supplementary to each other and must be regarded as intimately connected. Discipline and freedom are thus to be seen as elements of equal weight, each partaking of the other.”
(1914 – 1996) was a well-known American graphic designer, best known for his corporate logo designs. Rand's education included the Pratt Institute (1929–1932), the Parsons School of Design (1932–1933), and the Art Students League (1933–1934). He was one of the originators of the Swiss Style of graphic design. From 1956–1969 and beginning again in 1974, Rand taught design at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Rand was inducted into the New York Art Directors Club Hall of Fame in 1972. He designed many posters and corporate identities including the logos for IBM and ABC. Rand died of cancer in 1996.
In an interesting way the chronology of Paul Rand’s design experience has paralleled the development of the modern design movement. Paul Rand’s first career in media promotion and cover design ran from 1937 to 1941, his second career in advertising design ran from 1941 to 1954, and his third career in corporate identification began in 1954. Paralleling these three careers there has been a consuming interest in design education and Paul Rand’s fourth career as an educator started at Cooper Union in 1942. He taught at Pratt Institute in 1946 and in 1956 he accepted a post at Yale University’s graduate school of design where he held the title of Professor of Graphic Design. In 1937 Paul launched his first career at Esquire. Although he was only occasionally involved in the editorial layout of that magazine, he designed material on its behalf and turned out a spectacular series of covers for Apparel Arts, a quarterly published in conjunction with Esquire. In spite of a schedule that paid no heed to regular working hours or minimum wage scales, he managed in these crucial years to find time to design an impressive array of covers for other magazines, particularly Directions. From 1938 on his work was a regular feature of the exhibitions of the Art Directors Club. Most contemporary designers are aware of Paul Rand’s successful and compelling contributions to advertising design. What is not well known is the significant role he played in setting the pattern for future approaches to the advertising concept. Paul was probably the first of a long and distinguished line of art directors to work with and appreciate the unique talent of William Bernbach. Paul described his first meeting with Bernbach as “akin to Columbus discovering America,” and went on to say, “This was my first encounter with a copywriter who understood visual ideas and who didn’t come in with a yellow copy pad and a preconceived notion of what the layout should look like.”
Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, a pioneer typographer, photographer, and designer of the modern movement and a master at the Bauhaus in Weimar, may have come closest to defining the Rand style when he said Paul was “an idealist and a realist using the language of the poet and the businessman. He thinks in terms of need and function. He is able to analyze his problems, but his fantasy is boundless.”
Quotes:
"Design is everything. Everything!"
"Design is the method of putting form and content together. Design, just as art, has multiple definitions; there is no single definition. Design can be art. Design can be aesthetics. Design is so simple, that's why it is so complicated."
"Providing, meaning to a mass of unrelated needs, ideas, words and pictures - it is the designer's job to select and fit this material together and make it interesting."
"Simplicity is not the goal. It is the by-product of a good idea and modest expectations."
http://www.thinkingform.com/2012/03/25/thinking-bradbury-thompson-03-25-1911/
(1911-1995) When it came to the blending of photography, typography and color, nobody did it better than Brad Thompson . In his own quiet way, he expanded the boundaries of the printed page and influenced the design of a generation of art directors. Thompson is one of the few art directors who have received all three major design awards: National Society of Art Directors Art Director of the Year in 1950; AIGA Gold Medal in 1975; and the Art Directors Hall of Fame award in 1977.
By simply looking at one year of his career, the scope of his involvement in the field of graphic design can be understood: In 1945, Thompson designed the final issues of three wartime magazines including Victory and USA. Back in New York, before the year was out, he had become art director of Mademoiselle, where he worked for nearly fifteen years. He also accepted the role of design director for Art News and Art News Annual, a position he held for 27 years. As if that were not enough, he designed a brochure for the Ford Motor Company and began his experiments in typographic reform by creating his “monoalphabet,” which broke with the tradition of separate letterforms for capital and lower-case letters. He first introduced this typographic innovation in an issue of Westvaco Inspirations for Printers, one of four issues that he produced that year. And 1945 was not unusual.
Any analysis of Thompson’s style and any attempt to assess the value and extent of his influence leads irrevocably to one word: form. Whether by examining his precise cropping and careful placing of images on the printed page or studying his attention to typographic detail, his sense of order and stucture cannot be missed. Recalling his early draftsman experience Thompson said, “It was a critical part of my training as a designer. It taught me discipline and, working with huge sheets of tracing cloth, I learned to cope with space in an orderly way.”
“
Type is a thing of constant interest to me.
It is sometimes a serious and useful tool,
employed to deliver a message,
sell a specific article,
or give life to an idea.
At other times it is a plaything
that affords personal amusement and recreation.
It is fun to produce fresh designs and spontaneous ideas
with letters and numbers —
by themselves,
or together with other graphic objects.
Type is a medium of philosophical enjoyment.
It is interesting to discover typographic rules
containing inconsistencies in logic,
which are in use only because of tradition.
It is also interesting to ponder the origin of these errors,
the practical reasons for their perpetuation,
and to suggest remedies.
An interest in type
provides a broader knowledge of history,
including the appreciation of such related arts
as painting, architecture and literature —
and even business and politics.
This affords opportunity for pleasant romantic indulgence.
At the same time,
it develops confidence in one’s practical ability
to specify appropriate typefaces
to accompany creative works of specific periods.
In short,
type can be a tool, a toy and a teacher;
it can provide a means of livelihood,
a hobby for relaxation,
an intellectual stimulant,
and a spiritual satisfaction.
I believe an avid interest in type
necessarily includes a zest for everyday life.”
—
Bradbury Thompson, 1956
