graphic design history and theory

Post One. Jake – Paul Rand

Posted: March 5, 2012 by jakecheeseman in Uncategorized

Paul Rand, born Petretz Rosenbaum (August 15, 1914 – November 26, 1996) was an American Graphic Designer.

He was most widely known for his contributions for corporate logo designs, including logos for IBM, UPS, Enron, ABC, and Steve Jobs’ NeXT.

Rand’s defining corporate identity was his IBM logo in 1956. According to Mark Favermann, “Was not just an identity but a basic design philosophy that permeated corporate consciousness and public awareness.”

Rand also designed packaging, marketing materials and assorted communications for IBM, including the well known ‘Eye-Bee-M” poster.

Rand’s logos are widely interpreted as being very simplistic.

“Simplicity is not the goal. It is the by-product of a good idea and modest expectations.”

ABC  Designed 1962

His American Broadcasting Company trademark (ABC) represents the idea of his simplistic, yet effective design proving his point that a logo “cannot survive unless it is designed with the utmost simplicity and restraint.”

Paul Rand was influenced by the modernist philosophy. He celebrated the works of artists such as Paul Cezanne and Jan Tschichold. The idea of “defamiliarizing the ordinary” played an important part in Rand’s design choices.

Rand remained vital as he aged, continuing to produce important corporate identities into the eighties and nineties with a rumoured $100,000 price per single solution.

One of his most prominent later works was his collaboration with Steve Jobs for the NeXT computer corporate.

Steve Jobs was pleased: just prior to Rand’s death in 1996, his former client labelled him, simply,

“The greatest living graphic designer.”

Even after his death in 1996, Paul Rand remains one of the most famous graphic designers in the world.

UPS Designed 1961

“I do not use humour consciously, I just go that way naturally. A well known example is my identity for United Parcels Service: to take an escutcheon – a medieval symbol which inevitably seems pompous today – and then stick a package on top of it, that is funny.”

Bibliography:

http://www.logodesignlove.com/all-about-paul-rand

http://graphicdesign.about.com/od/designerprofiles/a/paul_rand.htm

http://www.paul-rand.com/

Post 3 – Kahra

Posted: March 5, 2012 by kahraokeefe in Uncategorized

I have to say that Vegemite logo wins, hands down!!

Vegemite is all things right with the world. I reminds me of summer, sprinklers, everything cosy, all things certain. When I am in foreign countries, I dont need to feel homesick if i have vegemite. I feel proud and patriotic when accompanied by vegemite on my daily endeavours. the one and only time, i can absolutely not say no, is when faced with soft freshly baked bread slatherd with butter and vegemite… Aaaaah… Bliss… Vegemite represents all that is right with the world

The other I would say is ANZ logo…

I love my bank. The logo promises all plus more, and i feel that security and care for the past 15 years.

It works!! It feels safe, professional, current, fresh, young but trustworthy..

Ahhh corporate branding…. I Hate to Love it!!

POST 1: (Odin) Erik Spiekermann

Posted: March 1, 2012 by Odin in Uncategorized

After university, Erik Spiekermann worked as a freelance graphic designer in London from 1972 to 1979. In 1979 he returned to Germany where he founded the company MetaDesign, of which he was part until 2001.

During his time with MetaDesign he worked with the Berlin Transit System, which led to work for Volkswagon, Audi, Dusseldorf Airport Authority, Springer Verlag (a publishing house) and German Bundepost (German Postal Service).

Spiekermann fonts in the Berlin Transit System

Commissioned for German Bundepost in 1985, Spiekermann created the Meta typeface (FF Meta), which is considered a pre-eminent typeface of today. Spiekermann designed this humanist sans-serif typeface as the “antithesis” of Helvetica, which he considers “bland and boring”, even though it (Meta) has been labelled the “Helvetica of the ‘90’s”. Meta type was commissioned to be legible, recognisable and look good in small print on poor paper stock.

FF Meta typeface

Meta was never adopted by German Bundepost, which preferred to remain using Helvetica. In 1991 Spiekermann released Meta through MetaDesign. Since then, Meta has been adopted by many companies, most notably The Weather Channel.

In 1989 Spiekermann and his then wife Joan set up Fontshop. The first mail order digital font distribution company in the world, sending floppy discs with fonts to customers. FSI Fontshop followed and has become one of the largest publishers of digital typeface in the world.

Fontshop has offshoots in –

FontFont: a digital library of fonts created by Fontshop
FontBook: an independent compendium of digital typefaces.
fStop: a digital image library, currently offering over 22,000 royalty free images.

Spiekermann Typefaces

In addition to his work as a graphic designer and creator of fonts, Erik Spiekermann is also an influential author, theorist and lecturer.

Poster for an exhibition of Erik Spiekermann

Bibliography:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Spiekermann

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FontShop

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FSI_FontShop_International

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MetaDesign

http://www.metadesign.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FF_Meta

http://spiekermann.com/en/

http://babylonreloaded.blogspot.com.au/2011_03_01_archive.html

POST 3: What are the top ten logos of all time in Australia?

Posted: February 27, 2012 by stacypollard in Uncategorized

For an upcoming issue of Desktop Magazine, we will be revealing the Top 10 Australian logos, and the history behind each one.

To create the list, we are asking for your nominations, which will then be put against the nominations from our panel.

http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/823364/Top-10-Australian-logos

Stefan Sagmeister – by ciAnnait

Posted: February 21, 2012 by kinnit in Uncategorized

“Style=fart”

This quote is possibly Stefan Sagmeisters most famous quote. Actually, it was a sign hanging inside his studio in 1993. It alluded to his conscious attempt to not get caught up in fashion statements, trend-spotting, or recreating what has gone before for the sake of some preconceived notion of style. He says “it was the headline of  a theory that style and stylistic questions are just hot air  and meaningless”. http://www.designboom.com/eng/interview/sagmeister.html

He has since removed the sign, and given up this theory stating that:

“I have learned that good (even trendy) style and form play an important role in delivering content to the viewer. But I never thought that graphic design has to be timeless. With very few exceptions I love the fact that design starts to look dated after a while.” http://www.aiga.org/stefan-sagmeister-style-fart-language/

Stefan Sagmeister is probably best known for his Album cover work. He has design covers for Lou Reed, David Byrne, Talking Heads – once in a lifetime, box set and, The Rolling Stones, amongst others. His work has been described as humorous, with a hand-made quality, and controversial, without being offensive. http://www.designboom.com/eng/interview/sagmeister.html

He says of his work: “For a long time we’ve tried to make design that’s somehow more personal, possibly more human-centered, more organic, more handmade, less objective, and moresubjective.”http://thecreatorsproject.com/creators/stefan-sagmeister

Originally from Austria, he graduated from the Vienna University of applied arts, with a first class degree, and a $1000 prize from the city of Vienna in 1985. In 1992 He moved to Hong Kong, and after some controversy at the advertising agency Leo Burnett, and tiring of the fast pace and high pressure of the large agency, went to New York to open his own studio.

http://designmuseum.org/design/stefan-sagmeister

He is currently working on a project “things I have learned in my life so far” inspired by the work of his grandfather. It is a series of typographic works, asking the question ‘how does the typography affect the transmission of the topic?’ http://www.sagmeister.com/node/343 stefan sagmeister

Post 1; Kay: Ellen Lupton

Ellen Lupton was born in 1963, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is a graphic designer / designer, writer, curator, and educator.

Presently Ellen is curator of contemporary design at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York City and director of the Graphic Design MFA program at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore.

In the mid eighties after graduating from collage Ellen started off working at the Cooper Union Herb Lubalin Study Centre of Design and Typography. Here Ellen was able to combine her love for typography, design and writing.

In the late eighties Ellen and her partner J. Abbott Miller founded the Design and Writing Research Lab. The lab was a studio for fellow graphic designers / designers in which they were able to integrate theory and practice of design in a seamless kind.

Ellen bases most of her designs on typography. Regardless of the type of design some texts may have, text is everywhere. It is a medium and a message to the senders and receivers. Lupton bases much of her creation of type on The Bauhaus design techniques. (Bauhaus |ˈbouˌhous|
a school of design established by Walter Gropius in Weimar in 1919, best known for its designs of objects based on functionalism and simplicity.)

A major part of Ellen’s work as a Graphic Designer is to write and edit books about ‘Graphic Design’ as well as about ‘Typography’. Her books have a massive impact on how to combine design and text in order to communicate to the public!

bibliography:

Design your life: the pleasures & perils of everyday life (2009)
Graphic Design: the new basics (2008)
D.I.Y. design it yourself (2006)
Thinking with type: a critical guide for designers (2004)

Pictures:

References

http://elupton.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Lupton

http://www.aiga.org/medalist-ellenlupton/

Oxford dictionary

Aside — Posted: February 21, 2012 by kaybeebaby1 in Uncategorized

Post 1 Kahra – Massimo Vignelli

Posted: February 20, 2012 by kahraokeefe in Uncategorized

Massimo Vignelli is one of the most Iconic designers of all time.

He is responsible for creating some of the most recognizable branding and logos since the modernist period.

Vignelli’s background is in architecture, which he studied in Milan, his birthplace, before moving to the USA and founding Vignelli Associates.

Vignelli associates’ portfolio includes designing anything from corporate identity, packaging design, designing for publications, furniture, products and interior design. Some of his most popular works include branding for American Airlines, IBM, Benetton and Sisley (“Colours of Benetton” campaign), signage for the New York subway, The Guggenheim NY, Packaging and signage for MOMA and many other leading American and European companies and institutions.

This branding is still current today

Vignelli said “We like Design to be forceful. We do not like limpy design. We like Design to be intellectually elegant – that means elegance of the mind, not one of manners, elegance that is the opposite of vulgarity. (Vignelli Canon 2008 p14)

His designs are clear and bold, using basic shapes and strong primary colours. He favours a toolkit of several classic fonts only. This structure assures his design aesthetic is always timeless and impacting.

He has strong environmental ethics, favouring specific paper sizes and supplies to ensure less wastage. He talks about this at length in the infamous Vignelli Canon p36 onwards. http://www.vignelli.com/news.html

An excerpt from Gary Hustwit’s indy film “Helvetica”. Massimo talks about the subway maps he designed and the pricipals he used to design them.http://www.helveticafilm.com/vignellimap.html

A personal interview talking about New York, designers, his life, his career and his famous take on the meaning of the word ‘vulgar’.http://observatory.designobserver.com/entry.html?entry=14398

I was really impressed with this designer from the get-go. The way he designs, the way he speaks, his personal life, and his humility. Although he exudes confidence, rightly so, there is no arrogance. He speaks from the heart in a matter of fact way, and knows his craft back to front. I would encourage anyone to study him, to read his ‘canon’, to watch his interviews. I am very excited about my discovery of him, and the knowledge and learning we can gain from this amazingly talented craftsman.