Design in Type

The general populace has a mental image of graphic design as a creation of various images using photoshop for print and web ads, and using 3D editing software for more advanced CGI in movies and games. However, many gloss over the subtle ways that the text we read affects us. Literally, the face of the type we read may present us with a completely different personality and experience of the design we are viewing. The updated Gap logo is an example of this.

The newly unveiled, and recently retracted, Gap Logo has a very different feel compared to the old logo. Gap released the logo as a signifier to show the transition from the concept of the Gap apparel line as having a classic, American look, into a look that would evoke cool, modern, and sexy. Now lets forget about the blue box and really delve into what the type says about both logos.

The old Gap logo has a personality that depicts classic, American, and iconic so well. The characteristic super long stem in relation to the incredibly condensed width of the letters, the classic serif typeface, and the skinny left of the A and upper and lower crossbars that hold the G and the P together create a type that emits classy with classic. The new type, on the other hand, is a very bold and heavy Helvetica, one of the most overused fonts ever created. Not only do the short, stubby, and roundness of the letters not express sexy or cool at all (they do express modern, but the old type expressed a classic modern as well), they almost express an institutionalism. The small tail on the "a" provides about the only bit of personality found in the very structured font. Overall, Gap's new logo, contrasted with their classic, iconic one, creates a feeling of super-conformity and restriction in a field (textiles), which should be about expression and creativity.

A visit to the Gap website, and one can see that ads for cool Men's and Women's wear is laden with bold, Helvetica font. This font does the perfect trick on the website, and with ads to contrast the modern, universal Helvetica font with the super-condensed, serif-laden Gap logo, it creates a great dynamic between American and iconic and modern. With proper use, the typeface can dramatically change the look and feel of any organization's representation and the perceived personality of any represented entity.

Works Cited

"Type: Anatomy." Princeton Architectural Press * Welcome. Web. 18 Oct. 2010. <http://www.papress.com/thinkingwithtype/letter/anatomy.htm>.

"Typeface Anatomy and Glossary | FontShop." FontShop. The World's Best Fonts. Web. 18 Oct. 2010. <http://www.fontshop.com/glossary.php>.

Weiner, Juli. "VF Daily." Vanity Fair Magazine | Vanity Fair. 12 Oct. 2010. Web. 18 Oct. 2010. <http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2010/10/new-gap-logo-despised-symbol-of-corporate-banality-dead-at-one-week.html>.

Comparison & Contrast

We as humans are very interesting creatures. Many times, what we see, we conclude is the reality of what is in front of us. We do not question that it may be a subjective perception of the truth. Designer's knowledge of this subjectivity, and how our mind perceives that which we see allows them to create dynamic pieces that grab our attention in obvious and subtle ways. The concept of comparison and contrast in relation to our perception is the synonymous with the gestalt principle of figure and ground in perception. In particular, illusions tend to play on our perception of figure and ground, that through our current vantage point we will see the objective world subjectively by comparing and contrasting what we see and reassembling the pieces in a unified form to represent what we believe is in front of us.

Enter Julian Beever. This artist shows us just how our perception really affects us, creating a whimsical world for all to see. He is one of a few artists that has created 3D pavement art. This pavement art creates the illusion of a 3D image by using a projection technique known as anamorphosis which creates a three dimensional illusion for the eye when viewed at the correct angle. The three dimensional illusion of anamorphosis is created by comparing the colors and image that has been drawn on the pavement with the rest of the pavement, contrasting it with certain parts of pavement that are supposed to represent the "background" or "real pavement," and reassembling the image at that angle to create the three-dimensional perspective effect off of a two-dimensional surface. This comparison and contrast creates the "figure" the three dimensional object and scene in this situation, and the background, the connection to the "real world" from the pavement art.

The creations of Julian Beever are not limited to his pavement art, although at this level we can see the obvious ways that our vision and our perception of figure and ground, comparing and contrasting the two creates this very unique illusion, as well as the distortion applied when viewed at the specific angle. Julian Beever also creates murals, large pastel portraits, and renderings of old masters. He uses chalk for all of his pavement work, and his work only lasts for a few days, long enough for him to document it with photography, as after that point the weather will wash it away in a few days. Still, the anamorphosis he uses to create his intriguing effect that utilizes our visual cortex and our perceptual need for unification and our subconscious comparison and contrast of shapes, sizes, colors, and all gestalt principles to determine a three dimensional illusion really sets Beever apart from other contemporary artists.

Works Cited

"Julian Beever." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 18 Oct. 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Beever>.

"Julian Beever's Pavement Drawings." Mon Espace Web (Personnel) / Mijn (Persoonlijke) Webruimte / My Personal Web Space. Web. 18 Oct. 2010. <http://users.skynet.be/J.Beever/pave.htm>.

Skaalid, Bonnie. "Figure and Ground." University of Saskatchewan. 1999. Web. 18 Oct. 2010. <http://www.usask.ca/education/coursework/skaalid/theory/gestalt/figround.htm>.

Design as Conversation

Conversation is like a two-way street. It engages both the Speaker and the Listener, and requires both. A conversation is different from a monologue because it engages both participants in active roles, rather than a monologue where there is one subject playing the active role and one subject playing the passive role. A conversation essentially allows every member to contribute something created from themselves, to be received, and probably judged, by the other members of conversation.

The rapidly globalizing and connectivity of the modern world has created a virtual framework where a rapid conversation regarding design can be had, and all aspects and sides exchanged very rapidly. The subject of this design as conversation has come in the form of the Apple iTunes Store. Specifically, anyone who owns an iPhone, or has seen any of the millions of commercials airing for iPhones will know about all the apps you can have on one for various needs. When looking at apps to purchase and download for your iphone the iTunes Store has a section for customer ratings and reviews built right in. This is an example of design as conversation, as the app will be created, purchased, used, and then reviewed at the same page that it can be purchased again by another user.

Breaking apart the iTunes feature to analyze it as a modern integration of design as conversation, we see a new process that was not available in the past. The app developer creates his app and submits it to Apple.com, and pays any fees necessary with it, and then he waits for purchases and downloads. The customers download his app and have some favorable aspects to compliment the developer on, however they claim that the price is too high and that their competition has a few features that they don't have, that are truly integral features that the developer simply missed to implement into this initial release. The developer now scours through the ratings and reviews and decides that he is truly committed to creating a great app that will continue to sell and to provide more for his audience. The audience's replies to his production, were equally a production in themselves, as they were helping him course-correct to release a better product. Thereby, with the release of the new update to the app, the conversation begins again, with acceptance and purchasing of his production, and judging and reviewing his production.

Not until recently, a product would be out for years before being redesigned simply because of the time it would take to conduct a proper way of collecting audience response to the product, so that the products means can be tailored so the end can be experienced with better fashion by the audience. By the end of it, design as a conversation is an experience between us social beings.

Aesthetics

aes·thet·ics: a set of principles concerned with the nature and appreciation of beauty, especially in art.

Aesthetics was brought up in Professor Housefield's Design 1 class on Thursday October 7th. What is Aesthetics? Aesthetics is, as the Oxford Dictionary states above, a set of principles concerning beauty. Beauty is a topic of interest, everyday, all day. Many people look at famous models and paintings and nature as forms of beauty, yet many forms are not recognized for the beauty that they provide.

In The Principles of Aesthetics, Dewitt H. Parker states that "Sensation is the door through which we enter into the experience of beauty; and again it is the foundation upon which the whole structure rests." Parker goes onto state that after sensations, we experience emotions linked to those sensations and iconic images also linked to the emotions, the sensations, or both, however the sensations are the primary connection of aesthetics, for without these sensations, we "may be sympathetic or intelligent, but [we] cannot be lovers of the beautiful."

This begs the question: what sensations create beauty within us? Is it a specific tone of each color that we find beautiful, and another tone that stimulates a different sensation within us? Is an expressionist painting by El Greco fundamentally more beautiful then an artistic creation by H.R. Giger, in terms of sensations created through the medium?

Different sensations are created in different combinations of medium, of different forms of color, and in mixed media, and, I believe the sensation of beauty within a piece lies partially in the eye of the beholder. An artist may have an intention to create a typically aesthetically pleasing artwork, however, creating something that is genuinely aesthetically pleasing lies in cultivating a balance of design aspects, such as unity (even amidst chaos), variety, tension, concision of expression (expressing only what is needed to be expressed), and active audience participation. All of these aspects, and several more, lend themselves to a fantastic creation that, no matter how the combination of materials, can be termed aesthetically pleasing.

Creativity From Without

The expressionists were known for creating beautiful expressive pieces that spoke more than simply about the natural quality of the subjects being painted, but expressed something deeper, from within. While inspiration and expression from within is a common point of interest, expression from without is equally as important of a form of creation.

Sometimes when one is stuck in a rut of wondering how or what to create, one must not look within, yet most explore the outer world. One artist I would like to mention who found creativity from without is Keith Haring. Keith Haring became a thriving artist in New York City, not by participating in the usual galleries and exhibitions, but by displaying his designs in the alternative art communities. He found his creative impulse in seeing all of the blank canvases of black matte paper covering empty advertising panels in the New York City Subway stations. He set to work with white chalk creating many pieces of design for the entire new york public to feast their eyes upon and delight themselves with everyday, and the subway became Haring's initial laboratory for creation.

Haring also continued on to produce many public works designs in the 1980s. Haring created the infamous "Crack is Wack"Mural in Harlem River Park, a mural for the 100th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty in 1986, as well as an untitled mural at the Woodhull Medical Center, and many others throughout the city, as living exposure of Haring's work and creativity in the world around him, and as a ever-fresh artistic addition to our daily lives. Before he died, Haring set up the Keith Haring Foundation, to assist AIDS related and children's charities, and he became an active proponent of AIDS awareness and activism.

Stone Soup

What is Design? Is it a perfectly idealized product, neatly wrapped, with a concrete plan that interweaves all of the aspects seamlessly? In my experience, most products, even highly-awarded ones are concoctions similar to a Stone Soup. These concoctions are not always well-planned, streamlined, specialized products, but many times jumbled, cooperative by-products of lots of effort, creativity, luck, and the right materials and people at the right time, coming together to bring their best designer's touch to the finished product.

Photo taken from: http://designunexpected.blogspot.com/2010/10/stone-soup.html

 In the children's tale, Stone Soup, three infantrymen wander into a town and ask the villagers if they have any food, as they are very hungry. The villagers, having had so many visitors pass through their village and eat up all their food without thanks or anything, now hide their food, so if visitors come into town, they don't have to share their food with the villagers, and they simply pretend they don't have any. The three infantrymen are creative though, and begin to make Stone Soup, literally boiling water and adding stones to their soup concoction, asking for a little bit of produce here and their from villagers, whatever they can spare. The villagers oblige them with a few bits of food and as the Soup starts getting cooked together, like a hodgepodge, the Soup begins to tingle the taste buds, smelling incredibly delicious. Soon, all of the villagers begin pouring into the giant soup pot a few more things that will make the soup taste even better, contributing a bit from everyone, probably because they all want to have a taste of the delicious soup, and with all the contributions, a feast erupts and the villagers and infantrymen share a night of delicious food together.

Photo taken from: http://designunexpected.blogspot.com/2010/10/stone-soup.html

Photo taken from: http://designunexpected.blogspot.com/2010/10/stone-soup.html

On Tuesday, October 5th, Professor Housefield's Design 1 class created their version of Stone Soup. Our group brought together all sorts of materials: colored construction paper, tape, pipe cleaners, popsicle sticks. The Design process started, with each individual looking at all the materials, contemplating what to make. An obsession with hanging the still mysterious ornamental creation hooked us on hanging it and attaching the piece to a nearby tree. Soon, some group members began rolling up pieces of paper, taping them together in interesting shapes, and even creating origami. As of yet, no one knew quite what the end product would look like, yet we continued. More people began rolling pieces, I began taping popsicle sticks to the construction paper rolls, and eventually when we had enough rolls, several members began taking the rolls to the tree to attach them in a spiraling fashion. The tree slowly began spiraling up with construction life, with pipe-cleaner flowers popping out of the ground nearby, and other forms of ornamental man-made life contrasting the natural life growing on that spot. A hodgepodge not only of artistic and design creativity emerged, but of natural product and manufactured beauty. The art of design sometimes comes together like Stone Soup.

Photo taken from: http://designunexpected.blogspot.com/2010/10/stone-soup.html

Cooperative: Designed

Design is most often found by the public through various websites, mainstream advertisements, and Gucci and Gap Displays, yet few remember to look in their own neighborhood for an aspect of design. The Davis Food Co-Op is a local supermarket that is visited by a select clientelle who are influenced in more ways than one by their design.

Image taken from: http://daviswiki.org/Davis%5FFood%5FCo-Op?action=show&redirect=Davis+Food+Coop

From the entrance to the Davis Co-Op one can tell that this supermarket is not designed as a large conglomerate with a manufactured experience. The feeling one gets from the entrance is that the building and system within are as organic as the produce and meats they carry. The unique design with attention to outside coffee and dining tables for those who visit the deli section brings many people from different walks of life in to enjoy the various gourmet options of creative specialty salads and hot entrees (choosing between vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, and other dietary options), intends for one to not only enter and choose a delicious meal, but browse and select some high-quality food.

Image taken from: http://www.daviscoop.com/

The Co-Op places high priority in pushing the Organic, Fair-Trade, All-Natural, Raw, and other health-conscious labels to the forefront. The meat section is carefully organized to have such attributes as Organic 100% Grass-Fed Beef, as well as Conventional Beef. Raw Cheese, Milk, and Cream are available, as well as specialty products of Goats Milk, and many Vegan and Vegetarian options abound, pleasing the expansive and selective clientelle that enjoys the Davis Food Co-Op above all other supermarkets within the Davis region.

Image taken from: http://www.daviscoop.com/

Their design and catering applies to all areas of the store, as one feels a sense of contribution and selection from purchasing and eating the finest products the Davis Co-Op has to offer.

Works Cited 

"Davis Food Co-op - Davis Wiki." Davis Wiki - The Definitive Resource for Davis, California. Web. 4 Oct. 2010. <http://daviswiki.org/Davis_Food_Co-Op?action=show&redirect=Davis Food Coop>. 

Welcome to the Davis Food Co-op. Web. 4 Oct. 2010. <http://www.daviscoop.com/>. 

The Design of Communication

It is the year 2010, and did any experts foresee the future of the internet with the design of communication applied? In the year 2000, the new frontier of the internet experienced what seemed at the time as the meteor of the dinosaurs: the DotCom Crash. People were hazy and weary about using the internet again, feeling a sensation akin to betrayal, as all of their hopes of the new frontier were shattered and their sense of reality had to be readjusted. And yet, just like the conquering of any frontier, freshly wireless entrepreneurs and self-starting online pilgrims set out to reclaim the desert and rebuild it with information. The article titled "Ten years after the crash, the dotcom boom can finally come of age" from The Guardian.co.uk sums it up best:

"But out of the mess emerged a new way of doing business. The internet did have a profound effect on both society and commerce, just not as quickly as the "digerati" from the dotcom boom, with their inflatable boardrooms and dress-down style, had hoped. Some of the technology trends that everyone now takes for granted were born in the boom, from instant unmetered internet access, web TV and "cloud computing" to social networking and the mobile web. They may have been born in the boom but only in the past few years have they come of age." 

(http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/mar/14/technology-dotcom-crash-2000)

The Social Network is one of the most interesting entities to have emerged since the dotcom crash. Now, social networking encompasses almost all parts of our life. Organizations announce news on the radio, and then state that you can also follow their news on Twitter. Facebook has become a social phenomena, devouring the previously "cool" MySpace, where everyone is online sharing everything from status updates and photos, to planning events, creating social groups, and now even allowing subscribers to post questions for other people in their network to answer. People at the turn of the century looked at the wireless phone as a true benchmark of technological achievement. Now, not only is cellphones so widely popular, the cellphones have internet access, are equipped with Instant Messaging, Texting, Photo, Video, and Audio messaging, and now the Apple iPhone has brought to the US "FaceTime," the ability to literally call someone anywhere in the world, and can not only hear, but see the person you are talking to, and the situation they are in. The evolution of our social world has spawned the major Hollywood movie, "The Social Network," which depicts (in a Hollywood dramatized fashion) the story of Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of Facebook.

How did our Communication get designed this way? The new frontiers of the internet and the craving to push boundaries has allowed to create a global social ecology, where you have your local friends, as well as friends in other cities, countries, even continents that we can frequently and easily keep in contact with and not only tell them about our lives, but show them through the use of photos, videos, etc.

What are the elements of these forms of communication in the new social network. In the first class of Design 1 at the University of California, Davis, Professor Housefield prompted us students to ask "what characterizes a good conversation?" One of the central elements that distances a good conversation from the rest is that a good conversation engages more than just the basic mental abilities. It is engages the emotions, and possibly even the body. Now, in person, it is fairly easier to engage into a good conversation rather than simply through telecommunications, and it is even harder to engage in a good conversation through text. Why is that? Well approximately 7% of our communication comes from the actual words we say, whereas about 35% is tone and rhythm of voice, and the leftover 58% is body language.

This creates the necessity for the online social network's text and the formatting of the text to truly engage the mind and hopefully some of the emotions as well. Seeing tons of Facebook statuses, people scroll through looking for someone's status to pop out and stimulate them. And yet Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites have become giants in our modern day simply because we are a social species and they have designed themselves along a few key design factors: the site or application must be easy to use (because in our modern day in age, if setting up an account takes longer than 5 minutes, we are onto something else), must be simple and attractive (the login pages on the Facebook, Twitter, or Blogger sites all have only two main directions: log-in or sign-up), and must allow the user quick and widespread connectivity and exposure.

All three of these sights, and many of the other social phenomena applications succeed at these goals very well. Our communication has been unintentionally designed these days where between someone's in-person conversations, the individual will open their internet-connected cellphone and update their status on Twitter, Facebook, and now it has become an accepted standard. The design of our new social systems has allowed quick and instant updates of news and weather, instantaneous communication with friends and family in other cities and other countries, and an outlet for sharing everything from meandering thoughts to truly thought-provoking discussions, and has allowed a communal knowledge base to form through our online use. Is the design of our modern internet-connected communication a cause of our current addiction to stimulation, or has our well-fed obsession with instant gratification encouraged the growth of these newly designed forms of social contact and communication.

Drawing Imagination

My first favorite encounter with design involved the wonderful children's book Harold and the Purple Crayon, by Crockett Johnson. This book is a well designed story for children and adults. Why is a children book an excellent example of design in our lives at a young age? This children's book shows many design elements that are being exposed to us to make the story more effective.

Johnson, Crockett. "Book Cover of Harold and the Purple Crayon." 1955. Illustration. CoverBrowser. Web. 4 Oct.  2010.

First, the color purple being used as a main thematic element in this children's book is an interesting design element. The color purple is the ONLY color used in this book--Note that black is not a color, it is a luminosity. The author did this very intentionally, as to bring out the presence of the purple color, and how it affects us. In the article "All About the Color PURPLE," Kate Smith describes that the color purple affects us physically by uplifting our mood, calming the mind and nerves, offering a sense of spirituality, and encouraging creativity. According to the About Page on the website SensationalColor.com,

 "Kate Smith is a color expert, and career color trend forecaster. Kate is a design lover, and color inspiration maven. Above all, Kate is an inspirational keynote speaker and seminar leader, blending color theory and psychology into entertaining and informative talks that bring color to life."  

(http://www.sensationalcolor.com/colorpro/about-kate-smith/)

Johnson, Crockett. "Book Page of Harold and the Purple Crayon." 1955. Illustration. The Harper Studio. Web. 4 Oct.  2010.

Many people find that the color purple is associated with royalty, spirituality, creativity, and enlightenment. These attributes relate to the design of Harold and the Purple Crayon, as the color purple is used throughout the story, inspiring those attributes in synergy with the story into the reader's mind. Harold uses his purple crayon to go on an imaginative adventure late at night, that takes him off the safe path into an adventure that displays the child's imagination, and teaches kindness, generosity, and creativity in creating the day you want to enjoy. When Harold gets into troubling situations, he uses his purple crayon (remember the color purple calms the mind and nerves, and encourages creativity) to find a creative and effective solution. 

Another Design element that is effective in this book is the use of very simple cartoonish illustrations. These illustrations not only make the book "kid-friendly" and give it a sense of wonder and enchantment, as does any form of representative art when applied to inspire that emotion. As Scott McCloud describes in Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, "When cartoons are used throughout a story, the world of that story may seem to pulse with life." (41). He also describes that the more simple and iconic the features of the story become, the more subjective and universal they become, which is why they are easier to relate to and identify with. This technique of design is used extensively in Harold and the Purple Crayon, as every drawing and artwork, is very simply drawn, to allow for easier identification to bring the story to life.

Johnson, Crockett. "Book Page of Harold and the Purple Crayon." 1955. Illustration. Facebook. Web. 4 Oct.  2010.

The fact that Harold and the Purple Crayon is also an illustrated story introduces us to Harold (as if we are him undergoing the journey, although safe at home) by using the design element of transitioning each moment of the story to the next. Specifically every moment of the book's transitions follow Harold in Action-to-Action Progressions, as described in Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, which guides the reader to identify with Harold, as the story never leaves Harold, just as our stories never leave us. This design element adds to the impact of the story and emphasizes its effect on our self.

The design elements in Harold and the Purple Crayon are readily apparent, and are seamlessly created with the story to engage the reader on an exciting and inspiring adventure that reminds us of the child within, and sparks our intuitive creativity, adventurous daring, and universal compassion.