Further notes for literature review
"No designer experiences disciplinary boundaries when they work" in reference to a clock designed by Michael Johnson - JohnsonBanks.com, diverse and successful design company. 7 - 8 staff but big clients.
Each term / area… … … its relation / relevance for visual identity in motion design.
reference to literature on the topic.
typography
Many more poems and quotes born from the importance of written language.
In an online discussion concerning the digital-age relevance of this quote, and others similar to it, I found an amusing parody "With 256 ninjas of unicode…"
Began 3000 years ago, the representation of sound through marks.
lowercase developed in the late classical and medieval by scribes for efficiency
Most typefaces used today still based on the physical constraints of the letterpress
aesthetic verses function here: aesthetic calles for more expressive type whereas function requires only minimal changes to the result of the form of letters reaching their 'zenith' with typefaces such as Helvetica and Univers. (designed within the tradition of the Bauhaus)
"You cannot use a typeface without typography"
Jury, David. 2002. About Face. Switzerland: RotoVision SA
Branding - logo design
Paul Rand - "A certain sameness seems to pervade all fields of design… The emphasis on simple shapes, the absence of ornamentation, and the universal acceptance of certain art forms, tends to encourage anonymity."
Thomas, Gregory. 2000. How to Design Logos, Symbols & Icons. Ohio: How Design Books
Silver, Lisa. 2001. Logo Design that Works, Secrets for Successful Logo Design. Massachusetts: Rockport Publishers, Inc.
Images - The introduction and possible combinations allowed by bringing images and text together is increased by many times of magnitude.
"The use of images in combination with text is at the heart of the definition of graphic design."
Illustration - Photography
"Illustration is a form of meticulous and painstaking editing. Each tiny part of a drawing has been consciously product."
"Any illustration is an extended sketch, gradually layering in and adding more detail to the essence."
"An illustration is the exact opposite of a photograph. A photograph uses mechanical processes to de-personalise the picture."
Photography - "provides an objective picture of reality and thus conveys an impression of authenticity"
"Photography's objectivity, and "authenticity" is much overstated, as we have discovered that it can be as subjective and emotional as any drawing."
The advent of photography "catapulted design into another realm altogether" allowing a much larger vocabulary of options.
Two ways of using it - 'respectfully' with minimal text and without cropping. Or as 'another graphic element' within which we now have an endless scope of alterations allowed by programs like 'Photoshop'.
Word and image "is not a delayed system; information is conveyed directly. The greatest power of visual language lies in its immediacy, its spontaneous evidence. Visually you see content and form simultaneously." A Donis, psychologist.
"I would suggest that the marriage of pictures and text is often unsuccessful, in fact, almost always unsuccessful. Many designers (not those shown here!) rely on a small number of conventions, such as placing a caption under a picture, or embedding a picture into text. They slavishly follow these limited means without specific adaption to the material in hand."
Animation - cinematography
(narrative - screen writing)
editing - directing
BROADCAST DESIGN - idents, logos, symbols, studios, channels, networks, general aims, marketing - requirement for motion design therefor the requirement for each studio to provide for the client
development
where it is today
Ritchie, Ian. 2005. Design Choice: Channel 4 Idents. Marketing (London). 09/07/2005. pp. 13
Bartholdy, Bjoern. 2007. Broadcast Design. Cologne: Daab gmbh
Richard Morrison - "One of the best, most experienced 'sting' and film-intro makers in Britain."
some of his collection of photos - "they think a lot" / "cut" shows how he developed the energy of the photos into 4 different film intros with a flick book style book.
Richard Morrison cut 2001
IDENTITY
"What has come to be known as the 'corporate identity' covers how the logo is used, as well as all the other elements: tone of language, typefaces, colours, paper stocks, pictures, publication formats, signs and so on. Other names are 'house style' and in recent years 'branding'."
"Organisations that do not coordinate graphic work are, by default, creating a diffuse and disjointed identity."
Ken Garland - "A ubiquitous and successful corporate identity is, in the last resort, a calamity just because it is ubiquitous." He sees identity as "infused with over-wearing, elitist notions of power and the imposition of order."
Packaging - in terms of channels preforms a similar role to the packaging we are used to all around us.
"Packaging is storytelling in a compressed area - like posters in miniature. Packs must mark out and differentiate the product from competitors, which they attempt in the most demanding of circumstances, often sitting next to direct competitors, on shelves brimming with distractions."
Thomas Hine, writer - "Packaging, with its severe limits on individual expression, is one of the few design disciplines that values continuity over bold new [design] statements."
Also a source for "a design phenomenon best called 'cross-dressing'" in which the conventions applied consistently to a specific type of product are used in another, for example; "CDs are often dressed up as pills, jam, machine parts, magazines and art."
SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT / CURRENT OPINIONS
Bob Gill - your idea is poor unless you can describe it over the phone
Laszlo Moholy-Nagy - The essence of art and design lies in a concept, not in the final execution
Gestalt
function versus aesthetic
Aesthetic philosophy
Ranciere, Jacques. 2004. Aesthetics and its discontents. Cambridge: Polity Press
theories of design + branding
grid, line, colour,
Grid - "a tool not of coercion but of liberation" Otl Aicher, graphic designer
It helps with the layout by limiting choices.
It makes things unified - with media like magazines
Grid in motion graphics?? - packaging - every bit aligns to a grid. can be a moving grid!
"To function successfully, the grid system, like all workable systems, must be interoperated as freely as necessary. It is this very freedom which adds richness and a note of surprise to what might… be potentially lifeless."
Hierarchy - consideration of the obvious
Cabarga, Leslie. 1999. The Designers Guide to Colour Combinations. Ohio: North Light Books
SUMMARY (by studying … it is hoped that …)
why this study is studying what it is and how is it studying what it studies with a fizz
"Today a seasoned broadcast designer is expected to command a baffling array of professional abilities the include, amount others, the typographic chops of a print designer, the motion and timing smarts of an animator, the stylistic rendering talents of an illustrator, the narrative skills of a writer or editor, the music sensibilities of a composer and the cinematic and live action directing abilities of a film maker."
summary of schools of thought - the proposal has achieved an understanding of these schools? dissertation will further this through discussion of the specific theories.
COMPUTER
"If the computer deprives us of anything in exchange for its bounteous gifts, it is the physical pleasures of making."
"What I really want on the macintosh is a virtual reality interface - armholes in either size of the box so you can reach in and move the logos around; a real paintbrush so you can feel the texture of the surface underneath." Nevill Brody
"Any vestige of concern about the dominance of the computer lies in the educative profession, with its emphasis on using the stepson each area of design to expose the underlying principles."
"What the computer does is to unify processes, vastly increasing the designers power."
"One of the things I do that a computer can't do is think. Layout is not the imperative anymore. We have to think and do what the computer can't do."
New media prophet - Marshall McLuhan
INFORMATION DESIGN
Richard Saul Wurman (information architect, self made title) - 5 basic ways to organise any information:
1 Location (maps)
2 Alphabet
3 Time (timelines, timetables)
4 Category (including organisation by colour and material)
5 Hierarchy (largest to smallest, darkest to lightest…)
The author Newman adds
randomly - i don't believe anything is truly random
intuitively -eg a magazines editor going on instinct.
traditionally - the bible. trick one, too hard to definem may not even differentiate form intuitively of by time.
KEY LITERARY WORKS:
History
History of graphic design; 'Looking closer 3: Classic writings on Graphic Design' - "A collection of the most influential essays and articles"
Philip Meggs - 'A history of graphic design' - "The most thorough history of graphic design." "It firmly ties the development of graphic design to the machinery and technology that makes it."
Richard Hollis - 'Graphic design, a concise history' - "The best short history"
Deborah Rothschild 'Graphic design in the mechanical age' - "Covers much that is significant in the development of Modernisum: Dada, Constructivisum, propaganda, photomontage and so on."
Theory
Judith Williamson 'Decoding Advertisments' - "Remains the most thorough analysis of what some designers and critics flippantly refer to as 'visual language' (without ever exploring implications)." an unaffectionate rooting out of the mechanics in design.
"It is depressing that this book was written in 1978, yet nothing taking on or developing its arguments has appeared since."
History and theory
Ellen Lupton and J Abbott Miller 'Design writing research' - "Halfway between history and theory, it traces developments to reach theoretical conclusions."
Steven Heller
Written over 70 books on design, 3 or 4 per year still appearing
Senior art director at the New York Times
teaches at the School of Visual Arts in New York
editing AIGA Journal of Graphic Design
'Design Literacy, Understanding Graphic Design' - "94 brief and pithy essays, each introducing and examining a significant design piece."
Heller - aim with the book was to ensure that "the object (piece of design) is not viewed as a fetish, but as a clue to the thinking of the designer and the working of the design."
"Most books by or about designers need to be read with a pinch of salt. Invariably, the writer is treating her subject with reverence, and withholds a freer, more analytical view of the work."
Visual culture
Alan Fletcher - 'The Art of Looking Sideways' - "is going to be the most cornucopia visual emporium we will see in our lifetimes"
In our bookshelf already?????