*Notice that the etymology of the word design has no associations with beauty, elegance, luxury, or efficieny (terms that most people today would consider synonymous with design)
A Brief History of Graphic Design (in Three Images)
The Chauvet Cave paintings provide some noteworthy examples of basic Elements and Principles of Graphic Design.
But more interestingly: If we can agree that these are some of the oldest available recorded communication between people, then it’s worth speculating about the motivations and intentions for their creation: Why do you think these people made these cave paintings?
As a thought experiment: If we imagine that these “cave paintings” are graphic design (rather than fine art, poetic expression, or leisure activity) then what function do you think they might have served for the creators and for the viewers?
Cave Paintings as Graphic Design:
A Warning: Pre-historic mega fauna are dangerous
A Map: Here’s where good hunting grounds can be found
A Prayer: Religious or spiritual veneration
A Movie: Entertainment, a spectacle. As Werner Herzog says: “proto-cinema”
We jump forward another 5,000 years in time, to the beginning of the mass media era, and we find graphic design still being used to reinforce the power of the state.
Design Principle: “Form Follows Function”
“Whether it be the sweeping eagle in his flight, or the open apple-blossom, the toiling work-horse, the blithe swan, the branching oak, the winding stream at its base, the drifting clouds, over all the coursing sun, form ever follows function, and this is the law. Where function does not change, form does not change.” — Louis Sullivan, “The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered,” Lippincott’s Magazine (): 408.
Ian’s Take 💭 💭 💭
Sullivan’s Maxim (Wiki) is simple, and shouldn’t be considered the end of the conversation, but rather the beginning of one.
Conversation Prompt:
Can we think of any major current societal topics, or cultural issues, where we can identify tensions between:
Function: (Cause) What is possible technologically, what something does, what you can do with an object, affordance
… and …
Form: (Effect) How something makes makes you feel, what something looks like, affect
Ian 💖 Design
Graphic Design empowers each of us to more effectively impact visual culture and popular aesthetics.
What is Visual Culture?
Visual Culture is both personal and public. We each have our own Visual Culture (Your Favs). Now imagine creating an enormous list of all of the genres, inspirations, styles, tastes, and trends of everyone: That describes a larger, shared Visual Culture (Popular Culture).
As a thought exercise: Try to notice when and where you typically encounter visual media in your day-to-day life:
The film They Live provides us with a powerful narrative exploring visual culture in a dynamic and charged relationship to advertising, propaganda, and socio-economic issues.
The film borrows the signature typographic and graphic treatment developed by artist and activist Barbara Kruger. The use of bold Futura typeface, with heavy-handed action verbs, is a critique of common advertising messaging, the “call-to-action”, and how graphic design participates in consumer culture.
They Live also provides an important constellation in contemporary graphic design history, as a reference for Shepard Fairey’s 1996 “Obey Giant” poster and sticker street art, which informed contemporary aesthetics.
Graphic Design and Communication Design practices are a form of media literacy.
Learning about media literary allows us all to more confidently engage with visual culture and popular aesthetics.
Design Thinking and Design Practice provide conceptual frameworks and applied techniques that empower how each of us communicates our perspective and Aesthetic Agenda.
I 💖 exploring visual culture and popular aesthetics with students!
In this design studio course, we do that by:
Creating and sharing our own design projects
Discussing and critiquing each other’s work
Actively taking notes during discussions and critiques (quizzes!)
Participating in discussions and critiques
To become a designer and visual thinker, you need to be confident in expressing and exploring your own aesthetic interests and obsessions.
I am most valuable as a teacher when I am helping student’s develop and refine their own aesthetic interests and obsessions.
Ask yourself: Could you launch your own creative studio?
Client
Who is the client?
Ask yourself: What kinds of clients, markets, and cultures would you like to work with?
Society
What is society? (Hint: There are many, and they overlap)
What kind of society, culture, or community do you want your work to contribute to?
Conviction + Enthusiasm
This diagram by Eames asserts that conviction and enthusiasm are the primary goal of a designer’s work. Do you agree? What other goals would you include in your own diagram of design practice?