“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:
form (how something looks, how something makes you feel, affect), and…
function (what something does, what you can do with an object, affordance)
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.
Ian 💖 Design
Learning about Graphic Design and the Communication Design Practices allows us all to 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?
Where
Society
What is society?
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?