commercial

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtP-S9OS0o0

This commercial really grabs my attention because of the humor and how it relates to the teen age group. This commercial is a set of 4 or 5, sometimes they combine all of them into one commercial, but they each have their own type of humor that keeps me interested in watching the commercial.

political satire video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adc3MSS5Ydc

writing for media- graduation treatment

Feeling a whirlwind of emotions, Katie walks across the stage to grab her diploma. “Where did these last four years go?” She thought. I was just on stage receiving my high school diploma and now I’m headed to the real world. Is there a rewind or do over button? As Katie walks back to her seat she notices an easy button sitting on her chair. Reluctant to push it, she decides to anyways. A voice says “that was easy” and Katie is back to freshman year move-in day.

Not wanting to change anything, but more so relive her college experience one more time before the real world, Katie’s last four years at flashes before her eyes. Remembering her first friends she made Carthage, joining a sorority, the parties, all nighters with friends, the good and the bad classes, sport events, homecomings, her whole college experience flashes before her eyes within 10 minutes and then senior year, probably the most rewarding of the four, replayed a little slower. Since it was the last time for everything, homecoming, formals, classes, etc, Katie wanted to make sure she lived it up, one last time.

Woohoo last and final blog!

Well it's the end. And we had two final presentations on Friday. One about Kyle Cooper and another on Shepard Fairely. Kyle Cooper was a rather interesting designer. Saul Bass was a huge influence on him and his style. His work was highly stylized and liked to experiment with typography. His typography ranged a lot; from playful to unique type. He worked on a lot of movies, and I really enjoyed watching all those movie clips in class. Lastly, was Shepard Fairely. The guy known for getting sued over making an Obama poster. He started to design when he was a teenager. He had the skate and punk influence on him as well. Fairely is really well known for the Andre the Gian stickers as well. He would post them everywhere around town. His style is unique in his own way. It has that Art Deco look with the sunbursts, but he also liked to keep it dark with uses of black and red. He had hidden messages in his designs as well. Bold colors and San-serif fonts were another characteristic to define him. I guess he just has his own unique style along with every other designer we studied in the past month.

presentations day 4? i've lost count.

We were presented with 3 more designers 2 days ago, Stefan Sagmeister, Clement Mok, and Leo Burnett. Stefan Sagmeigster was known as a designer "with guts". His biggest influence was Tibor Kalman. His style was very handwritten, not very digital, he used a lot of photography and inventive typography. He thought the human body/face was the most important thing in life and he used it often. He even carved out his words and phrases in his own body. Um ouch. He won a Grammy for his talking head boxed set as well. Moving on to Clement Mok. He had a big influence on apple, or at least worked there. He had a very artistic nature. He liked to use geometric lines and bold colors. He also loved to work with symbolism and abstraction. He established identity systems, which led to creating logos. He had a wide variety of clients. Lastly was Leo Burnett. Man, his website was so much fun! He had three main symbols that described him; apples, hand reaching for the stars, and a black pencil. He also created a lot of different logos for company's such as Tony the Tiger, the Pillsbury dough boy, and Tucan Sam to name a few.

Presentations day 3

On Monday we had three more presentations on Tibor Kalman, David Carson, and Matthew Carter. Tibor Kalmas is a social activist from Hungry. He is known for M&Co, which is his design firm with his wife. They design magazines, film titles and books. He likes to incorporate social issues into his work. He also believed in doing something different, something you don't see everyday. He was also known for his colors magazine, which took famous people such as Queen Elizabeth and Arnold Schwarzenegger and colored them black. Which I'm sure created a lot of uproar over. The next presentation was on David Carson. He had very innovative designs. His designs were very emotional. He didn't go to school, he was a self taught designers. He played off of the Swiss style with asymmetrical layouts. Surfing had a big influence on him. His style was known for big ideas, custom fonts, and cluttered pages. His era was before and after the computer as well. He had many different tittles such as a graphic designer, typographer, author, surfer, and many more. Lastly was Matthew Carter. Matthew Carter is a typography designers who produced a large variety of type. He was largely influenced by his father. He was also influenced by some Reinecassce painters. Technology was a big influence as well. He believed that technology changes faster than design does.

Day 2 of presentations

Friday we were presented with Neville Brody, Art Chantry, and Storm Thorgerson. Neville Brody is native of the United Kingdom. He was really into the whole punk music scenes and that really had an effect on him. It let him to rebellion. Face Magazine was what really made Neville become an influential designer. He worked up his status quickly. It only took him two years to become art director of the magazine. He worked with another magazine called fuse. In this magazine Neville really liked to work with graphic and type face design more than anything. "Brody" is the best graphic design book that has been sold, and this book talks all about him and his designs. Art Chantry was the second presentation we heard about. Art Chantry, or Arthur Samuel Chantry, had a rough childhood. He was born in a predominant family with his father being a high end government official, but his father wasn't a very nice one. He would be his mother a lot to the point where she left them. They moved to a lower end neighborhood, and in high school he "discovered friends, psychedelic posters, rock and roll, french symbolism poetry, and existentialism". Chantry was big on the punk and rock and roll. He had a dadaist philosophy and he used various typefaces in his designs. Lastly, Storm Thorgerson. He was by far the most interesting designer we have learned about so far. He really liked to design album covers for bands, and his biggest band that he designed for was Pink Floyd. He loved to use photography and layer them for his images. A lot of his images consisted of a big image next to a small image. He liked to show big/small comparisons. He was apart of the Hipgnosis design firm specializing in creative photography. The company didn't believe in a set price, and that turned out to bite them in the butt later on, and he left the company in 1985. Munch and Dali were some of his biggest influences and he is now working at Storm Studios as a freelancer.

presentations day 1

Well, the presentations started. We heard presentations on April Greiman, Milton Glaser(my presentation), and Seymour Chwast. April Greiman was born in 1948 in New York. Her mother, father and aunt raised her and taught her to ask a lot of questions when growing up. She has some early inspirations such as you cant fake the cha-cha and determination and hard work. She was educated at the Rhode Island school of design, Kansas City Art Institute, and the Basel School of design in Switzerland. She started a New Wave of Design with Wolfgang Weinhart and she took a break from normal typography. She changed the weight, spacing, size and angle with working with typography. She is known for "the desert", Cal Arts, "Iris light", and "Inventing flight". To this day she still has a design business and she likes to work with architects. April Greiman had a major impact on Graphic design.
Now onto Seymour Chwast. He was born in New York City in 1931. He attended Cooper Union along with Milton Glaser. The both of them along with two others created Push Pin Studios. He preferred working with the speed ball pen and ink than anything else. A lot of his images were images with type around it because he felt that the image was a bit more important than the type and didn't want the type to overpower the image. He has also worked with children's book illustrations and packing products, but he prefers the poster over anything else because it allows him to do pretty much anything he wants.

Thesis

Milton Glaser, best known for his "I love New York" logo, had a major impact on comtemporary illustration and design. His designs were known for being simple and direct along with being completely orginal.

Last reading!

Opps, I read the wrong section. But anyways last reading! and what a short reading it was. These posters were more on peoples view points on things, rather than propaganda and trying to sell things. These posters were often very bright or bold colors. The writing was difficult to read at times. The psychedelic posters got there name because they were related to anti establishment values, rock music, and drugs. A lot of the artists would teach themselves as well. Some designs that were popular among these posters were swirls, bright colors, hippie looking writing, gradient and so on.
I liked this section of reading because one it was short, and two it is getting closer to our period of time, and I really find the poster interesting to look at. The bright colors and trying to figure out what the posters are trying to say are really interesting.
Did the people of this time like the posters?

Chapters 20&21

I actually enjoyed reading chapter 20. I liked it because it was all about corporate identity and visual systems as the title states. The chapter discussed how the CBS, ABC, and MTV logos came about. It was really cool to hear about the backgrounds of the logos. William Golden designed the 1st CBS logo, it was two circles and two arcs that form an eye. "It symbolized the awesome power of project video images". This image is still used to this day. Another person who had an influence on the CBS image was Georg Olden. Olden was the 1st African American known graphic designer. He claimed his status even before the civil-rights movement which was huge back then. Not many African Americans had any status but being a slave. The ABC logo was designed during this time as well. Paul Rand, discussed in the last chapter with The New York school created the image still used today as well. "The continuing legacy of the Bauhaus and Herbert Bayer's universal alphabet informs this trademark, in which each letter-form reduced to its most elemental configuration". The logo is probably the simplest logo you can find. It is about four circles with two straight lines for two of the letters. This logo is still used today, with a few changes. When it's on screen, the logo is now transparent, but still visible. This chapter also covered the Mexican Olympics. When the symbol signs first were used. They needed images for every cultural because writing would take up way to much space. They used simple pictographs to represent the different sports, lodging, food, airports, etc.
I liked this chapter because I liked to read about the different logos and how they became of. It is cool to see how they are still used today and they have barely changed.
Are the pictographs for the Olympics still used today?
In chapter 21 images were starting to become less narrative and telling stories, but now they are becoming more about ideas and concepts. The Polish poster was created around now. When Poland was just about completely destroyed from the war, the communists took over, and they took over printing and graphic design. The artists and designers had set fees and they had standards they had to follow. Artist Tadeusz Trepkowski was the first polish poster artist to come out after the war. His posters were simple, and liked to show devastation. There was also another side of the Polish poster to be created. This poster showed more surrealism, and the posters tended to be more dark and depressing. The American conceptual images were very colorful images. I feel like they were also busy images as well. I really liked how they used color in these images. They are brighter than what we've studied before and it makes me want to look at the images more. The last topic covered in this chapter is the third world posters. The third world countries include Latin America, Asian, and Africa. They would usually used weapons in their posters as images to get people to look at them. Cuba was a major center for poster design. Many third world countries such as Cuba, lacked artistic traditions.
What I found interesting about this chapter was that the third world countries actually had posters designed. You would think that posters would be the last thing to spend money on since they didn't have much to spend on food, clothing and housing.
My question from this chapter is what was the first poster created in some of the third world countries.

Chapter 18&19

Chapters 18 and 19, a lot of reading, but getting more into the modern designs. After reading about the International Typographic Style I feel like this style was more of a way for artists to express new ways of communicating. New ways involving clarity and order, art concret which was very mathmatical with the colors and the elements. Aton Stankowski was a major person talked about in this chapter. He worked more with photography and photomontage. Stankowski would work behind the scenes. He would work with things that were not everyday images. He liked to use all material as well. Hermann Zapf was another guy who ended up designing more than 50 typefaces. Some examples are Palantino and Optima. This Swiss design movement really had an impact on America after the wars. This design movement did not just stay over in Europe, it ended up spreading every where.
I really liked the new designs that were going on. They are very orderly and there is a lot more of bright colors being used.
Do we still use this style today?
Now on to chapter 19, the New York School. This chapter talks about design in America, finally some names I can actually maybe pronounce. Paul Rand, Bill Bernbach, Alvin Lustig, Alex Steinweiss, Saul Bass, George Tscherny, and Robert Brownjohn we the pioneers of the New York School. This chapter also discussed graphic design at Yale, where Josef Alber was the director. Alvin Eisenman assisted him later. Albers was more about typography and Eisenman was more about type design and book design. Editorial design was changed as well. They put more "emphasis on content, longer text, and less opportunity for lavish visual treatment, and the layout became more controlled". More technology was used at this time, for photography and printing. Along with new editorial design, advertising was new as well. Advertising was not just used in magazines and newspaper anymore, it is being used in the television for commericals.
This whole chapter was packed filled with information. The design style is changing, and it is cool to see how it was like, not even 50 years ago.
Was this after World War 2?

Images 3&4

OK sorry these are late and in a jumble but these are my 3 images for the week.

They are all pretty simple. But the 1st one is about futurism. When I think of futurism they had those images with all the words spelling out things. I probably could have been a little bit more creative with this one, and i will probably end up going back and fixing it. But its a start. My 2nd image is one of the De Stijl movement. I couldn't use color for this, but they were all about the primary colors and the very simple boxy images. I tried to make this image look very simple. My last image is one to support the war, or propaganda. Trying to get people to buy TVs to support the war. I don't know why i chose TVs or what they have to do with the war either. This one seems to catch my eye and make me want to move my eye around to see what it says.

Before, During, and After the War

The posters for the war impacted the society. Posters were created to try to persuade people to join the war or to support it. The posters ranged from serious topics such as people dying, to cartoons. Some designers had some hard feelings for Hitler, Pearl Harbor and the actual war itself, and this influences the way they created posters. One person discussed in this section of reading was Kauffer, and he created posters for the Allie nations. Meanwhile, Ben Shahn was a designer on the other side for the Nazis. He used intense images by being straightforward with his target audience. After the war, with the Allies winning, and leaving Germany in distraction the CCA "decided to commission paintings by artists from each of the then 48 states"(Meggs History of Graphic Design 367-347). These posters followed more of the Bauhaus idea which is "the union of art with life". Posters started to become more advanced during this period with stronger images and messages.
I really liked how the posters varied for the war. They would have strong messages and then they would tone it down with cartoon messages.
What does the CCA stand for?

I really liked the McDonald's poster. McDonald's are everywhere in the world, and the M is distinguishable. That poster really caught my attention with the color and with the upside down M for spelling our war. Some of the posters have such strong messages with blood splatters in a form of a hand print and the images of the terrorists.

Images 1&2

This is an image for Gold fish for the Arts and Crafts period. They had a lot of clutter almost and it was very natury and flowery. The type was very bold and orderly. I did a design around the edge of the type because that is what I think of when I think of Arts and Crafts. I will probably go back in and fix the blank space around the type because when looking at the images in the Arts and Crafts chapter the whole page was filled.

This is my second image for the Industrial Revolution. I used different type that we learned about. I have fat face, Tuscan, and Egyptian type in there. In the ads back during the Industrial revolution they would bold the words and letters that were more important than the others. I feel like they kept there posters more simple and to the point.

American Kitsch

American Kitsch seems very random. Its tacky and it is almost ugly. It really reminds me of what old people would like as art. The image on the website makes me laugh because it just reminds me of a mess that a little kid could easily make.
The World War 2 posters were very geometrical. They showed some color, but they also showed the truth almost. I feel like these posters are also designed pretty simple.
What I found interesting was that Kitsch is an art movement that a lot of people don't seem to like.
Who created the Kitsch movement?

Postcubist pictorial modernism

This section of reading started off talking about Hitler and a little bit of World War 2. It was in the beginning of World War 2 when the swastika was used for the Nazis. Everything in the Germany was supposed to have the swastika somewhere, even if you didn't beleive. Hitler also talked about the master race, which if i remember correctly was blonde hair and blue eyes. There posters were also affected by the war. The writing and lettering became dark, bold, and heavy. Art deco became during the 1920s and 1930s. It was said that this style might have been a branch off of art nouveau. Kauffer had a major impact on this chapter as well. He designed a lot of different things, from posters, to ads, to signs. Cassandre was another designer who influenced this chapter with designing new typefaces. Germany was also the main center for design beginnings.
What I found interesting about this section of reading was that Hitler had a big influence on design during World War 2. I would assume that if you did something against what he liked, that would be the end of you.
Do we know if Hitler created any propaganda himself since he "had an uncanny knack for visual propaganda" (Meggs History of Graphic Design 278).

Today in class I learned...

Today in class we had a presentation about Pictorial Modernism. This was an interesting presentation and I really enjoyed the pictionary game we played at the end. After we heard the presentation Laura had us try to keep us active today because we are all dead, and stressed because I know I am. But we talked about the propaganda posters from both Germany and the United States during World War 1. Then we did a quick talk about how we would think posters would look like today for the Iraq War.
I thought talking about how we would depict posters for the Iraq war was interesting to hear. Just to hear peoples different views on how to make people provide for the war was interesting.
My question from today is are there any well known posters for the Iraq war?

Posters, posters, and more posters

Plakatstil was developed in Germany during this time. Lucian Bernhard moved graphic communications further by simplifying and using less nature in his work. Bernhard developed a sans-serif lettering style painted in broad brushstrokes. He really liked to work simple, and this is how he was identified. Bernhard also worked with interior design and carpentry. Studying this lead to his work in architecture. He went to America, and no body really liked his work, so it took him a while to get people to like it. Sachplakate were a type of poster talked about in this chapter, and they were basically simple posters. And the poster goes to war! This was a major step in the poster career because this allowed the posters to be shown. Printing was becoming more advance during this period. And posters were really being used as propaganda at this time. The posters for the two sides were completely different from one another. The central powers stayed with the Vienna Secession style. More words and images were used on the posters as well. They also liked to show destruction as a propaganda strategy. The Allies used more literal images for their posters. Persuasive was another strategy to get people to join the war. For example, the one of Uncle Sam saying I want you for the army. Back then I think that would have been a good technique to get people to join the war. Many posters also showed the public contribution to the war by showing emotions. Hitler was discussed a little bit in this chapter. I feel like Hitler was such a strong critic. As discussed in class you said that he was a designer, but I guess no body liked his work so he had to criticize others. The swastika was created as the symbol for the Nazi party. The term art deco to me is a more simpler movement that was very geometric and linear.
What I found really interesting in this chapter was how the Allies and the Central Powers had different posters produced. They were both trying to get across the same ideas, but it is kind of cool how they are different from one another.
My question from this chapter is since Hitler had a thing for visual propaganda, did he create any of his own?

after classss

Today in class we learned about another presentation from Alexis about the influences of modern art. I liked this presentation because I really enjoyed the pictures she gave us that we had to identify what they were. I think that really helped me understand the movements a little bit better. Plus we got candy! =). Anyways after her presentation we went over our questions from the past week from our blogs. And it was really interesting to hear other questions that people in our class had, and to review what we learned.
I really enjoyed going over our questions because it helped me review what we learned about the past week, plus we went over new information.
My question from class is we might have gone over this in class, but from Alexis's presentation with the pictures, how is Umberto Bocioni, Unique Forms of Continuity in Space futurism movement?