Visual Language - Reading Handout
Meaning of pictures: Pictures are more than 2D because they reflect creator's intent and show there is info to be communicated. Each viewer has a different point of view based on likes or dislikes towards an image which can effect the way they interpret an image, and can determine how they perceive the meaning.
Human information processing system: looking at the Starry Night people register the strokes, color, shapes in their sensory memory, while the main elements are stored in the working memory. Experiencing the view of Starry Night then gets put into long-term memory.
Bottoms-up process: visual awareness coming from external stimuli. Top-down process- is affected by our memories, expectations, and intentions.
Sensory memory- has two components iconic memory which is for the visual and echoic memory which is for what we hear.
Working memory- maintains and manipulates information that is the focus of attention, and integrating new information into with our prior knowledge.
Information Value: if a designer can invoke the mental process by the way they organize a graphic.
Human information processing system: looking at the Starry Night people register the strokes, color, shapes in their sensory memory, while the main elements are stored in the working memory. Experiencing the view of Starry Night then gets put into long-term memory.
Bottoms-up process: visual awareness coming from external stimuli. Top-down process- is affected by our memories, expectations, and intentions.
Sensory memory- has two components iconic memory which is for the visual and echoic memory which is for what we hear.
Working memory- maintains and manipulates information that is the focus of attention, and integrating new information into with our prior knowledge.
Information Value: if a designer can invoke the mental process by the way they organize a graphic.
Reading #5
The Digital Era: Apple launches Macintosh personal computer in 1984, and uniquely geared to designers and opened new possibilities of better control as well as speeding up the exploration process.
April Greiman: pioneered computer technology as a design tool, and established New Wave design in the U.S. She does transmedia work, hybrid imagery, visual communication, combining different elements together in terms of space. She uses the approach of letting things float in space, layering type and making it illegible.
Rudy Vanderlans &Zuzana Licko: founded the experimental design journal and designed groundbreaking digital typefaces. Vanderlans used the freedom from the computer to design layouts, while Licko gained a disciplined method for designing type.
Edward Fella: created handmade lettering/design, he would collage found imagery pieces with hand-drawn type which had Dada and Surrealism influences in the design.
Muriel Cooper: pioneered design for screen, she also blended graphic design and computer science. She co-founded the research group for Visual Language Workshop which was later part if the MIT's media lab.
Steven Heller: wrote multiple books/articles about design, and he co-founded innovative educational programs. Through his many books Heller has created a deeper understanding to public and designers.
Stephen Doyle: uses color's power to create communication and connection. Doyle uses clean type, bright color, and beautiful photography to get unified and identifiable brands included on thousands of products. He also creates illustrations that focus in a single word then transforms making them visually consistent and force views to think.
Paula Scher: illustrates with typography and designs distinctive identities for cultural institutions and corporations. She began using type in a conceptual way that allowed her to be persuasive, expressive and aggressive. She experimented with older type styles to create something more expressive than Helvetica.
Michael Bierut: designs bold identities and co-founded online forum for design. His love of album covers led him to design, he also developed a bold visual language for large cropped type.
John Maeda: combines design and technology, he also advocates computer knowledge for designers. He created the Reactive Square which had shapes responding to sound, and he did Time Paint which was a time-based program of flying colors.
Stefan Sagmeister: designed innovative CD packaging and he pushes/ provokes with his works. His innovative designs would have specific object with a hidden image inside them. He also used his body to push the meaning of his message further.
April Greiman: pioneered computer technology as a design tool, and established New Wave design in the U.S. She does transmedia work, hybrid imagery, visual communication, combining different elements together in terms of space. She uses the approach of letting things float in space, layering type and making it illegible.
Rudy Vanderlans &Zuzana Licko: founded the experimental design journal and designed groundbreaking digital typefaces. Vanderlans used the freedom from the computer to design layouts, while Licko gained a disciplined method for designing type.
Edward Fella: created handmade lettering/design, he would collage found imagery pieces with hand-drawn type which had Dada and Surrealism influences in the design.
Muriel Cooper: pioneered design for screen, she also blended graphic design and computer science. She co-founded the research group for Visual Language Workshop which was later part if the MIT's media lab.
Steven Heller: wrote multiple books/articles about design, and he co-founded innovative educational programs. Through his many books Heller has created a deeper understanding to public and designers.
Stephen Doyle: uses color's power to create communication and connection. Doyle uses clean type, bright color, and beautiful photography to get unified and identifiable brands included on thousands of products. He also creates illustrations that focus in a single word then transforms making them visually consistent and force views to think.
Paula Scher: illustrates with typography and designs distinctive identities for cultural institutions and corporations. She began using type in a conceptual way that allowed her to be persuasive, expressive and aggressive. She experimented with older type styles to create something more expressive than Helvetica.
Michael Bierut: designs bold identities and co-founded online forum for design. His love of album covers led him to design, he also developed a bold visual language for large cropped type.
John Maeda: combines design and technology, he also advocates computer knowledge for designers. He created the Reactive Square which had shapes responding to sound, and he did Time Paint which was a time-based program of flying colors.
Stefan Sagmeister: designed innovative CD packaging and he pushes/ provokes with his works. His innovative designs would have specific object with a hidden image inside them. He also used his body to push the meaning of his message further.
Reading #4
Late Modernism/ Postmodernism: development in printing technology gave designers better control over their work, and led designers to a do it yourself approach. Andy Warhol and other artists led the Pop Art movement combined advertising, comic strips, and product packaging.
Ivan Chermayeff and Tom Gesmar: introduced abstract design to corporate identity, they believed design is for solving problems. The Mobile logo is one of their most iconic logos.
Yusaku Kamekura: combined European Modernism with traditional Japanese aesthetics, designed first Olympics posters to use photography, and he led/ organized Japanese graphic design profession. His works were a blend of things studied from Bauhaus and constructivism that showed use of color, light, geometry, and photography.
Herb Lubalin: Mastered expressive typography and type as image, he also rejected rational modernism. He co-founded the International Typeface Corporation for new typefaces in the new technology, and his designs were considered loose/experimental.
Seymour Chwast: he combined illustration and design, incorporated historic styles, and co-founded Push Pin Studios. He was inspired by Walt Disney, Victorian Type, and comic books. He revived historic styles and made them more fun and visually expressive.
Milton Glaser: designed iconic logos, posters, magazines, and restaurants. He embraced the historical styles, ornaments and complexity. His writing and teaching greatly influenced others.
George Lois: developed ad campaigns for top brands and designed iconic/ controversial magazine covers. His works caught the eye of Esquire magazine and he created covers such as the Muhammad Ali making him look like a Christian martyr; he also did a cover with a single quote from the Vietnam war.
Wim Crouwel: made radical typeface designs for computer, co-founded influential multidisciplinary design studio, and he created a grid system for museum communications. His typographic work shows the style of Dutch design as clean and functional.
Walter Landor: built one of the world's largest brand design agencies, and pioneered design based on consumer research. He thought of design as communication and not art.
Otl Aicher: designed grid-based pictograms that became an international visual language. He relied on visuals instead of text to relay information especially during the Olympics.
Michael Vanderbyl: expanded graphic design into multiple disciplines and helped establish San Francisco as a design hub. His earlier works combined simple typography with fun postmodern elements such as patterns, pastels colors, diagonals, and textures.
Peter Saville: designed influential album covers and focused on conceptual imagery to give emotional connection between fans and band. He was influenced by early-modern typographers.
Ivan Chermayeff and Tom Gesmar: introduced abstract design to corporate identity, they believed design is for solving problems. The Mobile logo is one of their most iconic logos.
Yusaku Kamekura: combined European Modernism with traditional Japanese aesthetics, designed first Olympics posters to use photography, and he led/ organized Japanese graphic design profession. His works were a blend of things studied from Bauhaus and constructivism that showed use of color, light, geometry, and photography.
Herb Lubalin: Mastered expressive typography and type as image, he also rejected rational modernism. He co-founded the International Typeface Corporation for new typefaces in the new technology, and his designs were considered loose/experimental.
Seymour Chwast: he combined illustration and design, incorporated historic styles, and co-founded Push Pin Studios. He was inspired by Walt Disney, Victorian Type, and comic books. He revived historic styles and made them more fun and visually expressive.
Milton Glaser: designed iconic logos, posters, magazines, and restaurants. He embraced the historical styles, ornaments and complexity. His writing and teaching greatly influenced others.
George Lois: developed ad campaigns for top brands and designed iconic/ controversial magazine covers. His works caught the eye of Esquire magazine and he created covers such as the Muhammad Ali making him look like a Christian martyr; he also did a cover with a single quote from the Vietnam war.
Wim Crouwel: made radical typeface designs for computer, co-founded influential multidisciplinary design studio, and he created a grid system for museum communications. His typographic work shows the style of Dutch design as clean and functional.
Walter Landor: built one of the world's largest brand design agencies, and pioneered design based on consumer research. He thought of design as communication and not art.
Otl Aicher: designed grid-based pictograms that became an international visual language. He relied on visuals instead of text to relay information especially during the Olympics.
Michael Vanderbyl: expanded graphic design into multiple disciplines and helped establish San Francisco as a design hub. His earlier works combined simple typography with fun postmodern elements such as patterns, pastels colors, diagonals, and textures.
Peter Saville: designed influential album covers and focused on conceptual imagery to give emotional connection between fans and band. He was influenced by early-modern typographers.
Reading #3
Ladislav Sutnar- Pioneered information design and wrote books that provided layouts guidelines for design systems. His work designs were for theaters, book covers, and exhibitions in Prague. Sutnar developed a system to cross reference items by company, trade, and product name.
Alvin Lustig- took an intellectual approach to solving problems and best known for designing book covers. For the book covers he read the work then he created symbolic visuals that interpreted the books overall meaning.
Cipe Pineles- first female art director of mass American Magazine. She designed for magazines like Vogue and Vanity Fair later she went to be director of Seventeen Magazine. She rejected idealized style of typical magazine layout and let her audience gain exposure to modern art. Her approach was to teach content not style.
Bradbury Thompson- recycled vintage elements in modern design and developed a new concept for the alphabet. His best work was for Westvaco and he only used existing images that he borrowed from other ads or that were donated.
Erik Nitsche- designed iconic scientific posters and used abstract symbols to express concept of using military technology for a peaceful end. He also used geometric forms with scientific images to create designs that were bright and optimistic.
Josef Muller- Brockmann- he founded the Neue Grafik to promote Swiss style. He used geometry, photography, and abstraction to create a functional rational design. He was influential figure to using the modular grid that led to foundation of Typographic style.
Paul Rand- Mastered corporate identity, advertising and editorial design; he also developed strong identity programs for major corporations. Found inspiration in painters like Picasso and architect like Le Corbusier.
Saul Bass- developed comprehensive ad campaigns for movies and designed many well-known corporate identity programs. The key to his work was to symbolize images that represent the film's meaning.
Georg Olden- pioneered on-air television graphics and was first notable African American graphic designer. He integrated type and images to make bold, graphic, and playful visuals. He was also the first African American to design a postage stamp that marked the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1963.
Will Burtin- designed gunnery-training manuals for air combat, and he designed easy-to-understand charts and graphs that presented financial data. He also designed a walk through model of the human cell.
Alvin Lustig- took an intellectual approach to solving problems and best known for designing book covers. For the book covers he read the work then he created symbolic visuals that interpreted the books overall meaning.
Cipe Pineles- first female art director of mass American Magazine. She designed for magazines like Vogue and Vanity Fair later she went to be director of Seventeen Magazine. She rejected idealized style of typical magazine layout and let her audience gain exposure to modern art. Her approach was to teach content not style.
Bradbury Thompson- recycled vintage elements in modern design and developed a new concept for the alphabet. His best work was for Westvaco and he only used existing images that he borrowed from other ads or that were donated.
Erik Nitsche- designed iconic scientific posters and used abstract symbols to express concept of using military technology for a peaceful end. He also used geometric forms with scientific images to create designs that were bright and optimistic.
Josef Muller- Brockmann- he founded the Neue Grafik to promote Swiss style. He used geometry, photography, and abstraction to create a functional rational design. He was influential figure to using the modular grid that led to foundation of Typographic style.
Paul Rand- Mastered corporate identity, advertising and editorial design; he also developed strong identity programs for major corporations. Found inspiration in painters like Picasso and architect like Le Corbusier.
Saul Bass- developed comprehensive ad campaigns for movies and designed many well-known corporate identity programs. The key to his work was to symbolize images that represent the film's meaning.
Georg Olden- pioneered on-air television graphics and was first notable African American graphic designer. He integrated type and images to make bold, graphic, and playful visuals. He was also the first African American to design a postage stamp that marked the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1963.
Will Burtin- designed gunnery-training manuals for air combat, and he designed easy-to-understand charts and graphs that presented financial data. He also designed a walk through model of the human cell.
Reading #2
Bauhaus: The model for new design school, and the schools philosophy and teaching approach greatly influenced modern design. United the idea of the artist and the builder, the school was also greatly inspired by Morris's Arts and Craft Movement, Russia's constructivism and De Stijl. The curriculum of the Bauhaus school grew over 14 year period allowing graphic design to become a valuable part of the school. Afterwards Nazi's grew fearful of school and it was closed down.
A.M. Cassandre: had architectural approach and used geometric forms in his works. His posters used mechanical subjects such as airplane, ocean liners and railroads cars. He applied concepts of modern painting to French poster designs. He believed art is not just for elite but for everyone, and he borrowed different elements from different movements as a decorative style.
Herbert Bayer: he continued to spread influence of the Bauhaus and helped make graphic design a bigger part of the curriculum. He used geometry, grids, and sans serifs to get a modern look, he also designed the Universal sans serif in 1925.
William Addison Dwiggins: wrote the book Layout in Advertising, and he was a calligrapher and illustrator but better known as a type designer. He was skilled at combining type, hand lettering and cohesive designs with nature inspired flourishes.
Jan Tschichold: Wrote The New Typography and like to incorporate modern elements into his designs. He went beyond strict modernism during his career, and he raised the standards and quality that influenced publishing industry.
Mid-century Modern: Many artists and designers come to America to get away from Nazi power. World war II created more job opportunities and boosted economy. Arta & Architecture magazine sponsored case home studies and encouraged designers to use good designs with affordable productions. International Style or Swiss Style was adapted by Bauhaus and De Stijl movements for graphic designers.
Lester Beall: Launched modern graphic design movement in the US and known for creating posters showing benefits of electricity. First graphic designer to integrate European avant-garde to US through poster designs, magazine designs and identities. He introduced corporate identity design, he had extensive usage guidelines and strong graphic identities.
Alexey Brodovitch: incorporated white space and double-page spread in US magazine design. He encouraged photographers to be creative and for models to have free movement.
Alex Steinweiss: designed inventive record covers and he pioneered a conceptual approach to album design as he let the music decide how he would design the album covers with stylized illustrations, geometric shapes, musical symbols, and putting type in overall design.
Herbert Matter: broadened the use of photography in design, used many different styles from Cassandre, Le Corbusier and Leger as he experimented in typography. He collaged many photographs together and used dramatic scales with dynamic perspective to make images expressive and artistic.
A.M. Cassandre: had architectural approach and used geometric forms in his works. His posters used mechanical subjects such as airplane, ocean liners and railroads cars. He applied concepts of modern painting to French poster designs. He believed art is not just for elite but for everyone, and he borrowed different elements from different movements as a decorative style.
Herbert Bayer: he continued to spread influence of the Bauhaus and helped make graphic design a bigger part of the curriculum. He used geometry, grids, and sans serifs to get a modern look, he also designed the Universal sans serif in 1925.
William Addison Dwiggins: wrote the book Layout in Advertising, and he was a calligrapher and illustrator but better known as a type designer. He was skilled at combining type, hand lettering and cohesive designs with nature inspired flourishes.
Jan Tschichold: Wrote The New Typography and like to incorporate modern elements into his designs. He went beyond strict modernism during his career, and he raised the standards and quality that influenced publishing industry.
Mid-century Modern: Many artists and designers come to America to get away from Nazi power. World war II created more job opportunities and boosted economy. Arta & Architecture magazine sponsored case home studies and encouraged designers to use good designs with affordable productions. International Style or Swiss Style was adapted by Bauhaus and De Stijl movements for graphic designers.
Lester Beall: Launched modern graphic design movement in the US and known for creating posters showing benefits of electricity. First graphic designer to integrate European avant-garde to US through poster designs, magazine designs and identities. He introduced corporate identity design, he had extensive usage guidelines and strong graphic identities.
Alexey Brodovitch: incorporated white space and double-page spread in US magazine design. He encouraged photographers to be creative and for models to have free movement.
Alex Steinweiss: designed inventive record covers and he pioneered a conceptual approach to album design as he let the music decide how he would design the album covers with stylized illustrations, geometric shapes, musical symbols, and putting type in overall design.
Herbert Matter: broadened the use of photography in design, used many different styles from Cassandre, Le Corbusier and Leger as he experimented in typography. He collaged many photographs together and used dramatic scales with dynamic perspective to make images expressive and artistic.
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