Week 13

Commonalities and differences between Elizabeth Gilbert's talk and Sir Ken Robinson's talk.

Elizabeth Gilbert talked about her career and used many metaphors to an elusive and serious topic. The emotional struggles of artists over the years. She discussed the history of artists, and found that there is an assumption that creativity leads to suffering. Creative people over all genres seem to be undone by the gifts and become mentally unstable. Gilbert discussed an ancient philosophy of a 'Genius' that was thought to accompany creative minds. The 'Genius' was believed to be a spirit that was also be responsible for the creative process and pressure. Gilbert made light of an illusive subject, she described a psychological construct that is like a coping mechanism, one that when people lose their grasp on life and their passion they should look to.

Sir Ken Robertson talked about a climate crisis, of both the natural and human resources. He mentioned that many people don't use their abilities and skills and often choose a lifestyle that they endure not enjoy. You need passion in your life. Robertson revealed that we build our society around conformist ideas not innovative thinking, which is what erases passion in our goals and lives. Communities depend on a diversity of talents, both in ability and knowledge.

They both talk about love and passion, and what seems the lose of it in the contemporary world. They reveal their discussion with a sense of humour, to lighten the subject. Both present very humanist ideas of life. Essentially we are losing our individuality and if we do find it we stress over it, usually because of the pressures from society, be it financial or emotional. If we step back and realise why we choose to do what we do and if or why we love it we can appreciate our gift again and not curse ourselves to an unhappy lifestyle. It is best to enjoy not endure!

WHY I WANT TO BE A DESIGNER??

Throughout my life I haven't had any certainty in my life, I strive to do things that make me happy and the people around me. I am a firm believer in living for myself, living every day to the maximum if i am able to and things happen for a reason.

I applied for a very broad range of courses at the start of the year (ranging from midwifery and teaching to graphic design and art history) I got an interview at Wesley and felt excited about it. I have always loved to create and put my feeling and ideas into a design be it paper or computer. I love to learn new things and hope that those new things will help me in the future.

I want to express my emotions and ideas, I do so through music and dance also but Graphic Design stood out to me and I am enjoying myself in the course so far. I hope to enjoy the rest of it and keep my passion for it and eventually gain exposure.

I suppose it's similar to what Elizabeth Gilbert and Sir Ken Robertson discussed in the TED.com talks, you need passion in your life and to be able to enjoy every moment, that is what i strive for out of my life.

The Inhibitors to creativity:

• fear of making mistakes
• admiring logic too much (trust intuition)
• avoiding ambiguity (clarifying things too quickly)
• wanting to be practical
• thinking play is frivolous
• thinking "that's not my area"
• not wanting to be foolish
• deciding you are just not creative

Examples of work and drawings by Basquiat and Dubuffet.

BASQUIAT

http://www.metapedia.com/wiki/index.php?title=Cultural_Hybridity_Discussion_Fall_2007:_Week_7

http://jesuiscommejesuis.files.wordpress.com/2007/08/untitled_acrylic_oilstick_and_spray_paint_on_canvas_painting_by_-jean-michel_basquiat-_1981.jpg

http://srjerman.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/15basquiat_30.jpg

http://anthagonics.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/jean-michel-basquiat-picture2.jpg

http://jetgeneration.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/untitled_acrylic_and_mixed_media_on_canvas_by_-jean-michel_basquiat-2c_1984.jpg

DUBUFFET

http://www.contemporaryartdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/dubuffet_inst_2008_v05.jpg

http://willaw.bleublog.lematin.ch/media/02/00/2110998414.jpg

http://www.gadflyonline.com/11-5-01/dubuffet--panoramas.jpg

http://madamepickwickartblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/dubuffet8.jpg

http://www.museum.cornell.edu/hfj/permcoll/euro/img_20c/bouche_l.jpg

http://squallyshowers.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/jean-dubuffet.jpg

week 11/12

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/howart/images/logo3.jpg

Movie - HOW ART MADE THE WORLD

"How do the images we surround ourselves with today come from a world that is thousands of years old?"

Over time artists have been obsessed with the human form. Throughout history there is a variety of artworks incorporating the human form, all with one thing in common; not one is realistic. Scientists believe it has something to do with the inner workings of our brain;

"Our brain is hard-wired to focus upon parts of objects with pleasing associations."

Exaggerated statues like the Venus of Willendorf reveal the fixation that artists over the years have had with accentuating certain parts of the body that appeal to them, an exaggerated beauty. The makers of the Venus lived in a harsh ice-age environment, therefore the tiny statue has great significance for their time and reality, they exaggerated what was important to them. (fatness and fertility)

http://www.utexas.edu/courses/classicalarch/images1/willendorf-large.jpg

Ancient Egyptians created a stylised human figure based on the grid work of their wall art, while the Greeks created heroic statues almost to a naked perfection, yet still unrealistic.

As a race, human beings have always been obsessed with fantasy and dreams of perfection, this links us all with our ancient ancestors and explains our "more human than human" images, statues and designs of the human body.

In our everyday life we see many lines and shapes that we interpret as symbols, the question is raised how one could ever recognise an image if one has never seen one before? What archeologists have called the 'creative explosion' created this movement into what we rely on hugely today, that is symbols that we recognise as representations for certain things.

http://www.collegenews.org/Images/Altamira-Cave.jpg

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/art/rockart460.jpg

The first prehistoric paintings ever to be discovered were in a cave in the hillside of Altamira, in Spain and give an insight into why we felt it necessary to make shapes of what we saw in reality. Most prehistoric cave paintings were of animals and consisted of black or red circles and strokes, searching over continents and strangely enough this was the same. It was discovered that the paintings inside the caves away from any admiration were painted because of a deep trance that the people would go into. They were not just of the physical world but of a spiritual world that they experienced in this trance. These hallucination were so strong and inspiring and lead them to painting them onto the cave walls. The spots and lines were due to the lack of light in the caves, the altered state of consciousness made the brain produce this pattern. They felt compelled to paint their visions and from this we can live our lives highly relying on symbols for direction and classification.

http://www.safetysignsupplies.co.uk/images/product_imgs/full/1024_1_1_s.gif

http://www.freefoto.com/images/41/04/41_04_97---Give-Way-Roundabout-Road-Sign_web.jpg

http://www.pbs.org/howartmadetheworld/episodes/human/

week 9

Milton Glaser

An American Graphic Designer, well known for his iconic 'I Love New York' Symbol and posters in magazines and for artist like Bob Dylan. His style ranges experimenting with techniques from Avant Garde and sometimes even further back or from present day, his work was very unique, simple and direct. Throughout his career he has developed his own studio and broadened his horizons with New York Magazine designs and become an influence on contemporary artists, within design and illustration. He amongst many other artists are taking a stand, calling for a change of priorities, after such event of 9/11 they are renewing the 1964 manifesto (read further at [www.eyemagazine.com/feature.php?id=18&fid=99]).

http://elvinakkan.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/ilovenewyork.jpg

Exercise: Compare 'Sydney Opera House' with one of Gehrys' buildings.

Rasin Building - Dancing House in Prague.

Both have a structure, the Opera House has a more geometric structure where as the Dancing House has what seems to be a random collaboration of rectangles pushed and morphed into unusual shapes. Gehrys worked from what is known as the Deconstructionism or Post-structialism, where he ignored the form follows function rule that was prevalent for the Modernists.

These two buildings have some similarities of shapes and form although the Opera House has a repeated shape, while the Dancing House has one random column oddly warped. Both attract the eye and are aesthetically pleasing to the viewer. The repetition creates a rhythm and balance throughout the Opera House design and the odd shape for the Dancing Hou

se does not create balance or unity with the rest of the building. It does however create a movement within the architecture.

Both are icons in their own rights, they mirror what they are made for and around .

The Opera House is for concerts and performances the large interior allows for music to be heard to its full extent and the exterior mimics the water or the ships sails.

The Dancing Building has a traditional building structure but branches away with one column to relate to the movement of dance.

Therefore both are similar and different but for the purpose they were created they fulfill the bill.

http://www.aspen-ridge.net/Places/Australia/Sydney_Opera_House.jpg

http://dilarairmak.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/frank-1.jpg

week 8

Postmodernism (discussed in a previous post)

Alessi, a kitchen utensil company grounded in Italy. The company saw many high designs of a variety of ordinary objects and tools and was common stylised in the post-modern mode. Some

memorable products were the 'designer kettles', 'designer toothbrushes', 'designer graters' and so no all are Alessi products.

http://www.architetturaedesign.it/immagini/philippe_Stark.jpg

Philippe Starck is a French product designer and well known in the New Design style. His work varies from interior design to mass produced consumer goods like chairs and toothbrushes. His technique often included stylised, organic and streamlined products and furnishings to get them ready for mass production, he revamped a variety of household i

tems, introducing them into high design.

http://besttopdesign.com/interior/interior-design-of-hotel-fasano-rio-de-janeiro-by-philippe-starck-in-rio-de-janeiro/

The Memphis Group was an Italian group of designers and architects in the 1980's that challenged the conventional attitudes towards textures, colours, patterns and shapes in producing many fabrics, furniture, metal, ceramics and glass objects. In direct contrast to the so called 'Good Design' of the time and drew inspiration from the Art Deco and Pop Art movements, appropriating from futuristic themes and 50's Kitsch styles. Resulting in colourful, bright and shocking pieces in this group that the 'mentor' Ettore Sottsass influenced by his radical work, he dubbed the group as the 'New International Style'. The unconventional shapes, disregard of function, bright colours and radical textures shocked the art community and challenged the 'modern' design of the day and furthermore developed what we call Post Modernism.

http://www.artscenecal.com/ArtistsFiles/ShireP/ShirePJPGs/PShire10a.jpg

http://isiria.files.wordpress.com/2007/09/memphis-1.jpg

This group has been described as

'vibrant, essentric and ornamental' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memphis_Group

http://www.essential-architecture.com/IMAGES2/Sottsass3_thumb.jpg

week 7-exercise

CLASS EXERCISE

Contemporary designers and artists who share ideas...work has similar characteristics...and who break rules??

Some artists we came up with were David Carson, Stephan Sagmiester, Paula Scher, Seymour Chwast, Milton Glaser, Yulia Brodskaya, as a few. They all do not share the same ideas but some connect with others, they all used experimentation in their work and in doing so broke the so called rules of the time, breaking the traditional boundaries. The artists who incorporated typography into their work used many different techniques of collage, grid, shapes and were not always created to be ledgable, this was their challenge to the rules.

http://www.designingwithtype.com/essays/images/essayCarson.gif

"As time goes on the world becomes more and more sophisticated."

I believe the sophistication of art has to do with the ever growing and advancing technology and science which is making the place we live in far more complex. Artists are only making sense of the world that they live in and following the trends of the time. Many artists turn to the past to the basics of painting and skething and improving upon those skills, or experiment with their own ideas and techniques, from this the sophistication grows every new day in relation to art. Artists keep expanding upon their own ideas and the ideas from the past.

http://krasabear.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/brodskaya.jpg

week 7/8

Post Modernism

1975-1990

This was developed in rebellion to the strict structure of the Swiss/International period. This period re-established wit, humour, irony through visual symbols and motifs in all areas of design; art, fashion, architecture, graphics, furniture, etc. It was a very free period of expression in art, it was a reaction against the modernists and their 'less is more' approach. In Post modernism their wasn't many rules to follow but to convey your message in your art any way you could, sometimes the more extravagent the better, other times the subtler the better.

A good example is the Sydney Opera House, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright which ignored the modernists obsession with pure geometry. The building is shaped to symbolise the sea, flight of the seagull and the sails of a boat.

http://www.wayfaring.info/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/800px-sydney_opera_house_sailsk.jpg

Many architectural designs mimicked natural forms rather than the modernists approach of geometric shapes. The fashion industry saw a major change in style and what was accepted by the evolving community, they saw a merging of men and women's cloths...typically seen in Boy Georges' style when the gay culture that was embraced in the 80's. Also Madonna showcases the undergarments as clothing.

The Post modernists completely went against the rule of form must follow function, they played with proportions, abstraction and deliberately broke the rules in a playful matter. The 'Memphis Group' was a group of Post-modernists that created a unique look, with vibrant, eccentric colours and design in reaction to the humourless design of modernism.

The Post modernists also challenged the ideals of the viewer, usually with simple and clean designs incorporating an organic curve to upset the balance, yet very postmodern. Many artists would use found material to create a loose, arbitrary design of collage, similar to the Punk Movement. Many artists were influenced by past movements and techniques by older periods and this is what makes postmodernism so hard to define. It is a variety of styles and techniques often appropriating other works and that allow for wit, humour, irony or juxtaposition to challenge the viewer into rethinking their preconceived views. They tried the 'untried'. Artists like Wolfgang Weingart who embraced experimentation with layers, textures and collage.

http://artisticholicz.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/new-wave-2.jpg

The postmodern period saw many artists that have influence the contemporary society today. The movement are forever influencing each other and each new artists or designer has their own style. Because the Postmodern movement allowed for freedom many practices were explored and famous artists were produced. For an example, Morimura, he challenged the idea of the artist and the sitter by being both, and challenged the gender barrier in most of his artworks.

week 6-part2

Swiss/International

http://thumb1.visualizeus.com/thumbs/08/08/03/berg,blue,design,fortner,grafik,graphic,design,international,typographic,style,josef,muller,brockmann,layout,poster,swiss-a4a3dd9c5c0f5e30195de8e5eee30783_m.jpg

The style was developed in Switzerland hence the name, it is also known as 'The International Typographic Style' and overlapped with Modernism from 1945-1985. Often based on pure geometry the clarity and order to the style was ideal to produce something socially useful, scientific and accessible. It was a strict clean style emphasising readability and objectivity often using Sans Serif typefaces, a grid and an asymmetric layout.

http://www.achievement.org/achievers/joh0/large/joh0-023.jpg

A good example of Swiss/International style can be seen in many buildings in Chicago, the architectural design done by Mies van der Rohe. It illustrates the styles focus on cleanliness and simple forms. The style is evidently introduced into society, also into chair designs and planes particularly the Concord which was engineered for speed it is extremely simple in aerodynamic form.

http://www.aeroflight.co.uk/types/international/aerospat-bac/concorde/Concorde.jpg

One of the most influential designers of the time was Josef Muller-Brockman, he used contrast in size and scale for impacts aswell as bold typefaces, grids, collage and diagonal vectors to encourage movement, this became a new language for the graphic poster designers. He created many posters and promoted many concerts using his grid organisation and minimal, bold text to entice the reader, he sometimes used a tilted axis in his rebellion against the mainstream. Unity was often formed by repetition and transformation of geometric shapes, again very simple and clean approach.

http://www.publishedart.com.au/images/graphic/big_josefmuller.jpg

This style influenced many artists and several major companies within society. Such as Knoll International, signage and a map for the New York City subway system, both in clean cut, easily read font (Helvetica) and socially useful and recognisable.

week 6-part1

Late Modernism 1945-1970

The Arts and Crafts movement developed the form follows function method, next was Modernism where less was seen as more and after that and the war was Late Modernism when many European artists moved to America after the war, hence moving the cultural centre of the world. Hence the art that was produced in this period was highly inspired by European Avant Garde. Many artists applied the non-decorative approach of the modernists but rejected the dogma and created a simplicity that was appreciated worldwide. This simplicity was seen in all aspects of design, from art to fashion where simplicity and high fashion were combined to develop elegant dresses in the 50s. Where as the 60's saw the rise of the miniskirt reflecting the attitude towards simplicity and the broadening relaxed attitudes towards the body.

http://www.arch.mcgill.ca/prof/mellin/arch671/winter2005/student/sbouchard/image%20precedents/falling%20water%20.jpg

The modernists approach of function before form was represented in the famous ocean liner, Queen Mary, it also emphasised the designers thoughts regarding simplicity. Another great example is Frank Lloyd Wrights architecture where function dictates form. He had his own style of merging the man-made and the natural form, works like 'Falling Water' (1937) which entices the viewer because at the time it was a new style and aesthetically pleasing to the eye. Wright broke from the trend of the tome and allowed for the others to be free. Still popular today and has inspired other designers to mature their own unique style.

The new trend of 'good design' became cheap and reliable, where function, simplicity and aesthetic elegance were favoured. This was evident in the Vespa Scooter because after the war metal and fuel was in short supply. Type writers for the time were an innovative design, the workplace was revolutionised by it as they were lightweight, tough and simple. As you can understand many things were produced with simplicity in mind at that time to suit the mainstream.

In the 1940's New York became the cultural centre of the world and saw artists like Paul Rand develop unique, distinctive language in design, his work mainly collaged was depicted by wit and simplicity. The process was very different, it was set on board and photographed for printing. He once said that 'to design is to transform prose into poetry', this emphasises his personal opinions and passion for what he designs. Rand influenced many designers to come and changed the way people viewed advertisements. He used typography as a picture to make a statement, where the viewer has to do some work to interpret it, giving it a lyrical beauty.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAaVYwvrcJQdSNXyiho5BYIJ4qExWBS3A6_rb9_8e5W4FaSphyRDlSi-hEdFEJ7fSJMyG-etVBd6YCfY6-RTNHXbbsM9s8ZQ81bJ3fboog8-j1d0ty2HCNNZyfvaD3wFvJ83LgjnL8KbYj/s400/Catch+Me+If+You+Can.jpg

Saul Bass created an abundance of momentous and innovative title sequences for films and was also recognised for his many designs of major corporate identities. Bass used simple pictographs that depict fantastic graphic leadership. His typography was often hand drawn or cut out which gave his work a feeling of flow and elegance. Many of his title sequences followed a line that went on a narrative.

Lester Beall dramatically changed American design with his use of collage with symbols and object photography. Again incorporated the simplicity in his illustrations and often clean typography in his many pictorial collage, over-laping shapes.

http://s3.amazonaws.com/designrelated_inspiration_book_entry_file_item/17b616f4f1d3eea8dcd357b57fea87663a6fc37d

Brodovich explored extreme cropping and juxtaposition, this was very unique and individual work. Tschichold, author of 'The New Typography' introduced the assymetric layouts that were soon to become very popular. Joseph Muller-Brockman integrated text and image which Rand had initially introduced and inspired many other designers, a great example is the 1953 Gene Frederic Advertisement for Woman's Day.

http://dave.lab6.com/acid/dump/2004/webpages.marshall.edu/%257Ebruggemann1/images/nygoout.jpg

Madison Avenue was born in New York where simple, clean layouts and extreme contrasts layouts were used in conjunction with wit , irony and understatingto sell their products.

Break Essay

'Don't confuse legibility for communication'

-David Carson

David Carsons work was new and raw, it communicated a message through both the type face and the content.

During the 1950's in Europe typography was being morphed into something new and innovative, a style that was clean, readable and avoided subjectivity. The style developed in Switzerland, sometimes known as the Swiss Style or the International Typographic Style. The post-war period craved a fresh, modern approach to communication to guide society into the future smoothly. Hence the Typography came to incorporate even, flat letters that allowed for a feeling of smoothness and objectivity. Helvetica is an example of the many Sans Serif fonts that were the result of this style, it's a very famous and accessible type face, that was and is readily used throughout society to easily communicate a message.

Sagmiester tried to convey his meaning through his type, content and material he wrote on. As seen above an ephemeral work that he ironically wrote 'Always' on. He is challenging the viewer with a question of life. This is how he believes a message should be conveyed and felt by the viewer.

Many designers of the time believed that a typeface should be neutral and that meaning should be found in the content not the typeface (stated by William Crowell). Post Modernists like Carson and Sagmiester branched away from the smoothness of the lettering which they believed to be 'boring'. Both were not trained to the traditions that there predecessors were, this angered the original type designers after all the effort they put into created one letter and a whole alphabet, the post-modernists approach of feeling and experimentation felt like disrespect towards them. Carson states that he didn't understand the anger surrounding his work but felt that type faces like Helvetica were the bases for many others and seen as an 'ultimate typeface' and would be further more into the future. He didn't know he was stepping on peoples toes but felt strongly about emphasising the feeling with the content and the typeface.

Sagmiester also creates a contrast by juxtaposing his content, type and materials he uses, again to challenge the beliefs of the viewers.

Stefan Sagmiester trusted that the message would be successfully communicated to the reader by both the type face and the content. The presentation of the content suggests what is to be expected, for example an explosive font advertising a Monster Truck Carnival will emphasise the explosive, loud atmosphere if you attend, whereas the same event advertised in a boring, simple type will suggest the event to be boring and not exciting. Combining the effect of the font with the message entices the reader and this is what Sagmiester wanted to convey with his many designs. For both Sagmiester and Carson, post modernist designers, experimentation was a huge element to there design as well as the emotion connection or response from each work.

Sagmiester's work was very ironic in his juxtaposition of meaning and materials and type, even on the above work where he is advertising himself at an AIGA event he makes a statement even in the promotion.

"Don't confuse legibility for Communication. Just because somethings legible doesn't mean it communicates, more importantly doesn't mean it communicates the right thing and vise versa."

- David Carson

Carson made this statement on the Helvetica film suggesting that just because something is legible does not mean it communicates and if it does you have to question whether or not it is communicating the right or wrong thing under the original intention. As seen in the film, Carson's perspective on type design is an eye for creativity and feeling, if a font doesn't attract the reader or create an emotional reaction then it's not worth the effort. He also stated,

"Very fine line between simple, clean and powerful and simple, clean and boring." - David Carson

This statement explains his philosophy about text, when communicating a message the type of font chosen has to be for a reason and if the decision isn't provoked by some feeling can create something completely different. For example, Helvetica is a simple, easily read font and perfect to use when labelling the toilets, it is simple and effective for its purpose yet if it is used to promote a dance concert, taking the music into consideration the font should be lively and groove, if put in Helvetica the intent isn't conveyed. Although the reader may still be interested because of the content, sub-consciously the mind is not as enticed to go or read on because the font doesn't emphasise the meaning and therefore we evaluate it as boring or excited before we even read what the message is.

Carson experimented with many different forms of type and all of its elements, the size, width, height, ascenders, decenders, space, colour, etc. He wanted to make sure his message was conveyed because of the combination of such elements, his purpose was to create an emotional response. The message should be backed up by the typeface.

The Swiss Modernism style is noted for its preference for photography over drawing and painting, in relation to typography many of the works from this period predominately featured text, asymmetric layouts, grids and San Serif fonts, Europe was looking for something with smoothness and clarity. The Post Modernists like Carson and Sagmiester reacted against the simplicity that was dominant after the war and towards the end of the 20th century, believing it was 'boring' nod that it did not effectively communicate the message. They introduced experimentation and free hand drawn fonts made according to the feeling they wanted to convey. Over time type designers influences and perspectives have changed significantly, although the original designers type face families are still as fresh as they once were for each new generation today. In contemporary society something more was wanted and craved and designers such as Carson and Sagmiester were able to deliver the unique style of their own era, based loosely on the original type face families and experimentation.

http://darmano.typepad.com/logic_emotion/images/carson_1.jpg

http://www.typogabor.com/David_Carson/images/64_david_carson.jpg

http://www.elahoffman.pl/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/sagmeister_aiga_poster.jpg

http://art118.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/sagmeister2.jpg

http://www.thedrawbridge.org.uk/images/article-images/145_featurepicture1.jpg

Week 5

Helvetica

http://www.davidairey.com/images/typography/helvetica.jpg

Helvetica is a sans-serif typeface developed in 1957 at the Haas Type Foundry of Switzerland, by Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffman, first named Die Neue Haas Grotesk. After the War there was a feeling of idealism and designers wanted to renew things and give hope after the horrific event, they saw it as their social responsibility. Type designers were attempting to develop a neutral type face that had clarity and could widely accessible to a variety of companies and agencies. The High Modernist period was broken down and rationalised to make a clear new typeface.

http://playplayplayplay.com/32/play/googlisms.gif

The designers back in those days had to cut lettering out of steel at actual size, so many typefaces did not have italics and bold themes that many do today. They had to cut them out individually and create many to make production easier, for posters especially. In the film (Helvetica) it is mentioned that computers these days help speed up the poster process, while they used to do only hand drawn work. Posters would take days to design and put together because of the difficulty of many layers, computers can't necessarily do a better design but it is alot faster.

Mike Parker of Haas foundry became interested in Hoffman's work, Helvetica had an interesting 'Swiss-twist' where the letters seemed to have a negative shape that held the inside and outside together, a firm shape rather than having a letter that was commanded by the negative space around, instead it is controlled by the letter. Miedinger was a graphic artist but only did deliveries as Haas foundry, yet came into the design when Helvetica was being manufactured in a way. It was handed over to Stempal, Linotype in Germany where the final reworks and polishing were down. Once realised Helvetica (named as the Swiss typeface) hit off in the industry, it was exactly what designers were looking for, they wanted something with clarity, a neutral typeface that was efficient and it's smoothness created a humanity about it. The popularity of the typeface grew over the years and is still very much liked today.

http://www.lennynaar.com/images/helvetica/helveticaposter.jpg

Helvetica was and is the 'Ultimate Typeface' it has an almost finality about it, it is very legible, effective and convincing for it's magnitude of purposes. The effectiveness depends on the specific typeface used and amongst contemporary society today brands rub off on us and people buy certain things subconsciously because of the typeface and unknowingly have a connection with it, this allows for quick and easy recognition of products and brands that they favour. Many do not know but each typeface creates an emotional response from us and effects us when put into words when we read it.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3629/3459136258_885598f06a.jpg

Eventually designers wanted to step away from the smoothness of the letters, they saw it as boring and overused...hand drawn type became popular (the 'Lou Reed' album cover is an example of this above). Designers wanted to express themselves through their type and their design of type. Many new emerging designers had no formal training, they just did whatever with type and experimented, this angered the original type designers when people would just ignore the text traditions. All their hard work and success seemed to be ignored by the 'up and coming'. Although many were very talented the originals found them disrespectful in a way.

Bryan Ferry explained that legibility and communication are not necessarily linked, and that there is a thin line between type being simple, clean and powerful or simple, clean and boring. Through the Grunge period of the late 90's designers had to look back to the past and the basis of many typeface families...Helvetica. Looking back to the past but with an understanding from the experiences of experimentation during the middle period. Simple Helvetica was used over the past century throughout society, it had and still has Global appeal.

http://www.sweeting-family.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/detail5.jpg

Many type designers on the dilm Helvetica explained the importance of different typeface families. Many believe an emotional response is essential, Michael C.Place is a typographer who doesn't know the basics of developing a letter but thinks the best design needs to have an emotional response, his idea was that design should stand the test of time. He enjoys the challenge of making Helvetica and provoke an emotional response displayed in contrast or complimented by another material, he believes Helvetica is still fresh it just depends how you use it.

Manuel Kreps and Dimitri Bruni were seen on the film as well, explaining their obsession with Helvetica and now their remission from it. They started out wanted to look back at the elegant designs from the past and enjoyed the rational and refined theme they possessed and understood that too much confusion with a type face becomes over whelming and unnecessary in getting the message across. Through history there are many trends and they believe theres not much further to go, we have the base texts such as Helvetica which many other fonts are based upon. The new typographers will only succeed if they have the eye and a good sense of design, Kreps and Bruni found the closer they got and understood the more they appreciated the type. Nowadays the times are changing and so is the appreciation of typeface. Expression of who you are, of identity is seen through consumer choices and now in visual communication, i.e. Facebook or Myspace pages, where the individual designs their own page according to what they feel represents them accurately.

http://www.skyhighproductions.com/uploads/Myspae_Layout_by_mykalromero.jpg

Helvetica is, as said above, an ultimate typeface and will carry on in society because of its simplicity, effectiveness and accessibility.

PUNCH magazine

AN EXAMPLE OF PUNCH MAGAZINE...

Punch magazine, a creation in the 1840's of a magazine full of humour and satire. It voiced the publics opinion, gave them the power to their right of speech and also kept the politicians in place and check with their behaviour. Many of the illustrations in the magazine and on the cover are black and white, and depict a politician or leader of the time in some sort of political satire. This has influenced some columns in newspapers today that discuss what the politicians have been upto and caricature them in a satire to 'poke fun' and reveal a different opinion to the mainstream usually.

1st image - http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/coldwar/g1/images/c2_s4.jpg

2nd image - http://www.theworldthroughwoodeneyes.co.uk/assets/images2/Punch_mag.jpg