In this post I’ll be looking back at the IXD102 modules from the last 12 weeks.
Week 1- Introduction to Communication Design
This weeks lecture gave me a great overview of the module by briefly going backwards through time from look at what interaction design may look like in the future to internet history all the way back to Gutenberg and the first moveable type. This all content I would be learning about much more in-depth in future lectures. After that we did an icebreaker on Miro. This was nice as I got to learn a bit about my classmates. I also was given my first project brief for the Type Specimen Screen project and we were introduced to how the module is going to be assessed. Overall this lecture left me feeling very exited and a little nervous for what was to come in the module.
Week2- Gutenberg and Moveable Type
In this weeks lecture we first looked at how type is essentially the clothing for words. This is why font choice is so important as it must accurately represent being displayed eg. the font choices for business cards of a clown and of a solicitor would be vastly different. This is something I have kept in mind and have put a lot of consideration into my font choices when working on my projects for both modules this semester.
We then went to look at the discovery of printing by the Chinese and Johannes Gutenberg. Before this lecture I was under the impression that he invented the printing press but he didn’t. He was a revisionary inventor who built on an developed what had already been invented to make it even better. This is why although he didn’t invent the printing press, he is widely considered the father of it. We also looked at how the printing press is used and Albrecht Durer was the first painter to feature a printed monogram on his work.
I found out that serif fonts were designed specifically with the printing press in mind. Since we work mostly digitally nowadays it makes sense that sans serif typefaces are much more commonly used. We also looked at the different properties of type and the origins of some infamous typefaces like Futura and Helvetica. We then looked at the web typography of today. Overall I found this lecture very informative as I got to learn a lot of things about typography that were completely new to me.
Week3- A Century of Change
In this lecture we looked at the big inventions, developments and changes that came around the late 19th and early 20’th centuries that had a major impact on design in the present day. At first I thought it was a little strange to look at the industrial revolution and art movement for a design course but it actually made a lot of sense in the end. We took a look at the inventions and early years of photography and moving pictures. Then we looked at how graphic design was very much at the forefront of the industrial revolution. This was when looking at the industrial revolution made sense to me as it was maybe one of the first instances where good graphic design was really important and valued as it would have to hype up all these great new inventions.
I also learned about art movements like Japonism and Art Nouveau and how they changed the approaches taken to design. At first I wasn’t sure how this content was relevant but after learning about all these things during this lecture I can now see why they are a part of the history of communication design.
Week4- Type Specimen Critique
There was no lecture this week. Instead we had a group critique of our Type Specimen Screens. I found this critique session extremely valuable as not only did I receive great feedback on how to improve my work, I also felt inspired by all the amazing and unique designs made by my classmates. Getting to see everyones work was really helpful as it gave me a good idea of the overall standard and quality to strive towards with my own work.
Week5- Revolution and the Bauhaus
In this lecture we first looked at the minimal, geometric and abstract style of De Stijl which was born in response to the WWI and was founder by artists, Piet Mondrian and Theo van Doesburg. We looked at constructivism, a movement that originated in Russia in 1919 but continued to have an influence on future movements of that century. Two major figures of that movement were El Lissitzky and Alexander Rodchenko.We then looked at The Bauhaus which opened in Germany in 1919 and it’s multiple paragraph long manifesto. The school was made close in 1933 but in between those years the Bauhaus artists accomplished so much.
I really enjoyed this lecture as it shows the crossover between design history and art history. It brought back memories of what I had learned from studying Art history in secondary school but I also learned a lot of new things like The Bauhaus which I hadn’t heard of prior to this lecture.
Week6- WWII and Modernism in the US
In this lecture we first looked at modernism and the different ways the movement was defined eg. rejection of traditional forms, systematic methods, geometric shapes, simple and direct solutions etc. We looked at the true birth of graphic design which took place int he 1950’s. We looked at how the nazi’s percecuted modern designers like Jan Tschichold. We also looked at his iconic Penguin book designs. We looked at the Ulm School of design and it’s founders Max Bill and Otl Aicher. We also looked at Otl Aicher’s system for the 1972 Munich Olympics. I had already been researching the design systems for the design history presentation so it was nice to see them come up in a lecture. We then looked at the effect of modernism making its way to the US. We looked at many different famous American designers of that time like Herbert Matter, Paul Rand and Saul Bass who I found the most interesting.
I found this lecture very informative overall but I found looking at the work of Saul Bass for film title sequence particularly interesting. I even ended up using him a point of research for my manifesto for ixd101 which is movie related so I thought it would be fitting.
Week7- International Typographic Style
This lecture was all about the Swiss Typographic style which formed as a part of modernism. It had all the key characteristics of modernism like asymmetrical organisation, sans serif typefaces and flush-left/ ragged-right. We looked again at the work of Jan Tschichold and typography of the movement like Akzidenz-Grotesk, Neue Haas Grotesk and Helvetica. We looked at some designers that were prominent in the Swiss Style like Emil Ruder, Armin Hofmann and Josef Müller-Brockmann. We then took a looked Dutch Design and and the multidisciplinary design studio Total Design who walked so that Pentagram could run.
Overall this was a really interesting lecture and what I found incredibly fascinating was that fore the most part, the work of designers of this style wouldn’t look out of place in 2020. It’s as though the Swiss Typographic Style is in a way timeless. Out of all the designers looked at in this lecture I liked the work of Josef Müller-Brockmann most.
Week9- Postmodernism
In this lecture we looked postmodernism in relation to graphic design. In the 70’s people began to question modernism and the role it had in society. Post modernism became a climate of cultural change, challenged the order and clarity of modernism and became the spirit of the decade. It began in architecture at the precise moment of 3.32pm on July 15th 1972 when a modernist housing development was destroyed. In terms of graphic design, postmodernism was about looking at more expressive typography. We looked at the work and teaching approach of Wolfgang Weingart, the founder of New-Wave Typography. Designers Dan Friedman and April Grieman both studied under Weingart.
We then looked at Postmodernism in 1970’s Britain. Britain’s new wave was identified by youth culture and the designers tended position themselves outside of the professional mainstream. We looked at designers like Barney Bubbles,Peter Saville, Jamie Reid and Vaughan Oliver.
I think out of all the topics we’ve covered throughout this module, I found Postmodernism one of the most interesting. I know I said before that modernism was kinda timeless in a way and I still think that but Postmodernist designs so much more interesting in my opinion.
Week10- Internet History
In this weeks lecture I got an in-depth look at the history of the internet starting with the pioneers of its invention like Douglas Engelbert who initially developed many of the ui elements in the 60’s still in use today like the mouse. We looked at the gradual development of the internet through each decade and I learned about Tim Berner’s Lee, who invented the World Wide Web. We then took a look at the internet of recent years.
I found this lecture content really interesting as it was kinda mind-blowing to compare the internet now to what it was like in the 80’s let alone way back in the 1950’s. Overall I thought this was a great lecture and I learned a lot of valuable information on the history of the internet in this lecture.
Week11- Present and Future of Interaction
In this lecture we looked at the here, now and future of the industry. We first looked at the importance of surveying the landscape which is always rapidly and fundamentally changing. We looked at how even though the web in many ways has evolved so much over time, it still remains fundamentally the same. We then looked at how the web consists of content snd the different ways that content can be interacted with using Ui. Even looking into the future at was interfaces may be like in years to come.
After that we looked back at the key principles that are still very important to adhere to like hierarchy, composition, typography, narratives etc. Finally we looked at how all that we covered comes together to make a final product on the web.
I found this lecture very interesting and enlightening and there were many important things mentioned like surveying the landscape which I will definitely keep in mind into the future.
Week12- Last Week of Module
This weeks lecture served as group critique session for our web essay. We were also given all the information we would need about submitting our course work for assessment by January 6th. That concludes my lecture content reflection for this module.
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