Week 2
During this lecture, we had our first look into typography. “Type is the clothing for words”- Erik Spiekermann. Typography can really make or break a design, so it’s important to know about the different typefaces and how to choose the right one in different situations. Businesses do this with their brand depending on their clients wants and needs. I found this interesting as I had never really noticed how brands did this but looking at them now, it is clear how much of an impact typography can have.
We learnt about the anatomy of typography and the different types such as, serif, san serif, slab serif, monospace, handwritten and display. I think it is important to be aware of these so I can better choose a suited typeface. Readability is also a huge part of typography because there is no point in using something that people will struggle to understand or just skip over. Readability is affected by, letter-spacing, line-length, line-height, paragraph-spacing and type-alignment. To better understand this first-hand, I looked at some typography on different websites.
I think this typography choice is very effective. A serif font is used which can help guide the eye along the text. It uses a clear heading in which the typeface is coherent. The spaces between the letters are quite tight which works well for a heading. The width of the paragraph is short, meaning the eye wont get tired reading it. The text is left-aligned and there is a good line-height. Overall, it is clear and easy to read. I think this was a good exercise to do as it will get me thinking about these fundamentals and make me a better designer.
Week 3
From this week’s lecture, I decided to look further into the arts and crafts movement. It began around 1860. The aesthetics of this movement was inspired by nature as a reaction to the effects of industrialisation. This resulted in a huge change of how things where designed and manufactured.
Someone who was hugely influential in this movement was William Morris. His passion was creating visually aesthetic objects that were also good quality. Back in this time, factory work was in high production and having a massive impact on the environment. For those working there, they were doing very repetitive tasks. Morris was not a fan of this system, so he set a goal to allow people to get involved in craft-based production. I think this would have vastly improved these peoples lives as they would be more involved in the creative process rather than doing one task repetitively.
Here are some of his wallpaper designs that are still used today.
They are all beautifully designed and centred around plants and nature. Morris’ work inspires me because he was not only a designer but also an artist, illustrator, author, typographer, bookbinder, medievalist and printer. This showed me that in your career, you don’t need to limit yourself to one field and that it’s important to learn new things and improve upon different skills.
Week 5
This week’s lecture covered Revolution and the Bauhaus. I had already researched the Bauhaus as it was my topic for my design history presentation, so I decided to learn more about constructivism.
The constructivist art movement began in Russia in 1917 in the Soviet Union. It was a “trend in the arts” connected to manufacturing, architecture and applied arts. The Bauhaus school was a big part of this movement. One of the main characteristics of this art was accepting modernism and being experimental. It tended to have an emphasis on geometric shapes and be very abstract. It had this idea of approaching an artist as an engineer and that “art was to be built”.
El Lissitzky was multidisciplinary being a painter, typographer, architect and designer. He designed propaganda for the Soviet Union. His lifelong belief was that an artist could be an “agent of change”. His work was experimental, creative and unusual at the time and he was a big part of this movement
Alexander Rodchenko was one of the first to experiment with photomontage. He also took up other types of art including furniture, poster, book and typographic design. He believed these were the best ways to convey the message of the Soviet Union. He was very involved in this movement, forming the first working group of constructivists.
Week 6
This week’s lecture was on WWII and Modernism. We touched on the Ulm School of Design which I thought would be interesting researching further as it considered one of the most influential design schools, second to the Bauhaus.
It was founded by Otl Aicher, Max Bill and Inge Scholl in 1953. Although the school was open for just 15 years and they operated after world war II without much funding, they still managed to produce some of the best design work at the time. They were big advocates of following modernist principles and being progressive in their education. I like that they had a goal of making a positive change for students and in society, especially after the devastations following World War II.
This is a poster made by one of the students:
In the 1950’s, the term “cooperate identity” was used referring to “a set of visual standards and style guides for a company to follow.” This kickstarted businesses using logos, colour pallets and typography as a way of branding themselves. Nowadays, branding is such a huge part of a company as it gives them an identity, reputation and attracts target audiences.
Otl Aicher created one of the most memorable corporate identity designs for the company Lufthansa, an airline company. A “melon yellow” colour was chosen for their brand and they have since been associated with this. I find this interesting as it shows how much of an impact a logo and its colours/typography have on a business. Its so important as this is how people will identify this business and it can prompt a positive reaction from their audience when they see it.
Week 7
This week we looked at the Swiss Style which originated in Switzerland in the 1950’s. It has been a huge influence on many designers, including myself. Swiss style is very minimalistic, and it doesn’t overcrowd a design with unnecessary objects. It often uses geometric shapes which create a very clean and simplistic look. Use of grids provide an organised way to put across a clear message. These are all principles I am learning to follow in my own designs.
I find swiss design very visually aesthetic, I especially like the work of Emil Ruder. His work favours san-serif typography and the use of negative space.
Week 9
This week we investigated postmodernism. It started as a style of interior design in the 1970’s and then started emerging in other areas of design. Its all about breaking away from the often-supressed characteristics of modernism. Instead it favours a more flashy, experimental and unconventional way of designing. I am inspired by this style as it inspires me to take risks, tells me that I don’t always need to follow strict rules when designing and to experiment.
Wolfgang Weingart is known for experimenting with typography and the postmodernism style.
His typography was sometimes seen as so extravagant that it was difficult to read. However, I think this is what postmodernism was all about, breaking the rules and being bold, creative and playful with designs.
Week 10
This week we looked into the history of the internet. In 1945, Dr. Vannevar Bush said “Consider a future device…in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility. It is an enlarged intimate supplement to his memory”. Which is interesting because it sounds like he is describing the internet, before it was even created. Computers used to be massive and take hours to process one thing at a time, so it is amazing to see how far we have come from this.
Week 11
This week’s lecture was about “The here, now and future of interaction”. Compared to the past, we as designers have a lot more devices to design for. Previously, it was mainly websites. Tim Berners-Lee created the first webpage in 1991. To get more of an understanding of how far we have come, I decided to look further into this. Back then it was very difficult to keep track of projects and computer systems. Information stored on computers could only be accessed by logging onto that specific computer. Therefore, Berners-Lee proposed the idea of the world wide web in order to link documents that could be accessed through the internet. Looking at how far we have come in a short amount of time is mind-blowing.
In the present day, we are designing for a lot more than just websites or apps. We looked at some of the newer interfaces we could be designing for. These include wearable technology, smart speakers, smart doorbells and smart homes. I think this is an exciting time to be a designer as technology is evolving at such a fast rate. We are also evolving with it as we could be designing products that haven’t even been invented yet. Things like virtual reality can be used to help people. For example, medical students can watch an operation live during training.
We learnt about the importance of a responsive webpage. Elements of a webpage must change depending on what device it is being viewed on. For example, on a desktop, the navigation buttons may all be displayed across the screen. Whereas, on a mobile phone, they may be reduced to a menu.
Going into the design world, it is important to understand the core principles of design. We looked at some of these during the lecture. These include proportions, hierarchy, typography, composition, systems and narrative. When all these things come together, they can help us create amazing designs.