Thesis Proposal

            For my thesis piece I plan on coding an interactive music program that can be controlled with a simple MIDI keyboard in real time by the viewer. The program will interpret notes played on the keyboard and plot it out in a radial fashion, which on a 360 degree completion, would come out as a certain shape. The shape is wholly determined by the user through interaction with the keyboard (what notes he plays and for how long). I have already posted sketches of the shapes I would like to work with as well as a new shape that I am experimenting with (shown below).

            The core idea of my project would be the visualization of sound, or rather, using sound to create visuals. I am going to focus on static images however because as I have said earlier I want to create physical shapes from sound, each one a personal ID. The user will draw with the keyboard and form his own custom shape that is different from anyone else’s. I would like these shapes to be displayed on a projector so each users piece is featured for a brief time period. Another component to this installation would be a series of digital prints comparing different genres of music and different applications of sound shapes (I hope to have at least three distinct radial patterns to choose from).

            Currently I am still in the coding phase and will be delving into Pure Data, which is a program specifically designed for music visualization (as suggested by my design professor Atif). I have just purchased a MIDI keyboard and I will begin testing with it as soon as possible. I realize that there is a lot that can go wrong when it comes to computer programming so that is why I’m starting as soon as I can. 

Thesis Journal Entry

I haven't really been keeping up with this journal but I've definately gotten far with my thesis project (at least the programming portion of it). Already Ive managed to map out a song in a radial pattern and create different shapes as pictured below:

 

 While this is good so far I would like to take it further by separating the high and low frequencies and if possible the middle frequencies and giving them their own spectrum. The result (I'm hoping) would look something like this:

And then eventually colored:

 

As of now these last two are just sketches and I have to work out sizing and coloring issues as well as figuring out a way to program the computer to map real time data from a MIDI keyboard. However I feel I'm heading in the right direction and I just need to work out a few things.

Here are some more images from other songs I've sampled:

Zoomed out for scale.

Zoomed out and sped up to reveal each frequency bar.

Resume First Draft

Here is my very sparse first resume draft. Any suggestions as to what I should add would be helpful.

Welcome Back Show Review

            Although there were a lot of pieces at the welcome back show in the Mason Gross gallery the pieces that really caught my eye were the two digital prints by Shane Whilder in the main room. Both depicted the same digital landscape in a pixilated mosaic-like pattern with the left one rendered in dark tones and the other in lighter tones. To me it looked like shots of night and day in some digital landscape. The landscape itself was very empty with just some rolling hills going off into the distance. No other shapes except for these rolling hills and the faded wash of color above, which I interpreted as a sky. They’re simple pieces visually but that’s what I like about them.

            They remind me of early 3D video game landscapes during a time when developers had to make full environments using barely emerging technology. To do this developers would first create an infinitely empty flat plane and then wall off the area that the player would interact with. The player wasn’t supposed to see this infinite plane of nothing but sometimes there were glitches where one could find himself outside of the set boundaries and wander around.

            As a kid this happened to me here and there and whenever I would see this it gave me this eerie feeling. Once I remember actually walking out into this nothing for a good hour and not seeing anything all the while having this feeling of loneliness. It was both creepy and strangely captivating. That’s what I felt like when I saw Shane’s pieces and the more I looked at them the more I felt that sense of infinite nothing.

            The piece that bothered me the most was next to Shane’s and it was the installation done by Raphael Ortiz that included a large poster and TV screen that continuously played “Brother Can You Spare A Dime?”.  I’ll admit that when it comes to Graphic Design I can be nitpicky but I usually don’t let it sway my opinion too much. However the poster Ortiz has designed was, as I saw it, not designed well. There were multiple cases of squished text and text that had terrible resolution, in fact the images even had poor resolution. I don’t know if there was a point being made with the design but if there was it went over my head because I was just focused on multiple problems I had with the poster.

            As for the idea of the piece I could see what Ortiz was trying to say but it seems to fall flat. Maybe it was because of the images of elephants raining down from teabags or the music playing over 1920s depression images or it just could have been the design flaws but I just couldn’t get behind the message the artist was conveying. I kept coming back to the piece trying to see it in a different light but I couldn’t bring myself to feel compelled.

Thesis week #1

I've decided that my thesis exhibition will be an interactive piece (and I'm set on making a musical keyboard that projects visual images as you play it but we'll see how that goes). In fact, after doing some research into interactive design, I'm beginning to like the idea of becoming an interactive designer. As I think about it interactive media is something that I've always been interested in but didn't know it. When I was younger it was video game design, creating characters and environments or writing up some code for some well known video game company. Through my three years of college I felt drawn towards web design especially the kind where the user can interact with the web site.

It was the idea of immersion. A painting can be beautiful but in the end its a static image. You can walk around and even touch a sculpture but it can't respond. That's what draws me to interactive design because you can set up a program to respond to your actions or create an animation that can be both static and in motion. Although I don't know how I'll go about doing it I can see myself working in this media.

As for my project I've looked around and this video (that I've found so far) best describes what I'm trying to accomplish: Clavilux 2000

Catherine Weiss is a painter/photographer still trying to find herself as a budding artist. Finding inspiration from her personal life Catherine uses both photography and painting to explore different ranges of emotion. Always trying to push herself into unfamiliar territory she works with a number of mediums and techniques to express her style of portraiture and abstract art.


Max Churak: Tell me about yourself. What are you studying here in mason gross?
Catherine Weiss: My name is Catherine Weiss. I'm a fourth year student majoring in Painting and Photography.

MC: What classes are you currently taking?
CW: Right now I'm taking Advanced Painting, Photo III, Thesis, and Abnormal Psychology.

MC: What got you started in art?
CW: Art's always just been something that I have always done since I was younger. As I got older, and continued with it, I decided that i wanted to take it further and go to college for it. I wanted to see how good I could get and where I could take myself with art.

MC: So you knew coming into college that you'd want to major in art. What prompted you to pick Mason Gross over the other art schools?
CW: Well I had heard that it was a good school for art from teachers in high school, and I wasn't looking to go too far away from new york so it was really great that they accepted me.

MC: Tell me about your work.
CW: My work up until now has mainly consisted of portraits. After I got through with the base classes, I wanted to take my try at painting people since it was not something that we got to do very often. I looked at alot of Alex Katz's work in making my portraits since I never painted the figure by itself. They were always in a type of setting, just like Katz's paintings.

MC: You mentioned earlier you were heading in a more abstract direction with your paintings. Any particular reason why?
CW: Yeah. I want to try my hand at abstraction because it's a new challenge for me. Not saying that I have perfected anything that I have been doing, but I'm looking for something new. I'm always searching for something, in painting. It may be, because I don't feel like I have found my place in it yet...I'm not too sure, but I think that more abstract paintings might effect a greater audience than a portrait, and I just want the feelings and emotions I put into my paintings to reach a bigger audience than possibly just the person in the set portrait.

MC: So you do both photography and painting. Which one are you planning on pursuing after graduating? Or maybe you'd like to try both?
CW: I would like to try to pursue both. In my art, both take from each other. I love both, but I figured that photography was great in the sense that it is more modern and I might have more luck in a photography career. That aside I want to be a studio artist. It would be a goal of mine to hang work in galleries in new york and other cities, so I'll see how it works out! I'm not too inclined to teach, but if it came to it, I would just for the fact that I would be able to continue with my own artwork. That's really all I want in the end.

MC: Alright so when you do work on a project whats the starting process?
CW: Alot of thinking. I always seem to get stuck since I don't just dive into the process of painting. Photography comes alot easier to me since I also shoot photos of people and people at events. Painting is definitely where i struggle. I usually spend alot of time beforehand gathering inspiration. Like I'll try to go out to the city to see some art, or walk around and see what my friends are working on. I always work from a photograph though. So if I'm ever extremely stumped I'll search the web for images of things that are interesting to me in my life at the time.

MC: Where do you usually find inspiration for your work?
CW: Alot of places, but mainly my emotions for people. Which I suppose is where a part of my wanting to paint people came from. Everything that I've ever wanted to do artistically comes from an emotion that has to deal with a person in my life. I don't always have the most fluid explanation about that, because it's confusing to me, but that's where my inspiration comes from.

MC: How have you enjoyed studying at Mason Gross for the past 3 years?
CW: I've loved it. I think about it alot how glad I am that this is what I get to do...for school! It's also a challenge, but I feel that I need to  be challenged because I have a hard time motivating myself. I've realized that I've really learned alot, so I'm happy.

MC: What are your thoughts about the upcoming thesis class and exhibition?
CW: I'm nervous and excited. I don't have too many thoughts at the moment, which is where the nerves are coming from.

MC: Any preliminary ideas for a thesis project?
CW: No actually. I just want it to be bigger than what I've been doing in the past.

MC: Will you incorporate more abstract paintings in your thesis project?
CW: Yes. If I do end up sticking to portraiture, they will have to somehow have to be abstracted in a way for me to be happy with what I'm doing. This is something that I have been struggling to do for a long time and i would love it if I could successfully debut this side of my work during the exhibition.

MC: What have you learned after four years of art school?

CW: I've learned that art is alot harder than I thought. The whole issue of intention and grabbing inspiration when it needs to be called upon is tricky. I've also learned though that I am always improving. I don't always notice it until the year later when I reflect on what I've done, but I've gotten alot better, and I guess that's what I've learned...to just, keep going with what you are doing.

MC: Who is an artist that you admire?
CW: I'm going to have to say Andy Warhol.

MC: What is it about this artist that interests you?
CW: Everything. I am interested in everything that he's ever worked on. Wether it be his art, or his involvment in the new york music and fashion scene. It's all things that interest me, and I would love to be able to do as much as he did. It just seemed like he did what he wanted and...that's what I love about him.

MC: What are your hobbies outside of art?
CW: I like to write and see live music. I feel like that's a hard question to answer for some reason since whenever anyone asks me about a hobby my whole life, I've just answered with "art". But my life is pretty much consumed by different types of art wether it be painting, photo, music,  and fashion.

MC: As an artist what is your goal?
CW: I've always just wanted to relay something to others. I'm very much for expression and leaving things behind to be remembered by. I want to reach out to people through my work. I want them to feel something, or remember something, or wonder about me. Anything. I just want them to think. If something I create can make someone wonder about something, that would make me happy. Even if it's just as simple as "Who is that person in the painting?"

MC: Would you say that being here at Mason Gross has helped you reach this goal?
CW: Yeah. Taking art to this level of study has made me really think about what I want to be doing. Like, is art just a hobby for me? No. I think it's something that was just inevitable for me to end up doing. I love it. So I don't know if I've answered the question that well, but I'd say yeah, Mason Gross has helped. Or helped keep me on my path to wherever I'm going atleast.

MC: So final question: what advice would you give to the younger college kids majoring in art?
CW: Stick with it and work hard, and if you can't find inspiration or need help, talk to the teachers you have access to. They're really smart and helpful I'm really shy and learned that almost too late.

Manuel Osterholt (a.k.a. Superblast)

            Manuel Osterholt (a.k.a. Superblast) is a graffiti artist turned graphic designer who brings his personal street style into everything he does. No matter the medium or project his style always shows, it’s Osterholt’s personal mark on everything he does. For Osterholt the need to express a style wholly different from anyone else drives him. It comes largely in part from his experience as a graffiti artist where one had to compete with other street artists to get their name known.   To date Osterholt has worked for clients such as Echo Unltd., Sony Playstation Portable and Converse and continues to tag (make up graffiti art) whenever he can. 

            What’s interesting with Osterholt is that he came into graphic design from a unique background. Brought up by a German father and a Greek mother Osterholt was introduced to two different cultures at an early age. As he grew older Osterholt found himself interested in the graffiti art scene and made friends with many well-known artists. He spent his adolescent years becoming acquainted with this underground art scene and met fellow artists from around the world. It wasn’t until his college years that Osterholt began studying graphic design and typography (of which he discovered a love for the latter).

            All of Osterholt’s designs draw heavily on his background in graffiti art as well as from other influences such as punk and skater subcultures. In this way we can argue that Osterholt is an amateur turned professional, one who creates because he loves doing so. For Osterholt graffiti has always come first and design is a byproduct of his style, which he uses to make his mark. Whether its on tee shirts or snowboards he uses that medium to express himself (much like an artist). It can be said that Osterholt lacks (or rejects) the formal training of the Bauhaus and modernism for a more personal style. What he didn’t learn from Bauhaus he picked up from graffiti art, which included a respect for letterforms. 

            Osterholt believes that in order to create great tags one must first have solid letterforms, first comes the letters and then the style. He also advocates having knowledge of artists past and their history not with the intention to imitate but to turn it into something new. Osterholt’s style is founded by these rules, which is why it is so solid and unmistakable. It is all at once a personal expression of who he is and what he thinks of the world around him.

            While this style is very compelling it is not universal, Osterholt himself acknowledges this. It would not have the same effect if it were applied to a bank or research center in fact it would seem out of place. Osterholt succeeds within a niche that allows for such expression. However this does not diminish the boldness of his style and even though Osterholt knows it is not universal he would still accept a bank as a client if the situation arises. He’d do it for the challenge and the opportunity to see how far his style can go. That’s very much Osterholt’s character, always pushing himself to do something fresh and new that is his own.

Citations:

Osterholt, Manuel Neo Utopia: The Art and Work of Superblast Publikat; First Edition, April 1, 2008. Paperback (160pg)

Osterholt, Manuel Superblast 2009. Web. 30 November 2010

            http://www.superblast.de/

Modernist Design and Films

            Out of every movement comes another movement that rejects it. It’s an endless cycle of one generation carving out a concept of reality different from the one before it that will ultimately be replaced by another concept in the future. The film documentary Monterey Pop and Jacques Tati’s satire Playtime both reject the concepts behind modernist design. At the core of both of these films is a focus on individuality and democracy. Where modernist design upholds neutrality, simplicity and hierarchy Playtime and Monterey Pop (especially) encourage personality, expressiveness and spontaneity.

            Although these two films are similar in their motives they are presented differently and react towards the principles of modernist design in different ways. Playtime directly pokes fun at modernist design by emphasizing the fallacies behind it. Tati shows the viewer a highly modernized city that appears orderly and structured but at the same time confusing, unemotional and inhuman. It’s this lack of humanity that Tati emphasizes as the film switches between scenes of modern Paris and old Paris (which still retains its charm and liveliness). Where modern Paris is a wash of dark and light greys with cold geometric shapes old Paris is a cacophony of vibrant sounds and colors.

            The film documentary Monterey Pop (named after the festival it details) does not directly object to modernist design like Playtime however the way it was filmed and the culture emphasized in the film separate it from modernism. Monterey Pop is a documentary about the legendary Monterey International Pop Music Festival held in Monterey, California in the summer of 1967. Boasting a number of well-known folk, blues and rock artists as well as up and coming acts like The Jimi Hendrix Experience and Janis Joplan this festival was a focal point for the hippie counter culture that was emerging alongside modernism.

            The film was shot in a raw unedited fashion that focused on the crowds watching the bands as much as the bands themselves. D. A. Pennebaker (the director of Monterey Pop) captures the chaos and energy of each band as they perform coupled with candid shots of the crowd and fairgoers. It is all at once spontaneous and frenzied, which differentiates itself from the controlled and clean rules of modernist design. Monterey Pop comments on modernism not by bringing it into question but by existing as an alternative.

            There is one other theme that unifies the two films and that is the democratic way in which characters are portrayed. There is no one thing to focus on in both Playtime and Monterey Pop because the action is always moving from person to person and scene to scene. There is no formula or guideline (like in modernist design) it’s just a stream of events. It is this disregard of convention that sets these films apart and that is why they are a breath of fresh air. There are many advantages to establishing rules and after the turmoil of WWII order and stability were highly appealing. But too much order kills individuality and in response to this loss of humanity films like Monterey Pop and Playtime rose up in defiance.

Week 7

            If there is one thing the article on April Greiman that has stuck with me it’s this: technology is advancing faster than we actually realize. This article was written around the late 80s and it has been 20 years since then, that’s almost a quarter of a century. In almost one quarter of a century ago digital art was just emerging (pioneered by artists such as April Greiman who continues to experiment in the digital field). By today’s standards the digital tools used to make this art are primitive to say the least.  The program Greiman uses is not familiar to me (it’s called Graphic Paintbox) but they do mention the application of Photoshop in her work. One of the most surprising things to me was the cost of this program: $400,000!  That is at least 40 times the price of similar software today, something that I integrate so much in my work used to cost the price of a small mansion.

            The reason I find this leap in technological advance so surprising is because (as I have just stated) digital art is my forte. Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and all the others; these are the tools I use most often in my work. Therefore I find this article amusing in it’s excitement over a digital design that could be made (all processes of layout and printing included) in minuets with today’s technologies. It’s worth mentioning that the article actually does emphasize the fact that the emerging digital tools sped up the design process. However, this only pertains to the process of layering the design and later on Todd Hays (the author of the article) mentions that the printing aspect is still complicated and time consuming.

            At the same time this was still faster than any other design method and was actually revolutionary. Although Greiman sounds like she doesn’t know exactly how Graphic Paintbox works she nevertheless used the relatively new tools she had and experimented. I myself work in that way, playing around with the program before actually learning how it works, and for Greiman it was a step into new territory. Although I don’t quite agree with the poster she designed, which feels so much like early 90s graphics (something I have come to dislike over the years), it’s worth some merit that this was a style not seen before.

            Even as I discuss this article and marvel at the gap between technological advancements I realize that in another 20 years I’ll look back on today and find the CS5 set amusing. “Photoshop and Illustrator?” I’ll say with a nostalgic grin, “wow that was back in the day when we actually worked on a computer. It’s so much better working from a brain chip computer implant.” There will always be something new to replace the old with new technologies that outstrip the previous models. The best I can do as a designer is keep an open mind and experiment with the tools I’ve got.

Museum Piece:

·      Computers have made design faster and more fluid.

·      Greiman was one of the first designers to experiment with this new digital field.

·      Such technologies at the time were rather expensive but limited in the commands they included.

·      Greiman pioneered the use of hybrid imagery (whatever that means).

·      The emerging digital process (although faster in the layout process) still required time and effort when it came time to print.

Week 6

            I have never really cared for the relationship between design and art. In high school when I was deciding on the path I would take as an artist I came to two different conclusions. On the one hand I could become a studio artist and create work that I wanted to create and most likely not make any money. Or I could go into design (which was more business oriented), make art for clients and still not make any money (but just a little bit more than a studio artist). I thought about it for a while and finally decided on design but not because it would make me a little more money. What I realized is that I enjoy helping others more than myself and design is all about using one’s artistic talents to solve another’s problems. That’s all that matters to me, I don’t really care if my work is never shown in a gallery or written about in textbooks all I care about is using my talents to help others.

            But there is debate over this and many designers bemoan the fact that design has always been undermined by art. Many wish for a level playing field where art and design exist in equal respect. This lack of respect is evident in the interview between the two designers Michael Amzalag and Mathias Augstyniak where one gives the account of their removal from a guest list they had added themselves to, a guest list for an art show. Although now they are hosting their own art exhibition which shows a change between the relationship of art and design. Design is beginning to become as well known as art and actually affects more people, as writer Rick Poynor argues.  Poynor also gives examples of designers who have used art-like qualities in their work and argues that those who reject such design for being too artistic represent one design aesthetic. There are countless ways to approach art and design and segregating the two only leads to close-mindedness and unnecessary bickering.

            I also do not care for sides or labels as they restrict and cause people to separate the “us” from the “them”. Art and design has been like this and whenever artists and designers have attempted to cross over they have been met with criticism. But there is no need for this line between the two because nothing is ever set in stone. Kees Dorst argues that artists and designers work like the other without even realizing sometimes. When the artist is planning towards a finished product or the designer is subconsciously expressing himself through design the line blurs. In my experience the line is always blurred and definitions are never solid because it is such a difficult thing to categorize an ever-changing idea; that is why I don’t agree with siding on art or design. I call myself a designer but only because I use my talents to help others. But who’s to say that I can’t create for myself sometimes either? All of this arguing over the lack of respect design receives could be solved if the boundaries were just torn down.

Sketches for sustainability redesign project:

Sustainability List

10 things graphic designers can do to conserve paper

1. Explore materials outside of paper.

2. Make use of digital media.

3. Make your design count. Wasted design is wasted materials. 

4. Design from the cradle to the cradle. Make your designs useful in their afterlives.

5. Spread the word. You can do a lot by saving paper but you can do so much more by convincing a nation to do the same. 

6. Print sparingly. If you need to view the design on paper print it in a small scale. 

7. Bigger is not always better. However if it is necessary make use of recycled paper to reduce waste.

8. Recycle old sketch books. If you really want to save them use a computer to scan the images into a digital format.

9. Reuse old sketch books. The erasure is a powerful tool.

10. If printing in bulk invest in the recycled papers available. 

Week 5


             I love amateurs. By amateurs I don’t mean those who are naïve and untrained but those that do something for the sake of doing it. Amateur designers create for a variety of reasons (advertisement, personal identity, just for the hell of it, etc.) and they do it all naturally. Do it yourself design is as much a part of our environment as professionally crafted design however we may not notice it as much because it serves a more practical purpose. Take a local storefront sign for example; it serves little purpose other than informing passersby the name of the store. However, as time goes on the sign becomes ubiquitous with the store and after a while it eventually becomes a staple part of the visual culture not because it’s an excellent piece of design but because it is integrated into the environment. Its vernacular design; the everyday images and structures designed by non-designers, the amateurs. Our culture is shaped by the vernacular as much as flashy attention grabbing professional design.

            My favorite amateurs are the rebels. They are the people who do their own thing because they don’t want to follow. Tibor Kalman and Karrie Jacobs must feel the same way. Their article “We’re Here to be Bad” calls out for rebellion so much so that the article itself seems to be rebelling against the reader. Designers have been caught up in the soul sucking yes-man world of big business, Kalman and Jacobs argue. The cure? Take a look at vernacular design where the inspiration comes not from getting paid but from filling a need or solving a personal problem. I agree with them and I also agree with their argument about the role of the designer, not as a corporate lap dog but as a cultural agitator, but I feel torn. Part of me wants to be “bad” (as Kalman and Jacobs put it) but the other part keeps reminding me of my position. Right now I’m at the bottom and to be honest not much will come of me rebelling against the system other than getting fired and replaced.

            That’s why I admire the amateur (and in some ways envy them). They design to fill their own needs without any pressure; it’s a venerable sense of simple practicality. What’s even more impressive is that such design plays a role in shaping our culture (much more than we may realize). Gerry Beegan and Paul Atkinson’s article chronicling amateur design through the years shows just how this “invisible” design contributes to culture in a subconscious way. It’s the self-buildings and homemade furniture that are so much a part of our daily life that they become ingrained in our memory. It’s more than just conveying a message; it’s about creating a niche within one’s environment. It’s expression through design that over time becomes part of our visual culture.

Professionalism, Amateurism, and the Boundaries of Design

by Gerry Beegan and Paul Atkinson

• Amateur designers have existed alongside professional designers for many years and recent technological advancements have further blurred the line between maker and user.
• Amateur design has been used as an alternative to consumerism.
• Everyday objects and buildings that become a part of daily life fall under the term Vernacular Design.
• Vernacular Design has subconsciously influenced other fields of design (such as Modernism which ironically rejects vernacular design)
• The amateurs are the “ghosts” of the design world who contribute silently and subconsciously.

We’re Here to be Bad

by Tibor Kalman and Karrie Jacobs

• Bad design is not poorly made design but design created to be rebellious.
• Designers have been bought into and subdued by corporations who opt for the “safe” method of design.
• Designers need to make design that shakes our notions of good and bad design.
• Vernacular design is design in its purest form.
• Design schools teach too much about their perception of good design and not enough about vernacular design.

Week 4

            Every time someone brings up the notion of “going green” I’ve always dismissed it with a mental rolling of the eyes and half-hearted interest. It has been my opinion that going green is a trend generated by the guilt of knowing that humans have a negative impact on the environment coupled with the apathy to not actually do anything more than buy a soy based t-shirt or grocery bag. Those are the images that pop into my head so when the term “green design” comes up I immediately associate it with these cutesy images of shirts with graphics of leafs on them and bags that proclaim to the world “go green”! However I am beginning to realize that my cynicism towards most things, in this case green design, is a direct result of ignorance. I judged only on what I saw and didn’t get the whole picture (as a designer perhaps that is a future problem I will have to take on but I digress).

            This week’s set of articles gave, to me at least, some substance to this issue of green design. One article in particular, the interview with Biologist Jainine Benyus written by David Krupfer, really stuck with me. The ideas that Benyus describes are ingenious, simplistic and most importantly numerous (so much in fact that Benyus confesses that one of the harder parts of her job is keeping up with all the projects that come in). With each idea I felt myself warming up to green design, I guess I just needed realize that there are people out there actually doing something and getting results. I also like this idea of learning from nature rather than taking from it because what better source of inspiration than a system that has gone through billions of years of trial and error.

            As for the other two articles I enjoy the evaluation of the Industrial Revolution that William McDonough and Michael Braungart give and their sensible criticism. Although they argue that for the most part the Industrial Revolution plowed forward without any consciousness for the damage they were doing to the environment they justify such thinking.  The Industrial Revolution came about so quickly and improved life so suddenly that people became lost in the invincible ideology of progress, so much so that they blinded themselves to the repercussions of such progress. The third article, by Buckminster Fuller’s, really didn’t give me as much as the other two. It may be because it promoted a solution through advancing already existing technology (I was already set on technology learning from nature) or maybe it was his over-use of hyphenated phrases that really made it confusing to read. I think that more than anything it was the fact that this article was written in 1981 and speaks of the necessity to become a sustainable society by 2000. Well it’s 2010 now so that didn’t really do anything to inspire me because already his argument feels like a lost cause (I personally have never seen a domed city).

            Although I thought these two articles were interesting to read and provided good points they didn’t deliver the same impact as the Benyus interview. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts I’m not satisfied with suggestions on how I should be living or thinking, I need solid examples and Benyus gave me that. You can explain to me the destruction of the environment and advise me to think green but until you show me a starting point I won’t do anything other than change my light bulbs to eco friendly ones and buy those soy-based shirts. The people and ideas that Benyus talks about are that starting point, I read about them and think to myself:

“Hey there’s this big movement that’s growing by the day with ideas that go beyond the wind farms and solar cells. They’re making things eco friendly on all levels. This is something that can actually happen.”

Speculative Prehistory of Humanity by Buckminster Fuller

·      Technology permits greater efficiency however it is retarded by a combination of public ignorance and upper class power control.

·      Effort is wasted on the weaponry instead of livingry.

·      A more efficient society is a happier society.

·      Current technologies are extremely inefficient and do more harm than good.

·      Money is not wealth. Wealth is the technological ability to support all needs of life.

The Sincerest Form of Flattery by David Krupfer

·      Jaines Benyus is a revolutionary Biologist working in the field of Biomimicry (a science that mimics nature to solve problems).

·      Biomimicry shows promise as the driving force behind more sustainable technologies.

·      Instead of taking from nature we should learn from it.

·      Nature is a master of using what it has to the fullest extent.

·      Biomimicry is a rapidly growing field that is being recognized by businesses around the world.

A Question of Design by William McDonough and Michael Braungart

·      The Industrial Revolution did more harm than good.

·      By focusing only on progress people did not concern themselves with its repercussions

·      The traditional belief was that the Earth could provide unlimited sustainability. This is not true.

·      Today we have to consider how our actions today affect the environment in the future.

·      We can’t keep supporting a system that thinks linearly from product to consumer to profit. 

Week 3

            Through some omniscient design I find a few answers to the problems I faced a few weeks back after reading the first set of articles (as if someone had preplanned this). I had lamented that as a designer I was no more than a tool to be used by some company to take advantage of mindless consumers but after reading this week's articles I’m a little embarrassed that I thought so closed-mindedly about design. What I didn’t realize, or chose not to think about, was that design is applied to more than just advertising and branding. Every man made object ever created was designed by some individual. Whether it’s a building, textbook, or street sign someone had to come up with a preliminary design for that object. I want my design to help the public not sell them junk they don’t need, but I also have to make a living. It’s a conflict between my needs and the needs of others.

             “The Responsibilities of the Design Profession”, “Ethical Design Education”, and “First Things First 200” all speak of the designer’s responsibility. They urge designers to use their talents to make the world a better place and while I don’t plan on doing anything as revolutionary as that I agree with their motives. I just want to make design that has a positive impact, but it’s not easy. If I wanted to shun all clients that take advantage of consumers I’d be working in a limited market and especially now in this recession I don’t know if I can take that chance. I feel that the writers of these articles and the designers they applaud are in a position where they can live comfortably and at the same time be able to choose their projects and clients. That’s not to say there aren’t exceptions like Walter Gropious and William Morris who went against the grain and did amazing things its just that, like I said before, I don’t want to change the world I just want to be able to live with myself at the end of the day.

            These articles are inspiring but I don’t feel entirely persuaded by their arguments. Maybe it’s the result of being part of a cynical generation but there’s this voice in the back of my head asking: “well that’s great and all but what can I do?” They tell me that I should be a responsible designer but don’t really give me a starting point. I also feel that Herber Spencer (author of “The Responsibilities of Good Design”) and Max Bruinsma (author of “First Things First”) draw the world in black and white: either your going against the system or you’re a part of it. There are grey areas to everything including design and I never enjoyed the idea of revolution to create a radical change because I never whole-heartedly believe in the cause (which would require dividing the world between us and them, black and white). However despite all this there is a part of me that wants to contribute to society in a positive way, I just don’t know how I’ll do that. I suppose it’s just something I’ll have to figure out as I go along.

Ethical Design Education

• Young designers are cynical about their profession.
• History is filled with designers who fought system and did their own thing.
• The student began taking an interest in sustainability and other responsible design practices.

The Responsibilities of the Design Profession

• Designers today focus more on making money than using their design for the better good.
• This reflects the early 1960s when a group of individuals got together and wrote the design manifesto: “First Things First”
• Design can be used for more than just marketing.

Innovation and Exploitation – A Critique of American Apparel

• American Apparel may practice some commendable employee policies but hides a corrupt management and uses over sexualized imagery
• They become ethical in one aspect to hide their unethical practices.
• They are using sex as a cop out to gain consumers.

First Things First

• Group of designers/photographers/etc. gather together to write a manifesto that rejects conventional design
• They believed that design could be used for a broader and better purpose to the common good.
• They wanted to make a change.

First Things First 2000

• Not much has changed since creation of last manifesto.
• Designers are responsible for changing the world.
• The media has become too “saturated” with bad design.

Week 1-2

            There’s one thought that I keep coming back to as I read these articles and that’s my role in this marketing machine that appears to have dominated most aspects of our society. I want to work in design (or at least something related to it) and that means that I would become a part of the system. Even more so I would be driving the visual vocabulary (the billboards, book covers, and magazine ads) of our environment. That’s both impressive and scary at the same time and at first it feels empowering but after some thought I’ve come to realize that I really don’t hold much power at all. Sure I could create a design that is so well known it becomes a cultural icon but all I’ve really done is make an image. I’m more like a tool, or a medium, that channels the ideas of businesses to the masses; the real power still lies in those businesses. This leaves little room for personal ethics.

            Naomi Klein’s article “No Logo” explores the recent “trancendence” of companies who put more effort into indentifying their image (brand) than managing the factories that produce their goods (product). Before this shift a company would take pride in its factories and the goods they create there. Now companies are shutting down their factories and funneling much of their money into branding. They don’t own factories anymore, instead they outsource to other countries where it’s cheaper (at the cost of the workers). As a brand the company can then spread across many markets and pull in more profit more efficiently but of course it’s at someone else’s expense.

            As a graphic designer this should be good news because branding requires our talents however that also means I could be working for companies who’s tactics conflict with my morals. Would I really want to help drive a company that outsources to countries where children work for little or no pay? Would I have a choice? I suppose as a designer it would not be my concern, I’m just the tool. But such thinking sounds like the excuse that many corporations use when accused of selling products made by unfairly treated workers: “we don’t own the factories, it’s not our fault.”

            This is true of all of our products and it’s hard to escape unless doing anything short of discarding all of your possessions and running away to live in the wilderness. If it was just the outsourcing I would not feel so conflicted but there’s more to it than that. As a designer my job is to influence consumers by convincing them to buy a product. In today’s world people identify themselves through their material goods as Jane Pavitt explains in her article “Branding the Individual” which means that I play a direct hand in creating someone else’s indentity, I’d be selling an image. But just like with outsourcing I know I’ll be offered a job that I don’t agree with. Could I do anything if a client comes to me wanting a design for a line of sleazy children’s clothes? Would I do it? I don’t know. I want my designs to make a positive impact but I realize that its not always going to be the case.

“No Logo”

• Businesses have begun leaving behind the factories and instead focusing on branding.
• Outsourcing becomes the preferred method of production with many businesses employing contractors who own factories in other countries.
• The brand can span across multiple markets making it a powerful tool.
• The shutting down of factories leaves many unemployed and shifts the job market from production to design.

“Branding the Individual”

• Although we may not be fully aware of it our individuality is made up through the material goods we buy and surround ourselves with.
• What we buy and where we buy it says a lot about our personality as well as the image we want to project to others.
• It also says a lot about the culture we come from and the influence of our family.
• We live in a consumer culture where identity can be bought.