Final Project

I created these 10 journals since I was taking the class GID 01: History of Graphic Design (or ART 36) in the 2013 Fall at Foothill College. I have to say that I am now really feeling sad due to the fact that this is already the end. I can’t even believe that this is already the end of my class, but this would not be the end of my long run of design. I still have a long way to go in the world of design. Here, I am putting forward the In-Depth Reflection of this wonderful class.

What did you learn?

I learnt a long period of design history. I saw how the design born, how design come to modern age step by step. I learnt how remarkable designers affect the flow of design one by one. Also, I learnt many interesting views from others’ blogs. I used to hear people talk about Postmodern Design or something like it, yet I did not know much about it. Currently, I can always join those discussions.

How do you see things differently as a result?

My way of seeing the world is now totally different after I take the design history class. Nowadays, when I look at some designs, I would always think about which period of time does the certain design come from. I pay more attention to the details of design that I see in my daily live. I gain more views to see things.

What did you not learn?

Well, this is an interesting question. Technically, instead of saying what I did not learn, it is better to say what I want to learn beyond the things I have learnt.

I hope I could learn more about the histories within different countries or culture, as the knowledge from the text is mainly about the process of the western. For example, I’d like to know how the design histories flow in Asian and African places.

Why was the class not valuable to you?

It’s always good to ask “why.” I can only say that this is because the knowledge of design histories is too huge. As a result, the textbook can’t include all of them. Although there are already so many details and masterpiece inside the textbook, they are only one piece of the entire design histories.

How could it have been more valuable?

Understanding that we can’t include every tiny piece of knowledge of design histories, I realize a good way to modify the class is that we spent more time to view others’ blogs. The most interesting part of this class is the blogs of every classmate since the blogs are the extension of the knowledge of histories. Every classmate has written down their own view of design history in their blogs.

Technically, The time of Field Journal should be cut to be two parts. The classmates submit their links of blogs firstly, and then we give feedback secondly. As I realized that the most viewed blogs are always the early-submitted blogs, and we usually turn in the links of our blogs at the final few hours. If the time of Field Journal were cut to be two parts (one for turning in and one for commenting), then all of our blogs could be viewed fairly.

What new connections did you make regarding graphic design and the evolution of human culture?

The graphic design history is exactly a part of human culture history. Our human culture grows with technologies and designs. Human culture is so colorful because of graphic design. Moreover, cultures are dim if there is no graphic design within it. People cannot communicate with each other emotionally without graphic design. Human cultures carry both people and designs, and they are not separable at all.

What new interests might you have based on what you've been exposed to?

Once human being invented a new technology, graphic design grows with it. We have so many remarkable illustrated books due to the invention of typography. We have many digital designs because of the invention of computer.

I’d like to know how the technologies actually work, so that I can understand more about graphic design. I know that it is already in the field of physic and computer science, but I still hope I could have chance to learn them.

How will you apply what you've learned to experiencing life, your understanding of other disciplines, your future career?

I feel like I am finally joining the world of design. Even though a designer can design well, it is still meaningless if he did not know where the ideas of graphic design come from. By understanding the design histories, I can tell where every ideas or elements of graphic design come from. While designing things, I always apply the elements of different historical designs toward my works.

Like many other students, I wish to become a designer after current level, thus I have strived for my best to prepare myself to become a good designer by understanding the design history.

What is the future of graphic design?

I believe one's own power can make a difference; but being a team player can change the world for the better. I think that there is another interesting way of design, as I got great interest in group. With many positive chances (like the lower images), I have completed many projects as a team player since I was the chairperson of Art Club of secondary school. The feeling of working with many talented fellows is so amazing, and I think that it would be the next flow of design. Under globalization, I think the future of graphic design is that every designer in entire world would work together in different forms. The world will be much better if there is no border.

Field Journal

At the first journal, I claimed the problem about the ten-dollar banknotes of Hong Kong. Time is running out, as this is almost the end of all the journals. I think that this is a really good ending since I’d like to put forward the success of graphic design in Hong Kong with in this post.

It seems that all of the Hong Kong people live in art museum, since we have so many wonderful designs around us. The Mass Transit Railway, so called MTR, is like an art museum. There is amazing Chinese calligraphy on the wall of every single station in Hong Kong. The calligraphy is not the classic one. The calligraphy has modern shape and lines because the artists used circle to replace some lines within the characters. The informal Chinese calligraphy is very enjoyable because it makes every station carry their own personality.

I hope you notice the color use. The colors of each station don’t exist randomly. The color use is really functional due to the fact that every single station has its own color. Thus, the passengers can distinguish each stop by just a peek when they pass by. If you need to get down in one certain stop, you just need to remember the color of it. In fact, it is so hard to miss the stops since they are so obvious with its color.

The colors of each station exist for some reasons certainly. The upper image shows the wall of 油麻地 station. 油麻地 means the ground of sesame in Chinese. We can see the tiny brown dots that present the sesame on the design. Yes, they color is well related to the meaning of each station.

As you see, the station is the memorial of Prince Edward, who is 太子. The silver truly shows the mood of noblesse.

This is a bit tricky here. 油塘 means oil field, as the place it located used to be the industrial field of oil production. Do you feel the yellow like the color of oil?

Obviously, 彩虹 is the Chinese word of rainbow, and the color of 彩虹 station is designed as a rainbow. Again, the color use is functional.

When reading chapter 23, I know much more about new aesthetic of modern Chinese graphic design. As a Chinese, I am really proud of it. In the place I live, even every one of the MTR station is incredible. Beyond artistic, they are useful. I appreciate that they all carry two visual levels with modern Chinese calligraphy and colors.

Field Journal

Through history, we could know that people used to make the whole graphic design as rich as they can. When the world of design step to modern age, designers loves to make things simple. Moreover, because those designs are simple, the composition of everything is extremely important. Designers have to think deeply where the images should be place.

Before I major in design, I was majoring in mathematic. I know that is ironic, but it’s fact. Sincerely, I’d like to put forward the Geometry of design here. Designers don’t place things with just feeling. In fact, designers all hold certain visual balance regarding to math. For example, I put forward the images I scanned from the textbook.

The upper image is from the Chapter 22 of textbook. It is such a simple design that there is just a word on it. From the upper image, you could see the radius of the imaginary circle is almost exactly the width of the picture. It means that the image dose bend for a reason. Due to the visual proportions within the image, audiences could feel the order and balance from it.

Also, this design is so simple, as it contains just three same words. The first one is horizontal, but the last two are rotated according to the exactly angle. It is systematic certainly, as the designers don’t place it there for no reasons. I could say that it would be a bit awful if the words were not in certain visual order. This makes audiences feel comfortable since it is geometrically placed.

The upper image is the poster for the Paris newspaper L’Intransigeant during 1925. This kind of composition is seen in Pictorial Modernism too. They are even much more exact. Everything is well-planned on the picture. They are exactly obey certain kind of law of geometry. The lines are all on the place they should be. As a designer, A.M. Cassandre made all lines geometrical correct.

In my opinion, since the design of Pictorial Modernism are not simple, the Geometry of design is even more powerful there. Geometry makes things tidy, and audiences like tidy designs.

This kind of composition could be seen in photography too. I choose the classic cover of Playboy for the third example. During 1971, Darine Stern became the first even black lady who hit the cover of Playboy. The whole image is extremely simple, as there is just Darine and the chair. The background is totally black in order to make audiences pay fully attention to the cover girl.

The interesting point is, if we draw two lines from the opposite angles and make them across at the middle point, the pose of Darine and the ears of the chair just match the lines certainly. Also, the head of Darine is perfectly placed on the middle, and also the top of the crosspoint. It shows a certain visual symmetry and balance toward audiences.

Psychologically, human beings love seeing thing in order or in symmetry. Moreover, designers know that. This fact is noticeable when we look at some modern simple graphic design. The composition of everything is geometrical. Such views have given us a way to look at the design principles. We could actually try to design something well-planned.

PS. I am not supporting porn media. I just see it in view of design. No offense.

Image

1. Rosmarie Tissi, Graphis cover, 1980

2. Siegfried Odermatt, advertisement for Union wall safes, 1968

3. A.M. Cassandre, poster for the Paris newspaper L’Intransigeant, 1925

4. Richard Fegley, Playboy cover, 1971

Works Cited

Meggs, Philip B., Purvis, Alston W., Meggs History of Graphic Design: Fifth Edition. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2012. Print.