ITAP2: Viva Creative Revolution

“The Creative Revolution (1954-64) was essentially the tussle between design and meaning; between form, beauty and concept;

between telling and receiving”. Challis,C. 2006

As can be imagined, design work before the creative revolution of 1954-64 was highly different, while work after remains similar in theory these 58odd years down the line. Design beforehand was somewhat shallow, predominantly based around the aesthetic value over form and function. In America this was common in the portrayal of the 'American dream/lifestyle'; glamourous and high quality. This though above most aesthetically based design almost patronised the potential audience as they knew the American dream/lifestyle was difficult to obtain and other shallow designs seemed to take the audience as being a little dumb.

Within the creative revolution though, there were two key figures; Che Helmut Krone and Bill Bernbach. These two people changed the landscape of graphic design in 3 main ways. First of all, they spoke to the audience to gain insight on what THEY wanted, rather than relying on assumptions that agencies of the time often made. This bought them valuable insight into the consumer culture, and first off showed them that within the automotive industry especially, they would prefer a smaller, cheaper more economical car than a large, frequently outdated, expensive one that the 'American dream' propaganda pushed. This was a difficult admittance for the consumers though, since to go against the American dream propaganda felt unpatriotic.

Next, they tackled the aesthetically shallow based design, and crucially inserted an 'idea' or 'concept' which developed a deeper layer to the design, conveyed a message and treated the audience as intelligent enough to see this idea hidden within; This was backed by their third revolutionary aspect.

In the 1950's agencies tended to follow a grid structure and formulaic pattern, thus designs tended to look the same. This was due to the fact there were no real 'art directors' or 'copywriters', rather they were all called commercial artists and rarely met up. Bill Bernbach and Helmut Krone changed this by designating roles and meeting up to discuss design concepts together. While their first works followed the similar layout structure (to almost mock), it was radically different in content; As can be seen when comparing the Pontiac advert beside, to the VW ones below. 

To stand out from these generic designs, they designed their adverts in full greyscale to contrast against the hugh colour usage in other work, stuck with the caption; only rather than giving a literal description of the image above, said something that linked in a more subtle, intelligent and memorable manner. They also began to experiment with the use of white space to create tension and balance within the design, while prior designers used all space ending with a clustered and busy piece. This reduction in design, combined with the message/concept that was inspired by the audience research created an award winning and top selling style that truly changed the landscape of design.

Helmut Krone’s breakthroughs in layout

• Ads with no headlines 

• Ads with no logos 

• Head lines as captions 

• No headline or copy

• No product

• A sea of white

• Headline font and style of image as brand identity

(Challis,C. 2006)

Bill Bernbach's breakthroughs

• Understanding the audience 

• Respecting the audience's intelligence 

• Using wit (perception and ability to connect ideas) in order to communicate product benefits

• Going far beyond the obvious 

• Keeping the communication simple 

• Ensuring image and words reflect each other but don't repeat

• Taking risks

ITAP2: Simple, but different

"I wish I had known that simplicity is the key" Rosy Arnold, D&AD president.

In modern culture, we are bombarded by advertising in all media platforms. These are usually a mixture of both good and bad design, but collectively tend to put off the majority of audience members. With this barrage of complexity, simplicity, as stated, is key in attracting the audience and setting apart from the rest and directly convey the message.

A key to advertising I have recently learnt in lectures, is to aim a campaign on selling a simple truth of the product; Cadbury's "a glass and a half of joy" based on the fact the bars have a glass and a half of milk in them, and chocolate released endorphins that produce joy. By selling a product one one truth, it is preferable to reduce the message down to this one key point and make it fascinating and direct to the audience; Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious and adding the meaningful.

Award winning designs by Bartle Bogle Hegarty, 1993

As can be seen in the Boddington beer ad campaign here, the element of truth extracted was that this brand has a full and thick creamy head. The reason these designs are so successful is because this one usp has been extracted from the product and built on with a clever use of wit, humour and the unexpected; subtracting the obvious, and adding the meaningful. 

While this is an incredibly simple design; just displaying the pint of beer with one prop maximum in each layout, it is done in a different and effective way to convey the usp. Without this quirky meaningful addition the usp message, the design would simply display a pint of beer with the creamy head. This shows there is both a good and bad simple. Simplicity is a rare thing and as Leonardo da Vinci once said; "the ultimate sophistication". It is claimed as this because effective simplicity is a difficult thing to create, due to its delicate balance. By having too little the message could be either interpreted as boring, or not successfully communicated at all. Whereas by using too much in the design then it will look busy and confusing. The right balance is where the message is clear but the method in communicating it is different and original.

Since the brand logo is extremely small (as not to distract or add complexity to the simplicity of the design) the colour scheme was carefully chosen. As can be seen, they clearly represent the brand palette of yellow, black and white. These colours immediately bring association without the logo boldly displayed and so further increase the effectiveness in the simplicity. If the logo was also boldly displayed along with perhaps a disproportionately large written catchline 'With the creamiest head' and a man or woman holding the beer then the message would risk being too complex and audience members wouldn't be so intrigued but more patronised.

Simplicity and reduction in design is often used, such as here. Guinness is renowned for its witty advertisements and above is a brilliant example of reductionism to push forward one key point of the product, conveyed in simple yet intriguingly amusing ways; using the pint in place of cool objects. Again, like the Boddington designs earlier, the colour scheme is carefully chosen as the black and white is immediately recognisable as a pint of Guinness, and the icy blue resembles the extra cold. 

Another designer to bare in mind for reductionism is Helmut Krone, as mentioned in a prior post.

ITAP2: Informational Design

Although informational design is not the foremost element of my design preference, it is non the less an important aspect to consider. As it is far from something I am widely knowledgable about, this itap lecture gave me several key figures and principals to bare in mind. A few I found most useful when looking further into their work are;
Grouping information and establishing a visual hierarchy by paying attention to detail, typography, colours, lines, spaces, message, legibility and other such matters.
As for the the inspirational people, I was given a list including

•  David Carson            •  Edward Tufte

•  Neville Brody            •  Richard Saul Wurman

•  Wim Crouwel            •  Erik Spiekermann

•  Rob Waller                •  Paul Mijksenaar

•  David Sless

To begin with, we have some informational design by Edward Tufte; the pioneer and claimed inventor of many common informational layouts such as the pie chart and bar graph. Above is one of his most famous designs portraying Napoleon's march to and from Moscow, showing information such as numbers of deaths and divided divisions in the army. By creating something as visually interesting and accurate as this, Tufte forged a way in displaying large quantities of complex information in an easy to understand and stimulating manner. Although I am unlikely to use styles/methods like this, I find it fascinating and important to understand the past/origin of informational design.

The designs above are by an artist called Paul Butt. These I find beautiful examples of informational display/layout due to the delicate combination balance of vibrant colours showing the stats, to the subtly textures and muted background. This gives a contrast of the tall, slick sans serif fonts along with sharp and crisp lined graph precision with a characteristically aged backing façade. This style aids in making it set apart from mass designed dull 'exel' graphs and makes the information far more visually exciting. The design on the left, to show computer disk space, is in based around a circular layout reminiscent in semiotic style of a CD/hard drive disk. The mixtures of graphs composed in these pieces along with key summations surrounding the main image enables audiences to read specific/individual statistics over the combination.

Nicholas Felton

Informational design though, doesn't have to be 'informational' per-se. While clear visual communication of statistics are extremely useful to the audience, the designs can be reduced to the point that graphs are so simplified and context dependant they can be interpreted as art. By removing numbers and key words, we are left with bold and mathematical patterns.
Some of these following designs are produced by studios such as 'Onformative' based in Berlin who specialise  in visualising data, and 'Accept & Proceed', a London based calendar graph studio. Information and further images on these fascinating and exceptional designs can be found in this link.

http://jessicasvendsen.com/category/information-design/

Accept & Proceed

Onformative

 As far as designer list given in the presentation, I find Erik Spiekermann's videos and philosophies on design absolutely inspiring. This video below is a 14minute talk on typography he did as an informal interview style. Elements such as how he likens the design to music creation is something I can relate to and now see in design, such as the onformative piece above (branching from his original typographical parallels). Not just this, but his strategies on drawing a design like your inspiration, and then drawing from memory days later to create a different looking idea (generating originality and diversion) is also a brilliant strategy I will apply to my work. I find Erik Spiekermann a hugely inspirational speaker on theory, concept and design; not to mention his actual work.

Conclusions and pieces I have found as result of this initially seemingly unimportant (as far as my personal design path is concerned) topic, has brought on some great improvements on my knowledge and view on these aspects of design.

ITAP2: What the font?

Creative Strategies & Visual Language

Creative Strategies;
Lateral Thinking/Idea Generation/The Message

Strategies are a key skill when concerning lateral thinking in idea generation. Since understanding the application of these strategies I have felt a marked improvement in realising how my concept generation comes about/makes them strong. Some of the most useful methods are listed below;

•  Play with words                         •  Mixing and matching
•  Typographical                            •  Comparison before/after
•  Shock value                               •  Repetition/repetition
•  Metaphors                                  •  Exaggeration
•  Changing/contrasting context     •  Signs and symbols

When controlling these strategies though, it is important to bare in mind other importances, as acutely said by Herbert Bayer, 16/03/79;
"The creative process is not performed by the skilled hand alone, but must be a unified process in which the head, heart and hand play a simultaneous role."
In personal summation to this quote, it is important that not only do you go through the motions and blindly follow the strategies; but you must combine the methodology along with some 'illustrative' skill and an appropriate heartfelt message behind it too. This can be correlated into a loop;

The Message;
When I then look into the message, several pieces of graphic design spring to mind. Foremost the famous VW Beetle adverts of 1950 where the message was vital in convincing their audience, set in a strong and contrasting ideal set. The design agency DDB, Doyle Dane Bernbach used lateral thinking to convey this message in a revolutionary way partially using the shock factor. Although these designs seem ordinary by our standards now, they shocked the market in 1950 by both breaking and adhering to rules all advertising agencies used. While maintaining the formulaic layout other agencies used, DDB took a lateral slant by portraying the target audiences' true desires over the propaganda marketed 'dreams' the general public knew they would struggle to reach/maintain.





















While these are influences for the origin of the message and thus possible appropriate route of lateral strategy, these can also be used in deciding which form of media production is best suited for the design.

to persuade/to invite/to engage
DESIGN FOR INVITATION
an offer/service/idea/communication

to inform/to educate/to understand

DESIGN FOR INFORMATION

complex data/information/simple concepts

to express/to debate/to opine

EXPRESSIVE GRAPHICS

emotion/value/ethics/graphic language

Visual Language;

Semiotics/Experimentation/Media/Treatment

When looking into both media and experimentation one piece I found extremely interesting; Logorama created by H5; François Alaux, Hervé de Crécy and Ludovic Houplain, and produced by Autour de Minuit. I especially liked this combination of experimentation and animated media because of its wit and clearly thought out design. Despite this, it didn't overly inspire me in my work but more served as entertainment to me.

On the other hand, there is the 2012 olympic campaign. Concerning experimentation and semiotics, I appreciate and understand the concept/execution behind the video below. While I find the message behind it clear and inspirational in its pro-activity and life generation to the ceremony, I am one of the many who finds the print logo a vulgar design. 

London 2012 / Brand Launch from Universal Everything on Vimeo.

Key Principals: A brief History of Production and The Design Workflow

Understanding our history is a useful knowledge to hold as it gives us insight into past developments and ingenuity, as well as general hypothesises to possible shifts in trend which may occur in the future. In terms of production, specifically to print then the earliest dated book originates to the 'Diamond Sutra' which was translated from Sanskrit (one of the worlds oldest known languages) into Chinese, printed around AD400. This is contrasted hugely when comparing it to Europe's first printed book in 1455, the 'Mazarin Bible' or 'Forty Two Line Bible', produced by Gutenberg at Strasberg. This was the first major book to be printed in a moveable type printing press system, and consequently marked the start of Gutenberg's success, (otherwise known as the Gutenberg Revolution) as well as the start of the age to the printed book. Gutenbergs Bible became highly praised and earned an 'iconic' status, not just down to it being the first european book printed, but because of its artistic qualities and brilliant aesthetics. 

Here I have made a work flow for the current L4 visual communications project, based on my RVJ progress. Currently I am constructing my first draft to as higher quality as possible in order to minimalise edits required to result in the final design. This is how I often work, creating concepts before research (as mentioned in a prior blog) since it doesn't limit your creativity.

My only problem with this L4 group flow, is the overwhelming lack of group mentality; aka my group has done nothing. Therefore, any stages where I would consult with the team in order to gain feedback I have done so with tutors, fellow designers or friends who sit inside my audience demographic. This has caused problems in my workflow, because while one member was not turning up to meetings or producing work when asked and the other had no idea what to do, reluctant to attempt, I was forced to create a firmly structured grid for them both to stick to hopefully making work easier for them. This lead to a highly static and uncreative set of concepts when mocked up by me, and forced us to change tack. At this point my team was still seemingly reluctant to do work, and so I began forming my own design style to hand in separately while remaining in the group. This is where my design workflow stepped back into stride. Back in the group, I maintain to be the only truly motivated figure and will do my upmost to see that 'workflow' through.

Although not listed in this flow, I will constantly check my state of work in correlation with time to see how much has been accomplished and how much is left, noting developments and thoughts into my RVJ both literally and visually.

As far as my track record lays, this maintains to be a fairly smooth and comfortable workflow in creating successful and thorough work.

Key Principals: Three Act Structure and Character Journey

The three act structure, sourced originally from the layout of early fairy tails then elaborated into plays and novels is a common trend in story telling methods. This structure is typically split into the proportions of '30:60:30' to keep a balanced set. The first quarter, traditionally defined as the initial equilibrium to the story, is where the story's scene is laid out, and our standards are given. This is contrasted with the final 30/quarter of new equilibrium, where by a new set of standards are given. This final equilibrium, also known as the resolution or conclusion is in response to the stereotypically middle half, referred to as the crisis section. Here, a series of events occur to alter and challenge the initial equilibrium, and end up at the final/new one.

Beware, spoilers and serious mind f$%kery. You have been warned.

For the analysis of the three act structure, I have chosen the mid 2000 film, 'Memento' by the director Christopher Nolan, a personal favourite of mine. This film though, is not strictly set to this three act parameter. Seeing as the entire film is set to make sense both backwards as it is forwards (in order to convey the message that we are not only working our way from the initial equilibrium through the crisis to the resolution, but the resolution is actually the cause for the crisis and thus the initial film equilibrium: Nolan you mind f$%ker) This three act principal ties in perfectly with the character journey, as it is structured to display the protagonists journey through his amnesia-esque condition; thus it disorientates us to feeling we have 'forgotten' aspects of the story, while still maintaining a grasp and intrigue on the film itself. Within the first quarter section of the film, we are given the premise that our protagonist, Leonard has murdered Teddy our other main character, yet we have been taken back in time to where Leonard is searching under a vendetta for his wife's killer (who we currently believe to be Teddy, due to the opening clip) This opening standard of seemingly backstage knowledge and revenge, results in the ending, which loops back to elaborating on the opening clip explaining that Teddy is not in fact the true target but a fall-guy/has been set up. Being a Nolan film, the concluding equilibrium also explains a deeper answer to subtle and seemingly decorative threads within the story; that Leonard was not in fact the person he thought he was, but rather the person he used to example and reference to his own sate of mind. This draws us to the end of the characters journey and the film; although this is where the three act structure really gets confusing. The crisis, traditionally in the middle of the film is actually made apparent to be a crisis in two stages. One, where we may expect it near the middle to second third of the film where Natalie our female character prevails to be an actual antagonist rather than ally. She does this by deceiving Leonard in a vindictive and manipulative way. This is a relatively small 'crisis' section in the film, as the main crisis is given at the end of the film where the two strands of the story meld after fluctuating throughout the film. This shows us that Leonard actually killed another man, boyfriend to Natalie and set up by Teddy thus leading to the sequence of events leading to his death. This explains Leonard's appearance in contradiction to his narrated backstory, Teddy's death in vengeance by Leonard for 'using' him to benefit and why Natalie used and manipulated Leonard in subtle revenge for her boyfriends death. By placing the crisis near the middle and end (as well as hinted start when seeing Teddy's death followed by his appearance in the story) a seemingly paradoxical loop is created (one that is carried out and modified in his following but unrelated film, Inception). This loop allows us to comfortably link back to the start of the film to feel a conclusion and sense has been made, while also promotion the suggested mind state of our protagonist.

As far as characters journeys go, we are put directly into the unique mind of Leonard, through two correlating and converging scenes. One viewed in black and white, the other colour in order to easily differentiate. These, like the reverse viewing of the scenes generate an atmosphere of illusion and disorientation while allowing us to slowly feel we are arrow heading our way towards a series of answers to our escalating questions and intrigue. This is portrayed though the use of omni-narration suggesting we are hearing his thoughts, a personal slant on him scrawling notes on polaroids to remember, cut scenes to relative side stories or his memories, and obviously the style of using reversed ordered scenes. We are aided in this otherwise confusing premise of reverse filming through the reduction in not only character knowledge, but more tangible and solid presets, like the physical state of his car, clothes, wounds, and personal photograph notes. As mentioned earlier, he gives himself a backstory of being an insurance investigator and thus was legible to owning the expensive Jaguar car and smart clothes. As we discover him to not be the person he imagines though, his facade changes to a far different style; rough and worn clothes and a wild animal lust to replace the sleek predator approach. This shows the characters development both in finding himself through this story, and too reveals the true nature behind the plot. Overall character development is an intrigal element to story, allowing the viewer to suitably relate characters to their ascribed histories and intentions, as well as seeing them as relatable characters in real life: the more relatable they are, the more they are likely to be drawn into the story and feel connected with the characters. This doesnt have to be through visual aspects, but can be emotional or personality based keynotes such as (the audiences aspired) heroism, or (the audiences inner) vulnerability.

In conclusion, the story is set and delivered chronologically in reverse, yet the audience still learns the plot in a regular or standard manner, as does the character development take place in. The three act structure is thus displaced depending on which standpoint you adopt, with the same rule applied to character development. If I had tried to explain Inception, I'm afraid I might not have lived to tell the tale.

Key Principals: Interpretation and Methodology

Interpretation is the biggest influence in any work, as it reveals an insight into the artist and can emerge without any intention. For example, a designer may create a piece of work with the intention to include hints of his interpretation through medium, style and imagery. Although even if he had no intentions of including interpretation, the audience may in turn read into the design and pick up some of their own interpretations relating to either their knowledge of the artist, or perhaps even interpretation of that design, within their current time/location. Therefore interpretation can amplify the meaning or message from either side of the work.

In the production of any work, it is common for the creative to use and respond to their 'zeitgeist' (ideas and spirit of time; the ideas prevalent in a period and place) of their time to interpret their projects desired messages and content. This means if you are looking back on an artist who incorporated the interpretation of their zeitgeist, you must understand their time period and likely surroundings, to decode the piece fully. Looking through elements from the history of Alice in Wonderland, there have been a wide range in approaches and interpretations of the story through illustration. 

For example, the piece here was produced by Arthur Rackham in 1907, as the industrial revolution was ending. This is reflected from his work, by the use of heavy black ink and dirty sepia tones common in artists renditions from this period. The animals could also be taken to represent his current surroundings, as buildings and machinery were growing around him to titanic scales, making him feel smaller (like Alice).

When this is contrasted to the work for Alice in Wonderland from the 1960s/70s (below) then we can clearly see the cultural shift. Here, the intense use of colours, realisms, viewpoint angles and their effect on proportions all connote a trippy facade, thus enforce the artists interpretation on the 60's drug culture influence.

There are also examples of satirical interpretation within Alice's illustrations, by Ralph Steadman in 1967 (above). Here he uses the white rabbit as a symbol for business men, and adds satire by thus dressing him as a far business man late for work. Despite being now 44 years old, this interpretation still has relevance to modern culture as viewpoints on his satire have had little change, whereas the industrial revolution and iconic 60's drug culture have all passed and thus have a smaller cultural capital on audiences.

When this is compared to the Walt Disney style of illustration, we see that all characters have a much more mainstream appeal, and fairytale style instead of drug induced. Here, Alice is represented as a very dainty girl (baring extremely high visual relation to previous Disney female protagonists such as Sleeping Beauty), where as in older Alice in Wonderland designs, she is seen as a more bold character to challenge the current cultural expectations that girls should all be quiet and well behaved. This interpretation from Disney is clearly more an interpretation not of their surroundings, but an interpretation of how a character should look in relation to the companies style and history; thus what their desired audience will relate to most.

When we compare these representations of interpretations to those by Annie Leibowitz's for fashion photography, we see an immediate difference. Here Alice is given a far bolder style in both dress sense, and posturing body language. This removes the conceptions built by the influential Disney version, and challenges them greatly. Annie's interpretations here are likely based around the juxtaposition of a 'vintage' story with more modern stylings and attitudes. She does this by representing Alice as a girl aged perhaps around 18 to 20 and shoots her with much more characteristic attitude. 

We are also shown Alice in more of a sexual viewpoint such as the image here, where she is wearing a more modern and short blue dress, a high amount of leg and in a reclined position. These, as well as the female being the prominent (and perhaps dominant) character shown in the image below, are styles commonly adopted and applied within fashion photography, while the mies-en-scene relates to the zeitgeist desired.  

Methodology is an integral aspect to the design process, and understanding your personal methodology can help improve your work standard. By having a thorough methodology you are ensured to maximise your projects potential and achieve a well explored design. A versatile process will also enable you to work independently and professionally, such as Dave McKean who has an extremely wise range of design processes, flowering a large variation of media combinations. 

When looking at my own design process, I see that it is not a totally orthodox methodology, yet still produces original and successful pieces. After being given the brief, I proceed to come up with design ideas and concepts with quickly develop from rough sketches to full blown designs. My main development takes place within this transition of sketch to detailed drawing, fine tuning aspects and making it all tie together. I do this before my research because I am not then stunted by research evaluation; my ideas stay fresh and original, based souly on; my instincts, any lingering inspiration taken in previous and relevant projects; and the brainstormed ideas I may have when bouncing concepts from team members. After my ideas are laid out, I begin research, and tend to evaluate my concepts to those in actual pieces of produced products. This gives me a good idea to how original my ideas are, how relevant they are, what might work and what might not, and what aspects I could carefully lift and develop into my own work. This allows me to further fine tune my work, and almost acts as a form of audience feedback; knowing that the current market products hit their audiences successfully. By understanding my process I understand that my methodology is different from others, and avoids trends that can lead to plagiarism.

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