Journal 5 : David Carson

David Carson on design + discovery | Video on TED.com

Great design is a never-ending journey of discover - for which it helps to pack a healthy sense of humor. Carson believes the emotion is picked up in a design before they ever begin reading.

"The intellect has little to do on the road to discovery. There comes a leap in consciousness, call it Intuition or what you will, the solution comes to you and you don't know how or why." Albert Einstein

"When people are engaged in creating a totally different world, they always form vivid images of the preceding world."

David Carson's methods of typography in the 90's brought in a new vision of type and page design - quiet simply, breaking the traditional mold of type on a page and demanding fresh eyes from the reader. Squishing, smashing, slanting and enchanting the words on a layout, Carson made the point, over and over, that letters on a page are art. You can see the repercussions of his work to this day, on a million Flash intro pages and probably just as many skateboards and T-shirts.

Journal 5 : Stefan Sagmeister

Stefan Sagmeister shares happy design | Video on TED.com

I really enjoyed Sagmeisters lists especially the one about things that made him happy while designing:

1. Thinking about ideas and content freely- with deadlines far away

2. Working without interruption on a single project.

3. Using a wide variety of tools and techniques

4. Traveling to new places

5. Working on project that matter to me.

6. Having things come back from the printer done well.

Overall Sagmeister was just very concerned with happiness as a designer. Often in the design world its easy to get caught up in deadlines without remember that designing is something you truly enjoy, not just a job. I really liked the subway stickers that said things like "Do not accept defeat" and "Do not hold grudges". It was a very funny design.

In the article How Good is Good? Sagmeister made another interesting points:

1. Design can unify

2. Design can help us remember

3. Design can simplify our lives

4. Design can make someone feel better

5. Design can make the world a safer place

6. Design can help people rally behind a cause

7. Design can inform and teach

8. Design can raise money

9. Design can make us more tolerant

"Commercial Art makes you BUY things, graphic design GIVES you ideas" - Sagmeister

Journal 5 : J.J. Abrams

J.J. Abrams' mystery box | Video on TED.com

I had to watch the TED talk with J.J. Abram's because Lost is driving me crazy during its last season.

"Technology is mind blowingly inspiring" - Abrams

It was funny to me when he said he was so inspired by his mac computer. He said it inspired him to write scripts that were worthy of being on his computer screen. He also made an interesting point that although technology is great you don't have to have the newest and greatest technology to still make cool stuff.

I thought it was also interesting when he talked about withholding information intentionally. Mysteries intrigue people so you shouldn't give them all the information right away.

Project 1 : Final Posters

Concept statement:

Hyprid: Lifeless-future

Lifeless: without animation, liveliness, or spirit; dull; colorless; torpid

Future: something that will exist or happen in time to come

To suggest:

the future

emotions

captivity

power

technology

beauty

Journal 4: Bruce Mau

Copied straight from Bruce Mau's website.

Bruce Mau is a visionary and world-leading innovator. As Chief Creative Officer of Bruce Mau Design, he proves that the power of design is boundless, and has the capacity to bring positive change on a global scale.

Throughout the years, Mau has gained an international reputation for his commitment to interdisciplinary and purpose-driven innovation. As the creative force driving studios in Chicago and Toronto, he recognizes that the complex challenges of the future demand innovation across disciplines and industries. In the fall of 2009, Mau was given the distinguished Louise Blouin Foundation Award at the Global Creative Leadership Summit for his exceptional creative achievement. In 2007 Mau was presented with the AIGA Gold Medal for communication design. He was named the Bill and Stephanie Sick Distinguished Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

15. Ask stupid questions.
Growth is fueled by desire and innocence. Assess the answer, not the question. Imagine learning throughout your life at the rate of an infant.

32. Listen carefully.
Every collaborator who enters our orbit brings with him or her a world more strange and complex than any we could ever hope to imagine. By listening to the details and the subtlety of their needs, desires, or ambitions, we fold their world onto our own. Neither party will ever be the same.

I like these two rules together because why ask a stupid question if you're too stupid to listen. Often times I get too nervous to ask what I really want to ask. Then when someone is telling me the answer I miss half of the details. This week my mantra is a collaboration of these two rules: To ask stupid questions and then listen carefully.

Just some good ol' book covers

Journal 3: 20 Rules

In the article Twenty Rules for Making Good Design, David Jury acknowledges the fact that rules can be broken but not ignored "In the end, you will decide how and when to apply the rules, or not, as well as understand the results of either course of action."

The 20 rules stated in the article:

1. Have a concept

2. Communicate don't decorate

3. Speak with one visual voice

4. Use two typeface families maximum. OK, maybe three

5. Use the one-two punch!

6. Pick colors on purpose

7. If you can do it with less, then do it

8. Negative space is magical- create it, don't just fill it up!

9. Treat the type as image, as though it's just as important

10. Type is only type when it's friendly

11. Be universal; remember that it's not all about you

12. Squish and separate

13. Distribute light and dark like firecrackers and the rising sun

14. Be decisive. Do it on purpose- or don't do it at all

15. Measure with your eyes: design is visual

16. Create images- don't scavenge

17. Ignore fashion. Seriously.

18. Move it! Static equals dull

19. Look to history, but don't repeat it

20. Symmetry is the ultimate evil.

The 3 most important rules to me are:

1. Have a concept.

This seems like it deserves a duh! after it but often times I jump into a project and forget to really ever come up with a solid concept.

2. Negative space is magical- create it, don't just fill it up!

Often times negative space is overlooked, but it is a major part of design.

3. Symmetry is the ultimate evil.

"Symmetry shouts very loudly that the designer is lazy and likes to let the format do the designing."

The 3 I need to practice more are:

1. Communicate- don't decorate.

"It's all well and good to experiment with shapes and details and cool effects, but if you simply spackle them all over without considering what they mean and how they support or take away from the message you end up with a jumbled mass of junk that no longer qualifies as design.

2. Use two typeface families maximum. Ok, maybe three.

Sometimes I just get caught up in type and I throw in way too many typefaces and way too many different type sizes.

3. Treat the type as image, as though its just as important.

This is a huge problem for me. I am constantly guilty of spending all my time with the image and then the type becomes a last minute decision. It is very stupid to ignore type in a design, when type has so much to offer.

At this point in my education I do not feel comfortable breaking the rules yet. When the time comes that I can fully justify breaking a rule, I will do it gladly.

Biodiesel Initiative Toolkit

John Gall

Parts of this article I liked about John Gall

Gall’s stylish sensibility, simple but elegant use of typography and quietly rebellious spirit infuse these literary works with an added dimension. Subtle and compelling, his covers play with the perceptions of the viewer in unexpected ways, and to satisfying effect. Scanning the table of trade paperbacks at the local bookseller, one would have no difficulty spotting Gall’s distinctive and visually articulate work. Collage, photography, typography and art are all grist for the mill, yet no matter how varied the medium, the end result is pure Gall.

SB: What makes a good book cover?

Gall: Different groups within the publishing company will each have different answers for this question. What an editor thinks is good, Sales might not. And as designers we have a different set of criteria, which must also include everyone else’s criteria. How that gets resolved is always a bit tricky. A really great cover is going to convey the essence of the book in a unique and surprising way that maybe pushes the design envelope a bit. It might even add to and enhance the editorial content of the book. A cover that is seen and respected by other designers is a good thing too, I guess, but the mission is really to allow the book to make a great first impression.

Whether people actually buy books because of the cover is open for debate. I mean, even I don’t know, though I’m usually checking the credit to see who is designing them.

SB: Each of your covers has a surprise. What I’ve noted in works by some other respected designers is that, in an attempt to create a well-constructed, prize-worthy creative jewel, the resulting design solution doesn’t surprise the viewer. Cover after cover, how do you find twists and turns and all those creative surprises that continue to jolt and engage the viewer?

Gall: Basically, I am always trying to surprise myself; and if I can do that, odds are others will perceive it as invigorating design. And I’m a big fan of the happy accident, and if I can contradict what I was saying about mass-market books, I will also approach a project from the viewpoint of what I shouldn’t do. Like I really shouldn’t put an airbrushed unicorn on a cover … but let’s see what it looks like.

Gall just like Chip Kidd has a way of making all his book covers innovative. Both men work for the Knopf Group.

Chip Kidd

Ripped straight from one of my favorite sites....WIKIPEDIA!

Chip Kidd is an American author, editor, and graphic designer, best known for his innovative book covers.

Kidd is currently associate art director at Knopf, an imprint of Random House. He first joined the Knopf design team in 1986, when he was hired as a junior assistant. Turning out jacket designs at an average of 75 a year, Kidd has freelanced for Doubleday, Farrar Straus & Giroux, Grove Press, HarperCollins, Penguin/Putnam, Scribner and Columbia University Press in addition to his work for Knopf. Kidd also supervises graphic novels at Pantheon, and in 2003 he collaborated with Art Spiegelman on a biography of cartoonist Jack Cole, Jack Cole and Plastic Man: Forms Stretched to Their Limits. His output includes cover concepts for books by Mark Beyer, Bret Easton Ellis, Haruki Murakami, Dean Koontz, Cormac McCarthy, Frank Miller, Michael Ondaatje, Alex Ross, Charles Schulz, Osamu Tezuka, David Sedaris, Donna Tartt, John Updike and others. His design for Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park novel was carried over into marketing for the film adaptation. Oliver Sacks and other authors have contract clauses stating that Kidd design their books.

Parts of the Smithsonian Interview I liked:

Q: What do you say to the axiom "Don't judge a book by its cover"?

A: My reaction is, Oh, go ahead.

Q: Does a typical idea come from the book itself, the author, something on the street, a flea market, a dream, or what?

A: It's totally everywhere. Absolutely. And the nice thing about books is the deadlines aren't as crazy as somewhere like a magazine or, God forbid, a newspaper. So, you have the luxury of time usually, to read a book and let it kind of like simmer and percolate in your head. And waiting for the right solution to come along, whether it's something you come up with on your own or a piece of art they you see in a gallery. I would definitely recommend anybody who wants to be a book jacket designer to move to New York City.

My own actual words (which are open for judgement):

Chip Kidd is important to us because there was once a question about him on Jeopardy. Ok thats not the only reason he is important but you have to admit it is a big deal. Book cover designs have significantly improved in the past couple of decades and Chip Kidd has been on the forefront of this development. His ideas are always fresh and and even as he has created thousands of book covers he is still able to create great ideas.