Unit Evaluation

The year started off with our first lecture, which I missed by mistake. So it started on the shaky side, because I was new to the school, had no idea what the lectures were about 90% of the time and everyone seemed to attend before. Since, to add to the confusion, I had missed the debriefing, I was really muddled. But then I started fitting in and actually liking the very concept and context of the lessons, some more than other. In the beginning it was “Ugh History lesson is next”. But then once I got the hang of it I started to love it, because without history lessons where would I have learned about Alphons Mucha? Or how graphic design, like art, changes with society, thereby, with time?

It started with the beginning and origins of printing, Japanese woodblock printing, the Gutenberg Press, Inthalio Printing and Stone lithography. Then we moved on to the rotary press and Linotype. Next were William Beardsley and Alphons Mucha and Jules Cheret in Art Nouveau. Then we had Art Deco, then De Stijl and Bauhaus. Last year we had to choose an artist and see how he affected art in general, and I had Moholy Nagy, who I am obsessed with because once you read so much about an artist, you start seeing things from his perspective too. Then we mentioned Swiss Design.

Things here got infinitely more interesting, for we came to my most favourite part, Modern Type and design. We mentioned Jan Tshihold, whom I had never really heard of before, and I was amazed at what a big part he played in the evolution of Graphic Design. We also talked about Helvetica, which was really interesting because an interesting discussion popped up about the way it’s portrayed to be so perfect, but sometimes in our designs we need the type to have a certain character and in Helvetica’s case it’s quite rigid. We got to re-watch the film too, which is a Graphic Designer’s yearly thing to do.

Moving on to the later movements we talked about Pop, Psychedelia, Punk and Grunge movements. I look like I know what I’m talking about but don’t let my good English deceive you, I really don’t. Unless I have it in writing before me it’s really hard to keep track of what is happening here because these art movements are so tied together and pop designers are also psychedelia designers and grunge and punk are similar but different and stuff like this. Artists that for me stood out were Sigheo Fukuda, Victor Moscoso and David Carson. Carson stood out because I really like his bold way of not giving two turtle doves what anyone thinks and just being extremely expressive, ahich gives you quite a profound feeling of rawness in his design. We ended the term with Stefan Sagmeister and the Post Modernists, and with the presentation. This went well and I really loved finding out about Herb Lubalin mostly in New York School.

All in all it was a very interesting unit and eventhough it takes some work I’m very glad for it because you get more immersed into Graphic Design by knowing what the people before you did.