Research into Essay

Thought I'd start with a book!
Group of Internation Design Education 2007, THE NEW GENERATION: the design role in new generation world, Liberia Clup            
(not sure if this reference is correct, the information isn't in English and I'm very confused!!)
This book is written by many different people, I'll write who wrote what with the page number.

pg7- Arturo Dell' Acqua Bellavitis (Professor of Architerctural Technological culture Politecnico Milan)
"The role of design in society has expanded: in the field of design, we are in fact facing the multiplication of
sub-units, the growth of diversity in various areas (therefore specialization) and the shift to a world made of immaterial things and interfaces. Not only is product design sided by interior, communication and fashion design, creating more and more complex and specialized world, but a change is taking place within a discipline that operates over the world and over our way to relate to it."

Essay Brief

I really like this sound of this question:

Could it be argued that fine are ought to be assigned more 'value' than graphic design?

Value from the dictionary-

1. An amount, as of goods, services, or money, considered to be a fair and suitable equivalent for something else; a fair price or return.

2. Monetary or material worth: the fluctuating value of gold and silver.

3. Worth in usefulness or importance to the possessor; utility or merit: the value of an education.

Task 2 - 5 modernist graphic design images

From our lecture I understood there to be 5 main points that make something modernist design.

• Form follows function
• Internationalism
• Anti Historicism
• Truth to materials
• Technology

Pott C, (1979) 'Bauhaus Style Cutlery',http://www.tabletopdesign.co.uk/products/671-pott-35-cutlery-collection

The above design by Carl Pott is defiantly an example of form follows function. This simple cutlery set doesn't bother with any decoration, as it doesn't need to. It is simply created for it's function.

Rodchenko (1924) photomontage http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2008/august/constructivism-the-ism-that-just-keeps-givin

Above is my choice of modernist graphic design which expresses internationism. During the Russian Revolution the artwork they created was incredibly new and exciting. It esperimented with new ways of expression, this was seen by other Countries as out of control. But it still influenced the artwork of others, for example the album cover for Franz Ferdinands 2004 album cover.

http://magculture.com/blog/?p=1663

Jan Tschichold (1928) “The new typography book cover” http://www.christinetian.com/files/tschichold.jpg

This image for me represents anti historism. The layout of the page and the text itself is moving on from past typography settings. It leads the way for other cultures which also adopt sans serif fonts in 1932

Van de Rohe, M, Chair ic50 http://more-classics.com/shop/mies-rohe-chair-ic50-p-62.html

This chair by Miles van de Rohe perfectly shows Truth to Materials. There is no need for this chair to be made of any of materials, and there is no attempt at hiding the materials used. 

The Kaiserpanorama (1883), http://www.ignomini.com/photographica/stereophotovintage/kaiserpanorama/kaiserpanorama.html

The Kasierpanorama is an example of modernist technology. People are so un-happy with their modernists life styles that they seek to view it through another means. A perfect opportunity for technology to give them this.

Revolutionary Design In Russia

I had never considered how much of an affect the government could have on design. Russia in the early 20th Century is a key example of just how much it really does change things!

My notes from the Seminar -

The Document 17.11.'10

"Still there is something predatory in the act of taking a picture. To photography people is to violate them, by seeing them as they see themselves, by having knowledge of them as they can never be; it turns people into objects that can be symbolically possessed. Just as the camera is a sublimation of the gun, to photography someone is a sublimated murder - a soft murder, appropriate to a sad, frightened time' (Sontag 1979:15)

Sontag (1979) 'On photography', UK, Penguin

Further Reading
Bathes, R (1982) 'Camera Lucida', UK, Hill & Wang
Clarke, G (1997) 'The Photograph', UK, Oxford University Press
Edwards, S (2006) 'Photography: a very short introduction'
Wells, L (2008) 'Photography: A Critcal Introduction', London, Routledge, pp.

Key Photographers Mentioned in Lecture

James Nachtwey

• war photography
• shake people of their indifference
• the anitdote to war - taking a political position. Acting with the force to expose war for humanity.
• political humanist agenda
• Debunks the idea as photographs as 'neutral'

William Edward Kilburn

• much more stepped back, held back, not a part of the action
• neutral
• photos become our history

Joseph Nicephore Niepce

• (1826) One of the first photos. View from LaGras' 
• Transcend previous technologies to re create the world

Jacob Riis

• Middle class social campaigner.
• photographs squalor and poverty - symbol of horror
• morbid curiosity from the rich - looking at these images of "The other Half"
• voyeurism, allowing the rich to spy on the poor
• Not the visible eye, 1888 'Bandits Roots' all men are posing
• Neither how the photographer of the people themselves want them to appear

Lewis Hine

• Subtle, greater use of empathy, humanity, neutrality
• Either stamp your image on people, or get the peoples image out

Humphrey Spender

Margaret Bourke-White

Dorothea Lange

Walker Evans

Robert Frank - flip side of American dream

Cesare Lombroso

Henri-Cartier Bresson

Robert Capa

Don McCullin

Robert Klein

Bernd & Hilda Becher

Don McPhee

Andreas Gursky

Allan Sekula

Gillian Wearing

The Document 17.11.'10

I really enjoyed our lecture today about photojournalism. Some of the artists, Cartier Bresson and Capa I had previously looked into when I did a photography project on photojournalists in school. It was really interesting to be shown this form of journalism from a point on view that isn't just trying to make you pass an A level.
I thought the idea of a photographer not only as someone who records our world, to explain things which normal people can't see, but as a member of the war himself was really interesting. I has never considered a photographers role in war to be nearly as important as that.

My notes from the Lecture

Task 1 - Critical Studies Image Analysis Exercise

Compare and contrast two images in relation to the following-

1. The choice and organisation of font and style of illustration
2. The purpose and meaning of the image
3. The target/potential audience of the image
4. The social and historical contexts relevant to the production of the image.

The Uncle Sam Range (1876) Schumacher & Ettlinger, New York

Savile Lumley (1915)

Critical Studies Image Analysis Exercise.        

At first glance there doesn’t seem to be many similarities between the poster by Savile Lumley (1915) and’ The Uncle Sam Range’ (1876) by Schumacher and Ettlinger. However, when looking closely at the two images there are many subtle but crucial similarities.

Firstly looking at the incredibly over the top colour schemes used in ‘The Uncle Sam Range’. The use of red, white, and blue to signify American nationality has been painted onto every possible part of the image. The only part of the image that hasn’t been used to exploit America’s greatness is the cooker that the advertisement is actually trying to sell. There are similar, although much more reserved, symbols used in the propaganda poster by Savile Lumley. The curtains in the back of the image are covered in rosettes and the arm chair that the father and child are sat in holds a pattern including the fleur de lis. The use of these subtle national symbols (although some less subtle that others) add to the patriotic feel to both images, meaning the viewer can look upon these advertisements with pride for their countries.

These feelings of national greatness are what both advertisements are using to persuade there audiences. ‘The Uncle Sam Range’ focuses on how far America has come in its one hundred years of independence. This image displays the perfect American family in the perfect house. With a large feast being made for the family by their servant with their new cooker, the wife helping serve the dinner and the husband/father acting the host and talking business through with the guest, which in this case is the world. The font used on this advertisement reflects a western style, which is another reference to prosperity and adventure, things associated with the “American dream”. In this advertisement America is powerful enough to be feeding the world, and mocks what the rest of the world lives on, and suggests that by buying this cooker you will be a part of their triumph.

The patriotic feelings used in the poster by Savile Lumley are the main thing that makes this poster work. The way the daughter assumes that her father was a part in the ‘Great war’ by asking ‘Daddy, what did YOU do in the Great War?’ and how the son is leisurely sitting playing with his army action figures shows that war is just something that comes naturally to men. The font used for this statement is very informal and made to look as if it coming from the voice of the child, once again putting pressure on the father. This propaganda was created before forced conscription so it is persuading men to go to war, suggesting that it will make for good stories to tell later on it life. The way that the girl’s statement has been written as “what did you do in the Great War?” means that not only is the war over but that it is looked back on as “Great” and incredibly influential on young people’s lives.

Each of these images is targeting a male audience, selling their lifestyles and ideals. Whether you are to buy a new cooker so you can celebrate your countries prosperity, or so you can go on to join the army, to represent your country, as it is where you belong and will make for great stories later in life. Both of these images strongly represent their country and are effectively persuading their male audience to act.

Graphic Design- A Media for the Masses 10.11.'10

Some of the images in 03.11.2010 lecture

Lumiere Brothers
This film supposedly sent its first watches screaming and running out of the cinema! Moving image was obviously very scary when it was first made!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cUEANKv964
I can't work out how to show this video on my blog but the link should work!!!

Some of the images in 03.11.2010 lecture

Degas, Absinthe Drinker
Worrying, new life was sending people mad! Having to get pissed because work was so rubbish

Some of the images in 03.11.2010 lecture

Caillebotte
With modernity comes alienation, separation, distraction, bordem, and possible subjective psychological illness.

Some of the images in 03.11.2010 lecture

1883 Kaiserpanorma, watched erotica, pictures, and images of our modern world, odd that they would prefer to look at their world through a screen instead of in real life!

Modernity and Modernism

Here are the notes I took in my first lecture. I will link some of the images talked about later!

The Truth about Faeries Exhibition in Carlise

I went to this exhibition in August in Carlise.
here are my notes and a poem that was on the wall which I redrew.