design(er) notes

Debbie Millman has been in design for over half of her life.  She is a partner of the design division of Sterling Brands and also a member of the board of AIGA, where she is now the President.  She is the host of the internet radio show “Design Matters” and a co-author of the blog “Speak Up”. She has also worked for Emmis Broadcasting’s Hot 97, where she helped transform it into the hip-hop station it is today. She has written two books on design, “How to think like a Graphic Designer” and ”Essential Principles of Graphic Design”.  She is also a teacher at the School of Visual Arts and at The Fashion Institute of Technology. 

Her love affair with brands and design began in the 7th grade.  She became obsessed with Levi’s and Lacoste (little red tag and crocodile). Her once ideas of the brand making the person or product have changed through her years of being a well known designer.  She now tries to incorporate honesty, integrity and decency into every brand design she creates.  She is extremely determined to convince brands to rise to higher ground and reflect the condition of our culture. 

A few of her clients include: Craft, Glaxo-SmithKlien, Johnson&Johnson, Gillette, Nestle, Pepsi and Campbell’s. 

Along with being a designer she is also a photographer and painter. 

 http://debbiemillman.blogspot.com/

thomas jefferson once wrote that line (“i cannot live without books”) to adams.

he was tall and lanky.

he slept partly sitting up in an alcove between his dressing room and study.

and peas were his favorite vegetable.

AND WHY AM I WRITING ABOUT THOMAS JEFFERSON TO A GROUP OF GRAPHIC DESIGN STUDENTS?

i’m not a history buff. i surely never got so whooped-up about thomas jefferson until maira kalman (thinker/writer/illustrator/wife of the brilliant (un)designer tibor kalman [july 6, 1949 - may 2, 1999]), created this post on her nytimes blog “and the pursuit of happiness” after her fairly recent visit to monticello .

could you imagine having your own blog on the nytimes site? sheesh.

but she does.

i love her work. the illustrations are delicious. the words are most real, and her letterforms are casual beauties that i never tire of looking at. the way she sees and absorbs and recounts her experiences just makes me happy.

this nytimes blog is just one of the many gigs she has going. (i mean many gigs.) i’ve collected all of her books, including the ones that are sorta for children - but really for everyone, and i never miss a chance to experience her work.

her curiosity is insatiable, and i hope she keeps working for a long, long time.

(Aug. 15, 1914-November 26, 1996)

Education:

• §  Pratt Institute
• §  Parsons School of Design
• §  Art Students League
• §  Yale University (design teacher)

What is a logo?

Rand says, “

A logo is a flag, a signature, an escutcheon, a street sign. 
A logo does not sell (directly), it identifies. 
A logo is rarely a description of a business.
 A logo derives meaning from the quality of the thing it symbolizes,
 not the other way around. A logo is less important than the product it signifies; what it represents is more
 important than what it looks like.
 The subject matter of a logo can be almost anything.”

Corporate Identification

During the 1930’s, shortly after the Great Depression, several multinational corporations started to make their way to success.  With the help of Rand, the commercial artistry was turned into professional graphic designers.  He led the way for graphic designers all over the world from designing logos for multinational corporations such as IBM, UPS, abc, Westinghouse, and Cummings.

Corporate design became the key aspect of his career. Rand said that ‘a logo is more important in a certain sense than a painting because a zillion people see the logo and it affects what they do, it affects their taste, it affects the appearance of where they live, it affects everything.”

“If you show them more than two ideas, you weaken your position. (…) You make one statement, and this is it. If you think it comes easily, it’s not easy. I can solve any problem in the world, but it does not always come instantly.”

-Rand

IMB Logo Development (Rand started design for IBM during the ’47 design)

Other Corporate Logo Designs:

Later Years:

Paul Rand created trademarks up to the day he died of cancer, November 26, 1996 at the age of 82.

CHECK OUT MORE OF PAUL RAND HERE: http://www.paul-rand.com/

Who he is:

Chip Kidd was born September 12, 1964. He is a graphic designer and writer, he lives in New York City and Stonington, Connecticut. He currently works for Knopf inc. in New York, which was aczuired by Random House inc. and he is a part of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group at Random House. Random House is best known for trade book publishing. He joined this team in 1986 and began working as a junior assiatant.

What his is known as:

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

What he has done:

His first novel, The Cheese Monkeys, was a national bestseller and a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. His first book, Batman Collected, was awarded the Design Distinction award from ID magazine. He is the co-author and designer of the two-time Eisner award-winning Batman Animated. He is the editor-at-large for Pantheon, where he has overseen the publication of Chris Ware’s Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth, Dan Clowes’s David Boring, and the definitive book of the art of Charles Schulz, Peanuts (designed, edited, and with commentary by Mr. Kidd). He has also written about graphic design and popular culture for McSweeney’s, Vogue, The New York Times, The New York Observer, Entertainment Weekly, Details, 2WICE, The New York Post, ID, and Print.

His book jacket designs for Alfred A. Knopf (where he is associate art director) have helped spawn a revolution in the art of American book packaging. His work has been featured in Vanity Fair, Eye, Print, Entertainment Weekly, The New Republic, Time, Graphis, New York, and ID magazines, and he is a regular contributor of visual commentary to the Op-Ed page of The New York Times.  

http://www.goodisdead.com/index.php?/chip_who/

Leo Burnett (October 21, 1891 - June 7, 1971)

Big Ideas com out of Big Pencils

-created his own agency in Chicago in 1935 [known as Leo Burnett Worldwide]

- inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1961

- retired in 1967

- advertising executive famous for creating icons such as:

—Jolly Green Giant

—Marlboro Man

—Toucan Sam

—Charlie the Tuna

—Morris the Cat

—Pillsbury Doughboy

—the 7up “Spot”

—Tony the Tiger

- his agency is currently still working with:

—Kellogg’s

—Fiat

—Visa

—McDonalds

—Hallmark

—GM

—Gain

—Marlboro

—Coca Cola

—and many more…

born in milan, italy - 1931
studied architecture in milan & venice
has taught and lectured on design in US and abroad
has been president of:

• AGI (alliance graphique internationale)
• AIGA (american institute of graphic arts)

work includes:

• graphic and corporate indenity programs
• publication design
• architectural graphics
• exhibition, interior, furniture, consumer product designs for many leading american and european companies and institutions

signage by vignelli - houston, texas:

august 1972 - vignelli completely redesigned the new york subway map.

work is exhibited in:

• MoMA (museum of modern art)
• the metropolitan museum of art
• the brooklyn museum
• cooper-hewitt museum (new york)

during an interview in 2006, vignelli was asked,
“describe your style, like a good friend of yours would describe it.”
and he answered,
“spare, essential, intellectually elegant, strong, timeless (at least I hope! ).”

check out this video of vignelli, explaining his subway map:
http://www.helveticafilm.com/vignellimap.html

i am really fascinated with maps for some reason which is why i volunteered right away to explore vignelli’s work.

I’m a huge fan of in-your-face, controversial art and design, and Stefan Sagmeister has always fit the bill. He’s an Austrian-born graphic designer who owns his own agency, Sagmeister Inc., in New York City. He works with clients like the Rolling Stones, HBO and the Guggenheim museum.

“Striking to the point of sensationalism and humorous but in such an unsettling way that it’s nearly, but not quite unacceptable, his work mixes sexuality with wit and a whiff of the sinister.”

He first studied graphic design in Vienna, then moved to New York to study at the Pratt Institute. After returning to Vienna for a period of time, he moved to Hong Kong and landed an unusual job with the ad agency, Leo Burnett. He had no intentions of getting a job there but was constantly asked by the company to come work for them. He realized they would not back down easily, so he told them he would only work for them if they gave him X-much money (he named a ridiculous amount, thinking they would decline). To his surprise they accepted the offer.

Right now he’s a long-standing collaborator for the AIGA and holds many lectures all over the country. To give you an idea of how much he pushes the limits of design, this is a poster for a lecture in Cranbrook, Michigan in 1999.

He asked his assistant to carve the details of the the lecture on his upper body with an X-acto knife…just a taste of what he’s made of.

Hillman-Curtis also did an artist series film on him that shows a lot of this work and how he thinks.

Sagmeister08 from Stephan Wetzl on Vimeo.

Sagmeister continues to raise the bar for design around the world. Check out the work of Sagmeister Inc. here.

you see how the headline is followed by (post by jane)?

• when you type the headlines for your posts, include your name in parentheses so we’ll know which posts belong to you.

• take a minute to read bruce mau’s incomplete manifesto for growth. (sept. 15th quote i posted with a live link) it’s legendary, as is bruce mau.

• “who???” you ask? BRUCE MAU. check him out. and his manifesto. if it seeps into the cracks of your brain in any way, well, that’ll be a good thing.

• remember to have your info (writing, links, photos, etc.) posted prior to the start of class on thursday.

• don’t fret if you’re not familiar with blogging or creating files for the web. these blog interfaces make it incredibly easy to do whatever you need to do. just have fun with it. experiment. make mistakes. get frustrated. keep trying. triumph. learn something in the process.

really (for real, really) good job overall with your strange connections.

please get some rest.