Designers: Kyle Cooper and Shepard Fairy

Kyle Cooper studied under Paul Rand. He was influenced by Saul Bass. He is a title and ending sequence artist. He also works with typography in his sequences.  He also does animation for T.V. spots and video games as well as the movie sequences. He works with interesting effects, fonts, video clips, and animations. He did some title sequences such as Curios George, Spider Man, Dawn of the Dead, and Se7en. 

Shepard Fairey started designing stickers and skateboards because of his interest in music and skateboarding. His styles encompasses art deco, sunbursts, the darker side, hidden messages, bold colors and fonts. He has done work with Black Sabbath , Andre the Giant, and President Obama. His first sticker was Andre the Giant OBEY and put them up everywhere. He did political posters, music posters, and designs for skateboards and snowboards.

Designers: Stefan Sagmeister and Clement Mok

Stefan Sagmeister was influenced by Tibor Kalman with social responsibility and activism. He also worked in one of Leo Burnett's groups in Hong Kong. He later opened Sagmeister INC. in New York City. He uses a lot of hand written elements, not much for the computer. He also uses a lot of photography. His style has described as interesting, quirky, and inventive. He is also well known for using the human body as his canvas. He takes a year off every 7 years to reboot and not get stuck in a rut.

Clement Mok worked for Apple and helped launced the Macintosh computer. He had his foot in every door ncluding designing, developing, web developer and software producer to name a few. He used bold colors and geometric lines in his designs. He mainly did logos and identity designs, but also did package design in the late 90's. He created his own business/company after leaving Apple called Clement Mok Design. He also co-created AIGA.

Designers: Tibor Kalman, David Carson, and Matthew Carter

Tibor Kalman was a social activist. He had an isolated childhood because he could not speak English, this worked out for him because his style and art was affected by this. He liked to put social issues into his work. He and his wife, Maria, found M&Co. in 1979. He did magazine covers, bag designs, album covers, and stuff for restaurants. He did interesting, quirky things such as paper weights and weird watches. Helped create the United Colors of Bennetton to help promote peace.

A lack of theory best describes David Carson's style. Typography is at the top of his list with the style in his design. His style seems spontaneous, but there are a few constant ideas in all of his works. He is branching out to film as of now. He is best know for his work and time at Raygun. His idea on typography was that it didn't need to be legible to be understood.

Matthew Carter is a typography designer. The first half of his career he designed and created typefaces, the second half of his career he did digital type work. He went to London and worked with other artists to create new typefaces. He founded Extreme Ink with a few other artists. He created Bell Centennial which is still used in Phone books today. He was influenced by serif fonts which helped him create some of his designs. He created Verdana for Microsoft and he created ink traps for letters so they would smudge and loose their sharp corners.

Designers: Neville Brody, Art Chantry, and Storm Thorgerson

Neville Brody was influenced by music, especially Punk music. He was greatly influenced by the rebellious side to Punk music and the Punk culture. He used typography in a new and different way along with his use with contrasting color. He did magazine covers, advertisements, digital designs, and record covers to name some.

Art Chantry was influenced by his childhood past. He was also influenced by the hippie subculture and the Vietnam War. He is very well know for his grunge, punk, rock and roll, and random style. He didn't like using computers, he liked recycling images and using original pieces.

Storm Thorgerson designed about 15o album covers. He used photography in a layering affect to create his images. He designed the Dark Side of the Moon album cover among other various artists' album covers. He uses a very large central figure with a smaller figure to the side. He does a lot of interesting album covers that relate to the music. In 1968 he created Hipgnosis with Aubry "Po" Powell. He was influenced by Munch, Dali, and Maurice Sendak.

Designers: April Greiman, Milton Glaser, and Seymour Chwast

April Greiman's style embraced New Wave Design. She used unusual typefaces and different angles with this style. She then started using a more 3D aspect to her design. She inspired people to start using computers to design. She was very well known for her layering of imagery. She then started working with Jayme Odgers and incorporated digital and graphic images into her works.

Milton Glaser's style can be described with three words; directness, simplicity, and originality.
He established his own company Milton Glaser Inc. which has a wide range of design disciplines. He had influences with comic books, Art Nouveau, and Pop Art. He liked to leave his work up for interpretation.

Seymour Chwast was greatly influenced by comic books and Walt Disney characters. He was one of the founders of Push Pin Studio, and is also known for his posters and children's book illustrations. He likes to have a large central image with the typography on the outter edges. He liked to work with the speedball pen and with woodcuts to help with his designs.

Thesis Statement

Leo Burnett was one of the most influential advertising designers from the 20th century, creating some of the most well know icons such as Tony the Tiger, the Jolly Green Giant, and the Marlboro Man. He proved that visual communication with images was much more powerful than any amount of words could be.

Before Class: Psychedelic Poster Mania 4/15/09

1. Sum up the reading in your own words in 1 paragraph: This reading was really short, but had a lot of interesting and cool information. The "hippie" subculture movement began in the 1960s in the Haight-Ashbury section in San Francisco. It was kind of like and anti-establishment movement against the older generations. Social activism helped move it along with the help of the civil rights movement, women's liberation movement, and the protest of the Vietnam war. Psychedelic posters got their name from the association with rock and roll music and psychedelic drug use. Most of the artists during this time were self-taught and mainly designed and created posters for concerts and dances. Robert Wesley "Wes" Wilson was basically the innovator of the style and created psychedelic fonts. Victor Moscoso was the only artist with a formal education in art. Peter Max did amazing work, but was mainly seen as a pop artist. Psychedelic posters were influenced by art nouveaus curves and central women figures, pop art, and op-art (optical art).

2. Name the one thing (or person) you found most interesting from the reading.
One person that I found to be really interesting was Wes Wilson. I loved learning more about him throughout the reading and when I was doing my project. I thought it was really cool how he started and created the psychedelic fonts and how he was really the innovator behind the psychedelic poster style. I also really liked his work a lot.

3. State at least one question you have after the reading or from last class.
Why did the Berkeley Free Press go out of business? Was it to radical even in those times?

Before Class: Chapter Twenty & Twenty-One 4/8/09

1. Sum up the reading in your own words in 1 paragraph: The chapter first starts off with the technology advances made during WWII and how productive capacity turned towards the consumer goods spectrum. The topic of the first section of the reading focused on the change and development of corporate identity. Behrens at AEG was one of the founders of corporate identity along with the Olivetti Corporation. Adriano Olivetti, the son of the founder, Camillo, hired Giovanni Pintori. Pintori design concept was simple, even his most complex designs had a simplicity about them. The design of CBS's corporate identity was the area of concern in the chapter. President Frank Stanton and William Golden came up with the CBS "eye in the sky" design. Golden wanted to get rid of the design but Stanton told him "Just when you're beginning to get bored with what you have done is probably the time it is beginning to be noticed." Georg Olden was the first African-American to achieve prominence as a graphic designer, holding a professional position before the civil-rights movement. He used simple symbolic imagery with strong silhouettes and linear properties because of televisions medium. He also created the hundredth anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation stamp. Lou Dorfson became the director of all of CBS after Golden's death. He was originally just director of the radio portion of the company. Paul Rand comes back into play with the corporate identity of IBM, Westinghouse, ABC, and NeXT computer logo. IBM allowed NeXT to use Rand to design their computer logo. Lester Beall created corporate identities for Martin Marietta, Connecticut General Life Insurance, and the International Paper Company. He also set up some guidelines for the corporate-identity manual. A couple other corporate identity designs were talked about that were done by Chermayeff & Geismar Associates (Mobil, NBC, Chase, etc.), Saul Bass (Minolta and AT&T), and Muriel Cooper( Bauhaus and MIT). The rest of the reading focused on the creation of transportation signage symbols, the Olympic Games design system, and the MTV logo.

2. Name the one thing (or person) you found most interesting from the reading.
I really enjoyed learning about Georg Olden, because he was the first African-American to have a high standard job as a graphic design no less, before the civil-rights movement. It shows me that it was possible for people to look beyond race and to work together to make good art and graphic design. I also really liked learning that he was the first African-American to have the honor of designing a stamp for the U.S. Postal Service.

3. State at least one question you have after the reading or from last class.
Why would IBM allow their top designer to create a corporate logo for their rival company,NeXT Computers? Wouldn't that kind of be corporate identity/graphic design suicide?


1. Sum up the reading in your own words in 1 paragraph: After WWII graphic designers saw that the development of conceptual images was needed. Graphic artists had more opportunity for self-expression and created more personal images. During this time the traditional boundaries between the fine arts and public visual communications became quite blurred. Armando Testa created was an abstract painter until after the war then opened a graphic design studio in Turin. Where he impacted the graphic design world with is combination of surrealism and recognizable symbols; his Pirelli tire design and rubber and plastics exhibition poster were two of his most well know designs. After WWII Poland was completely devastated and was in ruin. The first Polish poster artist after WWII was Tadeusz Trepkowski. He expressed the tragic effects of the war and the aspirations for the future with his work, which was very simple, reducing the words and imagery. Henryk Tomaszewski became the spiritual leader of Polish graphic design after Trepkowski's death. The Muzeum Plakatu was established in 1964 devoted exclusively to poster art. The next major trend in Polish posters started in the 1950s and continued until the 1970s; it was darker, more somber, and leaned more towards the metaphysical and surrealist. Franciszek Starowiejski was one of the first to embrace this new style. The next section of the reading was on American conceptual images, and the "death of illustrations" due to photography's expanison. Push Pin Almanack was a printing publication that had freelance assignments which then became Push Pin Studio and which created Push Pin Graphic, an experimental magazine that created an area for new images, ideas, and techniques. Barry Zaid was a young graphic designer who joined Push Pin in the late 1960s until the early 1970s. Zaid was an important force due to the fact that he was a graphic archeologist who based his work on thorough studies of graphic vernacular. He was particularly influential in the revival of art deco’s decorative geometric forms. The last portion of our reading was on third world posters. Posters there became vehicles for challenging authority and power.

2. Name the one thing (or person) you found most interesting from the reading.
One thing that I found really interesting from this chapter was what had happened to Poland during the war and how they worked through it. Everything they had worked towards was destroyed and was in shambles, but were able to come back and have an all new design style. I really liked learning about the changes from the first style to the next and thinking that it changed because of the people feelings towards the regime and wanting autonomy.

3. State at least one question you have after the reading or from last class.
What were the other advances in graphic design during this time in other parts of the world? And in the countries that were mentioned?

Before Class: Chapter Eighteen & Nineteen 4/6/09

1. Sum up the reading in your own words in 1 paragraph: During the 1950s a design movement emerged from Switzerland and Germany, which has been called Swiss design or International Typographic Style. The objective of this style was clarity of design. It was popular for over two decades and its influences continued until the 21st century. Sans-serif typography with a flush-left and ragged-right margin were used primarily. A couple "pioneers of the movement" were Ernst Keller, Theo Ballmer, Max Bill, Max Huber, Anton Stankowski, and Rudolph DeHarak just to name a few. In 1918 Keller joined the Zurich Kunstgewerbeschule (School of Applied Art) to teach advertising layout courses and to develop courses in design and typography. Balmer studied briefly at Bauhaus in the late 1920s, and used an arithmetic grid of horizontal and vertical alignments in his designs. Bill's worked with painting, architecture, engineering, sculpture, and product and graphic design. In 1931 he embraced the concepts of art concret, which was very mathematical and used bright colors, after he moved to Zurich in 1929. Huber created/worked on phenomenal projects with trasparencies of printing inks and layering shapes. His designs puched the envelope and were said to be "on the edge of chaos." Stankowski lived in Zurich from 1929 to 1937, during this time he was very influential in photography. In 1968 the senate of Berlin commissioned Stankowski for a design program with the city. And DeHarak was an American that was a self-taught graphic designer who embraced the new European design.

2. Name the one thing (or person) you found most interesting from the reading.
One person that I really liked reading about was Rudolph DeHarak, mainly because he was an American. I mean because America was so late in the game and it was nice reading about someone in the U.S. that was helping it move along with the rest of the world. I also thought that it was interesting to see that he had made over 350 book jackets McGraw-Hill Publishers. He had really creative and abstract designs that are really fun to look at.

3. State at least one question you have after the reading or from last class.
Did people understand Anton Stankowski's posters right away? I think that the three (18-9, 18-10, 18-11) that are in the book are very well done and beautiful but aren't the easiest to understand right away?


1. Sum up the reading in your own words in 1 paragraph: This chapter was about the new design concept in America. Paul Rand, Bill Bernbach, Alvin Lustig, Alex Steinweiss, Saul Bass, George Tscherny, and Robert Brownjohn we the pioneers of the New York School. This chapter was mainly about magazine and newspaper design and layout (from what I understood from it) and it talked about the pioneers contributions to the design. Rand was at the head of the movement and he used simple and contrasting design elements. Lustig incorporated his subjective vision and privat symbols into graphic design. Steinweiss was twenty-four years old and became the art director at Columbia Records; his modern designs were comprised of visual forms, shapes, and colors. Bass created the first title sequence for The Man With The Golden Arm, he also created numerous corporate-identity programs. Tscherny was the head of the graphic design department for the New York design firm George Nelson & Associates before opening his own office in 1956. Technology was being used more and more during this time for photography and printing.

2. Name the one thing (or person) you found most interesting from the reading.
I really liked the magazine covers. The new layouts, the new designs, and the concepts behind all of them. A couple of my favorites were the McCall's patterns (black and red with two woman) and the Bazaar cover with the woman's face and a water glass.

3. State at least one question you have after the reading or from last class.
Why was The Man With The Golden Arm title sequence was such a big deal? Why were rectangles used for the sequence? And I still don't completely get New York School. Is it mainly about magazine design and layout?

Week Nine Image

Cubism and Frank Lloyd Wright

Describe what it is: This is a Windex bottle done in the style of Cubism.

Describe your concept behind the design: I decided to do a bottle with straight edges like if it were made from lots of little cubes. I then colored in larger cubes with blues and greens, trying to stick within the same color family. I used close to the same colors that are used in the modern day Windex bottle.

Discuss the style of the design & typography, how it relates to history: The style of the Windex bottle fits in with the whole design concept of Cubism. Everything is in the form of a cube and there are no soft edges. The typography of Windex is in a cube matter; the squared off look fits within the style. Even though I didn't see much typography with Cubism.




Describe what it is: This is a Windex logo that is done in the style of Frank Lloyd Wright.

Describe your concept behind the design: I decided to do an ad or logo for the Windex product with a Frank Lloyd Wright concept. I used one of his window designs for inspiration with the shapes and colors and I used the influence of a font that Frank Lloyd Wright designed for Windex .

Discuss the style of the design & typography, how it relates to history: I thought that if I were to do a Frank Lloyd Wright style for the Windex product I figured it should be very close to one that he actually did design. I was inspired by a window design he did, and I think it fits pretty well with the ad concept. This relates to history of graphic design because this is the type of design that he would have used and actually did use for a window design (with some alterations).

Before Class: Iraq War Posters 3/30/09

Two of the images that I found to be the most interesting from
http://www.minitature
gigantic.com/ gallery1.html# were the map of the world saying "Safe At Last" and the one with "Connect the pictures with the corresponding words". Both of these posters made me laugh a little bit because it makes you realize that United States mentality towards war and democracy is crazy. I mean its ridiculous how our government views our war policy and

how we "spread" democracy.
The "Safe At Last" poster is absolutely insane because it's like Battle Ship combined with Risk. And the "Connect the pictures with the corresponding words" has no right answers. None of them can actually be put with the correct word, proving again that our governments idea of spreading democracy and war is way off.

Week Eight Image

Victorian And Art Nouveau

Describe what it is: This is a logo for Windex with a Victorian style to it. I chose just to do the logo name for this style and I added a decorative seal/border around it to make it feel more Victorian.

Describe your concept behind the design: The concept behind this Victorian logo for Windex was to use a decorative border to enclose the product name, which is in a very loopy, fancy writing. I didn't go with the super cramped style, because I liked this more. I think the frills and fanciness of it fits really well with the Victorian style.

Discuss the style of the design & typography, how it relates to history: The style is very fancy and kind of feminine looking. The typography is the same way, very feminine, fancy, loopy, but isn't the easiest to read (the SC in SC Johnson is harder to read). This relates to history because it is using an older style with a modern product. I am using close to the same typography that was used during that era and the border looks like it could have came straight from the time period.



Describe what it is: This is a Windex bottle that I created that has a Art Nouveau feel to it. The bottle is meant to look like a female form and also has the "spaghetti" looking hair.

Describe your concept behind the design: I wanted to make a Windex bottle look like a woman. I also wanted to tie in the hair, because hair seemed to be a big thing with Art Nouveau. Even though the woman doesn't have a face or any real features, you can still tell it's a woman. I kept the same colors that Windex uses, but I did change the font to look more handwritten and organic looking.

Discuss the style of the design & typography, how it relates to history: This relates to what we have learned in class because it emphasizes the female form, has wispy, "spaghetti" hair, and uses close to the same typography used during the Art Nouveau era. I took a modern object and made it show off the female form.