Design as a Conversation

Design has an amazing ability to communicate with its audience. For example you can tell a lot about a person by the way they design their homepage for a personal website or their profile on a social networking site.  Are they minimalistic, fun, classic, quirky, energetic? You can tell a lot about them by the way they chose to design the things around them.  Similarly you can look at the advertisement for an upcoming movie, and often without even knowing anything about the film you can tell from the design what kind of film it will be.  Will it be a horror film? A comedy? A romance? A drama? Will it be exciting, mysterious, humorous, or a tear-jerker?  All these things can be communicated to you simply from the way a poster is illustrated.  The design for a clothing brand’s logo can tell you about that clothing line.  Is it classic? Modern? Fancy? Retro? Quirky?  The design of a company’s logo is its identity to the public, it conveys the main feature of its style, like the classic Gap logo which when changed created a major uproar amongst consumers.  Design is always communicating something.  It is our first impression when we encounter something and it communicates to us, in that first experience, the primary characteristics of what we’re looking at.

New GAP logo fails to impress

Last week Gap tried to launch a new logo for their company, replacing their 20 year old logo of a blue box containing the word Gap in an all-cap serif font, with a logo that incorporated the blue box in a different way.  The new logo had the word Gap written in a sans-serif font, no longer in all caps, with the blue box sitting just above and behind the lowercase p.  I suppose it was a design meant to be modern and fresh, but the design was quickly changed back to their original after the negative response it received on social networking sites.  I found it interesting how strong the reaction against this change received.  In the article I read on CNNMoney.com, the article stated that one person wrote how they would no longer be shopping at Gap because of the new logo change.  I wondered why a change in the logo would incite such a strong response.  The clothes aren’t changing, just the logo, so why threaten to stop shopping there? To me it shows the impact a brand’s image has, the old logo says classic, and I believe that it’s very classic style is a big part of Gap’s general appeal.  Personally I also prefer the old logo which I see as a very clean, classic image, while the new one just felt BORING!

Compare and Contrast

Image Source: http://iwritealot.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/harry_potter_and_the_sorcerers_stone.jpg and http://www.bscreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/harry-potter-and-the-deathly-hallows.jpg

In my very first blog post, I talked about the cover art for the first Harry Potter novel as one of my very first memories of realizing the power and impact of design.  Today I will compare the cover designs of the first novel to that of the final novel, released ten years later.  As someone who has read all seven of the Harry Potter novels (multiple times, I must admit) I can appreciate how the changes in the cover designs for each novel pertain to the changes happening throughout the overarching storyline of the novels.  Seven years pass by, the characters mature, the plots become darker, and these changes are evident in the way that Mary GrandPré chooses to illustrate JK Rowling’s novels.  The first book’s design is very whimsical, the characters are cartoonish, and the color scheme which employs a lot of reds, purples, and gold give the cover a very fanciful feel.  It is a much more colorful and lively design that is clearly meant to appeal to a younger audience.  As the novels progress GrandPré’s depictions of Harry changes too; with the passing of each novel the main character’s appearances morph’s from the juvenile, cartoonish figure to a more realistic and mature appearance.  The cover of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows shows an older Harry Potter with an intense expression and his hand stretched out as the main figure occupying the cover.  The cover is simpler than many of the previous novels, showing Harry alone on the front cover and the villain, Lord Voldemort, as the main figure on the back of the cover.  I always liked GrandPré’s approach to illustrating the Harry Potter novels, her cover designs were always fitting for each book, and I think that it was a very smart decision for her to subtly alter her depictions of Harry as the character matured throughout the novels.

What do we ask design to do?

Design is about making something that is not only aesthetically pleasing, but also functional.  As a designer, we are often asked to create while adhering to the wants and needs of a client as well as society.  In exploring the question of what we ask design to do, one must also consider the questions of what design is and who the people of design are, both of which I attempted to answer last week.  I said last week that I believe that design is everywhere, and that I do not believe that there is a single definition that could truly encompass all that design is and its impact on the world.  Additionally I stated that everyone is in some way a person of design whether that’s as the designer, the client, or the consumer.  Design is the first impression we get when we encounter something.  In the case of the design of a book cover or a movie poster, the design will impact our first thoughts on that book or movie and whether or not we want to see or read it.  Through the images the designer will need to convey to us the important points of the story and (attempt) to make us want to read or see it mostly through images with a small amount of text.  In the case of a room or building design, the designer must create a space that is functional for the client as well as beautiful.  A fashion designer needs to make something aesthetically pleasing as well as wearable.  In every area of design, the designer must face the challenge of not only creating something that is beautiful, but also that serves a purpose.

Creativity From Without

As designers, we will often be working with a client who is asking us to design a product for them.  In this case the designer is asked to create not from an inspiration that comes from within themselves, but from without.  They are asked to draw creativity from the client’s ideas and from what the client wants and envisions for the product to make the idea a reality.  It is a challenge that designers often find themselves faced with, and every designer must learn how to handle and work within the restrictions that a client places on you.

 

I remember a show that used to air on HGTV called Get Color, in which the designer, Jane Lockhart, would create a personalized color wheel inspired by something that the client was passionate about and use that color wheel to design a room for the client.  Sometimes the inspiration would be a favorite place, a historical period, or a favorite past time such as cooking, gardening, or scrapbooking, but in every case the color wheel would be made up of objects that relate to the theme and was always different.  I used to really enjoy watching this show, because I found the designer’s approach to interior design and color use very original and interesting.  It was great to see how the designer and client could draw inspiration from absolutely anything and to see the way that color could be used to evoke the memory of a favorite place, time, or hobby.  It was definitely one of my favorite shows on HGTV and really made me think about the powerful effect that color can have on you ….I wish the show was still on the air.

Stone Soup

Last week in Design 001, we were asked to make something out of random objects we had brought with us to class.  The project was inspired by the children’s book, Stone Soup, written and illustrated by Marcia Brown, in which a village comes together to create a stew out of whatever they happen to have and end up sharing a delicious feast together.  Our group had a very random collection of items including an empty orange juice bottle, a little pink stuffed rabbit, some paper cranes, a sheet of cardboard, a stack of newspaper, paints, some hair bands, and a few other random objects.  The challenge was trying to find inspiration in this strange assortment and creating something with it.  When we started the project we really didn’t know what we were going to make, we just started working.  The cardboard sheet was folded into a triangular shape and we started to make a bunch of “cootie-catchers” from the stack of newspapers we had.  One of the paper cranes was placed upside down on the rabbit’s head as a crown, and we used strips of paper to tie together bundles of sticks together.  After compiling all these pieces together, we were a little lost for a while as to what to do with them, but quickly the idea of using these items to create a throne for “the bunny king” was proposed and after that the project quickly grew.  We painted the cardboard structure with a swirling leaf motif to relate it to the bundles of twigs that were framing the toy rabbit’s “throne” and further decorated it with the cootie-catchers we had assembled.  It was very fun to see how the project evolved as we continued to work, and transform from an arbitrary assortment of objects into a small sculpture of an elaborate throne for “the bunny king.”

Who are the people of design?

I think the short answer to this question is everyone.  Everyone is in some way affected by design and are part of the design world.  To begin with you have the designer whose job is to create an aesthetically pleasing and functional design for whatever it is they were hired to do. Be it to design the cover art for a book, a new skyscraper, a bedroom, or a new clothing line, the designer is expected to create something that is both beautiful and functional, and meets the needs of the client and/or consumer.  Which brings me to the next person of design: the client.  In almost every design endeavor the designer will be working with a person or a company at some point.  It is for the client that these designs are made so the designer must take into account what the client needs the design for.  Sometimes that means designing a room with a certain color scheme and motif, or creating the packaging for a new product to be put on the market, but no matter what the project entails the client will always have a strong impact on the final design.  Though often times the designer and the client are considered the people of design, there is another group that must be considered as well: the consumer or the public.  Since much of the time a designer is working to create a product that will be placed on the market and made available to the public, the design of the product will be affected by the wants and needs of the public.  The client will want their product to stand out to the public and make people want their product over the competitions, so it is the designer’s job to consider in their design what the consumer wants as well as what the client wants.

What is design?

After thinking long and hard about this question, I decided to check the dictionary that was sitting on my desk and see what Webster’s dictionary had to say on the matter.  And after reading a very long, eight part definition that ranged from design is “a particular purpose held in view by an individual or group” to design is “the creative art of executing aesthetic or functional designs,” I came to the conclusion that not even it would be able to help me with this question.  While all of those definitions do accurately describe the term, they just don’t quite seem like enough to define design.  Design is such a broad term that affects so many aspects of our lives that it is difficult to put into words what exactly design is.  Design is in almost everything around us from the layout of an apartment to something as simple as a water bottle, design is part of it all.  In class last week we were asked if design was a noun or a verb, and the reality is its both.  Depending on its usage, design can be considered either a noun or a verb.  You can consider the design of the new table you just bought or you can work on designing a new work of art to decorate your wall.  To me there is no definition that can completely describe what design is and the impact of it in our lives.  Design is simply design.  It’s the first thing we experience when we encounter a place or object: the design of the new restaurant that opened down the block, the design of the poster for an upcoming movie, the design of the clothing displayed in the front window of a store.

Memories of Design

Image Source: http://iwritealot.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/harry_potter_and_the_sorcerers_stone.jpg

One of my earliest memories of the impact of design in our lives was the cover illustration for the novel, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling which would quickly become my favorite book, and continue to be a favorite series of mine into adulthood.  This was before Harry Potter had become as popular as it shortly would become and so I had never heard of this novel before, but the stylized cover illustrations by Mary GrandPré immediately caught my eye as I browsed through the shelves of my local bookstore.  A boy on a broomstick straining to catch a tiny winged golden ball. A great castle in the background with a giant three-headed dog hiding menacingly beneath an archway.  A beautiful, ethereal unicorn galloping across an open field with a great foreboding forest looming in the background.  I remember turning the book over to see more of the illustration and being further intrigued by the image of the mysterious cloaked man with a long silver beard.  All these images together had already given me a sense of what I would find in the world of this book: mystery, adventure, and magic.  Already I was fascinated and I hadn’t even read the synopsis of the book that was printed on the inside flap of the cover, I hadn’t even read a single word about the book except for the title and the author’s name.  I realized then the impact that the design of the cover art of a novel could have.  The information it had to communicate to the consumer with nothing more than the title and imagery with which to convey the mood of the novel.  It was amazing to me that in a single image the designer was able to communicate to me what I was going to find within the pages of this book.