OK catch up time, what have I covered so far. Film set design, signage design, Cold War Modern and what makes for good design. So its Tuesday and this naturally means we need to go 2D and talk about layout and typography and for me the most natural place to start is with Neville Brody. Brody was art director at The Face magazine from 1981 to 1986. He studied at the London College of Printing during the mid to late 70's punk era in London and his work still exhibits some of the iconoclastic energy of the time. Pick up nearly any magazine these days and it is bound to have some echo of Brody's radical approach to layout and typography. He also worked with Arena magazine and designed a new Typeface for the London Times newspaper. I think Brody still likes to see himself as a radical. He is not afraid to criticise the design establishment.
magazine type layout
type
Typography
In the video below speaks about design and culture with particular reference to digital culture.
Neville Brody by Etapes. (2009). Neville Brody. [Online Video]. 2009. Available from: https://vimeo.com/7538439. [Accessed: 29 May 2012].
Images Neville Brody, (2010), various [ONLINE]. Available at: http://benstanley00.blogspot.com/p/neville-brody.html[Accessed 29 May 12].
What makes for good design? Well one man, the German industrial designer Dieter Rams, has I suspect given this question more thought than most of us. Ramms worked as a designer for the German domestic appliance manufacturer Braun for over 50 years and his work became known for his simplicity. Only the essentials are kept. The record player (remember those) below became known as "sleeping beauty" because when the lid was down it looked a little like a glass coffin. His ten properties of good design are listed below. They have become known as the "Ten Commandments" and could be applied to web design as well as to architecture. They are great observations, my favourite is "Good Design Makes A Product Understandable", it a thing, a building a web page, whatever should communicate something of its simplicity to its user.
Good Design Is Innovative : The possibilities for innovation are not, by any means, exhausted. Technological development is always offering new opportunities for innovative design. But innovative design always develops in tandem with innovative technology, and can never be an end in itself.
Good Design Makes a Product Useful : A product is bought to be used. It has to satisfy certain criteria, not only functional but also psychological and aesthetic. Good design emphasises the usefulness of a product while disregarding anything that could possibly detract from it.
Good Design Is Aesthetic : The aesthetic quality of a product is integral to its usefulness because products are used every day and have an effect on people and their well-being. Only well-executed objects can be beautiful.
Good Design Makes A Product Understandable : It clarifies the product’s structure. Better still, it can make the product clearly express its function by making use of the user’s intuition. At best, it is self-explanatory.
Good Design Is Unobtrusive : Products fulfilling a purpose are like tools. They are neither decorative objects nor works of art. Their design should therefore be both neutral and restrained, to leave room for the user’s self-expression.
Good Design Is Honest : It does not make a product more innovative, powerful or valuable than it really is. It does not attempt to manipulate the consumer with promises that cannot be kept
Good Design Is Long-lasting : It avoids being fashionable and therefore never appears antiquated. Unlike fashionable design, it lasts many years – even in today’s throwaway society.
Good Design Is Thorough Down to the Last Detail : Nothing must be arbitrary or left to chance. Care and accuracy in the design process show respect towards the consumer.
Good Design Is Environmentally Friendly : Design makes an important contribution to the preservation of the environment. It conserves resources and minimises physical and visual pollution throughout the lifecycle of the product.
Good Design Is as Little Design as Possible : Less, but better – because it concentrates on the essential aspects, and the products are not burdened with non-essentials. Back to purity, back to simplicity.
Have a listen to Rams discuss his work in the video below from the BBC,
These posts on design may well be posted in a riff format, as in what ever catches my eye as being something of quality design is my starting point for each post. Something worth sharing.
Signs are everywhere and a lot of the time we don't notice them, when was the last time really you looked up on the street? Although street signage clutter can be a plague leading to information overload. Where I live in Dublin traffic signs have been erected where they obscure traffic lights (bad design decision) but sometimes isolated sign design can work so well.
This fantastic piece (above) is via Eight Hour Day. To me this sign as a piece of design it is very evocative. It says America, it says 1950's and it says showbiz. Granted the evocative feelings are there because this piece of design looks as if it has history. The 50's was probably when the use of neon hit its peak as the prime element in the design of illuminated signs and there are not many signs like these manufactured these days. As a result they are expensive to make and you would be hard pressed to let any town planners let you erect anything so dramatic these days in most cities. I think there is an element of craft in good neon work; by that I mean people manipulating materials directly with heir hands.
I should have a picture of this sign when it is fully illuminated but you know it looks as good in daylight, Sky blue against Sky blue
Are there any areas of design that you think I should cover?
Lets start with a little film (below) on possibly the best and most iconic of film set designers. Ken Adam, the name doesn't ring a bell? He is the designer of all of those brilliant master criminal layers in the Bond movies. Think Dr.No and the set of the War Room (photo above) in Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove.
The design style of these sets and the buildings they influenced came to be known as Cold War Modern. Have a look at the link here to the Victoria and Albert Museum exhibition on the Cold War Modern Design. I really like the the style mainly because all of those Brutalist concrete buildings have mellowed with age and can be viewed from the safe distance of decades. It is rare to get a good biographical film on the life of a designer. Enjoy it.
coldwarmodern. (2008). Ken Adam, designer - Cold War Modern. [Online Video]. Oct 1, 2008. Available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-Cyp7bIZOM. [Accessed: 22 May 2012].
This blog is my gathered comments on design. That could be fashion, film, web, graphics or buildings.
There was a time when everyone could make something with their hands; because they had too. Then there was the blacksmith, the iron foundry and now the web. OK there was a lot more in between, and I might look at that. We are all designers. Picking your shoes in the morning is a design decision. Picking one birthday card over another is a reaction to design.
I think if we all did more making and doing with our hands we would all be happier.
