Open Post: MSU Design

What does MSU offer related to Graphic Design?

MSU offers degrees in Apparel & Textile Design, Art Education, Art History & Visual Culture, and Studio Art.  According to the MSU Art Department's wesbite, in the Kresge Art Center, students "have ample studio space for ceramics, drawing, foundations, graphic design, painting, photography, printmaking, and screen printing, sculpture, sewing, and weaving". Outside of the classroom, there are many opportunities to mount exhibitions, interact with professionals in the field, numerous and varied internships for design students, and an active Guest Lecture Series.  These opportunities help students gain experience inside and outside the classroom, while expanding their networks by talking to professionals and speakers.
What I'm leaning towards at the moment (if I end up liking the advertising classes I'm going to take this coming Fall) is just a specialization in design.

" The Specialization in Design is jointly administered by the College of Communication Arts and Sciences and the Department of Art, Art History, and Design within the College of Arts and Letters. The College of Communication Arts and Sciences is the primary administrative unit. The specialization is available as an elective to students who are enrolled in bachelor’s degree programs at Michigan State University. Students in the Department of Advertising, Public Relations and Retailing; the Department of Art, Art History, and Design; the School of Journalism; and the Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies and Media may find this specialization of particular interest." 

 I feel like going along the advertising route will give me a more general knowledge in bits and pieces of marketing, business, advertising, and then the specialization in design will allow me to pursue a more creative side of advertising.  To be honest, I still have no idea what I'm doing, but this is looking like a very attractive option.

Open Post: Screen Printing On the Cheap

I recently stumbled across a blog talking about this book called Screen Printing On the Cheap.  I was obviously interested because screen printing looks like a whole lot of fun to learn and do.  So I read up on what the book was all about.  Their statement about the book is: "As educated artists, we have been conditioned to rely on making art in facilities we simply cannot afford.  Screen Printing on the Cheap demonstrates a 'new school' of screen printing and makes the process more accessible to the community.  In turn, screen printing makes their creative work more accessible to the masses."  I'm going to buy this book.  I read some reviews and it sounds like they simplified the process so that you can create a printing set-up for as cheap as possible, while still making quality prints.  As a broke college kid that is interesting in learning how to screen print at least as a hobby, this book definitely sounds like a good investment.  Before reading about this book, I didn't really realize that I could start printing in my garage at home.  They're really appealing to a wide audience and making it easier for more people to turn their ideas into works of art.

Open Post: OBEY

After posting about Shepard Fairey's remix poster, I stumbled upon this short film that was just released about him called OBEY THE GIANT: The Shepard Fairey Story.  I'd suggest anyone that's heard of OBEY or Shepard Fairey to watch it, it's only about twenty minutes and it's very well made.  It tells the story of how the Andre the Giant image started out as a project in college while he was studying at Rhode Island School of Design.  He started plastering these stickers everywhere he could: stop signs, walls, roads, people's backpacks, etc.  He was trying anything to get this image out there.  He then took it a step farther, which gained him this attention he had been seeking.  Buddy Cianci, the mayor of Providence, Rhode Island who was running for re-election had a campaign billboard in town with his face on it.  For a project, Fairey decided to plaster Andre's face right over Cianci's.  This was covered by radio and many local newspapers, which began the OBEY phenomenon.
Before watching this, I knew that Fairey was a talented designer and was very interested in propaganda's effects on people, but I didn't know where he had gotten his start.  The way it was filmed made it both very informative and inspirational.  The video shows that sometimes you have to take risks to be taken serious.  He's now one of the most prolific street artists and designers in the game.

Open Post: Opening a Design Studio

In the field of graphic design, a lot of experienced designers choose to open up their own studio.  I was reading an article on ComputerArts.co.uk about the essentials for opening a studio.  He gives a list of 21 tips given by successful designers who are running some of the best studios around, which I've chosen a few to talk about and paraphrased below:

1 - Good Skip Hunting
       Furniture is not a priority, take what you can find at liquidation sales, office closures, estate sales, etc.  You'll find a lot more value for your money than at a lot of retail stores.

2 - Take the Plunge
        Getting the studio and hiring workers can be very intimidating because of the financial risk at stake, but step up and take the risk, it's worth it.

3 - The Right Stuff
       I'm going to use the quote from this tip by Adam Jenns, founder and managing director at Mainframe: "Don't bother starting a studio if you don't have the intention of being the best.  Few people ever get there, but if you don't start out with that intention you'll get lost in a sea of one-man bands with novel company names."

4 - Find Some Natural Light
       I find this one to be very important to the creative process.  Studies have shown that you function a lot more efficiently when you're working in natural light than if you're trapped in a dark or poorly lit room. You're going to be spending a lot of time in there, so make it as welcoming and comfortable as possible.

5 - Gotta Have System
       You need to have a good organizational system so that you can find new and old files or client information.  Glenn Garriock, creative director at Atelier 1A and co-founder of FormFiftyFive, says "You never know when one of your older files or documents could come in handy to sort out a misunderstanding, or help you with your final billing."  This tip is key for anyone that doesn't want to waste precious time rummaging through piles of papers to find that one address or phone number.  I need to work on this tip in everyday life so that I can be more organize when it counts once I have a job.

There are plenty more tips, ranging from location to client relationships, to updating websites, but I chose these five because I thought it was more about the psychological aspect of opening up a studio.  Getting prepared, being willing to compromise and prioritze different options, surrounding yourself in a comfortable setting to work, and to be organize while you work.  All of these will make any job more joyous and help you look forward to coming to work everyday.

21 Tips

Reflecting and Researching

3 Things I've Learned About My Field

• No matter what you learn in a classroom in college, there is going to be so much more to learn on the job.  After talking to Professor Corneal, I realized that forming relationships with clients and continuing to focus on communication with them will make the world of a difference no matter what field I go into.
• Going the extra mile will make your work remembered in the long run (or dragging 700 beds onto a beach)
• I'm still interested in it!

3 Things I've Learned About Myself as a Researcher

• I get sidetracked very easily.  This isn't always a bad thing when researching, because you discover new things you weren't intending to even look for, but it can become a problem when the information strays too far from my original intentions.  
• I've learned a lot from researching.  Through doing this Disciplinary Literacies Blog, I have been forced to go out of my way to find out information about the graphic design field, which I might have put off, or not dug as deep, if it weren't for these assignments.
• I enjoy researching.  Discovering new things and making connections to what I already know is what makes learning rewarding, and I've developed skills to help me research more efficiently and effectively.

Questions I Still Have About Graphic Design

• When can I start?

What is Branding?

Red background, golden "M" (McDonalds)
Brown panel truck, gold logo (UPS)
"Just Do It" (Nike)
White Old English D (Detroit Tigers)
Green spartan (Michigan State University)

I was recently looking up more information on how designers work to 'brand' a client.

In graphic design, most designers and design firms are going to eventually work with 'branding' a company or organization.  This means that they will need to develop a look and feel for the company so that (if it's successful branding) the company is recognizable without even seeing their actual name.  This recognizable logo, catchy slogan, creative packaging, interesting website, etc has to convey the message that the company wants through choosing a theme of pictures and words that relates to the mission of the company.
Some of the different things involved in creating a brand for a company are:
-Creating a logo design
-Creating a business card design
-Creating a letterhead design
-Developing a form of packaging related to the company's product
      -Typically involves a balance of sustainability, affordability and appeal
-Copywriting
-Writing slogans related to the company's message/mission
-Developing designs for advertising
      -Web
      -Print
-Typeface design
-Research
-Marketing

Looking into branding helped me realize the wide array of things that are involved in creating these unmistakable brands, and how interconnected marketing, advertising, packaging and graphic design are.

Remixing Knowledge

Most people will recognize at least one of these two posters.  Shepard Fairey, one of the most politically active graphic/street artists in the field right now, created both of these.  The first one sports a patriotic image of 'hopeful' Barack Obama optimistically looking towards a better America.  This was created in 2008 when Obama was running for office, at first independently, before it was approved by the official Obama campaign.  

Now for the one on the right.  There were many 'remixes' of Fairey's original poster, often mocking what they thought was Obama's 'misdirected hope', but Fairey remixed his own poster for another political cause. During the whole Occupy Movement in 2011, he designed this image.  With an anonymous figure representing the "99%", it quickly became one of the iconic images of the Movement.  

R - What is Hope to different people? How much has the 'Hope' campaign actually helped our country? The new image made me think of a different perspective of political and social "hope".  Hope is hard to define in the context of a nation's future.  Depending on who you are, there is a different attitude towards what constitutes as 'good change', and how you are effected from that change.  The Occupy poster gives a voice to the 99% and shows that they're trying to reach out to politicians to give them a voice.

A - The remixed poster arranged it's ideas in the same way as the original piece.  This was most likely intentional because the image was already very recognizable, and that recognition helped strengthen the message the design was trying to convey.  To me, the masked figure in the new design almost has a skeptical feel to it, questioning if Obama is trying to give a sense of 'Hope' to all, or just to some.

I - The image makes you think of the Occupy Movement, and a comparison to the 'Hope' promised to them two years prior.  

D - The colors make the delivery of this piece very effective.  Red, white and blue: the colors of American freedom.  The text "Mr. President, We Hope You're On Our Side" represents every American, of course we all hope he's on our side.  But in a time of protest like the Occupy Movement, the colors and text help say, "Hear our voice, we need you now more than ever."  Great design.

S - Bold and direct.  Like all of Shepard Fairey's work, he's trying to make a statement.  Whether that be a supportive, sarcastic, or degrading statement, all of it is bold and direct.  Both posters, Obama and Occupy, have a very straight-forward message that makes you think and dig below the surface to see why he's making that statement.

Practicing Your Knowledge: PS Tutorial

Tutorial Poster

I took this blog's assignment as an opportunity to learn something new about design.  I've done a few photoshop tutorials in the past, but I haven't devoted time to learning anything new recently in Photoshop.  I found a tutorial on DesignInstruct.com titled How to Make a Funky Retro Music Poster in Photoshop.  I've always liked this warm, nostalgic look to posters and handbills like these, so I figured I could sit down and try it out for myself.  I wanted to stick with the same color scheme, so I tried to find a modern event that uses these colors.  Wakarusa Music Festival uses them, so I figured I could make a poster involving their 2013 festival.

     The tutorial walked you through how to drop opaque patterns into the background, how to create a vinyl record from scratch, and then superimpose the record onto a record player.  I took some creative liberties throughout the tutorial and used my own drawings for the background pattern, and used a photo from a previous Wakarusa for the label on the record.  

      There were a lot of things that I couldn't do according to the tutorial because I don't have the same version of Photoshop, I only have Elements.  There are ways to recreate the same effects, so it just took more time to get what I wanted.  There are a few things I learned from this tutorial.  I learned how to create a vinyl record from scratch through radial blur, noise and messing around with opacity and layers to create a glossy surface.   I also realized that I need to sit down and do a lot more design tutorials because they're actually really entertaining and very helpful because you can pick and choose what effects you want to use on future projects.  

       The act of actually recreating an image I see is what I love about design.  This can either be recreating something that has already been made, with my own little twist/remix on it, or taking a pen to paper and drawing what I see in my head. They walk you through step by steps, but they expect you have some prior experience with photoshop upon beginning the tutorial.Doing this tutorial instead of just reading about how to create something was a lot more effective.  I was able to have help (to an extent, since there wasn't actually a person showing me how to do it) yet still create the original vision I had in my head, which was pretty close to what showed up below:

My Poster

Storm Thorgerson

Storm Thorgerson: Iconic Album Designer

I was looking up iconic graphic designers when I stumbled onto the work of designer Storm Thorgerson.  He was a founding member of the art collective Hipgnosis, who designed a lot of rock album covers in the 1970's and 1980's.  He did everything for real, like the cover above for A Momentary Lape of Reason by Pink Floyd.  All 700 of those beds were actually set out along the beach in England for the cover shot.  If he couldn't get the lighting just right, or had more ideas than he could fit into a photograph, he would mess around with it using photo-developing tricks, airbrushing color in, or making a sort of collage.  Before I read about Storm, I didn't even begin to think of how labor-intensive it was for him to produce these images.  Photo editing programs aren't easy to use, but they sure do take a lot less time that the way he did it.  This, personally, is very inspirational.  His techniques were photoshop before photoshop.  From the perspective of a designer, there are many benefits from technological advances.  Saving time and money are some of the biggest benefits I can think of.  But it's really impressive to me that somebody can take a concept in their head, and then put in the effort of trucking 700 beds onto a rural beach just to realize his vision.  This man is passionate about his work and has a lot of record covers and a successful career to prove it.  

Noting Cultural Assumptions

It was pretty difficult to find portrayals of graphic designers in TV shows, movies, etc.  I could only find documentaries on graffiti, street art, and then just plain articles/editorials about some graphic designers and their style.  Nothing really stood out as representing how society views graphic designers, and how that's portrayed in popular culture.
I came upon an excerpt about the poster artist Emek from the documentary American Artifact directed by Merle Becker.

The movie is about the history of American rock poster art, from its beginnings in the 1960s, but focusing primarily on the resurgence of the 'art' side of posters that has been becoming very popular in recent years.  Emek talks about how he can express his own ideas and views on events/topics in popular culture subliminally into his posters to make them even more meaningful.  He portrays himself as a very intelligent designer, seeking out an abstract way to explain a message from a song or event, and then wrapping it up in some of the most detailed, precise work in the industry.  For graphic artists like Emek, people flock to his events to get a chance to get their hands on his artwork.  

      Art Chantry talks about how graphic design is a language.  "It's a language that everybody speaks but nobody knows they speak it.  And graphic designers are masters of that language form.  We're the ones who use this language to change the way you think about something... When we pick yellow, yellow means something... a ratty line instead of a straight line, that means something... round versus square, it means something.  And we use all this stuff to convince the viewer to go to the show" (American Artifact).  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Q6364ddWdI

I also found an article titled 5 Unfair Assumptions Clients Make About Graphic Artists by Millionaire Hoy that talks about how graphic designers feel like their clients don't realize that their job is harder than it looks.  

He lists five different common assumptions he has witnessed during his time as a graphic artist:

1) Designing on the computer is easy

2) Graphic designers can do anything

3) They're the only client

4) Graphic designers can read minds

5) Graphic designers assume all responsibility

5 Unfair Assumptions

He goes into more depth as to what these mean, but they're pretty self-explanatory.  There's no magic 'design' button that designers can press and just pop out the perfect logo/poster/website/whatever the person wants.  There has to be a lot of detailed communication between the artist and the client so that every little subliminal message, every color, every line, every shape, etc correlate to the message the client is trying to convey.   Designers can't automatically know what the client envisions in their head without a lot of communication.  Also, designers are (ideally) never working on just one project.  They're working on several at the same time, but they have to appear as though all their attention and focus is on that client's project.

Hopefully this post portrayed some of how people portray graphic designers.  Clients usually assume that the job will be done exactly how they want it to, which is possible, but only when there is strong communication, a realization that there are limits to what can be achieved in the specified time frame, and realizing that there are multiple projects being balanced at the same time.