heckin-art

[heckin-art]

Journal 11

Postmodern design focuses less on the individual, and more on the collective, and holds the idea that design is always in flux, following the state of society. Influences of Dadaism show up frequently, as does the blatant use of other historical works either for influence or outright use in pieces. Modernism was about making things new, while postmodernism questions this innovation, and often brings back the dead.

Modernism built a divide between popular culture. With a questioning of modernist philosophy, post-modernism broke the divide with a sledgehammer like the Berlin Wall. There became no borders there, and post-modernism challenged all of the authorities it came across.

Discrimination and limits placed on sects of society were questioned, and so were politics, and the very rules that society functions under, with society as a whole changing to fit new ideas. For those who take things even farther, the term counterculture was created, applying to them and those who had come before.

Wes Wilson catches my eye for designing many concert posters in the sixties, and many for bands that I like and enjoy listening to. Indeed, some consider him the father of the 60’s psychedelic rock concert poster, in a form copied by other designers, and heavily influenced by art nouveau styling and the LSD he took directing his color selections.

He was one of the “Big Five” of psychedelia, earned by turning the idea of promotional art inside out, twisting it with his intense colors, almost illegible typography, sinuous forms and serpentine lines connecting into something new, gorgeous, and utterly fitting into the scene of those he was making the posters for, as well as helping to define it.

His lettering was picked up from Alfred Roller, an artist in the Vienna Secession, and was the farthest thing from type like Helvetica that was showing up everywhere. He filled his posters and handbills with colour, the opposite of the international style’s focus on the background and space between. His creations reach out to the borders and didn’t just give you what you want to know. The fact that his work is hard to read makes you stop to look at it. It is the opposite of functional, and dives straight into artistic territory, leaking the information it holds slowly, in lava lamp Technicolor.

Wes Wilson for Playboy. December Issue, 1967

[heckin-art]

Journal 10

Helvetica is a modern, sans serif font. It came out of the swiss style, and was a rational typeface for post-war idealism. It created order by being clear and straightforward. When it was created in 1957 by the Haas type foundry as Neue Haas Grotesk, and later renamed Helvetica, the Roman name of Switzerland, it was to huge success, because it had no intrinsic meaning to it. It simply was and didn’t stand out.

Helvetica is a typeface held together by its negative space. The focus by swiss designers was on the space behind the letters that tied everything together. The composition is as important as the text itself, and how all of the pieces fit together.

Helvetica, as well as the Akzidenz-Grotesk font it was inspired from, were designed to be all-purpose. In the mess of war and its aftermath, the swiss style, and from it Helvetica, was like a large glass of water, nice and cold and there to wash away everything that remained hard to swallow of the past. A clean, modern typeface that was efficient, but had a human quality to it. It was open to interpretation, and thus was used by everyone for everything and by everyone. Today, it continues to be used because it is everywhere. It surrounds us like air and blends into every other Helvetica usage in our surroundings. It is used on public transportation signs, company logos, and government tax forms. It is so integrated into our world that even for those making the choice on what typeface is used, it is hard to escape from the default of Helvetica.

The opinion of many is that because it is so ubiquitous, it has lost its message. One warns to not confuse legibility with a fonts ability to communicate and further understanding. It has gone from being something unique to the fonts of the 1950s, being the clean slate of so many companies, to being everywhere so much that it is fascistic and erasing every point of being unique when everyone is just expecting to see Helvetica. It has been an era, and a very good one, but there is something to be said for fonts that are little less legible but more effectively communicate the message through the character of the letters and the image they create as a whole. The use of Helvetica should not be that of a designer backed into a corner. There should be freedom of choice and expression in design work.

[heckin-art]

Journal 9

Industrial design brought back interest and demand for new and innovative products. The Great Depression serves as an off switch for consumerism, but with the economic boom after the Second World War, furthered by extensive marketing campaigns and innovative product and brand designs, consumers bought anything and everything they saw and heard about. Especially in the face of the Cold War, an extensive show of capitalism was the public’s best defense against the enemy of communism. When everything was so beautiful and made life so much easier, what reason was there to not buy whatever you could afford?

Advertisers rejoiced in having so much to advertise for and about, and customers loved how their personality could shine through everything they bought, while not paying an arm and a leg for that level of customization. And people bought them because it was a way to show everyone around you who you were and wanted to be. Everything that before was just utilitarian now had a personality to contribute to your own.

Brooks Stevens was a Milwaukee native and a king of midcentury industrial design, bringing these principles to life. He coined the phrase “planned obsolescence”, and his philosophy that “good design will pay for itself” was certainly proved in the years post-war. He produced designs that were big in their time and had the longevity to still be recognized today. From the Wienermobile, to Miller beer, and the Jeep Wagoneer, his designs are still very well-known and valuable to the companies in possession of them. It is Stevens that came up with the idea of a civilian version of the military jeep from World War 2, and his form of the Harley Davidson Hydra-Glide motorbike is still being released today as a heritage model.

He proved how despite facing disability from polio, he didn’t let it get in the way of what he enjoyed, and became beyond successful from not letting it slow him down. He believed strongly in progress, and always keeping up with the times. When asked what his favorite design was, or if he would change any of his projects from the past, his answer was always that everything had to be different for the time it was in. To try to bring it into the future would be a meaningless endeavor, because it would all be outmoded.

My favorite design of Stevens’ is the wiener mobile, for how absolutely ridiculous it is, as well as it’s connection to my personal history. Arguably, I owe my life to Oscar Mayer, as my grandparents transfer within Kraft foods is what brought my mother to Wisconsin. Otherwise she may have stayed on the east coast, and I wouldn’t exist.

The original Wienermobile was created by Oscar Mayer’s nephew, Carl, as a marketing gimmick. Carl drove the unenclosed vehicle through Chicago, handing out “German wieners” to pedestrians. Brooks Stevens redesigned the Wienermobile in 1958, making the lower section of the vehicle a hot dog bun, and turning it into the shape that, while ridiculous, everyone recognizes today. Though Oscar Meyer has, several times, either all out retired the Wienermobile, or let it fade away for a while, when brought back it always becomes a sensation again, showing the longevity of Stevens’ design.

Brooks Stevens Inc. 2019. Our History. https://brooksstevens.com/our-history.

Edwards, Phil. 2015. Gaze upon the Wienermobile patent. August 10. https://www.vox.com/2015/8/10/9119019/oscar-mayer-wienermobile.

Hunting, Benjamin. 2019. Brooks Stevens defined America's industrial and automotive landscapes. June 24. https://www.hagerty.com/articles-videos/articles/2019/06/24/brooks-stevens-industrial-and-automotive-landscapes.

Milwaukee Art Museum. n.d. Brooks Stevens Biography. https://mam.org/collection/archives/brooks/bio.php.

Rhodes, Margaret. 2013. Watch: A 2 Minute History of American Industrial Design. June 24. https://www.fastcompany.com/1672853/watch-a-2-minute-history-of-american-industrial-design.

Rossen, Jake. 2019. 10 Frank Facts About the Wienermobile. August 1. https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/79939/10-flavorful-facts-about-wienermobile.

[heckin-art]

Journal 8

Universal design goes back to Plato if not farther through human history. Plato saw human differences as a messy part of the pure human form, and believed in essentialism, or the idea of categorization of things-based on features about them. This still hinders science today when discovering new creatures that do not fit into one section of the biological hierarchy that has been developed. 

Vitruvius saw the human figure as aligning to proportions of circles and squares, and Leonardo da Vinci through his sketch brought this idea into the renaissance and through to today. Universal design follows Plato’s ideas and engineers a standard form for all. Essentialism says that through this universal design, every version of the original categorisation would find this design equally acceptable. 

In reality, this does not play out, as specifically for humans, personality-wise, and according to the size, shape, and function of each body, most would not be comfortable in identical environments, or spaces belonging to others. To Henry, the ideal man created a one size fits all that fits no one. 

Designers go by believing in universal design in a theoretical sense that doesn’t mesh well with reality. Humans, animals, and everything organic on this earth is different from every other natural rendering of itself. To even attempt to do that enforces boundaries that go against the laws of nature.

Equality is important but is often not the way to find that level ground. Equity, or the removal of barriers altogether is a better solution to such issues, creating a space where things are not equal, but everyone has exactly what they want and need, and what helps and suits them.

The design of school environments has been something thought a lot more of in the past decade, with new types of schooling, like specialty charter environments, in the area I grew up. However, it still does not fix a lot of the issue’s students have in school, at the same time as class sizes grow and budgets shrink. Many students in environments with smaller classes and more one-on-one focus do succeed where they may not have been before, but with no money to hire more teachers and implement these ideas on a large scale, it is a wicked issue, that even with years of debate does not come close to being solved. 

Even if it could be implemented widely, there will always be those who learn better in traditional environments, through homeschool, or some different type of education entirely. For those of us stuck in the modern secondary school environment, all counsellors can really do is remind students that if we get through it, a larger world of further education opportunities opens up that we can choose to finally go our own way. 

I was lucky to go to a good school that did all it could, but not everyone has that school. Many struggle to even graduate, and really do require that personalisation of learning environment and material that, if not caught in the web of school and governmental politics, could be much more wide-spread and available to help every student.

[heckin-art]

Journal 7

Le Corbusier was a very influential Swiss-French designer of the 20thcentury. He was one of the creators of purism and is regarded as a pioneer of modern architecture. He worked in architecture, interior design, and painted as well. Today, buildings he designed are on the UNESCO world heritage site list in seven countries, 17 sites total.

He had five points of his architectural technique.

· Replacing load-bearing walls with a grid of columns bearing the structural loads

· Freedom in design of the floorplan, due to the absence of weight supporting walls

· The separation of the exterior of the building from a structural function – freedom in design of the façade, setting it free from structural constraints. Ability to have open and closed sections, further connecting to nature

· Horizontal windows, cutting the façade along the entire length, light each room equally

· Roof gardens and terrace, support plants growing there, provide further space and green area, while providing insulation to the building

While Le Corbusier usually designed buildings for wealthy clientele, he also designed the Unité d'Habitation for Marseilles, further used in several other European cities including Berlin. Originally meant to have a steel frame support, it was instead was made of rough cast concrete due to post-war shortages, as it was constructed between 1947 and 1952. The planning was inspired by a soviet communal housing project completed in 1932, and the Unité d'Habitation itself has inspired other housing buildings, notably many council estates in the UK, mainly with the coloured balconies and brutalist style.

The first floor is raised above the ground, where a car park lives underneath the building, on large pillars, showing the column structure running vertically through the building. While each apartment is in a rectangular shape, hallways only run every three stories, due to each apartment being two stories. Some areas have large windowed walkways next to the outside, and each unit has a balcony on the exterior, separating the living areas from having windows coming straight out of the exterior walls. With each apartment being open planned, but vertically extending into the heart of the building, to get light in, the entire exterior wall of each unit is made up of window space. While the building lacks a living roof, it does have some greenery, and provides a communal space for occupants, with what is today an art gallery, a wading pool for children, and what used to be a running track around the outer edge. There were also a variety of shops, restaurants, and a hostel for outsiders to stay, though today most have closed or been turned into specialty shops.

The most obviously Le Corbusier-esque building on campus is the Golda Meir Library, with the support columns in between the two sections. Similarly, the columns providing a walkway around the Kirc. The ground floor of the library is more exterior window than wall, and the floorplan is similarly open, being supported by all of the columns. Less obvious is Sandburg, with its green roof, though done more for environmental and agricultural reasons, plus it isn’t a communal area. But how wonderful it would be if it was.

https://www.dezeen.com/2014/09/15/le-corbusier-unite-d-habitation-cite-radieuse-marseille-brutalist-architecture/

[heckin-art]

Journal 6

Margaret Calvert seems like a fascinating woman, for the odd contrast between her work and her profession. She standardized the street signage of Great Britain, while being a woman, a non-conformer in her field. She began working under her tutor while at university, and when he was appointed head of signs of signs, he hired her to help redesign the road signs and the road system. Today, fewer people know of him, but many know of Margaret and her work, or at least pass by it every day in the UK.

London calls her “the mother of modern-day information design”. In addition to designing the universal signs for roads and the highways just appearing at the middle of the century, she also designed the font for the British railway system, standardizing and creating a strong unified brand identity for the rail system, just like the national governments roads.

She drew on her own past and childhood for imagery on signs warning of school and animal crossings and made sure that signs on newly introduced higher speed motorways were larger and easy to read at speeds, unlike how they were previously, helping to improve safety as well. She’s also confidant in herself and her work, knowing that while some only give her credit for the road signs, she helped redesign how people moved on the roads, in a way that still works great today.

Phase 2 interests me for graffiti work, and the idea of having your name out while remaining anonymous. He also says that graffiti is a way for disparaged youth to represent their existence. I take that as grounding yourself as well, which my generation can certainly relate to, often being laid under the banner of the millennials, and only seen with our similarities, not our differences.

Graffiti is a form of design that is often overlooked, primarily for associations with the inner city, and the view of it detracting and defacing other pieces of design, like buildings and other city features. Phase 2 is an important figure in early graffiti work and development, being credited with the creation of bubble letter styles. He also played a role in the early hip hop scene.

Many may see graffiti as something that needs to be removed, but especially knowing the reason why many put it up, to do so simply shows young people in inner city areas that they really don’t exist in a way that means something to others, and deserving of more than they’ve been growing up in if it’s the one form of self expression they can have, to erase it is a crime against their being. It makes me appreciate more when I see graffiti, and see it being accepted as a valid form of art, and often in a place where everyone who likes it can enjoy it.

[heckin-art]

Journal 4

“When Western conventions are centred in design, this means that anything else is seen as ‘different.’” When a homogenous group of people decide what’s “good,” it’s detrimental to the profession, and results in the majority of people striving towards a similar style.” (Khandwala 2019).

Decolonization is the process of seeing things from less of such a western point of view and incorporating more diverse sources as valid and equally valuable. Decolonization is especially important in the field of art and design

Decolonization is a process that will not happen overnight, especially with those who actively oppose, or just don’t see the value in works from outside the western world. It is a development that must happen over time, through generations, to rid people’s minds of stereotypes and prejudice. It is something that likely has to be accepted by the general public before it is accepted as high art and must also be exposed to children who may escape the prejudice that generations before have created and maintained. Integrating diverse art forms and design types into children’s lives and educations, the tv programs they watch, the apps they use, and their overall surroundings would help to progress to a state of total decolonization and colonial thought in future generations.

For our own, it is not a completely lost cause, but one that must be taken upon with care. People don’t like things forced upon them, they have to accept it for themselves, or else be exposed to it in places that they don’t notice as much until it roots into their subconscious. To use more diverse music spots in commercials, art in advertisements, and design within public spaces of cities would have a positive effect on peoples psyche and how they view diversity and value it.

“Realizing that the standards we’ve been taught are not universal is key to decoloniality. And it’s not easy: Ncube likens the process of unseeing Western culture as getting a ‘fish to understand that it’s in water.’”(Khandwala 2019).

From there, we must take Ncube’s words, and teach people how much their lives have been centered in the western monoculture, without diversity. How much larger of a thinking we can have as a society as a whole, if we open up to societies other than the west. From there it can be accepted by society in general, and as true forms of art, design, and culture, along with western counterparts.

[heckin-art]

Journal Week 3

Tim Brown follows what he said in his TED talk, that designers had to come and put a wrapper on a product to keep it innovative. That that is what companies thought kept them ahead, to just appear to be making progress. Today, however, the work of a designer has shifted to the forefront, to create the things people actually need, and function for them, rather than just presenting them a product in a pretty package. Designers must be attentive to the wants and needs of the market customers.

Design is still very commercialized, as it has been for the past two centuries, but the specific role of a designer has come back into focus. Design today relies on far more steps and processes to get to a final product than it has in the past. It’s about finding what works and using more resources to find the solution that is actually useful and makes peoples lives easier. Making things look good is still a focus, but if something looks good, but doesn’t work the way it should, it’s not of use.

The part that grabbed me the most was Brown remarking on how “great design satisfies both our needs and our desires”, and how the iPod “was not the first MP3 player, but it was the first to be delightful. Target’s products appeal emotionally through design and functionally through price – simultaneously” (Brown, 2008). It makes me think of how much we associate the assembly line with Henry Ford. It was certainly not the first example of the technique, but it was used on such a large scale, that along with his cars, it revolutionized the auto industry into what it is today. His cars as well, enabled partially by the assembly line, were so popular due to their affordability, compared to so many other vehicles, their attractiveness, for the time, and it fit people’s desire to be able to take control of their travel, and get out of the cities.

It allowed people to live farther from where they worked, allowed easier transportation for doctors, made life easier for farmers. It’s a large factor in the change to how we live today, and all because of some good design decisions in the product and how it was made. My life would certainly be different if this part of history did not pass as it did. Growing up in a rural area would be much different from how it is. I can easily get to school and work, even being a distance from them, because my car is affordable enough for my family to own and keep up.

IDEO’s mottos are intriguing even now, in comparison to how corporate America still is.

Things like focusing on the whole team, rather than seniority, not having a “lone genius” doing the design work, and failing often to succeed sooner, are ideas still rarely seen in the business world today. Executives fail to follow that any one person is likely to be wrong when making decisions, and the team can often make better decisions, and have better ideas. The decision to try things and ask forgiveness rather than wait for permission, would get people fired in most business, rather than allow for new ideas. The whole company philosophy is so vastly different to everything people have encountered before in the workplace, that it makes sense that they have to acclimate people to their new style of work and pull the sort of “programming” out of their heads from environments they worked in prior.

Having what technologies, we do today, with the ability to shop places like Walmart with our phones, and avoid the checkouts, like the ideas they had, they can do away with the slightly bulky scanner on the cart. The idea of the two levels of baskets is nice, because for some who have families or don’t get to the store often, a large capacity is necessary. The fact that there is still a rack on the very bottom is great for those buying large items, like toilet paper, packs of drinks, or pet food. Overall, there isn’t much to change about the cart, and from a customer’s point of view (mine at least), it looks like a cart I would very much enjoy using.

[heckin-art]

Journal Week 2

The Arts and Crafts movement began shortly after the start of industrial revolution as people started to see the fall of artistic design to the blade of mass production. They sought to bring back the craft of artists and their place in the world of design.

William Morris sought a world where craftsmen would earn a living wage for their craft, while the mass public would purchase their goods from these craftsmen for fair prices, somewhat how it would have been prior to the invention of mass machines to do the work. He praised hand-craftsmanship and self-expression in personal works. He learned from the writings of contemporary designer, John Ruskin, that “the decorative arts — which related to objects that may be beautiful but whose primary function is utilitarian, such as furniture or wallpaper — were the most important expression of creative individuals because they affected the mundane visual  environment more than the fine arts of painting and sculpture” (Eskilson 2019, 50).

He wanted a place where artistic expression would be rewarded but fails to understand that not everyone wants or can afford that, despite his hope for reasonable costs. He fails in his equation that we can have that fair-for-everyone price while still giving the crafters their fair sum. Most of the world, even in a socialist system, still depends on some amount of profit. He may have been a great designer, but he would not have been a good businessman if he didn’t inherit enough money to live comfortably without lifting a pinky. His redeeming virtue is that he did choose to work rather than do the former. Those of his own time saw it in the same way. “it seems not a little strange that the three men to whom above all we owe this new socialism of art were men whose lives made possible every appreciation of the value of riches. Ruskin, Morris and Tolstoi all belonged to the wealthy class. Each was reared amid luxurious surroundings and to each was given in full measure opportunities for the appreciation and culture of beauty” (Dickinson 1906, 614). He chose a less leisurely life than was given to him, but having come from such circumstances lent him misguided views of how society was for most.

He had an idealist view of the way society should coexist with the artistic world, but one that failed to fit in his time for anyone outside of his socio-economic status, and would find itself the same, and does, today.

Eskilson, Stephen. 2019.Graphic Design: a New History. 2nd Ed. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Dickinson, Thomas. 1906. “WILLIAM MORRIS AND ESTHETIC SOCIALISM.” The Arena 36 (205): 614. Boston. https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.lib.uwm.edu/americanperiodicals/docview/124462743/55189375EB6C4D0EPQ/34?accountid=15078.

Textile:

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/rose-william-morris.html

Chair: https://www.1stdibs.com/furniture/seating/chairs/william-morris-georgian-irish-style-claw-ball-walnut-wingback-armchair-stool/id-f_10918301/

[heckin-art]

Journal Entry 1

Roy Witlin - Kaleidoscopic (Illusion of Fracture)

I’m Rachel, a first-year history major, from Appleton, WI. My interests fluctuate around a lot, but history and design are two of the things I come back to. I spend much of my time on the internet but am often disconnected from social media. One thing I like doing is listening to more music than I can ever remember listening to, and one I don’t is reigning in my ADD.

I chose this class as the most interesting way to fulfil my art requirement, and because of my personal interests. Design is, as a member of a generation that considers “aesthetics” an important part of daily life and what we show others about ourselves, something I think about daily and consider above much else. My interest in design leans mostly towards my personal surroundings, and I once considered interior design my future career path. Then I realized that while I am a people pleaser, I am also a control freak, and I could never be satisfied fulfilling what clients want.

From there I moved on to theatre, my primary extra-curricular interest in high school, where I headed the properties department of the musicals and plays for three years. Obviously, that was quite design heavy as many of the pieces I made or found had to have specific functions to enhance the scenes and drive the story, as well as look nice to the audience.

As someone intending to study history, the functioning of people’s lives, and the objects in them, inspire me greatly. My dream job is likely to work in a museum, the kind that shows the way people lived, or something living history. I love almost every period between the Georgian era and the 1970s, and I’ve gone on many deep dives into life, function, and fashion in some of them.

As I am a freshman, my whole summer has been making purchases to support my living two hours from my family home. Specifically, for practical use, I chose items that suited my budget, as well as my taste, and planned out how everything would go in beforehand, then chose how to make the function of everything work. Unfortunately for all my planning, I suck at keeping neat, and everything is already a mess.

One thing I had to buy was a stool to be able to reach my bed, as high as I have it set, and as short as I am. I browsed a lot of folding stools, both nice wood ones, and ugly metal pantry stools, before coming across the one I got in one of my favorite places to spend a day, Ikea. It doesn’t fold, which is a plus, when I need it to stand a sturdy sentry at my bedside, as well as function as a place to sit. It doesn’t hurt also, that it is a nice piece of décor on its own.

Another purchase, that may fall a little out of what I should have in my dorm, is my electric kettle. Things that look pretty as well as act functional are the best, and getting things on sale helps too, so of course I went with the glass kettle over the dreadful looking plastic when they’re the same price as well. The glass is obviously more delicate, but also in the long run, with proper care, can last far longer than plastic, and send less waste to the landfill.