disobeyingthebrief-blog

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Designing and teaching really feed off of each other. In my opinion, the very best design education should offer a deep understanding of conceptual approaches to design, a variety of methodologies and skills for form-giving, and the ability to synthesize both, as well as a thorough understanding of design history and design theory. I teach in a process-oriented way, encouraging creative thinking and transdisciplinarity through speculative projects which really push students to put themselves into the work, not portfolio-driven class work. It encourages odd results and engagement—utilizing chance processes as much as visual acumen, and this method of teaching encourages a sense of authorship and ownership amongst students. This totally feeds back into studio work—trying unexpected methodologies, asking questions, poking, prodding, and trying to wring the very best out of client work by involving the client in the process and encouraging that same sense of authorship and ownership.

—Ian Lyman, interviewed for Tokyo Graphic Designers (via jarrettfuller)

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Jayme Yen (United States) and Layla Tweedie-Cullen (New Zealand)

Poster-in-progress for split/fountain’s distracted-workshop #1: may change at the 26th Design Biennial Brno, 2014 

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Experimental Jetset, from an interview in 2013:

What is interesting about graphic design is exactly the fact that it is a field in which it is impossible to distinguish between writing and drawing, between the verbal and the visual.

This is already encapsulated in the etymology of the word ‘graphic’ – originally, the word is derived from the proto-indo-european base-word ‘grebh’, which simply means ‘to carve’ or ‘to scratch’; but in greek times, the word ‘graphikos’ referred both to the act of drawing and writing. in a sense, we do believe that the current practice of graphic design still refers to this classic notion – the idea that writing is a form of drawing, and drawing is a form of writing.

Or in Gif form

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Back in stock: Thought Experiments in Graphic Design Education / Available at www.draw-down.com / A compendium of work that documents an international mix of experimental, reflexive and speculative projects made by students, educators and practitioners questioning how and why graphic design is studied and practiced. Contributors: Bart de Baets, Stuart Bailey, Delphine Bedel, Victor Boullet, Lionel Bovier, Dante Carlos, James Corazzo, Daniel Eatock, Bianca Elzenbaumer, Kenneth Fitzgerald, Fabio Franz, John Hammersley, Harrisson, Ken Hollings, Brockett Horne, Scott King, Ken Kirton, Jono Lewarne, Alexander Lis, Yvan Martinez, Armand Mevis, Rens Muis, Silas Munro, Sebastian Pataki, Stuart Price, Darren Raven, Alexander Shoukas, Rebecca Stephany, Jon Sueda, Joshua Trees, and many more. #graphicdesign #school #experiments #design #typography #book #riso

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Alice Chung (Brooklyn), Karen Hsu (Portland) and Julie Cho (Los Angeles) of Omnivore

Gloria exhibition catalogue for White Columns gallery, 2003

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Perhaps if we were to approach the question of what we understand graphic design to be, in this way—by throwing out the tired clichés and the preconceptions, and considering it subjectively as opposed to allowing it to be elevated to some sort of reverential object in itself—then we would realize that the desperate search for a definition is itself part of the problem.

Robert Hetherington on Prem Krishnamurthy, identity, performance, and the role of the designer (via jarrettfuller)

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Congratulations to Paola Antonelli and Marcia Lausen—along with Hillman Curtis, Emory Douglas, and Dan Friedman—for being recognized with an AIGA Medal for their contributions to the practice of design. 

We join AIGA in honoring these women and men for their service, vision, and years of hard work.

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On Twitter, Roberto Greco surfaced this old interview with Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby from OK Do. I was only vaguely familiar with their work before, but I loved this bit on critical design:

The question of art and design is problematic. A lot of people want to see us as artists, but we definitely see ourselves as designers trying to push the discipline forward, asking questions about design and through it. In fact, we launched the term critical design ten years ago in order to describe our work. Sometimes people think it simply means criticism; that we are negative about everything, anti-consumerist and against design. Some people relate it to critical theory; to Frankfurt school and anti-capitalist thinking. We are definitely aware of it, but then again not in that category either. Critical design is about critical thinking – about not taking things at face value. It’s about questioning things, and trying to understand what’s behind them. In essence, our objective is to use design as a means for applying skepticism to society at large.

This circles a lot of the themes we talk about here on the blog: design as a language and a form of inquiry. I was drawn to their manifesto of sorts on how they frame their practice: problem finding as opposed to problem solving.

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Francisco Laranjo. ‘Critical Graphic Design: Critical of What?’, 2014

Critical graphic design, 2012–present Jon Sueda and Experimental Jetset. ‘All Possible Futures: Experimental Jetset on Speculative Graphic Design’, 2014

Rick Poynor. ‘Observer: In a Critical Condition’, 2014

Dunne and Raby. ‘

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FYI, I’m a Graphic Designer (a cinematic portrayal of graphic designers in film and television) — Ellen Mercer and Lucy Streule, 2015

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3D printed weapons found during Australian police raid

The weapons found at the residence in the city's Mudgeeraba suburb include a set of knuckledusters and what are suspected to be plastic gun parts created using a 3D printer.

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  Curators, campaigners and designers explore the significance of the poster to the past, current and future British political debate

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Richard Hamilton Retrospective- review

In a letter to Peter and Alison Smithson, Richard Hamilton said that Pop Art is Popular, Transient, Expendable, Low Cost, Mass Produced, Young, Witty and Sexy, Gimmicky, Glamorous and a Big Business, finishing the letter saying that was just the beginning. And indeed he was right, the 50’s were the beginning of a period where people lived their lives to their maximum, where the memories of WWII were still present and people wanted to forget and spend their lives in the best way possible, whether surrounded by luxury and goods and by the TV and the new mass media, or on the other hand, fighting for new rights and for what they couldn’t do when the war was happening. Richard Hamilton was the pioneer of the Pop Art movement in the UK, and knew how to express and interpret the thoughts and events of that time through artistic expressions with different techniques, materials and means of communication, innovating and renovating himself and the movement over a career of 60 years.

The exhibition in Tate Modern is a retrospective of Hamilton’s career, from the early inspirations to his last years of work, and explores the relationship with design, photography, painting and television, as well as the collaborations with other artists. Going from room to room, we can see the different influences of Hamilton during his 60 year career. Some works are clearer and undoubtedly recognisable and their message interpreted and understood, others need more appreciation and deep knowledge of his work to understand what he is trying to express. However, Hamilton is and will always be an iconic figure of the Pop Art movement in the UK, along with the Independent Group, inspiring and influencing many artists along the years until the contemporary. When we enter in the exhibition, a jukebox is playing the greatest hits of that time, and we are transported to 1956 into the exhibition This is tomorrow created for the Whitechapel Gallery and some of its famous pieces, that undoubtedly show the main characteristics of Pop Art—Hollywood icons, aliens, optical illusions and advertising. And, the first iconic collage from Hamilton is also part of this exhibition inside the exhibition— Just what is it that makes today’s homes so different, so appealing? from the same year. This (very) small collage created a big impact in that time, because it showed the model of how a house should be—with all the consumables and kitchen appliances that existed, such as the TV and the vacuum cleaner, and a contemporary Adam and Eve “living” in that environment. And when we continue walking to the next rooms, we can see that this image is still present, however represented in different ways, and with different materials and techniques that Hamilton kept experimenting along the years, until we reached the digital era, and digital tools were used along with the traditional ones. Works like She and Hotel Rhone, show the evolution and upgrade of the original collage from 1956, however, if all of them were made today the level of accuracy would have been the same.The importance of the new technologies and the experimenting with new techniques at that time, is quite similar with the work done today through the same language, it would only change the level of “digital” present in the work.

Hamilton portrayed and expressed the consumerism and the exuberance of the lifestyle of that time, however he also portrayed the political problems that existed in the UK and in another countries, along with other events that were broadcasted on the telly or photographed by the new paparazzi. The combination of silkscreen with photography, represented the grotesque figure of Hugh Gaitskell, the monster of Finland as he was part of an horror film. Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher’s “true colours” are also shown through installations and pantings criticising and parodying them, showing simultaneously Hamilton’s concerns and political thoughts. His images were much powerful than the politicians actual words.

His admiration for American products, Braun’s marketing images, Guggenheim Museum and Marcel Duchamp are very visible in the exhibition. Hamilton used Braun’s toaster images to experiment and study. his works show the face of the toaster made with reflective chromed steel to intentionally reflect the image of the consumer/viewer. The Guggenheim Museum was also represented in a series of 3 reliefs based on the exterior of the building and sprayed with cellulose lacquer or coated colours, suggesting the impact of the building and so of its collection.

Duchamp influenced Hamilton’s works through the personal taste and capability to translate thoughts of his time into subtle plastic expressions. And we can see a room dedicated to his mentor and his works, with the representation of the centre piece,The large glass, an installation that was created by Hamilton with lots of dedication and studies to resemble the original one, under Duchamp’s permission.

The power of the TV can be seen in the work along with the turbulent and controversial events that happened in that time, like the Kent State University incident, where students were shot because they were protesting against the Vietnam war. Hamilton photographed the television, in black and white, registering the event with blurry and “noisy” pictures, but creating enough impact to make the viewer stop and look at them to understand the message. Mick Jagger and Robert Fraser were also portrayed in a series of pairings, Swingeing London where the music icon and Hamilton’s gallery owner were handcuffed after being arrested for drug possession and were trying to shield their faces from the flashbulbs. And, with this, the end of the sixties is wrapped up, and the new decade arises, with more political controversies and protests from the people, and Hamilton continues to portray them and to tackle them, to show the ways in which news are conveyed through the new media, with new and old political figures.

Besides the political side, the interiors were his “obsession”, and he created numerous series of interiors of houses and hotels, whether commissioned for exhibitions or not but always with the control over the elements that he wanted to have in his work and how they were shown and represented, whether through the traditional collages or the computer and software tools. And despite of the differences of decades and all the changes that occurred in between, Hamilton knew how to empower his works and how to inspire viewers and artists with his vision and his way to subtly bring controversy and convey messages to the public that would express their concerns too and their wishes. Hamilton knew how to have control in his works and in what he wanted to convey through them, and experiments or not, his works are powerful, no matter in what decade we are seeing them, transporting us to the event, but also making us think about the contemporary society and the resemblance of events that we see every day in the TV.