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Designer Spotlight presentation on Jack Daly and Pentagram.

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DESIGNER SPOTLIGHT

Jack Daly

Jack Daly is a designer my friend introduced me to, and I am glad he did. Daly is a designer who illustrates anything from landscapes to people. He is also skilled in the art of typography, of course. In these illustrations, he has a distinct and incredible way of creating extremely simplistic illustrations with very few shapes, while still breathing life into them with very vibrant colors. He often uses techniques involving contrast between light and dark and complementary colors in his compositions. His work has earned him a place in the graphic design industry and a place in my Instagram feed.

Pentagram

Pentagram is an extremely well-established design company that has branded many popular books, albums, drinks, companies...you name it, they’ve done it. They have managed to create emblems that stand out in modern culture, but set the standard for it as well. Their biggest ally is, in my opinion, their use of color, which often sets the tone for what it is they are branding. For example, the sparking water drink “fountain” as seen above, uses bright, warm colors to establish the idea that their drink is exciting and tasteful. On the other the hand, the book “Victory is Not an Option” is done purely in black and white, which exhumes a sense of sadness or depression. They are a company that will be looked upon as an example of successful design for many years to come.

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Philadelphia Free Library Field Trip

Friday began with a 15 minute drive on a Drexel Shuttle to 15th and Race Street. From there, I made the trip on foot to the Central Philadelphia Free Library. I had arrived at the library about half an hour early with several friends, so we decided to look around the library ourselves. While waiting, we found several interesting books about graphic design and architecture. Once the clock hit 12:00, we went down to the hall to meet the rest of the class. We then confirmed our library cards and proceeded to make our way to the Walt Whitman and Herman Melville exhibit.

A guide and worker of the library escorted us to the exhibit where he taught us a little about the design process leading up to the exhibit. He showed us some of the early concept designs for the exhibit. It was interesting seeing how different the original ideas where compared to the final result. Afterwards, we entered the exhibit and both studied the works of Walt Whitman and Herman Melville and the design elements used to display their works. We learned a lot about the two authors and their contributions to society. Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick” is story I quite enjoy actually and learning Whitman’s involvement in the promotion for equality of minorities was interesting. As far as the design elements were concerned, I loved the use of blues, greens, and the mixture of the two to create the aquatic feel the exhibit revolved around. The process of a working designer didn’t surprise me very much. I was more so intrigued by the variety of jobs available to them. At one point, Bill said he encourages us to find coops outside of design studios and work for any other company that needs one instead. That caught me a little offguard at first because I never really thought about it that way and it is advice I will take into account.

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EAT and EXPLORE

CHINATOWN

Last Wednesday, my group consisting of Zohaib, Sean, Hemani, Mark, Ross and myself explored Chinatown. We began at the subway at 34th and Market Street and rode it down to 8th Street. From there, we walked to Chinatown. After several minutes of simply searching, we took several images of designs we all enjoyed.

I personally loved the Chubby Cattle logo. It’s fun and has a nice, simple color scheme to it. La Palette was very interesting and took me by surprise as I found myself walking right over it thinking “oh that’s cool.” Again, nice and simple colors going on there. It conveys, to me anyway, a sense of relaxation. Xun Yu Si Mao has an exciting logo that changes colors. We did not enter it, but I got the feeling it was a fun place.

After finding some designs we liked, we decided it was time to eat. Sean, Ross, and Hemani went to Chubby Cattle. They said their food was delicious.

The rest of us went to a place close by called T-Swirl Crêpe. Zohaib and I got banana chocolate crêpes and Mark got a fruit punch crêpe or something like that. Man, that thing was good.

After eating, we took the subway back home.

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Term 2 Week 1

Rock Climbing has been a hobby and interest of mine for the past three or four years of my life. In fact, I have worked at a rock climbing gym in Downingtown, PA since my Sophomore year of high school. It is a fun activity that also encourages exercise and making new friends. I’m particularly glad this assignment was given to us because I now know there are several different rock gyms in Philadelphia, and will try to visit as many of them as I can before I graduate from here. Some of the gyms in close proximity include PRG - East Falls, PRG - Fishtown, and The Gravity Vault in Radnor. It also excites me that there is a rock wall on the Drexel campus, and I am considering joining the climbing club. I do, however, want to branch out and try the other rock gyms in the area.

Here are links to a few of the rock gyms in the area.

https://www.gravityvault.com/locations/radnor-pa

https://www.philarockgym.com/prg-east-falls/

http://www.govertical.com

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Assignment for this week was to choose 10 advertisements I liked that caught my eye. Here they are. I like most of these because they are straight to the point. I’d say in most of, if not all, of them, there is no unessesary business going on. You can clearly tell what the ad is for. The typography in all of them also clearly bring the feel of the ad together with the picture.

My favorite in particular was the restaraunt ad with the burger on it. It looks very good, and at the time I came across it on Instagram, I really wanted to go get a burger. I’d say the ad was successful. I also like the Mercedes ad. By posting a beautiful picture of their car and throwing in an almost insultive motto for anyone who doesn’t own a Mercedes, they tempt you into purchasing their car. Very clever.

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My Eat and Explore group for U101 consisted of Johnny, Nicole, Zohaib, and I. We met around 4:15 pm after one of our weekly Thursday Art Hostory classes just outside Kelly Hall at Northside. From there, we walked from Drexel to the bus station where we took a ride to Fairmount, our assigned region to explore.

From there, we walked around town to simply explore. We had no destination in mind, our goal was to simply walk. After walking for an hour or two, we agreed to stop and find somewhere to eat. We found a little restaurant named “Tela’s Market and Kitchen.” I ordered chicken tenders, which were exquisite in taste. After about an hour of talking, we decided it was time to head home. We walked back to Drexel and returned by 7:30 pm.

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For my Westphal event of the term, I went to the DART t-shirt workshop on Wednesday 11/16. It started at 7:00 pm in the Academic building. The event made for a fun time to meet new people, talk to existing friends, and learn how to ink a design onto a t-shirt. I also enjoyed speaking with my Design I professor, Mark Stockton. He’s a cool guy.

I was able to print one of the year’s annual DART designs with black ink onto a gray t-shirt. All of the designs were very well made, and some people were very creative with their prints. My roommate was one of them, printing something like seven DART soup can designs onto his shirt. It was a fun event. I think I may consider joining DART after the workshop.

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Diane M. Bender’s “Design Portfolios: Moving from Traditional to Digital” is a book I thought was well made and designed. The cover has a simple profile, but inserts an image into the word “Design” in the title. I thought it was interesting that she chose to place the image inside the text instead of the background, something not usually done. I also believed the way images are laid out is effective. Often, images are used as visual tutorials for the text to help the reader understand it. Another interesting element the author chose to implement was the way page numbers are presented. On left hand pages, the page number is located at the top left of the page, but for pages on the right, it is located at the bottom right. I’ve never seen this in a book before, probably because it is slightly confusing. Nevertheless, I like it. I also found the topic to be interesting. It focuses more on the design side of architecture, something I’ve always had an interest in as well. I enjoyed reading about the ways architectural planning used to be done traditionally versus how it is done now.

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The “Abstract: the Art of Design” docuseries episode about Paula Scher proved to be an enlightening one. I enjoyed seeing how and where she worked. Her workplace in New York is my dream environment. I found it very relatable when Paula said she can not do design work at her desk. She can check and respond to emails there, but she needs to interact and move to find inspiration for her work.

One of the things that surprised me most about being a graphic designer that I never considered is just how long it can take to perfect and persuade people to use a logo. Paula talks about the logo for Citi bank and how making the logo may not take very long, but convincing several hundred, or even thousands, of people to use it is the tough part. Not only is a graphic designer’s job about design, but also diplomacy apparently.

I also enjoyed seeing how Paula began her career. One of the first things she worked on was album covers. I, too, would love to make album covers for people. I always thought this would be a very cool and enjoyable thing to do. So seeing that this is how she started her very successful career was neat for me.

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For the week 5 assignment, I chose the above logos as my top 10 favorite. Though there are many others that I like, these were the first to come to my mind. Most are very simple and get the point across, and I like that. Many of them also have rectilinear text or features, which appeals to me personally. I am a firm believer in symmetry and straight edges. Color is by no means necessary for my personal preferences, as you can see from several logos that are purely black and white. A simple, memorable design is what makes a good logo in my opinion.

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While some of these albums are amongst my favorite to listen to, they all also have an album cover that appeal to me. When looking at an album cover, I focus much more on the picture than the text. While the text is important, I believe the picture itself gives you the first idea of what that album is going to be like. It is my belief the text should support the illustration, not visa versa.

Just from looking at these album covers, I could tell you some potential words that would describe the music. For example, Chevelle’s Wonder What’s Next (the glass shattering) immediately conveys a sense of chaos and action. I could easily deduce the music is heavy rock or metal just from the image. Brand New’s Deja Entendu (the astronaut floating above the water) gives a science fiction atmosphere to it. From this, I could assume the music is very progressive, perhaps utilizing many synth sounds.

If I ever saw any of these ten albums on a shelf and had not heard their music before, I would absolutely listen purely based on the covers alone.

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Week one of Drexel