Thesis

Is the history of how design came to be what it is now because of the invention of computers? Or a reflection of Society? Milton Glaser once said, "Computers are to design as microwaves are to cooking." The invention of computers have certainly changed everything about the way we design. But because of this, a lot of bad design can be easily created by anyone who knows how to work a computer. I want to explore and research design before computers existed and how much has changed when computers came into existence. 

Inspiration

Computers were a revolutionary invention that have changed this world and how we lived in the past two decades. Before computers ever existed, designers had to manually cut out and put together design layouts themselves. This meant that they had to spend more time in preparing and putting thoughts together before actually starting the design because if the designer made a mistake in the process, they would have to start all over again. However now, if a designer chooses to use a different typeface, or use a different photograph it takes mere seconds to do so. This proves that the thought process had to have been final when actually starting to produce the work. Whereas now, designers could basically start on a project with just a small notion of how they want their designs to look. That is why there is so much bad design that looks so unfinished that is out there in the professional world. I will do much research on the aesthetics of design before and after the computer generation. I will look into the history of different movements in design and different societies of design, such as the Bauhaus movement, Russian constructivism, Pushpin studios, minimalism, and such and how the design now is so much more open ended and random, and there doesn't seem to be one popular movement with design nowadays. I started becoming interested in this topic because of how my father has transitioned from one to another. He is a professional working designer who has been in the business for over 30 years and has gone from the transition of all handmade design to computerized design. I think that this topic can relate to all designers, both young and old. 

Early Work

Junior Type - "Textbook" of life : For this assignment, we had to take existing examples of text type and rearrange the text to compose different compositions and make our own specific "text"book with a specific topic. For my textbook, I decided to show the waves of life going up and down. To show that, I made the spreads going from light to dark, then back to light. 

Junior Editorial: We were given  a selection of photographs by Paolo roversi and had to make three spreads with an opening spread and a quote.

Editorial Junior- Cheap Travel to Tokyo: We had to create a magazine for anything that interested us. I decided to make a travel magazine to Japan for young adults. The magazine includes articles about where to eat, sleep, shop, etc. I've only included some of the better spreads on this blog. 

Communication Graphic Design Junior-Tokyo Travel Poster: This is a travel poster for Tokyo in the year 2008. I wanted to show both the futuristic qualities, and the historical qualities because I think that the most interesting thing about Tokyo is that there is an equal mix of both the old and the new. 

Junior Type Goudy Brochure/Banner: For this assignment, we had to pick a type designer and make a brochure with information about them that could fold out into a banner. I decided to use his gothic typeface based on the quote in which he says: "Everyone who would letterspace blackletter would steal sheep." Because I used gothic type, I decided to make the inside look like a modern manuscript, while the outside had a modern decorative pattern with his name underneath the pattern. 

Junior Type Wizard of Oz poster. For this assignment, we had to create a poster of any story and show the story in some way from beginning to end. Each character goes in search for an inner characteristic that they don't have. What they don't realize is that they already have the characteristics within them. This poster shows the revealing of each character's realization. 

Sophomore Type Links Typeface: We had to design our own typeface with uppercase, lowercase, numbers and symbols. My typeface is called Links and has the look of paperclips or metal links. This started with the lowercase "r" and the rest evolved using that r. 

Sophomore Type Class Magazine: For this assignment, we had to create a music magazine with a cover and a spread. This magazine that I created is a hip hop magazine called Static.

Sophomore Type Oedipus Poster: We had to create a theatre poster for the play of Oedipus. I wanted the viewer to experience the blindness and confusion that the character of Oedipus experienced in the play, so I took a quote about blindness from the play and overlapped it many times to create that effect.