Messages

Ludwig Hohlwein based in Munich began as an architect but made his career on the back of his astonishing and vibrant poster work creating over 3000 images for commercial and literate publications. His work shows an uncanny combination of painterly richness and restraint. His unique and definitive style displays how he really understood how tone works and his push of bold contrast boosts the image and makes it an ideal medium for advertisements. His ability to paint well but sparingly works for the medium. Uncomplicated yet striking images that subtly influences the observer to think a certain way.

David Klein is an American artist who is synonymous for his work in advertising.

Famous for his travel posters for company Trans World Airlines his images were colourful, fun and bold and emblematic of the period. His images were far more illustratively playful then that of Hohlwein.

Agenda Setting Theory

Agenda Setting Theory by definition is basically that ‘we’ as a consumer or voter or generally ‘decision maker’ are being subtly influenced by the media and the masses. That we are drip fed images to influence us in our decision making. It dictates that governments and media bodies can control the way that we define a notion by the image that accompanies that very issue.

“Gate keeping controls over the selection of content discussed in the media” (Maxwell McCombs and Donald L. Shaw)

Mass communication plays a vital role in our society. Visual language pre-dates linguistics and it is the fastest way to convey an idea quickly and successfully.

“ This impact of the mass media- the ability to effect cognitive change among individuals, to structure their thinking- has been labeled the agenda-setting function of mass communication. Here may lie the most important effect of mass communication, its ability to mentally order and organize our world for us. In short, the mass media may not be successful in telling us what to think, but they are stunningly successful in telling us what to think about.”(Maxwell McCombs and Donald L. Shaw)

Marshall McLuhans wrote The Medium is the Message, outlining his theory that we are completely under the influence of media influx. His thesis and catalogue of work is extreme, it is almost impossible to summarize his point without writing at great length but majorly he devoted much of his time in understanding the link between technological advances and its relation to popular culture and henceforth how this in turn affected our species and how we would interact with each other.

“The concern of the advertiser is to make an effect. Any painter, any artist, any musician, sets out to create an effect. He sets a trap to catch somebodies attention. That is the nature of art”

Herbert Marshall Mcluhan (*1911 - +1979) lecture recorded by ABC Radio National Network on 27 June 1979 in Australia.

Innovation

Getting things into a better order is the great secret of progress, and we are now able to fly through the air, not because the laws of Nature have altered, but because we have learnt to arrange things in the right order to produce this result--the things themselves had existed from the beginning of the world

Thomas Troward

book called The creative process in the individual

Things and how we interact with them have changed rapidly over the decades and the timeline between one innovation and the next is becoming shorter and shorter.

Many of the amazing innovations that exist today were inconceivable not to long ago.

As new things get invented so do new ways of existing and new ways of interacting. Our social dynamic is altered so subtly that we hardly notice. Complacency sets in and the paranoia’s and phobias, taboos and social conduits that once existed before things like the internet and social networking are almost completely changed. Ironic really as now more then ever before, we exist in a society where our every move can be traced and our personalities can be profiled. Is big brother really watching?

We exist now within a web, connected digitally. The spiritual web of interconnectivity so apparent in so many cultures has become literal, in seconds we can communicate with people thousands of miles away. We as a species have never been so accessible and information so easily obtained on anything conceivable, because of this adverts are tailored to the individual your computer, mobile phone, diary can be personalized to your every need, convenience and aesthetic preference. As Marshall Mcluhan states “ In our new global village the consumers will become the producers”

The design thinking process is best thought of as a system of overlapping spaces rather than a sequence of orderly steps. There are three spaces to keep in mind: inspiration, ideation, and implementation. Inspiration is the problem or opportunity that motivates the search for solutions. Ideation is the process of generating, developing, and testing ideas. Implementation as the path that leads from the project stage into people’s lives.

Tim Brown : IDEO

Lecture : Contextualising design

"Design must become an innovative, highly creative, cross- disciplinary tool responsive to the true needs of men."

Victor Papanek : design for the real world

What is design?

How does design relate to people?

Why is it important?

Design is a process, it cannot be defined in one sentence, its denotation is broad and with that comes a limitless possibilities.

Design is collaborative

Design is about being human centred

Design is doing

Design is interpreting

Design is living

Design is communicating

Design is problem solving

A designer creates, the basis of design is a thought, a problem that needs to be resolved, an innovation, or even the embryo of an idea.

Design is what links creativity and innovation. It shapes ideas to become practical and attractive propositions for users or customers. Design may be described as creativity deployed to a specific end.’

The Cox Review

Design makes ideas into things, tangible notions that are inherent for the evolution of our development and existence.

Design is human focused, it is ubiquitous, it gives function to form and beauty in aesthetics. Design lays the foundation for innovation.

The Constructivists

Constructivist Suprematism was an artistic phenomenon that changed the way people viewed and perceived art and its purpose in society, particularly in Russia around the very early 20th century.

Constructivists were artists, photographers, engineers, assemblers, sculptors, writers and philosophers. Their belief was that art should be expressive and organic, humanized and given life!

Constructivists such as Alexander Rodchenko aimed to produce work that directly engaged with its witness and encouraged that person to actively participate in the piece.

Often the pieces produces consisted less of realistic images and more geometric shapes, lines, curves and bold highly contrasting colours and shades.

The work of this era was utilized mainly for industrial campaign posters and propaganda flyers but also was greatly displayed through the use of photography and photomontage. Jagged lines and abstract lighting would ensure a feeling was conveyed before any direct link to an already established image could be defined. They key was to make art more ‘human’ more accessible and to inspire and engage the viewer directly.

One major influence during this movement was an artist called Alexander Rodchenko. Working primarily as a painter he moved into the realms of photomontage in order convey the feeling of motion on a 2d plain. He later went on to produce paintings that challenged the common aesthetic. Monochromatic works that “reduced painting to its logical conclusion”.

Kazimir Malevici: Suprematism 1916