Social Design

The idea of Social design is to create positive change in the community and see how design help solve issues within the community. Also, how you take on a responsibility as a designer and many opportunities present themselves for you to have a leading role. In the Citizen Architect: Rural Studio, students who were majoring in architecture helped the people who had no home and in areas of the community where they needed the most help. So as architects they were taking on a very important role of building one man a home. In trying to think of how design could help a community this is what I came up with.

            In many areas of the country, whichever state, some of the more underprivileged towns cannot serve to many senior citizens needs. I know in the more privileged areas of living Senior Citizens come first, but for an example in the area where I live, there is one home for Senior Citizens and it is just awful. The building is a nasty bright blue and has no areas for recreation, nor other activities besides sitting outside and watching the birds fly by. This may seem like just an architectural job, but not only would I like to focus on the construction of building; but the actual facilities and events within the building. A lot of these people in the area where I live are also homeless, so meals being served to you at the door or in a white walled cafeteria isn’t exactly comforting like home. How could art or design serve as a help to the community? By coming up with an easily accessible, comforting Senior Citizen/Homeless shelter in areas where they can’t afford to build one this would be a project for us as designers.

            This would be a collaborative project along with architects of course. For starters; have the dining area designed to feel more like home. Tables that seat six, with placemats and everything. Not only will this make them feel like they are back at home, but it won’t feel like it’s a cafeteria at a soup kitchen. This will also encourage them to socialize and avoid sitting alone creating isolation. The “recreation” area that most of the other homes include 3 or 4 tv’s with chairs or a few lazy boys to watch. That is just awful. I find it more interesting to create a cinema ambience. I’m not saying we are going to build movie theaters either, take the size of the projector screens in the computer lab for instance. Have four rooms where different selections of movies are playing or tv shows and have comfortable couches, or individual lazy-boys for them to rest in. This would be a purpose of entertainment or even the daily ritual of watching the news. Last but not least; an open Art Expression area. This would be the biggest construction of the whole home. It would ideally be an open area, with a glass roof so the daylight would be visible. I just feel the enclosed areas are too depressing especially people that are homeless and of age. There would be easels for painters and drawers; open space for collaging/scrapbooks/ knitting etc.etc. an area for music such as pianos; guitars; etct..not any electric guitars of course. The original card playing table for all our big time gamblers. For outside, depending of the location we can’t really build them a huge landscape and build a swimming pool. A small walking path would be nice, with a small garden here and there.

            The purpose to come up with this project is to give accessibility to people who don’t get it because of the area in which they live in. By holding campaigns and asking for local business to chip in this could hopefully be a successful project. We could design posters for fund raising events; have a benefit dinner in which hopefully government officials from the area could attend and hopefully offer to make some donations. I believe in helping out the communities that are in need. It’s part of making them feel like they have not been forgotten about, and I think about my own family. If there was no other place for them to go for some odd reason, I would feel horrible knowing their only option in an underprivileged area was the worst. It’s about reaching out to these communities and reminding them there is always opportunity for them to experience the goodness of people. Hoping everyone cooperates and playing the responsible and ambitious as well as generous designer, this could be a successful project. 

Pascal Pixel Perfect

Pascal Dangins virtual reality.

-Pascal Design is the premier retoucher of fashion photographs. Everyone calls on him when they want someone who looks less than great to look great, someone who looks amazing, more amazing..etc.

-Celebreties rely on him to insure that any portrait of them that appears in any outlet passes through his shop.

-Pascals success comes from the combination to marry technical prowess to an aesthetic sensibility.

-Uses principles of anatomy and perspective

-Sees things in a way that the majority of people won’t

-Is able to work with the photographers, channel the style they are going for in the shoot, and even composes the sets.

-He is a translator; choreographer; a conductor; photo whisperer

-Fine art prints are distinguishable; “It’s immaculate, and there is a kind of richness to the pixilation. It feels like you could almost sink your finger into it.

-Knows how to do a lot of jobs, if he doesn’t know how to do something he figures it out through trial and error.

-In a photograph, he makes sure the hues on the colors are believeable, corrects color and contrasts, focused on the correct anatomy and tries to stay away from disfiguring the human figure, instead idealizing it.

-Before his successful career, he worked at a salon. He began defining the style of a person. “I look at life as retouching”. Began working for photoshoots and became interested in the relationship between the computer and camera. Learned programming, and became very secretive with his tricks of the trade.

-Likes to present an image with a hierarchy guiding the viewer at what they should be viewing first.

-People hire Pascal for the assurance that behind every abstruse technical step there will be an artistic intention.

-Pascal is a purist; believes technology will lead to creativity rather than the other way around.

-Creating a software package called Photoshoot in where its main purpose will be to imbue digital photography with a specific sensibility.

                   My Opinion

   In this article there is also a lot of controversy on how much is too much retouching. No doubt Pascals work is amazing, but in certain cases it has been said he went overboard. He said himself his purpose was not to disfigure the human figure, but to idealize it. And the main reason he was doing it was because it was at that very persons request. He says the first people to complain about the retouching being too much are the very people that ask for it. So he is just doing his job. Also, when it comes to the fashion industry you have to portray a certain image, and have to do everything to achieve it. I found it interesting and contradicting that the Dove ad where all the more voluptous woman with more curves were trying to portray embracing the body as is, in that shoot there was a lot of retouching. I guess it all depends on how this retouching is done. Certain ads do disfigure the correct anatomy and make body parts seem really fake and anatomically incorrect. Corrections for blemishes; facial imperfections; incorrect placement of hair is all fine I think. But when the retouching reduces a woman thats a size 8 to a size 4..thats going too far and changing the person completely. Pascals work is said not to do this, he just wants to idealize and create an image that goes with the area of work, i.e. fashion, film etc. etc.

David Carson: Most Influential Graphic Designer of the Era

David Carson

We mentioned David Carson during a discussion on the evolution of magazines and type, as well as the imagery in them. David Carson was known for his successful meshing of both of these elements. David was listed as one of the top 5 most influential designers, along with Milton Glaser, Paul Rand, Saul Bass and Massimo Vignelli. Numerous groups including the New York Type Directors Club, American Center for Design and I.D. magazine have recognized his studio's work with a wide range of clients in both the business and arts worlds.

Carson began his life as a designer thanks to all the traveling he did. He has been to Puerto Rico, West Indies, did a two week graphic course at the University of Arizona in 1980, from there he went to the University of San Diego to earn his BFA in Sociology in 1983, which then later brought him to Switzerland meeting his biggest influence Rudolph Lutz.

In the late 1970’s, Carson became a professional surfer and in 1989 he was qualified as the 9^th best surfer in the world. By having this hobby as a surfer, he based this sport as the influences and main subjects of his designs. He began designing surfing magazine layouts, brochures, books, equipment design, and the latest was his own luggage design. Carson is principal and chief designer of David Carson Design, Inc. with offices in Del Mar,California and Zurich, Switzerland.

By the late 80’s after having taught in California, he began to immerse himself in the world of design and became interested in the artistic and bohemian culture of California. He began using “dirty type” and non-mainstream photographic techniques. His style was not seen anywhere before and he soon became the “Father of Grunge”. His layouts are composed of distortions of “vernacular typography” and fractured imagery, rendering them as almost illegible. Carson’s whole body of work is subjective and largely driven by intuition, with an emphasis on reading material before designing it, and experimenting with ways to communicate in a variety of mediums Carson broke all the rules Typography was putting out there, he did things no one else did. A lot of his work is consisted of distorted designs as well as some of the headlines, focusing a great clarity on the body text. For example a great deal of his designs were for surfing magazines, or brochures and the photographs were of great quality, some were blurred or made with some photographic filter but the rest of the design was surrounded by well organized body of text, and distorted designs that added just a  bit of contrast to the layout. The International Center for Photography (NY) singled out Carson as the "Designer of the Year" for his use of photography and design. Print Magazine proclaimed his work "Brilliant," while USA Today described it as "visually stunning," adding that his design of Ray Gun Magazine "may actually get young people reading again."Some of his clients include Giorgio Armani, Samnsung, Microsoft, Ray Gun magazines, twSnowboarding, twSkateboarding, Toyota etc.

Response to Milton Glaser Movie

I had seen this movie about Milto Glaser before. As an introduction, the movie introduces Milton as a creator of the world wide known logo for I love New York. Milton enjoyed doing creative works. As a person he was a free spirited, culturally intelligent and lover of food. People described his intellience as being a very articulate person, knew what was going on around him in Politics and the cultures around him His voice, his work, he made his prescence known all around the world. As a designer, he was close to his employess. Inside his design studio, the office was small, but he sat near his employees, he did not belive in having a seperate office for himself.
       A few of his works like the Bob Dylan poster, the NY symbol, and the Push Pins done for ProBono, he wanted to send a message to people an he did so by having fun. He created sayings for these pins so people would realize the political messages being sent out. Milton Glaser also had a deep appreciation for African Art, as one could tell by his very decorative house he shares with his wife who designs childrens books. Milton has also been known to design interiors of restaurants and believes the design of the place really affects people. I believe Milton Glaser is the type of designer that will be know forever, his diversity in his works and his appreciation for the world around him is unmistakeable. His ambition to make work that will speak clearly to people and yet his nobleness will always be known

Jack Totty's Movie vs Monterrey Pop

Personally, I LOVED the movie Monterrey Pop. I'm the kind of person that is always into new music, and as crazy as this sounds I never heard of Janice Joplin or Otis Redding. I fell in love with the music. The energy. The whole era of the 60's, personally I think I was born in the wrong year. Compared to Jack Totty's movie, this was on the other side of the spectrum. The movie by Jack Totty was about the clean aesthetics of design, and how sometimes being too good of a design can lack in functionality. For starters, the movie was mostly in monotone grays, neutrals and very little color. The mood all together was uptight, robotic, mundane life. The people in this movie hardly laughed, did not have any feeling to the dialogue between each other. The houses that they showed were all full of modernist design, from the furniture to the entrance gate, water fountains in the shape of fish streaming water. People's styles were also completely opposite from the people in Monterrey Pop. The women all had some sort of slicked back hairstyle, and served mainly as housewives. The men wore short clean cuts. The introduction to the movie was also completely different. Jack Totty's titles were in some sort of serif type face, nicely presented.
Now..
Let's get to Monterrey Pop.
It's the 1960's for starters, the era where the Hippies were born, flowers, nature, music, and drugs. To many it may sound way too stereotypical, but they were doing nothing wrong. In the introduction to this movie, there's crazy loud music, grainy unidentifiable photos with too much lights all over the screen, and hand written text to show the credits. The movie is about the music festival called Monterrey Pop, and it definitely steps far from the boundaries of normal television by showing Jimmy Hendrix do his wild performance where sexual and violent actions are presented. The focus of the movie is on the experiences people are having with emotions from music, living the experience of sleeping outside, being dirty, doing drugs and just living life day by day. No schedules, no rules. The style of people in this movie, were completely down to earth, the women wore eccentric dresses with a lot of color, make up seemed individual to each, affectionate with their partners. Men on the other hand, took the liberty to grow their hair out, wear funky glasses, things you would never see in Jack Tottys movie. The whole mood of this movie is just so different. There are no boundaries, no idealized way of being. To each it's own, and definitely worship the music. It was great.

Art Vs Design

-Kees Dorst- Is it Art?

• Artists in general have their own directions as to where they want to go with their art. A designer is presented with a problem and given guidelines to follow
• Sometimes, the way artists go about making their art, is based on design. They have to carefully structure what they wish to do and plan it out.
•  Designers cross over into art as self development.

Rick Poyners: Art's Little Brother

• The older ways of problem solving in art are highly underestimated because we have designers now to resolve that, but surprisingly the old tricks of the trade are what work best. 
• Media coverage of art makes everything seen as a luxury item to be put in homes, but design books have been seen as not achieving the review aspect of design.
• A lot of todays projects are about the influence of commerce on design.
• "the current ascendence of design gives renewed relevance to questions concerning the validity of art's conventionally privileged position"
• Designers are not artists, they are working to solve other peoples problems, and artist is to the truth of his own vision.
• Because designers have the high end technology at their fingertips and can control different mediums right on their desktops, they don't need to hire other special manufacturing to control the rest.
• Function vs vision. If a design isn't functional, then it could be seen as art-but not design anymore because designs main concept is function. Art will always be art because it is what is.
• Design can be way more pleasurable than art. We seek "retinal pleasure" and coloured lines, textures and shapes, dimensions, all that..design can certain supply you with, and much more.
• Art is starting to lose its beauty, with now everything being self expression.
• Matisses' expression for art to be as relaxing and serene as a good armchair can describe contemporary living.

-M&M Convesation

• These guys feel there is no negative boundary between art and design.
• They do a lot of collaborative pieces, in which they use their "specialist" as designers can help achieve a well balanced art piece with artists.
• They are about quality and equality. Working with artists to help them create their art and extend their creativity levels, not just take their art and "do something cool with it" like many artist expect from designers.
• Interested in dialouges between specialist. Specialists as designers, specialist as an artist.
• Some art is as bad as design, and some design is as good as art.
• By designing their exhibition, they are letting the world in on what their propositions are, and should not be seen as a design piece in itself.

MY point of view:

• I definitely agree with art and design being two seperate notions. Art is something that dates back way before design. Art was about rendering objects to their purest forms and representing them with the beautiful colors of the spectrum. I think art is about representing form, color and shape, space and exploring motifs. Everyone has their own notion about what art is exactly, but one thing i can agree on is Art is just a main subject and like Rick Poyner says is Arts little brother. Design is part of the Art world, but it has a totally different concept to it which is: problem solving, and communication. Advertising and media all rely on graphic design, they don't rely on Matisse paintings. Graphic design is a way of life to me, it is everything that surrounds our daily life. Everything has been carefully designed by industrial design or graphic designs, or manufacturing companies. Graphic design can take concepts from art, like renaissance paintings, cubism, pointillism etc etc.. but it's definitely not the same thing, nor is it less than painting or more.
• I thought the M&M conversation was really interesting and meshed well with some of the things I think. Collaborating with another artist will always result in a great project. How they describe themselves to be "specialists" is a way I never thought of, but definitely a good point. Being a specialist is getting down to the core of what you are pursuing..in this case design. Exploring absolutely everything about design, trying out new things, and knowing how to go about a problem in multiple ways. Also, by collaborating with another artist in lets say painting, they can exchange everything they know about painting and you the designer can influence with the knowledge you know about design. There are many more outcomes to an art piece when you take from another field than with just design. Not always..but certainly a possibility.

Response:Week 5

• Amateur Vs. Professionalism.
• Professionalism had to do with class, money and level of education
• Stereotypes;women seen as amateurs in the design profession
• Designers vs craftsmen-embroidery was done by women-seen as amateur work.
• Craftwork is being seen more and more; studies are being done an amateur's works
• DIY-part of this idea of craftwork as well; also being incorportated with design-Ellen Lupton is creating this to give amateur designers basic principles.
• Some professionals believe technology is making it way to easy for amateur designers. -Undermining their "profession"
• “amateurs develop ways of working and aesthetics that exist outside those approved by the experts, and in doing so they can act as models for a revised professional practice"
• Professionals are highly intellectual,distinct beings that can deal with complex design situations and can come up with any solution to any aspect of design:craft,design,print..etc.
• Vernacular design-Popular-traditional culture, mass produced merchantile objects.
• Amateur design allows for the individual design to grow in creativity over time by allowing them to DIY-design it yourself. Well rounded works at the end
• The relationship between amateur designers and professional designers are still conflicting. But the amateur designer is seen as a self builder but also as the user.
• Professional Designers are still focused only one how directly its applied to functionality.
• Bad
• Being Good is average-We must learn to be BAD.
• Graphic Design has an effect on its audience.
• Diversity of product allows for individuality.
• There is a balance in the way business is run at design firms.
• Marketing is overwhelming the truth and importance of design/art
• Vernacular design-is the method of design without the marketing, without strategy, without the method of trained practioners.-and thats what's good about it.
• Vernacular design is design without knowing its design
• My Points
• Amateur designers should not be doubted, because before the professional designers were where they are now, they were amateurs too.
• Amateurs serve an influence and as away of study of design to the students in art school.
• Craft IS becoming less and less due to the ease of technology and the need for mass production and the rapidness its put out on the market.
• Craft is also being lost due to the advance in technology, like architecture was once all about putting together a 3D model, now all that can be done extremely easy on programs on the computer.
• Because of the advance of technology-amateur designers are taking advantage to create amazing new projects; but professionals shouldn't undermine their work. Technology of design is being put out for a purpose! To come up with new and innovative things all the time by different designers.
• Vernacular Design- This is definitely the design referring to the signs I see all the time when i go to Mexico. It will be restaurants, salons, deli, corner stores, taco stands, and the their signs are painted either by hand, or by a consistent font all around the town. This is tying them all together, unity in design.
• Advertisment and Marketing is important. You have to design according to what will sell to the public. The design industry is revolving around money, so in order to get to that money you have to make something that the public will like. Aesthetics are crucial, and you cant just design something you believe works, you have to place yourself as the buyer, looking at your design from the outside and see what it feels like.