mannygrova3designjournal-blog

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Barnes Foundation

During our visit at the Barnes Foundation, we met with the entire in house graphic design team for the museum: two amazing women. They taught us all about what it was like to be in house designers, and how this was drastically different from being freelance designers or working at a firm. They showed us examples of some projects they had done, and they were absolutely brilliant. They were especially amazing through all their challenges with copyrights and trying not to plagiarize the artists, while also trying to make interesting prints to showcase the artist’s work. I t was a very enlightening experience, but it made me realize that  don’t think being an in house designer is right for me. 

I do hope to visit back one day and see what new projects they are able to put out (and i guESS actually look at the artworks in the museum too). Seeing another Drexel graphic designer become successful after graduation gives me confidence that I too will succeed and that I will be able to find a job post graduation. 

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I chose to focus on the work of Annie Leibovitz. I find her work interesting because mainly the way she crops her photos make her photos so intense. The colors used also play a big part in this, and I believe she makes a lot of these color corrections in post, and they come out beautiful. I think it’s super interesting the way she can make a photo with literally just a person’s face have the same amount of intensity as a photo with a busy background. 

I also love her creativity with her work as well. The promotional photo for the little mermaid is amazing and must’ve taken endless hours in post getting everything right. I also love the Kimye picture and the way that she managed to capture the whole room using the mirrors, including Kanye taking a picture himself. I don’t think I would’ve ever thought of that, and that’s why she’s such a well known professional.

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For our newer designer, we chose to do Thomas Kronbichler. He cofounded Studio Mut in 2014, as well as has done some independent projects. He is most well known for his various posters he has done fo projects throughout Italy, where h e is from and where his firm is now based. Again, I personally love his work for the minimalism that he uses as well as his color choice. I love vector shapes and tend to use them a lot in my own work, and he has basically mastered the art of vectors. 

One project that his firm did was the catalogue for an exhibition called “Inside Lottozero.” The exhibition featured 13 artists that were mostly textile designers. What they did for the catalogue, in my opinion, is one of the most creative things ever. Of course, there is the vector minimalist pattern on the cover that features a sort of tetris-y pattern with interwoven brick forms which I love. But, for the actual text in the book, because of the fact that the book has to be printed in multiple languages, they chose to orient each language a different way. For example, if you hold the book regularly it is in Italian, but if you turn it sideways it is in English. Although, admittedly, it is probably not the most practical thing in the world, it is brilliant the way they’ve mimicked the cover design with the actual text. I personally would want to see the catalogue more than the exhibition xD.

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For our big firm, we chose to do Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv. They are an independent firm located in New York, and have been designing since 1957. They have created some of the most iconic logos in America and in the world. I personally love their logos/branding because of their minimalism. I have always been a fan of minimalism and they have definitely mastered this skill. Their use of minimalism, as well as their use of color make their logos, in my opinion, very modern and will remain modern for a long time. I feel that they will continue to be successful for many years to come.

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I chose to look at the official website for Lisbon, Portugal, Turismo de Lisboa.  The main thing that I like about it is its easy navigation. Everything is set out so that even the dumbest of people would be able to navigate the site. Clicking on any one of the four main categories (Sightseeing & Activities, Restuarants & Cafes, Shopping, and Sleep) brings up not only the different places but also the reviews from trip advisor. 

There is also a big photo gallery that showcases everything the city has to offer. I feel that it is very important to have a photo gallery like this because I feel that Lisbon isn not too well known and the photo gallery helps give a feel to what it is like. Plus, obviously, you should always know what a place looks like before you go and visit.

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Type Tells Tales is a beautifully designed book that showcases different artists’ various pieces that are either entirely type or very heavily incorporate type. Of courses the pieces are very interesting, but almost as interesting is the book designer’s use of type in the book itself. The table of contents and chapter breaks are very fun to look at and makes you forget that you’re looking at words, and it looks more like a doodle in a sketchbook. The cover design is also interesting because of the fact that it uses three different fonts for each of the three words, and they are completely different styles yet go together quite well. Also, this book gets bonus points from me because of the fact that there’s a Portuguese artist highlighted for one of his pieces :) This book was very fun to find and look at, and I will definitely go and find it again when I need inspiration.

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For our Design & Explore assignment, our group visited East Passyunk. We took the subway to get there, and it was actually way easier to get there than I thought it was going to be. We walked around and saw SO many restaurants, a lot of them with pretty cool signs and logos. It was a little quiet, but I think that was because we went in the middle of the day. We were intrigued by this one little restaurant that said “pork & beef sandwiches,” and when we went inside, sure enough, all they has were pork and beef sandwiches. We decided to eat there and it was actually pretty good. The sandwiches were a little pricey, but they were H U G E. Just a tip, the long hots are reallyyyyyy hot. Overall it was a really good day exploring an area I had never been to, and I would definitely go back and try some other restaurants with more than two things on their menu lol.

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Time Management

I am probably the worst person to talk to about time management. I suck at it. period. I either wait until the last second to do something and then stay up all night to do it, or I wait until the last second to do it, fall asleep, and then don’t get back to it for a couple of weeks. Hence why I’m only doing this assignment now. I think that my problem is I never really write my assignments down in some sort of planner and actually allot time to working on it. I just kind of have everything that’s due in my head and when they’re due, but never really keeping track of how long everything will take. I think I make a schedule of when I’m going to do my assignments outside of class, I will be way more likely to stick to it. I will try to change my mindset from “Oh I have to do that eventually.” to “I will work on it on Friday from 2-3 pm.

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For my best of 2018, I decided to stay in the category of album cover designs. All the designs I chose were very interesting to me for different reasons. Some of them I love because of their minimalism. I’ve always been a fan of minimalism and I think that it makes it look so modern. Another reason why I find some of the albums interesting is for actually the opposite reason. Some of them have a kind of retro look which I love. I think that this kind of design is brilliant for an album cover because of the fact that music will live on forever. You can go today and listen to music from before you were born and I think an album cover that calls back on those times is really interesting. It leads me to believe that the music on the particular albums were inspired by those times too. The last reason why I found the albums interesting is that some of them are very abstract. I think that the idea of an abstract design for an album cover fits perfectly for music because of the fact that music can be anything and can be interpreted in almost countless different ways. Having an album cover that portrays that through abstractness is perfect.

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I’ve been playing soccer for as long as I can remember, which also means I’ve been watching professional soccer for just as long. Philadelphia has their own team in the MLS called the Philadelphia Union, and their stadium is just a SEPTA ride away. I will definitely be watching some of their games next season now that I know the stadium is so close. I will especially be going to their game if they play LA Galaxy so that I could Zlatan Ibrahimovic in all his glory.

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I don’t really know much about fashion design or designers, but when I was looking for designs, I really enjoyed the work of John Galliano. I like how he takes the dresses/outfits and makes them into more than just something to wear. He basically uses the outfits as a canvas for his artwork. I especially enjoy his outfits that use texture very interestingly to create flowers or faces. I also enjoy the outfits that use the translucent material to kind of make two outfits in one. Of course, I wouldn’t expect anyone to actually wear these outfits, but I still think they are very interesting to look at  and should be in a gallery.

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I chose these advertisements because of how clever they are. I also am a huge fan of minimalist advertising, and so thats why there are plenty of those in my examples. Some of the best advertisements are actually PSA’s and are not necessarily advertising a product. The way they are able to provoke fear or caution is very interesting to me and really makes you think about the subject for awhile after looking at the advertisement. I also enjoy when advertisements incorporate humor into the ads. This trend is very common in America, and is portrayed clearly with the super bowl and those commercials. The ads that I picked all either made me laugh, be cautious, or go “wow that’s really smart.” If I go into advertising in the future, I will make sure that all of my ads invoke these emotions as well.

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I feel what makes a typography design successful is if you are interested first with the shape of the actual type, and then take a step back and go “oh wow this actually says something.” All of these, I feel, are awesome displays of this concept of using the type as shape as well as the content of the type.

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For our eat & explore assignment, our group chose to visit Chinatown. We hopped on the subway at 34th st and took it all the way to 11th st. This put us a couple of blocks away from Chinatown. We started our visit by walking through Reading Terminal Market which was the busiest place I’ve ever seen! There were full restaurants, candy stores, craft stores, produce, and anything else you can think of all under one roof. 

While walking through Chinatown, we saw all kinds of different decorations from Statues like the lion^ to a giant archway that I forgot to take a picture of:( it was all very beautiful and very different from any kind of decoration that I’m used to. We also decided to stop in a couple of little Asian bodegas, and this was probably thew most interesting part of our trip. Each one of these little stores had probably every single Asian product that was ever imported. From all kinds of different candy to every single piece of Asian produce imaginable. One of the Asian bodegas had giant tanks filled to the brim with all kinds of different fish, and that place smelled exactly how would you imagine it to smell. Finally we ended our trip eating dinner at Dim Sum garden, where we had dumplings that were filled with soup! I personally am not a huge fan of Asian food, but those dumplings were amazing. Overall, I had an amazing time and more fun than I thought I was going to have. On the way back to the subway we actually met another group there and kind of formed one big giant group. I would definitely go back there again and highly recommend Chinatown :)

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Paula Scher

I just watched Netflix’s Abstract episode 6 with Paula Scher where she talks about her experience being such a  successful graphic designer, and it’s truly amazing. This woman eats, sleeps, and breathes graphic design. It’s amazing to see the amount of things that are so popular today are because of Paula Scher. From a graphic designer point of view, it’s also amazing to see how much of an impact typography plays in our lives. Typography is everywhere, and because of that fact, we never realize how much it truly impacts us. She mentioned in the beginning of the episode about the amount of signs in New York City alone, and it’s crazy when you actually think about it. I feel that we judge something so significantly based on the sign outside a store or restaurant, and we don’t even realize we’re doing it. There could be one tiny thing about one letter that we don’t like and decide “that place isn’t getting my business.” As a designer that’s kind of intimidating because now whenever I have to design something like that, I now know that I have to make sure every single little pixel of every single little letter has to be perfect. Luckily for Paula, she’s been doing that all her life and that is the reason she is as successful as she is now. Looking at her pieces, it’s very clear she loves typography, being that most of her projects are typography based. It makes me realize that a super awesome logo doesn’t necessarily have to be a cool picture or graphic, but a simple, well-designed single word can be just as effective, if not more so. She mentions while on the phone with a client, “I think you should develop a visual language. That’s what we did with The Public and Atlantic. You don’t need to see the logo to know what it is.” The fact is, that if you have a logo that is primarily typography based, you can then branch out and make posters and signs with the same style of typography, and just as Scher said, even though the logo isn’t there, you are still able to recognize what the poster or sign is for. 

She also goes through her process of designing and mentions that her best ideas come when she’s not really thinking specifically about design, but rather wen she’s not really thinking about anything. I felt that that was pretty cool because as a fellow designer (even though I’m shitty one in comparison), I can relate to that because a lot of my ideas for projects come when I’m in the shower or when I’m making the hour and a half drive back home from Philly. She mentions specifically that her best ideas come when she’s in a taxi, and that kind of impacted me because if you’re taking public transportation of some sort and an idea comes to you, you are able to take out a sketchbook and draw it out or write it down. However, since I drive, I’m obviously not able to do that. So maybe, in the future, I will take the train more often to NJ instead of driving in order to get my ideas from my brain to paper as quickly as possible. It’s also interesting in the documentary how Scher, in her free time, makes these giant maps that she paints by hand. It’s like she goes to work and designs all day and then goes home and designs for fun. It made me realize that I definitely don’t draw or design as much as I should outside of what I have to do for school, and maybe in order to grow and be a better designer that I should start doing more things outside of solely what I have to do for school projects. 

Lastly, all throughout the episode I kept thinking to myself, “How is she able to keep doing this for 30+ years... doesn’t she get tired of it?” I mean I know she loves designing, but can someone love designing that much? I didn’t get my answer until the final minute of the episode when Scher says “I’m driven by the hope that I haven’t made my best work yet.... That drive never goes away.” That final sentence was really impactful to me because for someone to be as successful as she, and still believe that they can be better, it is truly inspiring. I hope that whatever little or big success I will have in life, whether I end up sticking with design or not, I can be able to apply to same mentality with my work and motivate myself as well as the great Paula Scher.

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The piece I will be going into is the bearded man on alone on the island. I personally like this piece because of the fact that it is a vector design. I personally love vector design because of the simplicity of it and when it is done well, it can look amazing while still keeping that simple/minimal look. The color scheme of the piece is very coherent and works very well together. The subliminal messaging of the water being filled with bottles is very clever and portrays a message while also being just cool to look at. I love the stylization of the piece in general, but specifically the man. You can tell that he has been on the island for quite some time in what little information we can see about him. The way the designer decided to portray the human body is very interesting and goes along with the vector and minimalistic style of the piece. I would love to have this as a poster or something that I can hang in my room because I love it that much.

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The ten logos I chose all fall into one of three categories. Either they have some sort of hidden meaning or picture in them, they are minimalistic (I love minimalism), or they were simply very interesting to look at. Most of them are the hidden picture category. I just think that these are so brilliant and I love it when I finally realize what it is. Overall though, regardless of what category the logos I chose fall into, I chose them firstly because they were interesting to me. If I saw one of these logos on a billboard or a sign, I would be very intrigued to at least look up what the company was. Also, these logos are very unique in the sense that if you saw them, they would stand out. This is what you want as a logo for your brand, something that will stick out in someone’s mind and when people see it, they will automatically associate your brand with it.