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The Future of Graphic Design

       Technology is something that is constantly changing. There is always a constant upgrade of devices and new technology that come out all the time, especially for graphic design. With all the new technology being created, there will most likely be several new methods and devices to create art on the computer. It’s hard to predict what exactly the new technology may be, but with the rapid pace of new devices, I’m sure it’s currently a thought in someone in the worlds mind as we speak.

           With new technology coming out, many ways of doing things may end because of the new devices and ways of doing them. That goes along with the trendy styles of graphic design that are on the rise at the moment that will soon become more popular and eventually die out for something else new and trendy in the future. The cycle will never stop. People will always be finding new styles and creating new technology. One thing I think that will continue to grow in the future is 3D printing. It is already becoming more popular and more schools are incorporating 3D printing in classes and it is being used more now than ever. I think in the future that 3D printing will be very common and continue to be used not only in schools but professionally as well.

           Interactive design will be the main focus of everything in the future. With all new technology, I’m sure that ways of creating websites will be completely different than how it is used today. More and more everyday people are creating things that make it easier for people and everyday use. Things such as the internet. Today we have devices such as “Alexa” and “Siri” which basically do everything for you. There are no visuals, it is all done by the device looking up what you want and it speaking it to you. This will make things very hard for graphic designers, because not many people will be visiting websites when they can get all the information read to them. Because this is the trend right now, I think that it will soon change to holographic websites in the future. New technology will be very interactive, yet still visible. I do not believe that websites and design will decline, I think that there will be several different new ways of how we view them, making it more interactive and futuristic.

Even though there will be new technology in the future, history often has its way of repeating itself. I have noticed that many things that are considered “vintage design” are coming back. More people want the look of a vintage style logo. Not necessarily sticking with how design was previously but giving a modern look to a vintage style. On the last page, I have shown images of what I am explaining. The use of distressing the logo and using fonts that give an older “professional” feel to the it. Most of the “vintage” designs are made with very neutral color schemes and not much bright color at all. I feel that this will keep growing and become a lot more popular in the future, but eventually end soon. A lot of companies are doing this and when it won’t be popular anymore they must create a newer and more modern logo. I personally feel that this is just a trend that will only last a short amount of time. But a lot of people want it currently because it is trendy at the moment.

As a graphic design student, in the future I think it will be much different than how it is today. My prediction is that more people will want to become designers and it will be a much harder position for people to succeed in. Design in general will be even more popular than today, with students studying all different types of design. It will be embraced more for people to choose this field rather than today. When I was in high school, I noticed that nobody every talked about art being a profession. We were constantly pushed to become something important such as a doctor, teacher or a lawyer and never had the option to decide on anything else. I think (and I hope) that that will no longer be a thing. In the future, I hope that kids in high school will be shown that it is important to do something that you love and to embrace all jobs especially if they aren’t the common ones that we were told to do. All professions are important and I think that design will become more popular in the future with adding several more types of design professions with all the new technology that will be created.

As for the design movement, design is already becoming more minimal. More websites, posters, magazine spreads, and album covers are being envied for the minimal color and simplistic type. I have chosen to name this movement, the Vanilla Movement. This may be a silly and fun name, but it is true. Design is rapidly becoming more plain and simple, like vanilla ice cream. I was inspired with naming this movement the Vanilla Movement by one of my professors saying one of my designs was too “vanilla”. She said it was too vanilla because it was very simple. It was black and white and minimal color, which is how I see the future of design looking. While most people would be offended by someone saying that their design was “boring”, I enjoyed when she said this because of how true it is. I never considered design being a metaphor to an ice cream flavor, but I liked it and decided to name this movement after that.

There are already a lot of designers starting to create design that fit into the Vanilla Movement that I have created. I researched Michael Beirut for another project and I discovered that a lot of his designs that he has created recently fit into this movement. He is known for creating simple yet extremely effective designs, mainly logos. When researching his logos, most of it was only black and white, with only little color used. This may seem boring to some designers now, but will be envied in the future because of the classic and elegant look that it resonates. His work is already becoming popular, considering he has created logos for some major companies such as Verizon and MasterCard, which can be seen on the last page. As you can see the deigns are very simple and would take some designers no time at all, but that is what is becoming popular and more and more major companies are doing this. Because the more major companies are simplifying their logos, websites and designs, more smaller companies are going to do the same as well. People see the work that he creates and his style he uses, and companies want that professional and minimal style for their companies.

My prediction is that most of the things I have discussed will only last for a short amount of time until something new comes along that becomes the newest trend. As for the Vanilla Movement, I believe that it will last for a while because even though it is simple, it is something that will always be in style. But all things must come to an end, and this movement will eventually die off to new movement. I think that the movement that follows the Vanilla Movement will be something completely opposite of the plain and simple movement. I think it will embrace fun, bright colors, while still providing a modern feel. Interactive design will still be very popular, but expand much more than it is today. New technology will help graphic and interactive design become more popular than it is today and graphic design will be an extremely wanted job.

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Michael Bierut-Project 3

           Michael Bierut is one of the leading graphic designers known today. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1957. He studied graphic design at the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning. He was a very smart student in high school and his teachers were shocked he would be attending an art school rather than becoming a doctor or lawyer. While studying, he achieved an internship with Chris Pullman at the Boston television station, WGBH. He graduated with honors at University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning for graphic design in 1980. Soon after, he moved to New York City where he received his first job working for the famous Italian designers Massimo and Lella Vignelli, where he eventually became the vice president of the company.

           In an essay written by Michael Bierut in December of 2016, he wrote about his experiences with working for the Vignellis. He wrote, “I learned an enormous amount from Massimo about how to be a good designer. But I learned how to be a successful designer from Lella. Although Massimo hired me, it was Lella who gave me my first break.” After Michael planned and executed designs and sketches for a new fashion client from the west coast, he was then called in to meet with Massimo and Lella to discuss it. He knew Massimo would want to add some ideas of his own, and Massimo suggested to change the type face when Michael pitched the design. That was when Lella said "Massimo, stop! Don't you see the kid has got it all worked out already?" Massimo then laughed and said "You're right, let’s do it your way." And they did. “Thanks to Lella.” he said. Looking back, he said that he realizes it wasn’t the greatest design in the world, but it was the first thing he got to call his own.

            After working for Massimo and Lella Vignelli for ten years, even though he only intended working there for 18 months, he made the decision to quit and move on to something new. Michael moved on to another well-known design firm, Pentagram. In 1980 he joined the firm as a partner with other successful graphic designers such as Paula Scher. At Pentagram, he worked with famous clients such as Verizon, The New York Jets, New York Times, Walt Disney and Saks Fifth Avenue. He has won hundreds of design awards and his work is represented in permanent collections around the world. Michael continues to work at Pentagram today and has been at the firm for over twenty-five years. Michael Bierut is the senior critic in graphic design at Yale University and has written two books so far. One “A Collection of Essays on Design” in 2007 and the other “How To” in 2015. He is now married with three children who are now older and in college. His family is a big part of his life and he wants his children to have the same success in whatever they do like how he has had.

           One of his most well-known designs that he and Pentagram created is a new identity design for New York retailer Saks Fifth Avenue in 2006. I personally am a very big fan of this work. When I think of retailers such as Saks Fifth Avenue, I think of a clean, classy and elegant design and that is exactly what was created for them. They integrated the logo into 64 squares and rearranged them to create a unique image on bags, boxes, ads and signs. This technique is very effective because it gives a modern effect to their already well known older logo. This design was created in 2006 and ten years later is still as effective and will not go outdated any time soon in my opinion. The simple unique elegance is different from the rest and will always be a smart design change that Saks Fifth Avenue could have made to give an up-to-date feel of the company.

            In an article explaining his decisions with this identity design, he said “One of the things Massimo taught me about designing identities is that it’s often easier if you find something that has some history, because it still might have a purchase on people’s imagination.” As he looked through the old logos that Saks Fifth Avenue had used over the decades, he kept returning to the 1973 signature logo drawn by Tom Carnese. “It was the one that stood out.” he said. “Some people thought it was still Saks’s identity, even though it hadn’t been used for years.” I really enjoyed the thought behind what he said because it is very true. Sometimes the best decision when designing, is researching what you’re designing and then figure out what will leave an impression on the people who are going to be using it.

           Another work which I am very intrigued by is the logo he designed for Hillary Clintons presidential campaign. I was a fan of this logo when I first saw it because of the simple yet effective concept of it. Because everyone knows the name Hillary Clinton it was crucial to design a logo where you didn’t need to see the name to determine who it was, while making it look new and fresh. Most campaign logos use serif fonts to keep the traditional, professional look to them. Michael Bierut wanted to use a bold san serif font to embrace the modern style, yet still give the professional look to it. Using a bold san serif font gave the square look to it, so then they needed to determine an element that would make the letter stand out. Something so simple as an arrow was what he was looking for. That was when the famous logo was born. The logo represents pointing toward making a better future. This embraced everything Hillary Clintons campaign was about with just two simple symbols. I think this logo was very successful and effective. It is incredibly simple but got the point across of what she wanted to do for our country. I never knew who created this logo but I’ve always thought it was unique and different from the rest.

           The next work I will be talking about is his work with Pentagram designing an identity for Verizon. The old logo which can be seen on the last page is very outdated and extremely ugly. There are too many elements added to the logo making it very busy. Verizon’s original logo was already very well-known so it was important to not lose the familiarity of it and to make it memorable in a good way. The new logo is much more effective, giving it a clean, modern and professional look while still sticking with the famous check mark but cleaning up the type and making it look more uniform. Michael Bierut also helped redesign the updated MasterCard logo which goes along with the new Verizon logo, still sticking with the original look but making it look more modern. The older logo is very outdated and needed some adjusting to make it look new and fresh. The only difference is the font. They used a more rounded font to play along with the two-circle logo. I understand the use of the rounded font, and maybe I am not used to the new way but I personally do not like the font chosen for this logo. Even though I am not a fan of the font, the new updated logo does embrace the modern look they were achieving and stands out from the rest.

           The last work of his that I will be critiquing is a poster he designed for Yale School of Architectures Lectures & Exhibitions in the spring of 2000. Aside from his amazing logo designs, he has designed very unique and fun posters. In the design of the poster, he used arrows to move your eye around the poster to the next text. This concept is unique and fun for the suggested audience of college students that will be reading it. I enjoy Michael Bieruts work because it is simple yet extremely effective. I have always been a fan of simplicity and use it a lot in my own work. Seeing how he became successful that way gives me a drive to one day become as successful as him.

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Tibor Kalman

Tibor Kalman was born in Budapest on July 6, 1949. He became a US resident in 1956 after his family fled to escape the Soviet invasion. He later attended NYU only to drop out after one year of journalism classes. He then worked for a bookstore which is now known as Barnes and Noble, where he became the supervisor of their in-house design department. He then became the founding editor and chief of Colors magazine in 1990. He moved to Rome to work on the magazine. Colors magazine focused on multiculturalism and global awareness. The magazine was communicated through graphic design and typography as well as photographs. Later his lymphoma forced him to leave in 1995 to New York where he later died in 1999. 

His work for Colors magazine put the message they were trying to convey full of color. I think this was why it was such a success. People tend to not want to read an article if it does not seem/look interesting. Using captivating themes, images, type and colors makes people actually want to read the magazine. 

As for some of the type, I personally am not a fan. The first image shown below is not my favorite of his work. I personally do not like when type is expressed that way. Even if it makes sense of the image and theme, I don't think it is a good decision. The next piece executes the type in a more readable way which to me is more interesting an makes me want to read it more than the first. 

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Armin Hoffman

Armin Hoffman was born June 29, 1920 and are up in Winterthur, Switzerland. He attended the School of Arts and Crafts in Zurich and later had a job as a lithographer in Basal and Bern. He later found out that Basal School of Arts was looking for an art teacher and accepted that job in 1947 where he taught for around 40 years. He was then appointed the head of the graphic design department. 

Armin Hoffman was very much known for a stye called the “Swiss Style”. Swiss style was created using communication, which was done by experimental composition and heavy san serif fonts. 

He spent much of his career designing posters. His posters are very simplistic but still captivating. Amin Hoffman uses a lot of negative space in his work, which I, personally am very drawn to. 

One of his most common posters, is representing the swiss style. Heavy san serif fonts are my favorite to work with as well as a basic color scheme of black and white so I am very much a fan of this. The composition of having the moving/blurred photograph doesn't overpower the type. It makes your eye move all around the poster. 

Another one of my favorite pieces of his is this one. I think its very successful of placing images inside of the letters. It portrays the type as an image and makes that a main focal point. I use a lot of simplicity in my work, therefore I really enjoy his. 

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Chip Kidd

Chip Kidd was born in 1964 in Pennsylvania, and is now located in New York City. He is very much known for his book cover designs. He is known as one of the most successful book cover designers known today. One common book he designed was the Jurassic Park book cover. As well as designing book covers, he has always been interested in comic books and got the opportunity to design comic book covers. His interest in books led to him publishing two books which he designed himself. 

Personally, I am very interested in Chip Kidds work. I love his use of color mixed with the simple, yet intriguing typography. His work has to be very impactful considering it may be a contributing factor if someone wants to read something or not. 

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April Greiman

April Greiman was born in 1948 and grew up in New York City. She attended Kansas City Art Institute. She later moved to California for work. April was very much interested in style called ‘New Wave’. She embraced digitalization in her work. She wants afraid to make her work look very pixelated and “digital”. 

Aprils work is colorful and intriguing. Her mixture of color, type and image, give her a style that is very unique. She created work that she was interested in and wasn't afraid to take risks. As you can see in the pictures below, she could easily emphasize different styles in all of her work all while still giving her “digital” look to them. 

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Milton Glaser

Milton Glaser was born in 1929 in New York City. He is best known for creating the I ♥ NY logo. He is also the designer of the Bob Dylan poster, that can be seen below. In 1968 Glaser established, New York Magazine. He was the director and creator until 1977. He then established his own firm in 1974 called Milton Glaser, Inc. in Manhattan. There he had multiple corporate clients. He was the vice president of AIGA and in 2004 he received the National Design Award for Lifetime Achievement. Also, in 2009, President Obama presented him with The National Medal of Arts. 

Milton Glasers work is very well known for bring bright and colorful. Two of his most notable posters are Bob Dylan, as well as the Mad Men poster. Both feature bright colorful design as well as a black silhouettes. As for identity, Glaser has designed some very well known logos. For instance, we can go without mentioning the  I ♥ NY logo. This is one of the most iconic logos today that will always be remembered. He created this logo in the back of a taxi. Milton Glaser is very inspirational for every designer to create design that will be remembered and never go out of style. 

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David Carson

David Carson was born in 1955 in Texas. Carson became interested in design later in life. He was a competitive surfer who ranked eighth in the world. He enrolled in a  two week design class and then went on to go to design school. He eventually worked for a few different magazines and has received over one hundred awards for his unique work. 

David Carson is well known for his unique typography and placement of overlapping images. He would overlap everything from images to text and wasn't concerned about the readability. He wanted it all to become and image. His collage work is very captivating and what makes him such a well known graphic designer today.  

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Neville Brody

Neville Brody was born in London in 1957. He studied graphic design at the London College of Printing where people said his work was “too experimental”. Brody is best known for his work in The Face magazine. He is also known for creating record covers as well as a few typefaces throughout his career. A few typefaces he has created are Arcadia and Industrial. 

Neville Brodys fonts are not your standard body copy fonts. His fonts were made to be visually interesting and as display fonts. He used creative ways to design new typefaces which made them more as an image than something to read. 

Aside from his fonts, he also created work that broke boundaries and became very well known for it. His work is fun and interesting to look at. He captivates you with his typography and not to mention, color. Both type and color make your eye move around to the point where you don't want to look away. His work is creatively chaotic. 

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Alexey Brodovitch

Alexey Brodovitch is known as the art director for Bazaar fashion magazine. He was born in Russia in 1898 in a wealthy family. He ended up becoming poor and workless and eventually found russian arts, which led to him becoming a painter. He eventually started designing posters and advertisements. He was given the opportunity to come to America and teach a design class at Philadelphia college of Art. He was introduced to a photographer for Bazaar magazine and the rest was history. 

Alexey Brodovitch used design was well as photography in his advertisements. All his work is very moving and visually interesting. Brodovitch would use the edges of silhouette images to correspond with the typography and was very well known for it. Alexey Brodovitch’s articles were full of white space in order to make the images and typography the main focus. He wasn't afraid to make things go off the page which made it move you eye even more. He also used a lot of grayscale images which gives each article a classy look. 

Personally, I love the his articles that he has designed. I think they have a very classy, simple and clean look to them. The way he designs the text as an image is so beautiful and mesmerizing and something that I would frame in room because I'm such a big fan. 

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Saul Bass

Saul Bass is an american graphic designer who was born in New York City. Bass is best known for his very minimal yet effective designs. He left New York City and went to California where he designed film posters as well as title sequences. He became very well known in the film industry, creating title sequences for many well known films such as, Goodfellas and Casino. 

Bass’ film title sequences are all minimal yet extremely unique and eye-catching. He uses type as well as lines and color to emphasize the theme of the films he is designing for. In the title sequences he focuses on getting the viewer intrigued on film before watching. For instance, in the title sequence of Ocean’s Eleven, he uses lines and colors to create movement and then displaying the names. 

Saul Bass is also known for designing logos that most people know and recognize. For instance, the Kleenex logo, the AT&T logo and the Girl Scouts logo as well as many others. Many of these logos that Saul Bass designed are still used today and remain to the original design.

Saul Bass is one of the most famous graphic designers and has created work that will never go out of style. He influences young graphic designers everyday to create work the will be remembered, as he has done.

Ocean’s Eleven title sequence

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Web Apps and Intranet Site

For this one I chose to do Duke Universities website because they are my favorite college basketball team, and they just beat UNC so I thought it was fitting. Always, their website looks like your standard college website. For instance, they have your generic pictures of students having the time of their lives and everyone laughing in unison. 

Up in the header, the logo is actually centered which I think looks really good because, it’s where your eye goes first and then the nav menu is around it. What I also like about it, is that it moves with you as you scroll down the page, so its always there and easy to access. 

The website as you move further down is organized. Each Category is in their own section which makes it very easy to read and find what you are looking for. The fonts are easy to read, and the colors are obviously blues and whites which already go good together, so that looks nice also. 

What I really like about the website is the footer. The footer is a picture of the town Durham, North Carolina, which is where the university is at but its really cool because it gives the website a nice ending. 

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Arts and Entertainment Site

For an Arts and Entertainment site I chose E! News. I’ve never been on their website before but it was pretty much exactly what I expected from them. First off the ad is right up top and then begins the actual site. The website is very cluttered, but the first thing you look at is their most popular story which they obviously make the biggest image. 

The header is setup nicely because they have the logo, the nav menu and also all their social media accounts. Normally the social media accounts are always at the bottom, but theirs are right on top which makes it easy to get to. I really enjoy this part of the site.

 As you scroll down it begins to be very cluttered and you don't really know where to look first. It’s so chaotic is kind of gives me a headache because it’s just words and pictures thrown at me. I definitely think it could be organized a lot better, but a lot goes on with celebs.

The font is nice but i don't think it works for this website in particular because the font is very thin and moves your eye up and down, rather than left to right. It would make a better display font rather than a body copy font. 

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Educational Forum Site

The educational forum sit I chose to do was edmodo. I used edmodo in high school to do projects and see grades and interact with the teacher and class. It was basically blackboard but for high school students and parents. The edmodo website is actually really good. The design is very nice to look at and easy to understand. 

The logo is small in the upper left corner. Then the nav menu is the the upper right corner all in white. That is easy to read because it is against a picture of a young student both a blurred background so its very easy to read all the font. Then underneath the nav menu and logo is where you log in and create an account. 

Underneath that is where the website begins but whats nice is that you have to scroll down to see that so it doesn't take away from the sign in part. There is a three column section so you can chose what you are looking for easy. 

I really enjoy how this website is setup design wise and the colors and fonts are really nice and easy to read. Considering you have teachers, kids, and parents looking at the site, they chose a good layout and font/colors to make it easy for everyone. 

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Company Site

The company website that I chose is Hersheys.com. When I first thought of the website I assumed it would be a really good website considering the company is very popular, but the website is kind of boring. For instance, the advertisement is right up top and then begins the actual site. The logo is very small in the left corner followed by the nav menu in the header.

Next, the website features their valentines day heart shaped candies which is nice but the images are very blurry which I find really annoying. Underneath that image the website has different categories you can click on their site. Next, they have they Facebook so you can like them on Facebook. Lastly the footer, nothing really interesting there. 

That is really all they have on their homepage of their website. The website design is okay, simply because theres nothing to it. The font chose for their website are just a standard very easy to read font which is nice because it is legible for anyone who visits their website.

The colors of the website are just your standard chocolate brown color. The advertisement font color is a bright yellow which makes it very distracting from the other fonts. Overall the website was kind of a letdown for me because I expected it to be really good and it was just basic. 

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Grassroots Site

The grassroots website that i chose is Mugglenet.com. Mugglenet is Harry Potters number one fan site. The overall design of the site is very good. It has the logo up top with a picture and the background color of the site is a gray color which flows nicely together. The ad of the site is right under the logo which is kind of annoying because it immediately is the first thing you look at on the site. 

As you move your eye down the site you see all the different categorys that the website offers. Such as their latest news and polls and such. The website offers a bunch of different categories to choose from which makes the website have more bulk to it and more interesting. The only downfall of that is that there is a lot going on you don't really know where to look. 

The colors of the site are very good because if matches the picture up top but it doesn't feel “Harry Potter” at all by the font choice. To me the website looks like it could be for anything an it would be more interesting if it was designed with a “Harry Potter” feel to it. 

Since it is a fan site it makes sense for it to not be very good. But i think considering it is the number one Harry Potter fan site that it would have a more Harry Potter feel to it rather than it just looking like any other website. 

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Non-Profit Site

For the non profit website, I chose St Jude Children's Research Hospital. The website is very clean and organized. The first thing you look at when you go onto the site is a large picture that says “finding cures, saving children”. Right there it tells you a little more about the website and what they do. 

The donate part if the website is right below it so that if you would like to donate it is right there for you and very accessible. When you scroll down the site it gives you more information about this organization. 

The site is full of different color tabs to make it nice to look at. It’s also very easy to use. The tabs are located at the top of the page. At the top of the page it also gives you the option to donate or seek treatment. 

The website is also mobile friendly. Which makes it simple if you want to access it on anything other than a desktop. The font is very nice because it is a simple san serif font and in a larger size so everyone can read it easily. Overall this website is very organized and easy to use.