Bertrand De Langron aka So-Me is a Parisian Designer/Animator who art directs for Ed Banger Records, owned by Pedro Winter aka Rainbow man. The record label focuses on French electronica. So- Me has designed the visual identity of the record label, and he designs for their bands such as Justice, (late) Dj Mehdi, DaftPunk and SignAtune. So-Me is a create idea generationist and he can come up with great ideas fluently on the spot. This is because of his background as a graffiti artist, as he had to get to somewhere (probably in the middle of the night) and create huge artworks in avery small space of time. His style reflects on this graffiti background. On top of this he is now also the main designer for the clothing brand CoolCats set up in 2010

This is one of a series of portraits he did of musicians, who were part of Ed Banger Records. This has been screen printed and has a Pop art feel and you can easily see the graffiti influence. He will often print the same piece over an over, then work over them all differently to create new pieces of artwork.

Adrian Piper is a New York based artist who looked at racial profiling and how by being different you are invisible. The notion of people being unsure how to socialise with you, and thus ostracising you out of society. She would give cards to people who she heard making racist remarks or making an unwanted sexual advance. These cards would describe how they were making the “victim” feel and how she regrets the imposition she has put on then for stating out the fact that they were either unaware of, or ignorant of the fact they were causing psychological harm on the said “victim”.

One of here art installations called “cornered” had a group of chairs placed in front of a television in a white room. The chairs where places in an arrow formation at the television, signifying attack. On the screen was a video of her. This was to make the viewers sitting on the chairs feel awkward and somehow responsible. Forcing them to think about how they feel towards “black” individuals.

Roland Barthes was a french semiotician (among other things) He looked at how semiotics takes any method of signs. He published a book called mythologies. This was not a book of mythologies in the classical sense. But a book of modern cultural mythologies. Why adding brown paper and a bit of string on a product automatically gives it the organic feel. Thus illuding the public into think it was intended for a higher market, for something that is essentially the same as it’s cheaper counterpart. In our lecture this idea was elaborated on by showing different brands of soap and their different branding devices. Brands with claims of medicinal properties and virginity restoring powers. Although these being extreme examples, the most common device is to give the impression of soap being used in a meditative way in a Zen like ritual. Relaxing your mind and invigorating your body and soul. 

All this is put forward through signs. Whether subtle or obvious, semiotics comes to rear its head in everything, and it should. It is the signs we have come to associate meaning with that help sell the products of today.

An Indian born typographer born in Western Mumbai who changed Indian typography. Fascinated by calligraphy and how type was used communicably, He constantly mailed ideas to friends to gain feedback in the pursuit of the perfection of a font. This was so that he could create an original idea. He was an energetic and extremely competent typographer. Before Joshi there was very few Indian typefaces, as a great many different languages are spoken throughout India and mainly classic fonts were used.

Here is an example of one of his typefaces. Even though I can’t understand the language, the letter forms have immaculate composition and form. None of the lines feel awkward or out of place and compliment each other perfectly.

“The ability to write is the initial step towards any further development of the individual as a fully fledged citizen in a modern democracy”

- Fernand Baudin (1988)

Information design can be found in most places. From road signs, maps and charts to menu’s. This has to be put across in a way that the reader can process this information easily and quickly, whilst having and interesting and creative design to attract and hold their attention. The easiest typefaces to use for  information design would be clean Sans serif faces such as Helvetica or Univers. These two Swedish fonts are good examples of clean un-threatening typefaces that give you the information you need in the quickest possible way.

This is an example of Univers working. It is complimented well by the shade of dark grey.

Erik Spiekermann

Erik is a German typographer and graphic designer. He started MetaDesign and Font shop.  He designed a family of typefaces for the german railway which awarded him  the gold medal at the German design awards in 2006. He has also designed fro companies such as Audi and Volkswagen.

This map designed by him illustrates his clean style. This is easy to read and perfectly balanced to simplistically put across the information intended.

David McCandless

David is a designer, write and author based in London. He creates beautiful works of information design that make information look cool. He has wrote books such as information is beautiful.

This book contains lots of interesting and well designed data. This work inspires me to investigate information design in a new light. I find this clean style of work is interesting and creates an easily digestible way to be given information.

Everything around us screams for our attention, be it billboards, magazines, leaflets etc. Who can fit the most information in. When infact the key to a better, stronger design. The word simplicity however can be misconstrued. Simplicity in design takes a lot of hard work to pull off effectively. There is a good and bad simple, by this i mean that you have to take away anything that is meaningless away and add the meaningful. This then has to be put forward in a clever yet creative way.

This advertisement for sushi as an example. The type balances perfectly with the imagery and illustrates the idea of fresh ingredients straight to the table. This is all complimented by a gradient which is used to pop the white type forward.

This add for Guinness is perfect because it ties in their connections with Rugby. However, only a recognisable brand like Guinness could do this. This is because we know what Guinness looks like by the dark shade of brown, almost bordering on black that is contrasted by the thick white head on top (The beer). This is then confirmed by the logo underneath. This is a good piece of design because it delivers the point immediately. Semiotically we can gather that he is a rugby player before we read the copy because of his build, and the fact he has a muddy sweat band and face.

Doyle Dane Bernbach was a company that started a design revolution. started by Bill Bernbach and Ned Doyle they looked at new ways to advertise. One of their most famous advertisements were for Volkswagen, designed by Helmut Krone.

Rather than the standard “American dream” idea that car companies went for, that owning the big lavish car would grant you access to the high life. He realised that in actual fact, the majority of American’s were very poor. The big cars that were advertised were to expensive to run. Volkswagen however had to sell a small German car to these people. Krone new about the the poverty and played on the fact that this car was reliable (It just kept on going) and it was inexpensive.

This is illustrated in this ad. That you just cant kill it! Another thing that Bernbach found out which helped launch Volkswagen into selling millions and reinforcing the notion of their cars being reliable, is that the people who drove snowplows to work actually drove Volkswagen’s. On this he realesed a tv commercial which is considered to be the best tv commercial ever made.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABcckOTVqao

“Bill Bernbach introduced the idea of the ‘concept’  into advertising communication and developed the art director/copywriter team as the key creators of that concept” - extract from ITAP lecture

Erik Spiekermann 

http://diegoguevara.com/blog/2010/11/09/brand-new-conference-2010/

Delivery

what are the platforms that illustrators use to affect the communication

Illustrators can work on a myriad of platforms includin web pages, magazines, textiles, novels, advertising, branding, animation and countless others. The way that an illustrator works withing these platforms, there personal style, determines how they will be selected for a job. Editorial illustrations publications such as newspapers, magazines and novels can be a good starting point for new illustrators as they usually have to be created within a time limit and also have to illustrate the meaning and tone of voice of the article. This requires a broad range of ideas and mediums to produce the final outcome, and not working in their own style as more established illustrators might. The medium a illustration is produced in can have different effects on how the target market may take it. If you are illustrating for a childrens novel you may want to use primary colours rather than grimey or dark colours. this tone of voice all depends on how you have to portrait the meaning to the novel.

What forms do illustrators use to represent themselves?

Illustrators do not just have to use client based work to represent themselves. as artists they can utilise self initiated projects and collaborate with other visual communicators to create work for themselves to convey a message or story important to them. As long as an illustrator is getting their own style/brand out there into the public image, then that is already advertising them to future clients. 

The design proccess can be simplified into 5 simple steps. The first being the problem that needs solving from either the client, participant or user. Then comes the idea stage where you research, explore, find facts and start thinking about how these coincide with your problem. The next stage is visualisation. Here you will start to draw sketches and observations from your research and from ideas you have formulated from your research. These are the basis of your final outcome and it is important to have a wide range of outcomes for every stage. That way you do not limit yourself to how far you can push an idea rather than settling on the first good idea you create. After this is layout, how is your idea going to sit on the page and how is it going to work with other images, text? This can be in the form of neat visualisations or rough productions. The last stage being production. This is where you make your solution to the original problem is made to work in practice. You may fall back to layout stage a few times during this process until your final outcome suits the needs of the client, etc.

Task: How and when was the first ever book printed in europe

The first book to be printed in europe was the 42-Line Bible, printed in the 1450’s. The style of printing was developed by Johannes Gutenberg and because of which is known as the Gutenberg Bible. He invented mechanical moval block printing which started a printing revolution and it is seen as the pivital point in modern printing. The ones that survive are thought to be some of the most valuable books in the world for the extremely high asthetic, artistic and technical values.

Task: Who is your favourite expert and why?

My favourite expert would have to be Milton Glaser. The reasons being is that his work can depict a very important or deep meaning but then graphically be quite simple. I also prefer his use of bold (in the colour sense of the word) graphical elements which add to the simplicity of the work.