"helvetica"

Helvetica by Gary Hustwit was a great film showing how today’s culture uses type, both successes and failures. The typeface that consumes the majority of today’s typography is Helvetica. This film shows this typeface in the most uncertain of places and emphasizes its timeless quality through its over usage and by interviewing several notable designers. Erik Spiekermann, Matthew Carter, Massimo Vignelli, Hermann Zapf, Stefan Sagmeister, David Carson, Alfred Hoffmann, Otmar Hoefer, Leslie Savan, and Lars Müller are only a few of the designers who give their opinion of Helvetica and how they define their own design. I found it interesting to see the old, charming Haas Type Foundry in Switzerland and its transfer to the big business Linotype.  

I thought this was a really great film. I am so much more aware of typefaces in everyday life. A lot of the designers from this movie talk about how there are so much horrible signage and the only thing they need is to change their type to Helvetica. Design needs to be simplistically timeless. Max Miedinger designed Helvetica in 1957 and in 2011 it is the most used typeface in everyday signage. This shows how good design is timeless and has no expiration date. Its helpful to reemphasize these foundational concepts in my own work and by using Helvetica it can strip away any distractions and shows only the big ideas that need to be communicated. 

typography journal 6.

#1 "Contemplation" Augustin Garza
Augustin Garza chooses a small statue figure that has sat on his desk for years as his inspiration. It has a gesture of pointing to the earth and on the back it suggests giving offerings to the universe. This simple piece incorporates good design, function and meaning. The biggest problems design needs to touch on are water, energy and health problems. Garza says that designers have an insight that can be valuable for finding solutions for these problems. Design will make the world a better..more efficient place.

#2 "Bound Together" Ami Keolatia
Ami Keolatia chooses rubber bands as her item of inspiration. They hold everything together. They are thrown away, randomly found, and she is always re-buying them. Rubber bands are all about the material - rubber - they are multipurpose not designed for a specific purpose. The biggest problems that need design help are noise and light pollution; she also mentions that general health needs smart design.

#3 "The Heart" Deborah Adler
Deborah Adler picks the Pieta in Rome as her inspiration. She was struck with emotion and felt empathy for this figure of Mary holding the crucified body of Christ. She thinks design should be all about the person you are helping and their needs and what is the best possible solution. She says there needs to be a "love affair" with the project. Then when you continually think about people's problems it will become a habit which will lead to better design...but without this love affair you will never reach this second step.

#4 "Do More with Less" Emily Pilloton
Emily Pilloton chose the process of design as the most inspiring thing for her.  She says inspiration started early and she only realized this when she became a designer. The childhood fictional character Macgyver was and is her inspiration for good design. Macgyver was the original design thinker. He always had minimal materials but came up with a genius outcome that always solved the problem at hand. Pilloton says that design needs to affect the public education system. K-12 specifically needs help. She says that learning is all top down. Design can offer the best parts of design to reform education system and the experience and positively affect how children learn and maybe spark more success in the education system.

#5 "Something For All" Georgia Christensen
Georgia Christensen says its impossible to find just one source of inspiration because there are so many beautifully created things in the world. But she chooses a chimney which her father constructed. She thinks design needs to affect transportation. Everything from lighting, the overall experience, accessibility and style need to be changed to fit with the 21st Century lifestyle.

typography journal 5.

Jonathan Harris - "Cold & Bold"

Harris speaks about how to make art and simultaneously write his own code and if this is possible. (Physical + Digital)

He spent months and months are elaborate oil and water paintings within his sketchbook until he was held at gunpoint and his sketchbook was stolen. He moved to digital work that couldn't be taken away from him.

He worked on websites such as "we feel fine" and "universe iraq" and his most recent finished project "matchmaker" which was exhibited in MoMA.

This project took over 28,000 lines of codes which he wrote himself. This is where his struggle begins with  trying to escape dehumanization while writing code.

He says that "we have to live to work...to work boldly we have to live boldly.." he goes on to say that he felt that by living boldly through these codes he became cold - his mind was inside the machine and he removed himself from physical social life.

People stare into technology rather than talking and communicating because the technology does it better and more efficiently.

-We are smart and ambitious but not wise.

-We are not seeing what technology is doing to us...its like the fast food crazy. we immerse ourselves into the latest fastest technology without thinking about the underlying consequences.

-We live our lives online

Harris goes on to give 8 points:

#1 EMPATHY - once we fill up our minds with technology code there is no more room for people. It is finding the mix between our work while maintaining life with people and the outside world.

#2 RATIONAL BEINGS - there can be a bug messing up code just as there can be things that make a relationship go awry.

#3 THE ACT OF EXPRESSION - how can you be an artist and write code - its not possible - by writing endless hours of code you forget how to express yourself.

#4 HOUSING CRISIS - people don't know how to make their online home so these "homes" are being mass produced while having tons of ads being shot all around.

#5 OUTCOMES OVER IDEAS -the goal is the goal not the idea...everyone has ideas but the outcome determines the greatness

#6 SOCIOPATHS - small groups of men who technologically dictate how we as people evolve and grow...do we need more involvement and voice?

#7 INDIVIDUALITY - is it possible to be entertained by technology --can it help with self reflection instead of just self promotion

http://weddinggawker.com/

typography journal 4.

Bruce Mau is the Chief Creative Officer of Bruce Mau Design. Clients of his Chicago and Toronto studios include Coca-Cola, McDonald's, MTV, Arizona State University, Miami's American Airlines Arena, New Meadowlands Stadium, Frank Gehry, and Herman Miller to name a few. Since founding his studio in 1985, Mau has used design and optimism to originate, innovate, and renovate businesses, brands, products, and experiences.

Mau is also recognized as an author and publisher of award-winning books. His latest book, The Third Teacher,  features a collection of 79 ways that design can transform teaching and learning for children to thrive in tomorrow's world.

I chose mantra #4 - Love your experiments (as you would an ugly child)
Joy is the engine of growth. Exploit the liberty in casting your work as beautiful experiments, iterations, attempts, trials, and errors. take the long view and allow yourself the fun of failure every day.

This mantra is important to me because sometimes I try to make my initial sketches and concepts perfect and fully thought out. On my current project for graphic design I came up with my final concept through a series of thoughtless sketches I had done.
Great ideas can happen when we are simply doing not over thinking..

typography journal 3.

Stefan Sagmeister whole talk was about real moments of happiness and proceeded to talk about happiness when experiencing design or about being happy when designing.

So should a designer value happiness just as much as simplicity and functionality when designing an object?

Theo Jansen had an amusing presentation on these creatures he is designing to self sustaining, wind energy eating beach creatures. They are made of piping tubes; they have feathers which fuel them by catching wind and have feelers which show them where to go when they touch sand or the water. 

Jansen creates these creatures with his "new wheel." It can carry heavy loads and will soon be able to fully function themselves. One of his beach creatures can detect a storm and hammer a post into the ground so it will not blow away due to the storm. 

J. J. Abrams was the most amusing of these designers. His presentation was on the "mystery box." When he was young he got this box at a magic store and hasn't ever opened it. This is where he began to think about the mystery of the box and how there are mystery boxes everywhere. They give a "sense of possibility."

In design our blank page is a mystery box. The blank space is a challenge; it gives us a sense of possibility to what we could design. 

J.J. Abrams created shows such as Lost and the new Star Trek series. He talked about how stories are nothing but mystery boxes. They give you little cues and hints and they create hope and possibility in the viewers mind. 

Another part of this magic mystery box is how it withholds information. In some movies we love a part because of what we may not have been told or cannot hear. 

Abrams tells us that there is a mystery box in all of us. The mystery is what comes next. There is so much opportunity, no longer is the technology open to just the elite. Everyone can create something impressive; there is so much possibility.

character personas.

Christian Jacobsen is a 22 year old male. He likes to listen to a large variety of music and is really dialed into his creative abilities. He is very outgoing and friendly but still likes the grit and gore of life in movies and books. He likes to hand out at hidden urban chic venues. Christian embraces his retro vintage style and creates it from secondhand clothing stores; he really celebrates his own individuality.

Ashley Barrack is a 27 year old female. She has a degree in psychology and enjoys the human psyche and studying how people work and change over time. She doesn't have one style but tries out several different looks; she feels like a rounded individual and connects with a lot of different people. She likes to try new things, in an effort to experience the unknown. Ashley has a fiance and is very introspective about the future and making big changes.

Kerry Cumberland is a 50 year old female. She has two children, one is a high school senor and the other a college sophomore. She has a full time job, along with an extra money side job as a consultant for a popular beauty supply company. She tries to relax and read whenever she has a moment of downtime for herself. Kerry is very involved with her high school son's basketball team and senior year in general.