JADE KRUGLUHRMAN

DESIGN UNLEASHED

CHAPTER 1Communication Design

CHAPTER 2 Digitial Media Design

CHAPTER 3 Environment Design

CHAPTER 4 Branded Fashion

con

tents

con

tents

CHAPTER 1

HELVETICA IS

IS HELVETICA

Banal. Repetitive. Saught after. CLASSIC.

Prototypical.Cliched.

Quintessential.DEFINITIVE.BUT THEN AGAIN. IT

Gary Huswit’s 2007 film, ‘Helvetica’ explores the proliferation of the world’s most influential typeface. The film was shot in various locations including Germany, Switzerland, USA, Belgium and France and includes interviews by some of the world’s most distinguished graphic designers. Amongst them include Massimo Vignelli, Leslie Savan, Erik Speikermann and Alfred Hoffman.

The 1950’s set a benchmark for graphic designers as the cataclysmic events of World War II heralded an increase sense of idealism, ‘the early experiment’s of the high modernist period and the emergence of this international typographic Swiss style” (Rick Poynor, design writer 7:09).

It was Eduard Hoffman in 1957 who wished to appropriate the traditional 19th Century German sans serif typeface, Akzidenz Grotesk. Along with Max Miedinger who designed the drawings of Helvetica, they produced the original Helvetica known as ‘Die Neue Haas Grotesk’ in Muchenstein, Switzerland at the site of the Haas Type Foundry. It was a typeface designed to be bland, based on the notion that type should display no inherent meaning.Orignially, there was a dispute on the name of the typeface. Alfred Hoffman, son of Eduard, claimed that “Stempel [one of the parent companies] suggested the name be ‘Helvetia’ the Latin term of Switzerland, however my father disagreed and suggested ‘Helvetica’, in other words the The Swiss Typeface’. (Alfred Hoffman, Helvetica, 23:53). Later, the name was finally changed to Helvetica.

By filming in various locations, Huswit has allowed the audience to grasp both the importance of, and influential typeface of Helvetica on graphic design. Helvetica has been used by most, if not all graphic designers which is evident by street signage and design logos.

During the 1970’s, Helvetica become so distinct as a universal typeface that designers in this period developed a reaction against the conformity and pervasive nature of Helvetica and were in desperate need for change. The Early Modernist’s movements including Dadaism and Futualism, those that were antagonistic towards Utilitarianism, were against experimentation and preferred to maintain their original designs using Helvetica. Young designers in today’s society use Helvetica as an adaptation of style due to its universal identification. Helvetica’s design incorporates a variety of technical details including its monotonic stroke weights, the negative spacing surrounding the letters and characters always remain horizontal or vertical, never diagonal - which is why its legibility and clarity has maintained its universal appeal as seen in logos and signage around the world.

Helvetica, formally known as the Typeface Of Capitalism, which graphic designer Lars Muller later rejects has made an increased influence in 20th Century graphic design, “Helvetica was a good design but now it has become a default. It is ubiquitous, its air”. (Erik Speikermann, Helvetica, 36:52). Both corporate design and government incorporations thrive on Helvetica because it allows them to look authenticated and professional. According to Leslie Savan, Helvetica allows designers to be seen as “accessible, transparent and accountable”. (Leslie Savan, Helvetica, 28:35). Evidently, Massimo Vignelli’s, American Airline’s design in 1966 is demonstrative of the universal language and ubiquitous design that is Helvetica.

In my opinion, why dispute an argument that will forever remain a fact. And so it is, Helvetica will forever remain society’s most influential typeface. Despite its ubiquitious nature and inescapable design, it’s rich simplicity and clarity will continue to maintain this argument until the end of time. Evidently, here are a couple of images of Helvetica from my camera.

Helvetica Bibloiography:

DESIGN UNLEASHED - Front coverGraphic Design Face, 2011. Available from: < http://graphicdesign.hostei.com/graphic.php>. Last Accessed [6 October 2011]. Back Cover - Water Paintings, 2011. Availavle from: http://abduzeedo.com/seriously-cool-watercolor-paintings>. Last Accessed [6 October 2011].

Text - Hustwit, G. 2007. Helvetica (Film), Swiss Dots, USA.

Images -- ‘50 Years of Helvetica’, 2011. Available from< http://cheerall.com/pictures/ilovetypography.com>. Last Accessed [30 August 2011]- American Airlines, 2010. Available from: < http://designchat.info/design-matters-with-massimo-vignelli/vignelli_aa/>. Last Accessed [17 September 2011].- Black, Red, White, 2011. Available from: < http://penny-finder.blogspot.com/2011/02/helvetica.html>. Last Accessed [1 October 2011].- Die Neue Haas Grotesk, 2011. Available from: < http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2010/01/the-simplicity-of-helvetica/>. Last Accessed [17 September 2011].- ‘Hanging Helvetica’, 2007. Available from: < http://3oneseven.com/11/helvetica/>. Accessed [2 September 2011].- ‘Grotesk by Aksidenz’ 2011. Available from: <http://iseehelveticaeverywhere.wordpress.com/page/2/>. Last Accessed [5 September 2011].- Signage and Logos, 2011. Available from: <http://www.zorndsign.de/40-helvetica-logos>. Last Accessed [17 September 2011].- NYC, Helvetica, 2010. Available from: < http://looseleafwriting.blogspot.com/2010/09/helvetica-or-this-is-your-brain-on-type.html>. Last Accessed [7 September 2011].,- Times Square Station, 2010. Available from: < http://looseleafwriting.blogspot.com/2010/09/helvetica-or-this-is-your-brain-on-type.html>. Last Accessed [12 September 2011]..- Wood Helvetica, 2009. Available from: <http://www.antsmagazine.com/2009/03/77-inspiration-typography>. Last Accessed [5 October 2011].

Word Count: 513

CHAPTER 2

WALTZWITHBASHIR

Images from Waltz With Bashir, 2008

Twenty five years after serving in the Israeli Defence Force during the 1980’s occupation of Beirut, Ari Folman’s 2008 animated documentary, Waltz With Bashir, is a personal memoir which explores the psychological trauma of conflict and terrorism. Waltz With Bashir is a thematically rich and emotional film, incorporating cinematographic notions of both immediacy and realism. Through the use of flashbacks and hypermediacy, the film explores Folman’s experiences in the Israeli invasion of the 1982 Lebanon War against their allies, the Christian Phalangists, and has thus created a profound balance between the inseparable conflict of war and Folman’s reflection on his past experiences. Personally, I feel an incredible sense of connection with this movie given my Israeli background and my fluent Hebrew and really understand the emotional attachment and experiences portrayed through the film.

Images from Waltz With Bashir, 2008

Folman has created a film based on both emotions and story telling, which allows the audience to experience a sense of sympathy towards and become emotionally attached to his character. By allowing himself to be the main character of the film, a prominent focal point of the story, it instantly lends itself to the immediacy of the film. Folman’s use of flashbacks immediately conveys a sense of surrealism in the Circus scene, (Waltz with Bashir, 9:58) through the moving imagery and key colours while the narrator reminisces about his childhood. The soundtrack brings upon a sense of intimacy and lament, evident in the soldiers singing ‘Boker Tov Lebanon’ as they enter unwanted territory, (Waltz with Bashir, 25:46). Folman’s use of 1980’s classical music, evident in the waltz scene, (Waltz with Bashir, 28:37) not only allows the audience to sympathise with the character, but also allows one to experience a sense of relief from the war scenes, again adding to the immediacy of the film.

Images from Waltz With Bashir, 2008

Whilst the film is thematically rich in colour, the flashbacks of his experiences combined with the storytelling component are identified through the shift in colour from the stark shades of black and grey to the glowing yellow of their eyes that match the night’s sky. Again, a sense of immediacy has been explored in Waltz with Bashir as seen in the amalgamation of original visual elements and voice notes of the former soldiers recapping their war experiences. Towards the end of the film, Folman intertextually replaces animation for real life footage of of the suffering of real victims as seen through the lady screaming, “my son my son”. While being a witness to the traumatised and overwhelmed women, the camera zooms into Folman’s melancholy expression and heavy breathing which allows the audience to experience a sense of sympathy towards Folman. Evidently, Arabs remain absent throughout the course of the film as a means to psychologically and intangibly remove the enemy from the experiences of war.

Images from Waltz With Bashir,

Text:- Folman, A. 2008. Waltz with

Bashir [Film], Bridgit Folman

Film Gang, Israel.

- Stewart, G 2010, ‘Screen

Memory in Waltz With Bashir’,

Film Quarterly, Vol. 63, No. 3,

pp. 58-62.

- Waltz with bashir: Ari folman’s

dance with his darkness. 2011.

available from: <http://www.

screentrek.com/waltz-with-

bashir-ari-folmans-dance-with-

his-darkness/>. Last Accessed:

[19 September 2011].Images:

- Folman, A. 2008. Waltz with

Bashir [Film], Bridgit Folman

Film Gang, Israel.

Word Count: 503

ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGNCHAPTER 3

In any architecture,

there is an equity

between the pragmatic

function and the symbolic

function.

Pop Up book goes here

Environmental Bibliography:

Type:- Arts Curriculum. 2011. Arts Curriculum. Available from: <http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/education/school-educator-programs/teacher-resources/arts-curriculum-online?view=item&catid=730&id=120&tmpl=component&print=1>. Last Accessed: [17 September 2011].

- Michael Graves Quotes. 2011. Available from: <http://thinkexist.com/quotation/in-any-architecture-there-is-an-equity-between/386188.html>. Last Accessed: [18 September 2011].

- Mario Livio, 2003. The Golden Ratio: The Story of PHI, the World’s Most Astonishing Number. Edition. Broadway.

Reference last page -- Frank Lloyd Wright. ‘Frank Lloyd Wright’, The Architectural Forum, January, 1948, Vol 88 Number 1. p89.

Images:Cover:- Piet Mondrian, 2008. Available from: < http://raggedclothcafe.com/2008/04/20/aesthetic-appeal-is-it-in-our-dna/>. Last Accessed [2 October 2011].

- Floor Plan, 2011. Avaoilable from: < http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Guggenheim_Museum.html>. Last Accessed [29 September 2011]. - Floor Plan, 2010. Available from: <http://fourteenfeetceilings.blogspot.com/2010/05/watercolor-wednesday_26.html>. Last Accessed: [9 September 2011].- Golden Rectangle, 2002. Available from: < http://www.designsdigital.com/articles_golden_rectangle.htm>. Last Accessed: [2 September 2011].- Guggenheim Restaurant, 2010. Available from: <- http://global-arch.com/_blog/Archster/tag/hidden_gems/>. Last Accessed [19 September 2011].- Guggenheim Museum, 2011. Available from: <http://travelerguidance.blogspot.com/p/world-tour.html>. Last Accessed: [19 September 2011]. Golden Shell, 2011. Available from:: <http://in2visualdesign.blogspot.com/2011/04/week-7-golden-ratio.html> Last Accessed [29 September 2011].- Mona Lisa, 2011. Available from: < http://www.photoshoptutorialsandtips.com/photoshop-tutorials/divine-proportion-or-golden-ratio-in-adobe-photoshop/>. Last Accessed: [29 September 2011]. - NY Guggenheim Museum, 2000. Available from: < http://academics.triton.edu/faculty/fheitzman/movement.html>. Last Accessed: [16 September 2011].- Nautilius Shell, 2011. Available from: < http://www.photoshoptutorialsandtips.com/photoshop-tutorials/divine-proportion-or-golden-ratio-in-adobe-photoshop/>. Last Accessed [29 September 2011]. - Spiral view, Guggenheim, 2000. Available from: < http://academics.triton.edu/faculty/fheitzman/movement.html>. Last Accessed [16 September 2011].

Word Count: 480

FRONT COVER OF POP UP

Frank Lloyd Wright

Whilst the Golden Mean is paramount in the design process, advancements in technology over the last couple of years has allowed architects and designers to work freely upon their imagination without the restrictions of the Golden mean.

The esoteric definition of geometry and numeric’s in architecture is not simply defined nor taught. It is believed that the ancient numerical system along with allied arts and architecture were based on the premise that man and cosmos were one. Judging from this notion, we can conclude that both geometry and number are archetypal foundations for the structure of the universe.

Without even realising, we are unaware that majority of nature’s form’s derive from the foundation of the golden ratio. This reoccurrence in nature is a true indication of the aestheticism of the ancient proportioning system.

Despite traditional architectural theories, modern architecturists have moved towards science and the advancement of technology to improve their designs. Few architects have failed to construct unconventional buildings, though evidently Wright has managed to maintain a spot on the architectural hierarchy based on his personal and outlandish style that both architects and students have influenced from.

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim museum in New York, completed in 1959, signifies Wright’s architectural ingenuity. The Guggenheim is regarded as a technologically revolutionised development due to its innovative and pioneering design. One of the most prominent principles of design history is based on the premise that in order to produce a practical piece of artwork, the most prominent factor contributing to such practicality is proportion, and it is the Golden ratio which has proven to display such aesthetically pleasing results. This in turn, brings to the fore the notion that this ancient proportioning system is a fundamental implementation in postmodern environtmental design.

The Guggenheim Museum blueprint is based on the design structure of the chambered nautilus shell. Whilst the golden mean employs strict design limits, Wright has gone beyond them to produce a modernist architectural design through it’s fixed geometry.

Wright (1948, p. 89) proclaims that “Entering into the spirit of this interior, you will discover the best possible atmosphere in which to show fine paintings or listen to music. It is this atmosphere that seems to me most lacking in our art galleries, museums, music halls and theaters.” Despite being criticised for his design of the museum, Wright has triumphed the conventional architectural geometric design by combining it with both nature and a modernist approach.

The Guggenheim displays an array of shapes that include circles, ovals and triangles and as such, the ability to extend further then the strict ancient proportions of design remains forever infinite.

HARAJUKUSUBCULTURE

CHAPTER 4

‘Harajuku Girls’ is a term used to define women and teenage girls situated in the Harajuku region of Tokyo. It has become a widely recognised trendy du joir subculture of fashion which has undoubtedly had an influence on 20th Century designers. This effervescent design consists of platformed shoes, facial peircings, porcelain dolls and Hello Kitty totes - a style only a Japanese Harajuku can pull off.

The Harajuku style has become a major influence on today’s prominent designers. Karl Lagerfield incorporated Harajuku fashion into the Chanel Spring 2010 Couture collection. Largerfield labelled this collection “neon baroque” as it featured a beautiful concoction of feminine pastels, large colourful bows and perky designs. The embroideries, crystals and silver threads epitomise the sopisticated, pearlescent designs of the Spring couture collection.

The 1960’s was a significant time in Japanese fashion. US military residents were situated in the Harajuku district and as a result of this, young adolescents of Japan travelled to the district eager to catch a glimpse of Western culture. In 1985, the street soon became notorious for designers, stylists and models that wanted to become part of the growing Japanese movement. In 1964, during the opening of the summer Olympics in Tokyo, the introduction of foreigners marked a new era of a universal, multicultural district that was unprecedented in Japan. Evidently in the 21st Century, there has been a role reversal in design demand. While the Harajuku district used to be the scene for young designers to be exposed to foreign culture, the district has now become the spot for foreign designers to familiarise themselves with Japanese designs.

The rise of recognisable international designers that include Chanel, Ralph Lauren and Dior on the Harajuku district has led to a slight change in identity. These major designer stores, that are slowly beginning to replace the smaller boutique stores, have therefore declared the arrival of upper-class materialism. The influence of Western culture has set a benchmark for the district of Harajuku. The majority of Japanese locals had no concept of both Western culture and designs and due to their living conditions and proximity with Western foreigners, their inspirations from these effervescent and unfamiliar designs marked a new era for the fashion of Japan.

Gwen Stefani epitomises the influence of Harajuku on 20th Century design as seen in her L.A.M.B collection {Love, Angel, Music, Baby}. Stefani’s ‘Harajuku Lover’s’ collection is reflective of her eccentric and effervescent style inspired from the Tokyo district of Harajuku as she was influenced by the amalgamation of both Eastern and Western cultures prominent in Harajuku fashion. In 2004, Stefani released her album as an extension of her clothing line and reflective of her four Japanese backup dancers, each attributing to a word in the acronym. Due to Stefani’s quirky style, she was able to relate to the Harajuku girls due to their mutual personalities expressed through their clothing.

Fashion Bibliography:Text:- Harajuku style Japanese Street Fashion. 2011. Harajuku style Japanese Street Fashion. Available from: <http://www.harajukustyle.net/>. Last Accessed: [15 September 2011].

- Katherine Krohn, 2007. Gwen Stefani (Biography). Edition. Twenty-First Century Books (CT).

- Style Dossiers: Sunday’s Best – Harajuku Style - ZOUCH. Available from: <http://zouchmagazine.com/style-dossiers-sundays-best-–-harajuku-style/>. Last Accessed: [15 September 2011].

- Tiffany Godoy, 2007. Style Deficit Disorder: Harajuku Street Fashion - Tokyo. Edition. Chronicle Books.

Images:- Bow Girl, 2011. Available from: http://tokyofashion.com/cute-harajuku-girl-big-hair-bow-colorful-tulle-skirt-denpa-necklace/>. Last Accessed [1 October 2011].

- Chanel 2010 Couture, 2010. Available from: <http://www.redcarpet-fashionawards.com/2010/01/27/chanel-klmspring-2010-couture/>. Last Accessed: [15 September 2011].

- Gwen Stefani & Girls, 2010. Available from: < http://lsnfashion.blogspot.com/2010/06/trends-per-continent-japan-harajuku.html> Last Accessed: [15 September 2011]

- Gween Stefni Harajuku Lovers, 2011. Available from: < http://binzentovincente.blogspot.com/2011/06/we-heart-harajuku.html>. Last Accessed [7 October 2011].

- Gothic Lolita’s, 2010. Available from: < http://www.asianfashion.com/blog/dressing-harajuku-style.html>. Last Accessed: [1 Octover 2011].

- Gothic Harajuku, 2010. Available from: < http://eamazings.com/index.php/eamazings/japanese-fashion-harajuku-27122009.html>. Last Accessed: [29 September 2011].

- Japanese Kimono Couple, 2011. Available from: < http://tokyofashion.com/long-hair-japanese-guy-in-american-apparel-japanese-kimono-girl/>. Last Accessed: [29 September 2011].

- Harajuku Street Sign, 2011. Available from: < http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4081/4862717011_9c67724fb6.jpg>. Last Accessed: [29 September 2011].

- Harajuku Girl, 2010. Available from: <http://www.crunchyroll.com/pulse/harajuku-sweet-loli-gal-31630> Last Accessed: [14 September 2011].

- Harajuku Girl, 2011. Available from: < http://zouchmagazine.com/style-dossiers-sundays-best-–-harajuku-style/>. Last Accessed: [15 September 2011]

- Umbrella Harajuku, 2010. Available from: < http://japaneseharajukufashion.blogspot.com/2010_09_01_archive.html>. Last Accessed: [15 September 2011].

- Vintage Boy, 2011. Available from: < http://tokyofashion.com/okay-radd-lounge-vintage-timex-ofwgkta/>. Last Accessed [1 October 2011].

Word Count: 485

DESIGN

UNlEASHED