getting underway

This exercise may extend beyond next Wednesday, but it’s a start.

something personal

We will be using the Phaidon Archive of Graphic Design throughout the semester, and hopefully will gain some familiarity with a good portion of the 500 examples/instances of design contained in it. But that's not enough, we’ll be making our own, extrapolating from their format, and extending the archive.

Select some object, designed or not, that meant a lot to you as a child (age 0-12, or so). Remember it, describe it. Measure it. Learn about it. Describe it. Document it. If from fallible memory, so be it. And, for Wednesday 23 January, develop a sheet on that item, same format as the Phaidon Archive sheets, two sides.

specs

(appears to be metric)

sheet size   :   238mm w, 314mm h
column widths   :   10mm + gutter 4mm + 10mm
column height   :   283mm (measuring top rule to bottom rule)
margins   :   top 14mm, right and left 17mm, bottom 17mm
(check   :   14 + 17 + 283 = 314; 14 + 100 + 4 + 100 + 14 = 238)

font   :   Helvetica (10pt, approx, top info + body copy)
 

the uc.logo imbroglio, and design criticism.

For Wednesday 23 January, read:

1. Christopher Simmons. The UC logo controversy: How 54,000 people, the mainstream press and virtually every designer got it wrong. posted 9 January 2013 at AIGA blog.
2. and a better presentation (with visuals) of Simmons’s essay, at his own blog.
3. Michael Bierut. Graphic Design Criticism as a Spectator Sport. posted 14 January 2013 at Design Observer.