Design Fundamentals

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Clever image layout of History of Design

Guidelines: Stars, Paw Prints, Religion and Politics, Typography, 3rd party images

Stars and out-of-the-box design elements

In week one we see TONS of stars, paw prints, cliche elements...But let's call week one the week where we got these built in shapes out of our system...Please use more original and inventive shapes in the following weeks - If you MUST use stars (for example) there is tweak and distort and adding points and other ways to make them 'yours' rather than 'Hallmark'. Stars, hearts, angels, cupids, arrows and any other clip art or out-of-the-box design elements are usually cliche, overused and make for a fast read by the viewer. The sooner you stop using them the better chance of success you'll have in the commercial world. The same goes for Papyrus and script fonts, Comic Sans...Above we see how complex musical notes can become, more than just the usual cliche single note we see in designs. If you are going to use something we are all familiar with, then do a Google image search and expand your symbol library. J

Using religious, political, hot-button iconography

It's an interesting discussion, designing what I call hot button issue designs -
For example, Religion - here is my take:
I have Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Evangelists, Baptists, Hari Krishna and many others coming to my door, handing out tracts, asking for my time and money...and not just at my door, but at the beach, at the airport...and a lot of the material looks the same...big bold message, seen 1000 times by now, and it ends up in the trash without a look. HOWEVER, what if I saw an interesting design, image, painting that made me look twice, that I enjoyed as a design first, and THEN realized what the message was? Subtle, sophisticated, engaging, interesting...THAT would be my goal if I were designing for some church or special interest group - and that would include conservation, energy, politics...
Having said that, I'd steer clear of politics and religion as subject matter in our designs. It is too easy to offend someone else who does not share your beliefs.  

Using Typography

The general rule is no brochures, logos, webpage layouts or other graphic designs please (unless you get my approval first) why?
we haven't covered typography or layout yet - and the insertion of these elements all of a sudden could overshadow the things we have been focusing on. Also, the world doesn't need another design using Papyrus (:

When in doubt keep designs abstract. If you DO have an idea like an interior you want to design, or something other than an abstract design, then run it by me first for an OK.

Using Photos, Google images, Brushes

ALWAYS reference your sources when using material that is not your own. If you use 3rd party images from google image search or flicker.com etc. make sure the end result in the design is 'yours' and has been altered and changed substantially. I have seen too many 3rd party illustrations and copyrighted materials being appropriated and presented as original compositions. Use your own images, take your own photographs...If you DO find something rather generic or not copyrighted (clip art, old WW II photos etc) then run it by me first for an OK.

Brushes have become an increasing problem since you can now create images from brushes. I've seen trees, smoke, textures and splats, drips. If you can 'make it yours', then we see the work first, not the brush. And in the end the brush should only be a small part of the resulting composition - otherwise it is a crutch, not a tool.

Tutorials

I'm a big fan of tutorials, and I've learned software over the years going through tutorial after tutorial. However, for this course, do not submit a design that looks like a tutorial you have completed as there is no originality in the resulting composition. Even seeing the individual elements that were created using the tutorial oftenmakes the work look as if it were done by someone else. Strive for originality.

Image resources

http://www.sfmoma.org/pages/collection - for modern and contemporary, link to the online collection, great interface that allows visual browsing
http://www.artstor.org/index.shtml - non-profit website resource for images of all art from ancient to modern, site is a resource for educators
http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/collection/database/ - design and science museum, link to the online collection
http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/collections - modern with a focus on non-objective art in their permanent collection, link to the online collection
http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/citi/themes - Art Institute of Chicago, they've beefed up their Design wing/collection in the last few years
http://www.drawingcenter.org/viewingprogram/index.cfm - The Drawing Center's artist registry focusing on artist who draw
http://www.afonline.artistsspace.org/ - Artist Space Gallery's artist registry focusing on new/emerging artists (both registries are good because they run a random slide show)
http://www.cooperhewitt.org/COLLECTIONS/ - museum that focuses on all kinds of Design, graphic, industrial, textile, etc...., link to the online collection

Here are two design archives. RIT's graphic design collection is amazing.

http://designarchives.aiga.org/#/home
http://library.rit.edu/gda/