#issa_galvan

History of Graphic Design Timeline

At the start of the fall semester, students were asked to create a system for our final timeline project. Our timeline was to include historical context of graphic design that we collected from class discussions, lectures, readings, assignments, projects and presentations throughout the semester.  I took note of historical events, context, people and any design and its elements that I felt were relevant to the history of graphic design. I took note of important dates, first acts of graphic design, tools for communication, various important art movements, books, gestalt principles and other visual elements that together I felt embodied graphic design. At the end of the semester, I put together the information I had gained to create a large timeline that included these elements and answered the following questions.

Is there a universal design system?

What is more important: image or type? Form or content?

What does design have to do with politics?

What does design have to do with democracy?

How does the invention of the internet and the World Wide Web compare to the invention of the printing press?

In a world of computers with fonts, templates and free images, what is the new role of a designer?

What do you think are the three biggest challenges that graphic design is facing today?

The timeline was designed to start around 15,000 BC and go through 1999.

In graphic design history, my team researched graphic design objects that included logotypes, symbols, posters, typefaces, book covers and more. Together we collected different images and works that represented gestalt principles, visual effects—which included movement, depth, transparency,  and 3D— and basic shapes.  We made a collection of the images that best fit that criteria.  On my end, I collected the following images to represent the gestalt principles, transparency, movement, depth, and three dimensional figures.  Images vary from the Arts & Craft Movement, Futurism, Art Nouveau, and Dada.

  To conclude our team project, we were to individually chose a word, statement or create a design that we believed best represented the visual effects we researched. I chose  the word “surface" to embody the pieces I chose for Depth, 3D, and transparency.

Symbol Design

In graphic design history, we were asked to create a symbol/logo for a cause of our choice. After researching human trafficking all semester long for my advertising class, I decided to chose this cause to design a symbol for. For the past couple of years, human trafficking has become a problem larger than we could imagine. It's become a problem that has targeted teen girls and young adult women. Due to this, I chose to depict a female in my symbol. The symbol was left black with no features showing to represent how females trafficked have been stripped from their identity. The sewn-shut mouth was used to represent  those who have been trafficked and have no voice. They are fighting to be heard and fighting to live as they once did. Lastly, the bar-code was placed on the neck to represent that they are no longer seen as human beings in the eyes of those who are trafficking them. They are seen as just a number.

Identity Series

The goal of this project was to establish a visual format for continuity and identification related to graphic design history.  For the identity series, I created buttons for the Blanton Museum of Art, which resembled the Dada movement showcasing a system I created. My system was made based on the days the museum was open and various artists who had an impact during this avant-garde movement in the early 1900s.  In my system, each day was dedicated to one of six artists—Francis Picabia, Kurt Schwitters, Max Ernst, Raoul Hausman, John Heartfield, and Hannah Hoch. Artists are in order of the year of one of their most popular works. Attendees have the option of choosing between one of the three buttons made for that particular day of the week.

 Kitchen of Meaning

In graphic design II we were to select a word from a varied list that we would focus on Kitchen of Meaning poster on. The poster would be advertising the date of an upcoming art show while illustration and defining our word through the poster. The poster was to include our word, the name of the show- " The Kitchen of Meaning"-, the location, place and the names of all the students. After researching our word and designing studies, we were to draw thumbnails and begin the process.

Metonymy is defined as a figure of speech used in rhetoric in which a thing or concept is not called by its own name, but by the name of something intimately associated with that thing or concept. It works by the contiguity between two concepts and may also work by calling up a domain of use and as an array of associations while working with the associating meanings in the same place.

Instructional Design, Part 2

Instructional Design, Part 1

In Graphic Design 2, we were to choose from common tasks that most people already know how to do but put our own twist by creating something new and innovated using instructional design, instructional experiences used to make knowledge and skills more efficient. While being aesthetically pleasing, our design would have to correctly communicate instructions graphically.

My chosen common task was how to make eggs. However, I put my own twist by doing a specialty dish, migas. I chose to do a recipe card and accordion book which included instructions and a coupon. My intention was to do these two creations as part of the brand Pace because I use Picante Pace Chunky Salsa in making my migas. The 4 x 6 recipe card is back and front and the color scheme was chosen to correlate with Pace's branding. The recipe was created with the intention to be passed out at grocery stores where sampling of the salsa was available.

My personal geography consisted of my walk from the parking garage to the art building. My interactive map had initially started out very detailed but then got to complicated to try to communicate my experiences through my icons. My final map was left simple as buttons were incorporated to show what I saw along my walk. My buttons included heavy acorn mess, squirrel sightings, bike racks, crow crossing, lawn mowing, and heavy traffic as the remaining icons were just used to explain what that one icon in the map represented. The map is navigated by clicking the two sides arrows, right arrow to go forward and left arrow to go back. Once you get through the path with the side arrows, you can then click on the icons to show where you might see the specific sightings. My last component involves viewing the history of the buildings and what goes on within them. You can mouse over any building and read up and see photos of where you're at on my journey.