#visualgrammar

The Visual Grammar of MS-DOS

MS-DOS, an acronym for the Microsoft Disk Operating System, was an operating system released in 1981. Based off the command line, it began to diminish thanks once Windows 3.0 released with a GUI and the rise of graphical user interfaces on personal computers.

However, MS-DOS was still packaged with the operating systems for troubleshooting and launching old software. Even though it no longer exists, the modern command line interface is still from the same roots and aesthetically not worlds apart.

Key Elements of the Aesthetic

Text Driven - Hierarchy is determined mainly by colour, capitalisation, and spacing.

Dark UI - That old school terminal haze dominates, with a dark background and light text (normally white).

High Contrast - Matching the dark theme, if there is colour it tends to come in a bright white, blue, green, or orange which stands out on the dark background. Different colours are generally used sparingly and only for clearly defined meanings (such as errors).

Narrative:

Arcadia should feel timeless so that it can feel real and modern while rooted in the mystery of its past. MS-DOS and command line interfaces are perfect for this, capturing the 80s-90s tech aesthetic but also still underlying in most tech today.

The fact that MS-DOS still released with later software and was used for bootstrapping or troubleshooting when the GUI failed makes this kind of aesthetic the perfect narrative fit for Arcadia: capturing the idea that the software is broken and maybe had a GUI portion which you are trying to restore.

This gives me all sorts of ideas for how it might be presented: potentially even glitching to show the GUI at different points as you restore parts of the database.

The Graphic Posters of Bráulio Amado

Bráulio Amado is Portugese graphic designer/illustrator/designer supreme. His work ranges from New York Times and WIRED to artist collaborations with Frank Ocean and Beck. My sister first introduced me to his work and I loved the kinetic, often colourful designs which mixed a feeling of handcraftedness with digital grunge. However, it wasn’t until looking at his posters again that I realised some of the pieced together style, signboard typography, and bold layouts actually could be relevant for The Arcadia Report.

In particular:

I love the various signboard, tickets, stamp, 90s computer style typographic layouts. They feel like a surreal artefact without any of the photorealism or skeuomorphic design. This is the kind of style I would love to achieve for the files in The Arcadia Report.

Overlapping text, missing letters, blank spaces - what’s missing from the layout becomes as important as what is there. It feels full even when empty.

In their book “Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design”, Kress and Leeuwen discuss how different cultures have rules that determine what their images and designs look like. They call these rules “grammar of visual design” (2). They go on to say later in the book that visual communication and literacy skills should be emphasized more for children going as they go through school (17).

They say: “in terms of this essential new communication ability, this new ‘visual literacy’, institutional education, under the pressure of often reactionary political demands, produces illiterates” (17)

But they say that grammar varies within cultures, and that it is simply an observation of patterns that have emerged, not necessarily a set of rules to restrict artists... so why do we even need to teach kids these rules?

Shouldn’t we let kids explore different designs on their own, and figure out what looks best to them, rather than teaching them rules about design? I feel like it’s better to learn by just trying things out in this case, and saying that one type of design is better than another is inherently subjective.

Sources: 

Color and Contrast, are one of the most important visual hierarchy principles every designer should know.

Know about visual brand assets!!!

Nospr

Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra (NOSPR), is one of Poland's radio orchestra and premier musical institutions. It was founded in 1935 in Warsaw. In 1945 the orchestra was re-established in Katowice and since 2006 it has become a "National Cultural Institution". 

The website consists of a very minimal monochromatic colour scheme with an injection of colour (red). The colour injection is just a simple red box overlapping a black box. I love this idea, I think it works really well and looks clean and simple but not boring and drab. 

when you move to a different page away from the main home page the red box shifts to the side. This again adds a simple splash of colour in a simple way. The website also uses some text in red to bring the colour out more and create an interesting visual aesthetic.