Readings Week 4

Michael Bierut
On (Design) Bullshit
Design Observer 3.0: Observatory: Design Observer

-This artcile states that you must have a purpose for making design decisions.

"Before I could commit to a design decision, I needed to have an intellectual rationale worked out in my mind."

"It put aside arguments about taste; it helped them make the leap of faith that any design decision requires; it made the design understandable to wider audiences."

Calling bullshit on a designer, then, stings all the more because it contains an element of accuracy.

- the client will approve decisions that make sense to them, if you cannot say why you picked it, the client will not buy into it
-also you cannot just do something because you "like" it, that is no longer good enough.

WONDERS REVEALED: DESIGN AND FAUX SCIENCE
Jessica Helfand and William Drenttel from Michael Bierut, William Drenttel, and Steven Heller,
Looking Closer 5: Critical Writings on Graphic Design, Volume 5 (New York: Allworth Press, 2006)

For design—a profession that once prided itself on translating form into content—such ignorance is alarming, and the false piety is disturbingly ingenuous.

In a very real sense, science is the connective tissue linking past to present to future, and in this context, its relationship to visual communication is critical.

Filtered through design’s brutally neutralizing style engine, contemporary design is
anesthetized and stripped of its indigenous qualities: Science, in this context, is a graphic placebo.

“Science,” wrote Heidegger, “is one of the most essential phenomena of the mod age.” It’s
hygienic and objective, rational and finite, grounded in numerical certain and cosmological
reason.

Science is all about clarity and specificity and rationalism

We grasp its formal conceits—its systematic language of documentation, its methodical alignments—and parlay them into a visual language that resonates with kick-ass authority.

Information design has become its own legitimizing force, regardless of its content or context. It’s modernism run amok: form masquerading as content.

From appropriation came inspiration, a postmodern culture of juxtaposition and pastiche. Because the vernacular belonged to everyone, it resonated as real, familiar, and accessible.

Science represents an enormous opportunity for designers, but not if their contributions
remain fundamentally restricted by what they know

Graphic Design Thesis- a survivors guide
Michael Vanderbyle

Thesis-complex intersection between personal voice, conceptual understanding, and the ability to conduct and use research effectively in the service of creating public communication

description of classes

thesis is the culmination of your design education a CCAC
-created my michael Vanderbyl to challenge and broaden our understanding of what it means to be a designer

The Thesis Proposal
-is a proposition or argument- which you intend too support through your research
-thesis proposal is a map for the semester
sentence 1- proposition
Sentence 2-investigation
Sentence 3-map

Bad thesis- has no point, no argument it is merely and investigation


tips-
1. what interests you
2. make sure you have a point
3.do not base proposal on the obvious
4. develop system for note taking
5. footnotes
6. avoid pseudo science
7.ineterviewing friends about topic has no merit

-must have a thesis process book

-topic can be food and the proposal may suck
-tape or record midterm crit
-take responsibility for what you want to ask
-if you thesis is not working at midterm you should think about dropping the course

8 Logo Design Ideas

I needed some inspiration on this cold Wednesday.

http://www.graphicdesignblog.org/logo-design-ideas/

Possible Thesis Idea

Another possible Thesis Idea is Personality In design.

Everyone has a very unique and distinct personality. In design, people are not supposed to pick a style. How does design influence someones personality or vice versa? What is a style and are designers supposed to have one. If designers are not supposed to have a style, why is it everyone is inclined to like certain styles.

Is it culture, or how people are raised, or even the music styles they are intrested in?

Possible Sources:

The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 10, No. 1 (Sep., 1951), pp. 10-25
Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of The American Society for Aesthetics

Tom Gormley, Peter Masters, George Hornby, Milton Glaser and Pieter Brattinga
Design Quarterly, No. 94/95, Second Federal Design Assembly: The Design Reality (1975), pp. 38-41

Dissociations, Developmental Psychology, and Pedagogical Design
Angeline Lillarde Child Development, Vol. 77, No. 6 (Nov. - Dec., 2006), pp. 1563-1567
Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the Society for Research in Child Development

Wikipedia-Body Language

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_language

Understanding body language

The technique of 'reading' people is used frequently. For example, the idea of mirroring body language to put people at ease is commonly used in interviews. Mirroring the body language of someone else indicates that they are understood.

Body language signals may have a goal other than communication. Both people would keep this in mind. Observers limit the weight they place on non-verbal cues. Signalers clarify their signals to indicate the biological origin of their actions.

Physical Expression

Physical expressions like waving, pointing, touching and slouching are all forms of nonverbal communication. The study of body movement and expression is known as kinesics. Humans move their bodies when communicating because, it helps "ease the mental effort when communication is difficult."

Physical expressions reveal many things about the person using them. For example, gestures can emphasize a point or relay a message, posture can reveal boredom or great interest, and touch can convey encouragement or caution.

One of the most basic and powerful body-language signals is when a person crosses his or her arms across the chest. This can indicate that a person is putting up an unconscious barrier between themselves and others. It can also indicate that the person's arms are cold which would be clarified by rubbing the arms or huddling.

Consistent eye contact can indicate that a person is thinking positively of what the speaker is saying. It can also mean that the other person doesn't trust the speaker enough to "take his eyes off" the speaker.

Lack of eye contact can indicate negativity. On the other hand, individuals with anxiety disorders are often unable to make eye contact without discomfort.

Eye contact is often a secondary and misleading gesture because we are taught from an early age to make eye contact when speaking.

Or if while making direct eye contact a person is fiddling with something, even while directly looking at you, it could indicate the attention is elsewhere.

Also there are three standard areas that a person will look which represent different states of being. If the person looks from one eye to the other then to the forehead it is a sign that they are taking an authoritative position. If they move from one eye to the other then to the nose, that signals that they are engaging in what they consider to be a "level conversation" with neither party holding superiority. The last case is from one eye to the other and then down to the lips. This is a strong indication of romantic feelings.

Disbelief is often indicated by averted gaze, or by touching the ear or scratching the chin. When a person is not being convinced by what someone is saying, the attention invariably wanders, and the eyes will stare away for an extended period.

Boredom is indicated by the head tilting to one side, or by the eyes looking straight at the speaker but becoming slightly unfocused. A head tilt may also indicate a sore neck or Amblyopia, and unfocused eyes may indicate ocular problems in the listener.

Interest can be indicated through posture or extended eye contact, such as standing and listening properly.

Evolution of Facial Expression

R. J. AndrewScience, New Series, Vol. 142, No. 3595 (Nov. 22, 1963), pp. 1034-1041

SkinoGraphie

http://www.ignant.de/2009/05/15/skinographie/

Week 3 Readings

THE REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

(extracted from Judith Bell, Doing your Research Project: A guide for first-time researchers in

education, health and social science, 4th ed, Open University Press, London, 2005)

-Hart considers a literature review important because

without it you will not acquire an understanding of your topic, of what has already been done on it, how it has been researched, and what the key issues are. In your written project you will be expected to show that you understand previous research on your topic.

-In Hart’s view, ‘the review is therefore a part of your academic development – of becoming an

expert in the field’ (p. 1). …

-Reveiw should provide reader with a picture, and the major questions on the topic.

As Polit and Hungler point out:

-Frameworks are efficient mechanisms for drawing together and summarizing accumulated facts .

-The linkage of findings into a coherent structure makes the body of accumulated knowledge more accessible and, thus, more useful both to practitioners who seek to implement findings and to researchers who seek to extend the knowledge base. (Polit and Hungler 1995: 101)

Theoretical Framework- an explanatory device ‘which explains either graphically or in

narrative form, the main to be studied – the key factors, constructs or variables – and the presumed relationships among them.

The Gilbert Fan review

- he had to decide on specific topics which were of particular interest to him and under which he could group his findings.

-Gilbert made a good job of categorizing his findings under the five main headings, each of which had sub-headings.

The review of the literature checklist

1. Evidence of reading will always be required in any research.

2. Researchers collect many facts but then must select, organize and classify findings into a

coherent pattern.

3. Your framework will not only provide a map of how the research will be conducted and

analysed but it will also give you ideas about a structure for your review.

4. Literature reviews should be succinct and, as far as is possible in a small study, should

give a picture of the state of knowledge and of major questions in your topic area.

5. Ensure that all references are complete. Note the page numbers of any quotations and

paraphrases of good ideas.

6. Watch your language. Perhaps inferences may be drawn, but ‘proof’ is hard to come by

when dealing with human beings.

7. Examine your sources critically before you decide to use them.

8. Remember that unless you are comparing like with like, you can make no claims for

comparability.

9. Do not be tempted to leave out any reports of research merely because they differ from

your own findings.

10. Start the first draft of your review early in your reading. Many more drafts will be

required before you have a coherent and ‘critical’ account but better to start small and

then build on your first attempt than to have to make sense of everything you have read

at one attempt.

Know it All Can Wikipedia conquer Expertise?

Stacy Schiff

The New Yorker, July 31st, 2006

Anyone with internet access can create a Wikipedia entry or edit one. The site has hundreds of thousands of contributers

-functions as a filter for vast amount of information

-2003 Wikipedia became a non-profit organization.

-is offered in over 200 languages

-Whales for encyclopedia was the World Book.

-it was originally supposed to be scholarly articles subjected to a seven step review process. Whales being out of school for several years felt like he was doing homework and being judged.

-May be the worlds most ambitious vanity press

-In a survey Wikipedia had four errors for every three of Brittanica's

THE NEWS BUSINESS OUT OF PRINT

The death and life of the American newspaper.

by Eric Alterman

MARCH 31, 2008

The American newspaper has been around for approximately three hundred years.

-It really was not until 1721, when the printer James Franklin launched the New England Courant, that any of Britain’s North American colonies saw what we might recognize today as a real newspaper.

-Three centuries after the appearance of Franklin’s Courant, it no longer requires a dystopic imagination to wonder who will have the dubious distinction of publishing America’s last genuine newspaper.

-The rise of the Internet, which has made the daily newspaper look slow and unresponsive; the advent of Craigslist, which is wiping out classified advertising––have created a palpable sense of Arianna Huffington questions newspapers’“veneer of unassailable trustworthiness.”

-Independent, publicly traded American newspapers have lost forty-two per cent of their market value in the past three years, according to the media entrepreneur Alan Mutter.

-Until recently, newspapers were accustomed to operating as high-margin monopolies. To own the dominant, or only, newspaper in a mid-sized American city was, for many decades, a kind of license to print money.

-Taking its place, of course, is the Internet, which is about to pass newspapers as a source of political news for American readers.

-On the Huffington Post, Peretti explains, news is not something handed down from above but “a shared enterprise

between its producer and its consumer.”

-Though Huffington has a news staff (it is tiny, but the hope is to expand in the future), the vast majority of the stories that it features originate elsewhere, whether in print, on television, or on someone’s video camera or cell phone.

Group Meeting 2

1) Who Toronto Hires for Re-Branding
2) What type of research was involved in the Rebranding of Lib. Village
3) What has changed from Old Lib. Village to New Lib. Vill
4) What do local residents think?
5) What do surrounding residents think?

Methods of Getting Data:

-Interview questions
-Photo Gathering
-History of Liberty Village
-City of T.O policies on branding [URBAN DEVELOPMENT]
-Observations of Liberty Village today
-Nightlife/Activities/Utilities
-Stats on Lib. Village

Everyone's Rolls:

Troy: History of Liberty Village
Haomin: Toronto Policies
Marissa: Interview questions
Jen: Who Toronto Hires
Kenny- Stats on Lib. Village current and past

For this week go to Liberty Village, get your research done.