Chip Kidd

Chip Kidd is an American author, editor, graphic designer and is mostly known for his creative book covers. He is the associate art director at Knopf, a New York publishing house, and first joined their design team in 1986 as a junior assistant. On top of working for Knopf, he has also worked for Amazon, Doubleday, Farrar Straus, Penguin/Putnam, Columbia University Press and many more respectable companies.

"A Kidd's Guide To Graphic Design"

This is a book cover of Chip Kidd’s book, A Kidd’s Guide to Graphic Design. I think it is a very simple and audience-friendly book. It has been created for people aged over 10, yet has a lot of content in there that looks very interesting. It is a very simple cover, and is intended to look simple for the purpose of getting young people interested in graphic design. I like this design a lot as it incorporates minimalism and simplicity as well as good use of colours. The colours used in this book cover are blue, red, white, yellow and black. Something I find fascinating is that the word ‘Go’ is on a stop sign, as it is red. I think this is almost like a message within the sign, as perhaps Kidd is trying to tell people to just go and to do what they want and not to be held back. I think this may be why there is a red behind the word go rather than green. I also like the clever idea of the name of the book. As his name is Kidd, he uses this this in the name, as he is trying to get young people to read this book. I think this is an eye catching cover and would definitely pick this up and read it. 

Intensity by Dean Koontz, Book Cover by Chip Kidd.

This is a book cover created by Chip Kidd and is for the book Intensity. I like the way Kidd has implemented a sort of op-art, illusion style in the background, while text is on the front. I also like the minimalism of the cover, as there is nothing on the rest of the cover other than the background that Kidd created and the text of the book and artist. I also like the font used, and how it resonates with the name of the book. He book is called Intensity, which is why the font used is a block font and is in full capitals. 

Paula Scher

Paula Scher is an American graphic designer and a painter from Washington DC. She was the first female principal at Pentagram, a well-known design studio. She is widely known for singlehandedly defining the cultural scene of New York in the 1990’s. One thing that stuck in my head about her was that when she was asked to create a new design for Windows, a brand known all over the world, she immediately said to the client and said “Your name is Windows. Why are you a flag?”

She studied at the Tyler School of Philadelphia and collected her Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts in 1970. It was ultimately her travel to New York where she made her name. She was hired by CBS Records in 1972 and was in the advertising and promotions department. She left two years later because she wanted to purse a more creative lifestyle. She was picked up by Atlantis Records, a competing label. She became the art director and began designing her first album covers. After a year had passed she returned to CBS Records as the art director in the cover department and continued to work there, creating album covers. She got four Grammy nominations. She also spent five years working as a freelance graphic designer, in which time she picked up many briefs from different clients. She founded Koppel and Scher with her classmate Terry Koppel. Once they went their separate ways, Scher went on to become a partner at New York’s office of Pentagram. Over her life, she has worked for many huge brands, such as Coca Cola, Windows, the Museum of Modern Art and many more. She is an inspiration to many young designers. 

"Bring in the Noise Bring in the Funk" posters for the Public Theater

This is a piece of work by Paula Scher and was created for The Public Theater in New York. It was a musical in 1995 and a year later was moved to Broadway. It is a musical history of rhythm in an African-American lifestyle which is through dancing and tap style. There are two posters above, and were both made for the same musical. I really like the design and style of these posters, and are the complete opposite of minimalism. The poster on the left shows the tap artist in black and white slightly to the left of the centre and is in a pose, and is the first thing I saw when looking at the poster.  Around him is what really makes the poster so effective. Around the tap artist are words relating to the Public Theater and the musical and is a very good example of typography. It also has a very vibrant colour scheme, as black and yellow with a little bit of red and white works incredibly well. The background is in a bright yet easy-to-see shade of yellow, and the black typography really draws attention to itself, allowing you to read the text with ease. The type is also in all sorts of weights, such as bold, or thin, or bigger than the text underneath it. I think this is what makes the poster so powerful, because it takes a lot of knowledge about type to be able to create something so crammed and packed full of information and still be able to create a poster that is clear and easy to understand. The one on the right is also a tap artist cutout in black and white and is posing in the centre, and again, the text and typography is all around him. This time the colour scheme is different, and is white blue and red, which small hints of black and purple. I don’t think this is as powerful as the one on the left, but is still very effective in terms of advertising and promotion. I like the way the words ‘noise’ and ‘funk’ were straight and not an angle, yet still had all different sizes and weights. I also like how in this poster there are entire quotes from reviews and paragraphs in very small text. Overall I think both of these posters are great pieces of art and define Paula Scher’s art style. 

"The Diva Is Dismissed" posters for the Public Theater

This is a post-modern poster also by Paula Scher and promotes Jenifer Lewis’ solo show, “The Diva Is Dismissed”, which was an autobiographical comedy and music show. She performed at the Public Theater. It could be said that this is one of the best posters of the end of the era and is rightfully in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. There is much less information on this poster than the last one, yet still just as effective. The same shade of yellow is being used and is a very eye catching shade of yellow. Other colours being used in this poster are black and blue, and both work very well against the yellow background. There is a cutout of the woman’s face and the cutout is bright blue. She looks shocked or surprised. There are words coming out of her mouth in Scher’s style of typography, and is in all different sizes and weights. The word ‘Diva’ is the first word I saw, as it is in a big size and is quite bold. I think this is a great example of Paula Scher’s work and captures how she can do both maximalist and minimalist types of work and still make it look very powerful. 

The Designers Republic

tDR logo

The Designers Republic, or tDR, is a graphic design studio that has a high reputation among graphic designers and is well known for its futuristic and Japanese-style approach to designs. It is based in Sheffield, England and was founded by Ian Anderson in February 1986. It is also well-known for its take on controversial irony and almost has a postmodern feel to it.

Originally, Ian Anderson created The Designers Republic for the sole purpose to design flyers for the band he managed, called Person to Person. His initial ideas were inspired by constructivism. As time went on they started to become more and more well known, until 1994, when Émigré magazine devoted an entire issue to Designer’s Republic, which is now sold out and a copy was also bought by MOMA in New York. Apart from their work in the music industry, they had also worked with some big companies, such as Sony or Rockstar Games.

Their style is usually very bright and loud, which is effective when trying to get attention.  They use colours like red and black a lot, and also use negative space to fill spaces. Like I previously said, they use controversial irony and a postmodern mind-set to create statements such as “Work Buy Consume Die”, or “Robots Build Robots”. Some of their work is very packed full of stuff and has objects overlapping other objects whereas other work of theirs is very simple and plain and only has a few elements in the page.

"Work Buy Consume Die", by The Designers Republic

This is the Work Buy Consume Die statement that I previously mentioned. I really like this piece of art because it is very simple and makes good use of negative space. The words “Work Buy Consume Die is a statement to society, as this is what they believe life is today, as this is what people have to look forward to. The background is white, which means anything they put in the centre of the image in a different colour will grab your attention instantly. The logo in the top reminds me of a Pepsi logo, but is quite different to the Pepsi logo. The words are initials in a Japanese style, which I think is a nice touch. The black on white text makes the image eye catching, as it is directly underneath the red logo.

Wipeout Poster

This is one of the posters that Designers Republic created for the Wipeout game.  I think this is a great design and looks very professional. There are only three colours used in this image even though it looked like more colours to me. Red, green and white is a colour scheme I have not seen often, and I think this works well. The red background is not just a background, and has shapes and textures on it. The font chosen for the name of the game is an excellent choice as it matches the futuristic feel of the entire poster. The text is white on red so it attracts attention instantly, as the word ‘Wipeout’ was the first thing I saw. The box surrounding the title and green and red bars is almost like a rounded rectangle, though it is jagged at some points, which also shows the futuristic approach to the poster. I think the red and green bars are a good addition to the image, as it completes the image and attracts attention. 

The Digital Revolution

Computers and digital imaging did not play a part in design until very late in the 20^th century. Everything was done by hand, from setting out layouts to making good use of a darkroom. Everything was much more practical and was a hand- on experience, but was also very time consuming for simple things that we take for granted today. When computers that were able to modify text and images together came out it was huge and completely revolutionised design and the world around type. This was around the 80’s and 90’s and was a time when the world was constantly seeing new digital technology.

First Apple Macintosh, 1984

When Steve Jobs was on the Macintosh Project, he had a dream that he wanted the Macintosh to be for anyone and everyone, from the garbage man to the grandma in a cottage. The film ‘Jobs’ explains just how simple he wanted Apple computers to be, and how he reached that goal. When the Mac came out, it gained huge popularity and the main reason was that anyone could use it. Software on the Macintosh did exactly what Jobs wanted it to do, and was simple and easy to use.

Apple Mac advert

When the Mac came out, everyone saw it as a tool for endless opportunities, as anything could be created and edited. Anything was possible. Designs could be made without even having to spend ages creating one from scratch on pen and paper. Because of this, more and more people used the Mac, which allowed many more creations to be seen and made. Since then, the Macintosh has had a high reputation for all things design, and is mostly used in the art and design field all over the world. It is because of its simplicity that makes it what it is, and is not complicated to use at all.

The software that allowed you to create layouts and designs were user-friendly and people found it much easier to create designs on the computer rather than with a paper and a pen. What the computer did that paper could not do was give typesetting and layout tools, which gave users the will to experiment with their work without completely losing it if they lost it. They could see what went well with what and did not have to pay the consequences if it did not look good.

First Photoshop

Because so many people were using and creating great things with the early software, companies became aware of this and advanced their software to push the creators and to aid them in creating newer and different layouts and designs. This meant that scaling an object was introduced, as well as things such as stretching and opacity control. Crazy and wacky creations were made due to these tools.

Interface of first Photoshop

When the Internet was released to the public and for everyone, this opened up a whole new opportunity for design. As more and more people began using the internet, people began sharing their creations on the Internet, meaning that ideas were formed and inspired others to create things based off what they saw. Because of this, design and type companies began using websites on the Internet, which meant that they too saw the opportunity in the internet and how it could be used a tool for graphic design.

As the Internet was global, this allowed users and graphic designers to communicate with people halfway across the world, meaning that they shared their ideas and saw what the current trends were in that part of the world. They may have chosen to incorporate that into their own work, adding a new element of design to their designs. People could now swap ideas and create more based on these combinations, which led to some astounding work. 

Post Modernism

Post modernism was a movement in the last 20^th century, around the years of 1970 – 1990. It heavily affected art, music and architecture. Instead of Modernism transitioning off into another movement, Post Modernism totally split off from Modernism, and went in its own direction. It was very controversial and provocative, which made sense considering it was a time of rebellion.

Post Modernism was almost like doing the complete opposite of what movements in the past had done. It was all about taking ideas and turning them upside down, which is why a lot of it was controversial. It took a very unique take on society, and was something anyone could join in on.

Something I earlier researched last year was the punk movement, which was also in the Post Modernism movement. Punk was all about expressing yourself as an individual and doing what you want, rejecting what society wants and desires you to do. It was a massive part of culture and made a huge effect on almost everything. Music was affected greatly by the Punk movement, and bands such as The Sex Pistols made a great impact on society and the news. It was a time of social upheaving and political debate.

The entire mood of Punk was a rebellious nation who wanted to freely express themselves without fear of rejection. This is why dark colours were used and black was used in many creations. The art of the Punk movement was all about criticism of the past and almost a mockery of what used to be important. A famous piece of art created in the Punk movement was the poster for God Save The Queen, by the Sex Pistols, and shows the Queen with the words ‘God Save The Queen’ and ‘Sex Pistols’ stuck along her eyes and mouth. It is a form of collage but this is the sort of art that was very popular in that time. The queen and the text in this are black and white, whereas the Union Jack in the background is in full colour. There is no specific font in this poster, as another popular aspect of art during the Punk movement was the ransom note style effect. The ransom note effect was just plastering many different letters or words together to create a collage of text which can be used as art. 

When the Punk movement died down, the design part of Post modernism went in a different direction, and the art went into a more commercial design sector. This meant that bright colours were being used constantly, and everything had become vivid and bright. 

Helvetica

Helvetica is one of the world’s most famous fonts, and is used on so many things that people often dismiss it. It is used by huge corporations to independent designers, and is very influential in the world of type, so influential, in fact, that there was a film created dedicated to how Helvetica changed and affected the world. It’s been featured by MOMA in New York and has awarded many times.

Helvetica was created in Switzerland in 1957 by Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann. It was originally supposed to be named ‘Die Neue Haas Grotesk’, which resembles Schelter-Grotesk. The font itself was created for the sole purpose of being a total neutral font, to have no meaning or give any impression. The marketing director at Stempel changed the name to Helvetica in 1960 to make the font more marketable overseas. Before naming it Helvetica they were going to name it Helvetia, but decided against it due to the designers not wanting to name it after a country (Helvetia is Latin for Switzerland), so they called it Helvetica instead, which means Swiss in Latin.

In the 50’s there were many logos and designs that are iconic to that era, but some companies and industries wanted change in their posters and designs. They wanted a neutral font that expressed nothing but sleekness and simplicity. This was not to forget the past design and type sense because it was bad, but because they were coming into a new age of design.

In 1898, the typeface called Akzidenz-Grotesk was created by Berthold, one of the world’s largest type foundries at the time. It is believed that this is where the idea of Helvetica was inspired and based on, as well as other designs from 1898 to 1957. Many things had changed in them 60 years, and Miedinger believed the world should have a modern font once more. It was very popular at the time and many other typefaces were based on Akzidenz-Grotesk. As Miedinger also based his on Akzidenz-Grotesk, there are many similarities between the two fonts, are difficult to see which one is which without analysing further.

Helvetica has exploded in popularity ever since it was created and has been used in many corporations and logos over time. It is the font that is used on the New York subway system, which is iconic for New York. Because Helvetica remains legible while moving, it has been used on many vehicle and airline logos, such as BMW, Toyota, Harley Davidson, Jeep, Lufthansa, and American Airlines. These are all well-known companies, and their logo helps them get recognition, which means that Helvetica is a good idea if they want their logo to be easy to read. It has also been on clothing company logos, such as The North Face, American Apparel and Caterpillar.