Designers and their style Thesis Statement

Designers after having gained enough exposure tend to frame a style of their own and

take the artistic pathway where in they are recognized for the style, which they have

created for themselves.

Hrudaya Veena Yanamandala

PGDP

Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology

The pre-industrial age was mostly agrarian and the Rich owned most of the products

and they were the ones who supported the Artisans. Poor were poorer and they had to

use what they made themselves which were of poor quality. With the advent of

Industrial Revolution, which although gave more employment to people and

improved the standards of living of the people, the basic meaning behind arts and

crafts was fading away due to mass produced items and the skills were being

forgotten. The material culture was being lost. The Arts and Crafts movement started

to bridge this gap between Arts and Crafts as things were getting replaced with mass-

produced goods. The idea of Less is more from the advent of the Bauhaus period

that gave way to minimalist objects and designs combining fine arts, crafts, socialism,

mass-production, technology, commercialism which gave way to high quality

products which are highly functional. It aimed at bridging the gap between the art and

the industry. This movement led to many changes in the fields of Art, Design and

Architecture. The Bauhaus school focused on subjects like artistry and crafts along

with design1.

Art comes from within bringing our emotions to express what one feels and convey to

people about what they would like to achieve by using different mediums. Art is a

form where in the audience is not taken into consideration, but it is the true passion

that is being conveyed through the talent that a person is born with. It is a medium to

express what one truly feels. Art is warm and there are artists who have given up so

much just for the sake of Art. An artist does not have to take the audience into

consideration but could just express what they feel and achieve what they would want 1 "Know Your Design History: The Bauhaus Movement - Designer Blog." The Creative Edge Know

to communicate to people through their emotions, that reflects through these great

pieces of Art. On the contrary, Design is all about comprehending and analyzing to

solve problems taking into consideration the clients views and design accordingly.

Design has its own usefulness and purpose to make things simpler and easier for one

to understand. Design is used for communication and to make things around us better,

it is a knowledge that is gained after years of experience through understanding and

analyzing of what must be done which one gains through teaching and learning.

Design projects are collaborative and the audience must be taken into consideration

where in each of the projects must provide a sense of purpose or usefulness to the

people. But at some point after making and breaking the rules, designers gain

enough experience and exposure that they tend to frame a style of their own and

follow the artistic pathway where in the client may or may not be taken into

consideration. They tend to reach a level where in they become experts in

understanding what they really want for themselves and have their own style

sometimes that the clients tend to identify with. It is the style that brings in newness

and creativity, which are both inspiring and motivating.

As a design student, the works of some of the worlds greatest designers when viewed

tend to bring out so many questions of whether these pieces could be considered as

the best because we sometimes do not tend to understand what the purpose of the

design actually is, when it is not taking the audience into consideration. Did these

designers have the style since the start of their career or was it that came through

years of experience of having understood the design world and being acquainted with

all the rules that they tend to break them to achieve the style that people tend to

recognize one with. Among the list of such greatest designers we look into the works

of Stefan Sagmeister and David Carson.

Stefan Sagmeister a New York based designer whose works cover the fields of

packaging, branding and identity, advertising, art direction, consultancy, print, event

design, environmental design and exhibition design reflects a style of his own.

Obsessions make my life worse and my work better

-Stefan Sagmeister.

The above quote says it all. His works generally tend to break the rules and taboos set

by the society and reflect truth that brings out the uniqueness and originality of work.

His work reflects truth and points out how obsessed he was with his work one time

he had got lettering carved on his body for an event and another time he had gained

around 25 pounds and took semi nude pictures of himself before and after gaining

weight, which he showcased for an exhibition poster. He points out that he wants to

achieve happiness through design. His works mainly involves packaging and design

and has worked for musicians like Lon Reed and David Bryne. The Happy show

one of Sagmeisters exhibitions 2012 organized at the Institute of Contemporary Art,

Philadelphia was organized to give the visitors an experience into the designers mind

by increasing happiness through meditation, cognitive therapy and mood-altering

pharmaceuticals via the means of analog and digital typographic investigations. His

work since then is to achieve happiness. He mentions that he obtains Happiness by

Design. He challenged himself to be happy by listing out what brings him happiness

and the list goes as follow-

Traveling to new places. An open road and a motorcycle. Working on projects that matter to him.

Designing a project that feels partly brand new and partly familiar.2

Sagmeisters work was truthful where in he saw himself as a product to communicate

and he took up works that he liked the most. His works inspire people and mostly

involves bringing an artistic approach for lettering.

Some of these works involved were Low expectations are a good Strategy,

Worrying solves nothing, and Trying to look good limits my life3 which were

published in magazines. His works are intense talking about the truths of life through

a graphic design approach.

Typography is an art of communicating through words and letters by arranging them

in a legible, readable format by keeping in consideration kerning, leading and tracking

and making it appealing for the viewer.

David Carson one of the worlds best typographers is famous to break the rules of

typography. His works in playing with typography with freedom without having to

follow a definite grid and without any fixed system and layout. He believes that every

design brings out an emotional response that gets us to the story of how the product us

made. In his TED4 talk he gives an example showing two images with No Parking

2 "How Stefan Sagmeister Blew My Mind." How Stefan Sagmeister Blew My Mind. Accessed October 18, 2015. http://www.braidcreative.com/blog/how-stefan-sagmeister-blew-my-mind. 3 "Stefan Sagmeister." AIGA. Accessed October 18, 2015. http://www.aiga.org/medalist-stefan-sagmeister/. 4 "Design and Discovery." David Carson:. Accessed October 18, 2015. https://www.ted.com/talks/david_carson_on_design?language=en.

written on it but the way it was written was completely different which conveyed a

different emotion, showing the difference that the same words conveyed a different

expression and conveyed a different approach. Of his works the most interesting was

a poster that said Dont mistake legibility for communication. In this project he

mentions that just because something is legible doesnt mean that it must

communicate the right thing5. He believes that it is the emotion that is being

communicated behind the words before even reading them that people connect to.

David Carsons works involve using blurred images and experimental typography

beyond boundaries for which he is famous. It is funny from his TED talk that he could

not read his own works for a few seconds during the talk. But this is his style of

communicating by bringing out emotional background for the story that has to be

conveyed to and also by bringing out an expression through his work that people

associate to.

This approach of designers taking the artistic approach reflects the avant-garde

movement, which refers to people, or works that are experimental with respect to

subjects like art, culture and politics.6 Dada and Bauhaus were among a few of the 5 " Legibility Vs Communication in Design - David Carson's Point of View." MA Graphic Design. December 30, 2013. Accessed October 18, 2015.

https://postmodernmovieposter.wordpress.com/2013/12/30/legibility-vs-communication-in-design-

david-carsons-point-of-view/. 6 "The History of Visual Communication - The Avantgarde." The History of Visual Communication - The Avantgarde. Accessed October 18, 2015.

http://www.citrinitas.com/history_of_viscom/avantgarde.html.

Avant-Garde movements that took place at that time. Dada involved fields of art,

poetry and graphic design for anti-art cultural works in Switzerland during the First

World War. And this movement sought to fight art with art.

As a Graphic Designer, although the above-mentioned works of Designers seem to be

vague in terms of principles and rules of Design, it is the standards, which these

designers have set for themselves through all the years of experience that people

relate and connect to.

Bibliography

1."The Bauhaus Movement." Bauhaus. Accessed October 18, 2015. http://bauhausinteriors.com/blog/the-bauhaus-movement/. 2."Know Your Design History: The Bauhaus Movement - Designer Blog." The Creative Edge Know Your Design History The Bauhaus Movement Comments. August 15, 2013. Accessed October 18, 2015. https://99designs.com/designer-blog/2013/08/15/know-your-design-history-the-bauhaus-movement/. 3. "Design Shack - Web Design Gallery, Articles & Community." Art vs. Design: Are They the Same Thing? Accessed October 18, 2015. http://designshack.net/articles/art-

vs-design-are-they-the-same-thing/.

4. "Stefan Sagmeister." AIGA. Accessed October 18, 2015.

http://www.aiga.org/medalist-stefan-sagmeister/.

5. "How Stefan Sagmeister Blew My Mind." How Stefan Sagmeister Blew My Mind.

Accessed October 18, 2015. http://www.braidcreative.com/blog/how-stefan-

sagmeister-blew-my-mind.

6. "Happiness by Design." Stefan Sagmeister:. Accessed October 18, 2015.

https://www.ted.com/talks/stefan_sagmeister_shares_happy_design?language=en.

7. "Design and Discovery." David Carson:. Accessed October 18, 2015. https://www.ted.com/talks/david_carson_on_design?language=en.

8. The History of Visual Communication - The Avantgarde." The History of Visual

Communication - The Avantgarde. Accessed October 18, 2015.

http://www.citrinitas.com/history_of_viscom/avantgarde.html.