Journalism 203 Exam
General theory of VisCom
"All the world rests on a shem."
What is Garamond typeface also known as?
"Black letter"
Michael Rock (quote)
"Design is about cloaking things in newness."
Columbia's slogan
"Famously hot"
Milton Glaser
"I love NY" logo is his signature graphic.
Barbara Kruger
"I shop therefore I am" poster creator. She makes many protest/movement posters, especially about women, marriage, and relationships.. Signature style is red and black.
Meaning/origin of the word Zeitgeist - "what's going on right now"
"Spirit of the age" - what's going on right now; it's a German word
Ivan Chermayoff (quote)
"The design of history is the history of design."
Gestalt - quote
"The whole is different/other than the sum of its parts." -Max Wertheimer
Pastiche or Nostalgia?
-Some overlap, but... -Pastiche borrows from another person's style. Nostalgia borrows from the past (trends and symbols)
Greeks
-Standardized letterforms and more standardized alphabet - Grounded writing on baseline - Even distribution of space between letters - Uniformity of weight and stroke
Aesthetically pleasing things...
...are more likely to be considered true. Our senses engage our emotions and influence our behavior.
Why do we use visuals? (5 ways - IPPBU)
1. Illustration - tells a story/illuminates 2. Preservation - Image serves as a proxy of real thing; turns an instant into eternity 3. Persuasion/conviction - Associate visuals with ideas and ideals 4. Beautification - Pleases and gratifies us 5. Uncommon vision - Seth Carlson; underwater dogs
What's the sign? (American Flag/Confederate Flag)
1. Red, white and blue: symbolic 2. American flag pattern: symbolic, indexical 3. Confederate flag: all 3 (rip off of American flag)
How many rods/cones do our eyes have and what do they do?
120 million rods that detect contrasts in light/low light situations. 7 million cones that detect color/strong light.
Age of Mass Communication (which intersected with Victorianism): 1400 to 1890 (3 inventions)
1455: First mass-produced book, made possible by movable type 1540s: garamond typeface 1840-1880: Faster presses and type revolving press/wood type for posters
The Classical Period (years, what happened)
15,000 BC - 1400 AD. El Castillo cave. Some of the first example of humans engaging in symbolic behavior.
Victorianism and its features/key player
1837-1901: Reign of Queen Victoria in England; yellow journalism, Thomas Nast, the advent of photography
Daguerre and NY Daily Graphic
1839: Daguerreotypes images on copper plates; NY Daily Graphic was done in 1880 and it was the first halftone image in mass media
Cretan photographs
2800 B.C. Symbol resembling the letter "H" represented a fence. Lead to today's alphabet
What parts must you have in HTML?
<!doctype html> <html> <head> <title>Sierra's HTML Test</title> <style type="text/css"> h1 {color:red; } </head> </style> <body> <h1> My name is Sierra Burrell</h1> <h2>I am a PR Major</h2> <p>I'm from Walhalla, SC</p> </body> </html>
Pointing Finger
A pointing finger in visual communications is used to declare a statement or to cue a behavior from the viewer.
Riddles and Rebuses
A riddle in graphic design is a combination of text and images that creates a message. This message is often implicit and provokes thought within the audience. A rebus uses icons to create a visual language which can be easily recognized and deciphered by the audience.
Levels of Visual Literacy (5)
A. Recognize explicit, obvious interpretations B. Recognize abstract, multiple interpretations C. Analyze, interpret in historical/social context D. Image appropriation (cut & paste) E. Create original images
Isometric perspective
Carolina Coliseum example; map that shows inside of building
Harmony/Unity (accentuates _______ characteristics, unites ________ and promotes ________, controls _______, creates a _______)
Accentuates shared characteristics, controls contrast, unites elements and promotes order, creates a "theme" throughout a project (controlled contrast creates dominance or CVI)
The Object Poster (what is it also known as? - two things)
Also known as a Sachplaka. It was created in the early twentieth-century. It was the start of a new movement call Posterstyle. The posters featured bright bold letters and simple art work so people passing on the busy streets could read and understand the meaning of them. Lucian Bernhard a german artist, was only eighteen years old when he created the first Object poster for a ad competition, sponsored by Berlin's Priester match company.
Swastika
Americans used the swastika in the late 1800s and early 1900s as a design motif on many things. The incorporation of the swastika into the Nazi regime would change the meaning of the symbol.
Arts and Crafts Movement (particular style and by who?)
Art Nouveau; featured botanical geometry that contained women sometimes naked/close to naked in nature; also has subtle patterns
Principals (7)
Balance, Unity/Harmony, Contrast, Dominance/CVI, Movement/Direction, Rhythm, Modules
Semiotics - what is is based off of and what does the word mean?
Based in linguistics studies; "the science of signs"
Modernism (design school, where, and motto -fff; artist -PM; two styles)
Bauhas (design school in Germany- motto was "form follows function"), Dada; Art Deco and Streamline were major styles
James Victore
Born 1952 Art Director/Designer Author Made provocative images (sexual, political, etc.)
David Carson (his style & what he wrote)
Born 1956 High school sociology teacher Professional surfer Emigre (a person who has left their own country in order to settle in another). Deconstructed words. Wrote "The End of Print."
Botanical Geometry
Botanical geometry is the idea of one being able to turn natural organic forms into highly stylized patterns. Around 1900 in Europe artists combined curvilinear floral motifs with rectilinear elements as a reaction against the pervasive sentimentality and fastidious elegance of Art Nouveau.
What was first mass-produced book?
By Gutenberg, it was a 42-line Bible; there were only 200 copies made and only 48 in existence today
What does CSS stand for? What does it contain and do?
Cascading style sheets. It tells the elements from HTML what to look like. First part (h2) is the element, the next part (color) is the property, and the last part (#333) is the value. The whole thing (from { to }) is called a rule, and the individual lines are called declarations.
Rub-On Designs
Combining both new technology and artistic drive rub-on decals have began to replace hand lettering and traditional typesetting. Inspired by comic book culture.
Signs of Change (history)
Companies update logos -History: our modern text has its origin in pictures, beginning with cave wall images in the El Castillo cave and Sumerians writing on clay tablets to show the exchange of goods/inventory
Herb Lubalin (style dealt with collage/montage)
Designed magazines and typefaces; created typograms; distressed, overlapped, and smashed lettering. He did the Marilyn Monroe spread.
Letterforms
Create negative space (FedEx arrow)
Pessimistic modernist (also what were the person's 2 styles)
Dada - he took photographs to create montages and collages.
Graphic Design does what?
Defines a brand - and people will fight over a brand. Use it to provoke!
Design Thinking
Design Thinking is an effective way to brainstorm ideas for a problem visually. This method makes a thought process easier to communicate with large audiences such as groups of employees or students. Therefore you commonly see this form of design used for workplace presentations.
Muybridge - bullet-time photography
Done in 1878; it was the first "motion" picture (of a horse running). It was known as "bullet-time photography": when a person freezes and the camera pans around them (like the Matrix scene)
First photo image - how was it done and when/where?
Done on light-sensitive pewter plates in 1826 in Niepce, France
InDesign Tool - Ruler (3 things)
Drag guidelines (axises) Set zeroes (crosshairs/double click to put it back) Change increments
Societies in order of writing developments
Egyptians Phoenicians Greeks Romans A.D. Chinese
Modernism's influence on this one particular magazine
Esquire - became more sophisticated and graphic
The Frame
Establishes figure/ground relationship Stable Reversible Ambigious
Female Archetypes
Female archetypes in design are typically expressive female figures that are meant to portray sex appeal without being provocative to the point where they could interfere with the commercial message of what they are representing. This trend continued in 1930s ads for Coca-Cola depicting cheerful, seductive housewives through to the 1940s with pin-up girls. Beginning in the 1950s and continuing to this day, the medium of photography began replace traditional illustration to depict female archetypes.
Saul Bass (his style and what he made)
Figurative conceptual; made movie posters and logos such as the AT&T and Fuller Paints logos
Figure/ground relationship (differences: figures have ________, figures are ________, figures have ________ and ________, symmetrical shapes deal)
Figures have boundaries, grounds do not Figures are heavier than grounds Figures have shape and form, grounds do not Symmetrical shapes are seen as figures first
Indesign tools: fill, stroke, ellipse, and rectangle
Fill lets you fill an object with color and change the shading. Stroke lets you add a "frame" around an object and change the width or shading. Ellipse lets you create a circle or an oval. Rectangle lets you create a square or a rectangle.
Visual Puns
Fitting two (or more) meanings into a single image is a tactic that many designers employ when trying to convey a message or represent something. The cleverness of visual puns capture people's attention because they challenge the viewer to understand the message while simultaneously being amusing. In addition, if an image is particularly witty or provocative then the conveyed message is more likely to resonate with the viewer.
Oldest known photos
France - 15,000 years old. No one knows what they're supposed to be
French Theory
French Theory began in the United States in the late 1980s as a response to the new philosophical theory called deconstruction. Jacques Derrida, a prominent French philosopher, argued that what is left out is as important as what is put into a story. Graphic design artists used new digital technology to dismantle and literally deconstruct every part of the story they were trying to tell in their work. Letters were placed erratically on pages with differing fonts without order. Background images often consisted of sporadic collages. The layout was often difficult to read, making the viewer study the content more and puzzle it together in their mind since it was in pieces.
Shepard Fairey
From Charleston, SC. Made Obey campaign (as well as Obama "HOPE" posters). Phenomenology (an approach that concentrates on the study of consciousness and the objects of direct experience)
Monumental Images
From statues, build-boards, building fronts, and archutexture, Monumental Images are everywhere. k or even notice. From statues, build-boards, building fronts, and archutexture, Monumental Images are everywhere. And they have been around forever, the earliest dating back to 292 B.C. which is a statute of the greek god, Helios called "colossus of Rhodes" that stood nearly 100 ft. tall
The Provocative Gesture
Gesture is used in everyday life. It is a well-known way to explain an idea, or a feeling without using words. Gesture is used in photographs or art to represent something, so it is perfect for propaganda. It can explain an idea effectively, through just a picture.
Line
Graphic, Contour, Index. All lines have meaning
Movement (what it does to a viewer)
Guides viewer, controls eye movement, rhythm/repetition happen in a direction
Form
Have highlights, core shadows, cast shadows, and reflected light.
Shape
Have meaning. Can be regular or irregular.
Symbolic (has to be _______ed or ______ed)
Have to be learned or interpreted. Includes letters of the alphabet and things like a star representing a sheriff or a Jewish person
Visual weight (shapes with ________ interest are heaviest)
Size, shape, location, tone, interest -Larger shapes are heavier and irregular shapes are heavier -Isolated shapes are heavier and dark tones are heavier -Shapes with intrinsic interest are heaviest
Modernism designers
Henry Wolf and George Lois
What does HTML stand for? What does it do and contain?
Hypertext markup language. It describes a webpage and includes opening/closing tags that create elements. A tags inside tags are called nesting tags.
Semiotic overlap
Icon: lightning, cloud Index: lightning - storm coming?
3 Types of Semiotics
Iconic, Indexical, and Symbolic
Iconic
Iconic: resembles the thing it signifies; obvious. Includes pics, illustrations, and photos
Mechanisms of vision: Image
Images are translated into chemicals by the rods and cones. Chemicals are then turned into electrical impulses. Electrical impulses communicate with neurons in the brain. Essentially, vision is the process of sensing the world through eyes/chemical nerves.
Egyptians and Hieroglyphics (what material did they use, what did their images represent (3 things))
Images represented ideas and words Papyrus was a more functional medium Represented syllabic sounds
What are visuals part of?
Industrial design, architecture, fashion, fine art, advertising, food marketing, photography/videography (drones!)
What is the purpose of an illustration? (what does it do for a photo?)
It repurposes a photo, makes it new, and gives it symbolic value
Dada Movement key player, his types of creations, and his most famous work
John Heartfield - German Dadist movement. Created protest posters, book and magazine covers. 1927 - Heartfield's image of a dancing woman's legs was simply a good graphic. And an excellent example of the advertising capabilities of photomontage
Helvetica is also known as...
Known as "the golden child of modernism"
Modern Era years
Late 1800s/early 1900s to Present; included arts and crafts movement, logo/typography, modernism
Non-Modular v. Modular
Non-Modular is not aligned, while Modular is equally lined up
Mechanisms of vision: Light
Light introduces lines, points, shapes, forms, distance, dimension, color and contrast, and movement. It imprints on the retina/photoreceptors: aka rods and cones.
Value
Light to dark
Paul Rand
Made many corporate logos; was a design philosopher and educator and a modernist. He made the IBM, UPS, and ABC logos.
The classical period: 15,000 b.c. - 1400
Media migration in action. Cave drawings in France all the way to the 100-200 AD Chinese.
Metaphoric Lettering
Metaphoric lettering is a typeface style in which one creates words out of letters that are illustrations. The illustrations are usually visual puns that draw attention to the company or product. Metaphoric lettering is frequently known as "typography parlant," which means it serves a basic function as well as a secondary meaning. Vincent Figgins was a London foundry owner who designed "Rustic" lettering in the 1840s by hand cutting logs to form letters that were used in posters, magazines, and bills.
Modernism vs. Postmodernism
Modernism is/was completely new; Postmodernism has nothing new.
Aspects of postmodernism
Neodada and Nostalgia/Retro
Are you going to pass this exam?
Only if God feels like helping me remember everything I studied...
Modules (3 things they do)
Organize, separate and package
Yellow journalism & its symbol
Over-the-top claims, very exaggerated; the NY papers at the time were competing for readership. Symbol was the "yellow kid"
100-200 AD Chinese (3 things they created)
Paper, block printing, movable type
Romans (what did they write on, what did they invent, what did they add to type)
Parchment writing - vellum Invented codex - the "book" vs scroll Added serifs to type
Clenched Fists
Passed down by political parties, the clenched fist represents strength, power, and solidarity. The new image was first portrayed in the "stop the draft" poster and was shown at many political activities and rallies.
Pastiche
Pastiche is art that takes form as an imitation of another work, artist, or period. It tends to trigger specific codes that result in consumer response by borrowing mannerisms that have been previously used. By using an art style already seen before, people can relate to it and are more inclined to pay attention to it.
Indesign tools: pen, line, magnifying glass
Pen lets you draw straight and curved lines. Line lets you draw line segments/connect segments. Magnifying glass increases and decreases magnification within the document
Early 1900s designer (what he advocated for; what did he create; what did he campaign for?)
Peter Behrens - one of the first industrial designers; advocate of sans serif type in book design; Grid system to standardize design; First visual identity for a brand - campaign for AEG
Primitive Figuration
Primitive Figuration is the use of simple, abstract figures that form realistic shapes without using explicit details. The shapes are easily interpreted and the abstract images intensify personal expression. This practice became most popular for modern logos after World War I
Propaganda
Propaganda is a unique way used to broadcast an idea by either benefiting or bashing the purpose behind the idea.
Rays
Rays, one of the most ancient iconographic symbols, occurs when sunlight separates moistures in the air around an object. Another name for rays is aura. The imperial flag of Japan was the first use of rays as a nonreligious or supernatural use.
Good Design
The concept of "Good Design" was established by the Union des Artistes Modernes in 1929. The notion of "Good Design" is that it is able to clearly communicate an idea. The movement was influenced by Cubism. In 1940 Eliot Noyes established the phrase "Good Design".
Difference between "vision" and "seeing" (I,I,U)
Seeing is inconsistent, irrational, and undependable
InDesign Tool - selection, direct selection, and control panel
Selection tool: select, move, scale, delete. Direct selection: lets you select points on a path or contents within a frame. Control panel: tells you info about the things you placed on the page
Columns (visual grouping)
Similarity and proximity
Vanitas
Skull imagery was used to inform on violence during the first part of the twentieth century. Artist Magritte became popular when painting a portrait of a nude woman with a skull as a head, while this represented the violence taking place. The expression memento mori means "remember you must die". This was to remind the rich and ones with fame of their mortality, and every period of history has found a use for them.
Point
Smallest area of attraction (vanishing point, horizon line)
Equilibrium, Tension, Ambiguity
Stability in everything we use (centered) Tension: far off from the center Ambiguity: almost center
Contrast (stresses ________, attracts ________, _________, and _____/_____ something)
Stresses differences, attracts attention, accents, and defines/clarifies
Indexical
Suggests a connection; subtle. Includes things like ashes meaning there was a fire and warm hues relating to a sunset
Balance (symmetrical vs. asymmetrical)
Symmetrical, "formal," stable and precise Asymmetrical: "informal," active and modern Projects a designed look Creates a feeling of equilibrium
Nostalgia
The intention of nostalgic advertising is the bridge an emotional connection between the audience and a brand. Nostalgic advertising revives previous classic advertisements that sometimes create as much of a significant impact as the original art's introduction. the nostalgic advertising indicates what trends have impacted that generation. The idea of "throwback" or "retro" designs hit a sweet spot in audiences, typically reminding them of their childhood or past generations.
Brand Narratives (what story was the beginning of this trend?)
The article begins by explaining to readers that a brand is far more than just a logo, a slogan, or any of the company's products. The article describes a brand as "a compelling story," which jabs at an audience's senses of sight and touch. In the mid-1950s, Marlboro, a popular cigarette company, changed its character to a cowboy in order to appeal to more of a male audience. The cowboy became known as the Marlboro man and advertisements that featured him looked like pictures taken from a movie.
Gestalt Theory (4 parts) (in what ways to we visually group things?)
We group by: Similarity Proximity Continuity Closure
Sexual Taboo Busting
The topic of sexuality has long been ineffable in our society. Even with the changing of American culture from decade to decade, the idea of "family values" stayed firm at the forefront of unchanged American customs. It was not until people like Eros magazine publisher Ralph Ginzburg, who was jailed for producing salacious material in 1966, and Hugh Hefner, the creator of Playboy magazine, that people started to denounce the idea that sexual material was too scandalous for things like advertising and artwork.
Info about the "I shop therefore I am" posters
This work is said to be an expose of a culture so dominated by consumerism that it substitutes acquisition for thinking. The piece is saying to us that what we are sold is not real-world products but "the societal construct of a happy life" and "the societal construct of self identity"
Phoenicians and the Alphabet (how many characters, based on what?)
Turned hieroglyphics into 22-character alphabet Based on initial sound of image
What were the types of faster presses?
Type revolving press; wood block printing (Nashville); style was "pointing fingers"
Thomas Nast
U.S. Cartoonist; first person to depict Santa. He also made political cartoons.
Why do we use information graphics?
Used to compare (size/amount or content of speeches/texts), to persuade (graph of performance of cars, for example), and "arrange the furniture." Important: content in different forms (think mobile phones)
Levels of visual literacy on a graph (what are x and y axis? what does the line look like and what are the endpoints?)
X-axis is Interpretation level and Y-axis is Visual literacy level. A is the lower endpoint and E is the upper endpoint. Everyone can do A, but very few can do E.
