Design is About People

Some say that design fills our world with goods to be bought and sold, and that design is run by commercial needs rather than artistic ones. While it is easy to point the finger at design for the commercial aspects of our lives, it is also important to take note of the good that design does. Our world is made up of design. Everything we see and touch was designed by someone, carefully plotted out an produced. Design predicts our lives, and not just in a commercial way.

Design is about making things beautiful and simple. It makes our lives easier, which in turn often makes us happy. Without design our world would be chaotic jumble of systems, a world without beauty or artistic thought. There is no denying that design plays a role in the act of consumerism. For some, design is about commercial needs and making money, but for many designers it is about user needs, and actively trying to make the world a more efficient and useful place.

As designers it is our job to think creatively and differently than everyone else. Nathan Shedroff, and experience designer and sustainability expert, believes that because designers are taught to think creatively they are the forerunners of the future. Design is not about commercialism, it is about people. Charles Eames said it best; design is about addressing a need. There is no denying that design fills our lives with goods to be bought and sold, but the important thing to remember is that design fills our lives with solutions.

Sources:
Original question posed by Prof. Housefield
Nathan Shedroff information from UC Davis Sustainability Lecture
Charles Eames information from movie Design Q&A

Images:
Stop Sign, http://www.exchange3d.com/cubecart/signs-logos-awards/stop-sign-3d-model/prod_2071.html
Solar Power Toothbrush, http://www.slipperybrick.com/search/soladey+z
Anglepoise Lamp, http://www.royalmail.com/portal/campaign/content1?catId=88400746&mediaId=88400750
Retro Mini, http://www.retrotogo.com/2007/09/vintage-mini---.html

Is Creativity the Answer?

Almost everyone living in today’s economic and social climate realizes that we are at the brink of a new era. As a whole the world knows that what we are doing is not working, but we are afraid of change, and afraid of losing the interactions and relationships we have with the things that surround us. In the face of change we have questions and concerns. Most people look to political leaders and scientists for answers, but Nathan Shedroff has a different idea.

Nathan Shedroff, an experience designer and expert in sustainability, is convinced that the answer to our problems lie in the hands of designers. Shedroff believes that designers are creative thinkers who are trained to look at the world in a different way than everyone else. Creative thinking is what is needed to change the way the world is run, and answer the questions that our world is faced with today.

Shedroff firmly believes that there is not one answer to our problems but many questions that will eventually lead to answers. During a recent presentation Shedroff asked the audience a series of three questions that he believed could help designers examine the interaction between content and form and work towards a more sustainable world.

The first question that Shedroff posed was, What's a more sustainable world look like? Shedroff’s answer was that sustainability is not the end result, but the answer to what is coming. Through the interaction of business, design, and sustainability solutions will be made. Shedroff used examples of other countries creative thinking to illustrate that everyday progress is being made toward a more sustainable future.

The second question that Shedroff posed was, What's a more meaningful world look like? As designers, Shedroff thinks it is important that we put forth realistic ideas that can hold meaning for people. Meaning can be found in personal items and in brands, and both are acceptable. Shedroff used the example of the Build A Bear Company to illustrate how a brand can create a meaningful experience. Even though Build A Bear is a chain store and may not lend itself to the idea of a more meaningful world it creates a meaningful experience for many children, and this is an important distinction for designers to make.

The third question that Shedroff posed was, What's a post-consumer world look like? As a consumer based nation we have relationships with the objects around us, and in a post-consumer world this will have to change. The relationship between form and function will change, and everything we own will become more useful rather than beautiful. In a post-consumer world people will be forced to closely examine the relationship of how things got to them. The world will become a place where the process is just as important as the end result.

Shedroff outlined that we have no actual vision of what is to come. We know that things have to change and that the relationship we have with design will shift, but many of the plans that we have for the future are unrealistic and based too firmly on the idea of a Utopian wonderland. The most important message that Shedroff delivered was not that we all need to work together to find answers, but that as a group it is important to remember that we have no idea what a post-consumer world will look like, we need to figure it out, and design is here so that we can find answers.

Image: From Nathan Shedroff's lecture on Sustainability, illustrating how Business, Design, and Sustainability can no longer work as separate entities.

Thinking Outside the Cardboard Box

Surtido, a design firm based in Barcelona, recently challenged thirty-five designers to go to IKEA and come up with new products using only what they found at the store. The idea behind this project is that IKEA is not a place to buy finished disassembled furniture, but a supplier of raw materials.

Everything used in the designers products had to come from IKEA, including screws, tools, light bulbs, fabric, and anything else they needed to complete their product. While the idea of hacking IKEA products is not new, challenging thirty-five well-respected designers to make something within these constraints is.

This project forced already successful designers to step out of their comfort zone and think outside of the box, a skill that will be very useful for designers in the future. With sustainability and depleting resources on everyone’s mind, the ability to take dissimilar used parts and make them into something useful and new will be a valuable skill for all designers to have.

Many of the finished products have a unique homemade feel to them. While complicated many of the end results look like garage projects, something that anyone could assemble with a little visualization and practice. As designers we are coming into a world where it will be vital for designers to know how to think creatively and make something old into something new, or in this case something mass-produced into something unique and different.

Image: Lamp made out of IKEA parts. Designed by the Yonoh Design Group. See the rest of their work at http://www.yonoh.es/

Are Icons the Key Ingredient?

Icons are often used to help children learn. At a young age it is easier to identify with pictures than words, and it is not uncommon for children to use pictures to learn their alphabet. Christopher Monro DeLorenzo, an art director and designer, used the concept of an animal and object alphabet banner to come up with a set of stickers that use icons to help children learn to use a keyboard.

Children are becoming dependent on computers at an earlier and earlier age and DeLorenzo thought it was about time a old method was adapted for our new world. Each sticker is made up of an icon and the word that corresponds with it. The sticker is then placed on the corresponding keyboard key.

DeLorenzo believes that by using icons in the place of letters it will help children adapt to the keyboards key placement faster. While this concept may seem simple, the idea behind it is quite important. DeLorenzo has managed to take an old teaching method and adapt it for the future. The keyboard stickers are a sustainable and easy way to help children progress faster in an increasingly technology dependent world. Rather than creating an entirely different children’s keyboard, which would be not be sustainable, and would most likely be expensive, DeLorenzo designed a simple, cheap, and sustainable teaching method that can be easily applied and disposed of.


Images: Picture Keyboard Sticker Set, Images courtesy of http://www.notcot.org/

Designing for the Future

Objectified explores the complex relationship between people and their objects. The full-length documentary film looks to designers to explain the impact that objects have on consumers’ lives, and what design can say about a person.

Gary Hustwit, the producer and director of Objectified, forms an argument about toady’s design culture by interviewing designers and studying their process. By looking closely at how designers all over the world are solving design problems, the viewer gets an in-depth look into the thought process of designers working now.

Through the course of the film process, personal identity through objects, consumerism, and sustainability are explored. Each topic is looked at as a problem that can be fixed and solved through design. The film shows the viewer that designers have the important job of looking into the future and anticipating what the buyer will want.

Today we live in a culture that is faced with the unique problem between the desire for new things, and the need to be sustainable. Designers more than anyone are facing the future, and realizing that it is there job to curb the consumerists need for the new and the now. What does this mean for designers? It means that when making new products designers must ask themselves what people value and how to make things that get better with time. Objectified explores and makes obvious and important question that all designers need to be asking themselves today, how do we design to better the future?


Image: Objectified, Title made of objects, taken from one of the posters designed for the film.

The Desire for Form and Function

Founded on the idea of combining all of the arts into one total artwork, the Bauhaus movement operated between 1919 and 1933 famously making public the idea of combining fine arts and crafts. Walter Gropius, a German architect at the time, started the Bauhaus movement in Weimer, Germany. Gropius based his work on the harmony between form and function. The Bauhaus movement constantly dealt with the question of craftsmanship and mass production and the relationship between usefulness and beauty. Many of the issues that the Bauhaus movement confronted then are the same that designers are being faced with today.

Gropius wanted to break down the barrier between classes, which he believed created the difference between craft and fine art. He believed that well designed items could reach beyond class. Again this is an issue that is prevalent in today’s design world. Many designers today are working to make their designs accessible to everyone, reaching beyond class. The style that came out of the Bauhaus movement attempted to run parallel to the world that was forming around it, a world that needed mass-produced, functional, and cheap items. Artists were trained to work within the guidelines of the industry around them.

The main objective of the Bauhaus movement was to unify craft, art, and technology. They believed heavily in the machine, and the idea of a preliminary design course rather than design history. The Bauhaus movement created a new way of thinking that has transposed into design today.

Image: Bauhaus Movement Poster. Image from http://visualspy.com/week-eight-design-art-history

Artistic Sustainably

Tucked in a corner at The Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento is a clunky old cigarette machine. At first glance the machine looks simply like a rusty piece of history, something that once stood outside of a gas station. Only when one looks closer does it become obvious that the rusty machine is now an example of sustainability and the ability to reuse in a creative way. Instead of pulling the handle and receiving cigarettes, a visitor of the Crocker Art Museum can pull the handle and receive a one of a kind piece of art.

The machine displays twenty-two different artists ranging from photographs to screen prints. After purchasing a token at the gift shop, the visitor takes the token to the machine and is able to choose which medium they want their particular artwork to be in. This interaction makes the cigarette machine not only an example of sustainability, but also an excellent example of interactive artwork.

The shiny knobs and anticipation of what tiny piece will be yours makes this machine hard to resist. By allowing the visitor to physically participate it creates a bond between the artwork and the recipient, that otherwise would not have been created. The cigarette machine turned Art-O-Mat is a great example of how we can use the outdated things around us to create fun interactive designs. By revamping the machine it becomes something new and interesting, rather than outdated and rusty.

Image: Art-O-Mat at the Crocker Art Museum.

Musical Scales

Made of old dresses, blue jeans, and bed sheets the African American Quilts on display at The Richard Nelson Art Gallery are beautiful artworks dating from the 1800s to present. Through repetition, color, contrast, and variety the quilts displayed at the gallery each have their own unique rhythm. The quilts offer many stories, and hold emotions that span time. Using rhythm and repetition, the patterns created by the different materials used give a rare feel to each quilt, making it impossible to absorb what the entire exhibition has to offer.

Piano Keys, created in 2009, is made entirely out of hand-dyed cotton corduroy. Due to the use of color and vertical shapes this piece has a sense of cascading movement. The jumping colors create a rhythmic pattern that reminds one of the ups and downs of a musical scale. The cool colors cascade downward as the warm colors rise up to crash in the middle in an explosion of reds.

The constant change in scale and the progressive rhythm of this quilt keep your eyes moving, always jumping from one color to the next. The unpredictable pattern of vertical lines gives energy and life to the quilt allowing its creator to tell a story of excitement and passion.

Each quilt tells its own unique story. Some are tranquil and safe carrying with them the sense of history, while others use eye-catching colors to create bold rhythms and tell new stories. The connection between the past and the present is represented through the use of recycled materials, and these materials bring a particular presence to the quilts, as if the materials were telling a story all by themselves.

Image: Piano Keys, 2009; 108" x 77", Hand-dyed Cotton Corduroy, Cotton Batting, Hand-dyed Muslin Backing.

Inside Out

Part of an Old Maid Letterpress Deck – where thirty-three artists were asked to create their own Old Maid character – the “Unsinkable Undina” card is based on the idea of an unsinkable water nymph. The concept and design for this particular card came from Slow Industries a small letterpress company.

What makes this card so exciting is the compositional use of negative space to draw the viewer’s eye to the human figure. On one side of the card the break in the cloud form creates the flying human. The contrast between the blue and the white makes it look as if the dark figure is not cut out of the cloud, but in front of it. The small bird to the left balances out the composition, giving the eye a reason to continue moving throughout the composition. The negative space of the ocean allows for a place for type while also making for an easy transition to the other side of the card.

The backside of the card continues with the same character – the “Unsinkable Undina” – this time we find her in the water. Again the card is designed so that the body is not drawn, but formed by negative space. Rather than a cloud form, fish surround “Undina”. Once again the type is offset nicely by the negative space of the sky.

Slow Industries managed to create a dynamic design by employing the concepts of negative and positive space, contrasting colors, and balance. Plus there Old Maid character is whimsical and intriguing, and who can ask for more than that.

Image: Unsinkable Undina, designed and printed by Slow Industries. Part of a larger collections of Old Maid Letterpress Cards.

If you are interested in how to play the Old Maid card game with your own deck or the Old Maid Letterpress Deck visit http://boardgames.about.com/od/cardgames/a/old_maid.htm

Fill In the Blank

Joanna Mendicino is a ceramics artist who often works with simple shapes and clean forms. Her work relies heavily on negative and positive space and the universality of a simple form. Most of her work is childlike, and it is no surprise that she gives credit for many of her designs to her childhood drawings of animals, cobblestone pathways, and pebbles.

What makes Mendicino's work so unique is that her signature design element is cutouts. Mendicino often lets negative space – or cutouts – become the design or main focal point rather than the vase itself. By allowing the cutouts to become the main focal point, rather than the vase, it offers a new perspective on traditional pottery forms.

Mendicino's work is playful, modern, and refreshing. The simplicity of the forms allows the cutout shapes to become universal in character. It is easier to imagine the shapes to be any kind of bird, leaf, or flower. Mendicino lets the imagination take its course, allowing the brain to fill in the blank.

Mendicino's designs allow the viewer to do the thinking, allowing our brain to see simple shapes become complex flowers, or our childhood home.

By filling the vase, blank spaces can become any color or texture, taking new life each time the vase is re-filled.






Images:
1. A Row of Vases, showcasing her unique designs and color options
2. Cottage Vase, from her garden life collection.

The Meaning Behind the Form

Have you ever found yourself making a face out of the back of a car? Instead of seeing taillights, you see two eyes, a nose, and a mouth. This phenomenon is called Gestalt, a German theory that studies the brains psychological reaction to forms, and our brains need to create unity within chaos. Many artists have called upon Gestalt theories to make their artwork believable relying on the brain to create unity and shapes.

Henri Matisse is an artist that heavily relied on the viewer. Matisse constantly pushed the boundaries of reality and never followed the rules. His early painting played with scale and proportion, using color and other methods to trick the eye and brain. But it was in later years that Matisse’s work began heavily relying on the Gestalt theories of unity.

When Matisse was diagnosed with cancer in 1941 he found it hard to paint. Instead of letting this stop him, with the aid of his assistants he began creating cut-paper collages. Many of Matisse’s cutouts rely on Gestalt theory and the brains ability and need to create and see negative and positive space. Blue Nude with Hair in the Wind is a perfect example of how our brain automatically finds unity within chaos. The cutout blue form is an abstract simplification of a woman. We are able to see a woman by concentrating on the distinction between the colors. Our brains search for familiar shapes picking out the arch of a back, running legs, and hair blowing in the wind.

Peter Callesen also works with paper, but unlike Matisse Callesen uses paper to create three-dimensional artwork. What makes Callesens work so unique is his ability to create complex three-dimensional shapes using one sheet of A4 paper. Callesen often employs the relationship between figure and ground to make his artwork successful, often using the negative space to convey a shadow.




By not detaching the three-dimensional shapes from their original paper he creates a unique relationship between the positive and negative space, allowing both shapes to become the focal point of the piece, and contribute equally to the overall message Callesen is attempting to convey.

Images:
1. Blue Nude with Hair in the Wind, guouace on paper cut and pasted 108 x 80 cm., 1952
2. The Short Distance Between Time and Shadow, Acid free A4 115 gsm paper and glue, 2006

Sources: http://www.petercallesen.com/ and http://www.henri-matisse.net/

Inspiration Takes Different Forms

Inspiration is an interesting thing, a mixture of the artist, their surroundings, and their experiences. Mix all of these things together and often you get what drives people to produce. Every year like clockwork the Cultural Council of Santa Cruz County gives the residents of Santa Cruz a unique look into the inspiration behind 200 artists living in Santa Cruz County. Ranging from watercolorists to jewelry makers each artist is picked based on the professionalism of their work, its theme, and whether the artist can demonstrate the creative process.

What makes this event so unique is that it is a chance to look at the work of artists who are creating in the same environments. It gives the viewer a chance to see how different artists are driven by their everyday experiences and how different the outcome can be. These artists are each making there works at the 17th Ave. Studios, two buildings that are broken into studios and rented out to artists living in Santa Cruz County.

Marvin Plummer is a local artist who has lived in Santa Cruz on and off since 1986. Plummer is a unique artist in the sense that for the past five years his goal has been to capture what makes a dog man’s best friend. Using mostly charcoal, Plummer sets out to portray the essence and the soul of his subjects. Plummer’s work is unique and original. What makes his work intriguing is the composition; he plays with the shape and feeling of the animal somehow managing to instantly capture the a sense of emotion.

Michael Mote has been fascinated with color since childhood, motivated by an early childhood memory of a movie marquee’s flashing lights. For many years he painted only in watercolors feeling they were the only things that could reproduce the memory of those flashing lights. Recently Mote has been working with pastels and wax on wood, using color to recreate the ocean scenes he sees everyday. Mote enjoys working with wax because it deepens and saturates the colors while slightly abstracting the forms. He enjoys focusing on the raw, natural beauty that is so quickly disappearing in the world.

Paul DeSomma and his wife, Marsha Blaker are internationally known glass and ceramic artists, known for working both together and separately. They find inspiration in the sea, taking its forms and letting it inspire them in different ways. Together they enjoy working on abstract and literal projects, letting their inspiration take them where it wants.

Lenny Gerstein has been a wood carver since he was ten, but it was not until several years ago that he opened his own studio and began taking his art seriously. Gerstein’s favorite material is found wood, mostly old growth redwood that is readily found in Santa Cruz County. Much like Michelangelo, Gerstein claims to see the captured figures in the wood, saying that he frees them when he carves.

Roberta Lee Woods is a painter and collage artist who is inspired by nature and its many layers of color and texture. In many of her works she attempts to capture the mood and atmosphere of the ocean. After traveling to Belize, Holland, and the Czech Republic she became inspired by the Dutch Masters such as Vermeer and Rembrandt as well as many contemporary artists. She continues to explore different art processes, including but not limited to papermaking and book arts.

Image above: Portrait of a dog by Marvin Plummer.

Pieces of the Puzzle

An airplane here, a wedding dress there, when making a collage these two images can sit side by side in perfect harmony, combining to create something bigger. Apart they are images, but together they can make a statement about something all together different. Suddenly an eyeball is the center of the universe, and it makes perfect sense.

The act of making a collage can be very meditative and relaxing, a time where it is easy to make whatever you want fit, but can also teach. Making a collage is like putting together a puzzle that you created, it teaches the brain to think about many parts as a whole, forced to look into the future and see a final image. As a designer and artist being able to see the whole before it is present can be vital.

In many cases designing is just like making a collage. As a designer you are often given a concept that involves many small pieces expected to make it all fit together. Your brain must once again look to the future and find the whole, piecing together words and images to create something that can be recognized not as fragments but as a symbol or identity.

Designs are often fragments, arranged to make a whole, a collage of words placed specifically to evoke a hierarchy of importance, or a bundle of images asking to be seen as the identity and soul of a company or brand. Apart you may ask what an apple and grapes have to do with underwear, but put together it is a brand and much like the eyeball as the center of the universe it somehow makes perfect sense.

Image: Designed by Kelly Stewart by "making a collage" out of many Volcom logos. An example of taking many small images and putting them together to make one image.

From Start to Finesse

As a consumer it is uncommon to see a logo other than in its final form. Richard Perez, a graphic designer and illustrator, gives us a unique look into his creative process while making a corporate logo. Perez’s job was to update the Capitol Records Logo. Being one of the first major recording labels established on the west coast it was important to keep the feeling of the iconic Hollywood headquarters.

Perez was given the unique challenge of updating a brand that already has a large following. Capitol Records is home to some of the biggest recording artists of all time. Because of the companies wide range of artists it was important that the identity appealed to all generations and focused primarily on the power of the music.



Perez created at least ninety simple sketches while trying to find the perfect balance of new and old. It is easy to see that Perez tried out many ideas and if you study the image above you can see his creative thought process happening. It is important to also note that within these ninety sketches the final logo is there, but not fully.

The final logo created by Perez achieves the perfect balance of new and old by using clean lines and timeless characteristics. From a non-designer standpoint the simplicity of the logo may give the illusion that it took little time to design it. But by giving a snapshot into the design process Perez has allowed anyone to see how creativity works and the importance of brainstorming.






For more of Richard Perez’s beautiful work visit his website at: http://skinnyships.com/

If you are interested in the creative process of logos or branding check out the books: Marks of Excellence, Logo, and Identity Crisis

Images: All images courtesy of http://skinnyships.com/

Walking the Tight Rope

How do you know when the design you come up with is done? When in the process of creating it is always difficult to know when to stop and when to continue, a delicate balancing act. The creative process can never be contained or measured, it simply happens which can be hard not only on the client but on the artist. Learning how to tell when something is done can be as difficult as learning to draw for the very first time, a talent that can take years if not forever to finesse.

Paula Scher is an artist that appears to have a grasp on the creative process. Scher has learned over time to trust her judgment, letting go of the expectations of others. Like any good designer Scher has had practice. She has been a graphic designer since the 1970s where she began her career designing record cover art. Since then she has developed identity and branding systems, packaging and publication designs, promotional materials, and environmental graphics for a broad range of clients.

One of Scher’s most famous works is the Citi Bank logo, which she said only took her two hours to complete. She jokes that the year and a half before the logo was complete she spent in meetings selling her idea rather than actually conceiving it. The idea that it takes many ideas to come up with a truly great one is not always true. Creativity is a process that can be quick or long. As a designer it is important to remember to listen to yourself and not be afraid to balance between the world of finished and begun.

For more information on Paula Scher and her amazing work visit: http://pentagram.com/en/partners/paula-scher.php

Images:
1. Toulouse, by Paula Scher 2001
2. Original Sketch of the Citi Bank Logo, courtesy of http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2008/september/kyoorius-design-yatra-days-23

Playful Forms and Technological Experiments

Ron Arad (Israeli, b. 1951) is one of the most influential industrial designers, artist, and architects of today. He was born in Tel Aviv, Israel and was trained at the Jerusalem Academy of Art and at London’s Architectural Association. In 1973 he moved to London to immerse himself in Architecture, but actually made his name in the early 1980’s as a self-taught sculpture furniture maker. Today he works in both design (including furniture) and architecture with his business partner Caroline Thorman.

What makes Arad unique is his ever-evolving interest in what is going on around him. While still staying true to himself Arad has managed to morph with the times, creating works that are relevant to the moment in time. Arad’s work looks to common culture for inspiration. Instead of simply looking inside of himself for inspiration, Arad explores the life and trends he sees everyday around him.


Today Arad’s work explores his curiosity with technology. Arad heavily relies on the computer and its capabilities as much as he relies on his hands on techniques in his metal workshop. Arad has always felt that personal interaction and a playful nature are important in his work and he recently completed a sculpture that can receive and display texts sent through SMS and Bluetooth messages from mobile phones and Palm Pilots. Arad himself doesn’t control the messages; anyone who can get the number is able to send a message. Arad loves the unique, which is shown through most of his work.

Arad’s work is always playful, innovative, humorous, and attempts to communicate the joy of invention. His daredevil curiosity of the everyday exploration can be seen through his work over the past 25 years. Arad is best known as a designer, but he has completed many architectural projects as well as furniture and home designs. Most recently Arad’s work can be seen at the MOMA. Ron Arad is an artist to watch in the upcoming years as he is always on the cutting edge and always producing inspiring works.

For more information on his recent exhibit “Ron Arad: No Discipline” visit: http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2009/ronarad/#/1/0

Images:
1. Ron Arad, with an unidentified piece of work
2. GET THE MESSAGE, Lolita, the text-messaging chandelier

A Natural Inspiration

(*)

When looking at an artist’s work it is always interesting to know what the inspiration was. What inspired the artist to make that particular choice or pick that particular subject? William S. Rice (1873-1963) was an artist that was clearly inspired by his surroundings. Rice spent most of his career making work that reflected the beauty of California and the Bay Area in particular.

Rice was offered a job in California in 1900, after completing his degree at the Pennsylvania School of Industrial Art and the Drexel Institute in Philadelphia. He spent the next years as the Supervisor of Art in the Stockton Public Schools. In 1910 he moved to the Bay Area, where he began teaching in Alameda and Oakland. Rice’s work at the time already showed a profound California influence. At this time he became very interested in the Arts in Crafts Movement, and began taking extensive classes in the techniques of Japanese woodcuts.

This is where Rice really began drawing inspiration from the California Coast. He gained national recognition for his printmaking, but continued working in ceramics, painting with watercolor and oil, hammered copper, and woodworking. Rice’s love of California fed through his life in more ways than one. He wrote articles on naturalist subjects for Sunset magazine and joined many associations that had connections to California.

Looking through one of Rice’s books, his love for California’s natural landscapes is obvious. Rice spent most of his life in California, studying and examining the landscape. His attention to detail shows his clear study of the landscape on a day-to-day basis. William S. Rice is an artist where the inspiration that he found outside of himself is clear. Rice spent his life drawing inspiration from his surroundings.

When an artist spends a lifetime studying one subject it shows through the detail and understanding of the subject. Today it is more common to find artists drawing inspiration from multiple venues always changing to create something “new.” While this does not make art less meaningful it is refreshing to find work that is so grounded in one thing, never straying from its inspiration. The dedication and admiration that it shows, is almost inspiring.

*Photo Above: Plate 4. San Francisco Bay, 1915 (12 x 9 in). Image Courtesy of http://lotusgreenfotos.blogspot.com

Making Connections

Typographic Exploration in Hangul draws inspiration from Korean culture and from the juxtaposition between mental concepts and mental aspects. In this day and age design is becoming more about the important relationship between words and images. Phil Choo does a beautiful job of taking lyrics and making them visual, playing with the relationship of what is read and what is seen.

Ileona (Stand up) is based on a Korean song that is important in Korean culture. Choo uses the words and the meaning of the song to inspire him. This piece is an excellent example of the use of semiotics in art. Semiotics is the study of symbols and signs, particularly when it comes to language or communication. Choo uses the symbols, or in this case the ancient Hangul alphabet, to represent what the song originally conveyed through its lyrics. Choo literally “stands up” the lyrics that read stand up, taking the meaning of the words and turning them into visual reality.

For a person that cannot read Hangul, it simply reads as beautiful symbols arranged in a manor that is visually appealing, but for someone that can read Hangul the piece can mean a lot more. By using the Hangul alphabet to visually interpret a piece of Korean culture; Choo is making the connection between the two most important parts of any culture, the written word and pictures. Choo builds connections visually, mentally, and emotionally.

The Art of the Alphabet

Typographic Exploration in Hangul explores the formation of the letters of the Hangul alphabet as well as the emotion that the letters hold in Korean culture through two-dimensional works. In order to understand the exhibit, it is important to understand some of the history of the Hangul alphabet.

Hangul is the native alphabet of the Korean language. Created in the mid-fifteenth century it is now the official script of both North Korea and South Korea. Hangul is a phonetic alphabet organized into syllabic blocks. Each block consists of at least two of the twenty-four Hangul letters (jamo), at least one each of the fourteen consonants (jaeum) and ten vowels (moi eium). The syllabic blocks can be written in two ways. Either horizontally from left to right or vertically from top to bottom in columns from right to left. (For a more in depth history on this fascinating alphabet visit http://www.zkorean.com/hangul/history_of_hangul).

This exhibition showcases the work of Hyunju Lee and Phil Choo. Both designers were born and raised in Korea and their typographic roots began with Hangul. Choo earned a MFA in graphic design from Iowa State University and is now an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at Oklahoma State University. Lee studied visual communication in Japan and received her MFA from Tama Art University in Japan and her PhD from Tokyo National University of Music and Fine Arts.

The exhibition focuses mainly on the Korean culture through the emotions that the letters evoke. Since it is a typographic exhibit, most of the inspiration comes from Korean poems, songs, and cultural traditions. Each individual piece is deeply tied to the traditions and sounds of the Hangul alphabet.

Typographic Exploration in Hangul is a prime example of taking the pure essence of a culture and making it visual. The exhibit focuses around the written word, which we all use to communicate, and explores through image how a culture lives off of the written word. Through colors, rich text, and deep cultural meaning Typographic Exploration of Hangul is a beautiful insight into the rich beauty of the Hangul alphabet.

For more information on the exhibit and museum hours visit the UC Davis Design Museum Website at: http://designmuseum.ucdavis.edu/