Emerge

The reception of Emerge/AIGA, the exhibition of student design work, was held at Loyola Marymonunt University Feb. 7th.
A variety of graph works in the exhibit is enormous rich. From the traditional typographical work to modern application of environmental and video titling, Emerge absolutely had brought talented young designers out. The exploration of applying different materials to typography design is even impressive. Students use materials like hair, cloth/quilt, and even balloon as their design elements for their typographical presentations. I thought CSULA students did a pretty good job by the works that are in the show. Even though, we may not have rich graphical applications as other had, one student even did a converse shoebox out of engraving wood—they must have a machine lab in school. Yet, each work from CSULA is a solid piece of work with a sense of eloquence.

I don’t have any favor in the show. Yet, if I could keep one work out of the exhibit for myself, I would like to have Mary Lee’s poster. Her piece is a white sheet of paper with stamp quality chair with few words on it. One can hardly reads the word from a distance. The word says something like “so little time, so much to do, keep listening…” (I don’t know the last line.) The reason that I like it is because it has a calmness quality especially in such active/fun show. It reflects also of what one might need in his/her daily life. By listening, one puts his/her preference and need in second and honor the voice/sound as his/her primary. By putting the words in such small type, the artist is voicing out her message in a quiet way. If one has the heart to listen—understand the work in this case—one would quiet out and pay attention to the speaker, the word in the poster. We often would learn something new about others and ourselves when we listen to one another.

Diagram from AIGA

The above diagram is the map chart of the Mission of AIGA, which covers three goals: stimulate thinking about design, demonstrate the value of design and empower the success of designers across the arc of their careers.  The diagram explains the purpose of the AIGA and it also gives a general view of what AIGA do.  I like the colorful keys at the bottom of the diagram.  The key were there just to give some additional informations about the subdivision of the mission; the characteristic of subdivision and their progression in turn of execution.   I thought that was pretty neat. It turns something rather boring and unexciting informations into something fun and not too chaotic image. 

the search

During the last visit of LACMA, I went to see one of my favor subject, mummy. Ancient Egypt’s burial ritual always fascinating me, I would never get tired of the mystical story regarding archeology’s discovering of mummy and pyramid. Egyptians believe after life. They believe that the sun-god, Ra will descended into the underworld when the sun sets; and the dead will go with Ra to the underworld. Similarly, the dead will be re-born with Ra when the sun rises. Yet, there lies the danger of the passing through death to rebirth. Therefore, the sarcophagus and the process of mummification are very important to the Egyptians’ belief. Egyptians believe only the important one, rulers, priest…etc, is entitle to be born again. When the important one had died, people will wrapped one’s body with linen and embalmed with fragment in order to keep the preserve the body as much as possible as alive. People will depicted the face of the dead one on the board of the coffin or on statues to represent the dead one’s eternal youth and free from any blemishes. The outward appearance of the dead would reflect this keeps the person’s spirit, ka, by recognizing it’s own body in afterlife.
As for the modern age, people don’t believe after life. They are not even religious. Nietzsche said, “Where is god? He is dead, because we have killed him, you and I.” Since god is dead, where can we search for answers? Individuals turn to his/her inner being for answers. It's funny how people are always searching! In the ancient time, when people believe that there is god or are gods, they are searching for the purpose of human life and the higher meaning of life. After Nietzsche declared god is dead. People are still searching for meaning of life. It seems like a never-ending quest. Can human being find the answer of the meaning of human life? It depends. It depends on whether or not you wanted it to be found or not.

The Entartete Kunst exhibit

I was very much inspired by the LACMA’s exhibition regarding Degenerate Art. We also got the chance to see the documentary film regarding Degenerate Art. It was an exhibition mounted by Nazis in Munich in 1937. The exhibition consisted of modernist artworks that were considered “degenerated” according to Nazis, and were accompanied with text labels of what “bad art” are. While prohibited modern style of art, Nazis promoted the art that celebrate the values of racial purity and militarism. What surprised me the most is the propaganda of “2000 Years of German Culture.” It’s basic isn’t ‘German Culture,’ but the combination of Greek and Roman. It shows the powerful narrative of the government. Back than, government may play a role in arts, in term of support artists or banning the unflavored subjects. How about 21st century? Does government still have some kind of control in arts? What about the media we see everyday? We are living in such a mass media culture that we need to be award of what it is and how it works. Just like the title of the movie, Wag the Dog, "Why does a dog wag its tail? Because a dog is smarter than its tail. If the tail was smarter, the tail would wag the dog." This makes me think if the dog is the public and the tail is the media; and the dog is the media and tail is the politician. In either case, tail is smarter than the dog so it can influence the dog.

Creation and Cubism

Creativity and practicality are the two major factors of good design. George Kneller said, “Creativity, as has been said, consists largely of rearranging what we know in order to find out what we do not know…Hence, to think creatively, we must be able to look afresh at what we normally take for granted.” One of the past teacher also said that there isn’t anything new in graphic design, all the things that we can think of were done already. However, it is upon the designer to discover the best solution for each problem. Instead of an inventor, designers are problem solver. Designer solve problem by first have a constructive questioning, a rational reasoning on matters and things. We, as students, are also train to have rational thinking on the things we do. This reasoning helps us to see things differently. We first cut the matters into pieces so that we can digest it and reproduce something fresh, something more suitable for the problems or matters. This questioning does not limited on graphic design or art related matters. This reasoning applies to everything around us, too. When I was reviewing my notes, I came across of this that I wrote it somewhere in a past. The procedure of designing or solving design problem it is very much similar to the idea of Cubism. When the cubists broken down the object and reassemble it in multitude of perspectives, the designer is doing the same thing. The designer first broke down the problem into pieces, than exam the problem in different viewpoints. While the cubist is considering incorporating the background into the foreground, the designer is considering other factors related to the problem and so on. It is very interesting how design related to Cubism.

Photography

What make a photography fine art? We had similar discuss at my modern art class the other day. As Clive Bell said that it is the “significant form. In each, lines and colors combined in a particular way, certain forms and relations of forms, stir our aesthetic emotions.” When I came across Henry Emerson’s Crusoe's Island, River Granta (1887), it provoked such aesthetic emotion. The nakedness of the branches should be reflecting the harshness of the winter. However we don’t feel it because the branches constructed such organic lines that intersecting and woven together gives a sense of energy, the energy of life. The color of this photo is back and white, yet because the way Emerson process the print, the whole picture looks yellowish, which make it feel warm instead of cold and harsh. Moreover, Emerson plays on the negative and the positive in an interesting way. Usually, the lighter part is the content and the darker part is the background or negative. However, it’s the opposite in this photo. The lighter part becomes the negative and the darker part becomes the positive. The content, branches and tree, should be the focus point in this photo. The sky and the still water should be the secondary matter in this photo. However, Emerson turns that concept around and brings out the sky and still water. It may not seem that way at the first glance. At the first peek, we know it’s nature/ landscape and we know it’s about tree and branches. As we observe further, we realized that the tree and branches become the silhouette and the shadow on the still water feel more like the real things. The shadow become the continuation of the branches, and we see again the power of nature, the power of live which is a continuity. Photography become a form of art begin by the early 20th century, 1900, which is the era of modern art. Modern art is the era that artist are examining the self and against the authority/traditional art. Often, artists are asked what art is and what makes an art. An idea is very popular: it is a art because I, the artist, say so or choose so or at least because the artist put “that” into the content of calling it art. So in a way, if you are smart in putting whatever in content and you can get away with it. Than you can be call an artist. Shocking!

Alexei Jawlensky

Alexei Jawlensky is a Russian expressionist artist who belongs to the Blue Four in the early 20th century. His works redefined modern art with a new philosophy that rejected the idea of object reality. He was looking at his inner reaction for the subject matter and he was also influenced by other sources than traditional like non-western art and folk art. His works represent a highly emotional and spiritual image composed of distorted forms and non-naturalistic colors. I really like his “Meditation” series. Through out his “Meditation” Series, Jawlensky just repeatedly painted a human face. He said, “ I am not so much searching for new forms, but I want to go deeper and not to progress in breadth but in depth.” He is searching for his soul in a way of speaking. His human face progressed from a recognized human face to a very objective geometric face with just the lines for two eyes and frame of the face. By painted a human face over and over again, he wants to know what lies beneath in his heart; and, he also want to quench the thirst of surety, the surety of himself. Like the French philosopher Rene Descartes said, "Cogito, ergo sum" ("I think, therefore I am.") Jawlensky is searching who he is, what he is, and how he is through his paintings.

Stage Production

While I was sorting the mail the other day, I saw the ad for LA Opera promotion for “Don Givoanni.” It remained my experience with same production years ago. Prior to my experience, I only know this opera via video and tape. I was falling in love with the traditional dramatic scenery and vivid emotion in the voice of the singers. When I finally got the chance to see the real production on the stage, I was excited and ready for it. I took my sister and cousin with me to the opera house. Not until when I was at the audience seat, than I realized that the whole production was in a more contemporary approach. From the costumes to the sceneries, everything is very modern and not traditional. I was shocked and speechless. It was totally out of my expectation. I was hopping to see a more traditional setting and movement. Usually, the traditional approach of the stage production would line up the costumes and sceneries with the historical background of the production. If the Don Givoanni is a 18th century’s production, the traditional costumes and sceneries would be reflected on 18th century’s fashion and style. It remained me the discussion that we had on Picasso’s costumes design and scenery design on ballet. Picasso’s first production, Parade, is a 1917 ballet by poet, Jean Cocteau. Picasso designed the costumes and the scenery. Some of the cubist costumes were in solid cardboard, limited the dancer in a minimum of movement. The score contained several “noise-making” instruments like typewriter, foghorn, and assortment of milk bottles. Although Parade was quite revolutionary, bringing common street entertainments to the elite, it was not well received by the audiences. Yet, it didn’t stop Picasso’s involvement with further dance numbers. As the film, Picasso and Dance, showed in the classroom, I had further understanding of the drive behind the creative force in stage production. It is not just simply a attempt of making something different than traditional content, but rather a search of new language of expressing art.

Der Vorleser

It seems like yesterday that my summer just started. Now it's actually mid-July. Summer is always the busiest time of the year. Usually my summer is filled with Summer Training, school, traveling, SSOT, and hospitality for the visited guess and yp. I usually was exhausted during this season, yet strangely enough, not this year.
I went to Norfolk, VA early June to visit my niece and also took a break from school. While I was there, my sister introduced me to Der Vorleser by Bernhard Schlink. As much as I was drawn to the story, I can't help also to exam the book layout.

This book is published in China, so it's Chinese.
It's cover is pretty exciting, and the color usage is subtle yet playful. I first thought that this might be a philosophy book. I didn't know it is a novel.
After I finished the book, and while I was pondering the content of the novel. I notice two things.


One is the running head and the other one is the layout of the book. The book has two placements for running head, one is at the center of the left page and the other is at the upper left hand corner of the verso. I think the designer is trying to line up the running head with chapter head. The only page that the running head appears in the book is the review and common of other people. So, in a way, it didn't distract the view that much.

The layout of the whole book is western style, meaning reading from left to right. As I exam other Chinese book, I realized that generally they have two layouts. The western style and traditional Chinese style. The western style is horizontal reading from left to right. (like this book) Traditional Chinese style is vertical reading right to left. I guess the designer choose western style because this is a translated version of a German fiction.

AIGA Speaker_Agustia garza

GAUGE, graphic artist union of golden eagles, usually presents speakers series every school quarter for designers to give lecture/presentation to the students at Cal State L.A. This spring speaker is Agustin Garza.
Agustin Garza’s the influential and successful designer in graphic design world. He’s known for the effectiveness of his branding solutions. From the Mexico City’s 1991 Mexico Eclipse to the L.A. campaign’s “See My LA,” he is at the top of the game. Needless to mention how his accomplishments inspire all of us, I admire more of how he brands himself. Branding oneself is more than just like how we sell our product/works to the customer. It’s the collective image or impression that one conveys to the world. Mr. Garza said in his presentation that branding is determining value and reaching that to the consumer. He, himself clearly did it. He clearly knows what his best is and he packages it in a well prepare slices show. He also knows how to reach the audience. He asked question to get some interaction with the audience, so the
audience have a sense of participation in the presentation. He also uses his personally experiences, Hispanic professional, to get identify with the audiences. At the end of the lecture, audience feel good about the lecture, the works that the speaker shown and the
speaker itself. I can’t deny that his works are very well design. However, if the lecture is
exactly the same and just the presenter is another person, the whole experience would be
a totally different thing.

2008 Undergrad Exhibition

Cal State L.A. Fine Arts department periodically would exhibit students’ works at their gallery. One of my teachers requires us to submit least 3 of our 300’s course works. I, however, never like to participate in such thing and was forced to submit two works from color class and one from typography class. After attending the opening of the exhibition and saw one of my work were in the exhibition, I wonder why I'm always so reluctant to show my works at the first
place. I’m not sure if it’s because I don’t like to be exposed or just simply too lazy. I think it’s could be the former than the latter. I always get embarrassed when have to put myslef forward.
However, I do think proper exposition is good for me. If I always stay in my world, I can be very narrow and never be broad. If I don’t get exposed, I would never know how to improve myself or how to get better. I do feel exposing oneself is like coming out from the dark place and get
into the light. Light uncovers everything. Light brings out the true color of things. Light also brings out the imperfectness of things. When we open up our being to the greater world, the light shines into us and cast the darkness away.

Inspiration-2

I have this anonymous photo on my desktop from National Geography magazine.
I love the fact that this lizard is reaching out. This lizard cheers me up when
I was down. I'm a kind of person who would give up easily. If the situation were
too difficult for me to deal, I either would find the easier route or would avoid it
complete. That's my first intuition. However, this attitude should never occur
to a designer (as I would hope.) We, the designer, are problem solver and
not problem avoider. Whenever, I feel I’m in the corner that I can’t get myself out.
I would look at this lizard. With one hand reaching, he clinches onto the vine
with not only 3 of his legs, but also his tail. How firm this lizard is. He situates
himself in a very solid pose. Even though, the vine may seems to be a frail thing
to hold on to. Yet, this lizard trusts his ability to deliver himself from such situation.
This really encourages me to go on. I would go back to my working process and
look what works and what doesn’t work, and try to found other solution to the problem.
Or, I would simply work on some other project than the current one to let me brain rest
from it. Avoiding the problem can never solve it, and often it would worsen the situation.
The best solution is to face the problem and overcome it.

Inspiration

I came across this ad years ago, and I was immediately captured by it when I first saw it. I was shocked by the power of text/typography that this ad process. I never knew that type design can have such strength in it. For it has the power to change people's value.
Before I came to this ad, I didn't care about Marilyn Monroe. I thought she's just another bombshell. However, after reading this ad; I changed my perspective of her and any other women. I started to view thing different. I was enlightened and I feel that I had been showed to the other parts of the world that I never knew. All these are due to a small ad.


Women's Fitness Marilyn, 1991.
Creative Directors: Dan Wieden and David Kennedy; Art Director: Charlotte Moore; Copy Writer: Janet Champ; Photographer: Sam Shaw/ estate of Marilyn
Holmes, Stanley. "Wieden+Kennedy & NIKE: 'Know the Big Idea'." Graphis352 July/Auguest:2004 54.