Ellen Lupton : Deconstruction & Graphic Design

The term deconstruction originally surfaced around the 1980s and has since been used to label practices in graphic design fashion and architecture etc. Jacques Derrida initiated the theory of deconstruction as a mode of question through and about technologies, formal devices, social institutions and central metaphors of representation. Deconstruction is both a part of history and a theory embedded in both visual and academic culture. 

Deconstruction, like critical strategies based on Marxism, feminism, semiotics and anthropology, focuses not on the themes and imagery of its objects but rather on linguistics and institutional systems that frame their production. In Derrida's theory, deconstruction asks how representation inhabits reality. Deconstruction also attacks oppositions by showing how devalued negative concept inhabits the valued positive one. For example opposition of nature and culture and how one can be dependant on the other to be understood.  Derrida also asserted an intellectual system built on opposition between opposition and representation. For example deconstruction looks at writing as an active form of representation using the term grammatology to name the study of writing as a representation. The text describes "If writing is but a copy of spoken language , typography is a mode of representation even farther removed from the primal source of meaning in the mind of the author."

The alphabet represents sounds of speech by reducing them to a finite set of repeatable marks. Typography is one media through which repetition occurs. Typographic production involves composing letters into lines of text. Typography can include the design of letterforms and the arrangement of letters into lines of text. Typographic features can include the choice of typeface, kerning, line, columns and patterns formed by graphic distinctions across a body of text. 

Existing work such as French Currents of the Letter" designed at Cranbrook Academy of Art is influential even today. In this piece the conventional relationship between inside and outside figure and ground, is inverted as the spaces between the lines and words progressively expand and the footnotes move into the area normally reserved for central text. This design piece breaks the basic conventions of a book. 

Cultural forms helped fabricate categories such as race and sexuality which had huge relevance to visual artists in the 1970s and 80s. Post-structuralism provided a critical gateway to "post-modernism" posing an alternative to more traditional approaches. Whereas Post-structuralism has an emphasis on openness and much more theory towards self-expression. As interpretations are private and personal generated by unique sensibilities of the designers. The post structural response asserts the interior self constructed by external systems and technologies. Whilst it is likely some aspect of design will follow strict rules such as a grid system, invention and revolution can result in tactical aggressions against the grid. 

A range of visual features originally used in Architecture began being used in Graphic Design like icons and colours from neo-classical post-modernism. A more critical approach to deconstruction reached graphic designers through fields like photography. Deconstruction then become design world cliches where existing tendencies were catalysed by new ones. In the mid 90's the term "deconstruction" is used casually to label any work that favours complexity over simplicity and dramatises the formal possibilities of digital production. To summarise "we see deconstruction as a critical process an act of questioning."

Typographic & Swiss Posters

When you hear the term “Swiss Design” the first thing you might think of is clean, minimal, and modern. While all of those descriptions do fit, there’s much more to it than that. The use of lines, colours (or lack of), shapes, and personality is what make Swiss Design unique. 

Key rules in making Swiss Inspired Designs :
- Don’t over design: Minimalism is Key
- Using black and white is classic for a reason
- Use Photography with A minimalist composition
- Bright colours will get you noticed
- A muted colour palette makes for a chic design
- Give your design room to breathe with whitespace
- Shapes can unify your design
- Designing with a grid provides structure
- Typography can be as important as an image
- Use your design to show your personality


This research will enable me to Incorporate some or all of these Swiss Design principles into my work. Like other Influences designers and leaders in the world of design have displayed the trend of minimalism and modernity, that only continues to grow. Many products, brands, and business cards take elements from Swiss Design and incorporate them into a style most suitable. 

Swiss Poster Design 

Typographic Poster Design

A new typographic design style emerged during the 1950s that soon became the predominant graphic style by the 70s. Due to the strong reliance on typographic elements this style became known as the International Typographic Style. The style was defined by the use of a mathematical grid to provide an orderly unified structure, The use of sans serif typefaces such as Helvetica. A flush left and ragged right format, black and white photography in place of a hand drawn illustration. The overall aesthetic is simple rational, structured, clear, objective and harmonious. 

The style was refined at two design schools in Switzerland, one in Basel led by Armin Hofmann and Emil Ruder, and the other in Zurich under the leadership of Josef Muller-Brockmann. All had studied with Ernst Keller at the Zurich School of Design before WW11, where the principles of the Bauhaus and Jan Tschichold's new typography was taught.  

Wolfgang Weingart

Wolgang Weingart is recognised mainly for his typographic explorations. His work uses a more experimental expressive approach to typography that is highly influential around the world. Until 2004, room G102 at the Schule für Gestaltung in Basel, Switzerland, housed the type-shop. Later this is Weingart taught typography here not only to Swiss Students but other prestigous designers that studied at the school.

- Weingart was born near the Swiss border of Germany, in the Salem Valley, in 1941.

- He enrolled in a two-year course in applied art and design at the Merz Academy in Stuttgart in 1958.

- There he discovered the school printing facilities and, at the age of 17, set metal type for the first time.

- After graduating, he undertook a rigorous apprenticeship as a typesetter at Ruwe Printing in Stuttgart, where he met house designer Karl-August Hanke, a former student at the Basel School of Design. 

- It was Hanke who became a mentor to the young Weingart, introducing him to design being done outside of Germany, particularly in Switzerland, where Ruder, Armin Hofmann and Karl Gerstner were making work that would come to be referred to as International Style.

- Although strong evidence of Swiss orderliness could be seen creeping into the simple letterheads and business cards that Weingart designed during his time at Ruwe, his work possessed a spontaneity and deliberate carelessness that transcended the precepts of Swiss design of that period. 

- Even at this early stage in his professional development, Weingart’s innate understanding of the limitations of perpendicular composition in lead typesetting, coupled with the strict technical and aesthetic discipline of his apprenticeship and his inherently rebellious nature, drove him inexorably to pursue a more experimental approach. 

- A dropped case of six-point type served as the basis for his round compositions. He scooped the type up from the floor and tied it up to form a disc. By printing both the faces and the bottoms of the bodies of the metal type sorts, he achieved the illusion of depth. The discs became spheres.

- At the end of his three-year apprenticeship, Weingart had developed a keen sensitivity to the relationship between printing and the act of designing.

- Hanke encouraged him to attend the Basel School of Design, and Weingart travelled to the city in 1963, where he met with Hofmann and Ruder and applied to the school in person. The following year, he enrolled as an independent student.

- It wasn’t until 1968 that Hofmann and Ruder realiSed their ultimate goal of creating an advanced graphic-design program for postgraduate professionals at the Basel School, in which a select group might engage in intensive multidisciplinary projects intended to further hone their skills and re-energise their intellectual engagement with design.

- In a bold move, Hofmann invited the 27-year-old Weingart, who was then virtually unknown, to conduct the typography class, as designers from all over the world flocked to the program.

- Weingart felt right at home in the type-shop at the school—it served as his laboratory as well as his classroom, and it was in this space that he executed his magic. The experiments he had begun during his apprenticeship intensified.

- He used curved metal rules, creating circular compositions embedded in plaster. He experimented with interwoven geometric text composing influenced by ancient stone construction in the Middle East, where he had first travelled in the early 1960s. His classes themselves became workshops to test and expand models for a new typography.

- While teaching, Weingart continued to produce a formidable body of experimental work in his own right: posters as well as cover designs and call-for-entry designs for Typographische Monatsblätter magazine, where he served on the editorial board from 1970 to 1988. 

- A 1976 poster he designed and printed for photographer John Glagola includes wide silver bars printed across the artist’s name, heralding the decline of foundry type as a viable commercial means of printing.

- Weingart insistently sought new ways of creating images, adopting the halftone screens and benday films used in photomechanical processes as his new tools beginning in the mid-1970s. 

- He used the repro camera to stretch, blur and cut type—a radical new approach for marrying continuous-tone images and letters.

- He would boast that his design process relied solely on these film manipulations and overlapping colours, seen perhaps most strikingly in his work for the Basel Kunstkredit—black-and-white world-format posters designed between 1976 and 1979 and a series of color posters made between 1980 and 1983.

- Through his experimentations, Weingart was inventing his own visual language. As former teaching colleague Gregory Vines once wrote: “He pursues an idea until he is sure if it works or not. In the manner of Gutenberg, typesetter, printer and inventor Weingart realises his publications or posters from beginning to end by himself. 

- He chooses to be involved in the entire process, from the concept to preparation of the film montage for the printer....When looking through the copy camera or while developing film, new ideas and possibilities become evident, even mistakes trigger fascinating possibilities.”

- Lloyd Miller, who studied with Weingart in the early 1980s, notes, “He is a master and pioneer in this field....Weingart’s working method was very much a precursor to the layering capabilities software programs like Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop would eventually offer.”

- Still, Weingart never forgot his intensive training and experience in the intricacies of hand-setting type. He brought fascinating clarity and structure to dense, complex information found in the 1974 Creative Jewellery brochure and the 1980 catalog for Art Basel. 

- Through his investigations, he even sought to capture the spontaneity and vigour of his own deliberately distorted handwriting as a form of typography, in posters announcing his 1990 retrospective exhibition at the Institute for New Technical Form in Darmstadt, Germany.

- While working on the weekends in the type-shop at the school, Weingart often wheeled out a reel-to-reel tape player, and the music of German composers—Wagner, Beethoven, Mozart—would accompany his labour. 

- One of his favourites was a recording of legendary orchestra conductor Bruno Walter rehearsing Mozart’s Linz Symphony in which Walter implores his musicians to share his grasp of a particular passage as “shimmering.” The same could describe Weingart’s body of work. His typographic vision embodies a similar vitality and richness. It shimmers.

Example work shown below:

Edward De Bono : Brain Training & Lateral Thinking Pioneer

Edward Bono methodologies and work has proven very helpful to my thinking both in and out of the design process. In particular I found his methods very helpful for idea generation.
Edward De Bono is world famous for inventing the lateral thinking technique. He also dedicated his life to helping around the world to improve their thinking and creative abilities. His courses and methods have been used by top corporations leaders and even students. His methods have proven helpful to people of all thinking levels to make smarter decisions faster. 

Timeline of Edward De Bono 

1967 

 The Use of Lateral Thinking

1968 

 Bono invented the L Game 

1970 

 Lateral thinking process 

1985 

BBC aired ‘De Bono’s Course in Thinking’ 

authored Six Thinking Hats 

1991-95 

A new religion

documentary film

1999 

Online course in thinking 

1996-2006 

Cambridge University 

2006 

CoRT Thinking Online 

2010 

Online course in Thinking

Initial Thoughts Studio Brief 1

Design a poster that engages, challenges, questions & surprises 

Idea Generation 

Starting points...

Aim : Suggest an auditory experience with ideas of social and technological interaction.

Research Edward De Bono - how he writes about thinking this generates ideas 

"You can analyse the past to design the future." 

"Lateral thinking - instant judgement is the enemy of creativity"

Task 1 

Text Door Neighbour - was a great idea for a task as a starting point. Unfortunately mine did not respond!

In theory...
No is skepticism 
Yes is belief 
Po is possibility 

De Bono generates an idea in two stages
1. Generating provocations (PO)
2. Movement from a provocation to a new idea

Principles and Methods that can be used to generate a PO:
- Escape : something for granted drop it 
- Reversal
- Distortion : change a sequence or relationship
- Exaggeration 
- Wishful thinking : wouldn't it be nice if....
- Random word : associate random word with a place?

Look into Deconstruction Movement 

Research contemporary graphic design and existing work such as French currents of the letter by Cranbrook. Showing how design can break basic conventions such as books.  

Have a broader range of thinking don't limit thinking to an individual subject. Consider not just interior self but also external agencies.

Possible variables include: 
- colour
- size
- typeface 
- symbols 
- grid 
- positioning 
- length 

Cell Phone Symphony Word Association 

Mobile Phones : texts, calls, noise, silent 
Music : notes, A,B,C, letters, symbols
Sound : waves, vibrations, voice recognitions 

Auditory Experience
- listening 
- hearing 
- sounds 
- notifications 
- silent 
- colour theory
- modern
- network
- collaboration
- connection
- together

Initial Idea Sketches: 

Silent Critique

After further refinement I chose the sets that I thought worked best. The feedback I received helped me consider ways I could refine and develop the ideas further. I decided the typographic imagery worked better than the Illustrations created in Illustrator mainly due to the strong impact the visual poetry images created. Feedback I received was mainly positive, such as comments of my "strong use of typography","good exploration of hierarchy", "visually interesting" but I also received some good constructive criticism to alter and develop my ideas further for further refinement.  

The feedback received highlighted the designs met the mandatory requirements set out in the brief from other people's perspectives and not just my own. Although my book cover designs challenge the basic attributes of a book cover such as the authors name and title on the spine these were some comments highlighted in my feedback. However the reason for this is to make the book more intriguing and interesting whilst also standing out against competitors. The idea is that the readers will have to take the book off the shelf to find out more....  

The pink colour scheme was a way of visually linking the books as a set or series as they all fit into different genres. The most feedback I received drew attention to the layout and composition of the blurb and perhaps create the blurb in a shape for an example an object associated with the book. With this feedback in mind I started to refine the designs further by experimenting with the layout of the blurb. For example I creates Gossip Girl's blurb into the shape of the Empire State building a key landmark in the place the book is set. For the other books I will do the same as it made the design more effective and creates an effective set of book designs using purely type i.e. visual poetry.

However other feedback identified using all pink as a set was not really necessary as all the designs are visually consistent irrespective of colour. Feedback received informed me of perhaps altering the colour choice as pink was seen as "the wrong colour for A Game of Thrones." To solve this problem I will use my knowledge of contrast of saturation colour theory to experiment with shades. Experimenting with a darker pinker slightly red toned may portray A Game of Thrones better. This relates by creating a darker feel to the genre of A Game of Thrones whilst also remaining visually consistent as a set. Alternatively if this doesn't work all the other elements of the design work as a set so the colours don't necessarily have to be the same. Therefore I could also experiment with completely different colours for each book. 

Other feedback I received commented on my use of the familiar TV Series Titles or Logos used for the titles in my book design. This was to visualise a link to the books developing into successful TV Series. However some suggestions included experiment by "creating my own typeface." Which was a good idea however this feedback, and speaking to my tutor gave me the idea to incorporate the visual poetry already used as imagery for the book to contain the titles. This creates a more harmonious design where the type and imagery combine and interact as one. The type not being a separate element means the  type is not just there for no reason but also interacts more with the design. 

Before

After 

Studio Brief 1 : Analysing Other Contemporary Graphic Design Poster

To gain further knowledge and understanding of the brief I researched existing examples of contemporary Graphic Design Posters. This gave me further insight into how type and imagery is used. As well as further understanding of the elements such as type and imagery and how this can be given a greater and stronger visual meaning with a more successful and well-thought out design. It is important both the type and imagery work collaboratively and the type does not look out of place within an image in order for a poster to be most successful. Below are some examples of contemporary graphic design I will analyse to which will prove beneficial for my research and own design process. 

The type used for this poster fits well with the printed theme, style or appearance. The bold black colour of the type makes the type legible and a focal point to the viewer drawing the viewer in against the colourful background and imagery. Whilst the imagery is fairly simple it is very strong and creates a strong impact against the black type. Although perhaps a brighter background may create more collaboration between the elements of the design i.e type and image as the pastel shade of yellow creates a sense of dullness to the image. Where a brighter shade of yellow or alternative colour may be more effective.  

The monochrome format in combination with negative space also creates a bold statement and more impacting image. The design elements work in great harmony as the text is contained within the image and does not appear as separate elements. This creates a powerful layout demonstrating how elements can work together and not just separately to create a successful outcome. Perhaps further development could be made by highlighting a single element using colour to draw attention to either type or a focal point of an image. This could create a more interesting concept.   

This poster plays more on formal elements such as shape and colour using theories such as contrast of hue and saturation to make the image appear more striking. Negative space also gives the image a more distinct quality. Whilst the contrasting use of colour creates the feel of severity and can be used to promote intrigue within the audience or viewers. The monochrome border of type is easily legible and the positioning and layout fits with the image but if the image was removed the type own it's own would not be as impactive. The type works as it reflects the high contrast element reflected in the imagery. 

With strong use of typography both for content and to create imagery. Whilst also using other techniques such as single colour to draw attention and focus to the viewer. The large bold type creates interesting imagery which is easily legible. However the smaller text challenges legibility due to the size and background. Developments could improve this by slightly increasing the type size and colour to a higher contrast hue such as white, which may improve legibility.   

Another example of strong typography to present the idea behind the poster. The bold simple type works well alongside negative space and contrasting colour. The shape is created using the characters from the type. The content type fits nicely into the imagery created by the enlarged type. This poster plays on the idea of scale and type mainly. The enlarged type and unique composition makes the poster more intriguing. Although the content type is placed within the image it could perhaps be placed in a more interesting composition than block text and perhaps match in some way the layout or system used to create the enlarged type. 

Studio Brief 1 : Refinement of Ideas

After feedback received from the first critique I was able to view other people's work, seeing how others interpreted the brief proved helpful. This gained me more of an insight into abstract ways to tackle the brief. Whilst gaining feedback on how to refine my initial ideas presented, I decided I would prefer to take some considerations and aspects from initial thoughts and feedback and develop ideas that were slightly more abstract and refined. After viewing other work it also spurred my research into existing contemporary Graphic Design. This research gave me a broader outlook and approach to elements such as type and colour. Some of my ideas can be seen below. 

Idea inspired by modern contemporary design with an abstract response to the brief.

Adapted the type to fit 9x9 grid and created a more simplistic visual representation of the connection or network using lines. 

Network and connection inspired idea using a handmade grid system.

Shapes and abstract contemporary approach to design.

Visual poetry inspired idea whilst creating type that relates to 'music' further inspiration came from Typographic and Swiss Poster Design.

Studio Brief 1 : Analysis of Regarding the Pain of Others Susan Sontag

To further my research I analysed a few chapters from 'Regarding the Pain of Others.' This text describes how our perception forces us to analyse visual meaning. As well as how depictions can be manipulated whilst creating interest. Edmund Burke observed people like to look at images of suffering. An example of which is seen in how repulsive images can strike the feeling of allure and curiosity. Our self conscious thoughts can provoke ideas by mental function such as by reactions i.e. anger. Declining a more common or cliche idea can prove resultant in a far more interesting outcome. 

Knowledge both new and existing can also help with the promotion of ideas making the concept and idea more understandable. Imagining a subject as more than just a subject but as a transfiguration can help create a broader outlook. Whilst also making other considerations such as the target audience to understand whom your idea relates to. Where there is a certain level of acceptance within culture for example mayhem can be seen as entertaining rather than shocking to many people in most modern culture. A cynical outlook will only provide cynical views so it is best to present ideas in the most positive way possible. 

On a similar note just because an idea is presented that does not mean it is the only or right way of generating that idea. Everyone's emotional response is different, therefore what one person understands as their visual meaning may completely different to another persons meaning or perception. Different feelings also evoke different responses. 

Existing concepts and aspects also influence ideas as this is a way of conversing and referring to a subject for further inspiration. Although ideas that have the best impact can create feeling, interaction and emotion to the viewer. Elements of design such as imagery can also be drained of their force or impact by the way it is used. The effectiveness of an image is hugely dependant on how it can be used. In the form of a poster this can include how type works with or as an image and what effect this can create. An image-glut keeps attention light, mobile and relatively indifferent to content. Whilst image flow precludes a privileged image. The content used within design is no more than a stimulant to the idea. A reflective engagement with content reflects a certain intensity of awareness and knowledge. 

"According to highly influential analysis, we live in a "society of spectacle." Each situation has to be turned into a spectacle to be real - that is, interesting to us. Even people inspire to be like images whilst images can present visual information factually there is also a sense of fantasy that can be created and manipulated visually in the form of imagery. "Reality has abdicated." Jean Baudrillard, believes images and simulated realities are all that exist now. How images are presented to us can also create different visual meaning. For example the media has great power to present images and videos of major tragedies over national television which can create a wide range of emotional responses due to the vast audience they are presented to. 

Modern and traditional forms also effect visual meaning as each have their own elements and developments which may cause disagreement and debate. Although debate is healthy and can help spur on new ideas traditional more uniform elements and approaches may be less adaptive to new and contemporary strategies which in design may lead to problems, such as being narrow minded. 

The Sarajevans demonstrated how an idea can be expressed and be personal whilst still making the idea unique. However there was a disagreement amongst another photo journalist Paul Lowe who had an exhibition of his photos showing Somalia a few years earlier and then the ongoing destruction of their city which offended the Sarajevans. Due to the fact their sufferings had been placed alongside other peoples sufferings as if to compare them. Their view was it was seen intolerable to have one's own suffering twinned with anybody else's. This allowed me to reflect visual meaning with cultural influence must be carefully considered and how powerful emotion can be both visually and consciously. 

Studio Brief 1 : Silent Critique of Idea Generation & Brainstorming

Initial ideas and a starting point came from a strict concept by designing ideas that stick to a strict rule. For example type fits within a specific shape such as an element of a sound wave, however this idea seems too cliche to develop further. Creating alternative visual meaning to type, as seen below I created the type for the title using only numbers with the overlaid lettering to ensure legibility. Finally I also considered using a grid system and using type to create the visual aspect of the poster so I wasn't just adding type to make the design a poster. This rule challenges basic rules with kerning and type which made it interesting to read over plain boring text with no playful attributes. 

Alternative visual meaning : numbers as letters 

Cliche : challenges legibility but makes interesting imagery purely based on aesthetics 

Using grids and challenging type rules e.g. kerning, scale, size etc. 

Initial Ideas

Initially I generated ideas with a more practical approach combining photography and visual poetry to create unique variations of layout and composition. Using collage as a technique and experimenting further by manipulating imagery for example with cropping, view finders, and single coloured imagery etc. This enabled me to push my ideas further playing with the concept of the TV series to illustrate my covers. I thought about how I could visually interpret the visual language of the TV series into my ideas. After speaking with peers and my tutor it encouraged me to look at alternative ways of representing a TV series this is were the idea of using symbols that relate to television occurred. Therefore I used the play and pause symbol to visually present this idea and experimented with using scale and opacity. Some experiments showing the initial ideas process are shown below.