History of Design – G1

Outline on Memphis Art Movement (1981)

“I try and be as stupid as possible regarding my profession, which means I try to look at as few design magazines as possible.” is an iconic quote mentioned by the godfather of Memphis art movement – Ettore Sottsass.

Created in the 1980s by the Memphis group, the movement was strangely named after Read more →

When the Industrial Revolution took place, there was an increase in the manufacturing productivity which formed a pool of higher-class citizens who were economically powerful enough to acquire a large amount of manufactured products. In turn, it also led to an increase in citizens in labour. However, people in labour faced low wages and poor working conditions which eventually led Read more →

Design reform movements are basically what it is— to reform, restructure, and revise design at that period of time. The different movements simultaneously overlap and happen between the 1880s-1930s. These movements came about in reaction to the consequences from the French and Industrial revolution.

From the French revolution(1789-1799), “Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité” was born out of it. The phrase directly translates to “Liberty, Read more →

Massimo Vignelli, whose work covers nearly every field of design including advertising, identity, packaging, product, industrial, interior and architectural design.

‘design is one’ – Massimo Vignelli

He believes that “if you can design one thing, you can design everything. The methodology is the same no matter what the content.” His philosophy reminds me of the new system that ADM students are Read more →

Massimo Vignelli is an Italian designer who dappled in a vast range of design: branding, packaging, housewares, furniture, showroom design and etcetera.  One of his ethos was that “If you can design one thing, you can design everything.” This ethos was reflected in his work within the Modernist tradition. Vignelli focuses on simplicity and clarity of design through the use of Read more →

“While guns rumbled in the distance, we sang, painted, made collages and wrote poems with all our might” – Hans Arp

When I first learnt about Dada when I was thirteen and just starting my study of visual art, I didn’t really know what was going on, and found the works perplexing in their blatant disregard for what I’d always thought Read more →

The first essay starts off with the idea that Modernism doesn’t propagate a single “truth”, but rather a set of conventions that the audience can engage with. I agree with his idea that taking action is easier with a set of conventions to agree or disagree with, akin to a debating, which I do as a co-curricular activity – motions Read more →

Reputations: Massimo Vignelli

Massimo Vignelli considers himself an “information architect”, one whose designs are positioned in the centre between progressiveness and conservatism. 

“What we do is really structural in presenting information in a way that’s more understandable than any other form. Graphic designers today are changing because of the computer. They all work with a digital technology so they are really switching more and Read more →

For our final creative response, we were tasked with creating a piece inspired by the Bauhaus, exploring the relationship between shapes and colours. Wassily Kadinsky believed that circles should be blue, squares should be red and that triangles should be yellow. From the survey in class, many of my classmates agreed with this; I did not at first instinctively (I Read more →

In the first reading, we have renowned designer Massimo Vignelli engage the readers with his philosophies of graphic design and what he felt the term ‘graphic designer’ entails. I enjoy his understanding of a graphic designer to be one in which engineers and structures information, giving our work both form and function. This ideal ties in well Read more →