Brad Downey

Yay Negative space saves the day.

Oct. 27, 1946: And Now a Few Words From Our Sponsor

1946

Ads on tv were $9 dollars!!!!
http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/10/dayintech_1027?npu=1&mbid=yhp

so art directors/copy writers were paid 50 cents probably...

My Faves (type) enjoy!

DJs+ Graphic Designer

Actress/Actors becoming singers
Singers becoming actress/actor

DJs becoming Graphic Designers
Graphic Designers becoming DJs <---Shepard Fairey goes by the name of DJ Diabetic. Plays at La Cita sometimes.


I came across DJ Them Jeans at cinespace.
Pretty good DJ. I see he designs alot of his Flyers/Posters. Some of his inspirations are from the 60s - 80s.
So i did some research and found that he is a big fan of SO MUCH PILE UP, its a blog about graphic designs from the 60s-80s.

Music always motivates me to design.
What kind of music motivates you?

Stressed much?

Designing for a small department can be stressful at times.
Dealing with difficult people. Fighting off designer's block, etc.
Those are some that i have encounter since getting my own office to be
put in charge of graphics.

Couples time i have turn to the book above to remedy the headaches.

" Do the obvious, then throw it out. " ---Glenn Mitsui Principal, Glenn Mitsui Design

This sounds much like my professor at CSULA.

" sketch out all your ideas.....what youre doing is flushing out all the bad ideas. "

I'll Have That Typeface on the Menu

BURKE / TRIOLO PRODUCTIONS / BRAND X / CORBIS

So the past week my relatives have been bugging me about redoing the menu for them. They own several fast food restaurants. I have done many phases of development for the menu, but nothing quite seem right. So i gave them back their menu and said "its fine the way it is". As designers, you do what feels right, this incident was one of many for me.

Today i read an article in TIME about fonts in restaurant menus

"In a paper that will appear in the October issue of Psychological Science, Hyunjin Song and Norbert Schwarz suggest that small changes in menu fonts can significantly alter people's perceptions of dishes' complexity and value."

I chose many different fonts to convey the feel of the fast food restaurant, but it became pretentious. My relative's restaurant is cheap and right to the point. That is why the feel of it was just right with what they originally did.

Why do you think poster art is experiencing a renaissance?

from a article in Nylon Magazine 6/8 -7/8 issue

Response to the above question by Aesthetic Apparatus ( Dan Ibarra, Michael Byzewski, and Johnathan Schuster )

" We have a crackpot theory that it's all related to the political climate. Bad politics make for good music and good music
makes for good posters. '60s psychedelia, '80s hardcore, today's independent music explosion. Let's hope that the poster doesn't die when music has less evil to rally against "

Senior Projects!!!

Each thumbnail is clickable



























































































Congrats to everyone! i could see alot of hardwork was put into it!
Some have mad web design and illustration skills. *im jealous* =)

Remember the Green

We took logo quizzes in class and the "recycling logo" came up. We stopped and ponder about the origin of the logo and connotation as a symbol.

So over at designobserver.com

they took it a step further. It was part of a project at the North Carolina University of Design. They took the research and implemented a strategy to educate the locals about the symbol.

http://www.designobserver.com/archives/037924.html#more

that is the URL. above.

what stood out in the blog was this...

"Too often, we work under assumptions. Or, too often, we work without investigation. As a teacher at North Carolina State University College of Design, I want my students to recognize the former and reverse the latter. Our class is not about recycling per se. It is about understanding the systems we live in, finding the flaws and evaluating them. Our three Rs are research, rethink, redesign. "




I feel like we should do something like this at our school.

Augustin Garza

"CINCO DE MAYO!
and we celebrated by listening to a mexican graphic designer"

insert laughter from the crowd*****



Ok Garza reminds me of Erik Spiekerman. Very committed, almost too committed to the point of "nerdy-ness"
But Garza has a fun job in traveling around the world, instead of sitting at the office.
(not all designers can work like that).

Garza's background of Political Science helped him in becoming a "worldly" designer. He said he is a hispanic professional meaning he is not specialize in just hispanic culture. I could tell that he had very global idea of everything in his design. My favorite is the "Explorean" Hotel in the jungle.

Branding Survey

Mcdonald's and Jack in the Box
How would you describe their brand personalities?
How are they different?
What qualities do they transmit through their brand materials?

Mcdonald's is more a happy environment for kids, basically get them while their young mentality. Their weapon of choice is Happy Meals with current and popular cartoon icons.
Jack in the Box is for the grown ups so to say, with average joes wanting freshness in their burgers. Hence the current motto, "We don't make it till you order it."

The difference of course is the logo, and the whole marketing strategies. iconic image - The Golden Arch, Jack in the box (a human with a giant head).

exciting! new! hip! - theyre always looking for the newest item, i.e (new ice coffee) - Mcdonalds
Old-fashion, "sophisticated" - They never change who they are. Always kept with the "we dont make it till you order it" attitude



Target and WalMart
How would you describe their brand personalities?
How are they different?
What qualities do they transmit through their brand materials?


Target is more sophisticated in their brand. "targeting" more younger generation. (david bowie clothing, french influence clothing line)
Wal-Mart is more depended on the older generation and the cheap price it has to offer. Kind of like a cosco without the membership. I feel they lost alot without the smiley face as their logo. The old people in the commercial are just sad now.




Verizon and Cingular
How would you describe their brand personalities?
How are they different?
What qualities do they transmit through their brand materials?


Verizon is always big on quality of service. hence the price in the monthly bill. "You get what you pay for" mentality
AT&T(cingular) cheap price - phones that connect to the younger user (iphones,razor, etc )








Now about you....

First
What three values or principles are most important to you? What matters to you?
Fun/Eclectic/Simple
Design that standout with more hand-made design in mind.




Next
What three adjectives would your friends use to describe you?

unique, eclectic, outgoing
What are the three most common things your family would say about you?
hardworking, busy, studious
List the three most common things that people might say, in describing having just met you for the first time.
Shy, funny, unique

Then
How would you describe your personality? Pick at least three distinctly different adjectives.
Blue-Collar, Outgoing, Eclectic

Now
Carefully choose three distinct descriptive terms that, taken as a set, would describe the professional design personality that you hope to transmit to potential clients or employers. These are the qualities that should be visually communicated in all your brand materials. You should be prepared to talk about this excercise in class.

eclectic, fun, simple

You may find it helpful to do a google search for “list of adjectives”, “list of characteristics” or “list of qualities” to help you with descriptive language.

Allan Kaprow

On Friday, April 25th CSULA reinvent "Fluids" by Allan Kaprow
I was there to partake in the activity. To get the free membership to MOCA ( of course ).










i wasn't there to watch the 8 foot high wall fall. But the experience was fun neither the less.

"The line between art and life should be kept as Fluid, and perhaps indistinct, as possible."


I don't quite understand the purpose of Allan Kaprow's work. But when i do, i will update this post.

Chapter 4 Text + Image of David Crow’s Book Visible Signs.

is by far my favorite chapter. It correlates with a project that I have been planning, which involves black and white photography, painted text, and music. I want to find a common meaning in each ‘digital’ codes as Roland Barthes would describes them as “Paradigms where each of the units in the set are clearly different from each other. [As we saw in chapter 2 the two basic characteristics of a paradigm are that the units in the set have something in common and each unit is obviously different from the others in the set.]”. This chapter really helped in narrowing down the messages, and the communication involved within an advertisement. As far as my project goes, the section describing ‘RELAY’ helped a lot. Photography and Text are pretty much set in the work, the key is incorporating music into those other digital codes. I’m hoping the text acts as a Anchorage, and the music is the RELAY function which will be “supplying meanings which are not to be found in the images themselves, as in film dialogue”.