Visual identity has been around although out history. Through out the medieval times heraldic design were use to identity status and property of the nobility. It can also be seen in 1500s with branding of cows to show ownership and so people could identify property of merchants property even though many of the people from that time couldn’t read. The trademarks could still be understood through the power of imagery. Trade is what really switched peoples perspective on visual identity with people wanting to immortalise their brand and for it to represent the quality of their product.

The Wiener Werkstatte was a manufacturing and marketing enterprise found in Vienna in 1903 decades before graphic designers were doing work that was related to corporate design. The started adapting the concept of branding and using visual identity on all of their paper work, keys and business cards

A modern day example of brands that have massively succeed due to their visual identity is the google logo. By using simple prime colours it can relate to everyone needs and is simple enough to stick in peoples head. The use of negative space also contrasts the colours very well and makes it so it imprints into the views mentality.However google also contrast this logo by creating more goofy looking ones to keep the audience interested and on their feet. Ultimately creating a effective lovable design for everyone.

Early digital media was know as “new media” even though it is not new which is a problematic term. New media started as emails and social networking sites and has now advanced into virtual reality . William Latham was considered one of the digital media artist who would use code to create his works. He would code from scratch and creating virtual worlds with 3d coding, Creating alien worlds and allows the audience to interact with his art throw his vr code.

Elizabeth Edwards is another artist who uses new forms of tech to create their art in vr platforms.She would create 3d photos which allowed the audience to inspect the surroundings and look at the world/work from different perspectives

Elizabeth also allows the audience when plugged into their VR headset to interact with the environment when touching the bushes for example the controller will vibrate engaging the audience. New forms of art and design like this challenge society norms and also designer allowing more ways to communicate ideas.

Graphic design before computers was all done by hand and exacto blades. Many graphic designers used blue pencils as it would not show up on photocopies and allowed them to create a grid . Pretty much this old school way was like a analogue photoshop however the designers would need to be so much more careful. Ruby lith was another techique used by graphic designers to create tints onto films before photoshop was a thing. In 1985 the laserwriter supported scalable text. This was the first time a graphic GUI software could facilitated the ready combination of text and graphics in columns. The mac 2 was the first colour computer and was the first networkable desktop to be able to access the internet which was massive for designers at the time.The top digital specs in 1980s

early floppy disk 800kb

normal floppy disk 1.44mb

massive ram would be 512kb

big hard drive 40mb

example of page maker that graphic designers had to use in the 1980s

Compared to modern day computer specs. Graphic design has came along way and has evolved drastically with the average desktop computer consisting of 1tb of storage and around 16-32gb of ram. Drastically showing how far design has come not only the computer specs but also the programs designers use. Which not only forces designers to constantly change and adapt to the new software coming out but also to also rely on their creative skills.

I practices the timing of my presentation and information many times but still at the begin of the presentation i was a bit rocky however once i got through the first couple of slides i sorted myself out. I felt really comfortable presenting and i think it went really well. I talked about the origin of surrealism and however it has shaped modern day design and art. I found this assessment really enjoyable because i got to research and present something im passionate about. The feedback i received from the my tutor Sally was that i presented really well however she preferred when i went off my palm cards and explained it rather than following my script. I was also told my presentation didn’t need as much text on it since i was speaking about it and confused the viewer a bit. I was also told the presentation looked a bit cluttered and a bit less pictures could have been nice. Overall i was really happy with the assessment and it was quite fun.

Presentation: Jony ive

Jony ive was the chief designer at apple.The presentation on Jony Ive started off very well the information and the slides were perfectly timed and showed extensive research. However the speakers started off a bit nervous but as he proceeded the speech was greatly improve and he seem to feel more confident in speaking. The feed back he was giving in class was really positive however he was told he could improve it by adding other peoples opinion on the subject of the designer. Rather than it just being a presentation of idolisation.

The golden ratio presentation.

The golden ratio presentation had very interesting information on the mystical ratio found in nature that cant seem to be explained. However the presenter seemed very nervous and didn’t seem to have the practice before hand and under shot most of his 20second slides. He seemed really nervous however with more practice i think he could of nailed this presentation. He did have extensive research on the topic and seemed really knowledgeable about it. Practice is just key

In this tutorial we tried to embrace the photo manipulation without Photoshop. Our goal was to try to create a photo that could look really and convince people. We went with the idea of capturing a ghost or a demonic figure. My group captured this by getting a member of our group to turn their jumper around then hold sticks in their hands. After taking the photo we turned down the brightness allowing only a silhouette to be seen. Creating the ghost like demonic figure

Ib tutorial 4 my group was giving the question / activity to talk about the ethics of photography for both the photographers and the the subject being photographed. Immediately this reminded me of a photographer / artist I studied in the hsc Dorothea Lange who was renoun for her photography in the Great Depression era. She would photograph farmers during this time bringing awareness to the world through her exhibitions.

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However Dorothea Lange when photographing was confronted by very shocking environment that these people were living in. In order to maintain her moral ethics she would get to know these people by living with them weeks on end and establishing a relationship with each person she photograph creating a bond between them before taking the photo.

Another prime example of photographers which challenged the ethics of photography is Kevin Carter who was a South Africa photographer who capture gruesome hate crimes. Kevin even stated himself that the photos his took had a massive toll on him and he felt guilt from not helping the individual. However his photography built a lot of awareness to the world it and showed the true gruesomeness of human nature. Although Kevins photography brought a lot of awareness it took a massive toll on his morals and ethics which eventually resulted in him taking his own life.

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Both Kevin and Dorothea shot some of the most gruesome. time periods which not only changed the world but also had a massive question of ethics to be raised for both the subject and the photographer

Modernism had a significant impact around the world of design changing the pathway of design history Modernism originated in the 19th century reflecting early 20th century beliefs pioneering advant-garde design circles with causing some backlash of people calling it “bad design” and others saying modernism is the “spirit of the age”.Modernists saw themselves as the creators of the ” machine ages” freed from the shackles of the past so they pushed design and art in new ways . Modernist appreciated aesthetic qualities and distances the design from any real sense of original context and function. The whole ideals of modernism design was to create a a design that was “neat” , ” clean” and “pure”. The first idea of this was represented in the Bauhuas school of design as seen in figure 1

The early stages of the bauhaus was linked to expressionism and contested the views of the past and design. This brought extreme pressure on the school by the nazi regime which lead to it getting shut down in 1934 along with most of the modernist movement. However other countries such as Denmark, Norway , Sweden used modernism to prosper their design and ways of unconventional thinking . The modernism idea of neat , clean and pure is utilised by companies in the present day such as “Ikea” seen in their furniture designs. This can be seen in figure 2 showing the simplistic, refined surfaces of the furniture that reflects modernism

Throughout “19th century and expanding field” Eskilson is linking major events in the world to the changing of design showing that these events are crucial turning points in design often leading to designers having to adapted to the new social structures. One prime example of this is the Art Nouveau movement during the Industrial Revolution. Through the revolution mass printing was able to be achieved allowing all levels of society to be able to afford information leading to literal and communication to be greatly improved ultimately forever changing design. Many people use this movement to challenge and question the repressive the government such as Charles Philpon who wrote books such as ” La silhouettes” and “La caricature”. Both these Books where the first big impact where it showed the power of design and printing.this later lead the the government introducing laws that carried heavy fines and imprisonment if the book was to be critical of the government. This movement also allowed women to gain more independence in both society and urban life. I believe that Eskilson is showing that through these new ways of communication it allows different ways to express ideas and independence which leads to the complete change of legacy for design due to these new ways of communication.

Through the introduction of Lithography a process invented by Alois Senfielder images where able to be produced through chemical reactions at large quantity for a low cost . However this negatively impacted illustrators at the time causing them to create new ways of design such as the surreal movement which allowed different ways of communcating and again changing the legacy and idea of what design is. Another example of design changing is the introduction of photography which forever changed design aesthetic/function. Photography of the 20th century allowed middle class people to have inexpensive images which allowed new way of communicating ideas. One example of photography being use to communicating ideas is in a photo of Abraham Lincoln taken by Mathew Brady as he campaigned in New York as seen in figure 1. It appeared in newspapers all across New York and was a revolutionary way to communicate his political views. This photography greatly helped Lincolns campaign.

Ultimately through Eskilsons “The Nineteenth Century: An Expanding Field” he shows us that understanding new forms of communications can extremely change design and society allowing societal ranks to change and for designers to constantly be on their toes and needing to adapted to the new changes of society in order to communicate their ideas in the way they want to be portrayed.