Appropriate Examples of Graphic Design - It's Nice That

Reasoning

As a well known and respected design blog, it's a fair assumption to say that all examples of graphic design, photography, illustration etc that are posted to It's Nice That are widely and generally considered to be 'good' examples within a particular context, conceptually, visually, ideologically etc etc, which makes blogs like this as close to an academic source as is possible for something subjective like design.

All the images on this post have been sourced from It's Nice That, and have been referenced appropriately on a post-to-post basis.

"Great graphic design from "hippie-town" dwelling creative Derek Wycoff" - Emily Gosling

Derek Wycoff is a designer with "no formal training", who works at Appalachian State University as a web designer, using his spare time to design posters for "film screenings, galleries, and other events". The latter is very reminiscent of the list of approved list of projects by the First Things First Manifesto. Two of the examples praised in this particular article are shown below, posters for Human Education, and Yoga respectively, neither of which tells you anything about what the poster is about. This is an example of how the "Thinking Relatively" chapter in the Lucienne Roberts' book I looked at should be considered, and is an example of Michael Bierut's assertion that "Manifestos are simple: life is complicated".

Human Education

Yoga

Full Article

Article
GOSLING, E. (2015) Great graphic design from "hippie-town" dwelling creative Derek Wycoff [Online] August 19th 2015. Available from: http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/derek-wycoff-poster-design. [Accessed: 6th October 2015]

Human Education
WYCOFF, D. Human Education (2015) [Poster] Available from: http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/derek-wycoff-poster-design. [Accessed: 6th October 2015]

Yoga
WYCOFF, D. Yoga (2015) [Poster] Available from: http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/derek-wycoff-poster-design. [Accessed: 6th October 2015]

A Swiss designer's festival identity based on the headliners' vibrations - Emily Gosling

Swiss designer Alexandre Pietra came up with this identity for the French music festival For Noise. It's based on the splodges made when paint was put on paper left on speakers which were playing music by the festivals headliners, to "let the music speak for itself". The cause of the work is arguably cultural, so it falls within the parameters of First Things First. I would argue that, whilst it's conceptually sound, the colour is far too bright and the choice to use typography that's been creased for the main 'For Noise' text makes the type look very similar to Comic Sans, a well-known taboo. Given the high number of examples of culturally based work on the blog compared to the numbers of commercial work, I would argue that given the very subjective nature of this particular design, it has been featured because of the cultural nature of the work as opposed the effectiveness of the design, which puts the blog in the same position of favouring cultural work as FTF.

Alexandre Pietra's 'For Noise' Identity

Full Article

Article
GOSLING, E. (2015) A Swiss designer's festival identity based on the headliners' vibrations [Online] June 29th 2015. Available from: http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/alexandre-pietra. [Accessed: 6th October 2015]

Image
PIETRA, A. For Noise (2015) [Stationary Set] Available from: http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/alexandre-pietra. [Accessed: 6th October 2015]

A2SWHK and Margaret Calvert create new typeface to improve Moscow’s transport - James Cartwright

The new typeface designed for Moscow's transport exemplifies that it's easier to find work in cultural fields (or any field for that matter) if you have previous experience in the field. Any typeface designer could've been involved on this project, yet it was Margaret Calvert who was involved, because she worked on the British road signs with Jock Kinneir. This is illustrative of Michael Bierut pointing out that most of FTF's signatories built their careers on cultural work, so it's easy for them to say that should be the sole focus of a graphic designers practice, because they can get the work, others perhaps can not.

Moscow Sans

Full Article

Article
CARTWRIGHT, J. (2015) A2SWHK and Margaret Calvert create new typeface to improve Moscow’s transport [Online] March 31st 2015. Available from: http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/a2swhk-moscow. [Accessed: 6th October 2015]

Image
A2SWHK. Moscow Sans (2015) [Typeface] Available from: http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/a2swhk-moscow. [Accessed: 6th October 2015]

Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic logos unveiled - Emily Gosling

After all the controversy surrounding the 2012 Olympics logo and the potential racial slurr with the abstract shapes, as well as the much joked about Simpsons characters partaking in oral sex, you'd have thought that a logo for an event as culturally significant as the Olympic Games would be bulletproof. However, the 2020 Paralympic logo, which is an adaption of the Olympic logo to resemble an equals sign, looks exactly the same shape as a pause button on a remote. It goes without saying that connotations of stopping and slowing should be kept well away from something so closely linked with disability. This is an example of Bierut saying that the problem with design is people not doing their jobs well enough as opposed to taking on the wrong work.

Kenjio Sano's Olympic Logos

Full Article

Article
GOSLING, E. (2015) Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic logos unveiled [Online] July 27th 2015. Available from:http://www.itsnicethat.com/news/tokyo-2020-olympic-and-paralympic-logos-unveiled. [Accessed: 6th October 2015]

Image
SANO, K. Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Logos (2015) [Logos] Available from: http://www.itsnicethat.com/news/tokyo-2020-olympic-and-paralympic-logos-unveiled. [Accessed: 6th October 2015]

Next Steps

I wanted to look through Creative Review, as I had a couple of pages bookmarked that could've been useful, but unfortunately there's been an issue with their website which has reduced the amount of content on there, making it an inefficient use of time. I found this exercise difficult enough as it was, and feel like from this point onwards I should wait to try and find examples until I've got a skeleton of my essay so I know what the examples need to show.

Having struggled to explain in words why the above examples are appropriate, I can only see this becoming more of an issue when I try and relate a piece of design to one of Nietzsche's theories. Knowing that my understanding of the eternal recurrence improved after Spinks compared it to the film Groundhog Day and after I watched the Turin Horse, trying to find some films that show examples of the will to power and the ubermensch will allow me something to refer too when talking about them, making it easier for me to explain them.