Journal Articles - New German Critique & Journal of Nietzsche Studies

Reasoning

After discussing the 1st and 4th chapters of my essay with my tutor and after re-reading the first full draft of my essay myself, I realise I need to include more discussion of the will to power, the Ubermensch, and the eternal recurrence themselves, not just their applications to graphic design. The following articles helped me with this:

• Nietzsche's "Will to Power": Politics Beyond (Hegelian) Recognition - John H. Smith
• Nietzsche on Reality as Will to Power: Toward an "Organization-Struggle" Model - Ciano Aydin
• Can One Really Become a "Free Spirit Par Excellence" or an Ubermensch? - Jacob Golomb
• Finding the Ubermensch in Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morality - Paul S. Loeb
• Nietzsche's Greatest Weight - Aaron Ridley

What I Gained

The articles provided me with more points for discussion writing chapters 2, 3 and 4, as well as increasing the strength of the triangulation in my essay.

Potentially useful quotes:

Next Steps

After adding some discussion of some of these points into my essay I'll start structuring the content of my practical work while awaiting feedback on the essay. I also want to re-read a couple of chapters of Thus Spoke Zarathustra again after reading these articles, particularly "Of Self-Overcoming" and "Of the Vision and the Riddle".

Nietzsche's Position in Philosophy - Existentialism and Sartre

Reasoning

After reading this article about existentialism and Nietzsche in The Lego Movie I thought it'd probably be a good idea to look into Sartre and Existentialism given they were mentioned in an article that confirmed some of my thoughts. Camus came as extension to through this reading. I decided that the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy would be a good place to read from, as it's well renowned for it's accuracy, and is where I started my initial readings on Kierkegaard and Schopenhauer to check they were suitable to triangulate with Nietzsche.

Existentialism

• Jean-Paul Sartre described himself as an existentialist.
• Some existentialists were unhappy as being labeled so, notably Camus and Heidegger.
• Nietzsche and Kierkegaard are seen as the precursors to existentialism.
• Accepting that understanding what it is to be human isn't enough to explain everything that science can tell us.
• Human beings can't be fully understood by science alone though, and adding a morality alongside the scientific understanding still doesn't truly explain humanity.
• Morality and ethics can't be crossed with science and is something that is more or less innate, as is the message behind the film A Clockwork Orange.
• In order to understand humanity fully we must understand natural things like intention, blame, responsibility etc etc.
• Philosophy can't be looked at as an objective science.

Jean-Paul Sartre

• Commonly considered the 'father' of existentialism.
• His initial critics were mainly communists or catholics.
• "The basis of Sartrean freedom is ontological: we are free because we are not a self (an in-itself) but a presence-to-self (the transcendence or “nihilation” of our self). This implies that we are “other” to our selves, that whatever we are or whatever others may ascribe to us, we are “in the manner of not being it,” that is, in the manner of being able to assume a perspective in its regard." (Flynn, 2013) 

What I Gained

Other than gaining a slightly more succinct understanding of existentialism as a whole, I've not really gained much from this, and I feel that this has brought the philosophical element of my research full circle to reach it's conclusion.

Next Steps

If I was to continue looking into Nietzsche's position in philosophy, I'd have to look deeper into, Existentialism and Sartre, and seemingly into Heidegger, Camus, and probably even Marxism, which seems like it could lead to confusion, as well as the general direction of the research heading increasingly away from the Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Schopenhauer core of what I've done so far.

In this sense I feel like now is an appropriate time so start compiling the current research I've done into some sort of presentable structure to base my essay on, picking out key quotes and references. Doing this will allow me to look for specific examples of graphic design that illustrate the points I'll want to make, rather than gather potentially useful examples as I was doing earlier.

First Thing First Manifesto 2014 - Cole Peters

Reasoning

After reading about a 2014 FTF Manifesto, I looked it up to see if it had any major differences from the 2000 and 1964 manifesto's that were noteworthy or potentially useful. I found it here, and after trawling through the signatories for a considerable amount of time, as well as more general searching on the internet, interestingly enough, Ken Garland doesn't seem to be a signatory, nor is he acknowledged at the bottom of the site as having shown 'overwhelming support' or providing 'promotional support and coverage'.

What I Gained

I found that it continued the change made from 1964 to 2000 in it becoming increasingly political and reinforcing the feeling of blaming designers. The main difference this time was it's focus on technology in an attempt to make it more relevant to more people outside the industry. Key points were: 

1. Inclusion of 'creative technologists' in the 'we are' section.
2. Lack of gender, race and age diversity in creative industries.
3. Accusing some designers of aiding the abuse of the law and human rights.
4. The re-inclusion of not wanting to take the fun out of life.

Potentially useful quotes:

Next Steps

Having established that there's nothing particularly groundbreakingly useful or interesting about FTF 2014 in relation to my topic, I don't feel the need to look into it any further, and will return to looking at how Nietzsche's ideas have been reflected in film to assist my ability to articulate them in the future.

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.

Design For Life - Nigel Ball & 10 Footnotes to a Manifesto - Michael Bierut

Reasoning

After struggling to find any more useful information on Johanna Drucker I came across this article on Eye Magazine's blog, written by Nigel Ball and citing Poynor's mentioning of Drucker. It talked about a potential (at the time of it's writing) update to FTF in 2014, something which did happen and I was completely unaware of. The article clearly stated some of the thoughts I've been recently having, which confirmed some of my own criticisms to be legitimate in my mind. It then seemed appropriate to go straight into Bierut's 10 Footnotes to a Manifesto, a text that I know to be heavily critical of FTF, given that I was already in the practice of identifying criticisms.

What I Gained

Both texts were incredibly useful in terms of backing up some of the criticisms I have of FTF that have been taken from Nietzsche's thoughts towards religion, which is very reassuring, as this is what I initially set out to do. These were: 

1. Ball states that "the manifesto had Modernist ideology at its core".
2. Ball also stated that the 2000 version was "more aggressive and vehemently against advertising".
3. Expanded on Drucker's thoughts by crediting her with the question "In whose interests and to what ends?"
4. Ball admits that he doesn't think FTF 2000 has caused the industry to change much.
5. Bierut suggests that the 'average designer' won't have hear of most of the signatories of the 2000 Manifesto and would find them unrelatable even if they did know who they were.
6. Bierut says It's very difficult for something as simple as a Manifesto to be realistically followable in real life.
7. There is a lack of focus on creativity in the Manifesto and it's based more around politics.
8. The manifesto is anti-capitalist.

Potentially useful quotes:

Next Steps

Having read Bierut's essay, his most recent book, 'How to use graphic design to sell things, explain things, make things look better, make people laugh, make people cry, and (every once in a while) change the world', seems like a good place to go next. I'll also explore the 2014 FTF Manifesto a little bit.