Storytelling Through Words and Images: Brian Fies' Story

On Tuesday, November 2nd, our class had the privilege of hearing from guest speaker Brian Fies.  Illustrator and author of Mom's Cancer and Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow, Fies talked to us about the process of creating the comics, the origins of the comics, and influences of certain pages within the books themselves.  One of the topics he discussed was the ongoing process of finding the best cover for his first, award winning comic.  After hundreds of possibilities for designs, the end result was this:


Credit to Brian Fies
The simplicity of the cover, after seeing the different possibilities, is striking in its structure.  The broken frames show that it's a graphic novel, but the gradient night backdrop seems to indicate that she had come to the night of her life.
Knowing that this was his outlet and his way of coping was a great thing to behold.  Not only were we getting an inside scoop on his thought process in his illustrations: we were also getting to know him.  In getting to know him, we saw that Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow was also something very dear to him.  In fact, it encompassed what he said to be a huge part of who he was.  It didn't hurt to see that the cover for that graphic novel was cool looking.


Credit to Brian Fies
So why is it that Fies decided to use words and images to describe his mother's illness instead of a book?  In a graphic novel, Fies is able to describe his mother's cancer with words while also showing a pain that a thousand words can describe while only one picture can show.  The magic of both media together is that he can show what he saw (and what he envisioned in his mind) through his visuals, but his words were also powerful in providing the audience with his actual thoughts.  Through both of these, he was able to show the story of his mother in a way that only words and images can provide.  They work together in a way that is efficient for those who seek visuals as well as those we want to read deeper than what's provided in images.  I  wish him the best of luck in his future projects and am incredibly thankful he shared his stories and his experiences with us.

The Cartoon Art Museum: a Place Where Words and Images Collide

On Saturday, November 6, Pixel (the graphic design club at UCD) went on a brief trip down to San Francisco to take a look at the Cartoon Art Museum.  It's always an adventure going down to the city, especially with one way streets galore.  But after looking for a god 20 minutes for a parking spot, we managed to find our way to the smaller-than-expected Cartoon Museum.


Credit to Google Images
There were a few different exhibits going on at the same time.  When we went, there was the exhibit "Graphic Details: Confessional Comics by Jewish Women" and "The Editorial Art of KAL from The Economist".  There were also a lot more examples, such as sketches from Jeff Smith's Bone.


Credit to Jeff Smith
However, I must say that my favorite exhibit had to have been Kevin "Kal" Kallaugher's exhibit.  Not only were the political cartoons hilarious, but the artistry involved was especially impressive to me just because of the caricatures.


Credit to Kevin "Kal" Kallaugher
There is so much involved in making words and pictures interact.  In these cartoonists' case, it's all about being able to communicate to their audience through precise wording as well as artistic recreations of these words.  It could also be the other way around: the concepts could have started with the images and had words added to them to make complete sense of the entire piece.
Comics have their own way of showing continuous movement through images and words in ink.  They have multiple genres, so everyone has something to enjoy.  However, they are also expressions of their creators: while they all have distinguishing characteristics that dictate the way they flow or the message they communicate, they all involve images and words.  These images and words interact in ways that can only be understood by the audience.  In this way, they take their own form in the audience's individual mind, but their main form will always consist of images and words.

Goethe in Music Class: Design and Music Sharing an Important Individual

I think we know who this is.
Credit to Google Images

Goethe is known as the father of Romanticism.  He was also a philosopher, color theorist, natural scientist, art critic, author, and poet.
When we were listening to a piece in my Music class, someone asked who wrote the lyrics to the song.  Our TA told us, "His name is Goethe."  (With the correct pronunciation, of course.)  MY eyes just about bugged out of my eyes the second he finished his sentence.  "How in the world did Goethe end up becoming a lyricist after everything he's done in his lifetime?"


Credit to Google Images


Franz Schubert, a Classical/Romantic composer, wrote the music for an opera called "Winterreisse".  One of the songs in the opera "Gretchen am Spinnrade (Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel)" actually had the lyrics done by Goethe through one of his poems.  The song itself personifies the spinning wheel with the piano playing as though it were the spinning wheel, the right hand constantly going as the wheel is constantly turning while the left hand is the foot pump, coming in every once in a while.  The song is basically about a girl singing about a fantasy she is having about some other man.

But what does this have to do with design?  Does this mean music inspires design?

Credit to Google Images

It seems to do so.  But besides that, music has its influences and designers as well.  Composers and lyricists need to work together to form a coherent and (preferably) understandable piece of music so that the public appreciates what they're presenting.  In this song in particular, it has one of the fathers of an era as its lyricist.  With Goethe in the mix, design is involved in how his lyrics/words match the patterns/rhythm of Schubert's piece.  So much goes on in the process of composing and inspiration is key: it seems that design and music can inspire each other.  A composer may be walking along and discover the beauty in the design of something and be inspired while designers can listen to music to become inspired to design something beautiful.  It's quite a lovely cycle to be a part of: I'm just glad Goethe got a chance to be a part of this endless cycle of beautiful inspiration.

The Pencil: Making Its (Erasable) Mark on Design

Design needs inspiration, but it also needs something to help people communicate ideas to each other.  Sometimes it requires pictures, words, or some other source of visual communication.  They can be provided with ink, but what about the pencil?


Credit to Red Pencil Design


Pencils are exclusively important in the art world as well as the design world.  In fact, it's essential in any society that provides written language or some form of art.  Unlike ink and markers, it's semi-permanent.  With an eraser, you can do away with any mark you've made.  Sketching uses a certain type of pencil while scantrons only take certain pencils.  This shows that there are, quite obviously, different types of pencils with different types/thicknesses of lead.  Then there are the mechanical pencils that allow you to put lead in them so that they can last longer than a pencil that needs to be sharpened (but eventually becomes useless).  Last, there are even colored pencils.  They aren't as erasable as pencils (though some may be), but different tints and shades of colors are used in creating certain colors through the pencil.  Some work better with markers, ink, paint, oil, or whatever medium there is involved with creating a piece of art, but others use colored pencils because they can provide an excellent amount of pigment and can be used to shade and blend well.


Bambi: by Alice White


Although pencils are mass produced in all different shapes, sizes, and colors, they represent more than just something to write or draw with.  Pencils represent what humankind has done: they managed to find a material to make a mark on a surface: this was evident through drawings on cave walls.  Then we were able to use it to create written languages: it's a little easier than having to carve words/characters into tablets or rocks.
Pencils are part of the reason why we can design what we design today.  They are part of the process in creating design, therefore they will always be part of design, whether it's what they create or what is created for them (i.e. the design of the pencil itself).  They've made their marks, and as long as humans are imperfect, there will always be erasers to help erase those imperfections along the way.

Objectified: The Life of the Designer, the Designed and the Degradable

Most people don't think about the process involved in creating certain objects.



Who knew that so much testing, materials, and ideas were needed to create a more usable pair of hedge clippers?  To take the most extreme of people (i.e. people with arthritis) and make things easier for them than the average Jane seems to be incredibly important in how IDEO designs their products because what's comfortable for someone who lives with hand pains should also be comfortable for those who don't.

                               
Before with no hand support                                                                              After with hand support
Both credited to Clip Art Guide


But Tim Brown, the CEO of IDEO, also talked about how everything you make will someday end up in a landfill.  It's a much deeper subject than it sounds at first.  Yes, everything you design will have its life: it will start as a concept, be born, have its use with some family, then once something newer and better comes out, it will be tossed and end up in a landfill.  So why can't we design objects that just aren't made to last?  Why can't we do as David Kelley of IDEO says: why can't we design things that get better with use?  Or why can't we make things that are, at the very least, made by something degradable as Karim Rashid suggested?


Credit to ecofriend.org


Biodegradable furniture: it's a start.  Unfortunately, the concept of biodegradable anything is still in the planning stages.  There's so much to design: concepts, actual creation, distribution, and appreciation.  Some are aware of the process, but most are not.  I just hope that even though everything needs some form of design, we will find some way to make it temporary just because we are temporary.  To know that there might be objects that could possibly outlast us just because it's made of certain materials is an interesting concept just in case there might be life after us that might discover a crushed cell phone.  But I'm getting ahead of myself: design is about the creation of the objects and I hope that it ends up being something that will be helpful to us in every way.  And if can just disappear after we're done with them instead of leaving remnants, the world would probably appreciate it as well.

New Logos and Changing the Labels: Why Companies Do Such Things

While I was thinking of something to write about, my boyfriend showed me the newest iTunes icon:


Credit to Apple

And I sat there and thought, "Why?"  The old icon was perfectly fine: why go and change their icon?

Credit to Apple


So then I also contemplated why certain companies have changed their looks multiple times over the years they've been in business.

Credit to Google Images and GAP



Credit to Google Images and Bath and Body Works

         

Credit to Google Images and Windows


So what is the logic behind the change in certain icons/logos/labels of products?
Times change: new generations are born every decade, now almost even less.  So I think that designers are trying to appeal to newer generations by modernizing their products and their logos.  Sometimes it's subtle: take the Bath and Body Works products, for example.  They have had several different designed labels, but I think designers in the company have decided that they needed to change the look of the products so that it doesn't necessarily show everything in that scent anymore.  In the Warm Vanilla Sugar old label, there was a picture of sugar cubes.  In the new label, it shows a vanilla-colored ribbon in the background instead.  Why change it so you can't see the products that it smells like?  I can't say for sure because I'm not the designer, but I think it's to make it simple for people and to make it so that they may be more intrigued to smell the fragrance instead of seeing the sugar cubes and saying, "Ew, no, I don't like sugary smells.  I automatically won't smell it."  They have also changed their bottle design during season changes: during the holiday season, they have snowflakes on their labels to give it a more festive feel.
For other companies, they have their reasons in the changing of their labels/logos/icons.  As I had said before, it's mostly about the times and the changing of the generations and what appeals to them.  I think that if a company lasts long enough, they should probably change their logos every once in a while so that they will have customers think that, "Oh wow!  They're hip and with it!"  It might boost sales with the new generation that sees the newer logo, but some of the public reacts badly. 
Take GAP's most recent example: after trying to change their look, they received a bunch of bad reviews from their audience.  They learned from this experience and kept their old logo.
Companies don't know whether it will compliment or condemn their companies if they change their logos: however, some companies have the money to pay designers to create their new logo.  Whether it's good or not, at least it gives designers an opportunity to give a company a new face.

Comparing and Contrasting Art and Design

When we ask people what art is, they have a general idea of what it is.  When we ask people what design is, the definition isn't as obvious to some.  But to those who do know what design and art are...  Well, it's not that easy giving straight definitions to distinguish the differences and similarities between the two.  My comparing and contrasting will be mostly my opinion of the definitions of art and design.
So what is art?  This question has been asked for centuries, but up to this day, it's still ambiguous in its definition. For me, art is (mostly) a visually appealing object in some form created by a (or several) person(s).



Dionysus and Ariadne by Tiziano



Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss by Canova



An unfinished sketch of my mother.  Credit to Alice White.




High speed photography.  Google Images


The list continues, but those are just a few examples of what most people consider to be art.
In this way, it's similar to design just because the purpose of design is to make something visually appealing.
However, art is only an aesthetic that is used for decor or to make a point in our minds.  Design has a function: I see design as an artistic form of making something that may be drab and boring into something that is visually appealing to the human eye.  Design comes in many forms from designing the interior of a room to designing a website.  Although not entirely about certain aspects of art, design has its own category in making certain things more alluring to us.


Credit to Easylife Productions



Credit to ethicalweddings.com


Some see art and design as two completely different fields, some see them as practically the same.  I say they're both: design is a form of art, so it's not the same, but it also takes form from techniques that artists use in their works.  Art isn't always as functional as design, but some would argue that art is the reason why design exists.  So although they are different (but share some qualities), there will always be a debate as to their relation to each other.