The sustainability of social networking sites.

First there was Friendster.com, then Myspace.com, then Facebook.com and now Twitter.com. Why is it that multiple social networking sites come and go – with each of them having its own dominating reign of a couple of years or so, and then quickly fading away into cyberspace history? If they all exist as social networking sites, how is the “old-school” Friendster.com so different from the “hip and happening” Twitter.com? Each of the died-out social networking sites lacks one thing: sustainability in design.

(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_FOiFNF-hryY/SmfzA2LeqiI/AAAAAAAABLs/-7RWejttrto/s400/social_networking_sites.jpg)

As Nathan Shedroff described, sustainable design is unattainable, but it would ideally be defined as something that is efficient today, efficient tomorrow and efficient for upcoming generations. According to this definition, Friendster.com and Myspace.com have definitely failed to maintain a sustainable design, otherwise users would still be heavily relying on them for social networking purposes. The deciding factor that explains why Facebook.com and Twitter.com are currently all the rage in the social networking world is the differences in design of the websites. One major design change from Myspace.com to Facebook.com was, for example, having unlimited photo-uploading space as well as the option of “tagging” your friends in photos. One major design change from Facebook.com to Twitter.com is the option of constantly posting alerts about oneself, which is especially useful for those who are always on-the-go and can quickly update their statuses and alert their friends from their mobile phones.

New and improved features such as those described above are clearly the reason for the evolution of social networking sites because eventually, Myspace.com added their own feature of also being able to “tag” friends in photos, and Facebook.com has regularly been changing its design layout to make its use more accommodating to its users. For example, the recently added “Live Newsfeed” option allows users to easily and constantly be updated with their friends’ statuses. So basically, when a newer social networking site is established, people are going to swerve towards the most efficient, convenient and high-featured website. All in all, many of these social networking sites have conjoined so that when an update is made on one site, the same update is automatically made on every other social networking site the individual has – thus, allowing users to effortlessly maintain all of their social networking sites at once.

Reuse, Reduce, Recycle, Restore.

Nathan Shedroff, author of Design is the Problem, is recognized as a pioneer in experience design – “an approach to creating successful experiences for people in any medium” (http://www.nathan.com/ed/index.html). Shedroff defines sustainable design as “design and development that meets today’s needs without preventing those needs from being met by future generations,” although he also states that there is no such thing as sustainable design. Sustainable design allows for something to be efficient today, efficient tomorrow and even efficient decades from now. Or in other words, what is efficient for an individual today must still be efficient for that individual’s children, grandchildren and so on.

Since sustainable design does not technically exist, society must instead focus on more sustainable design in order to envision what the idealistic more sustainable, more meaningful and post-consumer world would be like. This more sustainable design consists of multiple design strategies, all which fall under the categories of reducing, reusing, recycling and restoring. One design strategy, which falls under the reducing category, is dematerialization. A key example of relying on dematerialization as a more sustainable design strategy is the currently popular device, the iPhone. Why would an individual prefer to carry around all of the following devices: a cell phone, an audio/MP3 player, a PDA, a digital camera, a GPS system, a watch and an e-Reader, when just one device can provide all of the above?

(http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_iphone/family/iphone?mco=MTAyNTQzMTI)
(http://www.nathan.com/thoughts/DesignIsTheProblem.pdf)

That is where the iPhone comes into play – and it could be the explanation as to why the iPhone is so widely used in today’s society. One could easily imagine how much less material is required in producing just one iPhone versus the amount of material required to separately produce all of the previously mentioned devices whose features already come installed with the iPhone.

So as the usual American learns during their elementary school years, Shedroff overall emphasizes the ideas of REDUCE, REUSE, RECYLE (and RESTORE). Although America comes nowhere close to Cuba when it comes to sustainability and the idea of creating a completely sustainable community is unrealistic, the newly defined area of experience design is the first step to achieving the more sustainable world that people long for.

That's so KITSCH.

With the holiday season drawing near, one must prepare for the masses of tacky and exaggeratedly decorated – also referred to as “kitsch” – front lawns [see image below].

(http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/uimages/dc/12-11-survey-1.jpg)

The inflatable snowmen, the fake snow and the Santa Claus with reindeer ensembles all fall under this description of kitsch. Originating from the German language, “kitsch” is simply used to describe something that is of bad taste – especially in the arts. “Kitsch” is mentioned in Gary Hustwit’s film, “Objectified,” primarily to contrast the ideal of “good design.” The film defines “good design” as being aesthetic, unobtrusive, long-lived, consistent in detail, environmentally friendly and most importantly, useful. All of these features of “good design” come into play when formulating the bigger contextual picture – that of the relationship between humans and objects. This bigger picture is even placed into consideration when it comes to designing what would normally seem like insignificant objects, such as a toothpick.

(http://pullquote.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c54b153ef01156f7eb9f4970b-800wi)

In the film, the design process of the Japanese-designed toothpick is discussed – demonstrating the significant, although often overlooked, detail of the ridged top of the toothpick. The Japanese designed this aspect of the toothpick in order to allow for people to break off the ridged top to rest the toothpick on after using it [see image above]. This tiny detail emphasizes the film's recurring idea how there is a design for everything.

Speakers in “Objectified” suggest that designers are constantly looking at things and thinking why things are the way they are, as well as always looking to the future when it comes to design. Returning to the kitsch holiday lawn decorations, as society continues to advance with improving the human-object relationship of design, what will become of these mass-produced items that stray so far away from the ideals of “good design?” Only the future holds that answer, but no need to worry. If one is, in fact, a fan of such kitsch holiday lawn decorations, after the holidays have passed, they will immediately be replaced back in the standard forms of lawn gnomes and pink flamingos. Whatever the fate is of any type of kitsch lawn ornament, the idea from “Objectified” still stands: “We have too many unnecessary things everywhere.”

"No one mourns the wicked"

Throughout American culture, many objects are utilized as symbols. Take, for example, a dove representing peace, or a heart representing love. However, there are also more subtle symbols that have gradually gained their place in American culture as representing common or universal themes in society. Different colors can easily portray a message or symbol to others – simply based on what each color has regularly been correlated with other the past years. Although relying on color as a symbol is not as obvious as relying on straightforward images like the dove or heart, designing the use of colors to portray certain ideas is more commonly found than one might assume.

Almost every American knows the classic tale of The Wizard of Oz – with the characters, Dorothy, her friends and the two opposing witches. In the Tony award-winning Broadway musical, Wicked – which is “The Untold Story of The Wizard of Oz” – designers rely on color psychology to help the audience recognize the personalities of the two opposing witches, Elphaba (the Wicked Witch of the West) and Glinda (the Good Witch of the South). For anyone who has seen Wicked, color psychology was clearly used when the costume designers chose the costumes used for the two witches’ characters. For Elphaba – the Wicked Witch of the West, clothing in shades of black were used, while oppositely, for Glinda – the Good Witch of the South, clothing in shades of white or bright pink were used [see image below].

(http://todaysseniorsnetwork.com/Wicked%20Glinda%20and%20Elphaba.JPG)

Since Elphaba was portrayed as the “bad” character, at least moreso in The Wizard of Oz, black in her costumes was used to symbolize an ominous look. The color black is often used to dress “the bad guy” in American films or theater productions, since it also symbolically portrays the sense of mystery, seriousness or even death. On the other hand, Glinda was often dressed in pure white or bright pink costumes. White is often associated with purity and peace, while pink is often associated with spring and femininity. Although it is subtle, the color for such characters’ costumes is a crucial element in costume design because would the characters be perceived the same way if the Wicked Witch of the West came frolicking out in a hot pink dress, while the Good Witch of the South came dragging out in a plain black robe?

By golly, they've found Jesus!

For any individual who has browsed for anything online, pop-up advertisements or flashing advertisements on the side of the page are almost guaranteed to bombard the individual’s online experience. Common interruptive advertisements include “clicking here!” to be blown away by optical illusions. But before one becomes a victim of such advertising of optical illusions, one should be aware of the tricks that color can play on us, such as those presented in Josef Albers’ book, Interaction of Color. Albers discusses the color illusion of the after-image/simultaneous contrast and how it can cause unique psycho-physiological experiences.

Referring back to the bothersome online advertisements, an example of the after-image/simultaneous contrast color illusion is seen in the commonly seen “See Jesus!” optical illusion [see below].

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ad/Afterimage.svg/542px-Afterimage.svg.png)

Viewers are instructed to focus on the four dots lined up in the middle of the seemingly random-looking image for 30 seconds. Afterwards, viewers can close their eyes, or divert their gaze to a white wall, and lo and behold, an image of Jesus will suddenly appear! Albers provides the explanation that it is innate in our human nature to be inevitably prone to fall for such color deception tricks. The nerve ends on the human retina receive colors, and staring at one particular color for a long time will fatigue that particular color’s sensitivity. Therefore, after staring at the four black dots in the Jesus image for 30 seconds, there will be an automatic shift when attention is taken off of the four black dots – when viewers either close their eyes or divert their gaze to a white wall.

The significance that color deception plays in everyday life is not related to clicking on online advertisements to get a quick entertainment thrill. Ideas such as the after-image/simultaneous contrast emphasize the role that color interaction has in society. Interaction of color is often a determinant of how people perceive things that they encounter in their life, which brings up the interesting fact that no human – even with a trained eye – can prevent falling for color deception.

Paris Hilton as the 21st-century zeitgeist of America

When it comes to summing up the status quo of the present-day, the word “trend” or “mainstream” may come to mind. However, the Germans had originally devised the word, “zeitgeist,” which is defined as the general sociocultural tone of an era, or “the spirit of the times.” Imagine American society decades or centuries from now. What would be the zeitgeist of today’s American society? Although many things can fit as an appropriate answer to this question, there is one single object (or in this case, person) that can, unfortunately, represent America’s present-day society: Paris Hilton. The American socialite probably appears just as often in the news as any other concern of today’s society such as international warfare/terrorism, epidemic diseases or environmental issues. More likely than not, the image of Paris Hilton will live on even centuries later from now because the heiress so easily portrays the supposed highlight of present-day America: consumerism.

The concept of “zeitgeist,” is constantly changing – making it quite similar to design. Design is constantly changing, and the change is based on how previous design has been effective or ineffective in society. For example, with today’s society’s increased awareness of people’s physical handicaps and disabilities – at least compared to the level of awareness that was present a century ago – designers have since altered designed items that were once only adaptable towards the non-handicapped population. For example, what was once a normal stairway in a train station [see left image below], is now a revamped and improved design of a stairway/ramp that is accessible for any person – handicapped or not.

(Left: Personal photo)
(Right: http://gtrcontracting.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/fail-owned-stairway-fail1-150x150.jpg)

All designs, like zeitgeists, hold places in history where future designers can refer to, learn from, and even improve. If Paris Hilton’s position in the zeitgeist of American society could be portrayed as an object in the history of design, Ms Hilton would be comparable to the design of a stairway that heads directly into a wall [see right image above].

How do you measure...

…the value of value?

(Links to picture source)

The award-winning musical Broadway show (and later-made movie), RENT, greatly depends on the concept of value to portray its story and set its theme. RENT contains a deeply moving storyline by touching on sensitive and taboo subjects such as AIDS, gay relationships and drug addiction. With such powerful subjects, the role that value – the amounts of lightness and darkness – plays in the performance/movie are essential to highlighting RENT’s thematic moments. For example, in the opening scene, the actors/actresses are situated in a line on a darkened stage, with each character illuminated in his/her own individual ray of spotlight. It is during this scene when the song, “Seasons of Love” is sung, and the question, “How do you measure, a year in a life?” is raised.

The value contrast in this particular scene stirs up a sense of sincere humanity – with all focus and emphasis placed on the characters who sing about how life is fragile and how a person is never guaranteed to live through another day. The scene is especially powerfully moving when there is a blackout – when all lights are extinguished onstage – at the end of the song.

The art of quilting.

Although quilts are often associated with adorning the walls of family’s homes or lying neatly folded at the foot of people’s beds, the fabricating of quilts actually has a deeper history that is often overlooked. In the Nelson Gallery on U.C. Davis’ campus, the African American Quilts (the Sandra McPherson Collection and the Avis C. Robinson Collection) exhibit is currently on display. Here, viewers can stroll through the room and view the variety of quilts that all hold their own unique stories behind their creations. Back during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, African American women worked double shifts – plowing in the fields during the day, and making quilts for their families at night. Needlework, such as quilting, was the main way for African American women to express themselves aesthetically at the time. This history alone emphasizes the significance that lies within the stitches of quilting masterpieces, such as those on display in the Nelson Gallery, or even the quilts that do currently adorn living room walls and people’s beds.

Since new fabric was not readily accessible during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, African American women would use old pieces of clothing, bedding and flour sacks to make their quilts. One of the quilts featured in the Nelson Gallery portrayed this concept of using scraps for quilting. In the piece titled, “Annie’s Blue Jeans” [photo below], the quilt consisted of scraps of old blue jeans, tapestry fabric, cotton fabric, and hand-dyed cotton corduroy.

(Personal photo)

Although “Annie’s Blue Jeans” was actually made in 2007, the use of scraps allowed it to take on the appearance of the quilting style from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Also, the quilt’s sharp, straightforward and blunt rhythm is seen through the pattern of squares within more squares, and the quilt’s blue hued theme added to its overall cold appearance. Similar to the rhythm and pattern of a bulls-eye target, this quilt’s layout draws the viewer from the outside edges, straight into the center.

Unlike the design of “Annie’s Blue Jeans,” the pattern and rhythm found in another particular quilt from the gallery was quite different. In Rosa Ella Kincaid’s quilt [photo below], which lacked a title, there was not a pattern and rhythm that were as straightforward and obvious as the pattern and rhythm found in “Annie’s Blue Jeans.”

(Personal photo)

The rhythm in Kincaid’s quilt was less clear, but there were still obvious patterns in the repetition of figures on the quilt. By relying on gestalt principles, viewers can make out the repeating figures that resemble women in bonnets, cottages and grass fields. Also, the use of pink and beige color tones gave the quilt a warm appeal. Kincaid was born in 1886, meaning that this quilt was made during the twentieth century. Again, in contrast to “Annie’s Blue Jeans,” Kincaid’s quilt was not designed in the same organized fashion.

According to the words of Sigmund Freud...

Imagine walking down the sidewalk on your typical morning route to work. The average chalk drawings of elementary school students – smiley faces, butterflies and rainbows – are spotted along the ground. However, suddenly, out of nowhere, a gigantic hole is discovered in the sidewalk – a hole that seems to drop straight down into another world.

(Links to picture source)

Peering down into the hole in the sidewalk through the bird’s-eye view allows the new world below to be seen from a perspective with great depth. However, after peering even closer, the realization hits that this hole in the sidewalk is just a mere chalk drawing – drawn with the technique of spacial illusion.

While on the topic of illusion, design can also incorporate the illusion of motion into works of art. Why else would people continue to pay a rip-off fee to use photo booths at carnivals and amusement parks? Photo booths offer customers what normal cameras cannot: the mystifying illusion of multiple images.

(Links to picture source)

As seen in the multiple images set of American socialite, Edie Sedgwick [see image above], a sense of movement is captured when the multiple images of her different facial expressions are placed together. The movement is captured like the movement from an old-fashioned flipbook as viewers scan from one image to the next.

Like the illusion of space, the illusion of movement may be a natural sensation for people to experience because it helps make perceiving design in creative and more appealing ways. As psychoanalyst, Sigmund Freud, once stated, “Illusions commend themselves to us because they save us pain and allow us to enjoy pleasure instead. We must therefore accept it without complaint when they sometimes collide with a bit of reality against which they are dashed to pieces.”

Is balance a natural phenomenon?

In nature, balance and symmetry can easily be found almost everywhere – in the wings of a butterfly, in a sunflower, and even in the face structures of people. It is a known fact that people have a natural tendency to be attracted to people who have symmetrically balanced looking faces. On a deeper level, symmetry in appearances represents genetic fitness. Similar to people’s tendency to recognize patterns with the gestalt theory, people are also naturally registered to not only recognize, but to favor symmetry in their surroundings. This could explain why the more physically attractive crowd are often more regularly unavailable in the dating pool, why physical birth defects are regularly looked down upon by society and why the figure on the left in the picture below is more appealing to the eye for no logical reason.

(Links to image source)

Like any other design concepts, the idea of symmetrical balance has had its highlighted moments in history, along with its low moments as well. Examples of symmetrical balance at its finest were often found in architecture from centuries ago. Although examples of unsymmetrical balance in architecture have also been applauded in history, the concept of symmetrical balance still holds a spot of favor in people’s normal perceptions of design thanks to human nature.

How to walk from San Francisco to New York City in 30 seconds.

The related design concepts of scale and proportion can play a key part in how people perceive an object. People rely on proportion as a comparison tool to measure one object to another – often using the human scale reference. In other words, the scale of an object is often is matched up to human size. When the scale/size of an object does not fall in line with the norms of proportions, the unusual mismatch brings emphasis to the object(s).

The role of scale and proportion may seem miniscule in everyday life, but people actually tend to gravitate in awe towards such unusual disparities in scale and proportion. Take, for example, Legoland. Inside the depths of the theme park lies a prime example of unusual scale and proportion – Miniland!

(Pictures from Legoland.com)

Miniland is an astounding creation of LEGO pieces meshed together to form seven different cities in the United States. The different regions were built using a 1:20 ratio – thus creating miniature versions of American hotspots like New York City, Washington D.C. and San Francisco. However, there is a catch when it comes to displaying these miniature LEGO-cities. In order to see the vast contrast in scale, a universally recognizable object must be placed within range. In this case, humans are shown standing next to the miniature cities to portray the key effect that scale and proportion can play in the perception of objects. Otherwise, by simply seeing a photo of just these miniature LEGO cities, people will be unable to realize how small in scale they actually are.

Peace and a purple stain.

In Prague, Czech Republic, tucked away in a peaceful pocket of the historic district, Mala Strana, lies a peace wall.

(Personal photo)

Also known as the John Lennon Wall, the wonder consists of many layers of artistic graffiti that has collected on the wall over the past few decades. Amongst the plethora of The Beatles’-themed song lyrics, doodles and messages lies a white-painted peace sign with the word, “Imagine” scrawled out in the center. Despite the chaos surrounding the peace sign, the symbol serves as the wall’s focal point. This is achieved through emphasis by contrast – the cleanliness and whiteness of the peace sign contrasts strongly against its colored “background.” This dramatic change in color naturally draws attention to the contrasting focal point, which also brings attention to the overall meaning of the wall itself: peace.

Almost completely opposite of the appearance of the John Lennon Wall is a simplistic work by artist, Cy Twombly.

(Personal photo)

The work contains only two things: a passage by the ancient Greek poet, Sappho, and a smudge of purple. Twombly randomly scribbles out Sappho’s passage – “Like a hyacinth in the mountains trampled by shepherds until only a purple stain remains on the ground” – towards the bottom of the blank canvas. Despite the passage’s symbolic meaning of lost maidenhood, the purple stain located above the quote achieves its status as the work’s focal point through the emphasis of contrast and isolation. The smudge of purple stands out against the blank canvas by being the only source of color in the work, as it also stands out by being isolated to the point where one cannot help but be drawn in to focusing on the colored stain that sits off to the side of the passage. Even if people do not always consciously think of such aspects like the role that emphasis plays in how things are perceived, designers’ strategic use of focal points can easily – and unconsciously – encourage people to take a closer look at something that might otherwise seem quite ordinary.

The tricks our brains are capable of.

What is the difference between the two figures below?

(Links to picture sources)

The answer is simple – the first figure is that of a photo of a panda bear, while the second figure is that of a widely recognized logo of a panda bear. The question still remains though: how do the random pieces of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) logo come together to be easily perceived as the same thing as the realistic figure on the left? The gestalt theory of visual psychology is to thank for this one. “Gestalt,” which translates to “the unified whole,” is a term that derives from the field of psychology, as its name implies. According to the theory, people have the natural tendency to organize visual elements by arranging them into meaningful patterns. For example, in the WWF logo above, the figure itself is incomplete. However, with the Gestalt principle, closure, it is possible for the image to be perceived as a whole image by people’s ability to fill in the missing information to establish unity in the figure.

(Links to picture source)

Interestingly, the WWF logo has gone through a significant transformation over the years – initially appearing as a more complete and realistic-looking panda during the 1960s and 1970s, but morphing into its present-day, incomplete assortment of black and white parts during the 1980s. Although the logo has shifted into a state of less completeness, people are still able to recognize the logo as a whole by unifying these different parts to become the complete panda image.

When “Too Much” is Really Too Much.

One can easily sit and ponder on the following question: can design ever be considered too excessive, too over the top, or to put into basic terms – can design ever be “too much?” When comparing designs on a spectrum – with the concept of minimalism at one end and the concept of baroque at the opposite end – is it possible for design to ever exceed its limitations? Despite the common ideal of “more is better,” sometimes overly excessive designs are just as unacceptable as the commonly misused and grammatically incorrect phrase “more better.” On that note, too much in a design does not necessarily lead to better things. An example of this is seen in the baroque designs that were customary in Europe, especially during the seventeenth century. Anything designed in the baroque style – architecture, artwork, or music – was extremely ornamented beyond necessary means. Like all design, however, the baroque design did have a functional purpose: to portray wealth or status. This can be seen in the baroque-designed construction of the Belvedere Palace in Vienna, Austria, which was built in honor of a triumphant war hero [left picture below]. Also, baroque-designed pieces of art were also seen as being unnecessarily excessive and pompous, such as crowns used by past Austrian rulers [right picture below].

(Personal photos)

Returning to the design/creative purpose – thinking, looking, doing, criticism, and doing again – the style of baroque went through this process as well. Baroque designs were brought into society, were criticized, and eventually were somewhat brought back to society through the renewed form of neo-baroque, which was basically a modernistic twist on the original baroque design.

"Again by Heart."

There comes a point in every creator’s life when he/she must consult with outside sources to find sources of inspiration to make new creations in the future. At HitRECord.org, a website that was co-founded by actor, Joseph Gordon Levitt, people have the opportunity to record their records, or ideas (drawings, writings, videos, audios, etc.), and then have them remixed by others, thus creating new pieces of art. The website describes HitRECord.org’s purpose as being a community of people who “record, remix, respond, [and] resonate” in collaboration with each other. Branching off of others’ artwork, as different creators do on HitRECord.org, is just one way for people to find inspiration outside of themselves by making art together.

(Picture from www.hitrecord.org)

HitRECord.org serves as a key example of how the concept of “design” can be viewed more as a verb than a noun. As a noun, a design would be the ending product of a creation, while design as a verb is considered as a complex process. All in all, HitRECord.org is basically an outline of the design/creative process – the process of thinking, looking, doing, criticism, and doing again. A creator on HitRECord.org can view someone else’s creation, and put his/her own twist on it to make an entirely new creation, and receive comments (criticism) from other creators and viewers. At this point, the ancient roots of the word, “record,” come into play: “re” meaning again, and “cord,” meaning heart. Creators can then further remix any previously existing remixes, thus creating the webiste’s community of collaborative art, again by heart.

Free and Accessible Inspiration!

When one gets off track in the creative process, one of the easiest and most accessible ways to get back in touch with inspiration and motivation is right outside one’s front door. As simple as it sounds, new insights to design are available everywhere one goes – from browsing record stores or even finding the beauty in street art. Record stores can offer aspiring creators inspiration not only through musical tunes and lyrics, but also through the eclectic mixture of design found in album covers. The blending of design from different cultures is apparent throughout album art, for example. Kanye West’s “Graduation” album cover contains an Asian-designed influence by artist, Takasu Murakami, and The Velvet Underground’s debut album contains Andy Warhol’s pop art design of a banana. Out on the streets, one can possibly find inspiration through the urban scene of graffiti. Although graffiti has historically been associated with the violence of street gangs, graffiti currently holds a more artistic role in today’s society - sometimes even displaying positive messages or inspirational quotes [see picture below].

(Personal photo)

This is obvious through the accepted urban influence found in current clothing designs or tattoo art. Many young artists have been finding ways to express themselves through their public surroundings, and one can gain inspiration from such artistic expressions.

No Sandwiches Allowed.

Design serves an often overlooked function in society – simple, straightforward pictures can portray important messages to people everyday. Street signs portray symbols called pictograms (e.g., a picture of a dog) and/or ideograms (e.g., a red slash that symbolizes the meaning “no”) that are universally recognized in most cultures, even if they appear slightly different visually. Even signs that portray particular instructions or rules can be accomplished through design across different cultures, but still serve the same purpose. For example, a “no eating” sign in America may be presented as a pictogram of a knife and fork with the red slash ideogram through it [left picture below]. However, in another country, like the Czech Republic, a “no eating” sign may be presented as a more specific pictogram of a sandwich with the red slash ideogram through it [right picture below].

(Personal photo)

However, this other foreign sign would still be universally recognized as a general “no eating” instruction, not as a strictly “no eating sandwiches” instruction. This example of a universally accepted and recognized pictogram and ideogram shows how implemented the concept of design has become in everyday life.

A Softer World.

Something as familiar as a Garfield comic strip in the Sunday newspaper may not initially seem to hold the same amount of grandeur when it comes to design, as let’s say, the classic “Mona Lisa” masterpiece. Although comics are often looked down upon in today’s society as being unsophisticated entertainment for youngsters, there is actually an entire art form behind the makings of comics. Visual communication is the main focus when it comes to producing comics – allowing readers to not only appreciate the comic’s art, but to also allow them to easily follow the comic’s story.

Despite the natural assumption that comics are referring to the Sunday funnies, or the Marvel comic book heroes like Spiderman and Captain America, the design of comics can also be found in forms other than the standard cartoon. On the website, www.asofterworld.com, the two creators, Emily Horne and Joey Comeau, produce a webcomic that consists of photographs and linguistic twists and wits.

(Picture from www.asofterworld.com)

The square framings that split the single photograph into sections give the project a typical comic feel. Horne’s and Comeau’s common use of faded photographs and typewritten font in their projects allow their webcomics to appear aesthetically pleasing. Even if scrolling through the archives of the webcomics results in discovering creations that don’t always seem to make sense, like all other comics, however, A Softer World’s comics also portray a type of story through visual communication.

The Convoluted and the Contemporary at the Crocker.

Considering that design is a form of communication, one would assume that design should be able to effectively portray its intended message to its viewers. In the Crocker Art Gallery in Sacramento, California, visitors can view a plethora of European and California artwork on the second floor. However, prospective visitors should be aware of the slightly overwhelming layout of this particular exhibit. Set up in the design of the “salon style,” the collection of paintings – ranging from landscapes to portraits – adorns the walls of the room from ground to ceiling in a randomized fashion [picture below].

(Personal photo)

This “salon style” hanging of artwork was commonly used in Paris Salon exhibits up until the late nineteenth century. Believe it or not, there is actually an underlying strategy behind the chaos of the Salon style layout – the key artworks of the collection hang at eye level, while the less significant works fill up the remaining space. Although the design behind this setup is not obvious to viewers, its strategic format affects how viewers perceive the artwork.

In a museum, not only is the layout of a museum exhibit important, but the design of the artworks themselves is significant as well. Any type of design portrays a message/meaning, which can be successfully represented to viewers. For example, in the Crocker Art Gallery, there is a work by Richard Notkin called “All Nations Have Their Moments of Foolishness" [picture below].

(Personal photo)

The theme of humanity’s doomed fate is portrayed through Notkin’s careful utilization of skulls and the domino effect in the numerous tiles of the overall mural of George W. Bush. Compelling political messages such as the one lying in Notkin’s tiled mural of President Bush are portrayed to the public through the design technique of visual literacy.

What is Design?

A textbook could simply define “design” as a planned arrangement of visual elements to construct an organized visual pattern, but in reality, there is much more to design than this. Design is everywhere: in the obvious forms – in art displayed in galleries or in intricate patterns of clothing, as well as in the not-so-obvious forms – in the planned construction of a dining chair or even in the graffiti found scrawled across public walls. With design being present in everything one encounters on a day-to-day basis, exactly how functional or beneficial does design prove to be to people in society? Just because design exists, this does not necessarily mean that it is useful for functional or practical purposes. However, for the most part, design is often highly useful – fulfilling a particular purpose that it had been originally designed for. The street layouts of cities are designed in a manner where drivers will not be facing head-on collisions every five minutes; winter coats are designed to not only look fashionable, but also to act as insulators to keep its wearers warm; billboards and advertisements are designed in ways to successfully convince audiences to purchase a certain product. As the ideals of the art nouveau (“new art”) state: design does not have to be restricted solely to artwork displayed in museums – it can be a part of anything and everything. Just as the saying claims, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” the concept of design also lies in the eye of the beholder. Whether a particular design is applauded as an aesthetically pleasing masterpiece or is rejected as a distasteful cluttered mess is determined solely by the individual. In any case, however, design has served, and continues to serve, a significant purpose in society: to give meaning to something and to serve as a form of communication – thus, connecting the artwork behind the design to the people of society.