Assignment 02

Ivan Chermayeff is a leading web designer, co-founder of Chermayeff & Geismer, and has other celebrated works of art, illustrations, and other publications. He was born in London, England in 1932. His education includes Harvard University, the institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology, and the Yale University School of Design. Some of Chermayeff’s awards of recognition include the Royal Designer for Industry by the Royal Society of Arts and Commerce, Gold Medal from the American Institute of Graphic Arts and the Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators. Chermayeff & Geismer have designed logos for NBC, Chase Bank, Showtime and many others. Chermayeff has written several books including Watching Words Move, Designing, and Furry Facts.

I found an interview that was given and there was a question that I found very interesting. (metropolismag.com)

Since you began, how has the computer influenced your field?
Enormously. Computers are absolutely essential, they are incredibly useful to designers, but they are merely tools. They don’t have ideas. In my personal opinion, they’ve done a tremendous amount of harm to the quality of design at the highest level. Generally, they’ve raised the bottom up, so that the quality of design is better everywhere.

When we started this business, there were a handful of people who were helping to define what design was all about and we were perhaps among the few. Now there are 60-to-70,000 graduates in graphic design alone in the United States. It’s a changing world and the computer makes that possible. But while the quality has risen from the bottom, it’s come down from the top. The reason is there’s an awful lot of programming available.

This is only a part of the answer, but I found it interesting because I believe that the main point is that quality is the most important part of design, but computers give restrictions and has made graphic design general and easy for anyone to do. Any design is not always good. I start to see just how important logos are, and that is something that I would not have thought about previously.

"Art in Architecture." Chermayeff & Geismar. Web. 18 Apr. 2011. <http://www.cgstudionyc.com/>.

Evitts, Elizabeth A. "A Half Century of Solutions." Metropolis Magazine. Web. 18 Apr. 2011. <http://www.metropolismag.com/story/20080125/a-half-century-of-solutions>.

"Ivan Chermayeff, Interview with One Half of the Graphic Design Duo Chermayeff&geismar." Designboom. Web. 18 Apr. 2011. <http://www.designboom.com/eng/interview/chermayeff.html>.

Clement Monk is a designer, publisher and entrepreneur. He was a designer for Apple inc. and has done designs for IBM. He founded CMCD, a royalty-free stock-photo house that gave designers access to libraries of iconic images. He also helped launch NetObjects Fusion, a web-authoring application designers could use without learning the line of code.  Monk has had influence in many areas including information design, information architecture, interaction design, strategic design, brand identity, interface design and customer experience.

I looked at some of the designs by Monk, and I saw how innovative he was when it came to the business side of design. He was involved in a lot of projects that were not about making money, but changing the way things were done and to make things more effective.

               

McMillan, Sam. "Clement Mok — AIGA | the Professional Association for Design." AIGA | the Professional Association for Design. Web. 18 Apr. 2011. <http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/medalist-clementmok>.

Seymour Chwast is a graphic designer and illustrator. His works are recognized in books, advertisements, magazines, and posters.  He is known for the Push Pin Almanac and later Push Pin Graphic, which were designed to show clients that ideas were important to design and illustration. Chwast has designed The Illustrated Cat, The Illustrated Flower and Robot, co-author of The Art of New York, Art Against War and Happy Birthday and Tall City, Wide Country.

        

"Seymour Chwast — AIGA | the Professional Association for Design." AIGA | the Professional Association for Design. Web. 18 Apr. 2011. <http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/medalist-seymourchwast>.