Reading Reflections 1 & 2 - Dan Kozerski

Part 1:

Not only is Apple's logo very universally applicable, but the font choice
and layout of their ad campaigns are very simple

          I found the first part of the reading to be quite interesting. As a student of design, as well as a person living in a world filled so heavily with typography (especially a big city), I think it is important to know and understand the foundation of the art; how it started and how it has reached the point it is at today. The aspect of the article that really provoked the most thought, for me, was the timeline of evolution in regards to new styles and what is the norm in different periods of time. I found it to be very similar to fashion trends, or simply trends in general. Font began with such simple stylistic attributes with Structuralism, move towards abstract form with Modernism, and so on until it got very extreme with bumps and grunge added to the letterforms. Much like fashion trends become popular again, I feel as if current designers are gravitating toward what is simple. Fonts have been taken so far to the extreme that it seems a lot of people are searching for basic.

          The second part of the reading, Language of Vision, was very thought provoking for me as well. In the area of text in which they touched on abstract symbols meaning different things for people of different cultures I really began to think about the effect that plays on the designer when creating an image for branding, identity, or any piece of design that will be seen internationally. In my marketing class last quarter we learned about how carefully one must select the name for their business because certain words can me different things in different languages.  One doesn’t want to be offending potential buyers in other countries on purpose, let along on accident. I find it to be very similar for design. One must be very careful when creating logo designer, for example, because he/she could be messing around with images that have loaded meaning, prior to the design, in certain countries.

Part 2:

I had trouble finding out if this is actually a spread by Fiore; however,
it's a great example of breaking boundaries.

          I found this reading to be a lot easier than the first, possibly do to the fact that the story of Fiore is quite interesting. While I found his initial spreads to be extremely innovative, at some points I felt like he was making very similar layouts, except with different content, in an attempt to mimic the success of The Medium is the Massage. It wasn’t until I saw the spreads for I Seem to Be a Verb, which was done very similar to a scrapbook that I realized he was really pushing his style further and further. Regardless, breaking boundaries, like he did so well, is something that I think all designers strive to do in their career. It’s something that I really enjoy to see, and when someone has the guts go out and do it I find it to be very commendable. It’s a shame that he thought people categorized his 50 years of work into two and a half, but I think that’s an unfair generalization that any artist is susceptible to. I mean take a look at musicians. Some musicians spend their entire career running away from, or chasing, one song. At least he’s categorized by two and half years rather than three and a half minutes, or so. However, I don’t think it something to worry about. At the end of the day one creates art for himself/herself first and foremost, and that’s all that really matters. I think all artists need to understand that sometimes and give themselves more credit.