ASSIGNMENT 02: Designer Comparison Essay/Story
Objectives
1. Articulate the relationship between cultural context and design innovation and expression;
2. Research designers from historic periods and familiarize yourself with their signature works;
3. Use the structure of comparison to highlight the similarities and differences between two different types of designed products (buildings, products, graphics and services and systems).
4. Practice your editing! Convey details in a concise and well-structured story.
Assignment:
Understanding more about the people who have contributed to the establishment of the design disciplines is an important step toward being knowledgeable about design processes and practices. And as design practices have become more actively entwined with people in general, using well-told stories to communicate messages has become a critical design skill.
Use this opportunity to learn about two designers by comparing one to another and demonstrate your awareness of how some particular aspect of their design process or a well-known design project for which they have been credited can be explained through an imaginative story you create. Write a story that sets the stage for the meeting of the two designers you have investigated. Describe the place where the meeting occurs... what would make sense, given the personalities involved? Do they meet over lunch? In a court room? When one attends the exhibition of another? Do they follow each other on Twitter? You decide and describe the scenario. Include an image of a significant design associated with each of the designers in your essay.
In your story, one of the designers should engage the other by either 1) telling him/her about how his/her work has been a positive influence on the younger designer (and why); or by 2) making the point that times have changed, and that new times require exciting new approaches to design (and why); or by 3) making the point that what is new can never live up to the quality of what was done in the past (and why).
Context for your story should be the most critical cultural factors such as wars or other types of life- altering political events, advancements in science, engineering or manufacturing, and/or key evolutions in cultural expression (art, music, literature, etc.). Illustrate your story with one image that you feel helps support the point being made in the exchange between the two designers. Be sure to provide a reference list for any sources you use to support the information your story provides, including sources for the images.
Choose your two designers from the list on page two. Because this story is a work of fiction, the two designers do not have to have lived in the same place at the same time. Anything is possible!
A 1500 word essay that expresses, in your own words, a story about two designers who meet and converse about their work in a brief but entertaining conversation. Your story should be presented as a double-spaced pdf, deposited in Carmen prior to the start of class on 10/20/16. No hard copy of this assignment is required.
DESIGNERS
Spatial Design/Architecture
Antoni Gaudi (1852- 1926) Spain
Le Corbusier (1887- 1965) Switzerland
Frank Lloyd Wright (1867- 1959) USA
Walter Adolph Gropius (1883-1969) Germany
Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928) UK
Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe (1883-1969) Germany
Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983) USA
Eileen Gray (1878-1976) Ireland
Lucien Kroll (1927-) Belgium
Charles Correa (1930-) India
Arata Isozaki (1931-) Japan
Peter Eisenman (1932-) USA
Norman Foster (1935-) UK
Renzo Piano (1937-) Italian
Charles Jenks (1939-) USA
Tadao Ando (1941-) Japan
Frank Gehry (1941-) Canada
Samuel Mockbee (1944- 2001) USA
Jean Nouvel ( 1945-) France
Peter Zumthor (1946-) Switzerland
Daniel Libeskind (1946-) Poland
Li Xiaodong (1955- ) China
Zaha Hadid (1950-2016) Iraq
Cameron Sinclair (1973-) UK
Visual Communication Design
Alexey Brodovitch (1898-1971) Russia
Herbert Bayer (1900- 1985) Austria/USA
Paul Rand (1914-1996) USA
Herb Lubalin (1918- 1981) USA
Lou Dorsfman (1918- 2008) USA
Armin Hoffman (1920-) Switzerland
Saul Bass (1920-1996) USA
Milton Glaser (1929-) USA John Massey (1931-) USA
Massimo Vignelli (1931-2014 ) Italy
Ivan Chermayeff (1932- ) UK
Steff Geisbuhler (1942-) Switzerland
Wolfgang Weingart (1941-) Germany
Wim Crouwel (1947-) Dutch
Paula Scher (1948-) USA
William Drentell ( 1953 -) USA
David Carson ( 1954 -) USA
Tim Brown (1958- ) UK
Kenya Hara (1958- ) Japan
Irma Boom (1960-) Netherlands
Stefan Sagmeister (1962- ) Austria
Ellen Lupton (1963-) USA
Neville Brody (1967-) UK
Fanette Mallier (1977-) France
Industrial Design
Ferdinand Porsche (1875-1951) Germany
Walter Dorwin Teague (1883-1960) USA
Norman Bel Geddes (1893-1958)
Raymond Loewy (1893-1986) USA
Donald Deskey (1893-1989) USA
Arne Jacobsen ( 1902-1971) Denmark
Henry Dreyfuss (1904-1972) USA
Viktor Schreckengost (1906-2008)
Charles Eames (1907-1978) +
Ray Eames (1912-1988) USA
George Nelson (1908-1986) USA
Hans Jørgensen Wegner (1914-2007) Denmark
Florence Knoll (1917-) USA
Verner Panton (1926-1998) Denmark
Sergio Pininfarina (1926-2012) Italy
Niels Diffrient (1928-2013) USA Dieter Rams (1932-) Germany
Syd Mead (1933-) USA
Luigi Colani (1928-) Germany
Michael Graves (1934-2015) USA
Mario Bellini (1935-) Italy
James Dyson (1947-) UK
Philippe Starck (1949 France
David Kelley (1951-) USA
Ross Lovegrove ( 1958-) UK
Ken Okuyama (1959-) Japan
Karim Rashid (1960-) Egypt
Jonathan Ive (1967-) USA
Yves Behar (1967-) Switzerland.