You must select one work of graphic design from a book placed on the Course Reserves shelf at the library for this class, or from the online Canvas course reserves. The image you choose will form the basis for this first essay and the second one, so choose well!
(i chose an image from Meggs’ History of Graphic Design)
The essay consists of two parts:
1) In the first, descriptive component, in approx. 400-500 words, you will provide a vivid, accurate, and precise account of what you see. You should discuss the designs formal attributes, as well as any feeling or emotional message they communicate.
Consider the following questions:
- How is the image arranged? Give us a verbal picture of what you see.
- Which of the following are present? Describe them. Line, color, value, shape, composition, pattern, texture, typography, photography, engraving, decorative elements, symbols, etc. (note that not all of these may be present)
- What is the feeling or symbolic message communicated by these formal elements?
2) In the second component, approximately 600 words, you will attempt to provide contextual background for the work, trying to answer the question of why and how it came into being, and why it looks the way it does:
- What are the design contexts that surround this work? Is it part of a broader movement in design, that can help explain its visual choices?
- What materials or techniques, either of design or printing/presentation, inform its appearance?
- What larger economic, social, technological, political contexts is it operating within? Who is the client? What is the product or communicative category to which it belongs? Who is the presumed audience?
Your essay must pay attention to grammar, spelling, and syntax.
Each of the two parts must have a clear organization of ideas, and both must present a clear thesis statement at the outset: ie., for the descriptive component “this work uses low angle perspective, a graduated color palette, and small elements to produce an effect of monumental scale”; for the second, “produced during the heyday of transatlantic steamships and excitement surrounding industrial modernity, this work reflects the way that visual strategies of Art Deco graphics flatness, abstraction, and airbrushed smoothness were used to support what has been termed the ‘industrial sublime’.” Your first part would describe in detail what you see and how it supports the overall feeling of the piece; the second would situate it in design history (Art Deco, travel ads) and in history more broadly (industrial modernity, the industrial sublime, translatlantic travel, etc.)
Total length: 1000-1200 words
- You must include an image of your chosen work on a separate page, with a caption indicating designer (if known), title, year. You must also indicate which text it comes from, and the page number.
- For the descriptive component: do not undertake any external research: your description should only be based on your own visual scrutiny of this image, and your own language to describe what you see.
- For the contextual component, you must do some historical research into the period, contexts, artist’s career, audience for the work. You must show evidence of research in the form of quotes and proper citations for all the information you provide here.
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