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Textbook Graphic Design The New Basics Second Edition Revised and Expanded Ellen Lupton Ebook All Chapter PDF
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GRAPHIC DESIGN
THE NEW BASICS
SECOND EDITION, REVISED AND EXPANDED
Special thanks to
Janet Behning, Erin Cain, Megan Carey,
Carina Cha, Andrea Chlad, Tom Cho,
Barbara Darko, Benjamin English,
Russell Fernandez, Jan Cigliano Hartman,
Jan Haux, Mia Johnson, Diane Levinson,
Jennifer Lippert, Katharine Myers,
Jaime Nelson, Rob Shaeffer, Sara Stemen,
Marielle Suba, Kaymar Thomas, Paul Wagner,
Joseph Weston, and Janet Wong of Princeton
Architectural Press
—Kevin C. Lippert, publisher
6 Foreword
Contents
8 Back to the Bauhaus
Ellen Lupton
12 Formstorming
32 Point, Line, Plane
48 Rhythm and Balance
60 Scale
68 Texture
80 Color
98 Gestalt Principles
116 Framing
128 Hierarchy
140 Layers
154 Transparency
166 Modularity
186 Grid
200 Pattern
214 Diagram
232 Time and Motion
248 Rules and Randomness
260 Bibliography
262 Index
Foreword
This book is a guide to visual form- As educators with decades of We initiated this project when
making, showing designers how combined experience in graduate and we noticed that our students
to build richness and complexity undergraduate teaching, we have were not at ease building concepts
around simple relationships. witnessed the design world change abstractly. They were adept at
We created the first edition of this and change again in response to working and reworking pop-culture
book in 2008 because we didn’t new technologies. When we were vocabularies, but they were less
see anything quite like it for today’s students ourselves in the 1980s, comfortable manipulating scale,
students and young designers: classic books such as Armin rhythm, color, hierarchy, grids, and
a concise, contemporary guide Hofmann’s Graphic Design Manual diagrammatic relationships.
to two-dimensional design. Since (published in 1965) had begun to lose This is a book for students and
its release, Graphic Design: The their relevance within the restless and emerging designers, and it is
New Basics has reached an shifting design scene. Postmodernism illustrated primarily with student
enthusiastic audience around the was on the rise, and abstract design work, produced within graduate
world. Everywhere we go, we meet exercises seemed out of step with the and undergraduate design studios.
educators and young designers interest at that time in appropriation Our school, MICA, has been our
who have used the book and learned and historicism. laboratory. Numerous faculty and
something from it. During the 1990s, design scores of students participated
What’s new in this volume? educators became caught in the in our brave experiment. The work
You will find updated and expanded pressure to teach (and learn) shown on these pages is varied
content throughout the book, software, and many of us struggled and diverse, reflecting an organic
reflecting new ideas emerging in to balance technical skills with range of skill levels and sensibilities.
our classrooms at Maryland Institute visual and critical thinking. Form Unless otherwise noted, all the
College of Art (MICA). The most sometimes got lost along the student examples were generated
important addition to this volume, way, as design methodologies in the context of MICA’s courses; a
however, is an entirely new opening moved away from universal visual few projects originate from schools
chapter devoted to “formstorming,” concepts toward a more anthro- we visited or where our own
a term originated by Jennifer Cole pological understanding of design graduate alumni are teaching.
Phillips. Formstorming is a set of as a constantly changing flow of
structured techniques for generating cultural sensibilities.
visual solutions to graphic design This book addresses the gap
challenges. We open the book with between software and visual thinking.
this chapter in order to plunge By focusing on form, we have re-
our readers directly into the act of embraced the pioneering work of
visual invention. modernist design educators, from
Josef Albers and László Moholy-Nagy
at the Bauhaus to Armin Hofmann
and some of our own great teachers,
including Malcolm Grear.
7 Foreword
Our student contributors come MFA program’s first publishing featured, including Marian Bantjes,
from China, India, Japan, Korea, venture was the book D.I.Y.: Design Alicia Cheng, Peter Cho, Malcolm
Puerto Rico, Trinidad, Zimbabwe, It Yourself (2006), directed at Grear, David Plunkert, C. E. B. Reas,
a wide range of US states, and general readers who want to use Paul Sahre, Rick Valicenti, and
many other places. The book was design in their own lives. We have Jan van Toorn, have worked with
manufactured in China and published published a series of other titles our students as visiting artists
with Princeton Architectural Press since then, including Indie Publishing at MICA. Some conducted special
in New York City. It was thus created (2009), Graphic Design Thinking workshops, whose results are
in a global context. The work pre- (2010), and Type on Screen (2014). included in this volume.
sented within its pages is energized These books are researched and Graphic Design: The New Basics
by the diverse backgrounds of its produced under the aegis of MICA’s lays out the elements of a visual
producers, whose creativity is shaped Center for Design Thinking, an language whose forms are employed
by their cultural identities as well umbrella for organizing the college’s by individuals, institutions, and
as by their unique life experiences. diverse efforts in the area of design communities that are increasingly
A common thread that draws all education research. connected in a global society.
these people together in one place Complementing the student We hope the book will inspire more
is design. work included in this book are thought and creativity in the
The majority of student work examples from contemporary years ahead.
featured here comes from the course professional practice that
we teach together at MICA, the demonstrate visually rich design
Graphic Design MFA Studio. Our approaches. Many of the designers
Ellen Lupton
The idea of searching out a shared The Bauhaus Legacy In the 1920s, Since the 1940s, numerous
framework in which to invent and faculty at the Bauhaus and other educators have refined and
organize visual content dates back schools analyzed form in terms expanded on the Bauhaus approach,
to the origins of modern graphic of basic geometric elements. They from Moholy-Nagy and Gyorgy
design. In the 1920s, institutions believed this language would Kepes at the New Bauhaus in
such as the Bauhaus in Germany be understandable to everyone, Chicago; to Johannes Itten, Max
explored design as a universal, grounded in the universal instrument Bill, and Gui Bonsiepe at the Ulm
perceptually based “language of of the eye. School in Germany; to Emil Ruder
vision,” a concept that continues Bauhaus faculty pursued this and Armin Hofmann in Switzerland;
to shape design education today idea from different points of view. to the “new typographies” of
around the world. Wassily Kandinsky called for Wolfgang Weingart, Dan Friedman,
This book reflects on that vital the creation of a “dictionary of and Katherine McCoy in Switzerland
tradition in light of profound shifts elements” and a universal visual and the United States. Each of
in technology and global social life. “grammar” in his Bauhaus textbook these revolutionary educators
Whereas the Bauhaus promoted Point and Line to Plane. His articulated structural approaches
rational solutions through planning colleague László Moholy-Nagy to design from distinct and
and standardization, designers sought to uncover a rational original perspectives.
and artists today are drawn to vocabulary ratified by a shared Some of them also engaged
idiosyncrasy, customization, and society and a common humanity. in the postmodern rejection of
sublime accidents as well as to Courses taught by Josef Albers universal communication. According
standards and norms. The modernist emphasized systematic thinking to postmodernism, which emerged
preference for reduced, simplified over personal intuition, objectivity in the 1960s, it is futile to look
forms now coexists with a desire to over emotion. for inherent meaning in an image
build systems that yield unexpected Albers and Moholy-Nagy forged or object because people will
results. Today, the impure, the the use of new media and new bring their own cultural biases and
contaminated, and the hybrid hold as materials. They saw that art and personal experiences to the process
much allure as forms that are sleek design were being transformed of interpretation. As postmodernism
and perfected. Visual thinkers often by technology—photography, itself became a dominant ideology
seek to spin out intricate results film, and mass production. And yet in the 1980s and ’90s, in both the
from simple rules or concepts rather their ideas remained profoundly academy and in the marketplace,
than reduce an image or idea to its humanistic, always asserting the role the design process got mired in
simplest parts. of the individual over the absolute the act of referencing cultural styles
authority of any system or method. or tailoring messages to narrowly
Design, they argued, is never defined communities.
reducible to its function or to a
technical description.
9 Back to the Bauhaus
Transparency and Layers The Google Earth
The New Basics Designers at the interface allows users to manipulate the
Bauhaus believed not only in a transparency of overlays placed over satellite
universal way of describing visual photographs of Earth. Here, Hurricane
Katrina hovers over the Gulf Coast of the US.
form, but also in its universal Storm: University of Wisconsin, Madison
significance. Reacting against that Cooperative Institute for Meteorogical
belief, postmodernism discredited Satellite Studies, 2005. Composite: Jack
Gondela.
formal experiment as a primary
component of thinking and making What are these emerging film’s rhythm and style. They also
in the visual arts. Formal study universals? What is new in basic modulate, in subtle ways, the
was considered to be tainted by its design? Consider, for example, message or content of the work.
link to universalistic ideologies. transparency— a concept explored Although viewers rarely stop to
This book recognizes a difference in this book. Transparency is a interpret these transitions, a video
between description and condition in which two or more editor or animator understands
interpretation, between a potentially surfaces or substances are visible them as part of the basic language
universal language of making through each other. We constantly of moving images.
and the universality of meaning. experience transparency in the Layering is another universal
Today, software designers have physical environment: from water, concept with rising importance.
realized the Bauhaus goal of glass, and smoke to venetian blinds, Physical printing processes use
describing (but not interpreting) the slatted fences, and perforated layers (ink on paper), and so do
language of vision in a universal screens. Graphic designers across software interfaces (from layered
way. Software organizes visual the modern period have worked Photoshop files to sound or
material into menus of properties, with transparency, but never more motion timelines).
parameters, filters, and so on, so than today, when transparency Transparency and layering have
creating tools that are universal can be instantly manipulated with always been at play in the graphic
in their social ubiquity, cross- commonly used tools. arts. In today’s context, what makes
disciplinarity, and descriptive What does transparency them new again is their omnipresent
power. Photoshop, for example, is mean? Transparency can be used to accessibility through software.
a systematic study of the features construct thematic relationships. For Powerful digital tools are commonly
of an image (its contrast, size, example, compressing two pictures available to professional artists
color model, and so on). InDesign into a single space can suggest and designers but also to children,
and QuarkXpress are structural a conflict or synthesis of ideas amateurs, and tinkerers of every
explorations of typography: they are (East/West, male/female, old/new). stripe. Their language has become
software machines for controlling Designers also employ transparency universal.
leading, alignment, spacing, and as a compositional (rather than Software tools provide models
column structures as well as image thematic) device, using it to soften of visual media, but they don’t tell us
placement and page layout. edges, establish emphasis, separate what to make or what to say. It is
In the aftermath of the Bauhaus, competing elements, and so on. the designer’s task to produce works
textbooks of basic design have re- Transparency is crucial to the that are relevant to living situations
turned again and again to elements vocabulary of film and motion-based (audience, context, program,
such as point, line, plane, texture, media. In place of a straight cut, brief, site) and to deliver meaningful
and color, organized by principles of an animator or editor diminishes messages and rich, embodied
scale, contrast, movement, rhythm, the opacity of an image over experiences. Each producer animates
and balance. This book revisits those time (fade to black) or mixes two design’s core structures from
concepts as well as looking at some semitransparent images (cross his or her own place in the world.
of the new universals emerging today. dissolve). Such transitions affect a
Beyond the Basics
Even the most robust visual Yet, as these digital technologies Visual Thinking Ubiquitous access to
language is useless without the afford greater freedom and conven- image editing and design software,
ability to engage it in a living ience, they also require ongoing together with zealous media
context. While this book centers education and upkeep. This recurring inculcation on all things design, has
around formal structure and learning curve, added to already created a tidal wave of design makers
experiment, some opening thoughts overloaded schedules, often cuts outside the profession. Indeed, in our
on process and problem solving short the creative window for previous book, D.I.Y.: Design It Yourself,
are appropriate here, as we hope concept development and formal we extolled the virtues of learning
readers will reach not only for more experimentation. and making, arguing that people acquire
accomplished form, but for form that In the college context, students pleasure, knowledge, and power
resonates with fresh meaning. arrive ever more digitally adept. by engaging with design at all levels.
Before the Macintosh, solving Acculturated by social media, This volume shifts the climate of
graphic design problems meant smart phones, iPads, and apps, the conversation. Instead of skimming
outsourcing at nearly every stage design students command the the surface, we dig deeper. Rather
of the way: manuscripts were technical savvy that used to take than issuing instructions, we frame
sent to a typesetter; photographs— years to build. This network know- problems and suggest possibilities.
selected from contact sheets—were how, though, does not necessarily Inside, you will find many examples,
printed at a lab and corrected by translate into creative thinking. by students and professionals, that
a retoucher; and finished artwork Too often, the temptation to turn balance and blend idiosyncrasy with
was the job of a paste-up artist, directly to the computer precludes formal discipline.
who sliced and cemented type and deeper levels of research and Rather than focus on practical
images onto boards. This protocol ideation—the distillation zone that problems such as how to design
slowed down the work process and unfolds beyond the average appetite a book, brochure, app, or website,
required designers to plan each for testing the waters and exploring this book encourages readers to
step methodically. alternatives. People, places, experiment with the visual language
By contrast, easily accessed thoughts, and things become of design. By “experiment,” we mean
software, cloud storage, ubiquitous familiar through repeated exposure. the process of examining a form,
wi-fi, and powerful laptops now It stands to reason, then, that initial material, or process in a methodical
allow designers and users to control ideas and, typically, the top tiers of a yet open-ended way. To experiment
and create complex work flows Google search turn up only cursory is to isolate elements of an operation,
from almost anywhere. results that are often tired and trite. limiting some variables in order to
Getting to more interesting better study others. An experiment
territory requires the perseverance asks a question or tests a hypothesis
to sift, sort, and assimilate subjects whose answer is not known in advance.
and solutions until a fresh spark
emerges and takes hold.
11 Beyond the Basics
Choose your corner, pick away at it carefully, intensely and to the best of your ability
and that way you might change the world. Charles Eames
I like a lot the adage that for every problem there is a solution
that is simple, obvious, and wrong. A problem worthy of the name is seldom
accessible to sudden and simple solution. Malcolm Grear
egg
Colleen Roxas
Precedents These are or inspiration that
shared the approach of translating typographic
messages and shapes into 3D form.
Formstorming Templates
Pairing Connections Letters were
explored in pairs, interconnecting with
one another to form new relationships
investigations, such as research of cats emerge as the form and fur are
formed from the letters “M, E, O, W”
grid helps distribute and arrange letters from the musical scale, “F, A, C, E, G,
B, D, F” to denote headphones, which then
converge repetitively to form soundwaves
Embody Typography explored as unique, abstract form, apart from their context as language,
sizing, rendering, representing, and installing A unification of individual character types holds infinite possibility for coalescing into new configurations. The convergence
visual ideas into templates provides of these characters can serve metaphorically for connections made in interpersonal
relationships, hence, the notion of two souls merging into one unified whole.
an added layer of clarity and curation, and
serves as a more professional process designer
Yingxi Zhou
Julian Haddad
19 Formstorming
daily trending Twitter hashtag as fodder
for dimensional typographic experiments.
Amanda Buck, MFA Studio.
Dailies
This ongoing generative exercise
spurs design thinking through a
daily creative act situated within a
conceptual framework. Designers
are prompted to define the param-
eters of the daily act, including the
conceptual framework, medium, and
format. The rigor and momentum
involved in creating a design-a-day
help students build key discipline
and time management skills and
yield a robust body of work that
develops the designer’s portfolio and
process. Dailies generally span
at least two weeks and sometimes
involve creating a container or
system to house the work and add
context. MFA Studio. Jennifer Cole
Phillips, faculty.
20 Graphic Design: The New Basics
21 Formstorming
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THE UNI-
VERSAL
DECLAR-
ATION OF
HUMAN
RIGHTS*
*1. Right to equality 2. Freedom from discrimination 3. 13. Right to free movement in and out of the country join trade unions 24. Right to rest and leisure 25. *1. Right to equality 2. Freedom from discrimination 3. 13. Right to free movement in and out of the country join trade unions 24. Right to rest and leisure 25.
Right to life, liberty, and personal security 4. Freedom 14. Right to asylum in other countries from perse- Right to adequate living standard 26. Right to educa- Right to life, liberty, and personal security 4. Freedom 14. Right to asylum in other countries from perse- Right to adequate living standard 26. Right to educa-
from slavery 5. Freedom from torture and degrading cution 15. Right to a nationality and the freedom to tion 27. Right to participate in in the cultural life of the from slavery 5. Freedom from torture and degrading cution 15. Right to a nationality and the freedom to tion 27. Right to participate in in the cultural life of the
treatment 6. See Above 7. Right to equality before change it 16. Right to marriage and family 17. Right community 28. Right to a social order that articulates treatment 6. See Above 7. Right to equality before change it 16. Right to marriage and family 17. Right community 28. Right to a social order that articulates
the law 8. Right to remedy by a competent tribunal to own property 18. Freedom of belief and religion this document 29. Community duties essential to a the law 8. Right to remedy by a competent tribunal to own property 18. Freedom of belief and religion this document 29. Community duties essential to a
9. Freedom from arbitrary arrest and exile 10. Right 19. Freedom of opinion and information 20. Right of free and full development 30. Freedom from state or 9. Freedom from arbitrary arrest and exile 10. Right 19. Freedom of opinion and information 20. Right of free and full development 30. Freedom from state or
to fair public hearing 11. Right to be considered in- peaceful assembly and association 21. Right to par- personal interference in the above rights to fair public hearing 11. Right to be considered in- peaceful assembly and association 21. Right to par- personal interference in the above rights
nocent until proven guilty 12. Freedom from interfer- ticipate in government and in free elections 22. Right nocent until proven guilty 12. Freedom from interfer- ticipate in government and in free elections 22. Right
ence with privacy, family, home, and correspondence to social security 23. Right to desirable work and to ence with privacy, family, home, and correspondence to social security 23. Right to desirable work and to
Nick Fogarty
25 Formstorming
RIGHT OFAIRPUBLICHEARING
RIGHT TO FREE MOVEMENT IN AND OUT OF THE COUNTRY
RIGHT TO ASYLUM IN OTHER COUNTRIES FROM PERSECUTION
RIGHT TO A NATIONALITY AND THE FREEDOM TO CHANGE IT RIGHT TO REMEDY BY A COMPETENT TRIBUNAL
RIGHT OASOCIALORDERTHATARTICULATESTHISDOCUMENT right
RIGHT TO MARRIAGE AND FAMILY
RIGHT TO LIFE, LIBERTY, AND PERSONAL SECURITY
HRIGHT TO REMEDY BY A COMPETENT TRIBUNAL
RIGHT TO OWN PROPERTY
FREEDOM OF BELIEF AND RELIGION RIGHT TO REMEDY BY A COMPETENT TRIBUNAL
RIGHT TO FAIR PUBLIC HEARING
RIGHT OFAIRPUBLICHEARING
FREEDOM OF OPINION AND INFORMATION
RIGHT TO FAIR PUBLIC HEARING RIGHT TO FAIR PUBLIC HEARING
RIGHT OF PEACEFUL AS EMBLY AND AS OCIATION RIGHT TO BE CONSIDERED INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY
RIGHT TO BE CONSIDERED IN OCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY
RIGHT OF PARTICIPATE IN GOVERNMENT AND IN FRE ELECTIONS
RIGHT TO SOCIAL SECURITY
FREEDOM FROM TORTURE AND DEGRADING TREATMENT FREEDOM FROM TORTURE AND DEGRADING TREATMENT
RIGHT TO DESIRABLE WORK AND TO JOIN TRADE UNIONS
RIGHT TO RECOGNITION AS A PERSON BEFORE THE LAW RIGHT TO RECOGNITION AS A PERSON BEFORE THE LAW
RIGHT TO EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW
RIGHT OFAIRPUBLICHEARING
RIGHT TO EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW
RIGHT TO REST AND LEISURE
COMMUNITY DUTIES ES ENTIAL TO A FRE AND FUL DEVELOPMENT RIGHT TO ADEQUATE LIVING STANDARD
COMMUNITY DUTIES ES ENTIAL TO A FRE AND FUL DEVELOPMENT
RIGHT TO EDUCATION
RICHT TO EQUALITY
RICHT TO EQUALITY
RIGHT TO PARTICIPATE IN IN THE CULTURAL LIFE OF THE COMMUNITY free
FREEDOM FROM DISCRIMINATION
RICHT TO EQUALITY
FREEDOM FROM SLAVERY
Laura
Brewer-Yarnall
INKNESS
MOHU GRAY
SPRING
2013
COLLECTION
11 WEST 53 STREET
NEW YORK
INKNESS
MOHU GRAY
SPRING LONDON SHANGHAI NEW YORK
MONDAY 19 NOVEMBER MONDAY 12 NOVEMBER MONDAY 05 NOVEMBER
2013 TATE MODERN MUSEUM CONTEMPORARY ART MUSEUM THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART
COLLECTION BANKSIDE LONDON SE1 9TG 231 NANJING WEST ROAD 11 WEST 53 STREET
FIN
NOTES:
[A] Soupe au lard.
[B] Repas de midi.
[C] Vieille tradition dans les campagnes limousines.
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