State of the Art (Pre-Writing)

Exercise 1: Five possible professions

1. Graphic Designer – My degree is in Graphic Design, so this is probably the most general profession that I would be most qualified for after graduation.
2. Motion Graphic Artist –With my degree I am specializing in motion graphics, because I enjoy the additional design challenged that it presents.
3. Packaging Designer –One of the areas within graphic design that I always enjoyed was packaging design, because the increased challenge of understanding the consumers, but also designing for sometimes awkwardly shaped 3 dimensional objects.
4. UX Designer –I’ve always been interested in user experience design because it has an element of phycology to it and understanding how people work. If I were to start working in this specific area, I would want to focus more on the experiential design on new technology.
5. Illustrator –Another area I would be interested in working in, though I know it’s more difficult to be a successful illustrator and get your work put into magazines and such. The fact that it is mostly a freelance job is also appealing to me.

 

Exercise 2: Five trends/shifts/changes 

Graphic Design

1. Shift in logo design –The shift in logo designs from typically printed designs to digital ones, and how the Internet means more logos are being seen, and by more people.
2. Handmade trend –In recent years there’s be a shift towards handcrafted goods and designs, mostly this is evident on sites like Etsy.
3. Typography/hand Lettering Trend –It seems almost as if the world of graffiti lettering and hand painted lettering have merged and become mainstream over the past decade.
4. Design Contest Sites –There are more websites now that offer designers a chance to compete and creating designs for clients with no guarantee they will be paid, which is a hotly debated topic.
5. Modern Design Education (Degree/No Degree) –With increasingly more online sites that offer free or paid classes and tutorials in specific fields, some people argue that paying for a degree in graphic design is no longer necessary.

-Motion Graphics

1. VR Motion –With the rise of virtual reality comes new possibilities in ways to use the technology, and one way is to illustrate or animate in a 3D VR world.
2. 3D vs. 2D Graphics Trends –There are more and more programs to create 3D motion graphics, but there also still is a trend towards 2D animations, and now people are even finding ways to create 2D looking motion graphics in 3D programs.
3. New Animation Tools –There are now many more tools available for motion graphic artists, from simple iPad apps to Adobe’s new Animate, the list of options is huge.
4. Traditional (cell) Animation vs. Digital –Traditionally animation was done by hand, but now there are more and more ways to get that hand-drawn feel with digital animation.
5. The New “Art” of gifs –Most people think of gifs as the hilarious replaying clips of videos that go viral, but any artists are now using gifs as a medium and there is growing demand for them.

 

Exercise 3: Two trend/shift/change explained

Graphic Design – Shift in logo design
There is no real denying that we have entered into a new era of technology. And with that comes a massive change to how designers approach logo design. Not only do they need to consider how the logo appears when printed, but also more consideration needs to be taken for how it looks digitally on different screens and at different sizes. And on top of all that, the Internet provides even more room for criticism on logo designs, which can have huge impacts on the designers and the brands. Gone are the days of gaudy rode side shop signs, where the name of the game was to be interesting and unique enough for people to remember them, and now are the days when even a simple small company logo can go viral and be criticized by people around the world due to poor design.

Motion Graphics – VR Motion Graphics
Now the that virtual reality has finally become a relatively affordable piece of tech that is available to everyone, the possibilities of what can be created with it are just starting to come to light. This new technology creates a whole new canvas on which to create videos and games, but it also it can also be a canvas for more traditional types of art. There are already a few companies looking to create tools that will allow artists and illustrators to digitally paint and draw in a virtual world, and production is currently underway for a an entire VR animated movie. The possibilities of creating motion graphics in a 360 world that the audience can possibly even interact with can and most likely will have a big impact on the art world as the technology continues to develop.

Exercise 4:

1. Description of profession: The roll of graphics designers is to arrange visual elements in a way that conveys a certain message to the audience. It is similar to art, but where but art is typically driven by personal expression and thoughts; the drive behind design is to effectively communicate a purposeful message.
2. Description: Since technology has become a bigger part of our everyday lives, logo and branding designers have had to quickly adapt to the many new platforms on which their designs are displayed, and since more people are consuming and viewing these logos, the pressure to design the best logo possible is even greater than ever before.
3. Background: Even just about 30 years ago logo designs were mainly created for print, and without the Internet bad logo designs (typically for small businesses) were typically not critiqued by very many people. However as the world became even more connected, and technology advanced, the need for well-designed logos that worked well when printed and viewed on screen grew. This shift meant that many graphic designers needed to expand their knowledge and skill base to cover the new digital applications, and some designers have even split from print by focusing only on web focused branding design.
4. Current Status: Logos have been around almost as long as people have made objects that they could put logos (a unique symbol) on to show ownership. However, when people first started using them, it was designed for use in small communities where very few people would be viewing them and even less would care about actual aesthetic. Fast forward to today, and the community of people who view logos has grown to encompass basically the whole world thanks to the Internet, and the number items the logo designers need to fit, as well as the number of design critics has grown with it. Over the years there have been many examples of when the designers were successful with handling this change, and many examples of when they have not handled it well. Unfortunately though, with the more connected world, its often the bad logos that go viral, which adds even more pressure on the designers.
5. Future: As technology continues to advance, the amount of content that people consume will continue to increase as well. It’s hard to image that there could ever be an audience larger than the world population, but the types of applications for logos in the future can change greatly. VR and holograms are just two examples of new technologies that are quickly growing and can pose a whole new range of challenge for logo designers. As more and more platforms are developed, it is reasonable to think that the graphic design profession will get again be split, as the web split from print. In the future there will likely be branding firms and designers that focus specifically on VR or Hologram visuals.
6. Call to Action: Going forward, designers who want to stay on top of these trends will have to continue to spend time learned about the new technology that is out there, and take extra time when designing logos and branding to take into consideration all the many applications, and the wide audience that their designs could reach.
7. Sample of Existing Photographs / Illustrations:
   How many logos have changed over time
8. Sample of Existing Infographic:
   The history of logo design

9. Existing Audio and/or Video Elements:
   Show reel of various logo animations

10. Existing Sites that will be Useful:
    Hisory on Logo Desing
    Information on logo design, with examples
    History of logo design, again with examples

    Logo focused sites:
    http://logofaves.com/
    http://logospire.com/

    Sample of increased criticism
    article about bad logos

    Sample of new logo applications
    Logo gifs