A02 Longer Post

This is the post for Assignment 02: Designer Investigation. To begin this post I must first issue a disclaimer. The individual who I chose to research and write about is not exactly a designer per se, but he did design something that is of great personal interest to me, and something that had an enormous impact on America as a whole. While it may appear initially that I veered from the assignment at hand I think you will find that if you read this post in its entirety you will have a much better understanding regarding why I chose this individual and how it applies to design.

The individual I chose to research for this post is Neil H. McElroy. Hopefully you have not heard of him, as he is definitely not going to appear on any type of "Top 100" Designers list. During his early years, McElroy received a bachelor's in economics from Harvard. Later in his life Neil became the 6th United States Secretary of Defense. Prominent as they are, neither of these achievements are the reason that I chose to research and write about McElroy.

In 1931, as a young man working for P&G on an advertising campaign for Camay Soap, Neil McElroy changed the face of marketing across the United States when he drafted what became known as the McElroy memo. This memo outlined and eventually led to the creation of brand management, a concept that began at P&G and eventually spread to every Consumer Goods company in America (and arguably the entire world).

While working on the advertising campaign for Camay soap, "McElroy became frustrated with having to compete not only with soaps from Lever and Palmolive, but also with Ivory, P&G's own flagship product." In the memo McElroy argued that more focused attention should be paid to each of P&G's brands individually. Each brand should have a person in charge of that brand, as well as a team of individuals devoted to thinking about every aspect of marketing it. He stated that this team should be dedicated to one brand and it alone. To this end, the concern of these managers would be their individual brand, which should be marketed as if it were a separate business. The effect of this would be that, "In ad campaigns, Camay and Ivory would be targeted to different consumer markets, and therefore would become less competitive with each other."

McElroy's memo gave birth to the modern system of brand management used in economies around the world. In essence he designed the experience that every consumer has with the products they buy, sell, and interact with on a daily basis. Although he may not have been a designer by trade, he is responsible for the creation of one of the most influential strategies of Industry.

The importance of McElroy and his formation of the practice of brand management is important for the development of design for yet another major reason. Were it not for the concept of the "brand" and the emphasis that so many companies put on their brand image in the U.S. there would be no need for many of designers' services. Logos, trademarks, advertising campaigns, and the like are all a result of brand managers trying to differentiate and sell their products to consumers. Industrial Design, and the formation of products that meet a need and solve consumers problems, would be unnecessary if there were no brands being managed and sold. As noted in the Design 200 course reading material, the Industrial Revolution was the cataclysmic moment that led to the historical switch from craftsmen to designers due to the much larger scale of production. I would argue that the brand management revolution in the 1930s, designed by McElroy, was just as influential a moment for Designers as a whole because of the increased emphasis it put on branding and all of the design elements that encompasses.

Since it is difficult to directly link images with the above outlined concept, the following are pictures of some of P&G's brand collateral that developed in the early years directly following the beginning of the brand management movement:

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_H._McElroy

http://adage.com/century/people013.html

http://www.quora.com/Why-is-the-C-in-the-Crest-toothpaste-logo-red/answer/David-Cole

A02 Short Post 2

The second of my A02 Sort Posts will be on the designer Raymond Loewy. Although an industrial/product designer for much of his career, Loewy is also renowned for the creation of some prominent well known logos. The following is a collection of 10 of the more interesting and prestigious of his accomplishments:


1. Loewy consulted for more than 200 companies, creating product designs for everything from cigarette packs to refrigerators.

2. After designing the Shell Logo in 1962 it becomes such a recognizable icon that Shell drops its name from their advertisements.

3. In 1954 he designed the Greyhound bus.

4. In 1939 he redesigned the Lucky Strike cigarette packing

5. He began his career as a fashion illustrator, creating images for magazines such as Vogue and Harper's Bazaar.

6. A 1972 Poll of stylists for the Big Three automakers voted his 1953 Studebaker Starliner Coupe and "industry best"

7. In 1975 the Smithsonian Institution opened The Designs of Raymond Loewy, a four month exhibit dedicated to "the man who changed the face of industrial design."

8. Raymond began his career in industrial design in 1929 when Sigmund Gestetner commissioned him to improve the appearance of a mimeograph  machine.

9. By 1951, his industrial design firm was so prolific that he was able to claim, "the average person, leading a normal life, whether in the country, a village, a city, or a metropolis, is bound to be in daily contact with some of the things, services, or structures in which R.L.A [Raymond Loewy Associates] was a party during the design or planning stage."

10. Loewy also created logos for BP and Exxon

Sources:

http://www.logosdesigners.com/#raymond-loewy

http://www.raymondloewy.com/

A02 Short Post 1

Short post 1: Gerard Huerta

As mentioned above, Gerard Huerta primarily works in logo and typographic design. I chose to write about him because so many of his logos are successful, widely known logos. I chose him over several other logo designers because I personally recognized and like many of the logos he created. The following is a list of ten interesting facts or prominent logos Gerard Huerta created.

1. Gerard began his career designing album covers at CBS records

2. He created letter forms and logos for Ted Nugent, Blue Oyster Cult, Bob Dylan, Rick Derringer, and many others.

3. He designed AC/DC's iconic lightning bolt logo

4. He designed the Swiss Army series logo, and also designed watch dials for them

5.  He designed the Nabisco products logo

6. He helped work on the branding for Clint Eastwood's Bronco Billy

7. He did design and branding work for Super Bowl XXVIII

8. He designed the font for Pepsi's latest package redesign

9. He designed HBO's logo below

10. He designed this logo for Spelling Entertainment Inc.

Gerard has accomplished much more but these are some of his most noteworthy achievements.

Sources:

http://www.gerardhuerta.com/

http://www.logosdesigners.com/#gerard-huerta

CR03

This Course Reflection is on the IDEO Deep Dive video shown in class on Wednesday, 1-19. Although I had seen the video before there is still plenty of content to learn from and reflect on. What I enjoyed most about the video was seeing the process that IDEO uses to come up with their products. Everyone knows that the "idea" people or creative types have unique and at times unruly methodologies that they use to confront their situations. What was nice about this video is that it gave you and inside look to how one of the most successful of these idea firms is able to channel these outlandish tendencies and apply them for creative problem solving. The most interesting aspect of IDEO's approach to me was the lack of an employee hierarchy. It makes sense that collaboration among all the team members will increase when there is no boss who can stifle creativity by making all of the important or final decisions, but it is just difficult concept to get a mental hold of. The majority of IDEO's jobs come from corporate America, and yet in order to produce the results these types of clients desire the team members at IDEO have to have a completely converse organizational structure. I could not end this post without at least saying I find the irony here at least a little bit amusing.

J02

This image is a pair of my roommate's pajama pants. I liked this pattern because of the way the horizontal bars are solid and the vertical ones are actually two small bars yet both look similar from far away.

This image is of some of the lockers in the men's locker room at the RPAC. I liked this because these lockers are arranged in a pattern in order to optimize their utility yet by doing so it created a more aesthetically appealing arrangement.

This picture is of a wall calendar in my room. Much like the picture above, I liked this one because its form is a result of its function

This picture is of the bricks in the fireplace chimney in my house. I liked this pattern because the mortar used to glue to bricks together helps to break up the pattern some.

This pattern is the wiring outside a bucket on my desk. I liked this pattern because of the way there are holes at the joints where the wires meet instead of just having the wires twist and overlap like you would normally see from this type of container.

This pattern is the carpet in my bedroom. I enjoyed this one because the weave of the fabric is symmetrical yet the dark colored dots within the same pattern are not.

This pattern is of the bricks in the wall on the ground floor of the inside of the RPAC. I liked it because of the way the bricks do not all line up evenly even though they could have and still accomplished their purpose.

This pattern is of the floor below the bricks above. I liked the coloration of the dark spots on the teal background.

This picture is the floor in the RPAC locker room. I liked it because the squares were an even symmetrical pattern but the colors were more varied and random. I also liked the color scheme.

This pattern is of a stack of envelopes on my desk in my room. I liked it because of the way the cards are not even supposed to be a pattern but when smashed together they make an appealing pattern.

RR02

This reading reflection (RR02) is on Chapters 1-3 of Heskett. Regarding chapter one, I particularly enjoyed the approach the author took to attempt to describe design from a holistic approach. I thought the quote that read, "very few aspects of the material environment are incapable of improvement" was very insightful, because it serves to illustrate a definite need within society for designers and design thinking. In general I thought this chapter did a good job of informing the reader that design is a concept that can have many different meanings depending on situational context, but that its underlying principals revolve around the human capacity to alter our surroundings and environment.

My favorite aspect of chapter 2 was the way which it showed the chronological progression and evolution of design throughout time. The chapter did a good job detailing why the industrial revolution was what really gave birth to the need for design and designers on a large scale. Without the explosion of industry there would probably be many more artisans and craftsmen and designers.

Chapter 3 was informative because of the insight it provided regarding utility and significance. I particularly enjoyed the example about the toothpicks, and how to outsiders the markings on the Japanese version appeared merely decorative but to someone from Japan that minor design feature altered the user's experience with the toothpicks. I liked this example because it shows how things such as culture can have an effect on the perceived value of a product's design features.

CR02

This course reflection is on the Wednesday's presentation (1/12) regarding the definition of the three types of design courses offered at OSU, Industrial, Interior Space, and Visual Communication Design. I enjoyed this part of the lecture because it was beneficial to hear someone from inside the program who actually knows what he's talking about describe and define the different areas.

Regarding Industrial Design, I enjoyed the way Gabe referenced areas where there is lots of potential and room for growth, such as within medical fields/industries. It is one thing to discuss the abstract concept of industrial design but it is very appealing to hear of real, practical ways in which these types of skills could be used.

For Interior Space Design, it was entertaining and informative to hear from someone who actually studies/works in this specific field. Prior to this lecture I had given very little thought to the process of creating an optimally programmed interior. The next time I walk into a large public space I will  undoubtably observe its features much more closely.

The definitions and descriptions of Visual Communication Design were helpful for further understanding the nature of this field of design.  The most  constructive piece of information was the section outlining the primary considerations of visual communication design as to inform, educate, persuade, and entertain.

There were many other insightful and valuable bits of information presented in this lecture, but the above are my thoughts on a few of the primary areas of discussion