Influential Designer: Kyle Cooper

 Cooper  specializes in crafting title sequences - the short introductions and closings to films, videogames, and television shows that list the names of the cast and crew involved in the production. In this boutique industry, Cooper is king. He has designed the lead-ins to 150 features - including Donnie Brasco, the 1996 remake of The Island of Dr. Moreau, Mission: Impossible, Spider-Man, Sphere, Spawn, Twister, and Flubber.Directors don't call on Cooper for a signature style; they hire him to dig under the celluloid and tap into the symbolism of a film.

His style is very contemporary and this style, particularly the marvel movie openings, are  favoured amongst the young market.  He also displays an influence from the heroic realism age. I love the vibrancy of the colour used in these openings. Cooper always seem acutely aware, and has great control over every aspect of his projects. He displays great precision and love for his work, almost to the point of obsession. 




"The production on Spider-Man 2's titles, from conception to delivery, has stretched almost an entire year. Cooper began by digitally scanning dozens of vintage Spider-Man comics and editing them together in a blink-and-you-miss-it five-second montage that encompasses the entire story arc of the first film. After that, "the credits get caught in the web. I love the moment when you kind of figure it out," he says. "Oh wow, metaphors! Flies in a web, type in a web like flies. That's great!" -  Wired.com

Design Styles

Digital 1985-current

Alberto Seveso- 2009 

Post Modern 1975-1990

Sebastian Klein

Contemporary 1980-current 

'Naive - Modernism and Folklore in Contemporary Graphic Design'  

by Klanten and Hellige.

Late modern 1945-1970

Domus

Design Blog Review

The Design Files

The design files blog could possibly be my favorite blog site. I love everything about this site. Its bright, good quality pictures, they have made the fonts easy to read, with no huge slabs of text, just whats necessary. Its very hard to go to this blog and come out of it not knowing a fantastic new designer or company.

What makes this a blog and NOT a studio website?
The design files contain more than one review about designers. The showcase dozens and dozens of designers work. It differs from a design studio website in the way that it (although it rarely has negative impact) dosent set out to sell anything to you. Obviously websites for studios are for showing off a companys achievement and to ultimately to sell the company to us. The design files just show s whats new and interesting without trying to strongly sell anything to us.

...Overall, a beautiful blog. Have a look for yourself.

http://thedesignfiles.net/

Design Studio Review

Multiplicity

Interior designer Sioux Clark and architect Tim O'Sullivan.

For this taskhave reviewed the website of one of my favorite design studios- Multiplicity.
Unfortunatly I am disappointed.
Multiplicity have such unique, inspirational and beautiful designs I was expecting to see that reflected in their website. Sadly, I was greeted with a boring, dysfunctional and put bluntly, bland website. The opening page consists of a completely white background with one small photo on the front with their logo, a large, thin, abstract capital M. I am aware that multiplicitys style if minimalist in some aspects, but I don’t believe function should be sacrificed for the aesthetics of a website which is ultimately used to sell the studio and gain the studio new customers.

The business name has been chosen to ‘convey that architecture and design as professional pursuits engulf a multiplicity of disciplines, that the successful creation of physically built space and the resolution of a given brief require the fullest utilisation of those disciplines

The main page shows a another small photo then a list of bold text, showing the achievements of the studio, then to the right shows a small like saying ‘gallery of works’. In my opinion, the website should show the works first, to show the customers just how beautiful the finished products are then impress them with the list of achievements. The only features the website has is the opening page with contact details, the main page with the awards and the gallery of works.

Overall, the website left me wanting more, to be honest I went back to google to check if that actually was the official website.
Embarrasing for both myself and Multiplicity.


http://www.multiplicity.com.au/

Trade Magazine Review

Desktop Magazine

Deskop magazine is a crative arts journal targeted at the graphic designers and the  visual arts community. Its main function is to showcase new and upcoming artists as well as review events (e.g. Semi-Permanent). They also are linked to blogs and have an ‘inspiration wall’.

 
Related Article: ‘Antonio Ruggerio and his Vintage Posters’

This article aims to chronicle the progression of Antonios career from beginning to present, with an aim to educate the readers about the Antionio. I found this article very fascinating because of its humor (see below) and because I enjoy stories that involve unusual cirumstances. The journalist has done very well to ask unique questions, as well as questions that benefit the readers, like what to do when restoring vintage posters etc.

“Knowing no one in the poster industry and not being able to speak the language I found myself walking the streets of Paris hoping to find what I had come for.  After walking for an entire afternoon with no luck, I stopped at a café, ordered an espresso, and went to sit down at a table until a voice behind me stopped me and said, “If you sit at the table it costs you extra.” I turned to the gentleman, thanked him for his advice and asked if the seat next to him at the bar was taken.  He kindly offered me the bar stool and we started talking. The conversation started with a few formalities… Where are you from? Are you here for business or pleasure? And before I knew it the conversation went a little like this:
Michel: “So what business are you in?”
Antonio: “I am trying to find original vintage posters. And what do you do?”
Michel: “I collect and sell original vintage posters.”
Within a matter of minutes I had stumbled across what would become my source of poster art in Paris. To this day whenever I travel to Paris I contact Michel in London, he comes to Paris and the friendship continues.
Returning from Paris I decided to dedicate my gallery to original vintage posters and now my collection has grown to include posters from as early as the 1890’s and as recent as 2000. I am a collector first and foremost and hope that with my gallery I can help others identify with what I feel is one of the greatest forms of art – ‘the poster’.”

Wang Qingsong Biennale Review

"Born 1966 in heilongjiang Province, china lives and works in beijing, china Wang Qingsong makes large photographic tableaux that capture different scenes, often featuring masses of people, either in simulation of art or reality.
Some of these show waste, excess and the detritus of contemporary consumer society, particularly within the context of a burgeoning Chinese economy. 

His work often takes the form of an acerbic social commentary. His work looks at the competitive element between multinationals and Chinese firms in a battle of posters and logos that covers every vacant wall space.  

 Exposed to the elements, the ephemera fades and takes on the characteristics of a high modernist painting. These two large works depict the visual noise of advertising, amplifying it on a gigantic scale to an overwhelming cacophony, but they also offer a cryptic illustration of the boom and bust of the current world economy..."

  
                                                                                                         - From The bienneale Website 2010

In my opinion, not only is this artist's message a strong and direct attempt to convey the wasteful and excessive nature of modern society, his works are also strongly, asthetically beautiful.

Qingsong's Biennale entry

What is Graphic Design ?

Graphic design is a creative process that combines art and technology to communicate ideas. 
The designer works with a variety of communication tools in order to convey a message from a client to a particular audience. The main tools are image and typography.