Frank Gehry

Frank Gehry is a one of a kind architect. He falls under the category of a Deconstructivism architect. This means that his buildings are drastically different than those that surround them. The buildings he dreams up and creates are quite astonishing and seem unbelievable compared to the average building. The way he begins his process of coming up with a design is, in all honesty, head scratching. Gerhry simply picks up a pencil and scribbles all over a piece of paper and somehow sees architecture within it. The process is either crazy or genius. However, his process has proved successful because he has gained worldwide fame from his stand out buildings. He has won numerous awards for his work from the American Institute of Architects. Gehry is known for using curves and waves which seems to come from his love of the shape of fish. His most famous building is the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao which works as a piece of art housing other varieties of art. Though many adore his unique buildings he does have his fair share of nay sayers. Those that do not like his architectural style say that all of his designs look the same, they take away from what they were built to hold, and they do not fit in with their environments. Personally, I think his buildings are a breath of fresh air compared to the average buildings I see every day of my life. 

Milton Glaser

Milton Glaser is a designer of all sorts. He goes beyond just on category of design. His work ranges from poster, drawings, prints, idea, restaurants, businesses, schools, and books. However, he does more than just come up with genius ideas that a majority of the population will like to see. Glaser is a very educated man and he feels it is important that all people should be highly educated. Because of this belief, he has helped redesign his old school and he also teaches college classes of design. Along with being educated he is also a businessman. He has designed entire restaurants, hotels, and various companies. One company he took an interest in helping design was a start up beer company, the Brooklyn Brewery. He has also worked with the store Target. On top of everything he is very political and much of his work shows his beliefs. Glaser’s work can literally be found everywhere. It was Glaser who came up with the famous I <3 NY campaign that has since expanded into all sorts of varieties of I <3’s. He has made famous book and album covers that greatly helps promotion of the book or album being sold.  He has a wait list that is years long full of people that are anxious and willing to wait the great length for his work and ideas. It is quite obvious that Milton Glaser is an extremely busy man and I think that the public is very appreciative of being exposed to his work. 

Pictoplasma

Pictoplasma, it turns out, is not a design studio that makes great animation as I had originally thought it to be. However, Pictoplasma is an organization that helps ground breaking, international animated art be seen to a larger and broader audience. The goal is to change communication throughout the world by showing work that is universally understandable no matter what the viewers’ background and language may be. The organization was started in 1999 and has since grown from just a place where animated art can be submitted. Pictoplasma began more like a guerrilla marketing scheme for new animations to gain attentions but it has now been accepted into the world of fine art. This acceptance into the world of high art has led to bestselling books and DVDs that show a variety of the popular works distributed by Pictoplasma. In 2004, Pictoplasma has held festivals and conferences that shine light on the animations. From these, art exhibits and installation pieces have been created around characters. Some of the characters have even turned into pop culture images and brands. A likable character can start out as just having a part in a short animated piece and end up with its image on clothes, costumes, accessories life size cutouts, coloring books, even dolls and toys. Pictoplasma has an archive of over twenty thousand animations and designed characters submitted by five thousand artists and designers from all over the world. Recently, this year, Pictoplasma has started showing 3D animations on theater size screens at its festivals. 

                                                        Coloring Book

                                       Music Video for 'Nothing Like This" by J Dilla

                                                             

                                                                Characters

                                               
                                                        Louis Vuitton character

Apple

Apple is one of the most impressive companies in the way they choose to design their products. What makes their design so unique is the fact that Apple’s products are so simple. They are as compact as they can possibly be which ends up making each product extremely efficient. Each generation of any Apple product becomes thinner, smaller, and sleeker yet even though the size has decreased efficiency and storage has increased. The iPod has completely changed the way we listen to our music. It has allowed us to listen to and access hundreds to thousands of digital songs instead of having to carry around physical copies of our music. The portable music device has become so popular people even call their non Apple brand .mp3 players, iPods. iPod has become the universally accepted term for any digital music player. Apple’s music store, iTunes, is also presented in a very clean and organized environment.  Actually Apple’s use of the letter “i” before a product’s name is genius because it makes the product more personable to the consumer. The “i” stands for individual which allows consumers to have a connection with their Apple product. This has also gained popularity in which many companies other than Apple have also added an “i” in front of some of their products. 

Selling Cool

Companies know that the biggest group of consumers is teenagers and young adults. These companies spend millions of dollars on research to find out what is currently cool and what the next trends could possibly be. They not only research on trend setters, the companies also do quite a bit of study on just average kids. The way trends work is that the company picks up on it and exploits the trend that becomes cool and popular until it ultimately becomes uncool. However, by the time the last trend fades out of cool the company has already picked up on the next fad and has begun pushing the new cool. The main reason why a product becomes uncool is because it gets advertised and over exposed. These companies, through research, learned that the youth did not like being told what they should buy with their money. To prevent a new trend from becoming uncool too soon companies have begun to hide their advertising as much as possible. They have since come up with new ways to push their products. Events are held to promote several products at the same time. Companies join together and throw one large event sponsored by a product, aired by a television station, and features popular musicians. This way, all of the companies and people involved with the event get positive exposure.

The Modern Swiss

It was made to be clean, sleek, modern, and clear to read. The Helvetica font type is perhaps what makes design modern. Helvetica was created in 1957 by a Swiss typeface designer named Max Miendinger along with the assistance of Eduard Hoffmann. Max Miendinger felt that after World War II all of Europe was trashed and rubble and needed something new and clean to help the   continent move onward post war. He decided that a new typeface was needed to give Europe a modern look. This led to the creation of Helvetica font which rightfully means the Swiss font. It makes complete sense that the Swiss created the new modern typeface that is now the most commonly used font. The Swiss are constantly coming out with the latest in modern design. When I think of Swiss the words that instantly come to mind are new, cool, clean, efficient, important and sleek. Think of someone saying “I’ll have to wire the money from my Swiss bank account.” That person seems classy and important or an international criminal. The Swiss Army Knife is the original efficient knife that has since expanded in to the Victorinox Swiss Army Company that makes products ranging from clothes to watches to fragrances. Swiss architecture is also completely modern. Space is important when it comes to modern Swiss architecture so curves, windows, and flats are used to maximize the appearance of a room. Ever since the creation of Helvetica the Swiss have been the leader in what is thought to be modern.