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.

Cave Drawings and Graffiti

Graffiti art has become one of the most popular and stylistic mediums over the past few decades. It is thought of being a relatively young art form but it has actually been around since early man. Graffiti art is the modern equivalent to cave paintings. Prehistoric man took to drawing on the walls and ceilings of caves to tell their stories. Cave paintings show depictions of hunting scenes consisting of hunters killing prehistoric beasts. The cave drawings let the viewer know that someone with something to say was here and left their mark. Early cave paintings were crude shapes and images  such as just a tracing of a hand but throughout time they became more advanced and lifelike. Modern graffiti art started the same way. Early graffiti were just words written on a wall possibly also having a simple picture along with the words. Now graffiti has blown up into giant messages and bright images that are made to grab the viewer’s attention. Another similarity between graffiti and cave drawings is movement. Early humans were migratory moving with the seasons and where food could be found best. The caves they settled in were most likely not permanent homes. It is possible that the cave paintings were left to tell stories to other traveling humans of that happened at that location previously. The art of graffiti stated out with people tagging their name onto trains with spray paint. Trains move all over the country allowing a person’s name and art to be seen in a wide variety of locations.