The importance of studying contextual studies to me is one of the most important journeys any upcoming graphic designer should invest in. By studying how the social, psychological, cultural, historical and commercial factors affected the arts, especially graphic design throughout the years, gives any designer an understanding of the field they’re studying in. Even though we have only just brushed the surface of graphic design, I am already beginning to appreciate and understand why we choose to use and do certain things in compositions and works we produce.
Artists and designers throughout history have made use of historical as well as coexistent sources, which they have merged with their prevailing social and cultural attitudes and used them as inspiration for their works. Ideas are drawn from the past and moulded into a new contemporary approach so as to achieve a new, creative, effective and functional solution. Moreover through this unit I learnt how to relate, adopt and adapt how graphic designers today are using elements of the past by extracting from the old in order to create the new.
If I had to choose a single part of the whole unit that affected me the most I would choose Swiss design and its progress into new wave design. Fascinated with the importance of having clean, simple, and ordered design in a composition responds exactly to my interests and style. Furthermore through the use of Helvetica I began research and understanding more the use and applicability of fonts and typography. Falling in love with type I came across one of my favourite typographic designers, Erik Spiekermann.
Erik Spiekermann, was born in 1947, studied History of Art and English in Berlin. After watching a couple of his documentaries in class, he awed me with his sense of humour yet love, passion and understanding of typography. Spickermann is in fact one of the best known typographers and graphic designers. He is a teacher and strict critic whose influences on contemporary graphic design are unparalleled.
Erik and his wife Joan revolutionised the world of digital fonts twenty-four years ago when they started ‘Fontshop’, the first mail-order distributor for digital fonts. Teamed up with Neville Brody, he helped establish the Internet as a source for buying fonts. His typefaces FF Meta and ITC Officina have been bestsellers for years and are already considered modern classics by typographers worldwide. Spiekermann also represents German typeface and corporate design like no other.
This journey to me has been an important step into understanding how graphic design originated, developed and has progressed till today.
Bibliography
Banks, J., 2013. Erik Spiekermann: Second Thoughts. [Online] Available at: http://johnsonbanks.co.uk/thoughtfortheweek/erik-spiekermann-second-thoughts/ [Accessed 30 January 2015].
Monotype, 2011. Erik Spiekermann. [Online] Available at: https://www.fontfont.com/designers/erik-spiekermann [Accessed 30 January 2015].
Peters, Y., 2009. Celebrating 20 Years of FontShop With Erik Spiekermann. [Online] Available at: http://fontfeed.com/archives/celebrating-20-years-of-fontshop-with-erik-spiekermann/ [Accessed 30 January 2015].
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