Proposal + Plan of Action _ Project Re-think

I really enjoyed the Context of Practice programme of Level 05, not only did I find an area of design I'm passionate about and continually inspired by, it altered my own design practice and truth be told it's informed the projects I've carried out during and after the research and they've been the strongest pieces of work I've definitely done at LCA so far.

At first, I felt it was easy to carry this on, the research and foundation is already there to take it to the next level for Level 06, but me being me, I went off on a tangent. Somehow I discarded this research project for Level 05 I enjoyed so much and learnt so much from as a designer and instead decided to focus on the environmental and sociological implications of technology, using Blade Runner as a vision of the future - random right? I agree.

Also down to my own prioritisation of the practical briefs and PPP briefs going on around the time I was expected to research my proposal - I spent at a push 2 days formulating my proposal presentation - it was rushed and way too flaky.

Below are the proposal forms and presentations I carried out.

Overall, I had a gut feeling right after feedback from tutors that this just wasn't what I really wanted to do and due to leaving it so late, and picking the first thing that came to mind and going with it was a mistake - I feel in time I would stray away from this anyway. So I've decided to take a step back from this, Level 06 is my study and I don't want to spend 9 months researching something I know I won't really enjoy or grow as a designer in terms the fundamentals of design and my process - something I feel I developed so much in Level 05 and want to take further.

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Richards words about producing the written and the physical in synthesis rang true with me and I felt I could really do this with a focus on something else, more in tune with my aspirations and tastes as a designer - but I've always found it really difficult to find a line of enquiry within the design world - just what do I want to talk about and research about? What I do know is that over summer I want my physical work to literally be visual investigations of what I'm looking into - analysing the finished work and most importantly the process.






Change of Plans

As of now, the area and topic I'm going to undertake are still quite vague but I do know which designers and what overall questions I want answered. 

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Massimo Vignelli often refers to design as BC and AC - Before Computer and After Computer. I'm fascinated by how the computer affected design, in particular the process and overall 'success' of it according to the classical principles of design as outlined by the masteres, such as Dieter Rams. I have my own opinions and preconceptions of how the computer affected design, in someways I feel it helped and in some ways I feel it didn't and in fact detrimented the design world. I'm also fascinated with creating a piece of design without a computer, in todays day and age I can't even fathom how you'd create a magazine without going on Indesign - even now I literally have no idea how they did it. For example Saul Bass' intro credits for movies? Crazy.


Massimo Vignelli is often quite critical of the computer - for example in his day and age a designer often had a maximum of 3 typefaces he used, back then a typeface literally was a typeface you had to keep a drawer of it so you couldn't to afford to keep about 292392348 like I do. These restrictions made you approach design in such a different manner, in todays world perhaps there's more visual pollution - everyone can be a designer. Back then, was it more specialised, did people who attended design school feel completely passionate about it and didn't fall into it, in turn creating a higher number of technically superior designers compared to today?

Researching a topic paying special attention to the design movement in Europe in the 40s 50s and 60s, maybe with a more specific decade when I engage with this more - allows me to research even deeper into a design scene I'm fascinated by, especially the Swiss style of design. I want to study the process and work of masters such as Vignelli, Muller-Brockmann, Dieter Rams, Wim Crouwel etc and see just how they created work, what are their opinions of modern design? Paying specific attention to print and publishing - an area I want to associate myself with. 

I also will investigate todays design scene, especially the 'art college' style of design I feel exists which perhaps doesn't work in the real world, with recycled trends taking focus instead of tackling the problem at hand with elegant design. Something Vignelli has covered numerous times - the 'trends' in todays design scene.



Plan of Action

I understand I don't really have a fully focused line of enquiry yet and it needs a lot of tightening but I know I can find something really interesting with this. As I learnt with my original proposal I don't want to rush this, but I intend on consistently plugging away at it until it just falls into place, at the start I understand it might be a bit blurry a efficient as it could be in terms of research but I need to read a lot more and engage with debates and discussions in relation to art and design anyway. Doing this and reading any design magazine and book I can get hold of and I own but haven't read yet will allow me to engage and see existing debates and discussion with a filter of my pathway I want to research.

My physical work over summer will hopefully be  visual investigations of this, I want to work how the masters worked and record my process - how did it differ? What implications did these differences have? How difference were certain elements. Overall how different was my end product when carrying out a whole project with and without a computer. Which was classically more successful? I intend to carry out a variety of these - I'm really excited on not going near a computer for a whole brief. 

I intend in September with a body of work which literally is what I'm researching, not simply a book about something which you can produce for anything.


For now I'm going to keep plugging away at it, until I feel ready to produce a strong proposal form and research subject which I will work on through summer.


I have a starting selection of books to read which discuss design in a classical sense and process, along with contemporary debates such as The Dem Lec - 

The Vignelli Canon - Massimo Vignelli
The Democratic Lecture - Craig Oldham
What Is Graphic Design? - Quentin Newark


I feel this will be a good starting point, especially The Vignelli Canon and The Democratic Lecture. I will blog consistenty my notes and thoughts on the books and hopefully I will get further on with this project.