Screening: Waste Land: Art and Transformation Film: Vic Muniz

          Vic Muniz definitely changed the lives of all the people he met from the landfill. The most important part of the entire art work was the fact that the minds of the people that worked in the landfill changed for the better. They realized that while working in the landfill they were satisfied with the life they had.  Once they realized that there is more to them and their ideas outside of the landfill, a whole new world opened up to them. After the landfill closed, the people that helped Muniz found different jobs and were becoming more happy because they were out of their difficult lifestyle. Muniz explained that when someone has nothing they want everything, and when someone has everything they do not want anything. It is incredible that such a small gift to the people in lower middle class neighborhood was so helpful to boost their overall perception of life. The way the people saw art was also changed because they realized that Muniz's project had a deeper meaning just like other artists with different perspectives.

Design For Good

Client: FDA

Project Title: What’s in your Protein?

Duration: Fall 2016

Team: Florida International University Graphic Design History Group 1 Class:

·       Professor: Silvia Pease

·       Students: Santiago Cevallos, Samantha Gonzalez, Kimberley Espinoza, and Yekaterina Lobuzova

Project Brief

There is an increasing concern of what ingredients and chemicals are put into meats or proteins. There needs to be a labeling system put in place in order to inform consumers on what is in their protein (meat or tofu). The World Health Organization released a report classifying processed meats as level 1 carcinogen and red meat as level 2 carcinogens. 

The group is going to build a system that is similar in appearance to a traffic light that will let you know if the protein products contain 0 chemicals (organic) or contain more than 10 unnatural ingredients. 0 chemicals will be represented with the color green. If the protein has a moderate amount of chemicals, then it will be represented with the color yellow. If the product has more than 10 unnatural ingredients, then it will be classified as red. This will be put on all packaging labels so consumers can quickly see if they want to purchase the product or not.

Budget

The group did not have a budget, but the general idea of the labels are already designed to sell the FDA the project so they can get a taste of the look and feel.

Research

Blippar.com – Augmented Reality advertising and marketing app.

Buycott.com

Chemical Maze

Films

·       Food, Inc.

·       King Corn

·       GMO OMG

·       Seeds of Death : Unveiling the lies of GMO’s

Books

·      Naveen Thayyil: Biotechnology Regulation and GMOs

·      B Nelson : Genetically Modified Organisms in Agriculture

·      BERNHARD A. KOCH : Damage Caused by Genetically Modified Organisms: Comparative Survey of Redress Options for Harm to Persons, Property or the Environment

·      Dayna Scott : Damage Caused by Genetically Modified Organisms: Comparative Survey of Redress Options for Harm to Persons, Property or the Environment

Articles:

World Health Organization: http://www.who.int/features/qa/cancer-red-meat/en/

Strategy

What’s in Your Protein will be implemented into the printing process of all protein-based products sold at any grocery store. It will be introduced to merchants first. A brief workshop will be held to help them become knowledgeable on the new protein labeling system and be prepared to answer any questions customers have on this new system.

Customers will become aware of the new labeling system on their products through smart advertising throughout the store. The labels will be legible through the use of the same recognizable color system of Red, Yellow and Green. When launching the new labeling system, What’s in Your Protein will have posters throughout the market explaining what each color means and how consuming this product will affect your body to help the customer become accustomed to this new labeling system.

 

Challenges

         The biggest challenge would arise when getting the approval from the Food and Drug Administration to include these symbols on all of the food labels. It would be inherent to provide the right amount of research and data to back up our claim that different kinds of protein needs to be labeled in order to inform the consumer about the chemicals within the product.

            The group needed to create a simple labeling system that would be eye-catching and straight to the point. Several designs had to be proposed before all agreed on the “traffic light” idea. Working as a group had its challenges as well and each member’s strengths needed to be utilized to come up with the concept.

            The label design had its own challenges. The group had to design a shape that would be simple to recognize for the consumer when it was placed on a certain protein product. The group decided that the shape of the label would represent that of a chemical symbol of a protein: the hexagon. Also, the shape needed to have a certain color that would describe the level of critical chemicals located inside the product. A series of three labels would be created with their respective red, yellow, and green colors. With the chosen colors the idea became clear that as a whole the label could be representative of a traffic light. Overall, the system needed to be clear and effective in order for the consumer to understand what type of protein they are purchasing and putting into their bodies.

 

Effectiveness

Though not yet actualized, this project is set to create awareness and work in tandem with many already used and trusted apps to further raise awareness of what people are consuming. Brightly colored labels in the familiar “traffic-light” sequence help create an association with already set in place ideals. For example: Should a consumer see a green hexagon on their chosen product the association process should cause that consumer to think “Green-good-god”. At the least, making their decision process faster, more informed and simpler.

After the labels become well known this system should be implemented by major apps such as Blippar and Buycott. Consumers will then be given the option of scanning these labels to receive details on what exactly is present in their food.

The labels will focus on protein-based foods and the chemicals present within them, hence the basic hexagonal shape (a rough translation of what a protein sequence appears to look like) to distinguish it from other labels and information on packaging. The connection to apps also allows for social media connections to further spread awareness. Students around campus should have no trouble identifying these labels and understanding the simple design formula as it is based off the traffic-light systems.

Those that have seen the virtual prototypes have stated that they would approve of this program to be put into effect across college campuses. This system could promote a healthier lifestyle especially for those that workout frequent on campus gyms and consume meals with high amounts of protein. 

 

 

 

 

Guerrilla Girls and Social Change Design

 

Guerrilla Girls are an anonymous group of feminist, female artists devoted to fighting sexism and racism within the art world. The group formed in New York City in 1985 with the mission of bringing gender and racial inequality in the fine arts into focus within the greater community. Members are known for the gorilla masks they wear to remain anonymous. They wanted the focus to be on the issues, not on our personalities or our own work. Also, their identity is hidden to protect themselves from the backlash of prominent individuals within the art community.

One Sunday morning they conducted a count at the MET Museum in New York comparing the number of nude males to nude females in the artworks, and the number of male artists to female artists on display. In 2004, they counted again and only 3% of the artists in the Modern and Contemporary sections were women, and 83% of the nudes were female. 

Website to other work:  http://www.guerrillagirls.com/posters/index.shtml

Conceptual Design of Postmodern Era

Tibor Kalman 

Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of conceptual design as practiced by Tibor Kalman and others. 

Kalman was criticized for using sensitive issues such as homelessness as a public relations ploy to garner attention, but at the same time he was the master of peaking public interest in just this way. He and Sagmeister yearned for design that means something and connects to people at a human level. Kalman focused on multiculturalism and global awareness through the use of bold graphic design, typography, and juxtaposition of photographs and doctored images. He liked to depict racial minorities where he changed the way the world was viewed. He called himself a social activist. Kalman was sincere with his concepts and he understood that being a master of good design meant nothing unless it supported a message that led to action. However, Kalman was intolerant of mindless consistency and was not reluctant to make people angry about their concepts. He would be remembered more for his critiques on the nature of consumption and production than for his formal studio achievements. 

Other Artists: Stefan Sagmeister, John Maeda, Stephen Sorrell

Stefan Sagmeister

Bauhaus

1.     Cite some parallels that link Dada and Constructivism in Germany. 

There are several parallels between the Dada and Russian Constructivist thinking in Germany. Both movements embraced the idea of utopian Communism. They believed that geometric abstraction referenced the real world that conveys strong verbal ideas. The groups created photomontages and assemblages using industrial iconography to create posters that were used for social activism. Dadaists and Constructivists criticized Expressionists because of the emotion in their work. Both members rejected taking on the role of the fine artists because they wanted to create a movement that was different aesthetically.

2.     Is an expressionist idiom somehow more appropriate as a vehicle for dark feelings than for other sentiments? Why or why not?

Expressionist idiom is appropriate for feelings in general because in expressionism artists depict non-objective reality. Rather, they depict the subjective emotions and responses, which are aroused from emotions inflicted by objects, events and the world around them. It is a form to express emotional experience rather than impressions of the external world.

3.     Why was architecture so central to the Bauhaus in both a practical and theoretical sense? 

Architecture was practical to the Bauhaus because Bauhaus was the “Construction house”. Walter Gropius was the founder of Bauhaus and he was an architect that rejected the bourgeois. The architectural aesthetic was to be simple, avoid decorative details and wanted to use classical forms. The architecture was a pure form and was functional without ornamentation. It was practical to have flat roofs, smooth surfaces and façades with minimalistic and neutral aesthetics.

Modern Graphic Design

Modern Graphic Design from Yekaterina22

Sachplakat in Germany

        Sachplakat in Germany was a response to the "dated" and uber complex design of Art Nouveau. Lucian Bernhard started the movement in the early 1990's and it was created to advertise for clients in Europe with different needs. The translation of Sachplakat is "Object Poster" where idea behind the poster is to have the object advertised be the focal point of the piece. This movement had a strong Japanese influence, had radical simplification, and had blunt messages that became the key in modern advertising.

Comparison

Alphonse Mucha: Waverley Cycles (1898): Mucha created intricate designs in his posters. He used women and their sexuality to attract people towards the poster. He was very focused on creating detailed hair and ornamental borders in his work. He placed the women on top of the product that was being sold. He made the women the primary focus and the product was an after thought. The typography was clean and precise and the background was red to command attention of the viewer.

Lucian Bernhard: Priester Matches (1905): Bernhard created a flyer with a muted, black background. He did not include any ornamental details and the piece was very plain. The product that was being sold was the focal point of the poster, and there was no doubt what was being advertised. The red hue was used to emphasize the matches which gave attention to the product. There were no over-sexualized female figures featured in the posters. The typography was hand written and it was not very precise. The font seemed very geometric and cut-out-like. The entire poster contained less information and was straight to the point.