User:ThomasW/Notes Look Closer Five

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Beirut, Michael, Drenttel, William, William, Steven (2006) Look Closer Five, Critical Writings on Graphic Design, New York, Allworth Press

"Early twentieth century movements like de Stijl and Russian constructivism attempted to connect design to larger political, social and spiritual ideologies" p 6

"The design artifacts you leave behind will be your ultimate legacy" (Beirut,2006, p6)

"An important way out of the current predicament is for graphic design to reclaim a position of critical autonomy. By autonomy, I do not mean a wholesale withdrawal from the social or the kind of freedoms the fine arts claim. Graphic design, precisely because it is a instrumental form of communication, cannot divorce itself from the world, Rather graphic design must be seen as discipline capable of generating meaning out of its own intrinsic resources without reliance on commissions, functions or specific materials or means." p10

"In the twentieth century, modern designers hailed pictures as a "universal" language yet in the age of code, text has become a common denominator then images–searchable. translatable. and capable of being reformatted and restyled and alternative or future media." p 24

"In our much-fable era of information overload, a person can still process only one message at a time. this brute fact of cognition is the secret behind magic tricks: sleights of and occurs while the attention of the audience is drawn elsewhere." p25

"Political leaders have long fears images and taken extreme measures to control and manipulate them." p46

"First, Technology has considerable undermined our ability to trust what we see, yet we have not adequately grappled with the effects of this on our nothing of truth.Second, if we are indeed moving from the era of the printed word to an era dominated by the images." p47

"Graphic designers (and lots of other folks, too) shoulder a dilemma of identification: how to balance the role of emissary with the role of saviour" p78

Mr Keedy "Taste used to be something you developed and learned with the guidance of experts over time: now its just something you buy." p99

Rick Poynor "If fundamental systemic changes feels unlikely, then this tends to suggest that the post-modern condition will be our reality for the fore-sable future, imposing operation constraints or rules of its own, whether we like it or not." p 100


{History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.}

"First Tragedy, the second is farce–Karl Marx long since gave way for Groucho in our expeditions of the fate of the revolutionary images and routines " p103

Jessica Hefand "Nostalgia is fuzzy and utopian, privileged an imagined past over a real one." p107

Steve Heller "In this image war, the US Government only sanctions publication of distribution pictures when it suit propaganda needs.138

Richard Buchanan "Design is not merely a adornment of cultural life but one of the practical disciples of responsible action for bringing the high values of a country or a culture into concrete reality, allowing us to transform abstract ideas into specific, manageable form" p142-143

E.H Gomrichs "There really is no such thing as Art. There is only artist" p 146

HOrace "There role of art is to inform and delight." p147

"We need someone who can re-brand American foreign policy..She got me to buy Uncle Bens Rice" p 161

Mr keedy "The only things more annoying than having your ideas ignored or forgotten by the next generation is watching them make the same stupid mistakes you made" p 197