Blogging Seminar

Blogging Practise
19 / 10 / 15

This seminar involved the clarification of how to write within each aspect of the blog. I feel like I've had the right idea with my current blogging but this session has definately pointed me in a more positive direction with it, as I have learnt to be more concise with my entries focusing on my own evaluations, interpretations of briefs, responses to feedback and presentation of development and research. 

To exercise our evaluative skills we were encouraged to look into the redesign of the Whitney Museum of American Art's Graphic identity... 

They aimed to create a responsive W, which as a group we believe they have achieved. The design is adaptive to many different scenarios when communicating information. Which they can apply consistently to all promotion, adverts and branded stationary.

The designers have also made informed design decisions in specific areas such as the selected typeface. Not only is the typeface in keeping with current trends in gallery branding, it is also relevant physically to the city itself. This physical relevance is ‘due to the sharpness’ of the typeface which according to the designers represents NYC. Possibly due to similar typefaces such as Akzidenz Grotesk being using in the branding of the NYC subway. As a group we agreed that we did not visually connect with the W in terms of aesthetics. However we believe the primary function is purely as a ‘grid’ for formatting rather than a visual symbol to communicate the gallery. Therefore in terms of functionality we agreed that it works. Developing on that point, we identified that this W works in the context of an art gallery. This was agreed due to the commonplace of minimal design throughout gallery brandings. This mark/grid may not work when applied to another context, for instance a clothing brand or restaurant. ‘It would be much easier to present history of art as a simplistic line. – But that’s not the Whitney.’ Is a quote from the designers justifying the context of the ‘zigzag’. They state that the zigzag is a visual metaphor for a non-simplistic, more complicated history of art. Claiming that the zigzag is coincidently also a capital W for Whitney and that the zigzag could also represent a pulse or the heart beat of a city and or representing a back and forth between the history and the future.