re:D Fall 2007 (PDF) - The New School

It puts critical thinking in the forefront and
demands a persuasive voice that acknowledges
social responsibility. Building great messages
demands that we continue to encourage exploration
in communication design and put it to a
“thinking use,” not just consumer ends.
CHRISTIAN MARC SCHMIDT ’02
Lead designer for Pentagram, New York.
Communication design revolves around patterns
and systems. In the broadest sense,
it deals with the expression of linguistic
structures and rhetorical devices, concerned
primarily with messaging and secondarily with
systems of organization. To me, it has come
to mean more than a vocation, more than a
particular category of visual design; it is a way
of approaching any kind of creative pursuit. It
is both process and perspective, independent
of media or form, concerned foremost with
creating conceptual frameworks from the intersection
of external parameters and internal
objectives. As a critical practice, communication
design both interprets and shapes the
world around us, expressed through a growing
multitude of media and technologies that
continue to affirm its extensibility.
PAUL SHAW Calligrapher, type
designer, design historian, principal of
Paul Shaw/Letter Design, and faculty
member for 22 years. In the 1960s,
calligraphy classes were purged from design
schools on the grounds that calligraphy was
an outmoded, pre-industrial craft with no
value in a modern, technological world. I
believe it is of value as a core skill, like drawing.
It helps to hone hand-eye coordination
and, more directly, provides a foundation for
understanding the evolution and structure of
the letters that make up the great majority of
Western fonts. It is impossible to appreciate
the subtleties of type without a grounding in
broad-pen-based calligraphy.
STEPHEN VIKSJO ’04 Graphic
designer for Carnegie Hall. Few things
100 years old are as flexible to change,
responsive to new demands, and energetic
about reinventing themselves as Parsons’
Communication Design and Technology
program. It is more prepared than ever to
produce professionals eager to meet the ever
changing—and quickly intensifying—demands
of our expanding global community. A shrinking
world is an exciting concept, but with it
comes a need for designers to develop new
ways to manipulate every medium possible to
communicate messages that cross cultural,
linguistic, religious, and ethnic barriers.
We live on top of one another virtually, and
ideas collide around the globe in a matter of
seconds. The potential power in this is strong,
and designers—trained to communicate clear,
direct, and thoughtful messages—are capable
of ensuring a positive exchange.
SAYOKO YOSHIDA ’04 Information
designer at Parsons Institute for Information
Mapping (PIIM); will enter the
MFADT program this fall. The projects I
work on require me to possess good organization
and presentation skills and the ability to
efficiently integrate vast amounts of data so
that end users can analyze and understand the
content faster with greater ability to respond.
Although these are Web-based projects, I find
my knowledge and experience in traditional
principles of good design, typography, page
layout, and visual language (transforming
abstract ideas into concrete forms) fundamental
and absolutely crucial. I believe inheriting
knowledge from the long history of graphic
design and combining that with the understanding
of advanced technology is crucial in
enhancing one’s ability to design and create in
today’s society.
RAINER JURGENS ’06 Runs his own
design firm (www.syllodesign.com).
Communication design faces a world in which
mainstream access to sophisticated design
tools will allow nearly anyone to create and display
personally created content. The potential
downside to this technology will be the promotion
of a “fast-food” style of design, where the
output is more important than its functionality.
Tools should not be mistaken for talent, and
we must retain the human aspect of design
work, rather than mechanizing the entire process.
As software continues to resemble the
instructions on the back of a box of cake mix,
our designs become a step-by-step process:
pour, mix, bake. It is of utmost importance
that through education and within our field, we
continue to open our minds to the presence
of the human spin in our ideas. Technology
needs to remain a tool and not control our
creative outlets.
ALVIN GROSSMAN Legendary art
director and Parsons faculty member.
In our mutual journey through visual design
history, from cave painting to computers, from
hand signals to text messaging, I hope I have
enabled you to recognize that communication
was the driver, design the passenger, and
technology the vehicle.
In addition, but equally important, was my
continual reminder that communication design
is TWO WORDS! Without the mastery of the
first, the second is meaningless.
Presently, in your professional lives, I am certain
that you are aware that the swift changes
of contemporary design constantly demand
new solutions. Yet to step into an uncertain
future, one foot must be kept in a secure past.
Your knowledge of visual design history powers
the flow of inspiration and innovation.
The great architect Le Corbusier elegantly and
succinctly said, “It is necessary to understand
history, and he who understands history knows
how to find continuity between That which
was, That which is, and That which will be.”
To the many of you who entered my class a
student and left a friend, thank you for that
privilege. To those who took my suggestion
that learning was an endless journey, in which
you must take an occasional detour into terra
incognita (unknown territory), bon voyage, and
have fun along the way.
MARK MINER ’06 Footwear designer
for Adidas. DESIGN CREATIVE CULTURE
begin by brainstorming (add to the list, share,
and discuss): rebel . . . seen & heard . . .
design landscape . . . untapped . . . something
you feel . . . won’t stop . . . we make change
. . . controversy . . . center . . . encourage
. . . contrast . . . formula . . . good vs. great
. . . together . . . everyday I am
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