Point of View analysis

What is the author saying and how are they supporting their position or negating a different position?

Massimo Vignelli

Architect should be able to design

· Everything

· Improve (make better) the design of everything being made

o Point of view

~ Functional

~ Mechanical

o Reflect values

~ Cultural

~ Ethical

- Integrity

o Integrity

~ Purpose

~ Materials

~ Manufacturing process

Integrity of purpose implies a severe analysis of what the problem is

· Its meaning

· Possibilities for a range of solutions

o Determine the most appropriate for the specific problem

o Answer all questions posed by the problem

o Solutions to a problem are in the problem itself

o Reflect the approach taken

o By virtue of its configuration

o Stimulate cultural reactions in viewer

o No ideas are assumed w/o questioning them

Belief as a designer

· Responsibility to improve the world around us

· Make it a better place to live

· To fight and oppose trivia

· Ethics of modernism or ideology

o Commitment against

~ Greed

~ Commercialization

~ Exploitation

~ Vulgarization

~ Cheapness

o Search for cultural stimulation and enrichment of the mind

o Attitude

o Strength and dignity

· Architects are all modernists at core, so as designers

· Post modernism evaluates the issues of modernism

Katherine McCoy

Ideas

· Language and form

· Coding and reading visual form

· Challenging the viewer to construct individual interpretations

Idealistic Time

· Emphasis on problem-solving

· Form follows functionalism

· Conceptualizing design solutions

Had her work looked at by Massimo

Clarity and cleanliness

Minimalist typographic vocab.

Gridded page structures

Post modernism

· Employ historical and vernacular elements

· Audience interpretation and participation

Modernism still re-emerging

Audience!

How do you feel or interpret what they are saying?

The things I interpreted from Vignelli and McCoy were to keep finding different ways to come up with solutions, to think of language and form as well as point of view. I feel that in my position, I try to ask questions to improve my design so that the viewer will better understand it. One of the ideas I am keeping in mind this semester is functionality or purpose of the materials towards audience and manufacturers if the designs were to get mass produced.

Do you agree, disagree or are you ambivalent?

I agree with what both Vinelli and McCoy say towards design because I am figuring out day by day how to challenge a viewer in the language and form. McCoy was a big inspiration in my Gertrude Stein's expressive poetry book from last semester. When McCoy did her presentation my sophomore year, she showed work with words being broken by space in a book and changed the meaning of how we read. Her idea made me think of many other ways to give the viewer to think or read differently in direction or right to left or top to bottom, as well as breaking the words into pieces so the viewer would have to decode what is being shown.