Summerhill Pyramid Winery

In the past few years, Summerhill Pyramid Winery has achieved an international reputation of award-winning quality wine. Due to the usage of biodynamic (manure and compost, without artificial chemicals) and spiritual farming methods, and storing the wine in a pyramid, a new brand identity has been developed. 

Three symbols represent fire, spirit and earth. These represent the nature of the aging process and the mew-age spirituality of the owners.

The typeface used compliments the geometry of the symbols. 

Massimo Vignelli Proposal

 Massimo Vignelli is a dominating force within the graphic design industry. He is a master designer who has done work in product design, interior design, packaging design, poster design, book and magazine design architectural design, and corporate identity. Vignelli believes that “if you can design one thing, you can design everything.”

He has designed for many different companies such as IBM, Knoll, Bloomingdale's, and American Airlines. In recent years, Massimo Vignelli opened Vignelli Associates, his own design firm, with his wife.

Massimo Vignelli designs in a Modernist and Minimalistic style. This is attained through his usage of simple geometric shapes and lines. He keeps his designs minimalistic, simple, and clean. His designs are clean and pleasing to the eye: void of any clutter and unnecessary components.

I want to do this research paper on Massimo Vignelli because I love his design aesthetics and his philosophy on design itself. Like Vignelli, I love sleek and minimalistic designs. I like to keep design simple and straightforward. Furthermore, I am also a lover geometric shapes and calculated line structures which Vignelli greatly uses.

Vignelli has a quote saying that a designer should be able to design anything “from a spoon to the city”. It is a very gutsy thingy for him to say and believe in; however, I think that to reach the pinnacle of design it is a given. Design is theoretical therefore a designer should be able to apply themselves to producing anything “from a spoon to the city”.

I am looking forward to learning more about Massimo Vignelli: his inspirations, he process, and his aesthetics.

Take your pleasure seriously

The quote I chose is "Take your pleasure seriously." by Charles Eames. This quote has been a source of motivation for the past couple of years even though at that time I didn't know who said it.

In the beginning, I wanted to take inspiration from Joseph Brochman; however in the end, I decided to go witha more minimalistic and direct style. The geometric shapes are there to reveal my love shapes. The silhouettes are a pencil, music note, and dancer. They represent my love for all forms of art from traditional art to music and to dance.

Poster Prep Work

Bauhaus Scavenger Hunt

Russian Constructivism Poster

I wanted to use simple colors with a simple design to strongly convey my message. The color usage is designed to have a high contrast and instantly draw the eye to where it is meant to be.

Tainted Memories

Art Nouveau Soap Box

For my Art Nouveau-inspired soap box, I wanted to go for a more simplistic and minimal approach. The packaging is basically a wrapper that goes around the soap bar instead of a box. The wrapping paper is brown because I wanted to create for companies that are 'green-friendly' and used organics. For the strap around the brown tissue wrap I used different tones of green. Once again the green is used to signify it being natural. The brand is called "Veloute" and means velvety in French. My concept is that the soap contains moisturizers so it not only cleans but softens and rehydrates one's skin at the same time.

Victorian Matchbox

My Victorian-ized matchbox consists of red as a main color and yellow as a secondary color. This design solution was to create an eye-catching box with strong contrast. The typefaces that I chose were to create the sense of class or sophistication.  The wooden pipe symbol was used to further reinforce that idea. The slogan "Taste of Class" represents the high quality and perfect blend of flavour that one will enjoy from its use.  

ASSIGNMENT #1

Question: 

What historic styles and designers interest you and why?

Answer:

Historic styles that interest me the are Impressionism, Futurism, and Minimalism. I love Impressionism for its ability to convey beauty without painting too tightly.  It allows a sense of freedom.  I am also strongly influenced by Futurism and Minimalism because I enjoy painting abstract paintings that incorporate a sense of movement and speed while keeping the painting clean and simple.

One of my favorite designers is Massimo Vignelli.  I am inspired by this man's ability to design everything: product design, packaging design, graphic design, furniture design, architecture.  I am also aligned with his concept of design: creating beauty through the use of a minimal color palette and keeping only the essentials or necessities in a design. 

Another designer that I admire is Paula Scher.  I love her bold usage of typography.  Her posters always demand attention.  I also love her typographic maps. Those maps consists of beautiful color combinations paired with simple and clean typefaces.

Through the course of the class, I hope to enlarge my knowledge on design styles and history.  I want increase my design 'vocabulary'.