2009 STA Conference: A Great Success!
Science Technology Art
The design profession has transformed. Some say for good, some say not so good. Technology has changed the way we work, even where we live. It has driven some out of the business and allowed others in, who might otherwise not have chosen design as a profession. What has the computer done with our professional and personal lives?
Many of us came into the business of design through a door marked “Art Room”. We wanted to make things. Craftsmanship and hand skills were valuable. Has the art of design been lost? How important a factor is it in today’s world?
The weekend started with Jim Lienhart giving the keynote and setting the stage for the rest of the activities to follow throughout the weekend.
The presentations, always interesting and lively, were complemented by conversation, reflection and commraderie. See the photos and enjoy the comments below:
{rokbox title=|2009 Conference Photos :: Everybody had a good time|album=|myalbum| thumbcount=|1|}images/stories/09conf-pix/*{/rokbox}Jim Lienhart
Lienhart Design
STA Keynote
My presentation was based on showing the design projects and programs that I enjoyed the most over my career so far. Starting with Whitaker Guernsey Studio in 1961,to design director at the first Unimark, then RVI Corp, Murrie Lienhart Rysner, starting a greeting card company and finally Lienhart Design plus teaching at Columbia College Chicago. Being a farm kid from Nebraska and coming to Chicago to become a designer has been an amazing experience. STA and Chicago has meant a lot to me.
Betsy Martens
VSA Partners
Sustainability: In Dreams Begin Responsibilities
Betsy Martens traced the evolution of the term 'sustainability' from its original roots as a holistic goal for the planet to its current use in corporate sustainability reports (CSRs) as a more business-based concept. She described how the role of concerned investors has created more stringent reporting standards for CSRs, then concluded with a short film about the Encyclopedia of Life, the scientific project underway to make a Web page for every living species.
Cheri Gearhart
Gearhart Design
The Intersections of Science, Technology, and Art
At the intersections of Science, Technology and Art we find process, change, evolution and, ultimately, inspiration. Exploring the intersections broadens our perspective about how science and technology has influenced art and design. Technology can drive Science as shown by the collider research at CERN, which is also the birthplace of the world wide web. Technology can drive Art as seen in the competitive world of origami where Robert Lang has created a program to assist in creating new designs, while some origamists, like Satoshi Kamiya still work by head and hand. Technology can force us to move forward, especially in the world of graphic design as the closing of this web press demonstrates. Science can influence Art as detailed on This American Life on NPR, even though it shouldn't necessarily in this way. Or Science can influence Art beautifully, as in the dramatic and true to life art of Isabella Kirkland.
Where are we headed? With the emergence of technology to support Augmented Reality, we are looking at a consumer's ability to trigger delivery of targeted motion advertising simply by directing their camera phones at brand logos. If that doesn't focus your perspective and provide inspiration, I don't know what will.
Oscar Anderson
OscarPlus
Science Technology Art
Science is objective. Art is subjective. Technology is the combination of science and art. As we progress in these challenging times, we have the opportunity to push the envelope regarding new ideas to meld science and art. We have a chance to create new concepts for design and communication. Why not take advantage of it? There’s absolutely nothing to lose. The past is the past. Let’s embrace these unique times.
Robert W. Brown
Tamada Brown & Associates
The Four Pica Contest
With new technology, there often comes the loss of reference and personal skills. For instance, we no longer need to be able to visually judge distances on paper, or "eye-ball" spaces on a keyline. Yes, there used to be an art to estimating the size of shapes. Today, the computer is an exact measurement at 30% size or 200% size on the screen. So, to test what skill still remains, everyone was asked to draw two vertical line, four picas apart. The winner and one runner-up would win a bottle of wine. The results were very close. In fact there were four winners who were within one point of a perfect four picas. I guess we still have the "eye".
Larry McDonald
TankWorks, LLC
The Rogue Gooey and the Origin of the Serif
Graphical user interfaces (GUIs or gooies) exist to ease the interaction between human and machine. The controls on kitchen blenders offer an excellent illustration of the GUI designer’s breadth of possibility. The gear selector in most automatic transmission cars is an example of a rogue GUI, a GUI out of control. That particular GUI could be placed anywhere within reach of the driver and could look like a dial, a series of buttons or countless other devices. But car manufacturers have stubbornly insisted, for over fifty years, to fashion it after a manual transmission. And look where that kind of thinking has gotten the American car companies.
The serif originated as a functional, edging-in stroke of the brush of Roman sign painters. Centuries later, type designers elected to fashion their fonts after those found on the Roman monuments, but in type, the serif no longer serves a functional purpose, only a aesthetic one. As technologies evolve, particularly the digitization and condensation of the printed word, we will be forced to regard the serif as a rogue gooey.
Dennis Y. Ichiyama
Purdue University
When in Rome…
A visual journey of Professor Dennis Y Ichiyama's stay at the American Academy in Rome and the various projects he undertook. Foremost is the work at the Tipoteca Italiana fondazione in Cornuda, Italy where the research focused on Italian and French wood type. The result is a series of unique (full alphabet) type designs that have never been printed as specimen sheets. Also, an edition of typographic experiments using type from the collection. The trip up to the very top of the Trajan Column (in the Forum) was another highlight not soon to be forgotten including the unique panoramic view of the eternal city!
Jack Weiss
Jack Weiss and Associates
The Science Technology Art of Maps.
I've been in love with maps for a very long time. Drew my first one, showing my neighborhood, at about age 8 or 10. My job description in the U.S. Air Force was Illustrator Technician, but in wartime I would have been a cartographer. Today I find myself a wayfinding expert - helping others to find their way with signs and maps. The visual portion of my presentation contained images from the book "You Are Here," a catalog of the show held last year at the Field Museum. I also showed work from my office that featured maps or diagrams: Identity for the Chicago2 design competition; Oral Histology, an SRA texbook; Maps for Northwestern University's Evanston campus and Oakton Community Colleges DesPlaines campus; Diagram for the Terra Museum's "Gallery of the Louvre"; 27 Chicago Designer poster with a nautical map background; Wayfinding for the Illinois Holocaust Museum. I closed with a map showing how to get to Mars Restaurant, the dinner venue for the evening. A similar was provided in the conference packet - but it was incorrect and had everyone going off in the wrong direction. Maps can be very useful, but only if they provide the correct information!
Matthew J. Doherty
Matthew Doherty Design
From: STA (Science, Technology, Art): The Art of Integrative Thinking
To: STA: Managing creativity at the terminal velocity of change.
Marshal McLuhan observed “We shape our tools and afterward our tools shape us”. Within industry, cultures, small businesses, and with individual clients, this digital age is ripe with “digital tool bubbles” popping all the time. Who can keep up? Today, spurred by the economic meltdown, consultants (designers, and creative communications advocates) have an opportunity to deliver a critical value to our clients following the mission we have always understood: To resist the shaping pressures of our tools (and faster delivery expectations with shrinking budgets) that encourage shallow generic solutions, and instead link back to and be shaped by the tangible — the client and end users — setting the problem using experience and integrative thinking to deliver better results with, among other things, the tools provided by science, technology and art.
