She is known for translating post-modern ideas into modern design. She expertly blends type, photographs, and language into a perfectly well-executed design. She emerged in the 1980’s along with the shift from analog to digital design, so there has been a blending of both styles in her work.
Book Cover for “The Body”
Street Signs project shows off type
Kyle Cooper’s specialty is directing and producing main title and visual effects sequences in broadcast mediums. He went to Yale and The University of Massachusetts. Cooper is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Alliance Graphique Internationale, and is “Royal Designer for Industry from the Royal Society” in London.
My favorite thing Cooper has done are the visuals for American Horror Story, which is one of my favorite TV shows
Creativity magazine named him “one of the top 50 biggest and best thinkers from the last 20 years of advertising and consumer culture.”
He did the 2002 Marvel logo.
He produced the Spiderman III Sequence
The AIGA Medalist I chose was Ann Willoughby because I really like her design style. She is a 2014 AIGA Medalist born in Jackson, Mississippi. She is the founder and CEO of Willoughby Design which is a branding and design firm that’s given identity to many brands like Kauffman Foundation, the United Nations, Hallmark, Lee Jeans, Hershey’s and Einstein Bros. Bagels. She oversees projects to make sure the vision is captured and also handles all of the business strategies. in 2004, She co-chaired “Gain: AIGA Business and Design Conference” and helped launch a design leadership program at Harvard Business School and served on AIGA’s board of directors.
Here is a photo of Ann’s first business card, which is a self-portrait (February 18, 1973):
Here’s an example of one of her earlier works for Lee jeans. It’s an Illustration done January 1, 1978:
Some of my favorite work of hers is for Panera Bread.
Panera “Summer On Our Mind” campaign:
Today, Willoughby enjoys a space that she has erected called the “Wilougby Design Barn,” which is a barn designed for storage an retreat.
In this book, art directors have been explained as many different things. This article goes on to explain how they are people who really have so many various interests. It’s important to note how they contrast from a person who may be a marketing director. Art directors seem to allow their creative mindsets to spill into their demeanor. The passage states how they would put off a deadline to instead go out to lunch with you. This reflects how they follow their own set of rules, and allow things to flow in a less gridlocked pattern, in their work and at their jobs. I also thought it was interesting to see how actual art directors felt about their title. Many of the ones interviewed were very modest about their titles and felt that they were not people who sought to “direct.” Pascal Gregoire says, “I have the advantage of not being an art director. I function more like a film producer. My job is to have the idea. Afterward, someone else must make it happen. I only control the message.” I thought this was interesting because it seems that they are not quick to try and take credit for everything. Vincent Perrottet states my favorite quote of the article. He says “I don’t think that real artist either can or should be directed, so I don’t want to be called an art director. I would never want to work with people who would agree to follow my directions.” This really summed up the passage because many of the people interviewed had similar views.
Overall, it seems that the title of ‘art director’ is quite blurry in today’s world. It’s all about the congealing of a creative team as opposed to one leader telling them what to do.
If you’re a designer, then scale is an element that you must master. It gives us the ability to stress and distress elements on whichever medium. This case study focuses on the newspaper as a medium in which scale is changing. The Drawbridge, in particular, is an art and cultural newspaper that stands out in terms of scale. Stephen Coates is the creative director of the newspaper and he fully embraces its contemporary, large format. Many newspapers today are getting smaller and smaller in order to save money and are ditching the broadsheet format. They also focus largely on the actual beef of the articles. But, the Drawbridge does something different- it dedicates just as must pay and space to illustrations as it does to article text. The goal was to make it “a visual treat” as well as to engage intelligent readers. In terms of proportion, designers are usually tempted enlarge a headline in order to make it stand out. But, more restrained type actually makes the illustration of the article pop more due to contrast. I thought this was an important point because it goes against what our brains are used to doing. We always want to make a headline pop, so we make it bigger. But it’s interesting to note that when we hold back on it, we allow for other crucial elements to speak.
A great art director, or GAD, is a blend of talent, skill, and luck. There’s no rule book to how you can guarantee success as an art director because luck plays such an important role. The fundamentals of a great art director are to have: Confidence, Taste, Wisdom, Compassion, An Open Mind, and Vision. It is just as important to give responsibility to those who have equal talent as it is to lead. It is critical to nourish and nurture talented people.
A weak art director is called “a pair of hands” because they fill the job description, but they fail to take the work up to a higher level. If they’re just riding along the side of the project, they’re no more than a pair of hands. They also must direct- if they don’t do this, they’re failing at the most important priority of their job.
I thought it was important to note how Vienne explained that cultural literacy from different creatives’ points of view. She went on to state how graphic artists can work independently on typographic work, and illustrators can have their own viewpoints on issues, but art directors must have a sense of what’s “out there.” They have to know what’s relevant and what people are interested in. Because most good art directors have some graphic design history- they can use their experience as important inspiration and link a design with a culture.
To me, cultural literacy means to be “street smart,” not necessarily book smart. You can learn to be culturally literate by studying the internet and reading text books, but you can’t get the full experience of a culture unless you’re outside experiencing it. Just like taking classes to learn a different language, you won’t learn the slang unless you communicate with a native.
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