A few weeks ago the University of Michigan School of Art & Design hosted the very impressive graphic design exhibition The Graphic Imperative, an exhibition covering posters for peace, social justice, and the environment from 1965-2005 from around the world. It was one of the first all-graphic design exhibitions I’ve been to, it was also the first shows I’ve been to where the theme wasn’t just art for art’s sake. It was a very powerful show indeed; each piece spoke to some very important world issue, everything from AIDS to tolerance to war.

Before the exhibition officially opened Elizabeth Resnick, co-curator and Associate Professor at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, gave a little presentation introducing the exhibition.

The next day I went and sat in on a little early-morning coffee and bagels breakfast discussion with Elizabeth Resnick, two of my professors, a few grad students, and another undergrad. After the bagels had been eaten I had the chance to have a little portfolio review; I got some great feedback on my portfolio.

Pretty snazzy event overall!

Jeffery Zeldman hits the nail on the head with his latest essay. I really suggest that everyone take a few moments and read it over, even you non-web designers; it’s a smart article that while relatively brief, covers the important things about web design so that even those that don’t speak XHTML can understand things.

I meant to write about this some time ago but things have been rather busy lately. Anyway, a few weeks back as part of the University of Michigan School of Art & Design Distinguished Visitor Series lectures (damn that’s a long title!) Ellen Lupton came to give a talk to the entire Art School body plus anyone from the public that was interested. Her lecture was entertaining, funny, a bit racy, and short (a welcome rarity among many long-winded, boring lectures). From what I hear the Q&A afterwards was even better than the lecture itself, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to attend due to another class coming up.

Anyway, Ellen Lupton recieved the AIGA Medal the previous night, in New York, for her fabulous contributions to the visual design world. And the day after the lecture, the Umich AIGA Student Group Board was able to obtain two or so hours to meet with Ellen to have a little portfolio review. To have a portfolio review with such a highly regarded designer is a rare event indeed.

We sat down with Ellen at 10am in the senior studios and talked a bit before delving into our portfolios; we talked of her newest book in progress and what it was like to receive the AIGA Medal. Three of us had a pretty well-rounded portfolio to show, one was just beginning to assemble her portfolio, and one was just there to take it all in. She had some pretty good, rather constructive, things to say about each of our portfolios.

Personally I had a decent reaction, but she did criticize the typography my business card as being “amateurish,” which admittedly it is. To be fair it is over 2 years old and I had never taken a typography class before this semester. Also, she commented that my portfolio website is rather plain and boring. I explained that it’s minimalist, but she said that I gave it a bit more depth it’d be a lot better. And guess what? She’s right. Not that that opinion was exactly rocket science but she hit the nail on the head. Goes to show outside opinions on projects are totally helpful, which isn’t that the whole point of a portfolio review to begin with?!

I was asked recently to introduce Helvetica to an auditorium of folk at the University of Michigan Helvetica Screening (sponsored by UMMA, University of Michigan School of Art & Design, University of Michigan AIGA Student Group, and AIGA Detroit). I happily agreed and last night I made my way through a completely packed auditorium (the isles were full as well and people stood outside the doorways in the halls to watch) to introduce myself, the sponsors, Craig Steen the president of AIGA Detroit, and finally introduce the film itself to get things rolling.

The movie itself is amazing; it’s very well produced. The interviews are very interesting, insightful, and overall extremely funny. These interviewees are leaders in their fields and while they are all respected for their work, a lot of them have outrageously contrasting viewpoints as far as typography and “good design” goes. It certainly is a group of very opinionated designers. Seeing two renowned designers such as Massimo Vignelli (whom I just wrote about) and Erik Spiekermann get so worked up over this one little ubiquitous font is really interesting, though I think Spiekermann would win if they came to fisticuffs over the matter (being 16 years his junior).

After the film we facilitated discussion to a smaller audience on the opinions expressed in the movie and on the movie itself. Some interesting points and questions were raised.

For our first UM AIGA Student Group event it was an amazing turnout and super successful. This movie is definitely a must see, but good luck finding it at your local Blockbuster.

The other night I had the opportunity to attend a lecture given by legendary modernist designer Massimo Vignelli. It was very interesting to hear this guy who’s been in the industry for over 50 years now talk about all the projects he’s been involved with, from when he worked with Venini in Milan to his work with Bloomindales, the National Park Service, American Airlines, and The New York Subway System.

Massimo divided his lecture into groups of 5 years, and the beginning of each section he had a cute little black and white of his wife and himself. Massimo really injects a lot of humor into his stories; his pretty strong Italian accent and old-man behavior lend to some funny on-stage happenings.

Over the two hours of lecture I jotted down some things that Massimo had said here and there. Here are a few of the notes I took; things he said, advice, and a few random out-of-context sentences. It should be noted though that Massimo is an unapologetic, opinionated, modernist and some of the things he says definitely aren’t for everyone.

I see graphic design as the orginization of information that is semantically correct, syntactically consistant, pragmatically understandable, visually powerful, intellectually intelligent, and above all timeless.

Don’t trust market research, do what you want.

How can people judge design if [they don't know|it never existed before].

If you can’t find it, design it.

Have imagination, have courage, be fast.

If you listen to the manufacturer you’ll still be making mickey mouse trays.

Stay away from miserable design.

The grid is a lion, and you are the grid tamer. If you stay too long in the grid, the grid will eat you.

Look at my pants!

Luck is very important, you should be lucky.

Never work with middle management, work with the president. Middle management is afraid of losing their jobs.

Adding is stupid, subtracting is genius.

At the end of the lecture I stayed behind for a few minutes to have a short word with Kely Salchow, the AIGA Detroit Education Chair, and of course, Massimo. I had also brought along Massimo’s book, Vignelli: From A to Z, which I had a copy of in my library in the hopes that he’d be so nice as to autograph it, which he did.

Core77 has a back to school guide up for all you designer type students out there. I especially like the “Classmate Designertypes” section, because it’s just too easy to stereotype art students.

Even with the silly content they still do have some good advice, this most of all:

If you’re not serious about documenting your work from the get-go, don’t even go to school. Hell, don’t even read this feature. Okay, you can read this feature, but then go buy a camera. A good one. You know, with f-stops and everything.

Seriously, you’re spending like $75,000 on this education; surely you can spring another $600 to keep a record of it.

So you want to go to school for art do you? Why? Perhaps you want to be an art major because in high school you were the artsy kid, always getting attention for you paintings, doodles, or whatever. Or perhaps you like drawing in your spare time. Or maybe you think you’re “so deep” that people can only understand you though your art. Maybe it’s just because you have a unquenchable desire to create.

Art and design is a weird major; the nights you would spend studying biochemistry, engineering, or history are replaced with nights spent with a brush in hand, knee deep in Photoshop or Maya, or even pulling some fresh prints in the print studio. Your professors spend less time obsessing over your written papers and spend more time obsessing over your use of color, your use of form, and your composition.

For whatever reason you decide to pursue art for a career, these following words I have for you are things you should take into consideration if you are thinking about becoming an art major.

1) The art major should enjoy spending the night in the art building after staying late to work on projects till 3am. The art majors art building will become a second home.

2) The art major should love color (and what effects colors can have on the viewer) and obsess over composition.

3) The art major should not care about having money because they’ll be throwing it away on art supplies and lord knows they won’t be making a terrible amount in their profession.

4) The art major should enjoy building and polishing their portfolio.

5) The art major should relish the fact that they’ll be taking no fewer than 13 credit hours but spending 23+ hours in class each week plus putting countless more hours into assigned projects.

6) The art major should put themselves into their work.

7) The art major should have personal projects in addition to the assigned projects.

8) The art major should always be able to explain their reasoning for their work.

9) The art major should always have a sketchbook within arms reach.

10) The art major should never become complacent.

11) The art major should be decent at creating art.

Does that list describe you? If so, then smile, for you probably have what it takes to be an art major.