This week we were also introduced to our final project for this semester, a web essay. This consists of: a 1500 word essay and a website on which it is hosted, to be designed to match the content of the essay. The essay itself is to be written on the design work of a designer, or group of designers who have made a significant impact on design history. For this we were given a list of designers to choose from:

• Jan Tschichold
• Saul Bass
• Massimo Vignelli
• Josef Müller Brockmann
• Otto Neurath
• Paula Scher / Natasha Jen / Giorga Lupi [Female Pentagram partners]
• Wolfgang Weingart
• Erik Spiekermann
• Tim Berners Lee
• Jessica Hische
• Aaron Draplin
• Pentagram multidisciplinary design studio
• Jon Hicks
• Kyle Tezak
• IDEO

I went to the library after the lecture, to do some research into these individuals, to help me choose one to base my essay on. Some of the designers, such as Josef Muller Brockmann and Jan Tschichold, we had covered in previous lectures. Others such as Tim Berners Lee I knew of myself. So I really wanted to look at designers who I wasn’t familiar with to see if their work, inspired me.

I found books on both Otto Neurath and Saul Bass, so I took some time to look through these and see the designers work. I liked the style of data visualisation Otto Neurath, it was very clear and innovative in style.

Saul Bass was a different style of designer, who worked in many areas, such as: Poster Design, corporate branding and most famously on Film Titles. Having previously studied Media in a previous course I feel myself drawn to the work of Saul Bass, especially the film title work as I really love the two-dimensional graphic animation he used, especially in his first work “The Man with the Golden Arm”