5 Graphic Designers

I was first introduced to Storm Thorgerson work when I discovered my favorite band's music. This brilliant mind was a member of the British graphic art group Hipgnosis, and the group worked on many album covers for music artists such as AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Genesis, and of course, Pink Floyd. The group even used their talents in music videos and on book covers. His work on the album cover of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon is recognized for being one of the most famous album covers of all time. The group itself works mainly around photo manipulation.
I love this artist's work because he doesn't manipulate the photos to the point to where they look too busy or gaudy. He keeps it simple, but manipulates it enough to where the viewer almost does a double take upon first seeing one of his works. This really happened to me when I saw the album cover of Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here.




Ron Arad is technically an industrial designer, but I'm assuming that he counts as well. He was born in 1951 and attended Bazalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem and the Architectural Association in London. Currently he is the Head of Design Products Department at the Royal College of Art. Most of his designs are applied art, but he does occasionally put up installations in galleries. His designs are extremely interesting and modern. He even sports a website called Bonluxat.com with many of his furniture designs. Everything from coffee tables to mirrors can be found here, and each one has a unique design.



Milton Glaser is most famous for his I Love New York logo, his Bob Dylan poster, and the "DC Bullet" logo for DC comics. In 1954 he was the founder and presider of Push Pin Studios. His work is noted for its simplicity and originality. He didn't stick with any specific medium when doing his projects, rather he experimented with many different things. He designed book jackets, album covers, advertisements, and magazine illustrations. in 1974 he founded his own studio called Milton Glaser, Inc. Later, this led to him taking part in doing the designs for the New York Magazine, which he was the co-founder of, and his work on a mural for the Federal Office Building in Indianapolis. He has had a major impact on modern design, and has received many awards for his illustrations. I appreciate Glaser's work for it's simplicity. Like other designers that I admire, he offers the viewer brilliant work that still manages to not overwhelm. This is hard to learn, let alone achieve as a design student. Actually, I foresee this being my main problem.



Stefan G. Bucher is a graphic designer, illustrator, and writer. He is the owner of studio 344 Design in California. Like most graphic designers, Bucher started out his career working on cd packages. Some of the works from his earlier days include Brand New Day: The Remixes for Sting and the soundtrack for The Matrix. He is the author of the book All Access - The Making of Thirty Extraordinary Graphic Designers. In 2004 the Art Directors Club of New York honored him for being one of the leading creators of age 30 and below. The main reason that I chose Bucher is because of his work on the online animation series called Daily Monster. Basically he filmed himself drawing a new monster for every day out of ink blots. These are very creative and fun to me, and I admire him for keeping it an ongoing process instead of stopping after one or two in a series like I tend to do.


Despite the fact that this last person is technically an industrial designer, I really want to include him in my list of designers. Jonathan Paul Ive is a British designer and is the Senior Vice President of Industrial Design at Apple, Inc. He is responsible for the brilliant design of the iMac, aluminum Powerbook G4, iPod, and the iPhone. He studied industrial design at Northumbria University (Newcastle Polytechnic). His design motifs include translucency, colors, minimalism, and dark aluminum. His work is amazing to be because it is, once again, simple. This seems to be my favorite technique now that I look back at all of my choices for this post.

Graphic Design & Me

At first I thought that explaining why I wanted to major in Graphic Design would be difficult, but once I thought about it for a little while I realized that there are several reasons that I feel this profession is right for me.
One reason is that I am always critiquing work that I see in the field of Graphic Design whether I realize it or not. I look at ads in magazines and newspapers and I analyze the layouts and content. I don't really know why I do this other than because I feel that it is interesting and I'd like to be able to do this myself. This partly originated from my work in my high school yearbook class. I was "trained" so to speak, on how to properly layout the spreads and on what was pleasing to the eye. I don't know how much of this knowledge remains after 4 years of not using it, but maybe I've kept it all and used it subconsciously.
The other reason is that Graphic Design seems like it would be the best suited career for me. I always tend to work better when I'm given something to draw. Don't get me wrong, I can easily come up with my own ideas, but that "chi" gets blocked rather often. When I'm told what to draw, part of the thought process is already taken care of and I seem to be able to work more efficiently and with better results. Also, because this area seems to be growing in size, I would assume that graphic artists would be needed because of the new businesses that will be opened and so forth.
In short, I feel that it's in my gut, and I will be able to earn a decent living from it. It beings something that I find very interesting doesn't hurt either.