5 things to read and see this week
This week, check out some links on challenging design stereotypes, the link between design and math and designs for March Madness and college couples.
1. Challenging stereotypes in visual communication
This article explains how advertisements help perpetuate stereotypes about a company’s target audience to help sell their products. One aspect of this is stock photography. By making stock photography more inclusive and less stereotypical, companies who use those images have access to pictures that challenge societal norms. It’s in the hands of photographers, artists and creative directors to help lead this change.
2. Artistic expressions of math over seven centuries
The link between math and art has persisted for centuries, and in the exhibition Picturing Math: Selections from the Department of Drawings and Prints at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, this link is put on display and features prints from the Concinnitas portfolio (a set of prints of the most beautiful equations that have been drawn by ten prominent mathematicians and scientists), drawings and woodcuts. Being a math nerd myself, I love seeing the way that math and design intersect and I would love to see this exhibit.
“For this display, we wanted not only to highlight the Concinnitas portfolio but also, using our collection, show just some of the many ways artists, architects, and theorists have focused on the visualization of math and the incorporation of mathematical concepts in Western graphic arts from the 15th century to the contemporary period.”
— Jennifer Farrell, associate curator of drawings and prints at the Met
3. The path ahead for Neil Gorsuch, Trump’s Supreme Court nominee
This is an interesting article that does a great job of using graphics to break down a complex topic in a way that anyone can understand. It doesn’t just look at the path ahead for Neil Gorsuch, but also looks at the current justices on the bench, how current and former justices compare to Scalia and the average time it takes to confirm a Supreme Court nominee.
4. 5 insights about the current state of design
Two weeks ago, I linked to a post that broke down some of the statistics from AIGA’s 2016 Design Census. This article continues to break down the data and explains which areas designers are moving towards, the key to enjoying your work, designers’ job stability and more.
5. Best design advice no one ever gave me
This article has some excellent, simple advice that any designer in any field can follow. My favorite piece of advice is to always be learning and never be satisfied, because curiosity is what drives people to learn new things, take risks and be innovative, and that’s where the best design comes from.
“You could have the world’s best design, but if you don’t know how to explain the problem being addressed and the reason for your design decisions, the design will never get approved.”
— Sean D-Auria
Page Designs
- Growing up Athens | The Post, University of Ohio
The spread does a great job of being kid-friendly with the hand-painted headline and photo frame. The illustrations make the article feel both personal to the subjects but relatable with their cartoon quality.
2. Michigan State by the numbers | The State News, Michigan State University
I love a well-designed sports statistics page, and this page is just that. The photo at the top anchors the page and keeps it from being too jumbled while the statistics, percentages and facts are cleanly displayed. I love the fun touch of using basketballs to illustrate the number of rebounds and assists.
3. Through the looking glass | The Daily Orange, Syracuse University
I absolutely love the little illustrations at the top that manage to capture the glass quality of Brucker’s work and the whimsical nature of his art through the colorful gradient. The repeated use of the gradient in the timeline draws all of the content together. However, I wish there was a little more creativity with it. It would have been nice to have fun illustrations to accompany each step as well.
4. You & me | Indiana Daily Student, Indiana University
This really cute article about Indiana University couples is laid out well with the repeated pops of the color red (their school color), rounded rectangle photos that make them look like wallet-sized pictures and the headline’s clean typography that catches readers’ eyes as they’re flipping through the paper.
5. Aurora’s ‘Leni’ stuns, surprises | The Daily Californian, University of California Berkeley
This page layout is really clean and easy-to-read, and the illustration that accompanies the top article is striking and bold. It’s definitely a great way to catch someone’s eye, but I have to ask, why not use a photo from the play instead?
If you think you have a well-designed page or a good read to share for the next roundup, email me at shays2@elon.edu
Students, did you know you can join the Society for News Design for as little as $5 a month?
