I watched the short films about Lawrence Weiner and the four illustrators. They both offered an interesting take on art and illustration. I’ll start with the short featuring Lawrence Weiner. First off, the director did an excellent job creating very nicely produced film with a very dramatic tone. From the start you feel like you’re watching an extraordinary man. Weiner blends the line between graphic design and art. He detests Helvetica. He loves Franklin Gothic Condensed. Anyone who feels that strongly towards a font makes for a very interesting subject. He had a very philosophical approach to design and feels design and fonts should be open to interpretation. This is why he hates Helvetica because he finds it authoritative and that it tells you everything. He finds Franklin Gothic Condensed (a sans serif) a working class font that allows for interpretation. Weiner was very interesting, and it was surprising how much you could learn about a person in four minutes. The last thing that stuck out was completely unrelated to anything font, but he had really long fingers.
The short film featuring the four illustrators also presented a different approach to design than Weiner. The illustrators discussed everything from the value of design to starting career in the design industry. They discussed a famous art director Steve Heller and how it seems like everyone got their start working for him. On the design side, they discussed the importance of the first impression with illustrations. They said you or clients can essentially size the design up immediately and that the work speaks for itself. This idea of instant feedback provides a great deal of enjoyment to the designers. Towards the latter part of the film, a couple of the designers begin to discuss the value, or lack of value of illustrations. It is a stark contrast between optimism and pessimism. Giving the example of how President Bush was ridiculed more than any other president, and he managed to get reelected. One of the illustrators argues that all that work was unsuccessful, a very pessimistic view. On the other side, an illustrator takes an optimistic view that all of their work is a contribution, even if it may be subtle. The last idea I found interesting is that illustration differs from “art” pieces because it is designed for an audience, contrary to museum pieces (excluding kitsch). Both videos provided a great insight into the graphic design world, and thanks to excellent production value, were very interesting.