PROCESS BOOK

Irma K

Graphic Design ProjectsClark UniversitySpring, 2011

of

POSTERS OF PERSUASION: Blood Donation

EthosLogosPathos

REFLECTIVE DESIGNER: Project Description/Artist Statement

RE-FRAMING THE FRAME: Staging and Publicizing your Work

CITIZEN DESIGNER: Book Covers on Design and Social Change

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CONTENTS

it all started with . . .

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Ethos

We are running low. Donate.

Can you spare a pint?

Don’t think too long. Just do it.

Logos

1665 - First successful blood transfusion* 2011 - No, there is no substitute for blood.

Every 3 seconds someone in America needs a blood transfusion.*

60% of the U.S. population can donate. Only 5% do. 15% say they are too busy.*

Pathos

Blood. It’s something you can spare.

It cannot be manufactured. It can only come from you.

One pint. Three lives. (With one donation you can save up to three lives).

* http://www.nybloodcenter.org/index.jsp

Iconic Images

RESEARCH for my “Donate Blood” posters led me to discover that the most conventional ways to persuade people to donate their blood are either to bully or guilt them into it. I found that images and slogans were used over and over in the same way and in the same concept: give blood—give life; donate blood—save a life; blood saves lives. To bring awareness to this cause, my idea was to break away from this convention and emphasize how vital, and yet exchangeable, blood is. Without blood, the heart would be a useless mechanism, and while some parts of the heart can be replaced with artificial components, only blood itself can generate its entire components (red cells, platelets, and plasma are used for transfusion).*

Throughout the making of this project, I kept coming back to this scientific logic, and each poster that followed the previous one progressed into a simplified form of this logic.

* http://www.redcrossblood.org/learn-about-blood

Revised

Rough drafts

ETHOS POSTER

Details

1-800-RED-CROSS

blood saves

DONATE

designed by IRMA K

DONATE

DONATE DONATE

WE ARE RUNNING LOW

YOUcan spare a pint

every 3 seconds someone in America needs BLOOD TRANSFUSION

are you donor

donor

donor

donor

donor

1-800-RED CROSS

15% say they are too busy

Blood cannot be manufactured-it can only come from YOU

Blood cannot be manufactured-it can only come from YOU

Can you spare a pint?

1665 - First Blood Transfusion 2011 - No Substitute For Blood

One pint saves three livesOne pint saves three lives

One pint saves three lives

Don’t think too long. Just do it.

Have you saved someone lately?

Have you saved someone lately?

1 1 1**SOMEONE YOU LOVE1 out of 3 people will need a transfusion sometime in their lifetime.

ETHO

SPATH

OS

LOG

OS

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FINAL ETHOS

Revised

Rough drafts

1665 - FIRST BLOOD TRANSFUSION2011 - NO SUBSTITUTE FOR BLOOD*

People don’t

*Science has its limits. People don’t.

DONATE BLOOD

1665 - First successful blood transfusion. 2011 - No, there is no substitute for blood.

LOGOS POSTER

Details

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FINAL LOGOS

Revised

Rough drafts

PATHOS POSTER

Details

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FINAL PATHOS

FIN

AL

SERI

ES

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I must admit I struggled with my ETHOS poster, because I had to attach an authoritarian voice to it, which meant it had to fit into an acceptable conventional form. However, further into my design process I worked up the guts to try a concept that is less expected.

My second poster, LOGOS features a fragment of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, reminding us of how far technological advancements have moved human progress, but the lifeline, that can be so easily shared, remains in the bare hands of another human being. Humans are compassionate creatures, and, as advanced the science is, nothing replaces the power of human kindness. My tagline, “Science has its limits. People don’t,” reminds viewers of that power.

The last poster, PATHOS, took the least time to conceptualize, because I decided that the words were not important: the image of bloodline going from a blood pouch to the heart to restore its beat is self-explanatory and powerful enough to carry out the message. The catchphrase, “It can only come from you,” emphasizes the value of blood without being too preachy or overly sentimental, but it isn’t absolutely necessary. The word “DONATE,” used in the same typeface, size, and color, gives visual consistency to all three posters and reinforces the visual message of each poster individually. Furthermore, a lifeline repeated throughout all three concepts suggests the importance of blood in an intelligible way and creates a sense of urgency for this irreplaceable “product.”

A good poster should inform and persuade, but my goal was to avoid the type of message that

belittles human intelligence, like informing people that, “swallowing a plastic bag or placing it over your head might cause difficulty breathing” (if you are able to read this, you already know it). My approach to this project’s subject was influenced by Massimo Vignelli’s idea of Semantics, which is the search of the meaning of whatever we have to design. Vignelli stresses the importance of researching the subject and finding essential meaning of the project, because that’s what will provide the real base for a correct inception and will point to the most appropriate form for that particular subject. Researching blood transfusion and donation, I found who my target audience is: people no younger than seventeen years of age. Those who fit that criterion don’t need to be informed that blood saves lives; rather, they should be politely reminded of its importance and shareability, and this reminder, hopefully, will awaken their civic consciousness. With that in mind, I strongly believe that all three posters are appropriate in any English-speaking community, and my Pathos poster could be installed in any-language speaking public sphere. At first, I was intimidated by the size of these posters and the amount of space they will demand in order to be displayed. According to Vignelli, design without meaning is vulgar and has no reason for being. If my posters had no meaning, it would be a vulgarity in the size of 24” x 36,” times three. By thoroughly researching my subject, however, I was able to give my message credibility and make my design simple and clear. I feel confident that my posters are not contributing to the meaningless visual pollution, and that makes them O.K. to be as large as they are.

Posters of Persuasion: Project Description/Artist Statement

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1665 First blood transfusion2011 No substitute for blood

Science has its limits. People don’t.

www.redcross.orgDONATE

designed by IRMA K

Should we invite anyone?Re

ady

for a

gro

up sh

ow.

YES!

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Poster Postcard

Poster Postcard

Rough Drafts

Designed by Irm

a K

Katharine Gill

Darcy Canter

Megumi Koyama

Gwen Walsh

Laura Peres

Irma K

Axel Kanakan

Nina Haglund

Lindsay Kinkade

Ryan Arruda

PERSUASION

PERSUASION

advocating causes that benefit the public good

POSTERS OF

April 6–15

Traina Center

2nd floor Gallery

92 Downing St.

Wednesday, April 6

4:30 pm–6 pm

With refreshments

opening at

FINAL

Each student designed a poster to promote Posters of Persuasion exhibition. I designed a poster featuring each student’s poster. A postcard was designed to invite faculty members and the head of the department.

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Designed by Irm

a K

Katharine Gill

Darcy Canter

Megumi Koyama

Gwen Walsh

Laura Peres

Irma K

Axel Kanakan

Nina Haglund

Lindsay Kinkade

Ryan Arruda

PERSUASION

PERSUASION

advocating causes that benefit the public good

POSTERS OF

April 6–15

Traina Center

2nd floor Gallery

92 Downing St.

Wednesday, April 6

4:30 pm–6 pm

With refreshments

opening at

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Design that strives for neutrality, that seeks to extinguish its relation to human condition, risks removing itself from the very nucleus of its purpose, which is, yes, to inform and educate—but also, to enchant. We’re not graphic designers but people who make graphic design. -Jessica Helfand

The main message in Jessica Helfand’s article, “Can Graphic Design Make You Cry,” is that graphic design is made for humans by humans; therefore, the value of human narrative should not be sacrificed for the sake of neutrality that enables communication to the widest possible audience.

My first impulse was to design a cover that provokes human emotion, but reading Helfand’s essay second time around, I decided to do exactly what the author is arguing: add human touch. I wanted to add human touch to the entire process of designing this booklet. My graphic design will be handmade. For the cover, I chose off white construction paper that is used more likely in craft projects than graphic design. I designed the cover and inside page in the way that allows binding without using stapes. The binding keeps this booklet together, but it also serves as a design element that integrates the cover and an article in a meaningful way.

Sketches

Revised

Constructed

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Details

CRAFTING

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FINISHING

FIN

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SET

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The design and craftsmanship for this projec was inspired by a Dutch designer Irma Boom’s work. Her designed book, Sheila Hicks: Weaving as Metaphor, is considered to be the most beautiful book in the world. The cover is white-matte paper embossed with what looks like one of Hicks’ weaved pieces. The pages have been cut to imitate the woven texture. This book is an object. It was designed to be touched. It looks like it’s been made by hand (it’s not, though). I wanted my booklet to have a similar feeling. If my cover design does not intrigue people to read Helfand’s essay, I hope the construction of the whole booklet will make them curious enough to open it. And who knows, once it’s opened, they might read it.

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and it all ends here . . .

This is my first book documenting my designing process. It features two projects: poster series and a booklet. I never paid much attention to how I get from A to Z, and this process diary made me analyze my approach to generating ideas and getting them finalized. It was interesting to see how differently I approached these two projects.

My booklet’s designing process was very different from posters’. Each next sketch for the booklet cover was somehow related to the previous one. The geometric figures and a question mark were carried to the final stages of design. As the idea slowly progressed, the elements of design narrowed down, until the details were refined and finalized. Posters’ sketches, however, vary and have no relation to each other, because I felt there were endless possibilities for promoting blood donation. In the next designing step I revised each poster sketch into a rough draft so it would be more clear which concept is the strongest and worth pursuing, and only then design started to take shape.

Massimo Vignelli’s A to Z book helped me to organize my design process. I used similar layouts of his book to make my thoughts more presentable and understandable to someone other than me. I wanted this book to look like I knew what I was doing, and Vignelli always knows what he is doing, so I followed him.

PROCESS BOOK

Irma K

Graphic Design ProjectsClark UniversitySpring, 2011

of