Pratt Institute interviewed Professor Scott Santoro who shared his thoughts on the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics emblem and other exceptional examples from the past.
Gala Journal Design: Purchase College
This gala journal cover is one of my favorites, created for a Purchase College fund-raising event. The brief stated that there would be a white piano on a black stage for a featured entertainer to play. The “bubble P” logo was enlarged and used to represent a piano (center), and the typographic swash elements became motifs that extended throughout the journal. Lighting equipment at the event projected the same swashes onto the stage.
Gravestone Design
While a grad student at Cranbrook Academy of Art, which is just outside of Detroit, I was asked by a client (I was designing promotions for her art gallery) if I would work on designs for her dad’s gravestone—her dad died six months earlier and they never marked the site. The project included roughs, changes, and refinements, just as a standard job would, but during the final placing of the stone there were tears and statements by the family. It was all quite overwhelming for me as a young designer, but I still cherish the opportunity I had back then.
Design Incubation
Pace University
An apple is a very popular image and has operated as a sign to represent knowledge (think Adam and Eve’s forbidden fruit), as well as to symbolize elementary education as in “an apple for the teacher,” and also as a sign of health as in “an apple a day.” Here, Worksight used the apple as a kind of piled-on-pride of successes for a Pace University’s School of Education brochure.
Polyglot Press
Logo design by Worksight for the Polyglot Press, a publisher of multi-language books and the republisher of out-of-print classics. The word “polyglot” in fact means: having the text translated into several languages: polyglot and bilingual technical dictionaries. The parrot is used not only because of the letter P, but also to symbolize the power of words and the speaking of truths.
Lecture: Graphic Design Is…
A selfie shot during a lecture on graphic design featuring Pratt student work—presented live to design students in Beijing and Shanghai, China; with Xiaoren Liu (Catherine) per ANO Art China, and their subsidiary, Sphinx.
The YOU in Your Work
When other people recognize your work, it is a great compliment. They may recognize your humorous attitude coming through the work or see a visual treatment that you have brought to many of your solutions in the past. These distinguishing characteristics reflect your style, which can come through you unconsciously. In fact, your style is you.
The places we’ve been and things we’ve seen, felt, or heard all broaden our vision as designers. They also define us. For example, a trip to Vermont to see the foliage could add to your color pallet; an unfortunate visit to a hospital’s emergency room could shock you into realizing how efficient people can be under pressure. In either case, both experiences will be internalized: you will realize that a recent design has a color you never thought about using before, or it has an energized immediacy about it. These influences can come from everywhere. Can you trace them back? The fact that some place or thing might feed your work is, in effect, acknowledging connections with your larger culture, community, and environment. A good example of this dynamic is a visual series on the impact of the Iraq war by Maria Uroos. She grew up in the Middle East and felt a need to create a visual dialogue about the changes in life, culture, and religion that she saw there. Her tools include text and image, metaphors and analogies, elements and principles. All convey thoughts about the region where she lived, fleshed out into a form that is meant to extend conversations. Each piece begins with her.
In a design experiment by Janet Lee, whose family is in retail fashion, two activities are merged into one composition. She created a montage of typography with a dress form, color chips with fabric swatches, and single-edge cutting blades with scissors. The art historian E. H. Gombrich (1909–2001) wrote, “Anyone who can handle a needle convincingly can make us see a thread which is not there.” The connection this designer makes to retail fashion isn’t necessarily there either, but is more a myth that forges a connection to something more personal and perhaps more meaningful to her. She uses that same ability to tell stories and making connections when creating works for her clients.
In another piece, Rick Valicenti examines his own future role as a graphic designer. The poster’s purpose is to announce a design lecture in Vancouver, Canada, and the character pictured—a jester that is full of remorse—is a portrait of Valicenti himself. Hanging off his hat is a flickering sign that reads “HUGE.” The ghostlike, wispy image of an old man beside his own face hints at his later life. Together, the images make a social comment about whether this effort is all there is in Valicenti’s future, and for that matter, in the profession as a whole. In other words, designers can be practical problem-solvers (such as finding a way to announce an event), but also passionate artists whose work also matters in terms of making a positive difference in the world.
From Guide to Graphic Design, by Scott W. Santoro, Pearson Education
Also posted on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/you-your-work-scott-w-santoro
Pierre Bernard Memorial
A Thursday night event at the Fashion Institute of Technology remembering Parisian graphic designer, Pierre Bernard, with (LtoR) Leslie Blum (chair and moderator), and speakers, Scott Stowell, Scott Santoro, and Keith Godard.
Cooper Union’s Lubalin Center 30 over 30 Exhibit
Photographed from an exhibit wall at the Lubalin Center in NYC in which designers were asked to comment on various iconic designs as part of the center’s collection. Jessica Helfand and I both wrote about art Director/Designer Lou Dorfsman’s ad, circa 1961, for CBS. The text under the largest “ha” reads, “He laughs best who laughs last”—an ad explaining the broadcasting company’s success in focusing on comedy television.