30 CONVERSATIONS ON DESIGN

JESSICA HELFAND


Helfand's biggest inspiration is her students. She loves how they continue to grow, expand, and create things that she can no longer do.


Helfand thinks that we need challenge our students in to think about the future instead of just the present. Yes, we solve problems. But how can our solutions today still stay effective in the future? Think bigger and broader for our own sake.

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EMILY PILLOTON

Pilloton used MacGiver as an inspiration do more with less. Many of his solutions were not complicated at all, but simple. Simple ideas can solve complex problems.

Pilloton would like design to dramatically affect the educational world. Design needs to be apart of education, instead of just tests and papers. How can problems be solved and what is the process of getting there? Process is more important than the final product, and how is that designed?

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WILLIAM DRENTTEL

Drenttel loves the idea that design ten years ago is not the same as today. Design is impacting the world today, instead of just aesthetically nice posters. Our design is addressing the larger problems in the world.

Drenttel thinks designers need to step up and collaborate for the social problems in the world today. We need to be collect information and collectively help the world we live in.  Engaging designs in new ways to help the world.

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DEBORAH ADLER

Adler was inspired by the Pieta by Michelangelo in Italy. She was conncected by an emotional aspect that was given. It inspires her to connect her pieces to an audience.

Adler thinks designers can produce better work by having a love affair with the audience. Understand, learn, and create with a passion for the audience.

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K. KIRK & N. STRANDBERG

Kirk and Strandberg are inspired by the iPhone. Aesthetically, it is beautiful. But the interface is what is really amazing. You are able to say "WOW!" and "of course!" in the same sentence when reacting to its capabilities. The iPhone inspires others, which inspires Kirk and Strandberg.

Kirk and Strandberg think the next problem design should solve is already happening: social networks. To advance this idea, they have a few aspects picked that could bring it more to a solution. Wifi, compatibility, and accessibility should be considered as future steps.

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ME - BRADLEY BROOKS

Personally, I am inspired by typography and simplicity. The two can be joined to create beautiful solutions. I love the idea of less is more while still creating a solution.

I would like to see more problem solving and design solutions introduced at an earlier age in the future. Get students thinking conceptually at an earlier age than the average college freshman year. More solutions could be created and achieved.

TYPOGRAPHY : things to know

1 / advantages of multiple column width? room for experimentation and easy to layout text

2 / characters per line length? 40-50; words per line? 

3 / why is baseline grid used in design? it keeps things aligned so they can have a cohesive baseline.

4 / what is a typographic river? gaps formed when you justify text

5 / what is a clothesline? a defined line where the text is going to hang

6 / incorporate space into design? connecting title with text, text with text, so that the whitespace is on the outside; rag some columns (depending); adjusting the type size; how far the columns go high and low.

7 / what is typographic color? bold, weight, size, tracking, leading, column width.

8 / what is x-height, how does it effect type color? 

9 / in justification or H & J terms what do the number minimum, optimum, and maximum mean? 

10 / rules to indicate new paragraph? 

11 / rules for hyphenation? don't let two letters be left behind; don't hyphenation proper nouns or people's names;

12 / ligerature? when letters merge together (serif fonts) that are so close that they need to be together.

13 / cmyk vs. rgb? cmyk is used for printing in four-color process (additive); rgb is used on the internet (subtractive)

14 / hanging punctuation? 

15 / foot mark vs. apostrophe?  

16 / inch mark vs. quote mark (smart quote)? 

17 / what is hyphen, em dash(es), and what are the differences and when are they used? 

JOURNAL 5 : jonathan harris

click here for speech


Jonathan Harris is an artist in different aspects of our world: visual, digital, emotional. He is now mostly into digital and computer science allowing him to work on the web. He he has created websites to allow someone to explore their own lives. He strives to find the best way to allow someone to find love the best way. Harris explains his reasoning on why he thinks the outcome is more important than the idea. He talks about his journey through coding and how it has affected his life. He poses questions pertaining whether or not the internet is good for us, or if it's ever done anything good for us.


I really enjoyed the questions that Jonathan Harris posed and how they can relate directly to our lives. His occupation is so respectable because of how he thinks. "With all the porn and sex on the internet, it's amazing how asexual the internet actually is." It's impressive how he can devote so much of his life to his work. I know he explained how there are no masterpieces on the internet yet. However, I think the internet itself is a masterpiece. Yes, there are negative aspects to it, but the fact that the internet can connect the entire world is indescribably amazing. We can use it for so many things and I think should be considered one of the notable masterpieces of our world.

ABDUZEEDO : dev gupta

This is a website that I regularly go to for inspiration on layouts, typography, graphics, and anything. It covers a wide range of aspects that we normally go over everyday. The stuff is really, really cool and well done. This article is particularly cool and features work by Dev Gupta. And I saw some really successful poster designs. There are many great conceptual ideas in here, as well (American flag with stripes as loading bars). ANYONE should check this out and bookmark it like me to use it in the future.


ABDUZEEDO : dev gupta

SUMMERFEST : branding

For our first project this year, we rebranded Summerfest. This is a Kansas City company that produces chamber music mainly during the summer, but also does outreach to the company throughout the year. Their brand was bad, really bad. They needed something new while still reflecting their core values and who they are.

A better look of this project will be on my Behance site soon!