Hi everyone ! I just wanted to ask what is everyone’s favourite work of graphic design is and why? For instance, Paula Scher’s public theatre posters ( Bring in Da Noise, Bring in Da Funk). Would love to hear everyone’s thoughts.
Are you trying to view Graphic Design as Art? I can’t honestly say any piece of graphic design comes to mind as a ‘favorite.’
My own. Why? Because it’s from me.
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I don’t think in terms of favorites about anything — including graphic design. There are some things I like better than others for various reasons — aesthetics, personal tastes, appropriateness for the job, long-term impact, durability, innovation, etc. There are way too many ways to look at graphic design to pin any one thing down as my favorite.
That said, the following — a Helvetica Bold lowercase a — checks just about all the items I mentioned above (despite me not having used Helvetica in years).
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I like this answer lol
I am a graphic design student and my teacher asked this question as a prompt in one of our assignments, but like you , I also don’t have a specific piece of graphic design that is my favourite. I think i just like the styles of different designers and not a specific piece of work.
I love logos designed by Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv:
For me it will always be Harry Beck’s map of the London Underground.
For me, I don’t know why I love this… but it’s a visual mess! But the style are there, I just love the lines and the composition…
To me, it will have to be “some things I dislike less than others”.
I like seeing something well designed and on target. I don’t have a favorite singular piece at all. But if I come across something that is particularly effective and beautiful at the same time, my brain will say “I like that.”
But I’m not going to “collect” it.
Harry Beck’s 1933 London Underground map was brilliant!
He took the map on the left and turned it into the map on the right. He realized that clearly conveying the most relevant information to passengers about stops and their approximate location could be accomplished through simplification — even when doing so sacrificed geographic accuracy. It was a counterintuitive solution that, as I said, was brilliant.
Then along comes Massimo Vignelli in the early 1970s and does the same thing with the New York City subway map. He receives accolades and becomes famous for it in the U.S. — even though it appears to be a direct copy of Harry Beck’s idea from 40 years earlier.
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to build a custom logo and art stuff.
The question was what piece of graphic design that someone else designed do you like — not what you like to design.
What is “art stuff”?
I have to agree, it’s fantastic. I remember it was on our study syllabus at uni. Wider than Beck’s map alone, the whole reimagining of the transport system, from station architecture to uniforms, to bus livery, etc, was a master stroke of branding, before branding was really a thing the way we know it today. It not only changed the face of the transport system, but helped build an identity for London, which is now as much a part of it as Buckingham Palace and the Tower of London.
There is a great book published by the V&A (who’s logo is also very beautiful) about Frank Pick – the brains behind it all. Well worth a read if you can get hold of it.
One of my favourite pieces of design was the reimagining of the road signage system here in the UK in the 60s by Margaret Calvert and Jock Kinneir. How many thousands of lives it must have saved over the years is mind-boggling.
Amazon lists the book for $21.40. I’m seriously considering ordering a copy (despite my resolution to stop buying so many books).
Oddly, the used editions are selling for as much or more than the new ones.
Hi, I’m currently studying Ian Anderson’s (Designers Republic) work for a university assessment and I would have to say my favourite piece of graphic design work would have to be his Sissy magazine cover. He’s created so much depth and with only two colours and his typography is unmatched.
I also love how DR insisted that they would never use 3D graphics but produced a 3D version of Sissy for the cover.
Funny how things come full circle. When I was at uni, he was one of the ‘design heroes’, along with Barnbrook, Brody, Vaughn Oliver, etc. That was 30 years ago now!
It’s all great and exciting, disruptive stuff and I still love it for what it did to what had descended into a fairly torpid, slightly flaccid, corporate industry in the years running up to it. Which, of course, is why that whole disruptive thing happened. These things are always cyclical. Arguably, we could do with something similar again now to shake things up a bit.
However, is it good design, or is it porn for designers?
It’s so strange. I never heard of Ian Anderson.
I’m sure they’re very good.
I have never had ‘fandom’ for another designer. I like Banksy, but that’s more art than design. I like Salvador Dali, again, more art than design.
I have never had a favourite work, graphic design, art piece or anything else. I love Chupa Chups design - but only for the story, not for the design itself. I like Banksy for the message, but then again it’s art not design.
I like things in moments. And that’s probably why I don’t have tattoos, I’d love a tattoo, but have no idea what I’d mark my body with.
Whatever it is, it probably won’t be somebody else’s design, and my own design.
I certainly wouldn’t get a Banksy, or Chupa Chups tattoo, even though I like them.
Partially why it’s taking me about 3 years to decorate my sitting room - I put curtains up 6 months ago. Only found the perfect colour then, exactly what I was looking for.
I need more paintings but when I find them I will know what they are.
I’m not going to buy a painting because it will do. If it’s the right one, it won’t matter if it’s €1, €10, €100, €1000 or more.
I’ll just get it because it’s right for me.
I’ve digressed.
But I don’t like following a designer, or design trends or anything like that. I just do what I like to do.
I mean the hallway is completely bare, nothing in it for 3 years. I’ve finally decided I’m going Morrocan with it, console table, lamps, vases, mirrors, paintings, etc.
I imagine it will take about 5 years for me to find the right pieces.
That sounds very familiar. My hallway partially done. 10 years and counting. Stripped one wall back to stone, had another ceiling re skimmed. That’s it. Keep looking at colour charts and changing. In reality, what I should do, is just paint it and the redo if I change my mind. That would be too easy. So what happens, we live with a bloody awful colour that was there when we bought the place.
Tattoo thing; same. I just don’t trust anyone to be able to get a font correct, let alone kern it correctly. That would be the stuff of nightmares. Poorly kerned, badly drawn lettering there on your arm forever. I’d wake up screaming in a cold sweat.