Assignment #1

How Did They Do It?

I intend to pursue my design career in the Netherlands after I graduate so I chose a Dutch designer's work for my example. This is a calendar created by Wim Crouwel who began his career in 1955. The design I chose is a cover of a calendar page and the purpose of this design is to create a series of pages that help the user track the months of the year. The artist is from Amsterdam so the simple and orderly style of Dutch graphic design was the context that influenced his work. Many graphic designers from the Netherlands have been know to design with minimalist style. The intention of the design is to create chaos out of order while still maintaining functionality and its message (at least how I personally am perceiving his design). The message is that chaos can still be be understood if it is laid out in an orderly manner. This relates to the functionality of the calendar because it is intended to help keep our lives structured and organized. Wim sends his message in a simple manner because he is a minimalist graphic designer and he wanted the viewer to see meaning in the content of the text and not in the typeface. For this design he worked with a neutral typeface that does not have a meaning itself in order to emphasize the meaning behind the design. The intended audience of this calendar could be anyone who needed to use a calendar, but it is more focused towards people who enjoy and understand what the components are that make up a good piece of graphic design work.
Wim Crouwel is still alive and continues to be part of the graphic design community even though he will be 91 years old on November 21st of this year. In fact, he was awarded the Type Director Club's Medal just this year as well (2019).
Edit * about a month after this post was created, Wim Crouwel passed away on September 19th 2019* 

    I think the steps he took to create this design were as follows:
    1. Brainstorming stage - In order to come up with the most creative design possible, he took time to think over different concepts and sketch out several simple thumbnails by hand with a pencil/pen and paper before even thinking about working on the design using a computer. Drawing his sketches out by hand first was important because the constraints of some of the computer's tools could have the possibility of  affecting his creativity and create by imposing limitations on his ideas during the brainstorming process.
    2. Thumbnail refinement and rough drafts - He then chose just a few choices from the several thumbnails and then narrow down the ideas so that he could pick the idea with the most potential to be a successful design. From those choices he would probably draw out a few rough drafts that had a little more structure than his original sketches.
    3. Creating a more comprehensive layout (comps) - This is the step where he decided which of the rough drafts is the very best design idea for the completed project. He would probably draw these tighter comps out by hand as well so that he could troubleshoot anything he thought might have the potential to be problematic with the limitations of tools on the computer or any other issues. This is also useful for getting a more firm grasp on how the final design was going to look. He most likely started refining his design to a point where it was developed enough to take to the computer and begin setting up the layout there. 
    4. Computer comps - Getting the work set up on the computer and creating grids and layouts arranged was the next step which was intended to be like an outline that the final product would be based on. 
    5. Proofs - One of the last steps is getting the work ready to go to print and working with a printer to make sure that everything is correct and working properly with the design so that there not any expensive problems caused by misprints. The designer and the printer communicate and resolve any issues before the project is sent to the printers.
    6. Printing and completion of final project - The very last stage of his process is the actual printing and creation of the physical final design. The printers usually take care of all the processing of the print job so the designer is not as involved in this step but the final product which is their design is produced from this stage.