Graphic design and modernisation in Greece, 1945-1970

The primary aim of this work is to give voice to the silent history of graphic design in Greece, long uncharted and undocumented in both the international forum and the local design community. This study focuses on the professional modernisation of graphic design and its role in providing the means for change in Greek society. The research is supported by interdisciplinary analysis of commercial advertisements, posters, leaflets and magazines, as well as other supporting documentation, in the historical and cultural context of Athens, Greece from 1945 to 1970. The time examined was a transitional and vociferous period in the history of Greece, one of intense and rapid economic modernisation during the post-Second World War decades from the mid-1940s to 1970. This was a time when, along with broader changes in the social, economic and political life of Greece, important developments in design education, print technology, and professional organisation marked a new age for graphic design, as a profession emerging from the broader ‘graphic arts’ field (inclusive of both technological and creative processes) and claiming autonomy over the more established fine arts sector. All four chapters deal with modernisation in relation to the assumed divisions of traditional/modern, continuity/change, centre/periphery. Main areas of investigation are: trade organisation, graphic design education, advertising and urbanisation, electricity and tourism promotion. This research offers a view of the ways the ‘modern’ and the condition of modernity were experienced in the case of Greece through certain applications of graphic design and its agents of influence: graphic designers, artists, managers, publishers, the state and private entrepreneurs. The research benefited significantly from a number of interviews with design professionals and related individuals. The present endeavour has a modest aim: to enable understanding of how and why Greek graphic design at the time came to be, and to stress the validity of the visual as a means of historical documentation.

The Structure of Design Processes: ideal and reality in Bruce Archer’s 1968 doctoral thesis

The paper centres on a single document, the 1968 doctoral thesis of L Bruce Archer. It traces the author’s earlier publications and the sources that informed and inspired his thinking, as a way of understanding the trajectory of his ideas and the motivations for his work at the Royal College of Art from 1962. Analysis of the thesis suggests that Archer’s ambition for a rigorous ‘science of design’ inspired by algorithmic approaches was increasingly threatened with disruption by his experience of large, complex design projects. His attempts to deal with this problem are shown to involve a particular interpretation of cybernetics. The paper ends with Archer’s own retrospective view and a brief account of his dramatically changed opinions. Archer is located as both a theorist and someone intensely interested in the commercial world of industrial design.

Mid-Century Molecular: The Material Culture of X-ray Crystallographic Visualisation across Postwar British Science and Industrial Design

This thesis investigates the use and significance of X-ray crystallographic visualisations of molecular structures in postwar British material culture across scientific practice and industrial design. It is based on research into artefacts from three areas: X-ray crystallographers’ postwar practices of visualising molecular structures using models and diagrams; the Festival Pattern Group scheme for the 1951 Festival of Britain, in which crystallographic visualisations formed the aesthetic basis of patterns for domestic objects; and postwar furnishings with a ‘ball-and-rod’ form and construction reminiscent of those of molecular models. A key component of the project is methodological. The research brings together subjects, themes and questions traditionally covered separately by two disciplines, the history of design and history of science. This focus necessitated developing an interdisciplinary set of methods, which results in the reassessment of disciplinary borders and productive cross-disciplinary methodological applications. This thesis also identifies new territory for shared methods: it employs network models to examine cross-disciplinary interaction between practitioners in crystallography and design, and a biographical approach to designed objects that over time became mediators of historical narratives about science. Artefact-based, archival and oral interviewing methods illuminate the production, use and circulation of the objects examined in this research. This interdisciplinary approach underpins the generation of new historical narratives in this thesis. It revises existing histories of the cultural transmissions between X-ray crystallography and the production and reception of designed objects in postwar Britain. I argue that these transmissions were more complex than has been acknowledged by historians: they were contingent upon postwar scientific and design practices, material conditions in postwar Britain and the dynamics of historical memory, both scholarly and popular. This thesis comprises four chapters. Chapter one explores X-ray crystallographers’ visualisation practices, conceived here as a form of craft. Chapter two builds on this, demonstrating that the Festival Pattern Group witnesses the encounter between crystallographic practice, design practice and aesthetic ideologies operating within social networks associated with postwar modernisms. Chapters three and four focus on ball-and-rod furnishings in postwar and present-day Britain, respectively. I contend that strong relationships between these designed objects and crystallographic visualisations, for example the appellation ‘atomic design’, have been largely realised through historical narratives active today in the consumption of ‘retro’ and ‘mid-century modern’ artefacts. The attention to contemporary historical narratives necessitates this dual historical focus: the research is rooted in the period from the end of the Second World War until the early 1960s, but extends to the history of now. This thesis responds to the need for practical research on methods for studying cross-disciplinary interactions and their histories. It reveals the effects of submitting historical subjects that are situated on disciplinary boundaries to interdisciplinary interpretation. Old models, such as that of unidirectional ‘influence’, subside and the resulting picture is a refracted one: this study demonstrates that the material form and meaning of crystallographic visualisations, within scientific practice and across their use and echoes in designed objects, are multiple and contingent.

Urban Living Room: Inclusive U District Station Plaza Design

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2015

Du modèle du cercle magique à celui de la place du joueur : un apport de l’esthétique de la réception au design de jeux vidéo

Ce mémoire propose une réflexion sur des modèles permettant de mieux comprendre et concevoir l’expérience esthétique d’un jeu vidéo. Ces modèles traduisent différents idéaux de la place du joueur. Comme on peut le constater à travers une réflexion sur le modèle du cercle magique, jouer est souvent compris comme un acte unilatéral d’entrée en imagination dans un monde étranger au monde actuel – toute sortie marquant la pénalité ou la fin du jeu. De ce point de vue, le designer aurait donc pour rôle de placer et de maintenir le joueur dans le monde virtuel représenté pour qu’il s’y sente immergé et présent. Cela dit, comme en témoignent les critiques qui s’élèvent contre le modèle du cercle magique, d’autres stratégies de mise en place du joueur sont à distinguer et à définir pour faciliter l’analyse et la conception des jeux vidéo. Devant ce modèle, jugé limitatif, ce que nous proposons ici est de recourir à quelques outils méthodologiques et typologiques de l’esthétique de la réception en histoire de l’art pour bâtir un modèle plus englobant, celui de la place du joueur, dont nous testons la validité par l’analyse du jeu vidéo God of War III (2010).

Design and Development of data mining models for the predictions of manpower placement in the technical Domain

Data mining is one of the hottest research areas nowadays as it has got wide variety of applications in common man’s life to make the world a better place to live. It is all about finding interesting hidden patterns in a huge history data base. As an example, from a sales data base, one can find an interesting pattern like “people who buy magazines tend to buy news papers also” using data mining. Now in the sales point of view the advantage is that one can place these things together in the shop to increase sales. In this research work, data mining is effectively applied to a domain called placement chance prediction, since taking wise career decision is so crucial for anybody for sure. In India technical manpower analysis is carried out by an organization named National Technical Manpower Information System (NTMIS), established in 1983-84 by India's Ministry of Education & Culture. The NTMIS comprises of a lead centre in the IAMR, New Delhi, and 21 nodal centres located at different parts of the country. The Kerala State Nodal Centre is located at Cochin University of Science and Technology. In Nodal Centre, they collect placement information by sending postal questionnaire to passed out students on a regular basis. From this raw data available in the nodal centre, a history data base was prepared. Each record in this data base includes entrance rank ranges, reservation, Sector, Sex, and a particular engineering. From each such combination of attributes from the history data base of student records, corresponding placement chances is computed and stored in the history data base. From this data, various popular data mining models are built and tested. These models can be used to predict the most suitable branch for a particular new student with one of the above combination of criteria. Also a detailed performance comparison of the various data mining models is done.This research work proposes to use a combination of data mining models namely a hybrid stacking ensemble for better predictions. A strategy to predict the overall absorption rate for various branches as well as the time it takes for all the students of a particular branch to get placed etc are also proposed. Finally, this research work puts forward a new data mining algorithm namely C 4.5 * stat for numeric data sets which has been proved to have competent accuracy over standard benchmarking data sets called UCI data sets. It also proposes an optimization strategy called parameter tuning to improve the standard C 4.5 algorithm. As a summary this research work passes through all four dimensions for a typical data mining research work, namely application to a domain, development of classifier models, optimization and ensemble methods.

COMP3016 Web Technology - Strand 3 "History" Lecture 5

Lecture 5: Web 2.0 and Social Hypertext Contains Powerpoint Lecture slides and Hypertext Research Papers: What Is Web 2.0 Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software . Tim O'Reilly (2005); Web 2.0: Hypertext by Any Other Name? (Millard & Ross, 2006)

Introduction to graphic arts history

An introductory 1 hour lecture given in wk2 to x50 year 1 Graphic Arts students at Winchester School of Art. The aims of the lecture are: 1. Explore how to use historical sources appropriately 
to inform design practice
 2. Make connections between contemporary 
designs and the past

Co-operative explanatory capabilities in organizational design and personnel management

Based on an online image archive documenting the construction and history of an early computing company, the fictional story of "Co-Operative Explanatory Capabilities in Organizational Design and Personnel Management” follows the development of an experimental approach to worker productivity into a religious cult. The project investigates the place of creativity in efficiency management and the operation of bureaucratic systems in a post-industrial work environment. The project has spawned a series of collages, featured on the Economic Thought Projects 7" collaboration with Gelbart, The Eleventh Voyage, as well as the film of Co-Operative Explanatory Capabilities in Organizational Design and Personnel Management, which has also been published as a short story in Vertigo of the Modern and on Sacrifice Press.

A framework for graphic description in book design

This project is concerned with the way that illustrations, photographs, diagrams and graphs, and typographic elements interact to convey ideas on the book page. A framework for graphic description is proposed to elucidate this graphic language of ‘complex texts’. The model is built up from three main areas of study, with reference to a corpus of contemporary children’s science books. First, a historical survey puts the subjects for study in context. Then a multidisciplinary discussion of graphic communication provides a theoretical underpinning for the model; this leads to various proposals, such as the central importance of ratios and relationships among parts in creating meaning in graphic communication. Lastly a series of trials in description contribute to the structure of the model itself. At the heart of the framework is an organising principle that integrates descriptive models from fields of design, literary criticism, art history, and linguistics, among others, as well as novel categories designed specifically for book design. Broadly, design features are described in terms of elemental component parts (micro-level), larger groupings of these (macro-level), and finally in terms of overarching, ‘whole book’ qualities (meta-level). Various features of book design emerge at different levels; for instance, the presence of nested discursive structures, a form of graphic recursion in editorial design, is proposed at the macro-level. Across these three levels are the intersecting categories of ‘rule’ and ‘context’, offering different perspectives with which to describe graphic characteristics. Contextbased features are contingent on social and cultural environment, the reader’s previous knowledge, and the actual conditions of reading; rule-based features relate to the systematic or codified aspects of graphic language. The model aims to be a frame of reference for graphic description, of use in different forms of qualitative or quantitative research and as a heuristic tool in practice and teaching.

Isotype: design and contexts 1925–1971

The work in graphic communication carried out by Otto Neurath and his associates – now commonly known simply as Isotype – has been the subject of much interest in recent years. Conceived and developed in the 1920s as ‘the Vienna method of pictorial statistics’, this approach to designing information had from its inception the power to grow and spread internationally. Political developments in Europe played their part in its development, and production moved to the Netherlands (1934) and to England (1940), where the Isotype Institute continued to produce work until 1971. Bringing together the latest research, this book is the first comprehensive, detailed account of its subject. The Austrian, Dutch, and English years of Isotype are described here freshly and extensively. There are chapters on the notable extensions of Isotype to Soviet Russia, the USA, and Africa. Isotype work in film and in designing for children is fully documented and discussed. Between these main chapters the book presents interludes documenting Isotype production visually. Three appendices reprint key documents. In its international coverage and its extensions into the wider terrain of history, this book opens a new vista in graphic design.

The 'veil' of control: exploring the attitudes and perceptions of UK design controllers

In the UK, architectural design is regulated through a system of design control for the public interest, which aims to secure and promote ‘quality’ in the built environment. Design control is primarily implemented by locally employed planning professionals with political oversight, and independent design review panels, staffed predominantly by design professionals. Design control has a lengthy and complex history, with the concept of ‘design’ offering a range of challenges for a regulatory system of governance. A simultaneously creative and emotive discipline, architectural design is a difficult issue to regulate objectively or consistently, often leading to policy that is regarded highly discretionary and flexible. This makes regulatory outcomes difficult to predict, as approaches undertaken by the ‘agents of control’ can vary according to the individual. The role of the design controller is therefore central, tasked with the responsibility of interpreting design policy and guidance, appraising design quality and passing professional judgment. However, little is really known about what influences the way design controllers approach their task, providing a ‘veil’ over design control, shrouding the basis of their decisions. This research engaged directly with the attitudes and perceptions of design controllers in the UK, lifting this ‘veil’. Using in-depth interviews and Q-Methodology, the thesis explores this hidden element of control, revealing a number of key differences in how controllers approach and implement policy and guidance, conceptualise design quality, and rationalise their evaluations and judgments. The research develops a conceptual framework for agency in design control – this consists of six variables (Regulation; Discretion; Skills; Design Quality; Aesthetics; and Evaluation) and it is suggested that this could act as a ‘heuristic’ instrument for UK controllers, prompting more reflexivity in relation to evaluating their own position, approaches, and attitudes, leading to better practice and increased transparency of control decisions.

Design (provisional chapter title)

The move of parts of OUP's publishing operation from London to Oxford in the 1970s allowed the creation of a centralised art and design department. Drawing on material in the OUP archives this chapter traces the kinds of work that this department undertook and the subsequent devolution of design activities to publishing divisions. Book design at Oxford is considered both stylistically and in response to technological changes. The relationship with the Printing House and its design standards, the search for standardisation and the need for economy, and the specialist design skills demanded by OUP's publications are recurring themes. Innovations in using overseas suppliers and in the introduction of desktop publishing technology are located in relation the the organization of the design function at OUP and its relationship to editorial policies.The chapter concludes with a consideration of the corporate identity system introduced in 1998, and its relationship to previous manifestations of 'Oxford style'.

Performance of the Quantitative Food Frequency Questionnaire Used in the Brazilian Center of the Prospective Study Natural History of Human Papillomavirus Infection in Men: The HIM Study

The Natural History of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Infection in Men: The HIM Study is a prospective multi-center cohort study that, among other factors, analyzes participants` diet. A parallel cross-sectional study was designed to evaluate the validity and reproducibility of the quantitative food frequency questionnaire (QFFQ) used in the Brazilian center from the HIM Study. For this, a convenience subsample of 98 men aged 18 to 70 years from the HIM Study in Brazil answered three 54-item QFFQ and three 24-hour recall interviews, with 6-month intervals between them (data collection January to September 2007). A Bland-Altman analysis indicated that the difference between instruments was dependent on the magnitude of the intake for energy and most nutrients included in the validity analysis, with the exception of carbohydrates, fiber, polyunsaturated fat, vitamin C, and vitamin E. The correlation between the QFFQ and the 24-hour recall for the deattenuated and energy-adjusted data ranged from 0.05 (total fat) to 0.57 (calcium). For the energy and nutrients consumption included in the validity analysis, 33.5% of participants on average were correctly classified into quartiles, and the average value of 0.26 for weighted kappa shows a reasonable agreement. The intraclass correlation coefficients for all nutrients were greater than 0.40 in the reproducibility analysis. The QFFQ demonstrated good reproducibility and acceptable validity. The results support the use of this instrument in the HIM Study. J Am Diet Assoc. 2011;111:1045-1051.