Meaning and Message

Within this Lecture we looked into more depth of what meaning and message actually meant and why it is so important to designers. At first, I found that this lecture was quite hard to understand, however as the lecture went on I understood a lot better and about the topic. The first part that we learnt about in this lecture was the difference between poetry and practical messages, which is that the latter are successful, however only when we correctly infer the intention. This was said by an American Graphic Designer called Michael Rock.

We then looked at both the definitions of Message and Meaning, and the difference between the two. The first term that we decided to look at was Message, this meant:

"A (Usually) short communication transmitted by words, signals, or other means from one person, station, or group to another."

we then looked at the definition of meaning:

"Meaning is what the source or sender expresses, communicates, or conveys in their message to the observer receiver, and what the receiver infers from current colours."

Reference- https://embed.gyazo.com/c12ec06b236e7fa59b48a5886fe57857.png

We then looked at the topic of send (encode), when looking at this we found that send means transmitting a message into symbols of forms, which means translating the message into symbols. A good way for the sender to improve encoding their message, is to mentally visualise the communication from the receiver's point of view. I think that this point is really important because you as the sender should always think about the message before sending the message and how it would effect the receiver. The sender should ask themselves different questions; so that they can select the appropriate channel. These could be: 

Is the message urgent?

Is Immediate feedback needed?

Is documentation or a permanent record required? 

We then looked further into channel medium, which is important to understand that each channel (medium) has its own strengths dependent on situational effectiveness. After this we then looked at signal, you need your signal to be more understood. Signal means it create a clearer message to the target audience, which allow them to understand a lot more. 

                         

Design Authorship

We then looked at design authorship, which is if the designer sets there own agenda. 

Once we had looked at Design Authorship, we were then told about the UK designer called Anthony Burrill, he is famous for his work that features block printing, he has also set up the project called Google Beach. Here is a piece of his work that I found very interesting:

Reference-  

I think that this project is very interesting and a good way for people to enjoy there day in Cannas, France. I think that the typeface that has been used for the design is very bold and stands out well on the sign that has been displayed, I also think that this allows the typeface to be seen and read easily by the target audience that this sign will be shown to. I think that the colour of the words stand out well on the sign, I think that the colour of the words is very important because it is easy to see by the target audience. We were then shown a quote by Michael Rock, which I found was very interesting this was: 

"Authorship may suggest approaches to the issue of the design process in a profession traditionally associated more with the communication rather than the origination of messages."- Michael Rock

I think that this quote allows us to think about how we should send message through are design work as we could display different message through different features or the feature you want to focus on could display different messages. After this we then looked a Richard Linklater who is a Director and Writer, who has directed the film 'Boyhood' I haven't seen this film but I know that it is film that has been film over several years that the follows a boy that growing up. We found that Richard Linklater has always questioned how to send a message to the audience.

“Are we sleep-walking through our waking state or wake-walking through our dreams?”-Waking Life (2001) I found that this quote from the film was very strange and mysterious. We then watched the trailer of the film Waking Life, I found that this clip was again strange and random. However, I did find that it was nice design style, which was used for the trailer that was Vector Illustration. 

Once we had done this we looked at a company called Kurzgesagt, that he has worked with many companies. Whilst looking at this company we were shown a short clip called in a nutshell, which was create in there spare time, when I watched the clip I noticed that the clip was based around science. I found that the clip was very educational, that included lots of facts and figures about the Electromagnetic Spectrum, I thought that the font style was very nice and the colours were very bright. The style that was used for this clip was Vector Illustration, I found that this style was very detailed and creative. 

We then moved onto the topic of Receive, which means decode. Where we looked at a man called Marshall Mcluhan who became a key figure in media studies and the effect of the technology to people. He was the writer of the book called 'The medium is the massage', we also found that he became famous for his quotes and sayings, such as: 

“Survival is not possible if one approaches his environment, ‘the social drama’ , with a fixed, unchangeable point of view — the witless repetitive response to the unperceived.”

For the final part of the Lecture we watched a documentary shown by the CBC News about Marshall Mcluhan in 1999, the documentary told us about his life. 

I found that this lecture was very useful because I learn't about many points that would become useful to me, when I am producing my own design work. I will always think about how I can display the message I want to express through my design work.