Reading 1....Response

Whitney Graphic Identity - Whitney Museum of American Art

This article is about a Graphic Identity team who came together to work on the idea and only idea for the signage that the Whitney Museum of American Art wanted. They are a professional graphic design team who focuses mainly on the importance of conceptual ideas instead of the outcome. The team only came up with the ideas instead of creating the actual finished product, the museum’s actual team of graphic designers used the graphic identity program’s ideas to compose the finished design.

This article goes through the different ideas that the team came up with. It goes into detail about different shapes and the meaning of these certain elements that I personally wouldn’t have even thought about until I read this. It starts off with the quote “every story needs a beginning.” They started thinking about words and sentences and how this changed into a shape which is a ‘line’. It goes into deep detail about how a line can be manipulated and changed, they used the example of a zig-zag. 
This then led onto the shape of a ‘W,’ which the team later refers to as the ‘Responsive W.’ Although it is just a letter, it has certain meanings such as a pulse or a heartbeat. The line now has a meaning and also an emotion. 
The Graphic Identity team focused much of their time on this specific letter. The letter ‘W’ stands for ‘Whitney’ but also it stands for what Whitney resembles which is a “breathing in and out’ institute, it is open and closed at the same time.” The Whitney Institute is now being personified.

The team then speaks about how the ‘zig-zag’ line resembles architecture, this meaning the shape is used on buildings and archetypical roofs to create a stable environment. I noticed that in all ‘stable’ architecture the zig-zag pattern is used....and example of this is the Harbour Bridge.

Using the “W” as a shape, the team also began to use it as a grid, they would place the title “Whitney” onto it in different styles to create a design. The lines of the ‘W’ can also be seen as borders, arrows, connections and columns. This was quite an interesting form I never really thought about but now I understand it, I think it would be quite fun to play around with.

After playing around with the shape, the team then started constructing many sketches, they would leave the same element in each which would be the positioning of the Whitney name but then play around with the second ‘V’ in the ‘W.’

After the design of the main title was completed, the team thought of some more ideas that were consistent to the title. These were different signs that could be used around the building, keeping the ‘W’ theme attached. Instead of using the entire ‘W’, they used just a ‘V’ but turned it on it’s side to create a more different approach, this looked like an arrow.

This article really interested me and broadened my perspective on signage. I never realised how much one shape or letter or symbol could have such an impact on the society or be manipulated in such ways that was never even thought about. This creates so much more emotion and meaning then I originally thought.