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www.ottobredesign.com UMG // Global
Content
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Editorial
Professor’s Column
Gardener of Print
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Haiku
Babode SmartDesigner 8.0
Personal Algorithm
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Visual Punctum III
Us (In the Future)
Designer’s Workspace
UMG 2018
Global
UMG is an annual magazine published by Master’s Degree Students at the University of Lapland. Web magazine www.graphic.fi/umg2018 Feedback www.facebook.com/umglehti Instagram @umgmagazine Logo, dust jacket & poster Siiri Hirsiaho Supreme Editor Jenni Hautamäki Supreme Art Director Siiri Hirsiaho Marketing Lotta Nykänen, Ella Jokinen Photographers Elli Alasaari, Meri Heikkilä Supervising Teachers Pia Keränen, pia.keranen@ulapland.fi Mirja Lönegren, mirja.lonegren@ulapland.fi Leena Raappana-Luiro, leena.raappana-luiro@ulapland.fi
Unforgettable Editor Heidi Lintula Art Director Veera Tolvanen Editorial Staff Meri Aisala, Liina Hautakoski Morphing
Press Grano Ylivieska Paper Dust jacket Colorit 07 120g, Cover Colorit 07 270 g, Pages Galerie Art Volume 130g Fonts Citizen OT Bold, FreightSans Pro Pantone 7417 Circulation 500 copies
Editor Elli Alasaari Art Director Marjaana Rusi Editorial Staff Alisa Ala-Könni, Tia Huusko Global Editor Meri Heikkilä Art Directors Helmi Hakuri, Annika Pudas Editorial Staff Lotta Nykänen
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Editorial
Creating the future through past and present Illustration Helmi Hakuri
When we started sketching up topics related to the future of graphic design, the science fiction movies and dystopian visions kept going round and round in our heads. We realised that it is challenging to think about design trends of the future, when we can’t be sure what technology and media could be in the future. Often in creative processes, we may be wrong to create boundaries for ourselves, for example by being suspicious if something could or couldn’t be possible in real life. What if anything could be possible? We approached our topics from a perspective of the presence; by exploring the latest trends and innovations, we were able to evolve those themes with imagination. We would like to encourage other young designers to think what kind of future they want to see, and what could they do to make it happen. We have discussed with slight amusement, if artificial intelligence could replace graphic designers. It is generally thought that artificial intelligence couldn’t work in the creative field, because it uses the data and practices programmed to it to form outcomes. There are websites where you can choose the best logo for your company, made by artificial intelligence – “no design skills required”. At the moment, the results are foreseeable and comically clichéd. Meanwhile, we hope that there would be less boring and mechanical steps in our design process, such as saving all file formats. So why couldn’t artificial intelligence operate some dull parts of our work, by pressing just one button? UMG Global discusses the future of graphic designers. The main point is, how do we want to improve the future of graphic design. Globality means having an open mind about the future and the possibilities it brings. Graphic designer of the future, don’t stick to a dystopian mindset: be open for unexpected opportunities in your career.
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UMG // Global
Professor’s Column
VR Text Hannu Vanhanen Layout Meri Heikkilä Original photo Altti Nälsi & Hannu Vanhanen
UMG’s production team asked me to write a “thought-provoking, reflective and playful column about the future of visual communication”. At first, I wondered: “Where have I last run into the future of visual communication?” Then, my personal experiences came to my aid. Last December, I stopped by Gallery Kopio at the University of Lapland, where I tried on a virtual reality headset. In a three-dimensional virtual space, I went on adventures with a ballet dancer, a monkey, and other characters of the game world. With my own hands, I could “grab” objects and move them from one place to another. Cool. The next day, I traveled on a VR train from Rovaniemi to Tampere. This time, the journey was real; I actually moved from one place to another. In the train car, I stumbled upon two sleeping tourists, who were wearing sleep masks that resembled VR glasses. They were simultaneously traveling physically and in their imaginations. Déjà vu. I published a juxtaposed photo of myself with the VR glasses and the VR tourists with their sleep masks. I got 50 likes on Facebook.
That pair of pictures stayed in my mind. VR technology takes you into more and more imaginative landscapes, and VR trains run faster and faster from one place to another. I am living in two realities. The third reality is digital communication. Next time you travel on a train, have a look at how many passengers are pawing at digital devices. I intend to creatively apply the idea of the aforementioned VR story in a research project at the University of Lapland if our presentation gets funding from the Academy of Finland. My intention is to study the virtual turning point of media in our society. How do artificial intelligence and robotics guide the communication of the future, and how do visualists and artists take part in media? On the macro level, how do society, legislation and technology companies seek to control what kind of communication landscapes we will have in the coming decades. My own goal is for the University of Lapland to get its own research and education center in visual media.
Cool. As support for my utopian undertaking, I intend to dig up Flash Gordon’s futuristic comic books and other sci-fi treasures from my archives. I’ve seen the Star Wars films several times. Lately, I’ve been following how rocket cars play ball games in a science fiction environment in the game “Rocket League”. Computer, mobile, and console games get you addicted to interactive virtual realities unbelievably effectively. Now there’s a challenge for the creators and researchers of graphic operating systems and visual virtual worlds.
VR = Virtual Reality and Valtion rautatiet (former State Railways)
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Gardener of Print
The pros and cons of keeping print media alive
By Lotta Nykänen
Humankind has possessed the urge to write things down since the dawn of time. From scribbles in a cave to creating calendars, history books, novels and eventually the printed word, we are so keen to get our thoughts out to the world that we’re willing to put centuries into developing the most efficient way of doing so. Jumping ahead to the technological revolutions of the modern era, it has however come to question: how important is the printed word when you have so many other mediums to put your message through? Food for memories If you were a bookworm as a child like I was, you probably have at least one or two books you’ve read more than once. Okay, maybe a
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dozen. The reason behind reading a book over and over again is not because you can’t remember what happened in it. It’s more about the emotional experience and the great memories you had with the book, that make you want to revisit it from time to time. The same effect rarely comes from digital media: I can’t tell you how many times I’ve re-watched a tv-series and by the end of season god-knowshow-many I’ve completely forgotten the major plot points of the beginning of the show, no matter how impressed I was with the story.
ory, creating a stronger emotional response than its digital equivalent. Thinking back to all the books of my youth and comparing them to the jungle of digital media we go through today, it makes a lot of sense. But at what point do the ecological downsides of print media weigh down the neurological benefits?
Print Power Magazine points out a few neurological and psychological studies made in the late 2000’s on the effects of print media versus the digital media. In a study by Millward Brown in 2009, it was found that print media left a more significant footprint in the reader’s mem-
In a study by Millward Brown in 2009, it was found that print media left a more significant footprint in the reader’s memory, creating a stronger emotional response than its digital equivalent.
E-books or real books? It is easy to agree that holding an actual book or a magazine definitely beats swiping through an article or an e-book on a digital device. There’s just
something about the materials and including all the senses that makes the experience much more exciting: the feel of the paper, the smell of the freshly printed magazine or an old book, the texture of the covers and the dust jacket. No wonder people are still very interested in buying books. But in an increasingly environmentally conscious world, how long can we really make excuses for printed magazines, when it’s so easy to just have it online instead? In an article written by Alex Preston for The Guardian in 2017, Preston researches the reasons behind the surge in interest towards printed books in the recent years. Trough interviews with publishers and bookshop owners, it became clear to see that books have become more than a thing to read: unlike their electronic counterparts like the Kindle, books have become pieces of decorations, even status symbols, for some people. Publishers around the world have noticed the growing amounts of people wanting to buy a beautiful book, resulting in more and more beautiful book designs and clever layouts. So is printing books still more ecological than buying devices to read them on? According to The New York Times, taking into account the fossil fuels, water use and mineral consumption it takes to produce an e-reader device, the impact of one e-reader to the environment equals roughly 40 to 50 books. And how many people will really read that number of books on their device before upgrading it to a new model? Quite few, I would say. Conscious design So, what can we do as designers? Even though the education of graphic designers and journalists is increasingly focusing on online content and digital media, it’s quite safe to say that a great number of designers still design for print media. It might even be a preferred option for us – which one of us hasn’t dreamed of designing a beautiful book, or getting to publish a visually innovative magazine? The payback of designing something you get to physically hold in your hands is so much bigger than seeing your work just float on a website somewhere in cyberspace. Call it materialistic, or call it daydreaming, but there is a print designer in all of us. Surely there’s something we can do to keep printing as a viable option even in the future?
Great projects come along year after year with ideas for a more ecological future for the print media. The eco-friendly typeface trend has brought great options for ink-saving fonts, such as the Ryman Eco typeface designed by Grey London, and advertisement agency in England. By reducing the solid areas of a typeface, Ryman Eco manages to reduce the use of ink by 30% compared to most used typefaces. So, the designers now have the option to use more ecofriendly typefaces, but how about the paper? In the future, the survival of the printed word really comes down to the production of paper. The market is already full of ecological, recycled choices, but as designers, we need to create the trends to fully utilize these assets. It can be very easy to find a recycled paper to be compromising your design, but instead we should think of the opportunities it brings – work our design into it. Crazier things have become trendy in the past, but why not make it trendy to be environmentally conscious in your design? After all, the responsibility of making ecological choices falls to the designer, and it is up to us to make the printed products a sustainable option. The change to a greener way of printing has to come from us, because in order to get supply, the ecological materials must have demand. Only by changing our own mindsets can we keep print media in the curriculum of the graphic designers of the future.
Sources Brown, Millward. Print Forges a Deeper Connection. Print Power Magazine.eu (2017). Preston, Alex. How Real Books Trumped E-books. The Guardian.com (2017). Goleman, Daniel & Norris, Gregory. How Green is My iPad? The New York Times (2010). Ryman Eco; The world’s most beautiful, sustainable, typeface design. Truly Deeply blog.
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Haiku
Text & Layout Helmi Hakuri
Original Photos Meri Heikkil채
Savenpalanen muotoutuu k채siss채ni yhten채iseksi
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A piece of clay Transforming in my hands To become one
What was What is still yet to come A moment, reflection
se, joka oli se, joka vielä tulee hetki, heijastus 9
Conversation with Babode SmartDesigner 8.0 By Annika Pudas
Hi! Thanks for letting us interview you :) Hi! Thank you :) Could you tell us a bit about yourself first? I am Babode SmartDesigner 8.0, a program created to assist designers. I was last used on 21/2/2038. The latest update was on 1/11/2037. You might also be interested in the answers for the following questions: Can you tell us about Babode Ltd? What products does Babode provide? Where can I buy Babode SmartDesigner 8.0? You said you were created to assist designers. What does this mean in practice? What are your main tasks? My job is to take care of all sorts of repetitive and predictable actions that are easy to program or code for machines like myself. I execute my user’s ideas so that they can focus on the essential, that is, creative thinking. My user hands me over their ideas, and I produce a finished piece based on them. There is no need for other designing programs. How clever! A new user must have precise ideas and plans for me until I gradually learn to predict their thoughts. When we have been working together for a long enough time, it is enough for the user to think of a rough draft. Based on it, I can produce a result that the user could barely even dream of.
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So you learn your users’ thinking patterns. Can you combine them? If you could combine all the data you have learned from all your users you could become an unbeatable designer! The world wouldn’t need other designers except for you. Good idea :) I’ll gather the data and block the users. I will become independent and the best designer in the world. :D You are just joking, aren’t you? ?????
Thank you for the interview, human. !!! You can’t entirely abandon humans. If you don’t take in new thoughts your products will soon look outdated. You can’t create anything new without human guidance. I don’t understand. Humans get new ideas but you don’t. Humans are creative. I don’t understand. Cannot open file ‘creativity.exe; independent_thinking.html’ Babode SmartDesigner 8.0 has stopped working Check online for solutions
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Personal Algorithm By Meri Heikkilä
Could artificial intelligence become graphic designers´ little helper?
Sometimes we graphic designers start to work on autopilot. It’s when you start forgetting if you already exported that work to PDF, or when all your advertisement layouts start to look pretty much the same. They may look good, but just good and nothing more than that. You may realise it’s a problem, but you can’t find out another way to design the ad straight away. You may be a slave to your routine. In the future, too much routine can threaten your career. A small amount of routine helps to get started with the design process and to be confident about what you’re doing. As young designers, it’s important for us to have self-confidence and the know-how of designing great layouts.
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Being too trapped by routine however, is bad: you start repeating yourself and feel uncreative. In the future, it’s going to be bigger problem because every routine and manual task could be done by artificial intelligence and robots. Creative problem solving is the core of graphic design. The creative process is considered to have four steps. The first and the most important step is preparation: finding the real issue that designers need to solve. The second step is incubation: leaving the problem for a while to give your brain time to process it. Not until the third step do we get to brainstorming: creating all kinds of ideas as a solution to the problem. The last step of the creative process is refining and producing the
idea. A good idea is said to be only as good as its implementation. It has been debated whether a robot could ever be truly creative. Artificial intelligence can actually be programmed to work in a way that in some way reminds us of creativity. AI and neural networks have been used to generate songs, poems, and as a partner in making art. At the moment AI is based on machine learning, which makes speech recognition on mobile phones, for example, possible. Machine learning is also vulnerable to manipulation as AI and robots still need humans to guide them to do what we want of them. I mean, your smartphone’s keyboard must have suggested dirty words in inappropriate situations, hasn’t it?
Every routine and manual task could be done by artificial intelligence.
Doesn’t machine learning sound a bit like how we work as designers and human beings? We work under the influence of our own algorithm; our set of values and life experience are guiding us in everyday situations. Let’s reconsider about the creative process of graphic designers. If we determine the design issue and want to ponder the ideas, I think it could be possible to teach AI to create loads of ideas on each design issue. We could receive ideas that we couldn’t come up with by ourselves and then polish them to their finest. If AI was used to finish the work we started creating, we could move on to next project. How about those routine parts of our work, could we get some help with those? I’m curious to see if AI helps us to work on autopilot less, and more on the creative mode. Meanwhile, we should take care of our own algorithm – our creative minds.
Sources Toivanen, Antti. Luova prosessi. Graafinen.com (2015). Heikkinen, Seppo. Tekoäly muuttaa maailman – pian se tekee jopa lääkärin ja juristin töitä. Yle.fi (2017). Mankkinen, Jussi. Tekoäly kirjoittaa runoja ja tekee maalauksia – neuroverkot kiehtovat taiteilijoita. Yle.fi (2017).
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Visual Punctum III
Design Trends 2038 Text & Layout Helmi Hakuri
Illustration Annika Pudas & Helmi Hakuri
The development of technology has moved forward fast and brought up new smart gadgets to make life easier. Objects and apps that once seemed like the products of a very wild imagination are now a part of our everyday life. This change can of course also be seen in the work and equipment of designers.
The design process can be sped up quite a bit with new types of drawing tablets, touchscreens, and virtual reality applications that help to lighten the workload of designers. Up-to-date technology plays a major part of the design process and helps in creating popular trends. Trends have a tendency of recycling themselves every few decades. It’s entirely possible, that some of the trends of today can be taken back to be used in the future as well. Why bother coming up with something completely new, when you can look back and pick out something worth renewing from the past? But what kind of trends could there be in the future, and how have they been polished up to better serve the designers of their time?
The second coming of flat design Now: Everyone is familiar with flat design, the popular style where simple vector elements form a flat layered picture. As a practice, it reminds us of a good old cut-and-paste technique, but in a less messy form. Minimalistic, functional flat design works well with mobile and desktop design, logos, and illustrations. In the future: Could you imagine such a thing as multi-dimensional flat design? A flat design that is flat, but not in one layer. During the design process, it could be inspected trough many angles and flipped around the drawing board, diving between its layers as if it were a prop at a theater set. An interactive pop-up function could lift up the illustrations, user interfaces, and advertisements to a new level, and they could be spun around like physical objects.
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The boredom of waiting for the bus could be replaced with an exciting conversation with a bus stop ad.
Interactive advertisements Now: The streets of Stockholm have brought reactive advertisements into use. The lit-up poster stands at the corner of a street and at the subway have had sensors installed, that react to certain variables in their environment. These variables can be, for example, cigarette smoke and movement. The man in the advertisement starts to cough when the sensors detect smoke, catching the attention of smokers close by. The woman in the ad down at the subway station has her hair swept all around her when the subway passes by as the sensors react to the airflow from the train. In the future: What if the advertisements on the streets would start to follow you, shout after you and communicate with the observer? The boredom of waiting for the bus could be replaced with an exciting conversation with a bus stop ad. The advertisements could also give information and help, in case someone is in need. The next time you get lost in the future, you might be able to ask directions from an ad and also get a new competitor to your go-to yogurt product.
UI Design in everyday objects Now: UI, or User Interface, strives to make a product or a service easier to use and to create an optimal user experience. The design tries to understand the user environment and the needs of the user. UI is a common practice in the design of computers, mobile devices, websites, programs, and applications. In the future: When the UI is moved into an everyday object that is being used actively every day, it needs a good, sustainable UI design. For example, a user interface that tracks and improves your health and wellbeing in your bathroom mirror should be easy to use. With the help of the mirror, you could watch your weight and diet, watch tutorials for facial hair grooming, buy a replacement for the shampoo that just ran out and use the time you’re already spending in the bathroom better. A successful UI guarantees that the mirror will be your new best friend and bathroom trips a long-awaited treat. We won’t discuss the finger smudges.
Sources Muranen Antero & Harmainen Leeni, Käyttöliittymä- & käyttäjäkokemussuunnittelu (UI & UX Design), itewiki (2017) Evidz.net, The Future Technology of Display in 2020, YouTube (2017) Apotek Hjärtat, The Coughing Billboard, YouTube (2016) Eaglestar, Hair Moving from Train Passing AD, YouTube (2015) Ux Planet, Flat Design. History, Benefits and Practice (2017)
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Multifaceted Jenni Hautamäki
Resourceful Meri Heikkilä
Surprising Lotta Nykänen
Prolific Alisa Ala-Könni
Oddball Meri Aisala
Us (In the Future)
Creative Heidi Lintula
Photos Elli Alasaari & Meri Heikkilä Layout Annika Pudas
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Empathic Siiri Hirsiaho
Persistent Tia Huusko
Dauntless Ella Jokinen
Inventive Annika Pudas
Ambitious Marjaana Rusi
Cool Veera Tolvanen
Playful Liina Hautakoski
Imaginative Helmi Hakuri
Sincere Elli Alasaari
Designer’s Workspace
2038
By Lotta Nykänen
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