Books by David Cabianca
Current research, 2022–2027.
This 5-year study aims to shed light on an aesthetic problem that... more Current research, 2022–2027.
This 5-year study aims to shed light on an aesthetic problem that has been overlooked in design theory. This project seeks to expand our understanding of graphic design as a discipline through the lens of Realism, and in doing so, rethink graphic design's reception among the public and its place among the arts. Realism refers to 'things as they are' rather than 'things in the ideal': A graphic design which reflects Realism is imperfect, diverse, and idiosyncratic. It accepts the conditions or context which informed its creation rather than follow the tenets of 'good' graphic design that determine conventional design aesthetics. This study will analyze the graphic design work of Ed Fella, Lorraine Wild, Jeff Keedy, Rudy VanderLans, and Zuzana Licko to explore the presence and reception of Realism. These designers were at various times vilified by the profession for their design work in the 1980s and 1990s. But the impetus that propelled their work is perhaps more important than ever before and worthy of detailed analysis and critical reflection. The research challenge of this project seeks to increase the visibility of design practices that are often deemed 'marginal', 'alternative', or 'minor'.
Funded in part by a grant from the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).
Edited Books by David Cabianca
Ed Fella — A Life in Images, 2021
https://bit.ly/EdFellaUnit A Life in Images is an opportunity to delve into a distinctly differ... more https://bit.ly/EdFellaUnit A Life in Images is an opportunity to delve into a distinctly different aspect of Ed Fella’s contributions to the discipline of graphic design. Fella’s archive is not simply a repository of advertising ephemera and images from popular culture. Fella was intimately linked to the material conception and production of advertising in the USA from 1957 through 1987, and post 1987 his CalArts students went on to take up leading positions in the creative industries. No previous writing has touched upon materials from Fella’s archive or his “process work” (the label designers use to describe research, sketches and drafts of design work which inform the final design). Rather, the emphasis of discourse about his work has been on the final outcomes, the “flyers” or posters that established his reputation.
Contributing authors also include Rick Poynor and Lorraine Wild. With an introduction by Katherine McCoy and afterward by Andrea Fella.
Funded in part by a grant from the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).
Papers by David Cabianca
Journal of Design History, 2018
In 1965, the UK designer F.H.K. Henrion was commissioned by the General Post Office to survey the... more In 1965, the UK designer F.H.K. Henrion was commissioned by the General Post Office to survey the state of design within the organization. The survey report was to form the basis for commissioning a new corporate identity, or ‘house style’, intended to visually unify the various operational divisions of the GPO as well as cultivate the image of a modern and progressive public entity in the minds of the public. Ultimately, thanks to factors that actively or indirectly hampered his efforts, Henrion’s attempt to produce a new, modern identity would, in large part, collapse. While it is true many professional projects do not bear fruit, one does not typically have a detailed account of the factors which might lead an initiative to fail. In this instance, archival records present a tale of intransigence precipitated by career civil servants determined to secure their positions, the conscious obstruction of change because of professional jealousy, and an overall general ineptitude when strength of leadership was required. This paper uses records from client correspondence, PO Board minutes, and internal memos housed in the British Postal Museum to trace the development of Henrion’s efforts from the client’s perspective.
Design and Culture, 2016
Facing increased calls for “practical skills,” the arts and humanities are under immense pressure... more Facing increased calls for “practical skills,” the arts and humanities are under immense pressure to demonstrate their value to a public that demands measurable metrics. As a response, graphic design has adopted the language of “research” as a way to engage with tangible benefits. Research, in turn, has emphasized applied learning and the field of engineering has been suggested by some as a possible model for graphic design education. This paper instead proposes architecture as a more aligned disciplinary model for education, practice, and research. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, architecture faced a crisis very similar to the one affecting graphic design today. But rather than relinquish disciplinary control to the positivist scientism of behavioral science, operational research, and design methods as they asserted control over the codes of architectural practice, a number of architects and educators sought architecture’s autonomy, an inward reflection on the methods, techniques, and questions that were restricted to how architecture sees itself. Architecture’s inward turn, or “criticism from within,” was ultimately responsible for its return to cultural significance.
Funded in part by a grant from the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).
Visible Language, 2012
Graphic design has arrived-not that it hadn't already. But the exhibition Graphic Design: Now in ... more Graphic design has arrived-not that it hadn't already. But the exhibition Graphic Design: Now in Production (GDNiP) previously on view at the Walker Art Center 22 October 2011–22 January 2012, presents a cohesive understanding of graphic design as a discipline trying to examine its own sense of self.
openspace: Journal of Architecture and Criticism, 1997
Conference Papers by David Cabianca
Institutions reproduce themselves. It’s something that I often say to my students. This claim ref... more Institutions reproduce themselves. It’s something that I often say to my students. This claim refers to the notion that we teach what we were taught as students and/or what interests we pursued as students. This is a problem because as learning becomes more about a transactional relationship, i.e. “What’s in it for me?” learning becomes less about exploring the world and more about repeating the world. Learning and education become vocational, less concerned about how design can interact with and discover connections in the world than about how graphic design can be applied to a problem, like plumbing, carpentry, or refrigerator repair. I do not think less of vocations, but I do think that an emphasis on vocational learning has a detrimental impact on graphic design’s place among the already recognized disciplines. When limited to just a transactional relationship, graphic design ignores its own history, its effective engagement with culture writ large, and hinders if not obstructs its ability to overcome the competing demands of clients, marketing and account managers. This presentation will attempt to make this problem clear to others and hopefully suggest aspirational paths.
Cumulus Conference Proceedings Roma 2021 | Track: Design Culture (of) THINKING, 2021
Designer, educator and writer Lorraine Wild has had a distinguished career that spans nearly 40 y... more Designer, educator and writer Lorraine Wild has had a distinguished career that spans nearly 40 years. While she has maintained a prodigious output of design work and writing, her contributions remain critically unexamined. Beginning with Aldo Rossi’s L’architettura della città (1966) and Robert Venturi’s Complexity and contradiction in architecture (1966), and later, Venturi, Denise Scott Brown and Steven Izenour’s Learning from Las Vegas (1972), this essay touches upon the impact these books had on visual culture on a broader scale. Lorraine Wild’s affinity and support for the mundane and vernacular or “unschooled” forms of graphic design falls in line with what would become postmodern narratives of the 1980s and 1990s, narratives put in motion by Rossi, Venturi, et al. This essay will consider a number of Wild’s designs with respect to how they reflect the conditions of modernity circulating at the time of their respective production.
Communication Design Scholarship: Opportunities and Approaches, 10th Annual Conference, College Art Association, Washington DC, 2016
Motion Design Education Summit (MoDe), University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame IN, 2013
Blunt: Explicit and Graphic Design Criticism Now, AIGA Design Educators Conference, Norfolk VA, 2013
Briefly stated, a critical practice is one that examines and engages the normative standards of a... more Briefly stated, a critical practice is one that examines and engages the normative standards of a given discipline. This paper will examine a context for critical positioning in graphic design, one which fulfills design’s communicative obligations while offering an alternative to prevailing conventions. A critical practice may seek to make those defined limits visible by actively rejecting the conventions of how graphic design ought to operate, while simultaneously working within those bounds to profane, judge and critique the languages of convention. Operating from within, a critical practice, engages what Roland Barthes describes as “a mask which points to itself.” In the interests of brevity, this paper will extend that understanding to a specific instance, the practice of art director, curator and publisher, Zak Kyes.
Proceedings of the AIGA's New Contexts. New Practices conference, 8–10 October 2010, 2010
Conference description of the topic: A 2005 education survey by Metropolis Magazine showed no con... more Conference description of the topic: A 2005 education survey by Metropolis Magazine showed no consensus among practitioners or educators about what constitutes design research; limited access to research findings from professional practice; nascent use of students as interns in the research process; and great confusion about what design issues deserve the greatest attention by researchers. Organizers of the 2007 conference of the International Association of Societies of Design Research reported that only 10% of the paper submissions came from Americans, demonstrating that the US is behind other countries in the generation of new knowledge.
History, Tradition and Craft: Rethinking Modernity and Locality in Design, International Design Conference: Cumulus Kyoto 2008, 2008
Between 1859 and 1860, Charles Baudelaire penned “The Painter of Modern Life.” His essay is an ex... more Between 1859 and 1860, Charles Baudelaire penned “The Painter of Modern Life.” His essay is an extended series of observations on the emergence of modernity in what was at the time contemporary society for Baudelaire. Nearly 150 years later, Baudelaire’s focus on the baser aspects of modern society — prostitutes, fashion, carriages, cosmetics — is still a worthy measuring stick to evaluate the state of modernity in graphic design today. This essay will look at a number of “degenerate” and “delinquent” design practices — designers whose production is among the most original, if not provocative, design work being made today. Modernity is often lamented for its degradation in quality, the loss of tradition, and its dehumanizing concern for the quality of life. But such a criticism assumes that tradition and the quality provided by locality are “fixed” and inviolate conditions.
The critique of modernity as the root cause of the debasement and loss of quality in life should be reexamined towards and understanding that in fact, traditions are evolving and new qualities are emerging. Modernity provides each successive generation with the opportunity to see itself in its own practice: it acts as a mirror to the passing of history. Rather than interpret emergent forms as “radical” and a symptom of the debasement of contemporary society, we can look to modernity as an opportunity to appreciate how each successive generation chooses to interpret its own visual culture and the relative icons it chooses to incorporate and elevate as part of its visual vocabulary. Design practices as diverse as Elliott Earls, Vier5, Cornell Windlin, Michael Amzalag & Mathias Augustyniak of m/m Paris, Antoine and Michel and Lorraine Wild, provide us with extreme examples of individuals whose work erases the artificial barriers between classic and populist, learned and ignorant, professional and hack.
Schools of Thoughts 3, AIGA Design Educators Conference, Los Angeles CA, 2007
The Design Frontier: Graphic Design Education in Small Programs and Non-urban Regions, AIGA Education Conference, Denver CO, 2006
This paper will highlight an instance of entrenched creative inertia in academia and the process ... more This paper will highlight an instance of entrenched creative inertia in academia and the process involved in overcoming this roadblock. Specifically, creative inertia is a problem which can occur in any institution irrespective of size. In this particular example, an outside party — Scott Zukowski of California Institute of the Arts — was invited into a program to act as a mediating catalyst for change.
The Design Frontier: Graphic Design Education in Small Programs and Non-urban Regions, AIGA Design Educators Conference, Denver CO, 2006
The goal of this course is to introduce students to the creation of narrative structures outside ... more The goal of this course is to introduce students to the creation of narrative structures outside of print-based media. The projects are not specific to any particular “use value,” i.e. film credits for a particular movie, or a mock television promo. To do so, would be to rely on a student’s preconception of what narrative structures are, which is to say, rely on what he or she has already seen on television or other media. Instead, the assignments asks a students to “tell stories” or react to an individual’s own experiences.
Typographical Journeys: ATypI 2006, Association Typographique Internationale (ATypI) Annual Conference, Lisbon Portugal, 2006
The path a student takes is undoubtedly a slow and methodological journey and the educational jou... more The path a student takes is undoubtedly a slow and methodological journey and the educational journey of the type designer perhaps among the slowest. That Gerrit Noordzij has had an influence on contemporary type design is indisputable. Exactly how he has been able to accomplish this feat is altogether another matter of discussion. The intent of this study is twofold. First, however brief, it examines how Noordzij approached the classroom environment, the way he approached student learning and the method by which he relayed information. Second, it examines the techniques and conceptual apparatus Noordzij introduced in the classroom and in the discipline. It does not, however, make the assumption that Noordzij’s success can be codified and reproduced. Quite the contrary, such a naïve assumption is detrimental to the learning environment and precisely counter to Noordzij’s success as a teacher. Rather, this essay attempts to treat teaching and learning as a discursive practice with its own language, mutable theory and practical outcomes. This paper will be a reworked form of my MA dissertation from the University of Reading under the direction of Gerry Leonidas.
Proceedings of ACSA West Regional Meeting, Eugene OR, 15–16 October 1999, 1999
Paper presented at Contesting Absences: Exploring Unexamined Influences, ACSA West Regional Meeti... more Paper presented at Contesting Absences: Exploring Unexamined Influences, ACSA West Regional Meeting, Eugene OR, 15–16 October 1999.
Critical objection to the simulacrum, or "false copy," has a long history in the visual arts beginning with Plato through to the present. In architecture, the legitimate copy is determined via typological extension, historical derivation, or "proper" transformation as the work moves from conception through modeling to final construction. These architectural copies maintain a "truth of resemblance" to the extent that each is founded (internally and spiritually) on the Idea of the thing. The simulacrum however, is made from below, it is a copy in the form of the image without passing through the Idea. The simulacrum negates both original and copy, model and reproduction: Selection is no longer possible. As image-without-referent and perfect impostor, the simulacrum's mimetic capacity allows it to insert itself within the confines of disciplinary limits, thereby subverting the categorizations of the Real: truth, foundation, and model. Using the 1933 Schminke House of Hans Scharoun and its double, the Barnes House of John and Patricia Patkau completed in 1993, this paper asserts that in an era where media images are an ever more pervasive force in society, the simulacrum emerges as an authentic category in its own right.
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Books by David Cabianca
This 5-year study aims to shed light on an aesthetic problem that has been overlooked in design theory. This project seeks to expand our understanding of graphic design as a discipline through the lens of Realism, and in doing so, rethink graphic design's reception among the public and its place among the arts. Realism refers to 'things as they are' rather than 'things in the ideal': A graphic design which reflects Realism is imperfect, diverse, and idiosyncratic. It accepts the conditions or context which informed its creation rather than follow the tenets of 'good' graphic design that determine conventional design aesthetics. This study will analyze the graphic design work of Ed Fella, Lorraine Wild, Jeff Keedy, Rudy VanderLans, and Zuzana Licko to explore the presence and reception of Realism. These designers were at various times vilified by the profession for their design work in the 1980s and 1990s. But the impetus that propelled their work is perhaps more important than ever before and worthy of detailed analysis and critical reflection. The research challenge of this project seeks to increase the visibility of design practices that are often deemed 'marginal', 'alternative', or 'minor'.
Funded in part by a grant from the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).
Edited Books by David Cabianca
Contributing authors also include Rick Poynor and Lorraine Wild. With an introduction by Katherine McCoy and afterward by Andrea Fella.
Funded in part by a grant from the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).
Papers by David Cabianca
Funded in part by a grant from the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).
Conference Papers by David Cabianca
The critique of modernity as the root cause of the debasement and loss of quality in life should be reexamined towards and understanding that in fact, traditions are evolving and new qualities are emerging. Modernity provides each successive generation with the opportunity to see itself in its own practice: it acts as a mirror to the passing of history. Rather than interpret emergent forms as “radical” and a symptom of the debasement of contemporary society, we can look to modernity as an opportunity to appreciate how each successive generation chooses to interpret its own visual culture and the relative icons it chooses to incorporate and elevate as part of its visual vocabulary. Design practices as diverse as Elliott Earls, Vier5, Cornell Windlin, Michael Amzalag & Mathias Augustyniak of m/m Paris, Antoine and Michel and Lorraine Wild, provide us with extreme examples of individuals whose work erases the artificial barriers between classic and populist, learned and ignorant, professional and hack.
Critical objection to the simulacrum, or "false copy," has a long history in the visual arts beginning with Plato through to the present. In architecture, the legitimate copy is determined via typological extension, historical derivation, or "proper" transformation as the work moves from conception through modeling to final construction. These architectural copies maintain a "truth of resemblance" to the extent that each is founded (internally and spiritually) on the Idea of the thing. The simulacrum however, is made from below, it is a copy in the form of the image without passing through the Idea. The simulacrum negates both original and copy, model and reproduction: Selection is no longer possible. As image-without-referent and perfect impostor, the simulacrum's mimetic capacity allows it to insert itself within the confines of disciplinary limits, thereby subverting the categorizations of the Real: truth, foundation, and model. Using the 1933 Schminke House of Hans Scharoun and its double, the Barnes House of John and Patricia Patkau completed in 1993, this paper asserts that in an era where media images are an ever more pervasive force in society, the simulacrum emerges as an authentic category in its own right.
This 5-year study aims to shed light on an aesthetic problem that has been overlooked in design theory. This project seeks to expand our understanding of graphic design as a discipline through the lens of Realism, and in doing so, rethink graphic design's reception among the public and its place among the arts. Realism refers to 'things as they are' rather than 'things in the ideal': A graphic design which reflects Realism is imperfect, diverse, and idiosyncratic. It accepts the conditions or context which informed its creation rather than follow the tenets of 'good' graphic design that determine conventional design aesthetics. This study will analyze the graphic design work of Ed Fella, Lorraine Wild, Jeff Keedy, Rudy VanderLans, and Zuzana Licko to explore the presence and reception of Realism. These designers were at various times vilified by the profession for their design work in the 1980s and 1990s. But the impetus that propelled their work is perhaps more important than ever before and worthy of detailed analysis and critical reflection. The research challenge of this project seeks to increase the visibility of design practices that are often deemed 'marginal', 'alternative', or 'minor'.
Funded in part by a grant from the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).
Contributing authors also include Rick Poynor and Lorraine Wild. With an introduction by Katherine McCoy and afterward by Andrea Fella.
Funded in part by a grant from the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).
Funded in part by a grant from the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).
The critique of modernity as the root cause of the debasement and loss of quality in life should be reexamined towards and understanding that in fact, traditions are evolving and new qualities are emerging. Modernity provides each successive generation with the opportunity to see itself in its own practice: it acts as a mirror to the passing of history. Rather than interpret emergent forms as “radical” and a symptom of the debasement of contemporary society, we can look to modernity as an opportunity to appreciate how each successive generation chooses to interpret its own visual culture and the relative icons it chooses to incorporate and elevate as part of its visual vocabulary. Design practices as diverse as Elliott Earls, Vier5, Cornell Windlin, Michael Amzalag & Mathias Augustyniak of m/m Paris, Antoine and Michel and Lorraine Wild, provide us with extreme examples of individuals whose work erases the artificial barriers between classic and populist, learned and ignorant, professional and hack.
Critical objection to the simulacrum, or "false copy," has a long history in the visual arts beginning with Plato through to the present. In architecture, the legitimate copy is determined via typological extension, historical derivation, or "proper" transformation as the work moves from conception through modeling to final construction. These architectural copies maintain a "truth of resemblance" to the extent that each is founded (internally and spiritually) on the Idea of the thing. The simulacrum however, is made from below, it is a copy in the form of the image without passing through the Idea. The simulacrum negates both original and copy, model and reproduction: Selection is no longer possible. As image-without-referent and perfect impostor, the simulacrum's mimetic capacity allows it to insert itself within the confines of disciplinary limits, thereby subverting the categorizations of the Real: truth, foundation, and model. Using the 1933 Schminke House of Hans Scharoun and its double, the Barnes House of John and Patricia Patkau completed in 1993, this paper asserts that in an era where media images are an ever more pervasive force in society, the simulacrum emerges as an authentic category in its own right.
Conventional architectural discourse on representation operates between two poles of a binary system. In one instance the presence of representative content is seen to affirm a hegemonic reality and the values of a dominant culture; in the other, which is noted by an absence, architectural form is interpreted as disengaged and autonomous, devoid of social and historical circumstance. While seemingly opposite poles, both share a common bond to logocentric thought and a common disregard for the material presence of architecture. In the face of this idealized conception of reality, "material representation" is suggested as a third term in an effort to extract discourse from the confines of conventional representational practice. Rather than simply yield to the forces of an a priori cultural order or the limitations of economic pressures, material engagement or "immersion in particularity," offers up a dialectical situation, one which acts through the particularities of form in the discovery of a social structure in a particular historical configuration. Acting through the filter of the individual subject — which is resistant to affirmation — coupled with a direct material engagement — which explicitly grounds the work in a context and time — it is possible to produce an architecture which does not dissolve representation nor further reflect the boundaries of a secure reality. Such an example can be found in Le Corbusier's chapel at Ronchamp, a building which continues to exceed absorption by the unifying confines of rationalizing processes.
Architects list accomplishments in their biographies: the names of building projects, completed and uncompleted; competitions entered, winning or nonwinning entries. Graphic designers provide client lists.
This issue of IDEA features Edward Fella’s unique typographic works in extraordinary volume with an Introduction by Lewis Blackwell and the essay “Lettering Beyond the Borders: The Art of Ed Fella” by David Cabianca.
Funded in part by a grant from the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).
The International Encyclopedia of Communication represents the definitive reference source in this interdisciplinary and dynamic field. This authoritative work is jointly published with the International Communication Association (ICA), the leading academic association of the discipline. Key features:
• 1,339 newly-commissioned A-Z entries, divided into 29 editorial areas representing major fields of inquiry, each of which is headed by a leading expert in the field
• Spans the breadth of communication studies, including coverage of theories, media and communication phenomena, research methods, problems, concepts, and geographical areas
• Simultaneously publishing in print and in this fully accessible and searchable online version
• Features sophisticated cross-referencing and search facilities and a lexicon by subject area
• Entries ranging from extended explorations of major topics to short descriptions of key concepts
• Written and edited by an international team of the world's best scholars and teachers, representing the international character of the ICA
• Editorial areas include communication theory and philosophy, interpersonal communication, journalism, intercultural and intergroup communication, media effects, strategic communication/PR, communication and media law and policy, media systems in the world, and communication and technology.
This unique and inclusive work will strengthen the identity of the growing field of communication studies, support its institutions, and most of all, improve the study of communication problems and phenomena worldwide.
California Institute of the Arts, Valencia CA.
University of Texas, Austin TX.
Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, Vancouver BC.
School of Architecture, University of British Columbia, Vancouver BC.
Carnegie Mellon School of Design, Pittsburgh PA.
Herron School of Art, Indiana University/Purdue University, Indianapolis IN.
Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University, Halifax NS.