It sounds mad in this day and age but only a handful of people get to work with for a master. On Tuesday night at the the EDO event in London Fernando Gutiérrez talked about his time with Tibor Kalman and the legendary pictures only issue of Colors magazine. I actually heard someone behind me gasp when a few of the pages came up. It was obviously news to him in away to many of us it, and Kalman, are part of art and design folklore.
This has been adapted form short film I appeared in for Innovations at Work. Originally published as a short film here.
What was the first major breakthrough in terms of using colour in design?
I think that the major moment in designing with colour is the leap to the reproduction of colour photography. Most brilliantly made relevant by the fashion mags of the early fifties and paving the way for all modern editorial and advertising. It was particularly influential on advertising. The ability to represent products in full colour had an incredible influence over how we communicate ideas about products and their places in our lives. It drove consumerism on in a way that is hard to imagine now.
John Berger said “Seeing comes before words”. How is this useful as an idea? Colour photography it is the most information in the quickest, most primal form. More than a headline or a column of text.
This is a the written version of a talk I gave at UX Camp Brighton 2014… I would imagine it differs greatly from what I actually said.
Brand space has never been more accessible.
Consumers’ time has never been more scarce.
What does this mean for the way we work?
ideas/forms/functions 