Throughout my time in university, we would be invited to prepare and share presentations about a particular topic in graphic design history. They were required to be in PechaKucha format: 20 slides that automatically advanced every 20 seconds (6 minutes in total). The experience taught me a lot about the importance of preparation, maintaining interest through well-timed humor and body language, and allowing the slides to be complementary to the script instead of a crutch. I had a lot of fun theming each slide show through typography and little flourishes.
My first was about the history of opening film titles. The theming was inspired by film cameras and Saul Bass.
Doing the research for this one made Irma Boom one of my favorite designers working today. I wanted to honor her work by taking inspiration from the iconic little red book version of her autobiography and how she handled the type in Weaving as Metaphor.
By this point, I became more comfortable letting the designer's work speak for itself while I provided the context behind the creative and business decisions that resulted in the form one of Paula Scher's most iconic projects took. Slanted titles and bold type were only fitting for her dynamic sensibilities.
For our final presentation, we were asked to talk about a previous project we've done in our major. I got to be a bit sillier with the visuals as I talked about how much the process from concept to final product meant to my design journey.
