Art School Sketchbook: Lipton Tea

I have been wanting to do this post for a long time...

Explaining how graphic design was done back in the stone age. 

(When I was in Art School.)

Our assignments, which seemed like impossible tasks at the time, 

were usually something like:

"Redesign the New York Times" or "Redesign the Lipton Tea Package."

Ideas came from inspiration. 

Inspiration came from images & color palettes that we've seen before, 

but hopefully redirected into a new purpose.

One of the biggest differences in how we worked back then, 

is that everything we did was out in the open. 

We worked at drafting tables in a huge media workshop. 

We saw what other designers were working on. 

There was a sense of collective creativity, that kept us going.

Today, the workshop is made of row after row of computers & dividers in a darkened room. 

Back to the drawing board...

We would carefully wax or spray mount whole fonts to the table,

and using a xacto blade, cut out each letter that we needed.

If you don't like the way a font looks, you save it for something else.

Art students are genius at recycling.

We also used alot of Letraset, and a thingie called a burnisher, 

which I posted about here, last year.

Using a T-square & triangle, we  carefully lined everything up on an illustration board.

Then we used a photostat machine (in a darkroom) to shoot this concoction onto smooth photo paper.

These darkrooms were also used for other endeavors, but that's for a later post ;-)

The photostat can then be used to make color copies with a copy machine. 

In 1986, copies were 10 cents each.

Dimes were collected & coveted.

We experimented with different papers and different colors 

to finally cut and glue everything into the final project.

Final projects were critiqued by the teacher and the entire class.

It's just as important to withstand the critique, as it is to create the project.

It prepares you for client relations in the real world.

I'm glad that I'm blogging about this for so many reasons...

As you can see, these old projects are falling apart, and soon will be reduced to dust.

Also, the feeling of collective creativity & community that I miss from the old media workshop at school...

I sometimes feel through YOU people, 

right here in bloggie-land.

And that's a really good thing.

:-)