MW98: PAPERS

Archives & Museum Informatics

info @ archimuse.com

www.archimuse.com

published April 1998
updated Nov. 2010

Designing Collaborations:Interdisciplinary Applications of the National Graphic Design Image Database at Cooper Union

Lawrence Mirsky, The Herb Lubalin Study Center of Design and Typography, The Cooper Union

Introduction
Cooper Union Design Collections
Interdisciplinary Classroom Applications
Database of Exhibition Documents
Visual Dictionary of Design Principles
Designing Interfaces to Promote Collaborations
Conclusion

Introduction

The National Graphic Design Image Database at Cooper Union is an on-line system under development at the Herb Lubalin Study Center of Design and Typography in the School of Art. The NGDA Image Database is designed to electronically preserve and disseminate material related to the history of visual communication in the twentieth century. The software, entitled CUImage, enables students, designers and artists to access and input images and analysis from web sites worldwide. Funded by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the project aims to build a virtual visual encyclopedia through an electronic community of students and educators.

Cooper Union Design Collections

The first phase of the project is to describe the typography and layout features of materials housed at the Lubalin Study Center. The Study Center preserves editorial and identity design by Herb Lubalin A'39, promotions by Lou Dorfsman A'39 for the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) and a cross-section of European and American graphic design from World War I to the present. The typographic expressionism of Herb Lubalin is evident in his experimental publication design for Avant Garde and Ulc and his calligraphic logotypes. The Lou Dorfsman Collection is both a design history of CBS and a pictorial history of modern American culture. Dorfsman designed newspaper advertisements with monumental typography and photography for the news, entertainment, radio and sports divisions. The modern and early modern posters at the Study Center cover such topics as: World War I and II propaganda; American film, theater, and concert advertising; Swiss travel announcements; and, Eastern European designs since 1945.

The School of Art's 20,000-piece Graphic Design Slide Library is the primary visual resource for CUImage, housing samples from the physical collection and recent donations from designers, design organizations, private collectors and educators. Sample donations have arrived from Massimo Vignelli, the late Paul Rand and George Tscherny, founding contributors to the NGDA Image Database. Elaine Lustig Cohen, owner of Ex Libris, a graphic arts gallery, has generously loaned 1,000 slides of Dada and Russian Constructivist designs.

Interdisciplinary Classroom Applications

Both the donations and the database itself will encourage and support interdisciplinary studies of visual history and communication. In preparation for his Fall course, "Studies in Literature," John Harrington, dean of the Faculty of Humanitites and Social Sciences, loaned images of set designs for twentieth century productions of Shakespeare. Jim Craig, adjunct professor of typography, and Georgette Ballance, adjunct professor of design history and theory, donated slides related to their courses. Margaret Morton, associate professor in the School of art, loaned the Study Center slides of North American designers and urban graphics she documented in New York City's East Village.

Database of Exhibition Documents

Documentation from exhibitions held at the Lubalin Center will also be added to the Database including items from the upcoming exhibition, "Black letter: Type and National Identity" opening in the Winter of 1998. Images from "Ambush in the Streets: A Photographer's Encounter with the Stencil Art of Paris" were recently added to the system. Additional information on projects and collections at the Lubalin Study Center is available on Cooper Union's web site at www.cooper.edu/art/lubalin/.

Visual Dictionary of Design Principles

The system's structure and the knowledge of those performing the visual analysis are critical to the success of the Database. CUImage creates concentric spheres of data around each image record, matching object types and attributes with other images to display common themes and forms. The addition of each term automatically generates new associations and increases exponentially the comparative potential of the Database. Of the 2,000 slides digitized, 1,500 have been analyzed for their form and structure. Entering the descriptive phrase "radial symmetry" yields results ranging from the logo for Chase Manhattan to a spread of ballet dancers in Westvaco Inspirations by Bradbury Thompson. The data structure enables users to trace a creator's signature style. A search for "stripes" in the work of Paul Rand locates a cover for a music magazine, a comp for a children's book jacket; packaging design for computer equipment; and, a logotype for a multimedia company. The striped pattern on the cover of Jazzways, 1943, represents an early application of a form that will dominate his identity design for such companies as Multimedia and IBM. The surface of IBM packaging(above) contrasts sharply with the hand-drawn, organic stripes of Jazzways and the children's book, Sparkle and Spin, 1953. The Image Database provides a platform for tracing the evolution of a style by identifying one modernist's lifelong experimentation with an elementary form.

Designing Interfaces to Promote Collaborations

All layers of the software interface may be customized by other organizations to highlight their identity and collection strengths. Through thumbnail, middle- and large-resolution displays, users and contributors may trace images throughout the Database proper to the internet at large. The middle resolution display navigates this journey through a global outline of associations appended to each image. The page contains a checklist of cataloging terms, context notes, basic data and links to related web sites. A list of highlighted terms exposes users to the controlled vocabulary, allowing them to click on any combination of descriptors to revise a search. Web links allow users to reach out beyond the Image Database. A reverse image of Caravaggio's painting, Madonna dei Pellegrini (also known as Madonna of Loreto) is depicted in the exhibition, "Ambush in the Streets" as a stencil on the wall of a Paris street. The Database links this stenciled image with a site displaying the actual painting. A frame for commentary is superimposed at the bottom of the browser window and a new browser opens for each additional link, surrounding the intitial images with an array of related resources.

Conclusion

The server for the Image Database is located in the Lubalin Center office opposite a four by five foot spread of type from the Gutenberg Bible. The monumental spread of silk-screened type embodies what the electronic archive lacks: scale, texture and physical presence, but the Database substitutes physical access with virtual access, offering an unprecedented multilinear study of design for students who eventually will create electronic exhibitions with a scale and texture all their own.

by Lawrence Mirsky, Director
The Herb Lubalin Study Center of Design and Typography
School of Art
The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art
www.cooper.edu/art/lubalin
mirsky@cooper.edu

Last modified: March 30, 1998. This file can be found below http://www.archimuse.com/mw98/
Send questions and comments to info@archimuse.com