California: Designing Freedom - The Design Museum

The Design Museum is home to a showcase of product, industrial, graphic, fashion and architectural design. In 2018, the museum won the European Museum of the Year Award. They hold various exhibitions each year including 'California: Designing Freedom' in 2018.

This exhibition at The Design Museum London, Kensington celebrates the new technical age highlighting how California has become a global centre of design.' “Designed in California” is the new “Made in Italy” '( designmuseum.org ). The exhibition explores the 1960s counterculture which is a subculture of those whose values and behaviour differs from what what was popular and perceived 'normal' in mainstream society at the time for example the hippie movement, the green movement and feminism in the 1960s. The exhibition looks at how counterculture inspired the tech culture of Silicon Valley which is the U.S. center for innovative technology companies located in San Francisco, California and is home to 2,000 tech companies, the biggest in the world.

The overall summer feel of the exhibition represents what California is best known for. The bright lighting and colour pallets of cool aqua blues along with warm yellow and orange posits themes of the famous beaches in the holiday destination California. The open space of the exhibition and mixture of coral pink and white walls creates a fresh and modern feel emphasising themes of youth and contemporary design. This is significant as over all the exhibitions celebrates Freedom which is seen thought out. The open space allows no restrictions to the exhibition and allows people to move freely around the exhibition which infers the focal point of change and freedom. The exhibition consists of 5 parts looking at the modern Californian life style: 'Go Where You Want', 'See What You Want', 'Say What You Want', 'Make What You Want' and 'Join Who You Want'. The importance of these headings for each part of the exhibition represents the extreme change in society from 1960's Californian - to the development of the tech industry to the improvement of basic human rights while still keeping strong themes of Californian history. The white metal dividers around the exhibition take the form of three dimensional geometric design complimenting the work on display while helping create a tidy and organised set. Bright hues and gradient sans serif font brings the room to life looking at how the design development in California has had positive and inspiring impacts all over the world from the success and impact of brands such as Apple and Google. This is stressed with iPhone prototypes being included and the Google logo being displayed a long with mentions of social platforms such as facebook which as we know have changed everyday life.

A range of digital art was also showcased at the exhibition along side technology models and prototypes. The digital posters as seen above and to the right present themes of optimism and success for example the red and white typography piece states 'IMPOSSIBLE' however the 'IM' is crossed out leaving the word 'POSSIBLE' which suggests that uncertainty and fear were not to be encouraged in the social change in California. Without the protest for feminism and the green movement it would be a very different place and this demand for change and freedom is very powerful which is presented in the poster due to the red hue positing themes of action, assertion, creation, survival and passion. The minimal colour pallets is clean and modern allowing the central composition of the sans serif typography to stand out giving it hierarchy. Little tracking is between each letter to show the letters as a physical bond. They appear strong and bold enforcing ideas of not letting social norms restrict one from living their life.

Creating digital posters in this style focusing on using a sans serif Helvetia style font is something that i can experiment with. Using simple illustrations to again portray the message is really successful especially the simple black illustration of the glasses over the phrase 'nerd' which stereotypically represents ideas of 'nerds'. The phrase 'be the nerd' is significant as the word 'nerd' is typically used as an insult meaning a person is seen as overly intellectual, obsessive, introverted or lacking social skills. This is ironic as the poster is encouraging this however this is also positive as it encourages confidence and individuality. The composition of the glasses over the word 'nerd' humanises the word attracting peoples attention discouraging discrimination and bullying towards people that aren't like you.

The use of rainbow typography as seen on the wall in the image to the right represents the awareness for the equal rights of the LGBT community which is featured in the exhibition also. This is significantly important as only recently in 2015 same sex couples were given the right to wed which was life changing for many in the LGBT community and is celebrated here with the feature of the Pride flag which actually originated in California. The typography compliments the framed digital posters rather the distracts from the work which is essential for exhibitions and galleries.

The abstract digital posters are really effective and i love this style of work. The layering of different elements is successful to create dept and bring the piece to life. The composition of curved lettering is also successful around the random composition of shapes tying the work together. This style of poster design is something i can experiment with.

Overall, this exhibition is fresh and positive celebrating social justice, equality and the creative developments inspired from freedom. It Celebrating individuality and the technological development that has changed everyday life for the better improving and opening up opportunities while still celebrating Californian history.