BA-Diploma

Research Project

2018

It is a common knowledge that visual designers nowadays have easy access—within seconds—to masses of digital image material. In this context, the process of researching, designing, conceiving and implementing often happens on platforms such as Instagram, Pinterest and Tumblr. Since designers often come across very similar content in their feeds during research and design exploration—and are consciously or unconsciously guided by visual impressions made by these feeds—the conclusion seems obvious that design outcomes in the digital age are moving in a unified direction and are strongly influenced by current trends. The starting point of this project is a set of printed posters, selected from a period when the internet and technical aids such as computers and software were not yet common tools for visual designers. Particular attention is given to posters created by some of the most progressive designers of the Zurich and Basel schools in the 20th century. On this basis, the visual search function of Pinterest was used to locate image references formally associated with the selected posters. The search results were arranged and sorted into different categories with the overall goal to show that the digital image material lacks a large amount of undiscovered or disregarded potentials for a future generation of designers.