This post has been the result of a series of friendly banter aka debate over the email. It just randomly began with as usual my urge to dig out a hypothetical problem only to find the same darn thing unearthed eons ago...and possibly even put back to rest in the form of established theories and findings.
Anyway brace yourself for an exceptionally long 'The unabridged' email discussion which ended up concluding with the winner of the match Content vs Medium.
More on that....David mc candless has made me relook at the balance bit....:P there is an excessive need to work more on the medium than the content since content is more or less a given thing but how it is communicated takes all our energies so i'd say in comm. design the medium takes more attention to create than content.......
But suppose I want to make illustrated book.
The content is most important at first!
Once finalized it... only then can I thin of medium, and then medium takes dominance....
But yes.. sometimes we make content keeping medium in mind.
yeah! design is definitely more inclined towards content....
its also a matter of left brain and right brain thinking.
creativity is more right brain while logical thinking is left brain....
but for a complete product or experience... both are important.
or else we end up with movies like Transformers.....
all effects and look and sound.... no trace of script!
sorry i mean design is more inclined towards medium not content. (sorrywas typing too fast n not chking)
its more right brain creativity oriented....
hey u can take this test to find out too.....
http://www.
The left and right brain stuff is inherent in any form of design, or else it would be just art for arts sake guided only by intuition and preference. BTW my score turned out to be 46% Left and 54% right...quite a close competition... :P
Chitra Chandrashekhar
Stories are indeed visualised if not designed as a visual medium for instance Novels. But here too how the story is communicated takes precedence be it illustration/ packaging. his TED talker is quite an entertainer, Chip Kid's work is prolific: http://www.youtube.com/watch?
its a matter of perspective....
for artists, designers, musicians or any other creative person,
medium will of course be more important.
but if you see the larger picture, both are definitely equally important.
i think its often content which sets apart good artists from brilliant ones.
Look at film-makers.... whts d difference between spielberg and kubrick?
between Herge and Uderzo-Gossini?
between 'Calvin anh Hobbes' and Superman?
between Ruskin Bond and Enid Blyton?
medium wise both have equal mastery.....
but in terms of depth of content... one is so much shallow!
Ok!
so we completely differ in our meaning of content.
to me content is never the data. thts like telling medium is just brushes!
content is the story of a book. its the lyrics of a song.
its the script of a film. its the name of the company for which we design logo.
hmm..thats definitely valid for the story book, song and script except for the logo...:P thats a lot deeper...logo visually represents the brand story which in turn craftily packages the factual business plans and models, audience and their future goals. pretty much like your graffiti represented the values of Kuliza that were carefully chosen words from Kuliza's business mission which was born out of the need to serve a certain type of customer, in a certain type of market, for a certain number of years....atleast thats the way big identity designers approach logo design.
Chitra
anindya kundu anindya.kundu1985@gmail.com
That's my point too from the beginning....
both are equally important! :-)
anyways, sorry... lets not argue much further.
let every1 have their point of view....
and the lines between content and design is also
bit blurred for each of us. i understand why as a
designer Chitra is emphasizing on medium...
since as designer thats where we can add life to dull content!
it was a fun debate though!
regards,
anindya
I just went thru the Chip Kidd's TED talk...
This guy is so weird that he seems to be out of a Dr Seuss book!
and lovely inspiring book design work....
yeah! David's talk is brilliant....
a brilliant speaker and designer par excellence!
@ Chitra, sorry, I think I re-write what you already mentioned.. Why dont you blog about these views? It would make an interesting read..what say? zyada time nahi lagega.. you only have to copy paste and edit the things you mentioned here in the mail... pls kar na!
Hehehe,...I know...i mean such discussions really improve understanding sometimes question our beliefs.... yup i agree it was fun....and luckily din drag on much....:) Hemali you have a point...yup will do that....copy paste the whole thing.... on my blog then....???
I totalleeeeeee love this book!!! for its Yellow-submarine-sque illustrations and the 'CONTENT' ...:P it makes a lot more sense to adults i guess...
Chitra
hehe :D ya.. even i loved the book.. he has got two such books and working on third one :) and the good thing is that he has shared it for free.. chk his poem wala book.. i checked only 2- 3 poems.. thoda nonsensical hi hai... i guess shayad mujhe itna nahi samjha..
Chitra
anindya kundu anindya.kundu1985@gmail.com
'Communication is King!' (quoted 4m the article) i think this sums it up best....
While it seems we have a winner, the stubborn me still feels:
Chitra: And I wish to sum up that communication design is 100% medium creation as it involves integration of simple ideas and factual information into well crafted language (inspired by semiotics: choice of rhetoric/ words/ tense/ tone/narrative), typography (visual letterforms, arrangement of words and paragraphs), icons, illustrations, images, photography, videos et al, use of other sensory inputs: sound, smell, touch etc.
So while communication is king, The King's mighty army is the medium and his wise minister is the communication's ideas and factual data. So to me the proverbial debate remains elusively inconclusive coz there are times when one over powers the other. But one things clear the two can never go on solo...its always a team. It takes two to communicate!
Anyway brace yourself for an exceptionally long 'The unabridged' email discussion which ended up concluding with the winner of the match Content vs Medium.
Had been in conversation with a family friend/ aunt from Kolkata/London....shes into film theory/ academics....and somehow the conversation drifted towards the proverbial....content vs medium polemic....especially something I ended up getting confused with by the end of IDC...
My P2....was about exploring the medium...and i ended up concluding that "no! content is king....medium is just supportive..."
And by the end of P3...i was so much into the content that presentation of content made me read stuff about Marshal Mc Luhan....and I was so taken in by the'medium is the message' funda that I began to conclude that "content is alright...and sometimes predictable and easy to find...but the medium is the real king..after all without a container, how do get hold of the content..?"
Makes me wonder....if there is a conclusive answer to this dilemma....
Ofcourse the middlepath is what most people end up concluding as an agreeable solution...
Just now i ended up figuring out....that content is something the presenter must know inside out but the medium is the sole interface that the presenter uses to manipulate content....
so yes content is important but not any more than the medium...infact often times medium and content are so closely knit that one cant tell them apart....as to which one is more powerful.
For instance...internet is the medium for people to share and present content. It not only presents content but also shapes the behavior of the audience that consumes the content...Not only does the container provide the contents it also adds another subliminal layer of interaction with the container...Pretty much on the lines of product design concepts of affordances....
Din realise i have written a lot...but these are few things I hv been thinking about off-late....:P apologies for overshooting the fence if its been the case....:P
TC
Rgds
Chitra Chandrashekhar
Of course both are equally important...
its nothing but ying and yang in my opinion....
content is the aggressive male energy while medium is the feminine accepting one.
One can't survive or even exist without the other!
its nothing but ying and yang in my opinion....
content is the aggressive male energy while medium is the feminine accepting one.
One can't survive or even exist without the other!
heres the thing from your own example...
the concept of yin-yang you sent is in itself the visual medium to convey the concept or content of balance....even if i dint know that i would have read it like a little pattern/ visual logo that holds my attention and god knows how long the creator would've taken to come up with this concise symbol....
Heres David mc candless' TED talk: http://www.
Chitra Chandrashekhar
The content is most important at first!
Once finalized it... only then can I thin of medium, and then medium takes dominance....
But yes.. sometimes we make content keeping medium in mind.
yeah! design is definitely more inclined towards content....
its also a matter of left brain and right brain thinking.
creativity is more right brain while logical thinking is left brain....
but for a complete product or experience... both are important.
or else we end up with movies like Transformers.....
all effects and look and sound.... no trace of script!
sorry i mean design is more inclined towards medium not content. (sorrywas typing too fast n not chking)
its more right brain creativity oriented....
hey u can take this test to find out too.....
http://www.
The left and right brain stuff is inherent in any form of design, or else it would be just art for arts sake guided only by intuition and preference. BTW my score turned out to be 46% Left and 54% right...quite a close competition... :P
Chitra Chandrashekhar
anindya kundu anindya.kundu1985@gmail.com
wow!
mine came 67% right and 33% left....
hemali do try n tell us your score!
mine came 67% right and 33% left....
hemali do try n tell us your score!
Stories are indeed visualised if not designed as a visual medium for instance Novels. But here too how the story is communicated takes precedence be it illustration/ packaging. his TED talker is quite an entertainer, Chip Kid's work is prolific: http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Even if the story was to be conveyed through non-visual channels, communication is predominantly a medium based task. Sometimes a painting communicate more than just the content through visual composition, colours, styles, iconography, cultural associations.
Medium has more power and capacity than the original content. Minimalism was one movement where content was hailed as king where medium was simple and unobstrusive and the content came through typography and colours and white space (well in graphic design) and in architecture too it was pure function without all that jazz. But ever since po-mo (post-modernism and deconstructivism) to the digital age the medium has blurred styles and trends.
Btw....I'd be glad to contribute stuff on mutli-displinary design for your newsletter if it welcomes random people with this vague disorder called the type-oh-mania...i just cant get a count of the word limit...:P
Chitra Chandrashekharfor artists, designers, musicians or any other creative person,
medium will of course be more important.
but if you see the larger picture, both are definitely equally important.
i think its often content which sets apart good artists from brilliant ones.
Look at film-makers.... whts d difference between spielberg and kubrick?
between Herge and Uderzo-Gossini?
between 'Calvin anh Hobbes' and Superman?
between Ruskin Bond and Enid Blyton?
medium wise both have equal mastery.....
but in terms of depth of content... one is so much shallow!
Firstly these comparisons are not pitted equally....each has its strengths, each has its target audience, each had its own purpose when they were made in different times and contexts. And all to me were great in their own rights....for having etched a memory in many people's minds.
Chitra Chandrashekhar
Here I doubt...What do you mean by content?
In a poster, newsletter, report, presentation it is the factual information. In a storybook it is a bunch of characters and the trajectory they take to the end. Everything else the addition of emotion or depth or (mental) visualization is according to me additional layer on top of this bare set of data....which is in itself is 'the medium': the narrative.
Content is to me only the raw data set (the left brain stuff) and everything else is part of the media creation: narrative/verbal, visual, tactile, aural, emotional etc.
....I also recall the Vastusutra upanishad's process of image making: the idea>the words> the image/ pratima> actual physical manifestation/ sculpture, the content was as simple as an anthropomorphic representation of divine power. But it was the medium creation that involved the mantra, the visuals and then the sculpture.
I might be getting carried away with this thing...but I see the argument holding some validity....what do you think...??
Chitra Chandrashekhar
Ok!
so we completely differ in our meaning of content.
to me content is never the data. thts like telling medium is just brushes!
content is the story of a book. its the lyrics of a song.
its the script of a film. its the name of the company for which we design logo.
hmm..thats definitely valid for the story book, song and script except for the logo...:P thats a lot deeper...logo visually represents the brand story which in turn craftily packages the factual business plans and models, audience and their future goals. pretty much like your graffiti represented the values of Kuliza that were carefully chosen words from Kuliza's business mission which was born out of the need to serve a certain type of customer, in a certain type of market, for a certain number of years....atleast thats the way big identity designers approach logo design.
Anyway, i'd like to agree that the content has some inherent value whether educational, informational, philosophical, emotional etc. that drives the need to communicate to achieve a certain reaction whether planned or otherwise. The vehicles that are used to communicate this value form the medium. Reminds me of P2....Gerard Genette a constructivist coined the termed narratology... he dissects a narrative structure into story, narrative and narration. Heres more: http://www.signosemio.com/
Chitra
anindya kundu anindya.kundu1985@gmail.com
That's my point too from the beginning....
both are equally important! :-)
anyways, sorry... lets not argue much further.
let every1 have their point of view....
and the lines between content and design is also
bit blurred for each of us. i understand why as a
designer Chitra is emphasizing on medium...
since as designer thats where we can add life to dull content!
it was a fun debate though!
regards,
anindya
I just went thru the Chip Kidd's TED talk...
This guy is so weird that he seems to be out of a Dr Seuss book!
and lovely inspiring book design work....
yeah! David's talk is brilliant....
a brilliant speaker and designer par excellence!
Hehehe,...I know...i mean such discussions really improve understanding sometimes question our beliefs.... yup i agree it was fun....and luckily din drag on much....:) Hemali you have a point...yup will do that....copy paste the whole thing.... on my blog then....???
I totalleeeeeee love this book!!! for its Yellow-submarine-sque illustrations and the 'CONTENT' ...:P it makes a lot more sense to adults i guess...
Chitra
Heres something i found regarding the content/medium dilemma.... http://www.thinkui.co.uk/2011/
Really insightful...it completely devalidates the debate....it says neither are more important than the other....and the main thing is communicating the essence with effectiveness....thats important..... true...so everything boils down to communication design...which means working our way from bare bones to the skin..
Chitra
anindya kundu anindya.kundu1985@gmail.com
'Communication is King!' (quoted 4m the article) i think this sums it up best....
While it seems we have a winner, the stubborn me still feels:
Chitra: And I wish to sum up that communication design is 100% medium creation as it involves integration of simple ideas and factual information into well crafted language (inspired by semiotics: choice of rhetoric/ words/ tense/ tone/narrative), typography (visual letterforms, arrangement of words and paragraphs), icons, illustrations, images, photography, videos et al, use of other sensory inputs: sound, smell, touch etc.
So while communication is king, The King's mighty army is the medium and his wise minister is the communication's ideas and factual data. So to me the proverbial debate remains elusively inconclusive coz there are times when one over powers the other. But one things clear the two can never go on solo...its always a team. It takes two to communicate!
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