Prime Design

Doing some research on the presentation styles of various designers yesterday I stumbled across A Communications Primer, a 21-minute film from 1954 by the husband-and-wife team Charles and Ray Eames from the Prelinger Archives on the Internet Archive. I know the significant role played by the LA icons with regard to architecture and furniture design, and I know the classic Eames films - Powers of Ten and House: After Five Years of Living, for example - which showcase the pair's agility in conveying complex ideas through clarity of design. But A Communications Primer is new to me and I immediately appreciated the deft overview of the basic process of communication as a message moves from a sender to a receiver, with a long discussion of the impact of noise on the signal. The film also nicely articulates the ways in which messages and codes are cultural and that real communication relies on a complex matrix of factors, beyond simply the clarity of the message sent. But the film also showcases the aesthetic genius of the team. They frequently use abstract images, for example, and are able to find pleasing patterns in the everyday world. Literal representation morphs into design, and the entire film illustrates the power of visual communication in demonstrating ideas. And it's a nice reminder that moving image design certainly predates the advent of After Effects!