vernacular techniques

8/19/2019 vernacular techniques

1/11

1/11

When graphic designers hear the word “vernacular,” we often think

of quaint hand-painted signs or old-fashioned candy wrappers.

But vernacular design is more than a collection of quotable styles

and false nostalgia—it is a systematic method for creation that can

guide us toward more sustainable practices. Systems thinking is a

leading development in contemporary design and those systems re-

quiring the least resources will best serve design on its path toward

sustainability. Vernacular design offers a valuable model as its aim

is accomplishing the most with the least.

Stewart Brand’s How Buildings Learn is an in-depth examination

of the concepts of vernacular building. First printed in 1994, How

Buildings Learn provides a careful dissection of historic, culturalarchitecture in America. Brand has had a lifelong impact on pro-

gressive thinking and the sustainability movement through the

Whole Earth Catalog (which he helped found in 1968), the first

Hacker’s Conference (1984), and most recently the Long-Now foun-

dation (1996). He has at times been a soldier, hippie, observer, critic,

organizer, philosopher, and nerd of the highest degree. Because of

his varied interests, Brand approaches the vernacular with a schol-

arly rather than aesthetic view.

In Brand’s view, the vernacular process (which he also refers to

as “adaptive building”) is a systematic framework for evolving con-

cepts. A culture steadily culminates these frameworks over time.

Traditions then arise allowing vernacular designers to reuse forms

and methods for common tasks. Contemporary designers typi-

cally look for a new or wholely unique solution to a given problem,

which is counter-productive to creating traditions. The concepts

of constraint, durability, and thrift provide the foundation for the

vernacular’s evolutionary model. The same principles applied to

modern-day design practice offer new and concrete ways for designto move forward.

Here, “resources” refers to anything

that can be spent: mater ials, time, &

money.

Principles of Vernacular Design (and their application today)by Kristian Bjørnard


2/11

2/11

Constraint

Indigenous builders use local climate, culture and materials to

guide their processes instead of years of formal schooling. The con-

straint of locality may limit formal elements, materials, and size

to vernacular builders, but making choices inside the presented

constraints allows for innovation to take place outside of initial ex-

pectations. Before the industrial revolution, around 200 materials

were used in the building trades worldwide. Most of those materi-

als were the same nearly everywhere: wood, straw, brick, stone and

earth. Even with such a limited array of materials, widely different

uses and forms evolved in different locations. Specifying boundaries

does not have to limit options.

As a practicing designer, accepting constraints can make choices

easier. When you don’t have 10,000 options, you can act quicklyand confidently. The web offers limited languages for web develop-

ment—PHP, MySQL, Javascript, Flash, CSS, html—yet each year the

boundaries of what can be accomplished with the same technology

continue to expand. Specific CMS frameworks—like wordpress,

indexhibit or drupal—end up being capable of powering vastly dif-

ferent types and designs of websites from the same basic code and

modules. These ideas are just as applicable to print design. In fact,

we already accept many constraints in our contemporary design

practice: paper sizes (how many letter-size jobs have you done re-

cently?) and ink quantities and colors (CMYK) being two examples.

Constraints play a large part in sustainability. However, sustain-

ability itself should be the most important constraint on the design

decisions we make. We can simply limit ourselves to only the mate-

rials that meet our definitions of sustainable. But instead of simply

making the “sacrifice” to use less ink or only using fully recycled

paper, we should be inspired to develop new systems of printing

and designing in which waste is no longer even an issue. William

Mcdonough and Michael Braungart offer a method of book print-ing in Cradle to Cradle that allows both the pages and the ink of

a book to be 100% re-made into another book. A google search

shows plenty of other possible choices (from solventless printing to

waste-derived fiber sources for paper) we could be making, too.

Another book about evolutionary

design, The Design of Everyday Things,

talks about constraints in the design

process as a way to help a project

succeed: “The surest way to make

something easy to use, with few errors,

is to make it impossible to do

otherwise—to constrain the choices.”

Constraints over sacrifices will be

useful for sustainable thinking moving

forward—we don't want people to feel

like they are making sacrifices.


3/11

3/11

One advantage we have today over our vernacular brethren is that

our information gathering is no longer tied to locality.

Thrift

Indigenous buildings—whether Viking longhouses, Amish barns,

or American bungalows—aim to get the most building for the least

material, money, and time. Practicality is the focus. A building

starts with something small and necessary and is only added to as

money, time, and need allow.

We have lost sight of this in contemporary design. We often seek

the cheapest solutions monetarily, but we don’t always seek the

all-around least wasteful solutions. This is partially because the

economy of scale in traditional offset printing actually encourages

waste—it’s cheaper to print more than you need than risk running

out of a piece (of course, we often fail to properly estimate thequantity we need). Emerging print-on-demand services like Lulu

and Blurb allow you to make short runs of books or magazines at

an increasingly affordable cost.

We can also be thrifty with ideas and problem-solving, not just ma-

terials. Knowing when to spend resources on new, untested ideas,

and when to use something old, reliable, and cheap is part of the

sustainable designer’s job.

Durability

The long lifespan of buildings is part of what allows them to grow,

adapt, and evolve. With that comes consideration of material and

maintenance. A Cape Cod house would never have specialized ad-

ditions put on if the main core of the building was constantly need-

ing repair because of perishable parts.

Most of the materials used in vernacular building practices are by

their very nature durable: stone and large timbers. Ephemeral ma-

terials (such as straw, thatch, or wooden shingles) are used in waysand in places that allow them to show their wear and provide for

easy repair and replacement. Some mainly aesthetic choices now

made in current homes were once made for issues of durability and

longevity—cheap brick is kept weather resistant by stuccoing and

hazard from fire is reduced by installing metal roofing.

Modernism was actually about some of

these principles as well:

“The new architecture is economic;

that is to say, it employs its elemental

means as effectively and thriftily as

possible and squanders neither these

means nor the material.”

— from van Doesburg’s Towards a Plastic

Architecture , 1924


4/11

4/11

Durability in graphic design is as much about the longevity of our

systems as the materials in our objects. Design processes should be

long lasting and reusable. Chosen materials should last as long as

the intended lifespan of an item. Barns and rowhouses should be

made of durable goods, while a candy bar wrapper should not. Why

use permanent plastics and foils in the manufacture of an item in-

tended for immediate disposal?

Think about the quantity of “disposable” objects we consume ev-

eryday: cheap paperback books, coffee cups, pounds upon pounds

of junk mail (not to mention most low cost clothing, appliances,

and electronics). Many of these things pass through the hands of a

designer before they make it to the hands of the user. Our job for

the future will be to question the materials from which the objects

are made—in terms of meeting the durability requirements for the

object itself—and whether the piece can be dematerialized further,even questioning its very existence.

—

The Cape Cod house (whale house) of New England (Brand’s vernacular

principles) compared to the Walker re-branding, Walker Expanded (ver-

nacular principles at work in a contemporary setting).

The Cape Cod house is characterized by a low, broad frame and

a steep, pitched roof with end gables, and a large central chimney

that all fireplaces in the house share. Also referred to as a whale

house, the Cape Cod’s form is tied to location and tradtion—its

shape, materials, etc., were influenced by the whalers in New Eng-

land, the building ideals they brought with them from England,

and the stormy weather and landscape of coastal New England

itself. Local materials and rudimentary technology were used in

the construction (the constraint of what was durable and readily

available). Cape Cods almost always started life as simple, large-

enough boxes with sloped roofs to keep out wind, rain, and snow

(constraint of form). They were clad in easily replaceable clapboardand shingles (again, attention paid to the durability of materials

in use). These initial structures were quick and cheap to build and

maintain (thrifty in money and time). Over time inhabitants added

on to their houses. As this happened, predictable “modules” for ex-

pansion began to recur. Future expansion of homes then happened

Charts and pictures showing these

examples can be found in on pages 7–11.

The photo of this Cape Cod style out-

building was taken in rural Maine. It

shows all the elements described here

in near perfection.


5/11

5/11

Walker Expanded in use on the outside

of the Walker Art Museum.

Open source software provides an

initial framework or structure. When

users needs are not being met, the

users themselves write the updates,

patches, and modules that modify the

original code enabling new features

and functions. The community then

sounds off as to whether the solution

is succesful by how many others

adopt the upgrade/fix. This perfectly

exemplifies Brand’s philosophies.

From American Signs:

“Traditions provide chronological and

cultural continuity… tradition and

the vernacular go hand in hand—most

vernacular objects are traditional.

Because such objects are ordinary

and common, their designers address

the needs and expectations of the

community rather than their own.”

This leads to another, more simple

definition of vernacular design: Common

Design by Common People.

in predictable ways based on the success of common cultural prac-

tices. The buildings “evolved” over time based on the needs of the

occupants, available resources, and constraints of local materials

and cultural acceptance. ( . 7–9

The newest version of the Walker Art Museum identity, Walker Ex-

panded, is a comparable example from contemporary design. Walk-

er Expanded consists of patterns and word strings that are assem-

bled at the designer’s discretion. The systematic, adaptive nature

of the identity is very similar to the vernacular model presented

by the Cape Cod house. There are constraints to the size, typeface,

selected words, and the color palette. However, if design choices fit

into the template described by these stipulations, anything goes.

Every time a piece is needed a new configuration or pattern can be

tested. Created patterns that are deemed successful are kept and

used again in subsequent designs—like the standard whale houseadditions that achieved cultural acceptance. The standard, repeti-

tive nature of the Walker’s design elements allow even a thin strip

of pattern to be recognized—this can then be quickly and easily

applied to any possible product (see the Walker Expanded tape on

. 11). Most importantly, a designer can change a color or add a new

pattern or keyword to the mix at any time. This allows for future

flexibility. The brand is no longer tied to style or time; it can evolve

with cultural tastes and the needs of the Walker. (

. 10 11)

Stewart Brand defines vernacular as the indigenous building of a

place. Vernacular more broadly means common designs by com-

mon people. What makes cultural common-ness so special is its

ability to evolve steadily over time. Common features survive the

passage of time when they are generally understood as “good.” Over

years, the vernacular incorporates more and more “good” features

while eradicating “bad” ones.

While we (as professional designers) cannot always behave as con-

servatively as vernacular designers, that doesn’t mean we cannot

adopt their “common” ideals of constraint, durability, and thrift.

The beauty of design is that we can always pile new ideas on top of

old ones, and we do not have to reinvent the wheel each time we


6/11

6/11

“Once a satisfactory product has been

achieved, further change may be

counterproductive, especially if the

product is successful. You have to know

when to stop.”

—from The Design of Everyday Things

tackle a problem. Ideas imported from elsewhere, if better at solv-

ing problems than our current ideas, are easily incorporated (this

is how present-day open-source communities function). Our role

must be to take the cautious, evolving methodology of vernacular

design and apply it alongside our contemporary technologist ten-

dencies and conceptual processes. ■

Notes on the Synthesis of form, by Christopher Alexander

How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They’re Built, by Stewart Brand(specifically Chapter 9: Vernacular: How Buildings Learn From Each Other )

Whole Earth Discipline, by Stewart Brand

Systemantics: How Systems Really Work & How They Fail, by John Gall(this book is also titled The Systems Bible: The Beginner’s Guide to Systems Large & Small depending on the edition)

Design & Faux Science (from Rant - Emigre #64), by Jessica Helfland & William Drenttel

American Signs: Form & Meaning on Route 66, by Lisa Mahar

Cradle to Cradle, by McDonough & Braungart

The Design of Everyday Things, by Donald A. Norman

The Manifesto of January 3, 2000, by Bruce Sterling

The Last Viridian Note, by Bruce Sterling

Shaping Things, by Bruce Sterling

Towards a Plastic Architecture, by Theo van Doesburg

Learning from Las Vegas, by Venturi, Scott Brown, & Izenour

:Calluna designed by Jos Buivenga in 2009notes/captions:

Anivers designed by Jos Buivenga in 2008

Abridged Bibliography / Further Reading


7/11

7/11

: '


8/11

8/11

: '

this process enables an Evolution from this:

to this:


9/11

9/11

: '

left: A small, traditional Cape Codhouse that has yet to have any modular

additions put on.

below: The original, traditional Cape Cod

form can still be seen in the center of

this home that appears to have had an

addition added on either end—a barn/

garage on the left and additional living

space on the right.

Old meets new: Old fashioned wooden

shingles are still in use to clad the sidesof this Maine home, while new steel

tops the roof. The shingles allow for

quick, easy repair and promptly show

when they require maintenance. The

steel roof is durability at its finest—it

should last 50+ years without as much

as a second thought.


10/11

10/11

Walker Expanded uses a simple, strict set of design rules to

create countless variations of the brand for everything from tape,

shopping bags, wall graphics, and whatever else the museum

might need (all on pg. 11). This chart shows the steps required for

generating strips of pattern according to these constraints.


11/11

11/11

Walker Expanded in a variety of applications: (clockwise from top left)

Wall graphics in parking garage, museum admission tags, Walker shopping

bags, and Walker shop tape being applied.

Learn more about Walker Expanded here:

http://design.walkerart.org/detail.wac?id=2090&title=Featured%20Project

Documents

vernacular techniques