Media Probes, Episode 6 : Design

Year Published: 1981

Creator: Kit Laybourne

Format: 16mm/video file

Description: How various media affect the way people live and think is explored in this informative magazine-style survey that includes documentary, animated and dramatized segments.  In 'Media' virtually every object in the man-made environment has been fashioned not only to serve a function but also to carry a message. Fashion designer, Bill Blass, is host and shows how clothes make a statement about the people wearing them. Viewers also learn tricks of the trade from graphic designer Milton Glaser and product designers Michael and Morison Cousins. An animated sequence traces the evolution of the PBS network logo, as recounted wryly by its designer, Herb Lubalin. The final segment shows how a national motel chain set out, in a massive effort, to change its corporate logo - and then rejected the new image 'Design" is hosted by Bill Blass. Mickey Lemle and Kit Laybourne  Executive Produced the “Media Probes” series aired in PBS's Core schedule in 1982. The won an Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia Citation and multiple Blue Ribbons at American Film Festival. Each episode of the eight-part 1982 series has a different host: Cheryl Tiegs for `Photography,' Ruth Warrick for `Soap Operas,' John Cameron Swayze for `TV News,' Victor Borge for `Language,' Mark Shields for `Political Spots,' Bill Blass for `Design,' Tony Kahn for `Soundaround' and Peter Schwartz for `The Future.'