Avant-garde
Originally a French term, meaning in English, vanguard or advance guard (the part of an army that goes forward ahead of the rest). Applied to art, means that which is in the forefront, is innovatory, which introduces and explores new forms and in some cases new subject matter. In this sense the term first appeared in France in the first half of the nineteenth century and is usually credited to the influential thinker Henri de Saint-Simon, one of the forerunners of socialism. He believed in the social power of the arts and saw artists, alongside scientists and industrialists, as the leaders of a new society. In 1825 he wrote: 'We artists will serve you as an avant-garde¿ the power of the arts is most immediate: when we want to spread new ideas we inscribe them on marble or canvas¿ What a magnificent destiny for the arts is that of exercising a positive power over society, a true priestly function and of marching in the van [i.e. vanguard] of all the intellectual faculties!' Avant-garde art can be said to begin in the 1850s with the Realism of Gustave Courbet, who was strongly influenced by early socialist ideas. This was followed by the successive movements of modern art, and the term avant-garde is more or less synonymous with modern. Some avant-grade movements such as Cubism for example have focused mainly on innovations of form, others such as Futurism, De Stijl orSurrealism have had strong social programmes. The notion of the avant-garde enshrines the idea that art should be judged primarily on the quality and originality of the artists vision and ideas. |
To me, avant garde in design is something that has been created from a previously learnt process that fits more into the current era where style is concerned. It can also be something that has been designed that pushes the boundaries of what is described as the 'norm' or accepted by us today.
'Get unhooked' NHS 2007.
This campaign can be described as avant guard because it pushes the boundaries of what is and is not accepted in our society. The 'shock factor' of this caused the overall campaign to be successful because it caused a stir with many people complaining about the fact its inappropriate. It could be said that it was an experiment to get people to pay attention to the reality of things such as smoking. The campaign is innovative in the sense that they've used a representation instead of being literal with actual cigarets which is overall a new idea.
Shepard Fairey (American, born 1970) ‘Change’, 2008.
This piece is another avant garde example for graphic design. This is because its taken quite an old style into a modern era to try and get people to accept something politically, in this case its a new leader. Its promoting what is believed to bring 'change' with no knowledge of wether this will in fact happen or not as desired. Its setting a challenge upon people to believe in something new or someone. This is out of the norm for the current era because posters in this style don't tend to come about so it could also be challenging the type of design to see how well it communicates too. This could be described as an experimental piece because it relies very much (despite some text) on the use of colour to present an idea in a way.
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