Essay.

Deconstruction in graphic design.

After reading the piece of text 'thinking with type' there is a few obvious points noticeable that have been made about type. One of the main points is that type is designed to help readers avoid reading. This means that the reader can skim quickly over text and pick out certain parts or words and still understand the content. It makes the whole reading process less intense. 


Typography sealed the idea of 'the text' being original work and gave ideas an essential form to be produced in. This was another point made in the text, and it also then goes on to talk about how print established authors as the owners of their texts which meant copyright laws were written in the 18th century to protect authors rights. These laws are still disputed today but have shaped the texts we read. 


In the section 'linearity' the difference between a 'text' and 'work' is disputed. This is disputed by a critic named Roland Barthes, he states that a work is 'tidy, neatly packaged, proofread and copyrighted' and text is 'impossible to contain and consists of received ideas'. However, the traditional text page has been supported by features of the book. Features include, page numbers, headings and an index. These things could only come about because the typographic book is a fixed sequence of pages. This section states that due to the 'rules' of typography we were able to create rules for books which work across all areas. 


Barthes description of the text being open and simply ideas means that the reader is more important than the author in creating meaning. This means that depending on how the text reads, each reader may gather different ideas and interpret the text differently. Graphic designers embraced these ideas using typography as a model of interpretation and exploring the difference between seeing and reading. They would challenge readers to produce their own meaning. Overall, typography doesn't necessarily create meaning itself but helps the reader create meaning due to all the factors discussed in this summary I've written. 

David Carson; www.davidcarsondesign.com

Deconstructionist work breaks all the rules of typography and completely leaves the 'reader' to interpret the work in their own way. Instead of avoiding reading the 'reader' has to look closely at this piece I have chosen and possibly even try and interpret what it says. There isn't necessarily a message here which can be interpreted because of the layout and style of the piece. The style of the work is copyrighted to the artist in a way because this style can be found throughout Carson's collection. Deconstructionist graphic design has no rules other than to break the rules themselves. Typography in deconstructionism could be described as 'there to be seen' as design is but graphic design is also there to communicate so the piece above has a message. The one characteristic of typography that deconstructionism does follow is the fact that the audience is more important than the 'author' in creating meaning as each person will take something different away from the above piece. This piece hints at the fact its about the rules of something, maybe graphic design, and the rest is then left to the 'reader'. 

Postmodern graphic design.

Postmodernism 

Term used from about 1970 to describe changes seen to take place in Western society and culture from the 1960s on. These changes arose from anti-authoritarian challenges to the prevailing orthodoxies across the board. In art, postmodernism was specifically a reaction against modernism. It may be said to begin with Pop art and to embrace much of what followed including Conceptual art, Neo-Expressionism, Feminist art, and the Young British Artists of the 1990s. Some outstanding characteristics of postmodernism are that it collapses the distinction between high culture and mass or popular culture; that it tends to efface the boundary between art and everyday life; and that it refuses to recognise the authority of any single style or definition of what art should be.

Reid, J (1977) 'God save the queen'

This piece is a good example of refusing to recognise a certain style of what art should be. Its taken this 'royal' image and changed it so that it has a modern twist. Something so simplistic can be seen as great because its original and unseen. This also created a style for this band as the whole magazine cut out look can be found throughout many of their albums. The style also suits the time of the band its presenting. 

Jones, T (1980) 'ID magazine'

Reid, J (1977) 'Never mind the bollocks' 

Kruger, B (1848) 'Declaration of sentiments' 

I link all of the above pieces of graphic design to postmodernism because of the relationship with imagery and typography because typography plays quite a large part in the postmodern era. It gives imagery a whole new meaning. Examples such as the sex pistols cover proves how much times have changed because artists are now able to get away with a lot more in terms of language used. Postmodern graphic design reflects through the current works because graphic designs now use type and imagery so that they work together to present a particular message. 

Tappin Gofton (2005) 'X & Y' 

This however, is completely different to the rest. It uses alphanumeric coding which could be described as a type of typography in a sense as it has a message. It just looks new and fits with the rest of the postmodern works through colour and the presentation of a message. This is very postmodern because its new, fresh and innovative. It opens a doorway to a new type of design and a new way of sending a message. 

Avant Garde.

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.  www.tate.org.uk

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. 

Introducing postmodernism.

- Postmodern theory emerges from architecture.
- Postmodernism; a doubt in modernism.
- Modernism is building the future.
- The idea of progress is doubted.
- It is characterised by;
exhaustion
pluralism
pessimism
disillusionment with the idea of absolute knowledge.
- Reaction to;
modern life, technology, new materials, communication.
- Jean Tinguely 'homage to new york' 1960. No progressive message.
- Modern world is self destructive.
- Origin; 1917 - Rudolph Pannwitz, spoke of 'hilisto, amoral, post modern men'
- 1960's - Beginnings
1970's - established as a term
1980's - style
1990's - dominant theoretical discourse
Today - tired and simmering
- 'After modernism'
- Contra modernism
- Global village; culture, races, images, capital, products.
- 15th July 1972, 3.32on - Modernism dies (Charles Jencks) Demolition of the Pruitt - Igoe development, St Louis.
- The original plan was for everyone to live happy together but the demolition was the reality.
- Postmodernism has an attitude of questioning conventions.
- Space for 'new voices'
- Questioning on the values of modernism.
- The only rule is that there are no rules!
- A reaction to the rules of international style of architecture.
- Mixing the old and the new.
- Crisis in confidence.
- Postmodern asthetics;
complexity
chaos
- Pop art could be emergence of postmodernism in fine art.
- High art/low art divide begins to crumble.
- Las Vegas - postmodern city?
- Did Andy Warhol take art seriously?
- Advertising is what we seek to give us messages.
- Femanism emerges.
- Punk - a postmodern movement.
- A vague disputed term.

New media and visual culture.

- 'Late age of print' - the age of print began around 1450.
- Gutenbergs printing press; starts the age of print, mass reproduction.
- Computers built to hold important information eg. business. 
- Suggestion that all books will be digital in the coming years.
- New age signals the death of the author. 
- The way we read has changed because of computer media. 
- Hypermedia - gives a sense of control. 
- Change in the way we interact. 
- Criticism for mass media; superficial, uncritical, trivial.
viewing figures measure success. 
audience is dispersed. 
audience is disempowered. 
encourages the status quo (it's conservative)
newspapers/tv always wins. 
mass media is social control. 
society can not be changed. 
- Positive criticism; not all mass media is low quality. Social problems and injustices are discussed by the media. 


Artists use of mass media.
- Oliviero Toscani, Benneton campaign.]
- Unity, disaster, horror; politics related campaign? 
- 'Leeds 13'
- Mass media can be used to gain status. 
- Should art be autonomous? 
- Jackson Pollock - aesthetic freedom. 
- Artists are not above material concerns. 
- Picasso used mass media. 
- Richard Hamilton. 
- Pop art used mass media.
- Roy Liechtenstein. 
- Backlash against pop art; superficial?
- Andy Warhol; meditations on the idea of people as a consumer product. Colours of product design.
- Marilyn's; false representation of the person she was? 

Advertising and new media.

- New media - engagement and involvement. 
- sun light vision exhibition. 
- William Hesketh Lever (1851) 
- Lever brothers brand.
- 1860's - figured out how to print packaging. 
- Lever was the first to package a bar of soap to lift its class and add value. 
- Technology enabled contemporary paintings to be reproduced. 
- Lever took advantage by buying paintings and using them in his adverts. 
- 'The wedding morning' - John Henry Frederick Bacon. 
- Brand loyalty. 
- Unilever still sponsor space in our time at the Tate Modern.
- Medicine, chocolate and soap were among the foremost advertisers. 
- Worked on promotional events for their products. 
- One of the main methods for advertising was to capture children. 
- Lever spent £2m through the first two decades of making soap. 
- Palm oil was one of the main ingredients of the soap. 
- One of the Lever brothers was constantly learning and studying the new art form of advertising. 
- Quality of medium was important to the advert.
- 'Falsehood in advertising is a liability' - Heggerty (2009)
- Ease became a repeated theme in adverts.
- High feeling/emotive strategy. 
- Dove owned by Unilever - ads today still contain same sort of strategy. 
- Advertisers made it their business to persuade each person of his or her hygiene problems. 
- Psychology become known.
- Promotion was still also aimed at children to get to the parents. 
- 'Advertising creates more jobs' - Heggerty. 
New media model:
- Voluntary viewing online.
- Forced viewings (tv or print)
- Engages with an audience. 
- New media based on ICT's.
- Digital media > opens up opportunities for creatives. 
- Audiences are actively managing media culture. 
- Shift from mass media. 
- Youtube as a form of advertising? 
- Youtube ad of the year award 2010!
- Mobile phones will soon become the greatest tool for advertising. 
- Impact of it is a massive debate in the advertising industry. 
- How does it effect creativity?   

Semiotics.

We look at how semiotics are used in newspapers in this session. Our newspaper was the mirror and the story was 'GO TO BAIL!'
- Ireland is a friend in need. 
- Difference between Irish and British great? 
- Image is associated with the Irish stereotype? (drinking)
- Colour green links to Irish. 
- 'Hilarious' pun for a title.
- Image makes you draw conclusions straight away (connotes negativity) 
- Sarcastic tone. 
- Language connotes everyday bloke-ishness. 
- Culture code. 
- Tiger to kitten image mocks the country. Connotes they are 'going down the drain'

Modernist graphic design.

Modernism 

In the field of art the broad movement in Western art, architecture and design which self-consciously rejected the past as a model for the art of the present. Hence the term modernist or modern art. Modernism gathered pace from about 1850. Modernism proposes new forms of art on the grounds that these are more appropriate to the present time. It is thus characterised by constant innovation. But modern art has often been driven too by various social and political agendas. These were often utopian, and modernism was in general associated with ideal visions of human life and society and a belief in progress. The terms modernism and modern art are generally used to describe the succession of art movements that critics and historians have identified since the Realism of Courbet, culminating in abstract art and its developments up to the 1960s. By that time modernism had become a dominant idea of art, and a particularly narrow theory of modernist paintinghad been formulated by the highly influential American critic Clement Greenberg. A reaction then took place which was quickly identified as Postmodernism.  www.tate.org.uk

Rudolph de Harak

'Fortune magazine' (1953)

Wyndham Lewis (1937)

El Lisitsky (1919) 'Beat the whites with the red wedge"

(1919-1924) 'Crafts of the Weimar Bauhaus'

I consider all of these pieces to be modernist graphic design because they have a very old fashioned look which fits the era of modernity and some of them consider things that were happening around the time of modernity eg. the bauhaus. 

Documentary photography.

- Dominated photography in the 20th century. 
- Documentary 'evidence not to be questioned' 
- Recording for history. 
- Showing how the other lived. 
- Creating bonds between subject, audience and photographer. 
- War becomes a key focus. 
- Jacob Riis (1888) 'Bandits roost'
- The great depression was also documented. 
- Arty as well as historical records.
- Photography has power. 
- Mass observation 1937 - 1960's.
- Camera is the 'invisible eye'
- Shared vision so more accurate documentation of the world. 
- War/conflict photography makes documentary become a central focus. 
- Magnum 1947 (Cartier - Bresson and Capa) 
- Robert Haeberle (1969) 


Key Features; 
- They offer a humanitarian perspective. 
- Social and political. 
- People tend to form the subject matter.  

Graphic design; a medium for the masses.

- Bison horses, C. 15,000 - 10,000BC cave painting. Form of visual or graphic communication. 
- John Everett Millais (bubbles), graphic design or advertising? 
- 1st world war gives a new use to graphic design. 
- What does it mean to be British? 
- Germany, modern art and abstract. 
- Symbolic art.
- Underground map is a piece of design.
- Simon Patterson "the great bear".
- Bauhaus is key to modern aesthetic.
- Conservative, still quite fine arty.
- Period between world wars producing work. 
- Does design need text? 
- Post world war, promotion and celebrating. Festival of Britain 1951. 
- Post world war sees new style of graphic design/ advertising. 
- Think small ad for VW 1959. Negative space becomes the branding. 
- Sainsbury's classic cola shows how easy people pick up on design.
- Design becomes classic and instantly recognisable. 
- Capitalist culture. 
- Effect of text on design. 
- Lots of design linking to political matters.
- 1977 "Never mind the bollocks here the sex pistols"
- Music became a point for modern design. 
- Visual legibility. 
- Neville Brody revolutionised type setting with magazine covers. 
- Graphic design...an object of beauty? 
- A lot of CD covers had 'hidden' political messages/opinions. 
- Does packaging become the product too? 
- Design becomes a collectors item of value making the product 'useless'.
- Design can have accidental negative messages through the imagery used. 
- Raising awareness? 

Modernity & modernism lecture.

- Modernity; industrialisation , urbanisation, the city. 
- The Hireling Shepard.
- The New Woman - Paris 1937.
- (1750-1960) time period for modernity. 
- Urbanisation; electric moving walk way. 
- Life moves into towns and away from rural areas.
- Enlightenment = period in the late 19th century when scientific thinking made leaps and bounds.
- 1877: Caillebotte "Paris on a rainy day". 
- Clothes in modernity show who you are (class etc.)
- Strolling becomes a leisure activity. 
- 1850's = a new Paris (re-design to accommodate modern life)
- More socially desirable city. 
- Paintings included the city to highlight modernity.
- Modernity distracts us as well as speeding everything up. 
- Makes people more competitive to show off their status. 
- Paintings show class division (new social space)
- Bordem, distraction, alienation - symptoms of a modern world. 
- Kaiserpanorama 1883 - experiencing modern world less literally. 
- Cinema was invented. 
- Modernism is an artists response to modernity. 
- Impressionists got inspiration from photographers work. 
- Flaturon building 1903 - towering over nature, superior modernity! 
- Photomontage becomes a technique. 
- Use technology to understand ourselves. 


Modernism in design.
- Not looking back, looking forward.
- Truth to materials. 
- Form follows function.
- Things are designed to be functional, not to be beautiful. 
- "Ornament is crime" - Adolf Loos (1908)
- The Bauhaus: most influential art school of the 19th century. It re-wrote the rules of how art was taught, modernising education. The Nazis shut it down for being too progressive. 
- Design available to all - but it actually never was because it was made too expensive. 
- Democratic, doesn't discriminate. 
- Internationalism: a language of design that can be understood by everyone. 
- Herbert Bayers design the sans-serif font.
- Times New Roman was also designed in 1932. Suited "classical culture". Conservative. 
- Nazis used fonts like Fraktur on their posters to show their historical side. 


The term modern is not a neutral term - it suggests novelty and improvement. 
"Modernism" - A range of ideas and styles that sprang from modernity. 

Image comparison.

The two images are both advertising in a sense with the first advertising a product (cooker)  and the second is the war. The main thing presenting a message here is he text. The ‘Uncle Sam’ text is very suited to the image, its linked to the idea that the whole ‘image’ is superior America because its an American font. On the second image the font is presented as though its being spoken, and in comparison to the first, has no hidden meaning. The font is also in this style because it fits with the type of imagery, being quite sophisticated. 

Both images present the upper class person because when they were created class was really important and there was obvious distinctions. In the second image you can see now art has moved on from the first because the second looks more modernized. I feel that both images are trying to create an element of bitterness. They both make it seem as though lower class people should feel bitter because of the things upper class people do or don’t do, as it were. These aspects are shown in the first image via the fact that lower class people can’t afford to have these extravagant parties and generally aren’t invited unless to serve. Although the purpose is to advertise a cooker this isn’t actually the focus at all of this image, america is. The second image is meant to teach about classes whilst the great war was happening. Its presented as a guilt trip to the father through the child asking what he actually did in the war because the look on his face makes the audience think he played no part in it at all. Its also quite ironic that the boy on the floor is playing with soldiers as though he may be ‘taunting’ his father over what he didn’t do. 

The target audience for the first image is ‘the whole world’ as it states that Uncle Sam is ‘feeding the world’. I do think that they want everyone to notice though because they are presenting the idea of ‘superior America’ through their imagery and the colour of it. The use of colour on this poster works really successfully because the audience will be able to tell where the imagery has come from before even reading into it. I think that the second image is aimed at men because its getting them to think forward about their part in things like the ‘great war’. So overall they have different audiences but both aimed at classes. 

The social and historical events present in the Uncle Sam image is 100 years of American independence. I feel this is why they think they could come across as superior. We can also see an obvious social divide because there is an african person cooking for everyone. Upper class people tend to have social events as shown in the picture. The second image also looks at the social aspect/divide because generally lower class went to war and upper class stayed home. The historical event was the great war. In conclusion i can say both seem to ‘secretly’ focus on class division more than anything as a pair.