COP3: Tutorial 1
Original Proposal?
“What is Good? - To what extent does social responsibility Impact on the role and function of illustration”
• Visual communication • Museum identity • Posters as a platform for visual communication • Image making/design that informs, educates, illuminates a subject ...not so much ‘commercial’ visual design, must have meaning or a message
Polish poster art Henryk Tomaszewski
Willem Sandberg Designer, Stedelijk Museum
Paris, 1968 Atelier Populaire posters
What’s changed?
• No longer focusing solely on museum/gallery identity • Realised I was more interested in how institutions organise and present information (e.g. through exhibitions) rather than the institutions themselves (in most cases) • Posters are still a big inspiration and visual reference to me, but this is not all I’m concerned with looking at • I want my research to align better with my own work and creative interests • Realised I’m not completely interested in a political direction for my research
What research has been carried out?
Design as Art Bruno Munari, 1971
On Curating Carolee Thea, 2009 Visual Explanations Edward Tufte, 1997
Posters: A Concise History John Barnicoat, 1972
Very Graphic: Polish Designers of the 20th Century Jacek Mrowczyk, 2016
Behind the Poster Marcin Latałło, 2010
What things have stood out to me?
The poster as a platform for art
• It’s instant • Communicative • Available for everyone to see (the streets, public transport, everywhere) • Can be pushed so that it plays with the balance of message and aesthetic • Can cause intrigue, getting the viewer’s attention, connecting with an audience, or confusing them, or scaring them
The attitude of the Polish poster
• Working with joy, and uninhibited and unrestrained creativity • Not commercially driven, they valued the artist’s interpretation and the character they gave to the piece of artwork • Not having a defined style, using a range of approaches and techniques. Often low cost, lo-tech solutions to creative problems/projects • Often portrayed the themes, messages, and ideas in metaphorically abstract and expressive ways • Jan Lenica - “the Polish poster was successful because it was different. It may sound absurd, but we worked in a complete artistic freedom.”
Henryk Tomaszewski
Wojciech Fangor
Piotr Mlodozeniec
“This poster is information and agitation. A poster that doesn’t irritate the human eye is not a poster” Roman Cieslewicz “A good poster should enter through the eye and explode in the brain” A.M. Cassandre
What else do I want to look at?
• Visual communication and design - but which has an experimental approach • Lo-fi art and design • Subversive forms of visual communication and design • The idea of “working with joy” and how this coincides with a DIY ethos towards creativity and making, and therefore results in outcomes that are authentic and real! • Immediacy in image-making and design • Stream-of-consciousness drawing/making/creating
Ray Johnson
Punk flyers
Limner Journal
Potential ‘offshoot’ questions?
What impact does creative freedom have on creative output?
What is the impact of unrestrained, uninhibited creativity on creative/artistic work?