form follows function
New Graphic Design is a magazine that specialises in the different kinds of design, past and present. This current issue looks at the way in which form follows function in both modernist and post modernist design and the way that this has effected design to this date.
New Graphic Design is a new magazine which explores the times, past and present, of graphic design. This specific issue looks at Modernism and Postmodernism.
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REVIEW MODERNISM PMODERNISM MOVEMENTS TERRYJONES EXPERIMENTS ARTISTTYPE MANIFESTO 2
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REVIEW The book I shall be reviewing is edited by Paul Wood and is the third in a series of four books and is called “Varieties of Modernism” which was published in 2004. The book is split into twelve chapters which are separated into four parts: Part one: “The European Avant-Garde in the 1930’s,” part two: “Art in America: from Realism to Abstraction,” part three: “American Modernism in the 1960’s” and part four: “The resumption of the Avant-Garde.” The book takes us on a journey through the dramatic changes art encountered and how it evolved, however, in order to make my analysis easier I have decided to focus on three chapters which I believed were most helpful in understanding the development of this movement. The first chapter I have chosen to look at is chapter two: “Surrealism’s Other Side.” The chapter itself looks at ethnographic surrealism and the way it opposes colonialism in different parts of the world including the Caribbean and Paris. It talks about a forum which was for the views of the dissident Surrealists which was the journal “Documents” founded in 1929. The journal only lasted two years before its financial backing was retained however it explored ethnography in many ways. It talks about how the agenda of the “Documents” is self-centred and its main concern is those with the interests of a highly intelligent group behind the journal rather than taking any interest in the problems faced by black people and it attacks the conventional breakdowns of European’s order, for example, low culture and high culture. The next chapter I have chosen to pick out in greater detail is chapter three: “Realism and Modernism.” This chapter primarily looks at realism and modernism in America between the Wall Street Crash, the Great Depression of the 1930’s and the Cold War of the 1950’s. The type of modernism produced in America from the 1940’s to the 1960’s was a retreat from social concerns and was even disapproved for its complicity in the exercise of
American power during the Cold War. This part of the book looks at similarities between the practices of Realist and abstract artists and how their work was influenced by what was going on in America during that time. The last chapter which I have chosen to analyse is chapter eight: “Vernacular Modernism.” This chapter focuses a lot on the photographic movement of modernism and how after the Second World War the avant-garde groups associated with prewar Europe left. It explores the way in which modernist photography was the idea of blocking perspective as an on-looker/ photographer, for example, the book looks at Lee Friedlander’s “Lafayette, Louisiana (1986)” and the way in which a pole obscured the line of sight, the vertical plane pushes the viewer back and prevents an easy perception of the events that are happening behind it. Overall I believe this book was definitely worth the read and a great way to introduce myself to modernism for our next brief. The book develops and shows good understanding of recent artistic and critical developments. The book is informative and shows historical reasoning to the development of the movement and analyses relevant themes and issues. Written by Lydia Czolacz.
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MODERNISM Modernism was a cultural movement which was put into use and influenced many artists before the decade of 1914. The artists and designers created this movement as a sign of rebellion against the late nineteenth century academic and historicist. Despite this, the 20th century is normally split into two parts: Modernism and Postmodernism. A book which I rented out from the library that I thought would help me understand more about Modernism is “Modern- A Graphic Guide To - Ism” written by Chris Rodrigues and Chris Garratt. Modernism was a cultural movement which was put into use and influenced many artists before the decade of 1914. The artists and designers created this movement as a sign of rebellion against the late nineteenth century academic and historicist. Despite this, the 20th century is normally split into two parts: Modernism and Postmodernism. A book which I rented out from the library that I thought would help me understand more about Modernism is “Modern- A Graphic Guide To - Ism” written by Chris Rodrigues and Chris Garratt. The term “graphic design” was not around
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when the modernist movement began and has only really been around since 1922 when a book designer, William Dwiggings, coined the phrase. It is said that graphic design itself is a product of modernism. Looking at visual communication before and after the 1900’s there is a notable change. In a sense, Modernism was a reductive movement. Form was simplified as a way to break from pictorial representation. The reason for this break at the beginning of the 20th centure was because it was a revolutionary time. It was filled with political, social, cultural and economic changes. The technological advances of our age was ever-expanding, the invention of flight, phones and radio. There was also a rise of radical political revolutions that spawned the rise of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Communist Russia. Many artists felt that the traditions of the past did not represent the time they were living in correctly therefore came to the conclusion they needed something new which led to the birth of modernism, expressionism, cubism, futurism, surrealism and constructivism are just a few.
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POST MODERNISM As you can tell by the name of this movement, Postmodernism is the time after in which Modernism died out of fashion and evolved. This movement was created in the late 20th century and similarly to modernism effected: architecture, paintings, sculptors, writers and many others. I looked at the book “Postmodernism Style and Subversion, 1970-1990” edited by Glenn Adamson and Jane Pavitt in order to help me with this research. In understanding Post-Modernism, the book starts with a quote by Hal Foster in 1985, “Postmodernism does it exist at all, and if so, what does it mean? Is it a concept or a practice, a matter of local style or a whole new period or economic phase? What are its forms, effects, place?” As soon as this statement/question was made, there was no shortage of responses to understanding postmodernism. Postmodernism had many subcultures that derived from it, for example: radical design, transavantgardism and radical electicism are just a few examples. Even at its
peak in the mid 1980’s it was hard to locate. In contrast to the modernist movement, postmodernism was a collection of wry looks and ironic gestures. Modernists offered a new outlooks onto the world whereas the postmodernists offered something broken and shattered. Instead of authenticity, postmodernism celebrated hybridity.
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MOVEMENTS New Classicism
This movement was central to the postmodern era as it began to reinstate the importance of classical paintings and statues. Chief amongst this was the Art Renewal Centre with its rejection of all art that perceives to be modern. This movement is often called Classical Realism. Conceptual Art Conceptual Art has argues against whether it is in fact postmodern however, it involves in deconstructing of elements that make art, art. It’s main aim is to confront or even offend the people who view it - a harsh way of using shock tactics. Installation Art Installation art is described as “creation of artifacts that are conceptual in nature.� Installation art takes up many of the museums that hold exhibitions currently as they demand space, installation art started as a small idea however became such a big phase of artists that the installments just kept growing bigger. Digital Art Due to the advances in technology during this period, especially with computers and other internet devices, this became the media platform for many artists as the way in which people could view art became a lot easier and faster and the views reached a higher level due to ease of accessing art in the comfort of homes. Telematic Art Telematic art challenges the traditional relationship between active viewing and passive by creating interactive, behavioural contexts for remote aesthetic encounters.
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TERRY JONES Jones was born in 1945 and works for i-D magazine. He is known for the cover he designed for his own magazine. Jones likes to extend the boundaries of graphic design and much like some of the designers that I have researched he combines photo with text, something which at that era was new and different. He wasn’t scared to be different or individual which has obviously effected his style. I personally believe that his graphic style has definitely influenced a lot of people. You can really see the punk influence in this which I believe is also influential to me. The bold colours against eachother shouldn’t match or go together but in this case they do and it still works. The stick-on eyes and mouth is very much my graphic style too, collage like, which again, I feel I can use in my own work. “Terry has established himself as one of the most experimental creative directors of his generation, from the covers of Vanity Fair and Vogue, where he was art director from 1972-77, to the innovative designs of i-D magazine, which he founded in 1980” - quote sourced on http://i-donline.com/authors/ terry-jones/
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EXPERIMENTS
after looking and choosing 10 designers i decided it would be essential for me to create visual responses breaking down their work in order to help with my own.
in order for me to develop a greater understanding in the postmodernist era i believe that it is crucial i sample at least four artists in order for it to help my design for the magazine which would be the final thing created. the chosen 4 artists i would like to sample are: 1. Jamie reid 2. peter saville 3. malcolm garrett 4. terry jones the reason i have chosen these artists is because i believe they will also help me in my own design work, understanding how to visually communicating with a target audience. i also really like the music culture and era in which these artists were from and can easily see how this influenced their design.
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NEW GRAPHIC DESIGN
Form follows Function an exploration of Modernism and Postmodernism
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ARTIST TYPEFACE For our third module in this course we were asked to design a typeface which could be used online and downloaded by the public. After a lot of research and also transcribing of designer’s work, I chose my artist Kandinsky. Below is the font in which I created based upon his work. However, I also looked at the work of artists such as Aylin Onel, who’s work I created in my sketchbook shown below.
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MANIFESTO REVIEW The Holstee Manifesto
Immediately this manifesto captures my full attention for both the content and layout. As one can tell from just looking at the image, Holstee is a design company, which from reading the manifesto, holds very strong values of happiness and determination in life. The manifesto is motivational and I believe some of its purpose is to make people get up, to be and do what they want with their lives and to realise that “too late” is never an option to having your dream life. The manifesto explores daily-life occurrences and puts life into perspective for many readers. Holstee cleverly highlight problems of modern society, for example, “If you don’t like something, change it,” and “If you don’t like your job, quit.” This is really effective as it nestles into emotions of regular citizens; it is something which everyone can relate to, not just designers. Furthermore, the use of “you” acts as if the statements are aimed at individuals rather than a collective of people which helps in clarity of understanding and is also very direct. Alternatively, another way in which this idea is put forward is the way in which Holstee, not once, mentions their company name or individual beliefs and is a collection of ideas which stem from the workers.
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Another aspect to take note of which relates to the direct mode of address is the way in which the manifesto is structured like instructions, rather than giving you an option, Holstee suggest they have also experienced situations like
the ones they mention in the manifesto therefore it is imperative you take their advice. In contrast, despite the happy tone of the motivational manifesto, Holstee also depict that lessons are to be learnt in life and that problems will occur in order for life to progress. For example: “Getting lost will help you find yourself.” Personally, I believe that this is a strong statement and whether it is because I am an emotional person when it comes to things like this or not, this moved me by just reading it. The fact the manifesto is very realistic helps to convey its messages and content. It reiterates the point I made earlier, in that the people who wrote this have had similar accounts in their lives to be able to talk about this. It makes the manifesto more personal and again, motivates readers. The fact that there is also a video to accompany this suggests movement and through the use of the bikes creates the ideology that life is a journey. This again, reiterates the fact that Holstee are about getting up and living your life to its fullest, rather than sitting there and complaining about your job or your work load, do something about it. In conclusion I believe this manifesto is really effective as it depicts the ups and downs of life, it is realistic and explicit, there are no hidden meanings and it makes me want to live my dream and share my passion.
MANIFESTO:
Another part of this project was to look at and analyse at least two manifestos and create your own. After looking at three manifestos I created my own. I decided to make my manifesto short and straight to the point as I feel sometimes that if people are staring at a long line of text for a while it gets them no where and they soon get bored.
The Truth The truth is people will knock you down; it is your job to pick yourself up and try again. The truth is some people won’t be interested in what you have to say, it is your job to make them listen. The truth is not everything runs smoothly, you will have ups and downs but you will learn from them. The truth is life is hard; you will make mistakes but regret nothing. The truth is life is what you make it. Written by Lydia Czolacz.
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Edited and designed by Lydia Czolacz Student at the University of Huddersfield Studying Graphic Design U1250424