Surrealism in Graphic Design
“‘Picture yourself in a boat on a river, with tangerine trees and marmalade skies,’ wrote John Lennon in ‘Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.’ This symbolic lyric is a good example of surrealism.” as Steven Heller (2010) said.
S
urrealism, born of the political ideology of Karl Marx and the psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud, is one of the most influential art movements of the 20th century. For the meaning of Surrealism, people have their own understanding and interpretation, In general, Surrealism use methods like anti logical to reveal people’s potential awareness in visual structural form and to create special, dreamlike visual form. It is a cultural movement, an thought and a dream. It made writing and subconscious, treachery and love, daily life and Utopia had merged. It seems coverall, amazing, keep in suspense but can not interpreted completely.
The word “Surrealism” was invented in 1917
Dictionary: Surrealism, n. Pure psychic
by Guillaume Apollinaire, and adopted by
automatism, by which one proposes to
fellow French poet, Andre Breton, in 1924 to
express, either verbally, in writing, or by any
describe a radical movement of artists and
other manner, the real functioning of thought.
writers, who drew on their subconscious to
Dictation of thought in the absence of all
depict a heightened or “super-real” vision of
control exercised by reason, outside of all
the world.
aesthetic and moral preoccupation.
Surrealism produced works of anti-art that
Encyclopedia: Surrealism. Philosophy.
deliberately defied reason; However,
Surrealism is based on the belief in the
Surrealism’s emphasis was not on negation
superior reality of certain forms of previously
but on positive expression. The movement
neglected associations, in the omnipotence of
represented a reaction against what its
dream, in the disinterested play of thought.
members saw as the destruction wrought by
It tends to ruin once and for all other psychic
the “rationalism” that had guided European
mechanisms and to substitute itself for them in
culture and politics in the past and that had
solving all the principal problems of life.
culminated in the horrors of World War I. 1924, Dadaism fell into a decline, according
This is a programmatic definition in the entire
to the major spokesman of the movement, the
surrealism movement, and it played a positive
poet and critic Andre Breton, who was once
role in guiding.
a member of the Dadaist movement, had seen the horrors of war first hand. In this year, he
In 1929, Andre Breton issued The Second
officially broke away from Dada and created
Manifestoes of Surrealism and a series of
the first of three manifestos which assert
theoretical articles of Surrealism. It promote
Surrealism’s ideology and are supposedly
the Surrealism genre’s development, and
influenced by Sigmund Freud’s research. He
enhance the influence of the genre. In The
with a number of artists and poets issued
Second Manifestoes of Surrealism Breton
“Manifestoes of Surrealism”, they defined
stated that “the Surrealists strive to attain
Surrealism as:
a mental vantage-point from which life and
death, the reral and the imaginary, past and
order through dream media. And the second
future, communicable and incommunicable,
sentence in The Second Manifestoes of
high and low, will no longer be perceived as
Surrealism becomes a famous quotation
contradictions”. Breton and others published
“People is eternal dreamer”. To a certain
theoretical articles, literary poetry and
extent, Surrealism is reflected artistic
painting, to revealing the two extremes link
sensitivity to recent political changes
between real and the virtual. And focus on
occurring in the Western world and people’s
the expression of the dream and the reality
fear and loathing of First World War, it
of uncertainty, they want to explore people
emphasized perceptual, therefore, it had a
inner world to rebuild a new personality and
tremendous impact on the traditional art.
Surrealism’s revolutionary aim, inherited
unleash a revolution in human experience, a
from Marx and Rombaud, to “transform the
liberation of the individual from the
world” and “change life”, in fact, these two
domination of the rational in matters personal,
slogans are the one to Surrealism. Like Freud,
cultural and social. They want to conquer
the Surrealists believed that mental
nowadays, it is completely disconnected with
movements and motives were demonstrated
all aspects of history, even do not care about
most clearly in the unconscious. Breton (1924)
latest affairs, so that can present modern
wrote in the Manifestoes of Surrealism
society. Surrealism advocate spirit
“Surrealism is based on the belief in the
freedom, they do not need rational control
superior reality of certain forms of previously
and imaginary bound. Therefore, Surrealism
neglected associations, in the omnipotence of
do not afraid rational lost, but worry about
dream, and in the disinterested play of pure
the rational control, they struggle against
thought.” The surrealist movement aimed to
“hauled down imaginary flag”.
However, this movement was and remains
much and insufficient constructive. What
radically different from all other contemporary
Breton and others seek for is to explore
movements in the arts because its most serious
the inner world of people to rebuild a new
undertaking is literally to change life.
personality and order, rather than completely
Surrealism finds its roots in feelings of revolt
destroy. Nevertheless, without Dada,
and aversion to the atrocities of the First
Surrealist would not have had the ability to
World War, the same train of thought
see beyond conventional thought and
applying to Dada. This goes to explain the
tradition of mainstream society to entertain
link between these two movements:
the unbelievable or nonsensical.
Surrealism is in part born of Dada, and develops in parallel to it. Moreover, they tried
What is more, Surrealism accept and inspired
to communicate with Dada spirit at the first
by Freud psychoanalysis and Bergson’s
time. Although Dadaism use literary form to
Intuitionism when it developed to a
express themselves, however, literature and
mature stage. Making their creative principle
art is not the purpose for them but to present
switched over to express subconscious from
spirit of disillusionment, the ideological field
Nihilism, they believe subconscious is more
in Nihilism and Anarchism. In the evolution of
real than rational and promote “automatism”.
Surrealism, the first stage is similar with Dada,
By tapping into the unconscious aspect of our
it lead people keep aloof of the slogan: going
brain. In 1919, Freud defined ‘the uncanny’
out into the street and shots at the crowd.
in his essay of the same name as a fear that
However, Breton and others discovered that is
exists when the familiar suddenly becomes
just the essential difference between
strange and unfamiliar. His analytical model
Nihilism spirit of Dada and the modern spirit
of the human mind with a conscious and
they desired. They think Dada destroy too
subconscious layer forms the basis of
Surrealism. However, Surrealism is different from Freud, like Rene Magritte said “to be a surrealist … means barring from your mind all remembrance of what you have seen, and being always on the lookout for what has never been.” That is to say, Surrealists thought people should to predict future, rather than analyzing past.
“To be a surrealist … means barring from your mind all remembrance of what you have seen, and being always on the lookout for what has never been.” - Rene Magritte
As an art movement, the major Surrealist
free form, Surrealism provided a major
painters were Jean Arp, Max Ernst, Andre
alternative to the contemporary, highly
Masson, Rene Magritte, Yves Tanguy,
formalistic Cubist movement and was largely
Salvador Dali, Pierre Roy, Paul Delvaux, and
responsible for perpetuating in modern
Joan Miro. With its emphasis on content and
painting the traditional emphasis on content.
One of the most celebrated artists of the
hard. In Dali’s images the watch looses that
movement is Salvador Dali, who combined
shape. It’s like it is running out of the clock. A
Surrealism and unconsciousness closely. And
real clock gives us the exact time... the
he’s expansive artistic repertoire included
watches of Dali are timeless. By making the
film, sculpture and photography, in
clock soft it becomes impossible to function
collaboration with a range of artists in a vari-
and so it refers to eternity.” The soft watches,
ety of media. The “Paranoid-Critical” method,
which becomes an unconscious symbol
created in the early 1930’s by Dali himself,
of relative space and time. Dali has been
is a Surrealist method used to help an artist
express what he want to express is Freud
tap into their subconscious through systematic
revealed personal dreams and illusion. It is a
irrational thought and a self-induced paranoid
real subconscious and it is a recording and
state. By inducing this paranoid state one
expression of his own dreams. Moreover, he
can forego one’s previous notions, concepts,
combine paradox, illusion and things which
and understanding of the world and reality in
irrelevant together, making image full of
order to view the world in new, different and
dramatic effect, what he called “the usual
more unique ways.
paralyzing tricks of eye-fooling,” it bring people visual and spiritual shock.
In his painting, he had uses a large number of visual design method and symbolistic symbol,
As the most representative figures of
it create a staggering world. His best-known
surrealist, his artistic achievements also
work, The Persistence of Memory, was
related to film. An Andalusian Dog is a
completed in 1931, every objects in the image
cooperation work with Spanish director Luis
become soft, watch become an impossible
Bunuel, it is regarded as a milestone in the
tongue shape, and a strange face, crawling
history of Surrealist film, which have many
ants appear in it. These weird objects
daring scenes. Produced from a script said to
revealing a quiet atmosphere like frozen in
be based on two dream images - a woman’s
time. The whole painting looks
eye slit by a razor, ants emerging from a hole
preposterous but these objects painted
in a man’s hand. For the Surrealist group, it
meticulous are shown in sensitive and realistic
was a revolutionary film, insofar as it sought
skills, it is real more than real. Dali use
to destroy oppressive bourgeois institutions -
particular external image to present
politics, marriage, religion, art, morality. It
abstract mental state, it give rise to
was seen by them as a transgressive
interested, imagination and exploration. The Dali Museum states that “The main theme
film, hence liberatory. It can be considered Surrealist for its alleged
of the ‘soft watch’ is the contrast between the
automatism and free association, its
hard outside and the soft inside. We expect
dreamlike elements, its violent images, its
and our experience tells us that a watch is
radical montage structure, its assault on the
spectator. In 1940 Dali summed up his desire to make objects: “I try to create fantastic things, magical things, things like in a dream. The world needs more fantasy. Our civilisation is too mechanical. We can make the fantastic real, and then it is more real than that which actually exists.” Another famous painter Rene Magritte, his grotesque theory and unique style make him become a alternative surrealist painter. Look at his work, The False Mirror, how fantastic that blue sky and clouds within the eyeball. In his opinion, human eye is only a false mirror, because it only present natural’s phantom, rather than natural itself. Painting is just to illustrates the illusion of the human eye due to no eye can see “real”, this art form is grotesque. His work frequently displays a juxtaposition of ordinary objects in an unusual context, giving new meanings to familiar things. It has broken rational rules and inertial frame of reference, moreover, it finely express a magic world is latent within people’s inner world. In fact, what Surrealists after is the “convulsive beauty” just hidden under a scene which looks like real but faraway.
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The works of Sigmund Freud on free
The Surrealists explored unique ways of
association, dream analysis, desire and the
interpreting the world, turning to dreams
subconscious, are of primal importance to the
and the unconscious as inspiration for a new
surrealists: their artistic methods of liberating
vision. Their innovative thinking challenged
the imagination drew their inspiration here.
convention, changing perceptions of the
Max Ernst uses “frottage” and “collage”,
world in which they lived and transforming
Man Ray develops his “Rayographs”, Joan
the language of art and design. Surrealist
Miro and Salvador Dali create symbolic
imagery and ideas inspired designers. They
images composed of disparate and
were absorbed into the worlds of fashion,
unexpected elements. These artists believe
commercial design, graphics and film and
that every movements of madman is a
many Surrealist artists were actively engaged
subconscious reflection to the real world,
with these activities throughout their careers.
this is hard to see in daily life. Therefore, to present dream in their mind, imagination and
In the years between the Two World Wars,
subconscious things are manifested through
people are confound at Surreal magazines,
their work, this is what Surrealist looking for.
brochures, book and exhibitions. Surrealism is concerned about confusion, the thought need
This art movement had a great impact in art,
to change people’s original feeling without
design, literature, culture and even extending
hesitation and it must be cause such this result.
to politics. Surrealism painting’s thinking
Nowadays, face to a huge media, people
connotation and forms have a strong impact
involuntary forget their flesh in a corner, brain
of design field. In 2007, “Surreal Things:
thinking follow the change of media
Surrealism and Design” the first substantial
information into another reality space, at this
exhibition to examine it is influence on design,
time, we are irrational and only left visual.
opens at the V&A Museum. It provided a
Under this circumstances, weird surreal image
chance to explore the links between
become reasonable. Correspondingly,
Surrealism and design. The exhibition, which
Surrealism has inevitably produced and
focused on objects, interiors, and fashion.
developed.
Ghislaine Wood (2007) claim that:
In many Surrealist pictures the most ordinary
the man slits the woman’s eye with the razor,
and common things turn into symbols that are
and the vitreous humour spills out from it. A
suddenly strange or unnerving. For example,
similar ambivalence is attached to the image
“the simplest surrealist gesture consists in
of the eye throughout surrealist iconography
going out into the street, gun in hand, and
and thought. The motif of the violated eye is
taking pot shots at the crowd”, from
recurrent in Surrealism: In Max Ernst’s
Surrealism slogan, “gun” becomes a symbol
illustration for the cover of Repetitions (1922)
to express the revolting spirit. In the Luis
represents an eye with a piece of string
Bunuel’s Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie
threaded through it; in Man Ray’s Object To
(1972), a man take a gun to the street, shot,
be Destroyed (1923) a woman’s eye is cut
breaks glass, frighten a partisan off. Later,
out of a photograph and attached to the
this scene come again in his film The Phantom
pendulum of a metronome; Breton notes how
of Liberty (1974).
Nadja as a little girl gouged out her doll’s eyes to see what was behind them. Thus, the
Moreover, Dalinian symbols, the watches of
Surrealist motif of the eye is seen to be
Dali are timeless; ants symbolise death,
intertwined with numerous other images,
decay and an immense sexual desire; the egg
revealing an intricate network of intertextual
is an Dalinian image that symbolises hope
links between verbal and visual texts.
and love; the grasshopper symbolise fear; etc.
Elza Adamowicz analysis The multiplicity of possible yet inconclusive
An Andalusian Dog, the ants from a man’s
referential or symbolic meaning itself frees
hand; pianos; donkeys; specially, a cut occurs
the images from any narrative function
to the moon being overcome by the cloud as
to float freely as itinerant signs, and the
viewing subject is subjected to the delirious
element. In terms of surreal design, when
interpretations - or indeed confronted with
an object was diverted from its ordinary
the absence of meaning. Untrammeled by
application, this diversion conferred on it an
syntactic constraints, they can proliferate
undefined and surreal usage. However, the
freely. This characteristic of the film recalls
experimentation of the gestalt theorists was
the Surrealist’s with the single image, which is
designed to show that the appearance of any
as a consequence, remains open to multiple
element depends on its place and function
associations.
in an overall pattern. Rudolf Arnheim (1974) states “most natural phenomena are not
For contemporary designs, bodily images to
described adequately if they are analyzed
which Vaughan Oliver returns include eyes,
piece by piece. That a whole cannot be
hands, the thumb, the toe, the tongue, teeth,
attained by the accretion of isolated parts”.
hair (shaped as heart, vagina and skull),
Therefore, as director Luis Bunuel (1983) said:
sexual parts (clitoris, penis) and various kinds
“Nothing, in the film, symbolizes anything.
of meat - heart, pig’s liver, eel, ox tongue,
The only method of investigation of the
bull’s eyes, human stomach lining.
symbols would be, perhaps, psychoanalysis.”
Furthermore, In Karel Teissig’s poster, this can
- it is also can applied in design.
be seen most obviously in the dolls, Ten Little Indians (1968) and The Last Butterfly (1990), he use collage to deal with these dolls with a grotesque style. Surrealism is talking about life, any object in the world can be considered as surreal
A list of surreal elements
GUN
GUN
Luis Bunuel Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie (1972)
Luis Bunuel The Phantom of Liberty (1974)
EGG
A list of surreal elements
Salvador Dali Homme Nouveau (1943)
GRASSHOPPER
Salvador Dali The Great Masturbator (1929)
PIANO
DONKEY
A list of surreal elements
Salvador Dali & Luis Bunuel An Andalusian Dog (1929)
EYE
A list of surreal elements
EYE
Max Ernst Cover of Repetitions (1922)
Man Ray Object To be Destroyed (1923)
BODILY IMAGE
A list of surreal elements
Vaughan Oliver The Breeders - Pod (1990)
A list of surreal elements
Karel Teissig The Demon (1965)
DOLL
DOLL
Karel Teissig The Demon (1965)
Karel Teissig Ten Little Indians (1968)
Not only Dali, When Surrealist painter design
What they have to do is to create a new
all kinds of strange objects, it always showing
feeling that predecessor do not know, remove
multiple meanings and conveying complex
all accepted rules. In this way, Surrealist get
symbolic meaning, give people visual and
out of rational, logic and limited
psychological conflict and shock, as well as
common sense, except all obstruction and
it leave profound visual thinking and expand
follow instincts. So that, the first things it is
new imagination space to later generations.
influence design’s ideological and spirit.
Visual transmission design is a design
What it is more, it reveals people intuition and
activity which uses visual symbol to exchange
instinct, to express this awareness through
information. Surrealism focus on liberation of
design works.
the spirit, stimulate innovation and how to use visual language to express their own intuition
Surreal artistic expression has a tremendous
and feelings. These spiritual liberation have
impact on thinking pattern and artistic
develop different imaginations and become a
expression in graphic design. Uncanny:
visual source of inspiration for designers. The
Surrealism and Graphic Design, curated by
technique of expression have substitutes one
the English design critic Rick Poynor for the
thing for another in graphic, exaggerated
Moravian Gallery in Brno, is the first major
composition, deformation, metaphor,
exhibition to explore the influence of
designers are no longer limited to
Surrealism on graphic image-making and
superficial stage of works, but to rise a new
graphic design. Featuring more than 250
level. Through these ways to express their
items — posters, prints, books, magazines,
thoughts and key messages send to audience.
record sleeves, typefaces and films. This exhibition investigates the profound impact of
Surrealism announced that intuition is holy.
Surrealist ideas and images on visual commu-
nication from the 1930s to the present. And it
is a grotesque, leering mask. One of the
is surveying a portion of the Surrealist
most fascinating cases of the way the spirit of
landscape, from its avant-garde roots to its
Surrealism continues to operate undercover in
inevitable application as modern graphic
contemporary image-making. Teissig’s posters
design. Surrealist ideas and images had a
using the full resources of art and design, in
profound impact on image-makers in every
new alchemical fusions, to pique viewers’
sphere of art and design, and by the 1960s
interest and usher them into a realm of
the effects of Surrealism were widely felt in
imaginative freedom.
international graphic communication. Uncanny traces this intermittent line of
These images have retained their ability to
development up to the present. The exhibit
fascinate and generate disquiet, which proves
scopes out a swath of vintage and
that they keep on affecting the viewer’s
contemporary work, for example, Karel
unconscious. Rick Poynor (2010) argued:
Teissig, who pioneered the use of surreal
This cornucopia of images shows that
collage effects in the Czech poster. In a
graphic design, too, can sometimes be a
more diffuse way, the Surrealist influence
place to encounter the strange, the fantastical
also guides Teissig’s use of collage. In his
and the uncanny, to rediscover our lost sense
poster for the film of Agatha Christie’s Ten
of mystery, and to experience the
Little Indians (1968), two of the Indians have
convulsive beauty and capacity for
doll heads – the doll is one of Surrealism’s
enchantment and wonder that the Surrealists
enduring icons – while the third figure’s face
called ‘the marvelous’.
Obviously, many graphic designers around the world are influenced by Surrealism styles, ideas and techniques. What calls for special attention is that designers Vaughan Oliver and Stefan Sagmeister, furthermore, a magazine called Toilet Paper. Each of them are good at surreal graphic design, but they are using different forms and solutions to present surreal design in their works.
CASE STUDY ONE
bed of salt return, at least in content, to the Pixies’ earlier declaration of eyeball-slicing, surrealist desire in their “An Andalusian Dog” days. Admittedly, at the Pixies’s reputation for inhabiting the dark side. “The Pixies were one
Vaughan Oliver is one of the most remarkable designers to have emerged from Britain in the last two decades. At different times, he is also designer, typographer and image-maker. But Oliver most characteristic work is about music. At their most expressive, his designs embody his intense emotional responses to his sensations as a listener. Oliver’s covers for the American band the Pixies, working with photographer Simon Larbalestier, pursue a darkly surreal and freakish iconography of a hairy-backed men with a thick coat of hair, like a wolf’s fur, covers his body, more than lived up to the music and had a Joel-Peter Witkin like atmosphere of theatrical perversity intensified by the darkness, the folded cloth with a fish nailed to it, and the heavy Polaroid border, as though the viewer has chanced on a secret scene. For the Pixies’ popular Monkey Gone to Heaven (1989) Oliver show a stuffed monkey with a halo, surrounded by wooden printing blocks of the numbers 5, 6 and 7, as a special color, of an irregularly shaped, warm-copper graphic frame. Oliver reversed the cover board, and printed on the rougher side, to increase the cover’s tactile impact. Trompe Le Monde’s (1991) bull’s eyes in a
of the most inspirational bands I’d worked with,” says Vaughan Oliver (2010). “Close to my themes, the dark sense of humour, the surrealism, the sex and lust and all of that … and full of images, even though we didn’t try to illustrate those images.” Oliver’s design for music stand out not just because they ravish the eye with their graphic invention and production quality, but because they appear to exhibit the continuity of vision across a body of work that one might expect of a genuine authorial presence. This intensification of ordinary experience, the sense of being possessed by music, lost in sound, the ego dissolving, blissfully or sometimes darkly adrift in a primal zone of color and images, recurs throughout Oliver’s work. Many of these lustrous designs are metaphors for psychic states - reverie, dream, abandonment, ecstasy - attainable through surrender to music. On photographic sleeves such as Tiny Dynamine (1985), Echoes in a Shallow Bay (1985)or It’ll End in Tears (1984), the image flowed from front cover to back, enveloping the vinyl record in a single, seamless mood. Oliver wanted sleeves to have a “tactile” presence, he uses more special effect with
corrosion and confusion - “We express
merveilleux. “When seeking the object of its
ourselves with textures,” he declared - soon
fulfillment,” wrote Andre Breton(1970), “the
become a favorite device for achieving this
demands of desire exert a strange power over
end. His underworld of texture was dirty,
external phenomena, tending egoistically to
murky, ambiguous and uncertain. Meanwhile,
admit only that which can serve its purpose.”
the fine lines and fonts are become
Surrealism’s assault on reason struck him with
important elements of his design, Oliver has
the force for truth. “It felt natural,” he (1999)
play Surrealism aesthetic principle ingenious.
recalls. “Everything they did made sense.”
As Rick Poynor said in Vaughan Oliver: visceral pleasures: As a teenager, he was drawn to Surrealism, and though he would not now
Moreover, in Vaughan Oliver: visceral pleasures Rick Poynor said: A natural and guiltless surrealist, Oliver
describe himself as a surrealist, the
cheerfully submits to the direction of his
movement’s visual strategies and favored
unconscious. The frisson he wants an image
lexicon of images offer keys to help unlock
to generate sounds a lot like Andre Breton’s
his work. The surrealists, too, discovered
idea of convulsive beauty. The methods he
intimations of the sublime in the corporeal
uses-chance, words association,
reality of the flesh. Surrealist photographers
serendipity - are textbook procedures of
of the 1920s and 1930s explored many of
Surrealism. His favorite symbols (hair, teeth,
the visual themes towards which Oliver (and
knives, eels) would give a psychoanalyst a
his collaborators) also gravitated, sharing
field day.
the same sensibility, without ever having seen these earlier images. In his image-making, Oliver has an instinctive craving for the mysterious convulsive beauty and for the deeply gratifying state of being and heightened awareness that the surrealist poets and painters termed le
In addition, another among today’s most
Sagmeister found different objects to make
important graphic designers, Stefan
type out, found some more stuff in the
Sagmeister, New York-based graphic designer
camera and in Photoshop, also, found
and typographer. His works presents graphic
himself. Neither material nor effort are
design and typography spatially to an extent
spared to give words dimension in the literal
previously unknown. Moreover, he had
sense. As collage form, it used before
develops many typography design that jolts
Surrealism, but Surrealism systematize these
viewers, they all made a powerful impact,
methods and improve it, they breakthrough
though people reaction to each one was quite
painting tools and materials, some surreal
different.
works paste their ideas and desires on paper or canvas by amazing photography combine
Everything I Do Always Comes Back to Me
patterns, prints, graphics... anything as
(2002), six double page spreads for Austrian
Surrealism structural form. Like Lakshmi
Magazine. The typeface presented by
Bhaskaran give the key characteristics to
different materials and collage as the form.
Surrealism: it is a dreamlike depictions and deliberate construction of strange combination using found objects. What’s more, with a wink at Surrealism and the optical phenomenon of after-image, an Austrian fashion retailer named Blue gets orange - its opposite on the color wheel - as
CASE STUDY TWO
the key color in the store’s signs, interiors, shopping bags, and ads. As his book Made You Look (Peter, 2009) describes, his thought
pattern began with a negative: Why make a
do all that heart touching, books have several
stupid blue logo for a company called Blue?
days, while most graphic design has to
The question provoked a Surrealist solution.
connect in seconds. (Peter, 2009)
“With a name like Blue, we just had to do
Sagmeister’s innovative work shows that
it in orange,” said Sagmeister. His desire is
graphic design, too, can cut to the emotional
to transform stale thinking and his work not
quick.
only able to objectively reflect the reality of our world, but also to create a new powerful
His most extraordinary fusion of
world.
established ways of problem-solving and the new aesthetic came the following year with
Sagmeister said he wanted to produce design
the ‘Jambalaya’ (1997) poster, for the
that “touches the heart”. Designers envy the
National conference of the American Institute
power that art forms such as music and film
of Graphic Arts. Why a headless chicken? Is
can exert on their audiences. In a lecture titles
it a metaphor for something? It may be that
“Is it possible to touch somebody’s heart with
immersion in design as a practitioner reduces
design?”, he expressed this concern in Made
its mystery when one tries to be an ordinary
You Look:
viewer again, whereas, for the audience, it
I have seen movies that moved me, read
retains its disruptive power to come out of
books that changed my outlook on life and
nowhere and take the emotions by surprise.
listened to numerous pieces of music that
What’s more, A hand scrawled version, on
influenced my mood. Somehow, I never seem
which Sagmeister projects were reduced to
to be touched quite the same way by graphic
single icons. The poster signed a turning point
design. I know the comparaison is not all that
for the design profession, away from
fair, after all, movies do have 90 minutes to
aspirations of digital perfection toward a higher appreciation for a designer’s personal mark. He talks about it in Made You Look: The finished poster sat amid a long-standing debate in graphic design. On one side were those who felt that the ‘big idea’ approach to design was dated. Sagmeister gave voice to this contingent by incorporating a quote from design critic Karel Martin: ‘The danger of idea-based is that it produces simplistic one-concept pieces which, once you have got the point, become merely irritating.’ On the other side were those - including Sagmeister -
who felt that design driven by style was vacuous. Hence the prominent Sagmester slogan, style=fart. The poster suggested that the issue was more about the obviousness-versus-originality than truly conflicting ideologies. As Carl Jung states that: The creative process, so far as we are able to follow it at all, consists in the unconscious activation of an archetypal image and elaborating and shaping the image into the finished work. By giving it shape, the artist translates it into the language of the present and so makes it possible for us to find our way back to the deepest springs of life. Through Sagmeister‘s work, his surrealism is something that conjures a sense of bizarre and the unexpected, or the irrational. As Rick Poynor (2006) judges “his fame, though, is something of a paradox. His work is remarkable, in the context of the 1990s, not because it represents a startlingly new departure, but because it represents the persuasive reassertion of ways of designing.�
CASE STUDY THREE
Furthermore, not only graphic designers but
man’s mouth. From the the eye-slitting scene
also a magazine media, Toilet Paper is a
of An Andalusian Dog, eyeball is become
Surrealism magazine created by artist
an element of Surrealism. “Their work has
Maurizio Cattelan and photographer
a deep and even disturbing psychic power.
Pierpaolo Ferrari. They are doing some
It resists the norms of everyday design and
amazing photos with each printed issue and
engages the viewer because it expresses
this magazine combines commercial
something that many of us feel.” As Rick
photography, twisted narratives and
Poynor describes Surrealism works. They
surrealistic imaginary to create a series of
speak language through powerful images
powerful visual tableaux. This project is also a
dressed with dirty, crazy and picky
sort of mental outburst. A magazine as a
imagination. It explain and define people
platform for art? A different kind of
perception, but instead, it allow all
exhibition? It presents 21 double pages of
image types and forms to exist side-by-side,
images without accompanying text or
equalized and “liberated” and without any
explanatory contextualization that work as
hierarchy.
much with symbolic, narrative and visual enticements as with the surreal flights of fancy
What’s more, Pierpaolo Ferrari mention his
in strong and impressive images, found in art,
favorite photo in the magazine, the image
film and advertising.
which is a woman’s legs hang upside down and a watch hung from her ankles. This photo
Ever since the first issue of June 2010, Toilet
use Dali element ‘watch’ to present time, the
Paper has created a world that displays
woman’s status like suicide and time stop, it
ambiguous narratives and a troubling
that means life is bound to time? A sigh of
imagination. For instance, The first spread
time passes by relentlessly? Nothing will stop
features a dirty ear floating in a bowl of yel-
by any changes? Or just like Dali, it is a
low soup; a man use scissors attempting to cut
recording of his own dreams. For
bird wing; a finger with dirty blood and so
photographer, it is not important about what
on. Specially, one of the surreal cover image
it is talking but want to know what people can
which is a lady looking at an eyeball in a
see form it, it needs people thinking and to
see what’s behind it under themselves
and intellectual mindset. Even this magazine
affective factors.
without texts, but reader still can get some thoughts throughout surreal photographs.
In an interview with the Italian edition of
Maybe it remind people some life fragments
Vogue, Pierpaolo Ferrari commented:
or these photos reflect some phenomenons.
The magazine springs from a passion/
To stimulate image thinking in subconscious
obsession that Maurizio and I have in
by free association of ideas, thereby creating
common. Each picture springs from an idea,
novel and shocking visual imagery, this way
even a simple one, and then becomes a
of thinking is the graphics creative need.
complex orchestration of people who build
Surreal image and concept can carry a strong
tableaux vivants. This project is also a sort of
conviction in a easy way, why not?
mental outburst. By appropriating images from the information highway as found images or using them as inspiration for new images, Toilet Paper functions as the latest printed reading material of our time, both in its visual form
Visual has selectivity, it select the most
retical for visual communication design. Sur-
interesting thing, this is the essence of human
realism taught the world to see art not merely
vision. Usually, people’s vision would over
visually and literally; but to appreciate it in a
messy stuff away to choose an organized
subconscious level as well. Nowadays, surreal
and ordered object to meet psychological
images become familiar and it grow globally.
pleasure. However, human vision always get
The style provides designers more freedom to
bored with over orderly things but interested
convey their feelings and thoughts through the
in orderly process with change. When we
canvas. Surreal art can be dreamy or gritty;
watching group dancing, it is hard to escape
or it can be optimistic or depressing. Dreams
audience’s eyes if one of dancer get a small
represent scenes from this hidden area, which
mistake, due to this mistake action had break
is why Surrealist art has repeatedly featured
whole order, people will fouce on it and get
remarkable images born in the imagination.
pleasure on this mistake. The characteristics
This aspect of Surrealism chiefly influenced
of surreal visual langage always against
later generations of graphic artists.
normal order, remove vision of conscientiously obeyed the rules by irrational form. A super visual memory of surreal design has made the important theo-
As a complete historic event, Surrealism
deconstruction and combination have
involving poetry, art, personal ethics and
directive significance to graphic design.
collective behavior. It have reached the high level of other movements and surpassed
People accept the absurd contrast, life,
narrow ethos of that period. After the World
intention, time and space in Surrealism, but
War I, artists and intellectuals were looking
this does not imply Surrealism will become
for an escape against the harshness of reality,
realism. World has been shaping up,
they wanted to reform the world their own
Surrealism ideas are ahead of time based
way. Although surrealist art movement has
on practical development. Achievements of
passed more than half a century, but its
human civilization, on the one hand, is make
impact and significance is far-reaching,
impossibles to be possible, on the other hand,
Surrealism did infiltrate the world of graphic
is come up with infinite impossibles. Scientists
design. It provides a new creative way of
are working for impossible becomes possible,
thinking.
constantly pushes the progress in human civilization; designers gives birth to anew
In graphic design, designer can use the
universe and create infinite impossibles, so
structure of spatial perspectives, shape, color,
human have endless spiritual world, thereby,
distortion, montage, light and shade etc., to
people experience wonderful and
combine different natures objects through
mysterious in the inner space except reality,
these ways. This three-dimensional or
which familia things look as they have never
mixed-dimensional graphics can make
before looked to anyone. This new
amazing of prosaic image and space, and
appearance, rather than being distortion or
give people an unexpected and strong vision
betrayal, reinterprets the ancient truth in a
novelty. Making a complete image
grippingly fresh, enlightening way.
separation, deconstruction, and then according to the creative re-combination main part and separate part, thereby, there is an intrinsic relationship between deconstruction image and main image. The manifestation of
An Andalusian Dog (1929) Directed by Luis BuĂąuel and Salvador DalĂ. Pairs: Ursulines Film Studio. [Video: DVD]. Adamowicz, E. (2010) Un chien andalou, London I.B. Tauris Arnheim, R. (1974) Art and visual perception : a psychology of the creative eye, Berkeley: University of California Press. Breton, A. (1896-1966) Manifestoes of Surrealism, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Bunuel, L. (1983) My last sigh, Abigail Israel (trans). New York: Knopf. Cardinal, R. and Short, R. (1970) Surrealism: permanent revelation, London and New York: Studio Vista/Dutton. Dali, S. Brugge: Museum-Gallery Xpo Salvador Dali. Freud, S. (1856-1939) The uncanny, London: Penguin. Heller, S. (2010) Surrealism for Art and Profit. The New York Times Style Magazine, 4 August. Hall, P. (2009) Sagmeister: made you look, New York: Abrams. Poynor, R. (2000) Vaughan Oliver : visceral pleasures, London : Booth-Clibborn. Poynor, R. (2007) Dark tools of desire. [Internet]. Available from :<http://www.eyemagazine. com/feature/article/dark-tools-of-desire> [Accessed 17 september 2012]. SMisiurek (2011) Maurizio Cattelan + Pierpaolo Ferrari: Toilet Paper Magazine. [Internet].
Available from :<http://www.core.form-ula.com/2011/03/04/maurizio-cattelan-pierpaoloferrari-toilet-paper-magazine/> [Accessed 4 August 2012]. Uncanny: Surrealism and Graphic Design (2010). Czech Republic: Moravian Gallery. Wood, G. (2007) Surreal Things: Surrealism and Design. London: Victoria and Albert Museum.
Major Context Project Designer Xiaoqin Hu Tutor Sakis Kyratzis