Avant-garde graphics from around the globe
Introduction to the book 'Graphic Design for the 21st Century', by Charlotte and Peter Fiell
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What this "Oracle of the Electronic Age" had identified was that image had become more important than content. Of perhaps even greater significance, however, was McLuhan's questioning of where electronic media were ultimately taking society - a subject for debate that has certainy more pertinence now than when it was first raised.
By the late 1960s there was a fundamental questioning of Modernism and its de-humanizing aesthetic blandness. A new generation of graphic designers, including Wolfgang Weingart (b.1941) began experimenting with more expressive compositions while continuing to follow the Modern approach of the Swiss School. Other graphic designers such as Milton Glaser (b.1929) were highly influenced by Pop Art, which had itself been influenced by commercial art. With artists such as Andy Warhol (1928-1987), Richard Hamilton (b.1922) and Peter Blake (b.1932) looking to the visual language of popular culture for inspiration, the distinctions between fine and commercial art became hazier.In the late 1960s, a plethora of anti-Vietnam War protest posters showed that designers did not have to use a Modernist approach in order to produce work that powerfully conveyed a message. Throughout the 1960s, graphic design expanded into new areas of visual communication such as television and film title sequences. The discipline was now also playing an increasing role in the dissemination of cultural publicity and public information as well as commercial advertising. By the late 1960s graphic designers were also beginning to exploit the enormous changes taking place in photographic print technology, which allowed them a far greater degree of creative control and provided them with cheaper and better quality colour printing.
Graphic design became even more closely tied to marketing during the late 1960s and the 1970s with many companies commissioning new logos - the universal language of corporate capitalism - in an effort to compete more effectively in an increasingly global and image-based world. As a reaction against the ascendancy of the banal uniformity of corporate visual language, the Age of Aquarius saw the lurid kaleidoscopic dawn of the psychedelic poster, which was the very antithesis of the Swiss School. In response to growing disenchantment with Modernism and its perceived complicity with big business, many other designers began seeking alternative approaches to graphic design. In the late 1970s, the Punk movement acted as a catalyst for the birth of a new approach to graphics in Britain, which was exemplified by the Sex Pistols' God Save the Queen record sleeve (1977) designed by Jamie Reid (b.1940). This brash rough-andready-made anarchic style not only captured the energy and frustrated anger of contemporary youth-culture, but also intentionally mocked the staid aesthetic refinement of Modernism.
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]
What this "Oracle of the Electronic Age" had identified was that image had become more important than content. Of perhaps even greater significance, however, was McLuhan's questioning of where electronic media were ultimately taking society - a subject for debate that has certainy more pertinence now than when it was first raised.
By the late 1960s there was a fundamental questioning of Modernism and its de-humanizing aesthetic blandness. A new generation of graphic designers, including Wolfgang Weingart (b.1941) began experimenting with more expressive compositions while continuing to follow the Modern approach of the Swiss School. Other graphic designers such as Milton Glaser (b.1929) were highly influenced by Pop Art, which had itself been influenced by commercial art. With artists such as Andy Warhol (1928-1987), Richard Hamilton (b.1922) and Peter Blake (b.1932) looking to the visual language of popular culture for inspiration, the distinctions between fine and commercial art became hazier.In the late 1960s, a plethora of anti-Vietnam War protest posters showed that designers did not have to use a Modernist approach in order to produce work that powerfully conveyed a message. Throughout the 1960s, graphic design expanded into new areas of visual communication such as television and film title sequences. The discipline was now also playing an increasing role in the dissemination of cultural publicity and public information as well as commercial advertising. By the late 1960s graphic designers were also beginning to exploit the enormous changes taking place in photographic print technology, which allowed them a far greater degree of creative control and provided them with cheaper and better quality colour printing.
Graphic design became even more closely tied to marketing during the late 1960s and the 1970s with many companies commissioning new logos - the universal language of corporate capitalism - in an effort to compete more effectively in an increasingly global and image-based world. As a reaction against the ascendancy of the banal uniformity of corporate visual language, the Age of Aquarius saw the lurid kaleidoscopic dawn of the psychedelic poster, which was the very antithesis of the Swiss School. In response to growing disenchantment with Modernism and its perceived complicity with big business, many other designers began seeking alternative approaches to graphic design. In the late 1970s, the Punk movement acted as a catalyst for the birth of a new approach to graphics in Britain, which was exemplified by the Sex Pistols' God Save the Queen record sleeve (1977) designed by Jamie Reid (b.1940). This brash rough-andready-made anarchic style not only captured the energy and frustrated anger of contemporary youth-culture, but also intentionally mocked the staid aesthetic refinement of Modernism.
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]
Graphic Design for the 21st Century
Flexicover, 19.6 x 24.9 cm (7.7 x 9.8 in.), 640 pages
$ 39.99
$ 39.99
Avant-garde graphics from around the globe
Poster for Poppy Records. Milton Glaser, 1967