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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Around the same time a New Wave of post-modern graphic design swept Holland and America. Although retaining certain Swiss School elements, New Wave graphic design subverted the holy grid of Modernism and playfully incorporated eclectic cultural references from art, photography, film, advertising and iconic graphic designs from the past. New Wave designers such as Jan van Toorn (b.1932) and April Greiman (b.1948) replaced Modern objectivity with a post-modern subjectivity that evoked viewer response through a new kind of visual poetry. Inspired by the emergence of new forms of electronic media, Californian New Wave work incorporated deconstructed compositions so as to produce a sense of messages being filtered through layers, which in turn affected a strong three-dimensional quality or visual depth. Using Apple Macintosh software, designers created a language of hybrid imagery with encoded messages, while the seemingly random placement of collage-like images provided their work ith a refreshing vitality. In 1982, the launch of the large-format graphic magazine Emigre by Rudy Vander-Lans (b.1955) and Zuzana Licko (b.1961) disseminated the ideas behind this new movement in graphic design to a much wider international audience. Eventually, post-modernism came to mean a multiplicity of graphic styles (often appropriated), which were characterised by visually arresting, layered compositions of frequently indecipherable meaning.
During the 1980s the increasing emphasis on image over content led to the meteoric rise of "the brand", which, with the right help from graphic designers, transcended national preferences to become a globally understood seal of approval. Companies such as Levi's and Nike were quick to understand that "cutting-edge" graphic design could give their products a distinct competitive advantage. At a time when the social glue of traditional institutions, from the nuclear family to organized religion, was becoming unstuck, brands offered the consumer a no-strings-attached sense of belonging while helping them define their self-image. Branding is essentially all about the projection of aspirations and the creation of desires. It is the package (style) rather than the product (content) that appeals to us on an emotional level, and this is the reason why certain commercial logos are worshipped like religious idols. The feel-good factor of a brand, however, can be quickly eroded with the knowledge that those ludicrously expensive trainers, clothes, etc. have been made by wage-slaves in the Third World - quite simply the gilt can turn to guilt. Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s the graphic design profession aided and abetted the meteoric rise of "the brand" and appeared almost completely blinkered to the ills of rampant consumerism.
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]
Around the same time a New Wave of post-modern graphic design swept Holland and America. Although retaining certain Swiss School elements, New Wave graphic design subverted the holy grid of Modernism and playfully incorporated eclectic cultural references from art, photography, film, advertising and iconic graphic designs from the past. New Wave designers such as Jan van Toorn (b.1932) and April Greiman (b.1948) replaced Modern objectivity with a post-modern subjectivity that evoked viewer response through a new kind of visual poetry. Inspired by the emergence of new forms of electronic media, Californian New Wave work incorporated deconstructed compositions so as to produce a sense of messages being filtered through layers, which in turn affected a strong three-dimensional quality or visual depth. Using Apple Macintosh software, designers created a language of hybrid imagery with encoded messages, while the seemingly random placement of collage-like images provided their work ith a refreshing vitality. In 1982, the launch of the large-format graphic magazine Emigre by Rudy Vander-Lans (b.1955) and Zuzana Licko (b.1961) disseminated the ideas behind this new movement in graphic design to a much wider international audience. Eventually, post-modernism came to mean a multiplicity of graphic styles (often appropriated), which were characterised by visually arresting, layered compositions of frequently indecipherable meaning.
During the 1980s the increasing emphasis on image over content led to the meteoric rise of "the brand", which, with the right help from graphic designers, transcended national preferences to become a globally understood seal of approval. Companies such as Levi's and Nike were quick to understand that "cutting-edge" graphic design could give their products a distinct competitive advantage. At a time when the social glue of traditional institutions, from the nuclear family to organized religion, was becoming unstuck, brands offered the consumer a no-strings-attached sense of belonging while helping them define their self-image. Branding is essentially all about the projection of aspirations and the creation of desires. It is the package (style) rather than the product (content) that appeals to us on an emotional level, and this is the reason why certain commercial logos are worshipped like religious idols. The feel-good factor of a brand, however, can be quickly eroded with the knowledge that those ludicrously expensive trainers, clothes, etc. have been made by wage-slaves in the Third World - quite simply the gilt can turn to guilt. Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s the graphic design profession aided and abetted the meteoric rise of "the brand" and appeared almost completely blinkered to the ills of rampant consumerism.
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
Cover for the Sex Pistols'"God Save the Queen" single. Jamie Reid, 1977
Corporate flag for Adbusters. Shi Zhe Yung, 2000