ITAP2: Protest Design

In this itap lecture, we were shown a more rebellious themed artist who used design in protest; a far different element of design from which other lectures were based around. The key figures for this theme were Adrian Piper (1948) and Jenny Holzer (1950). Both were of similar time periods and protested highly political views with public design. 

Adrian Piper is considered to be a first generation philosopher/conceptual artist, using art as a form of demonstration containing strong moral messages. Some of her work includes 'self portraits' in which she describes to exaggerate her Negroid features in attempt to deliberately make the viewer uncomfortable and aware of racial stereotypes. This racial point was hammered forward with what can be referred to as call cards (seen below) and installation art for galleries where a screen displaying her face was cornered by an aggressively arrow shaped arrangement of chairs so signify the feeling she is trapped and cornered by others.

Her work also includes 'psychedelic art' of early LSD paintings, and public displays such as her on modes of transport with her mouth stuffed by a piece of material symbolising her inability to talk out as well as causing shock value.

Looking at her work, it ranges hugely in style and media platform but remains to hold a consistent moral message.















Jenny Holzer on the other hand, displays her work on far larger scales. Born two years after Piper, Holzer fights political battles too, only rather than a more specific 'race' theme, chooses to send messages out about various elements of politics as well as feminism; 'a voice to the people'. To display these messages in public, she originally used street posters, but also moved to use projections onto walls which can range in size, LED light signs and billboards; all extremely eye catching platforms. In time this range grew to even more obscure and broad mediums, by spreading her message in things such as; Painted signs, bronze plaques, footstools, benches, t-shirts, condoms, stickers, photographs, video, sound the internet, and even a le-mans racing car. This made her a renowned protester and has shown me various new platform medias and mediums to consider for future projects.

A final artist to bare in mind when looking at this progression in creativity on protest/looking at things from a different perspective and experimenting with styles is the 1970/80 new wave band Devo; a contraction for 'Devolve', or to un evolve. Below is their song 'Freedom of Choice'. In this video, the experimentation of media styles and message content is heavy, as well as the inclusive symbolism and metaphors to add to the protesting theme.

hSp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jVoroHx3IU&feature=related

ITAP2: Ragunath Krishna Joshi

In our last lecture, Bal gave a lecture on the importance of Ragunath Krishna Joshi (1936/2008), his importance to the typographic field and interpretation of type being more than just a form of literal communication but a visual language too. 

In quoting Fernand Baudin, 1988 from the presentation; "The ability to write is the initial step towards any further development of the individual as a fully fledged citizen in a modern democracy". In synopsis, verbal language (as well as body language) is the first form of communication, followed by the written language. Baudin then expressed this to be the initial stage in creating a fully formed democracy. Joshi then introduced another layer by developing a visual language into written; equivalent to importance of body language in correlation of spoken. 

Here are some examples of work by Joshi from the itap lecture. Coming from a typographic family background I find this extremely interesting, especially considering that it allows me to look at these designs at a whole new perspective. As I can't understand this language I am able to see it for its visual form and balance over its actual content. From this new perspective, each character appears to me like an piece of delicate art, backing the prior theory I made of typography's visual language being a simile for body language as well as relating to Erik Speikermann's views that typography is a musical instrument in which the melody of language is played (paraphrased)

Despite both the interesting quote of Fernand Baudin and fascinating work/message of Joshi, I feel I found the latter segment talk on calligraphy as the origin of typography by far the most interesting. While I enjoyed the message from this lecture but felt a lack of enthusiasm from execution, I did take from it further inspiration on typography; something I already highly appreciate.
Looking into calligraphy (my fathers profession) I can see a truly beautifully elegant style. While it looks fluid and serves primary purposes now for weddings and family trees/art, I can see the semantic shift/origins of the visual language implications. Originally at the birth of ink written text of predominantly western cultures, the majority could not learn or use this skill; reserved for the rich and powerful. Since it was such a high status skill, the connotations of it were made to be clear through its bold and elegant aesthetic.

ITAP2: Viva Creative Revolution

“The Creative Revolution (1954-64) was essentially the tussle between design and meaning; between form, beauty and concept;

between telling and receiving”. Challis,C. 2006

As can be imagined, design work before the creative revolution of 1954-64 was highly different, while work after remains similar in theory these 58odd years down the line. Design beforehand was somewhat shallow, predominantly based around the aesthetic value over form and function. In America this was common in the portrayal of the 'American dream/lifestyle'; glamourous and high quality. This though above most aesthetically based design almost patronised the potential audience as they knew the American dream/lifestyle was difficult to obtain and other shallow designs seemed to take the audience as being a little dumb.

Within the creative revolution though, there were two key figures; Che Helmut Krone and Bill Bernbach. These two people changed the landscape of graphic design in 3 main ways. First of all, they spoke to the audience to gain insight on what THEY wanted, rather than relying on assumptions that agencies of the time often made. This bought them valuable insight into the consumer culture, and first off showed them that within the automotive industry especially, they would prefer a smaller, cheaper more economical car than a large, frequently outdated, expensive one that the 'American dream' propaganda pushed. This was a difficult admittance for the consumers though, since to go against the American dream propaganda felt unpatriotic.

Next, they tackled the aesthetically shallow based design, and crucially inserted an 'idea' or 'concept' which developed a deeper layer to the design, conveyed a message and treated the audience as intelligent enough to see this idea hidden within; This was backed by their third revolutionary aspect.

In the 1950's agencies tended to follow a grid structure and formulaic pattern, thus designs tended to look the same. This was due to the fact there were no real 'art directors' or 'copywriters', rather they were all called commercial artists and rarely met up. Bill Bernbach and Helmut Krone changed this by designating roles and meeting up to discuss design concepts together. While their first works followed the similar layout structure (to almost mock), it was radically different in content; As can be seen when comparing the Pontiac advert beside, to the VW ones below. 

To stand out from these generic designs, they designed their adverts in full greyscale to contrast against the hugh colour usage in other work, stuck with the caption; only rather than giving a literal description of the image above, said something that linked in a more subtle, intelligent and memorable manner. They also began to experiment with the use of white space to create tension and balance within the design, while prior designers used all space ending with a clustered and busy piece. This reduction in design, combined with the message/concept that was inspired by the audience research created an award winning and top selling style that truly changed the landscape of design.

Helmut Krone’s breakthroughs in layout

• Ads with no headlines 

• Ads with no logos 

• Head lines as captions 

• No headline or copy

• No product

• A sea of white

• Headline font and style of image as brand identity

(Challis,C. 2006)

Bill Bernbach's breakthroughs

• Understanding the audience 

• Respecting the audience's intelligence 

• Using wit (perception and ability to connect ideas) in order to communicate product benefits

• Going far beyond the obvious 

• Keeping the communication simple 

• Ensuring image and words reflect each other but don't repeat

• Taking risks