this is charles mingus's 1954 Ah Um, a jazz masterpiece. the design is my neil fujita, we'll talk about this beautiful chapter of american graphic design and jazz next class
we did a wonderful group of graphic design european masters: cassandre, liberman, brodovitch, beal, zwart & binder. but their design in america is not european design. this is 100% american graphic design.
Last class, the old magazine covers from Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar were intriguing for me. I could not help but admire the simplicity in the covers of these world-famous magazines. The covers include photos that have a simple colored background and a person that is posing in a high-fashion outfit. The simplicity behind it is what makes it so luxurious, elegant and fitting to their title. I personally think that these types of covers truly left a ‘mark’ whereas the present day covers filled with colored text, cluttered titles and airbrushed photos, practically look like a cartoon. I am much more intrigued by these past covers. It is evident that the photographers took their time, and did not manipulate the photos as much. Also, the graphic designers used their creativity, especially seen on the Vogue title spelled in jewelry. Simplicity has definitely left its mark on these old high fashion publications.
I really enjoyed looking at the different magazine covers. The women are sometimes sexualized but in other ways, as in Rockwell’s the Post, they take on the role of Uncle Sam, however, at the same time, she is carrying around all the items that women usually use to do housework. From my point of view, its possible he is signaling that he thinks that women are running the country.
I found it interesting that Varga had such a specific and concrete process for creating his artwork. The only other time I have heard of an artistic process being so scientific is with photography. It seems as though he perfected the process because all of the watercolors look impeccably well done and give off the same pin-up-y feeling.
I also really enjoyed looking at Stunar’s work. I think it would have been interesting to see what his furniture designs would have looked like if he made furniture. I feel they would be sleek with interesting colors and angles.
This past week I found A.M Cassandre and Brodovitch interesting, while looking at their magazine covers and spreads one can see the different styles of design even though they are from the same time period. When I look at Cassandre’s designs I get a bit of a surrealist/cubism feel from them where the planes interchange and you don’t know what is in the foreground versus what is in the background for example in his March 1938 cover. I think it brings forth his creativity while also intriguing the viewer making them wonder why the cover looks that way therefore making them pick the magazine up and look through it. I just think they’re very fun to look at. On the other hand, Brodovitch’s designs are also fun to look at but I think his are interesting to look at because of the layout rather than the actual imagery. I think the images Brodovitch uses are simple, clean and elegant but I think the use of the images along with the text and how they interact with each other makes his designs dynamic. The use of asymmetry and recreating shapes with the text is a great way to have someone want to look at the magazine and feel like they’re not looking at a textbook.
3 comments:
Last class, the old magazine covers from Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar were intriguing for me. I could not help but admire the simplicity in the covers of these world-famous magazines. The covers include photos that have a simple colored background and a person that is posing in a high-fashion outfit. The simplicity behind it is what makes it so luxurious, elegant and fitting to their title. I personally think that these types of covers truly left a ‘mark’ whereas the present day covers filled with colored text, cluttered titles and airbrushed photos, practically look like a cartoon. I am much more intrigued by these past covers. It is evident that the photographers took their time, and did not manipulate the photos as much. Also, the graphic designers used their creativity, especially seen on the Vogue title spelled in jewelry. Simplicity has definitely left its mark on these old high fashion publications.
I really enjoyed looking at the different magazine covers. The women are sometimes sexualized but in other ways, as in Rockwell’s the Post, they take on the role of Uncle Sam, however, at the same time, she is carrying around all the items that women usually use to do housework. From my point of view, its possible he is signaling that he thinks that women are running the country.
I found it interesting that Varga had such a specific and concrete process for creating his artwork. The only other time I have heard of an artistic process being so scientific is with photography. It seems as though he perfected the process because all of the watercolors look impeccably well done and give off the same pin-up-y feeling.
I also really enjoyed looking at Stunar’s work. I think it would have been interesting to see what his furniture designs would have looked like if he made furniture. I feel they would be sleek with interesting colors and angles.
This past week I found A.M Cassandre and Brodovitch interesting, while looking at their magazine covers and spreads one can see the different styles of design even though they are from the same time period. When I look at Cassandre’s designs I get a bit of a surrealist/cubism feel from them where the planes interchange and you don’t know what is in the foreground versus what is in the background for example in his March 1938 cover. I think it brings forth his creativity while also intriguing the viewer making them wonder why the cover looks that way therefore making them pick the magazine up and look through it. I just think they’re very fun to look at. On the other hand, Brodovitch’s designs are also fun to look at but I think his are interesting to look at because of the layout rather than the actual imagery. I think the images Brodovitch uses are simple, clean and elegant but I think the use of the images along with the text and how they interact with each other makes his designs dynamic. The use of asymmetry and recreating shapes with the text is a great way to have someone want to look at the magazine and feel like they’re not looking at a textbook.
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