Advertising!

1- Advertising uses techniques and practices to bring products, services, opinions, even causes to public notice for the purpose of persuading the public to respond in certain ways. 

2- Advertising is late-Capitalism's most important source of income for the media (e.g., traditional or social).

3- The most basic media for advertising are: (a) Newspapers (offers large circulations, a readership located close to the advertiser's place of business, and the opportunity to alter content on a frequent and regular basis), (b) Magazines (of general interest, aimed at specific audiences), (c) TV and radio. (d) Social Media. 

4- Advertising will be effective if its production -and placement- is based on a knowledge of its target, plus a skilled use of the media. The marketing side of advertising employs publicity to achieve its aim. 

5- There's no question that advertising is a powerful way to inform consumers. In a free-market economy, effective advertising is essential to a company’s survival, for unless consumers know about a company's product, they are unlikely to buy it. 

6- Then, comes the counter/advertising issues: 
a) undue influence, 
b) false advertising, 
c) deceptive techniques such as concealment of facts, exaggeration, etc.

A brief analysis of propaganda

1- Propaganda means agitation. Elaborating upon Lenin's pamphlet What Is To Be Done? Marxist Georgy Plekhanov defined propaganda as the use of slogans, parables, and half-truths to exploit the grievances of the uneducated and the unreasonable. He regarded both strategies as absolutely essential to political victory and twinned them in the term agitprop.

2- This is how Joseph Goebbels (Hitler's minister of Propaganda) puts it:

Political propaganda in principle is active and revolutionary. It is aimed at the broad masses. It speaks the language of the people because it wants to be understood by the people. Its task is the highest creative art of putting sometimes complicated events and facts in a way simple enough to be understood by the man on the street. 

3- Propaganda tries to manipulate people's beliefs, attitudes, or actions by means of symbols: Words, gestures, banners, monuments, music, clothing, insignia, hairstyles, designs on coins and postage stamps, and so forth.

4- Contemporary propaganda uses social-scientific research facilities to conduct opinion surveys and psychological interviews in efforts to learn the symbolic meanings of its message. 

How HELVETICA Became the Biggest Font in Fashion & Beyond

George Lois' revolutionary Esquire covers

Why George Lois?

Few art directors have had a career like George Lois. 

He left Doyle Dane Bernbach in 1960 at 28 to start Papert Koenig Lois because he was convinced creatives needed to be in control of everything. That shop was the first major agency to have an art director's name on its door, and it was the first togo public. But Lois regretted that move because his partners started playing it safe. He soon had enough, and in 1967 he went off on his own. In between his groundbreaking ad work, Lois designed memorable conceptual covers for Esquire Magazine.

What's Lois secret? In his own words: 

1. My first commandment: The word comes first, then the visual. 2. A trend is always a trap. 3. A Big Idea can change world culture. 4. Teamwork might work in building an Amish barn, but it can’t create a Big Idea. 5. To create great work, here’s how you must spend your time: 1% inspiration, 9% perspiration, 90% justification. 6. When you know a client is dead wrong about a marketing opportunity, create a brand name that blows his mind! 7. Make your surroundings a metaphor for who you are. 8. Research is the enemy of creativity--unless it’s your own "creative" research (heh-heh). 9. Creating advertising that is icon rather than con depends on the deep belief that your message is more than the purchase of a product or service.  

click here for Lois' covers for Esquire. 

Shigeo Fukuda (Japan)

Design is 30 percent dignity, 20 percent beauty and 50 percent absurdity.

what do we have here?

*emotion,

*intuition,

*illusion, 

Saul Bass's

It's often said that the mark of a good design consists of its endurance. 

Bass revolutionized Film Title Design, as movie title sequences were usually plain text. He turned 

movie sequences into cinematic experiences — storytelling tools in their own right. Famous examples: Vertigo (1958) – hypnotic spirals and abstract visuals, North by Northwest (1959) – dynamic kinetic type and grids, Psycho (1960) – jagged, tension-building title animation. He collaborated with legendary directors like Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, Otto Preminger, and Martin Scorsese. 

Bass shaped Corporate Branding. He was behind some of the most iconic corporate logos of the 20th century — many of which lasted decades without changes: AT&T (1969 globe), United Airlines (1974 tulip) Bell System,  Quaker Oats,  Warner Communications.

The secret? Bass believed in simple, bold, memorable forms that could stand the test of time. 

His philosophy: “Design is thinking made visual.”  

Well, here take a look at how Bass' designs have changed during the years: very little!

advertisers learned from imitating the comic pages, the confession magazines, and radio, that people respond to the quick cutting from scene to scene, close-ups, personal testimonials, and intimate drama. the comic strip was especially interesting to them since it showed how the consumer could be led to a sale one step at a time in an almost hypnotic trance

Chermayeff & Geismar's LOGO Portfolio

Mobil

NBC

Chase


Chesmayer and Geismar's Web

Piet Zwart, the "typo.tect"

what do we have here?

1- commercial print work influenced by constructivism, dada and De Stijl,
2- particular composition, i.e., upper and lower case, lines, circles and screens, and free lettering.

3- just like others of his BAUHAUS generation, after graphic design, Zwart moved to interior, industrial and furniture design.

4- Zwart considered himself to be a "typotect"— part typographer, part architect.

5- Zwart's distinct style consisted of strong diagonals, primary colors, use of scale, varying typefaces, and careful asymmetry, rejecting the conventional symmetry around a fixed central axis.

click here for a Zwart link,

"logo means integrity, honesty, simplicity & clarity", master logo designer Paul Rand

Rand brought avant-garde European ideas to the United-States, mixing visual arts and commercial design. His colorful combinations, approach of typography and use of media translate his desire to "defamiliarize the ordinary". His style consequently still have an impact on graphic design today. Rand's art achieved its full maturity in the 1950s, which coincided with a dynamism in the New York art scene, inspired by European abstract art. 

SO what do we get here? 

1. European modernism.

2. Abstraction, asymmetry, 

3. Dynamism in typographical and pictorial composition

check this site of Rand's best logos.

continental paid $500,000 to saul bass for their logo in the early 1960s!

that's saul bass logo for continental

summarizing post-war rhetoric of consumability

What do we have so far? 

*Graphic design contributed to a culture of consumption and modernism became a consumable idea, as once-experimental forms were popularized through style trends.

 
*Graphic designers were increasingly involved in creating lifestyle fantasies that were not inherently connected to the goods and services they sold.

 
* Brand identities not only lent an appearance of difference to similar products but also became commodities themselves, demonstrating that a designed concept was a marketable one.

 
*Art directors, commercial artists and layout designers began to see the value and professional organizations and trade publications that highlighted their respective roles and promoted their field as a whole.

Bill Golden's CBS famous logo (1951) starts with a hex

The story goes that as he drove through Pennsylvania Dutch country, Bill Golden became intrigued by the hex symbols resembling the human eye that are drawn on Shaker barns to ward off evil spirits.

Check the CBS logo before the "eye." 

What is in a LOGO?

A logo represents a company's personality and worth.

Logos are carefully designed and vary from product to product. 

Logo masters point to four key image elements:

1- Veracity, 
2- Worth, 
3- Management, 
4- Novelty, 
5- Permanence,

FORTUNE MAGAZINE & the beginning of logo identity

fortune catered to corporations,

the idea was to present a message on data processing, industries, development, progress, future,

 
the aesthetics of fortune reinforced the tendency to abstract the narrative into a single message that was able to congeal all the different notes with a new corporate language.

the language of corporate capitalism,

summarizing:

1. fortune magazine elevated graphic design to fine art. the magazine comissioned top-tier artists and designers like Diego Rivera, Ben Shahn, László Moholy-Nagy, and Herbert Bayer, blurring the lines between editorial illustration, fine art, and commercial design. 

2. fortune was able to visualize complex. it tackled business, economics, and industry—subjects not traditionally seen as “visual.” the covers and interior illustrations made abstract or technical concepts accessible and engaging through strong design, symbolism, and infographics. 

3. this is the precursor to modern data visualization and editorial design. 

4. the magazine covers showcased a range of modernist movements—Bauhaus, Art Deco, Cubism, Surrealism—and incorporated photomontage, abstraction, and bold typography. the use of cutting-edge design trends in a mainstream business magazine was revolutionary and influenced future editorial layouts and brand aesthetics. 

George Giusti & the pre LOGO

George Giusti's major achievement was the design of Magazine Covers. 

See how he mixes a diagrammatic language of information graphics with an iconography of recognizable objects.

What do we get?

Giusti works almost exclusively in tempera. Then comes the airbrush, but with considerable reserve. 

He's careful not to lose the distinction of his own incisive brush-line. 

The design is carried as far as possible with the sable brush, then applies the airbrush where needed for soft gradations and very smooth tones. 

Giusti's work for Fortune is elegant and smooth:

and this,

Giusti's secret: 

Technology is in the air, weightless. 

Technology is the expression of scientific endeavor!   

what is "meta-design"? take a look at anton stankowski

anton stankowski's representations of the visible (and the invisible) processes crossed into the realm of abstraction to devise a unique graphic language that was specific enough to communicate meaningful relationships,

among largely non-figurative elements.

for the fist time, geometry spoke the language of dynamics and abstract action.

this is where stankowski broke new ground with the idea of metadesign, i.e.,

design about design.

his set of generalized elements was effective in narrating process, rather than things.

don't you wish you came up with the idea?

Roger Cook and Don Shanosky's Symbol Signs

In the early 1970s, the Department of Transportation assembled a committee to make recommendations for a public signage system. Above the result. The idea is to make environments less threatening and more unified. See how the skirt at the knees of the woman already speaks of the sensibility after the sex revolution of the 1960s. 

The idea was to create a set of pictograms (visual symbols) that could be understood across languages and cultures, especially in transportation hubs like airports and train stations. The result was 50 standardized symbols that represent essential services and facilities — like restrooms, baggage claim, elevators, and restaurants. 

 ✏️ Innovation: The symbols were designed to be clear, simple, and instantly recognizable, based on rigorous testing for legibility and comprehension. Their work helped set a new standard in iconography, blending Modernist design principles with functional clarity. 

📐 Legacy: The AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts) collaborated with Cook and Shanosky to distribute the symbols, further boosting their visibility. These symbols became the basis for global signage, influencing everything from the symbols used in the Olympics to those in hospitals and mass transit systems. Their work exemplifies information design as a tool for social good, improving navigation for people of all literacy levels and abilities. 

🏆 Cook and Shanowsky helped standardize nonverbal communication in public spaces, especially where clarity and inclusivity are critical. Today, you still see their influence in nearly every public building or transit system around the world. 

What do we get here?

1- The familiar is abstracted and simplified inside a white box,
2- The symbol now substitutes the thing,
3- modernization,
4- standardization,

"ideogram" or the reverse engineering of the logo

it all begins here:

egyptians used iconography as language. a sign has a "echoy" meaning.

it come down to us like this:

three elements here:

square box,
CBS,
the concentric eye and
TV reception (the antenna is upside-down).

World War II propaganda 2 (our side)

Ben Shahn, 1942, Printed for the Office of War Information

Thomas Hart Benton, 1942, NARA Picture Branch

Produced by Winchester, NARA Picture Branch

Amos Sewell, 1945

By Siebel, 1942

Victor Keppler, 1944

Howard Miller, 1943, Westinghouse for the War Production

RCA Manufacturing Company

Norman Rockwell, 1943

what's the message here?

persuade the public with communication tools. if we call it propaganda, it's still soft propaganda in the sense that it lacks the concerted push of the state apparatus.