BANKSY

Banksy is a household name in England—the Evening Standard has mentioned him thirty-eight times in the past six months—but his identity is a subject of febrile speculation. This much is certain: around 1993, 

his graffiti began appearing on trains and walls around Bristol; by 2001, his blocky spray-painted signature had cropped up all over the United Kingdom, eliciting both civic hand-wringing and comparisons to Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring. 

Vienna, San Francisco, Barcelona, and Paris followed, along with forays into pranksterism and more traditional painting, but Banksy has never shed the graffitist’s habit of operating under a handle. His anonymity is said to be born of a desire—understandable enough for a “quality vandal,” as he likes to be called—to elude the police. 

BANKSY aesthetics:
1- be subversive,
2- be invisible,
3- be omniscient,
4- be accessible,
5- be humorous.

your turn #8 (last post for comment)

elliot earls, three cream rabbits fuorescent, 2000s

dear class: this is your last post for comment for this course. say whatever you want about this or any class, anything whatsoever related to graphic design. 
go ahead!

list of images & concepts for our final exam (spring 2020)

list of images for the final exam.

list of concepts for the final exam.

your turn #7

eric nitsche, history of flight

we covered a wide terrain of graphic styles from the 1940s and 1950s the vargas pinup girl, constructive graphics, jenny on the job, german propaganda, norman rockwell, advertising, cipe pineles, alvin lustig, the international typographic style, fortune magazine.

go for it.

Bass' Scorsese's ,Cape Fear

political design comes of age

Political poster, National Association of Manufacturers, 1930's

your turn #6

new york's world fair 1939, joseph binder. 

hi class, we're back to posting and making comments. our last class covered 51 moments in the history of graphic design. what is your opinion? say  it here.

12. Mieczysław Szczuka (the influence of neue typographie)

 Mieczysław Szczuka (1989-1927) is one of the top representatives of the Polish avant-garde of the 1920s, for whom functional art was key. He did very fine photomontages. He designed posters and campaign materials for the Polish Communist party.

Along with his life partner and co-worker, Teresa Żarnower, they produced Blok magazine (initially with the assistance of Władysław Strzemiński and Henryk Stażewski), which initiated the era of functional printing (the idea came from Strzemiński – he proclaimed that the concept of a graphic layout should be equivalent to a literary construction, a visualisation of an idea).

Their most acclaimed work, executed in the spirit of their new typography, was the graphic design for Anatol Stern’s poem Europa (1929).

how is woodcut done?

click here for more information,

your turn #5

Christophe Karel Henri de Nerée tot Babberich (decadent 19th century illustrator, influenced by bearsdley and toorop)

class: we've covered art nouveau, harper's, the glasgow style of charles rennie and margaret mckintosh, women photographers, jan toorop, l'art pour l'art, muscha, the beggarstaffs, dudovich, beherens, van de velde.

go ahead!

your turn #4

Dante Gabriel Rosetti's Day Dream, 1880. 

hi class: we talked about chromolithography, comics, pictorialism, some of the protagonists: Charles Gibson, Thomas Nast, Arts and Crafts, Morris, preraphaelites, and some more I couldn't cover but you'll read on your own. go ahead!

your turn #3

Guéricault, anatomical studies, 1818. 

thanks for your calligraphic studies!
we've talked about political satire, newspapers, romanticism, camera obscura, early photo, photojournalism, prerraphaelite design, etc. pick your favorite.
go ahead.

welcome to yellow journalism (end of 19th century)

New York Journal's sensationalism responded to a need that was part and parcel of the mood of the times. 

The term "tabloid", like gutter press or the British term rag, also refer to a newspaper that tends to emphasize topics such as sensational crime stories, astrology, gossip columns about the personal lives of celebrities and sports stars, and junk food news. Often, tabloid newspaper allegations about the sexual practices, drug use, or private conduct of celebrities is borderline defamatory; in many cases, celebrities have successfully sued for libel, demonstrating that tabloid stories have defamed them.

... an interesting excerpt from Hearst's The Examiner:

HUNGRY, FRANTIC FLAMES. They Leap Madly Upon the Splendid Pleasure Palace by the Bay of Monterey, Encircling Del Monte in Their Ravenous Embrace From Pinnacle to Foundation. Leaping Higher, Higher, Higher, With Desperate Desire. Running Madly Riotous Through Cornice, Archway and Facade. Rushing in Upon the Trembling Guests with Savage Fury. Appalled and Panic-Striken the Breathless Fugitives Gaze Upon the Scene of Terror. The Magnificent Hotel and Its Rich Adornments Now a Smoldering heap of Ashes. The Examiner Sends a Special Train to Monterey to Gather Full Details of the Terrible Disaster. Arrival of the Unfortunate Victims on the Morning's Train — A History of Hotel del Monte — The Plans for Rebuilding the Celebrated Hostelry — Particulars and Supposed Origin of the Fire.

Calligraphic project for next week (it could be fun)

Here is our calligraphic assignment:

1- One SMALL paragraph of text (think of 2 sentences). What the text says is not important, you can get an excerpt from a magazine, a novel you love, etc).

2- The paragraph should occupy the center of the page. Pay attention to the following:

3- Leave space for a Rustic Capital, like the one you see above or below (it doesn't have to be as ornate). This rustic capital drives the energy of your page. Think of it first, design it & rehearse it in a different sheet of paper. The rustic capital takes a good part of the left hand-side of your page. It's part illustration part lettering.

REMEMBER YOU LEAVE THIS FOR LAST (after you have finished the paragraph).  

4-  For the paragraph. Use a blank 8x11 inch sheet. Determine how many lines your paragraph will have. In pencil, draw very, very thin lines to guide your lettering. Don't write ON the blank paper without a line matrix to guide your script. Only then, you may write your paragraph.

5- The style of your lettering will be calligraphic (meaning cursive with ligatures) and symmetric, meaning do not change the letter's "type" once you adopt them. This is a chance to explore ascenders and descenders. REMEMBER: DON'T CHANGE A LETTER ONCE ADOPTED!
 
6- Pay attention to your ligatures (the serifs connecting the lettering). Rehearse your ligatures before doing them on a project sheet. Practice how to connect your different letters.

For example,

7- See that each capital after the first rustica is smaller. DO NOT IMPROVISE! Better to achieve uniformity. LESS IS MORE!

8- No smudges, no mistakes. DON'T GO FAST. LET YOUR HAND PULSE BE SLOW AND DELIBERATE.

9- LEAVE MARGINALIA ON LEFT AND RIGHT.

GO AHEAD!

your turn #2

the Codex Leicester is a collection of 30 scientific journals by Leonardo da Vinci was named after the Earl of Leicester, who purchased it in 1719. It was sold to Bill Gates in 1994 for more than $30M. 

thanks for showing up in spite of the rain. we traveled to the middle ages to look at typeface's 800 years evolution from trajan to gothic. to understand how typeface and calligraphy evolve and diverge we peeked a bit inside the life of common folk & artisans doing these graphic marks as well as the types of documents (ars moriendi, decretals, missals, the codex) and the scribe and their milieu. life was tough and short, but good.

go ahead!     

your turn #1

hi, arh346 class. this is our first post-for-comment. pick an idea from the previous lecture and spin it any way you like. as you see other comments in the comment thread, try to keep your own voice (we don't want an echo chamber) and maybe do a bit of self-research -if you want. advice: better to write your comment on word, then copy and paste, instead of concocting it in the comment box (you may lose it when you hit enter). the post-for-comment closes around wednesday, at 11pm (no post uploaded & you miss your chance). lastly: 150 words minimum. tx.

is graffiti art a form of vandalism?

The New York Times explored the question above. My answer is here.

Ken-Tsai Lee's "identity" design

In Taiwan, Ken-Tsai Lee is a university professor and principal of a prestigious studio. In New York, where he recently studied English for two years, he found himself questioning the feasibility of Andy Warhol’s adage. “Where were my 15 minutes?” he says, “Who knew me? No one knew me.” With ambitions to expand beyond the localized Taiwanese market, he had been drawn to the city of strivers—“the capital of the world,” he says. “I knew I needed to overcome many problems if I was to achieve my goals,” he says from Taiwan, now preparing applications for U.S. graduate studies in design. “And the first problem was language.” As he realized how formidable his obstacles would be as a foreigner, Lee created a self-promotional poster series featuring his name in 12 languages, including Thai, Bangladeshi, Egyptian, Hebrew, Arabic, and Polish, that comments on the immigrant experience in general and marks his yearning for recognition—which came in surprising places. 

Lee's ideas:
1- social design,
2- identity politics,
3- global reach,
4- be upbeat.

your turn #9 (last post for comment)

LOGO masters: Saul Bass, Paul Rand, Chermayeff & Geismar, GeorgeLois. 1970's Punk, Ed Fella. The Polish School of Poster. The 1980s: Greiman, Sussman, Dumbar. The Memphis School.

Go ahead!

Tadeusz Trepkowski

the largely self-taught Tadeusz Trepkowski expresses a deceptively simple poster aesthetic, seen in the stunning 1948 hand-printed film poster "Last Stage," a stirring drama of survival and tragedy in the camps during WWII. here trpkowski draws on the viewer's vast and often hidden store of associational images. poster evokes a quiet and eloquent note as the bent red carnation -a traditional flower of remembrance in Poland- casts a shadow on the striped prison garb, with the infamous nature of the camps also recalled in the identification patch and number. 

what's Trepkowski's secret? 

1- laconic composition,
2- striking symbols,
3- political honesty,
4- common sense,

your turn #8

 armin hoffman, poster for stadt theater basel, 1963

We've covered propaganda, advertising, WWII (their side & ours), Alvin Lustig, the International Typographic Swiss Style (with the likes of Müller-Brockmann, Max Huber, Eric Nitsche & Armin Hoffman), Helvetica, & the emergence of the "pre logo" artists (Bass, Giusti, Stankowski, et. al.) + the golden era of jazz album covers.

go ahead!

your turn #7

Alex Liberman, Vogue cover, 1950

last class I lectured on a group of star designers from European descent that came to America during of after WWII, loosely grouped as the New York School. They are:

A. M. Cassandre: influenced by Surrealism and Cubism, a pioneer of the Art Deco style of plakastil (1930s-1950s).
Alex Brodovitch: comes from Surrealism and Art Deco, a pioneer of the New York School with his cosmopolitan style of female elegance, 1950s-1960s. Brodovitch is the BAZAAR side of the New York School.
Joseph Binder: comes from Art Deco Plakatstil and Surrealism, a pioneer of industry design (he is the FORTUNE MAGAZINE side of the NY School).
Piet Zwart: comes from Constructivism, New Typography and De Stijl (Netherlands), a pioneer in  typotechture (typeface + architecture), i.e., strong diagonals, primary colors, use of scale, varying typefaces (also FORTUNE MAGAZINE side of the NY School).
Alex Liberman: comes from Cubo-Futurism, Surrealism and and theater design, Liberman is the VOGUE side of the New York School. In addition he was an accomplished sculptor.
Herbert Matter: comes from Cubism, and the purism of Corbusier. In Switzerland he did photomontage for Ads, transcending the boundaries between art and design. He worked under Brodovitch for Conde Nast, and became a respected consultant for MoMA and Guggenheim.


We also talked about Weegee's amazing photos, Leonora Carrington and Remedios Varo, Neue Typographie, Neue Sachlichkeit, Neoplasticism, dada/collage, metaphysical dada, political dada, Magritte, Surrealism, and different techniques of each school.

go ahead!

Ted McKnight Kauffer's avantgarde design

Edward (Ted) McKnight Kauffer was one of Europe's most prolific and influential advertising poster artists during the twenties and thirties, and as innovative as his more celebrated French counterpart, A.M. Cassandre.

In England, where he lived and worked, Kauffer was hailed for elevating advertising to high art, yet in America only the design cognoscenti knew of his achievements when the Montana-born expatriate returned to New York City from London in 1940—after 25 years there.

Kauffer had attempted repatriation once before in 1921, when he was invited to show his early posters at New York's Art and Decoration Gallery; at that time he also attempted to find work with American advertising agencies.

In Kauffer's hands the poster (or the book jacket, which for him was a mini-poster) was designed to be interpreted rather than accepted at face value. In this regard he continually struggled with the paradox of how to meet his creative needs, his clients' commercial interests and his viewers' aesthetic preferences, all in a limited period of time (AIGA).

life in GOTHAM: here's weegeeeeeeee!

click here for more information,

what do we see?

weegee draws attention to the extremes and foibles of the city crowd: thugs, murder victims, muggers, transvestites, circus, the street at night, as well as beautiful private moments

1. be quick & sensational,
2.get the shot,
3. create your own opportunities, don't just wait,
4. look for people with character,
5. the art of faces,

public health design (the anti-syphilis campaign of the 1940s)

the graphic evolution of Mondrian (from bottom to top)

take a look at Piet Mondrian's stylistic development, from the early 1910's symbolist Red Tree, his post Cubist period, his minimal work of the 1930's and his famous Boogie-Woogie from 1943.

What's the lesson? 

1- adherence to rules,
2- dutch aesthetics,
3- conceptual rigor,
4- less is more,
5- go slowly,

your turn #6

dear class: we explored -though briefly- distinct design marks of the first third of the twentieth century: die werkbund, cubism, futurism, cubo-futurism, suprematism, expressionism, constructivism and bauhaus.

what do you have to say? 

CONSTRUCTIVISM BLURRED THE LINE BETWEEN FINE AND APPLIED ART

The Melnikov House, Konstantin Melnikov, Moscow, 1929

what are the MARKS of constructivism?

1- formal rupture with the past, functionalism, geometric formalism and machine aesthetics.

2- design is a formal experiments for social change.

3- graphic design is a bridge between commercial publicity and fine art conventions, despite the polarization of these realms by definitions of high and mass culture.

4- graphic design turns away from traditional style in favor of a pursuit of universal principles and systems.

5- graphic design as a shaper of public opinion prompted questions about the nature of propaganda and the social responsibility of designers.

your turn #5

alfonse mucha, die musik, 1898

dear class: we've talked about many things in our last class: daguerrotype, romanticism as cultural mark, harper's, owen's grammar of ornament, 19th century erotica, lithography, chromolithography, the design of circus and freaks, postcards,  fashion, children's books...

go ahead,  

your turn #4

Gutenberg's Bible

dear class:
since we invested last week's homework on the calligraphy project (thanks for your submissions!), the homework this week is to just comment on my lecture on thursday february 7, if you recall, we discussed (amog others topics) the following:

manutius' hypnerotomachia poliphylii,
incunabula,
nuremberg chronicle,
ratdolt,
gutenberg's bible,
plantin's biblia polyglota,
imagines, morti,
old maps,
tyndale's bible,
geoffroy tory,
andrea vesalius,
griffo's bembo,
garamond...

go ahead,

Your turn #2

book of kells, dublin, ireland, circa 8th century ad (look at the angels showing through the capital letters botom, right)

it was a fun class, we talked about lots of things: trajan column as mark, typeface's parts: ligatures, ascenders, descenders, arm, belly; then vellum, ink, calligraphy, church buttresses. we talked about preferred fonts, etc. ars moriendi, Dürer's "Four Horseman."then the development of typefaces and the marvel of illuminated manuscripts throughout Europe during the middle ages.

pick whichever angle you prefer. go ahead.