the 2000s it's not what you look @ that matters, it's what you see

Stephan Sagmeister, 2008 

your turn no. 10

Starowieyski's Czerwona Magia, 1970s

Anything to say about the polish poster? Pick your favorite, go ahead,

Jan Sawka

Mr. Sawka studied art, printmaking and architecture during a period of political ferment throughout Eastern Europe, including the widespread student protests throughout Poland in 1968 that set off a brutal government crackdown on dissidents.

His poster designs for avant-garde theater groups became well known for their wordplay and their deadpan style, in which symbols of protest were often stitched into the graphics.

By the mid-'70s, foreign art critics had begun noticing the black humor in his work and raving about his subtle style of anti-authoritarianism.

what's the Sawka's secret?

1- go against the grain (political, social),
2- use hand held typeface,
3- the image says it all,
4- humor drives the design,

Awards: 1975 Oscar de la Peinture in Cagnes-sur-Mer, France for painting and the Gold Medal at the 1978 Warsaw Poster Biennial. In 1981, when martial law was imposed in Poland, the AFL-CIO sponsored a bipartisan fundraiser that sold Sawka's Solidarity poster in the millions to provide immediate support to the besieged Solidarity movement. In 1989, Sawka designed a 10-story tall set for The Grateful Dead's 25th Anniversary tour. In 1993, he created his first full multi-media spectacle, "The Eyes" in Japan. This was the beginning of his collaboration with Japanese studios and corporations, which includes the creation of high-tech interactive sculptures and monumental installations, as well as designs for full-scale monumental architecture. Sawka designed "The Tower of Light Cultural Complex" for Abu Dhabi, U.A.E., presented to the Royal Family in 1996.

Mieczysław Szczuka

Teresa Żarnower (1895-1950) was Mieczysław Szczuka’s partner in both life and art. She belonged to the interwar period with its constructivist avant-garde environment and is considered a pioneer of this trend in Poland. She was a co-creator of the magazine Blok. 

In her posters and photomontages she combined her political engagement and picks of the avant-garde. Żarnower also designed covers for left-wing publications, including Vladimir Mayakovsky’s Poems (1927), which remains a classical example of modern cover design. She combined the author’s photograph with vertical and horizontal divisions. Żarnower’s most recognised poster is probably the parliamentary election campaign poster designed for Worker-Peasant Unity (1928), which shows the punishing fist of the workers’ society hitting the wall of a prison.

Before the era of globalized entertainment made movie posters look the same in every country, Polish artists were creating their own versions for the internal market

Jan Lenica The Deadly Invention, 1958

your turn no.9

Anton Stankowski, 1967

Hi class.

Plenty to talk about. the International Topographic Swiss School (and its masters), Fortune magazine & pre LOGO, LOGO proper, (and its masters), Giusti, Stankowski, propaganda, advertising, Bass's design for film, Alvin Lustig, Cipe Pineles, Kula Robbins, Rockwell, Vargas...

go ahead,

steve jobs talks about paul rand's design for apple corporation

logo design (40 tips)

new heaven railroad deisgn, herbet mayer, 1954

here.

each logo has a history

the history of xerox. and all the changes merely reflect the development ton the company from the late 1940s analog beginnings to the iconic 1961 chermayeff and geismar logo to the 1994 landor pixelated "X," to xeros's present incarnation. the lesson is that no logo can take care of all the possible instantiations in the development of a company -that is, unless the company purposefully intends to keep that identity.  my favorite? C&G!

if you care for logo design history? check this site. 

Neo-Surrealism: Boris Hoppek's depiction of women: objectification or liberation?

Hoppek's latex-pussy project. Is it an expression of female objectification or liberation? there's objectification no doubt, but he's playing it too obviously, which makes for a calmer critique. what i'm saying is that hoppek is debating a male POV (what else, that's what he is) of what objectification is, but objectification was never defined by men, but by women. "felt" by women not by men.     

 assemblage above, Magritte-like

 a crueler Magrittean version