STUDENT EVALUATIONS

DEAR CLASS, IT WAS A REAL PLEASURE TO BE YOUR TEACHER.

IT'S TIME TO EVALUATE MY PERFORMANCE. 

AM A FALLIBILIST AND A SKEPTIC. I NEED YOUR FEEDBACK. 

THIS IS YOUR VOICE. YOUR EVALUATION IS ANONYMOUS. IT'S GOOD METRIC FOR THE SCHOOL.

DID YOU LIKE IT? SAY IT. DID YOU HATE IT? SAY IT. 

AM THE MARK NOW,

GO AHEAD!

Post Typography's (LETTERS WITHOUT RULES)

Post Typography was founded in 2001 by Nolen Strals and Bruce Willen. They define their style as Punk Rock vs. Swiss Modernism.

Post Typography's message:

We each will carve our visage from the faceless screen, and let the ink from our pens bleed into our hands and paper. We will cast off the shackles of Photoshop to return to the freedom of letters without rules. We are the Times New Romans! We are the Franklin Gothics!

first thing first manifesto, 2000

 

the FTFM, launched by Adbusters, is a document of purpose of a generation of designers talking about concerns and priorities of the profession for the twenty-first century. the 34 signatories are amongst the most respected of the profession.   

click here for the full text of the manifesto, and list of signatories.

There are pursuits more worthy of our problem-solving skills. Unprecedented environmental, social and cultural crises demand our attention. Many cultural interventions, social marketing campaigns, books, magazines, exhibitions, educational tools, television programs, films, charitable causes and other information design projects urgently require our expertise and help.

We propose a reversal of priorities in favor of more useful, lasting and democratic forms of communication -a mindshift away from product marketing and toward the exploration and production of a new kind of meaning. The scope of debate is shrinking; it must expand. Consumerism is running uncontested; it must be challenged by other perspectives expressed, in part, through the visual languages and resources of design.

List of images for final exam, spring 2025

1.

Christoph Niemann, illustration, New York, Berlin, (early 2000's)

2.

Andrey Logvin, High Resolution, Poster (early 2000's)

3.

Flamingo Studios, This is Ja, Poster (early 2000's)

4.

Post Typography, Poster, (early 2000's)

5.

Atelier Rene Knip, Netherlands, Design installation, (late 1990's)

6.

Martin Woodtli, Sport Design, Poster (1990's)

7.

Fons Hickmann, Heimatkunde, Platinum Award Poster (2014)

8.

Maviyane-Davies, Many Rivers to Cross, Zimbabwe (1990's)

9.

 Jop van Bennekom, The Face, Cover (1996)

10.

Sara Fanelli, Book spread: Pinocchio, (early 2000's)

11.

Andy Rementer, Good Morning, Poster (2000's)

12.

Ken Tsai-Lee, Defeat Aids, Poster (1990-2000's)

13.

Jonathan Barnbrook, David Bowie's cover of Heathen (2002)

14.

Arem Duplessis,  New York Times Magazine? Study for cover, (2000's)

15.

Chris Ware, A Feeling Those People, Graphic Novel (2000's)

16.

David Carson, The Black Swan, Cover, (2011).

17.

Stefan Sagmeister, Form Magazine, Cover (2008). 

18.

Jamie Reid, Pretty Vacant, Poster (1977)

19.

Deborah Sussman, Los Angeles Olympiad, signage (1984)

20. 

 Pat Gorman & Frank Olinsky, MTV logo, (1982)

21.

April Greiman, Wet, Cover (1979)

22.

Ed Fella, Architecture & Urban Design, Poster (1989)

23.

Wes Wilson, Fillmore Concert Poster, (1967)

24.

Bill Atherton and Allan Brooking, Pregnant Man, Poster, (1969)

25.

 Paul Rand, Westinghouse Logo, (1960)

26.

William Golden, CBS Logo (1951)

27.

 Saul Bass, The Man with the Golden Arm, Poster (1955)

28.

George Lois, Esquire Cover, New York (1968)

29.

Die Design Politie, Can Tourism Benefit the Poor? Poster (2003)

30.

Franciszek Starowieyski, Lulu, Poster (1970's)

31.

Jan Lenica, Wozzeck, Poster, (1969)

32.

Iman Raad, A Single Work, Poster (2007)

33.

Joseph Müller Brockman, Less Noise!, International Typographic Style, Poster (1960)

34.

Herb Lubalin, Ad for Ebony, New York (1968)

35.

                Herbert Matter, Poster for Swiss Tourism (1934)

36.

                  

László Moholy-Nagy, Poster for BAUHAUS (1931)

37.

Alvin Lustig, Catalog for World Inventors Exposition (1947)

38. 

Lester Beall, Here it Comes, Rural Electrification Poster (1930)

39.

A. M. Cassandre, Cover for Harper's Bazaar (1939)

40. 

Alexander Rodchenko, Woman with Leika, (1924)

Your turn #10

Poster for Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver, by Jacek Staniszewski

Wow, what a class! I hope you enjoyed our discussion of the brief history of Polish posters. Why is this development so significant for the history of art and graphic design in particular? This is one of the few times in the history of art (with the exception of the advent of the Gothic in the 11th Century AD) that, for a brief moment, the art produced by the artists prevailed over ideology and censorship to bring forth a highly original style that was embraced by the people. It took a tacit understanding between both the artists and the people that this wonderfully diverse, colorful & bizarre imagery was the only way to tap into freedom. 

So, again, we have plenty to discuss (besides Polish posters): Alvin Lustig, Helvetica, Dada collage, Moholy-Nagy, Shigeo Fukuda, advertising, propaganda, Fortune magazine, George Giusti, Kula Robbins' Jenny on the job, Norman Rockwell, etc. (to avoid cacophony, if a comment addresses Polish posters, please, talk about individual artists, so more people have a chance to contribute). 

Go ahead!

 

Your turn #9

 

Hi class: Plenty to talk about, Futurist poster, Die Neue Topographie, Herbert Matter, Ladislav Sutnar,  Germany and Austria's Neue Sachlichkeit, l'ecriture automatique, Moholy-Nagy, Constructivism, Rodchenko, Stankowski's metadesign, Symbol signage, graphic design in jazz LP covers during 40s and 50s, Vargas, and THE LOGO.   

Go ahead. 

Your turn #8

 

The velocity of an automobile, Giacomo Balla, 1911

Dear class: you have a good list of themes to pick from. Neoplasticism, Surrealism in graphic design (see the different techniques) & Depero and his onomalanguage (which is Depero's way of standardizing Futurism for commercial purposes). Three female surrealist artists: Remedios Varo, Leonora Carrington & Dorothea Tanning. WW 2 & the German propaganda machine. NY designers such as Alex Lieberman, and Herb Lubalin. Russian Cubofuturism & Malevich. 

I would add the following (which I didn't have time to talk about):

1. Joseph Binder 

2. different forms of Dada collage.

3. Breton's Manifeste du Surréalism.

4. A more detailed analysis of the graphic techniques of Max Ernst and John Heartfield.

Remember 200 words. No echo chamber.

dorothea tanning (the american surrealist)

portrait of Muriel Levy, 1943, 

Tanning was a self-taught artist. The surreal imagery of her paintings from the 1940s and her close friendships with artists and writers of the Surrealist Movement have led many to regard Tanning as a Surrealist painter, yet she developed her own individual style over the course of an artistic career that spanned six decades.

Profanation Landscape, 1947

Tanning's early works consist of precise figurative renderings of dream-like situations. Tanning read many Gothic and Romantic novels from her local library in her hometown of Galesburg. These fantastical stories, filled with imagery of the imaginary, heavily influenced her style and subject matter for years to come. Like other Surrealist painters, she was meticulous in her attention to details and in building up surfaces with carefully muted brushstrokes. 

Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, 1943

Through the late 1940s, Tanning continued to paint depictions of unreal scenes, some of which combined erotic subjects with enigmatic symbols and desolate space. In the 1950s, her painting became less explicit and more suggestive. 

Rêve de Luxe, 1954

The Guest Room, 1950

In France, she moved away from Surrealism and develop her own style. During the mid-1950s, her work radically changed and her images became increasingly fragmented and prismatic, exemplified in works such as Insomnias (1957, Moderna Museet, Stockholm). 

Family portrait, 1954

here's an short about Tanning's work,