CTS Essay

"It's not what you look at, it's what you see."  Henry David Thoreau.

A detailed examination into the heirarchy and grid system within two different articles on the same subject.  And the way in which this system is used by its designers to manipulate how the reader recieves the story.

Bibliography:

'The fundamentals of Graphic Design' 

Gavin Ambrose and Paul Harris

'Grid systems in Graphic Design:  a visual communication manual for graphic designers, typographers, and three dimensional designers.'

Josef Muller Brockmann
'Design for communication: conceptual graphic design basics.'
Elizabeth Resnick
'The designer's Graphic Stew: Visual Ingredients, Techniques, and Layout.'
Timothy Samara
Design writing research.
Ellen Lupton, J. Abbot muller
Design Studies: theory and research in graphic design.
Audrey Bennett

'The Guardian' 

Broadsheet, newspaper

Cities and Film

Cities and Film

The city in modernism.  Urban sociology.

The city as both a public and private space.

The city in postmodernism.

Simmel.

A German sociologist.  

Metropalis and Mental life.

Wrote about the effects of the city on the individual.

Comes from surrealism and Dada.

The idea that one individual is surrounded by people, yet still alone.

Simmel puts forward the idea of urban sociology.  In his essay he examines how the individdual can exist in a space that is built on a group contribution.

Idea of the city engulfing the human figure.  In the background as a threat, yet also being dependant on physical and manual labour.

Sullivan.

Credited with being the creator of the modern skyscraper.

'Form follows Function.'

Guaranty Building.  The idea of the city growing upward as well as outward.

Extremely decorative.  Influenced by the arts and crafts movement.  The inside is tightly organised.  Divided into four zones.  Basement mechanical area.  Ground floor- piublic area, shops.  Third zone, office.  Final zone, consisting of elevator equipment and small offices.  

Ordered environment.

The skyscrapers in the American city represent the upwardly motion of business opporunity.

Manhatta.

Paul Strand and CHarles Scheeler.

The idea of an America that is built on immigration.

Positive?

Explore the relationship between photography and film.

Small cog in a larger machine.

Scheeler.

City towering powerful mechanical presence.

Fordism.

The human body becomes part of the machine.

Maximum productivity with minimal effort.

The worker who is employed for this menial effort labour, so they can get a wage to buy the goods they produce.  The labourer is also the consumer.  Self perpetuating prophecy.

1929 Stock Market Crash.

Factories close, unemployment rises.

Leads to the Great Depression.

Man with a Movie Camera.

Silent documentary film 1929.

Explores the role of the movie camera in the city.

Famous for its range of cinematic techniques- they are invented within this film for others to follow.

Seeks to create a futuristic commentary.

Celebration of industrialisation, mechanicalism, technology etc.

Flaneur

"To stroll"

Figure in literiture has been used to think about what the role of the body is in the city.

Baudelaire.

Looks at the Flaneur who is simultaneously a part of and a part from the crowd.

A man of leisure, with no place to go.  Just there to observe others actions and interactions.

Benjamin.

Adopts this concept as an analytical tool.  Ironic as he himself is in essence a Flaneur.

Arcades Project.

Allow an experience of the city that is both inside and outside at the time.  The idea of a 'cafe society'- places where these observations can be made.

Flaneuse.

Female version of the Flaneur.

What does it mean for the female figure to be a wandering observer in the city.

A femenist sociology of modernity should emerge.  

Susan Bock- Morss.

Suggests that what we think of when we think of a woman on the street is either a 'bad lady' or a lady of the night.

Arbus and Hopper.

Observed moments.  A sense of threat.  The darkness that surrounds them has depth to it.  The night is engulfing them both.

Venice.

Architecture and layout.  Labyrinth of alleys and streets.  Small- so you'd always end up back where you came from.

'Don't look now.':

Issues of memory and trauma of grief.  Play on identity.

The Detective.

Private dectective hired to follow herself.  His record of his obervation following her.  Photographic evidence of her existence.  Essentially like facebook- a construction and story that is edited and writeen by her.  SHe took the dectective wher eshe wanted to go because she knew she was being followed.

Cindy Sherman.

Stereotypical figure of women in the city.  Where the woman is in some sense almost lost/trapped by the city.  Low angle view points.  Looming presence of skyscrapers behind the character.

Weegee.

City as a place of threat not just examined by female photographers.

Dark side of NYC.

Mobile darkroom in the car.

Instantanious reporting.  Revolutionary.

'The naked city'.

Noire tradition.

L.A. NOIRE- 2011

The firt video game to be shown at the Tribecca Film Festival.

Challenges the player to control the L.A police department.

The idea of the city as simultaneously in the past present and future.

Metropolis/ Blade Runner.

Future in he city,

The idea of the body in the city is also explored in Lorca di Corcia Heads 2001.

Detatched observer.  Haunting, alienated subject of the individual in the crowd.  Clearly in their own mental space whilst surrounded by others.

Doesn't ask permission.

Name of the photographs are the city- placing them back into the annonymity of that place.  Taking away their identity.

Walker Evans.

Many are called.

Made with the sue of a hidden camere beneath his trenchoat.  Unobserved moments.  Moments of very private moments within the public space.  Unaware that they are being photographed.

Again, the idea that people are alone in the city despite being surrounded.

Ed Soja.

Getting lost in architecture.

Proposed same idea in the city.

City is a confusing and encompassing experience on the individual.

Joel Meyerowitz.

Eye level- confusing.

Reflects mental state.

Citizen Journalism

Impossible to be a detatched observer now.

Liz Wells.

Immediacy of mobile phone images.  Replaces the idea of reporters.  Different aesthetic in citizen journalism.  More about information- photography used as evidence.  Images of 7/7 bombings were online within an hour.  No longer have separation of individual and city and experience of the city.

Surveillance city.

Enormous investment in machinery of surveillance.

Coming together of photography and film in the street.

"Looking is not Indifferent".

Berger.

Doesn't mean that women are vain.  Common misunderstanding.  Women have an idea of themselves being looked at.  Mostly concentrates on nudity in european art.  A proliferation of images.

'Vanity'
Mirror is present in the paining as a device that works in harmony with the title.  Forces us to make a judgment about this woman- she is vain.

The gaze in the media.
Contemporary advertising.

Woman lost in thought.  Assume that she is lost in a moment of vanity.  She is not looking at the viewer so it is easier for the viewer to gaze at her- it is easier for us to judge.

Cabanel.
Reclining.  Raises hand that covers her eyes, allows us to look at her body without a challenge of her looking back.  Three quarters of the image is taken up by her body, the main focus of the painting.

Opium.
Was rejected because of its overt sexual nature. 
Emphasis changes with the vertical format onto the face.

Titian
Traditional nude.  There is a challenge to the gaze, but her stare is more inviting and relaxed.

Manet.
Modernist period.  Modern nude.  The difference between the two is that olympia sits elevated and looks directly into the viewers eye.  More of an assertive pose.  Carries the signs of wealth, receives gifts.  Cat represents femininity.  Disregarding girft from admirer- looks directly at the viewer.

Ingres.

Guerilla Girls.
Research into quotes.

The Gaze and The Media.
Manet.
Type of self portrait.  Manet himself is pictured in the reflection of the bar.  Giving the viewer several different perspectives at once.  Distorted mirror reflection.  Open gesture, represents approachable nature. 

Jeff Wall.
Reinterpretation.  quote from tate site.

Coward.
Camera extension of the male gaze.  People are desensitised by nudity.  Although she poses in such a way that invites a gaze, she is wearing sunglasses so as not to challange us.  This is a common use within contemporary advertising.

Wonderbra.
Playful interaction that makes the gaze acceptable.  Looking down at herself, or looking down on us (in context of a large scale billboard)- inviting, lack of challenge.

Coward.
A form of voyeurism.  Look into 'Peeping Tom' 1960.

Men objectified.
Underwear advert ft a male in reclining pose.  Similar to birth of venus.  Closed eyes.  We are invited to look at the body without challenge.
To put this in context.  Dr Scott Lucas: "The isuue of male objectivity is often raised in gender classes.  Men are now equally objectified in pop culture.  Can men be objectified as women are.
Can find examples of male objectivity, however, quantified against the scale of female objectivity it doesn't even compare.

D&G
Different to female- partially clothed.  Display of male strength- in a gym setting, sport connotations, health etc.  All eyes are staring at the viewer, every single one of them returns the gaze.  This gives a sense of power that reflects the setting they are in.

Cinema.  'One may look without being seen." 
Find a female protagonist in film.

Gentileschi.
Reverses traditional roles. 

Pollock.
Looks at womens exclusion in art history.  In history of painting womens role is left out.

Sherman.
Illustrative of the gaze.  Wasn't making the work with theories of the gaze in mind.  It is existing motifs that appear in photography and film that naturally reflect it.
Lying on a bed.  Eyes looking away, reclining body, however, turned vertically much like opium.  Gives different connotations.  Reminders that we are looking at a reconstruction.  Talk about how the replication makes it less sincere and akward- implies acting, so therefore the gaze is not longer enjoyable?  What does this mean?

Kruger.
Conscious replication of gaze.  Offering us the side of her face as an alternative.  Refusal to return the gaze onto her body.

Lucas.
Idea that a woman might be self conscious about eating a banana in public.  Visualisation of the idea that a woman creates self consciousness in a fairly mundane everyday act.
Fried eggs.
Her body is there to be consumed.  Challenging idea of something derogatory in small breasts.

Emin.
The body creates the money.  Bringing together idea of women making money from their art focusing on their bodies.

Sontag.
Powerpoint quote.
Princess Diana.
Our desire to passively consume these voyeuristic images is what feeds their production.  Self fulfilling prophecy.

Reality T.V.
Operates in a similar way.  Passive consumption of reality.  Gives us the power of the gaze? Not reality at all.  Aware of their own representation, so therefore change their behaviour as a projection in which they want to be received.
Turning voyeurism into an everyday activity.

"Looking is not indifferent."

Critical positions on the media and popular culture

Known as 'popular culture' and 'mass culture'. 

All of these terms are loaded with 'value judgements'.

What is culture?

Raymond Williams:  One or two or three of the most complicated words in the English language.

As these processes of general imancipation grow culture exists.  Describes a way of living.  For example, a sub-culture- certain values, ways of thinking about the world.

Culture can be describing really important works within society.  At various points institutions decided that these things are of certain significance, to the point where they can describe culture.  For example, Shakespear. 

Base:

Culture emerges from the base.

Superstructure:

'Popular Culture'

4 Definitions.

- Well liked by many.

The idea of popular culture quantificly measured- music.  The problem with this analysis is that it leads to unreliable results.  i.e Shakespear- not classed as popular culture

- Inferior kinds of work

Inferior kind of culture.  Mass produced work.  Works that aspire to be important and for whatever reasons, fail.  A value jusdgement has to be made.

- Work deliberately setting out to win favour with the people.

The tastemakers of culture.  Anything that aims to be populist becomes popular culture.  Trying to make something understood by everyone.  'Work that is easy and bored of people' makes it popular culture

- Culture actually made by the people themselves.

Made by people for the people.  I.e. working class popular culture.......EG---->

Work on left is an example of high culture.  Left- supposed to make you reflect about the transience of life.  Right- supposed to be popular culture.  Not supposed to make you contemplate your relationship with the universe.  Interesting to ask why???????????  -------->  Why wouldn't people ask these questions?

Such judgements and attitudes exist everywhere in life.

E.G. Quality Newspapers, and Popular Newspapers.

Cinema vs Art/ Independent Cinema

The latter is always aimed at the elitist in society.  Testament to popular culture as peoples culture- for everyone to speak to everyone.

Look into 'Folk Archive'-interesting.

By the people for the people.

Why is it funny?

They look rubbish...like a poor attempt to create something that looks arty.  We feel we could do better than that.  We are taght to think a certain way about how art should look and be presented.  Where does this institutionalised idea come from?

Created by people who haven't been institutionalised by the elitist thought of the way art should be.  Self taught.

What happens when popular culture enters high culture.  E.G. Graffiti. What happens when it is translated to mainstream Western culture and is exhibited in galleries?  Bought and sold art.  Popular culture can start as representing the masses to then move to 'culture'.

Working Class/ proletariat:

'The making of the English working class'.

Condensed together is factories as a mass, and clearly separated from the Bourgeouisie- the owners of the factories.

Bourgeouisie:

Physical distiction between the rich and the poor.  Start to create a cultural separation also.  Working class start to create their own cultural forms and activities.  Own forms of literature and music.  Before this moment, the only people in charge of deciding these things were the higher class.  Suddenly two opposing voices.  Start thinking about how they should be organised, how their society should be run- politicial undercurrents.

CHARTISM- campaign for working class to vote.

Matthew Arnold was the first person who tried to define what culture/ popular culture was.  

Disinterested writing- unbias- no hidden agenda.  Culture is the force that can minister the diseased spirit of our time.  The opposite to clture that is anarchy- this emerging working class culture, that seeks to have it's own voice heard.  'If we teach them how to appreciate our culture we can get them in line'.

Leavis.

'Culture has always been in monority keeping'. 

His role to defend culture and its minority keeping.

Harpring back to old times.

Their reading of culture as 'dissmissed' is entirely the opposite.  Totally interested and bias.

Form of snobbery.  i.e. Eastenders.

Most people talk about popular culture in this way.

Frankfurt School:

What they described as to what was happening in America was the 'Culture industry'.  Culture produced in a factory.  FORDISM.  Equated that process as a process of culture.  These 'cultral factories' spew out masses at a time.  E.G. People feel like they already understand something about films because they follow certain rules and criteria...it means you know the ending before it had even started.  Society wanted these things- MASS CULTURE.

Culture that is spawned out for the masses.  The idea of art/culture under capitalism has become mass produced, with all that is created under the guise of culture, with a real undertone of money and profit.

- Bleak.

Depoliticises the working class.

Hollyoaks- sexualising women in education, one dimensional view, propels the view/ mentality that women in education should be sexualised.  

Ultimate lesson.  Your interest in life, your solution, is to go on these shows and be judged by middle class who tell you that you, plummer/ cashier/ bin man actually have the skills to do well.  

Start to identify our culture by the things that we are surrounded by.  If we are surrounded by this shite then we will be identified by it.  

You never end up doing anything about it, just involving yourself with the problems, relating to anything that agrees, or a dream that you want to become a reality- music.

Adorno:

'ON POPULAR MUSIC'.

-all popular music is standardised.

Because everything is standardised and your choice is lateral/ non existent, it acts as a form of 'social cement', to keep you in your place.  "Makes you passive and makes you adjust your behaviour in 

Relationship between factory and dance music.  Slave to the beat.  "Mindlessley dance to the' rythm of their own opression"

For Adorno: Culture under capitalism is totaly lost.

Mechanical Reproduction / / effect on Art & Design

The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.

Walter Benjamin (1936)

Main Focus:
AURA / /

'Aura' = authenticity, the line of manipulation / / ownership and the way in which the piece is exhibited. Aura in relation to arts is a negative trait in relation to its bourgeois connections.  Reproduction of art by means of photography, and its distribution to the masses.
"Mechanical reproduction of art changes the reaction of the masses toward art (...) The greater the decrease in the social significance of an art form, the sharper the distinction between criticism and enjoyment by the public"

Very interesting essay / / analysis. 

Surveillence and Society

Marxism & Design Activism

Aims

The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point however, is to change it.

Marx, K. (1845) 'Theses On Feuerbach.

Unification of thought and action-  political praxis.

Marxism:

Political manifesto that outlined what was thought as a better way of running society.  Describes how labourors, bosses etc, there will always be friction.  Also a philosophical method/psycho analysis.  Philosophy that is realised thorugh a political revolution- definition of praxis.

Capitalism:

The society that we live in (in the West).  It is a society where control of means of production (a few individuals make lots of money and everyone else works for them making them their money) is run by few.  Based on individualism.  Makes us compete, from the early days of schooling this is forced on you.  You are encouraged to try better than everyone else, do better.

...Communist Evolution,

Early stages of society- Primitive Communism- everything was shared, social and sexual freedom.  

Accidental heirarchys would emerge:

Slave society- 

Feudalism- Aristocracy becomes ruling class.  -merchants develop into capitalists.

Capitalism- Ruling class- create and employ real working classes.  The workers make the money for the capitalists.

Socialism-

Communism-

Marx Concept of Base/ Superstructure

Base

At any given moment society will have certain tools/technology etc, and people will end up in some kind of production.  As an employer/employee/female/black etc.  Work around forces of production.  Everything is a result of the forces of production.  

Superstructure

Everything can be traced back to issues of class/gender politics/ racial politics.

Relations of production, produce various outcomes in society.

Dialectical process.  One thing producing its opposite, then the other thing strengthening the initial thing.

Eg.  Education.

Base-  Bosses and workers.  -boss telling worker what to do. 

Because we have been told what to do from a small age by someone- i.e, teacher and pupils.  

Now in jobs we feel it is acceptable to be told what to do by our bosses, because there has always been that authorative figure in life. -superstructure.

Last sentence of quote on 4th slide?

create a pyramid for current time.

Much more effective to control the way people think, i.e. newspapers/ tabloids etc.

Ideology:

Marxist reading of religion teaches us that if we're good and honourable in life then when you die you wil be rewarded in heaven.  Heavy form on mental control.

You can have an ideology, i.e. christianity, political party etc.

or

'False consciousness'.  We don't understand the true nature of society and are exploited. 

Art as ideology.

Classical art- the only people who were allowed to produce art were the people who could afford lessons, equipment etc.  White rich men making art.  Kings and Queens buy the art.  They decide what is to be created.  Very internal.  Reflecting the way a certain ruling class thinks.

Art made to train people to think in a certain way.  Art has always been ideological. 

Society= Economic, Political and Ideological.

Ideology becomes not just propaganda, but a mechanism that controls our lives.  Offers reasons for why we are in our situation.  e.g.naked women in art- reasons- that's ok because the female figure is more beautiful to draw/ look at.  BULL.

Media- Ideological state of apparatus:

Means of production.

All of the media is controlled by few superrich.

Perpetuation of false consciousness.

The Sun:

1997-new labour, the sun controversy.

The times: sophisticated.

Daily star- work on the presumption that working class enjoy big brother and football.  They could not like it, however, it is forced upon them.  A self fulfilling prophecy.

Student:

anyone that challenges.  just a judgement on front page.  no mention of political reason.

Essay

Choosing a particular period from the 1800’s to the present, in what ways has art and design responded to the changing social and cultural forces of that period?

This is an analysis looking looking at the ways in which American Art Deco design of the 1920’s to the late 1930’s responded to the social and economical effects of the Great Depression, and how it changed prior to this.

The term ‘Art Deco’ is generally used to describe the majority of art and design production throughout the 1920’s and 30’s.  To begin with, it was a social reaction to the great poverty of the First World War, promoting a lifestyle of opulence and luxury so that spirits would stay high.  The public were constantly buying- and with prosperity.  America had become the richest nation on Earth.  The term Art Deco connotes romanticism and decadence, traits usually rejected by the modernist movement.  Ironically, it seems that after The Great Depression whilst Art Deco still existed, its general ideas and design shifted in a somewhat more modernist direction.

The image to the left is a Sheet music cover for Sigmund Romberg’s ‘The Desert Song’.  The design has been obtained from the book ‘New York Art Deco’, however unfortunately the designer is unknown.  I do not think the piece entirely conforms to the general definition of Art Deco design.  The piece consists mainly of curved lines, closer to the naturalistic style of ‘Art Nouveau’ than the later more modernist Art Deco style.  The use of curved lines also reinforces the strong Art Deco approach to the design.  The is because the mood before The Great Depression was much more glamorous.  Like a dream, the curved lines connote optimism and reflect the state of the economy at that time.  There is a strong use of sans serif front, along with bold direction within the frame- both of which are main features of Art Deco design.  It is clear that this design has incorporated ideas of Art Deco, however, other aspects of design have also been introduced.  For example, it is a heavily illustrated piece, unusual for an Art Deco design.  The illustrated image is not quite perfectly filled, and the use of different weight of line means that together a rough finish is formed, these two aspects go exactly against Art Deco design, which uses clean edges and full, bold colour.  There is a heavy North African influence in this piece, which makes sense given its’ content.  The prevailing colour yellow signifies sand and ‘the desert’.  It is clear that the typeface sued has this North African influence because of its harsh contrast between heaviness and sharp points, giving it an almost Arabian look inspired by the shape of a ‘saif’ (Arabian sword).  Form does not follow function within this piece.  The typefaces used are more decorative, reflecting the general theme within this book, rather than using a wholly readable font- an aspect of modernism that this design has not adopted, following a more ‘pure’ form of Art Deco.  In October 1929 The Stock Market Crash took place, which subsequently led to The Great Depression.  The Great Depression was not just confined to the U.S, it had global, catastrophic effects.  This led to many Europeans moving to America, bringing their own influences with them.  These influences were already heavily rooted with modernist design.  For example the Bauhaus had essentially been and gone.  The spread of fascism from Hitler also forced people to leave for somewhere more accepting- America.  So, new designers with new ideas, coupled with the current economic sate (post The Great Depression) would logically mean a shift in existing movements- Art Deco.

This book over was designed by John Vassos for ‘Ultimo’ in 1930 by Alastair Duncan, in ‘American Art Deco’.  The cover, in relation to the sheet music cover is a totally different style, yet still regarded as Art Deco design.  The colours used are bold and strong, and in contrast, the piece is made up of entirely straight edges, giving it the modernist aesthetic.  It is hard to tell from all the copies of this design whether the colours are supposed to look rough.  Given the general look of the piece and relating back to the rules of Art Deco, it makes sense that it is supposed to be block and filled-in so that it looks bold and sleek.  The use of colour grid signifies once again that feeling of opulence and positivity the Art Deco design of the 1920’s once revolved around; however, the harsh edges used give a more serious finish to the design, one that portrays the severe effects a year after The Great Depression began.  A much more structured, geometric rule is followed in this design; it is not as free as the sheet music cover design.  This reflects the way people within the American society felt trapped, as if there was nothing they could do to change what was happening.  Yet there was also a positive side to this.  The regimented nature of the design meant that there could be more focus on direction; for example, this design uses different weights of line.  However, because these shapes are much more disciplined it creates a look of movement, reflecting societies mindset of modernity at that time, injecting a positive aspect to the current, dark times.  The Great Depression brought more forward thinking because of the disastrous state of the present.  Focusing of the modernist idea of ‘truth’, the American people knew what shape their country was in, yet still wanted to focus on what they thought was to be a positive future. 

During his short time in America the designer Fortunato Depero states in ‘American modernist Graphic Design 1920 to 1960’, that for him, New York was ‘the exhalting discovery of the reality of a modern metropolis…pestering, tumultuous, conflictual, glittering and spectacular, but also also stressful, tragic, as a plunge into a conditioning and crushing machine’.  For some time after the Stock Market Crash things were confusing, the economy was affecting people on a global scale; times were hard, yet people still wanted to stay positive.  Designers found much inspiration from New York living, as it was here where everything was happening.  There was an embrace for art and culture; the economy was in a bad way; people were homeless, unemployed; and there had been also been a lot of European influences throughout this time, which made for an interesting mix of ideals and styles.  For example, the Austrian- born graphic designer Joseph Binder emigrated to America in 1934.  Here he entered many poster competitions and won, one of these entries was the poster to the left for the ‘New York World’s Fair’.  Roger Remington states in ‘American Modernism’ that ‘it is largely effective because of its’ directness and simplicity’.  For a wide audience to understand and appreciate something it has to work, and quickly.  Stripping away the decorative aspect of Art Deco and just being left with a stylistic look allows more room for communication. 

According to Remington, Binders’ work focuses on the ‘reduction of geometric forms and colour contrasts’.  These are the aspects that optimise visual communication, a stripped down approach to design.  The lines of light used create direction within the frame, the majority of which coming from New York City, highlighting that it is prosperous- hinting slightly at their prosperity, whist still focusing on the world as a whole.  The use of light and direction is a trait commonly used within Art Deco design, however, it is usually put across in a more curved way.  The mass of navy within the frame pushes the small amount of yellow and white forward for the viewer to see clearly what the poster is about.  A simple sans serif font is used, which aids its’ readability.  This poster is clear and concise, the main attributes to a modernist deign.  The Worlds’ Fair in itself was about celebrating modernism, forward looking and positivity.  Much like after the War, people needed something to keep spirits high, and this was the opportune moment.

So, it seems that society responded to The Great Depression by evolving Art Deco design into something (arguably) more meaningful.  Focusing more on the delivery of a message than decorating it in a less structured way.  Yet the design still set to influence people into thinking of the future and the possibilities it held rather than the present, which has always had modernist ideals within its’ designs.  Visually, Art Deco design prior to The Great Depression was more about outlandish designs, with curved lines and being lightheartedly positive, whereas Art Deco design post The Depression was more about simplicity, encompassing speed and streamlines finishes.  Idealistically the design changed coming from a different angle.

Bibliography:

Books;

-       David Garrard Lowe., (2004) Art Deco New York.  Watson-Gutpill Publications Inc, U.S

^{-               Alastair Duncan,. (1999) American Art Deco.  Thames and Hudson; New edition.}

^{-               R.Roger Remington., (2003) American Modernism Graphic Design 1920 to 1960.  Laurence King Publishing.}

^{-               Lawrence Cahoone., (1995) From Modernism to Postmodernism.  Wiley- Blackwell.}

Websites;

-       ‘The roaring 20’s, Social issues’.  http:/www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1564.html

-       ‘Modernism. An introduction to American Art Deco’ http://www.artsmania.org/wiki/The_Great_Depression

-       Wikipedia.com.  ‘The Great Depression’  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Depression

-       ‘Advertising Arts: America becomes modern(istic)’.  2004.  Stevel Heller.  Httpy://www.typotheque.com/articles/advertising_arts_america_becomes_modernistic.

-       ‘Graphic Design as Communication’ Malcolm Barnard.  Google Books.  ‘Modernism and Graphic Design’.  http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=TPZNAAB1xqUC&printsec=frontcover&dq=malcolm+barnard&hl=en&ei=xRg-TceeBsiDOqfu96ML&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=book-thumbnail&resnum=2&ved=0CYQ6wAQv=onepage&g&f=false

Deconstuction task,

In approximately 500 words, summarise the text highlighting the key points it makes about typography, and the role of typography in creation of meaning. Use these key points to write a brief critical analysis of one deconstructionist work of Graphic Design focusing on the aims of Deconstruction in Graphic Design.

- Designers use typography to 'help' readers avoid actually reading through the content.  They create shortcuts that are not only socially accepted but are programmed into us from birth- we know nothing else unless we seek it out. 

- In the past, all type was written.  This created a written form of 'chinese whispers', where, through every process the text had to undertake i.e.proof reading, aspects of the original writers voice were lost.  In relation to present time, texts can be easily downloaded from the internet and are therefore easy to manipulate, for example, plaigerism- most of the time the original message is changed to communicate something else, and that is why it can be spotted- because it sounds incorrect.

- Articles and books have a specific 'regime', a set of rules that they follow so that readers instantly know where to look.  The page numbering element is a good thing- it means that if readers only need a specific page in a set up guide they can go straight to it- the text is giving orders, so in this sense it must be as quick and simple as possible, rather than a long novel you can get into.

- When the visual aspect of type is changed, so does the readers ways of interpretation.  This means that the designers of this text have ultimate power over how it is taken, however, they also have the power to give the power back to the reader to take away their own thoughts from this text.  In this sense the designer has a moral obligation to control people not to regurgatate a linear view.

- In present, especially the current generation, people have been brought up with the internet.  The internet has bred a generation of impatient and lazy readers that never really get the full impact of the text because they only visually see the impact of the bold type.   

Both the images above are posters created and designed by Ed Fella.  They are both deconstruction within graphic design.  They are known as this through their forceful communication.  Both these posters use simple, one colour backgrounds against the text, this highlights the text itself and makes is easier to see what the words say, however, it doesn't make it easier to read the text as a whole.  The difference in weighting, stroke, typeface all come together, adding to the whole idea that the harder the text is to read, the more the reader will retain the information because of the difficulty in translating it into context.

Postmodernism in Graphic Design

The Memphis Group

This specific piece of design was a reaction against the 'impersonal, humorless' designs of modernism.  This holds a totally over elaborate, ornamental look which works- you want to use this because it is making a statement.  The draws are the smallest part of the piece, with the focus more on colours and shapes- bringing the 'fun' back into design, along with mocking its own purpose.

Above is a collage produced by the Swiss designer Wolfgang Weingart.  His aim was to always attempt the 'untried', exploring and bending the rules of type.  This specific piece encompasses postmodernism because of the mixture of mediums used- there are so many approaches within this design giving it a complex, diverse look.

This image too, produced by Tibor Kalman, is a collage.  However, the focus in this piece is more on the humorous aspect- the fact that the words signify the image that will be portrayed in a persons mind is ironic- Kalman has created an image using words.  The sound of that sentence in itself is ironic, yet true.  It is also a clever way of designing, one that will entice people through wit.