Category Archives: Research

Contemplating the history of graphic design

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Poster by Alphonse Mucha in Art Nouveau style

Setting out to look at the entire history of graphic design seems at best an act of optimism and at worst sheer folly. Even the concise published histories run to at least 200 pages. However, undeterred, I did at least want to get some sense of the field and see how others have defined it.

I found a number of helpful infographics, particularly the one from James Cain on the history of visual communications. This was useful in terms of the starting point being prehistoric picture writing, which reinforced for me the depth of our interaction with visuals. Neuroscience suggests that at least 20% of our brain is dedicated to vision.  I’m not sure I’m up to producing my own timeline yet but maybe later in the course.

Rather than recount any particular chronology, which feels a bit overwhelming at this point, I have tried to look for themes and patterns.

  • Links between art movements and developments in graphic design: it seems to me there has been a constant interplay between art and graphic design. Interestingly, the art nouveau posters of Mucha, themselves became regarded as art over time rather than advertising billboards. Modernism, post-modernism, constructivism, pop art to name a few have influenced the designers of their day.
  • The impact of war and propaganda on design: wars appear to have had a significant impact on the nature, purpose and sheer quantity of graphic design at different points in history.

The First World War established the importance of visual design. (Hollis, 2001: 32)

By the outbreak of the Second World War graphic design had become an established element of the political landscape and an essential component in delivering messages to populations.

  • Developments within particular national boundaries which then spread further afield. A number of countries have been credited with specific developments:
    • Russia and constructivism
    • Italy and Futurism, and the Milanese style
    • The Netherlands and de Stijl
    • Switzerland and the ‘Swiss style’
    • France and the Moderne, and so on…
  • Technological development and its impact on graphic design: Technology has both enabled and influenced the history of graphic design. This includes design technology and wider technological developments that have supported graphic design solutions such as the global mail system, lithography, the typewriter, the photocopier, photography, digital technology. I’m really looking forward to Graphic Means being released as it looks like it will give insights into some of these technologies!

Another theme that has emerged is that the key figures mentioned throughout the histories appear to be men, which raises for me the question around the gendered nature of what they produce. I know it is a bit of a rabbit hole to fall down but it does highlight questions about the nature of visual communications and whether gender affects outcome.

I know this is just the tip of the iceberg but it gives me some insight into different approaches and influences on the field of graphic design. It also starts to bring out some themes I might look at in more depth. There is obviously still much to explore!

References:

Hollis, R. (2001). Graphic Design: A concise history. London: Thames & Hudson Ltd.

 

The joy of eclecticism

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Yesterday, I was being opportunistic and with hindsight a little optimistic about getting to a number of exhibitions in between meetings while I was in London.  I have read somewhere about keeping my influences broad and staying in touch with culture in its widest sense to improve my graphic design sensibility. So, I had lined up in my head:

  • The V&A Illustration awards 2016
  • William Eggleston at the National Portrait Gallery
  • Dutch flower painting at the National Gallery
  • Georgia O’Keefe at Tate Modern

Inevitably travel across London took longer than anticipated and in the end I managed two of the four. I thought I might just squeeze in the O’Keefe but the queue for tickets was just too long. In the case of Eggleston and O’Keefe, although I didn’t get to see the work, it was interesting to see the graphic design involved in their promotion.

The Illustration awards were a bit of a disappointment, not in terms of the work but in their display and presentation. They were tucked away in front of the National Art Library in brightly lit cases with a lot of red in the background. I’m afraid I felt it just didn’t do the work justice. You get a better sense of all the work online as well as being able to see all the entries.

Display case with text a red background and a small figure in the middle of menacing shadows

V&A Illustration Awards 2016: Bill Bragg’s ‘Now I’m Afraid’

The illustration that stood out for me was Bill Bragg’s ‘Now I’m Afraid,’ I found it incredibly powerful and liked its simplicity. It worked so well with the text and completely captured the sense of menace Masuma Rahim conveyed. The quality of all the work was very high and it was interesting for me to think about how I analysed illustrations as opposed to the more familiar photography or painting. I found I was considering them in the light of not just the quality of the art but whether they fulfilled their purpose in illuminating the text or the point being made.

Of those that didn’t make the finalists I really liked Lesley Barnes, Jill & the Dragon. It is lively and engaging, and looks to me like it has some historical references in its Bayeux tapestry type form. Let’s face it what’s not to love about dragons!

 

Banner for Duth Flowers exhibition at National Gallery August 2016

Dutch Flower Exhibition banner

From the V&A I went to the National Gallery to indulge my recent preoccupation with Vanitas Still Life, I particularly wanted to see if any of the women I had researched for my last photography assignment were included.  Although these were specifically flower paintings rather than Vanitas you could see elements of the genre in a number of the paintings – the cycle of life and death.

I was interested in the graphic design incorporated in the promotion of the exhibition that not surprisingly focused on the beauty of the flowers.

It was also fascinating to see the mass of merchandising the exhibition had generated in the shop, everything from notelets to a glasses cleaning cloth. Perhaps surprisingly there wasn’t a catalogue but there was pretty much everything else. Most of the heading font was serif combined with san serif body text. I could understand the use of the serif header text because it looks in keeping with the historic nature of the work.

By this point I knew there wasn’t time to fit in both Eggleston and Georgia O’Keefe so I headed off to Tate Modern, sadly by the time I got there was not enough time left to get a ticket and do justice to the show so that will have to wait for another day.

Banne for Georgia O'Keeffe exhibition outside Tate Modern with St Pauls in the background

Georgia O’Keeffe Exhibition banner

As with the Dutch flower paintings it was interesting to see how Tate Modern was presenting the show, something I might only have shown a passing interest in before now.  Would I have used the white flower as the main image? Possibly not. It gives a sense of her fluid style but I don’t think it conveys the vibrancy of much of her work. The font used seemed to be very much in keeping with the Tate house style and very clear and clean.  Apparently the brand identity was designed by Marina Willer of Wolff Olins in the late nineties.

It was really about finding the balance between making Tate much more democratic and accessible to lots of people, without taking away any of the things that they’ve built over the years in terms of respect and authority.

Willer, 2011, Creative Review ‘Branding the Art World’

Surprisingly, during my visit to London the piece that most caught my eye was the poster showing the changing design of the London Underground Roundel – it was fascinating!

Large poster showing the change designs of the London Underground roundel

100 years of the London Underground Roundel

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Conceptual Art study visit, Tate Britain

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Sketchbook page with notes from a visit to the Conceptual Art Exhibition Tate Britain August 2016

It is probably appropriate that one of my strongest memories of the Conceptual Art exhibition is the smell of oranges. This review is as much an account of my process as it is a reflection on the exhibition itself.

The small accordion catalogue provided for the exhibition states that:

Conceptual art is about ideas or concepts. It is not about objects and materials…It undermines the traditional view of art as something to be looked at and admired.

This provides my first dilemma of the visit – here we are in one of, if not the, foremost art institution in the country viewing this work in a traditional white box with its incumbent hushed tones and uniformed (at least that is what I recollect) invigilators. This contradiction hits home when those that are investigating Roelof Louw’s ‘Soul City’ (Pyramid of Oranges, 1967) disintegrating tower of oranges (visitors are encouraged to take one fruit each) are told they are not to move the fruit about they must simply take one. As I move towards the second room I smell the scent of a freshly peeled orange, the impudent visitor is then told she cannot eat the fruit in the gallery.

My understanding is that conceptual art was born out of a reaction to modernism so there is something contradictory for me in the fact it is now displayed as a body of work on gallery walls and plinths. Although I suspect some of the artists may have enjoyed the irony.

It is not at all clear where the boundaries of ‘conceptual art’ are to be drawn, which artists and which works to include. Looked at in one way, conceptual art gets to be like Lewis Carroll’s Cheshire cat, dissolving away until nothing is left but a grin: a handful of works made over a few short years by a small number of artists… Then again, regarded under a different aspect, conceptual art can seem like nothing less than the hinge around which the past turned into the present. (Wood, 2002: 6)

I appreciate conceptual art can be a bit ‘marmite’, I knew of some the artists and was well disposed to seeing their work but I appreciate that this is not the case for everyone.  In many ways it seemed like exquisite timing that this exhibition should come up just as I finished Context and Narrative and move into Graphic Design One.  My own work has certainly become more conceptual and I am attracted to issues of art’s socio-cultural and economic role.

As the ‘performance’ elements of our visit played on there was some confusion as to whether we were allowed to take photographs or not so I decided to make sketches in my notebook, more as an aide memoire than representations. This served to slow down my visit and possibly helped me engage more with the work that I might have done otherwise.

On a socio-historical note I did find it depressing that some of the issues raised by the works seem to have changed so little, or have morphed into their equivalents for the early 21st Century.

This is a very dense show that to my mind warrants spending significant time, it is not for everyone but for me it has prompted a lot of questions that could relate both to my photography and my current Graphic Design module. As I understand it one of the cornerstones of conceptual art is the move away from beauty into provocation and making the viewer think, well the show certainly did that for me.

Given its slippery nature it also seems to be an odd endeavour to write about conceptual art.

References and Citations

Wood, P. (2002). Conceptual Art (Movements in Modern Art). New York, USA: Delano Greenidge Editions.