Interwar Period Poster

For this assignment, we were to create a poster using the design aesthetic of the interbellum period. We had two options: to do a constructivist poster for a current issue, or to do a Postcubist pictorial modernist poster for a technology related product or service. I chose to do the latter, because I immediately got inspired to do an ad for my headphones. They are very bright and modern looking, and I actually think they are quite beautiful. I felt compelled to do a project around them.

Our first task was to create a “mind map” for our advertisement, which was a new exploration technique for me.

 

I quite liked this brainstorming technique, although I think I did it wrong. I approached it as an exercise in keeping my pen moving, no matter how silly the idea I generated was. It ended up generating a lot of interesting concepts that I know I wouldn’t have explored were it not for the mind map. Even though I didn’t do a traditional mind map, the “Stephanie way” worked quite well for me, and I will definitely return to this brainstorming technique in the future.

The next task was to create a mood board, and choose a specific style from the period we had chosen to emulate. I chose to go with the most simplistic pictorial modernist posters. The poster that explains this “simple” style that most quickly comes to mind is the famous Priester matches poster. I also quite enjoyed this step, and got kind of carried away. I found so many images that I felt were relevant to my project that I created three mood boards, one for colour and typography, one for design style, and one for image references.

  

Next, we were to render ten rough sketches based on the ideas that came out of our mind maps.

  

I actually found this part very challenging. When I was brainstorming and purely focusing on idea generation, I felt really inspired by this project. But once it came time to apply my ideas to sketches, I pulled out the project brief to make sure that I was staying on task. With the conditions of the brief in mind, and the style I had chosen to emulate as well, I felt like many of my concepts didn’t fit. I felt torn between choosing ideas that were innovative conceptually, and with choosing something that was what my teacher was asking for. Since I am going to school to hopefully one day be a graphic designer who needs to produce work for clients, I aired on the side of pleasing my teacher.

The next step was to take our three best sketches and render them as tight thumbnails in ink. We were to do these to scale, with all of the necessary text and layout applied.

Once I presented these thumbnails to the class last week, my teacher told me that they were too detailed for the style I had chosen. I felt so trapped! I had tried to pare down my concepts and sketches, yet it still wasn’t enough. I felt extremely conflicted- it seemed like I could either have tons of fun, or do the project correctly and simply “draw a pair of headphones” and slap them on a piece of paper. How boring!

When it came time to execute the final poster, I had a bit of rethinking to do. How could I stick with the super simplistic pictorial modernist style, and yet still make my poster compelling and fresh? I decided that working with cut paper would immediately give my poster a fresh edge, while still enabling me to simply “slap headphones on a poster.”

 

Ultimately, I am very happy with the finished product. I did lots of life-like shading on the headphones. I made sure to find examples of pictorial modernist posters doing the same thing first! Luckily, there are a few cases. As much as I love the aesthetic of this piece, I will never work in this detailed medium again. I cannot express what a b**** this poster was to make. Nor the amount of time it took. For something so simple looking, it truly was a labour of love.

Meggs Chapter 17 Commentary

The Modern Movement in America

This was an interesting chapter for me to read and study as I have already read the entire thing in order to research for my PechaKucha last week. In fact the opening paragraphs seem almost identical to my introduction. While my specific topic was only mentioned in about two paragraphs in the chapter, I studied the whole thing in order to gain some context around my topic, and understand where it (in this case, Ladislav Sutnar) was coming from. At the time I didn’t know that I had to write a commentary on it as well, or else I would have done it at the same time. But I guess this way I’ll really know my stuff, right?

I’m not sure entirely in what format to do this commentary, so I will literally “comment” on things I find interesting as I read through the chapter.

– I wonder why America initially rejected modernism. Perhaps it can just be chalked up to people being stuck in their conservative and traditional ways?

– I love that Lester Beall was self-taught- it’s incredibly inspiring.

– I wonder if Beall’s work will still be at MOMA when we go in third year? I would very much like to see these posters in person as I find them beautiful.

– Why would anyone move from New York to Dumbarton Farms, Connecticut? Worst move in history…

– It’s fascinating that Georg Salter is declined work in Germany because he is Jewish, but then moves to America and designs 350 book designs for German publishers. I think more insight into this bit of history would be fascinating!

– I feel that Harper’s Bazaar used to do beautiful things (judging from its cover!) and now it just covers trash. And the covers are trash.

– What is synthetic cubism? I shall look it up. Synthetic Cubism was developed by Picasso and Braque. They discovered that through repetition of analytic signs their work became more general, geometric, and simple. Overlapping planes would share colour, and real pieces of paper replaced flat planes of paint. Real scores of music replaced drawn musical notation. Newspaper, playing cards, cigarette packs, and advertisements that were possibly real interacted on the flat plane of the canvas as they tried to achieve total interpretation of life and art. In ways, this sounds like the first product placement!

– As an avid Vogue reader, I would love to see what Fehmy Agha’s work at Vogue looked like. There are no examples in the book! I’ll look them up.

– Interesting that Agha introduced the use of sans serif type to a print magazine. Is not serif type supposedly better to read for printed material, and sans serif better to read for online material? I guess digital material didn’t exist at the time, and they had to explore sans serif type somewhere.

– I’ve just noticed a grammatical error- “…his exquisite selection from contact sheets were all accomplished with extraordinary intuitive judgment.” It should either read: “…with extraordinarily intuitive judgment.” Or, “…with extraordinary and intuitive judgment.”

– “Vu,” famous for having the shortest magazine title ever.

– What is FDR’s “new deal”?

– Hooray for Fascism sending the creative and intellectual people to North America!

– It’s amazing that teachers of the School of Design were willing to teach without pay. I think that is something that is lacking nowadays- this passion for design that is so deep, that people deem it as important to be made known as religion, for example.

– What is bacteriology? Study of bacteria?

– It’s amazing how many intellectuals and designers flee because of Nazi Germany. It made such an impact on design. I never think of WWII outside of the horrors of the holocaust, and this is an interesting perspective.

– Only a dozen words in advertising! An appealing rule.

– It’s encouraging, when governments are so often painted as the “bad guy” nowadays, to read of the government doing so many things right during the modern movement. The WPA, giving money to creatives to continue their careers, and sponsoring cultural events, theatre performances, art exhibitions, etc.

– Ben Shahn’s poster for the US Office of War Information, 1943, and Herbert Bayer’s poster supporting polio research, 1949, are both breathtakingly beautiful.

– So many diagonals in all of the modern movement posters.

– Herbert Matter’s “Chimney Sweeper” ad for Eero Saarinen’s womb chair, 1955, is quite interesting. That would never fly nowadays! I’m not sure if it depicts an African American as a chimney sweep, or a Caucasian who has turned black from soot, but either way it seems racist.

– Bayer’s World Geo-Graphic Atlas 1953 is maybe the prettiest atlas I have ever seen.

Ready-made

Last week we were assigned a “ready-made,” which is essentially two items that don’t relate to each other, smushed together to create something new. I actually really struggled with this homework assignment, even though it wasn’t even for marks so there was really no reason for me to stress. But it was late at night, I was exhausted, uninspired, and I didn’t… really… get it. What exactly is the point of a ready-made? Should it serve some sort of functional purpose? All this questions swirling through my mind at midnight the night before the assignment is due led me to literally stick a shoe into a trumpet. This is a humorous piece, entitled “Shoe Horn.” It is a social commentary on the lack of… ok I’ll be honest, it is a social commentary on Stephanie’s lack of ideas and ready-made inspiration.

And actually I was so stressed out about what to do that I made two ready-mades. So that first one was a pun (because I love puns) and then I thought that I should make a more serious one.

So this ready-made is entitled “Whisked Away” and I was trying to play with the idea of new technology messing up old fashioned ways of doing things that were perhaps more effective, or just more sincere. I sometimes like to do things with as little technological aid as possible, especially in the kitchen. I often try to bake without the aid of machines or gadgets, relying simply on ingredients, dishes, a few basic tools (such as a knife, a whisk), and my own strength (for example, mixing by hand instead of using a stand mixer). I find that all the new technology in our life sometimes doesn’t do us any favours. I often feel stressed, out of time, and miserable, and the fact that I have a dishwasher doesn’t necessarily give me more time. Sometimes the best thing I can do to de-stress is to complete a task with my own bare hands.