Assignment: Module 9 includes much of recent graphic design, names, countries and styles most of you have seen. Tell us what interests you of recent past.
Seeing how designers respond to cultural, technological, and political changes – both good and bad – fascinates me. We tend to think only of the upheavals of the late 1960s and early 1970s, but the Polish posters were also responding to a devastating 7-8 years of Poland being decimated by the Germans and then the Russians (during and after the war). From 1945 – 1989 (44 years), the Polish people had to deal with a government that they did not freely choose and all of the hardships that came with that. Seeing the created posters puts you in that time, although it is hard for us to imagine just how hard they had it.
And of course we have the New Wave Typography, the conceptual designers (psychedelic, Push Pin, Scher and others) all pushing out the boundaries of design to respond to the new world order: women’s rights, abortion being legalized, civil rights, protests, the Vietnam war, and of course, the looming digital revolution. The designs in chapter 21-22 just feel more modern to me, they could be used today without any problems, and it is difficult to elucidate exactly why that is. Familiarity? Postmodern, sorry, radical modernistic design includes a wide variation in styles although there is an underlying sense of design principles. Anyway, this all came about because our world expanded, not only in the sense of being more of a global village but also in personal roles and expression. People of all races, genders, backgrounds, ethnicity, and sexual preference could decide what they wanted to be, even if people in power didn’t like (obviously we are still working on this!). Design is an expression of our society in some ways, and it is fascinating to see the evolution over time.
Polish Artist Tadeusz Trepkowski – the “tragic memories” obviously refer to Poland during WWII, but what else did he document in his work?
Can’t find too many of his works online, but here are a few with some pieces:
https://emariegraphicdesignblog.wordpress.com/2014/04/06/tadeusz-trepkowski/
https://culture.pl/en/artist/tadeusz-trepkowski
https://www.illustrationhistory.org/essays/reflecting-the-soul-of-a-nation-polish-poster-art
Does Museum Plakatu have an online presence?
Yes it does – it doesn’t have extensive galleries of the posters, but there are some articles and a few posters:
http://www.postermuseum.pl/e
have I ever seen Edward Sorel’s political cartoon work?
https://www.npg.si.edu/exh/sorel/index-int.htm Nice tour of his work, and yes, this is familiar!
James McMullan – what exactly does Meggs mean by “photo documentary realism”?
https://archives.sva.edu/collection-guide/james-mcmullan-collection.
This is not a digital gallery of his work, but rather a listing of what is contained in his collection at the Milton Glaser Design Study Center and Archives located at the School of Visual Arts in New York City (https://archives.sva.edu/). What’s interesting is how the huge catalog of work he did, and of course I’d assume they were weren’t able to get co-ones of everything he ever did. If you click on the “Sample Images” link at the top, there’s a small selection of work.
Ah yes, I see, the image of Charles Manson in his jail cell and the Hustler magazine image of a man by some phones – it is hard to believe he painted those with what I assume would be a photo in front of him. Wow.
Richard Hess isn’t mentioned in Meggs and one picture is never enough, so what other wks can I see?
This is a small gallery, but there’s not too much online so this about the best I can find:
https://www.commarts.com/features/pioneer-richard-hess
https://www.graphis.com/master-portfolio/richard-hess/art-illustration/
https://allthingsruffnerian.blogspot.com/2011/09/illustrator-richard-hess_09.html (has the Johnson cover)
He brought in the flavor of old Renaissance era painting for modern graphics! I’ve seen the National Lampoon issue he did, although I don’t think I ever saw his paint-by-numbers cover of Lyndon Johnson (I mean later, not when it was current)
David Lance Goines – I think I read about a beloved Berkeley printer passing away in Berkeley this past March, is this the same person?
Yes, it is, and his work is very recognizable to anyone who has spent any time in Berkeley, he was an absolute icon – Chez Pannisse signs and menus, and many more. Just died a few months ago:
https://www.berkeleyside.org/2023/02/24/david-lance-goines-iconic-berkeley-printmaker-dies-at-77
Gunter Rambow’s “Othello” poster looks confusing, need a larger image
This article on Medium shows an original Othello poster that is very different from the one in Meggs: https://medium.com/fgd1-the-archive/othello-poster-gunter-rambow-1999-hessisches-staatstheater-germany-fe191f389dfd In fact, it only has three elements: a black background, two simple eyes, and one line of red/blood on the right hand side (plus the name “Othello”. It appears he did the second version of the poster in the 1990s when he had his first access to Photoshop? I need to verify this…okay, I see, I mixed up the posters. The simple one was done in 1999 and the photo one was done in 1968. Gunter Rambow is still working and has a website ( https://www.gunter-rambow.com/works.html#poster-1) with galleries of all his work. The last work is from 2022, so he still seems to be working, cool!
An interesting article about his philosophy: https://blog.graphis.com/graphis-master-gunter-rambows-work-philosophy-has-served-him-well/
I love Robert Massin’s work, need to see more!
This article has a nice gallery of his work at the bottom: http://www.designculture.it/interview/robert-massin.html
This is a nice exploration of the Bald Soprano work (written on his death in 2020): https://designobserver.com/feature/robert-massin/40185/
I need to see more example of supermannerisms…not quite sure. what this is…
https://lucyhariades.wordpress.com/2017/12/06/a-super-graphic-movement/
https://www.searanch.ced.berkeley.edu/s/sea-ranch/page/color-nature
https://archive.curbed.com/2018/1/3/16842200/barbara-stauffacher-solomon-sea-ranch-supergraphics
https://socks-studio.com/2016/11/17/national-collegiate-football-hall-of-fame-in-new-brunswick-nj-by-venturi-scott-brown-and-associates-inc-1967/
Curious about Charles S. Anderson’s CSA Archive…
So, the Charles S. Anderson Design Co. is still in business and they have a great website with their clients and designs:
https://www.csadesign.com/index.html
But the big discovery is the CSA Archive is at: https://www.csaimages.com/# This is an amazing collection of all kinds of letterforms, themes, drawings, cartoons, icons, symbols, and other graphic forms from the last 100 years (and likely beyond). Of course these are not free to use without paying them, but for inspiration and seeing what is out there, it was so much fun scrolling through the offerings (well organized and easy to do). A gem!
Koppel and Scher’s Great Beginnings booklets, any way to look at these in more detail?
https://retinart.net/creativity/scher-plagiarism-parody/ This article mentions the “Great Beginnings” books, but only has the Kafka cover.
https://www.underconsideration.com/speakup/archives/002118.html
Dan Friedman died from AIDS, I’d like to see if he did any related work
Yes! This is a gallery of his work: https://www.artic.edu/collection?artist_ids=Dan%20Friedman
A few more pieces: https://www.cooperhewitt.org/2015/05/20/the-dan-friedman-collection/
Marshall McLuhan was a pretty prophetic philosopher and predicted in many ways the rise of internet, television, and other media and their role in subsuming books (although books are still a cornerstorne), so I would love to see more of Will Kunz’s work with McLuhan quotations. And maybe more of his work in general – any galleries online so I can see more?
So, Kunz actually wrote a book with the McLuhan work called “12 Typographical Interpretations”.
http://willikunz.com/books/12-typographical-interpretations
Yes – his own website for his design studio! It takes a little time to find, but under “Studio”, he has “Print Design” which is a gallery of over 100 works. Unfortunately they aren’t all dated, but they seem to be random (some of the pieces have a date on them).
http://willikunz.com/category/studio/print-design
The “Forum” tab isn’t a community forum but rather a place for Kunz to post small articles on various topics, including Weingart himself:
http://willikunz.com/forum/getting-to-know-wolfgang-weingart
Curious about Neville Brody’s style being so imitated, wanted to see more of his work.
He founded his own studio in 2014 and they have a very glitzy website: https://brody-associates.com/ So flashy that it is almost unusable. You can’t enlarge any of the images to get a closer look, and there’s no description or information about them included. Love his style but he needs a calmer website! I did find an article with a small gallery of his work: https://www.sessions.edu/notes-on-design/graphic-giants-neville-brody/