Deconstrustion Task

Using given text, write 500 words on what it has to say about deconstruction.

A main block of text to a typographer is usually referred to as the ‘body’: defined as an ongoing sequence of words, it has more integrity and wholeness than any surrounding elements, including headlines and captions. It’s a sturdy object that flows from page to page and is treated consistently, with long texts broken down into chunks offering shortcuts and alternate routes such as indents and hyperlinks.

            Before the mass production of movable type, handwritten texts usually consisted with errors, each with their own glitches and gaps where copies were copied from copies, making them seem more personal. They had their own interpretation from the one who wrote it, which meant that the reader was left questioning what the text was saying. Printing text introduced a new way to ensure the faithfulness to the author’s handwritten original, making the role of the ‘proofreader’ to correct any errors within it right from the original copy to the final production, without misrepresenting the authors work.

            Contemporary typographers produce bodies of text for various contexts, each with their own limitations and opportunities, ensuring the help for the readers to navigate the flow of the content. Typographic pages emphasize the completeness and closure of a work, and follow a grid of known coordinates. They ensure that the reader isn’t aware that they are reading, but at the same time they certify that the content is read in a certain order that is intended, making the typographer invisible to them. Even so, their role is just as important as the spaces and punctuation, where French philosopher Jacques Derrida quotes they are ‘seen but not heard’.

            French critic Roland Barthes believes that the reader ‘performs’ the writing – ‘death of the author’, where the reader chooses to create meaning. Todays Graphic Designers embraced Barthes’ idea of the readable text using layers and interlocking grids to explore his theory breaking grids and rules, making how the text is used more important than what it actually means. By destroying structure, it makes the reader more aware of it: unpicking it, making it strange and question what is normal. It changes the way that the text is read and makes the readers’ role more active and thought provoking, revealing how the type affects meaning. Writing occupies space as well as time, and liberates readers from bonds of linearity; which is amongst typography’s most urgent tasks.

David Carson / End of Print Presentation Poster / 1996 / URL

David Carson's work is very representative of the deconstructionists style. The example I have included is good as it consists of just type, so it showcases how it has allowed Carson to completely destroy the structure. Even with the headline section at the top with the bolder text: it overlaps and doesn't read in the right order, so even though the immediate reactions are primarily drawn to this, it still makes the viewer think more about what they are reading. The rest of the body of text with all the relevant information has a strange, random layout, with no obvious beginning or an end, leaving the viewer to start reading anywhere and unpick the structure within it - making them question what is normal and become more active in finding out the relevant information they want to gain from it. The way that Carson has used multiple typefaces also adds to the effect of the deconstruction as it causes more immediate confusion that the viewer then has to untangle, and reveals more effectively how type affects the meaning. Definitely with this poster, the intention to absorb the information from it works a lot better than one that follows a typical grid and reads in a particular way as it is down to each individual to 'find' what they want to know - this ultimately achieves a better response from it as they are then more likely to actually remember it.

Deconstruction Seminar Notes

Avant Garde Task

In 300 words, discuss the concept of 'Avant Garde' in relation to two examples of Graphic Design (include pictures and references).

Avant Garde – sometimes known as ‘advance guard’ or vanguard, refers to people or work that is considered to be innovative or experimental with aims to shock, challenge and re-assess conventions. It pushes boundaries of what is usually accepted as ‘normal’, and artists which are involved consider themselves and what they do to be innovative and ahead of the majority. The concept of Avant Garde refers exclusively to marginalized artists whose work opposes the mainstream values and often has an abrasive social or political edge, as well as introduces and explores new forms or subject matters. It is said to have began in 1850’s with the Realism or Gustave Coubert, followed by the successive movements of modern art, making the term Avant Garde more or less synonymous with modern. Nowadays, the term has grown to be almost neutralized, leaving it meaningless to the point where it can be applied to anything.

Marcel Duchamp / 1917 / Fountain / URL

Marcel Duchamp is definitely one of the most memorable artists considered within Avant Garde, with works such as the ‘Mona Lisa’ and  ‘Fountain’ (pictured). He caused a huge riff within art around 1917 when he entered his ‘Fountain’ piece into an open exhibition under the name of R. Mutt, where anything was accepted; but this actually wasn’t and was mysteriously misplaced and not exhibited resulting with the original piece being lost. It totally went against what art was believed to be at this time, and Duchamp entered it to shift the focus of art from physical craft to intellectual interpretation. It was something people has not seen done before, and they refused for sometime to accept because they didn’t consider it to be ‘actual art’ due to the fact that he didn’t make it with his own hands – this later proved to be irrelevant.

Oliviero Toscani / United Colours of Benetton / URL

A more recent example of Avant Grade is the advertising campaigns from the label United Colours of Benetton. Not only do they promote themselves as a brand, but also tackle racism showcasing images of things the public would not necessarily expect to see. In just a few years, Benetton became a global force with their concept of encompassing the different races to the ideas of tolerance, peace and respect for diversity. As shown in the example, they have a black woman breast feeding a white baby, incorporating the 'shock' factor of Avant Garde. It is making the statement that all colours are united as one, and by using such strong imagery not just in this example but in all of their campaigns, definitely challenges peoples beliefs amongst racism, and forces them to re-asses it. The 'united' colours of their sweaters is considered to be a metaphor for the united skin tones from the youth of different countries for who the sweaters were designed for. 

'Defining the Avant-Garde' Seminar Notes

5 Examples of Post Modern Graphic Design

Here is my 5 examples of Post Modern Graphic Design.

Postmodernism has an attitude of questioning conventions, especially ones set out through Modernism. The only rule within it is that there are no rules, and celebrates what might otherwise be termed kitsch. It is a reaction to modern life and technology, and has no progressive meaning - designed to blow up and destroy itself in a way of expressing how the modern world is destroying itself. It is not about equality, but more personal and about difference, exposing the flaws from the structures of the past. Re using images and a rejection of technological determinism.

David Carson / Ray Gun No 15 Magazine Cover / URL

This magazine cover for Ray Gun by David Carson is a good example of Postmodernism because of the way that he has just completely stripped any structure to it. The text within it doesn't follow any form and overlaps, not really making any sense with only a few words actually left readable. The whole thing, when properly considered, is actually really simple, but with the way he has positioned the type and dark background image really builds it up.

Jamie Reid / 1977 / Sex Pistols Album Cover / URL

This Sex Pistols album cover by Jamie Reid is a strong example of Postmodernism with the way that none of the typefaces that he has used in it actually really go together, but when forced together with no specific order other than to give the title works really well. Just the fact that such a varied amount of typefaces have been used within one design completely goes against what many typographers believe to be 'right', as the more that is used, the less effective it works - but this example clearly proves otherwise.

Dan Friedman / Typografische Monatsblatter / 1971 / URL

The way that Friedman has used a montage style with the different typefaces scattered randomly over the top of the image of times square makes this example Postmodern, showing how he didn't follow any rules when putting it together and didn't try and follow any sort of grid within the image. It looks simple and reduced.

Kunst Kredit / Wolfgang Weingart / 1977 / URL

Both the type and images used within this poster had a Postmodern style, with an unstructured overall look. 

Katherine McCoy / Cranbrook graduate poster / 1989 / URL

Again, the type and image used within this poster has a very Postmodern style, and has avoided and form or grid or structure. Most of the body of text that is used within it also is illegal due to the fact of the photomontage underneath with the bases of function follows form.