The Conceptual Image

After WW2 conceptual image in graphic design was introduced
-mental content joined perceived content as design
-new breed of image-maker that was concerned with the totally design of the space and
the integration of the word with the image
-graphic designers had greater opportunity for self-expression (personal images,
individual styles and techniques)
-conceptual image became a significant design approach in Poland, the US, Germany and
even Cuba
-Italian designer Armando Testa, was an abstract painter who conveyed elemental truths
about the subject
-did campaigns for Pirelli tires (elephant with tire coming out of face, brand name
underneath, surrealist technique), this ad became an easily recognizable symbol
-he reduced the verbal content to a few words or just the product name, subtle
contradictions, images made of artificial materials
The Polish Poster
-graphic designers joined filmmakers, writers and fine artists in the polish union of artists
(establishing standards and set fees)
-the 1st polish poster artist after the war was Tadeusz Trepkowski, expressed tragic
memories and aspirations for the future that were deeply fixed in the national psyche
-his approach involved reducing the imagery and words until the content was distilled
into its simplest statement (ie. his famous antiwar poster, used few shapes to symbolize a
devastated city and superimposed silhouette of a falling bomb)
-Henryk Tomaszewski became the spiritual head of polish design after Trepkowski’s
death
-the poster became a source of great national pride in Poland
-posters served as communication (Muzeum Plakatu- a museum devoted to posters)
- Tomaszewski led the trend toward developing remembrance in wks (with light,
decorative world of colour and shape)
-designs were created from torn and cut pieces of coloured paper, and then printed by the
silkscreen process
-typical of this style is the film poster for Rzeczpospolita Babska (also circus posters)
-the next design trend: surrealism (darker, more somber side)
-Jan Lenica-began using flowing, stylized contour lines that weave through the space and
divide into coloured zones that form and image
-Waldewmar Swierzy is best known for his poster of American rock musician Jimmi
Hendrix (seen in lecture).. Animated large portrait, washed in blue
-polish poster artist Roman Cieslewicz would take a poster and transform it using
techniques like enlarging collage, halftone images, dots into texture
-Jerzy Janiszewski’s Solidarity labour union logo (*talked about& viewed in lecture)
became an international symbol of the struggle against oppression. Poster addressed a #
of issues for country (banning of Solidarity). Graffiti style, crowded letters (metaphor for
people standing solidly together in street)
American conceptual image
-New York graphic designers: Milton Glaser, Seymour Chwast, Reynolds Ruffins and
Edward Sorel
-freelance assignments were request ed through the joint publication, the Push Pin
Almanack (published bimonthly, featured editorial material from old almanacs illustrated
by the group
-once Glaser returned from Europe, Push Pin Studio was formed
-Push Pin Almanack became the Push Pin Graphic (a magazine forum for presenting new
ideas, imagery and techniques)
-push pin artiusts freely paraphrased and incorporated a multiplicity of ideas into their
work
-Glaser was able to re-invent himself over and over again
-during the 60’s he created images using flat shapes formed by thin-black-ink contour
lines, adding colour by applying adhesive colour films (ie. his Sound of Harlem album
cover) ..(drawing style was echoed in comic books)
-Glaser began to making gestured silhouette drawings (ie. like his Bob Dylan record
cover, blk silhouette with coloured hair patterns)
-also created ‘Uncle Sam’ as a graphic icon and created the I heart (symbol) NY
-‘Dada and Surrealism’ poster (viewed in lect.) dada text pressed into smaller table..
smaller table isolates the word real within the longer word surrealism
-Chwast uses line drawings overlaid with adhesive colour films, flatness in work. (ie.
Elektra Productions piece, each letter in title is a form of transportation)
-Push Pin style was referred to as being open about trying new forms, reinterpreting work
from earlier periods, and integrating word and image into a conceptual whole
-Barry Zaid (a Canadian) joined the Push Pin studios, his work was prominently a
revival of art deco, he also created a cover for Australian Vogue (seen in lect.)
-James McMullan revived watercolour, began making fluid lettering an important part of
his images (ie. Anna Christie play poster, girl sitting at table by ocean is in the backdrop,
viewed in lecture)
-Paul Davis (like McMullen became involved in integration of word and image).. ie. as
viewed in lecture the poster For Colored Girls, graffiti-like title, subway mosaic (blk girl
in forefront of poster)
-push pin school of graphic illustration presented an alternative to the narrative of the past
-projected vitality with lush colour and unashamed allusions to other art
-Arnold Varga reinvented the retail newspaper ad. (made the connection between
memorable images and building communication) fusing images together
-connection between art and music (expression and experience)
-CBS records was at the forefront of graphic design in the music industry
-Woody Pirtle, logo for Mr.& Mrs. Aubrey Hair (comb, with text ‘hair’ in comb’s teeth),
Knoll ‘hot seat’ poster, hot pepper posed in a way to make it look like it is a chair
-1980’s saw graphic design get recognized as being a true profession in US
The poster mania
-contrast to postwar polish posters, the US’s poster craze was more about grassroots
affairs fostered by social activism
-posters made statement about social viewpoints rather than spreading commercial
messages (ie, hippie subculture, Haight-Ashbury area in San Fran)
-psychedelic posters
-artists were self-taught
-Robert Wesley (Wes Wilson), was the innovator for psychedelic poster-style, used
swirling lines and letter forms (ie. concert poster for the Association, viewed in lecture,
green background, red flame like font)
-movement included Kelly/Mouse Studios and Victor Moscoso
-Moscoso was the only major artist in this period who has formal art training
-Peter Max, combined art nouv. Aspects of psychedelic art with more accessible
images/softer colours , ie. ‘Love’ poster
European visual poets
-poetic approach to graphic design based on imagery through collage, montage and both
photographic and photomechanical techn.
-German master of this movement: Gunther Kieser.. brought images together with new
arrangement
-began to construct fictitious objects that are convincingly real
-Gunter Rambow, manipulated photography (black and white documentary styled
images)
-uses collages and montages as a means of creating a new graphic reality
-designer Robert Massin.. Learnt graphic design under typographic designer Faucheux
-Massin’s work has affinities with futurist and Dadaist typography (but his intensification
of both narrative literary content and visual form into a cohesive unity expressing
uniqueness (ie. La cantatrice chauve)
-Pieree Bernard, Francois Miehe and Gerard Paris-Clavel came together to create Grapus
studio (1970). Grapus favoured universal symbols with readily understood meanings, ie.
sun, mood.
-motivated by the dual goals of achieving social and political change while striving to
realize creative artistic impulses
The third-world poster
-poster served as a major vehicle for spreading social and political stuggles (ideas were
known as weapons)
-poster medium was very effective, posters became vehicles for challenging authority
-Cuba became a major center for poster design after the revolutionary force led by Castro
-Myth and reality have been unified in a powerful and graphic symbol based on the
image and Che Guevara (leader of Cuban revolution).. Elena Serrano’s ‘Day of the
Heroic Guerrilla’ (viewed in lecture) Che’s image transforming into a map of South
America
-the important conceptual images in the 2nd half of the 20th C. developed in response to
many factors, and ideas and forms from modern art have filtered into pop culture