OUGD401 - Study Task 2 - Modernism and Post Modernism

MODERNISM

Anton Stankowski - Mercedes Benz Racing - 1955

Anton Stankowski's work displays the epitome of the modernist movement within graphic design. Most of his work uses simple type and image to portray his message but with not much else on the page. I find his style of design so striking, especially for this piece of advertising done for Mercedes Benz in 1955. The whole poster conveys movement and speed which is exactly the message that Mercedes will have wanted to portray. He also uses no information whatsoever within the design, just simple text and image. Although there is so little within the design this makes it more effective. The bold eye catching colours draw your eyes into the piece and the chevron points you in the direction of the race car and gives the illusion that the car will carry on moving. I also believe that the colours used in the image are very patriotic to Germany, with the combination of black and yellow selling the idea that Germany and therefore Mercedes makes the best race cars. 

POST-MODERNISM

i-D Magazine cover - Terry Jones - 1980

This i-D magazine cover is also very post-modern. The colour scheme and layout screams chaos and anarchy, very reminiscent of the punk style. The class of the bold colour really shocks the viewer, in my personal opinion I find it a bit of a sickly combination. It is a complete contrast to the simplicity and small colour palette used in Stankowski's piece. Even the typeface used is varied in size and varies in upper and lower case, further emphasising the idea of disorder. 

OUGD401 - Study Task 1 - Image Analysis

'The Uncle Sam Range', 1876, Schumacher & Ettlinger. 

'Daddy, what did YOU do in the Great War?', 1915, Savile Lumley.

Both of these images were created at very different points in history yet they still share a similar message. They both are aimed at middle or upper class men who want to strive to be better as in Schumacher and Ettlinger’s image the scene that they have set is one of wealth, and the fact that they have a slave also suggests that they are a high class family. With Lumley’s image the family is very well dressed in a comfortable setting implying that they are a middle class family.

The Uncle Sam Range piece is an advertisement for a range cooker. This isn't an average advert, as you would expect the range to be in the centre of the image, with everything else revolving around it. However, we are drawn to Uncle Sam who sits in the centre with an eagle on his shoulder. He represents the epitome of American patriotism, as the eagle is America’s national symbol and Uncle Sam played a huge part in the civil war in 1812 suggesting perhaps that with this cooker the man of the house can become an ideal American and therefore buying into the idea of the American dream of power and riches. The overall look of this image is patriotism, with the stars and stripes and red and blue colour scheme it jumps out the page at you. This is especially pertinent at the time this advertisement was released, as it was the 100th anniversary of American Independence so patriotism was at an all time high.  Lumley's piece also represents strong patriotism but in a more subtle way which is definitely more 'British'. There is a fleur de lis pattern on the armchair, which is on most pound coins, and there is a red rose pattern on the curtains, which also represents England. Additionally Schumacher and Ettlinger's image seems to berate other countries that aren't America. Looking closely at the image the bill of the meal makes racist remarks about what other countries eat, for example under Ireland there is a range of different cooked potatoes (even raw!) suggesting that America is the best country in the world. It proposes to the audience that if you own this cooker than you can feed the whole of America and the world.

The cursive font used on the dinner cloth is very extravagant suggesting that they are indeed dining in luxury. Plus the font used in the title of the advert is a bold slab serif, signifying power as this type of font is often used in Western films, often showing the power of American’s and how they cleaned up the American land to use for themselves. Once again this buys into the American dream and suggesting this cooker will help you gain power and wealth. Similarly, the font used in Lumley’s connotes a message, it has a hand written style makes the poster look more intimate, especially combined with the illustration which looks like we are watching in on a family setting. Also it could belong to the handwriting of the girl as she is looking at her father, suggesting it is her asking him the question. The capitalisation of the ‘you’ in this image conveys a very strong message and shocks the viewer out of the intimate setting and takes the question to you rather than to the father in the image. This is emphasized by the uncomfortable glare of the father at the viewer. Moreover, the cold colour of the girl’s dress compared the warm colours of the boy and father’s outfits in Savile Lumley’s image clicks into the gender stereotypes of the time. Women during the First World War often shunned men who didn’t join the army and would often publicly shame them. So the cold colour used in the girl’s outfit and even her expression suggests that she is almost criticizing her father and even hurting his pride. The whole aim of this poster is to play on men’s pride and suggest to them that they are not a real man or even that they aren’t protecting their family and embarrassing if they don’t join the army. Gender stereotypes are also used very subtly in Uncle Sam’s Range Cooker with the man being the centre of attention sat at the table and the woman serving everyone, in the background.

Overall I feel as if both of these pieces of graphic design are selling something to the viewer. For the first image it is selling the cooker with the idea that the American dream comes with it. With Lumley’s image it is selling asking you to sell yourself for your country and at the same time selling the idea that you will do well for yourself if you join the army.

OUGD401 - Modernism - Jan Tschichold

After todays lecture I wanted to learn more about Modernism so I researched more into Jan Tschichold. He was very much a pioneer of 20th century typography and he even worked closely with Paul Renner. Unfortunately, the Nazi's seized most of his work when he fled Germany as his work with sans serifs was "deemed a threat to the cultural heritage of Germany". One of his most well known works was standardising the design for Penguin Books covers. Below is his original design draft. It shows the epitome of the modernist movement - limited colours, sans serif text and only a few images. It just shows the bare essentials of what a book cover needs. I really like the use of the punchy orange as your eye is immediately drawn to the white space where the title and the name of the author is. However, it does slightly remind me of a train ticket. 

What I find particularly interesting is that Tschichold learnt scriptwriting at an early age and was very skilled in calligraphy, yet in later life he completely rejected any typeface that wasn't sans serif. His complete change in attitude may have been when he visited a Bauhaus exhibition in 1923 as in 1924 he created this poster for a publisher.

It is a complete change from his early calligraphy work designed in 1919:

I find this drastic change in style very inspiring as it shows that anyone can change their style, arguably, to one that is much better. I like how in his newer poster doesn't follow traditional rules and how the text is all on jaunty angles, there isn't once piece of text that is level. This makes the viewer look at the poster for a longer so they can read all the information given.