Favorite Posters

Here are the posters I found interesting:

Kitsch and Chapter Seventeen schniblets

Kitsch art is basically a knock off of the real art form. Over used objects thrown into overly cute and busy art works. A lot of the Kitsch objects I found online consisted of garden gnomes and easter images (lots of eggs). Probably the best definition comes from Wikipedia:

"Kitsch is the German and Yiddish word denoting art that is considered an inferior, tasteless copy of an extant style of art. The term kitsch was a response to the 19th century art whose aesthetics convey exaggerated sentimentality and melodrama, hence, kitsch art is closely associated with sentimental art. Moreover, kitsch (art) also denotes the types of art that are like-wise æsthetically deficient (whether or not it is sentimental, glamorous, theatrical, or creative) making it a creative gesture that merely imitates the superficial appearances of art (via repeated conventions and formulae), thus, it is uncreative and unoriginal; it is not Art."

The second part of our reading was from the book and talked about World War II poster designs. The goal of the poster when dealing with sensitive subjects like war, and other political issues is to move the viewer by playing with their emotions. Using simple images with only a short message was the theme. The kitsch style of the Saturday Evening Post images, is probably one of my favorites. I love that they went back to a traditional style of art, with overly dramatic poses and images, the lighting just fits it perfectly.

I really want to know why this style is so disliked, I can understand that some of these are 'overused' images, but I think that this step back to a more 'traditional' form of advertising is the best, a lot better than other art forms like cubism.

Sketches 1

Describe what it is: This is a poster design for Panic! At the Disco

Describe your concept behind the design: Its hard to tell in this quality, but it is a woman, holding flower to her face and above her head is written 'Panic! At the Disco.' I have various swirls, flower, and other decorations

Discuss the style of the design & typography, how it relates to history: This fits the art nouveau period perfectly. I have a woman figure, with 'speggitti' hair surrounded by flowers and complex patterns. Above her head written in a decrotive, hand written font is the name of the band.



Describe what it is: This is a poster design for Panic! At the Disco

Describe your concept behind the design: I used various bold fonts to create this dynamic poster. I wanted something almost like going to see a circus and in it I talk about fire eating and breathing, juggling knives and swords, just like would be advertised in a traditional Victorian poster. The problem is that the background should be a brown color and the text should be black and red, but sadly when I loaded it onto here it didn't work. I'll see if I can get a better quality upload here soon.

Discuss the style of the design & typography, how it relates to history: This is a great example of a victorian poster, text piled up on one another with so many kinds of font it will spin your head. I went with bold almost slab serrif fonts to portray this 'broad side' quality where you see the poster, get the important parts and go.

Chapter Fourteen - Art Decoratifs

This chapter mainly deals with the evolution of graphic communication and art in Paris, London, and American during World War I.

After World War I a time of economic abundance fell over the victorious, and celebration of the mechanical forms such as in cubism became more and more important. Cubism is best described through the words of Aldous Huxley, " ' producing' not a copy, but a simplified, formalized and more expressive symbol." Thus was born the term that describes the art from this time (1920s-1930s) : Art Deco. With art schools like the Bauhaus promoting the strict De Stijil and decrotive gemoetry helped to express love of the machine while still alowing the creative spirit to be fostered. The actualy term 'art deco' was created from the title of the Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris. Probably the most intresting part of this chapter is the unique fonts created during this time. In the art deco display type Bifur, the eye is able to fill in the missing parts and read the characters. Poster designs during this time take fragments of imgaes and put them all together in a sort of victorian jumble and use pure geometric shape and color to solve a communications problem.

My only question has to deal with the creation of these works, did they sketch then color? All hand done? How was 14-52 created?

After Class - March 11, 2009

This past chapter was intresting, I loved the simplicity of the communication. A basic image convaying a simple yet complex meaning, a true line of communication between the Graphic Artist and the Consumer. Victoria covered the materal from the chapter very well. What I liked best was the fun pictonary game we played. Using the art style and actually putting it to use! Some of the most effective images were the most simplistic. I'm excited to see where this evolves to next!

Chapter Fourteen - Pictorial Modernism

The goal of a poster designer is to convay a message to the viewer. It was difficult with influences such as cubism and constructivism. The designer had to find a happy medium between expressive and symbolic images and yet still pay attention to the over all visual organization of the picture. The reductive, flat-color design school called Plakatstil (poster style) is probably the number one design style that really was created in this time period. Simplification and reduction of naturalism into visual language of shape and sign. If you take an image into photoshop and use 'cut out' in the art effects, you can esentally recreate some of these images. It was drawing with a sizors more than a pen.

My only questions with this chapter is more the view of this art in the public eye. I really dislike the lack of attention in this art form and how haphazzardly its put together. What did people think of it?

Chapter Thirteen - The Influence of Modern Art

With the violence of World War one and the continuing evolution of human communication (the motion picture and wireless radio transmission) its no surprise that this greatly effected art and design as well. With the break down of society, tons of creative 'revolutions' that questioned long-held values of organizing space as well as the role of art and design in society. Moments such as cubism, futurism, Dada, surrealism, De Stijl, supermatism, constructivism, and expressionism directly influenced the graphic language of from and visual communications.

A lot of the art pictured really reminded me of some of the art we work on in Visual Communication and Graphic Design One, the basics of modern graphic design. However I was also really confused by some of the visual cues not matching up with the idea behind the ad. Even with a lot of the forgein language works. Figure 13-29 uses a 'B' as the main shape however, they talking about an ad for something that has nothing to do with a 'B.' Why?

Image Five

For this weekend's edition of picture relating to the chapter I have two images I actually photographed on my J-term 2009 trip to France. France is full of art and culture that we are looking at right now. Especially when dealing with Art Neuvou. One image I have presented is a photography of a street corner with a "metro" sign. Its hard to see in this photograph but the sign from the pole to the actual lettering is filled with detail and mostly flower and nature patterns. It is a symbol of the city, notable for its station architecture. However, I had issues when looking for actual history behind this icon. Anyone find anything?

After Class - March 4th 2009

In class we really reviewed the last chapter, going more in depth into the various artists style. What I found particularly interesting was talking about Frank Loyd Wright. He actually did a lot of work here in Wisconsin that I have visited. One particularly close item that is VERY unique is the church he designed in Racine, WI. It's a short building, with long 'thorns' sticking out from the curved top, very hard to discribe but it's often called the 'space ship' church. He did work for another church in Wisconsin that has a similar style to it ( http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/tt/2fe6a/ ). But this time a diffrent denomonation and a unique white and blue style, not like the dark brown of the one in Racine. Another building that can be visited, probably with a longer drive, is in Lake Geneva Wisconsin. Here, a student of Mr Wright designed the library over looking the lake. It's almost as if the characteristics normaly in Wright's work are now just over emphasized. If you are looking for directions or more buildings in Wisconsin, just ask!

Still no answer about the tea pots...? (read previous journal entry)

Chapter Twelve - The Genesis of the Twentieth Century Design

The chapter begins by discussing 'The Four.' A group of art students known as the Glasgow school, they consisted of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, J Herbert Mcnair, Margaret and Frances Macdonald. Together they began to create a unique style of geometric compositon combined with floral and curvillnear elements with strong rectlinear structure. At the begining, like with most new kinds of art, it was strongly disliked.

Probably one of my favorite artists in this chapter, who drew inspiration from The Four, Jessie Marion King, archived a distinctive art form with medieval-style fantasy illustrations. Her grace, fluidity and romantic tones widely influenced fiction illustration throughout the twentieth century.

The next session of reading ( 'The Vienna Secession') discusses the next evolution in the art process dealing with ads and the evolution on the 'art nouveau' style of drawing. The need to be unique and creative became so important that advertisers were required to commission their advertising designers from the artists and designers contributing to each issue to ensure a visual design unity. The exeptional linear and geometric design elements gracing Ver Sacrum's pages became an important design resource as the Vienna Secession style evolved.

The book then switched it's focus on the different German designers of this time period. It was a battle between simplicity and exactness and individual artistic expression. I've noticed that Graphic Artist like to confuse themselves by trying to choose between the fine art aspect of things, and the 'digital' (as i call it) part of their job. One really exciting part of this time is the London Underground, or subway. It was great hearing the history behind the simplistic sans serif very geometric icon.

My question really deals with this fight between the graphic designers and the 'art' graphic designers. Why was this such a big issue?

Chapter Eleven - Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau (french for New Art) was a style change in not only art, but architecture and applied arts that peaked in popularity at the turn of the twentith centry. Also known as Jugendstil, after the german magazine modeled after the style. It is characterized by organic, expecially floral and plant images. Probably the most well known peice created during this time for me would be in France, Hector Guimard's metro entrances shaped in the landscape of Paris.

When I was in France this J-term I saw a lot of this style of art all over. Drawings with thick outlines and then simplisitc coloring with floral decorations. I was really inspired by this style of art, and would like to try this out with some of my works, perhaps creating my own paintings. My only question is why this period was so brief and swift to end, I really feel it was a time of modern beauty and yet we quickly moved away from this style. I don't recall reading much on this style in the US, what happened back home?

Image Four

The modern poster. It's hard to believe but I don't think we've really evolved far from the Victorian style poster, that when it comes down to the basics, it's the same style. I took a look at Modern Dog ( http://www.moderndog.com/SWFX/ ) a graphic design firm out of Seattle.

First you have to break down what makes a poster 'Victorian.' First of a key part of Victorian posters are the multiple fonts, no white space, and various font sizes. If we take a look at the poster I posted here, it almost ends up looking like a ransom note. We have various fonts, not straight, in various sizes. No white space is left, that fear of leaving anything not colored or filled with text. I think these basic ideas are still shown in this poster. However, the unique and perhaps 'modern' part of the poster is the 'untidy.' Part of the Victorian mind set is that everything must be prim and proper. The tape and the cut out style of this poster is definitely not part of the Victorian style. Its interesting to even look at posters on campus and see how when it comes down to the basics, we haven't evolved that far.

After Class - Feb 27th 2009

Today I gave my presentation on the Victorian era. It was really fun sharing the History I found when searching for the style of that era. I really love the style, the complex intertwine of various fonts all squished together in a perfect chaos. After my fun quiz and we discussed my slides a bit more, we watched a youtube video on some Wisconsin actually still functioning traditional printing places. I would really love to go visit the place in Two Rivers, and I'm working on the details. Maybe some people in our class could organize a trip up north for a weekend? I'd love to work on something for our class!