Monday 20 December 2010

Critical positions on Advertising.

Negative social force. 

No escaping advertising in modern society.
-Images - instructions
-Ideologies - Fantasies

Promise better yet belittle current lives!
POSSIBLY THE MOST INFLUENTIAL MEDIA IN THE MODERN WORLD.

1990s - 11000 new TV adverts in UK alone
Britain produced 25 million different print adverts.
Almost becomes an integrated part of lives. Because of the visual onslaught that is advertising.
Visual rapery?
Commodity culture. 
We construct identities through material possessions.
APPLE.
Brand status.
-based upon artificial life
pretending, gaining superficial status.


KARL MARX
Philosopher and theorist.
Analysis of capitalism
Capitalist stance, Marxist...

They are measured by what they own & buy.
What we buy is what we are as opposed to what we can give to the world.
Commodities.
-things bought and sold in a capitalist system.
"publicity is the process of manufacturing glamour" through a state of envy.

The 'Stanley' range.
Selling commodities on their virtues.
Based entirely on the products merit.

The 'Uncle Sam' Range
Begins symbolic associations.
1876
This moves on from the commodities merit to the dream. Implies that you'd be a better person for having it. Almost criticises those without.




Commodity self.
Spend money to fit with the promise of adverts to make you feel richer by in turn making you poorer.

Symbolic associations.
CK ONE
-symbolically associated with beauty
-popularity
-sex
-youth
-style
-glamour
-trend
-fashion
-sophistication.
21st century sexuality

Commodity culture perpetuates false needs?
by trading on the feeling of belonging.
-aesthetic innovation
-planned obsolescence
-novelty
don't actually need things so they NEED to trick them. 

We are fooled into believing that the product will give us these things.
CREATES FALSE NEEDS !

After time, commodities become an addiction
as opposed to just a false need.

cynicism of companies 
-they know exactly when to release things in order to get the most money out of it.
 
Aesthetic innovation
making something look better/newer/sexier than before.
Tactically releasing products
-continually giving items tiny adjustments that make people want it.
conspicuous consumption.

Commodity fetishism...
Something people use to conduct a relationship through them. Sex appeal is then placed onto this object.
Term defining what commodity culture is about and how it continues to function.

History of items is concealed so they appear better (sweat shops)

Reification. 
-situation where things start to appear human
-object becomes more personified.
-people become more like the objects

forget about the nature of things as they become magical.

DE-HUMANISED SOCIETY
John Berger. 
-ways of seeing
reality of Nike trainers.
Advertised as empowering women.
yet produced by female slaves in sweat shops.

role of models becomes similar to those portrayed by goddess


people used art and culture to show their status amongst the elite. 
now it is with technology instead...now through advertising.


brings economical benefit.
encourages business & growth 
produced radical changes in advertising.
also good for challenging stereotypes yet bad for perpetuating myths!


Communication in a limited/reductive manor. society has a tendency to do the same. 
 7% of society owns 84% of the worlds wealth.

Advertising & new media.

WILLIAM HESKETH LEVER
BILL BERNBACH
First to combine copywriters and art directors.


Case study: SUNLIGHT SOAP
Unilever - James Darcy and William H Lever
Ubiquitous brand - "part of the consumers mental furniture"

Asa Candler
1890s Cola bottle.



Mid to late 19Century
Boom in advertising & newspapers.
much down to huge improvements in reproduction and colour printing.


Buying art in 1800s gave you ownership over the copyright. So these artworks could be used for whatever purpose. So Pears soap based some of their earliest ads directly on paintings and artworks that the owners had collected.

This is one of their adverts, which is simply a painting with type added.


Big part in advertising was brand loyalty and relying on customers using the same products time and again.
Sunlight soap was one of the first products to be involved in an international advertising campaign.

Royal endorsements and wrapper scheme.
Advocates of forced labour.
Lever- executive creative director.
chose innovative advertising positions.

His ads emphasised how easy it was to do washing with sunlight soap.
Reached out to the working class and suggested that using sunlight soap would give them better lives.
British Imperial Mission.
-to civilise.
-wash and clothe the savage and cleanse the great unwashed of the working class.
Emergence of psychology in 20th century.

made people feel inferior so they needed a product to better themselves.

ADMASS-economic liberals

the internet!
-enables small ideas to combine, in itself the biggest idea possible...
 
New Media Model.
-mass media to my media.
-personalised and targeted
-viral ads, video viewings online are voluntary.
-involvement in ads, peer to peer.


OLD SPICE viral.
OASIS viral - advertising their newest album by teaching their songs to street musicians...

Youtube advertisement of the year - embrace life. seatbelt safety advert.

Mobile advertising is the fastest growing form of advertising.


GIANT HYDRA







collaborative creativity networking.
 

Saturday 18 December 2010

An introduction to semiotics.

Semiotics emerges from the study of linguistics. 

Unpicking culture & meaning in society in the same way that you read language on a page.
Linguistic science - is how language works.


Ferdinand de Saussure defined semiotics as we know today.

Semiotics is how meaning within language is structured.
A code that carries meaning.

For example a tie.
Redundant item of clothing
simply to give meaning symbolically.
Smartness/sofistication/eliegence.

These ideas are based upon agreed systems of meaning.
Style - the suit
Professional/smart/ordered.
belonging to social system.

Codes and conventions of Western & Outer space.

 Semiotics aims to unpick social & cultural codes of the norm.
Lots of codes rely on shared consensual knowledge.

'Dog', 'Pog' 'woofer!'
Based on agreement that the word dog - is linked to the thing represented

Anything that conveys meaning is called a sign
-Sign is the meaning conveyed.
-Signifier
1)written word
2)spoken sound
3)Barking by a dog
4)Picture of a dog

-Signified.
Mental concept of a dog.


Rose 
signifier
-word
-sound
-image
-colour
signified - rose
passion/romance.


use of cliche font.  feminine and elegant for rose.
Fonts act as signifiers. 


Agreed idea that certain fonts signify certain signified. 
use of clashing signifiers can disrupt codes. 


ROLAND BARTHES
Analyses meaning in society
Writes about things meanings within french culture.

Signified is broken down on two levels!!?
denotation & connotation.
These are associational meaning taught to you by society.
Socially coded levels of deep meaning.







DENOTATION

-Basic understanding of a dog, four legged creature


CONNOTATION
-associational meanings of a dog - loyalty, companionship, krufts, walks, smell.








Adverts rely on cultural codes of meaning.

WHISKY ADVERT
"take yourself to the glen of tranquility"

-Glen, Scottish-ness
-relaxation
-tradition
-tranquility
-Social element
-Comfort
-Conutryside
-Drink takes you away from normal life.
-sophistication
-metropolitan

Signifier denotes landscape
which conotes Scottish-ness
this signifies thistle.
Braveheart
Wild lands.
Harmony
Fertility
Man with nature
Subjective and socially taught meanings.

BARTHES says that myth comes into play within the realm of connotation.




Connoted - all are equal under french flag.
colonial doner - enslaving Africa.

Disguising social difference.
people understand myth as a natural meaning
instead of socially given meaning.

was created fictionally but seen as the truth.









"The myths which suffuse our lives are insidious precisely because they appear so natural"

Bowler hat - representation of Englishness which no longer rings true

This is down in part to images like this...
Constable's Hay Wain. Represents the myth of English-ness as "Green & pleasant land"
People still think of England in this way.


St George's cross is a flag that connotes everything to do with English-ness.
Christianity civilizes the savages, the flag signifies the same.

"St George and the dragon" Town beset by a dragon. Lays siege to the dragon. St George slays the dragon, all take up Christianity.
football fans don't just hold up a football flag...
Symbol of victory & beatdown


Wonderbra. Woman is objectified.
Double major - term for doing well at college.
Interrogate sexist attitude
Woman is taught not to compete with men on intellect.
Just to become sexy... and that.
Birth control advert. 
Don't have to think about things more than 4 times a year.
signifies that female isn't bright enough to work this out for herself.


Hans Memling (1485) 'Vanity'
Myth of woman as stupid vain character.
painting for man by man.


Fonts play on mythic ideas of foreigners, labelling them as primitive.


Trying to tap into racist stereotypes of Chinese people to advertise their own Chinese...

Law & order in toy town... P.C PLOD
Fat, silly, jovial, friendly, not serious.
(the plod)
Codes you into thinking about the police in this way.

Law & order in Springfield... POLICE CHIEF WIGGUM
Sloth, harmless
Myth - expression of the connotative that appears to denote.

Enforcers.
riot police. 
De-human
faceless - robotic
Dispatching justice.
Brutality
NO SLACK!

Friday 17 December 2010

'The Document'

Always hidden power struggles in photography.
Documentary is the largest form of photographic practice.
Joseph Nicephore Niepce - 1826 - 'View from a window at la gras'
-One of the first 'documentary' photographs.


Joseph Nicephore's picture from 1826.















Instantly struck with anyone who was interested in documenting anything.

The term document signifies evidence of something neutral & not to be questioned.
use of the camera to document with the purpose of changing the world.
Strength of photography lies in its ability to perceive & portray humanity.
This is part of the reason for war photography, however it is also able to show people what is happening without them having to go there, to escape what is portrayed by the mass media of the war being a good thing.

JAMES NACHTWEY
-Documentary photographer is not to be dissinterested, they are taking a political position. A subjective stance in order to expose war for the benefit of humanity.
-Political & humanitarian agenda.
Shows the darker side of events to those that may never see it.
-In order to align and create bonds between the photographer & the viewer.

Henri Cartier-Bresson
Photographer who waits for the dessicive moment, becomes more important & artistic.
Jacob Riis (1888)
Photographed squalor and poverty with the aim of showing it to people so they could help to reform the poverty.
However people in his pictures pose/have been placed - projected in a sense of self... Riis' depiction of the squalor.
-sensationalises the scenes for the upper classes.
rich are then able to 'spy' on the poor.

Jacob Riis' 'Growler Gang robbing a lush' 1887



















Completely staged picture - Questionable depictions.
OTHERING - in order to stamp representation onto people
-Images of people out to other people.

Lewis Hine 1908
FSA PHOTOGRAPHS 
Roy Stryker
-Document plight of migrant labourers as a lobbying tool for their rehousing.
documenting with an agenda
Photographers given shooting scripts, showing them what to take.
Margaret Bourke-White ( boy and dog device) 1937

Margaret Bourke-White's image depicting a boy with a dog.



















Photographic propaganda with a neutral disguise
Dorothea Lange (1936) 'Migrant Mother'
lots of rejected photos with compositions an imagery that weren't quite right.
Walker Evans
-Highly aestheticised.
John Lamprey 1868 - scrutinising 'the other'. Comparing them to 'us'. Scientific pirsuits.
-attempts to justify white superiority
-portraits of italian & german criminals.
colonial agenda/mark or scrutinise
Mass observation 1937 - 1960s
-Depict everyday life in Britain (truthfully & accurately)
-Attempts to develop a neutral demographic.
-Shared vision/ more accurate depiction


Stakes are raised in war/conflict photography
-horrifying & striking images           ROBERT CAPA ( normandy )
-dependant on new technologies
Capa shudder (AESTHETIC OR TRUTHFUL?)

Magnum founded in 1947 Cartier Bresson & Capa
-Ethos of depicting the world and its social problems.

Robert Haeberle 1969 


Robert Haeberle's, 'people about to be shot'




















-Image of immense power/ preserved image of abject horror & inhumanity

 "Still there is something predatory in the act of taking a picture. To photograph people is to violate them, by seeing them as they see themselves, by having knowledge of them as they can never be; it turns people into objects that can be symbolically possessed. Just as the camera is a sublimation of the gun, to photograph someone is a subliminated murder- a soft murder, appropraite to a sad, frightened time."- Susan Sontag, 1979:15.

Documentary photography
-Offer a humanitarian perspective
-Portray social & political situations
-Purport to be objective to facts of the scene
-People tend to form the subject matter.

Thursday 16 December 2010

Modernism in Graphic Design.

Modernity began when life shifted to the city
1750 -------- onwards.

Modernism begins late 19th Century

Rejection of ornament (Adolf Loos, Ornament & Crime 1908)
Vogueish style will date work
-remove it all to get pure design
-Sans Serif font created as a direct response to modernism.
Form follows function (Louis Sullivan 1896)
An office building should look like an office building!

Graphic design:
-Clear
-Legible
Road signs... Brilliant example of design in action.

Toulouse - Lautrec - 1891 - Believed the beginnings  of modernist design.
Tendency to depict modern life


WORK OF ITALIAN FUTURISTS.
'parole in liberta'
-Attempting to be new/experimental
-Change method of typography, against the linear forms created by the Gutenberg press.
-What is the use of looking behind at the moment when we must open the mysterious shutters of the impossible?

Marinetti 1905
Futurists see war.
Fortunato Depero 1927
Bolter book, Truth to materials.
Appolinaire 
Jan Tschichold 
-New typography - totally nuetral - simply for communication.
No fonts should be used other than grotesk

Switzerland post WWII
International typographic style.
Neue Grafik
-Helvetica
-Left aligned
-Grid layouts

BOYNE&ROTTANSI - postmodernist.
- Aesthetic self reflexiveness ( work makes comment on how it is made)
Jackson Pollock 
-Painting as much a reflection of the process as the painting itself.
-Montage
-Paradox, ambiguity and uncertainty  - optimism
-Loss of the integrated individual subject ( loss of confidence in the individual)

OPTIMISM&UTOPIANISM
-laying down solutions to better the world.
-standardising typography.
typefaces/sans serif
le corbussier.
AESTHETIC SELF REFLEXIVENESS
El Lessitsky - pelican ink
- shows off the process of how the image was created.
MONTAGE
Paul Citroen - metropolis
'Die Schon Madchen' Hannah Hoch 1920
Girl defined by advertising & design- loss of subjectivity


Modernism moves away from illusionistic realistic way of depicting the world, relying on signs and symbols.

Tuesday 14 December 2010

Graphic Design: A media for the masses.

Beginnings of design & visual communication
-Cave paintings - no writing - just images and visual signifiers for communication - 15,000 - 10,000 BC
-Giotto Di Bondone - betrayal, 1305 - More like fine art or classical art, yet still shows signs of communicating visually.

-Depictions of Jesus always the same 
-Becomes recognisable visually.

GRAPHIC DESIGN- Term originated in 1922
-William Addison Dwiggins(designer)
"this calls for an exercise in common sense"


Richard Hollis - described visual communication as...
"The business of making or choosing marks and arranging them on a surface to convey an idea"

Graphic design needs to have a message recognisable by its target audience. 


-Henri De Toulouse-Lautrec
-Alphonse Mucha 
In early stages of graphic design it was very similar to fine art with little distinction between the two.
Good example of visual communication - Propaganda of the first & second world war.

Harry Beck - London underground map.
Herbert Matter - 1932-34 (swiss)
A.M.Cassanore - French Graphic Designer

1937 - British Graphic design stays very conservative, almost wrapped up in traditional art.
Ludwig Vierthaler - degnerate art


Exhibition of science - 1951 - Abran Games - British design...


A celebration of what it means to be British


















Volkswagen - Think small. 1959




















Look at Sainsbury's classic cola. 
- was stopped due to the design being too close to coca cola's
-a recognisable brand which managed to sell sainsbury's drinks due to its close resemblance.

Paul Rand - at the forefront of branding graphics.
Ken Garland  - First things first manifesto.

GRAPHICS HAS MORE TO DO THAN JUST SELL STUFF
- things more worth using skill & experience on.
EMEGENCE OF COUNTER CULTURE 
-F.H.K.7. Stop Nuclear Suicide campaign - Hippies.


Hipgnosis - Storm Thorgerson - 10cc album cover
Punk came as a backlash against prog... Sex pistols.
Peter Saville - the factory nightclub - FAC 001






















New order - Blue monday - best selling record
Post Modernism - "is the packaging just as important as the product itself?"
David Carson - Ray Gun - Graphic design for graphic designs sake?
Public image limited 1986























Designer Republic
- Primal scream - Extrminator
-Spiritualised - CD packaging designed with aesthetic of medicine packaging because of singers drug habit.
Steven Heller - Key thinker
Jonathan Barnbrook - olympukes.

Monday 22 November 2010

Task 2 - Modernist design.

Vladimir Majakovskij - For the Voice - 1923
www.bookworks.plus.com

The design above is from an experimental typographic book containing poems within which the design was supposed to enhance the meaning and delivery of the poems. It is by an artist called Majakovskij and shows very clear modernist features such as the use of new found printing techniques allowing for more experimental type and the strict use of geometric forms to create images.

 El Lissitzky - Russland journal - 1930
http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=16286

This is a magazine cover for 'Russland' by El Lissitzky, a prominent Russian designer in the constructivist movement. Again there is a clear division being made clear by the designer between this piece and more classical art, moving away from realistic depictions into silhouetted black & white figures and again the use of geometric forms, this time, laid over the background image.

Jan Tschichold - Ausstellung Emil Nolde. - 1928
www.postersplease.com

Above is a poster for the 'Grand Nolde' exhibition in Munich by Jan Tschichold, a really interesting designer focusing on type and layout predominantly. This shows the movement of type away from 'Blackletter' and ornate styles which distract from what the type is saying towards much cleaner and simpler type designed only to aid in the messages readability. There is also the clear use of grid layout which became popular as a result of the movement towards clearer typography.

 
Paul Colin - Katherine Dunham - 1945
www.barewalls.com/pv-399954_Katherine-Dunham.html

Here is a poster by the designer Paul Colin, working in Paris in 1945. Again although traditional media, there is a clear element of the artists desire to move away from classical art styles and produce something more abstract. This simple image has been combined with some very clear type on a plain background to make the poster as clear as possible.

Wassily Kandinsky - 1922
http://www.wassilykandinsky.net/painting1914-1921.php

This final piece is one by Wassily Kandinsky, produced in 1922, in the midst of the constuctivist period. Although it is in some parts, rather rough and appears hand drawn, it has been combined with some rather more uniform parts to create a very geometric layout.

Saturday 20 November 2010

Revolutionary design in Russia.

Post war 1917-1925 Radical advances in art&design.

Workers mob to overthrow the winter palace.
Battleship Aurora - New Dawn
November 1917
Bolsheviks laying siege to winter palace
Revolution is sealed. 
LENIN takes Russia under communist control under the slogan of "peace, bread & land". 
Supposed to be more democratic, the peoples country. With equality being the main aim, reducing the gap between the rich and the poor. Equally shared wealth.
Own land 
Own food
Own space
Own voice

U.S.S.R.

Sergei Eisenstein- radical film maker. 
October.
Lots of symbolism in this film relating to the revolution.
Images of Christ, symbolic of a ressurection or new life.
Stealing things
Waving weapons- symbol of victory
Man climbing gate - puts foot on crown... want a workers society.
Shows passing of time
Decrees.
Boy on throne, symbolising a new dawn,
Wine - decadence
Don't believe in god - thought that he was ideology to make people work.

KUSTODIEV- The Bolshevik
Propaganda
fuedal- pre revolution.
Cultural/financial division.
60% illiterate so had to work visually and simply.
Bolshevik leader is dressed like every man, worker.
is large because trying to convey collective strength/might
Amount of white in the image possibly linked to counter-revolutionaries.
Red flag connotes communism. 
represents the blood of slain workers in the fight for the revolution.
for the MARTYRED WORKERS.


1917- mid 1920s intense artistic experimentation.
Trying to create an entirely new aestheti.
art was a symbol of power, so Bolsheviks changed it.
Radical INDUSTRIALIST aesthetic.
tryin to make the work appear better,

This new aesthetic was quickly abolished when Lenin died, and Stalin took his place.
It was too progressive.
Back to SOCIALIST REALISM.

There was no private art market in Russia.
Stalin encouraged European modernists such as Picasso and Matisse however Stalin deemed them dangerous.


1917-1924 was a period of more aesthetic development then anywhere else ever before. Almost overnight Lenin overthrew the old. 

Malevich & Suprematism
New aesthetic for a new world
Geometric. Not like any other art, classically modernist.

El Lissitzky - 'Beat the whites with the red wedge' 
Red wedge conotes Bolsheviks.
Spearhead of cultural revolution - power of revolutionaries against the weakness of the white army. old power.
Aims to be democratic & have a social function. STILL RADICAL.
Quick development of peoples aesthetic.
Before Bauhaus...
Avante garde- experimental advances.
Pave the way for people to follow.
Political & social aims. 
supposed to be understood be all
-belief in progress
-belief in workers
-deeply political
Rodchenko-commissioned by state to help aid cultural development. 
advertise libraries and bookshops.
Angular, modern, geometric, photography- new technology.
telling people to teach themselves.
books are visually tied to Bolshevism.
revolution also brings increased role for women... co-leaders to the revolution.

Montage experiments
represents collective. might to change and build modern world.
Lenin represented as reguler Bolshevik. 
circle and wedge return.
supposed to show Russia as axis of the world. 


Continued development of aesthetic... Print- mass produceable and quick. 
people took turns in running the country and being part of the state. 
constructivists set up exhibitions like spaces where there was an emphasis on being new and different.
CONSTRUCTIVISTS.
constructions- pieces of art & structures that could translate and be used in the modern world.
artistic & practical.
Viewed like a lab or a look into the mind of the constructor.
Plans for Tatlin's monument. 
Communist reposte to the Eiffel tower.
three times the size!
designed to be a functional building with lecture theatres, teaching space, and broadcasting etc.
NO heirarchy of art culture in Russia. 
the constructivists aim = achieving the communistic expression of material structures.
Lenin in his constructivist overalls, supposed to be seen as no better than anyone else.
Everything built should represent the glory of Russia. 
& not simply that of certain people.
Textiles and other crafts seen as equally as important as any other form of design.
Elevation of something inferior to very important status.
patterns etc were revelusionary sentiment. and spoke the visual language of bolshevism, circles red wedges etc.
EMPHASIS ON FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION.
Heading to a fairer and more equal society through the medium of art and design? 

VKHUTEMAS - progressive art school. prospectus cover by El Lissizky.
Art school to train new constructivists and designers. Came before the Bauhaus.
Shut down when Stalin was instated!
perhaps also capitalist nations didn't want to show communist work as more radical than their own. 
women served great role in the revolutionary new aesthetic. Equality
Women were not to be objectified by men aso as not to sexualise. Sports wear is good example of this.
Began to jettison variety... and tried to create armies of workers dressed in professional revolution suits.
Loss of individuality
went against individuality as they thought it went against equality.
design for workers sky bike...

... Socially equalise.
then also really fantastical objects such as sky bike.
radical thinking.

Dictatorship towards the end of the 20th century. 
REMAINDER OF 20TH CENTURY RUSSIA BECOMES BLACK HOLE. 
1930s saw the loss of female equality.
all aims of communism were lost by the return of the classical art style. 

Cultures can only develop when given chance to do so...





Friday 19 November 2010

Modernity & Modernism.

Modern was a negative term. Originally modern artists were socially 'below' classical artists.
Through 19th Century, modern becomes purely about progress.
1900 - shift in society - URBANISATION
Factory work in cities became most common employment - where used to be farming in small communities.
Changes in transport - trains.
Changes in communication - telegraph/telephone.
FUNDAMENTAL CHANGES OF LIFE.
Leisure activities change.
Shopping
cinemas
music halls

The city becomes the centre of modernity and is synonymous with the term.
STANDARDIZED WORLD CLOCK
factories introduce shifts.

Eiffel tower.
A direct effect of modernism.
built using purely modernist design

Enlightenment - late 18th century when scientific/philosophical thinking improved massively.
SECULARISATION
HAUSSMANISATION
Hausmann - Architect tasked with revamping Paris city centre.

Paris - 1850 onwards... A NEW PARIS
Large boulevards in favour of narrow streets
Form of social control. (social engineering)
Areas were easier to police
Inner city became an expensive middle class & upper class area. Middle & lower were pushed out of the centre because of the modernisation.
Pschology emerged due to peoples perception of how modernisation was affecting them.
No cohesion within society because of massive physical divide of classes and areas.
Boredom-distraction-alienation became worries.

New Technologies. KAISERPANORAMA 1885
People preferred to view the new world through new technologies. a new way of seeing things?
However new technologies were also very shocking.
first cinema showings, people fled in terror etc. LUMIERE BROTHERS

Modernism is the artists subjective response to their experience of modernity

flying machines that took people to parts of the world they'd never before seen.

People believe painting is no longer necessary due to the introduction of photography.
Painters were therefore forced to look for a new style in which to keep people interested in 'traditional' media.

MODERNISM IS A DIRECT RESPONSE TO NEW TECHNOLOGIES & THE SHIFT IN SOCIETY 
Anti-historicism
Truth to materials (letting modern materials speak for themselves)
Form following function (form is dictated by its purpose)
Technology
Internationalism (art & design should speak universally)

Adolf Loos "ornament is crime" 1908
Felt that people shouldn't feel the need to aestheticise/flourish/decorate.
MASS PRODUCTION became massive due to ideals of Bauhaus movement.

Harry Beck, London underground map
Herbert Bayer's typeface- get rid of capitals.
Times new roman-1932-after futura.
MODERNITY - 1750-1960 Social, cultural experience. 
IMPORTANCE OF MODERNISM 
1. A vocabulary of styles.
2. Art&design education
3. Idea of form following function.

Thursday 11 November 2010

Task 1 - Comparison of 'Uncle Sam Range' and Savile Lumley's poster.

In this essay I am going to compare and contrast two images with a similar intention but with very different ways of delivering it. The first image is one from ‘The Uncle Sam Range’, an American advertising campaign for a range cooker, this particular example by Schumacher & Ettlinger of New York. The second image is a British campaign image by Savile Lumley created to encourage recruitment for the armed forces during the First World War.
            Both images are created with the intention of advertising by making something appear better than it is.  For example Savile Lumley’s poster has a very personal approach to encouraging recruitment, by putting emphasis on the word ‘you’ in the tagline and also making the father figure look directly at the viewer.  This gives the feeling that it’s aimed directly at you. The American poster takes rather a different approach, by giving the product the appearance of wealth and trying to instil feelings of pride and patriotism for an American viewing the image. It uses really simple and almost brash imagery such as including a black slave, and a stereotypical African American face on the earth, which is sat at the table. This is to make other races and countries appear inferior to the Americans, almost trying to advertise the cooker as providing them with the American dream. This is a style advertising that would almost certainly be illegal nowadays because of its references to race.
            The reason for the Uncle Sam advertisements brash use of imagery is its target audience, probably aimed at the middle classes, but giving the image a very upper class feel, implying that that’s how the viewers life would be by buying the cooker. Also this type of imagery and use of references to inferiority was not considered wrong at the time of the images production in 1876, it was merely a way of trying to instate Americas ‘superiority’ over other countries. Savile Lumley’s poster is much more subtle and is based around some fairly clever references to wealth and trying to change the perception of stories people ‘back home’ heard about the war. For example the use of the royal crest on the arm chair to imply wealth, and placing a family in a front room setting, almost showing how the children look up to their father for being a part of the war. The term ‘Great War’ is also used to put a positive outlook on the war, as it persuades people that they will be involved in something honourable and will be fighting for their country, although the reality was often very different.
            To conclude, although the two posters are used to encourage something, recruitment and purchasing a product, in Savile Lumley’s and Schumacher & Ettlinger’s respectively. Due to the social contexts in which they were produced they both have very different approaches, despite both trying to show wealth and pride, Savile Lumley’s poster takes a much more subtle approach which I think works much more effectively.