For this brief me and Jay paired up and came up with some ideas as to what we could have done with our time on the plinth in trafalgar square.
I found this video on youtube which has a gorilla on the plinth.......
We both found a video that we came across on you tube called "Where the hell is Matt?" here is the video .....
So looking at this video we decided to make various A2 posters representing each country since we weren't able to go to the actual countries, which would have been better. Then we thought that this will take up too much time to do. So i suggested instead that we collect objects that will represent each country. So the idea was that we were on the plinth i stood in front of Jay and held the first object and tell the audience the country name then i would move out of the way and Jay would perform a dance and then the audience could come up in large groups and get involved and then we would have a five minute break and then repeat the cycle again but with a different object and a different country name. So by the end the whole audience would have at least 1 or 2 dances on the plinth.
I decided to focus on Neville Brody's work instead of Paul rand's work because i found that with Paul Rand's his work is based more on modern. Neville Brody's work is postmodern and would fit more with Question 1 of the brief which im going to do. Neville Brody is one of the most famous graphic designers. He is born in london. He first came to prominence in the 1980s. He covers most areas of graphic design such as editorial,posters,typography,logos and he designs cd and magazine covers . His work is more computer based he uses the Mac to push his ideas. As a graphic designer he has always stood out and wasn't scared to try out anything different especially from a younger age. During the punk era in the 70s Brody did his degree in graphic design. His work reflected this time
What i had been asked to do in this brief was to write 1500 word essay i had been given three options on how to do my essay i picked option 1 which was to discuss one graphic designer and at least one piece of their work and then talk about how there work relates to the post modern theory. At this stage i didn't know whether i wanted to do Paul Rand or Neville Brody. So in order to pick which one i wanted to discuss in my essay. I collected research from both graphic designers to help me to decide.
Paul Rand
Paul Rand was an American graphic designer who was born in 1914 and died in 1996. He was most famously known for designing the IBM logo which was created in 1956. Along side the IBM logo he designed the, UPS,Westinghouse and ABC logo. Paul Rand's work was influenced by, Jan Tschichold, Cassandre, Paul Cezanne which i thought was quite an unusual one and Moholy-Nagy. Even though Rand liked the creative process of design he was very much into books. This is where Jan Tschichold comes into it. Tschichold was a typographer, book designer and writer. He was most famous for redesigning Penguin paperbacks. The link between Rand and Tschichold work is that they are both creative with there designs especially with type. Another one of Rand's influences was Paul cezanne who was a post impressionist painter, Cezanne used quite bold colours in his work which is reflected on Rand work. Moholy- Nagy was an hungarian painter, photographer and teacher. He taught at the bauhaus. During his time there which links in with Tschichold, he designed all of the typographic layout of the Bauhaus books and also some cover designs. The colours he used in his designs were quite sharp, bold colours, which is similar to the way Rand uses colour.
Neville Brody
Brody's work focuses on the evolution of a new visual language that questions and creates a dialogue on the role of electronic design in communication. Where he uses aesthetic elements from art deco and betrays non European influences.
During the 1980s he had the opportunity of designing postage stamps for Deutch PTT, which were followed by 2 major television graphic projects, The German cable channel premier and the Austrian state Broadcasting company ORF.
In the 1990s Brody opened Font Works with Stuart Jenson and became a director of font shop. Where he launched the experimental type magazine 'Fuse'.
Brody's work was influenced by Man Ray and Lazlo's Maholy this links in with Paul Rand's influences.
Neville brody' work and Man ray's work are linked in the sense that they both like to collect a mixture of sources and combine them together to make a different image or style this fits with the theory Radical Electicism.
Here is a bit of background on Man Ray
Man Ray, born Emmanuel Radnitzky (August 27, 1890 – November 18, 1976), was an American artist who spent most of his career in Paris, France. Perhaps best described simply as a modernist, he was a significant contributor to both the Dada and Surrealist movements, although his ties to each were informal. Best known in the art world for his avant-garde photography, Man Ray produced major works in a variety of media and considered himself a painter above all. He was also a renowned fashion and portrait photographer. He is noted for his photograms, which he renamed "rayographs" after himself. While appreciation for Man Ray's work beyond his fashion and portrait photography was slow in coming during his lifetime, especially in his native United States, his reputation has grown steadily in the decades since. In 1999, ARTnews magazine named him one of the 25 most influential artists of the 20th century, citing his groundbreaking photography as well as "his explorations of film, painting, sculpture, collage, assemblage, and prototypes of what would eventually be called performance art and conceptual art and saying "Man Ray offered artists in all media an example of a creative intelligence that, in its 'pursuit of pleasure and liberty,'"—Man Ray's stated guiding principles—"unlocked every door it came to and walked freely where it would."
Neville Brody timeline
1957- Neville was born in southgate London 1975- he started his fine art foundation course at Hornsey college of art 1976- he started his B.A in graphics at London college of printing which was for three years 1980- Fetish records Art Director 1981- he became Art Director for 'The Face' magazine 1982- Designed album covers such as Throbbing Gristle, 8 Eyed Spy, 8 Z'ev and Stephen Mallinder he also designed an article called "Workwear" for 'The Face" magazine 1983- The Face magazine #34 cover for a member of the band 'New order' 1988- The release of 'Graphic language of Neville brody part 1' also Works and Designs for Nike. 1990- Fontworks opened and creates font FF Blur 1994- release of 'Graphic language of Neville Brody part 2' and founds Research Studios 2006- creates new font 'Times Modern' created for The Times and creates visual identity for famous Paris contemporary art exhibition Nuit Blanche 2007- Brody's team launches a new champagne brand Dom perignon
Here is some of his work
Postmodernism
I think this is one of the most hardest topics i have ever come across in contextual studies. As we were briefed on this topic i wrote some notes down
Post modern- is post 1960s and is the opposite to modernism, challenging modernism, identity, globalisation, confused/complex freedom
multimedia, video, film, photography brought into a hybrid form which is one of the conditions in post modernism
characteristics modernity- progress, optimism, rationality, knowledge in science, technology society and politics, idea of gaining knowledge of the time self was the only foundation for all other knowledge.
post modern traits- unconventional layouts, double coding pluralism, unique typefaces mix of sans serifs and serifs
modern design was forward looking postmodern design tends to look in the past
1960s- pop culture, art, media expanding, advertising rebellion 1968 also the war had ended and women were gaining more rights, women liberation,birth control came in 1961, sexual freedom and changes in the economy
late 1970s- punk movement
the notion of purity in artistic practice and interpretation might be related
modernism 50s - type was clean and legible
60s - was doing the opposite with type technology came in media pop art and abstract stuff
I was to choose one graphic designer post 1960 who I felt has made a significant contribution to contemporary design. I was to give reason as to why I thought this and then I was to examine at least one piece of their work in detail and link their work to relevant post-modern ideas.
The graphic designer I have chosen to discuss is Neville Brody. I have chosen him and feel like he has made a significant contribution to contemporary design because i like the fact that he mainly focuses on type how he can make a piece of text or type look more like an image. I think his work is visually exciting and the the style of his work is received well.
Neville Brody is one of the most famous graphic designers of all time. He has done everything in graphics such as logos, typography, posters, editorials, magazine, advertising and more. The one thing that makes him stand out is the fact that he isn’t afraid to approach design in an unusual way. You can see this in him from an early age. During the 1970s Brody was taking his degree in graphic design. This was the punk era, and London where he grew up was hugely affected. There were rebellious children and adults, rise of unemployment, strikes, and many people living off the dole it was a bad time. During his time at college, as one of his pieces of work he decided that he wanted to put the Queen’s head sideways on a postage stamp, which was frowned upon and seen as disrespectful. This nearly saw him being expelled off the course. What I most recognise him for is his typographic style. He hasn't followed the rules when it comes to type, he has pushed the boundaries. He has made type more visually exciting.
During the 1950s typefaces were to be clean and legible and anything different to this got a lot of criticism. Then it completely changed in the 60s, this was a vibrant decade there was pop art, optical art, repetitive patterns came in, birth control, sexual freedom and advertising became really popular. When it came to typefaces being produced serifs were popular and it just seemed like the rules of type had changed extremely. It was more like typefaces were made to be eye catching and funky and to make people look and think. Whereas in the 50s type was tedious and everyone got it straightaway.
With Brody's type he wants his work to follow some of the rules but not all . He wants to create type so it is visually exciting but not too obvious to the target audience and not too complex either.
In some aspects of his work he can be compared to David Carson. The layout in his type is similar to Brody's but not as extreme. The difference in Carson's work there seems to be a lack of structure whereas Brody's work seems thought out.
Brody is also well known for his work on The face magazine which was first published in 1981. The target audience for this magazine was aimed at wealthy teenagers who were into fashion, art and music. He made the design of the magazine abnormal. Using distorted letters, mixing up the fonts and making the typefaces postmodern. Towards the end of the 1980s the magazine started to lose it target audience resulting in the magazine having its last issue.
During the 1990s fontworks opened and this is when Brody really became the master of the mac and took type to a new level. He created a new visual language. The first typeface he created on the mac was Blur, he then went on to doing many more such as insigina, Arcadia, Typeface six which are the three most popular. He once said 'I liken working on the mac to jazz properly you have to become highly skilled at an instrument, working with a mac you have to learn the technology just as you would learn to play an instruments'.
The ideas behind his work come from artists such as Russian constructivist's El Lissitzky and Alexander Rodchenko. He also gets inspiration from Man Ray's and Lazlo Maholy- Nagy's work. What all these artists have in common is there use of colour and shape and how they use there type. I could also link the shapes Maholy- Nagy uses and the shapes Wassily Kandinsky uses, which are both quite geometrical. Maholy- Nagy's work looks more like compositions because of way he has portrayed each object.
Brody's work relates to the postmodern theory radical electicism in that he takes aesthetic elements from other artists work such as Maholy-Nagy and alters them in his own way. This is shown in 'The Face' magazine.- Brody's work also encompasses the idea of double coding. Based on the fact that most Brody's work is computer based he is taking styles that he has created on the computer a communicating them in postmodern way. Also the architectural layout in the arena magazine references double coding.
Hi I am Chloe Hollinshead and I am studying my degree in Graphic Design Im in my final year of my course. The aspect of graphic design that i want to pursue this year is typography. I find type fascinating, the negative and positive shapes created, serif and san serif typefaces and how type can become an image. When I finish this course I would like to go to London to do a placement and then do an MA in communication design and at the end of this get a job.
