04.27.2014

Ian Lynam Meme Design School

I did a lecture at Meme Design School yesterday on American Graphic Design History.

Road Trip lecture

The lecture was called “Road Trip” and was about social, economic, and graphic mobility in America, all framed by the windshield – America’s equivalent of the grid. Over the course of an hour-plus, I went over the tenets of American graphic design from the pre-Modern period to the Modern period to the PostModern period.

graphic design defined

First, we got down to brass tacks as to what this thing called “Graphic Design” really is, or at least how I define it.

While the historical aspect was great and introduced students to a number of designers they might have been previously unfamiliar with, perhaps the most important part of the lecture was helping to define the concepts of Modernism and PostModernism from an American perspective, heavily informed by R. Roger Remington’s book American Modernism. These ideas are things that many undergraduate and post-graduate graphic design students stumble over.

Modernism defined, Part 1: Process Values 

モダニズムの定義、その1:プロセス

– to reject traditional forms and decorative elements
– 伝統的な形式と装飾の要素を拒絶する

– to seek a solution that was simple and direct
– 簡潔で単刀直入な解決法を探す

– to be concerned with the process by which the designer worked
– デザイナーが使ったプロセスの成り行きを意識する

– to use systematic methods rather than intuitive ones
– 直感よりも、秩序と体系に基づいた方法を使う

– to use rational, objective approaches to the solving of a graphic problem
– グラフィックデザインの問題を解決する際、合理的で客観的なアプローチを使う

– to think about relationships in form and content
– 形式と内容の関係について考える

Modernism defined, part 2: Formal visual values 

モダニズムの定義、その2:幾何学的な視覚の価値

– to use geometric shapes: the circle, the triangle and the square
– 幾何学的な形を使う:円、正三角形、正四角形

Interestingly, one of the facts rarely mentioned in the mythos of the Bauhaus was how notoriously sexist the school was—women were denied instruction in architecture, graphic design and product design and were instead relegated to the field of textile design. (In essence, the message from the Bauhaus to its female students was, “Nice tits, now go weave”.)

不思議なことに、バウハウスの神話で語られることがあまりないのが、彼らがどれだけ女性を差別したかということです。女性は建築、グラフィックデザイン、そして、製品デザインの指導を受けることができず、染織(テキスタイル)デザインに集中させられました。言葉を換えれば、バウハウスが女性の生徒たちに送ったメッセージは「すごい胸だね、編み物でもしていなさい」ということです。

Modernism defined, part 3: Typography 

モダニズムの定義、その3:タイポグラフィについて

– to use sans serif typefaces
– サンセリフ体を使う

– to show contrast in typographical material
– タイポグラフィ間のコントラストをつける

– to base work on pragmatic issues printing, paper sizes, photo engraving, standardization
– プリント技術、紙のサイズ、写真製版、標準化などの実用性を念頭において作業する

Modernism defined, part 4: Imagery

モダニズムの定義、その4:イメージについて

– The use of photographs and photomontage rather than drawings or illustrations
– スケッチやイラストよりも写真やモンタージュを使う

– The use of silhouetted photographs with white backgrounds
– 白い背景のシルエット写真を使う

– The use of maps and diagrams
– 案内図と略図を使う

– The use of graphic symbols and icons
– 図記号とアイコンを使う

Modernism defined, part 5: Organization

モダニズムの定義、その5:組織化について

– the use of asymmetric page layout
– 非対称のページレイアウトを使う

– The use of a grid or clearly delineated page-organizing method
– 方眼紙やしっかりと線引きされたページでまとめる

– to apply a planned visual hierarchy in the manner in which the graphic elements were integrated
– グラフィック要素を総括した方法をもとに考えられたビジュアル階層を適用する

– to know and apply perceptual laws (I.e. Keeping elements grouped)
– 知覚の法則を知り、適用する(要素をグループ分けする)

– to apply continuity in page flow
– ページフローの継続性を適用する

This was all backed-up by looking at a survey of American Modern designers like Cipe Pineles and Louis Danziger (their work pictured above), and ran the gamut from Paul Rand to Alvin Lustig to William Golden to Saul Bass, including a large selection of work by European immigrants’ work, including Will Burtin, Alexey Brodovitch, Dr. M.F. Agha, and innumerable others.

We also got into Lorraine Wild’s concepts about graphic design in the 1950s being split into two fairly discernible camps: consumer modern, graphic design which aggressively targeted the general public; and high modern, which was the business of selling design itself to corporations and potential clients.

rob roy kelly

We went over developments in graphic design in the 1960s and 1970s, as well, including the work of Aaron Burns, Pushpin Studios, Rob Roy Kelly, and the psychedelic poster movement in San Francisco, including each of these practitioners’ contextual relevance and impact in terms of graphic design in Japan.

This was followed by an explanation of the development of PostModern graphic design, starting with the introduction of the term in the 1977 exhibition, “postmodern typography: recent American developments” organized by Bill Bonnell.

PostModernism defined, part one: Principles

ポストモダンの原理、その1

– complexity
―複雑化

– contradiction
―矛盾

– dystopian / non-utopian / deals with the world on its own terms
―ディストピア、非ユートピア、思い通りになる世界などないという視点

– appropriation
―横領

PostModernism defined, part two: Principles

ポストモダンの原理、その2

 – juxtaposition / fractured meaning
―並列、砕かれた意味

– recontextualization
―再・文脈付け

– layering
―層化(レイヤリング)

– interaction of text and image
―テキストとイメージの相互作用

– hybridity
―ハイブリッド化

These ideas were supplemented by a survey of American PostModernist work – from Dan Friedman to Ed Fella, and April Greiman to Lorraine Wild.

From there, I explained the devolution of the inquiries of semiotics and experimentation as a basis of studio practice as instigated at the Cranbrook Academy of Art into the dumbed-down “grunge” aesthetic as exemplified by the work of David Carson, through American graphic designers’ interest into systems-based design, and into the contemporary moment in American graphic design.

The past 13 years have been characterized by a mix of previous graphic styles. Most American graphic design can be summarized as “a little bit country, a little bit rock ‘n roll”. Expressive formal experimentation is often accompanied by retro typographic treatments, and occasionally underpinned by a modern grid.

I summed up the state of graphic design in the U.S. of A. in this final statement:

“It seems that the time for dogma graphic design is over in America—there is just a stretch of infinite highway out in front of us, and simultaneously everywhere and nowhere to go at once, all framed by the windshield.”

Ian Lynam Meme Design School

Afterward, the students participated in a workshop I called “Looking Through the Windshield” about the analysis of spatial hierarchy, and how we can translate that hierarchy from a photograph to a typographic composition.

Ian Lynam Meme Design School

Loosely based on Jeffery Keedy of CalArts’ first two steps of his “1-10 Project”, the students used a numeric hierarchy to evaluate provided imagery and then use Letraset dry transfer lettering, Formatt adhesive lettering, and lettering stencils to create poetic typographic interpretations of their hierarchy.

Ian Lynam Meme Design School

All-in-all, it was a really rewarding day followed up by a lengthy chat with many of the students over coffee at a nearby café – the whole experience was the perfect introduction to teaching at Meme – a good mix of ideas and hands-on synthesis of what was discussed in class.