One of the things that I have come to realize this semester and it falls under the “suprising me” category, is that graphic design had to start somewhere. It started earlier than I thought it did. Honestly, I hadn’t thought much on it, so I didn’t really realize how early it came to be.

After presenting my manifesto, I realized that I could have practiced my speech a bit more. I also wanted to do something more with my realization, because I feel that a poster just doesn’t do what my message was, justice. Now, when it comes to my classmates manifesto’s, some were more thought out, especially the “details!” one. I loved the colors, and overall design of it. And a lot of my classmates knew what they were talking about (not that I didn’t) but they didn’t seem to hesitate. They were confident in the subject they spoke of. I did notice that some of us had an overall message that design is whatever the speaker thought it was, and some spoke of it being whatever you wanted it to be. I learned a lot this semester, not just in this class, but in the rest of them too. It was a good last semester.

The postmodernists used techniques from past styles without adopting the ideas and the movements themselves. They used bright colors and typography that was harder to read. Some of the color schemes were easier on the yes, but most weren’t. They used a lot of complimentary colors. They were mainly influenced by music, mixing together historical references that really didn’t fit together or make sense, and also drugs (mainly LSD). They also did what they did so they weren’t conforming to social norms and the feeling of what adults had wanted them to do.

The poster above is an example of what the postmodernists did with their work. I personally just do whatever I want to do with my work, so the answer to the question of if these techniques appeal to me is sort of half and half. I will listen to what people have to say, but it’s ultimately my decision if I apply what they say or not. As for a response to the swiss style, postmodernism is sort of…rebellious. Swiss style is very professional and in order, and there is no order to postmodernism. Like stated earlier, some of it doesn’t fit well together. I feel that postmodernism could have been an inevitable response to Swiss style, but it really has to do with what is going on in history at that moment.

How did propaganda differ for the Second World War? They had more means of communication and designers/artists were more in demand this time around, on both sides. I think the Nazis were so effective in their use of propaganda because they used what they had. They knew that the way to get their message out was through artwork and the use of advertisement. Do I think if the Nazis were not as effective with their propaganda would they still have taken control of Germany? Yes, I feel that if the Nazis hadn’t used this method of communication, they would’ve found something else to use. The Nazis wanted control. But the way they used posters to advertise their stances, targeting specific audiences and taking control, I think it was extremely effective and a smart move on their part. Obviously I’m not saying what happened is okay–the promotion aspect that they used was effective.

Artists in this time used their work to affect social change by using the different styles. The De Stijl artists were focused on finding a utopian ideal of spiritual harmony and order, so they carried that into their work. They avoided symmetry and used only primary colors along with black and white. The constructivists said that their ideology was “scientific communism, based on the theory of historical materialism”. They used techniques like photo montage, and that included typography and was very abstract.

I do believe that designers should play a part in changing our world. So many of artists want change, and this is a great way to do that! Design can definitely be effective in changing our world, if we market and advertise it in the correct way.

There are some style characteristics that the Bauhaus has, and they include theory of color and vision, architecture, and psychology of form. They influenced design and design education by having their students focus on various crafts. I think that the Bauhaus deffinitely has an influence in today’s graphic design. When it comes to architecture, you deffinitely see a lot of buildings that have some of the same characteristics that the buildings did back then, and they had artists design them with the Bauhaus style in mind. It was mentioned in class that the RTC building here at Mott has some Bauhaus characteristics when it comes to the windows and whatnot. Now that I think about it, at the Museum of Contemporary Art, I noticed that the staircase looks sort of the same as the picture of the staircase that was shown to us in class. I do believe that the way that they taught was the cause of their significant influence, because they had their students focus on creating products that were high in demand when it came to the market. Although, it would have been nice to see women included, they were sort of exiled to bookbinding, weaving, and pottery workshops.

So for this week we learned about Art Nouveau, and we talked about the characteristics. Originating in Belgium and France, and even getting as far as Asian countries, I’ve noticed that a lot of the designs were patterns. Not only patterns, but when it came to poster design and whatnot, this style focused on what was going on at the time (or advertising brands), and usually had people as the center. I’ve also noticed that many of the people in said posters were women, as well. Not all of them, but most. And of course different countries have a different take on Art Nouveau, it would be silly to think otherwise. Asian cultures added certain aspects of their culture to their work and others did too.

My personal favorite of the ones that were shown to us during this week were the floral prints, just because they were more visually appealing to me. The one posted below is the one that stood out to me the most, and it was the only one out of the many that were shown to us that I could find.

So we discussed many art styles this week, and to tell you the truth, it’s hard to pick one that I like. There were some that were okay to me, and some that I altogether did not like. And I get it, they were important styles because they helped us get where we are today. That being said, one of the ones that is “okay” to me, is Futurism. The artists that worked in this style dabbled in different media, but I am going to focus on painting. Futurism paintings are really vibrant in some areas, and then not so much in others, if that makes sense. It really makes you wonder what exactly you are looking at, because everything is smashed together, but in a good way. The artist that painted in the style of Futurism must have had to really think about what they were doing before they did it, because there is just so much going on all at once.

Having said that, I personally love looking at artwork to make sense of it (if at all possible). I love looking at different brush strokes and whatnot. Those different marking’s show the decisions that the artist made. It sort of helps one gain a better understanding of what is going on. I would want someone to look at my work in depth like that (along with reading my artist statement) to understand why I made those decisions.

What methods are used for propoganda? Well they deffinitely used emasculating messages, sort of guilting the men into war (if you want to look at it that way). Some were aimed at women too, speaking to them about their husbands, and “what were they doing if they weren’t helping with the war?”. So then the wives would come home and talk to their husbands and tell them to get their butts out there. Not only that, they would advertise jobs for the women helping the men that were serving.  I think this was a very effective method, seeing as a lot of the men at the time were enlisting to help, in any way, shape or form. There was no confusion as to the message they were relaying. It was clear and to the point.

Do I see any elements of these methods used today? Well that depends on what kind of messages. I’m sure they’re out there, I’m really bad at paying attention to that kind of thing when I’m out and about. The allies propaganda compared with the central powers by highlighting the necessity of war. And that deffinitely accelerated the production of posters as well. I’m sure that different cultures display things differently, some are more “out there” and others are more subtle.

Gutenberg was such an influential person in design history because of his invention and what it has done for our culture– It made it easier at the time to print things. In the movie, it was stated that back then there weren’t as many books because the process took forever to do. Our culture wouldn’t be as advanced as it is now if we didn’t have his invention, so I believe the movie was spot on with claiming it was monumental.

Our exercise that we did in the printmaking studio taught me that it takes a lot of precision, patience, and many, many tries to get what we wanted printed done correctly. Some of the blocks could have been a little worn, or there could have been not enough ink or more ink than was needed on the blocks. Also, you have to make sure that they are turned the correct way and if you think you have a lowercase “n” double check that it’s not a lowercase “u”. Because then that would definitely be a problem.