According to Heller the concept of mainstream vs underground is relevant in Contemporary design. He speaks on the concept of design being mainstream and that marketers steal ideas from undiscovered or underground artists and bring them to the mainstream media as new media. Heller also speaks on how Underground bands led the way to commercialized mainstream culture. He continues to speak on how there are rarely any underground art that was not introduced into the mainstream culture.

The designer I have chosen is Micheal Beirut. He ties into this dichotomy because he also believes that there are barely any underground art or designs that are not introduced into the mainstream culture. In his writing “Designing under the influence “, he speaks on the mainstream culture. He talks of how his intern created a design that reminded him of Barbara Kruger ‘s designs. He speaks on the similarities between the design in the typeface used, the color palette and combination of the aspects. He then asked his intern if she was inspired by Barbara Kruger and she said that she never heard of her.

He continues on to to speak of how that Kruger’s work, had just become apart of the design atmosphere and become a template for people everywhere. He also speaks on the debate of whether people can “own” a graphic style. Beirut then says legally no. He then speaks on experience in the past where he saw the similarities between the American eagle apparel logo and very logo that Chermayeff and
Geismar’s Bruce Blackburn had designed for the American bicentennial back in 1976. He states that the logo design has hanged but was questioning whether it was due to a lawsuit or due to legal issues.

Cassegard, Carl. “Activism Beyond the Pleasure Principle? Homelessness and Art in the Shinjuku Underground”. Third Text. Sep2013, Vol. 27 Issue 5, p620-633. 14p. 5 Color Photographs. DOI: 10.1080/09528822.2013.830446.\

DI SIA, PAOLO. “DESCRIBING THE CONCEPT OF INFINITE AMONG ART, LITERATURE, PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE: A PEDAGOGICAL-DIDACTIC OVERVIEW”. Journal of Education, Culture & Society.
2014, Issue 1, p9-19. 11p.

By: Knoblauch, Ann-Marie. “The Mainstream Media and the “Shocking Bad Art” from Cyprus: 1870s New York Reacts to the Cesnola Collections.” Near Eastern Archaeology. Jun2019, Vol. 82 Issue 2, p67-74. 8p. 1 Color Photograph, 5 Black and White Photographs, 2 Diagrams. DOI: 10.1086/703746.