mainstream is the art that is known to people, that is out there quite different from what underground is. Mainstream is what gets an individual’s consideration, making them believe that it is a fascinating phenomenon. On the other hand, underground is the total opposite of what mainstream is which really isn’t  “out there”. People are not familiar with underground. Personally, things like mainstream and underground remind me of the terms overrated and underrated. 

According to Heller’s The Underground Mainstream, “Mass marketers steal ideas from visionaries, alter them slightly if at all, then reissue them to the public as new products”. Basically mass marketers strategize to aim and appeal to a large amount of audience ignoring niche demographics and in that process they take away the visionaries concepts, change them around a bit then publicize them as new items. Contemporary design can be characterized as works that have been created since World War II up to the current day, and reflects what is presently in style. Adding to that I believe that contemporary design is mainstream, because till this day people still use contemporary design such as futurism, late modern style and so on and so forth. 

As for my presentation I am going to be doing a compare and contrast project of two famous graphic designers, Paul Rand and Paula Scher. I will be talking about their designs and their design theories, how different or similar they are from each other. Paul Rand has brought his gestalt theory and avant-garde to the design world here in America. He uses the combination of media and typography into his works. He has done many famous works that are still in use today, technically falls in the mainstream category as well as Paula Scher who created a lot of typography designs that used russian constructivism.  

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Works Cited

Bhatti, Faizan. “Graphic Design Styles.” Medium, Medium, 2 Nov. 2017, bhattifaizan.medium.com/graphic-design-styles-fa85aff1ff69.

“Paul Rand, Everything Is Design! The Man Who Changed the Face of the USA.” GraphĂ©ine – Agence De Communication Paris Lyon, 3 Oct. 2019, www.grapheine.com/en/history-of-graphic-design/paul-rand-everything-is-design.

“Underground Mainstream.” Design Observer, designobserver.com/feature/underground-mainstream/6737.