Group Members: Eric, Nicholas, Shauntaya, Vanessa
TOPIC: After reading “Revisiting the Avant-Garde” and reviewing the videos “History of Graphic Design: 1888-1930,” do you notice similarities between avant-garde movements of the past and the design field (or the world) of today?
Let’s look at a few terms we came across in the first reading. In what ways do today’s designers participate in, facilitate, or reject the following? Provide specific examples if you can (ie: specific designers, social media tools, design trends, advertising campaigns, etc). Check out AIGA’s Eye on Design to find out what contemporary designers are working on.
- Authorship
- Universality
- Social Responsibility
What idea(s) or concerns do you think will drive the Avant-Garde of the near future? Who will lead the charge?
In the comments, add your thoughts about these questions, including links to related material as needed. Ask a follow-up question to generate dialog with your group members. Respond at least 5 times in your discussion group — ideally more. Feel free to jump into other groups, but you must contribute meaningful discussion within your assigned group too. Note: free sharing of ideas helps us learn and it’s also part of your participation grade. 🙂
Please add your comments before by Friday, Sep 10th at 11:59 pm to allow time for replies. Check back often to read and reply to the comments.
Authorship is putting the full ownership into the artist’s hands in such they become the producer and publisher. The new wave of Avant-garde designers is able to move on from restrictive ideals to take on more social responsibility in which they are focused on how to communicated with the surroundings and society as a whole. Artwork that is made for all and not just to express the individual. I think that younger graphic designers will help drive Avant-garde towards the future because it a fresh perspective and understanding of culture being aware of the work it takes to authorship, universality, and social responsibility. For example using their work to be a voice for others and not just for themselves
Shauntaya, can you post an example or two of designers or collectives working on projects to be a voice for others? Check out AIGA’s Eye on Design to see some examples. On the other side of authorship, as designers, we often need to work for clients. I know that there have been projects that I’ve felt uncomfortable working on because I didn’t share the same values. What are your thoughts about accepting design jobs when they don’t align with your values?
Judy Chicago and Marierm Sharipo created a feminist art installation called Women House 1972 as an example of artists working on projects for others voices . A group of CalArts women students created the artwork. The work entailed exaggerated social roles that a woman would play in the home. This installation was only up for a short time, but it exemplifies how societal roles are placed on women within the household, women are assigned roles that are not fullings. Personally, I would not accept job roles that did not align with the values of my own company. Choosing who to work with is critical to the success of my business, and I would not want to align myself with someone who is not a good person or has different political beliefs than I do because I am a black woman. I firmly believe black people deserve to be respected and the have opportunity to use their voice. However, if I were working for a company, my options would be limited, but I would make sure my voice was heard. For instance, when Beyonce was releasing her fashion collection, she didn’t go with Nike because of the lack of diversity within the company; it didn’t fit her values; instead, she went with Adidas, who did fit her values. Her actions taught me that I don’t have to settle when something doesn’t align with my values; there will always be someone who does.
I agree. A lot of designers and design today seem to focus on using imagery that passes beyond socio-cultural barriers. Some companies are even using emojis on their own websites and advertising and while emojis are still relatively new, the expressions they possess speak to humans on a level that words can not. They make artwork and designs that can be understood by people all over the world. This can especially be seen in designs done for social movements and organizations such as Black Lives Matter which utilize the iconic imagery of a raised ist. This imagery invokes feelings of rebellion and social uprising and is something that speaks to people on a level in a way words can’t.
Interesting, Nicholas. The use of emojis and symbolic iconography across cultures would be a really interesting study in current communication practices. It’s a good example of how technology has influenced/pushed universality, right? I’d be curious about your thoughts after you’ve done the reading on signs and meaning this week. The subtlety and complexity of language are reduced to expressions, but the implied meaning of the emojis for example could change or could be slightly different in different cultures or age groups. 🙂
it is cool how in order to communicate phrases or a word have been simplified with an icon such as the emoji that can many different meanings.
This is an interesting approach. The emoji can be a way to convey your feelings. When you have a lot to say, emoji can say a lot about that. The same applies to designs done by social movements and organizations you mentioned. Sometimes, you don’t need words to convey something. You can use your design or art to convey something important to you or society.
Exactly. While certain emojis can mean something else in different cultures, every person knows that a smiling emoji face represents a smile or a crying one represents sadness. Emojis such as these carry meaning without needing words. While not every emoji can have the same universal quality, those that represent specific emotions do have a universal quality to them.
That’s true as long as you have something simple to say there is bound to be an emoji to describe it. Also with today’s technology and your design skills if there is something specific to you and there is no emoji for you then you could probably make it.
I do agree with you that companies now try to focus on reaching people by evoking a feeling whether the feeling is happiness or anger to change the system by using less world but images . However, I do believe when it came to the design of BLM it was for-profits and it benefited the bigger company more than a social stance. where and who the sign was coming from matters.
True for more, public organizations would do their best to reach the people themselves since they really care about what they stand for. However, when you get more corporate all those businesses really care about money and would just play it safe with simple designs as to not do anything to hurt their pockets.
I see your point on authorship with giving full credit to the author because they created it but another way of looking at it is like now that the author or artist have presented their work to the public they are free to do what they want and think about how they feel so in a way all of us have ownership on it.
In today’s design, designers participate in authorship by centering their works around themselves and the greater world around them. Many designs and designers tell the story of their own life through their design work. They demonstrate universality through their usage of simplified and sometimes geometric imagery. A lot of modern design utilizes symbols and imagery that passes through cultural barriers and speaks to humans on a personal level. There are many design trends that utilize imagery that has become universal to us. For example, companies and websites can now be seen using emojis to communicate a certain idea. Food brands that emphasize the natural quality of their products would utilize more natural imagery that evokes memories of art nouveau advertisements. Designs today also utilize more muted color palettes that make their advertisement feel more relaxed and grounded. Some companies like Facebook even use simplified cartoon characters that can be seen throughout their website and advertising. Designers demonstrate social responsibility by using their design works to speak to specific societal issues. Advertisements for political campaigns and social movements will utilize imagery and calls to action. For example, Black Lives Matter utilizes the iconic imagery of a raised fist that illustrates their message of black liberation and fighting against racial inequality. I think that the designers who will truly push design to the avant-garde will be those who utilize optical illusions and chaotic layouts in their design work. These designers remind us of past movements and artists that utilized these same concepts in their own works. These artists and designers truly push design forward with these works and they stand out amongst today’s design which emphasizes uniform and universal designs.
https://graphicmama.com/blog/graphic-design-trends-2021/
Good ideas here, Nicholas. Interesting to see this collection of trends, some of which are at opposite ends of the style spectrum – and others, like muted color palettes, never seem to go out of fashion. I’m curious to hear your thoughts after reading the Futurist and Constructivist manifestos this week — if you notice the lineage, at least visually.
This is an interesting view that I did think about how trends that are social issues can affect people’s designs. It is True modern art are try to telling other stories besides its own.
Yeah, trends do have a big effect, whenever something that goes viral happens in the news there is bound to be people creating something relating to it due to what we call “hype”. Whether it is memes, art, or videos.
I like your point on how “modern design utilizes symbols and imagery” and then you bring up the example of emojis because it’s true. Modern designs focus more on the minimalist aspect and tend to go more this for their logos. A great example of the simplest logo I can think of is the MasterCard logo which is now basically a ven diagram (here a link below)
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.forbes.com%2Fsites%2Fsteveolenski%2F2016%2F07%2F14%2Fthe-story-behind-mastercards-new-logo%2F&psig=AOvVaw2XEvrqOv4esB95Ft827jXf&ust=1632774002174000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAsQjRxqFwoTCID1l8fjnfMCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD
I agree. A lot of designers and design today seem to focus on using imagery that passes beyond socio-cultural barriers. Some companies are even using emojis on their own websites and advertising and while emojis are still relatively new, the expressions they possess speak to humans on a level that words can not. They make artwork and designs that can be understood by people all over the world. This can especially be seen in designs done for social movements and organizations such as Black Lives Matter which utilize the iconic imagery of a raised ist. This imagery invokes feelings of rebellion and social uprising and is something that speaks to people on a level in a way words can’t.
I agree. A lot of designers and design today seem to focus on using imagery that passes beyond socio-cultural barriers. Some companies are even using emojis on their own websites and advertising and while emojis are still relatively new, the expressions they possess speak to humans on a level that words can not. They make artwork and designs that can be understood by people all over the world. This can especially be seen in designs done for social movements and organizations such as Black Lives Matter which utilize the iconic imagery of a raised ist. This imagery invokes feelings of rebellion and social uprising and is something that speaks to people on a level in a way words can’t.
I agree. A lot of designers and design today seem to focus on using imagery that passes beyond socio-cultural barriers. Some companies are even using emojis on their own websites and advertising and while emojis are still relatively new, the expressions they possess speak to humans on a level that words can not. They make artwork and designs that can be understood by people all over the world. This can especially be seen in designs done for social movements and organizations such as Black Lives Matter which utilize the iconic imagery of a raised ist. This imagery invokes feelings of rebellion and social uprising and is something that speaks to people on a level in a way words can’t.
On the topic of “Authorship” when looking at the definition made by Oxford dictionary we see it says “the state or fact of being the writer of a book, article, or document, or the creator of a work of art.” so going back to “Revisiting the Avant-Garde” we see how on page 9 many artists were “ego-driven” in response to their created work since it was their own and they feel that something like this could not be recreated and that in turn led to the consumers wanting to focus more on objectivity instead of subjectivity since there was a purpose for the graphic designer to make something. In my option Authorship, today means that the works somewhat belong to everyone. Sure a person created artwork or graphic design but did so in the mind of other people seeing it whether it be for functionality or for people to form their own opinion.\
What I said about Authorship could also be applied to “Universality”. When an artist or graphic designer can go all-in with their vision to reach the masses in hope of reaching a wider audience as put together on page 11. That is something that graphic designers and artists still struggle with for example you come up with a good set of words for a poster in English however that poster would be put in a Spanish-speaking community and doesn’t translate the same way as in English. That’s graphic designers as a whole when given a task or job for a client they are forced most if not sometimes to reject their personal opinions and ideas in favor of the client.
Lastly going over “Social Responsibility” the text goes more into detail about how artists and graphic designers have an actual job to complete and as I said before need to reach those requirements even if they must put their ideas aside if the client doesn’t agree. They also have a job to create something sustainable or the intended time their work is needed so they don’t seem to be dated too soon. The same still holds up today just along different circumstances such as the use of digital technology to create work or reaching out to clients across the world.
As for what I think will drive the next “Avant-Garde” of the near future I feel like it could be anyone. After taking a look at the Museum of Modern Art a couple of times and see the ridiculous and sometimes bare minimum artworks that are in there, your guess is as good as mine. Don’t get me wrong there are some actual good pieces of art but not all. For example, there was one piece I saw in there where a guy just signed his name and that was it, If I can find it I will link it below if not I will find something similar. If that is what passes as art nowadays the next “Avant-Garde” could be anybody.
I agree with your views. I believe that with all of the divide and hatred currently going on in the world, artists should feel responsible to create designs that reflect a sense of unity. I believe the next avant-garde will mix the principles of universality and social responsibility with the absurdity and abstractness of avant-garde art. I believe it’d be interesting to find out how artists and designers could create symbols and designs that reflect universality in a medium that is known for being so abstract and unpredictable in its nature.