F.T. Marinetti, “Manifesto of Futurism”; Aleksandr Rodchenko, “Who We Are: Manifesto of the Constructivist Group”; and El Lissitzky, “Our Book”, Graphic Design Theory: Readings From the Field by Helen Armstrong, pages 19-31
Question & Prompt
- What common views do these artists/designers share and where might they disagree?
- Which elements of these texts remain relevant for the present, and which elements are problematic?
- Using visual examples from the Futurists and Constructivists, present the ways that political and economic power can be expressed through visual design.
- How has the communication process changed since the early 20th Century, specifically with regard to “feedback” and “noise”?
Reading Response
These artists/designers all wanted to change the world with their designs. However, their methods on doing that differ. Each designer has different occupations in the world of design that make each individual unique and different. F.T. Marinetti was a poet so his design is based around typography as shown in page 20. Aleksandr Rodchenko was a painter but he transformed his design into more of construct design. For example, 512: Abstraction and Utopia which can be found at this website: https://www.moma.org/calendar/galleries/5107. Finally, El Lissitzky design is more toward architect design. Frankreich. Die Entwicklung der neuen Ideen nach Konstruktion und Form is an example of his work which can be found at https://www.moma.org/collection/works/16283.
Technology is the most relevant element of these texts today. Other sub elements of these texts would be the print of their design and photography. Although the designers have their own approach to design, F.T. Marinetti and Aleksandr Rodchenko design look so similar despite their occupation and approach being different. Their designs are similar to the way they assemble their design to the way they like it. That’s one element of design people still use today as well. As to which elements are problematic, F.T. Marinetti and Aleksandr Rodchenko come to mind. Marinetti thinks it’s ok to destroy any academic buildings and spark war. Rodcheko thinks technology is an enemy to art. Rodchenko does support technology in terms of new technology but he thinks the old approach like photography and filmmaking is an enemy to art. Those kinds of thinking are going to hinder your growth as a designer. Technology may be essential but reading more books to gain knowledge and embracing both the new art and old art will make your career successful in your journey.
Political and economic powers can be expressed through posters and ads. For political powers, it’s more of propaganda posters like Uncle Sam’s “I Want You” or posters related to WWI or WWII. Economics powers can be shown through ads. How can it be shown? Through newspapers or online. If the ads are convincing, you have a big advantage in obtaining more economic powers. Social media also plays a big part in political and economic powers which we’ll talk about in the last paragraph.
Before the 20th century, communications were through ads, posters, and newspapers. Technology wasn’t popular back then. Their way of communications were photography, printing processes, and filmmaking. During this time, they have to do everything by hand. Now, we have social media and the internet to do the communication for us. As to how it plays a big role in political and economic powers, we have something known as “feedback” and “noise”. You present a product and people give you feedback on the product so you can improve your product so many people will want to buy it next time. However, “noise” today is different than before. Now, we have technology and social media with us. When we want something or the game developers did something wrong in the game and you felt it needs change, you can voice your opinion online or buy something online. For example, Genshin Impact 1st Anniversary. We didn’t get any rewards in -game to thank us for playing their game. If you search on Google or Youtube, streamers are talking about it and people weren’t happy. They went as far as giving this game low rating in Playstore. Not only about the rewards, players were also angry because of the lack of communication between each other and the apology they owe us. In the end, Genshin Impact did give out some kind of anniversary reward as to prevent damage control to continue spreading.
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