Postmodernism As you can tell by the name of this movement, Postmodernism is the time after in which Modernism died out of fashion and evolved. This movement was created in the late 20th century and similarly to modernism effected: architecture, paintings, sculptors, writers and many others. I looked at the book “Postmodernism Style and Subversion, 1970-1990” edited by Glenn Adamson and Jane Pavitt in order to help me with this research. In understanding Post-Modernism, the book starts with a quote by Hal Foster in 1985, “Postmodernism does it exist at all, and if so, what does it mean? Is it a concept or a practice, a matter of local style or a whole new period or economic phase? What are its forms, effects, place?” As soon as this statement/question was made, there was no shortage of responses to understanding postmodernism. Postmodernism had many subcultures that derived from it, for example: radical design, transavantgardism and radical electicism are just a few examples. Even at its peak in the mid 1980’s it was hard to locate. In contrast to the modernist movement, postmodernism was a collection of wry looks and ironic gestures. Modernists offered a new outlooks onto the world whereas the postmodernists offered something broken and shattered. Instead of authenticity, postmodernism celebrated hybridity.
What effect did Postmodernism have on Graphic Design? Unfortunately for this era, postmodernism didn’t really have an impact until the 1980’s. Many artists remained anonymous in the work they produced as they felt it was too “risky” and too offensive for other citizens to see. The first most prominent feature of postmodernist graphic design is the reaction artists make to modernist designs and their response to it. The second most predominant feature is the erasing of the boundaries between high culture and pop culture. Graphic designers love and are drawn to new things, they were caught in this postmodernism world when they realised it wasn’t just a form of self-expression but a new technique which can again, be revolutionised into something new and a new form of truthful visual communication. “The practice of graphic design has from the beginning been intertwined with pop commercialism, but that does not mean that our values and ideals, or the lack of them, have to be dictated by the commercial marketplace. Just because thinking about design isn’t a popular activity doesn’t mean it isn’t an important one.” - Mr. Keedy