mixing messages New Waves Violating Old Rules // deconstruction fbaul. dc 4 matilde pinto 4789
Milton Glaser`s world famous Bob Dylan poster
Robert Venturi writes Complexity and Contradition in Architecture and Learning Las Vegas
Edouar Hoffman and Max Miedinger design Helvetica typeface
Inge Druckrey begins her teaching career
begins teaching at Yale
Armin Hofman
Lubain`s Avant Garde magazine
Andy Warhol`s film, Chelsea Girls
Kubrick`s film, 2001:A Space Odyssey
Herbert Lubain designs Eros
The American “Beatnik” generation emerges
Henry Wolf at Harper`s Bazzar
Andy Warhol`s Campbell`s Soup
Saul Bass, Man with the Golden Arms, film poster and graphics
film, Taxi Driver
Martin Scorsese`s
Armin Hofmann, was an instructor during the Yale Summer Programme in Graphic Design Brissago
Robert Venturi`s Learning from Las Vegas, designed by Muriel Cooper
George Lucas`s film, Star Wars
300.000 people attend a rock concert known as Woodstock
The film, A Clockwork Orange
Michael Vanderbyl, Califórnia Public Rádio poster
Katherine and Michael McCoy come to Cranbrook Postmodernism
Charles Jenck`s publishes his articles on architectural
Spielberg`s film, Jaws
Milton Glaser designs cover I LOVE NY symbol
Weingart became an instructor at the Yale University Summer Graphic Design Program in Brissago
Armin Hofmann, Graphic Design Manual
Emile Ruder, Typography A Manual of Design
Coppola`s film, The Godfather
Dan Friedman and the New Wave typography in the USA
formed by Milton Glaser and Seymour Chwast
“Learn Covers” by Wolfgang Weingart in Typographische Monatsbatter
Weingart joins the Basle School of Design faculty
Sidney Lumet`s film, Dog Day Afternoon
Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media
Push Pin Studio
The New Realists are exhibited, acknowledging the arrival of Pop Art and artists
Memphis founded in Milan
Michael Graves exibition poster by William Longhauser
Neville Brody is Art Director of The Face
David Lynch`s film, The Elephant Man
The Apple Macintosh computer is designed
Stephen Heller writes Cult of Ugly in Eye magazine
Remote Control by Barbara Kruger
Francis Ford Coppola`s film, Apocalypse Now
Lúcida is designed for laserprinters
Typography Now: The Next Wave is published by Rick Poynor, Edward Booth-Clibborn and Why Not Assoiciates
Rudy VanderLans and Zuzana Lick lauch Emigre magazine
The AIGA publishes a defenition of graphic design: “The aaesthetic ordering of type and image in order to interest, inform, persuade or sell.”
MTV plays the first music vídeo
Peter Saville Associates founded in London
Brody and Rossum produce Fuse magazine
Rick Poynor, editor of the new Eye magazine
Quentin Tarantinos film, Pulp Fiction
Peter Saville joins Pentagram, London
Robert Zemeckis`s film, Forrest Gump
Tibor Kalman designs a music vídeo for the Talking Heads
April Greiman, Does It Make Sense, poster for Design Quarterly
Muriel Cooper at the Visual Language Workshop, MIT
Katherine McCoy, Deconstructed Typography
DESCONSTRUCTION
Rolling Stone, Perception/Reality campaign by Fallon McElligott and Rice/Minneapolis
MOMA exibition, Deconstructivism Architecture is curated by Philip Johnson
David Carson designs Ray Gun magazine
David Carson, Beach Culture magazine
Steven Brower redesigns Print magazine
The exibition Graphic Design in América: A Visual Language History is organized by the Walker Art Center
Mixing Messages: Graphic Design in Contemporary Culture at CooperHewitt National Design Museum
Émigré magazine (and other magazines) publishes First Things Manifesto 2000
26
22 14 10 16
6
8 4
I ’ m i t I
i n t e r e s t e d w a s
i n
w o r k
‘ d e s i g n e d ’
a l w a y s
l i k e d
u n d e r s t a n d
b u t
t h e
w h a t
t h a t s o r t
i d e a ,
d o e s n’ t o f
t h a t
y o u ’ r e
j u s t
n e c e s s a r i l y l o o k s
p e o p l e
s h o w i n g
a s
h a v e
i f
t o
l o o k
i t
a s
i f
h a p p e n e d .
w o r k
t o
t h e m .
M i l t o n G l a s e r, h t t p : / / w w w. g r a p h i c - d e s i g n . c o m / d e s i g n / m i l t o n - g l a s e r - i n f o r m - a n d d e l i g h t ? p a g e = 0 , 2 , s / d
I
w a n t e d
t h a t i f
I
e v e r
t o
p e o p l e w a s
t h e
a n d
y o u r
m i n d
s t i l l
t h e
w o r k
s a w. . .
c a l l e d
e l s e ,
t h i n g s ,
d o
t h e
t h a t g l o r y
a n
t h a t
t h a t
i s
w a s
a r t i s t
c o r e
o r
v a l u e
p u b l i c , o n a
t h e
w a s
o f
a n y
r e a l
w a n t e d
d e s i g n e r, a l w a y s
t r a n s f o r m a t i o n b e c o m e s
I
s t r e e t .
o r
c r e a t i v e
o f
a n
I t
t o
d o
i l l u s t r a t o r
t h e i d e a
m a t e r i a l .
a c t
w o r k
d i d n’ t o f
m a t t e r o r
w h a t
m a k i n g
t h a t
y o u
T h a t ,
t o
h o l d m e ,
i n
i s
a c t i v i t y.
M i l t o n G l a s e r, h t t p : / / w w w. g r a p h i c - d e s i g n . c o m / d e s i g n / m i l t o n - g l a s e r - i n f o r m - a n d d e l i g h t ? p a g e = 0 , 2 , s / d
4
What’s fascinating about the Graphic is its seamless melding of illustration and publication design -- that, and its creative use of retro styles and period ornament at a time with the austere Swiss Style ruled. Steven Heller, in his leadoff article (“The Push Pin Effect”), refers to their “reinvention of discarded mannerisms”: using everything from Victorian clichés to Art Deco flourishes to achieve striking contrast and surprising effect. This is the same spirit that infused some of the most creative design work that came out of the UK around the Festival of Britain in 1951: in the face of a standardized postwar modernism, putting old-fashioned visual elements to use in novel ways. Heller quotes Chwast as saying, in recollection: “Quaintness was popular in those days.” Although they were not alone in what they did, the Push Pin designers were hugely influential. The spirit of contrast that informs so much of the best design of the 1950s found itself elaborated in flowing ink lines and techniques like woodcut, collage, and painting on wood; Push Pin pioneered this. Since they were primarily illustrators, Push Pin particularly wanted to offer an alternative to the dominance of photography in modern graphic design. “Their mission was not solely an attack on modernism,” says Heller, but it did clearly offer a different way forward. And novelty is always popular. In the late ‘50s, other designers would use thePush Pin Graphic as inspiration, and new ideas or styles that appeared in one issue might show up all around the New York design world a month later. By the mid-’60s, when the principals’ modes had hardened into brilliant but recognizable styles, Milton Glaser and Seymour Chwast practically defined a certain end of the visual aesthetic of the time.
John D. Berry, http://www.creativepro.com/article/dot--the-push-pin, 2005
a ‘stability’ that they try to move away from, but never totally. Wolfgang Weingart’s Typographic Landscape by Keith Tam, http://keithtam.net/writings.html, 2001 VER PÁG. 14
certainly managed to make it a huge commercial success. “They were doing it as a style and it was never my idea to create fashion,” denotes Weingart. The teaching at Basel for Weingart is not about trends but
whose style many a graphic designer adored and imitated. While no one can give a definitive answer as to whether these American graphic designers took what Weingart did and brought it to new heights, they
mainstream of graphic design. From April Greiman’s ´hybrid imagery” to David Carson’s deconstructive page layouts, anarchy reigned supreme in the nineties. Those were the days for graphic design superstars,
It wasn’t until the early eighties, when his American students like April Greiman and Dan Friedman (above 1971 poster) brought back to the US a wealth of typographic arsenals from Basel and co-opted it into the
Weingart believes that certain graphic modifications of type can in fact intensify meaning. “What’s the use of being legible, when nothing inspires you to take notice of it?” Excerpt from Keith Tam
focused on the syntactic function, Weingart was interested in how far the graphic qualities of typography can be pushed and still retain its meaning. This is when the semantic function of typography comes in:
“His typographic experiments were strongly grounded, and were based on an intimate understanding of the semantic, syntactic and pragmatic functions of typography. Whereastraditional Swiss typography mainly
any style upon my students. I never intended to create a “style”. It just happened that the students picked up — and misinterpreted — a so called ‘Weingart style’ and spread it around.”
Wolfgang Weingart is a German graphic designer credited as the progenitor of New Wave typography. According to Weingart, “I took ‘Swiss Typography’ as my starting point, but then I blew it apart, never forcing
A c c o r d i n g to Weingart, “ I
t o o k
‘ S w i s s
s t a r t i n g
Ty p o g r a p hy ’
a s
m y
p o i n t ,
but then I blew it apart, never forcing any style u p o n I
m y
s t u d e n t s .
n e v e r
i n t e n d e d
j u s t
h a p p e n e d
t o
c r e a t e
A “style”. I t
p i c k e d
u p
t h a t
t h e
s t u d e n t s
—
and misinterpreted— a so called ‘ We i n g a r t
s t y l e ’
and spread it around.” A p r i l
G r e i m a n
What`s
the
othing
inspir es
use
of
being
you
to
le gible,
take
w hen
notice
of
Wo l f g a n g We i n g a r t ’ s Ty p o g r a p h i c L a n d s c a p e by Ta m , h t t p : / / k e i t h t a m . n e t / w r i t i n g s . h t m l , 2 0 0 1
► pág. 26 . APRIL GREIMAN: Does It Make Sense
n it?
K e i t h
► pág. 16 . DECONSTRUCTION
7
Po s t m o d e r n i s t
m a n i f e s t o,
g l o r i e d
i n
f a l s e n e s s
o f
t h e
Ve g a s
s t r i p
p r o m o t e d
a s
L a s a
t h e
m o d e l
f o r
l o n g e r
d i d
t o
i n s i d e .
t h e
l o w e d , t h e
t h e
a n d
b e t w e e n l o v e
t h e
i n
c o l o r e d
e x e r c i s e d d u r i n g
a
t h e
a n d
w e r e
p h e n o m e n o n k n o w n t h a t
t o
u s .
a n d T h e
w e r e
s e n t e d
i n
f u n c t i o n a l l y
o f
f a l s e n e s s
M a r x i s t
i n
t h e
i n
t h e
o f
h e l d l u r k e d
a
f o r
s t r u c t u r a l i s m
d e m o r a l i z a t i o n p o w e r.
w a s
i t s e l f
a
s u b r a t i o n a l t o
a n d
i r r a t i o n a l
C h i l d r e n
h a v e
n e v e r
R o b e r t
Ve n t u r i
i n
h i s
1 9 7 2
Ve g a s ,
e x p l a i n i n g
t h e
d i f f e r e n c e
e u r o u p e a n
a r t i s t i c
a n d
b o o k
i n
s e l f - u n -
c o n s c i o u s a s
o u r
L e a r n i n g b e t w e e n
a r c h i t e c t u r a l
s u r f a c e
d e m o n s t r a t e
i t y
d e s i g n
p a y e d
U n l i k e
a p p e a r a n c -
w a s
r e p r e -
w e l l .
V i c t o r M a r g o l i n , D e s i g n D i s c o u r s e : H i s t o r y, T h e o r y, C r i t i c i s m , v e r s i t y o f C h i c a g o p r e s s , C h i c a g o a n d L o n d o n , 1 9 8 9
“ N a k e d
a p -
c o u n t e r p a r t
s u r f a c e
s e l f,
o f
u n i v e r s i t i e s
a t t e m p t
g r a p h i c
c r i t i q u e
l i n g u i s t i c s .
S o v i e t
t h a t
a l -
a r c h i t e c t u r e .
i t s
A m e r i c a n
c o n s c i o u s
p o s t m o d e r n i s t
h a d
w a s
s u r f a c e
Fr e n c h
r a t i o n a l i t y
f r o n t s
o f
N o r e l a t e d
d i s c o n t i n u i t y
d e t e r m i n i s m ,
e x p a n s i o n
w h i c h
o r
s t r o n g
m o d e r n i s t
s t r u c t u r a l i s m
f a l s e
d e c o r a t i o n a
o f
s u r f a c e
b e
a r c h i t e c t u r e
t h a t
u n d e r
r a t i o n a l i t y,
s p e e c h
t h e
s t r u c t u r a l i s m
f a l s e
f a l s e
a r c h i t e c t u r e .
a c c o m p a n y i n g
t h e
t h e
Ve g a s , f a c a d e s
i n
i t s e l f
i n f l u e n c e
1 9 7 0 s ,
A m e r i c a
L a s
c o n t r a d i c t i o n
w a s
m o v e m e n t
by
m a j o r
m o d e r n i s m , e s
a n d
s t r u c t u r a l i s t
S t r o n g l y
o f
a r t
t o
e x t e r i o r
p a r o d y i n g
f r o m
c o m m e r c i a l
s u p e r f i c i a l
o u t
r a t i o n a l o f
h a v e
r e s u l t i n g a n d
t h e
m o v e m e n t
R a t h e r,
t h e
p e a r a n c e s i n
a n d
n e w
o u t s i d e
i n s i d e
c l e a n ,
T h i s
a
L e a r n i n g
T h e
U n i -
f o u n t a i n s ” , Fr o m
L a s
a m e r i c a n
e x p r e s s i o n .
a n d
Spread from Learning from Las Vegas, 1972
► pág. 23 Ellen Lupton. Deconstruction and Graphic Design
► pág. 16 . DECONSTRUCTION THEORY
11
Frank Gehry
Daniel Libeskind
Rem Koolhaas
I n
a r t
a s
w e l l
a s
a r c h i t e c t u r e . . .
t h e r e
a r e m a n y a n d c o n t r a d i c t o r y t r e n d s i n o u r q u i c k - c h a n g e t u r e , o f
s h a d e s
N o
g e n e r a t i o n .
s t r i c t - c l a s s i c i s m , i n
b e t w e e n ,
g e n e r a l l y
p e a r e d .
I t
a r e
p e r s u a s i v e
m a y
b e
I n
a n d
n o n e
a r c h i t e c a l l
s h o r t s
Peter Eisenman
e q u a l l y “ - i s m ”
w i l l
v a l i d .
h a s
a r i s e
a p -
u n l e s s
t h e r e i s a w o r l d w i d e , n e w r e l i g i o n o r s e t o f
b e l i e f s
b e
f o r m e d .
p e r h a p s
o u t
a
w h i c h
s o i l
a r t i s t s . . .
a n
M e a n w h i l e
c a n
i n
a e s t h e t i c
p l u r a l i s m
w h i c h
p o e t i c ,
d e v e l o p.
( . . . )
c o u l d
r e i g n s , o r i g i n a l
T h e
c o n f l u -
Zaha Hadid
e n c e ( o f
t h e s e s e v e n a r c h i t e c t s ) m a y i n -
d e e d
t e m p o r a r y ;
b e
v i t a l i t y,
i t s
b u t
i t s
o r i g i n a l i t y
r e a l i t y,
i t s
h a r d l y
b e
c a n
d e n i e d . P h i l i p J o h n s o n a n d M a r k W i g l e y, D e c o n s t r u c t i v i s t A r c h i t e c t u r e , E x h i b i t i o n c a t a l o g u e : T h e M u s e u m o f M o d e r n A r t , N e w Yo r k , 1 9 8 8
Coop Himmelb(l)au A
r e a d e r
c o m p l e x E a c h a n d i n
c o m p r e h e n d d i f f e r e n c e s
l a y e r, i m a g e ,
t h r o u g h i s
d e l i b e r a t e l y
a n
a n d i n
t h e
a c c o u n t
u s e
o f
i n t e n t i o n a l
p l a y f u l
v i e w e r
c a n
d i s c o v e r
h i d d e n
c o m p l e x i t i e s
g a m e
a n d o f
f o r
s i g n i f i c a t i o n . l a n g u a g e p e r f o r m e r
w h e r e i n
t h e
e x p e r i e n c e
t h e
l a n g u a g e . Bernard Tschumi
B y r n e a n d W i t t e , A B r a v e N e w Wo r l d : U n d e r s t a n d i n g D e c o n s t r u c t i o n , i n L o o k i n g C l o s e r : C r i t i c a l w r i t i n g s o n g r a p h i c d e s i g n . N e w Yo r k : A l l w o r t h P r e s s , 1 9 9 4
12
► pág. 10 DECONSTRUCTIVIST ARCHITECTURE
► pág. 16 . DECONSTRUCTION THEORY
► pág. 16 . Cranbrook Academy of Art
Deconstructivism catapulted into the mainstream design press with MoMA’s 1988 exhibition Deconstructivist Architecture, curated by Philip Johnson and Mark Wigley. The curators used the term ‘deconstructivism’ to link certain contemporary architectural practices to Russian Constructivism, whose early years were marked by an imperfect vision of form and technology. The MoMA exhibition located a similarly skewed interpretation of modernism in the work of Frank Gehry, Daniel Libeskind, Peter Eisenman, and others. Wigley wrote
A deconstructive architect is…not one who dismantles buildings, but one who locates the inherent dilemmas within buildings . The deconstructive architect puts the pure forms of the architectural tradition on the couch and identifies the symptoms of a repressed impurity. in his catalogue essay: ‘
The impurity is drawn to the surface by a combination of gentle coaxing and violent torture: the form is interrogated’. In Wigley’s view, deconstruction in architecture asks questions about modernism by re-examining its own language, materials, and processes. By framing their exhibition around a new ‘ism’, Wigley and Johnson helped to canonize the elements of a period style, marked by twisted geometries, centerless plans, and shards of glass and metal. This cluster of stylistic features quickly emigrated from architecture to graphic design, just as the icons and colors of neo-classical post-modernism had traveled there shortly before. While a more critical approach
to deconstruction had been routedto graphic designers through the fields of photography and the fine arts, architecture provided a ready-to-use formal vocabulary that could be broadly adopted. ‘Deconstruction’, ‘deconstructivism’, and just plain ‘decon’ became design-
world clichés, where they named existing tendencies and catalyzed new ones in the fields of furniture and fashion as well as graphic design. In 1990 Philip Meggs published a how-to guide for would-be deconstructivists in the magazine Step-by-Step Graphics. His essay, which includes a journalistic account of how the term ‘deconstruction’ entered the field of graphic design, focuses on style and works back to theory. Following the logic of the MoMA
project, his story begins with Constructivism and ends with its ‘deconstruction’ in contemporary design; unlike Wigley, however, Meggs’s story depicts early modernism as a purely rational enterprise.
E l l e n L u p t o n , a n d J. A b b o t t M i l l e r, D e c o n s t r u c t i o n a n d G r a p h i c D e s i g n : H i s t o r y M e e t s T h e o r y, V i s i b l e L a n g u a g e , 1 9 9 4
Lupton e Miller, em meados de 90, identificam a permanência do termo desconstrutivista como indicação de trabalhos que priorizam a complexidade sobre a simplicidade ou que encenam as possibilidades formais da produção digital. No discurso comum, o termo aparece como falha ou indicação de um período
Lupton & Miller, Design Writing Research: Writing on Graphic Design, Phaidon Press, London, 1999
ou estilo da história do design gráfico. Para além disso, os autores propõem a desconstrução como processo crítico – um acto de questionamento. Esse conceito aproxima-se da forma como Derrida em 1997 concebe a desconstrução, evitando uma toda definição ontológica, acabando por chegar à noção de acontecimento, que deve ser compreendida dentro do discurso particular
Derrida, Le droit à la philosophie du point de vue cosmopolitique. Verdier,1997
em que se insere. A crítica da desconstrução foi introduzida por Derrida em seu livro De la grammatologie, de 1967. A desconstrução procura ser antes de tudo um acontecimento. Não pretende ser um método de aplicação sistemática, nem uma forma de análise crítica a decompor o todo, nem um anti-sistema de destruição. Ao desfazer e reconstruir um objecto, empreende um caminho particular, tomando elementos marginais, traços esquecidos, dados estranhos ou marcas heterogéneas que permitem desconstruir as construções cristalizadas de pensamento e de poder. Desse modo, cada ocorrência mantém-se singular. Derrida não aceita a relação de identidade que supõe uma relação fixa entre dois termos. Para o autor, não existe a essência ou a natureza última de um conceito, pois o seu significado constrói-se por oposição a outros termos. Como apontam Lupton e Miller (1996), Derrida analisou as “molduras que limitam as pinturas sem fazer parte da obra de arte”. Pela atenção desconstrutivista, ao atentar para o que parece acessório, a moldura vem em primeiro plano para revelar o vazio da autonomia da obra de arte, que existe apenas como mímese convencional, bidimensional, por meio de técnicas representacionais, como a perspectiva.
Luptonand Miller, A. Design Writing Research: Writing on Graphic Design, Phaidon, 1996
A desconstrução, uma das características da pós-modernidade, funda-se num método que procura a descristalização de um sistema. Muito mais que decompor um objecto, questiona a fundamentação da cultura ocidental, regida por opostos, como: realidade/representação, corpo/mente, bem/mal e outros antagonismos, que buscam sempre acentuar um termo em favor de outro, e por esse caminho, cada vez mais, racionaliza, legitima e cristaliza tudo o que já está estabelecido. A desconstrução é única e singular em cada acção. Opta por caminhos específicos em cada caso, a cada momento e, em geral, busca elementos antes considerados marginais numa visão clássica, reordenando o discurso, apresentando propostas inusitadas e estabelecendo novos elos, sejam visuais, sejam mentais. Marcado por uma profunda consciência histórica e pela crise das vanguardas, este é um tempo em que todos os estilos do passado constituem um repertório válido para a inspiração e intervenção no presente. Assim, o Pós-Modernismo pode ser entendido não só como um diagnóstico sobre a actual situação da cultura ocidental, como também uma tendência que se fundamenta num discurso eclético, plural e fragmentário, reflectindo precisamente o pano de fundo social, cultural e tecnológico em que se desenvolve. De certo modo, alguns precursores individuais que atravessaram todo o século nunca se aproximaram dos modelos modernistas, como são os casos de Balthus (1908-2001), Francis Bacon (1090-1992) ou Lucien Freud (1922-), embora se caracterize como um período de revisão e de fusão de estilos, de meios e de processos. Numa outra vertente, a arte irá subordinar-se a causas específicas, como é o caso de raízes afro-americanas e hispânicas ligadas às respectivas minorias dos Estados Unidos, e também da “arte feminina” que tem o seu expoente na obra de Judy Chicago, Cindy Sherman e Barbara Kruger, em busca de uma identidade própria.
► pág. 26 . APRIL GREIMAN: Does It Make Sense
► pág. 22 . katherine McCoy: Cranbrook Discourse
15
I
w ant
fr om
a
w ar ds
to
take
the
pur ely one
r ole
and
cial
c har acter s
is
visually
dynamic.
and
T he
font
spacing,
and
ideally
set
of
I
people
N e v i l l e
B r o d y,
to
mor e
T her e
aw ay r ole
to-
expr es-
ar e
no
spe-
pr esently
no
lower case
designed
to
have
no
is
be
set
with
is
decided
punctuation
a ging
pr actical
potentially
planned.
space.
typo gr a phy
subser vient,
that
si ve
line
of
should
not
mar ks
cr eate
to and
their
inc lude
a
accents, own
if
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letter no
complete encour-
needed.
w w w. t y p e . c p. u k / s n e t / f u s e / s t a t e s a m p. h t m l ,
โ บ pรกg. 16 . DECONSTRUCTION THEORY
1 9 9 6
17
T he
materialy
er
it
its
ca pacity
nate
be
of
wor d
the
or
to
sensation
s ig nif ie r,
ima ge,
either as
it
is
w heth -
linked
e voke
or
to
desig-
tr anfor med
into
What is
a
I
r eally
vir tual
w ant
r eality
on
holes in either side of can
r eac h
in
and
the
Macintosh
interf ace
move
—
ar m-
the box so you lo gos
ar ound;
per ce ption, and that it in no case has
a r eal paintbr ush so that you can feel
a guar anteed tr uth v alue, only the r a-
the textur e of
lati ve of
an
accur ac y indi vidual
J o h a n n a D r E x p e r i m e n t A r t 1 9 0 9 - 1 o f C h i c a g o
18
within
the
the surf ace undeneath.
experience
subject.
u c k e r, T h e V i s i b l e Wo r l d : a l Ty p o g r a p hy a n d M o d e r n 9 2 3 , C h i c a g o : U n i v e r s i t y P r e s s , 1 9 9 4
► pág. 16 . DECONSTRUCTION THEORY
D i a n e B u r n s , N e v i l l e B r o d y : D e s i g n e r s o n M a c , To k y o : G r a p h i c - s h a P u b l i s h i n g C o. , 1 9 9 2
► pág. 26 . APRIL GREIMAN: Does It Make Sense
► pág. 22 . katherine McCoy: Cranbrook Discourse
Today, typefaces and their configurations contain meaning that is distinct from the words they create. Certainly, calligraphy, decorative type, and italic or bold letterforms have long served to Express tone or heighten the impacto f words. But the proliferation of computer technology into most áreas of social experience, and especially in the field of communication design, has a fundamental shift in the way we decipher information. We are consumers of a complex lexion of type and image — a viewing audience more accustomed to looking into space. But computers alone do not have an effect on the way we read. All Technologies incorporate a set of practices which in turn, presuppose a cultural disposition. Within the field of graphic design, there has been a shift from modern forms to computer-generated, deconstructionist ones. Underlying this trend toward digitization is changing conception of the way we envision the world which generates new kind of cultural meaning. Modernism as a school of thought is supported by a modelo of vision that presupposes a linear path between a viewer`s eye and an object of perception. In this conception, there is no “space” between the eye anda n image because the acto f seeing is not understood to incorporate human experience. Rather, the gazine “eye of distance and infinite vision” is disembodied from the self and shielded from the outside. When the Macintosh computer was introduced to the field in the 1980`s, designers be-
Romanyshyn, Technology as Symptom and Dream, New York: Routledge Press, 1989
gan to layer and dissolve type and imaginery — a practice that shattered the conception of a detached, objective reader. Designers began to endorse the short of communication that would “promote multiple rather than fixed readings” and “provoke the read into becoming an active participant in the construction of the message”. When typography is treated as imagery — that is, when i tis pushed to the limits of legibility — the result is an enhanced visual involvement on the part of the viewer. As
Poynor, Type and Deconstruction in the Digital Era, Typography Now: The New Wave, Cincinnati, Oh: North Light, 1992
designers tranform the mechanics of representation, more demands are made on the viewer to interpret messages. Designers now expect that something like “projection” will occur while reading. For example, in The End of Print, David Carson`s art direction of magazines such as Ray Gun and Beach Culture is defended on the basis that their audience does not need visual direction. Whereas most magazines “want their readers to know what to expect, to know where to look and how to read through a page”, these publications establish “a diferent relationship with the reader”.
Lewis Blackwell and David Carson, eds., The End of Print: The Graphic Design of David Carson, San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1995
D e a r I I t
a m
D a v i d
s o r y
w a s
a b o u t
n i c e
t h e
w h i l e
i t
e n d
o f
p r i n t
l a s t e d
m i m e o
c o p i e s
I always liked the smell of And you could always tear out the pages after you read them I ` l l m i s s t h e subjectivity the imprecision B u t
i
C o u l d p r i n t
a m i t
and to remember that
a n d
r e a d y
y o u
t h a t
b l o w
i
t h i n k
t h i s
u p
r e a l l y
b i g
a n d
i n t h e w r o n g c o l o r And tell everybody to go back the school Fo r m a i n ` t w o r t h a s h i t a n y w a y c o n t e n t
i d e a s
B u n c h o f j e r k s r u l e s o r s o m e t h i n g o k ?
y o u
m a k e
b i g t h a t
p a r t
r e d
M o i r a C u l l e n i n t e r v i e w s T i b o r K a l m a n , E y e # 2 0 , h t t p : / / w w w. e y e m a g a z i n e . c o m / f e a t u r e . p h p ? i d = 3 0 & f i d = 1 6 7 , 1 9 9 5
If someone interprets my work in a way that is totally new to me, I say fine. That way your work has a life of
its own. You cr eate
a situation for people to do with it what they will, and you don`t create an enclosed or encapsulated moment. J e f f e r y
K e e d y,
E m i g r e
# 1 5 ,
1 9 9 0
The less legible a typface becomes, either on its own or in juxtaposition with other graphic elements, the more it takes on an inherent image. When this occurs, words are no longer simply read, but understood within the context of an entire visual construction. This is the visual laguage of deconstruction. Deconstruction, as we learned from Jacques Derrida in Grammatology, is the technique of breaking down a “whole” on order to reflect critically on its parts. When using this method, the designer affirms that different interpretations will be discovered within the fabric that holds a message together. Unlike the linearity of modernism which implies a separation between the viewer and the viewed, and a “withdrawal of the self from the world,” typographic deconstruction compels a viewer to take part in the interpretation of a message. This strategy of visual disorganization was embraced and legitimized by design schools
Romanyshyn, Technology as Symptom and Dream, New York: Routledge Press, 1989)
such as the Cranbrook Academy of Art.
S w a n s o n , G u n n a r G r a p h i c D e s i g n a n d R e a d i n g : E x p l o r a t i o n s o f a n u n e a s y r e l a t i o n s h i p, A l l w o r t h P r e s s , A l l w o r t h C o m m u n i c a t i o n s , N e w Yo r k , 2 0 0 0 .
► pág. 16 . DECONSTRUCTION THEORY
21
A theory-heavy, mid-1990s look at the concept of Deconstruction, looking at its origins in French poststructuralist discourse and then current use in the design world. The Cranbrook Academy of Art (Michigan), under the direction of Professors Michael and Katherine McCoy, became a center of Post-Modernist discussion from the mid 1970s. What emerged became know as the ‘Cranbrook Discourse’ widely publicized intersection of post-structuralism and graphic design. Designers at Cranbrook had first confronted literary criticism when they designed a special issue of Visible Language on contemporary French literary aesthetics, published in the summer of 1978.
Daniel Libeskind, head of the Cranbrook architecture program, provided the graphic designers with a seminar in literary theory, which prepared them to develop their strategy: to systematically disintegrate the the series of essays by expanding the spaces between lines and words and pushing the footnotes into the space normally reserved for the main text. French Currents of the Letter, which outraged designers committed to the established ideologies of problem-solving and direct communication, remains a controversial landmark in experimental graphic design.
E l l e n L u p t o n , D e s i g n P r e s s , L o n d o n , 1 9 9 9
Wr i t i n g
R e s e a r c h :
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o n
G r a p h i c
D e s i g n ,
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RP:
In
the
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KM: we
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a
all
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bac k
goal
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designer s.
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their
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str uctur ed into
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for tunate
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and by
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mainly
a
talk
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not
so
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pr etty
w hen
students
her e
or
ther e
to
tur alist week
c lub
–
w as
I
not
a
major
Also,
at
at
1970s
Institute
stu -
to
become
ideas
for
Semiotics
Rhode
under stood
the
Illinois
as
been
str ate gies
theories.
focus,
in
has
the
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students
so the
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str engths,
additional
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of
conce ptual
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it
as
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of
constr uct
and
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incor por ate
as
tool.
as
own
on
for
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a
r eally
same ar t
a
good
building,
fine
suc h
as
ar t
w her e
photo gr a phy
media,
think
w as
the
lot
of
these
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studio
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and
ver y
a g gr essi vely
gr adually to
C r a n b r o o k :
the
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the
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a
w hile
wer e
the
gr oup
ar ound
in,
it
out
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of
ar ound
and
seemed
sifted
itself: itc hy
little
1984
explor ed the
things
–
a
r eally gr oup
the
of
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post-str uc-
theor y-of-thecritical
ver nacularism, thr ough,
“What’s
year s
dir ection
p h e n o m e n o l o g y,
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1980s
inc luding
like
w as
of
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succession,
it
A pril
foundations
finding the
but and
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asks
couple
and
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lettrism, ideas
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fr uition.
se ver al
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conce ptual
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post-str uctur alism,
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of
minimalism,
like
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a ppr oac hes
the
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fr om
people
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to
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p h i l o s o p h y.
aw ay
by
questioning
of
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inf luenced
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and
t h e o r y,
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Po y n o r,
have
the
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it.
didn’ t
with
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most
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to
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theor y
Ed w ar d
–
it
their
looking
make
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questioning
contribution
avid
to
1970s
a
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also
design
to
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as
to
kee p
ca pitalise
but
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between
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to
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to
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us
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to
visual
other’s
to
discussed
pr ocesses
post-str uctur alism
infor mally
the
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next
photo gr a ph
at
because
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pr oblem-solving.
continually
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they
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in
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lists.
it
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expand
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two
potential
de par tment
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ply
to
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r eading
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design
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ear ly
something
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an
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–
to
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my
We
Design
and
with
mine
natur al
consider a ble
a bout?
encour a ge
conce ptualising. w as
to
assumed
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have of
ideas
students
eac h
We
pr oject
comes
come
cour ses
of
focus.
long-ter m
It
had
natur e
own
that
encour a ge
ne ver
per sonal
theor etical
did
alw ays
have
their
1980s
t h e o r y,
post-moder n
assimilated,
and
the
emer ge. K a t h e r i n e
M c C o y
o n
t h e
Wa y
A h e a d ,
E y e
# 1 6 ,
2 0 0 9 .
T he
moder nist
pr oduct
have
founding and
deconstr ucted
of
s we pt
r efer ences
cir cular be
conce pts been
or
to
—as
pr ocess
Postmoder nists
points-of-de par tur e;
meanings
inter pr etations.
decontr ucted
originality
aside.
w hic h
T hey
r e veal
ar e
pr oduce no
originality
the
existence
instead
the
speak
an
original
antecedent
and
deny
infnite ideas
constr uct
ar r ay in
and
ar t;
of
of
can
without H e r b
T he
do
a
good
L u b a l i n ,
cr anbr ook
t h e o r y,
is
langua ge
to and
good
and
without
good
t y p o g r a p hy,
as
singular
signifier s
inter r elated
ima ges
can
and
alw ays
conce pts.
R o g e r C l a r k , A r t e d u c a t i o n : I s s u e s i n p o s t m o d e r n i s t p e d a g o g y, g i n i a : N a t i o n a l , A r t e d u c a t i o n A s s o c i a t i o n – N A E A , 1 9 9 6 .
You
—
of
but
you
can’ t
do
R e s t o n ,
a
V i r -
gr eat
ad
t y p o g r a p h y. B a s e l i n e
# 4 ,
theoristist`s deconstr uct, dif fer ent
1 9 8 1 .
aim,
or
le vels
deri ved
br eak of
a par t
meaning
fr om
fr enc h
and
expose,
embodied
Po y n o r, Ty p e a n d D e c o n s t r u c t i o n i n t h e D i g i t a l Wa v e , C i n c i n n a t i , O h : N o r t h L i g h t , 1 9 9 2
► pág. 6 . Weingart’s Typographic
in
E r a ,
► pág. 23 Ellen Lupton. Deconstruction and Graphic Design
philosophy the
and
liter ar y
manipulati ve
visual
design. Ty p o g r a p hy
N o w :
T h e
N e w
► pág. 26 . APRIL GREIMAN: Does It Make Sense
25
TAXI
>>I
right and
br east
body
and
quest
A pril
other
for
you in
c loned
placed
instead.”
into
that
looked
ther efor e
br east and
r ead
How
it
didn’ t “Does
and on
does
perfection
aspects
Gr eiman>>
of
Too
like It
Make
f lopped
the
right
suc h for
your muc h
the
w ay
your
Sense?”,
your
left
side
of
your
pr ofessionalism your
life
as
ar t
tr anslate
well?
perha ps.
TA X I D e s i g n N e t w o r k i n t e r v i e w s w i t h A p r i l G r e i m a n , Wo m e n i n D e s i g n I I by N i n a r t L u i , h t t p : / / w w w. d e s i g n t a x i . c o m / a r t i c l e . p h p ? a r t i c l e _ i d = 1 0 0 1 9 2 , s / d
27
TAXI >>“The Mac’s just another pencil!” – In your opinion, what is the Mac of today, or has it remained as relevant and as cutting-edge today as it did in the 1980s? April Greiman>>At that time, it was when the Mac was being compared to other ‘traditional’ tools, disciplines of graphic design. The Mac is both another pencil, but as history would prove this out, a ‘meta-tool’ and an integrative process. TAXI Design Network interviews with April Greiman, Women in Design II by Ninart Lui, http://www. designtaxi.com/article.php?article_id=100192, s/d
Cut-and-paste. Cut-and-paste. What a joy. It saved from wheelchair-bound Matisse from madness. It freed, for him, colors from shapes, shapes from images, images from ideas. By cutting and pasting, bodies are freed from the stranglehold of context, designation, meaning. Greiman shares his joy, and takes it a step further. Her Mac is her scissors. This turns out to be much more than an articulate pair of knives. The capacity to zoom in and out, to isolate and frame and reframe and transpose and turn translucent is a technical advance that Matisse would surely have envied. April Greiman, Something from Nothing, Rotovision, London, Paris, Berlin, 2001
Two things. First, precisely what Socrates took it for. A thing subject to uncertainty from outside, mischief from within. Bodies confounded the objectivity of science, the equanimity of the law, the integrity of structures. Vulnerable to seduction, they trespass boundaries — others, and their own — and like ghosts, may even embody other bodies. If the mind is something dialectically spirited toward a pre-designated end, the body is something that is spirited by feeling and risk, by intuition toward, the unknown, toward the constitution of what Husserl called, “vague essences”. All things have a body; even words, symbols and signs, those stand-ins, utilities through which The Real is usually mediated. Where the mind has one unequivocal point of arrival, the truth, the body has provisionally many. And, teleological path outside the world of accident and chance, bodies of the type I`m speaking are engaged in accidental and chance encounters. We can see early signs of this in Marinetti`s dizzying use of graphic language, the way words mingle with images in countless Dadaist works. When the body is set loose in the field anything can happen. For sure, the mind keeps the body in check, by assigning it roles, functions. But what happens when these bodies are freed of their roles or assignments? Have no intrinsic utility? Things which exist for the sake of...? The second sense of the body: I tis built-up, a construction, what Deleuze and Guattari call an “assemblage.” It has the capacity to extend beyond itself, code with other bodies, it possesses what Nietzsche calls “plasticity.” And because of this “plasticity”, bodies can change scale, compromise structures, aggress, marry other bodies. In the poster Does It Make Sense, the earth floats over a lunar horizont that is a kind of prosthetic for the cropped shin-bone of her leg. On the other shin we find a cirrus cloud, and at the intersection of her pubis? — a dinosaur, and Stonehenge. A spiral galaxy romantically reaches into her hair and weaves into her. A field, unlike a surface, is something occupied by bodies, of which the human body, including ones`s own body, is only a single instance, just a participant. The world is a field occupied by bodies, and every poster, as a field, is a world.
April Greiman, Something from Nothing, Rotovision, London, Paris, Berlin, 2001
► pág. 13 . MAC AND TECNOLOGY
► pág. 16 . DECONSTRUCTION THEORY
29