Adrian Piper, Pretend not to know, 1989
Pretend #2
Pretend #2 is constructed from three images of women with their young children. As in most of her work, both as a philosopher and as an artist, Adrian Piper addresses the social and economic imbalance of our world and the issue of racism. In the central image a Caucasian mother smiles proudly, looking straight into the camera. She seems unaware of the anguish of the African mother at the left or the Asian mother at the right. The silkscreened text across the bottom, “Pretend not to know what you know,” connects the three images and forces the viewer to contemplate the frequent denials we choose to make to lessen the pangs of conscience.
La lettre d’imprimerie,
son dessin, sa fabrication, sa composition
Fernand Baudin
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Les établissements Plantin
1965
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Manuel de composition traitant de la classification des caractères, du choix d’un papier ou d’une justification…
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# 006
Notes: Adrian Piper
Kazimir Malevich, Black Square, 1914-15; Adrian Piper, My Calling (Card) , 1986-1990
-Importance of communicating a concept
-Influenced by politics
-Focuses on xenophobia, racism and racial stereotyping
-Observed public’s reaction
-Found out that being different made you invisible
Notes: Studium, Punctum & Mythologies
-Ronald Barthes 1915-1980
Elements of understanding an image:
1. Studium: Broad sense of what an image is, aesthetics of an image
2. Punctum: “The thing that pricks and bruises”
Extra element, an idea, emotion, physical object (the detail that is off from what you expect, a surprise) what makes the photo. Makes the image different, more effective, interesting- creates a story through the image
Joshua Hoffine
- Interpret the message to your brain
-Marxist- How groups interact with each other
-System of science: Any sign doesn’t mean anything or it has multiple meanings by the presence of other signs
-Intertextuality: One text refers to another - Cultural Reference
Mythologies - Roland Barthes (book)
-Myths in Societies - Cultural Myths
-Myths and system of communication: According to Barthes myth is everywhere and can be considered a myth as long as it is spoken about and analysed in a critical way. History provides the foundation for the myth but through myth history can be changed and presented in a different way.
-The way the message is delivered
-Post-structuralism
-Mythical relationship between people and things. Circuits of beliefs about the objects that aim to alter the consumption patterns. False consciousness.
-Language: Signifier > signified(Concept) > sign
Notes: Jenny Holzer
- Conceptual artist
- Truisms & Survival
- Reference to everyday experience and emotions
- How language shapes our cultural environments
- Using forms of advertising in her work but from the user’s perspective - Is it a good thing that you consume?
- The truisms are often challenging and present contradictory opinions to enhance people’s awareness of the different messages they are fed daily.
- Wants vs. Needs
- Combination of strong concept with Visuals
- Late 1970’s she devised more than 300 aphorisms or slogans that held truths and cliches
Notes: Practice - Action - Belief
-Global Village - Mass communication, the way we are communicating
-Medium is the message - Semiotics
- Ragunath Krishna Joshi: Indian fonts in Microsoft Office. Part of FCB Advertising agency.
-Simple, clean typography
-Languages: How they work - Phonetically based languages - Visualising something abstract
-Calligraphy: Calligraphic styles
Notes: Advertisment
-Creative Revolution : 1954-1964
-DDB (Doyle Dane Bernbach)
-Old JWT No.1
-Need to know when to stop
-Negative space - Help sink out the product
-essence of an idea - no clutter
-Impactful simple idea- Can be positive especially in graphic design
-While it may look simple, getting it to that place takes perseverance, determination, intelligence and of course that thing that creativity provides: Magic (Hegarty on Advertising,2011)
Sir John Hegarty -Johnnie Walker “Keep Walking”
Turning intelligence into magic - Example:
The whisky is always presented as something that is about success but in reality success isn’t found in a place, success is the constant journey and really successful people never stop. Hegarty came out with the idea of “keep walking” (success is a journey= keep walking). Fresh new way of thinking- A little bit of intelligence gave them the key to that crazy idea .
-Developing Brands - Creative ability to transform brands from being just good to be outstanding.
-Magic: Captures people’s imaginations & transforms & has the potential to transform the value of that brand
-Value of the design idea-Creative-Inspire people
-Ideas that are powerful - Irreverence- Enhance status
-Persuasion is an art not a science
-Honour your audience- speak to their intelligence
-Let the words complete the idea described in the image or the other way around
-Everything has not been done before
-Make the product the star not you
Vernacular Typography: So-Me
Bertrand de Langeron better known by his pseudonym So-Me is a Parisian graphic designer responsible for many of the videos and designs that symbolise the eclectic world of Ed Banger records. Designing almost every Ed Banger album cover his images tend to be different but aesthetically similar. Influenced by the pop culture of the the 1960s, the cover records of the 1970s, the french comic books and graffiti he uses vibrant colours with hand drawn sketches and illustrious typography. What is striking about his work is how he takes huge amount of written data and creates something legible and aesthetically engaging using hand rendered typography shown with a mixture of font styled and contrasting colours.
He manages to work quickly by making adaptations and shifting his designs giving them new meaning. Some of the animations in the music videos he created for Justice’s song D.A.N.C.E were references on his t-shirts designs, record covers for Ed Banger he made in the past and dedications to friends that they are the only ones who know them.
Notes: Vernacular Typography
-Using suitable lettering that responds to a particular occasion and location.
-Original type scape
-Environmental lettering
-Local signs
-Hand painted signage
-Fluidity of type
-Something that comes naturally
-Signature – Different Approaches
