OUGD501 - Postmodernist Design Theory

Form (Female) follows function (male)

1960s Beginnings
1970s established as term (Jencks)
1980s recognisable style
1980s & 90s dominant theoretical discourse

Crisis where people aren't bonded together within meta-narratives anymore, people are in a stagnesis

Modernism, a story told primarily by men. Masculine, hosterity,
Post modernism adds a playful element to this rigid design. Breaking away from a series of doctrines.
Perhaps postmodernist philosophy was a way to question wether modernism was neutral as it claims to be. A bias within society.
Memphis group formed 1981 - diverse within their ethnicity and gender
This group is now being recycled 20 years later as just a style, being put on clothes and textiles for furniture. Buying the clothes without any concept of what this movement was supposed to achieve. Randomly cannibalising things from the past. A hyperreal of recycled images.

Patriarchal, a society perpetually progressed by men. Men hold the power and women are excluded by it. Subtle ideological ways which this is reenforced within todays society.

Derrida -
He argues that the entirety of history and western philosophy has been flawed as it has all been based on opposite binaries between things. Our own thinking is based on setting up opposites black white etc... Speaking is always subservien to writing as it depends on the stability of the inferior term. This makes it inferior as it depends on being better than the lesser one (deconstruction)
Exposing binarisations on binary, showing that it is false and attempting to deconstruct and play in the halfway point of these opposites
There is always one side which is privileged. It is the superior side of this dead.
Helene Cixous expands upon this by stating that all of the privileged concepts in a logocentric system are masculine. She calls this a phallogocentric society dominated by male values.
Edward Said expands upon this hy saying there not just male dominant but they are white western masculine values. He states this as Orientalism.
Justification for colonialism and it creates a system where we accidentally perceive this
Hegemony - patriarchy depends on women seeing themselves in a system of our own oppression. The system gets people to participate in their own oppression and recognise themselves within their binary.

Logocentrism - all of our thought is logocentric when setting up our thinking values.
The books structure is typeset to defeat logocentrism, it is anti structural. The reader is in charge of creating meaning instead of the author. Is the writer ever in charge of the meanings of their books?

David Carson - Because he couldn't be bothered reading the interview with Bryan Ferry, he decided to set it in windings so that nobody could read it.

Buried the clothes in his garden for 3 months and then sold them to rich collectors is deconstructive.

OUGD501 - Modernist Design Theory

Is there a need to return to Modernism within design principles?

Modernism in Design - 

Contemporary
Anti-historicism
Truth to materials
Form follows function
Technology
Nature
Everything lives in balance
Organising the world based on rationality, reason and logic
Perfect unitarian society
Utopian and progressive
Invent, doesn't look backwards for the worlds problems
Embracing the new
True to its materials
Solves a problem first and lets aesthetic elements follow, the beauty is in the solution
Internationalism
Completely neutral and outside of national character
Aesthetics stripped back to be totally universal
The international style
Collectiveness over Individualism
Democracy over war
The struggle for rebalancing the world
Art and culture against war and nationalism
Neutralising unnecessary design
Timeless value in oppose to transience
This movement had goals and attempted to solve problems which are still alive today
move away from realism, but to reality
Bauhaus, collectivisation and unity within all fields of creative design, Fusion of disciplinary collectivism, Nazis closed it down due to their cultural imperialist ideologies
Design as an alternative form of literacy


Herbert Bayer (1925) Universal Typeface
Marcel Breuer (1929) Cesca Chair
Van Doesburg (1929) Simultaneous Counter-Composition
Helvetica Documentary - Special Features

Manifest I of,, The Style", 1918
The Crystal Goblet by beatrice Wardle (1900 - 1969)
Wine metaphor, raw gold goblet vs clear crystal



Postmodern culture

15th July 1972, 3:32pm
Modernism dies, according to Charles Jencks
Jencks, C. (1988) What is Postmodernism?, London: St Martins Press.


Pessimism
Pluralism
Cynicism
Artistic and stylistic eclecticism
Exhaustion
Disillusionment with the idea of absolute knowledge

Lack of vision
Jokey scnere at modernism

Marinetti, F.T. (1909) Manifesto of Futurism

Nihilistic form of modernism
Destructive potential of Modernism
Fascism

OUGD501 - Study Task 5 - SB2 Research

Task 1 -

The company will work in partnership with mastercard to produce their product and therefore, it was seen appropriate to study their past and current designs. One important aspect to consider is the relationship between the dates of their rebrands, and the timeline of the modernist / postmodernist transition. The 2016 design has returned to the simple modernist design from 1968, utilising simple shapes and opacity, along with integrating a cleaner and more legible typeface. The 1996 design beforehand seemed quite cluttered for modern digital interfaces, its typeface was shadowed, italic, duel coloured and overlapping. These are all unnesacary design decisions which complicates the logo.

The relevant design aesthetic from 1968 which is being used today has kept contemporary for over 50 years, Sagmeister strives to acomplish this longevity within branding;

‘Trendy design and styles can work if you are designing something temporary, like an illustration in a magazine or a poster with a short life-span. However, most of the time at our studio, we seek to create work that can have a long lifespan and stay relevant for a long while, especially in relation to branding. The identity and visual language we create for our clients should stay fresh and relevant even after a decade’ (Walsh, 2016). 

Even though the design holds many modernist aesthetics, there is a sense of a common trend occuring within the overlap and use of opacity. This similar design is seen within a few new rebrands, some of which are figured below.

These trends and social conventions need to be identified within popular culture, ‘whether to maintain a sense of originality by avoiding common cliches or to fit in with accepted norms in order for the potential audience to recognise its context and message’

Within the projects branding, there are two possible routes which must be considered. A contrasting route and an immitation, both are used to for association within a certain field of work or type of product.

‘Many of those producers would use a contrasting colour pallet, in order to differenciate from their main competator, whereas other may seek to emulate the leading brand in order to communicate to perspective buyers by association.’

A core semiotic review of the source material can help to distinguish any commonalities between competator brands. The data gathered can then be used constructivley to either place my brand identity within a similar context, or to create a truely bespoke identity. The problems with differenciating too much from my target market is that the demographics may get confused and associate my brand with inapropriate relationships. All major major competators for example, seem to use bold and bright colour pallets to stand out to the audience. This may be a beneficial signifyer to embed within my brand, establishing it within the banking industires.

When analysing contextual research, modes of communication must also be considered.

In a current age of digital banking and paypass, it is crucial to be portrayed as approachable ubiquitous as possible towards the consumer. With the expanding age bracket for users of smart products, there is also a need to develop a user experience for all age groups.

Where the audience will consume the branding will be a huge factor within design decisions made. Firstly the brand must include an acompanying iconography in order to represent the company on small interfaces such as smart watch technology. It must also however be bold and unique enough to be recognisable enough when scaled up to the size of a billboard. The industry which the company will be integrated into means that it is more than likely to have an advertisng campaign centred around business. This may include digital advertsiements along with print material on signs or in newspapers. Therefore, it is important to consider CMYK and RGB within the colour scheme of the designs.

Task 2 -

Identity - Owns a building company which employs 13 tradesmen

Gender - Male

Location - Greater Manchester UK

Age - 45

Needs - 

To regulate employees expenditures using a secure and manageable finance system.

To stop employees spending business money on gambling, cigarettes etc...

To distribute petrol to employees

Identity - Staff member at a Womans Hairdressers

Gender - Female

Location - Perth Western Australia

Age - 24

Needs - 

A regulated payment system which will allow staff to purchase supplies using a company finances

Identity - Busness Partner in a Financial Company

Gender - Male

Location - New York USA

Age - 32

Needs - 

A shared business account from which all members can withdraw and regulate expenditures

Task 3 - 

Looking into recent rebrand identities, there is a definite sway to return to past styles and a refference back to logos which were used throughout the 20th century. Particularly, refering back to their modernist counterparts. This return to modernist designs creates a paradox where these modernist designs are labeled as postmodern as they borrow from the historical styles of the 1940’s-50’s. This is an indication of modernist principles returning from that era and signals the decline of the heavy postmodern era.

The Natwest rebrand takes influence from its past styles, specifically the 2003 version however, utilises new technology within motion graphics. Its gradient box design helps to create some clever visuals when animating the logo. This advancement in special effects and high quality television screens of the 21st century opens up new dimensions of design within motion graphics available to the public. The basic shape and structure of the logo has always been very similar however, advancements in technology allow for new opportunities both in screen and physical production methods.

Hand crafted technies are still extremely relevant within more expressionate fields of design such as the music industries. Their hand rendered aesthetic connects the artist or band with the audience on a more human level. They also allow the band to establish a style and set trends both vocally and visually. The design above is both postmodern in its content as well as its enviroment and context. This emblum will often be seen screenprinted on Tshirts by fans resembling the rejection of a modern consumerist corporation based society and celebrating personal indeviduallity. The design serves as a detournement towards what is socailly accepted as the norm, it pushes all boundaries set by the hiarachy and resonates anarchy throughout.

OUGD501 - Studio Brief 2 - Reaching out to a Client

Deriving from the academic text, a client has been taken on via personal online portfolios with the need for a company rebrand. The subtle nuances of modernist and postmodern design aesthetics will be explored throughout the creation of their brand identity. A critical analysis will then be constructed based on the experimental designs, this will be analysed to determine what part both movements play within a modern technological society.

OUGD501 - Frankfurt School Critical Theory - Lecture

Walter Benjamin

The culture Industry - 

A circle of manipulation to the masses which gratifies our imediate needs to furful our percieved desires

Fordism -

A mass produced systematic cycle where one person becomes extrely good at making a bolt of a ford whilst slowly forgetting the larger picture of what they are making

Popular Music -

Adorno 1941

Standardisation of easy to produce and consume which creates mindless drones of the public. It creates passivity and standardised music which promotes passive listening. Promoting passivity reduces creativity on all aspects, the way this is camoflaged is by using pseudo indevidualisation and slightly changing elements which seem to make the music artist or song unique.

Television -

Adorno 1954

Manotonist rubbish set on formulas which are proved to work, this creates a system of standardisation. This degrades peoples capacitys to make unique and individualist  products.

Herbert Marcuse

Popular Culture vs Affirmative Culture

Authentic Culture vs Mass Culture 

Qualities of authentic culture

Autonomous

Indevidual creation

Imagination

Negation

Active consumption 

Multi dimensional 

European

Real

Walter Benjamin

The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction 1936

A form of being complisive with the system can also be rebellious, we can buy these systemised clothes but then reject conformal wearing methods. You can watch television ironically whilst knowing that you are not being manipulated. Collaging your way through a society which appose docility and propaganda. This will evencuslly defeat facism 

Warhols Marilyns - Celebrating the death of elitist art, his studio called the factory references fordism. New technologies allow for anti authoritarian methods which appose the elitist system in place by popular culture, digital reproduction has made anything reproducible and possible.

OUGD501 - Study Task 4 - Triangulation

‘Brooker, P. (1992) Modernism/Postmodernism, London: Longmans Publishing Group’

‘Hutcheon, L. (1989) The Politics of Postmodernism: Parody and history, London & New York: Routledge’

‘Jameson, F. (1991) Postmodernism: Or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, United States: Duke University Press’

‘Jencks, C. (1988) What is Postmodernism?, London: St Martins Press.’

‘McLuhan, M. (1964) Understanding media: The extensions of man. New York: McGraw-Hill’

‘Pegrum, M. (2000) Challenging Modernity: Dada between Modern and Postmodern, New York: Berghahn Books’

‘Poynor, R. (2003) No more rules: Graphic design and Postmodernism. LONDON: Laurence King Publishing.’

‘Tschichold, J. (1995) The new typography: The First English translation of the revolutionary 1928 document. Berkeley: University of California Press.’

500 Word Triangulation Exercise

Brooker (1992) explores some of the issues of cultural modernity and social modernisation which hindered the development of modernism. The author states that:

‘The mood which feeds neoconservatism today in no way originates from discontent about the antinomian consequences of a culture breaking from the museums into the stream of ordinary life.’ (Brooker 1992, p.130).

Although modernist values strive to progress technology, in this case, the advancement of technology encouraged a tangential transition from artwork once exclusive to the capitalist elite, hidden away in the sanctity of museums, to later be available for the mainstream population. The explosion of the internet and the advancement of an industrial urbanisation within the printing press allowed postmodernist values to spread and mock contemporary commercial artwork using forms of parody and pastiche.

This form of parody and pastiche can be seen expanded upon by Hutcheon (1989), the author states that postmodernism has in fact arisen from the conjunction of modernism and is directed, innovative and revolutionary rather than a regurgitated art form. This is referred to within the following quote:

‘Postmodernist ironic recall of history is neither nostalgia nor aesthetic “cannibalization” Nor can it be reduced to the gibly decorative. It is true, however, that it does not offer what Jameson desires – “genuine historicity”’ (Hutcheon, 1989, p.).

She believes that even though postmodernism cannot hold true historical authenticity, this does not mean that the movement cannibalizes historical aesthetics. The author concludes that postmodernism is a new and modified art form which gives its aesthetics new life and meaning. This is a direct challenge towards the work of Jameson (1991), where the author suggests, ‘Which randomly and without principle but with gusto cannibalizes all the architectural styles of the past and combines them in over stimulating ensembles’ (Jameson, 1991 p.). His philosophy dictates that postmodernism holds no personal style and has a distinct absence of originality. Throughout the writing, this definition of pastiche states that all postmodernist work is being regurgitated from past styles and is now creating unoriginal art and culture. He believes that giving classical work new meaning removes its context within history and proposes that postmodernism as a movement is the reabsorption of past methods which decontextulises historical styles.