Graphic Design in the Postmodern Era

 http://www.emigre.com/Editorial.php?sect=1&id=20

Jeffery Keedy

"Postmodernism is not a description of a style; it is the term for the era of late capitalism starting after the 1940's and realized in the 1960's with neo-colonialism, the green revolution, computerization and electronic information."

"A hodgepodge of styles, with no unifying ideals or formal vocabularies, dreamed up by students in the new graduate programs"

"But in fact it was a new way of thinking about design, one that instigated a new way of designing. Designers began to realize that as mediators of culture, they could no longer hide behind the "problems" they were "solving." One could describe this shift as a younger generation of designers simply indulging their egos and refusing to be transparent (like a crystal goblet)."

"In the late 80s, an anti-aesthetic impulse emerged in opposition to the canon of Modernist "good design."

"The new aesthetic was impure, chaotic, irregular and crude. A point that was so successfully made, in terms of style, that pretty much everything was allowed in the professionalized field of graphic design, and from then on typography would include the chaotic and circuitous as options in its lexicon of styles. In fact, most of the formal mannerisms of the late 80s have continued to predominate throughout the 90s. But now it's no longer an ideologically relevant, or even new style - now it's just the most popular commercial style."

"Most typefaces are logically systematic; if you see a few letters you can pretty much guess what the rest of the font will look like. I wanted a typeface that would willfully contradict those expectations. It was a typically postmodern strategy for a work to call attention to the flaws and artifice of its own construction. But I never thought of it as being illegible, or even difficult to read. I have never been very interested in pushing the limits of legibility for its own sake. Absolute clarity, or extreme distortion, is too simplistic a goal, and it is ground that has already been well covered. I wanted to explore the complex possibilities that lie somewhere in between and attempt to do something original or at least unique."

"That is why ultimately the strategies of resistance to Modernist dogma and the critique of the status quo, from the late 80s, only led to what is currently referred to as the ugly, grunge, layered, chaotic, postmodern design of the 90s."

"Unlike traditional or Modernist typography, typography of the postmodern era has not up to this point been clearly articulated, much less canonized, making that type of qualitative judgment difficult at best. This situation has led some designers to simply dismissing it all as garbage. "

"Postmodernism isn't a style; it's an idea about the time we are living in, a time that is full of complexities, contradictions, and possibilities. It is an unwieldy and troublesome paradigm. However, I still think it is preferable to the reassuring limitations of Modernism."

Essay structure

To what extent can ‘ugly’ design be successful?

Introduction

Introdue the topic

• State the growing emergence of ugly design that has gained popularity despite its critics

Background info

• Define what ugly design is
• And how ugly will be evaluated

Outline the scope of the discussion

• Where ugly design is usually seen
• How successful are these applications

Define question

Present plan of coverage including line of argument/conclusion/viewpoint

• Modernist and post modernist views on ugly design

Main body

How ugly design emerged

• What effect has it had on the mentality of graphics designers (less by the book, more d.i.y.)
• Why did it emerge? (rebel against modernism)

Why ugly design cannot work

• It is subjected to modernist theory which disagrees with ugly

• Modernists, steven heller
• They judge ugly design on modernist principles

Why ugly design can work

• Offers an alternative to the cold emotionless modernism
• Discuss the areas of graphic design is ugly design seen in

• Explain the reasoning why (subjectivity is favoured in these areas)

Is ugly design successful?

• To what extent? Is ugly design limited to certain areas of graphic design

Conclusion

• summarise key points
• provide an answer to the question