ComDes History Final | Chapter 21 : The Conceptual Image

Seymour Chwast

- A founder of the Push Pin Studio, his vision is very personal, yet communicates on a universal level. - A reaction and alternative to business design - looking back to art nouveau, Art Deco - injecting design with expressionist ideals - He frequently uses the technique of line drawings overlaid with adhesive color films and experiments with a large variety of media and substrata. - Echoes of children's art, primitive art, folk art, expressionist woodcuts, and comic books appear in his imaginative reinventions of the world.

The Conceptual Image in Album Design

- Album covers as a way to experiment with visuals - The conceptual image emerged as a significant direction in album design during the 1960s, particularly at CBS's Columbia Records under the guidance of art director John Berg, where the fantastic, the real, and the surreal joined the classical and outrageous in their repertoire of visual language.

"record album cover for the Byrds' Byrdmaniax"

- Art Directed by John Berg, Designed by Virginia Team - 1971 - An enigmatic image transcends normal portraiture as masklike faces emerge from an oily fluid.

"Handle with Care"

- Corita Kent - 1967 - serigraph - Reprinted with permission from the Corita Art Center, Immaculate Heart Community, Los Angeles. Photograph by Joshua White. (image in powerpoint)

"Feelin' Groovy"

- Corita Kent - 1967. - serigraph - Early silkscreen— expressionist - Activist, Anti-war message - Dismissed for religious message

Sister Corita Kent

- Corita Kent was an artist, educator and advocate for social justice. - Nun - At age, 18, she entered the religious order of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, eventually teaching in and heading up the art department at Immaculate Heart College. - Throughout the 60's her work became increasingly political, urging viewers to consider poverty, racism, and injustice. - Andy Warhol-esque

"book jacket for Bevis Hillier's Art Deco"

- Designed by Barry Zaid - 1970 -Barry gives the book a manifestation for art dec o revival - Decorative geometry of the 1920s is reinvented in the context of the sensibiliHes of a half-century later.

"cover for the Australian Vogue"

- Designed by Barry Zaid - 1971 - The rotund geometric forms of Léger and modernist pictorial art are evoked.

"classical film screening poster"

- Designed by David Lance Goines - 1973 - The directness of image and composition gains graphic distinction from a poetic sense of color and sensitive drawing.

"Anna Christie poster"

- Designed by James McMullan - 1977 - Watercolor - McMullan oden calls attention to the physical properties of the medium; the red background changes into painterly strokes and then becomes lettering.

"poster for Alban Berg's Wozzeck"

- Designed by Jan Lenica - 1964 - As with many of Lenica's posters, the spirit of art nouveau is evident. - figure in a grieved state, screaming - Thick black lines; flesh, muscle tissue

"Warsaw Poster Biennale poster"

- Designed by Jan Lenica - 1976 - Meandering arabesques metamorphose into a winged being. - Art Nouveau surrealism - Psychological state of being

"Solidarity logo"

- Designed by Jerzy Janiszewski - 1980 - Crude letterforms evoke street graffiti, and the crowded letters are a metaphor for people standing solidly together in the street

"record album cover for the William Tell Overture"

- Designed by John Berg - 1963 - Complex visual organization was replaced by the simple presentation of a concept (image in powerpoint)

"American Paintings from the Metropolitan Museum of Art poster"

- Designed by Lou Danziger - 1966

"poster for The New York School: The First Generation"

- Designed by Lou Danziger - 1966

"record album cover for The Sound of Harlem"

- Designed by Milton Glaser - 1964 -Art Nouveau - dynamic - In this early example of Glaser's contour line and flat color period, the figures are weightless shapes flowing in musical rhythm.

"Dada and surrealism exhibition poster"

- Designed by Milton Glaser - 1968 - 2 words - homage to Magritte - Isolating "real" in surreal - The smaller table isolates the word real within the longer word surrealism. (image in powerpoint)

"Poppy Records poster"

- Designed by Milton Glaser - 1968 - A poppy blooming from a granite cube symbolizes a new, independent company breaking through the monolithic conventions of the recording industry.

"poster for The Threepenny Opera"

- Designed by Paul Davis - 1975 - A sinister portrait of Mack the Knife is placed in front of a hanging yellow sheet on which the title is painted in blood. - hand is strange; it does not seem to be connected to the body - red eyes (image in powerpoint)

"Cover design for Modern Art in Your Life"

- Designed by Paul Rand - 1949 - With this MoMA publication Rand makes modern art seem accessible. As Steven Heller aptly stated in his superb biography of Rand, published in 1999, "Rand's jackets and covers were both mini canvases and mini posters. He composed the limited image area for maximum impact." - Strictly modern - Clear typeface - limited color palette - pot-war corporate modern

"Love poster"

- Designed by Peter Max - 1970 - Max's split fountain printing resulted in colors lyrically dissolving into one another.

"Judy Garland poster"

- Designed by Seymour Chwast - 1960. - The vibrant flat colors aptly express the resonance of her singing. - Chwast uses his own typeface Blimp for the title. -Looking back to Wadville poster

"moving announcement for Elektra Productions"

- Designed by Seymour Chwast - 1965 - Walking, riding, or propelled by locomotive power, the client's name travels to its new location.

"poster protesting the bombing of Hanoi"

- Designed by Seymour Chwast - 1968 - A mundane advertising slogan gains new life when combined with a blue woodcut and offset printed green and red areas. - German Expressionism - mouth shows a war-scene

"album cover for The Threepenny Opera"

- Designed by Seymour Chwast - 1975 - Diverse inspirations combine to capture the resonance of the renowned German play. - looks back top 1920s - An interest in revival of interest in German Expressionism — Cabaret

"poster for the Chambers Brothers"

- Designed by Victor Moscoso - 1967 - Art nouveau-esque lines -The vibrant contrasting colors and Vienna Secession lettering inside of the sunglasses implies the drug culture of the period.

"concert poster for the Miller Blues Band"

- Designed by Victor Moscoso - 1967 - The shimmering nude female figure in the center of the poster reflects the uninhibited atmosphere of the 1960s.

"Jimi Hendrix poster"

- Designed by Waldemar Swierzy - 1974 - who approached graphic design from a painterly viewpoint - The electric vitality of gestural strokes on the cobalt blue portrait suggests the energy of hard rock music.

"concert poster for the Grateful Dead, Junior Wells Chicago Blues Band, and the Doors"

- Designed by Wes Wilson - 1966 - Hand-drawn line art is printed in intensely vibrating colors.

"poster for a Michael Graves exhibition"

- Designed by William Longhauser -1983

"logo for Mr. and Mrs. Aubrey Hair"

- Designed by Woody Pirtle - 1975 - In this graphic pun, the comb relates to the client's name, which is spelled by the comb's teeth.

"poster for Knoll furniture"

- Designed by Woody Pirtle - 1982 - A hot pepper becomes a red and green chair, signifying the availability of Knoll's "hot" furniture in Texas.

"concert poster for The Association"

- Designed byWes Wilson - 1966 - Lettering becomes an image, signifying a cultural and generational shift in values

Push Pin Studio

- During the first half of the twentieth century, narrative illustration dominated American graphic design. - As photography overtook illustration's traditional function, a new, more conceptual approach to illustration emerged during the 1950s among a group of young New York graphic artists. - Like Alphonse Mucha and Will Bradley at the turn of the century, Glaser and Chwast united the concept, image-making, and layout components of graphic design into a total communication that conveyed the individual vision of the creator. - Push Pin artists drew inspiration and source materials from everything from Renaissance paintings to comic books. They freely paraphrased and incorporated a multiplicity of ideas into their work, often reshaping these eclectic sources into new and unexpected forms. - The Push Pin approach is less a set of visual conventions or a unity of visual techniques or images than it is an attitude about visual communications, an openness to trying new forms and techniques as well as reinterpreting work of earlier periods, and an ability to integrate word and image into a conceptual and decorative whole. - The term Push Pin style became widely used throughout the world to refer to the studio's work and influence.

The Conceptual Image

- Emergence of conceptual illustration, which, became a significant design approach in Poland, US, Germany, and Cuba (2nd half of 20th century) - Corporations + Modernism - Dealt with the design of the entire space, including integration of word and image and conveyed not merely narrative information but ideas and concepts - During the exploding information culture of the second half of the twentieth century, the graphic artist had the entire history of visual arts from which to draw inspiration. - As photography and video took over the role of documentation, graphic illustration became more expressive and symbolic. - During this period, graphic artists created more personal images, and pioneered individual styles and techniques, blurring the boundaries between fine arts and public visual communication.

Milton Glaser

- Founder of the Push Pin Studio whose versatility and variety of work makes his singular genius hard to categorize. - For Glaser, geometric forms, words, and numbers are not merely abstract signs but tangible entities with an object-life that allows them to be interpreted as motifs, just as figures and inanimate objects are interpreted by an artist.

Grassroots Poster Design 1960s

- In contrast to postwar Polish posters, which were patronized by government agencies as a national cultural form, the poster craze in the United States during the 1960s was a grassroots affair fostered by the social upheavals of the decade, including the civil rights movement, public protest against the Vietnam War, the beginnings of the women's liberation movement, and a search for alternative lifestyles. - Poster mania, which peaked in the early 1970s, continued on university campuses in the U.S. because campuses were some of the few areas with pedestrian traffic as audiences. The posters from the late 1960s hippie subculture centered in the Haight-Ashbury section of San Francisco were referred to as psychedelic posters because they were related to anti-establishment values, rock music, and psychedelic drugs.

"Political Poster"

- Marian Nowinski - 1979 - A book bearing the name of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, whose works were banned and burned by the Pinochet regime, is closed by large metal spikes.

"Bob Dylan poster"

- Milton Glaser - 1967 - Transcending subject and function, this image became a symbolic crystallization of its time. - psychedelic - conceptual image

Push Pin spawns Offshoots

- Push Pin Studio spawned a number of young graphic designers and illustrators who worked there for various periods of time, including: -Barry Zaid, who became a force in the revivalism and historicism (especially art deco) that was prevalent in graphic design during this period; - James McMullan, who restored watercolor as a means of graphic expression and made fluid lettering an important part of his images; - Paul Davis, who drew inspiration from primitive colonial American art and approached integration of word and image in a painterly manner. - Beyond Push Pin Studio, others who advanced the conceptual image during this period were Richard Hess, Arnold Varga, Paul Rand, Lou Danzinger, Herbert Leupin, and Raymond Savignac.

A Regional School in Texas

- Push Pin Studio, emerged in Texas in the 1970s and became a major force in the 1980s. - Stan Richards is acknowledged as the catalyst of this movement. - Graphic designs from Texas in the 1970s, led by the Richards Group in Dallas, depict conceptual imagery combined with wit, intuition, and pragmatism. - Woody Pirtle, who worked for Richards, epitomizes the originality of Texas graphics, as shown in his 1975 logo for Mr. and Mrs. Aubrey Hair and the 1982 poster he designed for Knoll furniture. - In 1988, Pirtle joined the Manhattan office of the British design firm Pentagram.

The Polish Poster

- The poster was an important form of communication in Poland and a source of national pride that received international attention during the 1950s. - Repressive and oppressive communication — Russia after WWII - Find alternative message to spread counter culture - Complex ideas about resistance

Henryk Tomaszewski (1914-2005)

A Polish poster innovator who led the trend toward developing an aesthetically pleasing approach, escaping from the somber world of tragedy and remembrance into a bright, decorative world of color and shape (Figs. 21-4 and 21-5). In an almost casual collage approach, designs were created from torn and cut pieces of colored paper, then printed by the silkscreen process.

Milton Glaser (b. 1929):

A founder of the Push Pin Studio whose versatility and variety of work makes his singular genius hard to categorize. During the 1960s, he created images using flat shapes formed by thin, black-ink contour lines, adding color by applying adhesive color films (Fig. 21-18). Glaser's concert posters and record album designs manifest a singular ability to combine his personal vision with the essence of the content. Glaser's 1967 image of the popular folk-rock singer Bob Dylan (Fig. 21-19) is presented as a black silhouette with brightly colored hair patterns inspired by art nouveau sources. During the 1980s and 1990s, Glaser became increasingly interested in illusions and dimensionality (Fig. 21-22). For Glaser, geometric forms, words, and numbers are not merely abstract signs but tangible entities with an object-life that allows them to be interpreted as motifs, just as figures and inanimate objects are interpreted by an artist.

Seymour Chwast (b. 1931)

A founder of the Push Pin Studio, his vision is very personal, yet communicates on a universal level. He frequently uses the technique of line drawings overlaid with adhesive color films and experiments with a large variety of media and substrata. Echoes of children's art, primitive art, folk art, expressionist woodcuts, and comic books appear in his imaginative reinventions of the world. Chwast's color is frontal and intense (Figs. 21-23 through 21-27).

James McMullan (b. 1934)

A one-time Push Pin member, he revived watercolor, a medium that had declined from a position second only to oil paint for fine art and illustration, and restored it as a means of graphic expression. McMullan achieved prominence during the 1960s with energetic ink-line and watercolor illustrations that often combined multiple images with significant changes in spatial depth and image size and scale, as well as fluid lettering (Fig. 21-29).

Jerzy Flisak (1930-2008)

A poster designer who worked in the simplified, colorful collage style of many postwar Polish posters (Fig. 21-6).

Paul Davis (b. 1938)

An alumnus of Push Pin Studio, he is known for a painting style of minute detail that drew inspiration from primitive colonial American art. He evolved into a master of meticulous naturalism; the solid shapes of his forms project a convincing weight and volume. His work demonstrates enormous inventiveness in relating sensitive portraits to environmental backgrounds and expressive lettering (Fig. 21-30).

Barry Zaid (b. 1939)

An influential young graphic designer in the late 1960s and early 1970s, he joined Push Pin pin for a few years during this period. As a graphic archeologist basing his work on a thorough study of the graphic vernacular of bygone eras, Zaid became an important force in the revivalism and historicism that were prevalent in graphic design during this period. His historicism did not merely mimic nostalgic forms, for his spatial organization, scale, and color, were of his own time.

Push Pin Almanack

Bi-monthly magazine begun in the 1950s by Seymour Chwast, Milton Glaser, Reynolds Ruffins, and Edward Sorel, a group of young New York graphic artists who used the joint publication to solicit freelance work. Originally, the publication featured editorial material from old almanacs, which the group illustrated.

Roman Cieślewicz (1930-96)

Closely associated with the Polish avant-garde theater, he took the poster, a public art form, and transformed it into a metaphysical medium to express profound ideas that would be difficult to articulate verbally (Fig. 21-13). Cieslewicz's techniques include enlarging collage, montage, and halftone images to a scale that turns the dots into texture, setting up an interplay between two levels of information: the image and the dots that create it (Fig. 21-14).

Corita Kent (1918-86)

Entered the convent of the Immaculate Heart Community (IHC) of Los Angeles and gained notoriety for her iconoclastic approach to her spirituality and artistic practice. She combined childlike forms and saturated colors suggesting a sense of optimism and innocence. Kent infused her work with a deeply personal touch; she appropriated signs, literary texts and phrases, and song lyrics from her everyday environment and used these elements in compositions that assumed new meanings. She explored new territories, spreading spiritual teachings through her artwork (Figs. 21-46 and 21-47).

Push Pin Studio (textbook)

Formed in August 1954 by Seymour Chwast, Milton Glaser, Reynolds Ruffins, and Edward Sorel. After Ruffins and Sorel left to pursue other interests, Glaser and Chwast continued their partnership for two decades; then Glaser left and Chwast renamed the studio Push Pin Group. The Push Pin Almanack became Push Pin Graphic and provided a forum for presenting new ideas, imagery, and techniques.

Waldemar Swierzy (1931-2013)

Included his own personal vision in his poster design, approaching it from a painterly viewpoint. He drew on folk art and twentieth-century fine art for inspiration (Fig. 21-11). This prolific artist created more than a thousand posters in a wide variety of media. The spontaneous quality of much of his work is deceptive, for Swierzy sometimes devoted three weeks to a poster and might even execute a poster five or more times before being satisfied with the results.

Woody Pirtle (b. 1943)

One of many major Texas designers who worked for Stan Richards during their formative years, his work epitomizes the originality of Texas graphics. His logo for Mr. and Mrs. Aubrey Hair evidences an unexpected wit, while his Knoll "Hot Seat" poster (Fig. 21-39) ironically combines the clean Helvetica type and generous white space of modernism with regional iconography. In 1988, Pirtle moved on to join the Manhattan office of the British design studio Pentagram.

Franciszek Starowiejski (1930-2009)

One of the first graphic designers to incorporate the metaphysical and surrealism into Polish posters, representing a darker, more somber side of the national character. This may have represented either a reaction to the social constraints of the dictatorial regime or despair and yearning for the autonomy that has so often been denied the Polish nation during its history.

psychedelic posters

Posters from the late 1960s hippie subculture, which centered in the Haight-Ashbury section of San Francisco, were referred to as psychedelic posters because they were related to anti-establishment values, rock music, and psychedelic drugs.

Jan Lenica (1928-2001)

Pushed the Polish collage style toward a more menacing and surreal communication in posters and experimental animated films. Then, during the mid-1960s, he began using flowing, stylized contour lines that weave through the space and divide it into colored zones that form an image (Figs. 21-9 and 21-10).

John Berg (b. 1932)

The art director at CBS's Columbia Records from the early 1960s until 1984. Photographs of musicians performing and portraits of composers yielded to more symbolic and conceptual images (Fig. 21-37). For two decades, Berg and his staff wrested the maximum potential from the large 961-square-centimeter (150-square-inch) format of vinyl long-play records. The art director became a conceptualizer and collaborator, working with illustrators and photographers to realize imaginative expressions for the spectrum of the musical experience (Fig. 21-38).

Tadeusz Trepkowski (1914-56)

The first Polish poster artist to emerge after World War II, he expressed the tragic memories and aspirations for the future that were deeply fixed in his country's national psyche. His approach involved reducing imagery and words until content was distilled to its simplest statement. In his famous 1953 antiwar poster (Fig. 21-3), Trepkowski used a few simple shapes to symbolize a devastated city, superimposed on a silhouette of a falling bomb.