Since the pandemic struck in 2019, there has been growing evidence of critical writing on the subject of anti-design. With reference to five sources, what is your perspective on the Design/Anti-design discourse? Introduction. The subject to debate in this essay is Anti-Design, given the rise in its recurrence since the burst of the pandemic. When looking into the subject on recent times, such as articles or any other form of informative documents, you come to find the availability of these on the internet and other media forms is scarce; there is a beyond satisfactory amount of Anti-Design content but not in the context the brief suggests. After reading on Anti-Design, I came to realize that it is more a philosophy rather than a movement inherent to a certain discipline or time. In this essay I will expose Anti-Design as a discipline, provide a variety of contemporary examples which I will ponder upon to finally conclude with a solid, personal statement. Anti-Design as a philosophy. Anti-Design emerged as a movement in the Italy of the 60s, and it was a response to the 20th Century’s first five decades design which spoke the modernist philosophy vocabulary. It was the vanguard, the avant-garde in the discipline that aimed to renew the cultural and political role of design. Anti-Design in the 60s was a criticism of consumerism, capitalism and excess. This early stage of Anti-Design was characterised by an acid irony on proportions and the sense of beauty and functionality. Like every philosophy applied to a discipline, if successful, it branches to other fields of study and performance through time, due to an urge for expression, demand or experimentation. Anti-Design in contemporaneity has seen changes from its roots – the changes in society, culture and politics have reshaped the concept through a handful of additions – the philosophy now seeks for transgression, disruption and the audience’s “shock”. In current times Anti-Design performs as in its early stages only the philosophic taints have been pushed into the background. These movements possess a dichotomic nature, the philosophical trait that characterise them is only required for ignition and once it has become a mainstream and well-known to the mass trend, it strips off the deeper meaning and boils down to the basics in the surface; take for instance Grunge in the 90s. Contemporary examples and implications. In the current Zeitgeist Anti-Design is ubiquitous, indeed, the web Anti-Design proposed in the brief is an example of it; ironically, it is more consumed and in demand than ever before. Anti-Design examples, as a philosophy, can be seen in a wide variety of fields. Thereupon I will tackle three cases which belong to different fields and industries, yet they share the same backbone which they spin around on. Balenciaga. I start off my exposure on contemporary examples with the fashion industry, concretely Balenciaga, the renamed haute couture house. The firm was founded by Cristóbal Balenciaga, a Spaniard 20th Century designer worldly known for the fineness, elegance and sophistication of his garments construction. Despite the designer’s death in 1972, the brand went on producing and selling garments, accessories and perfumes up to current days. Disregarding its refined birth, Balenciaga vastly differs from its roots’ essence. Now it produces outrageous, out of shape, disproportioned and provocative pieces that seek for the shock of the audience and uniqueness in the market. Imagery: Balenciaga Fall 2018, Paris Fashion Week Balenciaga SS 1967. / Balenciaga SS 2020. In the last image provided above, the drastic contrast between the designer’s vision and the brand’s current confection is blatantly exposed. Design and Anti-Design respectively. Celebrity Magazines. Magazines can be considered both a piece of art and design. When constructing a magazine, a handful of influencing factors come into play: the cover, the paper’s stiffness and texture, the binding, the template and ultimately the construction, all among other aspects that contribute to the final composition as a whole. “Closer” is a celebrity magazine highly popular in the UK. This, as any other celebrity magazine you might find at a kiosk, works as a perfect medium to showcase cultural media idols in between publicity and announcements. These come in thin, oversaturated glossy paper held together by staples. The content spins around public sphere characters and their tensions between one another, or a close-up on the life or details of a given celebrity. Imagery: Closer, issue 913. Pleasure Garden Magazine SS 2018. / Closer Magazine January 2018 issue. The two images depicted above, once again, prove the gap between design and Anti-Design. Pleasure Garden is a British Magazine released on monthly issues, gently standing on firm covers which among contain high quality paper printed with beautiful imagery and writing on the cultural meanings and context of the garden. Music. As Plato said: Music is for the soul what gymnastics to the body. Music is beyond an art and form of expression; music ignites soothing, raging, grieving, happiness or melancholy in the depths of the self. Anti-Design is present in this form too. Lately the trend of pre-cooked rhythms, ambiguous and unsubstantial lyrics have experienced an arousal. Reggaeton, extremely present and popular – especially in Spanish-speaking countries – is the best example of it. This genre vastly dissonates from the rhythm and lyricism present in rock, contemporary electronic, flamenco, folk or reggae among many others. Conclusion. Design and Anti-Design, despite pertaining both to the same discipline, each it’s meant for a different use and function. Whilst design and art perform in the sake of beauty, functionality or aesthetics, Anti-Design plays a ludic role. The word “function” falls deep into the silk of contemporary society’s subjectivism. Anti-Design has the function of entertaining and shocking us but differently than how design does – and, from my viewpoint, in a less cultural and artistic enriching way. We, as a society, must be able to differ between enlightenment and leisure, between cognizant and nonchalant, between design and Anti-Design. https://www.creativereview.co.uk/anti-digital-graphic-design/
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/brutalism-antidesign/ https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/anti-design-italian-movement https://www.statista.com/statistics/321518/women-s-celebrity-weekly-magazines-ranked-by-sales-volume-uk/ https://magculture.com/blogs/journal/pleasure-garden
0 Comments
Alongside fellow course mate, Akanksha, I am writing a twenty-twenty-something coming of age short film, chronically a stressful morning of a young woman, where she is forced to confront the trivialities and difficulties of romantic relationships, parental expectations, personal autonomy and general societal connection in the 21st century.
Our research regarding the topic has been generally quite organic. We wanted to keep the story rooted in reality as much as possible as to make it relatable and believable. We carry the belief that cinema can be a form of therapy, as well as a way to confront things we tend to talk about but never think about too deeply. A lot of the “research” of this project has been use sharing personal stories and experiences, and those of our immediate peers. Using these real experiences has helped us with writing dialogue in particular and has made sure that the themes we’ve covered have been relevant to the experience of the character we’re wiring and who she represents. Another form is research has literally just been watching films that cover similar themes or that have inspired the aesthetic of the film. A particularly valuable watch was Shiva Baby, a Mubi release that featured an interview with director/writer Emma Seligman. This film was a good reference for creating the everyday chaos that we wanted to embody in our short film, and Seligman’s insights into modern sexual politics proved to be very inspirational, and on some level changed the direction of the script, opening our eyes to themes adjacent to those we’d already realised, helping us to round out the story much further. At the moment I’m really unsure how this project will influence my future practice. As it is fairly removed from my current practice as a graphic designer, I’m mostly grateful for the opportunity to work on something new and exciting, as I’ve wanted to explore filmmaking for years but always gave into apprehension or complacency. I would like to be involved in filmmaking more in the future, despite it not directly feeding into my practice as a graphic designer, and have already started talks to be involved in the writing and co direction of another friends’ upcoming project. Despite the differences however, there are definitely transferable skills that I recognise between scriptwriting and graphic design. For the story in particular, we’ve really had to analyse human behaviour and try and make sense of it, something that is very important when designing practically anything, as everything we design is made to be interacted with by other humans, so having a decent sociological knowledge is important. I think have a strong level of literacy is important as a designer also, and that’s something that I have had the chance to practice here, particularly in a narrative sense. Also, on a more personal basis, it has been an interesting experience to navigate my own thoughts and feelings in this script, despite me baring little resemblance to the lead herself, parts of the script are definitely shaped by my own experiences and views, which has felt rewarding and fulfilling to be able to address these. This is something I hope to do more of in the future, in Kaufman-esque fashion. By definition, Anti Design is design that rejects the clean minimalism of traditional Modernism, instead taking a more brash and maximalist approach. It’s roots can be traced back to Italy in the 1960’s, but a notable graphic reference would be David Carson’s work for Ray Gun during the early 1990’s. Carson had very little formal graphic education, but knew enough of the rules to know how to break them, this is important when making Anti Design in my opinion. Carson captured the spirit of the alternative music scene and created a graphic representation that essentially became the house style of the 90’s counter culture scene. “Magazines don’t get produced in a vacuum - they refer to their predecessors but also other media” - Jeremy Leslie Magazines are almost always about other forms of culture, they don’t exist for their own benefit, but rather to talk about other topics. So as Leslie states, it is inevitable that they’ll garner influence from other forms of existing media. So when talking about the rise of Anti Design in the contemporary graphics scene, we need to consider other media that has rose in prominence over the last few years. Meme culture has had a huge impact, for better or worse, on Graphic Design. The way we consume media has been potentially irreversibly changed due to the meteoric rise of social media over the last decade, so this has naturally affected the way designers work. They’ve had to adapt, or at least acknowledge the change of pace media has undergone as attention spans have invariably slumped due to the constant bombardment of new media online. A designer who I think has incorporated elements of meme culture into her practice in an interesting and thoughtful way is Charlotte Rohde. Pictured here is a typographic piece she designed for her 2021 show Hot Mess. “I like to play with masculine materiality such as metal and wood, while expressing flirty vulnerability in words.” - Charlotte Rohde Rohde uses her formal tuition to create playful and irreverent work that encapsulates the current internet zeitgeist while referencing societal issues within her field, specifically female representation and femininity within Graphic Design. Apart from Rohde’s obvious intelligence and personality, I think the reason her work is as interesting and conceptually strong is because of her formal tuition. As I touched upon when talking about Carson’s work, you need to know the rules if you want to break them. In a recent YouTube video, Satori Graphics breaks down why were seeing such an increase in anti graphics, and if it will become the prevailing form of Graphic Design. He talks about the availability of software meaning people without formal design education can make graphics. The accessibility of the practice has lead to a lot more young people becoming practitioners, which I think explains a lot. Anti design seems to be a youthful practice. As a side note, the rise of Y2K aesthetics seems nearly indistinguishable from the rise of anti graphics, particularly in independent print publication. Amelia Thorpe writes “there is an undeniable childish aura to this trend, which explains why many Gen Z’s might adopt this style due to the nostalgia that surrounds this era…” Although she’s talking more about fashion in this article, there has always been an intrinsic link between fashion and Graphic Design, and the point she makes still stands. This element of youth has triggered a real sense of sometimes false nostalgia for the youth of the 2020’s. Maybe it’s an antidote to a troubled time, recalling memories of a ‘simpler time’, (although most people who indulge in the aesthetic probably aren’t old enough to properly recall the early 2000s), or a more cynical view would be the graphics world is following the repetitive drumbeat of fashion’s cyclical nature. Anti design may have started as a form of rebellion, but what happens when it’s commercially fetishised? In summary, Anti Design is neither good nor bad. It’s a style. I think in the 21st Century it’s definition has changed, and it’s too commercially viable to be considered truly ‘rebellious’, however this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Ultimately people rebel against systems that need to change, and because of designers’ rebellion against traditional Modernism, there is now a viable place for Anti Design. However, like all styles and genres there’s a time and place to use it. Anti Design is based on what were once considered ‘distasteful’, however this doesn’t mean that anything goes. There’s a definite difference between intelligent irony and bad design.
|
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
February 2023
Categories |