By Maria João Magalhães As a Graphic and Media Design student, the first thing that I was taught was the principles of design theory. Hierarchy, color and white space, balance, contrast and repetition (I risk saying these are the basic principles of graphic design). The obvious would be if you follow these rules at risk you can become a great designer, right? Not so easy. “Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.” words from the master Picasso, and it’s basically it. Although, we are taught the rules, we are always encouraged to break them in order to find our own style. My working method as a graphic designer is very sensorial and experimental, I particularly like to get out of my comfort zone and explore the most unlikely techniques, sometimes breaking the rules. Therefore, I see anti-design as a vast space of possibilities and creative opportunities. First, Anti Design is a movement similar to post-modernism that began in the 1960s as a reaction to modernism’s long puritanical reign. Anti design rejected the righteous values of modernism and expressed growing social dissatisfaction through irony. This term often emphasizes the chaotic and the random, to create something unexpected or confrontational. It can also be used to push formal boundaries and challenge accepted norms. To capture a more modern look of the movement, we can have a look at the studio Solid Dogma work for Iminente festival. Solid Dogma is a creative unit aimed at activating brand and cultural power through art. Solid Dogma overcomes media boundaries and focuses on consumer and social value by creating seamless communication projects and powerful branding tools. The Iminente festival emerged in 2016 and since then brings together emerging and renowned artists with varied backgrounds, it is a union of cultures, languages and styles, condensed into a unique and intense collective intimacy experience. Supported by core values such as diversity, inclusivity, equality and visibility, it is a celebration of creativity. The festival graphics, every year created by Solid Dogma, are renowned for its bold visuals, using strong and striking typography, bright colors and the avoidance of conventional grids. Even though we see this style as probably a trend now, the history of the Anti-design movement goes back to the 1960s. Grapus [ \gra-´pUEs] is a French graphic design collective founded in Paris immediately following the student protests of May 1968. The group saw life as a field for experimentation, putting the new political, social, and cultural debates into graphic form for public discussion. This collective first work was a graphic response to a political movement, where they used their artistic practice to show where they stand and their beliefs. They were very notorious as their work broke the rules and the modernist vision. They appealed to images, bold colors, collages and irony to break the standards of design and be disruptive. With these two examples, we can see that Anti-design is a cyclical trend. Just as in fashion there are clothing trends that come and go, in design it is the same. In this way, most trends appear with a purpose, as a response to something, be it a political or creative need. With the Corona virus pandemic, our society has been presented with a totally new and uncertain reality. We have changed our perspective on many subjects and found importance in things that were previously indifferent to us. It was an important moment of experimentation and a shift in creativity. After so much time locked away and banned from the world, there was a need to step outside the box and follow new paths and take risks. It was the opportunity to, as in the 1960s artist freely express themselves and be different.
For many, Anti Design may be seen as wrong or even ugly, however in my opinion it is a free space for creativity and sensory experiences. I like to think that my favorite design trend is Anti Design and that some of my works can be integrated in this category. "We have forgotten why we are here. We have lost touch with what makes us tick, what drives us." words of Neville Brody. Although it is quite comfortable to stay in our safe zone and not take risks, I always try to go further in my projects and challenge myself. By risking we learn, with the mistakes or successes. However, a question that puzzles me is, "if anti design is a movement of reaction to the previous style, will the movement that comes after AD be itself considered Anti design too? Is this a vicious circle? Bibliography https://www.soliddogma.com/ https://www.iminente.org/pt/festival/ https://fkwartin.medium.com/anti-design-what-why-698bff0d4c9d https://www.northeastshop.com/products/what-you-dont-know-grapus https://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/2931-neville-brody-the-anti-design-festival/
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