Banksy

Banksy has been a myth in England since his emergence after the turn of the millennium, his pieces started to appear on walls around England, mostly satirical prods at popular culture or government actions, the style of graffiti stencil reflecting the rebellious nature of the actual art. His stencil design technique had become distinctive and instantly recognisable, his designs are mostly black and white with touches of colour that add effect where necessary, for example the red in the piece with the girl and the heart shaped balloon ads a sense of human feel. He has also created a swirling growth of debate and speculation, as he has never actually revealed his true identity and he works under the cover of night and with no trace, this adds to the enigma and rebellious activist nature of his work which creates a depth to his legacy that makes his art a special breed, as young people who may share the same political outlook as Banksy who are presumably his demographic, are engaged and support his art. My favorite piece of his was the one depicting a small child sat at a machine making British flag bunting that is hung up on the wall, the blend of stencil art and the actual flags make the piece seem eerily real and the message is direct and put across in a beautifully simple way.

Ellsworth-Jones, Will, (Feb 2013) http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/The-Story-Behind-Banksy-187953941.html

Author Unknown, Date Unknown http://banksygogo.jimdo.com/the-short-story-of-banksy/ 

Photo: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/banksy-has-new-child-sweatshop-worker-834265

Josef Muller Brockmann

Josef Muller Brockmann was a key figure and pioneer in the emergence of Swiss design style in the mid 19^th century and a personal favourite designer of mine, his style embodies everything that i find crucial to successful design; shape, type, line and negative space. His style and approach was a catalyst for much of design today, incorporating constructivism, Bauhaus, De Stijl and suprematism(1) into his work and creating a blend of these original styles to produce simple, visually engaging design. He published many works relating to design including ‘Grid systems in graphic design’ in 1962, which questioned the conventional page layout at the time and instead imposed that grid structures be the guideline for graphics, this is to this day a very important book as the grid is a staple of art and design today. A piece of his work that is interesting to me is one of his commissions for Zurich town hall, this design displays the style that Muller Brockmann pioneered, the simple, clean typography and subtle use of colour make the poster aesthetically pleasing while wholly efficient.

(1) William Purcell, Kelly, Date Unknown http://www.designishistory.com/1940/joseph-mueller-brockmann/

Photo: (1)

Identity

The subject of identity is often the cause of a lot of controversy and debate inside the art and design world, mostly owing the freedom to express views and opinions, the fact that a designer could within reason depict whoever however they want to and in many cases influence public culture with their connotations. The lines between what is acceptable regarding representation of identity in design have often been blurred and bent as the times change and social norms come and go, a subject that has seen a big change through time is gender, with modern times our perception of women in society has changed so therefore so has their presence and representation. As women gained rights during the 19^th century, the art and design world which ‘is a victim of institutional sexism’(1) had to change its approach to female representation and incorporation as the persistent use of males to display dominance and power in design was increasingly questioned and rejected in favour of a more equal representation.

(1) Unknown Author, Unknown date http://plaza.ufl.edu/erinconnelly/erinconnelly/AL%2052.html

Modernism

The period of modernism in art and design came from the focus more on breaking down the bare essentials of what makes things aesthetically pleasing and using these as the main focus. One of my personal favourite artists was Piet Mondrian who was among the founding figures of the De Stijl movement in the early 19^th century who created work that used only vertical and horizontal line, and primary colour which they stated expressed ultimate simplicity and abstraction. The Bauhaus school of art in Germany during the modernist period and was a crucial factor in how art is taught in the modern world, enlisting a range of designers and artists that were successful and relevant at the time the school created a program of education that many art courses today still loosely follow and pushed the simplistic way of thinking that embodied the modernist style. Modernism is present in all aspects of visual arts today from architecture and film to graphic design and fine art, the styles core elements are what make this visually attractive in the first place so it is always guaranteed to produce successful design.

'Ms Troung' (6/11/11) http://www.artsmia.org/modernism/nintro.html

Piet mondrian's work: (photo: http://mstruongartclass.wordpress.com/2011/09/06/pietmondrian/)

Semiotics

The use of semiotics is a crucial part of graphic design, essentially every piece of design has an intended purpose and therefore will have certain aspects that put whatever the point is across using the language of signs and signifiers, even in the subtlest ways. Roland Barthes was a pioneer in semiotics and devised many theories that form the base for our understanding of signs and signifiers as a means of language, stating that objects can have connotations as well as denotations, highlighting the concept of the use of visuals for more than one meaning and this in itself is a huge part of design on the whole. For example if a promotion for a bottled water company uses imagery of a spring, then the denotation is the obvious use of water, and the subsequent connotations of this image are the fact that spring water is known to be naturally clean and pure, so this represents the content of the water company, this technique can be interpreted into many different styles of design, from the use of colour to express feeling to using language to incur meaning. As a designer I find playing around with different possible interpretations of my work as essentially the way in which it is received is the crucial part of designs being, and finding different techniques and methods of inducing connotation is an integral part of every design process.