This is a print done by Francois Challet and it's very telling of most designs he does. He wrote a quote for what he thinks of graphic design. "For me graphic design is about telling stories in a playful and optimistic way." Francois Challet's works are very playful, vivid and bright in image. Although the illustration of the cat could be seen in a creepy horror genre with it's human like teeth it is shown as more a pop art style by the squiggles and gagged rays behind it. The choice of color greatly effects the viewers perception. Red, white and black emcompass the majority of the cat, very attention grabbing, but then the background embellishments are of a very vivid yellow, pink and blue. With this design I immedietly thought of his last name 'Challet' and the French word for cat 'Chat'.

Source: Contemporary Graphic Design, pg. 89, by Francois Challet

On the side of this piece there is text saying: "Designers are also citizens, and we have a responsibility to use our images in ways that benefit society", as a quote from the designer, Nicholas Blechman. It is debatable on what kind of message he is trying to convey with this particular design. I get WWI vibes from this design. The cords at the end of the mask are iconic for WWI gas masks and the flat top to the helmet is much like what the American and British soldier's used. The word "Empire" overhanging the subjects suggest a totaltarian feel because of it's dark army green color being reflected in expressionless masks. The reflection of color could suggest that that's all they see. The smaller gas masks are linked to the larger mask by their breathing tubes, indicating that the smaller ones need the larger one to survive or that the larger one is feeding off of what the smaller ones have. It's up to interpretation.

Source: Contemporary Graphic Design, pg. 64, By Taschen

Cutting Edge Design

For the cutting edge contemporary design this week I chose a piece by David Carson.
The text is a horizontally rotated Einstein quote reading: "As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality." This beguiling quote is flipped, so it could many different meanings. It could possibly be suggesting the reverse of what Einstein said: "As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality.." They are certain? "...and as far as they are..." not certain, "...they do..."-"refer to reality."
Just as the quote is something for your brain to chew on the picture behind the text is also an example of some tasty eye candy. Only orange was used in the rasterization of this photo but the form of the dolphins can still be seen because of the water and wet skin. The energetic form of the photo paired with the black void of the flat ink, it all makes for an interesting and dynamic picture.

Source: David Carson Trek, intro by: Erick McLuhan, essays by: Drew Kampion and Jamie Brisick, pg. 85

For the design from another country this week I used Ludwig Hohlwein's 1924 poster for advertising the Electricity in the Household Exhibition. Hohlwein was conceded to be one of the best poster artists of the time and had great influence. This poster resembles much of the vibrant colors and gradients used in posters done by A.M. Cassandre, another successful poster artist. By emphasizing the lamp in the mostly dark blue scene it advertises the main point greatly. The man's flat black and white suit also creates a lot of attention, which is important to the individual it's being advertised to. The font color and border also pertain to the few yellow and white portions of the poster while also having some stability of their own.

Source: Graphic Design in Germany 1890-1945, pg.135
Design. Die Elektriczitat im Haushalt (Exhibition, Electricty in the Household) by Ludwig Hohlwein, 1924

Originally it was a piece of artwork on its own, without the sharpie, but it was turned into a conceptual piece. "Love me, suffer for me or turn me into art." It works with the original sculpture because someone could interpret the subject literally saying these words to whoever made this. The part of the sentence "Love me, suffer for me..." also makes love sound like more trouble than it's worth, so it's not surprising that the artist decided to just make the subject saying these words into this sculpture. 
Questionable as to whether it was intended or not, the "N' in 'turn' is stretched down to meet the same base as 'me', making 'me' read almost like 'men'. This could be interpreted with the artist going against what the subject was saying, making a woman into a sculpture instead. Likewise, the 'T' in 'turn' is also stretched down to meet the 'me' but it is much less noticeable and it doesn't translate into any recognizable meaning.

Source: Sharpie Art Workshop by: Timothy Goodman pg. 68

These are some images to a title sequence for the TV show True Blood, worked on by Rama Allen, Ryan Gagnier, Matthew Mulder, and Camm Rowland.. We can see the difference in 'True' and 'blood' in the fonts with 'blood' being much smaller than that of 'true'. This puts much emphasis on the thicker word, especially with the perspective, it being over a bubble, making it closer to the camera. From what I've heard 'True Blood' is about vampires, someone could have made the guess with the imagery, what with snakes being feared for their bite, like the legend of the vampire. the hands on the skin gives it a dramatic feel, dramas often times embellish the story of 'who slept with who' and also stays in line with the vampire feel, as vampires have been seen in a very sexual light in modern media. Even the original vampire story, 'Dracula', by Bram Stoker, has been interpreted as allegory for rape. The close up of the blood is important because in the show they focus on the transferring of blood and how humans become vampires.


Source: Typography 30: The Annual of the Type Directors Club, pg. 149

This psychedelic piece done by Mary Beth Edelson is an expressional piece. By taking a photograph and editing it with ink and paint, Edelson created a piece that went against the material woman stereotype to create a more naturalistic femininity. The white streaks painted on top of her dark hair radiating outwards creates much contrast and naturally brings the focus onto her face in the middle of it all. 

Source: Are You Experienced?: How Psychedelic Consciousness Transformed Modern Art, Pg #180
By: Ken Johnson