Ed Fella's 1980s vernacular

why Ed Fella? 

(born 1938) Fella is an artist, educator and graphic designer whose work has had an important influence on contemporary typography. his work is in the National Design Museum and MoMA in New York.

Fella dabbled at many different techniques, such as found typography, scribbles, brush writing, typesetting, rubdown letters, public domain clip art, stencils and more. his work made it to the right people and he was given the moniker "king of zing" because of his whimsical illustration style and sense of humor. 

so, in 1985 Fella retires from comercial design and decides to go back to school! 

he attends Cranbrook Academy of Art and graduates in 1987. at Cranbrook, Fella refined his already amazing craft and became a lecturer at CalArts, until he retired in 2013.

Fella has received the title of GRAPHIC GODFATHER by Emigre magazine.    

what's Fella's secret? 

1- deconstructing lines of copy, modifying typefaces, drawing,
2- turning Bembo into Bimbo,

3- cut & paste
4- hacking off the serifs,
5- eye-bending effects, 

April Greiman THE NEW WAVE (1980s)

512K! How could you do anything with that?

We finally got a 512k machine, the Mac Plus, which is how Design Quarterly was done. We used MacVision, which was a little beige box that hooked up to a video camera and ported right into the Mac. You could scan over an image and it was tiled out. We kept moving the camera, scanning and repeating.

April Greiman is recognized as one of the first designers to embrace computer technology as a designing tool early as 1984 and, to a lesser extent, for introducing the New Wave aesthetic to the US.  

Greiman was not only influenced by the International Style, but also by the style later to become known as New Wave, an aesthetic less reliant on the Modernist heritage. 

Greiman is credited with establishing the New Wave design style to the US during the late 70s and early 80s, along with early collaborator Jamie Obers.

Ten years later, in 1984, the Macintosh was making an unsteady entry into the design market. Most designers were skeptical of—if not completely opposed to—the idea of integrating the computer into design practice, perhaps fearing an uncertain future wherein the tactility of the hand was usurped by the mechanics of bits and bytes. 

April Greiman recognized the vast potential of this new medium. An avid fan of tools and technologies since childhood, Greiman quickly established herself as a pioneer of digital communications design. 

I don't touch film, it's all digital. All of our printing is digital. I haven't touched a piece of film for 20 years. I really haven't.

Deborah Sussman: environmental design (1980s)

The design of an environmental identity for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics marked a watershed moment in post-modern graphic design.

Sussman's background included exposure to conceptual, visual, and performances arts as well as work in the offices of Charles and Ray Eames. Sussman's company here.

the 70s: PUNK design

never mind the bullocks, 1977

punk's embrace of the void is not that obvious in this album. reid's random note-style reflects a frustration with 1970's corporate media indulgence.

* flat colors reinforce 1970s nihilism. 

* fast, messy, unpolished—whether it was an album cover, a promotional poster or a DIY zine, these tenets held steadfast.

* these principles don't mean lack of planning or knowledge of design. No. 

* each design is supposed to question the standards and defying the norms of contemporary culture.

This was an art of expediency, making use of collage, cartoon drawings, hand-lettering, rub-down lettering, ransom-note lettering, stencils,…rubber-stamping and black and white Xerox copying, as well as silkscreen and offset litho. --Rick Poynor (for Design Observer).

And to prove the point of Punk graphic design having a nihilistic persuasion, look at this Dada poster by Raul Hausmann (1919): 

in the 1970s punk style took apart the workings of clean, seamless design

what do we have here?

1- language of anger and protest.”
2- influence (dada collage),
3- the aesthetics of underground press,
4- hap-hazard aesthetics,

the slime and gore of Jan Lenica

Poster for Kanal, by Andrzej Wajda, 1957

Jan Lenica (1928-2002) is a master of the so-called "slime-and-gore" period of the Polish poster. He studied in the Faculty of Architecture at the Poznań Technical University. 

From 1963 – 1986 he lived and worked in France, then in 1987 he lived and worked in Berlin.  Lenica was a professor of graphic poster and animation at the prestigious University of Kassel, Germany in 1979. 

Lenica's art was associated with film and theater. 

Lenica worked in satirical cartoon drawing, illustration, graphic art and graphic design, exhibition design, scenography, posters, animated films. 

Lenica's touch: 

1- surreal images, 
2- dark humor, 
3- absurd, 
4- dadaist photomontage. 

Major awards: National Exhibition of Illustration, Posters and Small Format Graphics, Warsaw, 1955, first prize; Film Poster Exhibition, Warsaw 1956, Central Film Office prize; Toulouse-Lautrec Grand Prix, Versailles 1961; International Film Poster Exhibition, Karlove Vary 1962, first and third prizes, International Poster Biennale, Warsaw 1966, gold Medal; International Tourism Poster Exhibition, Catania, 1971, Gold Medal; Prix Jules Cheret, France 1985.

Wiesław Wałkuski and the "monster poster"

Wiesław Wałkuski (b. 1956) studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. He is an illustrator,painter and designer. At the end of his studies he was employed by Film Polski to produce art work and cover designs.   

During this period he worked with visual studio publishers and numerous theater groups, producing artwork and set design for production. 

Walkusky has more than 200 posters to his name and continues his work as poster designer, illustrator and painter. He lives and works in Warsaw. 

What's Wałkuski's secret?

1- shocking surreal, 
2- be cerebral, 
4- be aggressive,

Franciszek Starowieyski's calligraphic superrealism

Franciszek Starowieyski (b. 1930) studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow. He works in graphic design, drawing, theater, television scenography, murals and posters. 

He was the originator of the so-called "Theater of Drawing," a superimposition of acting with drawing backdrops.

He was the first Polish artist to have a one-man show at MoMA in New York, in 1986.

No standard typeface either, in the school of Tomaszewski. See how he favors calligraphy over typeface. Are they not related? 

Major Awards: International Biennale of the Arts, Sao Paulo 1973, award; Cannes Film Festival 1974, film poster award; International Poster Biennale, Warsaw, Silver Medal 1974, 1978; International Film Festival, Chicago, film poster Gold Plaque 1979, film poster competition Silver Hugo 1982.

What's Starowieysk's style? 

1- use of fine calligraphy,  
2- theatricality, 
3- female bodies & the skull, 
3- ornamental motifs,

Roman Cieślewicz (the metaphysical poster)

Cieślewicz (1930-1996) transformed the poster into a metaphysical medium to express ideas that would be difficult to articulate verbally. 

Cieślewicz brought a number of techniques to graphic design: 

enlarging, 

montage, 

halftones images to a scale that turns the dots into texture, 

setting up an interplay between two levels of information: the image and the dots they create. 

Cieślewic worked in poster art, book typography, photomontage and collage. 

What's Cieślewicz style?

1- Surreal, 
 2- Russian constructivist avant-garde of the 1920s + the feel of Blok (the Polish group), 
3- Romantic poetic vision + Cold rationalism, 
4- Symmetry pictorial elements.

Major awards: WAG Trepkowski Prize 1955; Film Poster Exhibition, Warsaw 1956, Central Film Office Prize; International Film Poster Exhibition, Karlove Vary 1964, first prize; National Poster Biennale, Katowice, Silver Medal 1965, Gold Medal 1967, 1971; International Poster Biennale, Warsaw, Gold Medal 1972, Bronze Medal 1984; Polish Poster Biennale, Katowice 1973, Gold Medal; Poster Biennale, Lahti 1993, second prize.

 

  

Hanna Bodnar

Bodnar is a Swedish/polish designer born in 1929. Over her career she worked with various publishers to produce at least 118 film posters between 1958 and 1980, including lots of beautifully colored children’s film posters and the rare and iconic Sleeping Beauty (below). 

Bodnar took part in many national and international exhibitions. winning the auspicious Grand Prix of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec in Versailles, 1962. 

Her  style is a mix of Disneyesque, Pop, with a bit of avant-garde. 

What's the style of Bodnar? 

1- painting + drawing = mixed media, 

2- female figure, 

3- quizzical images, 

4- lower case,

Jerzy Flisak, master of the "ugly"

Jerzy Flisak was a drawer, poster, graphic and set designer. Graduated from Jose Marti High School in Warsaw, he studied architecture at the Warsaw University of Technology.

Just compare Flisak's poster above with the original Warner Brothers movie poster (1971).

Flisak's illustrations are painted sort of naïvely, with thick brushstrokes. This way of painting is the source of their great power and surprising diversity. 

Flisak used colours with great lightness. He also applied creative typography 

He made his debut in 1950, still as a student, in the competition organized by the weekly magazine Szpilki, where he became graphic editor later.

Furthermore, his illustrations were published in Świerszczyk, Płomyczek, Polityka, weekly magazine Świat, Przeglądz Kulturalny.

Flisak' is the master of a style often described as neglectful.

1- deliberately ugly,
2- non-aesthetic,
3- painted with fat paintbrushes, done almost casually.
4- be "clumsy," 

5- HUMOR works!