Month: December 2021

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The design of a revolution: Aleksandr Ródchenko- Blog Post #5

The father of Russian Constructivism

Portrait photo of Alexander Rodchenko.

Who was Rodchenko?

Aleksandr Mikhailovich Rodchenko was a genuinely multifaceted artist: a painter, sculptor, photographer, and designer. He was born in Saint Petersburg in 1891, which means he experienced the Russian revolution in firsthand. He formed as an artist at the Kazan School of Art and the Troganov Moscow State Academy of Arts and Industry.

Battleship Potemkin poster (1925)

The Russian Avant-gardes

The Russian revolution was a very particular moment for art and design since this was the moment when the Russian avant-gardes emerged. Rodchenko was fascinated by these avant-gardes, and he was especially interested in Suprematism and Futurism, artistic movements which greatly influenced him. His main idols were Malevich and Tatlin.

  • Advertisement poster for the state airline Dobrolet (1923)
  • Advertisement poster for Mossel’ prom cafeteria (1923)

The first “Advertising agency”

In 1923, together with the poet Vladímir Mayakovski, they founded Mayakovski-Ródchenko Advertising-Constructor, which today would be considered an advertising agency. More than 150 pieces were created in this agency. Mayakovski, was in charge of writing the slogans, while Rodchenko of creating the visuals.

Please (1924)

Rusian Constructivism

Nowadays, Rodchenko is recognized as probably the greatest exponent of Russian Constructivism. In the field of design, this movement is based on the implementation of photomontage, geometric figures, symmetry, and the representative colours of the revolution: black and red. This is an art form at the service of the revolution, which mixes propaganda, art, design, engineering, and advertising, to create designs with short and very direct slogans that will influence the Russian society of the time.

Art and design are everywhere

What interests me most about this designer is to realize that art and design are everywhere, at all times in history. I like to see that the political, social and economic take place in these spaces, but the artistic part also plays an important role, even in critical moments such as wars and revolutions. I find it amazing to see art as a reflection of the society of the time; it shows us people’s ideologies, thoughts, and goals. For example, design during this time was intended to communicate messages about the revolution. However, it is not as simple as just writing the message. A good design is the one that best communicates these messages, and with this, it is possible to influence and even manipulate the reader

References:

https://es.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandr_R%C3%B3dchenko

https://www.elviejotopo.com/topoexpress/rodchenko-el-arte-y-la-revolucion/

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructivismo_(arte)

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Glenn Brown- Blog Post #5

Glenn Brown, born in 1966 in Hexham, Northumberland, is an artist whose artwork is based on appropriation. Meaning, he takes an already-existing piece from some other artists and proceeds to reinterpret it. During this reinterpretation process, he changes characteristics of the original painting, such as the colours, texture, patterns, details, among others. This way, he achieves to create a new painting. Because of this, he calls himself an “artistic Dr. Frankenstein”. However, despite making these changes from the original piece, his art has, on occasion, been labelled as plagiarism.

  • Sex, 2003

Talking about his artistic formation, Brown began his studies at the Norwich School of Art. After that, he completed a Bachelor in Fine Art at Bath College of Higher Education, followed by a Master of Arts at Goldsmith’s College, University of London. As for his style, he tends to use blue and green colours in his art. Apart from this, he gives his paintings a morbid and intriguing look. Thus, originally beautiful and innocent pieces, are transformed into a rather terrifying image.

  • Mad Love, 1991

I find it fascinating how Glenn Brown has a very distinctive and recognizable artistic style of his own, despite starting from a pre-existing painting as a base. It is interesting to see how he gives his personal touch to a painting, making us see it from a new point of view, provoking ideas, thoughts and feelings totally different from the original painting. This fact is what caught my attention the most about him; I had never seen an artist who did this kind of thing until now. I was very impressed by what he did, and I enjoyed seeing his artwork and comparing them with the original pieces. In my opinion, I even like some of his paintings more than the originals; I find them more striking and shocking.

  • Star Dust, 2009
  • Dali-Christ, 1992

References

https://glenn-brown.co.uk/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Brown_(artist)

https://www.wikiart.org/es/glenn-brown

https://www.alejandradeargos.com/index.php/es/completas/9-invitados-con-arte/556-glenn-brown

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HISTORICAL TYPE IDENTIFICATION POSTER

For this project, what made more sense for me was creating a timeline, and organizing the different categories chronologically. I also thought the best way to show the characteristics of the typefaces, was to make the example as big as possible. Therefore, I did various sketches with this concept. For me, the biggest challenge in this assignment was to find an interesting way to include all the text that was needed for the descriptions and characteristics. Because there were already going to be a lot of text elements, as well as big letters, I did not want to saturate the poster with unnecessary extra elements, I did not want it to look overwhelming. The desire of having a simple-looking poster, this reminded me a bit of the Bauhaus posters, and by looking at this kind of posters, I decided on the color palette.
It took me around five hours to complete this project, including the time for the research, and all the sketching process. To be honest I would give myself a 5/10, since I do not live the way the text is organized, and I do not think it is a very innovative or creative concept. It does not even really looks like it has five hours of work. I would have liked to spend way more time creating something better, but due to personal circumstances, I had to rush.

I do like the way the big letters look, and I think the way I included the name of each category works well. I also think the colours are fine. The top heading could have been better, but I know for sure what annoys me the most about this piece, is how messy the text looks. If I had thought about this part more carefully, I believe I could have achieved a better-looking poster.