Zero Waste – Zero Chance: The Poverty Line Divides Them

Despite miniscule marketing efforts and controversial corporate maneuvers, Pabst Blue Ribbon continues to appeal to the blue-collar population. Though because of the controversy with the Miller brand as “virtual brewer” , the rural blue-collar worker changed to the urban sect. “(Actually, the brand’s growth is occurring in urban centers; it’s losing share in the rural Midwest.) And you could argue that no-benefits line cooks, bike messengers and temps add up to new blue-collar equivalents. ” (pg 3) The urbanization of its popularity has also made the beer extremely popular with the hipsters, punks and college students. Not only is it cheap, it is anti-bougie, the anti-aesthetic which becomes an aesthetic. It is sustaining its popularity because it is a brand created by and for themselves. “It’s very much a politics of individual freedom, of rejecting overt pitches and elite tastes. Pabst did not set out to fill that niche, but it’s well positioned to do so. Turns out that P.B.R. actually does have an image, but it’s an image that its consumer base can hardly complain about, because they’re the ones who created it. That’s what makes it perfect.” (pg 3)

This is an interesting approach to marketing design. I appreciate the quiet brands, the not so in-your-face pusher of wares. It is a bold, economic choice to remain genuine with a feel of “old neighborhood”.

Collective Misnomer – Film Screening
“the way things are. the way they are going to be. part three.”
January 25, 2019

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This screening featured 7 films/video-art with visual and auditory examples of the bleak, dystopic realities of our present situation and impending future on this planet. While trying to concentrate on the projector screen tucked into the small, book-lined space of the Dikeou Pop-Up space at East Colfax and Grant, I, my teenage daughter and her friend, sat awestruck. I was warned ahead of time at how this was not going to be a cheery, Disney sing-along type of screening; however, I was not prepared for just how disturbing yet enlightening the films would be.  Using film theory and contemporary editing techniques, film artists critique human existence and relationships with each other and the planet.

Loud, dissonant sounds pealed from the speakers as flashing words assaulted my vision with harsh truths. The persistent din so overwhelming that one viewer covered her ears in attempt to stifle the pandemonium. Parallel scenes of Mars’ desolate landscapes collaged together with sights of continued destruction of Earth’s surface; a warning of an imminent future if humans continue to alter the delicate synergy of nature. Society, a fascist president, a lack empathy, politics, and the environment are just a few of the overarching topics canvassed. It’s a shame that these pertinent and necessary discourses have not been seen by larger audiences.

Films and artists featured:

1. Danielle Davis & Ryan Maxey, Chocolate Mountain Metal, 2016.
2. John Wilson, The Road to Magnasanti, 2017.
3. Emily Vey Duke & Cooper Battersby, Bad Ideas for Paradise, 2001.
4. Kelly Sears, After Fall, 2018.
5. Christina Battle, Water Once Ruled, 2018.
6. James Connolly, Aesthetic Catharsis in the Era of American Fascists, 2017.
7. Michael Mitro, The Undiscovered Self, 2015.
   
   

Design Brief:

Current news headline:

“A New Green Deal is Technologically Possible. Its Political Prospects Are Another Question.” by Lisa Friedman and Trip Gabriel. New York Times,
21 February 2019.

Historically Significant Designer: A M Cassandre
“He was the first poster artist to be honored with a one-man show at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 1936.”
https://www.internationalposter.com/subject-primers/am-cassandre-posters/

Visual Elements, typeface typestyle, color palette, layout; genre?

An easily identifiable artist in an Art Deco style of poster art. Abstract geometric graphic quality in a lithographic printmaking style with flat blocks of color broken up with instances of gradient to bring depth to the flatness of the space. He played with typography around the edges of the frame which activated the border space.

Relevant themes and concepts?

His posters were typically advertisements depicting modern life in the early twentieth century. His designs highlighted the modernity of the machinery of the age, with an emphasis on leisure activities, to include modes of travel and fine dining.

Connections between the designer and my choice of headline?

I’d like to highlight the modern technology of today in the renewable-green energy market while juxtaposing it with images of political iconography. Since typography was so important in his posters, I’d like to pay homage to him via the typeface that connotes the similarities of the technological advances at both ends of the century’s time that spans his designs and mine.

It is seemingly obvious in our age of instant-gratification due to the advent of multitudes of technology, that there be a relative ease of creating a design publication/document with ready-available typography. However, what is taken for granted is all the work that went into initially creating that typeface. No longer is there a need for the large machinery, metal or abundance of space. The design can be created right at the kitchen table so -to-speak. The few type-designers that exist today, can profit off of their new typefaces via websites such as myfonts.com. Where designers, lay and skilled can purchase “unique” types to express their “individual” style without having to do the work of designing their own type, nor dealing directly with a type-designer.

The similarities between artist and designer are many; yet the differences are few. Both disciplines rely heavily upon the fundamental elements of visual art; point, line, hierarchy of scale, balance, and rhythm, just to name a few. These elements are important both in creating an aesthetically approachable composition. Art for lack of a better word, directs design; and obversely, design can direct art. The primary difference between the two is that the fine artist is working from concepts that are personal to their own creative endeavors; while the designer is commercially invested in creating the composition that is directly integrated in the purpose/intent and creative vision of the client.