Awfully Beautiful

Aw-fullyBeau-tiful

$Some designers just gotta.

to

Awfully Beautiful

$Some designers just gotta.

Reading

Designs

3 4

$ 11 - 1450

$ 12 - 1300

to

1-4

The 80’s

Ed Fella

Letters on Letters of Other Letters

The 80’s

M&Co

Reaganomics, meet your match

5 6

Romantic Marxism

and Bonehead Design

No one ever says Engelism, do they?

$ 7 - 1049

$ 15 - 1775

Postmodernism

Continental Philosophy, ooh la la

Intro

There’s No

Such Thing

Michael Bierut knows

$ 18 - 1899

$ 19 - 2099

The 80’s

Art Chantry

Pulp Non-Fiction

$ 21 - 2675

Notes from

the Manager

Come Back and See Us

$ 29 - 4449

Pro and Con

(fessions)

Name Your Price

$ 27 - 2849

INTROThere’s No Such Thing

8

While ‘Design’ must surely be defined against its opposite, what this dilemma

demands is a look at what’s called the vernacular. ‘Vernacular’ is a multifaceted term

requiring a certain clarification. The word is used both a typological classification and a

characterization. ‘Vernacular’ language, for instance, means a native language, but also

represents a separation from something larger. In standing for something nontraditional,

it often represents a kind of informal folklore. Defined another way, “generally, the term

vernacular is used to refer to the everyday, the quotidian, or the common in contrast to

the important, the significant, or the special.”3 Vernacular design, then, runs counter to

what those more sophisticated and in power will allow as formal and appropriate.

Proper Etiquette

What makes something proper and in good

taste? Where does professionalism end and naivete

begin, and who gets to say? Just as defining art in-

furiated as it inspired throughout the core of 20th

Century Art history, so too have similarly perplex-

ing questions arisen over ‘design’ and ‘undesign’ in

today’s history of the field. Some designers have

come to wonder- what exactly does Graphic Design

have on all the rest? “Who is to say,” asks Design

Diety Steven Heller, “that a naively hand-painted

sign is less effective than a beautifully executed

typeface?”2

Just as famed Architectural

Historian Nikolaus Pevner refered

to vernacular architecture as ‘mere

buildings,’ and famed Art Historian

Arthur Danto to readymades pre-

conversion as ‘mere real things,’

vernacular design is ‘mere design’

and simply that.4 It is the endless

parade of anonymous work that so

endlessly sieges our attention we tune

it out without the slightest effort. In

full, “Design is logically described as

vernacular when it does not involve

self-conscious development, advance

study and planning.”5

ABOVE

Cover of ‘How We Are Hungry’ by Dave Eggers.

Eggers’ writing and design is known for its colloquial wit.

“There’s no such thing

as an undesigned graphic

object anymore, and there

used to be.”

~ Michael Bierut1

10 9

Indian Ephemera used for thecover of Meera Nair’s ‘Video.’

Ever the penny pincher, Bob Gill puts his coupons to work for D&AD.

Tips for Everyday Living

As such that the vernacular

designs themselves “are often (but by

no mean always) surprisingly success-

ful both in practical and visual ways,”

vernacularism takes for its start an

uncommon viewpoint and application

of the common.6 It is in this way that

vernacularism in professional graphic

design is less style or even semi-style,

but rather more of an approach.

While vernacularism has an

experimental bent, it does so in a

particularly accessible fashion, not an

unapproachable one. Vernacularist

design derives from more public, even

democratic means, whether they be

finessed sign painting or grotesque

graffiti, from both scrawls and

structure alike.

Common Comforts in Uncommon Times

In its twisting of times and perspectives, there’s a great sense of freedom in

vernacularist work, irony and irreverence all run amuck. Heller argues that “type is

indeed the vernacular of mass communication,” so being able to appreciate typography

in all its permutations takes a certain moxie.7 Simply appreciating the everyday is taking a

kind of stand on its own, away from sensationalized media portrayals and towards a more

holistic search for inspiration and reality. In that “normally vernacular expressions convey

what social reality feels like rather than what it should be like,” there is a particularly

genuine sense of truth inside such expressions, however perturbing.8 Those designers

intoxicated by the quest for originality can’t help but find appeal in the idea that original

forms can be found anywhere.

To dig deeper into the constant process of Vernacularism, let’s put it in a historical

context, and look at the effect of postmodernism on its use.

Continental Philosophy,

Ooh La La

POSTMODERNISM

12

“Work with the grid system

means submitting to laws of

universal validity.”

~ Josef Müller-Brockmann9

ABOVE

Cover of design annual, ‘Swiss Design 2003: Dèsir Design.’

Ambiguous cropping is one feature of postmodernism.

And Sometimes Gray

“I prefer ‘both-and’ to ‘either-or,’

black and white, and sometimes gray,

to black or white.”

~ Robert Venturi10

The 1972 publication of Robert Venturi,

Denise Scott Brown and Steven Izenour’s Learning

from Las Vegas was a watershed event in the

development of postmodern architecture, and

postmodernism in general. Even despite avoiding

the epithet itself, Las Vegas saw “modernist

architecture as everywhere trying to create and

impose a singular language,” and in that sense very

much sparked a postmodern revolution.10 Up until

this point, the vernacular was almost exclusively

forced out of the professional limelight. Though

everpresent, simply hidden, client stances on using

the vernacular mightily resembled Holiday Inn’s

old slogan - “The Best Surprise Is No Surprise.”

Whereas Modernism suppressed the vernacular,

postmodernism unleashed it.

The real divide with Modernism

was not, as one might think, from

disgust, but rather dissapointment;

not from ignorance, but rather

alienation. In response to preeminent

literary critic Harry Levin’s question-

was the intent of Modernism “to have

created a conscience for a scientific

age?,” Venturi would probably smugly

sigh and say, well at least “the

Modernists almost got it right.”12

13 14

Chantry’s ads for Urban Outffiters playfully use the past to turn over a new leaf.

Walker Art Center publications share the postmodern interest in the vernacular.

Modernism Moves On

To help us deliberate on Modernism’s decline, Design Historian Jack H. Williamson

has charted the three main, positive accomplishments of postmodernism as - “a throwing

off of a severe rationalism which denied more intuitive faculties, an exploration of

symbolic and decorative values, and a recognition and utilization of the past.”13 It’s

illuminating to look within Graphic Design History for these features.

For one, it’s interesting to discover Katherine McCoy, co-chairperson of Cranbrook’s

design department for a quarter of a decade, once worked for Unimark International.

There, she too learned to perfect the Swiss International Typographic style. Headed by

Massimo Vignelli, designers at the New York Unimark office were known for wearing lab

coats to work. While it’s true she soon moved towards a more differentiated approach,

if it was not for her early experiences, McCoy’s breaking point might have been much

different. One of her initial inspirations, afterall, was Wolfgang Weingart, who, while a

renegade, was no complete rebel from standard Swiss foundations. Weingart understood

and put into action the maxim- “Rules are meant to be broken only exceptionally.”

Regarding the throwing off of ‘severe rationalism’ that predicated McCoy’s turn,

London based designer and educator Phil Baines was one of the earliest to come out

fully armed. Lashing out in an early Emigre issue, in a snippet from his thesis, he fumed,

“The Bauhaus mistook legibility for communication.”14 This idea was popularized further

by David Carson in his version, “Never mistake legibility for communication.”15 It’s easy

to blame all this aggression on young newbies attacking their elders. But all that stormed

the legibility gates was not merely hot air, no matter its veracity. Former Icograda

president Jorge Frascara put things more sensibly when he chimed in that, “Today, the

rightness of the Bauhaus’s principles has given way to doubt. One must be critical of

attitudes that, instead of being truly international, impose foreign concepts on local

culture, design education and practice. These artificially injected values interfere with and

destroy the colloquial and vernacular expressions of an exisiting culture.”16 It is indeed

perplexing that even though “Early modernists spoke of the need to design for the

masses,” once, “bits and pieces of that movement finally trickled down into everyday life,

it was seldom in a form modernists would endorse.”17 Now rather Carson was reading up

on Cultural Imperialism, I’m not so sure. Indeed, he was probably surfing. But the fact

remains- postmodern designers, however surprisingly, managed to predict an increasingly

conglomerated world. So perhaps they over-reached, and perhaps they were in a bubble

(and a dimly lit one at that?). They still managed to foresee certain Globalizing tendencies.

Considering today’s politically unstable landscape, they were wise to do so.

The Stage Is Set

As vernacular cultures are

small-scale cultures within larger

arrays, the quest of vernacular design

becomes speaking in a particular

code - that is, to speak only to

those spoken to, and to do so well.

Baines again, said “We design not

for historians to judge or condemn,

but for an audience with immediate

needs and expectations.”18 In such a

viewpoint, Bauhausian ideals of cross

the board universal communication

were rejected. Afterall, argues

Lorraine Wild, what we really need is

“design that talks to diverse groups

in specifically made visual languages

each group will understand.19

An immediate consequence of

this rejection was the freedom to use

what was formerly excised. If such

freedom was abused, at least it was

in the form of an understandable

spite. When April Greiman returned

to America after studying in Basel

with Weingart, the stage was set. The

confluence of new technology and her

Swiss professor’s expanding appeal

egged on Greiman and in-turn, other

U.S. New-Wavers.

The commercialization of

student work from Switzerland which

took place in the States increased

the potential to put the vernacular

through its own translated commodi-

fication process. And while things are

lost in such a translation, it also keeps

things in motion. In a world whose am-

biguity was for too long shoved out,

translated ambiguity would work as a

kind of perpetual ambiguity.

To summarize, in the post-

modern stratosphere, “ironic

employment of vernacular or non-

designed elements, such as hand

drawn typography, constituted a

departure from the rationality of

earlier approaches.”20 Postmodern

ideals had an enormous impact on

design ideals. Especially in places like

Cranbrook and CalArts, the work of

professors and students in Graduate

Graphic Design programs across

America changed irrevocably, setting

into motion a larger effect on the

profession on whole. One such effect,

out of many, was Vernacularism.

Reaganomics,

Meet Your Match

THE 80’S

16

“Make more

from less.”

~ Ed Fella21 Partner in Pentagram’s New

York office, Michael Bierut places Fella

in that rare and esteemed category

of graphic author. He says, “These

designers have a visual approach

that is easily identifiable and this way

of working has, in effect, become a

business card for them. It is also self-

initiated by definition.”23

How Fella begins his works

connects directly to the vernacular’s

appeal, and its spread. A big part of

his brainstorming process is travel.

ABOVE

An Ed Fella design for AIGA’s 1999 America: Cult & Culture conference.

Rallying Cry

Simply as a descriptor, it wasn’t until the

1980’s that use of ‘vernacular’ took off. Though

the term “was used rather imprecisely by graphic

designers,” it nonetheless became a kind of

rallying cry, if not the most coherent one.22 Bold,

somewhat silly, definitely unpretentious, the

vernacular became a satirical vehicle, as well as,

although less overtly, a political one. Who were the

main movers and shakers in this time period?

A Jolly Good Fella

One of the key figures in this translation was

an unlikely one. Commercial artist for 30 years,

graduate from the infamous Cranbrook at 48, and

now professor at CalArts, Ed Fella is a true original.

Interestingly enough, it is Fella’s non-commercial

projects that have won him the most acclaim, a

unique position indeed.

17 18

M&Co

Founded by Tibor Kalman, M&Co was a highly influential firm in the New York

Design scene and beyond. Playful and sometimes perplexing, the firm’s work was never

lacking in wit. M&Co had an “interest in the visual detritus of mass culture,” whereby,

“historical artifacts both high and low were recast as contemporary design attributes.”27

Note the use of ‘detritus’ here - its a telling term to use – a bit derogatory yet still an

attempt to brim with authenticity. It’s another way of saying - though now dead, these

forms once did thrive. Less altruistically, it also speaks of a trash can ripe for the plucking.

Adds Tibor himself, “we were in pursuit of the ugly, the vernacular, and using it in a new

way.”28 With a hint of hindsight humor former Tibor underling Scott Stowell concurs,

admitting that “at M&Co we would spend weeks painstakingly perfecting typography so

that it looked like it had been made by someone who had no idea what s/he was doing.”29

Hrmmm. Professional amateurism? Could that possibly work? What was the point, we

might ask?

Well, here’s what. Kalman knew his stuff. He loved to use the vernacular to create

unexpected reactions in the viewer. He also wanted to prod the profession by making

designers more aware of their own tastes, and, subsequently, their elitism. In an era of

both Thatcherism in the UK, and Reaganomics in the US, Tibor believed elitism was to

blame for all the design world’s unnecessarily decadent work. Living in Manhattan at that

time, Kalman might have met one too many Gordon Gekkos for his freeform tastes. In

taking this stand, as Steven Heller comments, “The lack of pretense in vernacular styles

served to critique the overly polished professionalism that prevailed in the mid-1980s.”30

For Tibor, all this vernacular use boiled down to more indeed than just the crude

versus the refined. At AIGA’s 1989 “Dangerous Ideas” conference in San Antonio,

Texas, Kalman took things a step further, prodding Duffy Design’s Joe Duffy into a

loud, confrontational debate. In an ad he paid for in The Wall Street Times, Duffy, a

package design specialist, had promoted graphic design to big businesses as a tool

particularly adept at seperating essentially the same packaged goods. In doing so,

Kalman provocatively suggested Duffy was promoting a kind of ‘indentured servitude.’

However well intentioned, Tibor’s taste for politics was more insatiable than his rhetoric

was successful. Afterall, Benetton was once rated the 3rd most recognizable brand in the

world, after only McDonald’s and Coca-Cola. Nonetheless, the debate was a particularly

public showcase of typically more private concerns and it was even harder from then on

to deny the power of M&Co’s instigations. While its aesthetics could be silly, the firm’s

influential clout was never in question.

Letters on America

On his wide-ranging cross-

country roadtrips, Fella documents

the vernacular signage of small

town Americana through Polaroids.

These unrestrained blips and pieces

become fodder for experimental

illustration work. Many of these

photographs can be found filling

up ‘Letters on America,’ a book

which made many designers instant

vernacular enthusiasts. Instead of

Mies van Der Roe’s “Less is More,”

or Venturi’s chiding “Less is a Bore,”

Ed Fella simply states “Make more

from less.”24 He exemplifies this in

notebook after notebook, attempting

to add a new piece a day.

“I have about 80 sketchbooks with 100

drawings in each one,” Fella rather shockingly

admits.25 Instead of client commissions, Fella blithley

tread on, following his own muse, and in his own

way. He is Graphic Design’s Fine Artist, or Fine Art’s

Graphic Designer.

Fella’s works “are scout’s maps,

showing the edge of visual language,

where it builds up and breaks down,

where it can go.”26 Sounds liberating,

doesn’t it? No wonder designers of

the world of practicality might wish

for a muse of their own. And if the

vernacular worked for Fella, why not

them? Were there any other takers on

this? Most certainly. M&Co was one of

them, and one of the best.

A utilitarian signboard becomes a post for humor in this M&Co ad for New York’s Restaurant Florent.

19 20

Art Chantry

“Raw, no-frills, collaged, fractured, distressed and recycled,” the work of Art

Chantry incoporates what he called the real American folk art - graphics produced by

untrained craftspersons.31 He espoused the belief that “graphic design is a folk art whose

best practitioners are often anonymous and whose best examples may be deceptively

rough or naive.”32 Above and beyond his fellow designers, it was Chantry who most

successfuly conversed with, converted, and championed the vernacular on his own.

Not working for a firm or huge clients provided Art’s creativity with unprecedented

leverage. Known for his temper, perhaps he needs the space anyway. Nonetheless,

Chantry was the unpretentious and delicious roadside stand to a design world’s caviar.

And even while Art Chantry’s belief that “All graphic design is ‘vernacular’,” is hopelessly

egalitarian, the very fact his work’s accepted as ‘good design’ is one of the design world’s

most open acts of acceptance.33 For a designer who doesn’t even use a computer, that in

itself is a promising thing indeed.

The most practical and likely conundrum in this kind of professionalized acceptance

boils down to that same problem it always is - the one of communication. Is the vernacular

more for the designers who use it or its audience? Just take one of Chantry’s business

card for example. Collaged from a grocery store meat department advert, does it ad-

vertise Chantry’s love of meat? No, silly author! It’s just a gag. Don’t you get it? But the

irony might be lost on some. And what about the ones who get left out? Is it the fault

of the humorless who don’t get the joke or the fault of the comedian for not delivering?

Likely a mix of both, it’s an interesting thing to consider when designing work that uses

the vernacular.

Chantry’s personal business card.

Chantry gleans much of his

visual inspiration from his collection of

vintage Pulp magazines. Sparkling in

wit, his prolific work spans everything

from clothing catalogs to punk flyers.

Pulp Non-Fiction

50’s Nostalgia sells 90’s Urban Outfitters.

and Bonehead Design

ROMANTICMARXISM

“Bad is good.”

~ David Bryne34

22

ABOVE

Promotion for French Paper by Charles Spencer Anderson

A Quiet Retrieve

I’d like now to venture a point of politics -

that those graphic designers who use the everyday

enjoy the vernacular for its how as much as for its

what. For professional designers, especially those

surrounded by similar ilk (New Yorkers, say), the

vernacular is seen as a way out. Its small stories

inscribe an escape from slavish stylistic devotion,

its small towns a quiet retrieve from the piercing

perch of the city.

The Master’s House

Outside of the vernacular’s exotic

properties, there lies within certain allied

designers a shared political interest in new forms

of decentralized representation. Now, if the

vernacular doesn’t seem inherently political, that’s

understandable, but consider this. In Latin, the

term ‘verna’ refers to a slave born in the house of

his master, and many have argued this is as much

the root of ‘vernacular’ as the Latin ‘vernaculus,’

itself meaning ‘indigeneous.’ In that first way, the

premise of the local holds but only in a separated

class delineated and opposed to another, its

superior. This association recalls a sense of

what noted literary critic Houston Baker called

“romantic Marxism” – an appeal overwhelming in

sentimental populism.35

Graphic designers are an

intrinsic part of a wider, cultural

production network, one which

has been one-sidingly deemed the

‘culture industry’ by elitist neo-

Marxist theoretician Theodor Adorno,

and even more disparingly the

‘distraction’ or ‘illusion industry’ by

neo-Marxist philosopher Wolfgang

Fritz Haug. Use of the vernacular

may stem from a certain designer

guilt over differentiating essentially

similar products in the glut of the

contemporary marketplace.

As Professor and social critic

Stuart Ewen recalls, “in a hand-to-

mouth world, material goods were

scarce; they were simple vernacular

products, made from readily available

resources, and crafted at home.”36 But

Capital grew and the sands shifted. As

Haug has even gone so far as to say,

today, “with shades and shadows the

illusion industry populates the spaces

left empty by capitalism.”37 The power

elite of Capitalism surely speaks in a

proper language, of its own choosing,

and its dissidents another. Designers

might be seeking to re-evaluate the

commodification and consumption

paradigm through approaching the

everyday, analyzing those very spaces

they supposedly so populate. Instead

of promising happiness onto users,

they look to see what those users are

doing themselves, on their own terms.

Shades and Shadows

23

Alas, the promises of earnest

aesthetic expression in unlikely

places could enlighten otherwise

bleak situations or areas. The fear of

cultural imperialism, of a McWorld, has

grown louder in recent yerars. In his

essay, “Nostalgia For The Real – Or,

Bad Is Good,” David Byrne mirrors his

former buddy Tibor when he writes

“The faster and great the spread

of globalization, neo-liberalism,

and multinational corporations, the

greater the nostalgia for that which

they replace.”38

Standardization might be

reducing the complexity of the world,

washing out what it wishes. But this is

not to say it isn’t benefitting the world

in other ways, standards of living

and spreading human rights among

them. And anyhow, while this Marxist

angle may illuminate former SDS

member Mr. Tibor, its not terribly all

encompassing for graphic designers

on whole, nor hard to attack. While

we’re surely spoiled, does a hand-

to-mouth world really sound like

something worth idealizing? The

viewpoint puts a stranglehold

on aesthetics by condemning it

as bourgeois manipulation, and

manipulation alone.

24

Of course, purposing varies, as do results. By all

means, not all politicize. By most means, many strive

not to. More aesthetically speaking, vernacular use

has much to do with the fact that, as Heller tells it,

“in a sea of Starbucks, McDonald’s, Walmart, Gap and

all the other large and small, international corporate

brands, anything that looks the least bit human-made

stands above the fray.”40

And for other designers, the

vernacular simply involves a great

deal of play – much more than could

be expected given this interpretative

subtext of oppression and revolt.

Afterall, for goodness sake, Charles

Spencer Anderson jokingly calls his

creative process “Bonehead Design.”41

In viewing all marketing across the

board as an encroachment on purer

values, it empties style of pleasure,

and ignores, in its determinist rush,

any sense of control from within its

appreciators. Former editor of the

Libertarian Reason magazine, Virginia

Postrel takes offense to this, writing,

“Aesthetic skills are real skills. While

not analytical, they nonetheless help

us to perceive and understand the

world.”39 Aesthetic value is here to

stay, Postrel writes, and not only that,

it enriches the very consumers who

have a say in their enjoyment. On top

of that, she would argue, such self-

determination is much stronger than

what Marxists will allot for.

Here To Stay?

Dockers incorporate a military vernacular aesthetic into their clothing tags.

Many critics are wary of such commodification.

25

Nonetheless, taking the vernacular politically makes good sense. The Post-9/11

curtailment of dissent is worrying and re-asserting the rule of free speech in democracy

is always a good one. Focusing on the local is a positive manifestation of that well

known slogan - Think Global. Buy Local. Let’s be prudent though. We mustn’t forget

the dependence of perspective on definition. Modernist architecture Philip Johnson

also quested for what he called ‘pure’ images of design. The vernacularist search for

community is, in its own way, a search for the universality of brotherhood not so different

from that vision spouted, however dogmatically, by Vignelli and the like. While they both

rely on a broad attempt to unite, in comparison to modernism, vernacularism includes

through meaning, instead of excluding through form.

What other concerns might we take notice of here? Unfortunately, the testy beast

of Appropriation rears its ugly head once more. Gunnar Swanson rightfully wonders-

why is it that, “when designers appropriate forms from non-designers/non-artists, it is

called “recognition of the vernacular””?42 Isn’t there some co-option involved, perhaps

even in a snobbish fashion? How about, as Swanson answers himself, it is because since

“graphic designers do not know the authors we pretend they do not exist.”43 Almost

always anoymous, vernacular authors are by their very nature required to be reticent. If

the work’s ‘bad’ afterall, why would one want to take credit? But that anonymity is also

an ability to ignorantly delineate from higher standards. Keeping these standards is of

utmost importance. Acknowledging difference is as well. This doesn’t mean vernacularist

appropriation should be as unfettered as vernacular works themselves. While some

vernacular authors probably want to keep their way of speaking to themselves, probably

all are inaccessible for interviews or requests. And so, since tracking down is an

impossible task, designers just need to be careful of what they take and how. Questions of

authorship notwithstanding, in the wrong hands, applying a historical surface treatment

in lieu of historical context could be mightily detrimental. Robin Kinross even worries that

“the fad for vernacular bad taste may be an attempt by designers to survive by blending

into the landscape, chameleon-like.”44 The opposite extreme is that designers will want a

renaissance in anonymous forms only as long as they are signed, sealed and delivered on

their own terms, and, of couse, they still get famous for it. Fortunately for more than the

both of us, neither Kinross’ extremity nor my own is highly likely, not in any acceptable

sense at least.

Think Global, Design Local

Applied to everyday landscape, local design can bring global issues towards a broader dialogue.

Now that I’ve charted out

some potential problems, let’s look

onto some positive examples. The

conversion of draftsmen created

and hand-painted and typography

into digitized forms is the most

judicious example of Vernacularist

conversion. While maybe connected

most prominently to eccentricity,

vernacularist design doesn’t always

have to be so flamboyant. Take, for

instance, some of Hoefler & Frere-

Jones’ typefaces. With an interest in

what goes unseen, Frere-Jones first

utilized the vernacular in his Garage

Gothic font, one based on the ultimate

in banality- utilitarian parking garage

tickets. He followed that with his

Interstate designs, based on American

Highway signs.

I Still Want To Believe

26

Based on New York signage, Gotham is inscribed with the place.

Most recently, Frere-Jones

released his Gotham design, the

cream of the crop. Just as modernist

skyscrapers became a kind of bread

and butter of the metropolis, so too

is Gotham now part of the corporate

vernacular, prominently and widely

used throughout the Manhattan of

its namesake and creation. Originally

designed for GQ magazine, and

based on New York’s urban signage,

Gotham speaks to how the vernacular

can define a place. The face is mere

lettering from mere buildings, but also

so much more.

In a similar vein, another

vernacular font of interest is Christian

Schwartz’s’s Los Feliz, built around

signage from within the greater Los

Angeles are. Fonts are not concepts

in and of themselves, but just as Los

Feliz feels LA, Gotham feels NY. And

without their vernacular origins, could

such roots be inscribed?

Putting Some Con back

into the Profession

PRO CON

“Vernacular architecture is

generally a contradiction,

an oxymoron.”

~ James D. Kornwolf45

&(FESSIONS)

ABOVE

Promotion for Spur Design

28

Architectural Historian James D. Kornwolf has

argued that “vernacular architecture is generally

a contradiction, an oxymoron.”45 Thought of this

way, can vernacularism really ever hope to be

professionalized within the disciplines of design?

Perhaps it can’t, but that may be for the best.

Letting the Sunshine In

As soon as the local becomes

universalized, it becomes the next

status quo, one exodus of status after

another. But just as naive typography

isn’t fine, and a cloudbust isn’t art,

that doesn’t restrict our capacity to

enjoy either one of them aesthetically.

On a limited scale, in limited ways,

representation can put the everyday

into a new perspective. Let’s let it.

NOTESFROMTHEMANAGER

“Come Back and See Us.”

ABOVE

Cover for the Nation by Scott Stowell’s Open studio

Quality Assurred

30

Glossary

Bonehead Design

Charles Spencer Anderson’s tongue-in-cheek term for his design process.

Bourgeois

“By bourgeoisie is meant the class of modern capitalists, owners of the means of social

production and the employers of wage labor.”

(source: The Communist Manifesto)

Colloquial

an informal expression, one not used in formal speech or writing.

Commodification

the transformation of relationships, formerly untainted by commerce,

into commercial relationships, relationships of buying and selling.

Continental Philosophy

Continental philosophy is a general term for several related philosophical traditions that

originated in continental Europe from the nineteenth century onward, in contrast with

Anglo-American analytic philosophy.

Decentralized

withdrawn from a center or place of concentration; especially having power or function

dispersed from a central to local authorities.

Determinism

the philosophical conception which claims that every physical event, including human

cognition and action, is causally determined by an unbroken chain of prior occurrences.

No mysterious miracles or totally random events occur.

Detritus

dead or decaying organic matter.

Dissident

a person who actively opposes an established opinion, policy, or structure.

Elitism

the attitude that society should be governed by an elite group of individuals.

Globalization

a set of processes leading to the integration of economic, cultural, political, and social

systems across geographical boundaries.

32

Notes

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

Virginia Postrel, The Substance of Style: how the rise of aesthetic value is remaking

commerce, culture, and consciousness (New York: Pantheon, 2003), p. 17.

Juan Carlos Mena and Oscar Reyes, Sensacional! Mexican Street Graphics (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2002), p. 22.

James Jasinski, Sourcebook on Rhetoric

(Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2001), p. 599.

“Indeed, these readymades, as he termed them, had been mere real things

before they became works of art by Duchamp, who after all did not make the combs or

snow shovels- what would be the point of that?- though he made the works of art.”

Arthur Coleman Danto, Connections to the World

(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997), p. 8.

“What distinguishes works of architecture from mere buildings is that they are designed

with a view to aesthetic appeal.”

Nikolaus Pevsner, An Outline of European Architecture

(Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1958), p. 23.

John F. Pile, Design: Purpose, Form, and Meaning

(Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1979), p. 40.

Ibid., p. 40.

Steven Heller and Philip B. Meggs, editors, Texts on Type: Critical Writings on Typography

(New York: Allworth Press, 2001), p. vi.

John Bodnar, Remaking America: Public Memory, Commemoration, and Patriotism

in the Twentieth Century (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993), p. 14.

Josef Müller-Brockmann, “Grid and Design Philosophy,” Texts on Type:

Critical Writings on Typography (New York: Allworth Press, 2001), p. 198.

Robert Venturi, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture

(New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1966), p. 16.

John Docker, Postmodernism and Popular Culture: A Cultural History

(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), p. 83.

31

Glossary

Indentured Servitude

an unfree labourer under contract to work for another person,

often without any pay, but in exchange for other essentials.

Legibility

the ease with which type characters can be read.

Moxie

fortitude and determination.

Neo-liberalism

refers to a political-economic philosophy that de-emphasizes

or rejects government intervention in the domestic economy.

Pretense

pretending with intention to deceive.

Pulp

inexpensive fiction magazines widely published from the 1920s through the 1950s.

Utilitarian

having a useful function.

33

Notes

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

Harry Levin quote:

Frank C. Lu, Modernism: Critical Concepts in Literary and Cultural Studies

(London: Routledge, 2002), p. 303.

Robert Venturi quote:

Jon Lang, Urban Design: The American Experience

(New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1994), p. xi.

Jack H Williamson, “The Grid: History, Use, and Meaning,” in Design Discourse:

History, Theory, Criticism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989), p. 186.

Gerard Unger, “Legible?,” Emigre 65 (2003), p. 100.

Elizabeth Dye, “Will Graphic Design Save Fashion?...(Or Kill It?),”

Williamette Week (Williamette Week Online: 29 May 2002),

<http://198.107.45.79/story.php?story=2803>.

Jorge Frascara, User-Centered Graphic Design

(London: Taylor & Francis, 1997), p. 130.

Brent C. Brolin, Architectural Ornament: Banishment and Return

(New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2000), p. 263.

Laurel Harper, Radical Graphics/Graphic Radicals

(San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1999), p. 14.

Rick Poynor, “Building Bridges Between Theory and Practice,” in Looking Closer 2:

Critical Writings on Graphic Design (New York: Allworth Press, 1997), p. 67.

Russell Bestley and Ian Noble, Visual Research: An Introduction to Research

Methodologies in Graphic Design (London: AVA Books, 2005), p. 188.

Sean Adams and Noreen Morioka, Logo Design Workbook: A Hands-On Guide

to Creating Logos (Gloucester, Massachusetts: Rockport Publishers, 2004), p. 28.

Steven Heller, Design Humor: The Art of Graphic Wit

(New York: Watson-Guptill, 2002), p. 78.

Jane Austin, Graphic Originals: Designers Who Work Beyond the Brief

(East Sussex: RotoVision, 2003), p. 141.

34

Notes

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

32

33

34

35

36

Sean Adams and Noreen Morioka, Logo Design Workbook: A Hands-On Guide

to Creating Logos (Gloucester, Massachusetts: Rockport Publishers, 2004), p. 28.

Sarah Dougher and Plazm Media, 100 Habits of Successful Graphic Designers:

Insider Secrets from Top Designers on Working Smart and Staying Creative

(Gloucester, Massachusetts: Rockport Publishers, 2003), p. 98.

Lewis Blackwell, “Character Witness,” Creative Review 20.8 (February 2005), p. 56.

Steven Heller and Louise Fili. Typology: Type Design from the Victorian Era

to the Digital Age (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1999), p. 174.

Michael Bierut and Peter Hall, eds, Tibor Kalman: Perverse Optimist,

(New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1998), p. 34.

Michael Bierut, “Authenticity: A User’s Guide,” Design Observer:

writings about design & culture (Design Observer: 8 February 2005),

<http://www.designobserver.com/archives/000281.html>.

Steven Heller and Christine Thompson, Letterforms: The Evolution of Hand-Drawn,

Humorous, Vernacular, and Experimental Type (New York: Watson-Guptill, 2000), p. 30.

AIGA Orlando, “Art Chantry,” AIGA Orlando (AIGA Orlando: 20 October 2004),

<http://orlando.aiga.org/events/oct20-2004.htm>.

Julie Lasky, “The Cult of Subcultures,” AIGA New York (AIGA New York: 2002),

<http://aigany.org/ideas/features/chantry.html>.

Jessica Helfand, “Our Bodies, Our Fonts,” Design Observer:

writings about design & culture (Design Observer: 15 January 2006),



Houston A. Baker, Blues, Ideology and Afro-American Literature: A Vernacular Theory

(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987), p. 67.

Stuart Ewen, All Consuming Images: The Politics of Style in Contemporary Culture

(New York: Basic Books, 1988), p. 30.

35

Notes

37

38

39

40

41

42

43

44

45

Wolfgang Fritz Haug, A Critique of Commodity Aesthetics: Appearance, Sexuality and

Advertising in Capitalist Society (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1986),

p. 121.


Virginia Postrel, The Substance of Style: how the rise of aesthetic value is remaking

commerce, culture, and consciousness (New York: Pantheon, 2003), p. 170.


Steven Heller, “Through the Past Knowingly?,” AIGA (AIGA: 10 May 2005),

<http://journal.aiga.org/content.cfm?ContentAlias=_getfullarticle&aid=1100943>.

Gunnar Swanson, “What’s Wrong with Plagiarism?,” in Citizen Designer: Perspectives on

Design Responsibility (New York: Allworth Press, 2003), p. 150.

Ibid., p. 150.

Kenneth Fitzgerald, “I Come To Bury Graphic Design, Not To Praise It,”

Emigre 66 (2003), p. 35.

James D. Kornwolf, Architecture and Town Planning in Colonial North America Volume 1

(Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002), p. 10.

36

Image Notes

Promotionals for Fervor Creative

(www.fervorcreative.com)

Non-Format’s book cover for

Sean Wilsey’s “Oh the Glory of It All”

(www.non-format.com)

Poster by Ed Fella

Handwritten Flowers by

Stefan Sagmeister

Poster by Paula Scher

1-2

3

4

5-6

7

1

2

3

6

4

5

7

37 38

Works Cited

Dye, Elizabeth. “Will Graphic Design Save Fashion?...(Or Kill It?).”

Williamette Week Online. 29 May 2002. Williamette Week. 20 January 2006.

<http://198.107.45.79/story.php?story=2803>.

Ewen, Stuart. All Consuming Images: The Politics of Style in Contemporary Culture.

New York: Basic Books, 1988.

Fitzgerald, Kenneth. “I Come To Bury Graphic Design, Not To Praise It.”

Emigre 66 (2003): 29 - 42.

Frascara, Jorge. User-Centered Graphic Design.

London: Taylor & Francis, 1997.

Harper, Laurel. Radical Graphics/Graphic Radicals.

San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1999.

Haug, Wolfgang Fritz. A Critique of Commodity Aesthetics: Appearance, Sexuality

and Advertising in Capitalist Society. Trans. R. Bock. Minneapolis, MN: University of

Minnesota Press, 1986.

Helfand, Jessica. “Our Bodies, Our Fonts.” Design Observer: writings about design

& culture. 21 February 2005. Design Observer. 15 January 2006. <http://www.

designobserver.com/archives/000281.html>.

Heller, Steven. Design Humor: The Art of Graphic Wit.

New York: Watson-Guptill, 2002.

---. “Through the Past Knowingly?” AIGA - Through the Past Knowingly? 10 May 2005. AIGA. 19 January 2006. <http://journal.aiga.org/content.cfm?

ContentAlias=_getfullarticle&aid=1100943>

Heller, Steven and Louise Fili. Typology: Type Design from the Victorian Era

to the Digital Age. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1999.

Heller, Steven and Philip B. Meggs, editors. Texts on Type:

Critical Writings on Typography. New York: Allworth Press, 2001.

Works Cited

Adams, Sean and Noreen Morioka. Logo Design Workbook: A Hands-On Guide to

Creating Logos. Gloucester, Massachusetts: Rockport Publishers, 2004.

AIGA Orlando. “Art Chantry.” AIGA Orlando. 20 October 2004. AIGA Orlando.

17 January 2006. <http://orlando.aiga.org/events/oct20-2004.htm>.

Austin, Jane. Graphic Originals: Designers Who Work Beyond the Brief.

East Sussex: RotoVision, 2003.

Baker, Houston A. Blues, Ideology and Afro-American Literature: A Vernacular Theory.

Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987.

Bestley, Russell and Ian Noble. Visual Research: An Introduction to Research

Methodologies in Graphic Design. London: AVA Books, 2005.

Bierut, Michael. “Authenticity: A User’s Guide.” Design Observer: writings about

design & culture. 8 February 2005. Design Observer. 20 January 2006.


Bierut, Michael and Peter Hall, eds. Tibor Kalman: Perverse Optimist.

New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1998.

Blackwell, Lewis. “Character Witness.” Creative Review 20.8 (February 2005): 53-56.

Bodnar, John. Remaking America: Public Memory, Commemoration, and Patriotism

in the Twentieth Century. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993.

Brolin, Brent C. Architectural Ornament: Banishment and Return.

New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2000.

Docker, John. Postmodernism and Popular Culture: A Cultural History.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.

Dougher, Sarah and Plazm Media. 100 Habits of Successful Graphic Designers:

Insider Secrets from Top Designers on Working Smart and Staying Creative.

Gloucester, Massachusetts: Rockport Publishers, 2003.

39 40

Works Cited

Swanson, Gunnar. “What’s Wrong with Plagiarism?” Citizen Designer: Perspectives on

Design Responsibility. Heller, Steven and Veronique Vienne, eds. New York: Allworth

Press, 2003. 147 - 158.

Unger, Gerard. “Legible?” Emigre 65 (2003): 100 - 111.

Venturi, Robert. Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture.

New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1966.

Williamson, Jack H. “The Grid: History, Use, and Meaning.” Design Discourse: History,

Theory, Criticism. Margolin, Victor, ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989.

171 - 186.

Works Cited

Heller, Steven and Christine Thompson. Letterforms: The Evolution of Hand-Drawn,

Humorous, Vernacular, and Experimental Type. New York: Watson-Guptill, 2000.

Jasinski, James. Sourcebook on Rhetoric. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2001.

Kornwolf, James D. Architecture and Town Planning in Colonial North America. Volume 1.

Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002.

Lang, Jon. Urban Design: The American Experience.

New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1994.

Lasky, Julie. “The Cult of Subcultures.” AIGA Online. 2002. AIGA New York.

20 January 2006. <http://aigany.org/ideas/features/chantry.html>.

Lu, Frank C. Modernism: Critical Concepts in Literary and Cultural Studies.

London: Routledge, 2002.

Mena, Juan Carlos and Oscar Reyes. Sensacional! Mexican Street Graphics.

New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2002.

Müller-Brockmann, Josef. “Grid and Design Philosophy.” Texts on Type: Critical Writings

on Typography. Heller, Steven and Philip B. Meggs, eds. New York: Allworth Press, 2001.

198-200.

Pile, John F. Design: Purpose, Form, and Meaning.

Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1979.

Poynor, Rick. “Building Bridges Between Theory and Practice.” Bierut, Michael, William

Drenttel, Steven Heller, and D.K. Holland, editors. Looking Closer 2: Critical Writings on

Graphic Design. New York: Allworth Press, 1997. 65-67.

Postrel, Virginia. The Substance of Style: how the rise of aesthetic value is remaking

commerce, culture, and consciousness. New York: Pantheon, 2003.

41 42

TIMELINE

Dumbar

visits Cranbrook

1985

Ed Fella graduates

Cranbrook at 48

1987

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Micro processor

development rising

1980

New Wave continues

(Greiman, Hiebert, Scher)

1981

Emigré founded

1982

Meggs’ A History of

Graphic Design debuts

1983

Brody experiments in

The Face

1984

Zuzana Licko designs

the Matrix Typeface

1986

MoMa’s Deconstructivist

Architecture exhibition

1988

Mildred Friedman

retires at Walker

1989

Ronald Reagan

easily elected

1980

Iran frees 52 American

hostages after 444 days

1981

Princess Grace Kelly

is killed

1982

Marines HQ in Beirut

struck in bombing

1983

Reagan re-elected

over Mondale

1984

Gorbachev becomes

Soviet leader

1985

Space Shuttle

Challenger explodes

1986

Black Monday

stock market crash

1987

George Bush elected

President over Dukakis

1988

Uprising in

Tiananmen Square

1989

WORLD HISTORY

Awfully Beautiful

Design

Transcript of Awfully Beautiful