Post-Modern Graphic Design example #19 (6/22)

 

This design example by David Carson was for a book he published about his own graphic design pieces, typography, layouts, etc. This is a much older looking postmodern examples as it lacks the flashy colors of some of the other examples we have seen. Although with the overlapping of text, nontraditional morphed text, the photoshopped images, and the unconventional typeface he used, it screams postmodernism. He also shows a tilted axis in one spot of his cover design, on the right before the blue tinted photo joins with the off-white color. He uses a subtle texture in the off-white color and some thin line illustrations on that layer as well, which matches the postmodern features. When I look at the last example by Nikita Zezulin on Behance, these are two vastly different approaches at postmodern design. The last example showed a ton of text on a tilted axis, intertwining the text into the photo, and have a lot of scale variation within the type. This example however focuses on the classics of postmodernism such as overlapping text over the photos, using different fonts, morphing photos, and one feature in particular that the I have not seen very much of: the unconventional style of the title text. This text almost looks as if it is smudged, and ties in great with the watercolor paper-like texture that the off-white color has. This is a very important aspect in this design because it shows Carsons skills in experimental typography tying into the postmodern features that he is capable of producing. This example is also very classy looking compared to the flashy examples I have been seeing while researching. I really think the classical look is important because even though postmodernism is known for its chaotic and flashy composition, it is also known for breaking the rules of art. This piece even breaks the postmodern rules by not using all of the well-known characteristics of postmodernism such as the vivid colors. Instead, he lets the main features of postmodernism such as the overlapping, tilted axis, and even shows a bit of a collage like style with the two photos, something that isn't as common for this type of deliverable (book cover), which makes this even more of an untraditional piece.

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Carson, D. (1995). The End of Print. Goodreads. The End of Print: The Graphic Design of David Carson by Lewis Blackwell | Goodreads