Takashi Murakami

Watching the movie on Crumb reminded me of Takashi Murakami, a Japanese artist that has some rather perverted work.  Not all of Murakami’s work is perverted but two statues he made came to my mind while viewing some of Crumb’s cartoons.  Takashi Murakami’s work can’t be pinned down to any specific media. He has done paintings, sculptures, large inflatable balloons, performance art, and even done some work for Louis Vuitton in the fashion industry. One thing that is pretty consistent in his work however, is that he likes to fuse both “high” and “low” art together in his works which has led some to compare him to Andy Warhol.

            Murakami is also heavily influenced by the anime and manga culture of Japan which is evident from any of his works. He likes the anime/manga style because he believes it is a good reflection of modern day Japan. He has a signature character that is named Mr. DOB that often reappears in his works and this character is so popular it has even been made into t-shirts, cell phone straps, and various other goods. I found this quote by Murakami about what the driving force behind his works, “To become a living example of the potential of art.” Murakami now has his own company called Kaikai Kiki which is an organization of artists that produce art in a variety of fields. Kaikai Kiki has offices in both Japan and the US and the two offices work opposite hours making Kaikai Kiki a company that’s always open.

Frank Lloyd Wright

 

I think in the movie about Frank Ghrey they mentioned Frank Lloyd Wright and although I know he’s been mentioned in multiple video’s I don’t remember us watching a video on him so I’ll do this post on Frank Lloyd Wright. Frank Lloyd Wright is one of the most well known American architects.  When I was looking at colleges down here in Florida I visited Florida Southern College which boasts a lot of work done by Wright so I’ve seen some of his work firsthand.  Most notably of the work I saw was his waterdome which is, as the name suggests, is a giant dome of water created by many water jets that blast the water into the air. The other big thing I remember was a kind of walkway with a roof that he built that ran between most of the buildings. It was rather humorous to me because Wright was apparently a rather short man and when he built the walkway he did not take taller heights into much account which forced all of the taller people to stoop to walk underneath it. I’ve always found it funny that such a well known and brilliant architect wouldn’t take something like height into account when designing a structure.

                Danforth Chapel was another building I got to see done by Wright. It was a beautiful building from the outside but even better once you got in. Behind the pulpit was a large triangular area that stuck out from the building. This area was made of stained glass and was absolutely gorgeous when the sun hit it. He also did Annie Pfeiffer Chapel which was my favorite building that I saw when I was there. The building itself had an odd shape so it was interesting from when I first saw it but the real beauty was when you got up close. All along the walls were small squares of different colored stained glass making the inside of this building into a sort of giant kaleidoscope.  Again, I can say it was beautiful like I did for the last chapel but for either of them word’s can’t really do what you get to see justice.

Propaganda Art

The title reads “the angry one hundred million will defeat America and England.”

Watching Persepolis made me think of propaganda art. The movie isn’t really propaganda itself but as it deals with a revolution I’m sure there was propaganda art used during that time. After all, propaganda art is used for pretty much everything.  Propaganda art is used to influence the viewer by making them feel a certain way. Often this art is very selective in what it presents and is very biased and one sided though that is really to be expected since the goal is to get the viewer to agree with the art’s point of view.  As it is fresh in my mind from my timeline I’ll start with some propaganda manga that was used during WWII. During WWII the Japanese government created the Shin Nippon Mangaka Kyokai, The New Cartoonists Association of Japan, to create manga that painted the Japanese war effort in a positive light. The manga depicted such things as glorifying the Japanese soldiers and demonizing the enemy as well as making humorous comics on the inventiveness of the Japanese civilians to create useful things out of junk as a way to deal with the shortages. The Japanese also made comics specifically for the Allied Nations. They made manga showing the Japanese destroying the Allies and telling them to give up the fight because it was hopeless. This all was a tactic to undermine the morale of the Allied Nations.

Funnily enough, the Allies used manga as propaganda as well. Taro Yashima was a Japanese citizen who disagreed with the war and so he left Japan and moved to the US where he started to produce propaganda manga for the Allies.  Most notably is his comic Unganaizo which depicted the story of a peasant that became a soldier and died fighting for corrupt leaders. This comic was found rather often on the bodies of Japanese soldiers which shows the power it had to affect people. This comic had enough influence on the Japanese that they found it important enough to hold on to if they got a copy. If the story did not strike a cord in the hearts of the Japanese soldiers they would have simply thrown the comic away if they got a hold of it and because it did strike a cord with many of them it undermined their morale which was the point of this piece of propaganda art. I was going to discuss a few more pieces of propaganda art but as I’m way over the word count already I guess I should stop.

ADAA

Adobe has recently handed out its annual design achievement awards. This is the 10^th year that they have given these awards out to students who combine the creative arts with technology.  This is a worldwide competition and to date 52 countries have participated in this so far. For these awards Abode works in conjunction with Icograda which is the International Council of Graphic Design Associations. The student submitted designs are judged by a panel of judges made up of international design experts. There were twelve winners selected from different categories such interactive media, film and motion, and traditional media. The judges look for originality, how well the designed piece meets communication requirements, and how well the participants used Adobe’s products to design the pieces. The prizes for these awards are very attractive for any student because they include cash, Adobe products, and even mentorships for a year with an Icograda design leader. I only looked through some of the winners but I found all their projects interesting in one way or another. Though that doesn’t mean I actually liked all the projects I saw. I did think it was funny though that out of the winners I looked through almost all of them were German.

Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto

The movie about the guy who had all these people design furniture for him, his name escapes me right now, made me curious to look up some other furniture designers. I found this man interesting although he was known for his buildings more than his furniture. Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto, who is sometimes known as the father or Nordic modernism, was an architect and designer that was born in Finland. He was an architecture student at the Helsinki Polytechnic Institute and graduated from there in 1921. His major debut as an architect came when he designed the Municipal Library at Viipuri, Russia. This building showcased his ideals in the humanitarian approach to architecture with involved using a lot of natural materials that were displayed inside the building as well as a large use of warm colors. In 1932 he created his very first chair which was made of a combination of metal and wood. Shortly after this he started producing furniture that was made up entirely of wood. Aalto’s designs were very well done and also they were very easy to mass produce which is always something companies are looking for. Aalto also designed Finland’s pavilion at the 1939 World’s Fair. This brought him a lot of new attention from people outside of Finland and Frank Lloyd Wright even called it “A work of genius.” It doesn’t surprise me that Frank Lloyd Wright would love Aalto’s work as he always incorporated the landscape into his designs for buildings which Wright did himself at times. In an effort to enhance his buildings, Aalto often designed even the furniture that went inside his buildings to give a better feel to the building and a better flow to the space. He was always very concerned with how well each component worked with each other as well as how it worked as its individual function.

Hayao Miyazaki

There was an animated part to Kamikaze Girls so I’m using that to justify writing about one of my favorite animators. Hayao Miyazaki is one of the greatest animation directors of our time. His success has lead people to see him as Japan’s Walt Disney. He has directed many films such as Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, and many many more. His most recent film was Ponyo which was released in 2008. Many of Miyazaki’s films have won awards and many of them also have similar themes and other elements in common with each other. He often has nature being a spirit or spirits and the pollution of nature by man is something he likes to show in his films. He also typically has both a male and female main character and he likes to have flying come into play somehow. He also has a unique visual style because of his love for using watercolors in the production of the animation cells. Miyazaki started off working for Toei Animation and then ened up working in a few other studio’s until he started his own 1985, Studio Ghibli. All of Miyazaki’s films are released in the United States and most of them are put out under the Disney logo over here. Even in the modern age where most animators use computer animation Miyazaki has totally dissolved Studio Ghibli’s computer animation department because he believes that one of the fundamentals of animation is to have it be hand drawn.

Comic Sans

One of my favorite typefaces is Comic Sans. It has a nice fun feel to it and it can be easily read in most cases because of the weight of the typeface. Comic Sans was created by Vincent Connare. It was later released in 1994 by the Macintosh Corporation. It was designed to mimic the typefaces that were used in popular comic books which is where it got its name from. It was originally used on the covers of software packages designed for little kids. The typeface quickly became popular and was used in software such as Windows 95 and Internet Explorer.

Comic Sans became so widely used that a “Ban Comic Sans” movement was started by two graphic designers. The movement stated that the font should be used only in instances where a fun and childlike typeface should be used. People were using the font for serious things such as it being used in corporations and serious messages like exit signs and museums which is what the movement opposed. As time went by the movement gradually gained support. Even Vincent Connare has joined in support of the movement. A rather funny quote by Vincent Connare I found is, “If you love it [Comic Sans] you don’t know much about typography. If you hate it, you really don’t know much about typography either and you should get another hobby.” Mr. Connare also states that when he created Comic Sans he never intended it to be a font to be released to the public. He only intended it to be used in MS Bob.

Joker Poster

In the interview with Shepard Fairey a student mentioned the “Joker Poster” and I wasn’t familiar with it so I looked it up. The joker poster is a picture of Barack Obama that is altered to make him look like the Joker from the popular movie “The Dark Knight”. It also has the word “Socialism” written across the bottom. This poster has a rather odd source of origin as the image was created by Firas Alkhateeb, a 20 year old college student. He uploaded the image onto the internet and from there someone took the image and added the word “Socialism” at the bottom and then began spreading this new image as a poster in L.A. Since its introduction to the streets this poster has got the attention of the media over and over again and has spread all over the world. One of the most interesting things I read while researching this was the fact that President Obama personally wrote to Shepard Fairey thanking him for putting up the Obama Hope posters which were a form of street art but for these Joker poster’s the president is hysterically demanding that arrests be made. While this doesn’t surprise me it does make me laugh at the fact that street art is ok as long as it’s supporting him. 

The Joker poster has even been used by some people in anti-Obama protests with the phrase “Why so socialist?” as a play on the famous line from the movie “Why so serious?” that was said by the Joker. From all that I’ve read many agree that the actual message and thought process behind this poster is rather poor. Just one example is the fact that the poster has Obama labeled as “Socialism” instead of “Socialist”. Perhaps it is because of this fact that I’m so intrigued by this poster, it’s just is a good example of the power of images. By portraying Obama as the Joker, who is an evil villain, people relate Obama and the Joker together and since the Joker is evil then that must mean Obama is evil as well. The actual thought behind the poster is meaningless and people take this and use it as a symbol against Obama simply because it has a powerful image, not a powerful message.

Curent Event

The American Graphic Design Award was won by Jaipur Rugs this year. This will be their second time winning this award. The American Graphic Design Award is hosted by the magazine Graphic Design USA. Jaipur Rugs is a company that makes Indian hand knotted, flat woven, and hand tufted area rugs. What they won the award for though was their product catalog and press kits for this year. Sadly I can not seem to find pictures of their catalog, I can only find some of their rugs, but their purpose in this catalog was to help brand their image and at the same time to reach a very broad audience. They tried to keep the important information in their catalog easy to read at a quick glance.

Book of Hours

Illuminated manuscripts were highly decorative compared to the books we have today. Out of all the medieval Illuminated manuscripts that have survived to the present day, the most common one is the Book of Hours. A Book of Hours was a Christian devotional book so they were widely made during the Middle Ages; hence there are a lot that have survived to present day. A Book of Hours normally contained prayers, Psalms, office for the dead, little office of the blessed Virgin Mary, a calendar of church feasts, and the hours of the cross. These books often became important family heirlooms due to their expensive nature. Naturally, the more highly decorated the specific Book of Hours was, the wealthier the patron was. The illustrations often were of scenes from the bible or that of saints and occasionally the book would also have an image of the patron of the book in it somewhere.  A Book of Hours was typically written in Latin but there are some were written in other languages. Like most illuminated manuscripts, a Book of Hours was typically made on parchment or vellum and at this point in time most used iron gall ink because this ink could be tinted to different colors when combined with various other minerals. In the latter Middle Ages it was possible for someone to go and buy a pre-produced and very generic Book of Hours which just goes to show the popularity of these books. With all the work that had to go into a book in this time period no one would make a book unless they were sure it could get sold. That’s why most were done on a commission basis.