Blog Post 4

Right at the start, I was really intrigued by this reading. It started off talking about Mehemed Fehmy Agha’s contributions to american design. Much of what he was one of the first people to do was something that is so common practice today. He began bleeding off the pages, used double spreads and  set type to mimic photos. The following photo, Figure A, is an excellent example of a double spread with bleeding photos. What caught my attention is the fact that these elements are regular things that we tend to disregard. Obviously someone had to pioneer everything in graphic design but Agha was able to be one of the first people to do so many elements that are regularly used today.

Figure A. “Vanity Fair double page 1936” with a block of text in the upper left corner and a small column of text in the bottom right corner interrupted by a string of photos. Reprinted from Graphic Design: A Concise History (98), by R. Hollis, 2005, Place of Publication: Thames&Hudson Inc.

I also thought that the portion of the IBM guide was really interesting. I’m not sure why I never thought that something like this existed but it made a lot of sense reading it. Obviously a guide to a corporate logo would have a lot of rules. It was interesting to learn about what you could (but mostly couldn’t) do with the type and the logo. The idea that the first branding manual was just made in the 60’s is crazy. Branding is such a large part of design and of business; it’s interesting to think that it’s still pretty new. 80 years is old, but for something like branding, that impacts everyone, it’s still young, i think. 

I was also intrigued by the war and propaganda posters in the 1920s-1945. In comparison to 1915-1920s, there were a lot more photos in the posters. Of course this is because of the advancement of printing. However, I would have thought there would have been a lot more photo posters. I was familiar with Herbert Matter’s ‘America Calling’ posters and I knew about the cut-and-paste feel of many war/propaganda posters, see Figure B. But when I was looking up more posters to see how many were actual photos it was very hard to find any. Most were drawn or like the war/propaganda posters we cover from 1915-1920s. However, some, like Figure C, teetered between drawn and photos with realistic drawings. Still, I wonder why there weren't more war posters with actually photos. Figure B is an excellent example of making the viewer feel for the cause, mostly based off the sad little girl.

Figure B. Nadeau, H. (1943). “Deliver us from evil” : buy war bonds [poster]. Retrieved from https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc565/ (on February 5, 2020).

Figure C. He volunteered for Submarine Service [poster]. (1944). U.S. Government Printing Office, ca. 1944.
Courtesy of Schiffer Publishing. Retrieved from https://time.com/4650257/rare-world-war-ii-posters/ (on February 5, 2020).