Paige–Blog Post No. 4

Figure 1. L. Sutnar, (1950) "Catalog Design Progress," double page photographic print. URL https://www.pinterest.com/pin/535576580661633435/?lp=true, accessed on 3 February 2020.

These few sections regarding very different subject matter, including war propaganda, pamphlets, and instruction manual designs to the emergence of American art direction at the same time was very interesting. The juxtaposition between design work that was made solely based on information as it's purpose versus the creation of works based on their aesthetics seem to combine in the mid-20th century in America. During this time, the capitalist country was undergoing massive innovations and discovery into perfecting the advertisement–how to inform American of what they should via promotion of the necessity of product and additionally the beauty of the product. I struggle with the capitalist nature of graphic design, hence, advertising, but am drawn to the practicality of objects, printed matter, and graphics that can be representational, informative as well as highly refined and beautiful. I relate to Ladislav Sutnar who explains in Graphic Design: A Concise History that "a design need...may be analytically polarized into function and form, content and format, utility and beauty, the rational and irrational" (119), yet they do a wonderful job of combining these opposite features in info graphic spreads like "Catalog Design Progress" by Sutnar in the 50's (see Figure 1).  In the same vain, Paul Rand was able to combine artistic elements into graphics to advertise to a diverse audience. Hollis explains "[i]n fact, by using montage and collage, especially cut-out colored paper in combination with photography and economical line drawing, he (Paul Rand) and a few others re-worked the elements of European Modern Art–mainly Matisse, Picasso and Miro–improvising a flexible visual language" which makes Rand's design seem much more intuitive, natural, and surreal rather than solely emphasizing their intent (103). In much the same way, Henrietta Condak and her husband Cliff Condak–two mid-century refined American designers–created beautiful, surrealist graphics that showed direct emphasis on artistic qualities, yet the beauty of their images most likely still eluded to success of the item (i.e. albums, see Figure 2 and Figure 3). 

Figure 2. H. Condak, (no date), Glenn Gould Scriabin Sonata No. 3 Album. Accessed via https://allegrovinyl.com/2018/04/10/glenn-gould-and-the-russians/ on 3 February 2020.

Figure 3. C. Condak, (1976), Subotnick "Until Spring: Created on the electric music box" Album. Accessed via https://www.design-is-fine.org/post/75519347977/cliff-condak-album-cover-1976-for-subotnick on 3 February 2020.