021 | Context Matters

In design, context matters but action is what makes a difference.

💌 Hello,

My name is Christian Solorzano and you’re receiving this e-mail because, at some point in time, you subscribed. If you aren’t a subscriber, you can subscribe here.

This is my newsletter, Beginner’s Mind — a newsletter about intentional awareness. You can learn more about the meaning of the title in a previous post I wrote.

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Design matters, kinda.

Professionally, I’ve been in the graphic design industry since I enrolled in my undergrad program in 2012. With my blue-collar working-class roots, there wasn’t an alternative to being a freshman and not immediately needing an internship. I did, after all, have to prove to my family that I had made the right decision by studying, what they considered drawing little logos.

Before then, I would create what I called visual poems — collages I would build in Photoshop and would share on the social media platforms, MySpace and DeviantArt. What I made never really went far but it provided an outlet for me to express whatever teenage angst was ruminating inside, and there was a lot. I suppose this newsletter is evidence that that teenage angst is still alive and well. 🤔

And over the past decade or so, I’ve seen design trends come and go. Our field usually being the first to respond to changes in the world. With COVID-19, we saw the importance of communicating information honestly and quickly. It seems like the human race is slowly merging more and more with technology, and design is right at the intersection of that.

Design plays a role in how products are sold and helps shape truth whether it is true or not. Design is what we read, the apps we use, the choices we make, are all inherently influenced and shaped by design.

Despite my love for the work that I do, I have a mixed love-hate relationship with design. Lately, I’ve been exploring this and trying to understand my peculiar dissatisfaction with our industry.

Things I dislike

1. The standardization of design
   In my opinion, this at times kills creativity.

2. Information paralysis
   It’s hard to escape the speed at which we are bombarded with content.

3. Trends
   This fosters a culture of unoriginality and blind allegiances.

Things I love

1. People
   I like people. I like being able to connect with people outside my field and helping them reach their objectives through design.

2. History and knowledge
   It’s become increasingly simple to know almost everything. Information is out there and it is accessible.

3. Having a seat at the table
   I enjoy having a seat at the table and using my voice to bring up things that I believe are important.

Last year, because of the pandemic and social unrest, we saw designers taking pledges to commit to civil demonstration through their work. Creators designed posters, made music, shared articles, added a link to their Instagram bio, etc. — all vowing to be a part of the change. The skeptical side of me fought really hard to not dismiss this as performative. But a year later, things appear to have returned back to regular programming. It appears that many people in our industry, capitalized on social matters to flaunt their design aesthetics and seized on the opportunity to let the world know “Hey, of course, I care. Look at me! Look at me!”.

So to everybody that is still in action and maintaining the momentum of change, despite it no longer being trendy, I salute you. Keep it up.

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In it. In it. In it.

A few years ago, I was reading a book called Graphic Design: A History and I stumbled upon a beautiful piece of work.

Spread from book Graphic Design: A History

The text on the posters was in French but what gripped my attention was the visceral human calligraphy over the childlike images. The posters were done by a French collective that was formed in 1970 called Grapus. It was founded by three designers Pierre Bernard, Gerard Paris-Clavel, and Francois Miehe.

Grapus was a collective that was in dialogue at the intersection of design, government, citizens, politics, and culture. Their mission was to intertwine their talents with political action. Much of their visual language inspiration came from Pierre Bernard who studied with Henryk Tomaszewski a pioneer of the Polish School of Posters.

Poster by Henryk Tomaszewski | Ars Erotica | 1994

What drew Bernard to The Polish School of Posters was the experimental nature of juxtaposition between calligraphy and image, which undoubtedly influenced the visual language of Grapus moving forward. It was in the Polish poster in comparison to French posters, that Bernard realized that design could be more than commercial but could be poetic and deal with matters outside of capitalism.

Aretha | Milton Glaser | 1968

Grapus also drew inspiration from the American studio Push Pin, which was founded in 1954, which taught them about the relationship between image, layout, and composition.

The idea was to form a production group, an artistic collective, to create high-quality images for the political struggle of the French Communist Party. It was both a political and a graphic commitment.

Pierre Bernard

And because of Grapus’s firm values and vision, it became difficult for them to be financially stable. Their counterculture spirit excited clients but made them reluctant to take the risk to allow Grapus to do work for them.

But what is interesting about Grapus is that the nature of their work existed in action. Their mass-produced posters and designs were activated through a call and response. Their work was activated through the environments in which their work existed. As creatives, with the rise of social media, we’ve all become curators of our own mini-museums in our feeds. There isn’t anything wrong with this but work takes on a new life when it’s positioned in various contexts (preferably in-person as opposed to virtual).

The work of Grapus makes me think about what my work would look like hung in a bathroom stall, floating through the streets, stepped on and torn, or better yet, vandalized. Because it’s when work adapts that it can elicit new conversations and meaning that otherwise wouldn’t be found in some gallery.

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Poster by Grapus | 1982

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Without truly considering the context of the decisions we make and the after-life of our finalized work, our efforts are only partially matched.

Eventually, Grapus broke up in 1991. But many of the designers involved continued independent practices of their own. One of the founders of Grapus, Gérard Paris-Clavel, continued creating imagery.

Design writer Rick Poynor when writing about Ne Pas Plier says

For Ne Pas Plier, an image is not an inert object to be contemplated, nor is it a political tool in itself. Only when inserted into action or struggle does it produce political effects; only when carried by individuals or groups does it come alive, generating meaning in return. The static image, frozen on the wall, is countered by an image that is carried, used, overwritten, et cetera — drawn into a social and human dynamic. Leave behind the museum space for the stage of social struggle, refuse the rules, values, and categories of the art market, abolish the artist’s proud solitude through work conceived as coproduction, reverse the fetishism of the original and of the unique piece by proposing “images whose original is multiple,” adopt the principle of free exchange to the point of giving the images away for free rather than selling them: these are the guiding ideas of Ne Pas Plier. 

Poster by Gérard Paris-Clavel | 1989

In 1989, Paris-Clavel designed a poster that angered people and was considered insensitive for depicting suffering shamelessly to which Paris-Clavel countered: ‘This image is less unbearable than its reality.’

I always transform the commission: the role of all graphic designers is to question the brief before answering it.

Paris-Clavel

Something that we can all take away from Grapus is committing to being more inquisitive despite our roles. How can we inform, inspire, and mobilize in the name of the things that matter to us?

All of this has been causing me to reframe the role of my design practice and in some instances has been causing me to unlearn many hidden patterns and inevitably reframe my intentions and drive, which I think is inspiring me to be more purpose-led. Think about recontextualizing the body of what you do and consider its place in the trajectory of existence, even if what you do, you might consider, insignificant.

Let’s not create faux solutions based on some particular vibe or mood or trend or popular opinion. The strength of what we do is born out of our blood, sweat, and tears. Own it.

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Beginner’s Mind | A Playlist

If you follow the Beginner’s Mind playlist below on Spotify, every month or so, it’ll be updated with new music. I’ve also added the titles of the songs below.

1. A Day In The Life Wes Montgomery

2. Gone! The Cure

3. Specific Gravity Of Smile Edgar Froese

4. Unwinding The Dream Chronotope Project

5. Souvenir Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark

6. Two Divided By Zero Pet Shop Boys

7. Life Is An Experiment New Age Doom, Lee “Scratch” Perry

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Sources

Utopian Image: Politics and Posters ••• Social Design Notes: Grapus ••• Pierre Bernard & Grapus, “Graphic design of public utility”, 1942/2015 ••• Reputations: Pierre Bernard ••• Slanted Magazine #25 – Paris / Pierre Bernard (Atelier de Création Graphique)