Post-modern in graphic design the time line is 1990 to 2018

The word “postmodern” was coined in the 1870s. “A Postmodern style of painting” was
first recommended by John Watkins as a suggestion to move ahead of the French
Impressionism, whereas J.M. Thompson, described it as a shift in attitudes and trust to the
commentators of region. “The raison d’être of Post-Modernism is to escape from the
double-double-mindedness of Modernism by being thorough in its criticism by extending it
to religion as well as theology, to Catholic feeling as well as to Catholic tradition.”
This paper explains the Post-modern in graphic design, the processes and evolution of it
from 1990s to the present time, it demonstrates the issues drawing references from various
case studies, literature reviews and from the work of different authors in the concerned
domain. It goes ahead to explain the impact of contemporary graphic design as a reflection
of the Postmodern graphic design principles. Postmodern graphic design traits cannot be
ignored as a “traditional fad” or archaic since a lot of modern designing is inspired from the
postmodern concepts. The paper analyses the subject in the form of oratorical assessment.
We start by analysing designers of postmodern period and then by studying the
contemporary design in order to find the common points with the Postmodern design genre.
By examine the postmodern and the contemporary designing, and figuring out the common
points between both, its easier to understand the relevance of the postmodern design in the
current period and design proceeding.
Swiss style and modernism or the International style were the rage on 20th century, for
graphic designers, postmodernism was popular, yet confused, in the 1980s.

Image: (RED) Aids Awareness Campaign

For most of the analyser the Postmodern movement was just a temporary style that had a
small life, irrespective of the fact the Postmodern were prominent across Europe and
America mostly in the 1990s. For some it was actually an opportunity to the ruts of the
modern movement, and form a new visual argument. In “No More Rules”, Rick Poynor
illustrates “The widespread assumption now, outside the academy, is that postmodernism
has gone the way of so many other intellectual fads. Many people never understood what is
was supposed to mean and even the most knowledgeable observers are sometimes inclined
to treat it with suspicion”. If Poynor’s views are to be believed, Postmodernism has gone
past other trends, it demonstrates a clear difference between the Postmodern graphic design
and the contemporary genre. Analysing peer-reviewed articles about postmodernism, its
easy to find many results associated with architecture, theology, literature, political and
social sciences, but its difficult to find peer review articles relating to postmodern graphic
design, it shows that the articles about postmodern were rarely written and published. While
reading most of the articles about postmodernism, it can be noted that most of the authors
defined it their own way and understanding, there is no common definition of
postmodernism. It was extensively used by the media at that time to relate most types of
artistic, political, cultural and social work.
Rudolf Pannwitz, described Postmodernism as a “philosophically-oriented culture.” He
drew this idea from Friedrich Nietzsche’s assessment of uniqueness. Additionally, Pannwitz
used partisan and whimsical components in his reference to the definition of
postmodernism. Later in 1920 and 1925, postmodernism was used to explain the forms of
music and art. H.R. Hays in 1942, specified it as a form of literary art, although in 1939, as
a common thought for a historical evolution Arnold J. Toynbee described as “Our own Post-
Modern Age has been inaugurated bu the feral war of 1914 to 1918. But in 1949, it was
referred to as the dissatisfaction with modern engineering, which marked the beginning of
the postmodern architectural movement as known as the International Style. Buildings in
urban engineering, ornamental and decorative forms and various angles which weren’t
perpendiculars signalled the re - introduction of the Postmodernism in engineering or
architecture. Following it the postmodernism movement covered a large amount of
moments, including literature, music, art, that we against the trends colonial era of
mercantilism also referred as “modernism,” which are identified by re birth of the historical
techniques and components. Some others associated it as one of the four typological views
of the world. The four views of the world are; the ones that sense trust as developed with the
social vision, called as the Postmodern- ironist, the other types is the scientific-rational,
which advocates that truth is derived from methods and inquiry, the other views lays down
that the truth can be found in the Western and American heritage civilisations, its referred to
as the social-traditional, the last one is the neo -romantic, as per it the truth can be found in
harmony with nature and with spiritual exploration of oneself. Starting in the 20th century,
postmodernist philosophy highlighted the importance of fact based theory, later became an
important view of departure for the works relating to architecture, design, marketing and
business, and into the work of literature. Even in the explanation of history, culture and law.
Such changes in the American and western value system which was from the 1950s and the
1960s, and the epitome of the Social revolution of 1968, are referred with a term called
Postmodernity, a terminology referring to an opinion, idea or belief opposing the
postmodernism. Postmodernism grew from post-structuralism and hence both the terms are
used interchangeably. Its important to understand the principles of poststructuralist
movement in order to understand postmodernism philosophy. It is about the new way of
thinking through structuralism unlike its prime form. It was a part of the contemporary
history since it was in the time of 1950s. The postmodernism principles spurred in the
opposition of the shallowness, and unlinking in the modern evolution. Modern designing,
was based on the premise of expected supremacy or perfection, tackled tranquility of form
and function, and the elimination of “petty designs.” Reviewer of the modernism
emphasised that the properties of perfection and minimalism are based on subjective
opinions, and signalled solecism in such philosophy which later argued on the validity of
such thoughts. Definitive postmodern designing that includes the work of Micheal Graves
and Robert Venturi disobeys the assumptions of a ‘pure’ or ‘perfect’ architectonic
informations, rather discerningly carving from various attributes of process, material,
shapes, hues that are available to the designers. Modern designers like Ludwig Mies van der
Rohe advocated that “less is more” contrary to it “Less is a bore” said by the postmodernist
designer Venturi. Postmodernist movement can be marked as one of the only and early
movement to liberally object modernism as archaic and oppressive, which was more about
personal taste and variety over equatable, and final veracity or proportions. Wolfgang
Weingart, was one of the initial designer who challenged the designs and the principles of
the modernist prepositions. He was well acquainted with the rules of Modernist philosophy
of the International designs, or Swiss designs. He was fascinated with the use of the grid
Modernist designers to make orderly layouts using his own ideas and imaginations.
 Image: An Ad campaign

As Weingart said, “It seemed as if everything that made me curious was forbidden: to
question established established typographic practice, change the rules, and to reevaluate its
potential. I was motivated to provoke this stodgy profession and to stretch the typeshop’s
capabilities to the breaking point, and finally, to prove once again that typography is an art.”
Weingart’s statements forms the basis for arts in relationship with Modernism. The
modernist graphic design approach involves very little to now personal equation of the
designer from the entire expression of the designing. This is how modernist design are
known to dehumanise the content. Cranbrrok Design: The New Discourse, states that
modernism had some scope, a little meaning, which was in the form of expressing it in the
functions, processes, materials over the intricacies of the human association which was put
forward by Neils Diffrient. Postmodernism gained popularity in America and the US. This
movement was a result of the liberal thinkers coming out to express their radical ideas and
free thinkers which were against modernism, that generation found modernism boring and
simplistic access to design. Entire idea of postmodernism followed depicting the message
with a satirical message or visuals adding typography and collage within it. They used a mix
of visuals, collage, broken texts, distributed colours, mostly black and white pictures and
striking layouts. The entire idea of postmodernism was using standard shapes against the
traditional ones, no grids but some messy designs.
Barbara Kruger is the reason behind this picture, she is a big example of postmodernism .

Her poster captioned as “Your body is a battleground” with a middle aged woman face in
black and white plus it depicts a negative photo of her face, this is one of the typical
examples of postmodernism that includes a strong message and with thought provoking
image in the background in plain black and white colours, used to combine all these
ingredients to develop a picture that propagates the constant hardship of a woman and the
body, and the constant arguments between her thoughts deep inside. Another thing that can
be noticed from this picture is that there is an element of Dadaism involved in the picture.
She uses a woman face to make an impact with chaotic typography, she also uses red in
most her work which is again just another example of Dadaism.
One of the most interesting aspect of Postmodernism is the concept of destruction, which
was scrutinised by Jacques Derrida in the book “on Grammatology” (1967), on the contrary
in the book “No more rules” (2003), came with a new explanation of destruction which was
about decoding a message by breaking it down in such as way that each part of the message
emphasises the information, ideas and the message put forward using such depictions. Rick
Poynor argued that deconstruction has more to do with “reinventing” and “revitalising” the
print media. Rick Valicenti argued that using and sticking to the grid system to propagate a
message is totally baseless rather “hirrby irrational” in the contemporary world. The
interesting part about David Carson’s work is that he charter the audience to interpret the
meaning of the message. Open endedness and free will to put the message across through
personal interpretations were the ideas to keep the audience sailing. With time and
standardisation of
Modernism, and with the increase in art becoming as a strong tool in delivering commercial
messages and stocking of the art work, the ideas of Modernism in the mainstream culture is
becoming increasingly obsolete. Postmodernism has been in existent in the form of art,
architecture and literature. The art that was political but later deviated and engaged with the
general masses. The peculiarity with postmodernist art is that it marked the end of the
contemporary art and artwork, it influenced the dynamic ideas which gained enormous
popularity within the masses. The feminist art of 1960s, 70s, 80s, defied the contemporary
idea of male chauvinism, which extended to other form of art history and literature.

Graphic designers are confronted with the challenges of the complex public in the present
times, where they needs to vary their pace as per the taste and preference of the people.
There will be times they need to go fast and at times they need to slow it down, its not a one
speed fit journey. Graphic designers now have more autonomy to express their ideas in the
type of visual that they want to put it in. Postmodernism can’t be thought of as just a style,
its a philosophy about the transition of time, a time which is filled with intricacies,
discrepancy, and capabilities. It can be about coming out of the comfort zone, but its also
about overcoming the limitations of Modernism. In the current scenario some of the ideas
of postmodernism like deconstruction, culture, intricacy, and analytical theory could be of
legitimate value to the designers if they can work beyond the explicit categories, tech and
media. In the postmodern era, the graphical designer can confront with situation of complex
messages and try new idea to sustain the attention of the world, but with the passage of time
the new will get old so does the new media would become the old media. Postmodernism
seeks to overcome the resistance that tries to deconstruct modernism, the outcome of which
is that postmodernism planners loose interest sticking with the contemporary ideas.
References

The influence of the postmodern graphic design genre on contemporary graphic design as
analysed in the context of generic participation - Michael Edward Outhouse, Iowa State
University.

Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (Post-Contemporary

Interventions) by Fredric Jameson
https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/public/postmodernism-dead-comes-next/
https://ha065.wordpress.com/gamswen/postmodern-graphic-design/
https://www.emigre.com/Essays/Magazine/GraphicDesigninthePostmodernEra
https://shanny12.wordpress.com/modernism-vs-postmodernism/
https://scholar.colorado.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1618&context=honr_theses
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282218157_The_Postmodern_Terms_-
_Postmodernity_and_Postmodernism
https://www.britannica.com/topic/postmodernism-philosophy
https://www.encyclopedia.com/literature-and-arts/art-and-
architecture/architecture/postmodernism