POP: How Graphic Design Shapes Popular Culture

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POP: How Graphic Design Shapes Popular Culture Pub. Date: 7/13/2010 Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing

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Overview

“Pop culture is often maligned as fleeting, but history shows that sometimes what is pop in one culture has time-honored resonance in later ones. This book is an attempt to show that pop culture, especially as seen through the lenses of design, illustration, satiric and political art (and other things), is integral to a broader understanding of who we are and where we are going.”—Steven Heller, from the Introduction

How do popular culture and graphic design influence one another? What are the goals of design? Are they to sell? To package? To entertain? The answers to these questions are complicated and are intimately tied to the effect design has on the overall culture. POP is the first book to analyze the role of graphic design in the broader culture, as well as the impact of design on other art and entertainment forms, from album covers to baseball stadiums. Author Steven Heller addresses such subjects as:

--pop icons
--viral and guerilla advertising
--political satire
--the history of Interview, Monocle, Mad, and other magazines
--illusionism and three-dimensional design
--art for art’s sake
--design vs. decoration
--the return of hand lettering
--art for the masses

POP spans over 150 years during which popular culture has influenced mass perception and behavior. Illustrated by more than fifty images, POP is sure to inspire both aspiring and experienced designers.

Editorial Reviews

Library Journal

Heller (cochair, MFA Design Dept., Sch. of Visual Arts) has coauthored numerous books on graphic design (e.g., Design School Confidential). His combination of humor and thoughtful analysis makes his writings interesting for design professionals as well as nonspecialists. This collection of brief essays is different from other texts on visual communication because it focuses on the demonstrated social effects of design trends. For example, Heller discusses how the advertisement of over-the-counter medicines has successfully generated a sense of paranoia about such conditions as body odor and dermatological problems. He also revisits specific cases in which design practice has influenced the understanding of content—such as the memorable Enron logo becoming a symbol of corporate corruption and failure—and explains how Jewish typeface designers have been instrumental in cultural preservation. VERDICT It could be argued that this book covers too many varied topics in one volume; however, Heller's essays are worth reading even if he wanders a bit. This is recommended for design students and for general readers with an interest in graphic arts.—Eric Linderman, Euclid P.L., OH

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781581157154
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Publication date: 7/13/2010
Pages: 288
Sales rank: 703,896
Product dimensions: 6.48 (w) x 9.04 (h) x 0.71 (d)

Meet the Author

Steven Heller is Co-chair of the MFA Design/Designer as Author and Entrepreneur program at New York’s School of Visual Arts. He is the author of many books on graphic design, including Handwritten (978-0-500-28595-4),
New Ornamental Type (978-0-500-51502-0), and Scripts (978-0-500-00000-0).

Introduction: Snap, Crackle, Pop!

Section 1 What's Cool, What's Not

When It's Cool to Say Cool 17

Curse of the "D" Word 21

The Decade of Dirty Design 25

Give a Hand to Hand Lettering 29

You're Not Just a Designer Anymore … or Are You? 31

Section 2 Pop Icons

Design for Obama 41

Shepard Fairey Is Not a Crook 45

Father of Shrek, Grandfather of Tweet 48

When the One-Eyed Man Was King 51

A Snippet of Interview History 55

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band 59

The Last Loving Parody of The First Family 63

The Design of Necromancy 66

A Kodak Moment 72

Take Me Out to the Old Yankee Stadium 75

Section 3 Design Literacy

Cult of the Squiggly 80

When Bad Things Happen to Good Logos 85

A Good Trademark: A Historical Perspective 89

Design Patois 92

The Return of Stencil Lettering 99

Velvet Touch Lettering Redux 103

Clipping Art, One Engraving at a Time 105

Berthold's 1924 Hebrew Type Catalogue 109

First on Deco 115

The Missing Link: Graphic Design Trade Magazines and the Modern Avant Garde 121

Better than Real: Graphic Design Facsimiles Steal the Stage 131

Illusionism Meet Dimensionalism 137

The Adtritus of Viral and Guerilla Advertising 141

Section 4 Beware!

Got Flu? The Art of H1N1 Posters 149

Japanese Face Masks 151

Névrivitamine, Sérifer, Hémoluol, and Pancriol 155

Hey Stinky, You're Too Fat, and Your Skin's Bad Too! 159

Topanga, We Hardly Knew Ya 163

The Sky Is Falling 167

Section 5 Art for Art's Sake

SMS - Shit Must Stop: Art to Go, Sixties Style 172

Another Side of Ladislav Sutnar 176

The Arthur Szyk Renaissance 179

Why Does John Baeder Paint Diners? 185

Section 6 Intelligent Design

Who Owns Intelligent Design? 193

A Designer by Any Other Name… 197

How Not to Be Motivated 205

Section 7 Art For the Masses

How Much Is That Artifact in the Window? 212

A Mass for Mass-Market Paperbacks 217

Confessions of a Book Catalogue Reader 222

Music Design: Think Small 225

Blue Q: Novelty Typecasting 229

Titling Home Movies, Mitten's Way 233

Notgeld: The Design of Emergency Money 239

The Art and Craft of Grocery Signs 243

And the Trophy for the Most Generic Trophy Goes to … 246

Canned Laughter 248

Tracking the Street Measles 251

Section 8 Nothing Sacred

You Mean, Not All Designers Are Liberal? 258

When Satire Was More than Funny 263

My First Taste of Political Satire 267

Once Upon a Time, There Was a Big Bad President 271

The Model President: George W. Bush Advertising Star 277

Where Have You Gone, R. Cobb? 281

Mad Music 285

Covering Weirdo [Magazine] 287

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