Author: Elwyn Pratt
From the advertisements that parade across our physical and digital landscapes, to the animation and typography necessary to making attractive newspapers, magazines and TV shows, graphic design influences many fields. The Hammer Museum in Westwood presents an exhibition on this ubiquitous art form.
“Graphic Design: Now in Production” explores work produced since 2000 in an investigation of how graphic design and production has revolutionized magazines, newspapers, books, film and television in the new millennium. The exhibition opened to the public September 30.
“It’s really about the advent of the computer and computer programming,” Communications Director Sarah Stifler said. “Typography and design used to be a manual labor. Now those things are done by computer and that’s changed things quite a bit. Now everyone can get into graphic design.”
The gallery is decorated from floor to ceiling with media of all types. There is no discernible start to the exhibit, and no explicit path to follow. And that’s the point.
Stepping into the very first room, a visitor’s attention is immediately drawn in different directions. To the right, a pair of TV sets are cycling through popular credit sequences to illustrate how films like “Juno” and shows like “Game of Thrones” use fonts and visuals to set a tone for the narrative. To the left, a collection of posters pry for attention with bright colors and loud graphics. In the middle of the floor lies a massive geode, enigmatically carved with the phrase “AND YET.”
This sensory overload illustrates a core idea of the project, that graphic designers will try anything to create a personal connection with the viewer. One section of the exhibit is devoted to brand identity and how companies appeal to consumers. Armin Vit and Bryony Gomez-Palacio’s “Brand New: Before and After” allows visitors to compare company logos (Nickelodeon, Starbucks, etc.) with older designs. Visitors can drop provided yellow discs into a tray denoting their favorite version, old or new.
“Companies want to create a dialogue with people,” Metro Creative Director Michael Lejeune said. “At the Metro, for example, we want to to be hip, we want to be cool. We want to create a personality for our brand. So we pay attention to what our maps look like, what fonts we use, what colors we use in our advertisements. User feedback is essential.” On October 25, the museum will host a lecture by Lejeune on marketing for the Metro.
The exhibition also features a section on data visualization. The jagged lines and blocks that comprise Martin Wattengerg and Fernanda Viegas’ “History Flow” look like abstract art upon first glance, but are actually a graphical representation of the changes, negotiation, and contestation of online contributors for the Wikipedia article on chocolate. A print in another room contains hundreds of millions of tiny words that make up all six editions of Charles Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species”. The print, designed by Ben Fry, color-codes each edition to illustrate the fluidity of scientific discourse. Ideas evolve, too.
The exhibition appropriately bends the conventions of ordinary museum display to engage visitors. On one wall, a cascade of overlapping posters slopes to the floor like a colorful ink-and-paper waterfall. Mounted iPads invite visitors to swipe through digital magazines. The exhibition’s most interactive work, aptly titled “Poster Wall for the 21st Century,” features a frenzy of bouncing images that react to hand gestures and body movement. Visitors can add an image to the interface by posting it to Twitter with a #posterwall hashtag.
For such a small space, the gallery holds a massive amount of art, ranging from wallpaper to printing machines. “It’s very densely installed,” Stifler said. “For people interested in design, it’s a great opportunity to see a large collection of work”.
Three other projects are currently featured at the Hammer Museum. “Your Land / My Land: Election ’12” illustrates the stark divide in modern politics quite literally; the exhibition space is divided into a red-carpeted section and a blue-carpeted section, each containing a TV that continuously broadcasts Fox News and MSNBC respectively. “Zarina: Paper Like Skin” features woodcuts and pulp casts crafted by Indian-born American artist Zarina. “A Strange Magic: Gustave Moreau’s Salome” displays famous paintings drawn from the Gustave Moreau Museum in Paris.
“Graphic Design: Now in Production” will be on display at the Hammer through January 6, 2013. Regular admittance is 10 dollars Tuesday through Sunday. Thursdays are free. Students may show their ID card for free admittance to exhibits year-round.
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