Выключка строк / Интерлиньяж, Акцентировка, Новострочие

Даниэль Перье. Страница программы выставок современного искусства. Париж, 1993.
Натуральный размер, карточное издание

Выставка художников Пьера и Жилля аннонсированна так же своеобразно,

как и другие выставки, вошедшие в программу под общим названием Образы удовольствия.

Смысловая разбивка на строки сочетается со свободной выключкой,

поддержанной тонкими сбоями интерлиньяжа, а кое-где и сбоями базовой линии строки.

Travail à quatre mains,
les tableaux de Pierre ¿rfcilles apparaissent comme de jolies images.

L’un photographie, l’autre peint ;
mais qu’importe la partition d’une création commune qui s’inspire de la culture populaire,

des schémas traditionnels de représentation les plus diffusés.

C’est probablement l’univers mièvre et coloré du cinéma indien, mais augsi rimagerie religieuse sulpicienne

qui leur fournissent les éléments de départ de cette récente série des §£QJTLS

Comme dans leurs autres œuvres, ^ modèle, souvent une personne de leur entourage,

est installé dans un décor méticuleusement fabriqué : costumeS5 attributs du saint? fleurs artlficielles,
arrière-plan de carton pâte,toute Ia mise en scène est composée de telle sorte que l’image produite,
photographie repeinte, soit lisse, douce et comme intemporelle.

Dans ces portraits
d’un genre un peu particulier, гіш пЪі laissé au hasar(J . le modè,e pose>

tout détail trivial est gommé,
les couleurs sont retravaillées
et même l’évocation d’une mort
parfois cruelle est sereine et tranquille
puisque le saint échappe déjà à la condition terrestre.

Aucun pathos mais une sentimentalité heureuse. Les clichés les plus communs sont utilisés .

ciels pommelés, couchers de soleil flamboyants, regards lointains ...,
autant de “trucs” des superproductions hollywoodiennes de série В au temps du technicolor.

Tous ces éléments accumules échappent pourtant à l’umvers du kitsch parce qu’ils recréent, en toute innocence,
un autre monde, idéalisé, comme savent le faire les enfants, croit-on, avant la confrontation avec le réel.
Dans ce monde là, il n’existe pas de mensonge, tout est à la fois vrai et faux.

24 Выключка строк

30

The Cutting Edge Trade

lar] can claim to be design that refers to life, rather than theories
that are not accepted or fully shared by practitioner and reader”
(p.8). Unfortunately, much like with modernism, it is the vernacu¬
lar’s formal, not ideological, possibilities that today’s cutting-edge
graphic designers have usurped. Take, for instance, the cheap look¬
ing, cut-and-paste, xeroxed, punk-zine typography used to sell
Foster’s Ice Beer (p. 57). Or the luscious wood block type printed on
the cover of the Agfa type catalog (p.40). Or the typeface F
Mogadishu (p. 113), which is based on the letters on a sign written
and held up by a hostage just before he was killed by the Red Army
Faction. What is the point of using the vernacular in these works?
Isn’t it rather insensitive? Punk ideology was one of anti-estab¬
lishment; it was never meant to sell mass-market products like
beer. Agfa sells digital type for use on computers, one of many tech¬
nologies that has caused the marginalization of handset woodblock
type. F Mogadishu, while presented as an experimental font, is also
a commercial typeface sold to the public, and may eventually turn
up in an ad selling American luxury cars. At what point does it become
inappropriate to appropriate?

While the vernacular is its central theme (emphasized by the
"found” graphic object on its cover), Gl addresses none of these
more problematic issues. How, for instance, do designers reconcile
their need to find respect for their work within society, while at the
same time appropriating the work of others without proper credit?
One reason why designers so freely appropriate the vernacular is
because it is anonymous. It’s easy to take the work from people you
don’t know. But it’s not necessarily a good thing.

When the authors write that "designers celebrating the vernacular
are admiring the absence of the designer-as-heroic-creator,” I be-

46

lieve they confuse the issues. Within graphic design education and
design history, there has been a tendency to move away from pre¬
senting graphic design as a simple who’s who listing of great men
and their work, to an approach that takes into consideration the
larger context in which design is created, thereby downplaying the
designer-as-heroic-creator. This does not mean that designers are
ready to forfeit their identities. I know of few, if any, designers
whose ambition it is to be unknown and who would enjoy seeing their
work exploited without receiving credit or other compensation. In
fact, the designers who have carved out a reputation by consis¬
tently appropriating the vernacular are among some of the most
widely recognized and highly visible designers around today.

In the end, the one thing that sets this book apart from the current
onslaught of design picture books is defined in the first paragraph
of the text on the front flap: "Cl gathers innovative work from
many of the world’s most influential designers, and then omits their
names from the pages.” Instead, the names of the designers are
provided on self-adhesive labels ("appropriated from the vernacu¬
lar”) in the back of the book, where I’m sure they will remain in nine
out of ten copies printed. No matter how good the intention, leav¬
ing out credits is not what graphic design needs, particularly if
nothing beneficial is offered in its ploce, and when anonymity ulti¬
mately results in the work being appropriated.

Graphic design has always played a subservient role - it is a means
towards an end, a carrier to make societies’ manifold messages
visual, always foregrounding the identity of the client while down¬
playing the identity of its practitioners. This focus on the product
over the creator has brought about a sense with the public that
graphic design grows on trees, or comes bundled with Windows 95.
For this to change, graphic design does need heroes and heroines.

When it comes to fine art, the general audience knows the names
of Leonardo DaVinci, Vincent van Gogh or Andy Warhol, and might
even match the work with the artist. Graphic designers, on the other
hand, continue to slave away in obscurity. Outside the world of
graphic design, there are few if any designers known by name to the
public. While almost anybody in the world has seen the I Love NY
sticker and it’s innumerable (appropriated?) derivatives, few peo¬
ple outside of design know that it was designed by Milton Glaser. By
marrying the name of the creator to an object, the work would
increase in value and respectability.

This book would have really made a statement had Blackwell and
Brody, too, relegated their names to the self-adhesive stickers
found in the back. While the statement would still be unclear, at
least it would have convinced me that the authors believe in it. But
they are well aware that it is their names that help sell this book.
Omitting credits is what sets this book apart, but it serves no clear
purpose. While much of the work in this book deserves to be praised
and honored by publishing it in book form, Gl does little to explain
why. It leaves me to believe that Cl is simply another way to cash
in on what remains a lucrative publishing venture: the exploitation
of "cutting-edge” graphic design.

Высота колонки / Зона, Концевая и начальная полосы, Колонтитул

Руди Вандерланс. Страница журнала Emigre, No. 44. Сакраменто (Калифорния), 1997. Формат 27,5 X 21,2 см

На первый взгляд здесь нет ничего интригующего, пока не выяснишь, что эта полоса - концевая.

Концевая колонка выше (!) предконцевой, чья высота соответствует норме,

принятой в данном выпуске (внизу оставлена обширная зона для иллюстраций).

Случай на этой полосе аналогичен тому, как если бы, допустим, короткую концевую строку

добавили в подбор к предпоследней полной. Такой случай уже зафиксирован,

хотя волна безоглядных экспериментов резко пошла на спад. Спад заметен и в Emigre.

И словно для восполнения визуального напора, в журнале,
к неудовольствию некоторых его корреспондентов,

стала появляться реклама. 25 Высота колонки