Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category
:o)
I am a convert to the emoticon. Not those hideous yellow graphic smileys you can add to your emails if you’re under 16, but the punctuation emoticon. The PE.
At the beginning of my PE journey, I was hugely skeptical :-/ and annoyed >:-[ by all PEs, considering users to be complete :-@! However, the more of the little :-) faces I saw, the more :-)) I became. My relatively short time as a PE user has so far been an enjoyable one; I’ve got over my snobbish ‘I’m far too sensible for all this silliness’ position and have joined the throngs, considering them a lot less offensive than the use / overuse of the exclamation mark!!!!!!!!!!
Discovering there were Homer Simpson (_8^(|) pirate, P-( smoking, :-i Frank Zappa :^{= and even pope PEs +<:-) just makes the process more imaginative and amusing.
This post is about posters.
With only a week to go, this is just irresistible. Jonathan Jones introduces a feature in today’s Culture Guardian showcasing alternative takes on the political campaign poster from some of Britain’s leading artists. You can see their work here plus more detailed commentary from each artist (and Jonathan’s introduction) here.
I agree with the article tone that official campaign offerings are more than unimpressive, but I’ve really enjoyed the unofficial and not so underground stuff like My David Cameron. If anyone can teach the big parties a thing or two about clear copy, it’s the creators of some of these gems.
Very early comments on the Guardian site suggest there is a big gap between fine art and graphic design when it comes to posters. My own take – unsurprisingly – is it comes down to the copy and the connection the copy has with the design. Hence my favourite of the lot is this one by Goshka Macuga. Clear, clever, totally connected to its purpose and comes with a back-story.