Posts tagged posters | Culture Making

22 March 2010

"Discover the Unknown Spreaders!," 28 x 39cm print, National Tuburculosis Association, United States, c.1940, from the exhibition An Iconography of Contagion, US National Library of Medicine, February 2010 :: via MetaFilter

The National Institutes of Health has an online exhibition of 20th century health posters from various countries, key-coded by different common visual motifs (hands, mouths, skulls, rodents, sinister blobs). Many of the posters present an odd mix of informativeness and fear-mongering; quite a few traffic in stereotypes of disease and contagion (and diseased/contagious people) that read uneasily in the present day. This anti-TB admonition is one of the cheerier examples.

re: disease, icons, posters, public health, stereotypes

Nate:

15 July 2009

from "Guerrilla typography," idsgn (a design blog), 14 July 2009 :: via Josh Jackson

Cardon Webb is a graphic designer who spends part of his (overly abundant?) free time redesigning handwritten signs in his neighborhood. Surely all of us who care about design have secretly wanted to do this. But it's interesting to read the handful of comments at the idsgn blog. Opinion is divided over whether the resulting designs are actually better than an urgent, scrawled message.

re: design, neighborhoods, posters

Andy:

12 December 2008

Though he's now more known for his earnest interpretations of old-school political posters, designer Shepard Fairey first, of course, gained noteriety with his ironic/absurdist interpretations of authoritarian propaganda, with his Obey Giant viral campaign. Ironic and cool, in a particularly American sense that I both find attractive and uncomfortable, kind of the way I feel about ironic t-shirts after travelling in Africa and seeing them everywhere, courtesy bales of donated and resold used American clothing (shirt on a kid begging from me at the bus depot in Vilankulos, Mozambique: "There's only one thing to make for dinner: Reservations!"). The more I learn, the more I wonder about the effort we put into being connoisseurs of manufactured irony. There's real stuff out there that's so much more amazing.

re: africa, art, cultural worlds, horizons of the possible, irony, mozambique, nigeria, posters, propaganda, wonder

Nate:

Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey and his Miliki Sound, cassette from Nigeria, posted to Awesome Tapes from Africa, 4 October 2008

Side 1
Alowo Majaiye
Aiye Laba Ohun Gbogbo
Rora
Gba Mi Lowo Ota
Ma Di Oni Kanra
Ile Baba MI

Side 2
Miliki
Pepeiye Bimo
Maje Nyo Aiye Wa
Baiye Nsata