Tea boxes & album covers

04.18.2003

I just got back from the Graphic Design BFA show at East Hall. The show featured work by Allison Spicer, including these tea packagings. Other items included CD album covers, posters for the Francophone Film Festival, brochures, and book covers. Some of these things were actually put into production.

One of my favorites was Allison's calendar. It came w/ a color & number code and little images of shoes, skirts, tops, etc. on rolodexes. Every calendar day had a code for a separate set of items. Essentially, you could wear a different stylish outfit every day and never look the same twice in a month.

I always enjoy the Graphic Design exhibits. I think I might enjoy them more, on average, than regular art exhibits. I see art as a combination of discipline, creativity, and content. Graphic designers face arduous challenges: How do I make something aesthetically pleasing while constrained to these dimensions or this specific subject matter? The end results can be amazing.

A great deal of contemporary art severely disappoints me. I don't like the artist to say "this piece means whatever you want it to mean." Of course that's true. But surely there was a purpose for all the effort put into this particular piece, n'est pas?

I refuse to believe that art is "whatever you want it to mean" In other words, nothing and everything. If that's true, then Sophie's tearing up paper is a form of post-modern collage art. But it's not. Cat's do not posses a human soul.

Posted by Miguel at 07:11 PM