Wednesday 15 March 2017

What is postmodern design??

Although I would suggest that I have a pre-existing knowledge upon postmodern design it was decided that further research should be conducted in which outlines what is postmodernism and postmodern trends.

'Postmodernism is a late-20th-century movement in the arts, architecture, and criticism that was a departure from modernism. Postmodernism includes skeptical interpretations of culture, literature, art, philosophy, history, economics, architecture, fiction, and literary criticism. It is often associated with deconstruction and post-structuralism because its usage as a term gained significant popularity at the same time as twentieth-century post-structural thought.

The term postmodernism has been applied to a host of movements, many in art, music, and literature, that reacted against tendencies in modernism, and are typically marked by revival of historical elements and techniques.'-
http://www.historygraphicdesign.com/the-age-of-information/postmodern-design


Characteristics of postmodernism 
  • 'There is no absolute truth - Postmodernists believe that the notion of truth is a contrived illusion, misused by people and special interest groups to gain power over others. 

  • Truth and error are synonymous - Facts, postmodernists claim, are too limiting to determine anything. Changing erratically, what is fact today can be false tomorrow. 

  • Self-conceptualization and rationalization - Traditional logic and objectivity are spurned by postmodernists. Preferring to rely on opinions rather than embrace facts, postmodernist spurn the scientific method. 

  • Traditional authority is false and corrupt - Postmodernists speak out against the constraints of religious morals and secular authority. They wage intellectual revolution to voice their concerns about traditional establishment. 

  • Ownership - They claim that collective ownership would most fairly administrate goods and services. 

  • Disillusionment with modernism - Postmodernists rue the unfulfilled promises of science, technology, government, and religion. 

  • Morality is personal - Believing ethics to be relative, postmodernists subject morality to personal opinion. They define morality as each person’s private code of ethics without the need to follow traditional values and rules. 

  • Globalization – Many postmodernists claim that national boundaries are a hindrance to human communication. Nationalism, they believe, causes wars. Therefore, postmodernists often propose internationalism and uniting separate countries. 

  • All religions are valid - Valuing inclusive faiths, postmodernists gravitate towards New Age religion. They denounce the exclusive claims of Jesus Christ as being the only way to God. 

  • Liberal ethics - Postmodernists defend the cause of feminists and homosexuals. 

  • Pro-environmentalism - Defending “Mother Earth,” postmodernists blame Western society for its destruction.'http://www.allaboutphilosophy.org/characteristics-of-postmodernism-faq.htm


What I would suggest are postmodern trends in graphic design


  • San serifs are most prominently used
  • Collage/other mediums other than cad
  • Going against the 'norm' 
  • Bold colours
  • Movement in typography 




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