One of my teachers told me once that bad taste is what thrills the masses.
One of the major characteristics of the post modern era in which we live is an attempt to subvert the distinction between high and low cultures, Hence there is no hierarchy in the term quality.
In Israel there are two kinds of journals, yellow and conservative. The yellow kind is more popular and is characterized by a blunt cover, loud typography and colorful effects. The conservative one is characterized with a more subtle design and addresses a smaller portion of the population.
The immediate question which derives from here is why is yellow media more appealing In Israel and through out the world
In order to emphasize this I want to travel to the early 1990s.
In that time the famous graphic designer David Carson designed the Raygun magazine which was characterized by chaotic graphics, image load and unreadable texts. As good as any politician Carson zigzagged freely between good and bad design in order to make his point.
Carson used the following:
- Mixing images adopted from politics and entertainments.
- Color load
- Large and colorful headings.
- Harsh and provocative images.
- Free typography which does not go hand in hand with the rules of correct one.
The outcome of this malformed design had a huge effect on the designing world. However If we break down Carson images we can come to the conclusion that they were taken from the tabloids realm.
Another beautiful example comes from the post modern era. I would like to talk about kitsch. So what actually is Kitsch? Kitsch symbolizes something empty-package only. it doesn’t demand any thought and that is because it relates to something which has already proved itself and moved us the past
However there is something in kitsch that the public can relate to..In the advertising world for instance we use images which are self explanatory and loaded with massages which serve the commercial needs.
So what is the script or code we need in order to reach the masses? How can we deny the fact that the worse played song is the most popular and best selling one.
One mut keep in mind that the use of the term bad taste is problematic because some will say that taste is in the eye of the beholder. One mans taste is another’s mistaste. so we must be very careful when judging this issue. Hence i will put the word bad taste quotation marks and use my designing experience in order to ascertain the boundaries of good and bad design.
i will use the print and internet mediums in order to produce the experience which employs the same bad taste. Hopefully it will create a deep connection with the viewer. Which results in an attraction or rejection but will not leave him neutral to the experience.
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