Reading and Understanding Text

Question: "How did postmodernism impact on Graphic Design practice?"

Poynor, R. (2003) No More Rules. London: Lawrence King - Postmodernism

5 key quotes:

1. 'The use of postmodern graphic design as a contained stylistic category is misleading because it implies that the design that succeeded it in stylistic terms no longer has a relationship with postmodernism.' (page 18)
2. 'It was a sign that design was beginning to break from its mooring, question its commitments to rationalism and determinacy and take an increasingly unfixed and open-ended new forms.' (page 21)
3. 'Early responses to the new wave were often negative. Older designers, accustomed to rigorously suppressing the personal, registered concern at the eruption of wayward subjectivity and resisted the idea.' (page 26)
4. 'Graphic design was in this fundamental sense an aspect of subculture, a creative tool by which young people communicated amongst themselves. Their designs were not intended to be meaningful for those on the outside, including designers positioned in the mainstream, and the design profession was consequently slow at first to acknowledge the significance of work that seemed frivolous and marginal to the concerns of visual communication as an ever-expanding business.' (page 33)
5. 'In short, the design fulfills all the requirements of Jencksian postmodernism it is a hybrid, double-coded and represents a partial return to tradition, though its disjunctive quality ensures that it can only be read as a product of a playful, contemporary design sensibility.' (page 35)

5 key points:

1. Postmodern graphic design being called stylish is wrong because it suggests that design has only become stylish during postmodernism.
2. Everything in the design world started to change since new ways of designing such as the change in technology had effected the way design was produced. 
3. Older designers couldn't take on the new wave as they have been keeping to traditional values of designing and found it difficult to keep up to date with the new material. 
4. People usually didn't take much notice/have an opinion about the deeper meaning behind the design yet they acknowledged and noticed the artists work. The designers work was not intended for the everyday person but for the designer that would understand the meaning behind the image.
5. People can look at design and just see the creation but others can also find the deeper meaning behind it therefore is a hybrid. The design is not to offend but is playful and should not be offensive.