Portfolio Task Three (Avant-Garde)

Avant-garde, a phrase coined in nineteenth century France, in terms of art and design. The term in this sense is accredited to visionary thinker of his time Henri de Saint-Simon, who believed art and design had the same social authority as science and industry. The idea of the 'avant-garde' is synonymous of originality and quality which can be seen in many different works across art and design, realism to surrealism or from modernism to post-modernism. Avant-garde is a movement that tries to redefine the traditional and the normal conventions within graphic design. This could be attributed to social and/or political motivations. 

This first image is an Adbusters image of a baby covered in corporate logos associated with some of the larges conglomerates in the world, for example MTV, Coca Cola and Nike. This strong politically driven piece of graphic design makes a social comment on modern America and indeed the entire western world. Glorified brands leading the world in fashion, computing and television telling us what to do and when to do it, brain washing a generation while exploiting another. It is this radical form of advertising that defines this piece of work as 'avant-garde' a politically driven piece of original graphic design. 

Similarly with this next piece of work I have chosen to illustrate as an example of the 'avant-garde' it is a form of advertisement. This constructivist piece of graphic design from Russia in the early twentieth century, was a radically new and original concept of design. This political piece of graphic design by Rodchenko uses new techniques like photo montage, the angular shapes symbolising the demise of the old regime as the Russian people revolt against the Czar of Russia. It was the reds verses the whites, the communist verses the royalists. This new aesthetic shows off a prime example of the Russian 'avant-garde' movement. This piece of work is still considered to be recognisable as new and enervative as the ideas have been recycled many time notably as a part of the Franz Ferdinand album art work.