- The United States is a big country.
One idea can influencing graphic design in one
region while another idea is prevalent in another.
Seattle in the late 1980s and 90s was a
nexus of amazing energy and movement in music and design.
As the music scene exploded, the design world
responded and created a unique style
specific to that time and place.
The designer Art Chantry moved to Seattle in the 1970s.
He worked as an art director as a free monthly tabloid
and began designing posters for
independent record labels, community events, and concerts.
The posters typically have low
budgets and tight turnaround times.
Chantry used this to his advantage and adopted a process
that combined found images from
vintage magazines and books with bold typography.
This related to the music scene.
The musicians in Washington wore
thrift store items and the typical outdoor clothing.
The style did not evolve out of a conscious
attempt to create an appealing fashion.
It was about being cheap and durable and appealed
to those focused on authenticity in their music.
A poster for an exhibition of artist-made
machines combines the low type typography of a
handheld label machine with the
intentionally rough image of a tire.
The handmade and raw visuals convey energy
and an alternative experience.
Chantry's remarkable sense of composition
and scale works here, making a strong and clear poster.
Robynne Raye and Michael Strassburger
founded Modern Dog Design in the 1987.
Modern Dog employed many of the same techniques
of found imagery, raw typography, and a sense of immediacy.
Raye and Strassburger included a wry sense of
humor to much of the work and an
attitude of we like it and that's what matters.
The imagery was taken not from high-end photography
but from parts of low-end culture
such as a 1970s catalog from Sears.
There were multiple messages built in each piece.
These posters do not adhere to the Fuse Metaphor School,
Bauhaus Modernism, or typographic eclecticism.
Here less was not more, less was a bore.
The success of this work is its lack of self importance.
These are a femoral items that will be used and discarded.
They don't carry the weight of being high art or precious.
They are energetic, raw, and unapologetic.