In this example from Ephriam S. Well’s Rough on Rats (1886) advertisement, the trope of a rat represents death, impurity, racism, and eradication. There is a large dead rat at the top of the image and a very stereotypical and racist depiction of an Asian man eating the rat. This imagery is based on anti-asian sentiments…
Introduction The trope I chose for this assignment is the Gadsden Flag which reads “Don’t Tread On Me.” The three images of the variants that follow the original flag below are similar but different due to their design and usage in other settings. The rattlesnake is supposed to be a…
The United States Housing Authority asked Lester Beall to create a project. The association was also created by President Roosevelt in the 1930’s. The purpose of the United States Housing Authority was created to loan money to states for low cost construction. During this time Beall created the infamous poster titled Cross Out Slums. Beall…
These three posters were apart of a project that Lester Beall completed for the Rural Electrification Administration. This administration agency was founded in the year 1935 by President Roosevelt. The purpose of the agency was to generate electricity in rural areas that, at the time being, did not have the luxury of utilizing. The…
ART AGAINST AIDS is one of Friedman’s later works, made in 1987. This work was made for a coalition of artists and galleries to have an exhibition to raids money to benefit the American Foundation for AIDS Research. From what I can gather about Friedman and his personality, he most likely did this poster for…
Dan Friedman had his postgraduate education split between too very different graphic design schools, Hochschule für Gestaltung Ulm and Allgemeine Gewerbeschule Basel.[1] Ulm was a high modernist institution while Basel was more intuitive and exuberant.[2] While teaching at Yale, Friedman used his knowledge of the two extremes of design to help formulate projects for his…
This is the 18th Didacta/Eurodidac Worldformat poster for the convention on teaching aids. Wolfgang Weingart created designs for numerous books, catalogs and posters in his career, this series notably being for cultural and educational institutions. He remained one to test and experiment with new ways to “break” Swiss typography, and he took exploration very seriously.…
Marlene McCarty is one of several graphic design artists involved in a collaborative called Gran Fury. The projects these designers took part in were for advocating for the AIDS epidemic in the 1980’s, when the disease was slowly getting more attention. Gran Fury was the “most institutionalized group that used visual means to fight the…
In 1895, the Beggarstaffs were commissioned by Henry Irving to create a poster advertisement from A Chapter from Don Quixote, which was a one-act play Irving was starring in. Using their unique collage technique of pasting cut-out shapes of flat colors onto a larger piece of paper, the Beggarstaffs illustrated Don Quixote sitting dignified on…
Fortunato Depero was an Italian futurist painter, writer, sculptor, and graphic designer. He was born on March 30, 1892 in Fondo, Italy. “He grew up in Rovereto and it was here when he first began exhibiting his works, while also serving as an apprentice to a marble worker in 1910. He schooled at Scuola Reale…
Hamlet was a poster advertisement the Beggarstaffs designed in 1895 for Gordon Craig, who was their friend and also an emerging actor starring in the aforementioned play. This project was a big deal for the Beggarstaffs; not only would it be their first collaboration, but Craig was also the son of Ellen Terry, a famous…
Pictured above is a poster titled “Hydrodynamics”, designed by Erik Nitsche in 1955 for the General Dynamics Company. This was part of a campaign named “Atoms for Peace” that was meant to signify the company’s commitment to peace during their development of nuclear energy. The name of the campaign was titled after President Eisenhower’s speech…
This project, designed and created by Kate Moross, was for Vogue UK. They wanted her to draw the backdrop (seen in the featured image) for the Brit Awards in May 2010, and commissioned her based on completion. Each artist performing or hosting at the awards were photographed at the backdrop illustration and were featured in…
For the past four years, I have volunteered with the Riverrun International Film Festival held in Winston-Salem. Every year, the festival has a different and fresh graphic identity. During the entire duration of my volunteering experience, Elephant in the Room has been the studio that provided the graphic branding. I quickly grew to excitedly anticipate…
Noz W Wodzie, or Knife in the Water is a film directed by Roman Polanski, released in. The movie is about a couple on a road trip about to go sailing who run into a hitchhiker and invite him along. Tension builds between the hitchhiker and the man who invited him along because he starts…