Emma Burgess
Art History of Graphic Design
Peter Barr
11/6/18
Postmodern Pastiche
In the nineteen sixties the postmodern period began. During this period designers rejected
the Swiss typography. This project focuses on different illustrations in the book ‘The Story of
Graphic Design’ written by Patrick Cramise. For this assignment, elements from two
illustrations are integrated together as a whole to make a postmodern pastiche. The first
illustration I chose is the poster designed by Milton Glaser in nineteen sixty-six called ‘Dylan’ in
chapter seventeen on page two hundred and seventy-two. The second illustration is ‘This Year’s
Model’ album cover designed by Barney Bubbles in nineteen seventy-eight in chapter eighteen
on page two hundred and ninety-three.
Furthermore, the poster designed by Milton Glaser in nineteen sixty-six was a silhouette
of a self-portrait Dadaist Marcel Duchamp. Milton named the poster/silhouette Dylan instead of
Dadaist. There is very little detail of Dadaist’s features but was still recognizable by his fans. The
poster consists of a contrast between black and white to make the silhouette stand out from the
background. The hair is made up of colorful wavy lines. Glaser picked colors based off of
Islamic paintings which were “geared to serving a compelling concept rather than a certain
sensation”. The letters that made up the name Dylan are red/muted hue on the bottom right hand
corner. The letters just like the self-portrait are silhouettes. The features that are internal such as
the inside of the “D” are filled in so readers have to look at the outline of each letter to depict
what the word is.
Likewise, the second illustration is ‘This Year’s Model’ album cover designed by Barney
Bubbles in nineteen seventy-eight. Barney Bubbles aka Colin Fulcher took a photograph of a
singer posing behind a camera which looked like a misprint on the album cover. The band’s
name ‘Lvis Costello’ and the album’s title ‘His years Model’ are typed across the top and the
bottom of the photo were all shifted to the left. The letters are spaced and are orange. On the far
right there is a printer’s swatch of proofing colors which appears to be a mistake. The illustration
does not show this in the book, but he put on one side of the cover between the holding spiral the
words, ‘Special pressing No.003. Ring 434 32 32. Ask for Moira for your prize’. Those words
were misleading information. Also, the American record company had the album cover reprinted
so they could shift the image back to the right. Overall, the album cover looks like it was
misprinted due to Bubble’s wittiness.
In addition to, I used elements from the two illustrations to make my own postmodern
pastiche. I put the singer behind the camera image in the center of the page. I used the colorful
hair from Glaser’s poster and warped it to fit the head of the singer. On the far right side, I added
the printer’s swatches from Bubble’s album cover but changed some of the colors to match the
colors of the hair. This allowed fewer colors and a balance between the hair and the swatches to
create a sense of unity throughout the image. I took the word ‘Dylan’ from Glaser’s poster and
put it on the lower right hand corner. I did this because that was where it was on Glaser’s poster.
It also filled in some negative space in the background. The background is half black (top half)
and white (lower half) to create a contrast with the figure just like the poster. On the figure I
colored in his face and hands so there is little detail. This was a concept Glaser used on his
poster. I kept all the same colors the two designers used because those are elements/colors they
chose to use.
Work Cited
Cramsie, Patrick. The Story of Graphic Design: From The Invention of Writing to the Birth of
Digital Design. Abrams, 2010.
