Digital graphic design :

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Two Decades of Graphic Design in France

Michel Wlassikoff

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Graphic Design and Metamorphoses of the Spectacle Vivien Philizot

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Designing Research in Typography Alice Savoie

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Digital Graphic Design : The Margin Separating Knowns and Unknowns Anthony Masure

79

Drum Salmon Tombolo EngliSh VErSion

Graphisme en France

2014

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Centre National des Arts Plastiques

Graphisme en France

2014

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To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Graphisme en France, the Centre National des Arts Plastiques (CNAP, the national centre for visual arts) has decided to publish a special issue focusing on topics central to the field of graphic design. A nationwide event entitled “Graphisme en France 2014” has also been organised in conjunction with it, which, like the magazine, aims to unite and create a synergy between all those involved with graphic design in France.

The articles published here have been specially commissioned from young researchers who are also exhibition curators, publishers, teachers and designers. Their articles examine different approaches to graphic design within the current context. Alice Savoie, typeface designer, teacher and PhD student describes her practice, teaching and research within the field of typography. Vivien Philizot, graphic designer, teacher and PhD student looks to Ken Garland’s 1964 manifesto First Things First, and the various critiques that have been made of it, to reaffirm the fundamentally social nature of graphic design. Anthony Masure, digital design teacher and PhD student analyses the links between graphic work and digital tools, presenting the success stories resulting from this interaction. Contributors to the online review Tombolo provide us with textual and iconographic reflections on critical analysis within the graphic design field.

And lastly, Michel Wlassikoff, a graphic design historian, gives us an overview of the 19 issues of Graphisme en France and looks back at the magazine’s history and development over the years.

In keeping with its principle of inviting recently graduated graphic designers to design each issue, this anniversary issue has been confided to Charlotte Gauvin and Matthieu Meyer, graduates of the École Supérieure d’Art et Design in Grenoble-Valence. Their graphic solution consists of a rigorous but inventive page layout that has been modified for each article, in keeping with its structure and content, highlighting its special features.

This 20th issue, and the accompanying nationwide event, confirm the importance and scope of graphic design in today’s society, as well as the dynamism and range of work being undertaken within this field.

The forthcoming years will surely enable an ever-growing public to recognise and appreciate the quality of this work, and permit graphic designers to apply their know-how to ever-wider fields and researchers to enhance the analysis being carried out in this area of contemporary creativity, to which the CNAP attaches great importance.

Richard Lagrange, Director of the Centre National des Arts Plastiques

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Summary

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51 29 11

79 65

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11 In 1992, the second edition of Mois du Graphisme

(a bi-annual event held in Échirolles south of

Grenoble, southeast France) organised a symposium on venues promoting graphic design in France. It was here that the idea of publishing a joint calendar of events was first mooted, supported by all those present at the symposium.1 At that time, there were a number of relatively new events connected with graphic design, notably the Festival de Chaumont and the Mois du Graphisme in Échirolles itself, launched in 1989 and 1990 respectively; and some sort of coordination between them was starting to be needed. The symposium’s examination of the field’s lack of a permanent venue also contributed to this initiative, as did its recognition of the penury of information available for students, at a time when the various means of visual communication were under scrutiny in the wake of the disarray caused by the advent of the digital era.

Marsha Emanuel, head of the project for

‘graphic design in the public interest’ organised by the Délégation aux Arts Plastiques (DAP, the visual arts delegation), was present at the symposium and relayed the request to François Barré, the then delegate for the visual arts who, with his awareness of the graphic arts, viewed it favourably. Given that Marsha Emanuel’s assignment aimed to improve the way in which the State addressed its citizens, the initiative seemed entirely appropriate. Two years after the symposium, the calendar began to take shape. Marsha Emanuel asked me to draw up a resumé of the way graphic design was promoted in France. The introduction to the resulting 8-page

booklet recalls its purpose: “The idea for this publication was born in 1992, during the symposium at the Mois du Graphisme in Échirolles dedicated to venues promoting graphic design in France.

In creating it, the DAP hopes to satisfy the request put forward by a number of heads of institutions and organisations. This calendar is the first of its kind, and should subsequently be enlarged to give an exhaustive view of the annual events and initiatives dedicated to graphic design.” The venues listed, for the most part, were those run by people present at the Échirolles symposium, together with various institutions that occasionally featured graphic design, like the Arc en Rêve architectural centre in Bordeaux. A number of sites and events mentioned have disappeared since then, such as ‘Design à la Maison du Livre, de l’Image et du Son’ in Villeur- banne (which served as a model for promoting

Two Decades of

Graphic Design in France

1 Josée Chapelle, head of information at the MNAM-CCI (Musée National d’Art Moderne / Centre de Création Industrielle); Blandine Bardonnet, head of design at the Maison du Livre de l’Image et du Son in Villeurbanne; Anne-Claude Lelieur, head curator at the Bibliothèque Forney; Anne-Marie Sauvage, head of posters in the print department of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France; Marc Combier, president of the Rencontres Internationales de Lure; Alain Weill, managing director of the Festival de Chaumont and Diego Zaccaria, head of the Mois du Graphisme in Échirolles, in the presence of Georges Brévière, head of the Syndicat National des Graphistes (SNG), and Marsha Emanuel, head of the Délégation aux Arts Plastiques (DAP) project for ‘graphic design in the public interest’. The symposium was co-produced by the magazine Signes, whose director, Michel Wlassikoff, hosted the debates.

Michel Wlassikoff

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Michel Wlassikoff 12 Two Decades of Graphic Design in France 13 graphic design in France in terms of the quality

of its programming and publications), and the Salon de l’Éphémère and Graphisme dans la Rue (Salon for ephemeral creations and Graphic design in the street) in Fontenay-sous-Bois, which provided the opportunity for interesting encounters. Others have emerged since 1994, including Galerie 90 Degrés in Bordeaux and, perhaps most emblematic of all, Galerie Anatome, in Paris, which attempted to become a permanent venue entirely given over to graphic design. Despite the recognition it acquired, both in France and abroad, the gallery was obliged to close down in 2012. The comings and goings of graphic design venues, faithfully tracked by the journal Graphisme en France, throw into question the sustainability of projects, all too often borne by a mere handful of people and at the mercy of the departure of one of them.

Be that as it may, real progress has been made in the past two decades. Glancing at the successive calendars from this period gives one an idea of the ever-growing programmes of both Chaumont and Échirolles, as well as the quality of the exhibitions on show, and the import of the view they afforded

of international graphic design to an ever wider public. It also introduced new and important events such as ‘Une Saison Graphique’ in Le Havre, launched in 2008. However, many questions remained unanswered, including the lack of a permanent venue. From the outset, the Festival de Chaumont put itself forward as a candidate for this, but it was only recently that the parameters of the Centre International du Graphisme were agreed upon, enabling the future centre for conservation, exhibitions, research and teaching to prepare for its installation in its new and sizeable premises.

Similarly, in Échirolles, the creation of a centre for graphic design was mooted very early on, but only began to get underway, as a non-profit organisation, in 2001, in rather limited premises for the time being.

While the lack of initiatives in art schools was pointed out during the symposium in Échirolles, the first calendar mentioned events organised at the École Supérieure des Arts et de la Communication in Pau and the École Supérieure d’Art et de Design (ÉSAD) in Amiens. Twenty years on, these institutions have built upon these projects, together with others. From an early date, many art school teachers acted as faithful conduits for Graphisme en France within their schools – an important element in establishing the magazine’s reputation. Indeed, most of today’s graphic designers initially encountered Graphisme en France in their first year of studying graphic design.

Broadening

the Graphic Designer’s Remit

The creation of the events calendar was part of the more general development of graphic design within the cultural domain during the 1990s, together with its recognition by teaching establishments, encouraged, at that time, by the Délégation aux Arts Plastiques. The ‘project for graphic design in the public interest’, for example, had organised international encounters entitled “Le Signe et la citoyenneté” (Sign and Citizenship), in 1993, at the Palais de Tokyo, with the aim of defining the notion of “graphic design in the public interest” for both professionals and representatives of public bodies.

Le graphisme en France 1994

“Lieux et rencontres”

Author: Michel Wlassikoff Graphic design: Evelyne Deltombe Number of pages: 8 pages Size: 210 × 296 mm

In other words, the creative embodiment of messages originating from various sectors of State affairs and administrative bodies, conveying different contents and using different methods to those in commercial advertising. This distinction between graphic design and advertising was a major preoccu- pation during the 1990s, for the discipline was slow, in France, to define its boundaries and precise creative scope, with the exception of poster design which had been widely recognised for the past century. Meanwhile, with the advent of digital technology, graphic design was experiencing an expansion in its spheres of interest. The term “in the public interest” was dropped from the project’s title during the first decade of this century, at the same time as analysis and recognition of the discipline were progressing. For that matter, it was almost certainly necessary for graphic design to take this course, clearly distinguishing itself from advertising, in order to receive due recognition. Just as the creativity of graphic design in France within the cultural domain and the constant dialogue between graphic designers and all forms of creativity was boosted by the admission of graphic designers to the Maison des Artistes2 which enabled a large number of professionals to claim the status of ‘creator’.

Graphisme en France echoed this development whereby attention to the social and cultural significance of graphic design, which the notion “of public utility” also partially covered, expanded to cover all aspects of graphic design, over and above institutional commissions. While the work of ‘graphic design creators’ continued to be showcased, the perspective of the ‘generalist graphic designer’

that young professionals, in particular, were keen to claim, attracted much interest – a combination of both status (that of a freelance designer) and positioning (at the heart of the visual professions).

The generalist graphic designer has the skills necessary to meet the diverse needs of clients (from letterhead design to websites), and to engage with other professions (architects, designers, etc.).

While the journal’s main task was to make the venues and events related to graphic design better known to the public, and to establish a calendar, it was also deemed necessary for it to define the term

‘graphic designer’. The topic was introduced in the journal’s second issue, in 1995, in the form of a

16-page report distributed with Arts Info, a bi-monthly magazine published by the Centre National des Arts Plastiques (CNAP), France’s national visuel arts centre. The report consisted of the calendar together with articles explaining the various facets of graphic design and providing a retrospective review of its development in France.

These were completed by a look at the creator’s status as defined by the Maison des Artistes, as well as at a few outstanding public commissions3.

The report concluded with an evaluation by Jean-Pierre Greff, spokesperson for the think tank on graphic design education in France (created in 1992 by the DAP), which recommended, notably, the development of a “graphic design culture”4.

In Favour of a Graphic Design Culture

Creating a graphic design culture was one of the original aims of Graphisme en France. The title of the 1996 issue, “Une bibliothèque de référence”

(a reference library), was symbolic in this respect.

2 Founded by artists in 1952, in a spirit of mutual support, La Maison des Artistes today is France’s main association for artists. It fulfils general interest tasks, working for greater solidarity, providing professional accompaniment, advice and information. In 1995, the State granted it the authority to handle the Social Security for graphic designers and artists.

3 Visual identities for the Mairie de Chinon by the Atelier Fabrizi and for the Centre d’Art in Crestet by Jocelyn Cottencin.

4 Jean-Pierre Greff, Marsha Emanuel (ed.), L’Enseignement du graphisme en France.

Rapport de la mission de réflexion, Délégation aux Arts Plastiques, Ministry of Culture, Paris, 1996.

Arts info, no 73, 1995,

“Graphismes”

Author: Frédéric Massard Graphic design: Daniel Perrier, Emmanuelle Vacher Number of pages: 16 pages Size: 199 × 296 mm

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Michel Wlassikoff 14 Two Decades of Graphic Design in France 15 Publications on the subject were scant in France

compared to the plethora of magazines and books available in the English-speaking world. Indeed, the books making up this ideal library were mostly in English, even without the presence of ‘a list of websites consulted’, which did not exist at that time.

They form a coherent body that is still topical, from the general history of graphic design to theoretical and practical studies of its sources, typography and character design, and its scope of interven-

tion – visual identity, signage, etc. The journal also presented a number of specialist libraries, as well as those “libraries with an interest in graphic design”.

The following year, Graphisme en France expanded the reference library with a list of new works – an initiative that has been perpetuated ever since.

Almost every issue spoke out in favour of a

“graphic design culture”, particularly during the early years of this century. “Forger une culture graphique” (Devising a graphic design culture), in 2002, took the form of an invitation to explore graphic design in all its complexity – not just its most

‘convincing’ forms, but the entire process necessary to the creation of a visual identity, a line of posters, a collection of books, a media slogan, or a break-

“Une bibliothèque de référence”

Author: Michel Wlassikoff Graphic design: Roxane Jubert Number of pages: 12 pages Size: 210 × 297 mm

“Espoirs / Interrogations”

Author: Michel Ellenberger Graphic design: Pierre di Sciullo Number of pages: 12 pages Size: 210 × 297 mm

Graphisme en France 2002

“Forger une culture graphique”

Author: Michel Wlassikoff Graphic design: Sylvain Enguehard Number of pages: 24 pages Size: 200 × 268 mm

“Graphisme et édition”

Author: Catherine de Smet Graphic design: Cyril Cohen Number of pages: 24 pages Size: 199 × 260 mm

flash for television. The author once again insisted upon the absence of a historical footing that would enable the sought after culture to be firmly linked to widely shared references.

This concern was pursued in 2003. The graphic culture that Graphisme en France so wished for, and towards which the journal participated, was examined by Catherine de Smet in a report dedicated to publishing. “Now more than ever, we need to work towards the development of a visual culture in France, and the re-appropriation of our graphic design past constitutes an essential stage in this move, to be undertaken with urgency,” the author pointed out, highlighting the importance of competitions for finely-produced books – a tradition that has disappeared in France but remains well-rooted in Germany, Holland and Switzerland.

Graphisme en France 2004 aimed to highlight the significance of history for a discipline, as a measure of its recognition, a basis for understanding its development, and a source of inspiration for contempo-

rary creativity. The writer Roxane Jubert noted that the history of graphic design was initially composed in the United States where, in 1983, the First Sympo- sium on the History of Graphic Design gave voice to Massimo Vignelli’s exhortation: We can no longer remain in such a state of ignorance”. Since then, English publications have more than amply contributed to shaping and broadcasting the history of graphic design as a whole. On the French side, the topic remained little known and subject to wildly contradictory interpretation.

In 2006, Graphisme en France provided a teaching aid in the form of a timeline – a graphic version of an

“illustrated chronology of graphic design in France in the 20th century”. The ‘chart’ provided a glimpse of the most important examples of work with regard to artistic movements, developments in design and graphic design on an international level, and the main technical innovations. The document was widely distributed within teaching establishments, and played an important role in making the younger generation of professionals aware of the discipline’s history.

“L’histoire, une perspective d’avenir”

Author: Roxane Jubert

Graphic design: Wijntje Van Rooijen Number of pages: 44 pages Size: 140 × 210 mm

“Chronologie du graphisme en France au XX e siècle”

Author: Michel Wlassikoff Graphic design: Laurent Mészáros Number of pages: 20 pages Size: 220 × 280 mm

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Michel Wlassikoff 16 Two Decades of Graphic Design in France 17 This succession of manifestos aimed at creating

a graphic design culture was to have a number of tangible results. Research, which was partially supported by the CNAP thanks to measures counte- nancing art theory and criticism, resulted in several key publications over the following years which were important both from a historical approach and from the theory and practice of graphic design. In addition, a competition for the most finely-produced book in French was organised by a non-profit organisation and supported by the Ministry for Culture and Communication; and lastly, history was introduced into many art schools.

The question was further examined in Catherine de Smet’s article “Visible / Invisible” in Graphisme en France 2007, which stated: “History is built with archives and collections, and current practice cannot develop in ignorance of its origins.” Institutions, libraries and resource centres were called upon to single out their ‘graphic design’ corpus to promote research. As for the recognition of the heritage value

of graphic design, it appeared to suffer from the absence of an acquisition policy on behalf of the major cultural institutions. Although exhibitions in this domain had increased in the last decade of the 20th century, encouraging the collection of graphic works, and the archives of public commissions of graphic design were handed over to the Fonds National d’Art Contemporain (FNAC, the National

Graphisme en France 2010 – 2011

“À l’épreuve du temps”

Authors: Jérôme Denis, David Pontille, Emily King et Véronique Vienne Graphic design: Atelier 25 (Capucine Merkenbrack, Chloé Tercé) Number of pages: 40 pages Size: 170 × 243 mm

“Visible / Invisible”

Author: Catherine de Smet Graphic design: Loran Stosskopf Number of pages: 36 pages Size: 166 × 225 mm

Fund for Contemporary Art), these measures proved to be way below those taken by “New York’s MoMa, Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum, Zurich’s Museum für Gestaltung and London’s Design Museum [which] house coherent graphic design collections open to recent work.”

Finally, the report “À l’épreuve du temps” (Put to the test of time) in Graphisme en France 2010–2011 touched upon an issue closely linked to that of founding a graphic culture, namely ‘how does a creative work become part of our heritage?’ Sociolo- gists Jérôme Denis and David Pontille recalled the fiasco of the Pompidou Centre logo designed by Jean Widmer that nearly disappeared during a change of graphic image, subsequently returning front stage as part of the collections of the Musée National d’Art Moderne. They concluded with the development of the signage for the Paris metro, now part of the RATP’s (the Parisian transport network) heritage. For her part, Emily King analysed what motivates curators and museum directors to “form collections”, drawing particularly upon examples from MoMa and London’s Design Museum.

Graphisme en France ceaselessly encouraged public institutions to favour a policy of acquisition, which began to be heeded in a more significant manner during the first decade of this century. Henceforth, acquisitions included printed and digital works, and the CNAP procured its first graphic design works in 2010.

The Graphic Design Profession

The “role of listening, advising, recommending, and liaising between those involved in graphic design and public commissions” carried out by the graphic design project within the DAP led it to examine the question of commissions. This formed the subject of the report in the 2001 issue of Graphisme en France.

This unusual approach calls forth one of the essential elements of the definition of graphic design:

“To design with purpose within the context of a commission”5. And it opened the field to deliberation on the legal framework of graphic design practice and its ethics. Indeed, that was also the theme

“La commande”

Author: Hugues Leroy Graphic design: Jean-Marc Ballée Number of pages: 20 pages Size: 210 × 279 mm 5 Definition adopted by the États Généraux

de la Culture (convention on culture) in 1987.

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Michel Wlassikoff 18 Two Decades of Graphic Design in France 19 of the Festival de Chaumont that year, with its title

“Qui commande ?” (with the double meaning of ‘Who’s commissioning?’ and ‘Who’s giving the orders?’). What rules should be applied to ensure the smooth execution of commissions? This chal- lenge applies equally today. The problems noted at that time unfortunately persist: the improper use of competitions, the absence of compensation for projects, insufficient if not inadequate specifications… A long list of bad practice that the advent of digital technology would appear to have exacer- bated, clients ascribing graphic designers with tasks that would not have been their remit previously.

“Clients reflect their specifications,” the report

concluded. The responsibilities of graphic designers, most of whom are unaware of their rights, were also called to task. François Caspar, chairman of the Alliance Française des Designers6, wrote a report on this subject entitled “Profession Graphiste”

(the graphic designer’s profession) for the 2005 issue of Graphisme en France. The report noted a general decline in quality of commissions, and of the working conditions of graphic designers, providing both practitioners and clients with information on legal and fiscal matters. It underlined the creative status of the graphic designer’s work and the possi- bility of adhering to the special social security coverage provided by the Maison des Artistes. The creator’s rights and priorities were listed, ranging from rules governing job tenders and rates normally applied, to social security coverage and intellectual property, via the drawing up of estimates and contracts. The report served as a well-argued call for an ethical code for commissions, notably within the public sector, as well as inciting graphic designers and clients to familiarise themselves with, and respect, the law on intellectual property in an era of widespread diffusion of images.

These publications had tangible repercussions for graphic designers. They marked a step towards the recognition of their professional status, which encouraged them to understand the legal framework of their job better, and their relationship to commissions. A code of good conduct for clients was produced, notably within the cultural domain, the application of which still requires verification today.

These led to the publication, in 2014, of a guide to graphic design commissions produced by the CNAP in conjunction with the Alliance Française des Designers, in order for “the recognition and merit of the profession to go hand in hand with the estab- lishment of good codes of practice by clients, notably public bodies.”7

The Pros and Cons of Digital Technology

The 1997 report entitled “Espoirs / interrogations”

(Hopes / questions), consisting of interviews with graphic designers, illustrated the problem of gaining recognition for their discipline. The apprehension

“Profession graphiste”

Author: François Caspar Graphic design: Frédéric Teschner Number of pages: 32 pages Size: 220 × 280 mm

of institutions to commit to graphic design was largely to blame, both with regard to commissions and to promoting graphic culture. While the anxiety surrounding the advent of digital technology was apparent, to the extent that “problems appeared to be coupled with change within the profession itself”, many graphic designers decried the ‘easy effects’

generated by graphic software with which people were infatuated at that time.

In a report entitled “Graphisme et informatique, rapide bilan d’une liaison durable” (Graphic design and computers: a quick review of a lasting relation- ship) in Graphisme en France 1998, the role of graphic design within this new era was examined. While the advantages of technological advances, especially in terms of page layout, were recognised, other issues were touched upon such as the additional financial and conceptual burdens that graphic designers had to take on board when faced with clients who tended to treat them like technicians.

The habits ascribed to the use of computers were once again castigated and a general scepticism with regard to multimedia was observed – one that the future has confirmed – but the breakthrough of websites was not yet on the agenda. Digital technology would appear to have been endured rather than openly embraced in an enthusiastic manner, and brought with it fundamental generational issues such as teachers being troubled by the fact that students had their own computers…

Digital technology was to be found in all subsequent issues of the journal, but it was not until 2012 that Graphisme en France dedicated a new report to the subject, “code <> outils <> design” (code <> tools

<> design) that brought together the views of many different contributors. The time lag between the

6 The Alliance Française des Designers (AFD) took over from the Syndicat National des Graphistes (SNG) in 2003, and expanded its remit to include “all disciplines of professional designers – graphic, spatial and product – who wished to understand the legal, social and fiscal aspects of design in order to develop businesses that could draw upon the very best professional practices, and who chose to join forces in order to take concrete action in defence of the economic and social interests of their profession as designers.”

7 Extract from the speech given by Aurélie Filippetti, Minister of Culture and Communication, given at the launch of the “Graphisme en France 2014” year-long event on Monday 13 January 2014.

“Graphisme et informatique, rapide bilan d’une liaison durable”.

Author: Michel Wlassikoff Graphic design: Jeanne Verdoux Number of pages: 10 pages Size: 201 × 285 mm

“code <> outils <> design”

Authors: Kevin Donnot, Annick Lantenois, Casey Reas et Chandler McWilliams

Graphic design: Pentagon (Guillaume Allard, Johann Aussage, Vanessa Goetz)

Number of pages: 52 pages 10 000 variations Size: 165 × 235 mm

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Michel Wlassikoff 20 Two Decades of Graphic Design in France 21 1997 report and the 2012 one was too great and

their methods too divergent to speak of a follow-up.

The speed with which digital technology developed placed the first firmly within the realm of history and the second within that of the future, represent- ing the passage from imposed digital technology to a language reformulated by graphic designers themselves. Designing websites, which had not been touched upon a decade before because the field scarcely existed, was henceforth considered as a specific area of graphic design.

Given the globalised standards of software manufacturers, is it possible for a graphic designer to develop his own tools and if so, to what end?

This was the angle launched in 2012. It was also examined within art schools, as Annick Lantenois pointed out, the different ways of appropriating digital language by artists and designers being one of today’s major creative challenges. By way of a temporary conclusion, Casey Reas, a former pupil of John Maeda and co-founder of Processing (a simple graphic design language for computers), and Chandler McWilliams cited achievements by designers who create their own tools and incorporate this aspect into their projects.

The Importance of Typography

The sixth issue of Graphisme en France, in 1999, entitled “Le caractère singulier de la typographie française” (The singular character of French typography), focused on typography. Written by Muriel Paris, it examined the reasons for the late development of French creativity within this domain, as well as the various initiatives which, since the late 1980s, had begun to make up for this time lag, notably within education. The founding of the Atelier National de Création Typographique (ANCT, which became the Atelier National de Recherche Typographique, ANRT, in 1996), with support from the Centre National des Arts Plastiques (CNAP), was exemplary in this respect, encouraging young graphic designers and typographers to continue their studies to further their expertise.

The majority of type designers to emerge in the 1990s came from there, as did the typographic diploma course (DSAA Typo) at the Estienne art school in

“Le caractère singulier de la typographie française”

Author: Muriel Paris

Graphic design: Isabelle Guillaume, Pierre Peronnet

Number of pages: 1 page Size: 170 × 245 mm

Paris, created in 1992 by former interns and guest speakers at ANCT8. Ten years after the publication of Muriel Paris’ text, Graphisme en France chose to review the subject once again, this time under the broad title “Typographie”. The report featured several appraisals of the previous decade, during which typography in France had made great strides.

Well-known designers like Pierre di Sciullo and Jean François Porchez had carried out important research in this domain, while graphic designers popularised the use of typographic characters for artistic purposes, following the example of the Atelier M / M (Paris) and Philippe Apeloig (the first graphic designer to be appointed a residency at the Villa Medici to develop his creative alphabets), and then the H5 group and the Studio deValence. Faced with the profusion of forms and the sheer scale of webcast, as well as of counterfeiting and pillage, Peter Bil’ak drew people’s attention to the question of intellectual property, drawing a parallel with the music business which was forced to find new ways of adapting to the upheaval caused by digital technology.

And lastly, Thomas Huot-Marchand evaluated the training available in art schools, aided by the creation of options dedicated to typography. In fact the journal drew up an inventory of the different training courses available, together with residencies and research allowances granted by the CNAP which several designers and projects dedicated to typography had benefited from over the preceding years. While these two reports afforded a mere glimpse of this vast and, as yet, insufficiently- documented discipline, they illustrated a continual interest in typography – graphic design’s founding discipline – and participated in its revival.

Teaching

The way in which graphic design is taught was a regular topic in subsequent issues of Graphisme en France, and events occurring in art schools were featured in the calendar, together with the founda-

“Typographie”

Authors: Peter Bil’ak, Jean-Baptiste Levée, Thomas Huot-Marchand, Michel Wlassikoff

et Catherine de Smet Graphic design: Atelier Müesli (Léa Chapon, Mytil Ducomet) Number of pages: 40 pages Size: 190 × 268 mm

8 The typographic diploma course (DSAA Typo) at the Estienne art school in Paris was set up by Franck Jalleau, a typeface designer, Michel Derre, a calligrapher, and Margaret Gray, a graphic designer and typographer.

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Michel Wlassikoff 22 Two Decades of Graphic Design in France 23 tion and development of student competitions in

Chaumont. However, it was not until the 2008–2009 issue that a report entitled “Apprendre et désappren- dre” (Learning and unlearning) was dedicated to it.

After a short retrospective of the way in which this teaching had evolved throughout the world and in France, Catherine de Smet pointed out that the very real progress made in France nonetheless remained fragile, not least because of the indeterminacy of the courses which tended to be grouped together under the title of visual communication, a hotchpotch notion that had already been criticised in the DAP’s report on the teaching of graphic design in France published in 1996. Linked to this study of a ‘recipi- ent’ inappropriate to today’s needs, was the question of digital technology, which tends to modify content, doing away with the barriers between static and moving images. French courses soon reached

a level of excellence on a European scale, particularly within the field of typography. In keeping with the Atelier National de Recherche Typographique (ANRT), which had had its status overhauled by then, the experiments undertaken at ENSAD (Paris’

decorative arts school) and ESAD Amiens (school of art and design) were cited as examples, as was the viability of the top-level typography curriculum at the École Estienne. Since the 2008–2009 study, major developments have been recorded, notably the introduction of a ‘graphic design’ option within art schools, replacing that of ‘visual communication’, which will, in all likelihood, form the basis of a full report by Graphisme en France at some stage in the future.

Different Applications of Graphic Design

Graphisme en France 2003 initiated an analysis of different aspects of graphic design, starting with publishing. Despite the distance between graphic design and the major trends of modernism during the 1920s and 1930s, graphics as used in publishing had shown their colours, notably through book clubs, with design teams like Pierre Faucheux and Massin. Henceforth, in answer to the threat of digital technology, the book world avoided a downward spiral by taking a gamble on quality, in which the graphic design input played an important part.

As the report stated: “While it is necessary to fight to avoid publishing without publishers […] becoming the sole means of book production in the world, it is equally important to avoid the mistake of publishing without graphic designers.” This assertion seemed to apply to all aspects of graphic design.

In almost total contrast to publishing, Graphisme en France 2013 expanded its range of study to cover signage. Starting with book design – the original melting pot for typeface design – aimed at the individual, the focus moved on to considerably more recent processes in the public sphere that were continually developing and changing, within which typography played a determining role. The sociolo- gists Jérôme Denis and David Pontille reminded us of the signage created for Roissy airport and the RER – sanctioned models in France – by Adrian Frutiger and Roger Tallon respectively, underlining the

“Apprendre et désapprendre”

Author: Catherine de Smet Graphic design: Dasbat

(Myriam Barchechat, Anne Denastas) Number of pages: 38 pages Size: 201 × 245 mm

importance of interdisciplinary work. However, the profusion of urban signs and ever-growing number of regulations, particularly with regard to public security, required considerable feats of imagination on behalf of graphic designers to come up with projects that were both functional and aesthetically innovative. Rafael Soares Gonçalves discussed the

“One law for a clean city” experiment carried out in Sao Paulo which, since 2006, had forbidden the use of advertising posters, doing away with thousands of hoardings, regulating authorised billposting (administrative, cultural, political) and reorganising street signs, etc. And lastly, Vanina Pinter described her survey of graphic designers working on different types of commissions: road signs, airport signs, signs for towns, historic sites, cultural institutions, and even signs for events. These studies and ques- tioning illustrated the importance of graphic design as a vector in the fight against visual pollution, in accordance with the concern for a sustainable visual environment, and as a discipline with ever-wider ramifications and increased capacity.

Graphic Design in Europe

Graphisme en France 2000 provided a European overview, focused on Germany, The Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Switzerland. As the editor pointed out: “In these countires, design exists, the press talks about it, historians and critics do too, reviews abound (frequently interdisciplinary), and publishing is flourishing. Once again, there is a radical divide between north and south Europe …”

Looking back, one can but moderate this appraisal:

while English-language publications still largely prevail, the vitality of French graphic design had no reason to envy its European neighbours during this period. This report was first and foremost of interest for presenting those institutions that supported and promoted graphic design: from Icograda (Interna- tional Council of Graphic Design Associations) to BNO (Beroepsorganisatie Nederlandse Ontwerpers, an association of Dutch designers), as well as outstanding venues and initiatives such as the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, and competitions for the most beautiful German, Dutch and Swiss books – events unknown in France at that time.

“Signalétiques”

Authors: Jérôme Denis, David Pontille, Rafael Soares Gonçalves

et Vanina Pinter

Graphic design: Atelier Tout va bien (Anna Chevance, Mathias Reynoird) Number of pages: 64 pages Size: 163 × 240 mm

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Michel Wlassikoff 24 Two Decades of Graphic Design in France 25 Was Graphisme en France set to become a publica-

tion combining Europe’s main graphic design trends?

In theory, the answer was bound to be affirmative, but, in reality, when a broad selection of graphic designers, heads of institutions and analysts were asked about the outcome of Graphisme en France, none of them came up with such an outcome.9 On the contrary, in their view, the project was and remains totally French and derives from the special relationship, if not exception, that the French State has with culture. There is, moreover, no other project like it in any European country. In this respect,

Graphisme en France is redolent with symbolism – that of a signal addressed by the State to the discipline’s practitioners, cultural managers, commentators and analysts. For most of the graphic designers ques- tioned, the journal’s role is to continue making public bodies aware of the importance and purpose of graphic design, and, consequently, of the exemplary nature of institutional commissions.

Towards a Responsible Use of Images

In addition to its symbolic aspect and exemplarity, Graphisme en France is perceived by those graphic designers and heads of cultural institutions ques- tioned during the autumn 2013 survey as an excellent vehicle for analysis, affording a global vision of events in France and overseas. Furthermore, its website aims to embrace and improve the diffusion of topical information.

The pertinence and calibre of its articles on subjects rarely touched upon in magazines and websites are repeatedly referred to. Its reports are circulated and talked about; they are viewed as references, and provide each issue of the journal with an analysis and outlook on contemporary issues. Graphic designers took good note of the manifestos constituted by several reports from the early years of this century warning of the discipline’s lack of recognition. Most of them felt directly implicated by the reports on commissions, on the status of the graphic designer and on intellectual property, so much so that they have frequently requested the journal to explore these topics further and assess their development in future issues.

While the originality of the journal’s content and layout match expectations of what graphic design should be, the active concern of graphic designers for further investigation of digital technology requires more substantial studies and references, and considerable inventivity in its different means of diffusion.

Graphisme en France is seen as an unusual graphic object and its design, which is confided to a different designer every year, forms an additional element of interest. It is a quality publication that seeks to surprise, and sometimes succeeds

“Le graphisme et l’Europe”

Author: Jocelyne de Pass Graphic design: Laurent Mercier, Agnès Rousseaux

Number of pages: 12 pages Size: 210 × 297 mm

in so doing, and invites us to admire the virtuosity and inventivity of its designers. As it so happens, a number of criticisms have been aimed at the illegibility of some issues and the choice of rather too ‘trendy’ options at the expense of content.

The educational role of Graphisme en France is universally recognised, and all teachers and external participants in art schools and other establishments refer to the use they make of it. Teachers refer to it when preparing their courses, for everything from introductory approach to text analysis, and encour- age their students to read it.

Its uniqueness as an object, as well as its edito- rial qualities, has led to it becoming a collector’s item for many people. According to Étienne Hervy, artistic director of the Festival de Chaumont, which, in 2007, included Graphisme en France in its exhibi- tion “Impressions Françaises”, the journal is

“an example of the value of long-term action and, through its choice of graphic designers and authors, the result of open-minded exchange with graphic design today”.

Many practitioners have suggested, in respect of “widening the field” of graphic design, that the analysis backed by Graphisme en France should be widened to cover all aspects of the discipline, both in terms of commissions and the range of work executed. In this respect, the last report on signage was very favourably received. The paradox of graphic design has resulted in advertising posters, subway maps and break-flashes for television becoming part of the most important public collections in the world. While the cultural domain remains, in France, one of the most important sources of commissions, it would be wrong to overlook the quality of those commissions emanat- ing from the written press and the internet, or from the industrial and service sectors. Furthermore, although the artistic value of graphic design has benefited from gradual recognition, its economic importance deserves to be more fully appreciated.

Graphic design plays a part in creating a public, in the appeal exercised by a particular collection of works and in the right way of conveying industrial products; and it facilitates them on social networks.

This role is growing, particularly as measures like BSR, Business for Social Responsibility, can work in its favour if they include the quality of the visual

environment. These suggestions from graphic designers usually accompany requests to increase the circulation among public and private deci- sion-makers, local and national representatives, and associations and organisations concerned with “the image ecology”.

9 Approximately 60 graphic designers and heads of cultural organisations were contacted between September and November 2013 to discuss their view of Graphisme en France and their vision of its future.

Translated by Philippa Richmond

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26

Michel Wlassikoff is a historian of graphic design and typography.

He is a history graduate from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) and teaches in several art and design schools in France and abroad: the École Supérieure d’Art et de Design in Reims, the École Nationale

Supérieure de la Photographie in Arles, the École Estienne in Paris, the École Supérieure d’Arts Graphiques (ESAG) Penninghen in Paris and the Haute École d’Art et de Design (HEAD) in Geneva.

He was the director of Signes, an authoritive review within the graphic design field, from 1991-1998, and has written for the most important graphic design magazines in France, like Étapes, and abroad. His published work includes Signes de la collaboration et de la résistance, Autrement, 2002; Histoire du graphisme en France, Les Arts Décoratifs / Dominique Carré Éditeur, 2008 (2005); Exposer–design graphique, Éditions du Panama, 2006;

Mai 68 : L’affiche en héritage,

Éditions Alternatives, 2008; and

Futura : Une gloire typographique,

Éditions Norma, 2011. He was

a contributor to the website

www.garamond.culture.fr,

and has also curated a number

of exhibitions.

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29

Graphic Design

and Metamorphoses of the Spectacle

A few footnotes to “Ten Footnotes to a Manifesto”

Fifty years ago, in January 1964,

Ken Garland published a manifesto in The Guardian with the title “First Things First”, co-signed by 22 designers. The author of the manifesto denounced the shift of this still emerging profession at the service of a capitalist, western lifestyle and market economy, in this, the (M)Ad Men era.1 Written in England, centre of the industrial

revolutions and social struggles of the 19th century observed by Marx and the birthplace of design, the manifesto virulently condemned the part of the profession who were wasting “time and effort” on creating demand for “trivial purposes”, and campaigned for a healthy and ethical graphic design practice which would focus on more fundamental questions, whether environmental, social or cultural.

In autumn 1999, 30 years later, the text was reworked by the critic Rick Poynor and published in the magazine Adbusters2, co-signed this time by 33 designers including Zuzana Licko, Jonathan Barnbrook, Irma Boom, Armand Mevis, Ellen Lupton and various others. Re-actualised, this “First Things First 2000” manifesto reaffirmed the urgency of a common awareness that the first manifesto had failed to bring about.

A few months later, Michael Bierut, of the design firm Pentagram, communicating the numerous criticisms addressed to the signatories of the new manifesto, penned a text in I.D. magazine with the title

“Ten Footnotes to a Manifesto” in which he pointed out the contradic- tions of an overly virtuous ideological position being sustainable in a globalised economy.3

Vivien Philizot

“The windmill gives you society with the feudal lord;

the steam mill, society with the industrial capitalist.”

Karl Marx, The Poverty of Philosophy, 1847.

“We put MTV into East Germany, and the next day the Berlin wall fell.”

Sumner Redstone, Chairman of Viacom International.

“You don’t have Marx.

You’ve got a bottle.”

Megan to Don, Mad Men, American television series by Matthew Weiner, Season 6, Episode 5, AMC, 2012.

“Finally, the most shameful moment came when computer science, marketing, design and advertising, all the disci- plines of communication, seized hold of the word concept itself and said:

‘This is our concern, we are the creative ones, we are the ideas men!”

Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari, Qu’est-ce que la philosophie ?, Éditions de Minuit, 1991.

2 The text was also published at the time in five other design publications: Eye, Blueprint, Emigre, AIGA Journal of Graphic Design and Items. See Matthew Soar: “The First Things First Manifesto and the Politics of Culture Jamming: Toward a Cultural Economy of Graphic Design and Advertising”, in Cultural Studies, 16 (4), 2002, pp. 570-592. See also Rick Poynor, “First Things Next”, Obey The Giant: Life in the Image World, Birkhauser Verlag, Berlin, 2001, pp. 141-150.

3 Michael Bierut, “Ten Foot- notes to a Manifesto” I.D., 2000, reprinted in Seventy-Nine Short Essays On Design, Michael Bierut, Princeton Architectural Press, 2007, pp. 52-60. All following quotations from Michael Bierut are from this text.

1 400 copies of the manifesto were initially printed inde- pendently before it was reprinted in The Guardian on 24 January 1964 thanks to the support of Caroline Wedgwood Benn. See:

“First Things First”, Obey The Giant: Life in the Image World, Rick Poynor, Birkhauser Verlag, Berlin, 2001, pp. 136-140.

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Vivien Philizot 30 Graphic Design and Metamorphoses of the Spectacle 31

“Dire le monde et le transcrire”, Communication et langages 76 (1988), pp. 68-77.

From the Don Drapers of the 1950s to the Armand Mevises of the 2010s, the practice of graphic design changed profoundly, and even became more democratic thanks to the development of digital practices and tools that made it possible. We note however that the questions asked by the 1964 manifesto continued to stir up the field of graphic design over the following 50 years, more or less overtly depending on the period. In so far as the accusation from 1964 remains current, it is by endeavouring to define what is at stake ethically and ideologically for graphic design, thereby contributing to its contours, if not its definition. This history invites us to examine the legitimacy of the distinction between “cultural” and “commercial”, about the

“division of the work of meaning” as the operative mode of design since Bauhaus (if we agree with Jean Baudrillard’s Marx), about the metamorphoses of advertising processes and about the extension of the field of design into the realm of existence (as prophesised by László Moholy-Nagy) particular to postmodernism.

Through these footnotes to Bierut’s ten footnotes, we are not commenting on the history and origin of these questions. We are simply advancing their relevance today and attempting to answer these questions by reaffirming the social nature of the unique activity that is graphic design, which consists, to quote the theorist Abraham Moles, of “updating the symbolic balance between the environmental given and future expectations”4

5 First Things First.

6 Quotation from Rick Poynor, “First Things Next”, Obey The Giant, op. cit., p. 150.

7 Alain Findeli, “The Eclipse of the object in design project theories”, a paper given at the 6th International Colloquium of the European Academy of Design, 2005.

8 Jean-Luc Godard, Two Or Three Things I Know About Her, film, 1 hour 35 mins, 1967.

A Critique of Criticism, Elements of Methodology

The manifesto and its critical legacy advance the same principal and adopt the same viewpoint: that of the designer and his free will.

This of course is perfectly logical, because most of these texts are written by designers, including historians and critics such as Rick Poynor. But if a manifesto results in this position as much as it requires it, its critique – and on a second level the critique of its critique – should, in the first place, attempt to objectify the positions taken by relating them to the authors’ interests and perhaps by asking the question

‘who designed the designers?’, as a counterweight to the subjectivist position that presides over all manifestos.

In this way we would learn a lot about Michael Bierut – he holds a degree from the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture and Art in 1980 and, from 1990–2000, worked at Vignelli Associates before moving to Pentagram. We would also learn about the diversity of his clients (several universities and schools, a few private businesses) and of his work as a critic, etc. Lastly, despite these ten very cutting footnotes to the manifesto, it is important to remember that Bierut ended up signing it in early 2001, admitting that “a good manifesto describes strong contrasts” and that FTF5 “launched a worldwide debate that has elevated our profession, and, by challenging us to respond, has made us better.”6

Studying designers and their production invites us at the same time to try to bring the object of design closer to us. The manifesto interrogates something the nature of which is an ethical matter, but this thing only shows itself through phenomenal manifestations of the aesthetic kind, which appear obvious. To eclipse the object – to take up the idea developed by Alain Findeli on the subject of research in design7 – is perhaps to try to find, through the fog of signs and forms, what all design practice aims at: the truth of the subject, what defines its life and its experiences. The world conceived by design is not made up of objects but of relationships to objects. In other words, the products of design are not what design produces.

Echoing Moholy-Nagy’s idea of “design for life”, the narrator of Godard’s film Two or Three Things I Know About Her says to us: “Maybe an object is what allows us to link, to pass from one subject to another, and therefore to live in society.”8 Perhaps the objects of graphic design are also a means to link and to unlink, on another scale, the same one that the media authorises and to which they owe their existence.

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Vivien Philizot 32 Graphic Design and Metamorphoses of the Spectacle 33 9 Rick Poynor, “First Things

Next”, Obey The Giant, op. cit., p. 145.

10 “First Things First 2000”.

11 Pierre Bourdieu, The Rules of Art: Genesis and Structure of the Literary Field, Stanford University Press, Stanford, 1992, p. 142.

The Pure and the Impure, a Romantic Opposition

Bierut’s first criticism attempted to disqualify the signatories,

referring to them as a “[. . .] group of eunuchs making vows of chastity”,

“specialised in things extraordinarily beautiful for the cultural elite”.

However, as Rick Poynor reminds us, “most of the signatories have years of commercial experience”9, vouched for indirectly the numer- ous criticisms denouncing the hypocrisy of an ambivalent position that is tantamount to “spitting in the soup”.

Nonetheless, I will not try to find out if such and such has but limited experience of “real life”, as Bierut claims, for this is really not important. What should be remembered, however, is that these attacks are all based on an initial opposition – one that runs through the entire

“First Things First” manifesto – between so-called “cultural” design and

“commercial” design.

Michael Bierut wisely reminds us that Bernhard, Lissitzky, Cassandre, and right up to Paul Rand, were all unaware of this opposition.

We know that the intention of avant-garde movements, subsequently taken up by modernism, was derived from a holistic approach to design, and encompassed every aspect of the individual. However, Bierut is well aware of the major post-War changes arising from the perfection of the rational indexation of visual communication techniques on capitalist production, which reduced the “flowering of contemporary life”, as described in a well-intentioned fashion by Blaise Cendrars in a “reductive and immeasurably harmful code of public discourse”10 It was at this moment that advertising as such was born, that Don Draper moved into Madison Avenue and that, in reaction, the axiologi- cal dimension and moral imperative that henceforth underpinned the categories assembled in the manifesto were really expressed.

By feeding off the effects of porosity between art and design, this opposition, moreover, became more radical by taking up the social logic observed by Pierre Bourdieu in his analysis of the literary field in the 19th century. Although the historical determinism may be totally different, we recognise in this lucid analysis the contours of the “designer as creator”, opposed to the laws of the market and to the related forms of design. “At one pole, there is the anti-‘economic’

economy of pure art. Founded on the obligatory recognition of the values of disinterestedness and on the denegation of the ‘economy’

(of the ‘commercial’) and of ‘economic’ profit (in the short term), it privileges production and its specific necessities […] orientated to the accumulation of symbolic capital, a kind of “economic” capital denied but recognised and hence legitimate – a veritable credit, and capable of assuring, under certain conditions and in the long term, ‘economic’

profits.”11 Clearly design is intrinsically linked with the economy and the field of power but the conception of disinterested practice as negation of the “commercial” perhaps allows for a better understanding of how the figure of the ‘creator’ has been constructed, and the

12 Hal Foster, Design and Crime: And Other Diatribes, Verso, New York, 2002, p. 21.

13 Naomi Klein, No Logo, Pan Macmillan, London, 1999, p. 29.

14 Jean Baudrillard, The System of Objects, Verso, New York, 1996, p. 167.

15 Mad Men, “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes”, Season 1, Episode 1, AMC, 2007.

16 Or more precisely, The Journal of the Mental Environment.

17 Octave Parango, main character from the novel by Frédéric Beigbeder, 99 Francs, Grasset, Paris, 2000.

extent to which this romantic opposition on which the ethical standards of the manifesto are based remains relative, fixed to subjective view- points and personal interests. If this troubled polarisation describes a certain professional reality, it does not, however, have the ideological relevance that we tend to award it.

Bierut is therefore right to assert that a great number of campaigns for “noble” causes use advertising processes but he would also do well to remember that marketing has long invaded the cultural and institutional – as for example in the functional merger of a museum with a shopping centre or in branding on the scale of local authorities that I will look at later. As the art critic and historian Hal Foster has noted, we have gone from the “culture of marketing to the marketing of culture”12 or as Naomi Klein puts it: culture has become an “exten- sion” of the brand.13

It is difficult to support the argument that aims to assign an informative function to institutional communication, and a persuasive function to advertising, thereby opposing, to re-use Baudrillard’s words, the “logic of propositions and proofs” with that of “fables and the willingness to go along with them”14, for no process belongs in its own right to the categories on which the text is based.

Given this apparent lack of distinction, we might well ask what the goal of the manifesto really is. If the ethical watershed doesn’t have the clarity that the signatories would have hoped for, maybe the critique of the advertising discourse misses its real goal?

From Don Draper to Octave Parango : Metamorphoses of the Spectacle

In the first episode of the first season of Mad Men, Don Draper, Sterling Cooper’s artistic director, gives the directors of Lucky Strike a lecture on the psychological devices of advertising. “Advertising is based on one thing, happiness. And you know what happiness is? Happiness is the smell of a new car. It’s freedom from fear. It’s a billboard on the side of the road that screams reassurance that whatever you are doing is okay. You are okay.”15 Advertising targets happiness. We are in 1960, and the “society of the spectacle” is rapidly expanding. If the first FTF manifesto written four years later is accommodating (“we do not advocate the abolition of high pressure consumer advertising: this is not feasible”), this sentence is missing from the 1999 version, in which the “reversal of priorities” is asserted. The “mental environment” (the sub-title of the review Adbusters16) therefore appears “saturated with commercial messages” which dangerously modify individuals’ lives.

Between these two manifestos, Don hands over to Octave,17 and the society of consumerism puts out the fires of the 1960s’ and 1970s’

Marxist critique (led by Herbert Marcuse, Jean Baudrillard and Guy Debord, among others) denouncing the spectacle as “the expres- sion of the separation and estrangement between man and man”,