Vier5

Between 1859 and 1860, Charles Baudelaire penned “The Painter of Modern Life.” His essay is an extended series of observations on the emergence of modernity in what was at the time contemporary society for Baudelaire. Nearly 150 years later, Baudelaire’s focus on the baser aspects of modern society — prostitutes, fashion, carriages, cosmetics — is still a worthy measuring stick to evaluate the state of modernity in graphic design today. This essay will look at a number of “degenerate” and “delinquent” design practices — designers whose production is among the most original, if not provocative, design work being made today. Modernity is often lamented for its degradation in quality, the loss of tradition, and its dehumanizing concern for the quality of life. But such a criticism assumes that tradition and the quality provided by locality are “fixed” and inviolate conditions.

The critique of modernity as the root cause of the debasement and loss of quality in life should be reexamined towards and understanding that in fact, traditions are evolving and new qualities are emerging. Modernity provides each successive generation with the opportunity to see itself in its own practice: it acts as a mirror to the passing of history. Rather than interpret emergent forms as “radical” and a symptom of the debasement of contemporary society, we can look to modernity as an opportunity to appreciate how each successive generation chooses to interpret its own visual culture and the relative icons it chooses to incorporate and elevate as part of its visual vocabulary. Design practices as diverse as Elliott Earls, Vier5, Cornell Windlin, Michael Amzalag & Mathias Augustyniak of m/m Paris, Antoine and Michel and Lorraine Wild, provide us with extreme examples of individuals whose work erases the artificial barriers between classic and populist, learned and ignorant, professional and hack.