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Discussing, and looking for, what is relevant in, and the relevance of, graphic design.
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Displaying opinions, and focusing solely, on corporate and brand identity work.
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Coralling the most relevant and creative on- and off-line bits that pertain to the design community – and said community is openly invited and encouraged to add their hard-earned links.
Photomontage
Photomontage is a term invented by Berlin exponents of Dada. It derives from the French word montage, meaning ‘fitting’ or ‘assembly’. Thus photomontage implies the assemblage of photographs of photo-negatives to create new images. It is not restricted to photographs, but also includes the addition of texts, color or drawing to photographs. In terms of graphic design, the technique allows for the interplay of images and type. At times this not only means that separate images may be included in a design but also that they may be contrasted or distorted, creating different layers of reading. The result may encourage a particular subversive strategy whereby the juxtaposition of images may, sometimes humorously, break down their traditionally accepted semantic effect of significance.
The application of photomontage in graphic design has been extensive. It was used widely during the 1920s and 30s, particularly in the work of some of the practitioners of Russian constructivism, and then at the Bauhaus, with Herbert Bayer and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy. Designers of Italian FUTURISM also employed photomontage extensively, as did pioneers of the Swiss School, and it was used in the propagandist Republican Posters of the Spanish Civil War. Milton Glaser and Enric Satue were effective exponents of this approach.
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