Bernbach was a major force behind the creative revolution, from 1954 to 1964. He was one of few art directors at the time, to have the ability and confidence to change design of today. Before the creative revolution, many commercial artists focused upon how the advertisement looked. Therefore there was a lack of thought into the concept and ideas behind the design.. Jay Walter Thompson was the man behind these layouts. They were very predictable and meaningless and our audience needed a change.
Commercial artists did not make the connection between the text and image for it to communicate effectively with the audience. Therefore, Bernbach introduced the idea of the concept into advertising communication. To do this he made the successful decision on developing a team of copywriters and art directors, combining both areas of strength.
People wanted to live up to the american dream of living a large and luxury lifestyle with fancy cars. In reality, it was not possible or affordable.
Bernbach worked with a team that identified problems and were willing to take risks to solve them. It was noticed that the ad agency's were becoming too comfortable with selling in their own area. DDB confronted the task of breaking this tradition and selling a German car into the New York Market. American citizens needed affordable, reliable products and this was Bernbach's chance to adjust their lifestyle for the better through advertising.
As discussed, the old JWT layouts were busy and not very creative so DDB advertised the Volkswagen with a simple, minimal but meaningful layout. Simplicity had never been done before.
The Volkswagen adverts did not state the obvious and instead had a concept and idea behind it that intrigued their audience. There is a relationship between the image and its supported text, that is simply witty and playful with the stereotypical idea of the big american dream car. The negative space allowed your mind to be free from distractions, therefore your main focus was on the image of the product.
I learnt that it is important to know history to help develop your understanding and create something new. It is inspiring to see theory created so long ago is still being used in the design world of today. There has been several developments in the design industry since 1960s, but I learnt from today that design had changed due to just one idea, which is possible now.
I researched more into the creative revolution and came across Leo Burnett, who was also heavily involved in the creativity of the 1960s who focused upon similar principles. He also concentrated on making his advertisements simple but also memorable.
I have involved the theory generated from the creative revolution into my work. I am currently in the three week changeover to 'design and composition' with Balvir where the task is to create a poster for an 'ism' word of our choice. I have considered the idea of simplicity within my design making use of negative space so there is full concentration on the meaning of the 'ism' word. I have also made a clear relationship between the image and text.
(picture of ism poster design)
No comments:
Post a Comment