Quebec 1970: Graphic Design Peak?
Quebec 1970: Graphic Design Peak?
Anyone living in Quebec has seen the election poster designs of the 3 major parties - and here’s my critique. There’s the Liberals with their “Pop-Up Video” style word balloons - a style that clashes with their stiffly posed photos of 55+ candidates and their new logo which resembles the “contents explosive” mark on spray cans. The PQ have Quebecor’s corporate colours - blue-and-yellow - but at least they have big colour head shots of the candidates. (Although in my neighborhood, I could do without seeing Laurent Malepart’s disturbingly goofy mug every 20 feet or so.) The Mouvement des Forces Progressistes - where applicable - have some interesting typography going on, but… too many colours.
Hands down, the best-designed posters of the campaign are the ADQ’s. Crisp Herb Ritts-y black and white photography, elegantly square-shaped with generous white borders, reversed-out Helvetica type, and depth of field; Candidate large in foreground, Mario Dumont in the middle ground, Assembl?e Nationale in the background. Their candidates are largely young and photogenic; they look serious but approachable. The visual language seems borrowed more from fashion, not politics. In tone and typography, they remind me of Dior “Higher” ads. Thankfully, Dumont at least keeps his shirt on.
This trend is interesting only for the fact that posters have been so frickin’ boring lately. I was searching for examples of the current posters to link to - there are none, apparently - but thanks to the uncanny engine behind Teoma, I found the Bibliotheque Nationale du Quebec’s online poster archives. Quebec graphic design from the 50’s and 60’s seems rather limited and imitative of mainstream trends, but after Expo 67 it seems to have flourished - thanks to Big Events, Megaprojects and a cultural renaissance. By my yardstick, it seems to have peaked in the early 1970s, and degraded soon after that in a haze of trendy airbrushing, 1980s geometric-fragments-in-aqua minimalism and later, 1990s grunge photography and distressed type. The work the Quebec Government commissioned, particularly in 1970 for the Sports and Loisirs category, is striking and timeless, like the Soccer poster above, one of dozens promoting different activities.
But here’s the hidden link of the day: erstwhile Britpop band Pulp seem to have nicked their whole visual identity from Quebec government health and employment services posters! Check out the “Service Social” image above: isn’t that a Pulp single sleeve, circa Different Class? And isn’t that Jarvis Cocker himself walking through the door at the center of the “Placement” poster?
March 25, 2003 12:50 PM
