GRAPHIC DESIGN USA NEWSLETTER | NOVEMBER 2007IN THIS ISSUE
Publishers Note: Dark Humor |
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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: DARK HUMORSometimes a topic that interests or incites me leaves you flat. The result is silence. Deep, dark, unnerving, wintry, paranoid-inducing — hello is anyone out there? — did the Post Office really deliver the magazines? — am I as out-of-touch as my kids think I am? — why have I wasted my life? — kind of silence. Other topics seem to resonate and the reaction is intense. An example of the latter concerns a brief news item that appeared in GDUSA about a Sergeant in the Army Reserves, a trained artist and illustrator, who was assigned to travel throughout Iraq and create amusing cartoons for and about American soldiers. More than one reader was offended at the notion that war should be a topic of humor. But many more of you reached into your personal experiences to reflect on the value of dark humor in dark days. We printed one such response in the October 2007 edition of Graphic Design USA; several others arrived too late for publication. Since our next paper magazine is the Design Annual, which simply does not allow for Letters To The Editor, we are publishing the best of these letters today under the title "Dark Humor." — Gordon Kaye GRAPHIC DESIGN NEWSYour Father's Whiskey Hornall Anderson Hamburg Channeling Beowulf A New History Gun Control Art To Kids Three-peat Contrarian Campaign Passionate Message Massive Website X Marks The Spot CREATIVE EXPRESS BY GETTY IMAGESFrom searching to downloading to purchasing an image, Creative Express can save you time and money daily. Download up to 50 images a day instantly from your choice of over 100,000 shots, all for one flat fee. Every professionally shot image offers model and property releases and 1,000 new images are added every month. Get all the details at ...
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To The Editor:
I had to write in response to your editorial page in the September issue regarding the reader who complained that he finds no humor in the Iraq War.
As you stated, some of us use dark humor when we face tough situations. I know I do, sometimes it's the only way to cope when faced with difficult times.
I can only relate using my own life experiences. I have never been in a war, or even the military. But in 2003 I was diagnosed with cancer. I used humor, A LOT, through my diagnosis and months-long treatment. In fact, I say humor was one of my three weapons that I used to fight the cancer. Medicine and prayer being the other two. No I wasn't in a war with tanks, but it was a war nonetheless and I knew I was facing a life and death struggle. I even handed my surgeon a humorous note in the pre-op before surgery. This was my way of dealing with it. Many times dark humor is a way to look at the situation and process it a little bit at a time. It's too scary, too frightening to face all at once. I know many others that have reacted in a similar fashion. Therefore, I believe that Sergeant 1st Class Steve Opet has many followers of his work. No one can go through life with only seeing the bad. We all need to laugh, even if only for a short giggle or chuckle.
Everyone handles issues differently. Some use dark humor. But we do not force it onto others. If someone is offended, then don't read the cartoons, switch the channel when Hogan's Heroes comes on. But don't deny a little humor release for those of us who do enjoy them.
You asked, what are the responsibilities of content creators in extreme situations. We graphic designers call ourselves problem solvers. The problem in this type of situation? The soldiers who see death and destruction and face the reality that they could die at any moment. How to help them forget that for maybe just one minute? Laughter is such a stress reliever. Why deny that to those who need it?
Stephanie Sharp, Sharp Designs, Hamilton, NJ
To The Editor:
I'm sure that you will receive a great deal of mail regarding the complaint about Sgt. Steve Opet's cartoons from Iraq. Please put me down as being solidly in the Opet camp. As you noted in your comments, people have always needed relief in times of stress, and laughing at their own misfortunes has long been one method.
My father, a World War II veteran, had copies of both Bill Mauldins book "Up Front" — collecting his brilliant observations of life on the battlefields of Europe in the guises of two put-upon GIs named Willie and Joe — and Sgt. Leonard Sansone's "The Wolf" — which dealt less with the war against the Axis Powers than it did the concurrent war between the sexes. Both books are now in my possession and are both prized for their artwork as well as their honesty. As is, to a lesser extent, my copy of the recently-collected "Male Call" strips, by the immortal Milt Canniff, created for military camp newspapers around the world during the war.
Aside from the artwork (Mauldin and Canniff, in particular, were masters of economical and evocative brush and ink), these are time capsule insights into the minds of those who felt the call to serve. Specifically, while Mauldin, in the accompanying text in "Up front" was addressing the civilian populace, his drawings were done for the GIs and not intended for anyone else. He wrote, in 1945:
"I haven't tried to picture this war in a big, broad-minded way. I'm not old enough to understand what it's all about, and I'm not experienced enough to judge its failures and successes. My reactions are those of a young guy who has been exposed to some of it, and I try to put those reactions in my drawings. Since I'm a cartoonist, maybe I can be funny after the war, but nobody who has seen this war can be cute about it while it's going on. The only way I can try to be a little funny is to make something out of the humorous situations which come up even when you dont think life could be any more miserable. It's pretty heavy humor, and it doesn't seem funny at all sometimes when you stop and think it over. Since my drawings have been kicking around in some papers in the States, a lot of dogfaces over here have been very surprised, and so have I. Some of the drawings are meaningless even in Rome, Naples, or Paris. But the guys are glad and so am I, even if we are still surprised. If it means that people are interested in seeing how the dogfaces look at themselves, that's swell. If it means that people at home are beginning to understand these strange, mud-caked creatures who fight the war, and are beginning try understand their minds and their own type of humor, that's even more swell, because it means that the dogfaces themselves are beginning to be appreciated a little by their countrymen."
Please understand: I oppose the war in Iraq categorically and have done so from the beginning. It seems, however, that to argue that the troops should be denied their freedom of expression regarding their feelings and experiences on being sent to fight in a foreign land. This strikes me as... well... un-American.
Humor serves as both an escape valve for people in trouble, and as a way of opening people's eyes when nothing else will work. The critics are entitled to their beliefs, but I firmly believe that, on this issue, they are wrong.
Michael Moyle, Graphic Designer, City of Lowell, Division of Planning & Development, Lowell MA
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The American Inhouse Design Awards call for entries coming in early January; to be included on the mailing list...
www.gdusa.com/contests/aida.php
Canadian Club Canadian Whiskey has unveiled the first multi-layered national advertising campaign for the brand in almost 20 years. "Damn Right Your Dad Drank It" features candid imagery from the 1960s and 1970s and provocative taglines that remind consumers that their dads were once cool, stylish and decidedly masculine — and they chose to represent these traits through their drink choice: whisky cocktails made with Canadian Club. The November campaign launch is supported by print, out-of-home and radio advertising, experiential elements, point-of-sale and collateral items and in-market events that continue throughout the brand's 150th anniversary in 2008. CC invited employees to search through their photo albums for use in the advertising and collateral program. Dennis Prado is senior brand director, Canadian Club, collateral. Energy BBDO led all creative design.
"Our goal is to reach into the heart of the film and bring out the soul of it," says Tim Girvin who heads the Girvin, Inc. graphic design firm which has completed the movie title design for Beowulf. The film, starring, Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins, Angelina Jolie, John Malkovich, and Crispin Glover, is to be released mid-November. The film version of the Beowulf legend is a new rendering of the young warrior Beowulf's heroic defense of King Hrothgar's palace against the treacherous attacks of the horrendous monster Grendel. The title design is inspired by a jeweled rendering of a dragon ornament, sword detailing, and the illustrated prototype of the Beowulf character — a roughly edged, early Roman custom letterform design, hand drawn like the Runes. Other Girvin movie titles include The Last Samurai, Braveheart, The Matrix and Unforgiven.
Frank Baseman recently shared this case of bureaucrats gone batty. Disturbed by the rising violence and homicide rate in his Philadelphia hometown, Baseman developed a public awareness poster whose design would recognize recent victims and draw attention to the epidemic. Partnering with the non-profit Anti-Violence Partnership of Philadelphia, he found an in-kind donation of digital printing and raised enough cash from concerned citizens to get the campaign started. The roadblock? CBS Outdoor, which controls ad space on the city's bus shelters, refused to run the poster, citing a City Hall official who ruled the gun image to be unacceptably "intimidating." Comments citizen/designer Baseman, in an article in for the AIGA Journal: I acknowledge that looking down the barrel of a gun is intimidating... It was meant to make the viewer uneasy, as this is not pleasant subject matter... It's a sad social commentary when it is easier to buy a gun off the street than to get an important, positive message displayed in bus shelters on the streets."
The current Delta Faucet campaign by Young & Laramore is unique in at least two ways: contrary to tradition, it unites the consumer and trade campaigns under one unifying creative theme; and, again contrary to tradition, the trade campaign is as engaging as the consumer campaign. Print advertising showcase specific products expressing emotions and, often, jealousy, toward Delta Faucets, thereby humanizing the brand. In one consumer ad, for example it's "A Disgruntled Loofah" who is overshadowed by the custom shower jets. Online efforts, in the form of a website targeted to the trade, provides a fun, interactive game experience. Carolyn Hadlock is creative director and partner at Young & Laramore. 
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