Mass Observation was a group of men that was founded in 1937 by Tom Harrison, Humphrey Jennings, Charles Madge and Humphrey Spender.
It's obvious by their names they were high class rich men and with the Worktown Project they were interesting in seeing how the other lower class lived. They went to Bolton in 1937 to document the working class.
This was after the Wall Street Crash in 1929, the Great Depression in 1930s, Hitler rising to power in 1933 and the forming of the British Union of Fascists in 1932.
It was a aristocrats view of the working class of Britain but it was not the way the working class wanted portrayed. This image is of an average pub, but it was quite a quick image because the photographer was known to be not working class and had to leave fast! The man who looks like he's waving is really telling him to get out.
Animation
Jiri Trnka, produced The Hand in 1965. This was 20 years after World War Two and Nazism, it was in the height of the Cold War. The state censorship and repession was very strong at the time. Because of this the animation shows that kind of relationship, the repression of a strong hand to this creative man. It is quite a surreal piece but it really communicates how Trnka feels about the Soviet Union.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLtdCWrpM90
Advertising
Tony Kaye produced the advert for Dunlop Tyres called Tested for the Unexpected in 1993. This advert could be taken either way, is it a piece of art or is it self indulgent piece of film that is surreal and not work with what the advert is trying to sell. Personally I think this advert is ridiculous and didn't need to be so weird, the car shows good grip when the car is cornering, which I think is most important when trying to sell tyres.
Illustration
Norman Rockwell was a very famous American artist, he worked for the Saturday Evening Post. This image so overly stylised, the kids are perfectly well behaved, they've remembered and wish their teacher Mrs Jones a happy birthday while she stands at the front well dressed and looking proper. I think at the time people liked to see these sort of images because american values and good living which some people might not of had. Now that technology has progressed it leads to the question are illustrators needed? A programme like Illustrator can eliminate the middle man, but I think it is important to keep illustrators in business but their hand is unique and create unique pieces.
Graphics
Times New Roman font was designed by Stanley Morison in 1932, England.
Universal Type - proposal was designed by Herbert Bayer around 1925-30, Europe
Fraktur Font was designed in Germany
They were all designed around the same time in the 30's
The English type is reminiscent of Roman inscriptions on stone, which is from the Roman Empire. The font represents the great British Empire, its a nationalist font to probably make people believe in their country again after such a bad time.
The European font is a left wing modernistic font that wanted to bring new solutions to the worrying world. The Sans Serif font stripped of all its historical connotations, they're all lower case because what is the need for upper case? It's very plain and completely neutral which represents the left wing modernist way of thinking, its a unification of socialism.
The German font depicts the power and force that Germany had at the time. It is similar to the English font because of its nationalism and representing their empire.
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