Bland
At times, I wonder if a dark and disturbed person is living inside me (well, not so much wonder, as I know). I don’t have a predilection for planning ways to make others miserable or vandalize property. In theory, based on outward appearances, I should have collections of pleasant and brightly colored images and posters. I have these, but I love the less vibrant options also. Some are wonderful works of art, others snapshots, or film stills. They are all, in some way, empty. I find them, as Mr. Burns says, “Excellent.” I can deconstruct the meaning behind these as a collection: abstract re-presentation of the banality of daily life, the evidence of artifact of the photograph, and probably a far deeper investigation including existential explorations.
I have the same affinity to design that appears raw or lacking any finesse. This isn’t the same as Tibor Kalman vernacular design integrating commercial or “low” culture. The work is honest and has no desire to do anything more than provide information. It is a meditation on the unrefined. When we spend so much time deciding between the seven point or seven and one-half point Century Expanded for the captions, the blunt force approach is like a glass of simple water. Or, it’s just clumsy. Which is also ok.
Pat and Lance Loud
