On the occasion of a visit to the exhibition at the MRAC Occitanie / Pyrénées-Méditerranée entitled Honey I rearranged the collection, Jérôme Dupeyrat and Thierry Chancogne continue their discussion of the controversial relationships that exist between art and Graphic Design, based on a historical collection of “artists’ posters”.

          The artist’s poster or affiche is at once the traditional medium used to advertise artistic events, produced by the artists themselves, the historical medium of a certain passion for French-style painted posters and the desire of a particular artistic practice to democratize art, the symptom or symbol of potential new relationships between Graphic Design and art in an era where artists have acquired a new graphic culture and Graphic Designers a new artistic ambition.

          The thematic exchanges nourished by theoretical, artistic, and graphic references taken from recent and contemporary history are punctuated by thoughts from Mathias Augustinyak, based on his experiences with designing posters for artists, artist posters, artistic posters, and the art of the poster.

Authors: Thierry Chancogne, Jérôme Dupeyrat, Mathias Augustyniak
Feat John Baldessari, Richard Hamilton, Jenny Holzer, Allan Kaprow, Christophe Lemaitre, M/M (Paris), Michael Riedel, Sturtevant

Beyond a simple fascination for NASA, the manual is of interest for several reasons:
— It is an exhaustive presentation of visual identity – from letterheads to the markings on the space shuttle Discovery
— and thus allows the reader to apprehend the different formal, political and technical scales of the use of signs.
— The clarity of its texts which guided the personnel responsible for producing new documents contrasts sharply with the mainstream vocabulary in the communications field today.
— As an object, it is worthy of the interest it has created. It demonstrates the ambition and care taken in its presentation. Its format facilitates manipulation to ensure the organization, comprehension and implementation of the instructions and propositions it contains.