ACT UP Graphics vs Corporate Modernism

ACT UPのグラフィック / 企業モダニズム

ACT UP Graphics comes from Printmaking and Social Movements and Corporate Modernism from Contemporary Branding. Both are read here as style. They are reached for with some of the same intent, which is where they get confused.

ACT UP Graphics

ACT UP Graphics — SILENCE=DEATH バッジ — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainACT UP Graphics — ラインストーンのバッジ — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainACT UP Graphics — Gran Fury / ACT UP《The Government Has Blood on Its Hands》ポスター — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

The visual strategy of the AIDS-crisis direct-action movement. The pink triangle of SILENCE=DEATH, a clarity seized from advertising's own grammar and the principle of free reproduction forged activist graphics as strong as the ads they stood against.

Corporate Modernism

Corporate Modernism — ポール・ランド《IBM ロゴ 8本ストライプ》1972年 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainCorporate Modernism — ポール・ランド《ミニットマン国立歴史公園ポスター》1974年 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainCorporate Modernism — NASA／Isaac Watson《ワームロゴを描いたアルテミスI固体ロケットブースター》2020年 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

The golden age of corporate identity established by Rand, Chermayeff and their peers: geometric marks, gridded standards manuals and disciplined application speaking for corporations in modernism's abstract language.

ACT UP GraphicsCorporate Modernism
Era1987–1990s1950s–1970s
FamilyPrintmaking and Social MovementsContemporary Branding
KindStyleStyle
CuesThe pink triangle inverted / Advertising grammar seized / Declarative typography / Free reproductionAbstract geometric marks / Standards manuals / Gridded application discipline / Single-color strength
Best used forHealth and rights campaigns where those affected print and distribute the message · Demands that must break a public silence with the same force as advertisingRebinding a company of many businesses under one identifying mark · Organizations with many branches where application drift must be held down by rules
TypeHeavy sans capitals with signs like the equals mark set as wordsOne type family fixed, the name locked as artwork down to its letterspacing
CompositionOne symbol and one short line, legibility at distance taking priorityGrid and margins given as numbers, clear space around the mark written down
MaterialArtwork built to survive black and white copying, free reproduction assumedSingle color as the default, hues assigned by use rather than by business unit
CautionLifting the symbol without stating a demand strips out the movement's claim and leaves an emblem of sympathy.A manual with no one checking application lets exceptions pile up in the field and the force of unity goes first.

Put these two together

Printmaking and Social Movements ／ Contemporary Branding

IndexStyle