Document Type
Article
Publication/Presentation Date
4-2011
Abstract/Description
This paper proposes that print ad designers have usurped Brecht's style of epic theater and the Surrealists’ affection for paradox and irrationality and offers an analysis of three contemporary ads. Brecht used techniques to remind theater audiences that they were watching a play rather than observing a representation of reality. He found that the machinery of theater, opera, and the press is no longer “a means of furthering output but has become an obstacle to output, and specifically to [intellectuals’] own output as soon as it follows a new and original course which the apparatus finds awkward or opposed to its new aims.” I apply this theory to ad design and discuss how the “machinery” that generates design affects its output and how unveiling that machinery for the reader/audience creates new meaning. As well, I address how the machinery that produces this article affects its meaning.
Publication Title
Design Principles & Practices: An International Journal
Scholarly Commons Citation
Koller, L. (2011). The Machinery of Design: Playing with Brecht, the Surrealists, and Provocative Images. Design Principles & Practices: An International Journal, 3(3). Retrieved from https://commons.erau.edu/db-humanities/11
