James Victore: Sensation Design // Posted on June 11, 2010
I remember watching a short youtube film in a graphics class that chronicled the careers of some noteworthy American designers. One of the designers popped out at me instantly: James Victore.
He jumped out at me for a few very different reasons. My contemporaries would classify me as a heavily Swiss influenced designer. That is just one side of the spectrum. Works like We Are America and Trouble at the Pump are some excellent examples that quantifies the polar opposites my design aesthetic takes sometimes.
Victore’s work stuck out at me because of the personal utility of his design. His work is reflective of strong opinions coupled with highly controversial imagery, one of the large inspirations for the We Are America poster. After all, political posters should stir discomfort in the viewer in order to maintain an effective communication. This is one of the main reasons propaganda works, due in part to the successfulness of sensation.
But this brings about an interesting point when discussing the viability of sensationalism in design. I remember in my fine art training being warned about the plague of sensation, more specifically the over indulgence many artists sometimes fall into. Examples can be portraits of children, images of death, etc… Typically these images contain a sensation unique to the artist, though arguably social context gets dragged in alongside it. When boiled down to the bare minimum, you don’t want to give your viewer image porn.
Sensationalism in the graphic arts is another story as this term was never used in the classroom. James Victore’s work would be an excellent example of sensationalism in design, visa vie my two projects linked above. The fascinating dichotomy of design is the tension of art vs. commercial utility. Victore’s work is the embodiment of sensation and opinion, delivered to viewers in the medium of print using the traditional methods of a commercial designer.
I might be on to something here as I try and rationalize my education to real world experiences. I’ve come to find that some of the most popular design is based largely on sensation, which is the direct opposite to the fine arts.