The Adrogyny

An androgyne in terms of gender identity, is a person who does not fit cleanly into the typical masculine and feminine gender roles of their society. They may also use the term ambigender to describe themselves. Many androgynes identify as being mentally "between" woman and man, or as entirely genderless. They may class themselves as non-gendered, gender neutral, agendered, between genders, intergendered, Bigendered,pangender or Gender fluid. They are technically of both genders. Genderqueer is often used to describe the category.
Androgyne was once used as a synonym for hermaphrodite, although the tewidely used.





One of the biggest and most prevalent mistakes in Western Culture is the idea that there exist two separate and "opposite" genders, masculinity and femininity. This gender dualism is not only false and without any factual or scientific support, but also very harmful. One strategy to overcome this wrongness is the idea of androgyny, by which masculinity and femininity are not conceived as opposite ends of one spectrum, but as two separate spectrums: you can be or have both at once (or neither), not only the one or the other. Thus, you can combine the various components of masculinity and femininity in any number of ways, according to your individual preferences, needs and nature. Should we then strive for an androgynous, individualist, highly diverse culture?
Some people think that the androgyny concept doesn't go far enough; because androgyny still



reproduces elements of the old false split of femininity and masculinity, it should be abandoned. What we need is not to construct combinations of two false concepts, but to go back to - and forward to - a situation with no split in the first place, a place without a gender dichotomy. The point must be made that keeping the



masculine and the feminine apart and separate is what is difficult and unnatural, while keeping them together is simple and natural. We must thus move beyond androgyny, in order to overcome the cultural and social schizophrenia of gender dualism.

Haircuts as expression of gender

are about empowerment, not looks
Men with androgynous haircuts and women who, as he describes, look like little boys, aren't confused. They're making a point. They're subverting normative ...
Androgyny is a term derived from the Greek words άνδρας and γυνή and refers to the mixing of masculine and feminine characteristics, as in fashion or hermaphroditism.
Boy George (born George Alan O'Dowd; 14 June 1961) is a British singer-songwriter who was part of the English New Romantic movement which emerged in the early 1980s. He helped give androgyny an international stage with the success of Culture Club during the 1980s. His music is often classified as blue-eyed soul, which is influenced by rhythm and blues and reggae. His 1990s and 2000s-era solo music has glam influences such as David Bowie and Iggy Pop. He also founded and was lead singer of Jesus Loves You during the period 1989–1992. Being involved in many activities (among them songwriting, DJing, writing books, designing clothes and photography), he has released fewer music recordings in the last decade.

This is where design was highly influenced by the androgyny phase creating a distinct line of fashion and culture almost with a cutting edge ,sharp clean Nonsexual to a degree but sexual in both degrees, but definitely outrageous to the onlooker ,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boy_George
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Androgynhttp
http://folk.uio.no/thomas/gnd/androgyny.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glam_rock
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rise_and_Fall_of_Ziggy_Stardust_and_the_Spiders_from_Mars

ROXY: 1980's "The Face" - Neville Brody

From 1981 to 1986 Neville Brody was art director of the magazine "The Face", for which he designed a distinctive typographical appearance that inspired magazine designers and other designers worldwide

Neville Brody was a typographer, graphic designer and art director. Brody is perhaps the best known graphic artist of his generation. He uses letters and numbers in his art pieces with an anti-traditional view on art. He played at the margins of visual language and used it to launch a revolution in typeface design.

Brody drew freely to create his visually exciting layouts and typography on avant-garde artistic ideas of the 1920s and 1930s such as those of De Stijl and Russian Constructivism. Far removed from contemporary editorial conventions Brody's work had a studied informality in the thoughtfulness devoted to the construction of its layouts, with blocks of texts often placed horizontally or vertically on the page, their often distinctive layouts contrasting strikingly with hand-mediated imagery and photography. Such ideas exerted a significant international impact on the appearance of magazine, advertising, and retailing design.

The contents spread from The Face's 1982 May edition.



An ad from The Face for dresses.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Face_%28magazine%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neville_Brody
http://www.art-directory.info/design/neville-brody-1957/index.shtml
http://www.answers.com/topic/neville-brody
http://dalstonoxfamshop.blogspot.com/2008/08/face-magazine-may-1982.html

Madonna

Madonna born Madonna Louise Ciccone August 16, 1958 is an American recording artist, actress and entrepreneur. Madonna moved to New York City in 1977, for a career in modern dance. During the 1980's Madonna released 4 multi platinum albums. These albums consisted of self titled 'Madonna' released in 1983, 'Like a virgin' 1984, 'True Blue' 1986 and 'Like a prayer' 1989.

In the beginning of the 80s, disco was an anathema to the mainstream pop, and Madonna had a huge role in popularizing dance music as mainstream music, utilizing her charisma, chutzpah and sex appeal. Her album artwork in the 80's has incorporated this, along with her iconic styles.




A style icon was born

The most popular style that comes to mind when people think 80's is Madonna. Her style was the most copied and sought after look. Madonna had many looks in the 80's and with her ability to perpetually re-style herself she certainly contributed to the longevity of her career. One was her most iconic looks from the 80s was the wavy hair with highlights. Girls went to the salons in droves to get the “poodle” looking perms so their hair was wavy too. They pulled it up in bows like she did to copy her look in the Borderline video and movie, “Desperately Seeking Susan.” A black tank top, skirt, dirty bleached blonde hair and an attitude.










Madonna may be one of the first pioneers of the messy chic look of the 80’s. She started the layered look, with shirts and coats and more shirts. A lace shirt was often worn over another shirt. Or a sweatshirt with an oversized neck or cut off sleeves was worn over a smaller shirt or bra. Her layers also included accessories. She wore multiple necklaces and bracelets, some with crosses and other iconography. She also favored pearls and beads. Her earrings were long and dangly, with crosses or religious symbols.







Desparately Seeking Susan lookEveryday Madonna clothing of the 80’s included a skirt worn over tight, short pants. Sometimes they were patterned, other times they were lacy. No matter, the girls in school copied them. Another of Madonna’s fashion incarnations towards the end of the 80’s (1989 with the release of the Like a Prayer album) was the super sexy vixen style. She wore pointed bustiers, bras and very little else in several videos. She made it a habit to be in shape, and she showed her body off! Madonna changed the fashion industry forever.









http://www.liketotally80s.com/madonna-look.html
http://thestilettoeffect.blogspot.com/2007/01/madonna-bringing-back-80s.html
http://www.hollywoodrag.com/index.php?/gallery3/category2/C366/
www.wikipedia.org
www.madonna.com

STACY POST:1980"s

1980's
the time of space shuttle flights begin, high temp super conductors developed, glasnot policy implemented by gorbachev, sportswear, contemporary japanese design, androgyny, madonna, slogan t shirts, printed fabrics, wolfgang weingart, katherine mccoy, cranbrook school of art poster, 'emigre' magazine,zuzana licko, rudy vanderLans, 'the face'- neville brody, bartle bogle hegarty, canon cb10, classic apple computer, 'hommes', ikko tanaka 'noh', grapus- design collective, miehe, nigel rose, gert dumbar, gunter rambow, peret, pere torrent, toscani, united colors of benetton, nathalie du pasquier memphis textiles, susan collier and sarah campbell textiles, mickey mouse phone, Frutiger, Alexander Jordan, Garald Paris Clavel, Pierre Bernard, Alain Le Quernec, Tibor Kalman, new functionalism, octavo, derek birdcall, atari, apple

1970's sony walkman -Rosie

In 1978, legend has it that Sony president Akio Morita decided he would like to listen to his own selections of music while flying on airplanes. He brought the idea to the company, and soon, the simple, hand-sized cassette player with lightweight headphones was out on the market.

However, Shu Ueyama of Sony cites that this invention was purely accidental. Organizational changes were taking place at Sony in 1979 and the tape recorder division was pressed to market something soon, or risk consolidation. They came up with a small cassette player capable of stereo playback. The invention was born from a tweaked Pressman (Sony's monaural portable cassette recorder) and a pair of headphones. Sony chairman and founder Akio Morita heard of the invention and was eager to market it. The final design of the TPS-L2, the personal stereo cassette player was completed on March 24, 1979.

Sony then formulated a unique marketing campaign to sell the contraption. The story behind Sony's market research was legendary: they didn't do it! Said Akio Morita in a 1982 Playboy interview, "The market research is all in my head! You see, we create markets."

But how does one convince the public they need a product that they've never owned or seen? The first step was to get the word out to people who had influence on the public, like celebrities and people in the music industry. Sony sent Walkmans to Japanese recording artists, tv and movie stars free of charge. They also began an innovative marketing campaign, targeting younger people and active folks. The Walkman was engineered carefully to make it affordable to this market, also the imagery Sony successfully used around their Walkman gave the feelings of fun, youth and most importantly, freedom. Their invention allowed one to bring an exceptional listening experience anywhere.

www.pocketcalculatorshow.com/ walkman/history.html

www.enotes.com/1970-fashion-american-decades-ps/sony-walkman-advertisement

SWISS POSTERS.... (ian)

A new graphic design style emerged in Switzerland in the 1950s that would become the predominant graphic style in the world by the '70s. Because of its strong reliance on typographic elements, the new style came to be known as the International Typographic Style.

The style was marked by: 1) the use of a mathematical grid to provide an overall orderly and unified structure; 2) sans serif typefaces (especially Helvetica, introduced in 1961) in a flush left and ragged right format; and 3) black and white photography in place of drawn illustration. The overall impression was simple and rational, tightly structured and serious, clear and objective, and harmonious.

The style was refined at two design schools in Switzerland, one in Basel led by Armin Hofmann and Emil Ruder, and the other in Zurich under the leadership of Joseph Muller-Brockmann. All had studied with Ernst Keller at the Zurich School of Design before WWII, where the principles of the Bauhaus and Jan Tschichold's New Typography were taught.

The new style became widely synonymous with the "look" of many Swiss cultural institutions which used posters as advertising vehicles. Hofmann's series for the Basel State Theater and Muller-Brockmann's for Zurich's Tonhalle are two of the most famous. Hofmann's accentuation of contrasts between various design elements and Muller-Brockmann's exploration of rhythm and tempo in visual form are high notes in the evolution of the style.

In addition, the new style was perfectly suited to the increasingly global postwar marketplace. Corporations needed international identification and global events such as the Olympics called for universal solutions which the Typographic Style could provide. With such good teachers and proselytizers, the use of the International Typographic Style spread rapidly throughout the world. In the U.S., Hofmann's Basel design school established a link with the Yale School of Design, which became the leading American center for the new style.

www.internationalposter.com

www.allgraphicdesign.com

www.postershow.com

www.designhistory.org