Posted on 02/15/2007 by James Chae • Permalink • Comment (1 so far)
This is a review of last fall’s art/design issue of AdBusters. Despite it’s tardiness….Jonathan Barnbrook is still the man.
Somewhere along the way AdBusters fell off. It got confused, had a major identity crisis and now struggles to redefine itself into a form of greater relevance.
The hands of Jonathan Barnbrook, and his talented staff, have brought a small amount of saving grace to the struggling publication. Barnbrook has worked with AdBusters in the past, but never has he taken such commanding presence, (he guest art directed the whole issue.) In my most humble opinion, Barnbrook conveys AdBusters what it truly is, was, and is meant to be. That being, a sociopolitical work that comes directly out of the worlds of fashion, design, and art (visual culture.)
Barnbrook has recently returned to a state of vogue. He’s received a steady growth of press as he prepares his big show at the Design Museum, stitches together a giant monograph, and packages a mega-launch of a 32-face type family Bourgeois. With this return has come a new sensibility that reflects maturity. His typographic excellence has been matched with equally compelling execution of works displayed in his anti-North Korean show Tomorrow’s Truth. While maintaining his non-familiar early-ninties “digital” composition, Barnbrook has adopted a much brighter and punchier palette. This is especially evident in his work with the latest AdBusters, (I suspect this could be the handy work of young-gun Pedro Inoue who has been credited as co-conspiritor.)
The design of this issue revitalizes the increasingly poor design and even poorer production of this magazine. It’s glossy pages on cheap paper stock are revitalized with, the oh so scary word, style. But it is not senseless style. And it is the proper balance of style and communication that makes Barnbrook’s handling of AdBusters so honest. The over-stylization brings the publication back down to a level that doesn’t purport to be informative, manipulative, or even subversive. Rather, it is just bold. It’s there.
The greatest design moment is how the two designers handled Natalya Ilyn’s article on Modernism. The opening spread has gray type on a muted gray background. As the article describes Mies Van Der Rohe’s and Modernism’s momentum, the background flairs with magenta, and pretty much explodes at the end.
It’s a shame that we have to admit that AdBusters probably has run out of steam. But maybe Barnbrook’s studio can help it reposition itself.