Posters announce. Posters exclaim. Posters proclaim. No other graphic design medium carries such a heritage of direct public engagement as does the poster. Considering the strong and legacy of this visual language, the poster work of American graphic designer Jason Munn presents some very interesting questions for the field of graphic design.

Munn’s rock poster designs are immediately compelling. Presenting a bare minimum of information – usually just the names of the band, venue and event date – the success of these posters lies in their ability to communicate a graphic idea with such a minimised simplicity.

His work reinforces the graphic strength of the silhouette – the poster for the band The Books featuring two heads linked by a looped tape, while two records sliding out of their sleeves form an uppercase B for Beck. By making the method of silkscreen production so apparent in the design process the posters beautifully exploit the properties of pure opaque colour, overprinting and texture. Also refreshingly transparent was the honesty with which Munn described his humble operations – something that should be particularly illuminating to students of design.

Typographically, the work draws upon a limited palette of primarily contemporary American gothics (Gotham, Archer etc) which lends an effective consistency to the posters when viewed them as a series. Set in subdued point sizes, the legibility and nationality of these typefaces have become somewhat of a Munn signature.

But where the selection typography may be consistent, one of the most conspicuous observations of Munn’s posters is the repetition of particular concepts and elements. Motifs of snakes, records, tear drops and pirate ships emerge and re-emerge across the series of posters. Although he sought to justify this ‘self-referential’ aspect in his work as a way of moving an idea further, one suspects this repetition may more likely be a symptom of Munn’s isolated practice and limited range of influences.

Having initially seeing Munn’s work as projected pdfs (and being very impressed), it is only in the later gallery viewing of the actual screenprinted posters that an additional powerful life is given to this these. And herein lies the most enigmatic side to these posters. They are not designed with the conventional demands of the poster in mind – the exposure to the mess of the street, active public response, commercial demands and the harsh jostle for attention amongst a wall of other posters. Instead they are designed as purchasable artifacts – beautiful objects of desire, framed and viewed in a rarified space of the gallery or apartment.

Like a blank sheet of letterhead or a building photographed without people, these works celebrate design with a spirit of purity, removed from the ‘messy’ world. But since these pieces do not operate as an actual advertising medium, these blur the line between rock poster and mock poster.

As if to reiterate this point, there was a marked difference between the posters he had independently produced (The Books, Mogwai) and the more recent posters that had emerged from an actual commission (Nora Jones, Beck); the former are pure, uncluttered and at times sublime whilst the latter tend to be more textually dense and conceptually compromised. This, more than anything else, highlighted the complex negotiations and conventions of being an artist (where one is seen to be commissioned internally) and a designer (where one is more commonly commissioned externally). The fact that Munn, when faced with a commission, experienced the familiar process of compromise and refinement to meet external demands was telling.

So where does Munn’s work sit within the field of graphic design? Deliberately avoiding the harsh commercial rigours that conventionally defines graphic design, does Munn’s work simply offer the viewer an aesthetic thrill and an association with the music, or more specifically, the band? Now that authorship within graphic design is a more familiar and comfortable phenomena, Munn’s mock posters may indicate a further step – a disconnection of media (poster) from traditional purpose (to be read in the street).

For me the greatest irony here is that Munn’s media of choice is the poster. The result being that we have a ‘medium of public statement’ is now repositioned as one of private and aesthetic contemplation. Like all things that nudge at the sides of design practice this poses more questions than answers. Questions surrounding many of the cornerstones of graphic design – namely the commissioning, mass production and distribution of the design object.

Footnote An extreme design disconnection was eloquently described by design critic Alice Tremlow speaking on the recent  ‘cart-before-the-horse’ poster design entries into Chaumont Poster Festival Images Top: Posters by Jason Munn Bottom: Image of the Jason Munn Exhibition. Photography by Stephen Banham.

Jason Munn was a guest speaker at the 2009 Blow Festival at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand.