20th: The Herb Lubalin & Cooper Union's PHARMA

[Prof. Madad]

Following our visit to Cooper Union's exhibition PHARMA and the curated selection of work from The Herb Lubalin Study Center we looked at after the show, share you thoughts and reactions to what you saw and heard.

• Did you like seeing the work, any particular designer?
  
• Were you surprised by anything we looked at? 
• Is the work timeline or dated—and why?
  
• Consider the parallels between the (print) graphic design industry with the pharmaceutical industry, in their respective symbiotic development and growth from the early 20th c. to mid 20th c. What is the equivalent of the pharmaceutical industry, ie. new and dominant business/industry, in relation to the role of graphic design today?
  

Minimum three paragraphs.
Due 11.13 by midnight.

[michael]

PHARMA was well composed and organized. Establishing a visual time
line for the history of the industry was a useful tool in bringing the
viewer in. It presented clear rationale for all of the important
landmarks and movements. While I wasn't exactly surprised at the
quality of the work presented, I was totally impressed by each
designers ability to comprehend identity on such a visceral level. The
way certain images were presented, re-interpreted, and re-imagined,
such as the leaping man, the X, and the binding knot in Artrosil B1,
depicted Franco Grignani's ability to distill a concept down to its
essence. The content of both PHARMA and the Study Center impressed me.
It is nice to know the works collected by The Cooper Union are so well
cared for but that an archive of such value is readily available to
students is inspiring. I definitely plan on taking advantage of
it...The fact that both sketches and finished pieces were included in
the collection was a plus as well. Seeing early ideas drawn out on
paper clues you in to just how much time and dedication is required to
develop strong work and that such is the case with even the most
brilliant designers makes 'it all' more tangible, in a way.While there
are new industries born every year, or day even, and advancement in
design are being made, mostly from a technical standpoint, the birth
and growth of the pharmaceutical industry nursed a creative climate in
the design world that, in my opinion, has yet to be rivaled. In the
early 20th century, it was a perfect storm of sorts; the rapid and
expansive development of new drugs, whether they be for use on the
battle field or at home, required the comparably hasty development of
successful advertising and branding. But unlike the more careful,
strategic developments of the present day, what was being produced in
the medicinal world then was rarely fully understood. This cupeled
with the shear size of the movement, created a platform for creative
exploration and the development on artistic movements. That being
said, I feel like in the near future, we will experience some of the
same monumental creative development as mass disappointment with our
failing economic system grows ever stronger.
On Nov 9, 9:30 am, "Prof. Madad" <ama...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Following our visit to Cooper Union's exhibition PHARMA<http://lubalincenter.cooper.edu/>and the curated selection of work from The
> Herb Lubalin Study Center <http://lubalincenter.cooper.edu/> we looked at

> after the show, share you thoughts and reactions to what you saw and heard.
>

>    - Did you like seeing the work, any particular designer?
>    - Were you surprised by anything we looked at?
>    - Is the work timeline or dated—and why?
>    - Consider the parallels between the (print) graphic design industry

>    with the pharmaceutical industry, in their respective symbiotic development

>    and growth from the early 20th c. to mid 20th c. *What is the equivalent

>    of the pharmaceutical industry, ie. new and dominant business/industry, in

>    relation to the role of graphic design today?*

[David Saunders]

The exhibition PHARMA had a surprisingly impressive collection of designed objects. As the majority of those materials were not seen by the public, it was a delight to see this work by some of the great designers of the 20th century. One element, while more politically oriented, that was not addressed is the lucrative side of the pharmaceutical industry, especially in the past 20 years. While the design of the marketing materials (at least those sent to physicians) has declined to a very rudimentary level, it would seem the effort once placed on design has been replaced by lucrative monetary incentives to prescribe medications. This, in my opinion, is the sad state of the majority of contemporary capitalistic corporations. However, as the PHARMA exhibit demonstrates, learning from the past allows the future to be shaped as to not repeat erroneous mistakes. 

As Alvin Lustig is one of my favorite designers, seeing the work of his contemporaries was amazing. Will Burtin and Franco Grignani are two designers I had not heard of before and have since done research into their work. I am particularly fond of designs which use overlapping colors and shapes to elicit emotional responses towards a particular subject. I am also very fond of the swiss typography aesthetic which the majority of the designers. The combination of the swiss [read: structured] style and the modernist [read: playful] aesthetic can create, when executed well, beautiful compositions. Of which the majority of the work displayed exhibited. I was generally surprised by the overall effort placed in designing these marketing brochures. Contemporary corporations do not place such effort in to direct-to-physician marketing materials. I had assumed that was always the case as it is a very lucrative industry. However, seeing the timeline of the referenced companies and how they developed was, to say the least, eye-opening. It is not difficult to trace how the importance of brand perception (a result of the effort placed on design) was acknowledged and subsequently used to grow individual companies into the super-corporations they are today.

Regarding the future of design and the equivalent of the pharmaceutical industry, from my perspective, it is easy to assume that the financial corporations are the next dominant industry in relation to the role of graphic design. While the influence of these financial corporations on society are widely known [read: Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Bear Stearns], they're marketing materials, of which I receive a large amount, are terrible. Aside from Annual Reports, which at least consider design and composition, the majority of documentation sent out from Investment Banks, Hedge Funds, Quant. funds, are abysmal. As this industry, at least for the next decade or so, will continue to grow, so will the competition between them. Financial institutions will have to engage in creative marketing to garner new clients. Similar to the Pharmaceutical industry and the restrictions placed on them by the FDA, the Financial industry is currently dealing with restrictions on direct-to-consumer advertising by the SEC. If the SEC allows for an increase in advertising and soliciting by financial institutions, the demand for designers in this industry will grow rapidly.

[David Saunders]

[anne chiang]

I thought seeing this exhibition was extremely helpful. I think it was
a great example that related to our personal myth project. Personally,
I felt that it helped me a lot because since I love drawing medical
illustrations and such, seeing PHARMA was amazing and I loved it. I
liked the very beginning designs with the illustrations of the Cocaine
tooth ache drops and the other Heroine drawings.

The work was timelined to show how the illustrations progressed and
changed overtime. I really love the illustrations in the beginning
developments of medical advertisements. Although the medicines were
ridiculous drugs, the way they were promoted is much more fun that
what it is today. Nowadays, medical designs and promotions are meant
to have a sense of clean, sterile, feel to it. I do also like how it's
shown today. Yes it's very clean and has a feeling of a clean, no
germs, white walled room of a hospital, but it's not illustrative like
it was back in the day.

I think today's dominant business and industry in relation to the role
of graphic design today is that it's almost impossible to steer away
from graphic design. Almost everything is dependent on graphic design,
however, what we were shown at PHARMA, things are almost all leaning
towards the sterile look (ex: Vitamin Water, not a pharmaceutical
product, just a drink, even has that clean look and feel to it). Our
designs today are clean, modern, almost minimal, and very direct, and
the fact that today's pharmaceutical industry needs to portray clean,
professional, direct and informative, allows graphic design to take on
the role to create things fitting for the industry.

[Chris Kelsch]

PHARMA was an interesting experience. The work displayed was like a timeline displaying the birth of an industry to the final concrete settling. Seeing the work during the first half of the 1900s was the most interesting to me. Because the industry was so new, the designers presented came up with creative and experimental solutions. Although in my opinion the design began to suffer with the introduction of the FDA and warning labels, it was interesting how an industry becomes refined around ethics. Originally work was expressive and captivating, but now such work that was made earlier would not be able to be circulated due to restrictions and guidelines. 

For the most part PHARMA has become so standardized that one cannot tell the brand language of Viagra from Allegra (or the drugs name in relation to function). I personally feel that expressive designs may still be created, but the original model of PHARMA design must be adapted to a new execution. Although regulations such as the FDA's (tons of body copy) force certain aspects of the design, new creative solutions may still be found. The fundamental utilitarian elements must be broken, and reestablished to be relevant towards the regulations that have been sanctioned. 

The capitalistic society in which we pertain can be sourced for similar issues. As something expands it needs more and more tweaks to make it suitable for contemporary means. As PHARMA expanded and became a more influential and substantial part of our society, new sanctions had to be applied to maintain its impact. The same can be related to amendments in our constitution. As society has grown and expanded our original constitution has been changed to adapt to our growth. Eventually there may be so many additions that the original document must be abandoned and a new platform must be developed with the ideals of the old as its building blocks. 

[Jessie Oh]

The overall aura of the work was sedated and static. There was also a
definite sense of confidence that was boderline arrogant. It did not
undermine the imagination of the customer and respected the public. I
did't go blind from boredom and was amused by the designer's invisible
thought process. The lack of default choices allowed me to linger a
bit to explore the work.
I mean, what kid of bosses dd these people have? The work seems to
have arrived from designer to customer, which, only exists on the
modern creatives' wishlists, unless of course, if you are a celebrity
designer like Paul Rand. The most enjoyable and ironic part of the
works was that the titles of the product were easily replaceable and
disposable. These designs stood strong enough to be an independent art
peice. Aspirin was just something that came with it. We hace
successfully created a default guideline for today's pharmaceutical
industry.  am degraded by today's commercial packaging that the word
commercial just freaks me out.
I had previously encountered some of the work through a random blog
online. These were readily accessible in cyberspace but reaching them
within a gallery behind glass encasement gave the work an opportunity
to be cared for. The most shocking aspect of the collection was that
the number of companies focusing on pharmaceutical design firms have
only grown from single digit to double digits in the past ten twenty
something years. Considering the number of accessible design firms in
new york city alone, I am shocked by the small increase. This number,
which I’m assuming, seems to directly reflect the small number of
corporate companies that have become independent nation states.

On Nov 9, 9:30 am, "Prof. Madad" <ama...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Following our visit to Cooper Union's exhibition PHARMA<http://lubalincenter.cooper.edu/>and the curated selection of work from The
> Herb Lubalin Study Center <http://lubalincenter.cooper.edu/> we looked at

> after the show, share you thoughts and reactions to what you saw and heard.
>

>    - Did you like seeing the work, any particular designer?
>    - Were you surprised by anything we looked at?
>    - Is the work timeline or dated—and why?
>    - Consider the parallels between the (print) graphic design industry

>    with the pharmaceutical industry, in their respective symbiotic development

>    and growth from the early 20th c. to mid 20th c. *What is the equivalent

>    of the pharmaceutical industry, ie. new and dominant business/industry, in

>    relation to the role of graphic design today?*

[Jessica Mazur]

I did enjoy visiting Cooper Union and the PHARMA exhibit i think that
it was helpful to to walk through and see all the work. I also enjoyed
how Sasha curated and walked us through the work. I think that if i
would have seen the work by itself without the background he gave us,
i would not have understood the work or found it boring. I really
liked some of the earlier pieces (for example the coke ad) I love and
appreciate those types of illustrations. I also liked hearing the
background story about how coke was sold in pharmacies and contained
cocaine in it.
The first few pieces were my favorites because I appreciate the
detailed artwork and tiny hand drawn typography. I was also interested
in the first few because i thought it was pretty crazy the way that
people created there own concoctions and called it medicine. I was
amused by the thought that cocaine and heroine were being sold to
relieve pain and that 99% of the people using those drugs became
addicts.
Another piece i really liked was the checkmate cough ad, I loved how
colorful the images of the king and queen checkers were and i thought
it was very well designed. the same designer did an add for a day and
night time medicine using a rooster and an owl to represent day and
night. I thought the representation was very strong and i understood
the concept right away. The last one that i loved was the packaging
for the chocolate candy bars using pharmaceutical language. I loved
the names of the packages like BOCHOX, and GIRTHCONTROL the vitamin
water packaging was also part of that set and i never understood the
package design for that drink until now, and i appreciate it way more

[NoraG]

For the first few minutes while waiting for the class I was already taking pictures of the work that I was most attracted to in the PHARMA exhibit.  I think the part I found most fascinating was that the designers had virtually complete freedom while designing the pamphlets and booklets.  I know I've heard before that America and New Zealand are the only countries that today market pharmaceuticals straight to the consumer instead of the doctors, so it was interesting to see the real graphic experimentation that the designers were working with in earlier decades. Design-wise it makes me wish this type of graphic artistry were more present in today's advertising. 
   At the time the designers were working for the Pharmaceutical industry, graphic design was emerging as a way to communicate with art, and they were able to take it to extremes that ended up creating visceral, colorful, and abstract images and compositions.  The drug industry was just beginning, and it changed everything when they were able to market to the public.  Now, average consumers are a target of advertising that convinces them they may have symptoms which only that one particular drug can correct. I find this troubling considering by law a brand name drug cannot be any different than the generic, so as to be consistent with guidelines and safe for the patient.  The sicker we think we are, the more pills we are going to buy.  The design is no longer a visual art, but just manipulation. The equivalent today could be the internet, and the technological boom we are living out. Smart phones, tablets and computers are the beginning of a powerful user interface design industry. Think of how ingrained it is within us to use a scroll bar, to right and left click, to find certain controls and menus on one side of the screen rather than the other. The unification of the internet and our daily lives is revolutionary in itself, but the opportunities that are open to a technologically versed designer are limitless.
   The next part of the tour, the archives, was inspiring. Once it was clear that students were encouraged to use the free resources, I was thinking about spending hours pouring over the books, broadening my perspective on the history of design as well as my own aesthetic tastes.  It was inspiring and stimulating to see the process involved in some of the works, and the beautiful finished products.  The pictures I took and the information I learned have given me a better understanding of the standard I would like for my work this semester.
   

[Jessie Oh]

sorry for the typos...

[Jacob Berlow]

Franco Grignani's work for Artosil  (this stuff) was a fantastic discovery for me. His colorful and layered take on swiss modernism was refreshing and exciting. Also, the Barnbrook-Hirst collaboration was a cool introduction to something an historic collaboration between fine art and graphic design. 

I was surprised in general to learn that the pharmaceutical industry played had such a pivotal role in graphic design history (it doesn't seem to be prominently discussed in surveys of GD history). Nonetheless, corporate branding in general seems to have been the defining field of work for graphic designers in the 50's and 60's, in parallel with the rising cultural significance of big business. The post war era/cold war for designers was all about an attempted renewal of hope in human potential, motivated by the feeling that we saw what we hoped was the worst in humanity, and that drastic societal changes needed to take place if we were going to recover (this attitude seems to have been common to both sides of the iron curtain). Bauhaus/Swiss Modernism, as much as the New York School (in its own way) hoped to leverage the promise of corporate efficiency toward the designers' dreams of utopianism and rejuvenation of culture in the wake of genocide and in the shadow of feared armageddon. 

Ben Pieratt, a young designer turned entrepreneur, at a recent talk proclaimed that "if Paul Rand was working today, he would be a product designer." To clarify, in the context of his talk, Pieratt was referring to digital product design, like the design of iphone apps, new features on facebook, or entire car-sharing systems like zipcar, for example (digital, interaction, ux, ui, hci, web design, and software design are all other words that have been used to describe what he's talking about). When I heard this, I was immediately pretty skeptical. How could he assume that Paul Rand, a great visual communicator, would be good at a task that seems so different? Paul Rand's strength was creating images, who knows if he would be interested in or good at dealing with the headaches of "what happens if a user clicks here", or " what if the user wants to undo," etc. ? 

Over the last few weeks as I have thought about this more, I started to think that Ben has a point. Rand made images for clients while product designers prepare systems for users to interact with, but the user was still at the core of Rand's design process. I think its even fair to say that the user (the viewer) was central to process of lots of, if not all,  great artists too. 

The craft of creating an experience for the viewer through pictorial representation (while it might seem less complex) can absolutely be seen as an antecedent to the craft of crafting an experience through a series of inputs and outputs. 

"Human-centered design" certainly shares the world-improvement spirit of post war designers. This manifesto against design trends that Rand wrote in the early 90's as a reaction to what he saw as a dilution the Yale GD department's mission to propagate purpose-driven design standards sort of seals the deal for me. "Content or idea," Rand stresses, remains at the core of the designer's focus, regardless of era or medium. 

[Sabrina]

My first thought while waiting for our tour to begin was, how are we to compare pharmaceutical advertisements of 70+ years ago to those of today, when the medical field alone has evolved so astronomically in that short amount of time. I followed that thought with, wait.. what are pharmaceutical ads from today even like? My mind's eye couldn't immediately visualize it.. but they're not something I necessarily pay much attention to, or furthermore thought of as great design, but surprisingly, after seeing what they displayed as the "pharma ads of present day", I have much more of a relation to these products than I initially thought - I'm referring to the Vitamin Water packaging and "miracle" beauty product ad. Maybe ignorantly so, but I've never really thought of how Vitamin Water's label or the type treatment on a tub of medicated face cream, directly related to the much more sterile treatment seen on say, a package of xanax. Maybe that I didn't question the label is a sign of success, that it is already subliminally programmed in my mind as being the "right look and feel". So of course, as anyone of today's society does, I got to googling - and come to find that pharmaceutical ads/products are actually examples of beautiful, simple, straightforward, clean design, and that's done only logically so. Imagine if this medicine that is supposed to ease your anxiety is blown up with crazy lines, shapes, type treatments, color, and other elements graphic designers can get carried away with.. It just wouldn't make sense. This minimal characteristic is something that has remained pretty consistent throughout the evolution of pharmaceutical promotional work; what we are left with today was only a natural progression from where we came, and the implemented timeline was a successful way to show how it all developed.

To be honest, I was underwhelmed when I first entered the room, as I was most intrigued by how perfectly, or not, they painted PHARMA on the wall, (I'll also note that I really like how PHARMA looks in all caps, and sounds, when said aloud - but that's not really important). However, I truly enjoyed listening to our guided tour given by Sasha, and was glad he had a lot to say/knowledge on the subject. I'll admit I wrongly judged the exhibit. In fact, really appreciate how selective they were with the pieces they chose to display in the show, (especially since we later found how much more they had in their collection) because 1. it made Sasha's points clear and easily digested, and 2. I think this selective decision reflects back to the aesthetic qualities I previously mentioned of pharmaceutical design - clean, simple, sterile. I also think it was smart to show medicinal ads in their true original form, pre-prohibitional time, when these cure-alls were just coming out, and how designers of this time were just as free as the concoctors of the drug.. if only medicine today displayed the side effects so clearly as they did the word heroine across its bottle. I think this origin paved way for the designers of the 1940's, when the industry truly began, to be more daring with their graphics. One of the pieces I was most drawn to was in the early part of the show's timeline - which were the promotional booklets for Sharp & Dohme, done by Alexander Ross in the 1940's. Somehow I find them so incredibly modern, which is actually true with a lot of the work shown in PHARMA. I see a lot of design coming out today that reflects this type of work, simple line work overlapping each other, bold solid use of color, sans serif type, slightly jarring imagery (I find a spoon with a solid circle a haunting heroine injection reference; maybe I've watched too much of A&E's Intervention)  - and of course we still love a good die cut. Additionally, as Sasha stated, at this time they were talking to the doctor rather than consumer, so they could be more sophisticated with the subject matter since their audience was obviously better versed. I just wish I could've interacted with the booklets.

The last thing I took away from our trip to Cooper Union was the process these early designers encountered when undertaking their work. It's something you can't easily forget, as I so often hear it from my own professors.. "You know, I didn't have a computer back in my day!", it's the equivalent to the elementary "I had to walk 50 miles to school barefoot"! Our technological advancements both set us soaring ahead of our predecessors while simultaneously pull us back; as that's true in so many aspects of current society. Most importantly, we should look at the work displayed in PHARMA and think of the process these designers went through, hand-crafting every element, and maybe not jump so quickly to our computers - as we are doing so with our Personal Mythologies. As we are seeing in this class, work is much more organic, and therefore interesting, when done by hand, with various media and techniques employed. Now if only I knew what all this crafting was all turning into... 

[Noah]

The exhibit had a clear time line that was very structured, allowing
the viewer to obtain a clear understanding of it's purpose. A piece
that really caught my eye were Paul Rand's first designs. The
simplicity of his very basic design is inspiring to me, as working
with so little detail is my largest struggle. To see some of the most
basic work communicating such a coherent message, was helpful in
beginning to break my mental block.

I was very surprised throughout the entire exhibit how "dumb" some of
the design started getting in the 60's, an example of this being the
Volkswagen ad for a pharmaceutical company. The work in this
exhibition smoothly transitioned over a clear time line, from very
complex, type-heavy, yellow page looking ads to anti-psychotic
medication ads all the way to packaging and modern day referencing
from pharmaceutical design.

Without each other, graphic design and pharmaceutical companies would
be almost nothing in comparison to what they are today. People started
to point their focus on their own problems that they both needed and
wanted to fix, adding graphic design to this mentality, a more
accessible portal to the unknown world of the cures was created. The
ads were able to both educate people, and at the same time, intrigue
them to think about it more, making the pharmaceutical companies
flourish. This relationship between consumer and corporation happens
all the time, an easy example being the general public's relationships
with technology, namely computers. Looking at Apple specifically, you
can track the interest and knowledge that was gained by a larger and
larger population of people as the Mac interface became incredibly
crisp and easy to navigate. This idea of accessibility driven with
curiosity is the core of the relationship between pharmaceutical
companies and graphic design.