Offensive or Beautiful?

Over the last few centuries art has taken a dramatic turn.  Art was primarily about scenery, portraits and things everyone viewed as beautiful, flowers, architecture the human figure etc, but in recent years our ideas of art have changed, thus impacting on graphic design, illustration and to an extent society.  


Tracy Emin is a prime example of how our opinion to art has changed.  She looks at things we see daily and take for granted, the things we look past and would not ordinarily see as art, (in fact some may even see as disgusting) and she presents these ideas as 'art'.  Tracy Emin is perhaps most well known for her piece an unmade bed (shown above) some gazed in ore, whilst others frowned whilst being reminded of their teenagers messy bedrooms.  Agree or disagree with her work she is now a well known artist who has flipped art around.  I suppose my point is that art is subjective, its personal and is about personal preferences I personally do not fully appreciate the work of Tracy Emin, but I do appreciate the fact she has broken down barriers and opened the art world to a new wave of thinking.




Another artist, who I very much DO appreciate is Banksy, another artist who has recently changed the opinion that graffiti art, not something which vandals do to destroy and deface property.  Banksy is not the normal 'I was ere 11' scribble on a toilet wall, but a clever way to occasionally address politics and world issues and being something which you can have a good laugh at.  With his work selling for vast amounts of money, he is an inspiration to many.  Banksy just like Tracy Emin has broken down barriers in the art world.  


So now I have discussed why art shouldn't have to conform to the normal its time to discuss graphic design, which is an art form.  If art doesn't have to conform then why should graphic design? Is it not fair to say that the best graphic design pieces are those which think outside the box?

This is by Alison Carmichael, who specialises in hand lettering.  This award winning piece of work in my opinion is not offensive, but is beautiful and a prime example of how something which is both vile and disgusting can be made into something truly amazing.  When I look at this piece I see a typography piece which has been arranged in a delicate way, it looks pretty and almost magical.  It does not like a word which is offensive, disgusting and cringe worthy.  Therefore I see this piece as a beautiful design piece which i would quite happily have hanging in my room.  Just like the work of Banksy and Tracy Emin this piece breaks the rules, it's shocking, it does not conform to what is an idealistic version of graphic design, its new its interesting and its beautiful.  Then again design is subjective, I would love to hear some thoughts on this Beautiful or Offensive???